Exodus Magazine - September 2021

#227 | September 2021 • Tishrei 5782

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Serving Canada's Jewish Russian Community Since 1980

Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario

in this

Pre-Holiday to-do

list

• Prepare the festival meals in advance • Prepare/purchase the special Rosh Hashana foods • Have a new seasonal fruit for the second night • Shofar plans – make plans to hear the Shofar on the two days of Rosh Hashana • Holiday Candle Lighting - see below

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Hashana

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Rosh with all your here to assist The JRCC is page of Exodus See the back locations.

Hashana needs.

Holiday Services for a list of High your Rosh Hashana e in making having For assistanc attending services, you in for plans, including the Shofar visit someone blow assistance, or any other the JRCC. your home, ys or contact jrcc.org/HighHolida

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Extending our warmest wishes to the Toronto Jewish Community for a Happy and Healthy

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RABBI SHOLOM JACOBSON ‫ע”ה‬ Father of Rabbi Levi Jacobson (JRCC West Thornhill) Passed away at the age of 74 on Tuesday, 18 Menachem Av 5781 July 27, 2021 Rabbi Sholom Jacobson was known as a chossid, mashpia and scholar who spent his life publishing, printing and spreading the holy Chassidic works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

He was born on 7 Adar 5707 (1947) in Poking Pine City, the second largest displaced persons (DP) camp in Germany following the Second World War. When his father was arrested by the KGB for sustaining Jewish institutions and exiled to Siberia, Sholom remained with his mother

and older brothers Gershon Ber Jacobson and Betzalel Jacobson. In the 50s, the family immigrated to Toronto, Canada.

After his mother’s passing in 1955, he moved to Crown Heights and remained attached and dedicated to the Rebbe ever since.

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Rabbi Jacobson lectured on Chassidic topics in various forums, nationally and internationally.

He taught in many institutions such as Yeshiva Oholei Torah, Machon Chana and in recent years was the Mashpia of the Ahavas Moshe shul in Crown Heights.

He spoke at many Chabad centers and events with an emphasizes on the topic of Moshiach and Geula and would publish a weekly “Leben Mit Moshiach,” first as a fax and then as a printed pamphlet and an email.

He also oversaw the world-wide Tanya printing project which has the Alter Rebbe‘s foundational book of Chabad Chassidus printed in cities and towns all over the world to being holiness to each location.

JRCC Rabbis and Staff

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

think! again.

September 2021 • Tishrei 5782

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7 | JEWISH SOUL

The Root of Equal Rights

10

13

13 | MADE YOU THINK

Yearly Stock-Taking

All humans everywhere and at all times should know that each and all descend from the one and the same single progenitor, so that no human being could claim superior ancestral origin.

Our lives are filled with various kinds of questions. The main question that everyone ought to ask on Rosh Hashana is – what have I done to help reveal G‑d's glory in the world?

— From the Rebbe's letters

— by Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz

8 | JEWISH THOUGHT

14 | ASK THE RABBI

18

editorial jewish soul jewish thought life on earth made you think ask the rabbi our community holiday guide

Give Me Your Soul

The Two-Day, No Party New Year

Beyond all the complexity of life, we each have within a soft and gentle voice. This is who you are at your purest core. This is what you looked like when you were a newborn child.

Why is the Jewish New Year commemorated with solemn prayer, without any of the parties we see in other cultures? Any why is Rosh Hashana two days even in Israel, while other holidays are only one day in Israel?

— by Simon Jacobson

— by Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman

10 | LIFE ON EARTH

18 | HOLIDAY GUIDE

What do you do if you’re celebrating and the man who opposes you in your greatest life-battles turns up at the party? This is what happened on Simchat Torah at Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters.

A collection of insights and inspiration to boost your holiday experience: The shofar on Rosh Hashana, the transcendence of Yom Kippur, and the joyful unity of Sukkot and Simchat Torah.

— by Tzvi Freeman

— by Exodus Staff

The Rebbe and the Chief Justice

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

simchas marketplace memorials

6 7 8 10 13 14 15 18 26 27 30

High Holidays 2001/5782

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In the struggle between the Divine and the animalistic within us, one of the most crucial battlegrounds is the arena of meditative prayer.

Often dismissed as a pastime reserved for the religiously devout, prayer is so central to healthy spirituality and the conquering of the human condition that it alone can be the deciding factor that tips the scales one way or another. Ignoring this mysterious practice, or even approaching it in the wrong way, casts a long shadow of doubt on our ability to grow spiritually at all.

Central to any spiritual ideology is the goal of becoming more aware. Prayer, simply speaking, means that we take some time out of our day to meditate about who we are, where we come from, who created us, and for what purpose we are alive. The goal is to get our priorities straight, and then live life according to these ideals — without succumbing to the dictates of societal pressures, material necessity or passing temptations.

Prayer itself generates a heightened sense of awareness, which affects our daily conduct, and our ability to be self-disciplined and remain true to our ideals. That’s why the ideal time for prayer is first thing in the morning.

The morning is a seed that grows and dictates what the day ahead will look like; how we spend out mornings is a statement about what is important in our lives. When we start the day focused on the transcendent, zeroing in on the Divine and the purpose of existence, then that focus is transplanted into our daily activities. We become kinder, more sensitive

and more spiritually aware throughout the day. Our pursuit of material gain and pleasure suddenly take a back seat to the quest for truth and spiritual enlightenment. We become focused on what is truly important — helping others, spending time with family, being good to ourselves, and gaining wisdom.

Granted, effective prayer requires a conscious investment of the self, and cannot be accomplished by mumbling the words by rote. Aside from the fact that we insult G-d (and ourselves) by making light of our relationship, if the meditative aspect of prayer is missing, then the entire activity actually becomes destructive. Instead of achieving a higher level of awareness and refinement, this type of prayer actually causes us to be less aware and less refined, since we start off the day by making a statement that spirituality is not important — we’ve got more important things to do (gotta get to work, ya know).

And so the day — and life — that follows becomes a haze of mixed priorities and missed opportunities.

Meditative prayer is, in a sense, the root of all kindness and spiritual activism. When we pray thoughtfully, we are being good to ourselves by amplifying the role of the soul in our lives, which helps us overcome challenges and sets our priorities straight by making spirituality the focus of life. This helps us live more peaceful, meaningful and fulfilling lives, improving our own lives and those of the people around us, and, by extension, the entire world.

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jewish soul

The Root

of

Equal Rights

From the Rebbe's Letters

T

his is to acknowledge receipt of your letter in which you express deep sorrow about the terrible anti-semitic incident that took place last month in front of the synagogue in Warsaw: that the perpetrators were captured and will be prosecuted, and that the behavior was condemned by President Walesa, etc. You also express the hope that in the future intolerance and prejudice will disappear from the Polish people, and that you are working towards this end.

We appreciate the sentiment expressed in your letter, and we pray that your hope and efforts will materialize very soon indeed.

Apropos of the above I would like to add that last month, in the beginning of Tishrei, we ushered in the current Jewish New Year, 5752, with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the anniversary of the Creation of the first man, Adam. Our Sages of the Talmud explain why the creation of man differed from the creation of other living species and why, among other things, man was created as a single individual, unlike other living creatures created in pairs.

One of the reasons – our Sages declare – is that it was G‑d's design that the human race, all humans everywhere and at all times, should know that each and all descend from the one and the same single progenitor, a fully developed human being created in the image of G‑d, so that no human being could claim superior ancestral origin; hence would also find it easier to cultivate a real feeling of kinship in all inter-human relationships.

Indeed, although Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish festival, our prayers for a Happy New Year include also all the nations and dwellers on earth. And true happiness includes everyone's peace and prosperity both materially and spiritually. *

*

*

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah I extend my prayerful wishes to my brethren, every Jew and Jewess in the midst of our people Israel, the time hallowed traditional blessing of “Shono toivo umesuko”—a good and sweet year.

The celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the year, has been ordained by our Torah to take place on the anniversary of the Creation, but not on the first day of Creation.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

It has been made to coincide with the sixth day of Creation, the day when Man was created.

The significance of this day, and of this event, is not in the fact that a new creature was added to Creation, a creature one plane higher than the rest of the animal kingdom, as the animal is superior to plant, and plant to mineral.

The significance lies in the fact that the new creature—Man—was essentially different from the others.

For it was man who recognized the Creator in and through Creation, and, what is more, brought about the elevation of the entire Creation to that recognition and thus to the fulfillment of its Divine design and purpose.

Since such recognition and appreciation of the Creator is the ultimate purpose of the Creation.

One of the main distinguishing features which set Man apart from all other creatures, is the free choice of action which the Creator bestowed upon him.

Man can use this special Divine gift in two opposing directions he may, G‑d forbid, choose the way leading to self-destruction and the destruction of everything around him; or, he can choose the right way of life, which would elevate him and the Creation with him to the highest possible perfection.

And to help us recognize and choose the right path, we were given the Torah, which is Divine and eternal, hence its teachings are valid for all times and in all places.

It is not possible for man to make his choice unaided, merely by virtue of his intellect, for the human intellect is limited. The intellect can only serve to discover and bring forth that inner absolute intuition and faith in things which lie beyond and above the realm of the intellect; the faith and intuition which are the heritage of every Jew, therewith to illuminate his entire being and to guide him in his daily living to a life inspired by Torah and Mitzvoth.

On Rosh Hashanah man stands not only before the Divine Judgment, but also before his own.

The verdict of his own judgment, with regard to the future, must be: that he takes upon himself to fulfill his duty, that is, to work for the fulfillment—in himself and in his surroundings—of the call: “Come, let us worship, bow down and kneel before G‑d our Maker,” a call for absolute submission to G‑d first sounded by the first man, Adam, on the day of his creation, on the first Rosh Hashanah.

This can be attained only through a life inspired and guided by the Torah.

And that he must once and for all abandon the opposite road, which can only lead to destruction and doom.

Let no one think: who am I and what am I to have such tremendous powers of building or destruction.

For we have seen—to our sorrow—what even a small quantity of matter can do in the way of destruction through the release of atomic energy. If such power is concealed in a small quantity of matter—for destructiveness, in denial of the design and purpose of Creation, how much greater, is the creative power entrusted to every individual to work in harmony with the Divine purpose, for in this case one is also given special abilities and opportunities by Divine Providence to attain the goal for which we have been created: the realization of a world in which “Each creature shall recognize that Thou didst create him, and every breathing soul shall declare: ‘G‑d, the G‑d of Israel, is King, and His reign is supreme over all.’” EM

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jewish thought

Give Me Your Soul Simon Jacobson

B

eyond all the complexity of life, beyond all our jaded experiences, beyond all the clutter and noise, we each have within our souls a very quiet place – a soft and gentle voice. This is who you are at your purest core. This is what you looked like when you were a newborn child.

And this is the place we return to every Rosh Hashana, when we celebrate the collective birthday of the human race. On this day, thousands of years ago, a Divine breath, for the very first time, infused life into a pile of dust from the earth, creating the human being. We are part dust, part spirit – a body and a soul.

On this day each year we return to our origins: Not the dust part, but the spirit – the dimensions that makes us uniquely human.

