This Tisha B’Av was different for me than any other year. Sadder, more meaningful, and I managed to stay in Shul right through to the end of Kinot! And the reason? A caffeine pill!!! One little yellow pill, the equivalent of 4 cups of coffee, made all the difference.
I didn’t realise how dependent I was on coffee until yesterday. Although I sometimes have headaches if I don’t drink enough coffee, I can usually manage without, and I don’t seem to see any noticeable improvement or difference before and after I have my morning java. But now that I know how good it is for me, and how it improves my davening and thinking and makes everything more meaningful, I’m going to have to make sure I am fully dosed at all times. Woo hoo!
Of course all of the above is meant tongue in cheek. Mood altering drugs are not the way to get closer to G-d, or to make life more meaningful. But still…
There is an interesting website here which will tell you how many cups of coffee you may drink before it kills you (I’m not sure that you could really manage that many without spending the rest of the day in the bathroom, but you get the idea.)
Newsweek has an article on the fact that we now need more caffeine in our products. You can get double caffeinated coffee, which gets you going without making you go (if you know what I mean).
So this is what fuels the fires of Torhalab, and it is good to know that it is keeping the rest of America and the free world going as well. Any complaints to the major coffee brands please.
Today, the 1st of Av, is the day that Ezra arrived in Yerushalayim from Bavel. The Israelites had been exiled in Babylon for many decades, had seen the Temple destroyed and lost many of their family members. The kingdom of Israel had been destroyed and Yehuda was in tatters. The few remaining Jews in Israel were leaderless, directionless and scattered across the country.
There had already been at least two attempts to rebuild the Temple, and by the time Ezra arrived Nechemiah had managed to complete the building (with the support of the Persian kings). However they lacked the charismatic leader who would be the focal point for world Jewry.
Ezra refused to leave Babylon as long has his teacher, Baruch ben Neriah, was alive. After Baruch passed away, Ezra realized where he was needed and organized the first ‘nefesh b’nefesh’ trip to Israel.
1,496 men chose to come with him (this was in the days before subsidies), and Ezra had to persuade 38 Levi’im with their 200 servants (the Levi’im didn’t want to come, and it was only because they were essential for the Temple service that Ezra managed to get them to join him. The Levi’im as a whole were penalized for their lack of support for Israel). – Getting people to make Aliya was as difficult back then as it is today!
Ezra and his group arrived in Yerushalayim 4 months after they set out, on the 1st of Av:
“This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moshe, which the L-RD G-d of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the L-RD his G-d upon him.
And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nesinim, unto Yerushalayim, in the seventh year of Daryavesh the king.
And he came to Yerushalayim in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Yerushalayim, according to the good hand of his G-d upon him.
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the L-RD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.” (Ezra 7: 6-10)
In Israel Ezra found a group of people who were impoverished both financially and spiritually. They had forgotten many of the mitzvot, intermarried, and lacked any kind of spiritual leadership.
Ezra managed to re-establish a system of Halacha and learning, with the Sanhedrin at the center of Jewish life. He persuaded the people to divorce their non-Jewish wives (and made them take an oath not to intermarry, which is still binding today), and to follow the Torah. The Gemara (Sanhedrin 21b) goes so far as to say that if the Torah hadn’t been given to Moshe, Ezra would have been worthy of giving the Torah to Israel.
Ezra revitalized a dying nation and a religion on the verge of collapse. He brought the central authority of Judaism back from Babylon to Israel and Yerushalayim.
Today, as we begin the stricter mourning practices leading up to Tisha B’Av and the destruction of the Temple, we can also remember the founding and rebuilding of the Second Temple and the strengthening and growth of Torah Judaism. We know that G-d always brings the cure before the punishment. May we merit this year to see the rebuilding of the Temple and the strengthening and unity of Klal Yisrael with Yerushalayim once again as the central focus of the world.
“From Tzion shall go forth Torah and the word of G-d from Yerushalayim”
You may have heard or read about the latest Hamas produced television program for kids. It features a talking mouse character (who looks a lot like Mickey Mouse) who encourages kids to become suicide bombers when they grow up.
Children phone in with their poems of death and destruction to the Western World, i.e. USA and Israel.
(One wonders what they offer these children as their future reward in heaven for their acts - presumably the harems are only for the adults. Or will they have ‘My little harem’ for the kids too??)
To see a fox news report on this ‘lovable little mouse’ click here (but not for those of weak disposition. This is quite disturbing!)
Luckily he is no more. Not because Disney objected or the UN voted against it, but because he was beaten to death by an Israeli agent, to confirm the image in the minds of children that Israelis are child killers! Read this!
Hamas ‘Mickey Mouse’ killed off
A Palestinian TV station has killed off a controversial Mickey Mouse lookalike that critics said was spreading anti-US and anti-Israeli messages to children.
The Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa channel aired the last episode on Friday, showing the character, Farfur, being beaten to death by an “Israeli agent”.
“Farfur was martyred defending his land,” said the show’s presenter Saraa.
Israeli critics had said the show was outrageous and some Palestinian ministers tried to get it shelved.
In the final broadcast an actor said to be an Israeli agent tries to buy the land of the squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse lookalike.
Farfur brands the Israeli a “terrorist” and is beaten to death.
He was killed “by the killers of children”, Saraa says.
Al-Aqsa television told the Associated Press news agency the show, Tomorrow’s Pioneers, was making way for new programmes.
