Exodus Magazine - March 2022

#233 | March 2022 • Adar II 5782

‫ב׳׳ה‬

Purim Holiday Guide

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Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario

Purim is...

How to Puri

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Еврейский Центр Oбщины Онтарио

Русскоязычной

nces:

Primary Observa

to the Megillah – listen Megillah (twice) food Manot – send 2. Mishloach gift packages gifts give financial 3. Charity – to the needy

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holiday that a joyous Purim is s salvation the miraculou commemorates of the Persian in the times of the Jews Ahasuerus’s BCE). King “to empire (356 Haman, plotted prime minister, all the Jews… and annihilate destroy, kill lots (“purim” Haman cast his in a single day.” the date of determine to in Persian) the festival is what gives scheme, which

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(5:58am | Fast of Esther of the three| 13 Adar II commemoration March 16 to King to nightfall in Wednesday, life to appeal from daybreak she risked her rates Esther’s A fast is observed Esther’s request before fast also commemo at people. The Pregnant or day fast called to save the Jewish Jews fought their enemies.

Achashveirosh as the from fasting.

13th of Adar, are exempt in ill health fasting on the and people nursing women II | Purim Night 16 | 14 Adar of the evening, March Wednesday to a public readingand #1 by listening ers Megillah Reading events of Purim , we use noise-mak miraculous is mentioned name We relive the Haman’s his evil name Megillah. Whenever note below* to “drown out” Megillah – see ” feast this evening. stamp our feet reading of the a small “unofficial → Attend a public to be festive and have It is also customary the of hearing fulfill the mitzvah JRCC will host One can only scroll. The of Megillah: the from an original throughout * The Mitzvah live reading and other locations attending a health its branches Megillah by All provincial readings at day of Purim. people. and Megillah of ten dozens the evening be limited to times during reading will GTA at various to, and each egilla. be adhered at jrcc.org/m guidelines will can read the your spot online reading, you You can reserve a Megillah or with your unable to attend Esther) yourself If you are absolutelythe Scroll of Esther (Megillat but it’s the next best thing.) story in of Megillah, fascinating the mitzvah does not fulfill family. (This

its name.

The Purim

Story

all-time low, was at an Jewish morale , the nation was destroyed the Temple in foreign and dispersed n conquered of assimilatio the blight lands, and enemy arose Just then, and Haman, had set in. his evil plans. to carry out g tribe of from the Jew-hatin descended solve “the a scheme to Amalek, devised for all by once and problem” Jewish man, woman every Jewish in a annihilating t the world, it not and child throughou Were almost worked. single day. It other heroes i, Esther, the for Mordecha Jewish children) involved (including hand of the hidden – and, of course, e...

Divine providenc continued → Purim plans in making your y Purim For assistance about communit kids and for updates for families, and events observances rim or contact visit jrcc.org/Pu and adults, the JRCC.

Happy Purim!

FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS

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March 2022 • Adar II 5782

6

5

| JEWISH SOUL

Unity is the Answer

8

10

10 | JEWISH THOUGHT

Why is the Jewish People So Small?

Jews are one people, even when they are dispersed throughout the world, and then no nation in the world can have any power over them when they are one.

In several grand promises to our forefathers, the size, the numerical greatness, of the Israelite nation is emphasized. What then are we to make of Moses’ words that speak of its smallness?

— From the Rebbe's letters

— by Jonathan Sacks

6

12 | ASK THE RABBI

18

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

| MADE YOU THINK

Open Your Eyes

What's With the Masquerade?

The world is undergoing fundamental changes. As a global revolution brews and a new age dawns, we need to ‘open our eyes’ and see its reality.

I see that on Purim, people wear masks and costumes, both children and adults too. How is the custom of dressing up in costumes connected with the festival of Purim?

— by Simon Jacobson

— by Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman

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19 | PERSPECTIVES

| LIFE ON EARTH

To Be and Not To Be

marketplace memorials

The Bird and the Sea

Do we exist as an actual identifiable something? Or are we merely extensions of the infinite, who exist no more than the rays of the sun exist within the sun itself? The answer is, “yes.”

A simple fable captures the secret behind Anti-Semitism, the inner conflict within the Jewish psyche and the ultimate meaning of the long Jewish story.

— by Tzvi Freeman

— by Yosef Y. Jacobson

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

simchas perspectives

4 5 6 8 10 12 13 16 18 19 21 24

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We live in a strange world. The Jewish people who brought monotheism, morality and kindness into the dictionary of an uncivilized world, are under attack. Israel, in a legitimate battle against an enemy that clearly seeks its destruction and will concoct any lie and propagandize it to gain support, is vilified by everyone from the international court to elementary school teachers.

It seems like everything is up-side down. Perhaps by examining our situation within the broader context of Jewish history we can recognize something about our own time – and, if we’re lucky, plot a course of action that will get us out of this mess.

According to Jewish tradition, the First Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were exiled to Babylon because of the problems of idol worship, adultery and murder. Seventy years later they returned to rebuild the Temple and regain sovereignty in their homeland.

Four centuries later, the Second Temple was destroyed as a result of “baseless hatred” – a type of hatred that is completely illogical and without reason. An atmosphere in which one’s hatred and anger are not caused by the hurtful actions of our fellows, but because of what we imagine they harbour inside about us. In truth, it is a projection of the negativity that we ourselves harbour about others. The exile that followed this era is the one we still find ourselves in some 2,000 years later.

Exile is not meant primarily as a punishment.

Rather, it is a physical expression of a spiritual state of being. The Jewish people adopted an “exile” mentality and the physical exile was the natural consequence of that state of being.

However, the purpose served by exile is to address the problems that lead to the destruction and to rectify them, returning with even greater strength to a healthy spiritual state of being.

The question is obvious. Idol worship, adultery and murder, the negative actions that destroyed the First Temple, are grievous and damaging transgressions that touch the very core of what Judaism is all about – the unity of G‑d, the sanctity of the Jewish people and the value of human life. Baseless hatred, on the other hand, is something that is very elusive, both in its defiance of definition and the fact that its existence or the damage it causes are not readily evident.

If the purpose of exile is to repair the damage, then why did the first exile, which came to address

the more severe problems, last only seventy years while the current exile, which comes to address the issue of baseless hatred – whatever that may be – is so long and bitter?

In other words, when a person kills someone, he can clearly see the result and he knows instantly that he did something wrong. With baseless hatred, one may not even realize that it is happening, and may fall into justification methods.

The first step in dealing with any kind of problem is to clearly articulate exactly what the problem is. When a doctor is confronted with an illness that can be diagnosed with clarity and certainty, then all she has to do is prescribe the right medication or treatment for that illness.

However, when the cause of the symptoms is elusive, when the illness cannot be diagnosed, then the doctors have a much more difficult time treating the patient.

The purpose of exile is to serve as a medicine for the malaises that plague us. The illnesses of the generation of the First Temple were easy to identify and define, and so the medicine was short and effective. The Jews of that period had a distortion in the psycho-emotional part of their being, which contains seven general characteristics. Each of these seven, in turn, contains ten sub-characteristics. Therefore, there were seventy characteristics that needed to be healed, and so the treatment was seventy years of exile.

Baseless hatred, the illness of the generation in which the Second Temple was destroyed, is much more difficult to classify as a serious illness, and hence much harder to diagnose and treat.

Therefore, we still find ourselves in exile twothousand years later struggling with pretty much the same problems – a lack of clarity and a lack of unity.

If the poison that brings exile and lack of clarity is hatred for no reason, then the antidote that will restore the unity of the Jewish people and, in turn, their unity with G‑d and their homeland, is a love without reason. But not a flaky love that suffers from the same lack of clarity and direction that we are trying to rectify. Rather, we need a love that penetrates even a heart of stone (and a stoned heart) and sincerely has the ultimate goodness of our brothers in mind, regardless of what sect they belong to, what kind of job they commute to or what magazines they subscribe to.

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jewish soul

Unity

is the

Answer

From the Rebbe's Letters

T

his day—the unifying link between the months of Adar, Adar I and Adar II; right in the middle between PurimKatan (the date of Purim in the first Adar) and Purim, which serves to underscore even more strongly the corresponding content of both months, that appear under the sign of the Purim miracle; thus becoming, as it were, one long month—“The month which was transformed for the Jews from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a festival”; This year, being a Jewish Leap Year—the joy is doubled.

This day surely provides a most suitable opportunity to reflect on “What is Purim?”

In other words, what is really the significance of Purim, which took place some 2,300 years ago, in Persia and Media—for us today and here?

Actually, in some respects, Purim—even more than any other special day or festival in our Jewish calendar—has a special significance for every Jew, man and woman, in the midst of our Jewish people, in the present time and in every land of dispersion.

Purim took place at a time when the Jews were in exile, and even after the miracle of Purim, remained in exile (until the time when the construction of the Second Temple was completed).