And what does this spirit look and feel like? It is the part in you that has not been polluted by life experiences.

This is the one thing David asked for. “I seek,” he declared, “that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the pleasantness of the Lord, and to visit His Sanctuary.”

In a hostile world, with many trials and tribulations, I seek a pure and peaceful place – to dwell in, to behold and to visit.

Even today when the Holy Temple no longer stands, we each still have within our hearts and souls a pure place that houses the Divine, where we can dwell and find comfort; a beautiful core whose pleasantness we can behold; an inner sanctum which we can regularly visit.

If you are looking to define one thing to focus on Rosh Hashana, ask yourself: What do you seek?

Sadly most of us are distracted with the struggle for survival, the pursuit of material needs, the immediate challenges that each of us face. Rosh Hashana, especially during the Shofar blowing, put all that aside.

As we solemnly recite the verses in preparation for the Shofar blowing, allow the words to carry you away on their wings.

As the haunting Shofar begins to sound, imagine that this the simple cry of your soul, reaching out, yearning, beckoning.

Close your eyes. Take your mind, heart and presence to another place – to who you truly

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are beneath it all: “achas sho’alti” – seek out the single most important thing of all – your essence.

If you were to ask for one thing, “achas sho’alti,” ask for this: That your core purity should surface. That you should have the ability to dwell in and be embraced by its warm arms, all the day of your life. That you should sense with awe and behold its beauty. And that you should visit even the dimensions that transcend your soul.

As we return to our core identities on Rosh Hashana, we also revisit the purpose of our existence: Why am I here?

Over the years I have written much about the vital importance of finding your personal life mission statement. If a business cannot function without one, how can we?

This is the central theme of Rosh Hashana, the collective birthday of the human race, when the human being was created in the divine image, with a distinct and irreplaceable role to achieve in transforming existence.

The absolute significance of each life – that each of us is indispensable and was sent to earth on a mission that you and only you can accomplish – is the most critical ingredient in

life and the foundation of all of Torah and Judaism.

Without this foundation – that you and everything you do matters now and forever – any expectation of us and any choice we make is rendered negligible. What significance can there be to any mitzvah, and to any moral virtue and social responsibility, if our lives have no meaning or arbitrary meaning?

Rosh Hashana then provides us with the greatest possible gift: The renewal of our divine contract and mandate – the renewal of our divinely endowed mission and all the resources we need to realize this mission.

On this extraordinary day we are charged anew with the single most essential force in life: The dignity of your immutable value.

The importance of this cannot be overstated.

No words can express the significance of our indispensability.

Imagine waking up every day knowing that you have a job to do that no one else but you can accomplish. That the entire world is waiting in anticipation for you to fulfill your role. And if you don’t do your part, now one else can fulfill their roles.

Imagine that you are carrying the baton in

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

jewish thought

your leg of a long marathon, and if you drop the baton or do not run your leg, everyone else is compromised. Imagine that you are an astronaut in space and if you don’t press the right button all of humanity hangs in the balance.

Imagine that every second of the day, every fiber of your being, feels how your next act changes the course of destiny.

If you felt this sense of urgency and this confidence all the time, how many problems would it pre-empt? How much heartache, aggravation, and therapy it would prevent; how much money, time and resources it would save!

Think about that for a minute: If you don’t feel like you make a difference in the world, how excited can you be about the things you do and the choices you make? When you wake up in the morning and you feel like what you do that day doesn’t matter anyway, how committed or passionate can you be?

This simple, clear message is the best preventive medicine for much of the troubles plaguing our world today, much if not all of which stems from one root: A deep void and lack of feeling that you and your actions

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

are absolutely significant. That you are a necessary player in the scheme of existence, and your choices and actions always matter.

We need to reach to every person, to every child, every parent, every educator, every leader, with the message: You matter. Your life and what you do with it matters. You are indispensable to G‑d and to this world.

A while ago a couple approached me with their little children and asked me to bless their children for the New Year. I gave them a blessing, and then, without much thought, I turned to the parents and smilingly said: And G‑d should bless you and all us adults that we not corrupt our pure and innocent children.

Words provoke.

Spontaneously, the mother asks me: what do you suggest we can do to ensure that our children grow up the healthiest they can be and do not get corrupted by the adult world? If there were one thing we can do, what would it be?

“What a great question,” I said to myself and to her.

I will share with you my response, as a suggestion all parents around the world – a Rosh Hashana resolution: On this Rosh Hashana let us all begin a new custom – a gift to our children: Every morning upon awakening and every evening before putting your children to sleep – and as many times as you can throughout the day – tell your child (in addition to any words of love you usually convey to your child): — (Obviously, you can and ought to customize this with your own words, and also tailor to the specific age and comprehension of your child. But here is an idea that you can either use or adapt). — “Your soul was sent here to earth to accomplish a mission that you and only you can accomplish. Always remember that.

“You have a special song inside of you. A melody that has never been sung before. A beautiful song that will change everything you encounter.

“Wherever you go, whatever you do, whomever you meet – everything is waiting for you to sing your song. For you to shine with your special glow. For you to paint your unique portrait. For you to contribute your

irreplaceable verse.”

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children (as Nelson Mandela said).

It is time to create a revolution – to refocus our priorities and invest our energies into the most premium of all our gifts: Our children.

And remember: It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

Now let us envision what our child will look like as he or she grown into an adult saturated with not just with our love and nurturing, but also with a profound and intimate sense of purpose and urgency.

Imagine a child turned adult who has heard this message every day after day: “You matter, not because you think you are important, or because others tell you that you are, or because of your buying power, monetary value, looks, performance or productivity level. But because G‑d put you here. You are an indispensable musical note.

Irreplaceable. Period. The world would be different if you were not here or if you do not fulfill your calling. You have been allotted a certain section of this globe, with certain talents; people you will meet; experiences you will have; places you will go; objects you will obtain – all are allocated to you in order for you to transform them, to leave them differently from how you found them. And this change lives forever. Eternally.

“You don’t just matter to me and your family; you matter to the entire world. You matter to all the worlds and the cosmos.

You matter to all the souls in heaven who have been here before us. And above all: You matter to G‑d.

“G‑d personally chose you and sent your soul down to us here. To accomplish things that only you can accomplish.

“Never ever forget that.”

Blessed is the child that will grow up with this message ingrained in his every move.

Blessed is the world that will be filled with such children. EM

Rabbi Simon Jacobson is the author of Toward a Meaningful Life: The Wisdom of the Rebbe and the director of the Meaningful Life Center (meaningfullife.com).

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life on earth

The Rebbe and the Chief Justice Tzvi Freeman

W

hat do you do if you’re celebrating and rejoicing with friends, and the man who opposes you in your greatest life-battles turns up at the party?

This was Simchat Torah, 1975, at ChabadLubavitch Headquarters, 770 Eastern Parkway. Thousands of Lubavitchers were packed in tight, along with anyone else who wished to witness the most joyous hakafot in the world on the most joyous day of the year.

The gabbaim — the esteemed official administrators — of the synagogue were frantically attempting to bring some order to the ceremony, while seeking out the contingent that would come every year from the Israeli consulate.

That’s when they saw Haim Cohn. And they didn’t know what to do. This was just the wrong man at the wrong party.

Who was Haim Cohn? To Israelis, he is still known as one of the major architects of Israeli law, a great man of thought, and as a champion of human rights. Indeed, he was in New York for the United Nations general assembly, representing Israel in the Human Rights Commission. But Haim Cohn was also well known for his fierce opposition to all things religious, especially when they concerned the Israeli State.

Cohn came from a family of deeply religious Torah scholars in Lübeck, Germany. In 1929, at the age of eighteen, Cohn set out for Jerusalem, where he studied under Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, who he came to greatly admire, and at the Hebrew University. He returned to Europe to complete his degree in law at the University of Frankfurt, marrying there a young woman who was not interested in religion.

After returning to the Holy Land with the rise of the Third Reich in 1933, he gradually turned not just away from, but against Torah Judaism, actively opposing the rabbis, both as an authority of Israeli law and as a member of the T'hila Movement for Israeli Jewish secularism.

“The Elisha ben Avuya of our generation,” was the title given him by Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, son and protégé of his former mentor. Elisha ben Avuya was a

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brilliant sage of the Talmud, the teacher of Rabbi Meir, who had turned to heresy.

Smoke rose from his grave, the Talmud tells, for well over a hundred years—and that was after the sages prayed for mercy on his soul. “Because he knew G‑d’s greatness and yet rebelled.”1 Eventually, Cohn divorced his first wife and traveled to America for a secular marriage to a woman who had been previously married—an act that spurred the fury of rabbis in Israel. By Torah law, a descendant of Aaron, such as Haim Cohn, is forbidden to marry a divorcée.

But perhaps what concerned the gabbaim most was Haim Cohn’s role in the “Who Is a Jew” controversy.

This was a topic the Rebbe had addressed incessantly for the previous five years, warning in the strongest language imaginable that compromise on such a core issue posed an existential danger to the Jewish nation. Haim Cohn, on the other hand, as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, stood his ground that Jewishness, as the state, is a social construct, and anyone who personally identifies as a Jew should be

embraced by the state as a Jew. The gabbaim who beheld this man standing before them knew well the controversy, indeed, the outright condemnation in many quarters that would arise if they gave him any part in the ceremony. Small wonder they stalled.

But the Rebbe noted the hesitation of the gabbaim and protested.

“A Jew wants to take on the yoke of Torah,” he chided them, “and you won’t give it to him?”

The Rebbe personally purchased the reading of the first verse of the ceremony and said something to a gabbai, who then called out, “We hereby honor the illustrious Justice of the Supreme Court, Reb Haim haKohen, with the verse, “Atta Hareisa.”

Haim Cohn bellowed out his verse, loud and proud, and the Rebbe, the gabbaim, and the crowd of chassidim echoed him in full chorus.

The episode had not ended. When the gabbaim took out the Torah Scrolls, the first and the heaviest—the one known as “Moshiach’s Sefer Torah”—was heading straight towards Haim Cohn.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

future tense

MOSHIACH MUSINGS

The Rebbe didn’t see before him an opportunity to win at a game. Or to gain a new adherent.

Or even to gain some ground.

The Rebbe saw before him a Jew. And he believed in that Jew. Again the gabbaim hesitated. This was a very heavy scroll after all, and Haim Cohn was no young man. It would make more sense to hand him one of the smaller, lighter scrolls.

The Rebbe looked Cohn straight in the eye. He asked, “Are you ready to accept upon yourself the weight of the yoke of Torah?”

If you never experienced that look, it’s difficult to relate. Two sharp blue eyes pierce through your flesh down to your bone and deep into your soul. There is nowhere to hide and nothing of you that remains hidden before those eyes.

Haim Cohn answered in the affirmative.

The gabbaim relented.

When the singing and dancing began, Haim Cohn was still clutching his Torah, singing and dancing along with the consulate members and chassidim for a full threequarters of an hour. Even as the Rebbe sang and clapped and encouraged the crowd with explosive joy, his eyes never left Haim Cohn.

That night, Cohn returned to his hotel.