As if this wasn’t disturbing enough (it is), Ken Livingstone, mayor of London has been doing his part for the cause as well:
Luckily, despite several attempts in the past couple of days by Islamic terrorists to kill and damage as much as possible in Britain, London’s mayor is still a supporter of Muslims (you wouldn’t want him to be a racist would you?)
LONDON (AFP) - London Mayor Ken Livingstone called on Britons Saturday not to demonize Muslims after a double car bomb plot was foiled in the capital, amid fears of a Islamist terror threat.
(Advertisement)
At the same time he criticized Britain over its ties with Saudi Arabia, which he said had fuelled intolerance in the past through its Wahhabist form of Islam, creating a “major problem.”
“In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims,” he told BBC Radio.
“They have played a good and active and growing role in creating a multi-cultural society,” he added.
He noted that terrorist acts had been carried out in London over the years by various groups including for example far-right groups. For years the British capital was wracked by violence by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
“All I am interested in as mayor is that we try to prevent all acts of violence whether it is by a disaffected young member of the (far-right) BNP (British National Party), whether it is by an Islamist or a Wahhabist supporter,” he said.
Jack’s Shack
posted a question about what it takes to be a Rabbi.
I suspect that if you conducted a survey of traits required to become a rabbi piety and devotion might not even make the top of the list. Right up there at the top would be stories and story telling.
The following day I was asked to give a talk about what skills a Rabbi needs and what training or learning would be most effective to prepare people to go into the field of Rabbanus.
So I decided that I’d better put down some thoughts.
The first thing is to ask why someone would want to be a Rabbi? Rabbi Zeira fasted 100 times to pray that nothing happen to Rabbi Eliezer, who was the Gadol hador, Rabbi Zeira was concerned that if the yoke of leadership fell upon him he would not be able to learn Torah properly.
Similarly, Yosef HaTzadik died before all his brothers (though he was second to youngest) because he ruled over them.
The Mishna in Avos is explicit – ‘hate Rabbonus’ (I know it means leadership and authority, but it is the same word as ‘being a Rabbi’).
But, you’ve made your decision and I can’t convince you otherwise – OK, this is what I think you need:
Firstly, it (almost) goes without saying that you will need smicha. Generally this means passing a test in Yoreh Deah (kashrus). The quickest way to do this is through R’ Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg. I don’t believe this qualification will really help you practically with your Rabbanus, but, like every qualification, it is a necessary evil. The truth is that you also must know the laws of Shabbos, Nida and Aveilus, as well as be acquainted with every other area of Halacha. To do this (to a minimal standard) in my opinion would take at least 5 years of full time study. Not as much as a PhD, but more than most people are prepared to spend. In addition, it is essential that you know large sections of Talmud (I was going to say ‘all’ the Talmud, but unfortunately that is not going to happen), most of the Mishna, all of chumash with the major commentaries and the rest of the Bible.
All of those are just the (minimum) academic qualifications. But the real skills that a Rabbi needs are the following (some of which can be taught, some learnt, and some I think are more personality than anything else):
Basic counselling and therapy skills (and even more importantly, the resources to create a network of specialists that you can refer people to, or ask for advice)
This includes marriage counseling, depression counseling, drug awareness, awareness of abuse and how to deal with it, bereavement counseling and a general understanding of the human condition.
Public speaking and writing skills. As a Rabbi you will be judged firstly on your ability to speak in public, both in sermons and to the wider public. You will also be expected to write for the local media, Synagogue magazine, etc.
Teacher training – even if you are never in a classroom situation, you will always be a teacher. Perhaps a gemara shiur, a chumash/ parsha shiur, or just a quick Halacha between mincha and ma’ariv. You have to not only have something to say, but be able to present it clearly and in a way that will engage your students and encourage them to come and learn more from you.
Ability to lein (at least the first aliya of every parsha). When there is nobody else around you have to be able to step into the breach at very short notice.
Knowledge of hashkafa. You must know what is acceptable Jewish thought, what is heresy, and what is ‘what you are supposed to think’ even though it is ridiculous. Included in this is the requirement of ‘know how to answer a heretic’. Resorting to childish responses that you once heard in Yeshiva, or assuming that there is only one right answer to every question (and you know it) is embarrassing and will end in failure.
Political maneuvering. Many a Rabbi comes to his downfall because of bad political moves. Even though it is all ‘vanity’ and false, you must know who are the important players, how to speak to them, how to encourage others to get things done, and how to make sure that your viewpoint is heard and (often) accepted. Even more important, you have to remain strong and know how to say ‘no’ to people without creating enemies and without abusing or undermining your authority.
History – it is embarrassing when Rabbis have no concept of history. You must know at least a basic outline of what happened where and when. Did the story of Chanukah happen before or after the story of Purim? Was the Shulchan Aruch written before or after Shabbetai Tzvi? When was the famous argument between R’ Yaakov Emden and R’ Yonasan Eibeschitz?
Coupled with this, it would help if you have the ability to be a good story teller. Usually every speech or class is enhanced by the right story told well (and can be ruined by the wrong story told badly).
Sense of humour. Goes without saying.
Warm and caring personality. You have to genuinely care about your flock, and relate to their problems and issues as your own. However you also have to be able to leave those issues behind when you come home so that you can function without having a nervous breakdown.
Time management skills.
Stress management skills.
Motivation and desire to continue to learn. Without a passion for learning (both Talmudic texts, and if necessary secular ones) you will not be an effective teacher or communicator. Plus – your own sanity is at stake. If you can’t make time to learn each day you will fail.