The Megillah relates—and our Sages explain in even greater detail—that materially and economically, the exile in Persia and Media (the last phase of the Babylonian Exile) was not at all severe. On the contrary, Jews were invited to the Royal Banquet; a Jewish woman, Esther, was the Queen, and “Mordechai the Jew” was one of the prominent men in the Royal Court. Yet, precisely during this time, there arose a wicked Haman who sought to “destroy, slaughter, and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in one day!”

From where did Haman get the audacity for such a plan?

The answer may be found in Haman’s words to King Ahasuerus: “There is one people, dispersed and scattered among the nations in all the lands of your kingdom, and their laws are different from those of any other people.”

Haman understood that Jews are one

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

people, even when they are dispersed throughout the world, and that the thing that unifies all Jews is their adherence to their own laws—the Torah and Mitzvahs; and then no nation in the world can have any power over them.

However, when Haman comes to the Royal Banquet and meets the Jewish guests; and he sees that although there is no compulsion— on the contrary, everything is “according to everyone’s wish”—yet, there are among them individuals who are not particular about Jewish observance, and who are ashamed to show their Jewishness, etc.— then he concludes that the Jews are not only “dispersed,” but also “scattered” (disunited).

Then he feels bold enough to come up with a decree of total destruction of a whole people in one day, which no enemy of the Jews before him has ever conceived; Till his nearest rival, the arch enemy of the Jews of half a century ago.

In comes Purim to remind us how Mordechai the Jew, and Esther the Queen, and the whole Jewish people, “Mordechai’s people,” responded to Haman’s decree: Mordechai the Jew—“does not kneel nor bow down” to anyone or anything which

would make him compromise Judaism; Esther the Queen risks her life to bring a deliverance to her people—“My life is my request, and my people is my plea”; All Jews join in a movement of Teshuvah (repentence) and self-sacrifice lasting almost a whole year, although they could have easily saved themselves by declaring they are no longer Yehudim (Jews).

Last but not least—the Jewish children, from the tiny tots of Cheder, are gathered under Mordechai’s leadership, and are inspired with the spirit of self-sacrifice for Torah and Judaism. And in their merit, especially, together with the merit of all the Jews, including men, women and children, who are again reunited into one people—one people united through one Torah, given by the One G‑d — Haman’s decree becomes null and void, and G-d’s deliverance is complete—a deliverance not only from distress to complete relief, but even in a manner of a complete reversal: Instead of Jews being afraid of their enemies, the enemies become afraid of the Jews; instead of Jews being ashamed of their Jewishness, they show openly and proudly that they are Yehudim, who acknowledge and follow the whole Torah; culminating in: “For the Jews there was Light, Joy, Gladness and Honor”—in all respects, not only spiritually but also materially. EM

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made you think

Open Your Eyes Simon Jacobson

I

received a phone call notifying me that someone I know well had her ‘eyes opened’ after years of them being tightly shut. Here’s a miraculous story as I just heard it first hand from the person with whom it occurred.

Let me begin by introducing my friend the same way I introduced her to my class several years ago: “I am honored to introduce to you Marcia, a very special soul who has had to face many serious challenges in her life. Her words will speak for themselves; the only thing I want to add is that Marcia sees more than most people do.”

So here’s the story: I first met Marcia several years ago. It was a warm June evening in 1997 when she came to visit me, escorted by a friend. Marcia shared with me her life story. Briefly: As a child she became very disillusioned with her education and her Judaism and began her search through many religions, finally turning at age 17 to… Christianity. After 10 years she became a teacher, then a lecturer and finally 30 years later reached the pulpit.

She spent 40 years in the church, before her Judaism came back to her, beginning with her cousin wishing her “Good Shabbos.”

One thing led to the next. Marcia began reading and exploring. “A few months ago,” Marcia tells me, “in February of 1997, my cousin gave me a series of tapes that changed my life. That is why,” Marcia continues, “I am sitting here with you today.”

As she spoke these words, I suddenly realized that this story actually began a year earlier. After one of my weekly Wednesday night classes in New York City, an elderly woman approached me and asked me for permission to record my book — Toward a Meaningful Life — on audiotape. She wanted to give the tapes to her cousin in Boston who happens to be blind. She assured me that the tapes would not be reproduced or sold, but are simply being copied to allow her cousin to benefit from the teachings in the book. Needless to say, I heartily agreed.

Her cousin was Marcia – the Jewish woman sitting before me today, telling me how these tapes turned over her life… for

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the better.

At the time she was based in Boston, preaching church doctrine. “These Toward a Meaningful Life audiotapes,” Marcia tells me, “amateurly recorded, with all the rasps and coughs, made me rethink all that I was doing, and essentially brought me back to my Jewish roots.”

“I am here tonight,” Marcia says, “to thank you. I spent 40 years in a wilderness.

Now I am ready to enter the Promised Land.”

I was profoundly touched by Marcia’s story. Obviously touched by her dramatic journey, and the power that brought her back to her Jewish roots. I was naturally moved by the fact that the Rebbe’s teachings in the book Toward A Meaningful Life – in a rough audio version – had such an impact on her. What a testimony to the eternal power of Torah!

But something even deeper stirred me.

Though Marcia was blind, she carried

herself with such dignity and grace. As she joked with me, recalling: “I don’t have the liabilities that you seeing-eye people have.

Darkness doesn’t frighten me. I don’t need a light to read. Superficial material sights don’t distract me. All I have is spirit; the only thing I see is the soul in myself and in others.”

Awesome…

During her adult years Marcia began losing her eyesight and was diagnosed with a genetic illness that left her totally blind in 1991. Yet, Marcia sees more than most of us. The material world does not distract her.

Perhaps she can see G-d better than those of us who have to struggle with the sensory sights that conceal the truth within. For the first time I truly understand the meaning behind the fact that “all the people saw the sounds” at Sinai (Exodus 20:15), “they saw what is ordinarily heard, and they heard what is ordinarily seen” (Rabbi Akiva – Mechilta on the verse). Sight perceives the

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

made you think

“The

world is undergoing fundamental changes.

As

a global revolution brews and a new age dawns, we need to ‘open our eyes’ and see its reality” physical. Sound comprehends the ethereal.

At Sinai, there was a crossover: “they saw what is heard,” what is ordinarily abstract and spiritual, and “they heard what they saw,” meaning they perceived the inner spiritual reality within the physical. At Sinai the people were not blind or mute. Yet, for a moment they were allowed a glimpse into a deeper reality. Today apparently, only when undistracted by the physical, Marcia could see what others can only hear and theorize about. And she hears the inner dimension of the sights.

As Marcia continued on her journey, she moved to Crown Heights, changed her name to Lieba and began lecturing and writing her inspiring story. She titled her talks and articles: “More than the Eye Can See: A Journey from Darkness to Light.”

[Her articles were published in the N’shei Journal].

Marcia/Lieba’s story would be an eyeopening inspiration even if it were to end at this point.

But I have the privilege to share with you a miraculous sequel. Lieba regained her eyesight! No joke. Here’s what happened, as I heard it from Lieba.

Some sensitive caring young girls in the Crown Heights community visit Lieba frequently. They read to her, help her with various chores and assist her in any way she needs. One day, Lieba hears one of the girls praying quietly. She asks her, “what are you praying for.” The little girl replies: “I am praying that Hashem [G-d] return your eyesight to you.” A discussion ensues, and Lieba, motivated by the young girl’s sincerity decides to open up a book of

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

letters by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The book (volume 1 of the English letters) opens up to page 115, where the Rebbe writes ‘in regard to the question of your eyesight, you should consult a good specialist who should give you the proper instruction as to what you have to do in this connection.”

No joke.

Lieba decides to visit a local doctor who refers her to an eye specialist. Yet she voices concern to the girl that visits her that she has no money to pay for a doctor. What do you think happens next? A few days pass and the girl presents her with an envelope containing $154 that the girls collected for her!

She visits the specialist, who for a period of 4 hours subjects her to a battery of eye tests, and then finally tells her, that her eyesight can be restored through surgery.

Apparently her condition was misdiagnosed as a genetic illness. She takes out the envelope with $154 and tells the doctor how she received the money. The stunned doctor says, “the girls will not put me to shame. I will do the surgery at no cost.”

And so, Lieba’s eyesight was restored.

This is exactly what happened as it was told to me first hand!

So now, I ask the question: Do you believe in miracles?

Despite the deep sadness I always felt for Marcia/Lieba, the only redeeming factor was that she could teach us all about the true ‘sights’ we should be looking for in life. Lieba’s strength and dignity – never the victim – always inspires everyone she meets.

I always felt that it would remain this way. A profound loss, yet doing our best

to face the challenge with dignity and determination.

Now a miracle has occurred. And it couldn’t have happened to a better person.

Lieba’s journey from darkness to light is not just a spiritual one; it has now manifested itself in a very physical way. With Lieba’s return from physical darkness, she can teach us how to bridge both worlds: the world of sight and sound, the world of spirit and matter to perhaps see what is usually heard and hear what is ordinarily seen. To truly see more than the eye can see.

