Last Opportunity to Say Kiddush Levana until: 14 Adar/ Thurs. night March 13
Taanit Esther is on Thursday March 13
Fast ends at 6:13pm (in Jerusalem). One generally waits to eat until after the reading of Megillat Esther. See pages 56 - 57 for the review of Purim
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This image was taken at The Temple Institute whilst OU Israel was filming its annual Tisha Baav video.
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All Times According to MyZmanim (20 mins before Sunset in most Cities; 40 mins in Yerushalyim and Petach Tikva; 30 mins in Tzfat and Haifa)
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Daf Yomi: Sanhedrin 81
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RABBI AVI BERMAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OU ISRAEL ABERMAN@OUISRAEL.ORG
Rabbi Avi Berman Executive Director, OU Israel
What is the longest Jewish holiday? Most people familiar with the Jewish holidays respond with Chanukah or Sukkot, which are eight days long. (Technically Sukkot is seven days plus Shemini Atzeret). While this may be the correct answer, I believe there is a different answer as well, one that many feel particularly here in Israel.
Starting on Rosh Chodesh Adar, many families are already taking their costumes out of storage in preparation for Purim. Some children, including mine, spend a whole day making a big mess, putting on costume after costume in order to try and figure out which
one they want to wear to school for costume day. Then there’s another day that they have the Shuk Purim in school, and every yeshiva and ulpana is busy with their shtick, a tiyul, or their special games and activities in the days leading up to Purim. All said and done, Purim ends up being two weeks long, from Rosh Chodesh Adar to the actual day of Purim, filled with activities and fun in schools and communities.
on his 38th yahrzeit and
on her 3rd yahrzeit
Deeply loved and missed by their family and all those who were blessed to know them
Susan (Fisher) & Stewie Gopstein, Joel & Nirah (Lipman) Fisher, Karen (Fisher) & Arie Weiss, their children, grandchildren & great grandchildren
This year, Purim falls out in a way that makes it even longer, because we have what’s called “Purim Meshulash.” Purim Meshulash is when Shushan Purim falls out on Shabbat, so people in Yerushalayim, and any walled city from the time of Yehoshua Bin Nun, read Megillat Esther on Thursday and Friday with everyone else, they then have the special Purim Torah reading on Shabbat and say Al Hanisim in davening and benching, and then the meal and mishloach manot are pushed off until Sunday. So, there is an extra day added, more than a regular year. In a sense, even non-walled cities celebrate Shushan Purim on Sunday, since Jews around the world do not say tachanun in their davening on that day.
This past Shabbat, my family and I had wonderful guests from Yerushalayim staying with us, and an interesting halachic question came up at the Shabbat table. On Thursday night of Purim, this couple would be sleeping in Yerushalayim in their apartment. Then on Shabbat of Purim, they plan on being by the wife’s parents in Gush Etzion. How should they celebrate Purim this year? Like
Yerushalamites, or like everyone else? I said to them that they would miss out on most of the mitzvot of Purim. Although everyone reads Megillat Esther this year on Thursday night and Friday morning, they wouldn’t say Al Hanisim and read the Purim Torah reading on Friday, since they are in Yerushalayim where these mitzvot aren’t done on Friday, and then when they go to the Gush for Shabbat, they wouldn’t be saying them there because it is no longer Purim in the Gush. And then, their obligation for the Purim seuda and mishloach manot is called into question since they will be in the Gush after Shabbat. So they might miss out on most of the obligations if they move around each day!
They were really taken aback by this news. “Are we not going to have the mitzvot of Purim?” I could see that this really concerned them. It really struck me how beautiful this concern was, in how this couple just wanted to make sure they didn’t miss out on mitzvot.
It called to my mind the fascinating and downright puzzling Jewish sociological phenomenon of “being afraid to wash.” That’s when a person decides not to eat bread because then they have to wash and say Birkat HaMazon afterward. This is apparently too much for people. Instead, they will search around for something else to eat like crackers or cookies just so they don’t have to wash and can feel like they’re having some carbs.
I’ve always asked myself, why are people so afraid of washing and benching? It’s a mitzvah d’oraita, a biblical commandment, that if we eat bread, we get to do a mitzvah from the Torah to say words of blessing and thanks to HaKadosh Baruch Hu afterwards. How long
does this process of washing and benching take? Maybe three, four minutes tops? Yet, to avoid it, we go out of our way to not eat bread. It never made sense to me. Now I encountered the opposite of this: a couple at my Shabbat table who were so upset at the possibility they might miss out on Purim. How amazing is that? Purim is not a Torah command but a rabbinic one.
It’s also like the case of many people here in Israel who would rather not pick fruit from the tree, since then they’d have to figure out how to deal with terumot and maasrot. During shemita, they’ll use this loophole and that, in order to avoid dealing with the laws of shemita. They wouldn’t dream of missing Purim, but to have to figure out the laws of shemita, a Torah law? They try with all their
Condolences to Shraga & Perel Marcus and family on the passing of his father
Allan Marcus z”l
might to avoid it.
The mishna in Makot is famous, and it says so much:
. Rabbi Chananya Ben Akashia says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves the Jewish people so much, and therefore He gave us many, many mitzvot. So why do we avoid His mitzvot? The same way we shouldn’t want to miss out on the mitzvot of lighting Chanukah candles, or the mitzvot of Purim, and so many other mitzvot we are so careful to keep, so too with washing and maaser and all the rest as well. This is also important in chinuch - we should constantly be showing children how much we love to keep the mitzvot, so that they will run after the mitzvot to keep them too. In my opinion, the key is really making sure that we understand the beauty and understand the enjoyment in mitzvot. This past Shabbat, I asked my 5th grade daughter Moriah what test she had this week.
In loving memory of our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great grandmother
HELEN
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May the Torah learned from this TT be in her merit
The Maisel, Bodenheim and Gottlieb Families Efrat, Bet Shemesh and Kiryat Sefer
She said, “Abba, it’s against the rules!” She explained that they are not allowed to have a test during the first two weeks of Adar, because that time is Purim time for those whole two weeks!
I asked her, “What else is written in the rules?” She launched into a whole list of things that they can and can’t do during the Adar season, and at one point she tells me, “This rule can’t be changed, but that rule could be changed if the students can get four teachers to agree to it.” I said to myself, “Here I am talking to a nine-year-old girl who is bringing me all the fine print details of the contract between the students and the teachers and the principal of what they’re allowed to do and not allowed to do during the two weeks before Purim!” I said to my daughter, “Moriah, I give you the bracha that, be’ezrat HaShem, you should know all the halachot of the Shulchan Aruch as well as you know the rules of what the teachers are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do on the two weeks before Purim!”
Be’ezrat HaShem, we should always see the beauty in Torah, the beauty of mitzvot, and we should be happy to say Birkat HaMazon whenever we can to thank HaKadosh Baruch Hu for all the great food and all the great blessings that He gives us. May we be as excited for mitzvot as our children are for every single element of the two weeks before Purim.
Wishing you all an uplifting and inspiring Shabbat,
Rabbi Avi Berman Executive Director, OU Israel aberman@ouisrael.org
Savta Sababa
FROM THE DESK OF RABBI MOSHE HAUER
OU EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
To Endure or to Build: The Journey from Zachor to Shushan Purim
Visitors to Israel since October 7th invariably come back marveling at both the enormous pain and the outstanding strength and spirit that they witnessed. That spirit is focused – as it must be – on getting through each day. The army and its soldiers must continue down the grueling path to victory while their families manage the anxious and difficult wait for their safe return. The remaining hostage families pursue every possible avenue of advocacy despite the utter emotional and physical exhaustion created by their ongoing excruciating uncertainty. Families still displaced identify new and creative ways to keep themselves and their children stable and productive in their transient homelessness. The stress is unceasing for everyone from business owners to governmental leaders to emergency responders. And then there is the grief that has stricken so many immediately and personally.
One cannot and usually must not think about the day after when so much energy must be focused on getting through today. We will have turned the corner when we are able to shift our attention from assuring our survival to realizing our broader vision for the future. This transition is present both in
the redemption odyssey of Shemot, the Book of Redemption (Exodus), and in Yehoshua’s shift from Zachor to leading Klal Yisrael into Eretz Yisrael.
Shemot begins with the Jewish people suffering bondage in Egypt to the extent that they could not even hear Moshe’s message of redemption: V’lo shamu el Moshe mikotzer ruach u’meiavodah kasha (Shemot 6:9). Their hard work resulted in a shortened or shrunken spirit. While we instinctively read this as a critique, a visit to Israel today will help us see it instead as a necessary adjustment. Moshe was coming to the Jewish people with a vision for the day after, for Sinai and Eretz Yisrael, but we could not yet go there. Klal Yisrael needed kotzer ruach, complete and total focus of their spirit and energy on the short term, on getting through the day. Vision would need to come later. And it does. Beginning in Parshat Terumah, with slavery behind us, we begin to engage in restoring a home for God in our midst. That is not the grinding kotzer ruach work of survival but the aspirational pursuit of Hashem’s vision for creation and our mission within it, described in terms like nediv lev, nadva rucho, n’sa-o rucho,
motivated and uplifting hearts and spirits, building a magnificent house of God whose functionaries are garbed in holiness, honor, and glory (bigdei kodesh… l’kavod u’letifaret - Shemot 28:2). With the survival mode of bondage behind us, we expanded our spirit and vision beyond making it to the next day. That is the full story of this book, the transformative journey from kotzer ruach to n’sa-o rucho, from a group of survivors to a nation of dreamers.