Unending patience and understanding
Ability to play guitar (this is an optional extra – essential for all the Carlebach wannabes)
And the most important thing (which is why I left it to the end, so that only those who have the patience to read this far will qualify) – shimush. The Talmud is explicit that the most important thing that qualifies a person to be a Rabbi is serving other Rabbis. Elisha, who was one of the most successful prophets in history, is praised for having poured water on the hands of Eliyahu Hanavi.
You must spend time in the presence of other Rabbis, observing, learning, getting a feel for how to make a decision, how to ask the right questions, how to read between the lines of the question and what to do and where to look if you don’t know the answer. This is the real difference between a Rabbi and a library of books. Anyone can look things up in a book, or search the internet for information. Hopefully the Rabbi is the one who knows what to do with the information and how to understand the question.
This last thing is what is most sorely lacking today, and probably the most difficult thing to get (there is a shortage of Rabbis to apprentice to, and lack of time to do it). But it is this, I think more than anything else, which separates the ‘men’ from the ‘boys’. Any of the other things on this list can be compensated for. Shimush talmidei chachamim is the only thing that a Rabbi absolutely needs.
And of course piety and devotion. Essential. To quote R’ Shraga Silverstein “Ideally, the teacher’s subject should be himself, and he must do all he can to make the subject worthwhile”. Or to quote Shlomo HaMelech “At the end of the day, when all is heard, fear G-d, for that is all there is for a person”.
In this photo you see a classic piece of Soviet Revisionism. Stalin is famously walking with Nikolai Yezhov in the top photo. However, after Stalin had him killed in 1940 they simply removed him from the picture. He no longer exists. Simple as that. If a picture or popular image doesn’t fit with our ideology, we simply remove it.
They did the same thing with Trotsky after he was deported in 1929:
(Can you spot the difference?)
This removal of unwanted people makes life much easier. It removes the need to explain anything or have to deal with issues that could otherswise be inconvenient or embarrassing. If you have the money, you can even have people removed from family photos if they are no longer part of the family (or if they are making a silly face:
It is a good thing that Judaism believes in honesty and truth, rather than lies and revisionism - isn’t it! (m’dvar sheker tirchak)
However, not everything is as squeaky clean as it always seems.
In a recent interview with the Jewish Press, Rabbi Nosson Scherman is happy to state that Artscroll massages the facts to create the Godol that they want.
How do you respond to critics who accuse ArtScroll biographies of whitewashing history by characterizing great rabbis as saints without faults?
Our goal is to increase Torah learning and yiras shamayim. If somebody can be inspired by a gadol b’yisrael, then let him be inspired. Is it necessary to say that he had shortcomings? Does that help you become a better person? What about lashon hara? You know in today’s world, lashon hara is a mitzvah. Character assassination sells papers. That’s not what Klal Yisrael is all about.
In other words, they don’t want people to be inspired by Gedolim as they really were, but rather as they should have been. Personally I am much more inspired by the shortcomings and how true gedolim overcame them or turned them into strengths, than by fairy stories and impossible feats.
I know that the Gemara in Chagiga says that the gedolim should be like angels in your eyes. But that is a law of honour, not necessarily for learning from them or being inspired by them. R’ Yaakov Kaminetsky himself often told people that as a child he read Jules Verne, to show that Jewish children are allowed to be normal kids and parents/ educators don’t have to worry.
Is anything that doesn’t fit the revised picture automatically lashon hara? I’m not suggesting that anyone publicise things that are humiliating or degrading about the gedolim (not that there are any such things of course, and not that I’m paskening that the issur of lashon hara applies to people after they are dead - ask you LOR for that one). But can’t we be inspired by the truth? Does it scare us that much that gedolim are gedolim precisely because they began life as normal human beings, just like you and me.
There are many other blogs about this issue. One related blog is What’s bothering Artscroll (I love their web address - elucidation-not-translation) who analyses the way that the biographies are written at the end of the Stone chumash. He is probably reading too much into it, but it shows how careful you must be once you start the game of rewriting history.
To quote Stephen Hawking: “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge”.
Prince Philip (husband of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) is worshiped in certain Pacific islands as a god!! I never understood how people in the time of Avraham Avinu could bow down to pieces of wood and stone that were just made. We all know the famous midrash that Avraham was a lousy seller of idols because he would tell them how stupid they were for worshiping something younger than they are.
But PRINCE PHILIP!!! Not only is he not quite as charming or bright as a stick or rock, but he is one of the most racist famous people around (in the ‘good old fashioned sense of just hating everyone equally). The only thing going for him is that he is probably older than most of these islanders (I’ve no idea what the average life expectancy is on Vanuatu, but the prince just celebrated his 86th birthday yesterday.
The midrashim don’t seem so strange or far-fetched any more!
BTW here are some classic Prince Philip quotes, which give you an idea of his high regard for those who worship him, and anyone else in creation:
Do you still throw spears at each other?
-- (on meeting Aborigines in Australia)
If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.
-- (as spoken at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting)
How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them to pass test?
-- (Asking a driving instructor in Oban, Scotland)
You can’t have been here that long, you haven’t got a pot belly.
-- (as told to a Briton in Hungary)
“Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?”
-- Said to a blind woman with a guide dog.
“British women can’t cook” in 1966.
No doubt a conclusion he reached after lengthy research up and down the country sampling various repasts provided by the peasantry.
“Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed” - during the 1981 recession.
