Torah

Pareshat Bo

2011-11-29T17:47:00.000-08:00

Kaved Lev Paro- The heart of Pharaoh turned into liver (Medrash)

This Medrash plays on the word Kaved, which literally means hardened, and reads it to mean liver. I would like to suggest that perhaps in some ways the heart of the King of Egypt actually turned into a liver.

The notion of free will is a basic premise and a fundamental component of Jewish philosophy. If, as the Torah teaches, we are Beings who have moral responsibility, we must have the ability to make choices and thus have free will. The doctrine of reward and punishment can only exist if a human can make a choice. Consequently when reading the narrative of the exodus and the way the Al-mighty manipulated and hardened Pharaoh’s heart over and over again, we ask the very basic question; what happened to Pharaoh’s free will and the ability given to humankind to repent?

Among Jewish thinkers several approaches exist. Maimonides notes that free will can be removed from those whose sins are grave enough. He writes in his Laws of Teshuvah that: "a person may commit a great sin or many sins causing the judgment rendered before the True Judge to be that the retribution [administered to] this transgressor for these sins which he willfully and consciously committed is that his Teshuvah will be held back. He will not be allowed the chance to repent from his wickedness so that he will die and be wiped out because of the sin he committed. For these reasons, it is written in the Torah [Exodus 14:4], ‘I will harden Pharaoh's heart.’ Since he began to sin on his own initiative and caused hardships to the Israelites who dwelled in his land - as [Exodus 1:10] states: ‘Come, let us deal wisely with them,’ - judgment obligated that he be prevented from repenting so that he would suffer retribution. Therefore, The Holy One, blessed be He, hardened his heart."

Others, like Rav Ovadia Seforno, the great Italian commentator of the 16th century, take a different approach. Seforno explains that Hashem is actually preserving Pharaoh's free will by hardening his heart. The impact of the plagues was so devastating that if Hashem had not hardened Pharaoh's heart, Pharaoh would have been compelled to let the Jewish people go in order to stop their suffering. Pharaoh's relenting then, would not have been a sign of true submission, but rather only would have been a move to save him from the situation. Consequently, his repentance would not have been genuine, but rather would have been a pragmatic move. Therefore, Hashem gave him the ability to withstand the pain that was being inflicted upon the Egyptians. However, if indeed Pharaoh truly had desired to do complete Teshuvah by recognizing his mistakes, nothing would have prevented him from doing so. In other words, Seforno views the hardening as a partial reduction of Pharaoh's free will and not as a complete cessation.

In general, people have the ability to make choices and do Teshuvah even if the reason behind their choice is to prevent them from future suffering. Humans can choose that which is right even if it is without contrition. Pharaoh’s choice- making ability was reduced to the point where he could only choose to actually repent. The ability to let the people go, just for the sake of saving himself, was removed from him.

With the Seforno explanation we can return to the ‘heart of Pharaoh which turned into liver’. The human heart is a muscular organ at the center of the circulatory system that pumps blood to the body. A pump does not hold back elements but rather allows all to flow through it. The liver, on the hand, operates as a filter which detoxifies the body by filtering the blood. Not all that enters the liver, as part of the flow, comes out. Thus, free will can be viewed as the heart, since humans have the ability to make choices without limitation. A person can decide to stop being evil even if it is only to avoid reprisal. All decisions can pass through the system the way everything passes through the pumping heart. Limited free will, where all decision choices are not available, can metaphorically be seen as a liver. Some things pass through, others do not. As a result, we can say that Pharaoh’s heart turned into liver.

The Jewish State

2011-05-08T04:42:00.000-07:00

Passover

2011-03-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

The number of choices one must make when shopping in the modern day supermarket can be, at times, quite overwhelming. When purchasing a simple item like a bottle of shampoo I must decide if I want a strawberry or a kiwi fragrance, an organic or a GMO, one tested on animals or on me.

When it comes to the commandments of the Torah we made our choice at Har Sinai to make them an integral part of our life with the declaration of Naaseh V’Nishma. Yet when it comes to Shiurim - the correct measurements to fulfill the Mitzvos of the first night of Pesach - the range of opinions among the Poskim forces us to make some decisions.

The major issue that initiated the debate relates to the size of an egg. In essence the volume of an egg determines all the measurements of the night. We are told that to fulfill the Mitzvah of eating Matzah, or the rabbinic precept of Marror, we must eat an amount that is equivalent to the volume of an olive - a Kezayis. The Halachah notes that the method we use to assess the size of an olive is one in which we compare it to an egg. Some are of the opinion that an olive is half an egg in volume, others say it is a third.[1]

When it comes to the four cups of wine we are told that we must drink from a cup that holds a quarter of a measurement known as the Lug. The Lug is a measurement that contains six eggs. Thus a quarter of the Lug, known as a Revi’s, equals one and a half eggs. With this information in hand all we must do is go to the (overwhelming) supermarket, pick up an average egg, and through water displacement assess its volume. The above exercise was preformed by many and the outcome was that the average egg is about 1.9 ounces. Accordingly, my Kiddush or Pesach Seder cup should hold a bit less than three ounces. However as you already know, it ain't so simple.

The Talmud provides a formula that compares fingerbreadths to the Revi’s measurement.[2] The eighteenth century authority, Rav Yechezkel Landau, compared the two methods and found a discrepancy between the measurements based on eggs vis-à-vis fingers. He came to a conclusion that eggs of today are half the size of historical eggs.[3] As a result of his statement several authorities recommended that we double all measurements that relate to eggs. Accordingly, on the Seder night we must eat the volume of an egg to fulfill the eating of a Kezayis. Other authorities, among them Rav Chaim Volozhin[4], disagreed and continued measuring the Kezayis as half of an ordinary egg. One of Rav Yechezkel Landau’s disciples, Rabbi Elazar Flekels, who succeeded Rav Landau as Chief Rabbi in Prague, claimed that the discrepancy his master found was only because Rav Landau was “Taller than all the tall people.”[5] In other words, he had large fingers. Consequently the eggs never shrunk but rather the large physical dimension of his teacher’s fingers created the problem. Due to the complexity of the issue several authorities recommend that when dealing with a Torah law one should ideally use the measurement that assumes egg shrinkage.[6] Although the four cups of wine are rabbinic and thus a three ounce cup would suffice, when it comes to Friday night Kiddush a larger measurement would be required.[7]

When dealing with volume measurements for our cracker-like-Matzo we confront another problem; how do I measure its volume? Some have attempted to calculate the volume, with quite original techniques, and have translated their findings into weight measurements. Coupled with the shrinking egg problem, the results vary immensely. Some estimate the Kezayis to be thirty grams,[8] while others consider seven grams to suffice.[9] As noted, Poskim recommend that for eating the Kezayis Matzo that is Torah law, one should consider using a larger measurement.

The Shulchan Aruch[10] remarks that when eating our first portion of Matzo we should consume two Kezayis, one from the whole Matzo and one from the broken piece. Not all authorities agree with this statement.[11] Yet even those who want to perform it are not required to eat two egg volumes since this requirement is not Torah law. One egg volume would be sufficient.

To figure out the bottom line as to how much Matzo you should eat, ask your local Halachik authority. Many in Eretz Yisroel follow the opinion of the Steipler Gaon that twenty two grams should be consumed for a Torah law Kezayis, and for rabbinic requirements, like the Korech, eleven grams would do.[12]

May we all merit to debate and argue Halachah L’maase, the proper Shiur Kezayis of the Korben Pesach.

[1] OR”C 486:1

[2] Pesachim 109a

[3] Tzlach ad loc. RYL is not the first to note the problem see Tashbetz 3:33

[4] Kehillas Yaakov Pesachim 38

[5] Teshuva Meahava 3 page 68

[6] Misnah Berurah 486:1

[7] Mishnah Berurah 271:68 recommends at least 4 oz.

[8] Moadim Vezmanim 7:172

[9] Shiurei Torah p. 184

[10] 475:1

[11] See Biur Halacha , Orchos Rabeinu 2, p. 70

[12] Midos V'shiurei Torah 15:16

Let’s Talk about God - It ain't so simple!

2010-09-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

It would be an understatement to say that God plays a big role in people’s lives. He is present in the human mind, referred to in countless conversations, and even makes an appearance on the legal tender of the United States (for Canadians “real life was on the skating rink”).

Although his prominence in the human psyche is undeniable, God is the most complex and profound entity to understand. King David notes several times in Psalms that God is good, yet wickedness makes a daily appearance in the news. How can we defend the belief that God is good and at the same time omnipotent, in view of the existence of evil in the world?

The issue of Theodicy is not new. The Holocaust did not produce the dilemma, it only magnified it. The question has occupied the minds of many philosophers and theologians for centuries. Unfortunately, I am not able to offer answers. However, in my humble opinion, what must be avoided is the simplification of God.

In times of challenge, or when a person is in need, he turns to the Al-mighty in prayer. Prayer has enormous power. It gives the human being the ability to transcend the physical world and connect to the sublime. The homo sapiens can actually have a conversation with God! Yet, although we tell ourselves and teach our children that we can converse with a Supernatural Being just as we chat with our neighbor, we must not simplify His essence. The neighbor we talk to is human like us. Thus, we expect reciprocity in the conversation. God, on the other hand, is not human. Although humanity has been granted the right, and indeed the privilege, to speak to him, they must remember the complex entity that is listening. Simplifying God and expecting a human response is a misunderstanding of prayer, and in the long run can cause damage to the wonderful relationship that prayer creates.

Appreciating the complexity of God goes beyond prayer. A big part of Judaism is the concept of Emunah - faith. For some, faith is a belief that everything that is going to occur will be good. However, we all know that, unfortunately, reality is not so. The years of World War II cannot be described as good, yet many holy Jews had a lot of Emunah in the years leading up to the catastrophe.

Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, popularly known by the name of his magnum opus, Chazon Ish, notes that faith is not that all will be good, but rather, faith is the belief that nothing is a coincidence and that all that occurs is decreed by God. This explanation raises far more questions and makes Emunah far more complex. Yet, what we avoid with this approach is the simplification of God.

There's an old saying regarding God: “If I would know Him I would be Him.” We cannot expect to have all the answers when discussing the most enigmatic entity. Nevertheless, we are privileged to have received a system of laws that bonds us to a Divine Being.

I personally am moved by people who journeyed through the nightmare of the Holocaust and nevertheless remained devoted to God. Questions, they have. Answers, they painfully lack. Yet they can walk into a house of worship and thank God for his kindness.

I thank the Holocaust generation for rebuilding their lives, after observing unimaginable destruction, for reconstructing Jewish institutions, after experiencing the terror of Kristallnacht, and for inspiring a whole new generation to believe in an enigmatic being known to us as God.

Rosh Hashana

2010-09-07T16:11:00.001-07:00

We all know Rosh Hashana as the day on which we hear the sound of the Shofar, following the Torah’s commandment, “It will be a day of Teruah.” Yet, we may wonder: “Why is there such a variety of sounds; can’t we just hear a Teruah and go home?”

The Talmud explains that a Teruah must be sounded three times, each time preceded and followed by a Tekoah, a long clear sound. Although we are able to identify the proper sound for the Tekoah, when it comes to the Teruah, there is a debate.

The Talmud explains that the Oral Tradition translates the word “Teruah” as “Yebava” which is a unique type of cry that was let out by the mother of Sisrah. Sisrah was an extremely powerful general who tormented the Jewish nation for 20 years. When he went to war against the Jews, G-d performed a miracle and he was killed [Judges 4,5]. The chapter describing the song and praise given by the Jews to G-d ends with a description of Sisrah’s mother reacting to his delay in returning. The verse reads as follows: “And the mother of Sisrah cried.” The word used for cry, however, is “vateyabev” which is the same word the Talmud uses to translate “Teruah.”

The Rabbis in the Talmud say the reason we blow different sounds for the Teruah is that we are attempting to create a sound similar to the cry of General Sisrah’s mother and, because we are not sure what the sound is like, we need to blow a variety of sounds. Nevertheless, we still may wonder why we have to learn how to perform a mitzvah as significant as blowing the Shofar on this holy and important day, from the cry of the mother of an evil general. It is my belief that we can find the answer by understanding the uniqueness of her cry.

Usually, a cry emanates from feelings of despair and hopelessness. As a General, Sisrah had a perfect victory record — always returning as champion. When his mother cried, although she was concerned at the time, deep down she felt confident that her son would soon return. She even expresses her confidence by saying the reason he must be delayed is from the business of collecting the booty. The word “vateyabev” is a description of that unique cry, one that conveys concern and worry, but with an underlying confidence.

The day of Rosh Hashana is a very serious day. It is a day when our individual and collective future is determined, a day during which we have the opportunity to pray and ask for mercy for Israel, and that all suffering should come to an end. Thus, we lift the Shofar and blast the sound of a cry. This cry, however, is not a cry of despair and gloom, because we know that we have a Father if Heaven and that His concern for us is like that of a father for his children. So when we cry, it is a cry that carries within it, confidence that G-d has a plan and that redemption and peace will eventually come. When we blow the shofar, we don’t just blow the sound of a cry, but rather, a “yebava” that indicates our confidence in the Creator for a good year.

Shana Tova.

Almighty Therapist

2010-08-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

A righteous person arrives in heaven. Before the Almighty starts his questioning, the newcomer turns to him and asks “I have always wondered about you G-d, so please tell me what you are?”

Almighty; “I am a judge, king, and therapist”

Newcomer “How is that?”

A judge to evil-doers- I must be firm and detached when ruling on their appropriate punishment

A king to most people. I have to figure out what their true character is and decide if they are bad people who have preformed a few good deeds, or good people with a few bad ones.

And, I am a therapist. I give relief to the righteous who kept so many things inside.

2010-08-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

פשוטו של מקרא

2010-04-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

פשוטו של מקרא

הרב ירוחם עזיאל מילבסקי זצ"ל

ראיתי כמה פעמים שמקשים איך אפשר לפרש פסוקים לפי פשוטם בזמן שחז"ל פירושה לפי המסורה, כגון ועבדו לעולם, שלפי חז"ל היינו יובל, ולפי פשוטו היינו כל ימי חייו. והנראה שכל השאלה מקורה בטעות-חושבים שצריכים לדעת כוונת הכותב, ועל זה באמת אפשר לשאול ממה נפשך מה היתה כוונתו, או שיעבוד לעולם או עד היובל, אי אפשר שהכוונה יהיה לשניהם כמובן.
כל מיני תירוצים נאמרו על זה. כגון שיש אמת להלכה ויש אמת של לימוד התורה. לפי ההלכה לעולם היינו יובל אבל בלימוד התורה כיוון שיש בחינה של פשוטו של מקרא לכן כוונת התורה בבחינה זו, יכול להיות, שלעולם היינו כל ימי חייו.
אבל באמת אין מקום לקושיה כלל, כי בכלל אי אפשר לשאול על כוונת הכותב, כי בכותב יש כוונה אחת, ואנו משתדלים להבין לפי הדיבורים, מה כוונתו. אבל בתורה, התיבה היא האמת בעצם ולא ביטוי של אמת דרך הכתב, אלא שהתיבה בעצמה היא מקור האמת. ומה שאנו משתדלים לדעת פירוש התיבה, כי דרך הפירוש, לפי הכללים שנמסרו לנו, אנו מבינים אמיתיות, וכיון שאחד מן הדרכים להתקשר עם התיבה הוא דרך פשוטו, לכן אנו משתדלים להבין פשוטו של מקרא, אבל לא משום שהפשט יותר קרוב לכוונת נותן התורה, כי אין לדבר בזה על כוונת כלל כנ"ל, אלא משום שגם זה דרך של התקשרות עם האמת, כמו שיש גם דרך של התקשרות עם האמת דרך קריאה אפילו בלי הבנה כלל, ככתוב בספרים, וגם בזה אפילו בלי הבנה יש לנו קשר עם האמת. ואילו נאמר שדברי התורה הם רק ביטוי של כוונה, איך אפשר לומר שיש שום מעלה בקריאה בלי הבנה כלל. אלא ודאי שבתורה שבכתב התיבה היא מקור האמת ולא ביטוי של אמת, ולכן כל מה שאנו מחדשים, אם זה לפי הכללים שקבלנו, אמת הוא. לכן כשיש מחלוקת בין הראשונים בפשוטו של מקרא, אין זה מחלוקת בכוונת הפסוק, אלא שהמחלוקת היא מה קרוב יותר לפשוטו לפי הכלל שיש דרך הבנה בפשוטו של מקרא

2010-03-25T13:32:00.001-07:00

Kluk Glass

2010-03-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

שולחן ערוך אורח חיים הלכות פסח סימן תעב

הגה: ואין ליקח כוס שפיו צר כעין קלו"ג גלא"ז, מפני שלא יוכל לשתות רביעית כאחד

I purchased a beautiful wine glass for Pesach, however the mouth is a bit narrower than the rest of the glass- I was concerned that perhaps I have a Kluk glass that the Rama 472:15 recommends not to use.

From the internet I found out of something called Kluk Kluk decanter; “The sound the liquid makes as it comes out of the decanter resembles a cluck cluck sound”

Thus it is possible that the קלו"ק גלא"ז had a very narrow opening that produced a cluck cluck sound and my narrow glass is kosher.

Frumkeit & Racism

2010-02-11T12:58:00.000-08:00

My 13-year-old daughter came home the other day quoting her teacher that it is OK to call African Americans “Shvartez” since they were cursed according to tradition. The teach is referring to the following midrash.

בראשית רבה (וילנא) פרשת נח פרשה לו
אמר רבי חייא בר אבא חם וכלב שימשו בתיבה, לפיכך יצא חם מפוחם, וכלב מפורסם בתשמישו, א"ר לוי לא' שקבע מוניטין שלו בתוך אהלו של מלך, אמר המלך גוזר אני שיתפחמו פניו ויפסל מטבעו כך חם וכלב שימשו בתיבה לפיכך יצא חם מפוחם, וכלב מפורסם בתשמישו

The midrash tells us that since Cham, the son of Noah, had intercourse in the ark during the great flood, at a time that such activities where prohibited. As a punishment, according to the midrash he became- mefucham-the color of coals.
In addition, according to the bible, Cham’s descendants were cursed. Consequently, the teacher impressed upon the young minds this important lesson; call them “Shvartez”
However the midrash does not tell us that all who are “mefucham” are the offspring of Cham! Perhaps only some of the coals- colored- people are from Cham.
In my humble opinion a more appropriate lesson would be “All humans are dear, because they are created in the image of God.”
Luckily my daughter once visited a museum in Memphis TN and heard the following words; “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

מיקומו של תקוע

2010-02-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

האבודרהם בהלכות חנוכה מסביר מדוע היה צורך לנס של שמנת ימים. "מפני שהשמנים באים מחלקו של אשר כדכתיב וטובל בשמן רגלו ומקום היה לו שנקרא תקוע כדאמרינן (מנחות פ"ה ב) תקוע אלפא לשמן שממנו השמנים יוצאים ומשם עד ירושלם היה מהלך שמנה ימים בין הליכה וחזרה והכי אמרינן במנחות ולפיכך המתין להם עד שיביאו משם שמן טהור וזהו שנעשה להם נס לשמנת ימים." לפי דבריו מיקומו של תקוע היה מצפון לירושלים בחלקו של אשר.

מקורו של האבודרהם הוא מתשובות הגאונים - סימן קד "והטעם שהיה הנס שמונה ימים מפני שהשמנים היו באים מחלקו של אשר שנאמר (דברים לג כד) וטובל בשמן רגלו ומקום היה בחלקו שנקרא תקוע שממנו מביאים השמנים ומשם עד ירושלים מהלך שמונה בין הליכה לחזרה."

וכן כתב הרד"ק (שמואל ב פרק יד פסוק ב) שתקוע בחלקו של אשר.

אך לכאורה קשה מפסוק מפורש בדברי הימים ב(פרק יא פסוק ה) "וישב רחבעם בירושלם ויבן ערים למצור ביהודה: ויבן את בית לחם ואת עיטם ואת תקוע"?

הרי מפורש שתקוע בחלקו של יהודה? (ובודאי לא היה המהלך שמונה ימים)

וצ"ל שדעת הגאונים שהיה תקוע שני בחלקו של אשר. והמקור לתקוע שני הוא הגמרא מסכת מנחות שהזכיר האבודרהם שהמשנה אומרת "תקועה אלפא לשמן" ובגמרא שם "וישלח יואב תקועה ויקח משם אשה חכמה - מאי שנא תקועה? אמר רבי יוחנן: מתוך שרגילין בשמן זית, חכמה מצויה בהן. תנו רבנן: וטובל בשמן רגלו - זה חלקו של אשר, שמושך שמן כמעין. אמרו: פעם אחד נצרכו להן אנשי לודקיא בשמן, מינו להן פולמוסטוס אחד, אמרו לו: לך והבא לנו שמן במאה ריבוא. הלך לירושלים, אמרו לו: לך לצור. הלך לצור, אמרו לו: לך לגוש חלב" והבינו הגאונים שחלקו של אשר וריבוי שמנו מתיחס גם לתקוע.

אחרים הבינו שבאמת תקוע בחלקו של יהודה. הרב יהוסף שווארץ בספרו תבואות הארץ כותב בענין תקועה אלפא לשמן "אכן לא דברו חכז"ל על הריבוי השמן כמו שאלף אינו מורה על הרבוי כ"א על המעלה כי רוב השמן נמצא בחלק אשר בעיר גוש חלב"

ונ"ל שרש"י ג"כ סובר כן. בפסחים דף נג עמוד א "אוכלים בזיתים עד שיכלה אחרון שבתקוע, רבי אליעזר אומר: עד שיכלה אחרון של גוש חלב" וכותב רש"י "תקוע - מקום זיתים, כדתנן במנחות (פה, ב): תקוע אלפא לשמן, ומתוך שהשמן מצוי שם ורגילין בו מצויין חכמים בהן, כדכתיב (שמואל ב יד) וישלח יואב תקועה וגו'. ובד"ה גוש חלב - "נמי איכא זיתים טובא, והוא בחלקו של אשר דכתיב ביה וטובל בשמן רגלו במנחות". ז"א דווקא גוש חלב בחלקו של אשר ולא תקוע. יוצא שיש מחלוקת על מיקומו של תקוע.

2009-12-15T11:08:00.001-08:00

The Torah tells us that “the number of individuals in Yaakov’s family who came to Egypt was seventy”. However anyone who takes the trouble to count the names listed will find that only sixty-six individuals are actually mentioned. The Sages of the Talmud explain that Yosef and his two sons were included in the sum total even though his two sons had been born in Egypt and did not technically “come to Egypt.” In addition, Moshe’s mother Yocheved was born at the exact moment when the Jews crossed the Canaan-Egypt border and thus she completes the count to seventy.

The commentators explain that the number seventy represents the collective totality of humanity. In numerous instances we find that the Torah refers to the world population at large as the “seventy nations.” and the “seventy languages” The purpose of humanity as a whole is to bring about the rectification of the evil found among the seventy nations, a process of “tikun.” Hashem gave mankind several opportunities to fulfill this mission yet mankind failed time after time.

Finally Hashem gave up on mankind in general as his agents in this mission and assigned the task of purging the world of evil to a select group of spiritually advanced individuals -the Jews. However, as representatives of the entire human race, they would assume their new role only when their group would expand to the point that it would include seventy individuals and thereby become a microcosm of mankind.

The Torah here informs us that the Jews attained this new status moments before the onset of their exile in Egypt. From that point on, Hashem’s relationship with the Jews would remain the focal point of world history.

Shabbat Shalom

Yirmiya Milevsky

Daas Torah

2009-12-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

Many, if not all, modern day issues that are labeled as Daas Torah, and consequently cause a commotion, must be viewed with true Daas Torah; this letter from Reb Chaim Ozer.

Eastern Religions

2009-11-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

As our patriarch Avraham was preparing for his passing, the Torah tells us about his interactions with his children. “Avraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines. He sent them away from his son, Yitzchak, to a land in the east.” The Midrash identifies the gifts as a “Shem Tumah”, literally- a name of impurity. However, the explanation of the Midrash requires clarification: What is a “name of impurity”?

The great rabbi and mystic Rabbi Yishaya Horowitz - also known as the Shelah HaKadosh (d. 1630) - notes that Tumah impurity always has an element of holiness to it. The concubines mentioned in the verse in Hebrew are pilagshim, that can be read as palag shem – half a name. Thus, notes Rabbi Horowitz half, of what the children received was holy. In the messianic era the element of holiness from what was given by Avraham to his children will appear. According to Rabbi Horowitz, a culture from the east will offer something in the messianic era that will be used for holiness.

The word Shem, in Hebrew, means name. However, our rabbis tell us that it also means ‘the essence’, since in the holy language the name of something defines its essence. When Avraham gave to the sons of his concubines a Shem he gave them the tools to identify the true essence of being. It is very possible that eastern religions, which focus on insight into the ultimate nature of reality and emphasize ethics and correct understanding, base their teachings on concepts that originated with Avraham. It is interesting to note that one of the ancient Buddhist works is the Abhidharma.
שם טומאה מסר להם. וזהו סוד הדבר, כי הטומאה דהיינו הקליפות, יש לה למעלה אחיזה בקדושה,
כענין שפירשתי בסמאל, שמחציו ולמעלה נקרא 'אל'. וזהו 'פלגשם' חסר יו"ד, שאז הוא - 'פלג שם', רצה לומר, שחציו הוא שם קודש. וכל זה יהיה באחרית הימים, שהקליפה תחזור לקדושה, והאלילים כרות יכרתון לתקן עולם במלכות שדי וכל בני בשר כו', כנודע ביאור ענין זה למקובלים

2009-09-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

Lessons From the Eyelid

2009-09-22T13:37:00.000-07:00

Pareshat Haazinu is always read in the beginning of the year, either before or after Yom Kippur, at a time when we feel close to the Al-mighty. The Commentators note several references to the High Holiday season in the Paresha and I would like to share with you one of them.

The song of Haazinu describes the journey of humanity and the Jewish people.

When expressing the kindness of Hashem to the children of Israel in the wilderness the verse states: "He found them in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he surrounded them, he instructed them, he protected them like the Ishon of his eye." Rashi, in his commentary to the Torah, explains the word Ishon as the blackness of the eye- the pupil. According to this reading Hashem protects the children of Israel with great sensitivity just as one protects his pupil. Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir, the grandson of Rashi, has a different understanding of the word Ishon. Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir understands the word Ishon to be the “flesh that is drawn down over the eye” namely, the eyelid. In biblical Hebrew Ishon means darkness thus the eyelid is an Ishon because it makes things dark. According to Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir the verse is telling us that Hashem protected the children of Israel in the wilderness just as the eyelid protects the eye.

Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir identifies Hashem’s protection of the Jewish people as that of an eyelid. To better appreciate what the Al-mighty is doing for the sake of the children of Israel, we must understand the significant role of the eyelid and blinking. Blinking automatically supplies moisture to our eyes to keep them from drying out. In addition, it keeps foreign matter from entering and irritating our eyes. Accordingly, Hashem, metaphorically, gives these services to the Jewish people.

Every year during the special period of Aseret Yemei Teshuva, Hashem, by being close to every single Jew, provides an opportunity for the Jew to revitalize his spiritual health and avoid a spiritual dry-out. In addition, it is a time to remove the impurities of sin through Teshuva. The two functions of the eyelid and blinking come to life during this wonderful period, and therefore the song of Haazinu, that describes Hashem as the eyelid, is appropriate for this time.

Shabbat Shalom

Gmar Chatima Tova

Inauthentic Jew

2009-09-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

In Parashat Ki Tavo we read the difficult chapter of the national curses known as the Tochecha (Admonition). In the last verse of this dreadful chapter Moshe warns the children of Israel that “Hashem will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as slaves and maidservants but there will be no buyer.” Commentators point out that this last statement deals with the sad reality of assimilation.

The great rabbi of Dvinsk, Latvia, Rabbi Meir Simcha Hakohen, sensing the desire for assimilation by many Jews of the late nineteenth century, warned that when the Jew abandons his faith for the sake of social integration, society reminds the Jew of his unique task, in the form of Anti-Semitism. Not only Jewish thinkers make reference to this idea.

The great French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote a short book entitled, “Anti Semite and Jew”. Sartre alleged that the Jew always is attempting to prove himself more French than the Frenchman. Sartre labelled the Jew who tries to flee Jewish reality, an inauthentic Jew. Yet as much as the Jew tries to escape his reality, the anti-Semite makes him a Jew in spite of himself.

This is what the Torah is telling us at the end of the admonition. Even if we try to “sell ourselves”, the nations of the world will not buy it. Anti-Semitism cannot be purged by rejecting Jewish tradition and identity, but rather by strengthening it.

Shabbat Shalom

Change from within

2009-08-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of Pareshat Ki Tetze the Torah addresses the topic of lashes given to a sinner. The Torah remarks that, “If the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.”

Although the simple reading of the verse indicates that forty lashes are given, the sages of the Talmud (Makot 22b) note that the appropriate reading of the verse is that the court render lashes by a number that leads to forty: namely thirty-nine. What we must try to understand is why the Torah uses the number forty if indeed the tradition teaches that only thirty-nine are given.

In Judaism, when a number appears in a specific context, it is not a coincidence but rather the number represents a concept. A perfect example is the number forty. Forty always symbolizes complete change. When the pre-flood world was corrupt and required a new beginning, it rained for forty days. Likewise when the children of Israel left Egypt and were required to change from slaves to conquerors, they required forty years in the desert.

Accordingly, when the Torah remarks that the sinner receives forty lashes, the message is clear: he must transform himself and become a new person. However, the sages of the Talmud tell us that the court, by giving thirty-nine lashes, is indicating to the person that others can only place the sinner on the brink of change. The real change (forty) cannot come from an external source but rather must come from within. In other words, the sinner, metaphorically speaking, must give himself the last lash to reach forty.

2009-08-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

In the second half of Parshat Shoftim, the portion deals with several aspects of the nation's conduct when it goes to war. The Torah tells us that a designated Cohen addressed the army before going to battle to encourage the warriors to be brave and not fear the war. The verse continues by telling us that an officer will add to the words of the Cohen and declare, “Who is the man that is afraid and fainthearted? Let him depart and return to his house, so that he might not make his brothers' hearts melt like his heart.”
The Talmud records a dispute between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yossi Hagellili regarding the fearful individual referred to in the verse. Rabbi Akiva understood the fear literally, that the person was afraid of war. For Rabbi Yossi Hagellili, on the other hand, the anxiety was not the traditional fear of battle, but rather related to a person who was a sinner, and thus was cognizant of the fact that he was unworthy of the protection of Hashem.
It is very possible that the dispute between the rabbis came about as a result of different viewpoints on a contemporary issue of the second century. When Bar Kochva rebelled against the oppressing Roman Empire and mobilized a military force, he was backed by very strong support from Rabbi Akiva. For Rabbi Akiva, a Jewish army was not a theoretical concept but rather an issue that was quite relevant. For Rabbi Akiva, fear of battle was "Halacha L'Maase" (a contemporary halachik issue). Therefore the verse was understood by its literal meaning, that when a person is afraid, he cannot be present in the battle field. Rabbi Yossi Hagellili, on the other hand, was not a supporter of the uprising, and therefore viewed a Jewish army as a concept that belongs to the Utopian Messianic era when only the righteous go to battle and the victory will be supernatural. Thus the fear relates to a spiritual condition and not to conventional anxiety.

"The Inflicted Blemish"

2009-08-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

You are the children of Hashem your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
For you are a holy people unto Hashem your God, and Hashem has chosen you to be a special people, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
(Devarim Chapter 14)

This paragraph is a testament that reminds the Jewish people of their special role.

As children of the Al-mighty we are told not to feel forlorn when we lose a loved one but rather to be mindful of our special and constant relationship with Hashem as his children. The text continues by warning the Jewish people, "Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing." Rashi explains that the abomination referred to in the verse is a situation where a Cohen receives a firstborn animal that must be brought to the temple, and with the intention of financial gain, inflicts a blemish upon the animal to disqualify it from the alter and as a result, keeps it for himself.

What we must try to figure out is why the Torah juxtaposes the statement regarding the significance of the Jew, to the warning regarding the blemish that relates to a technical detail of the laws of sacrifices. The commentators explain that the message regarding the blemish is not just about animals, but rather can be understood as a theme that relates to humans as well. People, due to personal events in their lives, are at times inspired to do more spiritually. Unfortunately the growth does not always come to fruition because the individual, remembering his flaws, deems himself inadequate and develops the feeling that he is not qualified to become connected to the higher being. In other words the growth is halted due to an "inflicted blemish". This attitude is what the Torah identifies as an abomination.

As children of Hashem we must remember how significant we are in his eyes and as a result we must appreciate what we are in our own eyes. After boosting our self esteem we will not focus on blemishes but rather realize how much we can contribute to the welfare of the nation of Israel, to humanity and to the world.

2009-08-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

Visiting Israel for the thinking Jew, is always an overwhelming experience. The history of the land kindles the soul, while the current home coming inspires. Yet for many of us, the food has a special place in our hearts (and waistline). The Torah commands us to thank the creator for the bread by reciting the grace-after-the-meal. However, the verse preceding this commandment notes that Israel is a "land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills." Commentators wonder why mention stones and copper between the reference to bread and the blessing? The commentators explain that the stones are not average stones but rather the magnificent Jerusalem stone(Ramban). This pale limestone is so striking that the British, who governed the land before the establishment of the state, decreed that all buildings had to be faced with Jerusalem stone. Once we understand that the stones refer to Jerusalem we can appreciate why it is mentioned right before the grace after the meal. The Rabbis in the Talmud (Brachot 48) note the King David instituted that Jerusalem be mentioned in the Birkat Hamazon. Thus the stone of Jerusalem clearly belongs in the verses that command us to recite the Birkat Hamazon. Incidentally the copper is referring to the Beit Hamikdash (that is also mentioned in the Birkat Hamazon) as the verse regarding the Temple notes that "there was such a number of them; it was not possible to get the weight of the copper."

2009-05-19T18:42:00.001-07:00

The Jewish Enlightenment is a term which is often used to describe the movement among European Jews in the late 18th century that advocated adopting enlightened values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing secular education. However the true Jewish Enlightenment occurred many years earlier as an assembly of former slaves stood at Mount Sinai. The revelation at Sinai was a moment of comprehensive Jewish illumination, and all who were present merited clarity concerning their mission in life. This supernatural and historical occurrence is known as Matan Torah- the Receiving of the Torah.

The rabbis in the Talmud note that the Children of Israel chose to make a covenant with the Almighty. Yet the decision to accept the Torah was in fact a choice made under duress. The mountain was suspended on top of the nation and an offer - that they could not refuse - was made; accept the Torah, or else I- the Almighty – will release that which is on top of you and, without the funeral home and the limo, you will be buried. The nation did indeed accept the offer. However, this incident is quite disturbing. Why did the Jews “merit” such a violent beginning? Personally, I would prefer a calm and serene atmosphere, in which I could truly absorb the wonderful experience of revelation.

A few years following this event, on the bank of the river Neranjara, a fellow by the name Gautama was meditating under a tree, and suddenly experienced a very high degree of consciousness, and reached his own personal Enlightenment. (If you want to know more about him, do a Google search.) My question is: why couldn’t the Jewish nation merit its Enlightenment under a similar magnificent tree? Why this aggressive beginning for a people who are in existence to teach and preach peace?

The key to understanding the mission of the Jew, and to appreciating the Creator’s choice for the first impression, is responsibility. The revelation at Sinai was not for personal and individual fulfillment. Rather, it was to give the most important task in the history of humanity to a chosen group.

Currently in the news there is a reasonable amount of anger at the fact that a fatigued pilot was in control of Colgan Air flight 3407, which crashed near Buffalo, N.Y. this past February. Being that the welfare of the passengers is in his hands, a pilot has an enormous responsibility. The training of a pilot, clearly, must focus on the fact that bad decisions can produce dire results and affect the lives of many.

An educator in many ways is like a pilot. The wrong word uttered by a teacher to a vulnerable student can have calamitous results. The Nation of Israel was given the greatest mission of all time; the spiritual welfare of humanity. The goal of the suspended mountain was to create a long-lasting impact on the Jewish soul, that of tremendous responsibility.

Yet we relive this experience on Shavuot by celebrating, because for the soul, responsibility is the greatest privilege. The secret service works long hours in challenging conditions, yet they take great pride in their significant mission. So too, we celebrate Matan Torah by reminding ourselves that our duty is sacred and is a necessity for the world.

May we all merit celebrating all the holidays in Jerusalem, where we will once again achieve clarity in our mission.

Chag Sameach

Forgiveness

2008-10-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

The great French philosopher Vladimir Jankelevitch in his work on forgiveness makes several points that can assist us during the Aseret Yemei Teshuva.
Jankelevitch considers forgiveness as an act that is “for nothing and in exchange for nothing, gratuitously, from beyond the marketplace.” The raison d’être of forgiveness, is when the moral debtor is still a debtor.
Although the passing of time makes forgiveness easier, and neutralizes the effects of the misdeed, it cannot destroy the fact of the misdeed. Forgiveness that comes about as a result of the passing of time is more amnesia than amnesty. For Jankelevitch, fatigue and the accumulation of the years is negligence and cannot be considered a moral attitude. In order to forgive, it is necessary to remember.
Forgiveness, where the offence is integrated and held in check, is incomplete because some part of the offence still remains and the grace is curtailed.
Jankelevitch believes that true forgiveness is a gratuitous gift and a sudden instantaneous decision that is situated outside of time, a conversion that does not depend on the chronological circumstance.
Forgiveness undoes the last shackles that tie us down to the past by the weight of memories that draw us backward, and hold us down. Forgiveness is making peace with the guilty person and developing a personal relation with the other. The reason for the relation is because forgiveness does not forgive the misdeed as much as it forgives the guilty person.
However, according to Jankelevitch, a crime against humanity is not a personal affair to forgive, and a person has a duty to “harbor rancor” against such a crime. When “rancor” is an unshakable fidelity to values and to martyrs, then it is forgiveness that is betrayal.
True forgiveness is not an excuse that asks for the misdeed to be mitigated by circumstances. It is forgiveness that takes charge of the inexcusable. Forgiveness pays no attention to justifying itself and giving reasons. “Forgiveness is like love; a love that loves with reservations or with one single ulterior motive is not love; and so a forgiveness that forgives up to a certain point, but not beyond is not forgiveness.” However pure forgiveness is an event that has perhaps never occurred in the history of man.
We say in our prayers during this period:

כי אין שכחה לפני כסא כבודך

“There is no forgetting in front of Gods throne of glory.”

Nevertheless the Talmud states that:

גדולה תשובה שמגעת עד כסא הכבוד

“Teshuva is so great that it reaches the throne of glory”

May we all learn to forgive, and accordingly be forgiven.

Messianic Humanism

2008-09-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

HUMANISM

Humanism is often associated with a view that rejects the supernatural. The term tends to become appropriated for anti-religious, social, and political movements. Consequently, the International Humanist and Ethical Union defines Humanism as a movement that “stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.” Nevertheless, I will use the term humanism as a term that connotes the significant and irreplaceable role of the human. This type of Humanism will utilize for its foundation the teachings of the rabbis that “every single human being was created in the image of God” (Genesis 9:6) Theocentric humanism has been addressed by Eugene Korn, Director of Leadership Education at the Shalom Hartman Institute, in his introduction to an article that relates to humanism, where he writes that:
It must be emphasized at the outset that the insistence on 'moral' or 'humane' values does not equate with ethical humanism. These values are theocentric at their core: they are the content of God's Word found in our Written and Oral Torah. As such, they demand no less an unconditional commitment from us than does our a priori obedience to the halachah. The fount of these moral values is the Torah's doctrine that each person is created in God's image, be-tselem Elokim. This doctrine means that a person can somehow reflect God Himself. Like tselem Elokim, the ethical values which flow from it have a theological source, but their application is anthropocentric, focusing on human interaction, protecting human dignity and welfare.

Indeed, in the Philosophy Dictionary published by Oxford University Press, humanism is defined as “any philosophy concerned to emphasize human welfare and dignity.” Accordingly, a system that sees a divine spark in every single human being must be considered a humanistic outlook. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Har Etzion in Alon Shevut, Israel defines Humanism as a “world-view which values man highly.” Judaism and its theocentric faith situate the worth of the human higher than anything tangible, due to his soul that comes from above. In the words of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein “religion is, by definition, more humanistic than secularism; in positing a transcendental dimension to his existence, it assumes a nobler view of man.” By placing the human in a world where he can connect to a higher being we treat the human with great importance due to his true essence namely, his soul.
The concept of Tselem Elokim, that man was created in the image of God, is a fundamental principle of Judaism. All ethical questions from abortion to euthanasia or if one is placed in the midst of the Holocaust in a situation where he must decide if he should save many lives by handing over a few, all such dilemmas must begin and end with the notion of Tselem Elokim. Man-made humanism cannot be viewed as ethical. A human that believes that man is only a sophisticated animal that came to existence as a result of a fluke cannot form systems that can be classified as ethical. The value of each and every human being is the greatest contribution of Jewish thought. In the words of Dr. David Patterson, “The Jewish teaching is that a human soul enters the world not by accident but by divine will. Created in the divine image of the Infinite One, a human being has infinite value, a value that rests upon nothing that can be weighed, measured, or observed.” The enlightenment and secular humanism of the nineteenth century rejected the supernatural and the spiritual. Although it attempted to create its own structure of ethics by rational methods such as logic, observation and science, the consequence of the enlightenment was the slaughter of European Jewry. The events of the twentieth century have educated us that when a philosophy purges the soul from its structure it has paved the path to the gas chamber and crematorium.
Accordingly, this paper will trace the history of Jewish thought as it relates to all humans, including the attitude towards the non-Jew. My objective is to demonstrate that the highest, if not the only, form of authentic humanism is one that originates from the revelations at Sinai. I will therefore start with the text of revelation, the Torah, a text that places its emphasis on true humanism, the responsibility towards the other.

TORAH

A religion that teaches that a code of law was handed to them and not to others would seem to indicate that the followers of that system consider themselves superior over others. Indeed other religions label the non-believers as infidels. Judaism, although containing Mitzvot that are commanded only to the Jew, nevertheless is a religion that values every human, Jew and Gentile alike. Every human being is significant to God. To understand the attitude Judaism has toward the Gentile we must begin by identifying the purpose of the Jew according to traditional Judaism. By defining and understanding the Jewish role we could in turn see the appropriate attitude towards the Gentile. The text that we will turn to is the Bible. However, we will approach it through the rabbinic lens.
A significant part of Jewish ritual relates to the calendar and the seasonal holy days. These significant days, and at times periods, are given to the nation of Israel with guidance regarding conduct and reflection. One of the marked days on the calendar is the second day of the Hebrew month of Sivan. This day that precedes the three days of preparation for “Mattan Torah” –the day of the receiving of the Torah- is called “Yom haMeyuchas.” According to the commentators, this day is called “Meyuchas” -which literally means the day of lineage- because on that day, as the Israelites settled around Mount Sinai and prepared themselves for the revelation of the Almighty, they were notified what their mission toward humanity would be. In the book of Exodus (19:6), the nation of Israel is informed by God that; “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (19:6). The priest is an individual that lives for the sake of others. The goal of the priest is to teach, elevate and guide people spiritually. The great sixteenth-century rabbi, biblical commentator and philosopher Obadiah Seforno explains that when the verse states that the Jews will be a kingdom of priests it is “to teach all of humanity to call out in the name of God and serve him in unison.” On the second day of Sivan, the Children of Israel were taught that Jewish uniqueness is not because they have what others do not, but rather the nation has a special mission as a priest, or educator, to humanity. As the nation of Israel prepared to enter into a pact with the Almighty, they were commanded by Him to remember the complete picture of their mission and that it is for the sake of humanity. Judaism originates with tolerance. In the words of Emanuel Levinas; “The Jewish faith involves tolerance because, from the beginning, it bears the entire weight of all other men.”
According to the narrative of the Torah, the Israelites of the exodus, due to their spiritual failings, were not worthy of entering into the Promised Land and thus were unable to embark on their task to serve as universal priest. The person interested in serving as an educator must first reach a level of knowledge and maturity, and only following that can he be qualified to elevate others. The generation of the wilderness failed in that mission and humanity must be patient as it takes time for the teachers to graduate and become worthy mentors. Rabbi Obadiah Seforno remarks that the nation of Israel will not be able to fulfill its mission until the Messianic era. Waiting for the Messianic age is a central theme in Jewish tradition. However, it is not a passive wait, but rather a time of spiritual activity. It is a time for the Jews to study their tradition, self-examine their action and, as Saadia Gaon teaches, reject blind obedience. The message of the Torah is that the Jew must “find favor in the eyes of God and man” (Proverbs 3:4)
Once the Israelites were no longer on the fast track towards the ultimate mission, they became a nation that at first endeavored to settle in its homeland and afterward to learn to survive in the Diaspora. I would like to first focus on the history of the Jewish people as they began settling in the land of Canaan. On the surface, the commandment of God and the actions of the Jews regarding the dwellers of the land of Canaan might appear contrary to God-based humanism and might appear as blind religious fanaticism. Yet by analyzing the circumstances we will understand that this is not the case.

SETTLING IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the Israelites in the name of God regarding their conquest of the Holy Land, “But of the cities of these peoples which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive” (20:16). On the surface, what God commands the children of Israel to do, as they conquer the land of Canaan, is nothing less than genocide. The obvious question is: How can the God that commands concern and responsibility for the other turn around and demand the annihilation of a nation? However, to understand this and other similar commandments we must understand the culture and lack of morals of the dwellers of the land of Canaan.
Earlier in Deuteronomy Moses warned the Israelites that:
When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. (12: 28-31)

The negative outlook the Torah has on idolatry and consequently on people that live for the sake of idolatry is not because of the philosophical mistake but rather its repugnant way of life. As Levinas pointed out, “idolatry is fought not on account of its errors, but on account of the moral degeneracy that accompanies it.” The actions perpetrated by these nations in not just destructive to the children of Israel but rather to humanity. Judaism that teaches, “Man is dear because he is created in the image of God” (Misnah Avot 3:14), cannot allow a message of degeneracy to come forth from the land of education. The Israelites must fight paganism for the survival of their message concerning the sanctity of the human being and our ethical obligations to one another. If the message does not endure it is not just a loss for the Israelites but rather for all dwellers of the planet. Although clearing the promised land of idolatry was a priority for the Children of Israel, killing was not the first option. Before the crossing of the Jordan River, Joshua sent notices to the dwellers of the land and provided for them a list of options which included abandoning their pagan practices or leaving the land. The killing was only a last resort due to the significance of humanity as a whole. Since the land was to become an educational center for humanity, the corruption of the idolaters needed to be uprooted. Once the pagan obstacles were removed, the nation was ready for the construction of humanity’s spiritual hub: the Temple.

THE TEMPLE

With the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon, the Nation of Israel had the opportunity to begin their mission as a center of spirituality. The Bible is very clear that the Temple in Jerusalem is intended as a home of spirituality and prayer for all nations. When Solomon completed the structure and turned to God in prayer he said:
Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name’s sake (for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this temple, hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this Temple which I have built is called by Your name. (King I, Chapter 8: 41-43)

Clearly the Temple was for the all nations and the Israelites understood that the dwellers of the land of Israel have a role in the welfare of humanity. So too, the prophet Isaiah, although talking about the Temple of the future, nevertheless mentions that “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7). The Talmud, notes in the name of Rabbi Elazar, “The seventy bulls offered on the holiday of Sukkoth are brought for the welfare of the seventy nations. Rabbi Yochanan says, ‘Woe to the nations that have lost their protection and are not even aware of it, when the Temple was standing, the sacrifices in the temple would atone for their sins, now with the destruction who will atone for them?’” (Talmud Sukkah 55b). The Temple and the teachings that emanate from the Temple Mount were to remind the Jew of his responsibility to humanity and not allow his commitment to tradition to disregard the other. As the priests would offer the special Sukkot offerings, the Israelites would utilize the opportunity to remember that true humanism comes from a system that sees the divine in every being and that the Jew is to carry this message to humanity for the sake of humanity. Unfortunately, the unifying structure of the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people had to adjust to the concept of exile in the Diaspora. With no physical homeland, the Jews were to find their home not in the land of the message but rather in the message itself: the Sifrei Kodesh - holy text.

THE MISHNAH AND TALMUD

Although a significant segment of the population returned to the land of Israel with the construction of the second Temple, the Diaspora began with the destruction of the first Temple due to the strong Jewish presence in the exile. However, the Temple in Jerusalem was the heart and soul of Jewish existence, and as long as the structure stood, Judaism had a hub to keep the nation united. Following the destruction of the Second Temple and the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt (131-133 A.D.), the population of Jews outside of Israel increased drastically. The devastation that came about as a result of the revolt affected the Jewish people greatly and commenced a new era.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, known as “Rabbeinu HaKadosh”-our holy rabbi- became a key figure in the history of the Jewish people. Following the destruction in the southern region of the land of Israel, the center of Jewish life shifted northward to the Galilee region, specifically in the cities of Sepphoris and Tiberias. Rabbeinu HaKadosh is best known as the chief “editor” or “redactor” of the Mishnah. He lived in Bet She'arim where he had his yeshiva (Talmud Sanhedrin 32b). Due to his failing health, he moved toward the end of his life to Sepphoris where the air was considered healthier (Talmud Ketubbot 103b). The Talmud discusses in several places Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s relationship with the Roman emperor Antoninus. Although historians have struggled in identifying the latter, the Talmudic references indicate that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s position was recognized by the Roman administration.
Maimonides, in his introduction to his commentary on the Mishnah, after addressing Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s greatness, ethically and politically, states that “he gathered all the laws and rabbinic teachings including disputes from the time the Torah was given at Mount Sinai until the present time, and edited the Mishnah which includes commentary on all the Mitzvot recorded in the Torah.” The compilation of the Oral Law in the Mishnah is not new information, but rather a lucid text that clarifies the old. For rabbinic Judaism the Bible, or the Torah, is not a book that can be comprehended by reading the text on its own, but rather must be accompanied with an Oral Tradition that transmits the accurate intention of the Author. The Mishnah is a text that assists in the understanding of the Torah. However, it was not intended to record all of the oral tradition. The word Mishnah itself means to “review orally” and that indeed was the objective of the Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, that scholars would memorize the text (Talmud Kidushin 30a). Three centuries later, the rabbis compiled a far more detailed text that became the foundation for Jewish law, ritual, and philosophy. In the three centuries following the redaction of the Mishnah, rabbis throughout Israel and Babylonia analyzed, debated and discussed that work. By the end of the fifth century the vast material was compiled by the rabbinic scholars Rav Ashi and Ravina into the Talmud.
A nation with no homeland would naturally be expected to vanish from the face of the earth. The Jews, even after being exiled, persecuted and massacred, somehow survived. The mystery of Jewish endurance is one that perplexed many, including Mark Twain, who wrote:

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then . . . passed away. The Greek and the Roman followed. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts. … All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

Without a doubt, the Talmud preserved the Jewish identity, and became a homeland for the Jew. Yet this text also turned into a major source of trouble for the welfare of the Jewish nation.
Talya Fishman has noted that a textualization of rabbinic Judaism occurred in the Middle Ages and that “the authority of the text supplanted the master-disciple relationship through which tradition had been transmitted for centuries.” However, with the popularity and availability of the text, that Jewish world faced a serious challenge from their Christian hosts. Accusations were being brought by Christians who made numerous accusations against the Talmud. Nicholas Donin of La Rochelle, a Jewish convert to Christianity in early thirteenth-century Paris, is known for his role in the first public disputation between Jews and Christians that led to the first burning of copies of the Talmud. In the summer of 1263 there is again a dispute, this time in Barcelona, under the auspices of Jaime I, King of Aragon, between Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (Nahmanides) of Gerona, the most profound scholar of Spanish Jewry in his day, and Fray Pablo Cristia, a convert from Judaism who joined the Dominicans. The burning of the Talmud was often the result of these disputations. The fact that the Talmud was always at the core of attacks on Judaism indicates the significant role the text had on Jewish thought and practice.
After establishing the centrality of the Talmud in Jewish thought, I would like to address statements that on the surface would appear as anti-Gentile. However, with an appreciation of the big picture of what Judaism is about, all statements can be clarified and will indeed fit into the humanist core of Judaism.
In 2003, David Duke published a book entitled Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question. The goal of the book, according to the author is to “examine and document elements of ethnic supremacism that have existed in the Jewish community from historical to modern times.” In it the author states that the Jews “waged an unrelenting ethnic war against Gentiles since the days of their sojourn in Egypt.” The author continues by providing a list of blatant expressions of ethnic supremacism that include:
• Israelites are a “chosen people,” chosen by God above all the other peoples of the world.
• Israelites have a right to rule over all other people and are promised that they will someday own and rule over the whole world.
• Israelites are commanded to murder all the people of the lands where they intend to live and to kill all the people of foreign nations that do not submit themselves in slavery.
• Israelites are forbidden to make slaves of their own people, but are encouraged to enslave non-Israelites whom they may pass down as slaves to their descendants forever.
• Israelites are forbidden to intermarry or “mix their seed” with other peoples.

