Year: 2019

That First Rashi: Torah Is NOTHING BUT a Legal Code (With Scattered Spurs to Uphold the Law)

Bereishit (5773) – A Living Book

It is the most famous, majestic and influential opening of any book in literature: “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” What is surpassingly strange is the way Rashi – most beloved of all Jewish commentators – begins his commentary:

Rabbi Isaac said: The Torah should have begun with the verse (Ex. 12: 1): “This month shall be to you the first of the months”, which was the first commandment given to Israel.

Can we really take this at face value? Did Rabbi Isaac, or for that matter Rashi, seriously suggest that the Book of books might have begun in the middle – a third of the way into Exodus? That it might have passed by in silence the creation of the universe – which is, after all, one of the fundamentals of Jewish faith?

Could we understand the history of Israel without its prehistory, the stories of Abraham and Sarah and their children? Could we have understood those narratives without knowing what preceded them: G-d’s repeated disappointment with Adam and Eve, Cain, the generation of the Flood and the builders of the Tower of Babel?

The fifty chapters of Genesis together with the opening of Exodus are the source-book of biblical faith. They are as near as we get to an exposition of the philosophy of Judaism. What then did Rabbi Isaac mean?

He meant something profound, which we often forget. To understand a book, we need to know to what genre it belongs. Is it history or legend, chronicle or myth? To what question is it an answer? A history book answers the question: what happened? A book of cosmology – be it science or myth – answers the question: how did it happen?

What Rabbi Isaac is telling us is that if we seek to understand the Torah, we must read it as Torah, which is to say: law, instruction, teaching, guidance. Torah is an answer to the question: how shall we live? That is why he raises the question as to why it does not begin with the first command given to Israel.

Torah is not a book of history, even though it includes history. It is not a book of science, even though the first chapter of Genesis – as the 19th-century sociologist Max Weber pointed out – is the necessary prelude to science, because it represents the first time people saw the universe as the product of a single creative will, and therefore as intelligible rather than capricious and mysterious. It is, first and last, a book about how to live. Everything it contains – not only commandments but also narratives, including the narrative of creation itself – is there solely for the sake of ethical and spiritual instruction.

It moves from the minutest details to the most majestic visions of the universe and our place within it. But it never deviates from its intense focus on the questions: What shall I do? How shall I live? What kind of person should I strive to become? It begins, in Genesis 1, with the most fundamental question of all. As the Psalm (8: 4) puts it: “What is man that You are mindful of him?”

Pico della Mirandola’s 15th century Oration on Man was one of the turning points of Western civilization, the “manifesto” of the Italian Renaissance. In it he attributed the following declaration to G-d, addressing the first man:

“We have given you, O Adam, no visage proper to yourself, nor endowment properly your own, in order that whatever place, whatever form, whatever gifts you may, with premeditation, select, these same you may have and possess through your own judgement and decision. The nature of all other creatures is defined and restricted within laws which We have laid down; you, by contrast, impeded by no such restrictions, may, by your own free will, to whose custody We have assigned you, trace for yourself the lineaments of your own nature. I have placed you at the very center of the world, so that from that vantage point you may with greater ease glance round about you on all that the world contains. We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer. It will be in your power to descend to the lower, brutish forms of life; you will be able, through your own decision, to rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine.”

Homo sapiens, that unique synthesis of “dust of the earth” and breath of G-d, is unique among created beings in having no fixed essence: in being free to be what he or she chooses. Mirandola’s Oration was a break with the two dominant traditions of the Middle Ages: the Christian doctrine that human beings are irretrievably corrupt, tainted by original sin, and the Platonic idea that humanity is bounded by fixed forms.

It is also a strikingly Jewish account – almost identical with the one given by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik in Halakhic Man: “The most fundamental principle of all is that man must create himself. It is this idea that Judaism introduced into the world.” It is therefore with a frisson of recognition that we discover that Mirandola had a Jewish teacher, Rabbi Elijah ben Moses Delmedigo (1460-1497).

Born in Crete, Delmedigo was a Talmudic prodigy, appointed at a young age to be head of the yeshivah in Padua. At the same time, he studied philosophy, in particular the work of Aristotle, Maimonides and Averroes. At the age of 23 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Padua. It was through this that he came to know Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who became both his student and his patron. Eventually, however, Delmedigo’s philosophical writings – especially his work Bechinat ha-Dat – became controversial. He was accused, by other rabbis, of heresy. He had to leave Italy and return to Crete. He was much admired by Jews and Christians alike, and when he died young, many Christians as well as Jews attended his funeral.