And what timing?! Today more than ever we are in need of precisely such vision to see behind the scenes of the chaos our world is experiencing.

“The world is undergoing fundamental changes. As a global revolution brews and a new age dawns, we need to open our eyes and see its reality” – said a great leader, who by the way is, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (for those of you who were wondering).

‘Open our eyes’ – what an interesting expression.

Frankly, I have often wondered what it would take to get most people to ‘open their eyes.’ After all, history is fraught with but few ‘seers’ while the mainstream remains blinded and clueless to the bigger picture.

The miracle I share with you today gives us all hope. Hope that anyone and everyone’s eyes can indeed be opened. 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

To Be

and

Not To Be

Tzvi Freeman

N

ew ways of thinking require new sets of words. For most thinkers. Here’s an exception: Every chapter of R. Schneur Zalman’s classic work known as Tanya provides a distinctly new way of thinking about life, purpose, and the world about us. Yet R. Schneur Zalman chose to retain the old words, just revealing in them a deeper meaning.

The word bittul is a case in point. Bittul plays a central role in R. Schneur Zalman’s writings. It’s a crucial concept in explaining how existence as we know it is always relative and never absolute, and why a good life depends on seeing and truly feeling how that applies to you.

Bittul makes the difference between choosing to dwell in a fractured universe where each fragment makes a whole lot of noise, or choosing true life in a harmonious universe, where the parts find their greatness within a wondrously greater whole.

But to do that, bittul required a whole new depth of understanding.

So what is bittul? Or, using its adjective form, what do we mean when we say something is buttel?

In common use, bittul means something’s not there. Cancelled, negated, wiped out. Gone.

“What happened to our study group today?”

“Buttel.”

Simple, easy, no explanation needed.

Not so the bittul of Tanya. Here, there’s not just one, but two layers of complexity and depth.

First, R. Schneur Zalman, the eminent halachist he was, borrowed a concept of bittul as it appears in halachah (Talmudic law). There, bittul is often what you might call situational.

Or contextual.

For example, a Jew is forbidden to eat a mixture of meat and milk. A cheeseburger is out of the question. But what if one teensy drop of milk finds its way into a monstrous vat of beef broth?

There’s no way anyone would be able to taste the taste of milk in that mixture. It’s so diluted, it’s insignificant. So we apply the rule of bittul—if there's so little no one could taste it, it’s like it’s not there.

Which doesn’t mean it’s not there. And that’s the important point. Milk is milk, even a drop of it. And indeed, if drop after drop falls in,

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each drop accumulates until all those drops cry out in unison, “We are here! We are here! Taste and see!”

But right now, that lonely drop is ineffective, insignificant and experiencing the tragic drama of bittul within its exile to a foreign land of beef broth, like an immigrant who threw his weight around back home and now finds himself completely disregarded upon landing on new shores. As though he doesn’t exist— even though he does.

There’s a popular art-book called Zoom by the Hungarian artist, Istvan Banyai that vividly and literally illustrates bittul. An initial lively scene of children playing ball looks very real and inviting—until we zoom out to discover it’s only a postage stamp being pasted on a letter by a young man in a very different scene—which then turns out to be painted on a billboard on the highway—which then turns out to be nothing more than some kid’s toy cars—which then is lost in yet a wider context.

Each context is not simply larger. That would only render the previous scene insignificantly small. Rather, each scene provides a whole new frame of reference in which the reality in which we were immersed just one page earlier suddenly and almost mystically is exposed as an irrelevant fiction, soon to vanish altogether

within the even greater context of the coming page.

There were never any kids playing ball.

Banyai played a joke on you. It was a postage stamp, not a reality. Which means that, once you’ve arrived at this new frame of reference, what you thought you saw never was.

That’s not just a quantitative bittul, like one piece of non-kosher beef among many kosher ones. Neither is it just a qualitative bittul, like the quality of the taste of milk within the broth. It’s an existential bittul. Something like revoking a birth certificate.

That’s what we mean by “existence is relative.” Existence depends on meaning.

Meaning depends on context. Change the context, you change the meaning, and that which was a reality a moment ago suddenly goes poof. That’s one layer of meaning and depth to work with: Situational, or contextual bittul. In one context, you can be rich with meaning. In another, all that meaning suddenly vanishes and nobody knows you even exist.

And maybe you don’t.

But how does that apply to my life, its purpose and meaning?

What if the new context is your origin?

What if we are all like words before they have emerged from the soul?

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

life on earth

The sun, you see, is not light. Light is something that emerges from the sun. But the sun itself is its own entity.

So is there light within the sun, the source of light? Yes and no.

Yes, because, as R. Schneur Zalman writes, if it shines down here on earth outside of the sun, how could it not exist within the orb of the sun? On the contrary, he writes, certainly it must exist in a far more intense state within its source than outside its source.

Yet, on the other hand, no.

Because within its source, the light is in a state of thorough bittul. It is not an entity of its own that we could call light. It is nothing more than a certain capacity the sun has, that it can generate light.

Just like something much closer to human experience: words within the soul. You begin speaking a sentence, not even knowing how it’s going to end. Where did those words come from? From your “word bag” inside you? Or did they just appear out of nowhere, unprecedented?

No, there’s always a precedent: Not scrabble words in a bag, but a reaction to something someone said, an emotion, a flash of insight.

It’s just that we’re not aware of what’s going on inside us—until those inner churnings emerge in some articulate form. Such as words, imagery, perhaps even drama in our minds.

Or just words that suddenly jump out of our mouths like aliens making a blitzkrieg on Planet Earth.

So words emerge out of emotions and insights.

But if I could travel in my magical school bus deep into your emotions, would I find words there?

No and yes.

No. Just think of the last time you saw someone in an intense emotional state, and you asked them to please explain what on earth is going on. No words jump out. Not until the hysterics burn out and the tears cease to flow.

Then maybe you’ll get a few words. Until the flames of emotion rise again. Inside emotions, there’s simply no place for words.

But definitely yes. Because you don’t grasp in the air for words to express your emotions.

The words fling open the doors and jump out.

So they must have been inside there somewhere before they jumped out. Somewhere in your

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

emotions.

What do they look like inside their spaceship of emotions? They don’t. They’re in a state of extreme, existential bittul. They are too powerful to exist.

Now this is neat: When we spoke about milk-taste bittul or zoom bittul—bittul within a foreign context—their right to existence was revoked because they had become so weak and impotent.

But here, when things are buttel within their origin, they lose all sense of existence because they are at the ultimate extreme of being.

They’re chillin’ deep within their own homes, being who they truly are: A possibility of their origin.

So, on the one hand, their existence is annihilated to the absolute extreme, incomparably beyond any of our other examples. And on the other hand, this is where they experience true existence.

So do we exist? Yes and no.

Yes, because G‑d spoke and a world came to be. All the universe is an artifact of divine speech, ten utterances of speech to be specific, as recorded in Genesis, packets of creative articulation that contain all the information for all that will ever be, themselves beyond the spacetime continuum that they generate, and so, ever-present, continually sustaining our reality.

If G‑d Himself says so, we must exist.

And for precisely the same reason, no, we do not exist. Because, unlike our words, those words never left their origin. Because there’s no place for them to go. G‑d is one, so there’s nothing outside G‑d.

So all those cosmic words that call us into being are like the rays of the sun’s light within the sun, like your words of speech and thought before they have emerged from their chrysalis of emotion and insight.

But does that make this reality of ours any weaker? No, quite the contrary.

Within your source, you shine infinitely brighter. All you’re missing is the delusion of otherness. Because now you’re one with your origin.

It comes out that, in a certain, crucial way, this deeper understanding of bittul expresses quite the opposite of its simple understanding.

Something or someone who has true bittul has

certainly not auto-cancelled, self-abnegated, or self-annihilated. Rather, quite the contrary, in bittul, each thing finds its true place and power.

Everything receives life, R. Schneur Zalman wrote, by virtue of its bittul, and commensurate to its degree of bittul. A creature entirely locked inside its own shell cannot survive. Life is a function of self-transcendence—perhaps a close-enough translation of bittul.

Plenty of good evidence-based research has demonstrated this for human beings, as well.

“Personal spirituality “—defined for research purposes as ”a strong personal relationship with the transcendent” (if that’s not bittul, what is?)—has been shown to be key to human survival, especially at the most crucial times in life. For just one example, a teen who has been nurtured with such spirituality/bittul is 80% less likely to suffer ongoing and recurrent depressions and 60% less likely to become a heavy substance user.

Which makes it all a matter of choice. What will be my frame of reference?

I can choose to remain blind to all that is beyond my bubble, deaf to the grand symphony, oblivious to my Creator, clinging to the delusion of autonomous power as though my ego is the vortex of all existence—in which case I end up as nothing more than a blip flashing for its grand moment on the screen of space-time.