Duke continues his assault by stating that “the Talmud only intensified the Torah’s chauvinism” and that “a major Jewish resource, the Jewish Encyclopedia, confirms the Talmud’s hateful anti-Gentile teachings.”
Although Duke’s work is full of inaccuracies and lies and most probably should be ignored, I have used him as an example of the typical anti-Semitic attacks on Jews and on their center intellectual pillar, the Talmud.
As stated earlier, Judaism never intended to rule the world. The goal was rather to produce a nation that like its forefather Abraham would live for the sake of the other. The Rabbis tell us that after Abraham would feed travelers that would stop by in his inn, he would inform them that he does not deserve the thank you, but rather thanks are due to the Creator of heaven and earth. So too, the nation of Israel was designated to serve humanity as an educator. As Levinas states regarding the word chosen, “The sense of being chosen is less the pride of someone who has been called than the humility of someone who serves.” Judaism never wished for political dominance and was never imperialist. As Levinas so eloquently states: “In Judaism the certainty of the absolute’s hold over man-or religion- does not turn into an imperialist expansion that devours all those who deny it. It burns inwards, as an infinite demand made on oneself, an infinite responsibility. This fact transforms Judaism into a modern religion, a religion of tolerance.”
Nevertheless, there are indeed several statements in the Talmud that require clarification. The Talmud, in a discussion that addresses payments that must be made for damages caused by a person’s animal, states the following: “If an ox of an Israelite gores an ox of a Canaanite there is no liability; but if an ox of a Canaanite gores an ox of an Israelite...the payment is to be in full” (Talmud Baba Kamma 37b). This and other Talmudic statements that seem to discriminate against non-Jews, and have been the core of anti-Semitic remarks, must be explained if Judaism is indeed a religion of tolerance. To assist us in dealing with this issue we must introduce Rabbi Menachem Ben Shlomo Ha-Me’iri (1249–1315) of Provence. Me’iri was a rabbi, Talmudist and Maimonidean, and is known for adopting a unique, comprehensive position regarding non-Jews that could assist us in the modern age to understand the Talmudic statements regarding Gentiles.
The main concept that we could extract from Me’iri’s writings is a term he coined: “nations restricted by religious practices.” The idea behind the term is that statements recorded in the Talmud regarding non-Jews, relate specifically to the ones that were alive during Talmudic times. Since the nations of the past lacked any religion and had no regard for other humans and indeed often as part as their pagan practices killed others, the Jew hade no responsibility towards them. However, as the nations improved morally and followed a religion that restricts them, due to ethical principles, according to Me’iri, the Jew must treat the non-Jew and his or her property as another Jew would be treated. Me’iri, with his understanding that Judaism demands self-examination, indicates that the core of Judaism is for the welfare of not just the “chosen” people but rather for all humans. Judaism, therefore, is a religion of true humanism: one that originates from the Creator of all humans.
Me’iri’s approach to the issue is unique among his contemporaries of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Other great authorities of the period were more concerned with the preservation of Judaism as it was under attack from the Church. A minority that wishes to survive, at times, must focus on short-term challenges. Thus, rabbinic statements that isolate the Jew from his neighbors and, at times, make statement that are derogatory were a temporary necessity. As Jacob Katz notes on this issue, “The definition of the Jewish position was the product of the need for self-identification and for self-protection from the impact of the Gentile world.”
However with the Jewish emancipation and the abolition of discriminatory laws against the Jews in Europe, the rabbis understood that a new attitude must be formed vis-à-vis the non-Jewish world. As Jews were being considered as equal to other citizens, Rabbinic authorities have turned to the Me’iri to explain the difficult Talmudic statements and thus were able to demonstrate that Judaism indeed is a religion of humanism. Statements from the Ghetto cannot be used to identify the true meaning of the religion. What a Jew said about a crusader as he wiped out a Jewish village or what was uttered regarding an SS soldier as he placed children on cattle carts cannot be used to understand the true philosophy of Jewish tradition. As stated by Jacob Katz in the beginning of his book Exclusiveness and Tolerance, “The relationship between Jews and Gentiles is at all times a reciprocal one. The behavior of the Jews towards their neighbors is conditioned by the behavior of the latter towards them, and vice versa.”

MODERNITY

As humanity welcomed the Modern era, the Jew was facing a new world that introduced great opportunity, however not without serious challenge. Emancipation, which led to active participation of Jews in the civil society, as well as a declining influence of rabbinical leadership, changed the face of the Jewish communities of Europe. Traditional yeshivas were being abandoned by young Jews as the doors of universities were being opened. In an era of society that looked ahead to a better future, voices of wisdom from the past were viewed as archaic and were being disregarded.
Among the many challenges facing the traditional community, was again the apparent lack of respect that Judaism had for the other. Humanism, a term that denotes moral philosophies that abandon theological dogma in favor of purely human values, was the Zeitgeist of the nineteenth century. How could the modern Jew turn to the Talmud for guidance and inspiration when the Talmud states that “You are called Adam, (man) but the nations of the world are not called Adam?” (Talmud Yevamos 61a; Bava Metzia 114b; Kerisus 6b). The challenge of the modern age was real, but the true protectors of Jewish tradition, the rabbis that understood the new reality and were ready to face it, were there to rescue a three thousand year old tradition. I would like to focus on one of those rabbis -Israel Liphshitz (1782- 1861).
The study of the Mishnah has always been part of the curriculum of the educated Jew. When Rabbi Israel Liphshitz published his Tiferes Yisrael on the Mishnah, it became an instant hit. Liphshitz was one of the first modern authorities to tackle complex contemporary issues including dinosaur fossils and the age of the universe. The issue that pertains to our discussion is his commentary on the rabbinic statement that “only Jews are called Adam” (Talmud Yevamot 61a).The quote is from Liphshitz’ commentary on tractate Avot (3:14):
This statement is indeed difficult to understand, after all, all humans are created in the image of God and the admirable among the nations have a portion in the world-to–come, so why are they not considered Adam? What seems to me is that if we analyze the status of the Children of Israel vis-à-vis the status of the Nations, we will see a difference. When the Israelites were in Egypt, all of humanity, including Israel, were like orphans traveling in the dark, without knowledge of God. Moses himself had to ask God how to introduce the latter to children of Israel. Even after the miracles of the Exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea the nation was still attached to idols. Clearly the Jewish nation at the time was contaminated from the filth of idolatry no less than the Egyptians. They were not aware of their responsibility towards God or one another or even to themselves. This condition was prevalent among all the nations of the time, even among the wisest of them. They worshiped animals and prayed to plants, trees and mountains as if they were deities. They also offered their own children as sacrifices. God had mercy on humanity and remembered his pact with Abraham his servant, and chose his descendants as priests and educators to humanity. Thus God appeared in Egypt, a land of wisdom at that time and through plagues and wonders opened the eyes of the children of Israel and they saw who is actually running the world. The children of Israel continued to gain knowledge of God as they crossed the sea and then with the public appearance at Mount Sinai. At Sinai amidst the fire, darkness, clouds, and fog, He taught them his commandments, ordinances, and Torah that includes all human obligations. All that was taught to the nation did not come to them through their intellectual research but rather through a revelation. However this was not so regarding the other nations. As the children of Israel were becoming closer to God humanity were still in a state of spiritual slumber. All of the nations’ future accomplishments came through their own intellect, and we can definitely say that they made themselves. Since many of their values and human responsibilities they did learn from Israel and many other laws they learnt naturally until eventually the light of enlightenment shined upon them. As a result if we would analyze the lowest of the nations of today he would be better than the best of the nations of the past. So over time and through effort the nations of the world made themselves. The result is that both the children of Israel and the Nations of the world have an attribute that the other lacks. The attribute that the nations have is that they, through free will and by their own means, made themselves. This clearly is a quality that the children of Israel are lacking since their knowledge comes from the revelation and only in the merit of their forefathers. However the children of Israel do have a feature that the nations do not. Since revelation is what guided the former, there are many concepts the human mind cannot obtain through reason. Thus the nations will not accept them since they cannot be rationalized. In addition, given that their enlightenment came through reason, the nations that have not opened their eyes remain contaminated with the old pagan philosophies. The children of Israel on the other hand are committed to all the teachings of the Torah, even the ones that are beyond comprehension. Therefore the children of Israel are comparable to Adam. All humans when they appear in this world are lacking intellect until their minds develop. Adam on the other hand was different. The moment he gained the spirit of God he was a knowledgeable being with an understanding of his responsibilities. The children of Israel are analogous to Adam not because they are superior but rather since their intellect came from a revelation and not by a natural process. As a result, Jews being called Adam is not a compliment but rather testifies that their accomplishments come from the hand of God.

In addition to answering the original question, Liphshitz provides the rabbinic student a method in which he can appreciate the appearance of a new world fashioned by modernity. What Liphshitz is stating by comparing the revelation at Sinai to the enlightenment is that the intellectual and philosophical developments of the new era must be welcomed, since humanity has reached maturity. However, this “welcoming” came with the recognition that enlightenment and modernity could be quite a threat to the welfare of traditional values.
During the “Age of Enlightenment” in which reason was advocated, traditional institutions, customs, and morals were under attack. Religion was considered an impediment in the minds of thinkers that imagined a utopian beautiful society. This idea was expressed by John Lennon in his song “Imagine,” where he says that the perfect world is one where “there's no countries, nothing to kill or die for and no religion too.”
Indeed the rabbinic world understood that something must be done to protect the youth from a movement that is sweeping them away from their heritage. The loss of Jewish heritage is not just a private concern of one ethnic group but rather a loss for humanity. For if humanity loses the guiding light of Judaism and Torah, man-made ethics which are considered humanistic can indeed result in inhumane actions. The question and thus the debate was: what can be done? For some this meant that walls must be erected and the Jew returned to the ghetto- if not physically, then at least spiritually. Others, like the German rabbis of the nineteenth century, Samson Raphael Hirsch and Ezriel Hildesheimer, approached modernity with a measure of acceptance. Yet what Liphshitz addresses regarding the state of man due to the enlightenment indicates not just an approval, but rather a sense of a new revelation that may be considered Messianic.

THE MESSIANIC PERIOD

The great codifier of Torah law and Jewish philosophy, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (1135-1204), known as Maimonides, compiled what he refers to as the Shloshah Asar Ikkarim, the “Thirteen Fundamental Principles” of the Jewish faith. Maimonides refers to these thirteen principles of faith as “the fundamental truths of our religion and its very foundations.” The twelfth principle relates to the belief in the arrival of the Messiah and the messianic era. In Maimonides’ words, “We believe and affirm that Mashiach will come. The Mashiach will surpass all the kings who have ever ruled in terms of his grandeur, his greatness, and his honor.” The concept of a Messiah or Mashiach, which literally means “The Anointed One,” is central for the Jewish faith since it provides purpose to history. References to Messiah appear in several places in the Bible. However, the oral tradition clarifies the Jewish view of the anointed one. The Messiah is to usher in the messianic age that will lead to peace in the world. In the words of Maimonides, “He will then perfect the entire world, [motivating all the nations] to serve G-d together, as it is written, in Zephaniah (3:9): ‘I will make the peoples pure of speech so that they will all call upon the Name of G-d and serve Him with one purpose.’” Maimonides points out that many of the supernatural references to the messianic era are allegories and should not be taken literally. Maimonides continues by stating that:
Although Yeshayahu states, “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat,” these [words] are an allegory and a riddle. They mean that Israel will dwell securely together with the wicked gentiles who are likened to wolves and leopards, as in the verse “A wolf of the deserts despoils them, a leopard watches over their cities.” (Yirmeyahu 5:6) [In this era, all nations] will return to the true faith and no longer plunder or destroy. Instead, at peace with Israel, they will eat that which is permitted, as it is written by Isaiah: “The lion shall eat straw like the ox.”

Maimonides ends the chapter by noting that the greatness of the era is not just for the children of Israel but rather, “In that era there will be neither famine nor war, neither envy nor competition, for good things will flow in abundance and all the delights will be as freely available as dust. The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know G-d.” By the Jew living his day to day life with the Messianic Period in mind, he bears in mind that his identity as a Jew is in essence a responsibility. The Messianic concept protects the Jew from fanaticism by keeping his commitment to God in check and remembering that his existence is for the other. True humanism is Messianic Humanism.
Clearly, for Maimonides the messianic era is a period of enlightenment for humanity. Liphshitz most probably sensed messianic traces in Western philosophy. Although he was aware of the many problems and dilemmas the modern era produced, and indeed it is considered as “a messianism without religion,” nevertheless, as a traditional Jew, he saw the developments of his days as a progression that is preparing the world for the messianic era. The intellectual maturity of humanity for Liphshitz was clearly not a coincidence but rather part of a master plan of the Creator and Director of history to prepare the world for the Mashiach. When that period eventually arrives secular enlightenment, that is currently hostile towards religion, will be infused with the voice from Sinai and Jerusalem and will supply the world with true ethical humanism.
The idea that developments that have and are occurring in the modern era relate to the Mashiach and the Messianic era, are not exclusive to Liphshitz. Numerous Jewish thinkers see the developments of the past two centuries as a preliminary stage for the awaited era.
The Mishnah at the end of Tractate Sota (9:15) addresses a period that the Mishnah labels as “Ekveta D’mashiach” the heel of the Messianic period, the phase in history that will antedate the coming of the Mashiach. The vision that the Mishnah presents is quite negative. The Mishnah predicts that in the “Ekveta D’mashiach”
insolence will increase, and inflation will soar the vine will give its fruit but wine will be dear, and the government will turn to heresy, and there will be no rebuke, the meeting place of sages will be used for prostitution and the Galilee will be destroyed and the Gavlan desolated, and the border dwellers will wander about from city to city but will not be pitied, the knowledge of scholars will be lost, those who fear sin will be despised, and the truth will be hidden; youths will shame old men and old men will stand up for youngsters; sons will shame fathers and daughters will rebel against mothers, a daughter-in-law will be against her mother-in-law and a man’s enemies are the members of his household the face of the generation will be like the face of the dog; and the son is not ashamed before his father. On whom can we rely? On our Father in Heaven.

For some rabbinic authorities the pessimistic predictions of the Mishnah are coming to realization in the modern era. One of the twentieth century Jewish thinkers that connected the ancient text to current events was the influential Orthodox rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and Jewish philosopher Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892-1953). Dessler, influenced heavily by the ethical Mussar movement but having similarly gained proficiency in Kabbalah and works of Hasidic Judaism, has become popular through his work Michtav me-Eliyahu which is a collection of his correspondence and ethical writings, published posthumously by his pupils. Rabbi Dessler assesses the modern world as one that is “an external generation that does not seek inner truth; all the good is not for the sake of heaven. Its world is one of theater and games, all its thoughts are imaginations and true reality is concealed from them. The world is like a mental institution where imagination is reality.” Yet for Dessler the greatest flaw of modernity is one that comes from within Judaism, the State of Israel.
One of the major dilemmas that the traditional Jew faced in the early twentieth century was the movement of “Secular Zionism.” Jews have been praying for two thousand years that the Merciful Almighty return them to their homeland guided by the Mashiach. The conventional image of the return was of a homecoming led by a righteous traditional rabbinic personality who in addition to his Torah knowledge and Torah character, would serve as a qualified political leader. However, the modern movement that encouraged Jews to return to the Promised Land was mainly secular, beginning largely as a response by European Jewry to anti-Semitism and in essence was a branch of the broader phenomenon of modern nationalism that was spreading across Europe. Theodore Herzl, despite his long beard, was not a rabbinic authority. How can the Jew that has prayed three times a day for a spiritual return to Zion be guided by people that reject God’s role in history? Due to this dilemma, some, like the followers of the Satmar Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum have rejected the State of Israel and would not even vote in an election. For Teitelbaum, Yom Ha’Atzmau‘t, Israel Independence Day, is a “terrible Day of Blasphemy.” The reason for Satmar’s strong stand against the State is that it is “a conspiracy against G-d and his Messiah, by establishing their Kingdom of Atheism over the Jewish People and by uprooting the Holy Torah.” For Teitelbaum, the purpose of the Messianic return to Zion is for the nation of Israel to come back to the spiritual land of Israel and serve as a light to the nations of the world by teaching the ethical humanism of the Torah. If the movement that is behind the homecoming of the Jewish people is lacking the values of the Torah it cannot fulfill its mission to humanity.
In Michtav me-Eliyahu, Rabbi Dessler states that the “insolence” referred to in the “Ekveta D’mashiach” of the Mishnah, alludes to the secular Israeli State. He condemns the State of Israel as “arrogant in their belief that it is their power and strength that gave them the land.” For Rabbi Dessler, the secular essence of Zionism is incompatible with the traditional messianic vision. Thus the negative reality fits in well with the tone of the “Ekveta D’mashiach” of the Mishnah. Yet there was another approach to the dilemma taken by some rabbis, which saw a “divine spark” in what was on the surface godless.

DIVINE SPARK IN THE SECULAR

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine argued that modern Jewish nationalism, even in its most secular mode, expresses the divinity within the Jewish soul and signifies the beginning of the messianic age.
Kook believed that secular Zionists are unknowingly bringing the Messiah and commencing the period of true humanism. All Jews, he believed, have within themselves a divine spark that motivates them to fulfill God's will even when they do not intend to do so. Secular Zionism is a manifestation of this divine spark. Through divine guidance, history is inexorably progressing toward the messianic age, and secular Zionism is an essential part of this process. Religious Jews, according to Rabbi Kook, should support Zionism, while recognizing the religious significance that secular Zionists themselves do not see.
Rabbi Kook was not the only Jewish thinker with a positive approach to the secular movement. Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal was a Hungarian rabbi who was a follower of the Rabbi of Munkacs, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapiro. This rabbi of Munkacs and thus Teichtal were strong opponents of all types of Zionism. However, as a result of the outbreak of World War II, Rabbi Teichtal changed his position on Zionism. In his book Eim Habanim Semeichah, written during his wanderings in hiding from the Nazis, he makes a case for Zionism and a call for the Jewish people to unite and rebuild the land of Israel, bringing about the ultimate redemption. Teichtal addresses the issue of the secular element of Zionism and states that although in reality it is a secular movement nevertheless it is possible for such a movement to have a divine spark. Teichtal states that “from rabbinic sources it seems that the proclamation of the redemption will come from a non-kosher bird and although it is difficult to comprehend this is the divine will.” The concept of non-observant individuals serving as a tool to fulfill the will of God is difficult for Teichtal to grasp. Nevertheless, he sees the secular movement of Zionism that originates in modern nationalism as one that has a divine spark.
Once we see the idea of a divine spark in the secular as it relates to Zionism, we can return to our analysis of Liphshitz and apply the concept of the divine spark to the Enlightenment. Although the movement is characterized by belief in the power of human reason without God, nevertheless, for Liphshitz a movement that believes in creating a better world has divine spark and should be viewed as a precursor to the era where all humans are valued due to their true value, namely the divine spark that is imbued with in them.
One of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism was the Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen (1842 –1918). Cohen believed that ethics had to be universal and thus must aim toward the entire society and achieve universal global justice. Seeing the advancement of humankind as the purpose of Jewish teachings, Cohen, using the Messiah concept, writes,
The distinguishing mark of the Jewish religion is its idea of the One God with its corollary, the one Messianic mankind. With this concept of the one mankind which will acknowledge the one God, Israel prophets destroy paganism. And they see in the message of one mankind-which the Jewish people are meant to bring to the nations of the world-the reason for Israel's chosenness.

Viewing the Messianic era as one that is for the sake of humanity, Cohen comes to reject Zionism. He goes on to write that his messianic view is very different than the Zionist one and that there is “a dividing wall between our Messianic Judaism and Zionism.” He continues with his Messianic mankind idea by stating:
We cannot conceive of a Judaism devoid of hope for a Messianic mankind. And we feel that those who think Judaism and its basic teachings are as a matter of principle reserved for the Jewish people alone deny the One God of Messianic mankind. We regard Israel's chosenness solely as history's means to accomplish the divine chosenness of mankind.
For Cohen, there is a spiritual kinship and symbiosis between the German and the Jewish ethos. Cohen notes that “Germany's humanistic ideals propounded in her philosophy and literature during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are in full accord with the Messianic ideals of prophetic Judaism.” Wendell S. Dietrich writes that in Cohen’s view, there was a shift executed by nineteenth-century Jewish Reform teaching “from an expectation which couples a personal messianic figure with the coming of a messianic era, to an expectation of a messianic age. This age is envisaged as a future historical state of affairs characterized by just relations among men and a universal recognition of the one true God.” In Cohen’s idealism “the moral concept of the new world history is our real promised land.” Given that Cohen does not view the Messianic age as a physical return to the Land of Israel, Cohen’s Messianic vision cannot be considered as part of the traditional Jewish belief. Denying the physical entity of the Messiah, according to Maimonides, has no place in Rabbinic Jewish thought. Yet even for the traditional thinker like Liphshitz- a product of the traditional Yeshiva that without a doubt believed in the physical return to the land as part of the Messianic era- it is possible to see the advancement of the philosophy that believes in global justice, as one that contains the divine spark and indeed, as Zionism, be considered Messianic. In no way does Liphshitz agree with Cohen that the humanism of the nineteenth-century is the Messiah, nevertheless he saw it as one that prepared the world for this era and indeed was Messianic.
Since Cohen lacked full understanding of Jewish tradition and the true meaning of the messianic age, he was mistaken by believing that Zionism rejected the messianic idea. Legitimate Jewish thinkers understood that Zion is not just the land of the past for the Jews but rather also the land of the future. Humanity needs the children of Israel to return to Palestine and form a State there for the sake of all nations. Although progress has been made by humanity in the era of Enlightenment, in no way can “ethical monotheism” be considered the “ideal Israel.” The moral destiny of the Jews cannot be fulfilled in Germany and be founded on German culture, since man-made values that emanate from Athens cannot replace the ethics from Sinai and Zion. The Germans of World War II have, unfortunately, proven beyond doubt that Judaism and German Idealism have no common philosophy of life.

HOLOCAUST

The atrocities of the Holocaust and the fact that such slaughter and destruction was man- made oblige all humans to do a considerable amount of rethinking and soul searching. In the words of Emil Fackenheim, the Holocaust is “the rupture that ruptures philosophy.” One of the many difficulties facing the post-Holocaust intellectuals was: how can the “Age of Enlightenment and Reason” produce a regime that perpetrated such heinous crimes? How can a century and a half of human progress culminate in such barbaric acts? Aren’t blood libels, expulsions and massacres part of the anti-Semitism of the past? Is Auschwitz the result of the age of humanism?
However, one’s definition of “Human” will characterizes one’s attitude towards life and define what one considers right and wrong. For a student of the Social Darwinist thought, for example, the broad definition of “Human” is not enough to prevent a superior race from exterminating the inferior one. French anthropologist Vacher Delafouge, addressing the thinking of natural law, wrote in the 1880s, “I am convinced that in the course of the next century millions of people will kill each other because of a one-degree difference in their skull-index.” On the other hand, one who believes in a Divine Being understands that human existence is not an accident. The believer in G-d recognizes that the complex physical creature known as man is imbued with a soul and thus, with holiness. Humanity, for the believer in the revelation at Sinai, is the understanding that every single human being is significant to God and, as a result, must be important to man. The Enlightenment and a modernity that viewed its current age as a progression by disregarding spirituality in reality was in the state of regression.
Zygmunt Bauman, in his book Modernity and the Holocaust, examines the Holocaust in the context of modernity and demonstrates that the industrial know-how and the contemporary factory were key factors in the Final Solution. Thus the Holocaust did not occur despite modernity, but rather was a byproduct of modernity. Bauman continues by noting that the Nazi’s form of racism was for a “constructive purpose.” They desired to create a social order and organize humankind by separating and setting apart useful elements destined to live and thrive from harmful and morbid ones which ought to be exterminated. Thus the murder of Jews was an exercise in the rational management of society for the sake of world perfection.
The killing was not like the historical act of destruction, but rather, in Hitler’s mind, one of creation. The racism of the Holocaust is one with a strategy cutting out the elements that don’t fit. The removal of the Jews is analogous to the gardener or surgeon that sets apart useful elements destined to live and thrive, from harmful and morbid ones, which ought to be exterminated. This was very different than historical anti-Semitism where the Jew was a sinner. The modern form of anti-Semitism changed him into a cancer, and cancer cannot repent. The cancer for Hitler was not just Jewish blood but also the message of Judaism that represents a true humanism in its teachings. Nazi ideology was committed not only to the extermination of the Jews but also of Judaism.
For Bauman, the exterminatory version of Nazi anti-Semitism ought to be seen as a thoroughly modern phenomenon with managers and experts. They used a rational system of Authority, making the system a routine and finally dehumanizing the Jews. Bauman goes on to warn that by believing that there is no higher authority than the state, the potential of another holocaust is within us. In the modern world, violence has been taken out of sight, rather than forced out of existence. The mental distance from the final product means that bureaucrats may give commands without full knowledge of their effect. Thus bureaucracy is intrinsically capable of genocidal actions. Thus the great progress of modernity that rejected the old, introduced to humanity what is in essence the most inhumane.
Other thinkers were able to find meaning and return humanism to humanity in the post-Holocaust world by turning their attention to the very thing that the Nazis were trying to obliterate, the Torah. The great twentieth century philosopher and religious thinker Emmanuel Levinas made ethical responsibility toward “the Other” the foundation of his philosophical analyses. Levinas, without any doubt, was influenced by World War II. He lost family members in the Holocaust and, as a French citizen and soldier, Levinas himself became a prisoner of war in Germany and was forced to perform labor as a prisoner of war. For Levinas, “the Shoah that revealed- through the absurd- the emptiness of a merely ‘humanist’ Western culture, which could not prevent the horror.” His second major work, Otherwise than Being: or Beyond Essence, bears the following dedication: “To the closest among the six million murdered by the National Socialists, side by side with the millions and millions of all confessions and all nations who were victims of the same hatred of the other, the same anti-Semitism.” However, in the words of Richard Cohen, Levinas “returns love for hate, the wisdom of love, the humanism of the other, against the ‘hatred of the other.’” In essence the Holocaust is the outcome of secular humanism, which is an assault on the Humanism that one finds in Judaism.
According to Levinas, traditional metaphysics philosophizes about the self and, as a result, objectifies the other. Levinas, on the other hand, notes that ethics precedes philosophy and that ethics is the experience of the encounter with the other. Levinas sees the human face, which leads you beyond what appears on the surface, as “straightaway ethical.” Responsibility for Levinas is not for the truth, but rather for the other. The face of the other orders and ordains me. My responsibility for the other is without waiting for reciprocity. Levinas, turned to the Humanism of Jewish tradition and understood that Torah provides a way that goes beyond ontology. The “Other” is my responsibility. The only real humanism in the post- Holocaust world for Levinas is the “humanism of the other person.” For Levinas all philosophy must be preceded by ethics or “Ethics as First Philosophy” as the basis for all subsequent thought. Levinas, who journeyed through Heidegger to reach the Talmud, is a symbol of the preparatory stages of humanity from a world that turned to Athens for its philosophical Humanism, to one that, in the Messianic era, will turn to Jerusalem for its theological Humanism.