This emphasis on choice, freedom and responsibility is one of the most distinctive features of Jewish thought. It is proclaimed in the first chapter of Genesis in the most subtle way. We are all familiar with its statement that G-d created man “in His image, after His likeness”. Seldom do we pause to reflect on the paradox. If there is one thing emphasized time and again in the Torah, it is that G-d has no image. “I will be what I will be”, He says to Moses when he asks Him His name.

Since G-d transcends nature – the fundamental point of Genesis 1 – then He is free, unbounded by nature’s laws. By creating human beings in His image, He gave us a similar freedom, thus creating the one being capable itself of being creative. The unprecedented account of G-d in the Torah’s opening chapter leads to an equally unprecedented view of the human person and our capacity for self-transformation.

The Renaissance, one of the high points of European civilization, eventually collapsed. A series of corrupt rulers and Popes led to the Reformation, and to the quite different views of Luther and Calvin. It is fascinating to speculate what might have happened had it continued along the lines signalled by Mirandola. His late 15th century humanism was not secular but deeply religious.

As it is, the great truth of Genesis 1 remains. As the rabbis put it (Bereishith Rabbah 8: 1; Sanhedrin 38a): “Why was man created last? In order to say, if he is worthy, all creation was made for you; but if he is unworthy, he is told, even a gnat preceded you.” The Torah remains G-d’s supreme call to humankind to freedom and creativity on the one hand, and on the other, to responsibility and restraint – becoming G-d’s partner in the work of creation.

Shabbat Shalom

From Rabbi Sacks, here.

Live Abroad? Buy a Burial Plot in Eretz Yisrael TODAY!

The Merit and Mechanics of Burial in the Holy Land

By Dovid Kentridge

Our generation is witnessing, first-hand, the incredible obsession the world has with our tiny country, Eretz Yisrael. Its history is replete with brutal wars and wholesale slaughter. Countless battles have left its parched earth stained with blood. We have been the target, from time immemorial, of incessant attempts by many nations to disconnect us from their spiritual roots, either by imposing evil decrees depriving us of our inalienable right to worship Hashem, destroying the written word from which we learned and prayed, and committing unbridled mass murder. The definition of exile is alienation from the land and the nations will do all in their power to perpetuate this, for it is yet another way the Jew to be oppressed and, indeed, decimated through assimilation. Of course, we know that all these calamities befall us because of our own shortcomings, but it might help us understand why other nations are obsessed with this ‘little speck of land’ in the Middle East.

But more than this, perhaps, is that Eretz Yisrael is infused with holiness, for it is here that our story, the story of the Jewish people has unfolded. It is the land promised to our forefathers, where the Judges, Prophets, and Sages, sanctified Hashem’s name, brought the fulfillment of the Torah to dazzling heights and where the glory of the Batei Mikdash healed us from our spiritual blemishes and stood as testimony to our deep connection to the Creator of the Universe.

When it comes to burial in Israel, the Torah’s account, in Parshat Chayei Sarah, of Avraham Avinu and his purchase of the Ma’arat HaMachpela, teaches us of the great merit of securing a burial place for oneself and family. The fact that the Torah details the transaction, especially the enormous amount paid, adds further weight to the above contention. Later, in Parshat Vayechi, Yaakov Avinu makes his son, Yosef, swear that, upon his passing, he will transfer Yaakov’s remains back to Eretz HaKodesh for burial. Separately, he tells the other brothers to do the same just in case Yosef is prevented from accomplishing this by Pharaoh. Similarly, Yosef himself adjures his brothers to ensure that his bones be returned to Israel for burial. The Midrash relates that Moshe Rabeinu busied himself in the period leading up to Yetziat Mitzraim to fulfill Yosef’s wishes. In fact, Rashi comments further that Moshe exerted himself to prepare the remains of all Yaakov’s sons, which were then to be transported by the respective tribes back to Eretz Yisrael (Shmot 13:19).

As we see the Avot (forefathers) set the precedent and the example for our people, who, through the millennia, would make extraordinary efforts to reach Eretz Yisrael. Many were elderly and frail but made the arduous journey to die and be buried in the Holy Land.