Yehoshua goes through a similar transition. While his first experience of leadership was in the narrow sphere of survival mode, defending the Jewish people from the attack of Amalek, he would ultimately proactively lead the Jewish people into their homeland and place of destiny, Eretz Yisrael. Poignantly, Rav Yitzchak Hutner (Pachad Yitzchak 15:2) suggested that it is for this reason that Shushan Purim is celebrated by cities surrounded by walls since the days Yehoshua led us into the land. While Purim celebrates our successful battle for survival on the 13th of Adar, when we had to fight to defend ourselves from the nations who had been given free reign to attack us, Shushan Purim marks the next day when we commemorate our proactive “conquest” of Shushan. The shift from survival to conquest originates in the shift from Yehoshua’s war against Amalek to his battle of conquest of Eretz Yisrael.
During these difficult times when we need the kotzer ruach focus of getting through unspeakably difficult days, the heroic Israelis on the literal and figurative front lines are driven, fueled, sustained, and uplifted by an awe-inspiring idealism and determination that draws upon the message of Moshe that
we did eventually absorb and that we have since refused to forget. It is plainly evident that the Exodus has granted the best of us permanent liberation, cheirut olam, such that even our periods of grinding hardship are borne with the awareness of our past redemption and future destiny. We will not just survive the attacks of Amalek; with Hashem’s help we will flourish in our holy land.
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Aliya-by-Aliya Sedra Summary
Rabbi Reuven Tradburks
RABBI REUVEN TRADBURKS
RCA Israel Region
RCA ISRAEL REGION
In memory of Evelyn Rivers a”h
Mother of Reuven Tradburks
PARSHAT TETZAVEH
The commandments concerning the special garments of the Kohen Gadol as well as the garments for the regular Kohanim are given. The commands for the 7-day inauguration of the Kohanim and the altar are given. The commands of the daily offering and the altar for incense are given.
This parsha introduces the activity of the Mishkan. There are 2 parts to the Mishkan: the static building. And the human activity.
Last week the instructions for the building were given. A building is static. It sets a stage. All the vessels, the Aron, Menorah, Shulchan, altars – all of them are static, waiting for activity.
The Mishkan mimics Sinai, but reversing who is active and who is passive. At Sinai G-d approached us; He descended on the
In loving memory of our father, grandfather and great grandfather, on his 6th Yarzheit - רדא ג’י
Shlomo Reutlinger z”l
The Reutlinger and Mayerfeld families
mountain. But we were passive. We stood at the foot of the mountain.
The Mishkan seeks to recreate the moment of Sinai but with one difference: The One who was active is now passive. And the one who was passive is now active. G-d descended on Sinai and we stood at the bottom of the mountain. The Mishkan represents His Presence: the Aron with the tablets, the yellow gold color like the fire of Sinai, the smoke of the incense like Sinai, the angels of the Aron and those embroidered on the curtains evocative of His Heavenly abode – all of this evokes an image of His Presence as at Sinai. But, unlike Sinai where He was active, He descended, He spoke, in the Mishkan His Presence is passive. We are the active ones.
And that is our parsha. Our parsha is the parsha of the Jewish people’s approach to G-d. And just as at Sinai Moshe represented the people in hearing the words from G-d, in the Mishkan, the Kohanim represent the people in approaching G-d.
The nature of man’s approach to G-d is symbolized in both the garments of the Kohanim and in their inauguration.
In the verses describing the Kohen’s garments I will indicate in bold which are for the Kohen Gadol and which are for the rest of the Kohanim.
1ST ALIYA (EXODUS 27:20-28:12)
The Menorah shall be lit every evening. Take Aharon and his sons to serve Me. Make them holy garments for honor and glory. Kohen Gadol, Garment 1:
Make the Efod. It is woven of techelet, purple and red. It is a skirt with shoulder straps. An ornate jewel with the names of 6 tribes is fastened to each of the shoulder straps. Aharon carries the names of the Jewish people as a remembrance before G-d.
The Kohanim act as representatives of the Jewish people. We approach G-d as individuals. And as a people. As individuals we do our mitzvot, our tefilla, our thoughts and actions. And we also approach as a corporate entity. That corporate entity, the Jewish nation, Am Yisrael, approaches with a representative; the Kohanim.
There are 2 different sets of garments for the Kohanim. The regular Kohanim wear 4 white linen garments. The Kohen Gadol wears these 4 white linen garments as well as an additional 4 fancy coloured and gold garments over the white ones.
The Kohen Gadol’s garments are introduced first. These are regal garments. The colors are the same colors as the beautiful curtains of the Mishkan. The same colors that decorate His home are the colors that adorn the Kohen Gadol.
The command to dress regally conveys to us how G-d views us. We are royalty. The Kohen Gadol represents the Jewish people, a people regal in His eyes.
2ND ALIYA (28:13-30)
Kohen Gadol, Garment 2: Make the Choshen Mishpat. Four rows of 3 different precious jewels, each with a name of a tribe of Israel, mounted upon a colored woven background. Fasten this breastplate with gold chains to the shoulder straps of the Efod and to the skirt. Aharon will bear the names of the Jewish people on his heart when he enters the Holy place. As
a constant remembrance before G-d. And place in this breastplate the Urim and Tumim.
The names of the 12 tribes are inscribed twice. The first, 6 names on one jewel, 6 on another, mounted on the shoulder straps of the Efod. And second, individually, on each stone of the breastplate.
The Kohen Gadol carries the names of the tribes of the Jewish people, representing the entire Jewish people, approaching G-d.
And the placement is deliberate: on the shoulder and over the heart. We approach G-d with responsibility symbolized by the shoulder. And with love, symbolized by the heart.
3RD ALIYA (28:31-43)
Kohen Gadol, Garment 3: Make the Me’il, a completely techelet colored robe with an opening for the head. At the bottom hem, place pomegranates of colored woven wool and golden bells in an alternating pattern. Aharon’s entrance and exit before G-d will hence be heard. Kohen Gadol, Garment 4: Make the Tzitz, a golden headplate with Holy to G-d engraved on it. Fasten it to the turban so it rests on the forehead. Through this, Aharon will bear the sins committed through holy service and through it the Jewish people gain favor before G-d. All Kohanim, 4 garments: The Kohen Gadol and all Kohanim during service wear 4 garments. 3 of these are white linen: 1. pants, 2. robe (ketonet) and 3. turban for the head. The 4th is a belt of colored woven wool. The kohanim wear these garments during service; the Kohen Gadol wears only these 4 when he enters the Holy of Holies. He wears these 4 and the 4 fancy gold and coloured garments, a total of 8, during the rest of the year.
The regular Kohanim wear white linen
garments. This is in stark contrast to the Kohen Gadol. He is all decked out; they are noticeably simply attired.
This is the duality of the human condition. Majesty. And humility. We need to approach G-d in majesty tempered with humility. We are majestic, created in His Image while at the same time flawed and frail.
4TH ALIYA (29:1-18)
The inauguration of the Kohanim: To sanctify the Kohanim take offerings of all the sorts that will be offered in the Mikdash. Dress Aharon in his special garments. Anoint him with oil. Dress the Kohanim in their special garments. Bring the various different offerings on the altar –for a pleasing aroma before G-d.
The instructions for the inauguration of the Kohanim appear here, while the actual inauguration appears in Parshat Tzav.
Moshe’s name does not appear in this Parsha even though he is central. He was told to command the lighting of the menorah at the beginning of the parsha and also to fashion the Kohen’s garments. And here, he is instructed to dress Aharon in his garments, thereby anointing him in his new role. So, while his name is absent, Moshe is central.
Moshe is the epitome of humility. In the parsha in which he is instructed to cede to his brother a unique and special role in the Jewish people, Moshe is completely absent. Well, no, he actually is quite active; it is his name that is absent. He takes a back seat, investing his brother with greatness, not stealing his thunder with even the mention of his own name.
5TH ALIYA (29:19-37)
Aharon and the Kohanim are inaugurated through the offering
of a ram, with blood of the offering placed upon them and upon their garments. The offerings of the inauguration are brought. A future Kohen Gadol, who will replace Aharon, will wear these special garments for 7 days as their inauguration. They too will repeat this ram offering. Aharon and his sons shall repeat this ceremony every day for 7 days. The altar too is to be inaugurated for 7 days.
Aharon and the Kohanim are to be inaugurated in a 7-day ceremony of offerings. That is a long inauguration.
It may be such to impress upon the Kohanim that while they have a unique position, including gifts and benefits due to their holy work, they are servants of G-d, not lords over people. Privilege takes a quick path to the head bringing haughtiness and a sense of entitlement. The Kohanim, as all public servants, need be vigilant to remember that they serve G-d and the people, not the other way around. Hence, they need a heavy, long inauguration of serving G-d to realize their position as servants of Him and not lords over people.