Or I can find my glorious place within the Infinite Light, my true context where I as a discrete, autonomous entity cease to exist. And there find eternal meaning and true greatness.

Where is the place of union with your origin in this life on Earth? It is in your bittul to your Creator as you carry out the mission He has assigned to you. As Hillel said in the Mishnah, “Make your will buttel before His will.” Transcend yourself by connecting to the Transcendent.

For a Jew, that transcendence is the study of Torah and the performance of all G‑d’s mitzvahs out of love and joy. 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.

9

jewish thought

Why Is The Jewish People So Small?

Jonathan Sacks

T

here is a remark that gives an entirely new complexion to the biblical image of the people of Israel: “The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you are the fewest of all peoples.”

This is not what we have heard thus far.

In Genesis, G‑d promised the patriarchs that their descendants would be like the stars of the heaven, the sand on the seashore, the dust of the earth, uncountable. Abraham will be the father, not just of one nation but of many.

At the beginning of Exodus we read of how the covenantal family, numbering a mere seventy when they went down to Egypt, were “fertile and prolific, and their population increased. They became so numerous that the land was filled with them” (Ex. 1:7).

Three times in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses describes the Israelites as being “as many as the stars of the sky” (1:10; 10:22; 28:62). King Solomon speaks of himself as being part of “the people You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number” (I Kings 3:8). The prophet Hosea says that “the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted” (Hos. 2:1).

In all these texts and others it is the size, the numerical greatness, of the people that is emphasized. What then are we to make of Moses’ words that speak of its smallness?

Targum Yonatan interprets it not to be about numbers at all but about self-image.

He translates it not as “the fewest of all peoples” but as “the most lowly and humble of peoples.” Rashi gives a similar reading, citing Abraham’s words, “I am but dust and ashes” (Gen. 18:27), and Moses and Aaron’s, “Who are we?” (Ex. 16:7).

Rashbam and Chizkuni give the more straightforward explanation that Moses is contrasting the Israelites with the seven nations they would be fighting in the land of Canaan/Israel. G‑d would lead the Israelites to victory despite the fact that they were outnumbered by the local inhabitants.

Rabbeinu Bachya quotes Maimonides, who says that we would have expected G‑d, King of the universe, to have chosen the most numerous nation in the world as His

10

people, since “the glory of the King is in the multitude of people” (Prov. 14:28). G‑d did not do so. Thus Israel should count itself extraordinarily blessed that G‑d chose it, despite its smallness, to be His am segula, His special treasure.

Rabbeinu Bachya finds himself forced to give a more complex reading to resolve the contradiction of Moses, in Deuteronomy, saying both that Israel is the smallest of peoples and “as many as the stars of the sky” (Gen. 22:17). He turns it into a hypothetical subjunctive, meaning: G‑d would still have chosen you, even if you had been the smallest of the peoples.

Sforno gives a simple and straightforward reading: G‑d did not choose a nation for the sake of His honour. Had He done so, He would undoubtedly have chosen a mighty and numerous people. His choice had nothing to do with honour and everything to do with love. He loved the patriarchs for their willingness to heed His voice; therefore, He loves their children.

Yet there is something in this verse that resonates throughout much of Jewish history.

Historically, Jews were and are a small people – today, less than 0.2 per cent of the population of the world. There were two reasons for this. First is the heavy toll taken through the ages by exile and persecution, directly by Jews killed in massacres and pogroms, indirectly by those who converted – in fourteenth and fifteenth-century Spain and nineteenth-century Europe – in order to avoid persecution (tragically, even conversion

did not work; racial antisemitism persisted in both cases). The Jewish population is a mere fraction of what it might have been had there been no Hadrian, no Crusades, and no antisemitism.

The second reason is that Jews did not seek to convert others. Had they done so they would have been closer in numbers to Christianity (2.4 billion) or Islam (1.6 billion). In fact, Malbim reads something like this into our verse. The previous verses have said that the Israelites were about to enter a land with seven nations, Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Moses warns them against intermarriage with the other nations, not for racial but for religious reasons: “They will turn your children away from following Me to serve other gods” (Deut. 7:4). Malbim interprets our verse as Moses saying to the Israelites: Do not justify out-marriage on the grounds that it will increase the number of Jews. G‑d is not interested in numbers.

Notwithstanding all these interpretations and explanations, Tanach itself offers one extraordinary episode that sheds a different light on the whole issue. It occurs in the seventh chapter of the book of Judges. G‑d has told Gideon to assemble an army and do battle with the Midianites. He gathers a force of 32,000 men. G‑d tells him, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against Me, ‘My own strength has saved me’” (Judges 7:2).

G‑d tells Gideon to say to the men: Whoever is afraid and wishes to go home may do

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

so. Twenty-two thousand men leave. Ten thousand remain. G‑d tells Gideon, “There are still too many men.” He proposes a new test. Gideon is to take the men to a river and see how they drink the water. Ninetyseven hundred kneel down to drink, and are dismissed. Gideon is left with a mere three hundred men. “With the three hundred men that lapped [the water] I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands,” G‑d tells him (Judges 7:1–8). By a brilliant and unexpected strategy, the three hundred put the entire Midianite army to flight.

The Jewish people are small but have achieved great things to testify in themselves to a force beyond themselves. They have achieved things no other nation its size could have achieved. Its history has been living testimony to the force of Divine Providence and the impact of high ideals. That is what Moses meant when he said: Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day G‑d created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of G‑d speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your G‑d did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Israel defies the laws of history because it serves the Author of history. Attached to greatness, it becomes great. Through the Jewish people, G‑d is telling humankind that you do not need to be numerous to be great. Nations are judged not by their size but by their contribution to human heritage.

Of this, the most compelling proof is that a nation as small as the Jews could produce an ever-renewed flow of prophets, priests, poets, philosophers, Sages, saints, halachists, aggadists, codifiers, commentators, rebbes, and rashei yeshivot. It has also yielded some of the world’s greatest writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, academics, intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, and technological innovators. Out of all proportion to their

numbers, Jews could and can be found working as lawyers fighting injustice, economists fighting poverty, doctors fighting disease, teachers fighting ignorance, and therapists fighting depression and despair.

You do not need numbers to enlarge the spiritual and moral horizons of humankind.

You need other things altogether: a sense of the worth and dignity of the individual, of the power of human possibility to transform the world, of the importance of giving everyone the best education they can have, of making each person feel part of a collective responsibility to ameliorate the human condition. Judaism asks of us the willingness to take high ideals and enact them in the real world, unswayed by disappointments and defeats.

This is still evident today, especially among the people of Israel in the State of Israel.

Traduced in the media and pilloried by much of the world, Israel continues to produce human miracles in medicine, agriculture, technology, and the arts, as if the word “impossible” did not exist in the Hebrew language. Israel remains a small nation, surrounded, as in biblical times, by “nations larger and stronger than you” (Deut. 7:1). Yet the truth remains, as Moses said: “The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you are the fewest of all peoples.”

This small people has outlived all the world’s great empires to deliver to humanity a message of hope: you need not be large to be great. What you need is to be open to a power greater than yourself. It is said that King Louis XIV of France once asked Blaise Pascal, the brilliant mathematician and theologian, to give him proof of the existence of G‑d. Pascal is said to have replied, “Your Majesty, the Jews!” EM Rabbi Dr. Sir Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, was the former Chief Rabbi of the UK and the Commonwealth and a member of the House of Lords. He was a leading academic and respected world expert on Judaism. He was the author of several books and thousands of articles, appeared regularly on television and radio, and spoke at engagements around the world.

future tense

MOSHIACH MUSINGS

In Pharaoh’s Egypt and Haman’s Persia, our ancestors faced the threat of annihilation. The similarity ends there. The path to liberation was quite different. The story of Passover is replete with mind-boggling miracles.

Through ten plagues and the splitting of the sea, the destruction of Egypt was swift and breathtaking. The hand of G‑d was recognized by all.

The Megillah of Esther, on the other hand, can be read as a typical palace intrigue. In fact, G‑d is not mentioned once throughout the entire scroll. One could easily interpret the story as simply serendipitous.

In truth, the Purim miracle is deeply significant,

even

compared

to

the

miracles of Passover. On Passover, G‑d interfered with the rules of nature that He had set up at creation. Nature was an obstruction to Divine revelation. On Purim, the Divine miracles occurred seamlessly within the rules of nature.

The natural world itself reflected the Divine. It is a greater “accomplishment,” so to speak, to harness the rules of nature rather than break them.

Celebrating these two holidays close to each other emphasizes that miracles both without and within nature are worthy of recognition and gratitude.

Let’s open up our eyes to the miracles that are constantly occurring all around us. This realization alone is enough to transform our reality, to reveal the peaceful, bountiful, beautiful, redeemed world we are all waiting for.

ask the rabbi

What's With the Masquerade?

Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman

Q

I see that on Purim, people wear masks and costumes, both children and adults too. How is the custom of dressing up in costumes connected with the festival of Purim?