“If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?” This amazing example of sheer stupidity taken to frightening illogical heights is from 1996, amid calls to ban firearms after the Dunblane shooting. I’m sure his words brought solace to the families of the murdered children.
“Bloody silly fool!”. Just one of the arrogant parasite’s comments about the people who pay out good money to keep him in clean underwear. This was in 1997, referring to a Cambridge University car park attendant who didn’t recognise him trying to get into reverse as the Great Consort.
“It looks as if it was put in by an Indian”.
Another classic racist taunt at the working class. This gem was spat out while the he was pointing at an old-fashioned fusebox in a factory near Edinburgh in 1999.
In Cardiff in 1999 he visited a school for young deaf people. Also there to greet him was a welcoming steel band from a neighbouring youth club. “ Deaf? If you live near this, no wonder you are deaf “.
“You are a woman, aren’t you?” .
To prove his mental capacity is a little more than a squashed weetbix, he addressed this probing question to a woman in Kenya in 1984. He pocketed a gift from her first - not as silly as he looks.
“If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed” .
A cheerful chat to British students in China during the 1986 state visit, guaranteed to spark a riot.
Yesterday we read the Torah portion of the spies. They were punished for bringing back a bad report about the land of Israel. As a result of this report and its acceptance by the people, the Israelites had to wander in the desert for 40 years (corresponding to the 40 days the spies were spying out the land) until that generation had died and the new generation, their children, were finally able to enter the land of Israel.
R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz asks why they were punished for 40 years if the sin was only the speaking and acceptance of the evil report about Israel. In other words, why were the spies punished for doing their job of scouting out the land? And why were the people punished for doing nothing during those 40 days?
R’ Matis Weinberg points out that the Hebrew words for speaking evil, lashon hara, don’t actually means ‘bad language/ tongue’ (that would be ‘lashon ra’ah, since lashon is a feminine word). Rather it means ‘the language of evil’. The real sin of lashon hara is not causing damage to someone else, or offending them, but is more fundamental. It is the sin of seeing the world in a way that everything looks bad. Speaking about the bad things that one sees is just the consequence of viewing the world in this way. R’ Matis also points out that Rambam puts the laws of lashon hara in the book of ‘de’os’, which talks about perfection of character traits, rather than in a section of forbidden speech or damages.
The main prohibition of lashon hara is viewing the world in a certain way, where everything looks bad. This was the sin of the spies – for 40 days they only saw the negative aspects of the land of Israel. All the miracles that G-d did for them while they were there, and all the Divine protection they received, they managed to twist into seeing how bad the land was.
Similarly, the people who were so keen to send the spies were not looking at the positive aspects of Israel. They wanted spies who would seek out the negatives and allow them to remain in the desert, or even return to Egypt, rather than having to fight a war to enter the land. The whole enterprise was therefore doomed from the outset. This is why they were punished for 40 years. Moshe realized that things were going wrong from the beginning, which is why he prayed for Yehoshua that he should be saved from this wicked counsel.
I always wondered how people could view Israel in such a negative light that they were punished with 40 years of exile. Sure, there are some things in Israeli society, mentality or geography that I complain about from time to time, but how could the whole country be viewed so negatively? What about the daily miracles of survival and blessing? What about the homeland for the Jewish people? What about the ingathering of the exiles?
Luckily I have found the answer to my question – from the ostensibly unbiased news service of the BBC (I say ostensibly, because the Arabs in Britain complain that their news service is biased in favor of Israel – bear that in mind as you look at this article!).
Just to clarify – they don’t tell too many outright lies. But they manage to distort the facts to see only the negative side (from the Israeli/ Jewish perspective) of every main area of the modern political situation in Israel.
So, if you have the stomach to read what might have come directly from the words of the spies (and you will need a strong stomach) – here is the summary of the Middle East story, and obstacles to peace, by the BBC:
Or perhaps you don’t agree with me. If you think these are fair and honest reports please leave your comments at the bottom of the page. And if you think they are seeing the real picture and I am wearing rose colored glasses, please let me know.
The following posting was added to a discussion group yesterday. My wife and I were arguing about whether it was serious or a joke. (my opinion: anything signed by ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ is by definition a joke – that is the joke pseudonym of choice).
[Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells was the nom de plume of a prolific writer of letters to the “Thunderer” - the London Times - during the first half of the 20th century. His alias became almost as widely known as the title of the Fleet Street newspaper itself, and was synonymous with diatribe. He delivered scathing attacks on organisations and individuals that came to his ultra-critical attention.
He was self opinionated and convinced of his own infallibility. He was the quintessential Englishman. But what marks him out in particular is that, despite being regularly published, he was never identified, and his real name remains a mystery to this day. He was simply “Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells”. – according to http://www.disgustedoftunbridgewells.co.uk]
Here is the post:
Subject: Re Noise-zemiros regulation required
I am sick and tired of this so-called ‘singing’ late at night on Fridays when i am trying to sleep, after 9pm.
Some sort of regulation must surely be in order- perhaps some sort of
‘mishmeres hazemiros’ , a volunteer group to go round on Friday evening and request people who are singing to stop. Please contact me if you are available to attend a preliminary meeting.
If people wish to celebrate Shabbos they can learn Torah. Quietly. If the Gedolim had wanted us to sing zemiros they would have published seforim with them in. Obviously that is not the case.
Thankyou
Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells
The issue of performing my ‘mitzvah’ at the expense of someone else is an old chestnut that the mussar writers love to talk about. Especially at selichos time, when the alarm clocks wake up the whole neighborhood (transgressing the Torah prohibition of stealing (sleep) not to mention putting a stumbling block in front of the neighbors who are trying to ‘love their fellow Jew’) in order to say extra prayers before G-d asking Him to have mercy on them and forgive their sins.
