Midrash Medrish Schmidrash

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Midrash… or as we sometimes say: ‘Medrish’

Medrish, we are told, deals with discontinuity. What does that mean? Well, the Torah in particular and the Hebrew Bible all together is written in a pretty laconic style. For example, we read in the narrative of Cain and Abel; “Cain said to Abel, his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.” (Gen. 4:8) Nu? What was said? This is the discontinuity with which Medrish deals.

Fine. So. What is Medrish? And who says that what is in the Medrish is what was? These are questions that are asked frequently around here and they deserve and answer. But certainly this is a topic which could involve study for months… or years. Maybe to be continued in another lifetime.

So we will simply look at a couple of examples and they will, perhaps, help us to understand just what a Midrash is and on what basis is has “validity”. The Temple has been destroyed now for the second time. Our forefathers are in distress. They are experiencing discontinuity first hand – and we in the third person. These dramatic events found response in Medrish. In this instance it is rather in the form of Aggadah (story, if you will) – but also in a Halakhic form also.

After the Temple was torn asunder, the Jews turned to the rabbis for hope and for consolation. From this we received Lamentations Rabbah. Here is an example:

“This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope.” __Lam. 3:21

R. Abba ben Kahana said; this may be likened to a king who married a lady and wrote her a large ketubah: “so many state-apartments I am preparing for you, so many jewels I am preparing for you, and so much silver and gold I give you.”

The king (then) left her and went to a distant land for many years. Her neighbots used to vex her saying, “Your husband has deserted you. Come and be married to another man.” She wept and sighed, but when she went into her room and read her ketubah she would be consoled. After many years the king returned to her and said; “I am astonished that you waited for me…” She replied, “My lord king, if it hadnot been for the ketubah you wrote… surely my neighbors would have won me over.”

So the nations of the world taunt Israel and say, “Your G-d has no need of you; He has deserted you… com to us and we shall appoint commanders and leaders of every sort for you.” Israel enters the synagogues and houses of study and reads the Torah, “I will look with favor upon you… and I shall not spurn you.” (Lev. 26:9~11) and they are consoled.

And so, in the future the Holy One, blessed be He will say to Israel, “I am astonished that you waited for me all these years.” And Israel will say, “If it had not been for the Torah which you gave us… the nations of the world would have led us astray.” Therefore it is stated, “This do I recall and therefore I have hope.” (Lam. 3:21)

This then is an example of a medrashic text that the rabbis spun in response to the calamity of the Temple’s destruction. G-d seems to have deserted Israel, but when He returns, G-d will be astonished by our adherence to His teachings. Here the rabbis attempt to bridge the chasm between faith and despair through the Medrish. The stories attempt to make sense out of history. Is there a Medrish to deal with the Shoah? Yes. Several. Not all written by rabbis. Not all successful. But we need to ask: successful to whom? Israel? The author? Select individuals? And they are still being written.

The Medrish then provides-

Y Motivations

Y Meanings

Y Resolving confusions

Y New ideas… [without getting ahead of ourselves: we read the Torah each time with different eyes, needs, desires, hopes]

You ask; how did they do it?

We can never be certain if the rabbis were aware that they were “changing” Torah with their medrish. (Or not)

It is certain that they say that laws were being reformulated and, perhaps, they knew that ideas and values were being changed as well, but the assumption in rabbinic thought is always that new interpretations is implied by Torah itself! The rabbis’ idea is that they were uncovering what is already there!

Here is, perhaps, the key point: to the rabbis the torah was (is) an eternally relevant book because it was written (dictated, inspired – it does not matter) by a perfect Author, an Author who intended it to be eternal!

Surely, it is said, that G-d could foresee the need for new interpretations (all interpretations therefore) already in the Torah’s text. Therefore when HaShem gave us the Written Torah at Mount Sinai, He also gave us Oral Torah – the interpretations of Jews down through time. You might say that Medrish was already in His mind when Torah was conceived. “Turn it and turn it again, for everything is contained therein.” [Or: “There is nothing new under the sun.”]

Let me then posit a question for you. What is a sermon? Is it not a form of Medrash? Do we not lean on those who have taught us and the words that we have read, to develop our own ideas (new!! ideas) about the parshat? Of course. We have Homiletical Medrish and Exegetical Medrishim and Narrative Medrish. All fodder for sermons. In a sense, we continue to develop new (!!) Medrish every time we deliver a sermon, discuss a portion of Torah text, give a d’var, or in any other way discuss our understandings of what Torah means to us today.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Go study, study; Isaac Heinemann’s “Creative Historiography” and “Creative Philology”. Happy hunting.

Based on “Back to the Sources”, by Barry W. Holtz Summit Books, NY, NY 1984

Ripped from the Headlines...

“Is Parole a ‘Right’ or a ‘Privilege’?”

The current economic recession has forced some states to consider reducing prison personnel, but that then requires the states to reduce the number of inmates that they can then accommodate. In order that the number of inmates who are being released, prison officials, parole boards and the governor of the state(s) must make decisions which impact the community-at-large.


“Killers who are eligible for early release can’t be denied just because of their crimes, some judges have ruled.” (emphasis added) This is the ‘sub-heading’ according to a story in a recent Los Angeles Times newspaper. Before we consider a recapitulation of this story, which has many ramifications for society as well as the individuals concerned, we should probably consider the basis upon which the United States of America has been built.


We frequently hear how this country was established using “Judeo-Christian” Ethics. And, again, without discussing how the “Christian” ethics came out of the Jewish Torah; we should consider just what it is that the Torah [the Five Books of Moses] and the Tanach [the entire Jewish Bible] teaches us that would have an impact and relevance on this matter. [Do not become concerned with the famous “eye-for-an-eye” discussion, for - unless you are grounded in Talmudic literature and discussions – you will be led to make wrong assumptions!]