There are several reasons given for the ageold custom to dress up in costumes and wear masks on Purim.

Historically, The miracle of the holiday of Purim was disguised in natural events, seemingly a series of socio-political twists and palace intrigue. After the fact, when we look back at the entire story, do we realize that a great miracle transpired.

The custom of wearing costumes on Purim is also an allusion to the nature of the Purim miracle, where the details of the story are really miracles hidden within natural events.

Similarly, the Talmud states that just as the Jews at the time pretended to be serving other gods, G‑d pretended that He was going to destroy the Jewish nation, and in the end He did not. Since both the Jews’ and G‑d’s actions were masked by other intentions, we wear masks to commemorate the events.

On a practical level, because giving generously to the poor is a special Purim custom, and it is often done publicly amidst the festivities, wearing costumes minimizes the embarrassment of the poor who go around collecting charity on this day.

Purim is known as the festival of pure joy, and joy is all about unmasking reality.

It’s great to celebrate revealed miracles, but how often does a miracle come your way? Far more exhilarating is the realization that nothing is as it seems, that G‑d is always pulling the strings, even when things seem to be “just happening.”

Dressing up on Purim is an expression of the desire to seek the unmasked essence of all things, including ourselves.

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The Sages teach that “joy breaks boundaries” – through happiness we can transcend beyond our usual limitations, and find deeper purpose and meaning. Among the boundaries that are broken with real joy are the barriers and fences that separate us from each other. The happiness allows us to develop a different perspective on ourselves and other people. We stop judging others by their external behavior and things they say and do, and we begin to appreciate their inner soul. We begin to understand that the annoying actions, feelings and personality traits that separate us from others are only external masks that conceal the true human being. Beneath the mask there is a pristine soul that makes him/her a special human being. The energy of the happiness allows us to break through the mask and see what is beneath.

Purim comes with the recognition that nothing is at it seems – in the Purim story, and in life itself. Like the Purim story, sometimes life can seem like a series of coincidences, good and bad luck, random ups and downs. But the deeper truth is that nothing is coincidental or random – everything has meaning when you are able to peek beneath the surface. So on Purim we dress up, reminding ourselves and others that our outward appearance and behavior is always a mask. We realize that all those things that separate us from each other have nothing to do with our real identity. The celebration of Purim gives us the ability to look behind the mask and discover the real person – ourselves included. EM

Мы продолжаем разговор о письмах к Ребе. При каких обстоятельствах пишут письма к Ребе? Когда мы говорим: Ребе , мы говорим о главе поко-ления – о Любавичском Ребе. Причем, это не зависит от того, осознают ли люди это или нет. Если сердце понимает, что голова руководит сердцем – это хорошо. Но если ноготь этого не понимает, все равно голова является его источником жизни. Поэтому если к Ребе обращаются люди, которые не осознают уровень личности Ребе, результат будет в любом случае эффектив-ным. Конечно, если присутствуют и понимание, и вера, и практика, - такой уровень несомненно выше, но обра-щение к Ребе в равной степени практично для каждого человека на Земле в нашем поколении, независимо от того, еврей это или нет. Это относится и к главе любого государства. Скажем, президент хочет что-то улучшить для своей страны или же он оказался перед какой-то серьезной проблемой, угрожающей его государству. Ему трудно, он не знает, как поступить. Он, как и любой другой из глав государств может обратиться к Ребе за благосло-вением и советом, чтобы исправить ситуацию. То же самое относится и к главам организаций – больших, маленьких, бизнеса среднего звена, любой человек, находящийся в поисках заработка, тоже может писать с просьбой о благословении. Не существует вопроса, с которым было бы невозможно обратиться к Ребе...

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.

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

‫ב”ה‬ ‫ב''ה‬

Our

MARCH 2022 | ADAR II 5782 COMMUNITY CALENDAR

MARCH2022 MARCH

09-15

MARCH

16

MARCH

PRE-PURIM KIDS PARTIES

COMMUNITY PURIM CELEBRATIONS

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PURIM

MARCH

WOMENS SEDER PLATE POTTERY

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CANDLE LIGHTING TIMES Friday, Mar 4, 2022

5:52 PM

Friday, Mar 11, 2022

6:01 PM

Friday, Mar 18, 2022

7:09 PM

Friday, Mar 25, 2022

7:18 PM

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

Community 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 .

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING COMMUNITY GROWTH The JRCC hosted an online Day of Giving campaign in mid-February to galvanize support for the JRCC and its branches. The theme of the campaign was “Activate.

Tremendous. Growth,” with the goal of raising funds to support the JRCC and its branches in their plans for building new centers, expanding their reach, and enhancing their programs to ensure that no Russian Jew is left behind. In total, hundreds of generous donors contributed toward the successful campaign, an inspiring show of support for JRCC by members of the JRCC community, local residents, and people around the world.

Thank you to all those who participated in the campaign and the extra efforts of those who formed “teams” to encourage others to give. Special thanks to our generous matchers, whose commitment made this project possible and makes this campaign so much more exciting. It’s not too late to join. Visit jrccgiving. org to see the campaign updates and make a donation.

A BIRTHDAY FARBRENGEN Last month, Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman, senior rabbi and founder of the JRCC, celebrated his 66th birthday with a special farbrengen gathering. This who were able to participate in the COVID-safe, in-person portion of he evening celebrated in person, with many people tuning in live via Zoom. Congratulations to Rabbi Zaltzman, who, together with his wife Chiena, has dedicated his life to our community, on all the amazing work done over the last forty years, and wishing you much continued success.

FREE HEBREW LANGUAGE COURSE Following the success of last year’s inaugural Ulpan Hebrew language course for adults, the JRCC will host a weekly course starting in March 2002. The program is divided into two levels for beginners and advanced students. The course consists of 23 interactive classes delivered live via Zoom, led by an experienced, professional language instructor.

Space is limited, and registration is required. Register at jrcc.org/ulpan.

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Photo of the Month

PRE

PURIM Events for kids East Thornhill Wednesday, March 9 | 6:00pm

HAMENTASH BAKE-OFF

JRCC S. Richmond Hill Sunday, March 13 | 11:30am

HAMENTASH BAKE-OFF JRCC Concord Monday, March 14 | 6:00pm

HAMENTASH BAKE-OFF JRCC West Thornhill Tuesday, March 15 | 6:00pm

PURIM MASQUERADE SHOW

Super Jew Heroes at JRCC Hebrew School discovering their super powers!

MEGILLA around the clock

416.222.7105 | www.jrcc.org/purim

Community

PURIM Celebrations WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16

Full listing at www.JRCC.org/Megilla

Join your local JRCC branch for Megillah Reading, entertainement and fun for the whole family.

Details at

WWW.JRCC.ORG/PURIM The coolest Jewish Club for young teens

Wednesday, March 23 | 6:30-8pm

Jewelry Making JRCC S. Richmond Hill & Maple, 9699 Bathurst St. RSVP at JRCC.org/jgirls

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March 2022 / Adar II 5782

F R E E H E B R E W C L A S S E S F O R A D U LT S

U L PA N H A V E R I M

Faces of the Community Michael Litvinovsky Engineer, Economist

Beginner class (no previous knowledge required) Start date March 3, 2022 Advanced class (basic vocabulary and ability to read) start day TBD

Please tell us a little about your career My profession is an engineer-economist in heavy industry. I graduated from the Tashkent Aviation College, and studied at the Polytechnic Institute. At first I worked as an engineer-economist, worked my way up, and moved to work in the Ministry of Construction, and later then in the State Committee on Prices. In Israel, I worked for six years at a factory as a simple worker.

I then he left everything and decided to work for myself, first as the owner of a grocery store, and later in transportation and worked for twenty-eight years as a driver, including in the field of tourism. I moved to

• 23 classes (once a week), led by professional teacher • Beginners - Thursdays 5:30-7:00pm • Advanced - TBD • Classes will be live on ZOOM Registration required. Very limited capacity. Register here: www.jrcc.org/Ulpan

Pre-Order

MATZAH Pre-Order Matzah online and save!

10% off all matzot until March 3.

Selection from Ukraine, US and Israel. Super-thin, whole wheat, oat and spelt.

www.jrcc.org/matzah

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Packing and / or distributing Pesach gift packages FOR MORE INFORMATION

416-222-7105 #291 March 2022 / Adar II 5782

Canada in 2020.

Where does your family come from?

As far as I remember from the stories of my parents, my father’s roots come from Germany. My great-grandfather had a kosher slaughterhouse in Germany. My father told me that during the First World War, my great-grandfather's slaughterhouse in Germany was bombed, and he and his whole family moved to Belarus. His son (my grandfather Moishe, who I was named after) continued his father's work in Belarus in the town of Grozovo, in the Gomel region. My grandfather Moishe's two older sisters left for America. At the very beginning of the war, on June 28, 1941, the Germans occupied Minsk. The whole family wanted to leave, but my grandfather said that his father worked well with the Germans in Germany, and he would also be able to negotiate with them.