Another classic (and this one is for men only I’m afraid) is the old ‘tzitzis slap’ from the guys in the row in front wrapping their tallis around their head (and into my cheek!)
Or how about speeding home in the car in order to daven with a minyan. Endangering the lives of others presumably takes second place to the importance of a quorum.
So, perhaps consideration is in order for those who indulge in lively zemiros on an Erev Shabbos.
However, I particularly like the idea of a ‘mishmeres hazemiros’ (aka hear no evil) to control noise levels. We could combine them with the tzniyus patrol (see no evil) and the anti lashon hora brigade (speak no evil).
In fact, I have taken the liberty of training the first batch of new recruits already (no offence intended to those who take the lashon hora brigading or tzniyus patrolling seriously)
28th of Iyar, Yom Yerushalayim, also has another meaning in the Jewish calendar. According to tradition (Shulchan Aruch 580; 2, based on Megillat Ta’anit – although in the original it says 29th Iyar) it is the yarzheit of both Shmuel Hanavi, and his mother Chana. For hundreds of years on this date people would go to the grave of Shmuel Hanavi, which is on the Rama (part of former ‘east Jerusalem’). The original custom of lighting fires and torches was not on Lag B’Omer, but ten days later, on the 28th of Iyar. Rabbeinu Ovadiah Bartenura came to live in Israel, and writes back to his brother that people would gather from all around on the day of his death and light torches. (This is printed in Darkei Tzion – available here: The editor has emended the date, because he thinks it must be talking about Lag B’Omer and the Yarzheit of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai. Of course at the time of the Bartenura (which was before the printing of the Zohar) nobody thought that date was his yarzheit, nor do we have any record of fires on Lag B’Omer before the modern era).
King David and Shmuel the prophet met in Ramah one night (while David was fleeing from King Shaul) and figured out the exact location where the Temple should be built. Even though David himself was not permitted to build the Temple, he purchased the land and took the Ark there. David and Shmuel were both totally committed to Yerushalayim and making that the central capital of Israel (before David made it his capital there had been no central place of authority – Shiloh was the site of the Mishkan, but governance was localized within each tribe). The Talmud in Zevachim 54b learns from the verses in the chumash and shows how they figured out exactly where the Temple should be situated. Although Jerusalem is not mentioned explicitly in the Torah (though it is mentioned 656 times in the rest of Nach), David and Shmuel were able to figure out the place that G-d had chosen from before creation to be His resting place on earth.
In a beautiful quirk of history, the place where they met to figure out this location – Ramah – which is also the burial place of Shmuel, was also liberated in the Six Day War which we celebrate on Yom Yerushalayim.
Wishing you all a wonderful Yom Yerushalayim, and a happy bonfire day, and may the merit of the prophet Shmuel help us and protect us against all modern day enemies who want to diminish the greatness of Jerusalem as the center of Israel and the Jewish world.
‘Just the facts Ma’am’. That’s all Joe Friday needed or wanted. But it is those elusive facts which make life here at Torahlab so fun and exciting. How are we to piece together those slippery pieces of information – the ‘facts’ – into a narrative which fits with the story? Was grandmother eaten by the wolf, or did the wood cutter arrive in time to save her? How did the wolf die? Why was Little Red walking through the forest by herself when the Brothers Grimm were roaming free? (And why did her mother never tell her not to speak to strange wolves?)
We are about to celebrate the festival of freedom, when we left the bondage of Egypt and set off into the desert for a date with destiny at Mount Sinai. But what happened before that? How long did we spend in Egypt? How long was the slavery? There are so many different sources of information, most of which seem to contradict each other.
There are very clear words in the Torah as to how long the Israelites were in Egypt, and we even have a specific year in which they left (relative to the construction of the First Temple, which we can date fairly accurately). Yet the Seder Olam and other sources from Chazal, followed by Rashi and many of the commentaries override the simple meaning of the words and give alternative dates. Everyone knows that we were only in Egypt for 210 years, even though the text states clearly that it was 430 years (not to mention that G-d told Avraham we would be there for 400 years).
Even that is not so simple, because the Ramban and Kli Yakar (and I hope to find others) disagree with all the other commentators and with Chazal, to give alternate chronologies. And then, when you look at other sources such as Josephus, or Egyptian records and archaeology, you are left with an entirely different time line.
The goal is simple: untangle this knot of contradictory material and present it in a clear and straightforward way.
Hopefully Torahlab will produce a worksheet on this very soon. Until that time stay tuned. And if you have any insights or sources on how to deal with this tangled ball of string facts please share them with me via e-mail.
Call me the Grinch if you must, but I just don’t get this Lag BaOmer business. Sure it is a day to be happy, after all according to the Gemara in Yevamot (62b) this is the day that the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying and he was able to begin again to spread Torah sheBa’al Peh with five new students. This day was traditionally celebrated by Ashkenazim with the time honoured ‘not saying tachanun’ (which is always a cause for celebration in its own right). OK, sure, people could get married and cut their hair on this day (and laugh at the Sefardim for having to wait one more day – the annual Ashkenazi leniency ‘laugh at Sefardi’ day – they more than get their own back during Pesach), and even listen to music (which of course I’m doing right now – it is amazing that I can listen to a radio station in Kansas city while sitting here in Jerusalem – and the DJs sound very American, which is another reason to be happy – funny accents day).