He returned to Israel, to his post, and to

his opinions. Ten years later, he was still writing about “Who Is a Jew,” without any deflection from his original stance.

If you never met the Rebbe, if you didn’t know his ways, you might misinterpret this story.

You might say, “The Rebbe was very smart. He knew how to deal with his detractors. He knew that rather than arguing with a Jew, better to befriend him.

That way, you have a far better chance of enlisting them to your cause—or at least, mitigating their gunfire. Too bad it didn’t work in this case.”

But that is not the Rebbe. And the proof: In this case, the risk was too big to fake.

With utter confidence, the Rebbe declared that this Jew was here for one purpose: “to accept the yoke of Torah.” And he even took the gamble of publicly asking a man who had fought against Torah for 30 years—with no sign of regret, “Are you ready to accept the yoke of Torah?” What if Cohn had said “no?”

And even if he didn’t say no, what if he didn’t mean what he said? The Rebbe was certainly a stickler when it came to halachah.

On Yom Kippur, when entering the Holy of Holies, the High Priest wore garments of clean, white linen. Doesn't it seem strange that he wouldn't dress in his finest gold garments for his meeting with the Almighty in the Holy of Holies?

The Rebbe explains that within every Jew is a spiritual Holy Temple. At times, services within our personal Holy Temple require gold garments, symbolizing the material world, and at times require linen garments, symbolizing our spiritual, pure reality. Our goal is to utilize both the physical world and our own spiritual abilities for the sake of revealing the presence of the Almighty in this world.

Amongst our people, there are those of us who are of "gold garments," meaning those to whom G‑d grants wealth. There are those of us who are of "linen garments," whose Divine service is in spiritual matters. By wearing varied garments in his service, the High Priest teaches us that no matter if one is of "gold" or "linen," spiritually inclined or wealthy, one must immerse oneself in serving the Almighty in both categories.

The wealthy man must not only give generously to charity. He must also study and pray. The scholar must not only study and pray, he must also devote himself to helping others any way he can.

This is all true and good. However, within every Jew is an inner sanctum, a Divine spark which is indestructible and incorruptible, a personal Holy of Holies.

At that level, all are equal. There is no difference between any of us, whether ignorant or scholarly, rich or poor or any other distinction for that matter.

The High Priest wears garments of clean linen in the Holy of Holies to symbolize this common denominator between Jews.

The message of the simple linen is the simple and pure relationship we all have with our Creator.

How could he permit handing a Torah Scroll to a man known for his fight against things sacred to the Jewish people—and asking him to lead an entire congregation in prayer (as indeed the Rebbe’s critics demanded to know upon hearing the story)?

But the Rebbe didn’t see before him an opportunity to win at a game. Or to gain a new adherent. Or even to gain some ground.

The Rebbe saw before him a Jew. And he believed in that Jew. He believed that, regardless of everything this Jew had said and done for the past thirty years, a Torah Scroll remained for him the most precious, sacred object in the world. And that his innermost, deepest desire was to carry and embrace that Torah.

Did it help? Let’s say it didn’t. But, as the first rebbe of Chabad wrote in his classic work called the Tanya, when you see a Jew who is not doing the right thing, pull that Jew in with thick cords of love. Perhaps he will change his ways, perhaps not. Either way, you’ve fulfilled the mitzvah of loving another Jew. But I believe it did help.

You see, years later, a certain Chabadnik befriended a certain Israeli who lived in Manhattan. Before Simchat Torah, he invited him to come to 770 and celebrate with the Rebbe.

But the man refused, adamantly. “I have a friend,” he explained, “who went there one year. And it changed his mind about many things. I am not interested in changing my mind about anything. I’m not coming.”

The friend, as you may have guessed, was Haim Cohn.

Outwardly, perhaps, at least in the immediate, nothing changed. But then, Maimonides writes in his Laws of Repentance that if a Jew has regret in the recesses of his heart, even if he remains recalcitrant, his repentance is accepted and his share in the World To Come reinstated.2 And eventually, as Maimonides writes in a famous letter to the Jews of Yemen, this Jew will come to a complete repentance. As the verse goes, “Return, wayward children, and I will heal your returning.”3 Some people today have lost faith in their fellow Jews. With the conflation of politics

12

Haim Cohn studying Talmud with his brother Leo and his grandfather Rabbi Yosef Cohn in Hamburg, c. 1932.

and religion and the intensely polarizing pull of social media, some have gone so far to declare that we have become, G‑d forbid, two separate peoples.

Such a perception can only arise when our eyes do not see beneath the most external presentation of a Jew. When we judge people by their behavior, by their stated opinions, by their choices at the voting polls that go against our own.

But that is not Judaism. Judaism is not an ideology or even a set of practices that determine whether we keep you as a Jew or chuck you out as a stranger.

Rather, Judaism is a divine wisdom, known as Torah, that, when presented in all its authenticity, has the unique capacity to awaken the inner spark of a Jew, thereby connecting all of us together as one people with one Torah and one G‑d.

Connect with that other Jew and you will see the good that’s there. It’s likely not so far from the surface. You may even find there’s far more you agree upon than you disagree upon.

As with Haim Cohn and the Rebbe. Cohn was a champion of human rights, something

I imagine the Rebbe admired in him. He was also known for visiting the prisoners he had sentenced to jail, to ensure they were being well-treated.

"If I had my way," he once said, "I'd scrap prisons." Interestingly enough, the Rebbe said pretty much the same to Justice J. B. Weinstein.

So when you see another Jew at your party, even if he’s not the person you want to see there, even if you think he’s a sinner, even if you believe he is actively destroying the most sacred, essential elements of our people, even if he voted for the party you most despise, look deeper. Believe in that Jew. As much as you believe in G‑d, believe in that Jew. EM Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, a senior editor at Chabad.org, is the author of Bringing Heaven Down to Earth and more recently Wisdom to Heal the Earth. To subscribe to regular updates of Rabbi Freeman's writing or purchase his books, visit Chabad.org. Follow him on FaceBook @RabbiTzviFreeman.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

made you think

Yearly Stock-Taking Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz

T

he last days of the year, which lead us to Rosh Hashana, the Day of Judgment, are days of stock-taking, which every individual should do for himself. If the main part – namely, heart-felt repentance – is there, then the heart cries out and the stock-taking is done almost by itself. But if the main part is not there, people tend to cover this up with excessive detail – just like in the story about an absent-minded fellow who, before going to sleep, wrote down where he put each of his belongings, so that he can find them in the morning; the only thing that he forgot to note was … himself.

What is the nature of this yearly stocktaking? Surprisingly enough, the Rosh Hashana prayers do not contain any reference to sin; certain prayer versions omit even the transgressions mentioned in the Avinu Malkeinu prayer – because Rosh Hashana is a festival, and on a festival one does not make confessions of sins. Furthermore, although Rosh Hashana is also the Day of Judgment, there is almost no mention of Judgment in the Rosh Hashana prayers – except for the U-Netanneh Tokef prayer, which describes the Judgment. The reason for this is that the judgment – which is the outcome of the overall balance of good and evil, credit and debit – has already been made (albeit not finally sealed).

The theme that is repeated over and over again in the Rosh Hashana (and Yom Kippur) prayers is the prayer for the revelation of G‑d's Glory in the world. Our lives are filled with various kinds of questions, small ones and big ones. The main question that everyone ought to ask on Rosh Hashana is – what have I done to help reveal G‑d's glory in the world? If we ask it we may find out that we are experts at spitting when reciting "for they bow to vanity and emptiness and pray to a god which helps not" – but have not done a single thing to prove that they indeed "bend our knees, bow, and acknowledge our thanks before the King Who reigns over kings, the Holy One, Blessed is He." In the course of the year we spoil and soil many things. The main point is not to find out why we damaged, or to what extent we have been sullied: the main point is to figure out the overall balance of our deeds, of the

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

world as a whole. Throughout the year, "the Holy One, blessed be He, sustains [all creatures], from the horns of wild oxen to the eggs of lice"; and on the Day of Judgment He asks: has this all been worthwhile?

Should the world really be sustained for yet another year? The Day-of-Judgment question, then, does not deal with minor issues and sub-paragraphs; these are dealt with by the "Forgive us, our Father" etc., which we recite three times daily. The Rosh Hashana question encompasses the entire world. Therefore, this question is directed not only to the pious and the righteous, but to each and every individual. Every living, breathing creature should be wholly devoted to this goal. This is why in the Rosh Hashana prayers there is no mention of guilt; rather, these prayers describe the world as it should be. Our task is to contemplate this description and compare them to our reality; and this comparison clarifies things to such an extent, that there is no need for any further details.

Take a soldier who is preparing for a parade: his buttons are shining, his hat is properly placed on his head, and there

is not a single speck of dust in his gun.

That he has no bullets in his magazine is immaterial, because he does not intend to go to war anyway. Something similar can happen on this great day, too: we focus on the small details, but there is absolutely nothing behind them. We stand up and cry out on Rosh Hashana, and sing, and plead – but for what?

The only thing we can say is, "See how wretched and miserable we are; we are so ashamed! Please give us one more chance!"

Yet all year long we have catnapped, even slept. How much improvement can possibly be made in one single day? Perhaps just a small, tiny motion; but if this tiny motion means that we are beginning to wake up and live, then we can really begin to do something. EM Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, of blessed memory, is internationally regarded as one of the leading rabbis of the last century. The author of many books, he is best known for his monumental translation of and commentary on the Talmud. To learn more visit his website, steinsaltz.org.

13

ask the rabbi

The Two-Day, No Party New Year Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman

Q

Why is the Jewish New Year commemorated with solemn prayer, without any of the parties we see in other cultures? Any why is Rosh Hashana two days even in Israel,while other holidays are only one day in Israel?

Rosh Hashanah is a day for focusing on spiritual matters, not reveling in the physical. It is a day for realizing how G‑d rules the world and our lives. It is a day for reflecting on our past spiritual failings and resolving to serve G‑d to our maximum in the future.

Additionally, on Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the new year, G‑d makes an accounting of our past deeds and determines the direction of the coming year – for life or death, prosperity or poverty, etc. On Rosh Hashanah, known as “The Day of Judgment,” we repent and pray for G‑d's mercy in the Heavenly tribunal.

Making Rosh Hashanah into a party occasion would be grossly inappropriate.

However, we should not be mistaken and think that this day is anything but a joyous occasion, as we are confident that G‑d's essential compassionate and merciful nature will demonstrate itself. We should be happy as we coronate G‑d (imagine the joy of a mortal king's coronation day), and embark on a new path of spiritual improvement (picture how glad you are to turn over a new leaf in your closest relationships).

Jewish tradition teaches us that this is the date of Adam and Eve’s creation – and who could be sad on the birthday of humanity?

Rosh Hashanah is a time for renewing our faith and dedication to G‑d, and to joyously commit to actualizing our spiritual potentials.

Rosh Hashanah is observed for two days, both in and out of Israel. Biblically speaking the Holiday of Rosh Hashanah is just one day: the first day of the seventh month (Tishrei).

However, biblically speaking the first day of the month is to be determined by the Rabbinical court in Jerusalem (not by the calendar).