STATE OF ISRAEL

Since the time when the Jewish people were exiled from their homeland, a day did not go by that the nation did not pray and dream of their return to the Land of Israel. The traditional mental picture of the future return was an image of miraculous events similar to the exodus from Egypt where God carried the children of Israel on eagles' wings. The concept of preparing or hastening the redemption was left only to the spiritual realm. Nothing tangible ever played a part. The Jews simply waited. More than a few people were believed to actually be the Mashiach, and the nation desperately seeking for that leader was rather gullible in bestowing the title on questionable candidates. Simon bar Kokhba, the Jewish leader who led what is known as Bar Kokhba's revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE, was believed to be the chosen one even in the opinion of the great rabbinic leaders of the time. Unfortunately, with the failure of the revolt, and the death of Simon bar Kokhba, he no longer was a candidate for the coveted position. Another failed Messiah was the charismatic yet mad Sabbatai Zevi ( 1626-1676), the Ottoman Kabalistic individual who claimed to be the Messiah but then converted to Islam; not a move expected from the King of the Jews. The effect of Sabbatai Zevi remained for so many years on the Jewish community that even nowadays he still has followers in the Sabbatean Crypto-Jews of the Near East known as the Donmeh. When the alleged Mashiach would fail, the nation would go through a recovery period, and then return to the aged tradition of proclaiming, “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah. No matter how long it takes, I will await His coming every day.” Nothing but proclamations and prayer was viewed as fitting for the Jewish condition. All this changed by the end of the nineteenth century.
Although Jews throughout the ages returned to the Promised Land, it was always as individuals with the mission of living in the Land of Israel but still considering their existence as one that is in exile. However with the secular Zionist movement, formally established by the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl, gaining support for the reestablishment of a homeland and a haven for the Jewish People in Palestine, the religious community that had a tradition of passivity regarding the final return was faced with a serious dilemma. Are we to join a secular movement and actively prepare for a return before heaven has given a sign that the time has come? The many years of debate came to an end with the annihilation of European Jewry. The Jews coming out of the concentration camps after losing all of their families were physically broken and emotionally crushed. Nevertheless, from within their soul they discovered a new spirit with the will to rebuild. The survivors living in the displaced persons camps had nowhere to go. They were not welcome in their old homes, as those were taken by their gentile neighbors. Other countries, like the United States, had refugee quotas, and Palestine was under the British mandate that was imprisoning illegal Jewish immigrants in Cyprus. The Beriha literally, “flight” or “escape,” under the leadership of Abba Kovner was a way of getting 250,000 survivors of the Holocaust to the Land of Israel. It is considered the largest organized illegal mass movement in modern times. Yet for the majority of the Jews in the DP camps the situation was dire.
Finally, on May 14, 1948, at the end of the British mandate, the Jewish Agency, led by Ben-Gurion declared the creation of the State of Israel. The State finally gave the opportunity for thousands of survivors to begin rebuilding a life that was taken away by the Nazis. After two thousand years in the Diaspora, the Jew was at home. In retrospect, Jews from all walks of life, and non-Jews that are willing to give an honest look at the reality of the State of Israel, understand that indeed it is a miracle. As Charles Krauthammer writes, “Besides restoring Jewish sovereignty, the establishment of the State of Israel embodied many subsidiary miracles, from the creation of the first Jewish army since Roman times to the only recorded instance of the resurrection of a dead language — Hebrew, now the daily tongue of a vibrant nation of seven million.” It may not be the miracle imagined by the Jews in exile for two thousand years, nevertheless it is viewed as a sign and gift from above. By the Children of Israel returning to the promised land a bright light is beginning to shine from Zion as the dwellers of the promised land will complete the process of teaching the world what true humanism is, namely, being faithful to the creator by being devoted to man.
However, although they are now finally at home, the Jews of Israel are facing a new serious challenge. This new challenge is from a group of people that are indeed devoted with passion to a higher cause, however they have a corrupted notion of what a higher being would desire. This radical entity that calls murderers martyrs is blindly following its faith without self-examination, and thus is performing the most inhumane acts in the name of a caring God. The State of Israel is faced with elements of radical Islam and is faced with what became known as the “Israeli Palestinian conflict.”
The ongoing dispute between the State of Israel and the Palestinians is a conflict that, unfortunately, has no solution appearing in the horizon. The great Catalan rabbi, philosopher Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (1194-1270), known by the acronym Ramban, writes in his commentary on the Pentateuch that “the land of Israel remains desolate when the Jews are in exile. This is a good thing for the children of Israel when they return to their homeland” (Leviticus 26:16). In fact, the Land of Israel, named Palestine only after the Romans destroyed the land, was never an independent country and was continuously controlled by large empires. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, as Jews immigrated to the land, economic growth in the region provided job opportunities for Arab workers. Consequently, the Arab population of Palestine swelled due to the influx of Arab immigrants from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and other Arab countries. The Balfour Declaration was an unambiguous letter that indicated that the British Empire understood the Jewish historical right to the land. On November 2, 1917, Lord Arthur James Balfour sent the following letter to the Lord Walter Rothschild:
His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non- Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Yet, due to pressure from Arab countries, the British did not permit the Jews to return to their “national home” and greatly curtailed entry of Jewish refugees into Israel even after World War Two. Following several years of Jewish resistance, in addition to Britain’s financial burden subsequent to World War Two, Britain turned the issue of Palestine over to the United Nations. In 1947, the U.N. approved the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan, but Palestinian Arab leaders, supported by the Arab League, rejected the plan. Arab rejection became the pattern and is the foundation for the unfortunate reality known as the “Israeli Palestinian conflict.” All talks and negotiations
regarding a solution to the problem are not able to fix the fault that came about as a result of the historic rejection.
Yet, the modern State of Israel, which views its creation as Messianic, must remember the other component of the Messianic era, which is true Humanism: responsibility. Although a nation has a moral duty to protect its inhabitants, Judaism has always taught that responsibility does not end at a border. Although a hierarchy does exist and family comes before neighbors and neighbors before the stranger, responsibility in essence is without boundaries. Jews that pronounce every single Sabbath in their synagogues throughout the world that the State of Israel is “reshit tzemichat ge'ulatenu” -the beginning of the sprouting of our redemption- must bear in mind the complete picture of the redemption, one that has a sense of responsibility to all inhabitants of the planet.
As modern man and science uncovered the secrets of the planet, as the de-spiritualization of nature occurred, reason became the new sanctuary for the human being. With the outbreak of the First World War, Europe realized that the utopian world that used reason as its foundation, had crumbled. After reason killed God, and human conduct killed reason, man after August 1914 asked himself, “What is man?” Existential philosophy, the product of man in confusion and dissolution with nothing firm and familiar to turn to, represents the human condition: a soul lost with an inner desire and thirst for meaning, yet it cannot find the well. The result is a world with internal strife and external conflict with nothing concrete to turn to. Judaism provides for humanity a light that illuminates life by removing the darkness of doubt and by providing direction in the economy of being.
As the children of Israel are away from their spiritual center of Jerusalem, they retain a minor home of worship where they congregate to pray, reflect and study. The Beit Knesset or Synagogue is to serve in some ways as a minor temple. Just as in the Temple in Jerusalem they turned to their creator for inspiration and guidance, so too in the Beit Knesset of the exile. In addition, just as in the Temple the nation understood that the service preformed was for the welfare of humanity, so too the Beit Knesset is to remind the Jewish nation of their significant mission as educators of humanity.
Among the requirements for construction of a synagogue listed in the Talmud we find that the structure of the building must be facing Jerusalem. In addition the Beit Knesset must have windows facing the outside world (Talmud Brachot 34a). Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook notes the purpose of the windows is to remind the devoted Jew that his prayer is not just for himself or for those within the structure, but rather for humanity. The Jew must look beyond the walls and recognize his unique task as one that is concerned not just for himself but rather for the other. However, living for the other is not sufficient. The Jew must understand that while he is thinking, praying and inspiring humanity he must be facing Jerusalem and thus recognize that the values that determine what is considered “good” for the other must originate in Jerusalem. The appropriate balance of spirituality, which is full of devotion to the higher being and humanity, and is concerned for the welfare of all dwellers of the planet, must come from Sinai and Jerusalem. When the house of worship is lacking windows, it is a very dangerous structure. Commitment to a higher being must carry with it a commitment to all beings.
Messianic Judaism is a vision of a world where purpose will unite all dwellers of the planet. The message of the Torah will be taught to all nations and the ethics from Sinai will be the guiding light and generate a spiritual enlightenment as opposed to the enlightenment emanating from Descartes’ “reason.” Leading up to that period the Jew must rediscover the true message of Torah: the message of Jewish Humanism and thus responsibility. Jews must remind themselves that the greatness of their people is not due to the number of recipients of the Nobel Prize or the list of extraordinary movie producers in Hollywood, but rather to what they have to offer humanity on a spiritual level. As Levinas would often say, to be Jewish is “not the pride or the vanity of being Jewish. That is worth nothing. But an awareness of the extraordinary privilege of undoing the banality of existence, of belonging to a people who are human before humanity.” The new world and the new spirit of the Messianic era will be one of true concern, care and compassion and thus would be worthy of existing for a long time. As the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth Jonathan Sacks writes, “The ironic yet utterly humane lesson of history is that what renders a culture invulnerable is the compassion it shows to the vulnerable. The ultimate value we should be concerned to maximize is human dignity-the dignity of all human beings, equally, as children of the creative, redeeming God.”

Bibliography
BOOKS
Bauer, Yehudah. History of the Holocaust. New York: Franklin Watts, 1982.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and the Holocaust. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1989.
Bein, Alex. Theodore Herzl. New York: Holt, Rinehart, 1975.
Cohen, Hermann. Reason and Hope. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1993.
Dessler, Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer. Michtav me-Eliyahu III.Jerusalem:Feldheim, 1978.
Duke, David. Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question. Mandeville: Free Speech Books, 1998.
Fackenheim, Emil L. To Mend the World. New York: Schocken Books, 1982.
Karo, Yosef. Shulchan Aruch. Venice: Printz, 1565.
Katz, Jacob. Exclusiveness and Tolerance: Studies in Jewish-Gentile Relations in Medieval and Modern Times. London: Oxford University Press, 1961.
Kook, Rabbi Abraham Isaac. Olat Reiah. Jerusalem: MHK, 1939.
Levinas, Emmanuel. Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism. London: Athlone Press, 1990.
__________. Ethics and Infinity, Conversations with Philippe Nemo, translated by R. Cohen. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1985.
__________. Humanism and the Other, translated by Nidra Poller. Champaign: University of Illinois, 2003.
___________. Is it Righteous to be? Interviews with Emmanuel Levinas, edited by Jill Robbins. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2001.
Liphshitz, Israel. Tiferes Yisrael. Jerusalem: Meoroth, 1976.
Maimonides, Moses. Introduction to the Mishnah. Jerusalem: MHK, 1961.
___________.Mishneh Torah- Laws of Kings. New York: Binah, 1947.
Malka, Salomon. Emmanuel Levinas: His Life and Legacy, translated by Michael Kigel and Sonja M. Embree. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2006
Misnah Avot. Jerusalem: Eshkol, 1975.
Raz, Simcha. Angel Among Men: Impressions from the Life of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook Z"L. Jerusalem: Urim, 2003.
Saadiah Gaon. Emunot Vedeot. Jerusalem: Kafach, 1970.
Sacks, Jonathan. The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations. London and New York: Continuum, 2002.
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ARTICLES

Dietrich, Wendell S. “The Function of the Idea of Messianic Mankind in Hermann Cohen's Later Thought.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 48(1980): 2.

Fishman, Talya. “The Rhineland Pietists' Sacralization of Oral Torah.”
Jewish Quarterly Review 96 (2006): 1.

Halbertal, Moshe “Ones Possessed of Religion: Religious Tolerance in The Teachings of The Me’iri” The Edah Journal 1(2000): 1.

Korn, Eugene. “Tselem Elokim and the Dialectic of Jewish Morality.” Tradition 2 (1997): 2.

Krauthammer, Charles. “Israeli Miracle” National Review Online, May 16, 2008.

Lichtenstein, Aharon. “Mah Enosh: Reflections on the Relation between Judaism and Humanism.” Torah u-Madda Journal 14 (2006/2007).

Mittleman, Alan. “The Jew in Christian Culture by Hermann Cohen: An Introduction and Translation.” Modern Judaism 23 (2003): 1.

Patterson, David. “Where Is Your Brother”? Jewish Teachings on the “Stranger,” unpublished.

Roth, Cecil. “The Disputation of Barcelona 1263.” The Harvard Theological Review 43 (1950): 2.

Twain, Mark. “Concerning The Jews.” Harper's Magazine, March, 1898.

Wallach, Luitpold. “The Colloquy of Marcus Aurelius with the Patriarch Judah I.”
The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series 31 (Jan., 1941): 3.

Existentialism and Mussar

2008-05-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Elements of the new can often be found in the old. The “old” I refer to here is the oldest monotheistic religion, Judaism. Humanism, the ethical philosophy that affirms the dignity and worth of all people, can finds its roots in what the Rabbis state in Pirkei Avot “All humans are dear, because they are created in the image of God.” The modern day attempt to take military weapons and technologies and transform them into peaceful civilian applications, can also find its roots in the words of the prophets, that a day will come in which “the swords will become ploughshares.” I would like to demonstrate that traces of Existentialism can be found in thinkers that are grounded in the Torah world and the Yeshiva, specifically thinkers affected by the Mussar Movement.

In the third century Palestinian work known as the Mishna,- the oldest authoritative collection of Jewish Oral law- we find the following statement in the first chapter of tractate Avot: “Rabban Gamliel says: Provide yourself with a teacher and free yourself of doubt.” This fundamental statement developed into the foundation for the Jew living by the rabbinic system. In Rabbinic literature, disagreements about practical elements of Jewish life are fairly common. When the Jew decides to follow the teachings of the Rabbis he is faced with a dilemma: Which Rabbi or school do I follow? Rabban Gamliel resolves this issue by recommending that one should follow the guidance of a master, and thereby remove doubts from one’s mind. By focusing on one master, or Rebbi, and not taking notice of the rest, the practicing Rabbinic Jew can be confident that he is fulfilling his spiritual obligation.

However, established systems can create several problems for a genuine religious experience. When religion is limited to words to be uttered and acts to be performed, the mind, at times, may become disengaged, and all dogmatic activities become soulless. The Talmud itself warns the Jew not to allow his Judaism to become routine. Rabbi Yonah ben Abraham Gerondi (d. 1263) a Catalian rabbi and moralist, in his ethical work The Gates of Repentance, writes, “People who are lacking in fear of God and perform mitzvoth by rote, will not be able to withstand challenge from the evil inclination.” [1] Nachmanides, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, the great Spanish luminary of the thirteenth century, warned that a person can obey all the laws and still be a scoundrel (Naval b’rishut ha-Torah).[2]

Throughout the long history of Rabbis and their teachings, several works can be identified as existential ethics, which address the need to make Jewish law part of a person’s true self. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto's (1707-1746) classic work Mesilat Yesharim is undoubtedly a paradigm of such work. However, the first individual to formalize a system and a school of such ethics is Rabbi Israel Wolf Lipkin of Salant.

The Enlightenment and Jewish Emancipation of the Nineteenth Century presented the Rabbinic world with new realities and questions that they had to confront. Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the late 18th century that supported adopting enlightenment values to facilitate the integration of Jews into European society. One of the main focuses of the group was to change the traditional educational curriculum and increase the learning of secular studies.

As long as the Jews lived in the ghetto, the rabbi- and thus traditional Judaism- was the only model for the Jewish community. The rabbinate was the premier profession for Jewish boys, and the study of the Mishnah, Talmud and the codes were the means of obtaining that desirable position. With doors opening for the Jew, and Haskalah and their followers promoting change, assimilation was the greatest challenge for the Rabbinate of the nineteenth century.

Rabbi Israel Wolf Lipkin, seeing the transformation that was occurring throughout the Jewish community, sensed an urgent need for Judaism to return to its roots if it wanted to survive. For Lipkin, as long as Jewish practices remained external social functions, which lacked a connection to the practitioner’s true self, Judaism would not survive. For Lipkin, the only answer to the problem was Mussar.

Although Lipkin left very little in writing, a picture of the movement can be developed by reading discourses from his disciples and followers. Rabbi Dov Katz, a graduate of the renowned Mussar Yeshiva in Slabodka, Lithuania, published a book entitled Tenuat Hamusar in 1945. It became the first of several works that attempt to recapitulate the philosophy of the movement. Among the sayings quoted in the book, we find Lipkin’s attitude towards negative traits, behavior by rote and apparent religious activities which, in essence, are transgressions.

For Lipkin, the well respected practice of Talmud study is not the purpose of the Jewish way of life; rather it is only a means to ethical behavior that includes character improvement. He would preach that it is easier to study the complete Talmud than to change one human trait. He would complain about the fact that people rushing to do a good deed, if they are mindless, can in fact destroy the world on the way. Lipkin’s core message was that to be a committed Jew, you must be attuned to your true self and being. Only by identifying that truth can you transform your existence. Without that recognition, your external activities are not fulfilling the objectives of a religious life.

In Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor, Ivan describes to his brother Alyosha an imaginary event, or poem, regarding a visit by Christ that occurred in Seville, Spain during the sixteenth century. After healing the sick and performing miracles, Christ is arrested by the Cardinal, the Grand Inquisitor.

The Grand Inquisitor tells Christ that due to his rejections of the temptations of the Devil he has secured free will for people and consequently imposed a great burden on humanity. He continues by telling Christ that there are three powers needed for happiness of the impotent masses: miracle, mystery and authority. When the Church provided men with the above three, it corrected the work of Christ and brought happiness to man, because men were again led like sheep, and the terrible gift of freedom was lifted from their hearts.

Dostoevsky is telling us, through the voice of Ivan, that miracle, mystery and authority are concepts that stifle free will, and consequently, the person’s true self. For a person like Lipkin, for whom the true self and being is the true performer in a religious life, these three must be eliminated. I would like to demonstrate Lipkin’s, and the Mussar Movement’s, rejection of miracle, mystery and authority.

At the same time that the rabbinate was trying to deal with the Enlightenment, it was still in the midst of defending itself from an earlier attack from the Hasidic movement. Hasidic or Hasidism refers to the great religious and social movement which began in the middle of the 18th century in Eastern Europe, whose leader was Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, known by the acronym "the Besht". Describing the mode that brought the Chasidic movement to life, Dr. Josef Fox writes “People sought the help of the Ba'al Shem who was believed able to perform miracles, heal the sick, and exorcise demons by his skill in combining letters that spelled out the Ineffable name. The Ba'al Shem represented a kind of a mixture of medicine, man and Cabbalist, who composed amulets, prescribed medicine, and drove out evil spirits."[3]

The movement, which spread rapidly in the last quarter of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, engulfed most of the centers of Jewish population in parts of Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, and later Romania, Hungary and other areas. By the middle of the 19th century, it had hundreds of thousands of followers, and became one of the greatest pietistic movements in Jewish history. However, a serious schism evolved between the Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews. Those European Jews who rejected the Hasidic movement dubbed themselves Mitnagdim (literally, "opponents"). They identified several problems with the new movement, believing that the group might become a deviant messianic sect. The leader of the Mitnagdim was Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman (1720-1797) known as the Vilna Gaon, or "the Gra". Following the Gra’s death, his disciple Rabbi Chaim Volozhin (1749-1821) established the Volozhin Yeshiva in 1803. Its purpose was to reinforce the traditional values of rabbinic Judaism upon as many students and future rabbis as possible. The Volozhin Yeshiva became known as the forerunner of the modern day Yeshiva.

Lipkin, being trained and educated in the traditional Yeshiva, viewed himself as part of the Yeshiva world. However, sensing the pivotal role of the Yeshiva to protect and transmit the true message of rabbinic Judaism, he addressed several points in his lectures that he believed must become the focus of the Yeshiva philosophy.

One of the core beliefs in the Hasidic philosophy was the significant role of the Rebbe or tzaddik and his ability to perform miracles. Stories and legends of the Baal Shem Tov are a considerable part of the Hasidic way of life. Although Judaism has always valued and believed in miracles and wonders that occurred during Biblical times, the Yeshiva world was quite scornful of the Hasidic legends. For many within the Yeshiva, such stories reflected the naiveté and lack of intellect among the Hasidim. For Lipkin however, focusing on miracles was harmful to the welfare of the Jewish soul, for it signified losing sight of the true objective of Judaism. Lipkin’s outlook was able to be sensed from the fact that he rejected even the one “Lithuanian miracle”.

The Priestly Blessing, known in Hebrew as the Birkat Kohanim, is a Jewish prayer recited by the Kohanim - descendents of the biblical figure Aaron - during certain Jewish services. According to Talmudic law, the blessing should be said daily in the morning service of Shachrit. Due to uncertain reasons, as Jews moved into European countries during the Medieval Period, the practice was suspended from the daily prayers and was only recited during the seasonal holidays. For rabbinic authorities throughout the ages, it was a mystery as to why the practice was abandoned, but out of respect to tradition, no one advocated a change to the custom. The Gra of Vilna was one of the first to promote change, and actually attempted to reintroduce the Birkat Kohanim to the daily prayers in the synagogue in Vilna.[4] Although he did not succeed, his disciple Rabbi Chaim Volozhin attempted to do the same several years later. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (1817-1893), the Rosh Yeshiva (Dean) of the Volozhin yeshiva during the second half of the Nineteenth Century, recorded the sequence of events that occurred in Volozhin, stating: “R’ Chaim decided that on the morrow he would order Birkat Kohanim; that night half the city and the synagogue burned down. They saw and understood that there is some secret and mysteries of the descent of felicity which alights via the Priestly Blessing, that we lack the ability to understand”. Clearly, we have a unique “Lithuanian miracle”, where the Divine intervened for the sake of a custom.

Lipkin had a different take on the event. In Rabbi Nathan Kamenetsky’s book, The Making of a Gadol,[5] he expresses the opinion of Lipkin that “he (Lipkin) would rebuild the Shul and again instituted the Birkat Kohanim despite the fire.” He continues by saying that Lipkin viewed the event not as a supernatural intervention, but rather as an act of arson. In the words of the author: “Do you suppose that a fire came down from Heaven to set the Shul aflame? It did not. An old Jew who objected to changing a custom which had prevailed for as long as he remembered decided to take matters into his own hands and set the blaze!”[6] Mussar’s rejecting miracles is consistent with its emphasis on self-understanding and self-improvement. Basing observance on supernatural events was an unacceptable approach for Lipkin and his way of thinking.

One of the major elements in Hasidic thought and practices is the significant role of Kabbalah and the Zohar. Kabbalah is the mystical aspect of Judaism. It refers to a set of esoteric teachings, which are meant to define the inner meaning of both the Hebrew Bible and traditional rabbinic literature, as well as to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances. The Zohar, a mystical commentary on the Torah, written in medieval Aramaic, is widely considered the most important work of Kabbalah. The Zohar contains mystical discussions of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, sin and redemption, good and evil, and related topics. Followers of the Hasidic movement often recited passages from the Zohar and would meditate on sayings from the Zohar during the performance of Mitzvot.

The core idea of Kabalistic thought relates to the inability of man to comprehend the mysteries of the mitzvoth. He must therefore focus on the Kabbalah (literally what has been received) to achieve purpose in mitzvah observance. By meditating on secret messages and philosophical knowledge of the godhead, the Kabbalist fixes flaws of the spiritual realm and, in his mind, fulfills the true purpose of the mitzvah. John Hochman, in his article entitled Miracle, Mystery and Authority: The Triangle of Cult Indoctrination writes that “People who harbor secrets can find this exciting or gratifying, particularly if done for a ‘higher purpose.’ Cults are riddled with secrets.”[7] For Lipkin, attention to the theosophical speculation on esoteric matters seemed entirely irrelevant. Immanuel Etkes, in his book on Lipkin, writes that “[Lipkin] distanced himself from [Kabbalah’s] influence, so that it no longer played a role in his religious outlook.” He continues by quoting a response by Lipkin as to why he ignored Kabbalah, stating, “What practical difference does it make in which heaven the Holy-one-Blessed-He sits?”[8] Another statement by Lipkin that clearly indicates what he viewed as essential in Judaism was: “The Maharal of Prague[9] created a golem[10], and this was a great wonder. But how much more wonderful is it to transform a corporeal human being into a mensch (a decent person).” By Lipkin disconnecting human activities from affects in the higher realm, he was able to develop approaches to deal with human nature and its true self in a rational way. Hence, for the Mussar Movement, since its raison d'être is for humans to identify and improve their true selves, mystery, beyond a doubt, was rejected.

Often, to understand a new movement’s true goals, one turns to literature from the traditional school that fought against the innovation of the Mussar Movement. Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903-1993) an American rabbi, Talmudist and modern Jewish philosopher, in his essay Halakhic Man, recounts how men like his grandfather Reb Chaim Brisker (1853-1918) reacted when an attempt was made to propagate the Mussar Movement in their community. Soloveitchik relates that “the halakhic men of Brisk and Volozhin sensed that this whole mood posed a profound contradiction to the Halakhah and would undermine its very foundations. Halakhic man fears nothing. For he swims in the sea of the Talmud that life-giving sea to all the living. If a person has sinned, then the Halakhah of repentance will come to his aid. One must not waste time on spiritual self-appraisal, on probing introspections, and on the picking away at the ‘sense’ of sin.”[11] He continues by describing the philosophy and behavior of the Mussar Yeshiva by stating “It was the practice in Kovno and Slobodka to spend the twilight hour when Sabbath was drawing to a close in an atmosphere suffused with sadness and grief, an atmosphere in which man loses his spiritual shield, his sense of power, confidence, and strength and becomes utterly sensitive and responsive, and there to engage in a monologue about death, the nihility of this world, its emptiness and ugliness. Adherents of the Mussar Movement recognized that, beyond the four cubits of Halakhah there are other realms needed to heal people from sin. They believed that reflection on death and human finitude has a purging influence. They insisted that the Jew cannot build a total religious personality by confining himself entirely within a world of legal texts.”[12] For the Jews of the traditional school, uncertainty and existential thoughts were counter to their view of Halachic Judaism. For them, Talmud and the Codes were to offer confidence and the only focus was to remain on understanding the halachah and not on understanding one’s self.

