Hertz p.306
Soncino p.471
SHABBAT MEVARACHIM
SHABBAT SHEKALIM
Shabbat ends in London at 6.01pm
| Sidra Lite | |
| Sidra Insights | Rabbi Stephen Sacks |
| The Leining - II | Rabbi Daniel Roselaar |
| Holiness 2 | Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks |
| Bet Ticho | Simon Goulden |
| Riddle of the Week | Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis & Rabbi Meir Salasnik |
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An array of civil ordinances are given, which relate to:
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Our Parsha opens with a difficult law to understand. If a Hebrew slave, after having served 6 years under his master is set free, he has various options available to him upon his leaving. If he arrived at his master’s house with nothing, he may leave in the same fashion and if he arrived with a family, he may obviously take them with him. However, if his master provided him with a wife and they had children, he must leave them behind. But if he loves his family and his master, he has the opportunity to endure a ritual of having his right ear pierced against the doorpost whereafter he may remain with his beloved family and must stay with his master until the Jubilee.
The choice of having his ear pierced seems, at first glance, to be somewhat harsh and difficult, but surely he will undergo this ritual for the love of his family.
Notwithstanding the fact that we do not have this concept of bondsmen today, how does such a scenario affect us? How can we relate to such a ritual?
The Ramban says that it is not necessarily the "Hebrew slave" that we must focus on but rather the eved ivri alludes to other ideas that are critical to Judaism.
The year of the slave’s redemption serves as a reminder of our exodus from Egypt and the fact that it takes place in the seventh year reminds us of the Shabbat.
The Shabbat and the Exodus from Egypt are two of the most important phenomena in Judaism and indeed, are two of the Ten Commandments.
Rashi comments that the ear and the action of performing the ritual against the doorpost are both essential to the ritual. With our ears, we heard the commandments at Sinai, while the doorposts were witness to the ‘passing-over’ in Egypt. At Sinai, we proclaimed "We will do and we will hear". Hearing and doing are mutually inclusive. In order to adhere to the precepts of the Torah, we must both appreciate what it says and perform mitzvot. The doorpost, too, holds the mezuzah, which is a constant reminder of the presence of G-d in our homes.
A person who is called to the Torah should grip both atzei chayim (Torah rollers) whilst reciting the berachot, and during the leining he should hold the right roller. Though the honouree does not actually read the passage for the congregation - although that was the ancient practice - it is nonetheless proper that he should read along in an undertone, together with the ba’al keriah. Since the public reading of the Torah is a reenactment of the giving of the Torah at Mt Sinai, it is important that the one called to Torah should stand totally upright without leaning on the Bimah, just as the Revelation took place in an atmosphere of awe and trembling.
The leining is one of the most important parts of the service by virtue of the fact that G-d’s words are being communicated to the congregation. In recognition of this the Talmud (Sotah 39a) states that it is forbidden even to talk about religious matters during the leining. Though the Shulchan Aruch codifies certain limited circumstances under which it is permitted to engage in Torah study during the leining, it is sometimes difficult to be convinced that the incessant chattering heard in some Synagogues is always halachically justified.
According to the Shulchan Aruch the aliyot should be distributed according to seniority; distinguished Torah scholars receiving preferential treatment with others only receiving such an honour in the absence of such scholars. Later halachic works recognise the practice of according aliyot to those marking lifecycle events such as Barmitzvah boys, bridegrooms and even those about to embark on long journeys, and codify the order of precedence that should be followed. (A man whose wife is marking a yahrzeit during the coming week has no right of precedence.) The poskim also recognise the custom in some communities of auctioning the mitzvot and discuss the propriety of doing so on Shabbat.
HOLINESS 2
To be holy is to be different. Shabbat is part of time yet it is also an intimation of an eternity beyond time. The Temple in Jerusalem existed in space, but it was also the home of G-d who is beyond space, existing everywhere. Likewise, the Jewish people were and are part of humanity, sharing its concerns, contributing to its progress, seeking to be a blessing to society and to the world. Yet they were summoned to holiness, meaning that we are called on to live lives and build a society based not on nature but on something beyond nature. That is what the words G-d placed in the mouth of the prophet Bilaam mean: "It is a people that dwells alone, not counting itself among other nations."