There are profound reasons for which the Avot themselves required, without compromise, burial in the holy soil of Eretz Yisrael. Chazal teach that those buried in Israel will be the first to arise at the time of ‘techiat hamaitim’ (rise of the dead) (Bereishit Rabbah). On the other hand, those buried in chutz la’Aretz (outside of Eretz Yisrael), will roll through special tunnels to Israel – a painful ordeal called ‘gilgul mechilot’. The Gemara (Ketubot 111a) states that one who is buried in Eretz Yisrael, it’s as if he were buried under the ‘mizbeach’ (altar). In the authoritative book, “Gesher Hachaim”, Rabbi Yechiel Tucazinsky writes that upon death, the soul rises directly through the gates of Shamayim and is freed of the torture of ‘gilgul mechilot’ and ‘chibut hakever’ (a process whereby upon burial, a person is shaken by angels until he is freed of the last vestiges of the yetzer hara that continue clinging on after death).

With the advent of the modern era and especially since the establishment of the State of Israel, it has become much easier for the Jewish community residing in chutz le’Aretz to purchase burial plots for themselves or their loved ones. Likewise, air travel and electronic communication have made the process of transferring caskets/coffins to Israel relatively simple. Actually, the entire procedure, from the passing of a person in chutz la’Aretz to the funeral in Israel, can be achieved within 24 hours. That is true, however, if there is a plot reserved and purchased, in advance. The Israeli Embassy or Consulate in the foreign country will not allow the body onto the plane without an ‘Ishur’ (permit) which is produced when there is a title deed for the plot.

In a situation where a person has passed away, each country presents its own set of bureaucratic challenges, which basically entails securing a death certificate and permits from the Department of Health and from the Department of Home Affairs. In certain cases, where the deceased was a hospital patient or a resident of a similar institution prior to death, a ‘non-infectious disease certificate’ is required. A coroner’s report in the case of unnatural causes is often demanded by the authorities. If the person dies in a city which has an experienced chevra kadisha, they are usually able to expedite these documents quite quickly.

The most common delay, and possibly the most uncomfortable part of the process, is in the event that no plot has been pre-purchased. In that case, the grieving family has to purchase a plot in Israel and this may not be so straightforward. First, they need to decide on which cemetery, reach the persons responsible for burial there, usually have to communicate with that person in Hebrew or broken English, discuss matters like proving the Jewishness of the deceased and whether the family have males who are kohanim, before those in charge of the cemetery agree to fax or email an application form. Undoubtedly, the factor that matters most to the cemetery administrator at this time is payment for the plot. He will instruct the family to make a wire transfer to the chevra kadisha’s account. Alternatively, he will allow for a local relative pay into the account or in cash or by check. Only when satisfied, will he fax/email the ishur to the chevra kadisha overseas for processing. Besides the stress this causes the family at this most difficult time, it most often leads to lengthy delays and halachic issues of kavod hameit (respect for the dead).

Clearly, anyone from abroad contemplating the mitzva of burial in Israel, and has the means to do so, should not wait till it’s too late but seek out an experienced agent for the best advice both for selecting the most suitable plots and for assistance with the procedures. This can save a lot of time, money, stress and heartache. Purchasing a burial plot in Eretz Yisrael has the added advantage of being a Segula for long life – the ultimate gift for the ones you love.

Dovid Kentridge is the Director of Jerusalem Burials. He has been actively involved in “Chesed shel Emet” for the last 22 years. As Funeral Director for the Johannesburg Chevra Kadisha for eight years prior to aliya, he has vast experience in all aspects of burial procedures both locally and abroad and can advise with burial requirements including the purchasing of plots in Eretz Yisrael. He can be reached at 054 841 9515 or by email: jerusalemburials@ymail.com. View the website www.jerusalemburials.com

השמאל תוהה על מעשה בראשית?! – אף אתה הקהה את שיניו

השמאל (וכל המחופשים ללא-שמאל) מלאים רחמי רשעים וחסד לאמים על בריות בראשית, בטובתן של רשעים, להשוות עולם ומלואו כביכול (מכספי אחרים, כמובן), לרחם על האכזרים אם נדמו כחלשים, להחזיר העולם למים, ולומר לאל סורו ממנו, רח”ל.