6TH ALIYA (29:38-46)
2 offerings are to be brought as a daily offering, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. A sheep, with flour and oil, and with wine. It is brought in the Ohel Moed, the place where I meet with the Jewish people. I have sanctified this place, as well as the Kohanim. I will dwell amongst the Jewish people and be their G-d. And they will know that I am G-d who took them out of Egypt to dwell amongst them.
The Mishkan representing G-d’s Presence invites the Jewish people to approach G-d, to accept His invitation. We are the active ones in the Mishkan, He the static. Having
introduced who will make this approach, we now are told how and when to make this approach.
7TH ALIYA
(30:1-10)
Make an incense altar of wood overlaid with gold, 1 square cubit. Place it in front of the curtain behind which is the Aron, the place upon which I will meet with you. Offer incense twice a day, at the time of the Menorah cleaning in the morning and Menorah lighting in the evening. It is solely for the prescribed incense, not for offerings of flour or wine.
The incense altar is totally out of place. We had all the instructions of the vessels of the Mishkan last week: Aron, Menorah, Table, altar for offerings. What is unique about incense that its altar comes after all the other instructions?
In this I speculate. Incense produces smoke. At Mt. Sinai, when G-d descends to speak to man, His Presence is represented by a thick cloud of smoke. Throughout the rest of the Torah, when His Presence is indicated, it is with a cloud. Perhaps that is the role of the incense; to produce a cloud of smoke. To indicate His Presence. And it comes at the end of this whole process because that is the culmination. The Mishkan is to be a place for His Presence. The culmination of the Mishkan is His Presence. And so the final command is to burn incense, to produce a cloud, indicative of His Presence.
HAFTORAH PARSHAT ZACHOR
1 SHMUEL 15:2-34
This week’s special haftorah highlights the theme of Hashem’s command to destroy the people of Amalek. This echoes the subject
matter found in the Torah reading of Amalek’s unprovoked attack on the Israelites as the Isralites traveled in the wilderness and our eternal responsibility to avenge this horrendous crime.
Shmuel addresses King Shaul and commands him to wage battle against Amalek, and leave no survivors - neither humans nor beasts. The army of Bnei Yisrael kills the entire population with the exception of the king, Agag, and they also spare the best of the cattle and sheep.
Hashem then conveys the following message to Shmuel: “I regret that I have made Shaul king.” Hashem says, “For he has turned his back from following Me, and has not fulfilled My words.”
Shaul admits that he had transgressed and then invites the prophet to join him in his return home. Shmuel refuses his offer. “Hashem has torn the kingdom of Israel from you, today; and has given it to your fellow who is better than you.” Shmuel then kills the Agag.
STATS
20th of 54 sedras; 8th of 11 in Sh’mot. Written on 179.2 lines in a Torah (33rd).
10 Parshiot; 2 open, 8 closed.
101 p’sukim (35th - 8th in Sh’mot).
1412 words (35th - 8th in Sh’mot).
5430 letters (32nd - 7th in Sh’mot).
1558 words - ranks 24th. MITZVOT
7 mitzvot; 4 positives, 3 prohibitions. There are other mitzvot in the sedra besides those seven. Numbers don’t always give an accurate “Mitzvah-Picture” of a sedra.
descendants dwell from Egypt to Assyria. Yishmael’s story is brief. He has numerous and powerful offspring. The brevity his son Shlomo succeed him.
Adoniyahu convinces two very significant personalities - the High Priest and the commander of King David’s armies - to
A SHORT VORT
“Therefore, it shall be, when Hashem, your G-d will have given you rest….”(25:19)
BY RABBI CHANOCH YERES R av, Beit Knesset Beit Yisrael, Yemin Moshe
In remembering what Amalek did to us already, what rest does G-d refer to that He will bestow upon us in the future?
When Avraham addresses the people of Cheit, trying to acquire a burial spot for his wife, he says “Ger V’Toshav Anochi Eimachem” (23:4) “A Stranger and a Resident am I with you”
Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch (1808-1888 Frankfurt, Germany) points out that the verse itself gives us the answer. If Hashem is your G-d and you behave in accordance with His will, not relying just on the sword or your strength like Amalek, but rather on G-d’s Divine protection, then you shall rest, be happy, positive and assured unruffled by all your enemies in the land provided by G-d.
This seems to be a contradiction. If one is a stranger than he is not a resident, if he is a resident than he is no longer a stranger. What did Avraham mean?
The Magid of Dubno (Jacob ben Wolf Kranz 1741-1804) explains that Avraham watched how he spoke in this tense situation in order to, both, state his truth and be able to keep the peace -Shalom Bayit. Avraham said, on the one hand, “I am a Resident’ due to G-d’s promise to receive this Land and on the other hand, I still need your agreement to purchase a plot. In other words, Avraham implied “I am the resident” and you are the “strangers”, while they understood him as saying that “they” are the residents and Avraham is the stranger.
Our identity of being a Jew is woven out of justice and love in faithfulness to G-d. We are assigned the mission of setting an example to the world, for all of mankind to ultimately act as such. This contrasts with Amalek, who finds all his strength in the blade of his sword and tramples upon weaker nations.
“Lo Tishkach”-”Do not forget this”. In order never to forget this message, one needs to always “Zachor”, remember what separates us from Amalek so that G-d’s promise to us shall be fulfilled in the future.
The peace was kept, and Avraham remained true to his ideals.
Shabbat Shalom
Shabbat Shalom
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and our next step will be to plant a fruit tree. I never thought of myself as being the agricultural type, but the feeling of settling and planting a portion of Eretz Yisrael, has been truly euphoric. Iy”H, when we plant our tree, and eat the fruits that will grow one day, I think we will be able to truly appreciate that unique Kedusha found in the fruit of Eretz Yisrael!
To conclude, when you buy your Tu B'shvat fruit this year, don’t search for those dried apricots and banana chips imported from Turkey. Rather, head over to the fresh produce and buy yourself some nice juicy Kedusha-filled Jaffa oranges and thank Hashem for bringing you to this land in order , imbibing that Kedusha in every bite that you take!!
THE PERSON in the parsha
BY RABBI DR. TZVI HERSH WEINREB OU EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, EMERITUS THE
PERSON IN THE PARSHA
BY RABBI DR. TZVI HERSH WEINREB OU EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, EMERITUS
Self-Esteem, Jewish Pride, Purim and… Amalek
This column is a product of my experience with two of my mentors, one who passed away relatively recently and the other who passed away long before I was born.
The first was Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, a psychiatrist of international renown and the epitome of a pious Chassidic Jew.
The other was Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, a leader and shaper of the Mussar Movement, who was popularly known as the “Alter of Kelm,” the senior sage of the great yeshiva in the small Lithuanian town of Kelm.
Rabbi Dr. Twerski taught me of the importance of self-esteem in the personal development of all human beings and its role as a measure of mental health. He was a prolific writer and wrote close to a hundred books. But he often remarked, “I only wrote one book. It was about the importance of self-esteem. Only, I wrote it in a hundred different ways.”
The Alter of Kelm also wrote about self-esteem, although he used a different terminology. He called it kavod, the Hebrew word which connotes honor, dignity, prestige, and pride.
It was the latter who taught me about the spiritual sources of pride and the role that such pride has for every Jew. It is the pride that every Jew possesses deep within himself or herself but must strive to attain and to preserve.
Rabbi Dr Twerski, with whom I was fortunate to have had a close friendship, insisted that I refer to him by his nickname Shea, short for Yehoshua. When I protested that I felt that I couldn’t compromise his dignity by using his nickname, he asked me what I would prefer to call him. We eventually agreed that I would call him “Reb Shea,” and he consented.
Similarly, biographers of the Alter of Kelm generally refer to him as “Reb Simcha Zissel.” Whereas both Reb Shea and Reb Simcha Zissel stress the importance of healthy self-esteem, they both recognized its fragility. There are many factors within one’s personality as well as from external sources which threaten to undermine one’s self-esteem.
One such factor is allowing one’s self-esteem to depend upon the attitudes or remarks of others. To maintain self-esteem, one must not depend upon the compliments or assessments of others. One cannot allow the praises heaped upon him from others to build his self-esteem. Such praise can lead to swell-headedness and even arrogance.
But nor can one allow insults and humiliation at the hands of another to diminish his self-esteem. One must not be overly sensitive
to criticism but must retain sufficient self-confidence to retain appropriate self-esteem.
Reb Shea utilized this concept in his book A Shame Born in Silence. In this work, he exposed the shameful prevalence of domestic violence in the Jewish community. He portrays the erosion of one spouse’s self-esteem because of the other spouse’s abusive behaviors, physical or emotional. His focus was on the field of community mental health.
Reb Simcha Zissel had a very different focus. It was the need for the Jew to maintain self-esteem in the face of antisemitism, to stem the efforts of zarim, strangers and foes, to dehumanize us.
He expresses it in an essay of his entitled The Strength of Israel Depends Upon Its Lofty Soul. I paraphrase his contention: “One must consider himself fortunate to be a Jew, and very fortunate to be a learned and loyal Jew. He must not allow his honor, or her kavod, to be demeaned by zarim, by strangers or foes. He must hold himself high and withstand the efforts of those who attempt to belittle him, mock him, or shame him.”