But when did it become the pyromaniacs’ holiday? I have searched through many books of minhagim and can’t find anything talking about bonfires on this day. If you are reading this from the USA you may not have heard of bonfires either – it seems to be a peculiar Israeli custom (unless it has been brought over by Israelis or others to foreign soil). The Jerusalem forest takes a year to recover from the fires lit last year, the charred soil turns back to green just in time to do it all again.
The reason given for the fires is that they are a yarzheit candle for Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. The only two problem with this are that he didn’t die on this day (I know everyone thinks that he did, but it is a mistake based on later additions by the printers to the kitvei arizal). And if it was his yarzheit we should listen to the Chatam Sofer (Toras Moshe at the end of Bechukosai) who can’t understand why we should be happy on the anniversary of a death. On the yarzheit of Moshe Rabbeinu for example (7th of Adar) it is a fast day for the chevra kadisha and anshei ma’aseh.
The other reason given is that when the Zohar was revealed and Rabbi Shimon taught it to his students a fire descended from Heaven and encircled them. We find many times in the Talmud that when learning the kabbalistic secrets of ma’aseh merkava a fire descends (if you are learning daf yomi you will remember this from Chagiga 13b). But what has that got to do with bonfires?
It is actually worse than it seems, because the kids all stay up way too late with their bonfires, and therefore school is cancelled the next day!!!!! So the way to celebrate the revelation of Torah is to cancel Torah learning! Doesn’t make any sense to me.
Why don’t we just do away with the bonfires, avoid the dangers to people, animals and forests, and learn Torah instead. That much of a Grinch I’m not. If you must learn kabbalah on that night – go for it (even if you haven’t yet filled your belly with Shas and Poskim), just don’t become a Madonnaitic kabbalist.
Even better - today is also the yarzheit of the Rama, so why don’t we celebrate his death by learning Shulchan Aruch? You can’t go wrong with a bit of halacha!
If anyone can tell me the origin or source of the bonfire minhagim I would be very interested to hear it (I suspect some of you are old enough to remember it – I can’t believe that we have been doing this for more than a couple of decades).
And to the Chasidim who decided it was a mitzvah to play loud (and very bad Jewish) music outside my window in the middle of the night, and who woke up my kids – thanks for nothing. Tip for next year – bring along the Israel Philharmonic, or even Jethro Tull, and I’ll be out there rockin’ with you. Until then, keep your gartels to yourselves.
Wednesday is Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day. It is 40 years since Jerusalem was liberated during the 6 Day War, and Isaeli paratroopers took control of the Old City, and the site of the Temple Mount and the Kotel. For 19 years Jews had been forbidden to pray at our most holy site – the place of the Temple. During those 19 years the Jordanians had destroyed Shuls, vandalized any holy relics they could find, and used the kotel as a urinal. Yom Yerushalayim reunited the city and allowed us to restore the holy sites to their former status.
They tell a story of R’ Aryeh Levine on the original Yom Yerushalayim:
As one group of soldiers embarked toward the Kotel, they suddenly noticed an elderly pious looking man, in traditional rabbinic garb, running, almost skipping through the war-torn streets. Later the world would realize that this ecstatic, older gentleman was the great Rabbi Aryeh Levine, known affectionately as the tzadik of Jerusalem. At that moment though, as the soldiers gazed at the flaming debris, and the war- torn streets, and realized the magnitude of their accomplishments, and saw this older, holy man literally running to the Western Wall, the soldiers thought he had to be the Messiah! After so many years the Jewish People had not only returned to the Land of Israel, but now, ancient Jerusalem, our eternal capital, was once again in our hands, it had to be that Mashiach had come. How else could you explain the miraculous events unfolding before their very eyes? In the midst of the miraculous victory, these soldiers were overwhelmed, in awe, appreciation and faith in G-d’s divine kindness.
We are still waiting for Mashiach. In the mean time we have to realize how lucky we are that we can go and pray at the kotel whenever we want, we can walk the streets of Yerushalayim without fear of Jordanian snipers, and Yerushalayim is restored as the sole capital of Israel for the first time since King Shlomo.
How can anyone not be moved to tears by these words:
Colonel Motta Gur announces on the army wireless: The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!
All forces, stop firing! This is the David Operations Room. All forces, stop firing! I repeat, all forces, stop firing! Over.
Commander eight-nine here, is this Motta (Gur) talking? Over.
[Inaudible response on the army wireless by Motta Gur.]
Uzi Narkiss: Motta, there isn’t anybody like you. You’re next to the Mosque of Omar.
Yossi Ronen: I’m driving fast through the Lion’s Gate all the way inside the Old City.
Command on the army wireless: Search the area, destroy all pockets of resistance and make sure to enter every single house, especially the holy places.
[Lt.- Col. Uzi Eilam blows the Shofar. Soldiers are singing ‘Jerusalem of Gold’.]
Uzi Narkiss: Tell me, where is the Western Wall? How do we get there?
Yossi Ronen: I’m walking right now down the steps towards the Western Wall. I’m not a religious man, I never have been, but this is the Western Wall and I’m touching the stones of the Western Wall.
You can hear the original radio transmission from the troops as they defeated the Jordanian army here: http://www.isracast.com/kotel.asx
Happy Yom Yerushalayim and may we merit to see the coming of Mashiach very soon.