Similarly Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, (1878-1953), popularly known by the name of his magnum opus Chazon Ish, a Belarusian born Orthodox rabbi who became leader of Haredi Judaism in Israel, in his work Emunah Ubitachon, is critical of the Mussar Movement’s focus on soul searching and self understanding, stating that the text should be the only guiding light to determine right from wrong.

The Mussar Movement, on the other hand, believed that relying on the “Authority” i.e. the Talmud and the Codes is not enough to be considered as living a true religious life. What is required is mindfulness of one’s true self and being. Although such awareness would lead to anxiety, as Soloveitchik described occurring in Kovno and Slobodka, angst is an integral part of the Mussar system of self improvement. Thus, it is evident that the Mussar Movement disengaged itself from the idea of “authority”.

Many other similarities can be seen between the great existential philosophers and the Mussar thinkers. Søren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish philosopher, wrote about the importance of living and being conscious of life. Kierkegaard was addressing religion and philosophy and the idea that people were not being mindful of what they were doing. He wanted to sting people into awareness. He believed that the religious person can follow the law established by others without ever really thinking or making the law part of his true self. Likewise, Lipkin would be critical of people as living with themselves for seventy years and not really knowing themselves.[13] Many of his sermons were meant to “sting people into awareness.”[14]

One of the twentieth century great Mussar personalities was Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892-1953), the "spiritual counselor" of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei-Brak Israel. Dessler, in a collection of his writings published posthumously by his pupils entitled Michtav Me-Eliyahu (translated into English as Strive for Truth), writes the following: “There is a not-so-obvious reason why human beings pursue worldly pleasures so avidly. It is because they have a subconscious urge to still the pangs of spiritual hunger. Everyone has this nameless inner yearning: the longing of the soul for its state of perfection; and indulgence in worldly pleasures is an illusory substitute for this.”[15]

Similarly, Martin Heidegger addresses a person’s being as Dasein. Naturally, Dasein has angst about death. Yet daily activities distract Dasein from death. Dasein gets involved in the pursuit of worldly pleasures which leads it into tranquillization. However, this inauthentic existence of “busyness” eventually alienates Dasein. The inauthentic everydayness of Dasein is referred to by the masses as “getting ahead”. However, in Heidegger’s analysis, it is in reality a plunge for Dasein.

We find in the Book of Psalms 73:27 the following verse: “Those who are distant are lost.” Dessler explains that this distance refers to when a person is not mindful of his experiences.[16] For Dessler the human must end self alienation and must ask, like Heidegger: “What is the meaning of my being?”

For Dessler, choice defines the human. He writes that “every decision made by man has an effect. The choice has consequences not just for the decision maker himself but rather on his surroundings and also on the world. The choice-maker is responsible for his influence and must be aware of it.”[17] Dessler’s thought is quite comparable to that of Jean-Paul Sartre, who stated that the human being ought to be aware of what he is and take full responsibility for his existence. Sartre also added that by choosing, humans choose for all mankind as well as for themselves.

The great French philosopher and leading Christian existentialist Gabriel Marcel noted that “A man cannot be free or remain free, except in the degree to which he remains linked with that which transcends him.” This view of freedom has been expressed by the rabbis in the sixth chapter of the Mishnah tractate Avot. “A person is not free unless he is involved in the study of Torah.” The rabbis, in a similar way of thought to that of Marcel, address the fact that the human being, although he might deem his actions as by-products of freedom, makes choices which may result in an enslavement to some kind of physical urge or desire. To address freedom, the human must first identify his true self, and only from that point of reference might he identify true freedom. Marcel expanded his view of freedom to national freedom as well by stating that, “If the freedom of a people or a country be defined as absolute independence, is it not obvious that in a world like ours freedom cannot exist because of pressure, or, less politely, by blackmail, at all levels of international intercourse?” This same view was stated by one of the great Mussar disciples of the twentieth century, Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna (1890 - 1969). Rabbi Sarna was instrumental in building the first Mussar yeshiva in Palestine in the city of Hebron. Later, as dean of the institution, he moved it to Jerusalem following the Hebron Massacre of 1929. After the establishment of the State of Israel, Sarna addressed the euphoric mood of the Jewish nation after gaining their independence and “freedom” by wondering if “a small country can fool itself to believe that it will indeed be ‘independent’ through its own might. It must know that all the independence will be blown away like a loose leaf by the will of any large empire and it will always be dependent on the large superpowers”. Thoughts of freedom that are often addressed by existentialists are also vital for the followers of the Mussar School.

Albert Camus, in the Myth of Sisyphus, describes Sisyphus as condemned by God to roll a rock to the top of a mountain and then the stone would roll back. Sisyphus is able to find meaning in this. “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart.” Similarly, Etkes, in his work on Lipkin, addresses the focus of the Mussar Movement. Traditionally, the antidote for a man’s struggle with his evil inclination would be to turn toward God and pray for “Siata Deshmaia” (assistance from heaven) to succeed in his “milchemet hayetzer” (the battle against the evil inclination). Lipkin, on the other hand, stated and emphasized the importance of the battle itself and preached that one should view the battle as the goal.[18]

A story is told that one time Rabbi Lipkin was laying ill in bed and another rabbi came to visit him. The visiting rabbi told Lipkin that he was thankful to Lipkin for being an accessory for the performance of the Mitzvah of Bikur Cholim (visiting the ill). Rabbi Lipkin responded “I am not your Lulav”[19] What Lipkin was trying to convey to the guest was, that you do not treat another human as an object. Although Judaism teaches that individuals have responsibilities towards others, they must not be viewed as objects, but rather as people. The Mussar School teaches that although a blessing must be said when performing a mitzvah, when the mitzvah is between humans (Bein Adam Lechavero) blessings are not recited, since God must be set aside, with the focus remaining only on the human need and not on objectifying another.[20]

Martin Buber, in his best known book I and Thou, discusses the unfortunate reality that people relate to others as objects. Buber’s major theme is that human existence may be defined by the way in which we engage in dialogue with each other, with the world, and with God. Only by relating to the Thou of others can the person become connected to the ultimate Thou, God, according to Buber. Here we find yet another similarity between the Existentialist and the Mussar School.

The Mussar Movement teaches that in Judaism, the main focus is not on external details but rather on what man makes of himself. During the twentieth century, as the teachings of the Mussar School penetrated into the Yeshiva, the word Menschlichkeit[21] became quite prevalent. Knowledge was no longer the only gauge for evaluating greatness, but rather it was to be in concert with character. For the Mussar personality what the being makes of himself is what really counts. This Mussar viewpoint is the same as the religious existentialist philosophy, and is summed up by Paul Tillich, who states that “the essence of being is not something which he finds; he makes it.”

In William Barrett’s book, Irrational Man, he writes that although Heidegger was a brilliant thinker, towering above men like Jaspers and Buber, he was not great enough to be a man. In Barrett’s words, “He has led us back, as has no other thinker, to see what is involved in light and vision, but we need to go one step farther and see that all light requires fire.” For Barrett, the fire must come from a new Kierkegaard “to pump back living blood into the ontological skeleton of the Heideggerian Dasein.”[22] The Torah Jew on the other hand, can turn to the fire of his tradition, which can illuminate and, at the same time, warm his soul. The Torah, or Mussar, Existentialist can relate to the Dasein of Heidegger and yet avoid the forlornness of Sartre, loneliness of Holderlin and the madness of Nietzsche, by waking up every morning and saying “I gratefully thank you, O living and eternal King”.

References

Book

Dessler, E.E., Michtav Me-Eliyahu

Etkes, I. The Mussar Movement: Seeking the Torah of Truth. Philadelphia: JPS

Girondi, Y. Sha'arei Teshuvah The Gates of Repentance

Kamenetsky, N. The Making of a Gadol

Karelitz, A. Y., Emunah Ubitachon

Katz, D. Tenuat HaMusar

Luzzato, M. C., Mesilat Yesharim

Soloveitchik,J.D., Halakhic Man. JPS, Philadelphia PA,1983

Journal article

Hochman, J. Miracle, Mystery and Authority: The Triangle of Cult Indoctrination

Psychiatric Annals/April 1990

[1] Chapter 3 section 169

[2] Commentary on the Torah Vayikra 19:2

[3] Joseph Fox Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk: A biographical study of the chasidic master (New York: Maznaim,1988)

[4] Aruch Hashulchan 128

[5] PP Publishers, Israel, 2005

[6] The Making of a Gadol p.654

[7] Psychiatric Annals/April 1990

[8] Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement, Immanuel Etkes Movement: Seeking the Torah of Truth. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

[9] Rabbi Judah Loewe (1525-1609)

[10] An animated being, created entirely from inanimate matter. There is a legend that Maharal created one.

[11] Halachic Man p.72

[12] Ibid 74

[13] Tenuat Hamusar p.270

[14] Pulmus HaMussar p. 20

[15] Book two p. 13

[16] Michta Me’elitahu p. 61 Hebrew addition

[17] Michta Me’elitahu p. 115 Hebrew addition

[18] Etkes P. 322 (Hebrew Addition)

[19] Frond of the date palm tree; It is one of the Four Species used in the daily prayer services during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

[20] Story and Message heard in Yeshiva lecture Telshe Yeshiva Chicago 1990

[21] Good or decent person

[22] P. 237

Genizah

2008-04-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Some people love collecting things. They might even save a newspaper from twenty five years ago, or even worse, hoard all newspapers from the last twenty five years. I personally hate junk and love throwing things out. When I am finished with an article, and at times even before that, I chuck it. My method of immediate disposal works quite well for most things, however, when it comes to religious objects, specifically papers that contain verses or words of Torah, I have a problem. According to Halachah it is forbidden to dispose of such objects in a disrespectful way. Ideally you bury them. However, this option is not so practical. Funerals are expensive, even without the stretch limo. So, when people have a problem with a spiritual matter, they go to their Synagogue. As a result people bring bundles of papers, old newspapers, worn out Kipot, yellow Tzitzit, old records (Elvis was Jewish) and dump them on the most spiritual location in the Synagogue-the Rabbi’s desk. The community no longer has a problem. Now the Rabbi has a problem. What should he do with all these holy (and not so holy) objects? The answer is- Genizah.

The word Genizah appears in the beginning of the sixth chapter of the book of Ezra describing an archive containing records, documents or books. We also find in the Talmud [1]that during the first temple period, the Jewish people had a medical book that listed cures for all ailments. King Chezkia, sensing that the nation was relying on the book and did not turn to God for healing, decided to get rid of the book. So, he “Ganaz” the book, meaning placed it in a good hiding place- without destroying it. This is the foundation for the concept of a Genizah, placing significant items that are no longer in use in a secure place.

However, numerous times throughout our history, the Geniza did not solve the problem. Rabbi Yaakov Reisher, (d. 1730) was asked the following question [2] on the eve of Passover when people clean their houses, they bring all their worn-out holy scriptures to the attic in the synagogue. However there is no longer any room in the attic and big barrels were placed in the cemetery to hold the excess. Unfortunately these papers landed up in the market place and are used as toilet paper! So the questioned was raised if it would be acceptable to burn the papers to avoid the terrible desecration of the Holy Scriptures?

Genizah, it seems, creates lots of problems. Yet one of the greatest Jewish treasures ever found comes from a Genizah, the Cairo Genizah, located in the Ezra Synagogue in Fostat (Old Cairo, Egypt) that was built in 882. German poet, traveler and book dealer Simon von Geldern appears to be the first modern visitor to the Cairo Genizah in 1753. Although he mentioned it in his 1773 book, “The Israelites on Mount Horeb,” von Geldern never truly examined its contents. A little over a century later, in 1864, Jacob Saphir, the scribe of the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem visited the Genizah, however he was turned away. The importance of the Cairo Genizah became evident in 1896, when two Christian women brought some leaves to Rabbi Solomon Schechter, who at the time was a professor of Talmudic and rabbinical literature at England's Cambridge University. Schechter recognized the leaves as the Hebrew original "Book of Wisdom," ascribed to Ben Sira. The Book of Wisdom became part of the Christian biblical cannon (Ecclesiastes) when translated into Greek. Before its discovery in the Cairo Genizah, no known Hebrew version existed. Some scholars even doubted its existence. Schechter traveled to Cairo where after negotiating the permission of the synagogue authorities to empty the Genizah, extracted thousands of pages from the Genizah and took them to University of Cambridge. In Europe, few items placed in a Genizah would survive more than a few decades to weather changes and moisture. Egypt’s climate on the other hand, was just right for the preservation of these informative documents.

For the student of the Talmud, the book of Ben Sira is quite a perplexing issue. We find the book quoted in the Talmud indicating that the Rabbis viewed the teachings of Ben Sira as valuable. In one instance the quote from the book is prefaced as a canonized text. In tractate Baba Kama 92b the Talmud states: “Raba said to Rabbah the son of Mari: Whence can be derived the popular saying, 'A bad palm will usually make its way to a grove of barren trees'? — He replied: This matter was written in the Pentateuch, repeated in the Prophets, mentioned a third time in the Hagiographa, and also learnt in a Mishnah and taught in a Baraitha: It is stated in the Pentateuch as written, So Esau went unto Ishmael; repeated in the prophets, as written, And there gathered themselves to Jephthah idle men and they went out with him; mentioned a third time in the Hagiographa, as written: Every fowl dwells near its kind and man near his equal.” The last quote is found in the Book of Ben Sira. Clearly it is indeed a valued text.

On the other hand, the Talmud Sanhedrin 100b quotes Rabbi Yosef who identifies the book of Ben Sira as one of the “Sefarim Chitzonim” –external works that should not be read by the committed Jew. This inconsistency has not escaped the notice of great Jewish scholars.

Rabbi Yom-Tov ibn Asevilli (2nd Half 13th cent. – 1st Half 14th century) in his commentary on the Talmud, resolves the inconsistency by stating that the prohibition to learn from Ben Sira is only if one makes the study of the book a permanent activity. On the other hand, it is proper to learn from the wisdom of the text on a temporary basis.

However there is a far more fascinating rabbinic story regarding Ben Sira. This one is not from the Talmud, but rather makes its appearance into the world of Torah in the fifteenth century. Rabbi Jacob Moelin (1365 – 1427) was a Talmudist and a great authority on Jewish law, known for his codification of the customs of the German Jews. In the middle of his work Likutei Maharil he writes as follows: ”Ben Sira was born from the seed of the prophet Yirmiyahu. The daughter of Yirmiyahu was bathing in a tub and conceived from her father’s sperm. Her righteousness was known to all, so it was agreed that she conceived in the bathtub and named the child Ben Zera (son of seed). However as the child grew older he was ashamed from the name and thus it was changed to Ben Sira. The numerical value of Sira is Yirmiyahu.”

This interesting narrative has been quoted quite often regarding a modern day question, namely artificial insemination. Artificial insemination is the oldest [modern] method couples and physicians have tried in their attempts to overcome infertility. Because it is the least invasive, the least dangerous, and the least costly technique available, it is still the first one used today when a couple cannot conceive through sexual intercourse because of sexual dysfunction, insufficient or abnormal sperm, or inadequate motility of the sperm.

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895–1986) a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek, who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halachah and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme rabbinic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America and the world, cites the Likutei Maharil as a source to permit donor insemination. This story supports Rabbi Feinstein’s Halachic view that unlike sexual intercourse, such a conception does not make a child conceived by a father and daughter a mamzer [illegitimate]; and, since the legend asserts that Ben Sira was the child of Yirmiyahu, the sperm donor is apparently to be considered the legal, as well as the biological, father of the offspring. Other twentieth century Rabbis including Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss, (1902-1989) Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg (1915-2006) and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910 -1995) question the legitimacy of Maharil’s tale.

Another interesting document found in the Genizah is a marriage document between a Rabbinic bridegroom and a Karaite bride. Karaite Judaism was a break-off from traditional Rabbinic Judaism that occurred during the eight century in Babylonia. The principle of the movement, established by Annan was "Search thoroughly in the Torah and do not rely on my opinion" and was designed to uphold the Holy Scriptures as the sole source of the law. Maimonidies, as he arrived in Egypt was confronted by wide spread negligence of traditional Rabbinic Judaism due to the strong hold of the Karaite authorities in the region. Maimonidies records that he was eventually successful in uprooting their Karaite practices.

Later Rabbinic authorities prohibit marrying into Karaite families. Nevertheless, one of the discoveries found in the Genizah is a marriage document between a rabbinic groom and a Karaite bride. The document indicates that before Maimonidies’ strong stance against the movement, intermarriages between Rabbinate and Karaite families did take place.

The document itself addresses a few of the differences between the two groups and the need for compromises for such a union to occur. Among the details listed, the husband promising not to compel his future wife to make use of light on Friday eve (the Karaite tradition explains the verse in Exodus. xxxv. 3 to mean that no light must be seen in Jewish habitations even when kindled on the eve of the Sabbath), or to eat the fat covering the rump, which the Rabbinic Jews did not consider prohibited, while the Karaites did. Another stipulation found in the document is that the husband cannot insist upon her profaning the festivals according to the Karaite calendar. The wife on the other hand promises on her side to also observe with her husband the festivals as fixed by the Rabbinate calendar.

Another finding from the Genizah sheds light on a fascinating dispute regarding the Jewish calendar that transpired in the tenth century. In Biblical times Jewish festivals were set by witnesses coming to court and testifying that they saw the new moon. Following the testimony, the court would declare that the new month has begun and messengers would be sent throughout the land to inform the nation regarding the appropriate dates for upcoming holidays. During the fourth century, due to the terrible persecutions suffered at the hands of the Romans, the Rabbis in the land of Israel decided to commit to writing the rules that form the Jewish calendar and they abolished the testimony system. According to Jewish tradition of Gaonic times, it was Hillel II (in the 4th Century C.E.) who fixed the Jewish calendar and established its rules. However there were differences of opinions among the rabbis regarding the rules, and during the tenth century a major controversy erupted due to these variation.

In the year 4681 of the Jewish era (=921 common era) the Rabbis in Babylon anticipated that the upcoming Passover would fall on a Tuesday. They began the process of setting the annual calendar based on this information. At the same time Rabbi Aaron Ben Meir, head of the Yeshiva in Israel, stated that the upcoming holiday of Passover would fall on a Sunday. As soon as the news of Ben Meir’s proclamation reached Babylon, the Exilarch David ben Zakkai, in conjunction with the Geonim of the rabbinic academies and Rabbi Saadia Gaon, addressed an official letter to Ben Meir setting forth in urgent language the validity of the established calendar and warning him against the contemplated change. At the same time the Geonim sent out circular letters to the various Jewish communities, advising them to abide by the Babylon order and not heed Ben Meir. This massive quarrel that sent the Jewish world into turmoil is known to us from several letters found in the Genizah.

Among the thousands of documents and letters found in the Geniza the most prized object is a letter signed by Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, known as Maimonides or the Rambam. Maimonides was born in Spain shortly before the fanatical Muslim Almohades came to power there. To avoid persecution by the Muslim sect Maimonides fled with his family, first to Morocco, later to Israel, and finally to Egypt. He apparently hoped to continue his studies for several years more, but when his brother David, a jewelry merchant, perished in the Indian Ocean with much of the family's fortune, he had to begin earning money. Maimonides' major contribution to Jewish life remains the Mishneh Torah, his code of Jewish law. His intention was to compose a book that would guide Jews on how to behave in all situations just by reading the Torah and his code, without having to spend large amounts of time searching through the Talmud. Needless to say, this provocative rationale did not endear Maimonides to many traditional Jews, who feared that people would rely on his code and no longer study the Talmud. Despite sometimes intense opposition, the Mishneh Torah became a standard guide to Jewish practice. It later served as the model for the Shulkhan Arukh, the sixteenth century code of Jewish law that is still regarded as authoritative by Orthodox Jews.

The letter discovered in the Geniza is penned by Maimonides’ personal secretary Mevorkh Ben Nathan. In the letter Maimonides pleads for funds to ransom Jewish captives taken prisoner in November 1168 in Bilbeis, Egypt, by the Crusader king Amalric of Jerusalem in his attack on the town.

Philosophically, Maimonides was a religious rationalist. His damning attacks on people who held ideas he regarded as primitive — those, for example, who understood literally such biblical expressions as “the finger of God” so infuriated his opponents that they proscribed parts of his code and all of The Guide to the Perplexed. Other, more liberal, spirits forbade study of the Guide to anyone not of mature years.

Several years ago during the nineteen nineties, Albert Friedberg, a Jewish businessman from Toronto Canada was attending a conference on Jewish Studies. Professor Neil Danzig, an expert in Geonic literature, was lecturing on the current condition of Genizah research. Dr. Danzig lamented that "although over a century has elapsed since the discovery of this material, (Cairo Genizah) little has been done to bring to light all its hidden treasures." The trove of material was at the time un-catalogued, and only a few experts had any idea of what it contained. Although many scholarly articles had been written over the years, they were all scattered through a multitude of extant and no longer extant journals, and written in many different languages. Much precious material remained abandoned in the boxes and basements of museums and libraries.

Seeing the enormous opportunity for Jewish studies, Mr. Friedberg established “The Friedberg Genizah Project” with the goal of producing a unified catalogue of all Cairo Genizah fragments located around the world. As a result, scholars will be able to use a search engine to collate scattered remnants of documents or books – in all the languages of the Genizah – and be able to view them together, regardless of their actual location. The project also aims to transcribe the content of Genizah fragments to allow scholars to conduct text searches. Several years later Mr. Friedberg elucidated on the significance of the project: "To give you an idea of the immensity of the find, consider that there are some 210,000 Genizah items, representing over 700,000 folios, spread around the world, 140,000 of them in Cambridge, 17,000 in the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and the rest in various other institutions, in such places as Paris, Oxford, Budapest, London, Manchester, St Petersburg, Jerusalem, and Philadelphia. The subjects covered included the Hebrew Bible and its commentaries, the Talmud and its commentaries, midrash, halachah, aggadah, prayer, liturgical poetry, responsa, philosophy, theology, grammar, contracts - commercial and ketubbot - letters, medicine, astronomy, kabbalah, and magic.” Mr. Friedberg continued that, "Having heard of the sorry state of affairs in which this invaluable cultural treasure was found, we decided to bring together a group of leading scholars in the field to co-ordinate work on the Genizah.”

As a result of the “The Friedberg Genizah Project” numerous people, periods and text will come to life for the individual interested in Jewish student.

I am thankful to the Genizah Project for giving me the opportunity to be able to sit by a computer in Memphis TN, and view this most wonderful collection of Jewish treasures.

[1] Talmud Psachim 56a

[2] Shevut Yaakov 3:10

2008-03-03T18:48:00.001-08:00

Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes (1805-1855)

שו"ת חתם סופר חלק ב (יו"ד) סימן שלח

שלום וכל טוב לה"ה הרב המאה"ג החרוץ המופלג זית רענן יפה פרי תואר קרא שמו כבוד מו"ה פלוני נ"י אב"ד ור"מ דק"ק פלוני.

יקרתו הגיעני ונפשו היקרה בשאלתו נידון עיר א' שהרופא כהן ומנימוסי המדינה שאין המתים נקברים עד אחר שבדקו הרופא ומעיד עליו שנתיאש אחר נפלו אם מותר לכהן לכנס אפי' ליגע לבדוק כנ"ל וחפץ מעלתו להתיר ובנה יסודו … אם הדור שלפנינו התירו הלנת מתי' שהוא בעשה ול"ת והתירו משום ס' נפשות ה"ה יש להתיר כאן

הנה בקראי דברים אלו יוצאים מפה גברא דכוותיה עמדתי מרעיד ונבהל מאד מי הוא זה ואיזהו שהתיר בדור שלפנינו הלנת מתים ולהתיר עפ"י חכמי ישראל לא שמעתי ולא ראיתי

אחרי שובי התבוננתי …. הרי המתים מוטלים בבזיון בלי קבורה מפקידת המלך שלא לקבור מבלי עדות הרופא שבדקו ומצאו מת וא"כ אי לא יבדקנו הרופא צריך שיהי' מוטל עד שיסריח וא"כ ה"ל מת מצוה שאין לו

ומ"מ לא הודעתיו להשואל פן יאמרו סתם שהסכמתי להתיר מטעמא דידהו כשם שתלו בוקי סריקי בהגאון מהר"י יעב"ץ ז"ל שהתיר הלנת המתים ככה יתלו בי שהתרתי טומאת כהנים ע"כ שמתי ידי למו פי

משה"ק סופר מפפד"מ

the Shoel? Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes
Did the Chatam Sofer trust Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes?

PASCAL

2008-03-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

Blaise Pascal(1623–1662)

One of the basic principles in Jewish faith is that humans will never be able to fully comprehend the reasons for the Creator’s actions. Included in this belief is the idea that Mitzvot are performed not because we understand the reasons behind them, but because we are committed to performing the command of the Almighty. Nevertheless, throughout the ages rabbis have attempted to add some flavor (Taam in Hebrew) to the Mitzvot, by offering some kind of rational explanation for the Mitzvot in order to make it easier for the Jew to fulfill his task. With this in mind I would like to share the following story with you.

During the seventeenth century there lived a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher by the name of Blaise Pascal. One night, Pascal was traveling by carriage through Paris. As he was crossing a bridge, the horses plunged over the parapet and the carriage nearly followed them. Fortunately, the reins broke and the coach hung halfway over the edge. Pascal emerged unscathed. The sensitive philosopher, terrified by the nearness of death, fainted away and remained unconscious for some time. Upon recovering, Pascal recorded the experience in a brief note. He carefully sewed it into his coat, and always transferred it whenever he changed clothes.

When I first read of this event, I was reminded of the Mitzvah of Tefillin. The Tefillin (phylacteries) contain a parchment, on which it is written, “Remember this day on which you departed from Egypt from the house of bondage, for with a strong hand Hashem removed you from here.” This Mitzvah represents precisely the same theme as the above story.

It is reasonably normal for a person to be emotionally affected by a life altering event and to always want to hold a memento close to his heart, reminding him of the incident. This same desire applies to the Jew who experienced the awesome event of the exodus from Egypt.