Now, let’s look at some of the items touched on in this [(©) Sunday 13 December 2009] article:
A convict, James Alexander, has spent 26 years in prison for killing a (fellow) drug dealer but has maintained a “spotless behavior” and has helped other inmates to shake addictions. He has been recommended, on three occasions, for parole by the parole commissioners and Gov. Schwarzenegger has over-ruled them. He, Alexander, is one of the many so-called ‘lifers’ deemed rehabilitated but have not been released as their crime was murder.
In recent years some judges (we are not told how many) have sided with the ‘lifers’ – see the comment above! The judges claim that there must be ‘some evidence’ that they would pose a threat to public safety if released. This legal notion that puts the onus on corrections officials is being challenges in the U.S, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In California there are about 23,000 prisoners serving life sentences that are ‘technically’ eligible for parole. Another 4,000 serving life without parole and 685 on death row who can never be considered for release under these conditions. In the state of California the 1980’s had a succession of ‘tough-on-crime’ governors. In 1983 Gov. George Deukejian invoked a rarely used 1913 law to over-rule the parole board to free murderer William Archie Fain after an angry outcry from the community where Fain’s victims had lived. Since then successive governors more frequently reversed parole grants.\

Despite a federal court order to reduce prison over-crowding (in CA), neither Schwarzenegger nor corrections officials have suggested (even) considering violent offenders for early release. Victims’ rights organizations defend the governor’s power (and responsibility) to keep murders off the streets [especially with the current economic crisis which has cut funding for law enforcement and parole supervision]! “For the sake of public safety – that’s what we have life sentences for,” said the head of Crime Victims United of California; “That should be a deterrent to crime: that you won’t ever get out if you get a life sentence.” ("Don't talk the talk, if you can't walk the walk.")

Meanwhile, Bill Schmidt, an attorney who specializes in representing lifers, says that, “The question of whether reformed prisoners should get parole is often clouded by the horrific nature of their crime.” He sites Charles Manson who has shown little remorse or rehabilitation (for his 1969 cult slayings), while some of his accomplices have maintained unblemished records for almost four decades. Still, he claims, that they have systematically been denied parole.

Popular opinion supports keeping the most notorious killers locked up forever. Schmidt (attempts to make his case by saying): “Where does the law give the subjective authority to say ‘No, your crime was so horrendous that we’re not ever going to let you out’?” In a recent case before a three-judge panel, the judges stated that the parole board’s decision (against a murderer) in 2008, that the prisoner’s constitutional right (?) to due process had been violated [because the Gov. failed to cite evidence that the prisoner was still dangerous]. The judges ruled that a parole board’s decision “deprives a prisoner of due process with respect to this [liberty] interest” if the decision is “not supported by some evidence in the record or is otherwise arbitrary.” [Please note that] the judges’ decision was suspended four months later by the court’s vote to reconsider the case by a full 11-judge panel.

A Supervising Deputy Atty. General has urged the appeals court to reconsider whether prisoners have a liberty interest in parole decisions, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t recognized a right to parole barring evidence that a prisoner remains dangerous. It was argues that life prisoners have no right to a term less than life (and) so denial of parole “merely means that the inmate will have to serve out his sentence as expected.”

Last year two decisions by the CA Supreme court reiterated the need to show “some evidence” that the prisoner poses a risk and in one case, the state high court held that the heinousness (of the 1971 crime) was not enough to justify continued incarceration. [What? Does this mean that a jury and a court’s decision can be overturned at another time by another court without regard to the people’s decision? Or a retrial based on new evidence? ed.]. The same court, on the same day, also referred to the “some evidence” standard but (also) ruled that gov. Schwarzenegger had identified grounds for denying parole when he said that (that prisoner) suffered a “lack of insight” into how he came to… kill his wife.


Now we come to a court of appeals that has been appointed by differing political Presidents and the determination, apparently, now is one which will be influenced by politics and different agendas rather than on a purely objective bench of judges. How much political beliefs will have an influence remains to be seen, but the public – society at large – is in danger of losing comfort at the expense of murderers and hardened criminals further educated in the closed environment of jails and prisons. On the other hand the court could establish the governor’s exclusive control over parole which, again, enters the realm of politics.


“They scared me to death,” said a paralegal regarding questions from the bench following oral arguments in the case last year, “It seemed clear to me that the judges are wanting to reverse this decision.” This is the statement by a man who spent 33 years in prison, studied law (at taxpayers expense) and secured his own court-ordered release in 2003, marking a turning point in the battle between state officials and courts over parole.


Legal scholars now say that this case now going before the full 11-judge court may provide a decision which will depend on how federal judges interpret the intent of laws on sentencing. And, “It goes back to the question of whether we want sentences to be punitive and how to weigh rehabilitation verses punishment”



We are now left to consider: what do we understand, what do we learn from Torah study and what do we (as a society) want from our courts, our judges and our over-all “Judeo-Christian” based ethical legal system. How do we, individually, consider the ramifications of the criminal mind seeking freedom and society’s need for peace of mind?


Not too long ago, it was considered that an inmate (a prisoner – one incarcerated for having murdered) had foregone his ‘rights’ and his ‘privileges’ as a member of society and as such did not enjoy the freedoms that legally observant citizens did. When did this concept change? Should those convicted and sentenced to life in prison for murder – no matter the “rehabilitation” or not – expect to find his rights and privileges restored by parole boards and judges who are influenced by au courant concepts of ‘liberty for all’, which would, following that line of thought, include non-citizens who would fly planes into buildings or murder another person in any manner? Should we consider inmates in prisons as living in a "city of sanctuary"? If so, would it follow that if they were ‘freed’ by parole boards and judges, that they would be placing themselves in a position whereby their victim’s relatives could then murder them in retaliation without fear of retribution according to the law?


If the economy made a 180° turn and we no longer had to reduce prison staff, would all of these questions be moot? What is our obligation to our fellow who finds himself incarcerated for acts for which he truly regrets?

___Yisrael Betzalel ben Avraham

I have used the masculine form here, even though we find many women in prisons because they too have murdered, simply because it is easier than to continue to say: “him or her”; “he or she”, or the strange construction- “s/he”.

* Los Angeles Times – California Section, pp A41 & A51; Sunday 13 December 2009 with editorial license taken in paraphrasing the article by Carol J. Williams as well as inserting my own questions, note and comment. Please consider this situation with the concern that it requires. Thank you.

He Who Breaks Enemies…

Before we finish looking at the Shemonah Esrei, and I leave you to learn from the book on your own, we need to look at the prayer which deals with the ‘slanderers’. There is an important and interesting bit of history involved in this prayer. It is one that we should all know about.

…hvqt yht la ,ynyslmlv

And for the slanderers let there be no hope, and may all evil be instantly destroyed. And all of Your enemies should be quickly cut off, and the rebellious sinners You should quickly uproot, and smash, and break, and humble quickly in our day. Blessed are You, HaShem, who breaks enemies and humbles rebellious sinners.