Ultimately, the Germans shot almost the entire family — both parents and nine out of eleven children. Only two survived — my father and his older sister. And that's because they were forced to evacuate along with the organizations where they worked.

On my mother's side, my great-grandfather and great-grandmother are from Poland. My mother’s parents ended up in Ukraine and lived in Bila Tserkva, not far from Kiev. During the war, they were also evacuated to Uzbekistan. That's why I was born in Tashkent.

My mother's father was a synagogue gabay (an official in the Jewish community or synagogue in charge of organizational and financial affairs), and we observed all the main Jewish holidays in our home.

My wife comes from a Romanian-Moldovan Jewish family, the same background as the famous Israeli violinist Sanya Kroiter. During the war, my wife's grandfather , Abram, was sent to the front, and her grandmother, Leah, died during a bombing while being evacuated. The children were taken to an orphanage and brought to Uzbekistan. There they were found by their father after the war. His daughter is my wife's mother. By the time my wife and I got married, my grandparents had already died, and on Jewish holidays we went to grandfather Abram. My wife's uncle and brother-in-law (her older sister's husband) were big sponsors of the central synagogue of Tashkent, located on Sapernaya Street.

What do you do in your free time? Do you have any hobbies?

In my free time I study English. I really want to better understand what is happening around. At one time I was engaged in collecting small cars. It’s not so simple, there is a whole science to it. I used to buy model cars and glue them together myself. I had about seventy such home-made cars. But now there is not enough time for this hobby, since my wife and I are grandparents to four small grandchildren under the age of four who we help take care of.

If you had the opportunity to meet any person in history, who would you choose, and why?

I have never met or communicated with any of the celebrities, but if I had such an opportunity, I would be very happy to talk with the great Arkady Raikin. I am sure that everyone knows about him — he is an unsurpassed artist and the greatest comedian of the last century. He always carried his Jewishness with pride. Once, on tour in Kiev, a very unpleasant incident happened to him. He performed a monologue in which there were such words: “Ask me:“ Who are you? - I will answer: "Ba-la-laykin!" But after the words "Who are you?" loudly shouted from the hall: “You are a Jew!” There was deathly silence. Raikin began to clarify: “Who said this?”, But no one answered. Then he shouted right from the stage: “Comrades, I ask you, please return the money for the tickets to the audience! I will set foot in this anti-Semitic city again!” And he kept his word. Even when the Minister of Culture of the USSR, Ekaterina Furtseva, insisted on a tour in Kiev, Raikin did not concede.

What are your plans for the future?

In Canada, we are almost newcomers — we’ve been here for only a year and a half. My plans are to learn English and be able to get a decent job. At the same time, we need to devote time to our grandchildren, always be with our family, and not fall down in life.

And if you do fall, then you need to get up and keep moving forward.

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‫ב׳׳ה‬

Exodus Magazine Holiday Companion

PURIM Журнал Эксодус, путеводитель по праздникам

March 16-17, 2022 All times displayed in this guide are for the Greater Toronto Area.

How to Purim do list o t y a d i l o H e Pr night

rim h twice – on Pu la il eg M e th ar riday) • Plan to he on Purim day (F d an g) in en (Thursday ev up for a meal – or sign . al iv st fe e th r .org/Purim • Prepare fo m feast at jrcc ri Pu ch an Br JRCC packages ach Manot gift o hl is M r fo s item • Prepare food the poor ntributions to co le ab it ar ch e • Plan to mak

Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario

Purim is...

Primary Observances: 1.

Megillah – listen to the Megillah (twice)

2. Mishloach Manot – send food gift packages 3. Charity – give financial gifts to the needy 4. Festive Meal

Wednesday, March 16 | 13 Adar II | Fast of Esther (5:58am to 7:54pm) A fast is observed from daybreak to nightfall in commemoration of the threeday fast called at Esther’s request before she risked her life to appeal to King Achashveirosh to save the Jewish people. The fast also commemorates Esther’s fasting on the 13th of Adar, as the Jews fought their enemies. Pregnant or nursing women and people in ill health are exempt from fasting.

Wednesday evening, March 16 | 14 Adar II | Purim Night Megillah Reading #1 We relive the miraculous events of Purim by listening to a public reading of the Megillah. Whenever Haman’s name is mentioned, we use noise-makers and stamp our feet to “drown out” his evil name → Attend a public reading of the Megillah – see note below* It is also customary to be festive and have a small “unofficial” feast this evening. * The Mitzvah of Megillah: One can only fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the Megillah by attending a live reading from an original scroll. The JRCC will host dozens of Megillah readings at its branches and other locations throughout the GTA at various times during the evening and day of Purim. All provincial health guidelines will be adhered to, and each reading will be limited to ten people.

You can reserve your spot online at jrcc.org/megilla.

If you are absolutely unable to attend a Megillah reading, you can read the fascinating story in the Scroll of Esther (Megillat Esther) yourself or with your family. (This does not fulfill the mitzvah of Megillah, but it’s the next best thing.)

16

Еврейский Центр Русскоязычной Oбщины Онтарио

Purim is a joyous holiday that commemorates the miraculous salvation of the Jews in the times of the Persian empire (356 BCE). King Ahasuerus’s prime minister, Haman, plotted “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews… in a single day.” Haman cast lots (“purim” in Persian) to determine the date of his scheme, which is what gives the festival its name.

The Purim Story Jewish morale was at an all-time low, the Temple was destroyed, the nation conquered and dispersed in foreign lands, and the blight of assimilation had set in. Just then, and enemy arose to carry out his evil plans. Haman, descended from the Jew-hating tribe of Amalek, devised a scheme to solve “the Jewish problem” once and for all by annihilating every Jewish man, woman and child throughout the world, in a single day. It almost worked. Were it not for Mordechai, Esther, the other heroes involved (including Jewish children) – and, of course, the hidden hand of Divine providence... continued → For assistance in making your Purim plans and for updates about community Purim observances and events for families, kids and adults, visit jrcc.org/Purim or contact the JRCC.

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

Thursday, March 17 | 14 Adar II | Purim Day The following Purim customs are observed during the day of Purim.

1. Megillah Reading #2 We relive the miraculous events of Purim by listening to a public reading of the Megillah. Whenever Haman’s name is mentioned, we use noise-makers and stamp our feet to “drown out” his evil name. → Attend a public reading of the Megillah – see note on previous page* 2. Gifts of Food On Purim, we emphasize the importance of Jewish unity and friendship by sending gifts of food to friends. It is proper that men send to men and women to women. Sending these gifts should be done through a third party. Children, in addition to sending their own gifts of food, make enthusiastic messengers. → Send at least one gift package containing at least two kinds of ready-toeat foods (for example, pastry, fruit, beverage), to at least one friend on Purim day.

To make things easier, feel free to “re-gift” the Mishloach Manot package you receive from the JRCC, and receive one back from your friend as well.

3. Charitable Gifts to the Needy Concern for the needy is a year-round Jewish responsibility. On Purim, particularly, it is a special mitzvah to remember the poor. The mitzvah is best fulfilled by giving directly to the needy. Even small children should fulfill this mitzvah. → Give gifts of money to at least two (preferably more) needy people.

You can give the money directly (preferably discreetly), or through a community representative who collects and distributes the funds to the needy. The JRCC can fulfill this mitzvah on your behalf – visit jrcc.org/matanot or call 416.222.7105.

4. The Festive Meal As on all festivals, Purim is celebrated with a special festive meal during the day, when family and friends gather together to rejoice in the Purim spirit. → Host or join a Purim Feast that includes bread, wine and fine cuisine.

The Moshiach Connection: Feast, Not Fast Mystical texts note the analogy between the terms “Purim” and “Yom Kippurim.”

Moreover, they state that the holiest day of the year is called “Yom Ki-purim,” which could be translated “A Day like Purim.” This suggests that Purim has an advantage over Yom Kippur.

The advantage of Purim is seen in the most obvious difference between these two days: Yom Kippur is a fast-day on which we must afflict ourselves by refraining from basic human needs such as eating, drinking, bathing, etc. Purim, on the other hand, is a feastday celebrated with festive eating, drinking and merriment.

Purim thus celebrates man’s involvement with the physical reality of G-d’s creation.

The use of material substances in context of man’s service of-and relationship with-G-d, imbues these substances with spirituality. It sublimates them to their Divinely intended purpose. Purim manifests the intrinsic oneness of the universe which is rooted in the Oneness of its Creator.

This, indeed, is the ultimate purpose of creation: to manifest its Divine origin by converting this world into a fitting abode for G-dliness. This is man’s mission for which he was created, and especially in the time of the galut, the time of our dispersion throughout the world. The achievement of this goal is the ultimate bliss of the Messianic era when “the earth shall be full with the knowledge of G-d as the waters cover the sea... and the glory of G-d shall be revealed and all flesh shall see together...” (Isaiah 11:9 and 40:5). Our efforts towards that end will hasten this goal and bliss, to happen very speedily in our days.