When the Jew sits down at the table on Passover night and, while reclining, declares that this is the Zman Cherutainu, the season of our freedom, he must not only utter it as an historical fact but must actually feel that he is going through the process of redemption. For the Jew, the exodus from Egypt, although it occurred over three thousand years ago, must be viewed as a life altering event, a story that a person would want to place near his heart so that he can constantly remember the kindness that was bestowed upon him by his Creator.

A successful Passover night is one that makes an impression on the soul and leaves the person with a feeling and emotion of spiritual liberation. As the holiday comes to an end, the individual, who lived and experienced this exodus, desires a memento that will remind him of his life altering event. With his renewed understanding that the exodus from Egypt is a personal experience he will value the Mitzvah of Tefillin with new appreciation.

Wishing you a kosher and happy Pesach

Yirmiya Milevsky

Purim and the cynic

2008-02-28T19:03:00.000-08:00

I feel bad for a person who will never be able to learn. I am not talking about someone that is unintelligent, since there is a good chance that by putting in time and effort, he will gain knowledge. Rather, I am addressing the one that due to his attitude will definitely never learn: the cynic. After listening to an inspiring speech or story that assists us in remembering our mission in life, be sure to avoid the cynic, because without a doubt we will hear from him one of his sayings that will instantly eradicate the beneficial effect of the insight.

When the nation of Israel left Egypt, humanity recognized that what transpired to this nation of slaves in Egypt was no coincidence, but rather the hand of Hashem. This recognition was good for the world, since acknowledgement of Hashem and the recognition of the unique function of the Jews, are key elements of the Messianic age and the perfection of the world. Unfortunately the cynic ruined it all. The name of that cynic was Amalek. Amalek attacked, and although it lost the battle, great damage was done. The Rabbis compare the attack to a steaming bathtub, too hot for anyone to climb into. Then, someone came along and plunged into the boiling water. He got scorched, but in the process of doing so, he cooled the water a bit, enabling others to enter. The feelings and mindset humanity gained, was destroyed by the cynic.

The Torah commands us to “obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.” We may not be able to technically fulfill the commandment; however the message is still quite relevant; we must wipe out the cynic that is within us.

On the surface the cynic is a very happy fellow. He always has what to laugh at, and if he is good at it, he may even have his own late night show. However, deep inside there is great emptiness, because if everything is a joke, there is no meaning to life, and nothing can be as sad as a life without meaning.

The Shabbos before Purim we read the portion of Torah that reminds us to obliterate the memory of Amalek. This can be done by eradicating the cynic that is within us, and becoming aware that there is something very serious and special within every person. With that recognition, we feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment so that on Purim we can be joyful, and have a true Simchat Purim.

Happy Purim

Yirmiya Milevsky

Warder Cresson

2007-10-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

Warder Cresson

The searching man seeking the answer to the meaning of life would give all for a revelation that would clarify the true purpose of man’s existence. Religions that claim a revelation as their bedrock must develop a system to safeguard the information of the enlightenment in a world that is void of its sacred message. For the followers of the Bible, or, for the traditional Jew, the Torah, that revelation occurred at Sinai. The Torah’s safeguarding system was institutionalized and named “Yeshiva”.
The world and life of a young man in the Yeshiva is quite unique. While time, energy and effort are channeled toward discovering the intricate laws and ordinances of the Torah, walls are placed around the student to avoid “contamination” from the external world. To understand the wisdom of the past scholars, from antiquity to the modern period, Yeshiva students must rely, most often, on internal tools. At times, however, discoveries made on the outer side of the wall can be of great assistance to the explorer on the inside. These findings, which are capable of shedding light upon complex issues, may come from archaeologists or, at times, historians. The young student in the Yeshiva must decide if the information should be utilized due to its intellectual benefit, or rejected as a result of its external source.
This paper will deal with a difficulty in a responsa by Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger and will allow external sources to assist in resolving the issue.
Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger (1798 –1871) was a German rabbi and author, and one of the great leaders of Orthodox Judaism. He was born at Karlsruhe and died in Altona. He studied under Rabbi Abraham Bing in Würzburg, where he also attended the university. Because of his well-known greatness as a Torah scholar, questions were sent to him from across the globe. The following question relates to a story that occurred in Jerusalem.
According to Jewish Law, there is a list of activities that are prohibited on the Jewish Sabbath. Although resting on the Sabbath is one of the most important commandments for a Jew, the Talmud tells us that a Gentile is actually forbidden from resting on the Sabbath, and must perform one of the “prohibited” actions to be considered a righteous gentile. The following is the question presented to Rabbi Ettlinger with regard to this issue. (Responsa Binyan Tzion 91)
“Here in Jerusalem on Tuesday the twenty third day of the month of Adar Sheni of the year (5)608, a non Jew came from Morocco and was circumcised for the sake of conversion, and accepted all the mitzvoth. On the following Shabbat, he had not fully recovered from the circumcision and thus not entered the Mikvah (ritual bath to finalize the conversion). A rabbi was informed that the convert is very careful in his observance of the Sabbath. However another rabbi claimed that due to the fact that he did not yet enter the Mikvah he must not observe the Sabbath and must perform one of the prohibited acts. It was late in the day and the convert was told what he must do. Consequently he violated the Sabbath by writing a few letters. After the Sabbath when the Rabbis in town heard of the ruling they disagreed claiming that after circumcision he is considered a Jew and must not violate the Sabbath.”
While reading about this out of the ordinary situation, several questions may arise in our minds, including: What brought this Moroccan to Jerusalem and what prevented him from converting in his homeland where a very significant Jewish population and rabbinic court was present? To answer this question, we must go beyond the Yeshiva wall to a distant land: America.
The main focus of this paper will be the life and journey of a man from Philadelphia named Warder Cresson. Cresson was born on July 13, 1798. Little is known of Cresson’s formative years. It is clear from the few family records available that his was a strict upbringing, in keeping with the habits of his Quaker elders. In 1815, a year following his father's death, Cresson was sent away to work on the family farms in Darby and Chester. From statements Cresson made later in life, it is evident that he had worked hard, saved his money and learned a great deal about agriculture. Later on, he married Elizabeth Townsend of Bensalem, and by 1824 he was a father of two children, Emma and John Elliot.
Warder displayed a mind steeped in Scriptures as well as in the social issues of the time. In 1829, Cresson wrote a strong attack on the "Babylon" of Pennsylvania, primarily attacking wealth and social distinction. "It will certainly be admitted," he began, "that all the misery and troubles that afflict the human family arise aspiring from ...selfishness." The lack of true religion, he wrote, a faith that ought to be expressed through self-denial and universal love, had brought about tyrannies and caused slavery and bloodshed. He attacked the monopolizing wealth, "both by speculative and anti-republican measures”. "Wealth was power," he claimed, and the few who were wealthy also had access to education, which in turn gave them even greater power over "the industrious farmer, mechanic and laborer.”
Cresson denounced the republican form of government in the United States as a set of selfish laws and selfish appointments in the hands of legislators and self-seeking officials. He considered the conditions of the working and farming classes intolerable, with wages barely on a survival level and unemployment widespread. He singled out his fellow Quakers for failure to see these wrongs. “Originally, they were the living witnesses for God and the true light, but they lapsed in their faith and went to building and erecting another “Babel” on the ruins of the old.”
It was clear to Cresson that, despite his own beliefs at the time, his wife was determined to bring up his children as members of the Society of Friends. Cresson, who had written that "fleshly love" was proof of the selfishness of human beings, would soon prove that he would not allow even family attachments to stand between him and his vision.
Cresson became familiar with a Jewish leader in Philadelphia, Rabbi Isaac Leeser, in whose religion Cresson was to find a confirmation of his own beliefs. Leeser, the minister of Congregation Mikveh Israel since 1829, was using his pulpit and pen to educate the membership and to revive the languishing communal and religious organizations. In his first important work, “The Jews and the Mosaic Law”, which was published in 1833, Leeser not only expounded on basic Jewish beliefs for both Jewish and Christian readers, but also reiterated his belief in the ultimate restoration of the Israelites and the gathering of the captives. He noted that those countries which persecuted or excluded the Jews were impoverished. England, on the other hand, had risen to eminence since Cromwell had admitted the Jews. Leeser, however, did not expect an imminent fulfillment of the Biblical prophecies and wrote that the Jews should “await with resignation the time when Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, and the Israelites shall again inhabit the land of their ancestors!” (Isaac Leeser, The Jews and the Mosaic Law Philadelphia, 1834)
Another contemporary, whose views very likely influenced Cresson, was Mordecai M. Noah, an outstanding American Jew, who addressed Christian and Jewish audiences in New York and Philadelphia in the early 1840s and urged a return to Zion as the only solution to the Jewish problem of continuous persecution. A playwright and journalist, Noah had served as the American Consul in Tunis in 1813. In 1825, he attempted to establish “Ararat", a city of refuge for the Jews on Grand Island in the Niagara River. In 1844, in a discourse on the restoration of the Jews, which was addressed primarily to Christian audiences, Noah forcefully expressed the religious and political ideas of millennium-minded reformers. "Within a few years," he said, "the attention of the world has been directed, in a peculiar manner, to the character, condition and future prospects of the Jewish people." He acknowledged his own belief in the "restoration of the Jews and the coming of the Messiah," and confidently noted that political happenings in Syria, Egypt, Turkey and Russia indicated the coming of upheavals that might bring about the return of Jews to Jerusalem. Noah cited a letter he had received from the former President, John Adams, which stated, "I really wish the Jews again in Judea, an independent nation.”
Turning to practical aspects of Zionism, Noah insisted that Jews could succeed in agriculture and that the climate and soil of Palestine were suitable for large-scale colonization. Noah believed that the United States was the most logical country from which to launch this effort. The eighteenth chapter of Isaiah describes a "land, shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia." This land, according to Noah, was the United States.
The periodical “The Occident”, first published by Leeser in 1843, carried news of Noah's activities. It is very likely that Warder Cresson read reports of Noah’s addresses and activities.
By 1844, Cresson was ready to take another big step. In the same year that Noah made his series of addresses on the return of Jews to Palestine, Cresson decided to go to Washington and to apply for the position of the first American Consul to Jerusalem. On May 17, Cresson, who had volunteered to take this position for no pay, was officially notified of his appointment. It turned out to be one of the shortest assignments on record. On May 25, 1844, barely a week after Cresson received his commission, Samuel D. Ingham of New Hope, Pennsylvania, formerly Andrew Jackson's Secretary of the Treasury, wrote to former vice-president John Calhoun: "The papers have recently announced the appointment of Warder Cresson, Consul to Jerusalem. This man is the brother of Elliot Cresson who is much distinguished for his activity in the cause of colonization, but the Consul has been laboring under an aberration of mind for many years; his mania is of the religious species. He was born a Quaker, wanted to be a preacher... and has gone round the compass from one job to another, sometimes preaching about the church doors and in the streets; his passion is for religious controversy and no doubt he expects to convert Jews and Mohammedans in the East but, in truth, he is withal a very weak-minded man and his mind, what there is of it, quite out of order... His appointment is made a theme of ridicule by all who know him.”
As a result, on June 22, 1844, Calhoun wrote Cresson: "I am instructed by the President to inform you, that, having reconsidered the proposal to establish a Consulate at Jerusalem, he is of the opinion it is not called for by public service, and therefore declines to establish it at present." By this time, Cresson, unaware that his commission had been revoked, was well on his way to Jerusalem, carrying with him a dove and an American flag.
As to his own decision to go to Jerusalem, Cresson emphasized his conviction that only one's physical presence in the Holy Land could bring about the actualization of the prophecies. He writes, "If I could have honestly believed... that the fullest degree of the glory of the coming kingdom might have been possessed... without any connection with place, I might have still remained at home in my ceiled house, with a beloved and virtuous wife and lovely family. Great and precious were the many privileges that I enjoyed there, and I feel most sensibly the deprivation of them; but the light and conviction of God's precious promises, in reference to the return of the Jew and the setting up his everlasting kingdom at Mount Zion and Jerusalem, became so great... that I could no longer remain at home; therefore I have forsaken houses, brethren, sisters, mother, wife, children and lands for the kingdom of God's sake." He insisted that his only motive in applying for the post as Consul was to give of his time, labor, and money to Israel, which was “now despised”, but take out “which” would soon be a "Crown of Glory and a Royal Diadem in the hand of thy God."
Cresson wrote that, “When I reached Jerusalem in 1844, the missionaries of the Church of England and those of the American Presbyterian Church had quarreled and left Jerusalem.” He criticized bitterly the work of societies devoted to converting Jews. In one of his rare excursions into the field of satire, he wrote a short tract 'The Society Formed in England and America for Promoting Sawdust, Instead of good Old Cheese, amongst the Jews in Jerusalem.’ Equating Judaism with "Good Old Cheese” and Christianity with “Sawdust”, Cresson explained that when real Good Old Cheese became too costly and brought discomforts to its users, a Society was established with a mission to introduce Sawdust in place of Good Old Cheese. Since the "Good Old Cheese itself smelled too strong and tasted too oily and greasy and Sawdust looked in every respect very much like the grated article”, a decision was made to create societies in England, Scotland and America to promote sawdust among the "poor Jews," even though it was admitted that they were the possessors of the genuine Good Old Cheese.
Cresson wrote disparagingly of the high salaries paid to the missionaries who lived "in the very best houses, bought most splendid Arabian horses and dressed in the most luxurious and stylish manner." As for their practical work, he wrote that, "To further their imposing and enterprising object they built a church which has cost them more than $150,000; then a hospital and Dispensary, sent physicians from England, set up an institution of Industry and also a college and schools, all to entrap and instruct the poor, dirty, oily, greasy, starving Jews and to tempt and provide them with good livings, fine English clothing, upon the only one condition that they will give their names and use all their influence to support and promote the interest of their Society for introducing and establishing Sawdust instead of Good Old Cheese, amongst the poor Jews in Jerusalem and Palestine." According to Cresson, the missionaries failed to get a single Jew, who was born in Jerusalem, to apostatize.
Throughout his account of his four year stay Jerusalem, Cresson continued his attack on the missionaries, blaming them for exploiting the miseries of the local Jewish population in order to win converts.
Although the United States decided that no post was to be established at Jerusalem, Cresson continued to act as a representative of the United States. He quickly got involved with the affairs of the Jewish community in Jerusalem, and his correspondence with Mordecai Noah shows that, as late as 1847, he was still issuing certificates of "protection"(documents carried by American seamen as proof of citizenship). On November 5, 1847, he wrote a rambling letter to Noah in which he connected the war between the United States and Mexico with the restoration of the descendants of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manassah to Mount Zion.
During the same year, Cresson began writing his most personal work, “The Key of David the True Messiah”, in which his gradual and irreversible attachment to Judaism was evident. The pages were filled with elaborate interpretations of stories from the Old Testament, especially those relating to King David and his progenitors. Jerusalem had stirred Cresson deeply. He found justification for the origins of Judaism everywhere. Archaeological diggings convinced him of the existence of Solomon's Temple and the walls of Herod's palace. By the same token, these discoveries made him doubt the authenticity of the New Testament accounts. He was certain that, "...Neither the walls of Jerusalem nor its streets were built at all during the appearance of Jesus but were destroyed seventy years after him by Titus and that the Holy Sepulcher was not the place of Christ's death."
Finally, after noting the contradictions in the Gospels and denying the divinity of Jesus, Cresson was ready for the most drastic step of his incredible journey. He writes, "I remained in Jerusalem in my former faith until the 28th day of March, 1848," he wrote, "when I became fully satisfied that I could never obtain Strength and Rest, but by doing as Ruth did, and saying to her Mother-in-Law, or Naomi 'Entreat me not to leave thee for whither thou goest I will go'... In short, upon the 28th day of March, 1848, I was circumcised, entered the Holy Covenant and became a Jew.” Cresson was then forty-nine years old.
By Cresson identifying the date of his conversion, we can resolve the mystery regarding the Moroccan convert in Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger’s response. The 28th of March 1848 - the day Warder Cresson became Michael Boaz Yisrael - corresponds to the 23rd of Adar Sheini in the Jewish year (5)608. In other words, the conversions occurred on the same day! Moreover, the response indicates that conversions in Jerusalem were pretty unusual, making it difficult to believe that there were two conversions on that specific day. Consequently, I believe that the non Jew in Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger’s response did not come from Morocco but rather from America. In Hebrew, the spelling of America can be easily mistaken for Morocco. Cresson indeed came to Jerusalem "for the sake of conversion”.
On May 7, 1848, Cresson began his return trip to Philadelphia, "being anxious of once more beholding the faces of those I loved most dearly above anything else on earth." He could not find a ship sailing directly from Jaffa or Beirut and had to wait for a ship at Smyrna, delaying his trip to "beloved family and home” by a month.
Cresson believed that he would be able to convince his family to share his newly found faith. Unfortunately, a domestic crisis was in the making. According to his account in “The Key of David”, Cresson, who had returned from Jerusalem anxious to reconcile himself with his family, found nothing but enmity at home. He claimed that the conversion brought him to a point where he was forced to choose between "the one, only God, or [his] wife”. Cresson, who had given his wife power of attorney before leaving for Jerusalem, found himself with practically no property. He remained at his home in downtown Philadelphia until December, 1848, trying to verify the financial arrangements made during his absence. However, Cresson found out that the accounting book had been made out to Elliot Cresson, his eldest brother. He was now convinced that his entire family had conspired to rob him. As a result, Cresson revoked his wife's power of attorney. The situation in the house was becoming intolerable. Cresson hired a wagon and took his belongings to the house of a Jewish friend, Isaac Asch. He then assigned one half of the $5,320 mortgage to his wife and family, in order, as he put it, "to convince them that a Jew could 'do justice and love mercy'."
By now, the battle lines were drawn. On May 15, 1849, Cresson's wife, Elizabeth, and other members of his immediate family lodged a charge of lunacy against Cresson, claiming that he wanted to rebuild the Temple on Mount Moriah and was incapable of handling his business affairs. It did not take long for a Sheriff's jury of six men to issue a verdict of insanity. This resulted in a legal dispute. Cresson's attorney, General Horatio Hubbell, succeeded in bringing an appeal on April 11, 1850, and preparations were made on both sides for a trial on the charge of lunacy in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. On May 13, 1851, two years after the original complaint, the trial opened before Judge Edward King. Elizabeth Cresson listed a series of charges, intending to prove that Cresson was a lunatic, who was incapable of handling his own affairs. Newspapers noted that, with regard to the trial, "A large number of his friends testified that they had had dealings with him and always considered him of sane mind that his buildings were properly constructed and his farm well attended to.”
In the closing defense speech on May 16, Horatio Hubbell referred to Cresson as "an earnest inquirer after truth," and made the issue of religious freedom the dominant one. The question arose: Should Cresson be blamed if he became a convert to Judaism, "that old and venerable faith whose institutes were founded amid the solitudes of Sinai and which belongs to a people hoary with antiquity - whose history exhibits them tenaciously preserving the golden thread of their religion amid the shock and dissolution of empires”? Hubbell stressed the right of free Americans to worship as they pleased. "Thank God, we are here free indeed, follower of Christ and the child of Israel alike protected... The Turk might erect his mosque and the votary of Vishnu might dream securely of the mysteries of the sacred waters of his Ganges. Such are the blessings of our republican institutions." He quoted Jefferson, who had said that as long as one fulfills his obligations as a citizen, "It is immaterial whether a man worships one god or twenty.” Hubbell portrayed Cresson as "an agriculturist, a tiller of the ground the most primitive and the most honorable occupation that man can pursue." Cresson was a gentleman, Hubbell explained, whose "education and manners introduced him into the society of such enlightened and distinguished individuals as Sir Moses Montefiore.”
To contradict the testimony of the relatives, Hubbell cited the statements of seventy-three witnesses, thirty-eight of whom were Christians. Four doctors certified that in their opinion Cresson was sane. Rabbi Mordechai Noah and Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, a great scholar from Palestine, who had met Cresson in the Holy Land, both confirmed that they considered Cresson’s manner to be normal. In his final remarks, Hubbell returned to the theme of religious tolerance, this time appealing for the jurors' understanding and sympathy in regard to Cresson's conversion. It took the Jury a short while to return with a verdict, which vindicated Cresson of all charges.
Seeing "signs" of "divine preparation" everywhere, Cresson hastened to return to Palestine. In a short work entitled, “Signs of Messiah”, which was published in 1851, Cresson enumerated some of them: a proliferation of railroads, the use of the telegraph, the California gold strike, antislavery agitation, drought in Egypt and great power competition in the Near East. To Cresson, these "omens" were fulfilling the prophecies of the Scriptures. He was, more than ever before, convinced that the “Great Sabbath" was about to commence, that "restoration" was at hand, and that "some neutral power, as America alone is, must first begin the great work."
Cresson shared his vision and emphasized that "agriculture is to be Israel's vocation." He appealed for funds to purchase such modern equipment as air-pressure engines for the running of gristmills and machines that would not require water or fuel, which were both in short supply in Palestine. He was convinced that the Jews could become self-supporting there, eliminating the need for "messengers" who collect funds from the Jews of Europe and America.
To prove his plan could work, Cresson announced that he was starting a model farm in the Valley of Rephaim, outside Jerusalem, "To introduce an improved system of English and American Farming in Palestine." He hoped that a Jewish, agricultural Palestine would become "a great center to which all who rest may come and find rest to their persecuted souls."
Cresson’s model farm never developed, for lack of capital, but Cresson continued to pray for its success. In the mid-1850s, he married Rachel Moleano and became an honored member of Jerusalem’s Sephardic community. When he died in 1860, he was buried on the Mount of Olives, "with such honors as are paid only to a prominent rabbi."
The inspiring life of Cresson is not just a story of commitment and dedication for a higher cause. It is also a story that sheds light on the fantastic world of response.
While the world of the Yeshiva is the key for Jewish survival, at times, a piece of information from the outside world can not only assist in clarifying the literature studied on the inside, but also inspire the student with a wonderful account of commitment.

שו"ת בנין ציון סימן צא

ב"ה אלטאנא, יום ו' כ"ו אייר תר"ט לפ"ק. להרה"ג וכו' מ"ה אשר לעמיל נ"י הגאב"ד דק"ק גאלין וכעת משכן כבודו בירושלם עיה"ק תוב"ב.

כתב מעכ"ת נ"י וז"ל - ילמדנו רבינו בעובדא דאתא לידן פעה"ק ירושלם ת"ו יום ג' כ"ג לירח אדר שני שנת תר"ח העבר לפ"ק נימול א"י אחד שבא הנה ממדינת מאראקא לשם גירות בפנינו בד"צ דקהל אשכנזים הי"ו וקיבל עליו המצות כדין וכדתה"ק ובש"ק שלאחריו עדן /עדין/ לא היה נתרפא ממילתו ולא טבל עודנה הגידו לי לאמר מזריזתו במצות איך הוא נזהר בשביתת שבת הגם שהוא עודנה /עודנו/ בכלל חולה שאב"ס =שאין בו סכנה= אינו מניח לגוי להבעיר אש בביתו והשבתי להם לדעתי לא מבעי' שמותר לו לעשות מלאכה בשבת אלא אפילו מחויב ומוזהר על יום ולילה לא ישבותו וחייב לעשות מלאכה בשבת כ"ז שלא טבל לשם גירות וכה עשו השומעים למשמעתי והלכו אצל הגר והגידו לו בשמי כן בש"ק לאחר תפלת המנחה וכן עשה כי כתב איזה אותיות ויהי ביום המחרת כאשר נשמע הדבר בעה"ק ת"ו פה צווחו עלי חכמי ספרד וחכמי אשכנזים הי"ו על דבר חדש הלזו אשר לא נשמע מעולם אחרי שכבר קבל עליו כל המצות בשעת מילה וכבר נימול ועומד ומצפה בכל יום לטבול לכשיתרפא שיהי' מותר לו לחלל וכש"כ שיהי' עליו חיובא ומצוה לחלל ש"ק והמה זוכרים כמה גרים שנימולו פעה"ק ת"ו ולא נשמע כזאת ומנין לי לחדש דבר אשר לא שערום הראשונים והשבתי להם אולי מקום הניחו לי להתגדר בו. ואמינא טעמא דידי האמנם מהראוי היה להתייעץ בזה עם חכמי ורבני עיה"ק פה הי"ו טרם נעשה המעשה אמנם מחמת כי כבר הי' אחר תפלת המנחה לעת ערב ובין כך יצא ש"ק ובעיני הי' הדבר פשוט שאין כאן איסור כלל ומכש"כ דלית בי' דררא אי' דאורייתא ובדרבנן עבדינן עובדא כו' וכש"כ שלענ"ד אין כאן איסור לא דאורייתא לא דרבנן כ"א מצוה בחילולו ש"ק אחרי שמעכת"ה אמרתם מכח סברא אמנם לדעתי אינו כן אב"ע סברא אב"ע גמרא איבע"א סברא כיון דקיי"ל כחכמים וכר' יוחנן יבמות (דף מ"ו) דאינו גר עד שימול ויטבול וכמ"ש הרמב"ם פי"ד מה"ל איסורי ביאה ובטוש"ע יו"ד (סי' רס"ח) וכיון דקיי"ל כרשב"ל סנהדרין דף נ"ח ע"ב גוי ששבת ח"מ דכתיב יום ולילה לא ישבותו ולרבינא אפי' בשני בשבת וכ"פ הרמב"ם ז"ל בפ' עשירי מהל' מלכים דין ט' אלא דפשטא דהש"ס משמע מיתה בידי אדם דאזהרתן זו היא מיתתן ודעת הרמב"ם דוקא בז"מ ב"נ =בז' מצוות בני נח= ב"ד ממיתין עליהן כשידינו תקיפא אבל בגוי ששבת ב"ד מכין ועונשין אבל אין ממיתין שאינה בכלל שבע מצות ב"נ יעו"ש בכ"מ והרי כ"ז שלא טבל אינו גר ועדיין הוא ב"נ כאשר מבואר א"כ במאי נפקע ממנו מצות יום ולילה ל"י =לא ישבותו= שנצטוה עליו והאיך יוכל לפטור א"ע ממצוה שנצטוה בו במה שיהי' גר ויהי' לו דין ישראל לאחר שיטבול הלא לדעת הרמב"ם ז"ל שם בהלכה י"ג מפרכסת מותר לישראל ואסור לב"נ משום אמ"ה דבב"נ במיתה תלייא רחמנא ולא בשחיטה (דלא כהרשב"א יעו"ש בכ"מ) היעלה על הדעת שיהי' מותר לו להקל על עצמו לאכול מפרכסת קודם הטבילה כיון דעדיין ב"נ הוא ולא גר וא"כ כן מה לי קולא דמפרכסת או קולא זו להתירו לעבור על מה שנצטוה יום ולילה ל"י וא"כ אדרבא לרומעכ"ת שרוצים להקל לעבור על מה שנצטוה להביא ראי' ועוד האריך מעכ"ת נ"י בהראותו רב חריפותו ובקיאתו לחזק דבריו האלה.