Sefirat HaOmer. Usually at this time of year the main two things on my mind are how will I remember to count the Omer if I bring in Shabbat before it gets dark (any suggestions welcome), and how will I cope with all these weeks without listening to music (I found myself humming the ring tone of a colleagues cell phone this morning! That is how bad things get during these days).
Really the period of counting the Omer is nothing to do with mourning or sadness (unlike the three weeks, which are worse but shorter). It should be a time of happiness counting from physical freedom to the true freedom which is the Torah. However the custom has arisen to observe some semi-mourning customs out of deference to the deaths of 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s students (which may well be connected to the Bar Kochba rebellion, but that is another story). At least this is the reason that the Shulchan Aruch gives (Orach Chaim 493). There is no real Talmudic source for our mourning practices at this time (there were many other tragedies that happened for which we do not mourn), and their deaths actually led to the formation of the Oral Law as we know it today, because Rabbi Akiva went and taught 6 new students, whose works form the basis of all Tanaitic texts.
The Aruch Hashulchan (also 493) gives this reason, but also adds another reason for the mourning, which I suspect is a more accurate basis of the minhag. This is what he says:
These days between Pesach and Shavuot have been known to all of Israel for many hundreds of years as days of judgment and mourning. In this short period of time 12,000 pairs of students of Rabbi Akiva died, as the Talmud states in Yevamot 62b. They all died of Askara (a disease of asphyxiation). We also find that most of the tragedies that occurred throughout France and Germany in the centuries that followed were during this time, as we see in the piyutim that were composed for these Shabbatot. They are filled with wailing and mourning. There are also other reasons why these days are days of judgment.
The tragedies in France and Germany probably refer to the first crusade which swept across Europe on route to the Holy Land, and with religious zeal killed Jews whenever they could. The worst of these destructions presumably happened during the time of the Omer.
Also at this time of year, in the Ukraine in the year 1648 Bogdan Chmielnicki led a group of Cossacks and began his campaign against the ruling Polish government. He was ultimately successful in ‘liberating’ Ukraine from the Polish. The Polish had traditionally been welcoming to Jews and had protected them from the worst of the medieval persecutions. Chmielnicki’s war cry was that Poland had sold them all into the hands of the accursed Jews. Therefore in between fighting for freedom, he and his men found time to slaughter Jews. Between the years 1648-9 he and his army massacred between 100,000 and 200,000 Jews. They destroyed entire communities and this was the biggest and most systematic destruction of Jews and Jewish communities from the time of the Romans (and until the time of Hitler).
The resulting confusion and messianic hope led directly to the acceptance of Shabtai Zvi and the resulting split within the Ashkenazi world. There is a sefer called Yavan Metzulah which is a contemporary account of the tragedies. He writes about the Jewish community in the town of Nemirov which was completely destroyed on the 20th of Sivan through the blood thirsty treachery of the Cossacks. You can read or download this book from hebrewbooks.org here.
The thing that totally blew my mind is that the murderer Chmielnicki is considered a national hero in Ukraine to this day. A city and a region of the country bear his name! His picture is on the 5 hryvnia banknote! There is a statue of him in the centre of Kyiv the capital! Can you imagine if Germany would give the same honor to Hitler today?
If nothing else, the mourning of the Omer makes me realize how lucky I am to be living when I do and where I do. But we can also use this time to remember the many tragedies that happened to our people over the centuries, which some times seem to be forgotten it the light of the holocaust. Perhaps this is the meaning of the mishna that we read during the Pesach seder that even in the times of the Mashiach we will still remember the exodus from Egypt. So too nowadays (and I write this on the eve of Yom Hashoah) we should remember all the other tragedies that we have suffered and all the communities that were destroyed, and the people who were tortured and killed over the centuries.
May the names of the wicked be erased forever, and may we soon merit to see the final redemption and the true consolation.
Have a look at this clip and try to guess what Ehud Olmert would rather be doing right now. For those of you who don’t understand the Hebrew, this is the day after the Winograd report, which basically called him a complete and utter failure for his handling of the Second Lebanon War. He is at a press conference and he is falling asleep! They keep passing him notes. The question is – what was written on those notes? Did it just say ‘wake up boss! – your future is on the line and the cameras are watching’
I think it was a message from Bill Gates saying ‘where do you want to go today?’ Or perhaps it was from George W Bush saying ‘come and get me ready or not’ (and that was why Olmert had been shutting his eyes until then). Or perhaps it was just a question – ‘what would you rather be doing?’
Which led me to the question – what would I rather be doing right now. And the answer is clear. I would rather be jammin’.
I love listening to music. I love playing guitar. I love playing guitar while listening to music. Yet one day every week I have to give up both listening to music and playing guitar. OK, I can cope with that, everyone needs a rest every once in a while (and by that I am referring primarily to the neighbours who have to put up with me). But then the 3 weeks come along – no more music! 3 whole weeks!!! That’s a long time! I can still cope with that. Fair enough. Tragedies, community, Napoleon story, etc.
But what is with sefirat haomer? The Shulchan Aruch is quite clear that it is forbidden to get married or have a haircut during this time (whatever your minhag, whichever time we are talking about). IT DOESN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT NOT LISTENING TO MUSIC (or playing music, or buying clothes for that matter). From this has developed the minhag of not listening to live music. Live music is pretty much the same as recorded music, so that is out too. And practicing music and playing to relax – well there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but let’s not do it anyway.