In ideal times, when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, the day when the new month started was determined by witnesses who saw the new moon. A month in the Jewish (lunar) calendar contains 29 or 30 days. If witnesses

14

arrived on the 30th day of the month and testified that they had seen the new moon, then that day became the 1st day of the next month and the previous month ended up with only 29 days. If no witnesses arrived on that day, then automatically the previous month had 30 days and the next month would start on the 31st day. Rosh Hashanah is the 1st day of the month of Tishrei. So when the 30th day of Elul (the month before Tishrei) arrived, no one could know whether this day would end up being the 1st day of Tishrei (Rosh Hashanah) or the 30th day of Elul; it depended whether witnesses would arrive on that day. This causes problems with the daily prayers, sacrifices, etc.

So our sages instituted that we should observe two days of Rosh Hashanah -- the 30th and 31st day. In Temple times this could end up being either the 30th day of Elul and the 1st day of Tishrei, or the 1st and 2nd day of Tishrei (as Rosh Hashanah always is today).

For this reason, Rosh Hashanah is observed two days even in the Land of Israel - as opposed to all other holidays which are only one day in Israel.

All other holidays are later in the month, thus by the time they came around people in Israel already knew the correct first day of the month. Jews of the Diaspora, however, did not have this information and all of their holidays were therefore observed for two days.

There is a difference in Jewish Law between the two days of Rosh Hashanah and the other two day holidays outside of Israel. Regarding Rosh Hashanah the holiness of the second day is not considered a rabbinical addition; rather the two days of Rosh Hashanah are officially considered as one long day. EM

Мы с Вами, рабби, как-то уже говорили о еврейских именах. Но, во-первых, эта тема всегда интересна нашим читателям, и поэтому можно к ней вернуться. А, во-вторых, хотелось бы поговорить об этом в другом ракурсе. Один их наших читателей спрашивает, влияет ли имя на судьбу человека. Ответ – да! Влияет. По традиции евреи дают детям имена близких. У ашкеназских евреев принято давать имена в честь умерших родственников, а у сефардских – в честь живых. Считается, что ребенок унаследует лучшие качества от человека, чье имя будет носить. Как-то к Ребе пришел еврей и сказал: «У меня родился сын, каким именем мне его назвать?» Ребе ответил: «Менахем Мендел». Посетитель возразил: «Это Ваше имя, Ребе, но Вы же, слава Б-гу, с нами». Тогда, улыбнувшись, Ребе сказал: «У ашкеназов ребенку дают имена ушедших близких, а у сефардов принято называть ребенка в честь живых, что для них является приметой на долгие годы жизни». То есть, когда ребенку дается имя дедушки, тем самым дедушка благословляется на долгую жизнь? Правильно. Затем Ребе продолжил: «Менахем Мендел – имя Третьего Любавичского Ребе – Цемах Цедека. Так, с одной стороны (как у ашкеназов), – это благословение на то, чтобы твой сын вырос хорошим евреем, а для меня (как у сефардов) - это обещание долгих лет». Мы видим, что Ребе уважает все традиции еврейского народа, а в этом случае замечательно соединил оба обычая – ашкеназский и сефардский. Понятно, что это можно сделать только в том случае, если традиции совместимы, как в этот раз...

The article above is excerpted from the Russian edition of Exodus Magazine. To subscribe, please visit exodusmagazine.org or call 416.222.7105.

Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman is the Senior Rabbi of the Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario. You can Ask the Rabbi at jrcc.org or fax to 416.222.7812. To meet with Rabbi Zaltzman in person, feel free to call 416.222.7105 to book an appointment.

Appointments are generally available on Wednesday evenings after 7pm.

Rebbitzin Chiena Zaltzman is also available for private consultations by appointment on Wednesday evenings from 9 to 10pm by calling 416.222.7105.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

‫ב”ה‬ ‫ב''ה‬

Our

SEPTEMBER 2021 | TISHREI 5782

Community

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

20 AV FARBRENGEN

НОЯБРЬ 2020

SEPTEMBER2021 TUE

2

6 8

KISLEV 5781

T H E M O N T H I N R E V I E W. U P C O M I N G E V E N T S & P R O G R A M S .

CHALLAH BAKE

The 20th of Av (July 29, 2021) marked the yahrtzeit of the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson, a kabbalist and activist who devoted his life, and ultimately gave up his life, to preserving Judaism in the FSU. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was Chief Rabbi of Yekaterinoslav (currently Dnepropetrovsk), and was arrested and exiled to Kazakhstan by the Stalinist regime as a result of his work to preserve Jewish life int he Soviet Union. The day was celebrated with a farbrengen, a Chassidic gathering for a special occasion, at the JRCC East Thornhill.

ROSH HASHANA

NEWCOMERS PACKAGE

15 16

YOM KIPPUR

20 27

SUKKOT

27 29

SIMCHAT TORAH

CANDLE LIGHTING TIMES Friday, Sep 3, 2021

7:31 PM

Monday, Sep 6, 2021

7:26 PM First day Rosh Hashanah

Tuesday, Sep 7, 2021

8:25 PM Second day Rosh Hashanah

Friday, Sep 10, 2021

7:18 PM

Wednesday, Sep 15, 2021

7:09 PM Eve of Yom Kippur

Friday, Sep 17, 2021

7:06 PM

Monday, Sep 20, 2021

7:00 PM First day Sukkot

Tuesday, Sep 21, 2021

7:59 PM Second day Sukkot

Friday, Sep 24, 2021

6:53 PM

Monday, Sep 27, 2021

6:47 PM Eve of Shemini Atzeret

Tuesday, Sep 28, 2021

7:46 PM Eve of Simchat Torah

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

The JRCC is here for every man, woman and child who lives in Ontario, including newcomers who have come to join our community. Every new immigrant arriving during the last year will receive a gift of a Welcome Package from our community. The package includes a custommade blessing for the home, a Shabbat/festival kiddush cup, candlesticks, a travel mug and other gifts and necessities for the home. The complimentary packages are available to people from the former Soviet and their descendants during their first year of arrival in Ontario.

Anyone can request a package on for themselves or someone they know by contacting their JRCC branch rabbi or calling 416-222-7105, ext. 245

CHITAS SUBSCRIPTIONS

Chitas is a Hebrew acronym formed by the the initials of Chumash (the Five Books of Moses), Tehillim (the poetic/prophetic/prayerful book of Psalms written/compiled by King David), and Tanya, the “bible” of Chabad Chassidic thought authored by the first Rebbe of the Chabad movement, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. (The Rebbe later added the study of Rambam/Maimonides to the daily study regimen). Chitas refers to the daily study cycle of these texts, in which the Chumash and Tanya are completed each year, and the Tehillim are completed each month. To help make Chitas more accessible to our community, the JRCC produces a weekly, pocket-sized Chitas booklet in Russian that enables people to take it with them on the go and study on the fly, any time. The weekly study booklet is available for a modest fee, and is delivered either to your local JRCC branch or to your home at the beginning of each month. To learn more or to subscribe, call 416.222.7105 or visit jrcc.org/chitas. Chitas is also available online in English and Hebrew at jrcc.org/dailystudy.

TIME TO GET CHECKED

In the hustle and bustle of life, it’s easy to get caught up in minutiae and marvel at how time passes much too quickly. But one of the beautiful things of the month of Elul is to consciously use time for reflection, introspection and preparation in advance of the “Days of Awe” between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. One important action to take during Elul is to have mezuzahs and tefillin checked.

There are a lot of things that can happen over time. Moisture, dryness, dust, sun, temperature changes or insects can cause damage that would cause the ink to fade, crack or become obscured. Sometimes the ink just fades over time. So the parchment needs to be unravelled and carefully checked for imperfections.

The JRCC offers a convenient service where you can drop off your Mezuzahs and/or Tefillin at our office, and then pick them up or have them delivered and installed by one of our rabbis after they are checked by an expert sofer. There is a nominal fee for the inspection. To have your Tefillin or Mezuzahs checked, please contact our office, drop by during office hours, or speak to your local JRCC Branch rabbi.

(For those who don’t have Tefillin or Mezuzahs, the JRCC offers its Jewish Identity Grants for those who are part of the Jewish Russian community: A free pair of Tefillin for any man who commits to using them daily, and one free Mezuzah for those in need who have no Mezuzahs in their home. Visit jrcc.org/jig or contact the JRCC office for details.)

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Photo of the Month

ARE YOUR MEZUZOT AND TEFILLIN

Having a mezuzah protects and beautifies a home, imbuing it with holy energy and a Jewish atmosphere. But it is not enough to have something hanging on your door. The weather elements and age could render a mezuzah not kosher, taking away its spiritual value.

Call the JRCC office today, to get your mezuzot and tefillin checked.

Rabbi Avrohom Yusewitz planning Rosh Hashana package distribution with a member of the Peel Regional Police.

Purchase MACHZOR in Russian, English and Hebrew. at our office and online at www.jrccbookstore.org

Call

416-222-7105

p re -

High

Holi days for kids

Sunday, September 5 HOLIDAY FAIR JRCC Concord 5:00 pm Wednesday, September 1 HOLIDAY FAIR JRCC East Thornhill 5:00 pm

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September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

Faces of the Community Alexander Rozin

S MCHAT

TORAH

L VE TUESDAY

SEPTEMBER 28 Join the JRCC branch near you for all-night dancing with the Torah on this most joyous holiday.

WWW.JRCC.ORG/SIMCHATTORAH

-ROSH HASHANAH E R P

CHALLAH BAKE

ROUND CHALLAH FOR ROSH HASHANA

I have lived in Toronto for over 30 years. Recently, a significant event was celebrated in our community - 94 years since the release of the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe from Butyrka Prison in Moscow. The liberation of the Rebbe was associated with the amazing events of the distant 1927. A direct participant in these events was Mordechai Dubin, a Jewish public and political figure, a large timber merchant and a wealthy man, a member of the Latvian Constituent Assembly and the Saeima [Latvian Parliament] and the head of the Jewish community of Latvia until 1940, who contributed to mitigating anti-Jewish measures under the dictatorship of Karlis Ulmanis, whom he knew personally.

In 1927, at one of the sessions of the Saeima, the question arose of a trade agreement with Soviet Russia. Dubin had the decisive vote, and it depended on him whether the trade agreement with the USSR would be ratified.

It was this trump card that he laid out in Moscow, where Dubin traveled several times in connection with the case of the Sixth Lubavitch Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson.

On June 14, 1927, the Rebbe was arrested by the GPU and taken to prison. On the third day, he was sentenced to death, but under public pressure, his sentence was commuted to life in exile in Kostroma. And then Mordechai Dubin intervened. He was openly afraid of Moscow: he already had a difficult experience of communicating with the Bolsheviks. In 1919, during the short communist occupation of Riga, he tried to defend the interests of the Jewish population. It almost ended tragically for him.