What are we to make of this prayer? To begin with, we have simply “turned the other cheek” – for whatever reason, this is not something that we believe in, in any wholesale manner. We did this far too many times in our history and perhaps we finally earned our lesson 70 years ago in 1939. Never again! But back to the question: we ask G-d to break our enemies and to humble the sinners. Note the difference. We, as Jews, are sensitive to the difference between the person and the evil that they commit. We pray for evil to be destroyed.

Now this prayer was directed toward our fellow Jews! And we believe that he may have been caught up in the negative aspects of life that were, at that time, all around him (or her). But we will look at the historical aspect in a moment. Remember for now that when we pray we are asking for HaShem to remove the conceit or arrogance from the person so that these aspects of the Yetzer Hara will not have the influence to propel him into doing evil.

Now the background of this prayer is that it was not one of the 18 (the original 18 prayers that were instituted by the Great Assembly c3441 or about 315 BCE); however its historical basis eventually made it worthy of inclusion. And why is that? Well we find that in the Talmud there are discussions about this prayer and there is an allusion to the significance to the number 18 [which we find in Psalm 29] where it says that G-d’s name is mentioned eighteen times in reference to the Creation. So the eighteen prayers are a parallel to the number of times that we mention HaShem. So when we pray the Shemoneh Esrai we are recognizing G-d as Creator and Sustainer of everything.

Of course there is another opinion. That one says that the 18 prayers are a parallel to the eighteen times that the name of G-d is mentioned in the Sh’ma.

Then the Talmud teaches that there are really nineteen blessings in the Shemoneh Esrai. For in Psalm 29 there is a nineteenth mention of G-d (even though that is a mention of another Name!). The 19^th mention alludes to His attribute of justice and so the extra prayer [wherein we ask G-d to execute justice on His enemies and rebellious sinners].

As to the ‘other’ opinion regarding the Sh’ma: the first verse, you know reads- “Hear Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is One.” The word “One” is another (veiled?) reference to HaShem thereby making nineteen mentions of HaShem in the Sh’ma also.

The 19^th mention relates to those who oppose the Jewish people, those whom we ask G-d to destroy in this additional prayer. The Talmud further refers to this 19^th prayer as “the blessing of the Sadducees”. It is also refers to the heretics.

The Sadducees were those people who maintained that the Written Torah was given at Mt. Sinai but they maintained that the Oral Torah was not divinely given. It was not enough that they held this belief but they attempted to enforce their belief on everyone else and went to the foreign occupying government power and informed on Jews (who continued to believe in the divinity of the Oral Torah). The result being the murder and death of so many Jews! Jews informing on Jews. Jew vs. Jew. Will it ever end?

This prayer was instituted during the time of Rabbi Gamliel II in the city of Yavneh sometime after the destruction of the Second Temple. The rabbi believed that the Sadducees’s informing on believing Jews was an intolerable situation and that it was necessary to pray to G-d to take the heretics from their midst. As it turned out, it was Shmuel HaKatan (so called because of his extreme modesty) who created the structure of the nineteenth prayer.

Now the Sadducees eventually died out (which is another story in itself that we won’t go into here) and the prayer seemed to not be required anymore. However we find that the threat that they posed continues to take different forms even today. It has come from Jews who converted to Catholicism [those who were “forced” to Catholicism often continued to be “Hidden Jews” for the rest of their lives!]. At another time if come for the “Enlightened” Jews (for which you can provide different names, if you wish), as well as from the so called: Messianic Jews and Jews for Jesus and the like. And, as we have seen, in more direct forms in Germany and now is Iran. We continue to see threat from both within and without the Jewish people and we can not allow this nineteenth blessing to become obsolete. No not. Not until the Messiah comes.

Is there any wonder that we hear: “We want Moshiach Now!” For truly, Moshiach Matters.

B’Shalom,

What are we learning?

...from our week-day morning prayers:

"With abounding love You have loved us, Oh L*rd our G_d, with exceeding compassion You have shown us Your mercy. Oh our Father, our King, for the sake of our fathers who trusted in You and whom You did teach the statues of life, be gracious to us also and teach us. Oh our Father - our merciful Father - have mercy on us and prepare our hearts to understand, to discern, to hearken and to learn to teach and observe, to practice and to fulfill, in love, all the words of instruction contained in Your Law. Enlighten us through Your Torah and cause us to cleave to Your commandments, Your mitzvot, and unite our hearts to love and revere Your name so that we may never suffer humiliation..."

What are we learning?
What shall we learn?
And when shall we learn, understand, discern... and teach?
If not now; when?

Hiatus

This week, having taken last weeks injunction of Lech Lecha - GO... I have done so: gone to procure my appointment for (the 2nd) eye surgery. Therefore, I will be unable to facilitate our Shabbos Torah Study Group discussion and learning this week.

See you all next week, that being that HaShem wills it. Selah.


The picture above is Avraham and Sarah in their tent, offering hospitality. Sarah stayed in the tent, and Avraham rushed out to greet guests. According to the Midrash, when Sarah was alive (and then later again when Rivka moved into the tent) her Shabbat candles burned all week long, her challah didn't go stale all week, and G-d's presence hung over her tent in the form of a cloud.

NOTICE

First you need to read about the INfluences... and THEN the later post about The Gracious 1

The Gracious 1 – Who forgives Abundantly

We say: Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned unintentionally. Pardon us, our King, for we have purposely sinned, for You pardon and forgive. Blessed are You, G-d, the gracious one who forgives abundantly.

Before we go any further, it is important to define the words that we are using here (in English) – for there is and can be quite a difference in understanding of exactly what they mean… and what they mean to us.

Here’s a slightly different translation - and this has a whole different ‘coloration’ in meaning:
Pardon us, our Father, for we have done wrong; forgive us our King, for we have sinned, because forgiving and pardoning are You. Blessed are You, HaShem, Generous One, Who abundantly forgives.

We say: “…we have sinned unintentionally.” or “…we have done wrong…” So which is it? If we talk about ‘sin’, the usual Hebraic term means something like “missing the mark”… so how do we miss the mark unintentionally? Can we intentionally miss the mark? So would not every ‘sin’ be unintentional? Is the “we have done wrong” phrase better express what we feel and mean to say? But then the prayer becomes redundant when we say that “we have purposely sinned”. So, again, perhaps the second translation better expresses our prayer and our hopes for it first says that we did wrong and then says that we have “missed the mark” by sin.