להלן ליצנותא דע”ז לכל קוראי “אנא אמלוך” בתר איפכא, ובעד מעשה אלקינו:

כיון שהלב שליט על המח, כמה רע המעשה הנעשה כשילד נזנח בלי אוכל! יקר לנו אף בכי קצר של תינוק בן יומו מצער איוב לגדול בשנים. ועל כן, בגניבה ופרזיטיות, ומן התורה תלמדנו, “עלינו” לדאוג שחלילה לא יובא שום ילד לעוה”ז בלא מעשה טבעי של אב ואם. עלינו “לחוקק” שיוטבע בהם רחמנות גדולה על בנם. וכן יש לברוא משיכה נסתרת בזוג בכמה אופנים שלא יניחוהו לרעוב. ולא די בכל זה, בשם הדיקטטורה, רק יהו פניו דומין לקלסתר פני אביו, ותוטל בו חן בעיני רואיו הגדולים עד שיגדל לאיש בעל כח ודעת. וכן ראוי להיות קהילה שלמה סביבם, שיוכלו לבייש את אביו, ע’ כתובות מ”ט, או אף לזונו בשעת הצורך ע”י ב”ד. ומותר לכל ישראל ליטול על עצמו להיות לו לאב, וחייב בכבודו. וכן הלאה והלאה, עד ששום ילד לא ימות ברעב מחולשת היותו סמוך על שלחן אחרים, בשם “הצדק החברתי”.

וכיון שכ”ז ועוד כבר נעשה בידי שמים, יש לגעור בכופרים בגזרת אורייתא וחקות שמים וארץ לטובתנו. “א”ר יוחנן, הרשעים מתקיימין על אלהיהם, ופרעה חולם והנה עומד על היאור, אבל הצדיקים אלהיהם מתקיים עליהם, שנאמר והנה ה’ נצב עליו ויאמר אני ה’ אלקי אברהם.”

ועוד, צער ב”ח. כמה נורא עבור הצופים עצמם לראות בסבלם! איברא, עכ”פ איכא שלא עליהם עצמן נאמר “כל מי שאין בו דעת אסור לרחם עליו”.ול”ל קרא בצער אתונו של בלעם.

אשר ע”כ, יש לנו לעשות בהם כמה טובות לבני אדם שיפרנסום. ועוד יש למנוע מרשעים להטיל מגבלות ומיסים על החזקתם כדי שלא יתרשלו חלילה, חקה אחת לכם ולגר הגר (וכעי”ז ג”כ בדאגה לסביבה\כדור הארץ). ועוד יש להטיל חיובי מלקות ומיתה על המטמאם ברביעה או כלאים או חורש בשור וחמור יחדו (וע’ נמי טעם ספר החינוך) ורכיבה בלי אוכף, ועונש ממון על המניחם להזיק או לבייש (“כך דינינו”). ולא נתקררה דעתנו עד אלה, רק נחמיר שישחטום לאכילה רק בסכין חלקה. וכן יש להתאחד בכח הזרוע והרמאות ובשם המוסר ההומאני “לחוקק” חיוב הקדמת סעודתם לסעודת בעליהם ולא תחסום בדישו, ומה שי”ב זכרון לרחמים לאדם עליהם, כגון שילוח האם בציפור, ולא תשחטו יום אחד, אף שלחיות אין הנאה מכך אלא בעקיפין. לא “אילמלא ניתנה תורה”, עירובין ק’ ב’, אלא כאילו ח”ו לא ניתנה תורה.

תנו לחיות לחיות!

הלא עיר פרא אדם יולד, ואיש את רעהו חיים בלעו. חלילה לנו השמאלנים החדשים להכשל בנאיביות — המטופשת והמרושעת כאחד — של ליברלים (במובן הישן) דוגלי חירות ואחריות אישית ללא מצרים!

ע”כ.

The Aliyah Experience – Yoel Berman Speaks

Present and Future

Various Perspectives and Experiences of English speakers Living in Eretz Yisroel

Present and Future

I came from Los Angeles as a bochur to the Mir Yeshiva, and then got married here in Eretz Yisroel.

I continued learning in the Mir, while my wife worked for Otzar HaChochma, the world’s largest digital seforim library, in its beginning stages of amassing and scanning thousands of seforim.

We then moved to Modi’in Illit, where, with the help of our parents for the down payment, we purchased our first apartment. As is common in this country, we bought “on paper,” paying the contractor in installments as the apartment was built. Meanwhile, we rented down the block. It was an interesting experience watching the progress of the construction of our apartment.