But when the Russians realized that the signing of the trade treaty depended on Dubin, their attitude toward him changed, and the Rebbe received permission to leave the USSR. Moreover, Dubin insisted that the Rebbe be accompanied by family members and close associates, among whom was the successor of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok - the future Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

The second time Dubin intervened to save the Rebbe was some thirteen years later. At the beginning of the war, the Rebbe was living in Warsaw. Dubin immediately rushed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Rebbe had Latvian citizenship, which gave him a formal opportunity to work for him. In the conditions of war, it was extremely difficult to do anything. On September 1, hostilities began, and two days later, the connection between Riga and the Latvian embassy in Warsaw was interrupted. There was a plan to take the Rebbe out by car, but the roads were bombed, so this plan had to be abandoned. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted Berlin directly and an agreement was reached for the Rebbe to leave Poland.

The evacuation schedule was designed in such a way that Yom Kippur caught refugees on the road. The Rebbe flatly refused to go. He thus found himself under German occupation. In the end, through the efforts of Dubin, the Rebbe eventually reached Riga in December, and in April 1940 he sailed to America on the last steamship to leave.

When Latvia was annexed to the USSR in 1940, Dubin was arrested and sent first to Moscow. He was sentenced to exile in a far-flung Russian outback for settlement. After the war, Dubin was imprisoned in the Vladimir Central Prison, and then lived under house arrest in Siberia. He spent his last days in a psychiatric hospital in Tula, where he died and was buried in a non-Jewish cemetery.

A well-known rabbi and Jewish figure, Rabbi Pinchas Taits, upon hearing about the tragic fate of Dubin, was able to organize the reburial of Mordechai's remains at the Jewish cemetery near Moscow. Finally, the righteous man found a traditional Jewish burial. I believe that this is a real miracle.

I was fortunate enough to touch the fate of a righteous man. In 1991, Rabbi Taits came to look after Mordechai Dubin's grave. Rabbi Berl Lazar (now the Chief Rabbi of Russia, and then the rabbi of the Marina Roscha Synagogue in Moscow) asked me to participate in a very important matter: it was necessary to make and erect a worthy monument at Dubin's grave. I was instructed to acquire the granite, install it on the grave of the righteous man, and engrave the text in Hebrew. In order not to attract the attention of the authorities, I had to work at night.

Baking challah for Shabbat and the holidays is a mitzvah and a unique spiritual experience for women.

Come bake traditional round challah in honour of Rosh Hashanah.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 2 8:00 PM At all JRCC Branches

Details at

www.jrcc.org/ChallahBake

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

According to Jewish tradition, from time immemorial, an abbreviation of the first letters of the Hebrew words that make up the saying: “May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life” has always been carved on each tombstone. I realized the depth of this saying when I touched the fate of a such a special person. I clearly felt that Dubin's soul is really “bound in the bond of eternal life.”

When my work was completed, a grand unveiling of the monument was held, which was attended by Jews from all over the country.

17

‫ב׳׳ה‬

5 7 8 2eet Year

A Good and

Sw

2021

Exodus Magazine Holiday Companion

ROSH HASHANA Журнал Эксодус, путеводитель по праздникам

Sept 6-8, 2021

Rosh Hashana begins at 7:26pm on Monday, Sept 6.

Rosh Hashana concludes at 8:23pm on Wednesday, Sept 8.

All times displayed in this guide are for the Greater Toronto Area.

What is Rosh Hashana?

Rosh Hashana, as the name implies, is the “head” of the year, from which all the energy that flows through the rest of the year emanates – including our connection to the Divine and all the blessings we need for the year. Just as a body needs a healthy head in order to function properly, so too the year needs a healthy Rosh Hashana in order to channel its energy in the best way.

Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario

Pre-Holid

ay to-do l • Prepare ist the festiva l meals in • Prepare/ advance purchase t he special • Have a n Rosh Hasha na foods ew season al fruit fo • Shofar p r the secon lans d night on the tw – make plans to h o days of R e osh Hashan ar the Shofar • Holiday a Candle Lig hting - se e below

Rosh Hashana in Jewish History 3760 BCE: Birthday of humanity with the creation of Adam and Eve, and the first sin (of the Tree of Knowledge) and repentance on the same day.

2105 BCE: The Great Flood in the days of Noach ends.

1677 BCE: The Binding of Isaac, and the passing of his mother Sarah 1746: The Baal Shem Tov’s vision of Moshiach, during which he asked him when he would finally come. His reply? “When your teachings are disseminated and revealed in the world, and your wellsprings spread to the outside,” a reference to Chassidic teachings.

The First Rosh Hashana Rosh Hashana is the anniversary of the birth of humankind Why do we celebrate Rosh Hashana, and the beginning of the year, on this day?

The creation of humanity is what enables the true purpose of Creation to be fulfilled. G‑d created a world that conceals His presence, and He wants us to reveal it. Only humans – who are endowed with intelligence and freedom of choice; the ability to accept G‑d or reject Him – can accomplish this.

Shabbat and Holiday Candle Lighting Shabbat and Holiday candles are lit by women and girls.

See page 15 for exact candle lighting times.

During the second day of consecutive holy days, make sure to light from a preexisting flame. Light a 48-hour candle before the onset of the first day to be used for this purpose.

The blessings for lighting, with instructions, the candles can be found in the JRCC Calendar.

i Learn more at jrcc.org/ShabbatCandles

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We’re here to help The JRCC is here to assist with all your Rosh Hashana needs. See the back page of Exodus for a list of High Holiday Services locations.

For assistance in making your Rosh Hashana plans, including attending services, having someone blow the Shofar for you in your home, or any other assistance, visit jrcc.org/HighHolidays or contact the JRCC.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

Why Shofar? Ten Reasons

Special Rosh Hashana Foods

Although the Torah does not specify why we are to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashana, Rabbi Saadia Gaon compiled a list of ten reasons for this special mitzvah:

A central part of Judaism is about expressing the spiritual within our physical lives in a meaningful way. That’s why there are so many mitzvahs and details governing daily life.

1.

On Rosh Hashana we coronate G-d as King of the world. The shofar’s trumpeting call heralds this exciting event.

Even the foods we eat have significance – especially on an auspicious day like Rosh Hashana.

2.

Its piercing wail serves to awaken slumbering souls that have grown complacent.

Here are a few examples:

3.

It evokes the shofar blasts that were heard when G-d descended on Mount Sinai and gave us the Torah.

4. It echoes the cries of the prophets who urged Israel to mend their ways and return to G-d and His commandments.

5.

It reminds us of the war cries of our enemies as they broke into the Temple in Jerusalem and destroyed it.

6. Made of a ram’s horn, the shofar recalls the near-sacrifice of Isaac, who was saved when G-d showed Abraham a ram to bring as an offering in his stead.

7.

Its loud piercing sound humbles us and fills us with awe before G-d.

8. It foreshadows the day of judgment at the end of days, which the prophet describes as “a day of shofar and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers.”

9. It gives us hope, mirroring the sound of the “great shofar” that will call together the Jewish people who are scattered to the corners of the earth at the time of the coming of Moshiach.

10. It reminds us of the Revival of the Dead, about which we read, “dwellers of the earth ... a shofar is sounded you shall hear.”

i Learn more at jrcc.org/Shofar

We dip a piece of sweet (red) apple into honey, praying that it be G-d’s will to renew for us a good and sweet year.

A head of a fish, ram, or other kosher animal, is served. This symbolizes our desire to be at the “head of the class” this year.

A pomegranate is eaten, symbolizing our wish to have a year full of mitzvah and good deeds, as a pomegranate is filled with luscious seeds.

On Rosh Hashana it is customary not to eat foods which are sour or tart. Instead, the focus is on sweet foods, symbolizing our desire to have a sweet year, blessings and abundance.

It is also customary not to eat nuts on Rosh Hashana, as the numerical value of the Hebrew word for nuts (“egoz”) is the same as the Hebrew word for sin (“chet”).

The Moshiach Connection

Sweetness

The shofar blasts on Rosh Hashana are associated with the coming of Moshiach, especially the long, extended blast at the end of each set. The prophet Isaiah writes, “On that day a great shofar will be sounded, and those who are lost in the land of Ashur (Assyria) and those who are cast away in the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt) shall come and bow down to G-d on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.”

Both of these phenomena are burdens that hold us back from realizing our true spiritual potential, and both will be lifted with the sounding of the great shofar that will awaken us with the coming of Moshiach.

One of the unique qualities of honey as it’s described in Jewish literature is that it doesn’t overpower with brute force, like fire which violently consumes whatever it touches. Honey overpowers with sweetness. The sweetness of honey is so intense that everything it touches is overwhelmed and succumbs to its sweet embrace. This power of honey represents a deeper approach to the High Holidays. Yes, these are somber times, and there is a real need to return to G-d. But the introspection and good resolutions that these days inspire need not come from a place of guilt. Rather, when we experience the sweetness of Divine love, when we feel how close G-d is to us and what a blessing it is to be a Jew, our joy can melt away whatever is evil and purify us from our less than kosher ways. This is why we start the High Holidays by dipping challah and apple in honey. Only a Judaism that is infused with sweetness and joy has the power to dissolve negativity, cynicism and indifference. Sadness and heaviness will not cleanse our soul. But the experience of sweetness will.

i Learn more at jrcc.org/Moshiach

i Learn more at jrcc.org/NewYear

There are different ways we can get lost in the journey of life.

Ashur means “bliss,” a reference to the luxuries and pleasures of prosperity we can get lost in. Mitzrayim means “constraints,” a reference to the various limitations, stresses and pressures that swallow us alive.

© 2021 Exodus Magazine, a project of Jewish Russian Community Center of Ontario.

416.222.7105 | jrcc@jrcc.org | www.jrcc.org. For more holiday information and content visit jrcc.org/Holidays.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

19

‫ב׳׳ה‬

Exodus Magazine Holiday Companion

Журнал Эксодус, путеводитель по праздникам

Yom Kippur Sept 15-16, 2021

Yom Kippur begins at 7:09pm on Wednesday, Sept 15.

Yom Kippur concludes at 8:08pm on Thursday, Sept 16.

Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario

All times displayed in this guide are for the Greater Toronto Area.

What is Yom Kippur?

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year, when the essence of the soul shines and we are closest to G‑d – a day of atonement and becoming one with our Creator and our true selves.

Yom Kippur in Jewish History

Pre-Holid

• Cook fo

od for bef

ay to-do l

ore and af

ist

ter the fas • Make su re to drin t k plenty o the days be f water in fore the fa s t • Prepare Yizkor can dles • Holiday Candle Lig hting - se e page 15

1313 BCE: The receiving of the Second Tablets after the first ones were destroyed as a result of the Sin of the Golden Calf 410 BCE: Ezekiel’s vision of the Third Temple following the destruction of the First and Second Temple.

Five Key Yom Kippur Observances

1973: Start of the Yom Kippur War

Eve of Yom Kippur Rituals For Wednesday, Sept 15

On Yom Kippur, according to direct Torah law, we are commanded to avoid the following five activities: 1.