S’lakh lanu avenue che khataun… for us, here in America, it is important that we derive a true understanding of what we are trying to say in the language that we best know and understand. So (as with all of the prayers and blessings in the Silent Amidah) we do need to have a grasp of what our forefathers said when they used the Lashon haKodesh – the Holy Hebrew words.

And so again, we look at the historical aspects of this prayer as well as the theme of the prayer. Here we find Judah (the fourth son of Jacob) who was married to Shua and had three sons [Er, Onan, & Shelah]. Er married Tamar, but he sinned and was taken from the world. Onan then married Tamar, with whom he was supposed to have children in order to perpetuate Er’s name. However, Onan was punished for not wanting to have children that would be ‘credited’ to his brother’s name and he too died. The obligation then, according to levirate laws, fell to Shelah.

Judah, having seen two of his sons married to Tamar and both having died, he was naturally concerned for his remaining son, Shelah. And so he had no intention in allowing Shelah to marry her and used a delaying tactic by telling Tamar that Shelah was still (too) young and she should wait… After waiting some years, Tamar realized that Judah had no intention in allowing the marriage. However, in the meantime, Judah’s wife died. After mourning her, Judah journeyed and on his way he found Tamar, whom he did not recognize as she had disguised herself as a prostitute. She then seduced him and became pregnant by him.

[This becomes a lengthy story and needs to be read in full from pp 113 to 116
to see the relationship between Ruben and his life-long repentance and that of Judah which shows the difference between (Reven’s) association with the prayer for Repentance and (Judah’s) association with the prayer for forgiveness!]

--

Let us now look at the meaning of “Blessed Are You, G-d, the Gracious One Who forgive abundantly.” Gracious (chanun) and abundantly are both attributes of HaShem. In Exodus 22:26 we see: “He will cry to me and I will hear, for I am gracious.” As for “abundantly” we can view this on (at least) two different levels: G-d is marbeh lisloach [G-d has many ‘forgivenesses’ available in a quantitative as well as in a qualitative sense], and when we desire to make teshuvah He grants in abundance.

Next time, the Gracious 1 is also the Redeemer of Israel. Who is Israel?

FIRST we discuss the INfluences on English

We American Jews have had our appreciation of Judaism deeply informed by the English language and one of the core texts of that language is what I call the Malakh Yankel Bible – or as you probably know it: the King James Bible. The KJB (not to be confused with the KGB although both use a form of Mr. Spock’s “Mind Meld”) used a variety of words that were commonly used in ‘English’, but have different meanings in Christian and Jewish contexts. The KJB (or MYB) took our Hebrew Holy Writings and re-interpreted them in English with a Christian slant. Now, in a recent talk given at an “ecumenical meeting" in Scotland, the speaker (a Jewish Rabbi) said that science recently was able to attach sensors to the brain of a bat and so come to an understanding of what a bat “saw” – BUT, he continued the scientists only came to understand – from a humans point of view what the bat was encountering and in no way were the human scientists able to comprehend the world as a bat! So, it’s not surprising that many of our understandings of the words that we use in English are colored by this Christian overlay. Though it bothers me, I can’t stop the Christians from misinterpreting our holy writings, but, it’s a shame for us Jews to accept the Christian view of the world and to misconstrue them the way that they do… rather than understand them the way we Jews have accepted them for millennia.
For example, the story of the Garden of Eden is used in Christianity to explain the existence and the meaning of “original sin”. But, no word (like) “sin” appears in the story! Adam and Eve misbehaved. So, what’s going on here? Why should we be tarnished by their actions if we “Ain’t Misbehavin’”
The point is that Christians do not know and cannot know what the Jewish experience is and when we Jews use the English language, which is infused with Christian thought, we are misunderstanding our own Hebrew prayers that have been “translated” into a foreign tongue.
Here is another example: “Do any of you have a doctor?” No you don’t. You do not own a doctor. And yet the English language is about possessing. The Hebrew language, on the other hand is not. The understanding of this phrase in Hebrew is something like: There is a doctor toward me which helps me with my medical needs.

With this in mind let us consider the prayers we have been discussing for the past several blogs... and try to think of them, if not in Hebrew, in a way that has meaning to the Jews because of our Jewish experience for some 5770 years.

We continue our journey into the Silent Amidah:

Last week we asked for knowledge and the wisdom to “make use of” that knowledge. Oh that mankind would one day have the true wisdom to do just that! Binah and Daat; knowledge and wisdom… and the heart to unite the two. But now we turn to (appropriately enough as we ask for help in making t’shuvah) to the prayer for One Who Desires Repentance.

RETURN us, our Father, to Your Torah, and bring us close, our King, to Your service, and return us with complete repentance before You, G-d, who desires repentance.

Here is a prayer blessed on what happened to Reuven, the firstborn son of Jacob (Israel). After the death of this stepmother, Reuben stressed to Jacob, his father, in what was an inappropriate manner; the he (his father) should be more ‘involved’ with his (Reuven’s) mother. Because of these remarks and actions he lost various spiritual benefits that (should have) accrued to him as firstborn son. Once he realized his error is addressing his father in that way, he repented for the rest of his life!

Later Moses blessed the tribes of Israel with words of G-d and he told the tribe of Reuven that; “Reuven will live in this world and not die in the world to come.” [Yechi Reuven v’al yamot:] This was an announcement that Reuven’s repentance was finally accepted by G-d. To which angels cried out; “Blessed are You, G-d, who desires repentance.”

The lesson to learn here are on several different and interlocking levels! So before we consider the relationship between this prayer and the one that precedes it, let’s consider some of the levels of understanding and meaning that we find here. First of all there is the plain meaning that we find in understanding the written word(s) alone.


We ask for help in returning to the path of study of Torah because we recognize that that is the way that G-d would have us travel, and we ask for His help because we (a) know that we cannot accomplish this on our own and (b) we believe that this is truly something that G-d desires.

Now on what other level of understanding can we consider this prayer? Is there a mystical aspect to this? Consider for a moment a rabbi of many years ago – one who arrives at least a half-hour early for minyan just so he can ‘prepare’ himself for the avodah shebelev [the (holy) work of the heart]. He then seriously and with deep emotion prayers the morning prayers, reads the words of Torah and concludes his prayers with another half-hour of meditation. He then goes home and studies Talmud for several hours before returning to the Beit Midrash to take part in collective studies. In the evening before going to bed he recites his prayers. The next morning, he arises early to recite Psalms before going to shul for minyan. If he feels the need to ask G-d for aid in making teshuvah… on what level of understanding does that take him?