תשובה - פסק מעכ"ת נ"י שגר שמל ולא טבל אסור לשמור שבת מפני שעדיין אינו גר ולא יצא מכלל בן נח אשר לא חשו לו חכמי ירושלם נ"י - חקרתי בשאר מקומות שמקבלים גרים ונאמר לי שגם שם מעולם לא הקפידו על זה שלא ישמור הגר שבת קודם הטבילה. ונתתי אל לבי למצוא טעם לזה אחרי שלכאורה פסק מעכ"ת נ"י מוסד על אדני הדין ואמת אבל א"ע ראיתי שהדין עם המנהג דכבר מצד הסברא יהי' מתנגד אל השכל אחרי שמילת הגר נקרא ברית שמברכים עלי' כורת הברית כדאמרינן שבת (דף קל"ז) וגם שבת נקרא ברית כדאמרינן שם (דף קל"ב) איך נאמר אחר שנכנס לברית האחת יהי' מוכרח להפר ברית האחרת שכרת הקב"ה עם ישראל מקיימי מצותיו ולכן נלענ"ד דאף שעדיין לא נכנס לכלל ישראל גמור עד שטבל מכ"מ משעה שנכנס לברית מילה כבר נבדל מכלל ב"נ וכעין זה כתבו התוספ' בכריתות (דף ט') אמה דאמרינן שם דאבותינו נכנסו לברית במילה וטבילה והרצאת דמים ויליף מילה ממה דכתיב כי מולים היו כל העם היוצאים וכתבו התוספ' ואע"פ שאותן שהיו נמולים בימי אברהם לא מלו אותם ביציאת מצרים מכ"מ מעיקרא כשמלו עצמן מלו ליכנס בברית המקום וליבדל משאר אומות וגם כי עתה טבלו עכ"ל הרי בפי' שכבר קודם טבילה ע"י מילה לבד נכנסו לברית ועי"ז נבדלו משאר האומות וא"כ גם זר זה שמל ולא טבל דמי לזה שנכנס לברית ועי"ז נבדל משאר האומות וע"כ אין עליו עוד מצות יום ולילה ל"י של ב"נ ולכן לא בלבד שמותר לגר כזה לקיים שבת אלא אפשר לצדד ג"כ שחובה עליו לקיים ע"פ מה שכתבתי בספרי ע"ל ביבמות (דף מ"ו) בתוספ' ד"ה כי פליגי לתרץ קושית התוספ' שם שהקשו לר"ע ל"ל תושב ושכיר למעט גר שמל ולא טבל מפסח תיפוק לי' דאינו גר עד שימול ויטבול ותירצתי דשפיר צריך קרא כיון דפסח אכלו במצרים לאחר שמלו וטבילה לא הי' עד מ"ת א"כ ה"א דגם לדורות יאכל גר שמל ולא טבל מפסח לכן צריך קרא למעט. והנה בשבת (דף פ"ז) אמרינן דעל שבת נצטוו ישראל במרה וכן מוכח מהכתובים שכבר קיימו ישראל שבת קודם שבאו להר סיני שהרי הספור של המן שעליו נאמר עד אנה מאנתם הי' קודם סיני כמבואר (שם /שבת פ"ז/) וכיון דטבילה לא הי' עד סיני ע"כ קיימו ישראל שבת כשמלו ולא טבלו אף שב"נ מוזהר על יום ולילה ל"י (וכבר העיר על זה בס' פ"ד פ' בשלח ע"ש) וע"כ צ"ל או שגזיה"כ הי' שלענין שבת יצאו מכלל ב"נ ונילף משם כמו דהוי גמרינן גם לענין פסח אי ליכא מיעוט או כאשר כתבנו שע"י שנכנסו לברית מילה נכנסו ג"כ לברית שבת ועכ"פ איכא למילף מישראל קודם מ"ת שגר שמל ולא טבל מותר לקיים שבת או אם נאמר כאופן השני ששתי הבריתות כאחת נחשבו חייב לקיים שבת. ולכן לענ"ד יפה נהגו שלא לכוף לגר שמל ול"ט לעשות מלאכה בשבת. ואם צדקתי במה שכתבתי במקום אחר שציווי שביתת ישראל ואזהרת שביתת ב"נ אינם מענין א' שבזה תלוי בל"ט מלאכות ובזה תלוי במלאכת טורח ויגיעה מצאנו אפילו למי שלבו נוקפו לומר שגר שמל ול"ט מותר לקיים שבת פשר דבר על ידי שיעשה מלאכת יגיעה שאינה מל"ט מלאכות כגון שישא משא ברשות היחיד כנלענ"ד הקטן יעקב.

Refugees in Shanghai

2007-10-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

Rabbi Aaron Milevsky

Chevron 1928 & Jerusalem 1979

As I type the word “Humanity” into the Google search box, I wonder what information sites and encyclopedias will be the first to appear, describing exactly what humanity is. It is not surprising that the first organization that appears on the list is “The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity”. The person who witnessed firsthand what can happen to humanity is on the forefront of the battle to return humanity to the planet. However, one’s definition of “Human” will characterize one’s attitude towards life and define what one considers right and wrong.

For a student of the Social Darwinist thought, for example, the broad definition of “Human” is not enough to prevent a superior race from exterminating the inferior one. French anthropologist Vacher Delafouge, addressing the thinking of natural law, wrote in the 1880s, “I am convinced that in the course of the next century millions of people will kill each other because of a one-degree difference in their skull-index.”[1]
On the other hand, one who believes in a Divine Being understands that human existence is not a coincidence. The believer in G-d recognizes that the complex physical creature known as man is imbued with a soul and, thus, with holiness. Humanity, for the believer, is the understanding that every single human being is significant to G-d and, as a result, must be important to man.
This paper will explore the journey of a group of people who were lucky enough to escape the inhumane world of the Nazi war machine. These people survived because of other humans, who gave all for what they understood to be right.
For the Jews of Europe, the notion of a pogrom or expulsion was nothing new. From the Crusades to the Cossacks and Bogdan Chmielnicki, the Jew accepted the fact that he is in exile, and that persecution is a part of life. The age of Enlightenment gave hope to some, but for those Jews who understood their role in the world, Europe would never be a true home for the wandering Jew.
When an anti-Semitic leader would come to power and terrorize the chosen people, the Jew would bring to mind the words he read at the Passover Seder; “In every generation there are individuals who want do destroy us, but the Blessed Be He saves us.” In other words, “And this, too, shall pass away.” Jewish leaders would always try to placate the anti-Semitic chief with the objective of minimizing the brunt of the decree. The approach of the Jew of Germany in 1933 was no different. The attitude of the majority of Jews did not change during the first three years of Nazi rule.[2] In fact, Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, a leading Orthodox Rabbi in prewar Berlin, sent a personal letter to Hitler praising him for cracking down on the godless Communists.[3] However, some did sense that this new anti-Semitic wave was different. During April of 1933, Hillel Mannes, a graduate student in the University in Berlin, arrived one day and found a notice posted at the door of the registrar’s office: ”Dogs and Jews cannot register.” He immediately left Germany to Lithuania.
Mannes’ departure from Germany, to a country that was not under Nazi rule, indicates the mindset of the European Jews outside of Germany in the early years of Hitler’s reign. The common thought of the European Jew was, that although our Jewish brethren in Germany are going through a difficult period, we are safe. Few Jews outside of Germany felt an urgent need to depart from Europe. The sizable minority that emigrated in a wave of panic in 1933 was a limited German experience.[4]
One of the few exceptions to this general outlook was a Lithuanian Rabbi by the name of Aaron Milevsky, who sensed the dark clouds of Hitler spreading over the continent and left his pulpit in Alitus, Lithuania, to serve as a Rabbi in Montevideo, Uruguay.[5] As we shall see later, Milevsky played a key role in the relief provided to the European refugees that were detained in Shanghai during the war years.
The fate of the Eastern European Jews drastically changed with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. By September 17, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty, the Soviet army invaded Poland from the East.[6]
As Jews in the western part of Poland were learning first hand of the brutality of the SS, their brethren to the East were suffering under Soviet control. One of the first items on the Communist agenda was the shutting down of all Yeshivot. The students of the rabbinical seminaries were advised to leave. Vilna, which was, at the time, under independent Lithuanian control, became a center for many of the Yeshivot.[7] The Great torah luminary and leader of the Vilna community Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) advised everyone to leave eastern Poland immediately, even on the Jewish Sabbath, due to the concern that the border would soon be closed and it would be impossible to leave Russia.[8]
The Vilna community took on the enormous task of helping the refugees. As the conditions worsened, the community sought help from the United States. In addition to seeking out the financial assistance that was needed for day to day survival, relief organizations focused their attention on figuring out a way to get the Jews out of Lithuania. Although Lithuania was independent at that time, many believed that this was a temporary situation and that either Germany or Russia would soon invade.[9]
In the September edition of the American Jewish Orthodox monthly, “Hapardes”, we find the following urgent plea for the rescue of the Mirrer Yeshiva:
“The war that befell Poland in September 1939 struck also the great Torah centers of Poland. The Mirrer Yeshiva, with its more than 400 scholars was compelled to flee. But they stayed in Vilna only a short time. They felt that sooner or later, that country would come under the control of Soviet Russia, and they felt most certainly that they could not exist as a Yeshiva under the Soviets and it was decided to transfer the Yeshiva first to Japan and then to whence visas could be obtained.”
Clearly, the refugees and other Jews in Lithuania were in a desperate search for a way to get out. However, several requirements and, in most cases, obstacles prevented the majority of Jews from departing. The first requirement to begin the process of leaving Eastern Europe was an entry permit or Visa to another country. Unfortunately, with the quotas set in the United States, and the British limiting the number of Jews allowed into Palestine, very few, if any, options existed for the desperate Jews.
One of the options that eventually helped to save numerous refugees was the Curacao Visa. Nathan Gutwirth, a student of the Talmudic college of Telshe Lithuania, was a Dutch national. Gutwirth requested from the Dutch Ambassador in Riga to go to Curacao, which was part of the Dutch West Indies. When his friends in the Mirrer Yeshiva expressed their desire to utilize this exit route, Gutwirth appealed again to the Dutch Ambassador in Riga to stamp his friends’ passports with a visa to Curacao. The Ambassador explained that “No visa to Curacao was required but a landing permit could only be granted by the Governor of Curacao”. Gutwirth then asked to stamp his friends’ passport with only the first half of the phrase i.e. “No visa to Curacao was required”. The Ambassador, fully aware of this life saving device, authorized the Dutch Consul in Kovno, J. Zwareendjik, to do this for Gutwirth’s friends and soon the entire faculty and student body of the Mirrer Yeshiva obtained Curacao end visas.[10]
However, the Soviets would not grant any exit visas, even to those who were given end visas by the Ambassador. They insisted on seeing a document from a neighboring country that gave permission for the individual to travel through. Being that the Western front was at war, the only option was to travel east, via Japan. The Japanese knew that the Curacao end visas were worthless and, as a policy, would not grant transfer visas. [11] Fortunately an “angel of salvation” appeared and thousands of Jews were saved.
Senpo Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, was sent to Kovno by the Japanese Ambassador to Berlin in order to ascertain more fully German moves on the Eastern front. Sugihara recognized the dire situation of the Jewish refugees, and his compassion for them made him issue Japanese transit visas, in direct violation of his orders from Tokyo. Sugihara continued to hand-write visas until September 4, when he had to leave his post before the consulate was closed. By that time he had granted over 3500 visas. He was still writing visas while in transit in a hotel and after boarding the train, throwing visas into the crowd of desperate refugees out the train's window even as the train pulled away.[12]
With Curacao end visas and Japanese transit visas in hand, the Mirrer Yeshiva refugees were granted permission from the Russians to leave Lithuania. After traveling for 11 days across Siberia, they reached Vladivostok, where they boarded a tramp steamer, which was overcrowded with 550 refugees. The group eventually arrived in Kobe, Japan.
Amidst the many challenges of visas, affidavits and the search for a new home, the Mirrer students were concerned with a rather interesting Halachic problem: Where is the Halachic International Date Line? A difference of opinion existed among Jewish scholars as to the proper location. According to some authorities, it was 180 degrees east of Jerusalem, and thus east of Japan. Others alleged that the line was to the West. Due to the severity of the issue, many observed the Jewish Sabbath for two days. However, this was not a practical solution for the Day of Atonement, when Jews are required to fast for a complete twenty-four hour period. Fasting for forty eight hours was not an option.[13]
The primary concern of the refugees was to find a country that would receive them at a time when more and more countries were tightening, rather than relaxing, their restrictions. To add to the existing sense of insecurity, there was a constant fear that the temporary visas would be denied extension. Luckily, a righteous gentile by the name of Setzuso Kotsuji was there to help.
Setzuso Kotsuji was born into an aristocratic Japanese family. His father, a prominent Shinto priest, descended from a long line of well known priests. At a young age, Setzuso visited an antique bookshop in which he discovered a Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, which had been translated into Japanese. In 1937, he published his first book in Japanese on Hebrew language and grammar. At that time, he also founded the Tanach and Hebrew Department at the Tokyo University. This department attracted many students. Quite rapidly, Professor Kotsuji gained acclaim in Japan as a scholar and thinker of repute. He was also highly esteemed in government circles, where he made many friends. He would subsequently utilize these connections to help the Jewish refugees. For purely humanitarian reasons, Professor Kotsuji became involved in the refugees' problems and made vigorous efforts to have their visas extended. To achieve this, he utilized his friendship with Japan's Foreign Affairs minister. As a result of Professor Kotsuji's intervention, the Japanese authorities agreed to extend the refugees' visas several times, letting them stay for eight months instead of the original two-week period.[14]
With no other country willing to take the Jews, there was one option left for the refugees: Shanghai. The choice of Shanghai as a potential haven was dictated not only by geographic proximity, but also by necessity. The international settlement of the city, which was governed by a municipal council made up of representatives of the foreign powers that had extraterritorial rights in the Chinese port, made Shanghai one of the only places in the world where Jews could still obtain entry. Moreover, there was an affluent and influential local Jewish community which could provide assistance in obtaining the necessary documents. While its resources had been strained by the recent influx of approximately 17 000 Jewish refugees from Central Europe, Shanghai still had various community leaders who were willing to help bring in additional refugees.[15]
Although Shanghai carried the reputation of being a “hellhole”, several Jewish organizations and individuals contacted Rabbi Mayer Ashkenazi, the spiritual leader of the local East European Jewish community in Shanghai, and enlisted his assistance to obtain entry permits.
Toward the end of March 1941, word was received in Japan that another group of Polish refugee rabbis and Yeshiva students were in extreme distress. They had arrived in Vladivostok on their way to Japan but had been detained by the Russians. The majority possessed end visas to Curacao. However, by that time, it was clear to the Japanese authorities that the people with Curacao visas were not headed for the West Indies. The Japanese, therefore, barred the entry of any refugees who did not posses valid end visas. The Russians, in the meantime, had informed the refugees in Vladivostok that they would not be allowed to remain there indefinitely.[16]
Among the refugees in Vladivostok was Hillel Mannes. Mannes, aware of the fact that Shanghai was the only option, sent an S.O.S cable to Shanghai for help. On March 24, 1941 he received the following reply: “Very difficult to obtain permits.” In his manuscript, Mannes writes, “Then I cabled Rabbi Ashkenazi, the Rov of Shanghai, and to his right-hand man, Yosef Tugenhaft, a talmid (rabbinical student) of my father, whose address he had given me. He asked Rabbi Ashkenazi to find some way to help us.”[17]
On April 7, 1941, Ashkenazi obtained the entry permits and cabled the information to Vladivostok. The only problem, which proved to be quite difficult, was transportation from Vladivostok to Shanghai. There were no direct sailings from Vladivostok to Shanghai scheduled for the next two months. The Russians, in the meantime, were adamant that a solution must be found and would not allow the refugees to remain in Vladivostok indefinitely.
Eventually the good news arrived. Mannes records that, “A cable came from Shanghai the seventh day of Pesach (Passover) that a coalboat would pass Vladivostok on its way to Shanghai and that we may board it on Mozoei Yom Tov (day after the holiday). Such stopovers happen once or twice a year. We said it was a Ness (miracle) at the right time. We had overstayed our welcome in Vladivostok. Can you imagine our emotions saying Hallel on Pesach! Our hearts were full with gratitude to Hashem for taking us out to Cheiruss (freedom).”[18] The group of 47 people left Vladivostok on May 1st 1941 on a boat called Artica, and arrived three days later in Shanghai.
Rabbi Ashkenazi and the local refugee leaders continued their efforts to obtain additional permits for the Mirrer group in Kobe and for the rabbis and Yeshiva students that still remained in Lithuania. Their campaign included negotiations with the local Japanese authorities and the Municipal Council of the International Settlement.
Unfortunately, the Shanghai permits rescue project did not succeed in saving the Jews trapped in Lithuania. However, it did lay the groundwork for the relocation of the refugee Torah scholars stranded in Japan to Shanghai, a step that ultimately helped ensure their survival.[19]
After their prolonged sojourn in Japan, approximately 900 Polish refugees finally arrived in Shanghai in the fall of 1941. The first project for the newly arrived group was the establishment of a separate relief organization. Financial aid was provided to all refugees by the Committee for the Assistance of European Jewish Refugees in Shanghai (CFA) with funds provided by overseas Jewish relief agencies, such as the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in the United States. The newcomers, who were temporarily housed in an old synagogue, experienced very difficult conditions and needed additional funding. They consequently established The Committee for Assistance of Jewish Refugees from Eastern Europe (Jewcom).[20]
The level of assistance that the refugees were receiving was not sufficient for the refugee scholars. In a telegram sent to Rabbi Silver of The Vaad Hahatzala in New York, Rabbi Chaim Schmulewicz, Dean of the Mirrer Yeshiva, wrote:
“Met Joint representatives here stressed need minimum budget for Rabbis Yeshivas housing feeding seven American dollars monthly because students must live separately cannot supplement income by working but reply unfavorable unless direct instructions from joint New York students now crowded temporarily on cement floor synagogue hundreds coming no residences situation tragical [sic] please induce joint meet our necessities immediately cost living up”.[21] This report of the situation in Shanghai set a major fundraising relief effort into motion. As a result the Vaad sent close to seven thousand dollars to the refugee scholars during the period prior to the outbreak of the war in the Pacific.
Throughout this period, the Vaad invested effort into arranging for the emigration of Torah scholars from Shanghai as it was obvious that Shanghai was hardly an ideal haven. However by the time all the necessary arrangements had been made for the Jewish refugee scholars to travel from Shanghai to Manila on December 11, 1941, the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, and the trip had to be cancelled. The war in the Pacific put an end to whatever hopes there were for the emigration of the refugee scholars from the Far East, and they were forced to stay in Shanghai for the duration of the war.[22]
The outbreak of the war in the Pacific had a direct detrimental effect on the refugees in Shanghai. The Japanese occupation of American and British firms precipitated unemployment among the refugee workers. This condition aggravated the already overwhelming relief problem. The break in communication between Shanghai and the United States closed the export industry to the United States. However, the biggest problem for the refugees, and particularly the for the scholars, was the cessation of the incoming relief aid.[23] The United States State Department, under the “Trading with Enemy Act”, prohibited all communication and transition of monies to countries under enemy occupation. As a result, the JDC ceased to transmit funds and loan guarantee cables to Shanghai. Although a sympathetic U.S. Treasury Department official gave a “hint” to send cables through neutral countries, the JDC’s policy was based on the premise that, “We as an American organization cannot be involved in anything that has the remotest color of trading with the enemy.” This was a major blow for the Shanghai community that had been dependent on aid from the United States. Laura Margolies, the JDC representative in Shanghai, was in shock and dismay at the JDC’s refusal to continue its help for the refugees. Even the Japanese, who had given their permission for U.S. money to enter via the Red Cross, were dumbfounded when they heard of the denial.[24]
Rabbi Kalmanowitz, one of the most active members of the Vaad Hatzala in New York, realizing the urgency of the situation, continued his communication and transfer of money via neutral countries.
Amos Bunim, describing the activities of the Vaad during that critical period writes that, “The Vaad and the Joint differed on tactics as well. The Joint had a superb record of helping Jews, but steadfastly refused to circumvent any laws to do so, including the relatively minor one of sending illegal cables. The Vaad, on the hand, followed the Torah commandment that saving a life takes precedence over everything else, including the Torah’s own commandments and prohibitions. It hesitates to overlook rules, especially when Jewish lives were at stake.”[25] Bunim continues to describe the outlook of the Vaad, stating, “You work through government protocol. We do not. We bribe. We forge visas, and we have been doing it- anything to save our brothers.” [26]
Kalmanowitz and the Vaad continued with the illegal communication despite several warnings by the FBI of impending arrest.[27]
In order for the Vaad to continue its assistance for the refugees, a system was developed, in which Shanghai residents that had financial means would grant loans locally, with the guarantee that the Vaad would deposit equal amounts in U.S. bank accounts. However, reliable sources were needed in neutral countries to transfer the information.
A few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Vaad had renewed communication with Shanghai via Rabbi Aaron Milevsky, the former Rabbi in Alitus, Lithuania, who was serving in Montevideo, Uruguay at the time. Milevsky began getting heavily involved with relief for the refugees while they were still in Vilna, and corresponded with Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in 1940. On January 1942, as Rabbi Milevsky was celebrating the birth of his son Uziel, a cable arrived from Kalmanowitz, stating that urgent action was needed.[28]
Although the communication channel had been firmly established, a means had to be found to conceal the true content of the messages since the context violated American regulations. A special code, based on the first chapter of Exodus, was devised. Each of the patriarch Jacob’s sons listed as having gone down to Egypt was given a numerical value in ascending order; Reuben, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda Issachar, Zevulun, Binyamin, Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher. Reuben became the code for $100, and each name after that represented an additional $100. In addition, various terms such as “skins,” “bales” and “rabbis” were used to refer to money, and Hebrew words were often substituted for numbers.
Thus, for example, on January 16, 1942, Rabbi Chaim Shmulewitz, Dean of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Shanghai cabled Milevsky, instructing him to cable the following message to Rabbi Kalmanowitz in New York: “Ponevejskys Epsteins Shmoinogd visit Feldman 235 West 29.” The explanation of the message is as follows: David Ponevejsky, a resident of Shanghai, is willing to give the refugee Torah scholars eight thousand dollars (Shmona is the Hebrew word for the number eight) in return for the same amount which was raised in Chicago by Rabbi Efraim Epstein. In order for the transaction to be carried out, you are to give the said sum to Aaron Feldman whose address is 235 West 29th Street, New York City.
Confirmation of the transaction and instructions regarding the distribution of additional funds were contained in Rabbi Kalmanowitz’s reply, which was cabled by Rabbi Milevsky on January 22, 1942: “Aron well. Stop. Epstein regards everybody Stop. Also brothers Gud[sic] Reuben regards Mirsky Yisochor Kotler regards Kletzer Judah Grosovski regards Kamienietzky Shimon regards Telz Lubliner Beth Jacob Rabonim. Everybody Reuben regards Nawaredok Slonimer. All well cable health.”
The instructions from the Vaad were as follows:
The money has been deposited as per your request (“Aron well”). The $800 raised by Rabbi Epstein is to be distributed to all the refugee Torah scholars.” (Epstein regards everybody”). In addition, the following sums were raised on behalf of the various Yeshivot: $1100(Gud Reuben”) for the Mirrer Yeshiva(“Mirsky”); $500(“Yisochor) for the Kletzk Yeshiva(“Kotler regards Kletzker); $400(“Judah”) for the Kamenetz Yeshiva (“Grosovski regards Kamienietzky”); $200(“Shimon”) each for the students from Telz, Lublin, Beth Jacob girls’ School, as well as for rabbis; and $100(“Reuben”) for the Yeshivot Navardok and Slonim.
In this manner, tens of thousands of dollars were turned over to the rabbis and yeshiva students in Shanghai during the war. By the summer of 1942, $22,000 in relief had been arranged.[29]
Milevsky continued with this scheme despite pressure from the Uruguayan government and several visits by U.S. officials, who threatened that if the content of the enigmatic cables were not explained, Milevsky would be placed behind bars.[30]
However, a change had to be made in the communication channel when, on January 25, 1942, Uruguay broke diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Japan and subsequently declared war on Japan. Starting in the spring of 1942 all messages to and from Shanghai were transmitted by Milevsky via Argentina with the help of Rabbi Zev Hillel Klein, the leader of the Mizrachi community in Buenos Aires. Milevsky’s cables continued to assist in supporting the refugees in Shanghai throughout the duration of the war, until the refugees were finally able to depart in 1946.
Over a decade after this episode two sisters-in-law of Rabbi Milevsky were sitting at a restaurant in New York City. A stranger, who had been eavesdropping into their conversation, walked over to them and asked if they were the daughters of the old Mrs. Kolitz of Jerusalem. After the two women answered in the affirmative, the stranger asked about the wellbeing of every single family member and was quite familiar with all details of the extended family.
The sisters were dumbfounded with regard to how this total stranger knew so much of a family that was living in several different countries. After seeing their shocked response to his questions, the stranger explained to them that during World War II, he had worked for the U.S. government at the Office of the Censorship, an emergency wartime agency set up on December 19, 1941 to aid in the censorship of all communications coming into and going out of the United States. One of the agents, who had been reviewing the cables sent to and from Milevsky in Uruguay, became suspicious of the activity and reported it to his superior. His superior, the stranger in the restaurant, recognized that illegal activity was taking place. However, as a Jew, he understood that the cables contained no threat to the U.S., and that, based on the context, they must be providing some sort of assistance to rabbis in need. Consequently, he notified all agents that all Milevsky cables should come directly to his desk. As a result he was an “expert” on the personal life facts of the Milevsky family.[31]
The Milevsky communication channel was a vital part of the survival of the refugees in the foreign and difficult setting of Shanghai.
One of the European refugees that benefited from this support was Rabbi Hillel Mannes. At the time, Mannes’ family lived downstairs from Rabbi Chaim Schmulewicz, who was the Vaad contact in Shanghai. Mannes, who had gotten married and started a family after his arrival in Shanghai, received support through the Milevsky channel and became active in the Jewish education scene. His wife, Yenta, was also a teacher at the Beth Jacob school of Shanghai. On September 2, 1946, following the conclusion of the war and the birth of their second daughter, Chaya, the Mannes family left Shanghai with gratitude for having survived the turbulent times. They settled in Wickliffe, Ohio.[32]
The Holocaust, the darkest period in Jewish and world history, proved to what degree a human being can descend by means of a corrupt and vicious philosophy. On the other hand, people like Zwareendjik, Sugihara, Kotsuji, Ashkenazi, Kalmanowitz and Milevsky, are an inspiration to humanity for eternity. These few beacons of light in the time of darkness, who placed their life on the line for the sake of others, remind the world that a true “human” is one who sees the image of God in every person.
Judaism teaches that although reward for good deeds is given in the world to come, kindness and charity merit additional reward in this world.
On June 21, 1966, Rabbi Milevsky’s youngest son Uziel, ( born during the critical month of January 1942) married Chaya Mannes. Chaya was born in Shanghai after the war to Hillel and Yenta Mannes.