He offers the above advice to his children in honor of the upcoming holiday of Purim. The customary treat for this holiday is a three-cornered pastry, which supposedly resembles the three-cornered headpiece worn by our vile enemy, Haman. It is known as a hamantash. Reb Simcha Zissel points out that this pastry must be well-baked so that it can be crunched and crushed as one chews it into pieces. So too must we “crunch and crush” the attempts to be shamed and humiliated, the efforts to defame us and do us in.
So too did the Jews in the ancient city of Shushan have to deal with the insults and
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nasty accusations which Haman used to convince King Achashverosh to accept his plot to eradicate the Jews, “men, women, and children in one day.”
He tried to literally dis-courage Jews by shaming us into cowardice, by making us feel puny, helpless, and hopeless, without courage. “But Mordechai did not bend and did not bow.” He retained his self-esteem, he modeled his Jewish pride, and remained resolute, self-assured, and ultimately invincible.
Reb Simcha uses the occasion of the supplemental reading for this Shabbat. It is Parshat Zachor, when we read of the attack launched by Amalek against the wandering Jews.
He asks: What motivated Amalek? He surely wasn’t seeking territory because the Jews had no land yet. Their wealth was trivial, trinkets taken from Egypt. Their food supply was minimal, and their water was supplied
Gershon Agron Mamilla
miraculously. What was Amalek’s goal?
He responds: “Amalek's motivation was envy, plain and simple. The Children of Israel left Egypt in glory, triumphantly. No other foe dared to attack them. They felt protected by the Almighty, and they cherished their security. Their “souls were lofty.” When Moses “lifted his hands,” they felt powerful. Their self-esteem was based upon their leadership and their faith. They were impervious to the attacks, verbal or military, upon them by zarim, strangers and foes.
And so it is, concludes Reb Simcha Zissel, with every generation. There are the Amaleks who wish to deflate our just pride in our identity as Jews. They wish to subdue our “lofty souls.” But we refuse to yield. We chew the hamantash. Or, alternatively, we have the “Haman,” the archenemy, in our tash, in our pocket. (Tash is Yiddish for pocket”.)
The eternal enemy is the external enemy who wishes to “cool us off,” to erode our faith, to stifle our enthusiasm, to sabotage our confidence and courage. The way to fight Amalek is by asserting our pride in our nation and in its people. It is by retaining and reviving our enthusiasm and morale, by stimulating our confidence, and by expanding our courage.
This is the story of Amalek. This is the story of Purim and the reason why we are told by our Sages that the festival of Purim will be celebrated for all time and eternity.
The hitromemut hanefesh, the “lofty soul” of the Jewish people, will help us experience “light and joy, happiness and honor.”
May it be so for us, in our time. before after
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Covenant & Conversation
COVENANT & CONVERSATION
Thoughts
on
the Weekly Parsha
THOUGHTS ON THE WEEKLY PARSHA
RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS ZT"L
RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS ZT"L
FORMER CHIEF RABBI OF THE UNITED HEBREW CONGREGATIONS OF THE COMMONWEALTH
FORMER CHIEF RABBI OF THE UNITED HEBREW CONGREGATIONS OF THE COMMONWEALTH
May the learning of these Divrei Torah be
HaRav Ya'akov Zvi ben David Arieh zt"l
The Aesthetic in Judaism
Why is the Torah so specific and emphatic, in this week’s Parsha, about the clothes to be worn by the Kohanim (Priests) and the Kohen Gadol (High Priest)?
“These are the vestments that they shall make: a breastplate, an ephod [breastplate], a robe, a knitted tunic, a turban, and a sash. Make them as sacred vestments for Aaron and his sons so that they will be able to be priests to Me.” (Ex. 28:4)
In general, Judaism is sceptical about appearances. Saul, Israel’s first king, looked the part. He was “head and shoulders” taller than anyone else (1 Samuel 9:2). Yet though he was physically tall, he was morally small. He followed the people rather than leading them. When God told Samuel that He had rejected Saul, and that Samuel should anoint a son of Yishai as king, Samuel went to Yishai’s home and saw that one of his sons, Eliav, looked the part. He thought he was the one God had chosen. God, however, tells him that he is mistaken:
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not
consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)
Appearances deceive. In fact, as I have mentioned before in these studies, the Hebrew word for garment, begged, comes from the same Hebrew word as ‘to betray’ – as in the confession ‘Ashamnu bagadnu’, ‘We are guilty, we have betrayed’. Jacob uses Esau’s clothes to deceive. Joseph’s brothers do likewise with his bloodstained cloak. There are six such examples in the book of Genesis alone. Why then did God command that the Kohanim were to wear distinctive garments as part of their service in the tabernacle and later in the Temple?
The answer lies in the two-word phrase that appears twice in our Parsha, defining what the priestly vestments were to represent: le-kavod ule-tifaret, ‘for dignity [or ‘honour’] and beauty’. These are unusual words in the Torah, at least in a human context. The word tiferet - beauty or glory - appears only three times in the Torah, twice in our Parsha (Ex. 28:2, Ex. 28:40) and once, poetically and with a somewhat different sense, in Deuteronomy 26:19.
The word kavod - ‘dignity’ or ‘honour’appears sixteen times, but in fourteen (2x7) of these cases the reference is to the glory of God. The twice they appear in our Parsha are the only occasions in which kavod is applied to a human being. So what is happening here?
The answer is that they represent the aesthetic dimension. This does not always figure prominently in Judaism. It is something we naturally connect with cultures a world apart from the Torah. The great empires –Mesopotamia, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Rome – built monumental palaces and temples. The royal courts were marked by magnificent robes, cloaks, crowns and regalia, each rank with its own uniform and finery. Judaism by contrast often seems almost puritanical in its avoidance of pomp and display. Worshipping the invisible God, Judaism tended to devalue the visual in favour of the oral and aural: words heard rather than appearances seen.
Yet the service of the Tabernacle and Temple were different. Here appearances –dignity, beauty – did make a difference. Why? Maimonides gives this explanation:
In order to exalt the Temple, those who ministered there received great honour, and the priests and Levites were therefore distinguished from the rest. It was commanded that the priest should be clothed properly with the most splendid and fine clothes, “holy garments for glory and for beauty” ... for the multitude does not estimate man by his true form but by ... the beauty of his garments, and the Temple was to be held in great reverence by all. (Guide for the Perplexed, III:45)
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saying that to those who really understand the nature of the religious life, appearances should not matter at all, but “the multitude,” the masses, the majority, are not like that. They are impressed by spectacle, visible grandeur, the glitter of gold, the jewels of the breastplate, the rich pageantry of scarlet and purple and the pristine purity of white linen robes.
In his book The Body of Faith (1983), Michael Wyschogrod makes a stronger case for the aesthetic dimension of Judaism. Throughout history, he argues, art and cult have been intimately connected, and Judaism is no exception.
“The architecture of the Temple and its contents demand a spatial thinking that stimulates the visual arts as nothing else does. It must be remembered that among the many artefacts past civilisations have left behind, those intended for ritual use almost are always the most elaborate and aesthetically the most significant.”
Wyschogrod says that postbiblical Judaism did not, for the most part, make outstanding contributions to art and music. Even today, the world of religious Jewry is remote from that of the great writers, painters, poets and dramatists. To be sure, there is a wealth of popular religious music. But by and large, he says, “our artists tend to leave the Jewish community.” This, he believes, represents a spiritual crisis.
“The imagination of the poet is a reflection of his spiritual life. Myth and metaphor are the currency both of religion and poetry. Poetry is one of the most powerful domains in which religious expression takes place. And the same is true of music, drama, painting, and dance.”
Rav Abraham Kook hoped that the return to Zion would stimulate a renaissance of Jewish art, and there is a significant place for beauty in the religious life, especially in Avodah - service - which once meant sacrifice and now means prayer.
An immense body of recent research into neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and behavioural economics has established beyond doubt that we are not, for the most part, rational animals. It is not that we are incapable of reason, but that reason alone does not move us to action. For that, we need emotion – and emotion goes deeper than the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s centre of conscious reflection. This is where visual stimuli play a key role. Art speaks to emotion. It moves us in ways that go deeper than words.
That is why great art has a spirituality that cannot be expressed other than through art – and that applies to the visual beauty and pageantry of the service of Tabernacle and Temple, including the robes and sashes of the priests. There is a poem in the Reader’s repetition of Musaf on Yom Kippur that expresses this to perfection. It is about Mareih Kohen, the appearance of the High Priest as he concluded his service and emerged from the Holy of Holies:
As the brightness of the vaulted canopy of heaven,
As lightning flashing from the splendour of angels,
As the celestial blue in the fringes’ thread,
As the iridescence of the rainbow in the midst of clouds,
As the majesty with which the Rock has clothed His creatures,
As a rose planted in a garden of delight,
As a diadem set on the brow of the King,
As the mirror of love in the face of a bridegroom,
As a halo of purity from a mitre of purity,
As one who abides in secret, beseeching the King,
As the morning star shining in the borders of the East –
Was the appearance of the [High] Priest.
And now we can define the nature of the aesthetic in Judaism. It is art devoted to the greater glory of God. That is the implication of the fact that the word kavod, “glory,” is attributed in the Torah only to God – and to the Kohen officiating in the house of God.