Certainly he knows, in his heart, the words that he recites. Certainly he understands what he is asking for. So why does he pray so fervently for G-d’s help in this prayer? What is in this prayer that we are missing… or not understanding?

Now. Let us look at the relationship between this prayer and the previous one. In order for us to return to the study of Torah (which we recognize as something that G-d wants) we realize that we need the discriminating knowledge and insight to learn. Only after G-d grants us the facility to do so can we then apply them to the study of the learning of Torah. We now have the vehicle for study and the method by which we can return (come closer) to G-d.

Let me read a little from the bottom of page 105 and part of 106 [at this point you need the book to follow along...]

Final thoughts on this prayer: the Implications! In this prayer we are asking G-d to give us tools to effect changes in ourselves. The concept, the idea here teaches that whenever a person (feels a need to) change or improve a relationship, he must accept the responsibility for modifying his behavior himself.
If someone mouths these words without understanding the words and the essential meaning or the implications… then what?

The Knowledge behind: The Art of Jewish Prayer

So far we have looked at “Standing in HaShems Presence” and asking that; “…my mouth be opened to tell (of) Your Praise.” And we have looked at the Shield of Abraham (Avraham) – the ‘Avot’. And we have looked at the Resurrection of the Dead. We have read the words, heard the words, and discussed the words. But have he learned? Have we assimilated the words? Have the words entered into our essence and become part of us? There is a difference between ‘DAAT’ and ‘BINAH’, and that is what we seek – to combine knowledge and wisdom! So let us continue.

We are still learning from the wonderful book “The Art of Jewish Prayer” by Yitzchok Kirzner with Lisa Aiken, and this week we ‘look at’ Chapter 6 which is concerned with The Holy G-d… “You are holy, and Your Name is holy, and holy ones praise You every day, forever. Blessed are You, G-d, the holy G-d”. And even before we look at the text, I want you to think for a period: “What does ‘HOLY’ mean?” Send a little time ruminating on what that word means – to you in particular. How do you understand that word? Perhaps you need to consider the Hebrew word. Does that make a difference to your data and binah? Kadosh.

There is a Midrash that tells us that this prayer’s concluding blessing was first uttered by the angels when Jacob had his first prophetic vision. He had come to the place on which the temple was later to be built, and he saw a ladder with angels ascending and descending on it. At the top of the ladder he saw the Gates of compassion open. This vision inspired him to sanctify G-d’s Name, at which time the angels declared, “Blessed are You, G-d, the holy G-d.”

You will, of course, find additional comments and information in the book beginning on page 83, through page 87. Let me just leave you with one idea; the word ‘holy’ (kadosh) carries with it the concept of separate, separateness, set aside, different…




Now is it not interesting that this blessing is followed by one that asks for knowledge and understanding? Now, especially at this time of the Hebrew calendar when we begin anew reading B’reshit, it is so important that we assimilate this concept of the Creation with a prayer for knowledge and understanding! Think of Adam and Chava eating from the tree of knowledge and even though that brought the expulsion it gave man the capacity to turn his knowledge into wisdom. Granted that has not all been for the good but that is the price we pay. Without knowledge man would not have ‘split the atom’ (IS there a relationship between: Adam and atom?) to generate power for electricity and other forms of ‘good’ – but it take great wisdom to keep that power from destructive uses.

“YOU graciously give man discerning knowledge, and teach people understanding. Graciously grant us from Yourself discerning knowledge, understanding and intellect. Blessed are You, G-d, who graciously grants discerning knowledge.”
Another understanding expresses it this way-
“YOU generously grand man perception and teach mankind understanding. Generously grant us, from You, perception, understanding and wisdom. Blessed are You, HaShem, Generous Granter of knowledge.”

But there is something else that is bothering me and perhaps you can help me to understand this. We are taught that in Gan Eden that, as the midrash says; “…if you eat from the tree of knowledge… you will surely die.” Here is the problem as I see it: Adam and Chava were the first persons to live. What would be their concept of death? They had never seen death. They have never lost a parent (or a child- yet!). If someone – even HaShem – were to tell you something that is beyond your experience, what would it mean to you? So, if HaShem tell you (Adam) that; “if you do this, you will die”, does it have any meaning to you? Has G-d already granted Adam and Chava data and binah? Where does it tell us that?

Let’s stop to ponder where this Torah is leading us vis-à-vis our learning of the Silent Amidah….

What are you Learning?

Nu? What are you learning?

This is taken from an essay, by Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, found in a recent edition of
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

Nine years ago while attending the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly [GA] in Chicago, I had the privilege and pleasure of hearing Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk (now residing in the Palm Springs area, jp) known for bestsellers like “The Cain Mutiny” and “The Winds of War” address the opening plenary. What many do not know is that Wouk is a yeshiva-trained Orthodox Jew who studies Talmud daily.

In his address to the GA, Wouk described the way people who haven’t seen one another for a long time typically greet each other, “How’s the family, how’s your health, how’s your business?” – these are some of the typical greetings, Wouk told us.

“Let me tell you about the world that I come from,” Wouk said. “I come from the yeshiva world, where people bond though the study of Torah texts, and friendships are shaped based on learning together. Therefore, if one bumps into an old friend or rabbi from yeshiva and they haven’t seen each other for many years; the greeting we typically exchange is ‘What are you learning?’”

….

Maimonides teaches: “Moses established a system for the Jewish people, that they should read from the Torah in public on Shabbat, plus every Monday and Thursday morning, so that they should never go for three days without hearing words of Torah” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Prayer, 12:1).






Talmud Torah Lishmah: Study of Torah for Its own Sake…
or: “Nu! Lomir lernen a shtikl Torah."


There is a story that I recently learned about a great Polish rabbi from Gur. He saw many of his colleagues and family members perish in the Shoah. He survived that horrible page in 20th Century (CE) history and made his way to Eretz Israel where he continued his life as a scholar. He did learn that of all of his family, only one nephew had survived the fiery furnaces of Nazi Germany. Even so it was many years later before this nephew, now a rabbi himself, was able to journey to Israel to meet his famous uncle and Talmud Scholar.

As his nephew approached the door of his uncle, he took a few moments reflecting on this event and finally knocked on the door. His uncle opened the door and they stood there looking at each other for several long moments and finally this scholarly elderly man said to his only living relative, “It has been so long… you have suffered much and now you have traveled far. You must go at once to the Beit Midrash and learn. Go! There is much to study. Go, and do not waste time. Go and learn, my beloved nephew; go.”