The Purim Story → continued

It is a story of great courage and selfsacrifice, first and foremost by Queen Esther and Mordechai and ultimately by the whole Jewish nation. For throughout the duration of the whole year, not one single Jew chose to convert, even to save his life. The nation was awakened to a wholehearted return to the Jewish path, and throughout the year strengthened their faith and observance. In the merit of this, the plans of Mordechai and Esther to overturn the evil decree were successful, and the Jews were able to rise up against their enemies. Eventually, these events led them to returning to the Land of Israel and rebuilding the Holy Temple.

Purim as Marriage Purim is the day we became married to G-d, and to each other. Until the days of King Achashverosh, the Talmud tells us, the Jewish people had never really accepted the Torah. They were coerced.

“G-d held Mount Sinai over their heads,” the Talmud tells us. The Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Yehudah Loewe, explains this as a figurative reference to the abundance of love He showed them, until they had no other choice.

The person of your dreams takes you out in a flashy Lamborghini, treats you to a lavish feast at the finest restaurant, showers you with jewelry and poetry of love, and then suggests marriage. Do you have a choice? So too, G-d swept us out of slavery on eagle’s wings, drowned our oppressors in the sea, fed us manna from heaven, and then whispered in our ears sweet words, “I want you to be mine.” We were coerced. A deal made under coercion is not a deal. At any point, the Talmud tells us, we had the right to step out of the whole thing.

Until the days of Achashverosh. Because then, there were no eagle’s wings, no bread from heaven, no signs or wonders—and nevertheless, we stood with our Beloved.

Why? There is no explanation.

But we are still here. Absurdly.

© 2022 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.

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perspectives

The Bird

and the

Sea

Yosef Y. Jacobson

A

s Anti-Semitism rears its ugly head once again, let us pay heed to a Midrash about the Purim story which occurred in Iran, in ancient Persia.

There is a fascinating Midrash describing the plot of Haman, the villain of the Purim story: “What is an apt parable for Haman the Evil One? To what can he be compared?

To a bird which made its nest on the shore of the sea, and then the sea came and swept away the nest. The bird said: I will not budge from here until the sea becomes dry land, and the dry land becomes the sea.

What did the bird do? It took some water from the sea in its mouth and dropped it on dry land, and took dirt from the land and dropped it into the sea. Its friend came and stood alongside. He said to the bird: You illfated, hapless one! How do you ever hope to succeed?

“Similarly, G-d said to Haman the Evil One: Fool of fools! I myself planned to destroy the Jewish people and was, as it were, unsuccessful, as it is written ‘He intended to destroy them [and would have] were it not that Moses, His chosen one, stood before Him in the breach to return His wrath from destroying,’ and you, Haman, think you will be able to decimate and annihilate them?! I swear by your life, that your head will be in place of theirs; they will be saved and you will be hanged.”

At first glance, the Midrash is saying that the annihilation of the Jews is as impossible and ludicrous as the draining of the ocean, beak-full by beak-full, by a bird. The bird is so blinded by its anger at the sea for destroying its nest, that it does not realize the absurdity of its quest.

Yet the Midrash is perplexing, for a number of reasons: 1) The role of a metaphor in Midrashic and Talmudic literature is to explain and clarify a difficult concept. What is the concept being clarified via this metaphor of a bird attempting to drain an ocean? What component of the Haman story begs for enlightenment to be understood only via this metaphor?

2) In the Midrashic fable, the sea first sweeps away the bird’s nest, arousing its quest for revenge. What is the paralleled

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

meaning of this sequence of events? What did the Jewish people — compared to the sea – do to Haman — compared to the bird — preempting his desire to destroy them? Is the Midrash suggesting that we, the Jews, were guilty of his hatred ?

3) The bird was quite foolish in its strategy to dry an ocean drop by drop.

It is a ludicrous proposition. Haman — the viceroy of the greatest empire at the time, who had the full cooperation of the mightiest man in the world, King Ahasuerus – had a well-thought-out plan, and it came dangerously close to fruition. Why then is he compared to the bird trying to drain the ocean, being defined as the “fool of fools?”

4) The Midrash relates that “G-d said to Haman the Evil One: Fool of fools! I myself planned to destroy the Jewish people and was unsuccessful.” How can G-d be “unsuccessful?” Who can possibly stop G-d from executing His plans?

It is here that we discover, once again, the untold layers of depth contained in the tales of Torah literature. A simple fable in the Midrash captures the secret behind Anti-Semitism, the inner conflict within the Jewish psyche and the ultimate meaning of the long Jewish story. In this Midrashic metaphor, we are invited on a journey into the heart of what it means to be a Jew. What was it that really perturbed Haman about the Jewish people? What was it about the Jews that struck such a deep cord in

so many “Hamans” throughout the ages, including during our very own times? “Why the Jews?” is one of the oldest mysteries of civilization. Are we really that different?

The Midrash, in its own inimitable way, gives us a perspective. Like that little desperate bird trying to take revenge for a nest which the sea swept away, Haman felt that as long as the Jews were alive, the nest he attempted to build would be washed away.

One millennium before Haman was born, at the foot of a lone mountain, the Jewish people received a gift which transformed their destiny and changed the landscape of human civilization. It was an experience which imbued Jewish life with the nobility of transcendence, the majesty of Divine ethics and the grandeur of holiness. The gift of the Torah inculcated Jewish life with great moral and spiritual responsibility, but it simultaneously bestowed upon the Jewish heart, the Jewish home, the Jewish family and the Jewish community a piece of heaven, a glow of eternity.

But what is heaven for one person may spell hell for another; piano lessons for a 4-year-old Mozart is a paradise, while for another child the lessons may be a living purgatory. Heaven for the Jews was hell for the Haman’s of the world. If G-d exists, then the moral law prevails, and there must be limits to power and self-aggrandizement.

If G-d exists the barbarian must vanquish himself. Haman felt that two diametrically opposing and mutually exclusive powers were competing for the heart of humanity.

If his “nest” was to take root, the Jews must be obliterated .

2,300, years later this notion was captured by a contemporary Haman, Adolf Hitler. He remarked that “The Jews have inflicted two wounds on the world: Circumcision for the body and conscience for the soul. I come to free mankind from their shackles."

But Haman, the avid student of history, knew that this was no simple task. He had seen many powerful and seemingly permanent “nests” washed away by the Jewish “sea.” He knew what had happened to Pharaoh, Sisera, Goliath, Sancheirav and Nevuchadnezzar; how they each attempted

19

perspectives

to “drain the sea,” to eradicate the Jew once and for all and how they each ended up eradicated and forgotten themselves.

Like that poor frog which ends up having its moment of glory in a biology class, all of these cultures and civilizations today appear only in history classes…

Yet the Jew still remained. Not only in Wikipedia, but in real life as well. What was the secret of this “sea?”

It is here where Haman invented an ingenious strategy. Haman believed that he had the “final solution” which had eluded all of his predecessors; he knew how to solve the “Jewish problem,” this time for real. And that was by taking beak-full after beak-full of water, and dumping it on dry land.

The key to this puzzle lies in reflecting on another Talmudic metaphor concerning “sea” vs. “dry land.”

The Talmud relates the following story : The Evil [Roman] Empire had prohibited Torah study. Pappus the son of Yehuda came and found Rabbi Akiva making large public gatherings and teaching Torah. Pappus said to him: Akiva! Aren’t you afraid of the authorities? And Rabbi Akiva replied: I will give you a parable.

A fox is walking along a river. He sees the fish frantically scurrying from one place to another.

He says to them: “From whom are you running?”

“From the nets and traps of the fishermen.”

“Why don’t you come up to the dry land, and we will live happily together, just as our forefathers did!”

The fish replied: “Is it really you whom they call the cleverest of animals? You are not clever, rather a fool! If we are afraid in the place of our vitality, how much more so in the place of our death!”

Rabbi Akiva concluded: If the life is tough as we are sitting and studying Torah, about which it is written “It is our life and the length of our days,” how much worse it will be if we cease to study Torah.

The Torah — Rabbi Akiva is saying — is to the Jew what the sea is to the fish. It is his necessary habitat, the source of his vitality.

It is where he can live, breathe, thrive and

20

be most creative. Like a fish washed up ashore, the Jewish soul deprived of Torah, will struggle to find real endurable meaning on “dry land,” in an environment unsuitable for his spiritual DNA to flourish and express itself fully. He, like the fish, will flip and flop, experiment with different ideologies and lifestyles, desperately attempting to find solace for his aching soul. He may become a Darwinist, a Marxist, a Bundist, a Buddhist, a Global Warmist, or what have you, failing to realize that by his essential nature he must remain in his water.

Haman therefore understood that what he had to do was dry up the sea; sever the relationship between the Jewish people and their Torah. His goal must be to antiquate the Torah, to teach the Jews how to become “land animals.” He must invite them, in the words of the fox, to “live together with us in peace as our forefathers did.” Once the fish was out of the water, it would be vulnerable to destruction.