Eating or drinking (in case of need, see here and consult a medical professional and a rabbi)

2. Wearing leather shoes MIKVAH Immerse in a Mikvah to purify before the holy day

ATONEMENT Kaparot ritual (early morning)

LEKACH Give and receive honey cake

FEAST Eat two festive meals – one in early afternoon, one just before the fast

BLESSINGS Bless the children with the Priestly Blessings before the holiday begins

YIZKOR Light Yizkor candles before Yom Kippur begins

i Learn more at jrcc.org/YomKippur 20

3. Applying lotions or creams 4. Washing or bathing 5. Engaging in conjugal relations

We’re here to help For assistance in making your Yom Kippur plans, including attending services, arranging Yizkor services for your loved ones, or any other assistance, visit jrcc.org/HighHolidays or contact the JRCC.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

Myth:

The Prayer Vault

Yom Kippur Is a Sad Day

No prayer is ignored and no tear goes unnoticed. But the response is not always in the form we expect it to be. At the high point of Yom Kippur, toward the end of the day in the Neilah prayer, we address G‑d with the following plea: “You who hears the sound of weeping, store our tears in Your flask, and save us from all cruel decrees.” This seems to be a strange expression. Why would G‑d store our tears? It doesn’t seem to be of any use to keep our tears in a flask.

Perhaps because it shares some basic components with Tisha B’Av, our national day of mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and the exile of our people, many view Yom Kippur as a sad day. The fact is that Yom Kippur is one of the two happiest days on the calendar. It is the day when G‑d forgives us for our sins, a day when we are cleansed from the baggage we picked up during the course of the year. On a deeper level: This forgiveness is achieved because this day is when we rise above the mundane nature of our lives. We rise to a spiritual state of being, connect to our inner souls, and by extension, we are one with G‑d himself. What could be more celebratory than that?

Not always are our prayers answered in the way we want them to be. Sometimes, in His wisdom, G‑d does not grant us our wishes at the time we demand them.

Instead, He stores away our tears and files away our prayers, to be taken out and answered at another time. In physics, the law of conservation of energy states that energy can never be destroyed, it just changes from one form to another.

There is a similar law in metaphysics. No prayer is ever lost; no tear is ever wasted.

Your request will be granted; it just may be in an unexpected form. So keep praying, because every word is stored away. It will rebound back to you when you need it most.

i Learn more at jrcc.org/Prayer

A Whale of a Story On Yom Kippur afternoon, we read the story of Jonah (he of the got swallowed by a giant fish fame). What is the connection between the Book of Jonah and Yom Kippur? When he experienced his adventure, Jonah was trying to escape from G‑d, so to speak. G‑d wanted him to deliver a prophesy to the residents of Nineveh that their city would be destroyed if they did not repent. He was hesitant to do so, because he knew that they would repent while the people of Israel would not, creating “bad karma” for the Israelites.

The story of Jonah teaches us that we can’t run away from ourselves. Just as Jonah’s endeavor to escape G‑d’s providence was unsuccessful, so, too, we are incapable of eluding our divine purpose in this world and the divine justice for transgressions we may have committed.

On a more uplifting note: G‑d spared the people of Nineveh although He had already decreed that they would be destroyed because of their evil ways. This teaches us that no matter our past behavior, G‑d’s benevolence and mercy awaits us if we only repent full‑heartedly.

The Moshiach Connection What will Yom Kippur look like when Moshiach comes? The Yalkut Shimoni states, “All the holidays will be nullified in the future except for Purim. Rebbe Eliezer says that even Yom Kippur will never be nullified, as the verse states ‘it is an everlasting statute.’” We will fast on this day just as we do now, even though the world will be permeated with goodness. The purpose of this fast will be to atone for sins prior. Nevertheless, the other Yom Kippur observances, such as not wearing leather shoes, not bathing and the prohibition against marital relations, will be rescinded.

If the days of inauguration of the Third Temple falls during Yom Kippur, then on that Yom Kippur we will not fast, just as was done during the inauguration of the First Temple in the times of King Solomon.

i Learn more at jrcc.org/Moshiach

Yizkor When: Thursday, Sept 16 Yizkor is the remembrance prayer for departed loved ones, where we implore G‑d to remember the souls of our relatives and friends that have passed on.

The main component of Yizkor is our private pledge to give charity following the holiday in honor of the deceased. By giving charity, we are performing a positive physical deed in this world, something that the departed can no longer do, especially if our goods deeds emulate theirs. Yizkor renews and strengthens the connection between us and our loved one, brings merit to the departed souls, and elevates them in their celestial homes.

i Online Yizkor form: jrcc.org/yizkor

© 2021 Exodus Magazine, a project of Jewish Russian Community Center of Ontario.

416.222.7105 | jrcc@jrcc.org | www.jrcc.org. For more holiday information and content visit jrcc.org/Holidays.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

21

‫ב׳׳ה‬

Exodus Magazine Holiday Companion

Журнал Эксодус, путеводитель по праздникам

SUKKOT

Sept 20-27, 2021 Sukkot begins at 7:00pm on Monday, Sept 20.

Sukkot yom tov days conclude at 7:57pm on Wednesday, Sept 22, while Sukkot continues until Monday, Sept 27.

All times displayed in this guide are for the Greater Toronto Area.

What is Sukkot?

Sukkot is a seven-day celebration of the harvest season, and commemorates the miraculous protection G-d provided for the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt and the forty years in the desert wilderness.

The Immersive Mitzvah “Mitzvah,” the Torah’s word for the divine precepts which guide and govern every aspect of our daily lives has a dual meaning: the word means both “commandment” and “connection.”

In commanding us the mitzvot, G-d created the means through which we may establish a connection with Him. The hand that distributes charity, the mind that ponders the wisdom of Torah, the heart that soars in prayer — all become instruments of the divine will. There are mitzvot for each limb, organ and faculty of man, and mitzvot governing every area of life, so that no part of us remains uninvolved in our relationship with the Creator.

Therein lies the uniqueness of the mitzvah of sukkah. While other mitzvot each address a certain aspect of our persona, the mitzvah of sukkah provides a medium by which the totality of man is engaged in the fulfillment of G-d’s will. All of the person enters into and lives in the sukkah. “sukkah is the only mitzvah into which a person enters with his muddy boots,” goes the Chassidic saying. For the seven days of Sukkot, the sukkah is our home—the environment for our every endeavor and activity.

i Learn more at jrcc.org/Sukkot

Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario

Pre-Ho

liday to-d • Build a o list Su access to o kkah or make plan s to have ne • Acquire th and etrog e Four Kinds (a.k. a. lulav ) • Prepare the festiva l meals in • Holiday advance Candle Lig hting - se e page 15

Special Guests According to Kabbalistic tradition, we are visited in the sukkah by seven supernal ushpizin (“guests”) – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David. On each of the seven days of the festival, another of the seven ushpizin (in the above order) leads the group. The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (18801950) spoke of seven “chassidic ushpizin” as well: the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezeritch, and the first five rebbes of Chabad. The Rebbe would speak each night of Sukkot on the special characteristics of both the biblical and the chassidic ushpizin of the day and their connection to each other and their specific day of the festival.

Sukkah in the Rain?

The weather may be a little unpleasant, it may be a little squashy in there, and your palm allergy may be flaring up...but the inner serenity, the love and feeling of connection with those around you, the sense of being embraced by G-d—all that should override any physical discomfort. If you’re still not enjoying the sukkah, then you’re not really in the sukkah in the first place, and you can go inside. But if you know what you’re missing, you won’t want to leave.

There are moments when we are called upon to transcend the material world. Sitting in the sukkah is one of those moments. A little rain, or even a lot, can’t stop that.

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We’re here to help For assistance in making your Sukkot plans, including attending services, building a Sukkah, acquiring a lulav and etrog, or any other assistance, visit jrcc.org/Sukkot or contact the JRCC.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

It Takes All Kinds

Shake the Four Kinds

The etrog has both a taste and an aroma; so, too, do the people of Israel include individuals who have both Torah learning and good deeds... The date (the fruit of the lulav) has a taste but does not have an aroma; so, too, do the people of Israel include individuals who have Torah but do not have good deeds... The hadas has an aroma but not a taste; so, too, do the people of Israel include individuals who have good deeds but do not have Torah....

The aravah has no taste and no aroma; so, too, do the people of Israel include individuals who do not have Torah and do not have good deeds.... Says G-d: “Let them all bond together in one bundle and atone for each other.”

It is customary to perform the mitzvah of the Four Kinds inside the Sukkah.

The message is not just that “all are part of the Jewish people” or “all are precious in the eyes of G-d” or even that “all are necessary”; it says that they “all atone for each other.” This implies that each of the Four Kinds possesses something that the other three do not, and thus “atones” and compensates for that quality’s absence in the other three.

The Intermediate Days Chol Hamoed (the “intermediate days”) are, as the name suggests, a fusion of the mundane (“chol) and the sacred (“moed”). These are not holy days like Shabbat and Yom Tov during which work is prohibited, yet they are still festival days that are observed with limited work restrictions.

The general principle is to minimize work and as to maximize the holiday celebration. Anything done to cook or otherwise celebrate the festival itself is generally permitted. Driving, lights and using electronics is permitted (but you might want to minimize screen time to be more present with the holiday), and one can do work in order to avoid incurring a loss. Consult your rabbi from more specifics.

The seventh and final official day of Sukkot is called Hoshana Rabbah, and is considered the final day of the divine “judgment” in which the fate of the new year is determined. It is the day when the verdict that was issued on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is finalized.

1. Blessing. Stand facing east.

Hold the lulav in your right hand and recite the blessing: Ba-ruch A-tah Ado-nai E-lo-hei-nu me-lech ha-olam a-sher ki-de-sha-nu be-mitz-vo-tav ve-tzee-vah-nu al ne-ti-lat lu-lav.

Blessed are You, L‑rd our G‑d, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us regarding taking the lulav.

2. Pick up the etrog in your left hand.

The following blessing is recited ONLY on the first time the mitzvah is performed this year: Ba-ruch A-tah Ado-nai E-lo-hei-nu me-lech ha-olam sheheche-ya-nu ve-ki-yi-ma-nu ve-higi-a-nu liz-man ha-zeh.

Blessed are You, Lord our G‑d, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.

3. Shake it Up (and all around) Bring the lulav and etrog together using both hands.

The bottom of all the Four Kinds should be parallel, with the top of the etrog touching the lulav. Your hands should be opposite your heart. Wave the Four Kinds three times in each direction, bringing them back to the heart after each time: – Right (south) – Left (north) – Straight (east) – Upwards - beware of low ceilings!

– Downwards - keep the tip pointing up and move your hands downward – Backwards (west) - keep your feet planted, twist backwards to the right

The Moshiach Connection The sukkah is defined as a temporary dwelling which, for the duration of the seven-day festival of Sukkot, becomes the home of the Jew. The sukkah must be “temporary” but it also must be a “dwelling,” therefore the sukkah has a minimum height, length and width, a maximum height, and many other detailed laws defining its building. All these specifications have one exception: there is no limit to a sukkah’s length and breadth.

You can build a sukkah the size of a city, or the size of a continent — it’ll still be a kosher sukkah. The Talmud derives from the verse above that “all citizens of Israel shall dwell in the sukkah.” The Torah wishes to imply that “it is fitting that the entire people of Israel dwell in a single sukkah.”

The quality imparted by Sukkot is unity. Our interdependence and oneness as a people are expressed by the four kinds taken on Sukkot, and by the sukkah’s embrace of every Jew — every type of Jew, and every individual Jew — within its walls.