You are interpreters; you are poets; you are mad. Only gradually will you learn to know it, only gradually, because your lifetime is to be a preparation for interpreting. Every lifetime well spent is a life of study – wherever that study may be applied: in the streets, in the household, in the law courts, in the laboratory, in the labor unions, in the prisons, in the parliaments, in the marketplace, in the house of prayer, in the solitude of oneself. But all of this is dangerous.
…from the Second Jewish Catalog


Go.
Learn.

A Nother New Beginning

A(nother) New Beginning


This Shabbos which leads us into our Jewish High Holy Days will be our last Shabbos Torah Study Group – UNTIL Succot begins on October Third. And, this Shabbos is another new beginning in our learning. This week will only be an introduction into our studies and learning on Jewish Prayer. And what we will be learning is The Art of Jewish Prayer [Yitzchok Kirzner with Lisa Aikens].

We shall be learning about the central Prayer(s) in our liturgy: The Shemoneh Esrai. There are Jews who have been fortunate enough to have been raised with a solid Jewish education, and there are Jews who are either new to the world of Jewish prayer, or who have rarely studied prayer in any way that was/is meaningful. Our greatest link to our religion is through our prayer services. There are Jews who disavow any link to the religion of our forefather, but for our new line of learning, we will not consider what it is that they know or do not know. Certainly what they do not know is very meaningful and a great loss to them – and an even greater loss to the Jewish people. But we are here to learn and they are not. Our ‘Social Action’ and our ‘Our Outreach’ must be confined to a different aspect of our lives… unless you personally know someone who may benefit by becoming part of this group.

As I mentioned, our greatest link to our religion is through our (Communal) Prayer sessions. Still, you may leave our Shul raised to a higher level – or you may leave feeling no moore inspired or spiritually aware, or awake, than you were before davenning. The purpose, then, of this undertaking is to make our Jewish prayer more comprehensible and more relevant to all of us, whether we come from traditional frumm families, we are Baal Teshuvah, or we have little or no Jewish education.


--------


This last session of STSG then is an introduction (and a teaser) to our new series of learning. So this is our last session – as I said – until after the H”H. And so we begin by looking at the Purpose of Prayer.

What let me ask you, do you perceive the task of prayer to be? Is it, as many think, to get HaShem to change? Is it, as many pray, to get HaShem to give us what they want [or what they think they want]? Or is it to help ourselves to become better people through reaching out in order to be closer to HaShem?

If we ask HaShem for something and we actually receive it, we are reinforcing ourselves into thinking that we deserve it and HaShem gave it to us because we were ‘entitled’!!! And that word “entitled” is very important to our understanding to what our relationship to HaShem is and on what it is based!!! This word that we hear everywhere on the street today [“But, I’m entitled!”], is so dangerous and stupid that the concept should be banned to mankind. And what has this to do with our study of the Shemoneh Esrei?

Well, perhaps when we receive a gift from HaShem we might consider it as: HaShem intended it so that we would elevate ourselves spiritually; instead of seeing it as a satisfaction and a justification of our physical and material – our hedonistic - desires.

The purpose, then, of prayer is not to get HaShem to change simply because He does not change. Ever. The purpose and the task then is for us to become better through our encounters with HaShem.

We are supposed to pray three times a day – as ordained by Chazal for these reasons: When we awaken we need to recognize that this new day is, indeed, another gift and we should therefore include HaShem in our lives. That awareness helps us to be better more ethical and loving people because we appreciate this gift. By the middle of the day we have been busy at work or doing the daily routine and chores and we tend to forget our relationship with HaShem, so we pause and insert our second prayer session making a statement that we see our success and our abilities as blessings from HaShem. Finally, in the evening hours we learn from our evening prayer that, although we have not accomplished everything that we wanted to, that He will grant us new opportunities for accomplishments in the morning.

If we only prayed when we felt like it, we would soon be far removed from prayer and the source of our being. All of this is a preview of, and introduction to, the Shemoneh Eshrei which the Great Assembly redacted for us – and for Jews at all times and places – with both prophetic knowledge and with divine wisdom.

If you will take the High Holy Day season as a time to reflect upon these prayers remember that the Hebrew word lihiparrel, which is usually translated as: “to pray” also means: “to judge oneself”. Think, at this time: “What am I doing with my life and how can I adapt it to improve my spiritual growth?” “Avodah shebelev”, or the work of the heart, calls for prayer to transform us. The traditional Jewish understanding of the heart is that it is the center of da’at – of knowledge and of understanding. The head does not rule our true understanding – it is centered in the heart, with love.

If we continue to ask HaShem for ‘things’ because: “I want it. I need it. I am entitled to it!” we are only feeding our narcissism and that, my friends, is not prayer.

When we return to our learning we are going to first consider why we need to vocalize – to verbalize – our prayers. Until then, may you be written in the Book of Life, may you have a meaningful Fast, may you accept my apology for anything that I may have done, knowingly or not, to anger you or cause you anguish.

b’Shalom,
James

Fear of HaShem - What does it mean?

We Have Nothing to Fear
Except…

To Fear G-d. And just what does that mean? Why should we fear HaShem? We are taught from a young age that G-d is Loving and Kind, full of compassion and all those wonderful attributes. These are the kind of attributes that we, hopefully, saw in our parents. So why should we ‘fear’ a G-d that we know is even better than our “bestest” and most wonderful parent?

The rabbis wanted to teach that we should fear G-d but they did not know how to teach that we should fear a beneficent G-d who was invisible and ultimately unknowable. How could they communicate this concept to the average Jew? G-d was an abstraction and, was and is everything that we know about G-d and at once nothing that we know about G-d. A conundrum.

Then a rabbi sitting the far corner suggested this: “If we are summoned before the king, we have absolutely no idea why. The only thing that we know about the king is that he has absolute control over all of his subjects… he alone controls whether we live or die [think about what you would feel if a couple of black suits and dark glasses showed up at your door, talking to their sleeve, and said that you will go with them. Now!].” “So,” the rabbi continued, “if HaShem is like our King, we should fear Him because He, too, has absolute control over every aspect of our lives.”

HaShem, as we say in our H”H liturgy, controls who will live and who will die; who be fire and who by sword; who by earthquake and so on.

It seems then that that rabbi was right. If for no other reason than the uncertainties of life, we should fear G-d. But is that the only reason? Are there other aspects of ‘fear’ that we should consider?