Judaism does not believe in art for art’s sake, but in art in the service of God, giving back as a votive offering to God a little of the beauty He has made in this created world. At the risk of oversimplification, one could state the difference between ancient Israel and ancient Greece thus: that where the Greeks believed in the holiness of beauty, Jews believed in hadrat kodesh, the beauty of holiness. There is a place for the aesthetic in avodah. In the words of the Song at the Sea: “Zeh Keili ve-anvehu,” “This is my God and I will beautify Him.” For beauty inspires love, and from love flows the service of the heart.
These weekly teachings from Rabbi Sacks zt”l are part of his ‘Covenant & Conversation’ series on the weekly Torah teaching. With thanks to the Schimmel Family for their generous sponsorship, dedicated in loving memory of Harry (Chaim) Schimmel. Visit www.RabbiSacks.org for more.
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PROBING THE PROPHETS
BY RABBI NACHMAN (NEIL) WINKLER FACULTY, OU ISRAEL CENTER
Another View of Sha’ul’s Sin
This week’s haftarah, a selection taken from Sefer Shmuel A, connects directly to the theme of this Shabbat Zachor, recording Sha’ul’s mission to carry out Hashem’s charge to destroy Amalek, as we read in the Maftir. And yet, despite the powerful link that the haftarah has to the theme of the Shabbat, the primary focus of the story is not of King Saul’s success in warring against-and defeating-the Amalek hordes. Rather, the event, as described in Sefer Shmuel, centers about the failure of Sha’ul to follow G-d’s (and Shmuel’s) specific instructions to spare no one from - and nothing of - Amalek. The importance of the mitzvah might well be understood as Hashem’s insistence to have such an immoral force removed from society – something which Sha’ul’s victory succeeded in doing. If so, we might well wonder why Sha’ul’s failure becomes the core of the haftarah’s message rather than his fulfillment of the Divine will – despite falling short of complete execution of his mission.
In attempting to uncover any approach that would explain why Hashem regarded Sha’ul’s sin with such gravity, I came across a most interesting approach shared by Rav Moshe Lichtenstein. Rav Lichtenstein points to the events that preceded the battle against Amalek, events that clarify the military situation of Israel at that time and can help us better understand G-d’s harsh reaction to Saul’s sin.
During the era of the judges (Shofetim) and the early years covered by Sefer Shmuel, the text describes Am Yisrael as a weak and struggling nation, oppressed by neighboring tribes and threatened by foreign powers. Most menacing to Israel was the Philistine nation that dwelled on the south-western corner of Eretz Yisrael. The Philistines spread beyond their borders, warred regularly against Israel and even imposed their control over parts of the land. Perhaps the most revealing depiction of Israel’s sorry state is found in the thirteenth perek of Shmuel A where we read that the Philistines were able to ban the possession of any weapons from the Land of Israel– even prohibiting Israelites to own any tools to sharpen their farm utensils. The very final words of perek 13 portray the sad situation of Israel with the verse:
“On the day of war [against the Philistines], there was not to be found a sword or spear in the possession of any of the men in the army of Saul and Jonathan…”
And, despite Israel’s miraculous victory over the Philistines in the ensuing battle, Rav Lichtenstein notes that the verse closing that military campaign and preceding the war against Amalek [v. 14:52], reveals that “The war against the Philistines remained intense throughout the days of Saul….”
The seemingly superfluous addition to the
text is, in the view of R. Lichtenstein, quite vital, for it sheds light upon Israel’s military and economic reality, and helps us better understand yet another impact of Sha’ul’s sin – one we may have failed to realize:
G-d’s charge to eradicate the Amalekite nation was not for the purpose of strengthening Israel, enriching her population or even retaliating for her dastardly attack. The mitzvah of “timcheh et zeicher Amalek” was commanded for one reason only: to have evil removed and ethical society survive. King Sha’ul’s decision to spare the Amalekite king and partake of the spoils of war actually undermined the people’s understanding of the war’s very purpose.
Consider: the “superfluous” verse that closed the first war and preceded the second, revealed the seriousness of Saul’s sin. It clarified the difficult military and economic situation Israel faced. Given that reality, it was quite possible that the people would regard Israel’s attack against Amalek to be no more than an opportunity for Israel to overcome a smaller and weaker enemy and, thereby, improve her economic and military positions. As a result, the battle would not be seen as part of an ideological struggle or a fulfillment of a divine imperative…. but simply as a ploy to uplift the honor of Israel and her King.
Israel’s attack on Amalek was meant to remove the evil in Hashem’s world. Tragically, Sha’ul mistakenly chose to compromise with evil, in order to glorify Israel
It was a sin that, sadly, deserved the harsh punishment that was meted out to him.
Rabbi Winkler’s popular Jewish History lectures can be viewed by visiting the OU Israel Video archive: https://www.ouisrael.org/video-l ibrary
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RABBI SHALOM ROSNER Hearing the Bells
ROSNER
RAV KEHILLA, NOFEI HASHEMESH
MAGGID SHIUR, DAF YOMI, OU.ORG
ROSH BAIS MEDRASH ENGLISH SPEAKING PROGRAM MACHON
As part of the description of the ליעמ – the outer garment that the Kohen Gadol wore, we are told there were certain bells that would be heard as he approaches: )הל:חכ
Its sound would be heard as he entered the holy place.(Shemot 28:35).
Rav Zevin in his sefer LaTorah V’Lamoadim compares and contrasts three types of תועימש – manners of hearing. There is what we hear in our ear, what we hear in our heart and what we hear in our bones.
HEARING WITH OUR EARS
The simple type of hearing refers to the sounds that we process with our ears. When we pray, we are to hear the words that we utter. We are to avoid listening to lashon harah. The pasuk above relates to this type of hearing. In fact, the Kohen Gadol’s ליעמ (outer garment) is to serve as repentance for lashon harah – the sound of the bells atone for the words of lashon hara that entered our ears.
HEARING WITH OUR HEARTS
The term עמש to “hear" is sometimes used to describe a deeper understanding, which is also referred to as hearing with one’s heart בלה תעימש. The Torah states תתנו
עומשל בל ךדבעל. Man is to not only hear, but to internalize and comprehend. We are told that the brothers did not realize Yosef was listening - ףסוי עמש יכ ועדי אל םהו. In fact, what they did not know was that he understood what they were saying. (Rashi states: they thought he didn’t understand their language). This type of hearing is what was referred to at Har Sinai when we stated עמשנו השענ. We undertook to study and understand the Torah, not just to merely hear its words.
HEARING IN OUR BONES
The third type of hearing relates to hearing something that translates into action. The Torah states: לא ועמשת עומש םא היהו יתוצמ – this clearly relates to the observance of commands not just merely hearing them. This type of hearing is highlighted in Megillat Esther as it states: םגתפ עמשנו ךלמה (Esther 1:20). One does not just hear the king’s decree but is expected to carry out that decree. A statement is heard and it triggers action.
Each of these types of תועימש (hearings) are to be utilized in our performance of mitzvot. We are to be careful with what we say and hear. We are to study and understand the Torah. Lastly, we are to act upon what we hear and understand so that we properly fulfill the commandments.
The Kohen Gadol’s bells served to warn others of his presence. May we properly hear, internalize and act on our calling!
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Powerful Purim Points
Parashat Tetzaveh concludes with the Kohen Gadol’s service on Yom Kippur. “ Ve’chiper Aharon al karnotav achat bashanah mi’dam chatat hakippurim, achat bashanah yichaper alav le’dorotechem kodesh kodashim hu la’Hashem – once each year Aharon shall make atonement (gain forgiveness) on the corners [of the mizbeach]. For all generations he shall make atonement (gain forgiveness) with the blood of the atonement sacrifice once each year. [This altar] shall be a holy of holies to Hashem.” (Shemot 30:10) The Torah never uses superfluous words or phrases; every expression is meticulous and precise. What can we learn from the repetition of the words ‘once a year’, and the repeated mention of ‘forgiveness’?
The Slonimer Rebbe explains in Netivot Shalom that there are two specific days in our calendar year, Yom Kippur and Purim, that are referred to as ‘once a year.’ Yom Kippur is known as a day that effects teshuvah mei’yirah, repentance motivated by awe of Hashem, while Purim is a day that effects teshuvah mei’ahavah, repentance born of deep love. Thus, teaches the Rebbe, the first section of the verse refers to gaining expiation on Yom Kippur, and the latter section of the verse that begins ‘for all generations’ refers to the atonement we can achieve on Purim. Even when we no longer have a Beit Hamikdash and we don’t have the special Yom Kippur service, Purim remains a time of forgiveness since love eclipses our many sins.
A fundamental difference between Yom Kippur and Purim, notes the Netivot Shalom, is the way each experience has the power to rescind a negative verdict. The teshuvah of Yom Kippur enables one to change an unfavorable verdict since it has not yet been signed and sealed. The greatness of Purim, however, is in its capacity to change an unfavorable verdict even after it has been written and sealed. The Megillah describes Queen Esther’s stance, “u’vechen avoh el Hamelech asher lo k’dat – I will go to the king contrary to the law.” Likewise, through the love that is exuded on Purim, that which is written and sealed can be changed, even “lo k’dat,” even if according to strict justice forgiveness is not warranted.