Thus it is indeed most “fitting that the entire people of Israel dwell in a single sukkah.” The big sukkah — the sukkah large enough to house all Jews together — cannot be a violation of the definition of “sukkah”, since it is actually its most fitting expression. Whatever size sukkah we build, we must ensure that it should be a “big sukkah” in essence — a welcome home to each and every one of our brethren.

i Learn more at jrcc.org/Moshiach © 2021 Exodus Magazine, a project of Jewish Russian Community Center of Ontario.

416.222.7105 | jrcc@jrcc.org | www.jrcc.org. For more holiday information and content visit jrcc.org/Holidays.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

23

‫ב׳׳ה‬

Exodus Magazine Holiday Companion Журнал Эксодус, путеводитель по праздникам

SHMINI ATZERET &

SIMCHAT TORAH Sept 27-29, 2021

Shemini Atzeret begins at 6:47pm on Monday, Sept 27.

Shemini Atzeret (and Simchat Torah) concludes at 7:44pm on Wednesday, Sept 29.

Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario

All times displayed in this guide are for the Greater Toronto Area.

What is Shemini Atzeret?

Shemini Atzeret is an independent holiday that follows Sukkot. Outside of Israel it is a two-day holiday, and the second day is known as Simchat Torah. (In Israel they are celebrated on the same day). This holiday is characterized by utterly unbridled joy, which reaches its climax on Simchat Torah, when we celebrate the conclusion and restart of the annual Torah-reading cycle.

Pre-Holid

• Prepare

the festiva

ay to-do l

l meals in

ist

advance • Get rea dy to danc e!

• Prepare Yizkor can dles • Holiday Candle Lig hting - se e page 15

Prayer for Rain Jews have been praying for rain for millennia. In the ancient land of Israel, rain was a life-and-death concern. A good rainy season meant a good harvest and ample drinking water, while a drought could be fatal to livestock and cripple the economy.

Marking the start of the rainy season (in the Middle East), we begin to mention rain in our prayers on Shemini Atzeret morning. This is dramatically marked with special addition of the The Prayer for Rain to the cantor’s repetition of the Musaf, sung in a traditional tune, evocative of the soul-stirring High Holiday melodies.

We are joining Jews all over the world—especially those in our Holy Land, where every drop of water is precious—united in our request for bounty and blessing for all of humanity.

“The forty-eight hours of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah should be dearly cherished, for at each moment one can draw bucketsful and barrelsful of treasures both material and spiritual, and this is accomplished by dancing.”

The Rebbe Rashab Rabbi Sholom DovBer of Lubavitch

Goodbye Party Simchat Torah is the grand finale of a season that began with the solemn repentance of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and then transitioned into the joy of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. The sages compare this final day to the following analogy: A king threw a grand feast for seven days. All citizens of the kingdom were invited for the seven days of partying. He then told his loved ones: We have fulfilled our duty to the citizenry. Now let me and you continue with what remains. This is our final party with G-d before we enter the year ahead, supercharge and inspired by the holiday.

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We’re here to help For assistance in making your Shmini Atzeret & Simchat Torah plans, including attending services, Yizkor or any other assistance, visit jrcc.org/SimchatTorah or contact the JRCC.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

Yizkor Remembrance Prayer

The Moshiach Connection

When: Tuesday, Sept 28

The festival of Shemini Atzeret does not have special mitzvahs, customs or rituals like the other festivals – except for one: to be joyous. The mitzvah of joy on this day is actually explicitly ordained by the Torah in the verse “you shall be only joyful.” Commentators note that this verse is not only a precept but also a promise: “if you will fulf ill the mitzvah of simchah, you are assured that you will be joyful forever.”

Yizkor is a special prayer in which we implore G‑d to remember the souls of our relatives and friends that have passed on. Yizkor means “Remember.” When we recite Yizkor, we renew and strengthen the connection between us and our loved ones, bringing merit to the departed souls by pledging to perform a mitzvah in their honor (usually giving to charity), which provides a merit that elevates them in their celestial homes. Yizkor should only be recited by someone who has lost at least one parent; those with both parents alive leave the synagogue sanctuary during Yizkor. In addition to reciting Yizkor for one’s parent(s), one may recite Yizkor for any Jew who has passed on, including relatives and friends. When reciting Yizkor for more than one person, repeat the Yizkor paragraph each time.

What gives Yizkor its special power? It is the eternal power of the soul – including the soul of our departed loved ones above, and our souls here below. On the soul level, we are all one and always one. Yizkor is a moving moment when we recite the names of our loved ones whose souls are in the World of Truth above, and realize that at that very moment their souls are present here below.

i Online Yizkor form: jrcc.org/yizkor

The concept of joy is central in Judaism, and especially in the teachings of Chassidus. The significance of joy is encapsulated in the notion that “joy breaks through barriers.” Through joy, we can transcend all kinds of challenges and obstacles to reach the highest heights, especially in spiritual matters. In this sense, some say that joy is not the goal of life; joy is the engine that drives life.

Moshiach, too, is referred to as “The one who breaks through.” Moshiach breaks through the chains and darkness to bring light into the world, and we see that historically many of Moshiach’s ancestors, from Judah to Ruth to King David, had to overcome intense challenges in order to break through and realize their destinies.

Our joy, which empowers us to break through in our own lives, is the channel that brings about the ultimate break‑through – the end of exile and the coming of Moshiach.

i Learn more at jrcc.org/Moshiach

The Climax

Now What?

The climax of the month of Tishrei—the point at which our celebration of our bond with G‑d attains the very pinnacle of joy—is during the hakafot of Simchat Torah, when we take the Torah scrolls in our arms and dance with them around the reading table in the synagogue—a practice that is neither a biblical nor a rabbinical precept, but merely a custom.

The holiday season comes to a close. It’s time to hit the road and get back to the “real” world. This concept is expressed in the verse, “And Jacob went on his way.” Each word in the verse is significant. The name used to describe the Jewish nation is Jacob, rather than Israel. Israel is the name associated with the unique loftiness and greatness of the Jewish people. The name Jacob, on the other had, means “heel,” expressing the mission to elevate the lowliness of the material world. So, in this context, describing the movement from the holiness of the holidays into the mundane world, referring to ourselves as Jacob clearly indicates that this movement has meaning: The purpose is to bring the spirit and inspiration of the holidays with us into our lives, refine the world around us (and inside us), and thereby make the entire world a dwelling place for the Divine. The method to achieve this is through practical actions of goodness and kindness, which often require us to step out of our previous definitions of self and self‑imposed limitations – which is expressed in the word “Jacob went.” Finally, “on his way” (or, more accurately, his “path” or “road”) signifies connectedness; the purpose of transportation infrastructure is to connect remote areas to the central region. The journey of the year is, in a sense, a mission to connect the remoteness of normal material life with the central elevated spiritual life of the holidays.

For it is with our observance of the customs that we express the depth of our love for G‑d. The biblical commandments might be compared to the explicitly expressed desires between two people bound in marriage. The rabbinic mitzvot, on which G‑d did not directly instruct us but which nevertheless constitute expressions of the divine will, resemble the implied requests between spouses. But the customs represent those areas in which we intuitively sense how we might cause G‑d pleasure. And in these lie our greatest joy.

Wishing you and your family a healthy, happy, sweet year full of blessings! © 2021 Exodus Magazine, a project of Jewish Russian Community Center of Ontario.

416.222.7105 | jrcc@jrcc.org | www.jrcc.org. For more holiday information and content visit jrcc.org/Holidays.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

25

SHARE THE JOY! t he ex odus ma g azine s im cha sectio n

Celebrate your Jewish birthday!

IT’S A BOY! Abramov Noah Blake Achren Ezra Shlomo Binshtok Sneor Zalman Cristea Michael Levin Adam Newborn in the Palvanov family Pekker Shay Newborn in the Shalomov family Tabesh Asher Tchaplia Charles Blake

To learn more on when and how to celebrate your Jewish birthday visit

IT’S A GIRL!

www.jrcc.org/birthday

Hess Nechama Ifraimov Leah Karrass Liel Rozler Eliana Sosnovsky Korie Faer

Aspirals Gymnastics Centre

Wishing you much health, happiness and nachas, from the rabbis of the JRCC Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman (Senior Rabbi) Rabbi Avrohom Yusewitz, Rabbi Avrohom Zaltzman, Rabbi Avraham Weinstein, Rabbi Chaim Hildeshaim, Rabbi Levi Jacobson, Rabbi Mendel Zaltzman, Rabbi Levi Blau, Rabbi Shmuel Neft, Rabbi David Davidov, Rabbi Yisroel Zaltzman

Classes TOTS 2 TEENS Gymnastics Recreational & Competitive Dance Acrobatics Classes for Orthodox Jewish Girls

Happy Holidays!

Concord 905-760-0092 www.aspirals.ca

SPREAD THE JOY!

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Wishing Shana Tova to the Entire Jewish Community!

CHUPPAH

BAT MITZVAH

BAR MITZVAH

OPSHERN

BABY NAMING

PIDION HABEN

BRIT

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September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

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Best Deal Motors - page 27 Mazda of Toronto - page 27

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REAL ESTATE & BROKER

Buthurst Drug Mart - page 26 Dentistry in Oak Ridges - page 26 Hearing Solutions - page 27 Massage Therapy - page 27

Michael Basin - page 27 Rachel Saltsov - page 26 Slava Shelepin - page 26 Tanya Gotsulsky - page 27

HOME & OFFICE

RESTAURANTS & GROCERIES

Air Point - page 27 The European Furniture - page 28

Chocolate Charm - page 25 Fiera Foods - page 2 No Frills - page 2 The Chicken Nest - page 25 Tov-Li - page 25 Yummy Market - page 2

JOBS & SERVICES

FUNERAL & MEMORIALS

Fiera Foods Job - page 31 Rolltec- page 27 The Israeli Network - page 25

Steeles Memorial Chapel - page 29 Stone Craft Monuments - page 27

OUR COMMUNITY

SCHOOL

Melissa Lantsman- page 3

Aspirals Gymnastics - page 25 My many years of experience, knowledge, and professionalism help you make one of the most important buys of your life.

Family and cosmetic dentistry, with a specialty in implant dentistry, performed in a state-of-the-art environment.

13291 Yonge Street Suite #102 Richmond Hill, Ontario

P: 905-773-3306 • F: 905-773-1722 FINANCE & TAX INSURANCE Co-ordinators 5799 Steeles Yonge St., Unit West, 1107, 1600 Avenue Toronto, Suite 304ON Concord, ON L4K 4M2

Greg Nilevsky M.A., M.D.R.T Margaret Nilevsky M.A., C.L.U. Tel: (416) 640-2600 Visit our website: Cell: (416) 697-9979 www.ftic.ca Cell: (416) 704-1375 info@ftic.ca

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO THE ENTIRE JEWISH COMMUNITY!

FINANCIAL PLANNING AT EVERY STAGE OF YOUR LIFE: Life Insurance, Investments, Medical Insurance, Children’s Education Plans, Retirement Savings Plans, Mortgages.

F.T.I.C

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

Happy over 31 years holidays! in business!