Someone suggested that we should think of ‘fear’ of HaShem in terms of the ‘awe’ in which we hold Him. I disagree. Awe is a term that has been degraded in usage. We stand in awe of the Grand Canyon – okay, that is HaShem’s creation; but we also stand in awe of Lance Armstrong’ achievements: 7-time winner of the most grueling bicycle race in the world/testicular cancer survivor and return competitor in the same race and still coming in to stand on the podium with much younger men! Maybe you can say that that too is HaShem’s achievement and it is because Lance, with the help of G-d overcame his cancer and it was really G-d who gave Lance the ability in the first place. But is he had not stood in the ‘fear of G-d’, perhaps he would never have made those goals.

So what other words in the English language might give us a better idea of what it means to ‘fear G-d’? From the thesaurus we find: Terror; Dread; Fright; Trepidation; Wonder; Admiration; Respect; Amazement; Surprise; Wonderment; Astonishment… how about this quotation?

“We serve the deities… by drawing near to our ancestors, by purifying ourselves of our sins and stain, in leaving self behind to unite with the public, and in 'dying to self' to become one with the ‘State’.”
From the Japanese Kokutai ni Hongi. Sacred Texts of the World1982, "Purity and Awe" (Ninian Smart and Richard D. Hecht (eds.)

“Think about it…”


This was the presentation to our Shabbos Torah Study Group. We had a lively discussion. (pro & con) Much was left to be considered and discussed further... One comment was; "Not all rabbis got 'A's' in class."

The one thing that was NOT found was - Where did this statement FIRT originate?

Shoftim discussion

Shofetim 5769

…an Evening Prayer. With Ramifications.

It is praiseworthy for a person to forgive anyone who has wronged him or caused him any distress. This concept is expressed in this prayer recited before Keriat Shema.

R’bono sh’l olam! Master of the Universe! I hereby forgive any one who as angered or antagonized me, or who has done wrong against me, whether to my body, whether to my property, whether accidentally, whether intentionally, whether in speech, whether in action, whether in thought, whether contemplatively, whether in this existence, whether in another existence, I forgive any member of the nation of Yisrael, and may there not be punished any person on my account. Y’he rotzon… May it be there not be punished any person on my account. May it be Your will, HaShem, my Elokim and Elokim of my forefathers, that I not do wrong any more and whatever I have done wrong before You, erase in Your abundant mercy, but not through sufferings or afflictions that are evil. May they be an appeasement, [Yehyu l’ratzon emray fe, v’h’geyon lebey lfane’kh yhvh tzurey v’go-aley] the utterances of my mouth and the thought of my heart, before You, HaShem, my Rock and my Redeemer.


The individual then says
(Before the Keriat Shema):
Eil Melekh ne’aman.
El and King Who is trustworthy.



Now; what have we learned from this prayer? Before you answer, I want to first draw your attention to the words: “…whether in this existence, whether in another existence…”; does anyone have any ideas about who wrote this prayer; where; or when? And specifically what did the author (or authors) have in mind?
NOW; what have we learned from this prayer?

Source: Siddur Meor Yisrael Har Tov Publishers Jerusalem 5762 (pp361~362)

The Broken Vav

Throughout the halacha it is stressed that letters must be written as a complete guf (body) and if they are faded or partly illegible then the work is invalid.

Let us go back a couple of weeks to take another look at Parshat Pinchas...

vav k’ti’ah (the broken/severed vav)


However there is one exception were the scribe is mandated to make the letter incomplete. The letter in question in thevav in the word shalom in Numbers 25:12. This must be written with a break in the vertical line according to the Ritva (R. Yom Tov ben Avraham Ishbili Spain c. 1250-1330), though some think it either a small vav or a normal vav but a little shorter "in front".

The following six suggestions and graphic (left) come from Hadaf Hayomi (a regular newsletter on the talmud), explaining the possible options. I have added a few of my own thoughts in brackets:

1. It is a small vav (though this is not mentioned as one of the small letters and would be referred to as z’ira (small) and not k’tia)
2. The leg of the vav is shorter (though this in part would look a bit like a yud without the curve to the leg, so may be declared pasul because of that)
3. First a yud is written (though without the curve) and a space is left and then line is added to complete the vav.
4. A regular vav is written and then a crack is made in the leg by scraping out the ink and (this would divide it into two)
5. The same again, but this time the crack is a diagonal nick which doesn’t quite break the letter into two (I have a problem with 4 and 5 as it rather suggests chok tochot, carving out to form the letter as this particular letter form would be formed by scraping and not writing).
6. A vav with a slightly short leg is written then a small line is added to complete the length.
It would seem that 3 or 6 would be the most suitable.
The text concerns a covenant of peace (brit shalom) that is offered to Pinchas the somewhat over-zealous and fiery priest who skewered Zimri, the leader of the tribe of Shimon and Kozbi a midianite woman. Pinchas' act stopped both the Israelite's bout of immoral behaviour and the plague they had been suffering because of it, and he was rewarded for it.
However even the Massoretes must have been shocked by the violence of Pinchas' action as they made his blessing only partial through the broken vav which explains that true peace cannot be brought about through violence and that the two concepts are incompatible.
Similarly the Talmud (Kiddushin 66b) notes that the service of a person must be perfect and without blemish, by reading shalom without the vav as shalem - whole, perfect, sound and translate Numbers 25:12 as ‘behold I give to him my covenant of perfection’ - only when he is perfect and not found wanting.

________the thoughts and ideas of Mortachai Pinchas

A Talmud overview

Talmud Bavli

This week, as a prelude to the Presentation scheduled for next Sunday, we will discuss a bit of the details of the Talmud in outline as an introduction – and hopefully this will give you a little taste of what you will see next week. Just in case you do not know about what I am referring to: Next Sunday (not tomorrow) The Men’s Club of Congregation Beth Shalom (Bermuda Dunes, CA) is having a catered kosher brunch at 10:30. They are putting this on with an open invitation to all who are interested. There is a $10. charge (or recommended donation) for members and $12. for non-members. But the interesting thing is that the morning is being presented in conjunction with our Shabbos Torah Study Group! After the brunch there is a no-charge video presentation on the Talmud. I have previewed this and I strongly recommend it – Rated ‘FFBB’ & ‘NOJ’ alike. There will also be some printed information available. S0… let’s take a peek at what we might see/learn next week.