According to Kabbalistic thought, the Ari Hakadosh explains that each Purim we are gifted with an unparalleled energy that comes from the highest worlds. However, since this energy is so exalted, it must be hidden from the influence of negative forces. We therefore celebrate the day with costumes and drinking so as to conceal the spirituality from the outer eye. The Netivot Shalom shares a parable to illustrate this concept. A king wishes to transport his royal crown from one city to another and camouflages it in a wagon full of old clothes so no one would suspect the treasure he is carrying. On Purim we engage in revelry and festivity yet concurrently, we want to be mindful of the day’s loftiness and connect to its spiritual strength. Rav Biderman in Be’er Hachayim expounds; each moment on Purim possesses the same holiness as that in the moments we say the words of “keter yitnu lecha” during the kedushah prayer on Yom Kippur.
It is important to mindful on Purim that it is a time of teshuvah, improvement and growth, notes the Tosher Rebbe zt”l in Avodat Avodah. Just as the Jews at the time of the Purim miracle were worthy of salvation because of their sackcloth and fasting, we must approach Purim as an opportunity to come closer to Hashem through the mitzvot of the day.
Interestingly, there is an obligation to eat on Erev Yom Kippur and fast on Yom Kippur. On Purim, we fast on Ta’anit Esther, the day preceding Purim, and feast on Purim. May we merit to activate both the fasting and feasting on both days to elevate the totality of our experience in this world through connection and love.
RABBI JUDAH
Executive Director, Camp HASC
Author of Baderech: Along the Path of Teshuva (Mosaica 2021)
RABBI JUDAH MISCHEL
Mischel
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR, CAMP HASC
AUTHOR
OF BADERECH SERIES
Zachor: Light vs. Darkness
The 18th Century gaon and tzadik, Rebbe Yonasan Eibshitz, produced a massive contribution to the world of Torah scholarship. This included the Kabbalistic masterpieces, Sefer Yaaros Devash and Sefer Shem Olam, and numerous halachic works. A valiant defender of Am Yisrael, Rebbe Yonasan traveled throughout Eastern Europe representing his brethren in order to ease their plight. As he was held in great esteem by many prominent non-Jewish scholars and Christian leaders, Rebbe Yonasan used his influence to obtain permission to print the Talmud, which had been outlawed and censored by the Church due to accusations that it contained anti-Christian references.
A story is told that illustrates the confidence, faith, clarity, and penetrating Torah wisdom with which Rebbe Yonasan faced
down many antisemites:
A bishop had forced Rebbe Yonasan into a debate aimed at invalidating Judaism. Sticking his nose in the air, he slung an ancient accusation at Reb Yonasan Eibshitz: “In our New Testament, G-d is a G-d of love… But in your Old Testament, to which you so ignorantly cling, G-d is filled with vengeance and war!”
“Ah, I see,” Reb Yonasan replied calmly. “For you, G-d is all about love, and that’s why you are always waging war and committing violence. For us, G-d fights our battles and takes vengeance on our oppressors, and that’s why we are always focussed on love and adding light.”
This Shabbos, we read Parshas Zachor, a reading which empowers us with the Biblical mitzvah to “remember” the senseless hatred that drove Amalek to attack the weak and infirm among us. Without even an intention to benefit from our Land, our property or belongings, Amalek’s attack was driven simply by bloodthirst, and the most ancient form of hatred. Publicly reading this parshah in advance of Purim threads a narrative, connecting the motives of Amalek with those of Haman, and insists that we recognize the relevance of this mitzvah for us today.
Recently, Jew hatred has once more been ‘normalized’ on mainstream platforms, such as the bewilderingly absurd “Tentifada” movement on university campuses. Along with these politicized expressions, there has
been a dramatic rise in (reported) antisemitic incidents worldwide. In Germany, they rose by 240 percent; in the United States, by nearly 400 percent, and London, by more than a startling 1,000%. In our days, the despicable apologetics and even glorification of Islamist rapists, murderers, and torturers, is a stark reminder that the Spirit of Amalek is alive and well.
Our Islamist enemies incessantly cite their hadith, religious traditions, teaching them that pursuing and hunting down Jews is a divine mandate: “The ‘Hour’ will not be established (the ‘day of judgment’ when they believe that, chas v’Shalom, the disbelievers in Islam will be punished) until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me; come and kill him!’”
Despite the great darkness of these movements, antisemitic hatred and hypocrisy in fact serve as reminders of who we are. We are, as they acknowledge, different from all other nations. And when we are singled out, we are stimulated to ask what it really is that sets us apart. This gives us the opportunity to reassert our commitment to the spiritual and international obligations we carry: to bring an awareness of Oneness and Redemption to the world, and thus be an Ohr laGoyim, a Light unto the Nations.
Although the physical descendants of Amalek became mixed into the nations and we cannot currently pinpoint where or who they are, Rav Joseph Soloveitchik maintained that those who sow hatred of Am Yisrael in the world are at least the disciples and ideological ‘descendants’ of the spiritual lineage of Amalek. In this way, the
dramatic worldwide surge in antisemitism in our times makes Shabbos Zachor all the more relevant:
“Hashem is at war with Amalek from generation to generation.” (Shemos, 17:16)
This is not simply the struggle of Klal Yisrael; this is a fight of good versus evil. It is Hashem’s war. And there is a sweetness in being empowered as active partners with the Ribbono Shel Olam, and knowing that we are not alone. Whether the hatred emanates from the conspiracy theories of the ideological Right, the ‘woke’, progressive political Left, politicians and resha’im in the United Nations, random people on their social media soapbox, or even morally confused protesters on the streets of our own Homeland — we can stand tall in the face of our enemies’ derision. We can stand with our Am, with holy pride
in who we are, and with joy and faith in our purpose in this world.
In Eretz Yisrael and around the world, Jewish blood cries out for vengeance, and we pray for the ׳ה תומקנ לק the ‘All Pow- , erful G-d of Vengeance’ to reveal Himself and restore His honor, and the honor of our people. With moral clarity and confidence, we cry out for Divine intervention, and eagerly await the joyous day when we will see retribution: ונינעל
ךופשה ךידבע םד תמקנ, “Our Father, our King, avenge before our eyes the spilled blood of Your servants!”
Shabbos Zachor invites us to joyfully prepare for the sweet moments of retribution we pray to relive in Megillas Esther. At that time, more than 75,000 people who were committed to wiping out the Jews in the 127 states of the Persian dictator were killed in battles of self-defense: גרהו ברח
“And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did as they wished to those who hated them” (9:5).
In this verse, the Vilna Gaon, zt’l, distinguishes between םהיביא, “their enemies”,
and םהיאנש, “their haters”. An ביוא, “enemy”, is one who himself commits evil, while a אנוש, “hater”, is one who is a sort of ‘bystander’, someone who is merely ‘happy when evil is done’. According to the GR”A, those who hated us, the bystanders who were bilti me’uravim, ‘uninvolved’, will have the same fate as our “enemies”. Indeed, those who have enjoyed a baklava, cheered, celebrated or ‘liked’ an evil post on social media when physical, verbal or psychological evil was committed against Hashem’s People, will share the same fate as the active perpetrators.
Thus, we await the great day when Hashem will complete the human efforts of Tzahal — and will take full vengeance on our oppressors and all enemies of humanity. In the meantime, may we pray to merit focusing on love and adding goodness and light: החמשו הרוא התיה םידוהיל
“For the Yehudim there was (and will be) orah v’simchah, light and joy…!”
To find out more about Rabbi Mischel’s book ‘Baderech Haggadah’, visit: www.judahmischel.com/ baderech-book
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OU KASHRUT
PAGE BY RABBI EZRA FRIEDMAN Director, The Gustave & Carol Jacobs Center for Kashrut Education Director, The Gustave & Carol Jacobs Center for Kashrut Education
Introduction to Bishul Akum
Consuming Produce from My Private Garden
The prohibition
Question from the OU Israel Kashrut Hotline:
Shalom Rav Ezra,
We are fortunate to have recently settled in the South of Israel. Our property features a large garden, and we’ve planted a pomegranate tree, a pomelo tree, and some grape vines. I’m wondering if I can pick the fruit and consume it without first taking terumot and ma’asrot. I’ve heard that it might be permissible to eat the produce directly under the tree.
According to Biblical law, food that is completely kosher and cooked by a nonJew is permitted. However, our Sages decreed that such food, even when cooked in kosher utensils, is prohibited for consumption. This prohibition is known as bishul akum. In the coming weeks we will discuss the parameters of this rabbinic prohibition, including the reasons behind the decree, when it applies, and the practical halacha for modern industrial kashrut.
Answer:
THE STATUS OF A PRIVATE GARDEN
Food is a very connecting element in every society. That is the basis behind the decree of bishul akum. Our Sages were very concerned about close relationships with non-Jews since intermarriage is a very severe transgression. The prohibition effectively limits Jews and gentiles dining with each other, although there is no specific prohibition against dining with a non-Jew 31:b.)
Our Sages permit the consumption of produce prior to the completion of Gmar Malacha (the final stage of harvesting). However, this is limited to Achilat Ara'i, which refers to casual, temporary consumption.