And the time seemed ripe for this endeavor.

The Talmud asks , why was annihilation decreed on the Jews of that generation?

Because they enjoyed the feast of that wicked man (Ahasuerus, the Persian king).”

As the book of Esther relates in its opening chapter, the Persian monarch threw a major feast, and the Jews of Shushan, the capital of the Persian Empire, enjoyed the feast.

Alas, the fish left the water and it was given a royal welcome! Everybody was cheering for the fish which finally made it out of its “prison,” the fish was flipping and flopping to demonstrate its excitement. But inside – it was dying…

This, then, was Haman’s strategy: Dry up the sea, take the Jews out of the water, introduce them to dry land, and they will become vulnerable to destruction.

So “G-d said to Haman: Fool of fools!

I myself planned to destroy them and was not able to do so … and you, Haman, thought you would be able to decimate and annihilate them?!”

This divine response captures the essence of Jewish existence. G-d Himself, so to speak, could not destroy the Jews. Why? Because the relationship between the Jew and Torah is innate, intrinsic and essential,

and it can never be severed; only eclipsed.

Unlike the fish, the Jew can never really leave the water. What occurred at Sinai was that Torah had become part of the very DNA of the Jew; he can love it, he can hate it, but he can’t ignore it. He can embrace it, he can run from it, but he cannot stop being defined by it, if sometimes only negatively.

The Anti-Semites of the world never loved secular, modern and assimilated Jews any more than religious and observant Jews.

They acutely felt that the Jewishness of the Jew is embedded into his or her very essence, no matter the amount of “nose jobs” or soul-jobs he or she undergoes.

And paradoxically, this very truth has become our very source of eternal life.

Since the Jewish people can never sever their relationship from Torah, our sea can never dry, and our existence can never be obliterated.

This is what G-d is telling Haman: Even I have tried… When the Jews sinned, I planned to destroy them, but I could not, because My relationship with them proved deeper than all of our “issues” with each other. It is like the relationship between parents and children: Parents sometimes harbor deep resentment toward the behavior of children who make their lives miserable. Sometimes a parent is tempted to write-off a child, to stop helping him, even to stop loving him.

But they can’t… The inner bond proves far more powerful. “A kind is a kind,” a child is a child.

Haman’s strategy was brilliant, but he failed to understand “vos eiz a yid,” what is a Jew. He did not realize that Torah to the Jew is what the piano was to Mozart. The fish will never fully leave the water, and the Jews will never die. EM

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (YY) Jacobson is one of America’s premier Jewish scholars in Torah and Jewish mysticism. He is a passionate and mesmerizing communicator of Judaism today, culling his ideas from the entire spectrum of Jewish thought and making them relevant to contemporary audiences. Rabbi Jacobson founded and serves as dean of TheYeshiva.net.

March 2022 / Adar II 5782

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March 2022 / Adar II 5782

The word for “charity” in Hebrew actually means “justice,” for giving is not seen as an exceptional favour to the needy but a matter of simple justice: it is the just thing to do. The act of tzedakah brings so much positive energy into the world that it is equal to all other mitzvoth and brings the redemption closer.

For charity box pickup or drop off call 416-222-7105 or email jrcc@jrcc.org

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Wishes the entire Jewish Community a Happy Holidays!

Visit your local NOFRILLS store to find a large variety of fine Kosher products Carlo’s NOFRILLS: 6220 Yonge St. North York, ON M2M 3X4 Vince’s NOFRILLS: 1631 Rutherford Rd. Vaughan, ON L4K 0C1 Anthony’s NOFRILLS: 1054 Centre St, Thornhill, ON L4J 3M8 Andrew & Shelley’s NOFRILLS: 270 Wilson Ave. North York, ON M3H 1S6

Now a days this company with more than 118 years of history holds a leading position among the manufacturers of alcoholic beverages in Moldova. Unique climate, fertile soil, hilly terrain and vicinity of the river Dniester created most favorable conditions for growing best grapes; modern equipment, advanced technologies, original recipes, respect to ancient traditions and passionate work of KVINT professionals – all these factors allow to produce admirable beverages, which compete with world renowned brands.

Locals consider KVINT a national treasure and a symbol of their country.

Its factory is shown on the 5 Transnistrian ruble banknote.

Kvint distillery is the oldest enterprise still in operation from 1897 in the region. KVINT is one of Transnistria's largest exporters, to Italy and China as well as Russia and Ukraine; its brandy has gone to the Vatican and into space.

Kvint XO brandy was first produced by the Tiraspol Wine & Cognac Distillery KVINT in 1967 as a dedication to the jubilee of the October Revolution. It is made from the premium quality “eaux-de-vie” spirits seasoned in oak barrels not less than 20 years according to classical “French methode”.

KVINT (acronym for Kon’iaki, vina i napitki Tiraspol’ia ("divins, wines, and beverages of Tiraspol") is a winery and distillery based in Tiraspol, the administrative center of Transnistria. Even though it underwent through many difficulties, being twice destroyed by

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wars, becoming a part of prohibition law in the 80s, the company is now an important economic player in a region, producing more than 20 million bottles of alcoholic beverages per year.

Although the distillery's roster includes an assortment of wines, gins, and vodkas, by far the most famous of its products are its award-winning brandies. Like all top-notch spirits, the high quality of this liquor begins with the region's grapes. Occupying the land east of the River Dniester, Transnistria is in the heart of the ancient Bessarabian wine region, a gem of viniculture perched above the Black Sea that has also survived the many ups and downs of centuries of Russian rule.

Plucked from the Bessarabian vine, the grapes fortunate enough to make their way to Tiraspol are transformed into brandy using a process identical to that used to make Cognac in France—double distilled in copper pots, aged in oak barrels, and then carefully blended with water and sugar. The grapes are of a typical Cognac variety, an assortment that includes Colombard, Riesling, and Ugni Blanc. Despite the company's rigid adherence to the French production methods, Kvint is not located in Cognac, France and therefore cannot formally call their products "Cognacs." Instead they use the Moldovan word divin, hence Kvint's name, which is an acronym for the Russian phrase "divins, wines, and beverages of Tiraspol." But in a land where international laws don't seem to really apply, most local people still refer to Kvint's products as Cognacs, and it is called Brandy everywhere else in the world.

Also Kvint is focusing their efforts on making a wide assortment of wines. Along with ordinary table dry, semi-sweet and dessert wines, the KVINT’s portfolio can boast of some excellent varietal and blended wines matured in oak barriques, according to traditional production process from 9 months to 3 years.

Shop for the best selection of Kvint Wine : KVINT CABERNET SAUVIGNON KOSHER 2015, LCBO #455138 This wine is made under control of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of New York (USA), OU, it has the status of Kosher for PASSOVER, Mevushal (approved for Passover, pasteurized). This wine is made from the selected grapes grown in own vineyards of KVINT. It features pleasant astringency and harmonious acidity. Its bouquet is complex with aroma of nightshade berries enriched with hints of morocco leather.

KVINT MERLOT KOSHER 2015, LCBO # 455112 Bright berry aromas: hints of cassis, and delicate nuances of prunes and cherry.

It is velvety on the palate, with barely perceptible astringency and freshness.

BRANDY KVINT KOSHER and DIVIN KVINT KOSHER FOR PASSOVER are now available at LCBO stores, Vintage # 577817 and # 540039.

It is made under control of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of New York (USA), OU, it has the status of Kosher for Passover (approved for Passover).

It is made by special production process with eauxde-vie and wine-distilled spirits aged in oak barrels not less than a year. It features fine golden color, harmonious taste and bright floral aroma with light tones of maturity.

March 2022 / Adar II 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.

Celebrate Purim with JRCC

Community

PURIM Banquets

AT YOUR BRANCH: JRCC Woodbridge 12 Muscadel Rd. JRCC S. Richmond Hill & Maple, 9699 Bathurst St. JRCC Concord, joined with S. Richmond Hill & Maple JRCC West Thornhill, 1136 Centre St., Unit 2 JRCC East Thornhill, 7608 Yonge St., Unit 3 JRCC South Thornhill, 28 Townsgate Dr. JRCC Rockford, 18 Rockford Rd. JRCC Willowdale, 17 Church Ave.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17

More information: WWW.JRCC.ORG/PurimBanquets

PURIM

WONDERLAND VIRTUAL PROGRAM DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

Thursday, March 17 |5:00pm on ZOOM • DIY Gragger master-class • Entertainment show with the famous Rabbi B • Includes full supply kit delivered to your home

PM 40062996 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE ITEMS TO: JEWISH RUSSIAN COMMUNITY CENTRE OF ONTARIO 5987 BATHURST ST., UNIT 3, TORONTO, ON M2R1Z3

Early bird register by March 3rd - $7; March 4 – 14 - $10

Register online: JRCC.org/Wonderland