To be holy is to be different - not for the sake of difference, but to live in such a way as to be evidence of something beyond the normal laws of history and sociology. "All the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the L-d," said Moses. "You are My witnesses - declares the L-d - that I am G-d," said Isaiah. Every religion has its holy individuals, its religious elite. Judaism was unique in the covenant it undertook at Mount Sinai to be a nation every one of whose members was charged with the task of holiness. Not privately in the soul but collectively in their history and social structures, the children of Israel were called on to expand the imaginative horizons of mankind by pointing to that which is beyond.
There is nothing sacrosanct about "human nature". Homo homine lupus est, goes the Latin proverb: "Man is wolf to man". "Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made" said Kant in an aphorism beloved by the late Sir Isaiah Berlin.
The history of mankind is written in the blood of violence and the tears of oppression. As individuals, all oppression. As individuals, all but a few have instincts of fairness and compassion, but en masse, whether as groups, tribes or nation states, humanity is capable of monstrous crimes of inhumanity. Reinhold Niebuhr called one of his books Moral Man and Immoral Society, to mark the difference between personal and crowd behaviour. That is why G-d summoned Abraham and his descendants not just to be holy individuals (that is neither difficult nor rare) but to become a holy nation, co-authors with G-d of a sacred society.
Hence the importance in Judaism of social structures - marriage, the family, the Synagogue, community, the school and house of study, acts of tzedakah and chessed and concern for the underprivileged, each a component of what Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein once memorably called "societal beatitude". Judaism is about constructing a home for the Divine presence not just in the privacy of the soul but also in the public spaces of the life we share.
A Jerusalem house with a history - Bet Ticho
Go for a coffee and cake at the delightful Bet Ticho in Jerusalem and you might just wonder about the attractive surroundings, as you sit in the shade of the mature trees. The history of the house is certainly worth retelling.
It was built in the late 19th century by Hajj Rashid, a prominent Arab, who sold it to Wilhelm Moses Shapira, a Jewish convert to Christianity. He dealt in ancient Judaica, much of which he manufactured in his own workshops. One of these was a set of narrow strips of parchment which he claimed had been given to him by Judaean Desert bedouin and contained the oldest known version of Sefer Devarim. The British Museum was about to pay £1 million for the texts (no small figure in those days) when they were denounced as forgeries by a French expert. This saved the museum enormous embarrassment, but Shapira could not take the shame and committed suicide, still protesting his innocence. Some scholars now believe that they were actually genuine.
Dr Avraham Ticho was the most eminent eye doctor in Jerusalem, having studied in Vienna before arriving in 1912. He married his much younger cousin Anna, a skilled artist when not helping her husband run his clinic. He treated Emirs and paupers alike and was much loved. When he was stabbed in the anti Jewish riots in 1929, the Chief Rabbinate even issued a notice asking everyone to pray for his recovery! After his death in 1960, Anna decided that, on her demise, she would bequeath the house to the people of Jerusalem.
Bet Ticho can be found at 7-9 Rechov Harav Kook, off Derech Yafo, near Zion Square.
by Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis
Last week's questions:
1. Further to our recent question about the Hebrew months, Michael Bayer of Golders Green asks the following:
Where do you find in the names of the Hebrew months
Answer:
2) EXTRA CHALLENGE set by Anthony Kent of Borehamwood.
Which name is given at least once to 3 different people in the Torah:
Answer:
Reuel.
This week's question:
1. Explain: As from today, there is more carrying because ShPZH is commencing.
2) EXTRA CHALLENGE set by Rabbi Meir Salasnik of Bushey.
Israel’s President Moshe Katzav and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger have the same name. How can this be (it is not their middle names)?
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