Religious Caregiver
Car owner
This type of consumption is allowed because it is seen as less formal and more incidental. For instance, if someone plans to store or prepare the produce, or eat it as part of a full meal, it would be prohibited to consume it before taking terumot and ma’asrot (See Mishpitei Eretz 7:17)
maintain that the decree is based on this issue of closeness to non-Jews that could lead to intermarriage; this is the opinion of most early authorities. However, Rashi and others attribute a different reasoning to the prohibition of bishul akum, which is that non-Jews might mix non-kosher ingredients into the kosher food. In future articles we will discuss whether the parameters of bishul akum are based on both of these reasons or just one. However, it is clear from numerous sources that the danger of intermarriage is the main reason behind the prohibition (See Torat Habayit 3:7).
The decree is binding regardless of the reason
Another important consideration is that achilat ara'i is limited to areas that do not constitute Gmar Malacha. As explained in previous articles, gmar malacha refers to actions such as pilling up the produce or bringing it into the home after harvesting, which designate the produce for consumption.
Forbidding the non-Jew’s cooking would be enough to create an emotional distance such that families wouldn’t marry into
Since the transgression of intermarriage was the primary concern behind our Sages’ decree, their goal was to powerfully discourage the possibility of developing emotional connections to non-Jews that could lead to intermarriage either in that generation or the next. Accordingly, early authorities discuss whether the prohibition of bishul akum still applies even in situations where intermarriage is not technically possible. For example, Rashba, in his responsa (1:248), examines the case of food cooked by a priest. Being that Catholic priests do not marry nor do they have children with whom to intermarry, is it permitted to eat food cooked by a priest even though the reason for bishul akum seemingly does not apply to
While achilat ara'i is permitted in fields or groves, the situation in a private garden is more complex. A private, enclosed garden adjacent to a home is discussed in early authorities (see Rambam, Ma’aser 4:7). Typically, private gardens are areas where trespassing is prohibited, as they are considered personal property. Additionally, activities such as lounging, hanging laundry, or storing items are performed in such gardens. Consequently, a private garden is regarded by our Sages as a Chatzer Hamishtameret—a space that is actively maintained and used for household activities (see Mahar”i Kurkus, Ma’aser 4:15)
According to Jewish law, once produce is picked in a Chatzer Hamishtameret, Gmar Malacha occurs immediately. Therefore, consumption of even a single piece of produce would be prohibited. To elaborate, our Sages ruled that once produce enters the home domain, it is automatically considered to have undergone Gmar Malacha.
On the other hand, achilat ara'i is allowed in large fields specifically designated for growing produce. In the case of a Chatzer Hamishtameret, the garden is viewed as part of the home, and thus, once produce is harvested, it is considered as if it has entered the home domain.
In summary, it appears that it is not permissible to consume produce from a private garden without first taking terumot and ma’asrot.
CONSUMPTION OF PRODUCE FROM A PRIVATE GARDEN
The OU Israel Gustave & Carol Jacobs Center for Kashrut Education was created to raise awareness and educate the public in all areas of kashrut. Rabbi Ezra Friedman, Deputy Rabbinic Administrator for OU Kosher Israel is the Center's director. him? Rashba answers that we have a rule regarding rabbinic decrees: even when the reason does not apply, the prohibition still stands. This is a necessary element in every rabbinic prohibition. Otherwise, Rashba explains, people could rationalize and find reasons why any decree should not apply in their particular situation. Accordingly, Rashba concludes that even food cooked by a Catholic priest has the prohibition of bishul akum. A similar ruling is made by Ramban (Avodah Zara 35:a) regarding non-Jewish royalty who, because of their stature, are prohibited from marrying Jews. He maintains that the fact that the non-Jews are royalty is irrelevant, and that the decree of bishul akum stands regardless of the reason behind it. Taz (YD 112:1) , Shach (YD 112:4) and Pri Megadim (YD 112:1) cite these rulings as axioms of the laws of bishul akum.
Although early authorities generally prohibit the consumption of Achilat Ara'i in a private garden, there is some leniency regarding the consumption of small fruits. A minor taste or "quick snack" from a single piece of fruit is permitted without requiring terumot and ma’asrot, and this would not be considered Achilat Ara'i. However, this allowance is limited (see Rambam, Ibid)
Other examples
Later authorities discuss similar cases where the logic behind bishul akum may not apply. Responsa Shevet Kehati (6:273) rules that even food cooked by a non-Jewish child is considered bishul akum, despite the fact that the chances of marriage seem remote. The same is true for food cooked in a faraway country where Jews cannot travel -- bishul akum still applies.
In summary:
gentiles, even if the ingredients and utensils are kosher.
The reason cited by most authorities is the risk of intermarriage.
before consumption. After eating a small fruit (like one grape or one date), it is permissible to continue eating the same type of fruit, but only one at a time. For example, if two grapes are picked simultaneously, they would require terumot and ma’asrot before eating (Chazon Ish , Demai 7:20, Hilchot Ha’aretz 11:24).
Even in cases with virtually no risk of intermarriage, the food is still prohibited, including non-Jewish royalty, priests, young children, and non-Jews from distant lands.
There is a common misconception that one must consume the small fruit directly under the tree. This is not the case, one may pick one grape or one date and eat it anywhere in the garden, or even in the home (Eretz Vehilchoteia 11:4).
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You may consume fruits that can be eaten in one bite, such as grapes or dates. After eating one piece, you may continue eating one piece at a time. The grapes may be eaten anywhere, including in your home, and you are not restricted to eating them next to the grapevines. However, larger fruits must not be consumed under any circumstances without first removing the required halachic tithes (terumot and ma’asrot).
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Our Sages prohibited food cooked by
For instance, fruits that can be eaten in one bite, such as a single grape or date, may be consumed without tithing. However, larger fruits, such as oranges or pomelos, would still require terumot and ma’asrot
SIMCHAT SHMUEL
simchat shmuel
BY RABBI SAM SHOR DIRECTOR, TORAH INITIATIVES, OU ISRAEL
BY RABBI SAM SHOR Program Director, OU Israel Center
A number of weeks ago, the incredible staff of Yachad Israel hosted a crowd funding day here at the OU Israel offices. As an incentive to encourage the team and create excitement for this important task, throughout the day staff raffles were drawn, offering fun and meaningful prizes and incentives to the staff for all their efforts.
One of the raffle items was the opportunity to be mentioned in a future Simchat Shmuel column. Since I often submit these articles weeks in advance, the winner of that raffle, my friend,Yachad Israel's Dovid Oratz has been patiently awaiting his shout out in Simchat Shmuel. Just this week he said to me, Rabbi Sam, just a reminder, don't forget- I'm still looking forward to being mentioned in your column in Torah Tidbits. I thanked him for the gentle reminder, and then said this week, Shabbat Zachor, is a great time to follow up on his gentle reminder. Thanks Dovid for all you do for so many!!!
Each year on Shabbat Zachor, we read of the biblical mandate to remember how the tribe of Amalek attacked the Jewish people as we departed from Egypt, and the obligation to wipe out any semblance of the evil that Amalek represents.
One Purim, the Bnai Yissascher,Reb Zvi Elimelech of Dinov, zy'a, stood up at his seuda and announced- Rabosai-lets go to our horses and carriages and blot out Amalek! The Chasidim were shocked-had the Rebbe become so intoxicated that he intended to commit an act of violence?
So the Rebbe and his chasidim, boarded their carriages, and rode to the next town, where they arrived at a local tavern full of Polish peasants, who like Amalek of ancient times, certainly had no great love for the Jewish People. As the Rebbe and the chasidim entered the tavern, the music suddenly ceased, and all eyes turned toward the Rebbe. The room was suddenly silent.
The Rebbe extended his hand to one of the peasants, who slowly, reluctantly took the Rebbe's hand, and together they slowly began to dance. The musicians began to play once again, and within minutes all those assembled, chasidim and peasants alike had joined hands to dance with one another.
What can this story come to teach us about the mitzva to destroy Amalek? How do we understand this story of building unity, of breaking down stereotypes as somehow being representative of the mitzva of blotting out Amalek from the world.
Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the Kedushat Levi, zy'a, explains based on the teaching from the Zohar, that each and every human being is an Olam Katan microcosmic world. Whatever exists in the physical world, explains the Rebbe, also exists metaphysically within the inner microcosmic world of each of us as human beings. If there is a metziut of Amalek, of evil which we must work to wipe out in the physical world, so too we must strive to overcome the yetzer hara- the proverbial metziut of Amalek which exists within each one of us.
This idea can be further understood by taking
a closer look at the pesukim:
“Zachor-Remember what Amalek did unto you, as you were en route of departure from Egypt. Asher Karcha BaDerech-How they came upon you on your way, and struck the back of your encampment, all that were enfeebled in the rear of the camp, when you were faint and weary; they did not fear G-d. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your G-d has given you rest from all your enemies, in the land which the Lord your G-d has given you as an inheritance to possess it, that thou shall blot out all remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, lo tishkach- you shall not forget...”
Rav Yehuda Amital zt'l, the beloved and revered Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion offered an interesting interpretation of this idea that Amalek “karkha baderekh“–happened upon the people of Israel. This,explained Rav Amital, implies that the attack was random. Whoever Amalek ran into, it attacked. According to Rav Amital, Jews can fulfill the mitzva to blot out Amalek by living lives filled with purpose, with goals, direction, and values.
Rashi, citing the Midrash Tanchuma offers a different and interesting insight regarding the words Asher Karcha BaDerech-How they came upon you on your way.