[1] Bauer Y., History of the Holocaust (New York, 1982) p.42.
[2] Bauer, p.113.

[3] Shapiro M. B., Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy (Oxford, 1999) Letter is published as appendix.
[4] Bauer, History of the Holocaust p.114

[5] Bornstein, A., Yeshivat Mir (Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1999) p. 285.

[6] Bauer, 139.

[7] Bunim, A. A Fire in His Soul: Irving M. Bunim and His Impact on American Orthodox Jewry. (New York, 1989) p.72.

[8] Mannes, H. “From Schwabach to Vladivostock.” A 19 page unpublished manuscript of the author’s memoirs. (Lakewood, 1996) p.
10.

[9] Bunim, 74.
[10] Kranzler, D. Japanese Nazis & Jews: The Jewish Refugee Community of Shanghai 1938-1945. (New York, 1976) p. 312.

[11] Mannes, 11.
[12] Kranzler, Japanese Nazis & Jews, p.313.
[13]Kranzler, Japanese Nazis & Jews, p. 321.
[14] Kranzler, Japanese Nazis & Jews, p. 323 (In 1959, the 60-year-old Professor Setzuso Kotsuji was warmly welcomed to the Jewish
faith by his friends from the Mirer and named Avraham ben Avraham Kotsuji.)
[15] Zuroff, E. The response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: the activities of the Vaad ha-Hatzala Rescue
Committee, 1939-1945. (New York, 2000) p.146.
[16] Zuroff, 150.

[17] Mannes, 18.
[18] Mannes, 18.

[19] Zuroff, 163.

[20] Zuroff, 192.

[21] Pardes, S. “Pidyon Shvuim.” Hapardes. September 1941, p.3
[22] Zuroff, 194.

[23] Kranzler, Japanese Nazis & Jews, p. 456

[24] Kranzler, Japanese Nazis & Jews, p. 462

[25] Bunim, 72.

[26] Bunim, 122.

[27] Kranzler, Japanese Nazis & Jews, p. 472

[28] Zuroff, 211.

[29] Zuroff, 194.

[30] Bornstein, 285.

[31] Bornstein, 294.

[32] Goldbart, K. “Beth Yaakov School Shanghai.” The Jewish Press: April 6, 1990.

Rabbi Hillel Mannes
Toronto 1994

Lech Lecha

2007-09-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Paying up our dept
As Avram returned to the land of Israel from Egypt, the Torah notes that “He retracted his route” Rashi explains that he took the same route in order to pay back his debts.
A number of commentators wonder if Avram was indeed in such dire straits that he actually got into debt, and whom could he count on to give credit to a fugitive in his condition?
Some see in Rashi’s remarks a much deeper meaning. As the Midrash tells us, Avram, from a very young age, devoted his life to teach humanity of the existence of Hashem, and the moral responsibility every member of the human race has. Avram’s commitment to his faith was so great, that he in fact destroyed his family’s lucrative business, (Terach’s Idols Inc.) due to his moral belief. Wherever Avram would travel and meet people he would speak about Hashem, and would teach that all good bestowed upon man comes from the Creator of Heaven and earth. When the Torah tells us that Avram reached a specific location, built an altar and called out in the name of Hashem, he was essentially preaching monotheism and moral responsibility to man. Unfortunately, during the famine period, Avram was in a very difficult predicament. How can you preach that morality brings blessing to man, when here you have the most moral of all men leaving Israel -the land that the master of the universe has just commanded him to travel to- and searching for a way to survive? Avram could not answer this difficult question, and was in “debt” on his way down to Egypt, not physically but rather spiritually.
However ,after the events in Egypt- and the miraculous intervention of Hashem to save Sarai from harm’s way and the great wealth bestowed upon Avram, he was able to repay those depts by showing humanity that the Almighty protects and provides individuals that really believe in him.
Prayer, an essential component of a true Torah and spiritual life, is a very difficult concept to understand. People time and again ask, if all that is given to man is good, why should I implore Hashem to amend the situation? Doesn’t the Talmud teach that all things are for the good? Rabbi Chaim of Volozin in his work Nefesh Hachaim gives us a very deep insight into the true purpose of prayer. The Nefesh Hachaim explains that when a person prays to Hashem to alleviate his difficult situation, the prayer is not for the sake of the person, rather for the sake of Hashem. When a person is in pain the Shechina also feels pain. The Midrash tells us that the relationship between the Jew and Hashem is similar to that of twins, that when one gets injured the other one feels the pain.
Accordingly, the objective of prayer is to ease the pain that the Shechina is experiencing.
When the nation of Israel is suffering as a whole, in addition to the pain Hashem feels for each and every individual, there is also a great desecration of the name of Hashem. When the Jewish people-the nation that is recognizes by the world as chosen by the Almighty-suffer, humanity asks; “Where is their G-d”. How is it, they wonder, that the nation that brought monotheism to the world can experience a Holocaust? This Chilul Hashem, is one that we must focus are prayers on, that it should come to an end, because when we cannot answer the question we again enter in to a situation, like Avram leaving the land of Canaan, of “debt”.
Avram’s exodus from Egypt repaid those depts, and sanctified the name of Hashem with the abundance of material blessings he obtained in Egypt. The sanctification of Hashem by means of the exodus and his reentry into Israel, was the template for the future exodus and entree in the day s of Moshe and Yehoshua, and the great “payback of depts” that occurred throughout the supernatural journey in the wilderness.
We pray that the suffering of the Jewish people and consequently, the terrible Chilul Hashem come to and end with the coming of Moshiach, and we can finally get rid of our “dept” that we owe to humanity.

2007-06-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Shelach

2004-10-24T13:29:00.001-07:00

In the second chapter of Parashat Shemot, the Torah tells us the story of Pharaoh's daughter finding Moshe. In verse five, it says, "She sent her maid and fetched the box." The Talmud relates that the word "Amatah" (literally, “her maid”) also means "her hand." It continues to explain that a miracle took place and her hand extended beyond its natural capacity and reached the box. When we learn such a statement in the Oral Tradition, there must be a deeper meaning.

I would like to share with you an approach to this statement. The day of Shavuot, when we celebrate the receiving of the Torah, is a bit difficult to understand. After all, the Torah and its 613 commandments were completed only after the forty years in the desert. If so, what exactly did the children of Israel receive on that day at Sinai? Maimonides, in the eighth chapter of Yesodei Hatorah, writes that the reason we follow every word of Moshe and we believe that all he said is truly the word of Hashem, is not because of miracles he performed, but rather due to the revelation at Sinai. When Hashem tells Moshe (Shemot 19:9), "And they will also believe in you forever", he is telling Moshe that the Jewish nation, by standing at Sinai, will reach a spiritual level through which it will become clear to them that everything they hear from Moshe from now on, is the true will of Hashem. With these words of Maimonides we have a better understanding of what is taking place at Mount Sinai. The revelation is not to transmit the complete book of Hashem, with all its guidelines and laws of how to live as a Jew, but rather to make it clear to the children of Israel that from now on every word they hear from Moshe is the word of Hashem and must be followed in precisely the same manner they would follow a commandment coming out of the mouth of Hashem. All of this became clear to the nation as they were standing at Mount Sinai, and this comprehension is what we commemorate on the day of Shavuot. So, in essence, the day of Shavuot is the day when the nation extends beyond its physical boundaries and the Jewish people are turned into prophets, to become witnesses to Moshe's role as the conveyor of Hashem's will. Although they always considered Moshe a prophet, on that day it became clear to them that their leader was much more than a regular prophet, whose words have no guarantee always to reflect the will of G-d (due to the free will of the prophet), but a prophet with a guarantee from Hashem, that the Shechina (Divine voice) will be speaking from his throat, now and forever.

The name of Pharaoh's daughter was Batya - the daughter of god. In Egypt, the god referred to Pharaoh, because Pharaoh considered himself a god and named his daughter with that in mind. Batya left Egypt and converted to Judaism, but she still kept her name. After conversion, the reference to G-d in her name was to the true One. In a sense, Batya represents the Jewish nation which in Egypt, was affected by the pagan culture surrounding it. The pagans believed in Pharaoh as a god and the Jewish nation accepted this philosophy. With redemption, came the acceptance of the true G-d. According to tradition, Moshe was born on the seventh of Adar. Three months later, when Batya discovered him, the date was the sixth of Sivan - the same day on which eighty years later, the Jewish people will be standing at Mount Sinai. Batya, who represents the nation of Israel - by the fact of her being part of the pagan culture and afterwards finding Hashem- extended her hand in a supernatural way, on the sixth day of the month of Sivan, to find Moshe. In much the same way, eighty years later on the same day at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people will extend themselves spiritually, and exceed their limited human capacity, to see clearly who was the prophet, Moshe. With this we may gain some insight into the message of the extension of the hand.

"Pri Etz Hadar"

2004-10-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Torah states that one of the four species we take on the holiday of Sukkoth is the "Pri Etz Hadar". Literally, " a fruit of a beautiful tree," known to us as the Esrog. The Talmud, seeking to identify the fruit that the Torah has in mind, comments that by switching the vowels, "Hadar" (beautiful) can be read "Hador" (that dwells). Therefore, the verse can be translated: "fruit of a tree that dwells". This refers to the fact that the Esrog, unlike other fruits, does not just grow, blossom, and fall off the tree within a short period of time, rather the Esrog lives on its tree from year to year, and when the new crop grows, the one from the previous year still exists on the tree. Commentators explain that there is an important message we can learn from this.
We will now examine another aspect of the Esrog. The halacha mentions many problems that will invalidate the Esrog. For example, it cannot be shriveled, or have certain types of spots on it. This is because Halacha requires the Esrog to be "Hadar-beautiful," and these flaws invalidate its status of "Hadar."Interestingly enough, this is the only mitzva that we find in the Torah where beauty is an essential condition for the performance of the mitzvah, and not just an enhancement. Hence, the Esrog is the symbol of beauty in Jewish tradition.
Concerning the commandments and practices of our heritage, the oft-repeated question is heard: "Why is this done in such an old-fashioned manner, it would be so much nicer if we could upgrade and practice in a more contemporary fashion ?" .This brand of thinking leads many to reform our tradition, envisioning that this will cause Judaism to become more attractive and appealing. For example, there was a time that some people maintained that the Rosh Hashana shofar's appeal and inspiration would be largely enhanced were it to be covered in gold(according to Halacha this is prohibited ).At a different time of Jewish history there was a movement to make some changes to the appearance of the synagogue, with the same goal. The Bimah -from where the Torah is read- was removed from the center of the synagogue, to the front, facing the congregation.
On the surface these changes are beautiful, the Shofar is nicer and more respectable for the holiday, the synagogue is structured in a manner that all can hear the reading of the Torah with ease. The message of the Esrog, is a message of the Jewish approach to beauty . The Esrog symbolizes beauty ,a very important attribute to take in to consideration when relating to the almighty , however its development took place when on the same tree there remained a representative from the earlier generation. Torah beauty observes the past, and learns from it, how to continue in the future.
Every morning we recite "Az Yashir," the song that the Jews sang following the crossing of the Reed Sea. In it we say, "Ze... - This is my G-d and I will beautify Him, the G-d of my father and I will exalt him." The verse "I will beautify Him," is a source for beautifying the mitzvos. However, as we are making the mitzvot beautiful, we should be mindful, that he is the G-d of my Fathers and we must remain loyal to the tradition handed down to us, to accomplis the beauty G-D desires.

Rosh Hashanah

2004-10-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

We all know Rosh Hashanah as the day on which we hear the sound of the Shofar, following the commandment of the Torah, "It will be a day of Teruah."However, we may wonder: "Why is there such a variety of sounds? Can we not just hear a Teruah and go home?"The Talmud explains that a Teruah must be sounded three times, each time preceded and followed by a Tekiah, a long clear sound. Although we are able to identify the proper sound for the Tekiah,when it comes to the Teruah, there is a debate.The Talmud explains that the oral tradition translates the word "Teruah" as "Yebava," and "Yebava"is a unique type of cry that was let out by the mother of Sisrah.Sisrah was an extremely powerful general who tormented the Jewish nation for twenty years.When he went to war against the Jews, G-D performed a miracle, and he was killed (Judges 4,5). The chapter describing the song and praise given by the Jews to G-D ends with a description of Sisrah’s mother reacting to his delay in returning. The verse states the following: "And the mother of Sisrah cried." However, the word used for cry is "Vateyabev," the same word that the Talmud uses to translate "Teruah."The Rabbis in the Talmud say that the reason we blow different sounds for the Teruah is that we are attempting to create a sound similar to the cry of general Sisrah’s mother, and because we are not sure what the sound is like, we need to blow a variety of sounds.Nevertheless, we still may wonder, why do we learn how to perform a mitzvah as significant as blowing the Shofar on this holy and important day from the cry of the mother of an evil general?I believe that we can find the answer by understanding the uniqueness of her cry.Usually, a cry emanates from feelings of despair and hopelessness. Sisrah had a perfect victory record as general, always returning as champion. When his mother cried, deep down, although she was concerned at the time, she felt confident that her son would return once again, and she even expresses her confidence by saying that he must be delayed by the business of collecting the booty. The word "Vateyabev" is a description of that unique cry, one that conveys concern and worry but with an underlying confidence.The day of Rosh Hashanah is a very serious day, a day when our individual and collective future is determined, a day during which we have the opportunity to pray and ask for mercy for Israel, that all the suffering should come to an end. So we lift the Shofar and blast the sound of a cry.However, this cry is not one of despair and gloom, because we know that we have a Father in Heaven and that his concern for us is like that of a father for his children. So when we cry, it is a cry that carries within it confidence that G-D has a plan and that redemption and peace will eventually come. When we blow the shofar, we don’t just blow the sound of a cry, but rather a "yebava" that indicates our confidence in the Creator for a good year.

Parashat Shemot

2004-10-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

In the second chapter of Parashat Shemot, the Torah tells us the story of Pharaoh's daughter finding Moshe. In verse five, it says, "She sent her maid and fetched the box." The Talmud relates that the word "Amatah", (lit. her maid), also means, "her hand." It continues to explain that a miracle took place, and her hand extended beyond its natural capacity and reached the box.When we learn such a statement in the Oral Tradition, there must be a deeper meaning. I would like to share with you an approach to this statement.The day of Shavuot, when we celebrate the receiving of the Torah, is a bit difficult to understand. After all, the Torah and its 613 commandments were completed only after the forty years in the desert. If so, what exactly did the children of Israel receive on that day, at Sinai?Maimonides, in the eighth chapter of Yesodei Hatorah, writes that the reason we follow every word of Moshe and we believe that all he said is truly the word of Hashem, is not because of miracles he performed, but rather due to the revelation at Sinai. When Hashem tells Moshe, (Shemot 19:9), "And they will also believe in you forever," he is telling Moshe that the Jewish nation, by standing at Sinai, will reach a spiritual level through which it will become clear to them that everything they hear from Moshe from now on, is the true will of Hashem.With these words of Maimonides we have a better understanding of what is taking place at mount Sinai.The revelation is not to transmit the complete book of Hashem with all its guidelines and laws of how to live as a Jew, but rather to make it clear to the children of Israel , that from now on every word they hear from Moshe, is the word of Hashem, and must be followed in precisely the same manner they would follow a commandment coming out of the mouth of Hashem. All of this became clear to the nation as they were standing at Mount Sinai, and this comprehension is what we commemorate on the day of Shavuot.So in essence the day of Shavuot is the day when the nation extends beyond its physical boundaries, and turned in to prophets, to become witnesses to Moshe's role as the conveyor of Hashem's will, because even though they always considered Moshe a prophet, on that day it became clear to them that their leader is much more than a regular prophet, whose words have no guarantee to always reflect the will of G-d, due to the free will of the prophet, but a prophet with a guarantee from Hashem, that the Shechina (Divine voice) will be speaking from his throat, now and forever.The name of Pharaoh's daughter was Batya - the daughter of god. In Egypt the god was referring to Pharaoh, because Pharaoh considered himself a god and named his daughter with that in mind.Batya left Egypt and converted to Judaism, but she still kept her name. After conversion, the reference to G-d in her name, was to the true One. In a sense, Batya represents the Jewish nation: In Egypt, they were affected by the pagan culture surrounding them , who believed in Pharaoh as a god, and accepted this philosophy . With redemption, came the acceptance of the true G-d.According to tradition, Moshe was born on the seventh of Adar. Three months later, when Batya discovered him, the date was the sixth of Sivan - the same day that eighty years later, the Jewish people will be standing at Mount Sinai. Batya, who represents the nation of Israel,- by the fact of her being part of the pagan culture, and afterwards finding Hashem- extended her hand in a supernatural way, on the sixth day of the month of Sivan to find Moshe, much the same , eighty years later on the same day, as the Jewish people will extend spiritually, and exceed their limited human capacity at Mount Sinai to see who Moshe was.With this we may gain some insight into the message of the extension of the hand.

Freedom

2004-10-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

Freedom has been something that for many generations gave man a purpose to live, that even at times of difficulty and challenge, the dream of better times and freedom, kept the human spirit alive.However, I have a simple question: What is freedom?I think that if this question would be asked to people, the answer given would be, "The ability to do what I want."After such a reply, I would ask: "What if an individual is addicted to something, for instance to smoking. He wakes up in the morning, and wants a cigarette. As he is driving down to the Indian reservation to get his pack, he remembers that the doctor told him that his lungs cannot take any more smoke. After struggling with himself all the way to the store he cannot control himself, and purchases a pack of cigarettes. So my question is , do you consider this man free? Can we consider a person, being controlled by something he knows is self-destructive, free?"What if he is unaware of the fact that something is controlling him, and in his mind he can do what ever he wishes, is he free?The Rabbis teach us that the only person who is free, is the person who studies Torah. On the surface, this is a difficult statement to understand. How can studying and practicing the words of Torah, make us free? What freedom does Torah offer when we feel it is so limiting, and so many things are prohibited?A Jewish person walks by a non-Kosher restaurant, and is in the mood of a steak. It is not the essence of the person who wants it, because your soul has absolutely no desire for the non-Kosher steak, rather it is your physical being, and if the person gives in to temptation, and eats the steak, he is enslaved to a foreign force, and not free at all.The person who studies and practices the laws of the Torah, who knows what he should do, and what to avoid, and when a challenge arises, can overcome temptation to benefit his soul, is truly free. He is free to do what his essence wants - to follow the laws given to us by the Al-mighty.With this in mind we can understand why immediately following the first day of Passover, we start counting the days to Shavuot, the day of the reception of Torah. By counting, we connect these days and show that freedom is accomplished through Torah.

Pikei Avot

2004-10-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

Recently I came across a book on the Ethics of Our Fathers, written by Rabbi Yehoshua Falk, a Rabbi who lived in New York in the middle of the nineteenth century. When Rabbi Falk reaches the well-known statement, "Always pray for the well-being of the government," he describes at length why we in America must be extremely thankful for all the kindnesses of our great government. He details many facts of benevolence, from the open door policy to the blessing of freedom granted to all. The obligation of being loyal to our country is applicable today more than ever, when our government is fighting a just war against forces of evil who want to terrorize and harm innocent people, all in the name of Allah. However, at this time, we have a challenge and a paradox to deal with that did not exist in 1860: the well-being of our sisters and brothers in the land of Israel. The question we must answer is an obvious one. On the one hand, we must make it clear to the government of the U.S. that its policy toward Israel is extremely important to us and that the Jewish state must be allowed to defend itself from those who have proven that peace is not their goal. On the other hand, we wish to show that we feel proud to be loyal Americans who are thankful to this great Country. My personal feeling is that, historically, those countries and empires who were good to the Jews and let them live their life in peace and practice their tradition benefitted themselves as well, because whenever a country turned on the Jews, it was the beginning of its demise. In the book of Genesis, Chapter 26, we find the patriarch Itzchak settling in a land called Grar, being very successful with his crop, and as a result becoming extremely wealthy.The locals are jealous, and the king sends Itzchak away from the land. However, some time after his expulsion, the king comes to Itzchak and wants to make a pact with him. Itzchak asks the king, "Why do you come to me now? You hate me, and sent me away." The king replies, "We saw that G-d was with you." What the king realized was that although Itzchak became rich, the entire country was blessed by his presence in an even more important way. Through the merit of being just to him, it, too, benefitted. It acted as a community of the righteous, and as the king realized, it is in the merit of this righteousness that a nation is preserved. Unfortunately many leaders have made the mistake of turning on the Jews. When we pray that the U.S. should be compassionate to Israel or when we lobby for a policy supporting Israel, our concern is not just for Israel, but rather for this country as well. We want this country to continue to be great and prosperous, and as students of history we learn that a positive attitude toward the Jews is an essential ingredient for a healthy future. Hoping and praying for peace for all

Rosh Hashana

2004-10-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

The Torah, in the book of Bamidbar, Chapter 29 relates that the first day of the seventh month is a day that, "You will not do any work, a day of sounding of the ram's horn." The verse indicates that Rosh Hashana is only one day. Knowing that we celebrate two days of Rosh Hashana, we must understand how this developed.The beginning of a new month was determined by the Great Court in Jerusalem. Two witnesses would come and testify that they saw the new moon. After verifying the information, the Court would declare the month sanctified and send forth messengers throughout the entire land. This is to ensure that everyone celebrates the Jewish holidays at the right time. For example, in the month of Nissan word would reach the whole land of Israel by the fifteenth to celebrate Passover.Establishing Rosh Hashana, on the first day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, presented a difficulty. It would be impossible to inform the entire land when the new month and year commenced. Therefore, out of doubt, Rosh Hashana was celebrated for two days even in the land of Israel. After the destruction of the Temple and the establishment of the calendar, the Rabbis declared that Rosh Hashana would always be observed for two days.According to the Oral Tradition, the day of Rosh Hashana is the day of judgment. Based on our spiritual merits, G-d determines what we will receive the following year. This concept occupies our thought, throughout the prayers of this holy day.The question is: What do we think on day two? Hasn't the verdict been determined already?Commentators deal with this issue in the following way: A person can be judged based on his actions. If he is righteous, he will be granted life and physical blessing. If G-d forbid he is acting improperly, G-d punishes. However, an individual who may not be deserving may receive for the sake of the community.For instance: A person lives a life that is not fully dedicated to G-d and moral values. On judgment day the Al-mighty determines that his earnings will not cover his expenses in the following year. (G-d takes into account that he is making Visa and MasterCard happy). However, this individual is committed to communal matters, and agonizing about his financial situation would detract from his involvement. When G-d accounts for the effect on the community, His verdict will be that this person should be blessed with abundance, and live in comfort.Appreciating this concept, may lend understanding to the judgment of the second day. It is a reckoning of one's impact on others.

Mechitzah

2004-10-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

Every year during the intermediate days of Sukkot, many synagogues have adopted the custom to celebrate what is known as the “simchat beit hashoeva “.
The source for this celebration may be found in the Talmud, Maseches Sukkah where the mishnah elaborates on this topic.During the year when animals were placed upon the altar to be burnt, the Torah teaches that we must also pour wine as a libation.However on the holiday of Sukkot, the Oral Tradition teaches that in addition to the usual wine libation, we must also pour water upon the altar.
We are told that the night preceeding this morning service was one of celebration and joy in anticipation of fulfill this significant mitzvah.

The Mishnah states that before the festivities occurred on this night which came to be known as “simchat beit hashoeva .” a balcony was constructed as a separation between the men and the women. The source of the partition-Mechitzah- found in every Orthodox Synagogue, is derived from this balcony that was constructed for the “simchat beit hashoeva .”Commentators wonder: Why is the mechitzah derived specifically from the simchat beit hashoeva?

The Talmud in Sukkah lists the songs and praises that were sung at the celebrations: The pious men would sing, “Happy is our youth that did not shame our old age.” Those who were penitents, who became pious later in life, would say, “Happy is our old age which has atoned for our misspent youth.” The Talmud continues by saying that the sage Hillel would say “If I am here all are here.” When reading this section one must wonder why are these praises so specific about oneself, rather than general? And why does Hillel say that he is the only one who counts?

The Jerusalem Talmud tells us that during the simchat beit hashoeva was a time when people would achieve “ruach hakodesh” - a holy spirit.
Every person has a personal mission in life, one that only he or she can truly accomplish, however it is not so easy to figure out what that personal mission is.
During the celebrations a person attains a level of inspiration, wherein he could understand his personal role.
The penitents praise Hashem for what they’ve experienced, because they understand their role in life based on who they are. So too the pious men, who’ve spent a complete life dedicated to Hashem, are thankful for their individual role that the celebration clarifies to them how to accomplish. Hillel statement “If I am here all are here”, expressed his understanding that his personal task would never be accomplished if he were not there to do it.

With this understanding of the simchat beit hashoeva, the source of the Mechitzah becomes clear to us.
Hashem creates both males and females. Neither is more significant than the other, rather they are different one from the other; they have different roles, different ways of accomplishing things, different capabilities. Similarly, they have different missions in life. The same way physically and emotionally there is a difference, so too spiritually.
The goal of the Mechitzah is for each gender, to search in to their own soul, and find their role, and understand that the functions of the other gender are not tailored for their spiritual growth.
This idea of one finding it personal mission, is derived like the mechitzah from the simchat beit hashoeva .
The Mechitzah, therefore, can inspire one to delve into the difference, rather than the inequality between the genders. Its presence facilitated introspection into one’s own soul for the purpose of appreciating the reality that each gender has its own mission and unique function. Furthermore, G-d has provided both male and female with the physical makeup and inborn capabilities germane to accomplishing their mission. Although established in ancient times, this particular lesson of the Mechitzah is undeniably contemporary, for in a culture that craves conformity, its message resonates louder than ever.