There are, as you already know, two Talmuds. The Babylonian Talmud, which is the one that is usually referred to when we mention the Talmud. And there is the Jerusalem Talmud. Both were written concurrently & simultaneously too. This places the writings at the time of our Galut in Babylonian lands.

But let’s first look at the Tradition(s) here. First we received, as a Nation, the Written Law in the form of two tablets. At the same time we received the Oral Law which was passed from generation to generation (L’dor v’dor). And so the “Five Books of Moses” [Torah] were finally presented in written form – but you may not know that the form was not ‘set’ and canonized until about the year 500 CE!



Before that had happened, the Jews had dispersed in different directions and we find that Rabbi Judah HaNasa (c. 220 CE) wrote what we now know as the Mishnah. Next week the movie and our written materials will cover this in greater depth.

At the time of the Mishnah, we also find what is called the Berita (legal documents and materials). And the Teachers of the Berita are called Tanna.
Finally we arrive at the Talmud (c. 475 CE). The first Editor was Rav Ashi. At this time the Teachers of Talmud – or Gemara – were known as Amoraim (sing. Amora).

After the Talmud we find the Commentators and Codifiers. There are many of these men who labored to clarify the writings and to discourse with one another. The one that you find in every edition of the Chumah is… Rashi; he was extremely important to the understanding and is the most referred to Commentator in the Talmud. [In the Chumash, he shares the pages with another name which may or may not be familiar to you: Onchlos. We will discuss him at another time].

Other of the authors are, to mention briefly, all (but one) Sephardic Jews, and most of them lived in the Iberian territories. They include Rabbi Yehudah Alfasi; Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzaki (who we know as Rashi); Tosafot; the great Maimonedes (known as Rambam); The ‘Rosh’ – or Rabbynu Asher and Joseph Karo.

It was not until the 16th Century CE that we find commentaries written to reflect the traditions of the Northern Jews – the Ashkenazi Jews.

But for a better understanding of the influences that we find on the authors of these commentaries, it is important to understand the travels of the Jews in the Galut (Golus), and especially how the Jewish Experience while in Muslim Spain- Al-Andalus. The history is so filled with wondrous adventures of our ancestors and we should spend more time learning about it! [Was Columbus a crypto-Jew in reality? Who was Ziryab? Why did the Christian Kings in Spain ignore the laws of the Pope regarding the Jews… and how did they get away with it all?] Fascinating stuff really…

Let me mention just a few other names of important Jews who, if they did not have a direct impact on the Talmud, had a strong indirect impact by laying down the basis and the framework for the Jews in the Mediterranean world. The built a position on which later Jewish thinkers would be able to stand!
Among the forceful personalities that led to the flowering of Hebrew poetry, prose, philosophy, and politics with an emphasis on the verbal rather than the pictorial, I would have to mention Hasdai (the Nasi) ibn Shaprut. It was he, whose written communications with Joseph, King of the Khazars, that led to the wholesale conversion of what was, in truth, the Nation of Israel – a Nation that extended from the Middle East, from the Mediterranean all the way into Russian! Then there was Samuel (Ha’Nagid) ibn Hagrela who became the Vizier of the Kingdom of Granada!

This is the briefest of overviews concerning the Talmud and I apologize for letting so much information “hanging” but I “Do not want to ‘give-away’ the store” because I do want you to attend this Sunday morning brunch and learning session. IF you are unavailable (show me a note from your mother…) and I will get a copy of the program and additional details to you in one manner or another. In the meantime, there is a book that gives you a grounding in the environment(s) in which these people found themselves and provides you with an understanding of how HaShem led these thoughts to germinate and flower until we find the rich tapestry of the Talmud.
That book is:
The Jews of Spain – A History of the Sephardic Experience by Jane S. Gerber [The Free Press Division of Macmillian, Inc. 1992]. Jane Gerber is professor of Jewish history and director of the Institute for Sephardic Studies at CUNY Graduate Center.
Shalom

Jewish Prayer

Jewish prayer is, and can be, many things:
 Many times it is our way of saying “Thank You.” to HaShem. Why? Because of His gifts, His miracles that surround us, the Blessings that He bestows upon us.
 It can be a song. A song of praise. A song from our heart is a song of praise. A melody that tells HaShem what a wonderful world.
 A story. Like the stories in our Jewish books – all of our books! Stories of our ancestors, our Kings, our adventures and misadventures, the lives of our tzaddakim. And, of course, stories of the wonders of G_d!
 A prayer can be our asking for a little red wagon when we are children, for a soul-mate to live our lives with, for the health of our loved ones, for parnassah, and for our Nation and our State of Israel.
 It is sometimes simply our talking to G_d, in private, alone at night, sitting in shule while you meditate, crying at the Kotel (Wall), and telling HaShem how much we love Him and respect Him.
 Tefelah – Jewish Prayer – has a root with the original(?) meaning: “think”. Don’t you ‘think’ about the great things, the unusual thing, and the unexplained things that you perceive in your world? Don’t you ‘think’ about why you are sometimes are lonely (even when you are surrounded by your fellow Jews), or sad, sick or home-sick for your parent’s home, you mother’s cooking? Don’t you ‘think’ about the bad things that you see happening in this world? Don’t you ‘think’ about the cruel things that you see or hear about – and you want to cry out to G_d: “WHY?”
 Those are prayers too. Prayer is also a way to show our feelings.
 Prayer is also those written poems and prose that we find in the Siddurim. Beautiful thoughts and feelings in wondrous forms – written by our rabbis, our teachers our poets and our prophets. Written for us, years later, to find and ‘think’ about. And written in Hebrew and Aramaic so we can ponder on just what inflection the author had in mind… and what it mean to us today.




So do you ask: Why do we pray? Or do you ask: Why should I pray? Our ancient ancestors did not “pray” – they took their best, their best sheep or cow, or grain – their very best and offered it to HaShem as a “sacrifice”. So too, when we rise early to go to a Minyan and ‘pray’ we are making our own “sacrifice”, our own offering.

The Talmud says that “Prayer is greater than sacrifices.” Even Moses, our greatest prophet, was answered by G_d only after he had prayed. And so, we open our heart to G_d, in prayer, to become (more) pure, (more) wise, (more) kind and “good” to become MORE G_d-like. And we pray to share ourselves with all Israel, sharing in their joys and their sorrows. We pray to be a part of Shalom.



Yisrael Betzalel ben Avraham
17 Tammuz 5769
CA Bamidbar