Do you know what withdrawal symptoms I have? If you see me walking around playing air guitar you will know why. And on Lag B’Omer – forget about the bonfires and the archery. Forget about Meron and Shimon bar Yochai. Just give me my guitar and my record player (ah for the good old days. Now it has to be a cd player, and even that is only just acceptable in the modern world – what should I do with several hundred vinyl records?) and tell everyone else to go away for the day. Rock ‘n’ Roll!
What would I rather be doing? I asked my son Mo (Moshe Pesach) to act as stunt double for me and play the tennis raquet. This is what happened (although my 2 year old daughter contributed to the soundtrack a bit)
The sun has finally come out after a week of much needed rain here in Jerusalem. On the bus ride to work everything looks different in the sunlight (including the train tracks that they are laying at the speed of glaciers). But I have figured out why it doesn’t look like New Zealand, where I grew up. There are no sheep anywhere! If you only know one thing about New Zealand it is that there are LOTS of sheep there (and if you only know one other thing about New Zealand it is that all New Zealanders have a sense of humour – but then again they need that so that you can tell them apart from the sheep).
One of the interesting things about sheep is that they have learned grazing patterns. They pass down from generation to generation the best places to find grass at different times of year. In Britain when they culled the sheep they lost that tradition of grazing patterns. The collective memory creates something bigger and more lasting than any of the individuals, and defines the group as a whole.
People are a lot like sheep in this respect (I’ll bet you saw that coming didn’t you – but even New Zealanders can tell sheep apart from people (usually) – the sheep are the ones that look like clouds with legs). Each of us belongs to a culture or group or organisation (or all of the above) which defines itself through the stories that it tells. As Jews we are particularly reliant on stories to define ourselves. These stories begin with the opening of Bereishit, and continue throughout the Tanach. Furthermore the format of the Gemara is one of narrative. It is as important to know who said something (and in what context, at what time in which city) as it is to know what they said. This is something that can frustrate the beginner, or be overlooked by the experienced learner, but is in fact central to the nature and structure of Torah she’Ba’al Peh.
We have more specific narratives that we must keep alive, and there is a strong focus on passing it on from generation to generation. The most famous is the Yetziat Mitzraim. We are commanded to remember the exodus from Egypt every day and every night. We fulfil this Mitzvah with the twice daily recital of the Shema (primarily the last paragraph). Everyone is familiar with this Mitzvah because it is probably the most famous Mishna in the world – the one about Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah being ‘like’ someone who is 70 years old (yes, you know it – it is actually a Mishna in Brachot, but you remember it from the Hagadah).
In addition once a year (or twice a year for those who are still in New Zealand or other parts of the galut) we sit down on Seder night and tell over those stories to the next generation (or if there is no next generation we tell it to our spouses – if there is no spouse we must tell it to ourselves). This is not just any story, but a STORY! which defines who we are, why we are here and what we are supposed to be doing about it! This is an entirely separate Mitzvah with its own separate entry in Rambam and its own separate Halachot (and philosophy I think).
At the moment I am working on the difference between these two kinds of narratives – the mitzvah of remembering the exodus, and the mitzvah of retelling the exodus.
R’ Chaim of Brisk (in stencil on Pesachim) gives three distinctions between sipur yetziat mitzraim (telling about the exodus on seder night) and zechirat yetziat mitzraim (remembering it daily). The Griz adds another (the last one on this list):
RETELLING
REMEMBERING
Telling to others in question and answer format
Say it to yourself
Begin with disgrace and end with praise
Simply mention it
Delve into the reasons for the mitzvot and make drashot
Just the facts ma’am
Learn the Halachot all night long
One sentence is sufficient, without description or Halacha
I think I have worked out to a certain extent the reason, necessity and purpose of retelling the story to our children every year. What I am focussing on now is the meaning and purpose of remembering the exodus every day.
Remembering the exodus is one of six (according to many siddurim) things that we must remember daily. The plan is to write a series of shiurim about these six rememberances, which cover many of the major events of Jewish history and the messages that these events give us.
The six are:
1.the exodus from Egypt
2.receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai
3.the Golden Calf
4.Amalek
5.Miriam’s punishment for speaking ill of her brother Moshe
6.Shabbat
For the next couple of weeks I plan to focus on Yetziat Mitzraim (it is topical) and would welcome your thoughts and insights on what the essential message of this memory is (or should be), and what implications it has for how we live our lives. Included within this (I hope) will be the discovery of the national narrative which this memory, along with the other five, creates for us.
The story so far (TSSF):
Sheep are not (quite) the same as people, but very similar.
There are two distinct and separate mitzvot about the Exodus – remembering and retelling.
What are we supposed to remember about Yetziat Mitzraim and what difference does it make?
Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Rabbi David Sedley now lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children. He currently teaches at both Midreshet Rachel and Darche Noam Yeshiva. Previously he served for four years in Scotland as the Rabbi of Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation, followed by four years as Rabbi of Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue in Leeds, England.
He spent several years studying in Yeshiva and Kollels in Jerusalem, Israel.
He has a Masters Degree in education from the Open University of Great Britain and a Post Graduate Diploma in adult education from Nottingham University. His undergraduate degree is in English literature, and the history and theory of music. He also plays guitar.
He is writing and researching a new series of 'bread and butter' educational materials for Torahlab which will provide sources for teachers and self-learners. Currently he is working on festivals and the calendar.
Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Rabbi David Sedley now lives in Jerusalem with his wife and children. He currently teaches at both Midreshet Rachel and Darche Noam Yeshiva. Previously he served for four years in Scotland as the Rabbi of Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation, followed by four years as Rabbi of Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue in Leeds, England.