My wife then worked at ImageStore doing document digitizing and electronic archiving. It was one of a few companies which started the trend of creating workspaces tailored for large numbers of Chareidi women interested in working together, close to home in a sheltered environment. Next door to ImageStore was another such company, CityBook, which provided jobs to many native English speakers living in Modi’in Illit by outsourcing for American companies.

While my wife worked, I continued as an avreich in a small kollel in Kiryat Sefer where we would hear shiurim from HaRav Moshe Mordechai Karp shlit”a (author of the popular Hilchos Chag BeChag series). The group comprised a real mix of Litvish, Chasidish and Sephardi avreichim both from Eretz Yisroel and abroad.

When one of my neighbors started teaching safrus, I jumped at the opportunity. I always had creative and artistic leanings, as well as an attachment to the written words of the Torah. The idea that I can actually create a physical object which would be imbued with kedusha also appealed to me. As I had dreamt about having my own real kosher Megillas Shir Hashirim for reading at the time of Kabbolas Shabbos, I figured that instead of spending the money (which I didn’t really have) to buy one, I might as well invest in learning the trade.

That decision served me well, as I have been able to turn this occupation into a livelihood as our family has grown.

My father bought the first Megillas Esther I wrote. He reads from it every year for many family members, including his mother—my grandmother. I remember hearing how excited she was to see the megillah, proud that her grandson was a real sofer. It was even more interesting to hear it from her, as a member of the generation that wanted to see their children as doctors and lawyers.

After some years in Modi’in Illit, a married cousin with several children followed suit and came to join us from Los Angeles. There weren’t enough Americans in the neighborhood to make it comfortable enough for her, so they ended up moving to a more Anglo neighborhood in Yerushalayim, where her husband also learnt safrus. Even though they ended up moving back to the U.S. after a number of years here, her husband still makes an income from the trade he learnt here—writing Sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzos.

I ended up moving up north with my family to a new Chareidi kehillah in the neighborhood of Giv’at Hamoreh in Afula. What allowed for our move is the fact that safrus is an occupation that is not dependent on location. It was an amazing experience to take part in the growth of a new community in Eretz Yisroel, contributing our talents and efforts to make it happen. After several years there, we moved to Yerushalayim to be closer to my aging grandfather who had meanwhile immigrated here, where, utilizing the connections I have made up north and elsewhere, I am involved in promoting the more-affordable communities of Eretz Yisroel for the Anglo-Chareidi community, mostly in the north and south of the country.

Being the oldest in my family, I was the first one to establish myself here in Eretz Yisroel. Several siblings thereafter followed me, with three sisters currently living here with their families and other siblings coming to visit occasionally including when they are here on their post-high school or seminary stint. My parents also come to visit and to share in simchas.

I think my parents see Eretz Yisroel as the future not just of the Jewish people in general, but of our family specifically. Having grandchildren that are playing in the streets of Yerushalayim and elsewhere in Eretz Yisroel makes them feel strongly connected to this amazing part of our nation’s history that is playing out now. When, at the end of the Pesach Seder, they say “l’shana haba’ah b’Yerushalayim,” it is a Yerushalayim that is much more tangible to them, not just some esoteric concept. They’ve been here, they are represented here, and they have a future here.

I am proud to be part of that future.

 

The Security Situation

When, as a bochur, I decided—with my parents’ approval—that I was to go to learn in Eretz Yisroel, there were several relatives who expressed concern about the security situation in Eretz Yisroel.

It was just a few days before I was scheduled to leave home that my father and a few of my siblings went to do some shopping. While at the store, a gun-wielding teenager forced everyone into the freezer while he cleaned out the cash registers. (The cashier led them instead into the refrigerator.) Although, Boruch HaShem, the traumatic ordeal lasted just a short while, without any injuries, I was thereafter not subject to any dissuasion due to security concerns…

– Yoel Berman, Yerushalayim

This article is part of our Eretz Chemdah series featuring Anglo-Chareidim living in, settling, and building up Eretz Yisroel. A joint project of Avira D’Eretz Yisroel, Kedushas Tzion and Naava Kodesh, coordinated by Yoel Berman – info@naavakodesh.org.

Reprinted with permission from Naava Kodesh.

Milton Friedman: Greedy Politicians Are No Nobler Than Greedy Businessmen!

Milton Friedman – Your Greed or Their Greed?

Find (from Jul 14, 2007), here on YouTube.

Note: Brief immodest image!

Partial quote (via GoodReads):

“Well first of all, tell me: Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy, it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.”