Committed to Excellence!

Since 1986 Shana Tova!

416-929-4343 - Office 416-877-6367 - Cell

Leon Levine

15 years in business, Member of the Paralegal Society of Ontario (PSO), Traffic Court Division

PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION TRAFFIC TICKET SOLUTION

• Careless driving • Speeding • Driving under suspension

CRIMINAL LAW

• Assault/harassment • Domestic assault SMALL CLAIM COURT

Tel (416) 225-5200, Cell (416) 5690559 1000 Finch Ave. West #305, North York, On. M3J2V5 Fax (416) 225-6700, E-mail: llevine@canada.com

27

416.939.4850

Toronto, Ontario, M6A 2C7

416.787.4256

MICHAEL

Работаем с деньгами - Думаем о людях

Registered Massage Therapist (RMT)

LOW RATES ON THE MARKET Mortgages:

■ 1st and 2nd

■ FIRST-TIME BUYERS

■ CONSTRUCTION

■ NON RESIDENT

■ COMMERCIAL ■ REFINANCE

Gloria Kats

Mortgage Agent Nothwood Mortgage Ltd. Broker Lic.#10349

■ NEW IMMIGRANTS

Sutton Group Admiral, Platinum Award, Direct Phone 647-298-7095 • Office 416-739-7200 CASH BUYER LOOKING FOR 3 BEDROOM CONDO

39 OXFORD OLDin Richmond BestSprice Hill $1788,000 .00 0 0 0 50, $18 80 McCALLUM DR. Condo TH $799,000

900 STEELES AV, W SOLD FOR RECORD HIGH PRICE $780,000

NEED MORE SELLERS - IF I DON’T SELL IN 3 WEEKS, MY SERVICE IS FREE FRIDAY HARBOUR RESORT SPECIALIST

Bus: (416) 640-2600 Fax: (416) 640-2601 Cell: (416) 294-4469

5799 Yonge St., Suite #1107 North York, ON M2M 3V3

BEST DEAL MOTORS

collision centre centre inc. inc. collision

Gregory and Basya Rabkin are Proud Supporters of Exodus Magazine.

Tel: 416-663-5747 Shana Tova!

GREGORY

https://www.fridayharbour.com FLEXIBLE commission.

416.886.4963

■ SELF-EMPLOYED

gsaprikin@northwoodmortgages.com H.O 7676 Woodbine Ave., Suite 300, Markham, ON L3R2N2

Michael Basin

Happy New Year!

Licensed Mechanic

MASSAGE THERAPY IN YOUR HOME AT A CONVENIENT TIME FOR YOU! TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR EXTENDED HEALTH BENEFITS

24

HOURS

Happy New Year!

Heating Cooling

DESIGN OF MONUMENTS ENGRAVING CEMETERY

Mila Gurfinkel Sales Representative,

Top producer, Top ten club (905)764-7200/24 Hour PagerALL • Cell: (416) 219-9758 MONUMENT SIZES

ALL JEWISH CEMETERIES TOP 2% SOLDFOR UNITS IN GTA at $750) (starting

Turn to the exports

■ HVAC equipment installation BATHURST/STEELES

and maintenance LUXURY PRIMROSE ■ Financing and rebates are Approx 1400 sq. f., 2 exits to balcony, 2 bdrm, 2 available wshr, All windows panoramic, window in ktchn & breakfast area, steps from shops and TTC 905 597 4933 ● 416 893 4933 airpoint.ca ASKED PRICE: $268,800 COMMITTED TO YOUR COMFORT

BATHURST/CENTRE

Luxury new condo, 2bdr + den, 2 wshr, 9 f. ceilings, gorgeous crown moldings, great amenities. $265,000

Rana Khan

General Sales Manager

416.642.7777 6167 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M2M 3X2

w w w. m a z d a o f t o r o n t o . c o m 28

BATHURST/CENTRE

New luxury condo, 1bdr + balcony, granite in 80 Martin Ross Ave ktchn, Laminate floors throughout, Locker, Toronto, ON M3J 121 Brisbane Rd., 2L4 Unit 1 great amenities.

Downsview, ON M3J 2K3 (416) 667-1474 $179,000 (416) 667-1474

RENT BATHURST/CENTRE

BATHURST/CENTRE

Luxury new condo, 2 bdr, 2 wshrm, over 1000 sq.f. great amenities, close to good schools and Transit. $1500

Hear what matters

The largest Mazda dealer in Toronto

LETTERING PORTRAITS ON STONE

SAVE UP TO 30%

on a new pair of hearing aids*

Luxury Penthouse, 3 bdrm, 2 wshrm, 9 ft ceilings, many upgrades, granite, pot lights, blinds, MUST SEE. Luxury Complex with amazing amenities. $599,000

BOOK YOUR FREE HEARING TEST

Lawrence Plaza (888) 620-8092 960 Lawrence Ave AT DUFFERIN ST (888) 539-4045 Centrepoint Mall (888) 640-7652 Humber River Hospital (888) 479-1204 FOR A FULL LIST OF LOCATIONS, AND MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT

HearingSolutions.ca

*See clinic for details.

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

The EUROPEAN FURNITURE Our qualified sales staff will help you select the style of furniture that suits your taste, lifestyle and decorative needs.

Our store features a wide selection of fine European furniture and the best furniture around the world.

Contact us: 416-736-7558

Visit us: 4699 Keele St, Toronto, ON M3J 2N8 (1 Block South of Steeles) Open daily 10 am to 8 pm

Наши квалифицированные продавцы помогут вам правильно подобрать мебель, со вкусом полностью обставить ваш дом. Большой выбор европейской мебели и гарнитуров лучших дизайнеров.

Visit www.TheEuropeanFurniture.ca S ubscription

for

E xodus

magazine

Fill out the form below and mail it in or order online at www.exodusmagazine.org.

Mail to: Exodus Magazine, 5987 Bathurst St., #3, Toronto, ON M2R 1Z3 Canada.

Subscription Type (choose one): q Canadian subscription — $18 per year q US/International subscription — $36 US per year Mailing Address: Name: ___________________________________________ Address: _______________________ Postal Code: ______ Tel: ____________________ E-mail: __________________ Gift Subscription: q I am purchasing this subscription as a gift for: Name: ___________________________________________ Address: _______________________ Postal Code: ______ Tel: ____________________ E-mail: __________________ Sponsorships: q I would like to be an Exodus Sponsor: Amount: $_________ (Sponsorships are tax deductible) Payment Method (select one): q Cheque — payable to JRCC Exodus Magazine q Bill me q Credit card:

Card Number: _______________ Expiry: _______

Signature: ______________ Date: _________

September 2021 / Tishrei 5782

29

Sponsored by:

350 Ste­e­les Ave. West, Thornhill (416) 733-2000 • (905) 881-6003 • www.steeles.org

Our Deepest Sympathies to the families of:

Balaban Stuart Sholom Avraham Biber Edward Carman Anna Geil Chana Gittel Darsalie Natalia Eshel Ganit Galkina Esfir Harrouch Yael Israel Avraham Kleiner Adolf Levitas Lev Nodel Manya Rabbi Jacobson Sholom Rabbi Nelken Yehiel Dov Rafael Keshet Katia Sternik Raisa Tabak Renata Treskounov Oleg From the rabbis of the Jewish Russian Community Centre Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman (Senior Rabbi) Rabbi Avrohom Yusewitz Rabbi Avrohom Zaltzman Rabbi Avraham Weinstein Rabbi Chaim Hildeshaim Rabbi Levi Jacobson Zaltzman For all your Rabbi family Mendel bereavement needs (funeral, Rabbi Levi Blau unveiling, kaddish services, shiva, yahrzeit and memorial plaques) JRCCNeft rabbis are here to Rabbithe Shmuel assist you, 24 hours a day. Services available Rabbi David Davidov in Russian, Hebrew, English and Yiddish.

Rabbi Yisroel Zaltzman 416.222.7105 x221

30

September / Tishrei 5782

FIERA FOODS COMPANY IS HIRING! As one of North America’s largest, privately-owned large-scale bakeries, Fiera Foods Company and affiliated companies has an incredible history of expansion, innovation and quality over the past 30 years.

We’re looking for outstanding people to join our outstanding team.

• Production (Mixers, Scalers, Oven Operators, Production Line Operators,

General Production Staff, Forklift Operators, Shipper/Receivers); • Skilled Trades (Electricians, Mechanics, Refrigeration Mechanics, PLC Technicians) • Sales (Canada and US); • Management (Lead hand, Supervisory, Management, Project Engineers)

Our commitment to quality, excellence, and responsiveness are critical to our team and our success. Superior communication, teamwork and attention to detail are expected of everyone.

Please submit your resume and your compensation expectations to jobs@fierafoods.com or call (416) 746 1010 (ext. 258).

We thank all in advance for their interest, however only those selected for interviews will be contacted.

vwwc

MA JOR IE NZ M AC K E DUFFERIN ST

2

3

RFORD

KEELE ST.

4

407

6

E ST

JANE ST.

400

5 CENTR

HIGH HOLIDAYS

DR

YONGE ST

RUTHE

BATHURST ST

1

JEWISH RUSSIAN COMMUNITY CENTRE OF ONTARIO

Rosh Hashanah/ Yom Kippur

2021/5782

7 STEELE

S AVE

8

FINCH

AVE

BATHURST ST

9

ARD SHEPP

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11 AVE

401 WILSO

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12 LAWRE

NCE

• WELCOMING ATMOSPHERE • INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES • RUSSIAN, ENGLISH & HEBREW PRAYER BOOKS • FAMILY-FRIENDLY CHILDREN’S PROGRAM

12 locations in the GTA:

Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario

Rosh Hashanah: Oct. 6-8, 2021 • Yom Kippur: Oct. 15-16, 2021 1

JRCC OF WOODBRIDGE Rabbi Avrohom Yusewitz 12 Muscadel Rd.

2

RICHMOND HILL/MAPLE Rabbi Avrohom Zaltzman CHAT North, 50 Marc Santi Blvd.

3

CONCORD Rabbi Avi Weinstein 411 Confederation Pkwy, #14

4

THORNHILL WOODS Rabbi Chaim Hildeshaim North Thornhill Community Centre, 300 Pleasant Ridge

5

WEST THORNHILL Rabbi Levi Jacobson Cente for the Arts, 525 New Westminster Dr.

6

EAST THORNHILL Rabbi Mendel Zaltzman 7608 Yonge St., #3

7

SOUTH THORNHILL Rabbi Levi Blau 1 Cordoba Dr. (Party Room)

8

NORTH YORK Rabbi Shmuel Neft 18 Rockford Rd.

9

GORSKY COMMUNITY (SFARAD) Rabbi David Davidov 465 Patricia Ave. (Downstairs)

10

WILLOWDALE Rabbi Yisroel Zaltzman 5430 Yonge St.

11

BATHURST & SHEPPARD Roman Goldstein 4455 Bathurst St.

12

BATHURST & LAWRENCE 3174 Bathurst St.

For tickets and information please contact:

Address correction requested

PM 40062996

416-222-7105 or jrcc.org/HighHolidays