Asher Karcha BaDerech this is connected in meaning with the phrase םוחו רוק “cold and heat” and it means: he made you cold and lukewarm after the boiling heat you had before. For all the nations were afraid to war against you and this one came and began to point out the way to others. A parable! It may be compared to a boiling hot bath into which no living creature could descend. A good-for-nothing came, and sprang down into it; although he scalded himself he made it appear cold to others...
Rashi suggests that Amalek somehow
represents the Jewish people being cooled off, becoming vulnerable once again to our enemies, and the powers of evil.
The Piascezna Rebbe, the Aish Kodesh zy'a, offers an interesting explanation of this midrash cited by Rashi. The Jewish people, having just witnessed the miracles of the ten plagues and incredible redemption from Egyptian servitude, were literally on fire with a burning faith and trust in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Amalek comes and cools us in our derech, they cool off our religious passion, they represent foreign ideas which come to knock Klal Yisrael off of our proper derech, they cause us to be cooled off, in terms of our commitment and passion in Avodat Hashem, making us to be susceptible and in danger not only spiritually, but physically.
The great Chasidic Master, the Maor VeShemesh, zy'a offers a beautiful insight to explain this idea of Amalek cooling off the Jewish people and becoming vulnerable.
Amalek cooled the Jewish people, they caused the Jewish people to be cold toward one another, they cooled off their burning good hearted kindness for one another.
What was it that Amalek caused to happen, which made us vulnerable and susceptible to harm? A lack of warmth,empathy, and love for one another.
During these incredible days leading up to Purim, we are reminded of the sacred task of breaking down barriers, of coming together as one, of repairing relationships, and bringing simcha and achdut to the world.
As we prepare ourselves for Shabbat Zachor, let us work to internalize this powerful short teaching from the Maor VeShemesh,zy'a- and may we recognize the power and protection that achdut-unity- provides for Klal Yisrael.
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RABBI ADLER’S SHIUR
Sponsored for this academic year by the Frist family in memory of their beloved daughter and sister Elisheva Frist a”h
RABBI SHAI FINKELSTEIN’S SHIUR
Sponsored for the 2024-2025 academic year by the Sondhelm and Wertenteil Families in memory of Mel & Sylvia David z”l
RABBI DR. AARON ADLER’S SHIUR - WED. MAR. 5TH
Sponsored by Hanan & Sarah Lemann in memory of our beloved Son-in-Law on his third Yahrzeit 6 Adar
PURIM LAWS AND CUSTOMS:
A QUICK REVIEW
TAANIT ESTHER
Taanit Esther is the same day whether you celebrate Purim on the 14th or the 15th of Adar. Taanit Esther is Thursday, March 13. The fast concludes in Jerusalem at 6:13pm.
ZEICHER
L’MACHATZIT HASHEKEL
Zeicher L’Machatzit Hashekel can be given at Mincha of Taanit Esther or before Megillah reading. Common amount is 3 half-shekel coins. Some give the value of the original silver half shekel, which at today’s price of silver and the current exchange rate is around 20NIS. Remember - we don’t give Machatzit HaShekel without a Beit HaMikdash, we give ZEICHER - commemorative of it.
PURIM
AL HANISIM is said in the Amida in the B’RACHA of MODIM and in Birkat HaMazon in the B’RACHA of NODEH L’CHA. If you forget AL HANISIM in the Amida, do NOT repeat it. If you catch your omission before HaShem’s name in HATOV SHIMCHA... go back and say it. If you already said HaShem’s name, finish the Amida and before you say YIHYU
L’RATZON... and take your steps back, say Al HaNisim with a modified opening sentence:
Similar for Birkat HaMazon. Before HaShem’s name in AL HAARETZ V’AL HAMAZON, go back and say it. After HaShem’s name, continue until right before HARACHAMAN HU Y’ZAKEINU and say it with the modified opener, as above.
FROM HERE TO THERE: Jerusalemites who go outside for 14 Adar and outsiders who come to Jerusalem for Purim should ask a Rav what is and is not required of you on the other day.
TORAH READING is taken from the end of B’shalach - VAYAVO AMALEK... If you missed ZACHOR, you should ask the Baal Korei to have the Mitzvah of ZACHOR in mind, and you should have KAVANA likewise.
MEGILLAH READING is required TWICE, at night and in the day. KAVANA should include the Mitzvah of Megillah and the publicizing of HaShem’s miracles. The b’racha of SHEHECHEYANU in the morning covers the other mitzvot of the day. (Have them in mind.)
MATANOT LA’EVYONIM are gifts to the poor (be generous, more than you spend on Mishlo’ach Manot). Best to give on Purim day. Giving it earlier to someone who will distribute it on Purim day is also acceptable.
MISHLO’ACH MANOT are gifts of foods (min. two kinds) to friends (or just other Jews) - who are observing Purim the same day you are. One Mishloach Manot is sufficient, but most people give multiple times.
excessive drinking turns out not to be in line with SIMCHAT PURIM. Be careful. And watch out for your family members.
PURIM MESHULASH FOR JERUSALEMITES
See Rabbi Daniel Mann’s article concerning the unique halachot of Purim, on pages 74-75.
by our Reader
SEUDAT PURIM is a festive meal in the afternoon of your Purim day.
DRINKING: The proper custom on Purim is to drink more wine than you usually do. A bit more is sufficient. In most cases,
Like falafel, Bamba and oznei Haman, Egged is an integral part of the history of Israel. The sign on this bus shows that Egged wants to share the joy of the holiday with its thousands of commuters. Only in Israel do you see a bus company announcing a holiday along with its route! I took this photo on Purim at Binyane Hauma a couple of years ago. - Daniel Santacruz
Photograph
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We are a nation bound by memory, deeply tethered to our legacy and national heritage. We do not merely recall history—we relive it, as if we ourselves stood at its crossroads. Our chagim are not just commemorations; they are immersive reenactments of transformative moments in Jewish history. The mitzvot of each chag awaken its themes, stirring within us the echoes of the past and reinforcing the milestones of our national journey.
Yet, despite the centrality of memory in Jewish life, there is only one historical event that we are explicitly commanded to recall through verbal declaration: the mitzvah of Zachor. We are charged not only with erasing Amalek but with actively remembering this sacred duty. While there is some debate regarding the precise frequency and form of this remembrance, the halachic consensus establishes an annual fulfillment of the mitzvah. Each year, on the Shabbat preceding Purim, we read the three verses of Parshat Zachor, embedding the memory of Amalek into the fabric of our consciousness.
It is one thing to command us to eliminate Amalek from our world, but why must this battle remain at the forefront of our consciousness, requiring verbal proclamation? Why is the war against Amalek not just a mission, but a memory we must actively preserve?
Perhaps the answer lies within a peculiar word in Parshat Zachor. The Torah instructs us to remember Amalek’s attack, specifying that they assaulted us on the road
Why is the word " ךרד"—the road—so central? What significance does it hold in defining Amalek’s cruelty?
On a simple level, it underscores their wickedness. We had just emerged from two centuries of slavery and suffering, making our way through the treacherous desert, weary and defenseless. We posed no threat to them. We were weak, unarmed, and seeking no conflict. Yet Amalek attacked, not for any strategic gain, but simply because they could. They were marauders—desert predators preying upon the vulnerable. Their violence was not the result of fear or necessity but sheer malice.
However, the word "ךרד hints at some- " thing even darker. Ironically, Amalek had every reason to attack us. Their assault was not random. It was aimed at something far greater than a wandering nation—it was an assault on the path we were traveling. They did not merely ambush us along the derech; they sought to shatter the derech itself. THE CONVERSATION
This battle in the sands of the Sinai traces
back to a conversation centuries earlier between Elifaz the son of Esav and his son Amalek. Amalek turned to his father, seeking guidance on how to respond to the bitter wound of Ya'akov seizing the berachot that had once been meant for Esav.
Recognizing the divine confirmation of Ya’akov’s selection, Elifaz advised his son Amalek to accept this reality and align himself with Ya’akov. But Amalek, consumed by rage, rejected his father’s conciliatory stance. He vowed to overturn what he saw as a historical injustice, dedicating himself and his descendants to reversing the course of Jewish history.
To fulfill this mission, Amalek instructed his descendants to rise against our people whenever Jewish history was poised for great strides forward. As the Torah describes, their battle is eternal—"from generation to generation." This does not mean Amalek is constantly at war with us, but rather that in every generation, at moments when Jewish destiny is advancing, Amalek emerges to obstruct its course. In other words, whenever we are on the "derech," on the road to fulfilling our national mission, Amalek—the sworn enemy of our history—steps in, determined to halt this progress.
TWO ESAV INTERVENTIONS
ALONG THE DERECH
Amalek merely followed the path set by Esav, who never fully accepted Ya’akov’s selection. In the immediate aftermath, Esav plotted to murder Ya’akov, but Ya’akov escaped just in time. Years later, as Ya’akov returned from exile to the Land of Israel, Esav saw his opportunity to stall Jewish history. If he could prevent Ya’akov from reclaiming the Land, perhaps the divine selection could be
May the learning from this D’var Torah be in Memory of
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reversed. Yet, Ya’akov deftly navigated the crisis, secured his return, and continued on the path of Jewish destiny.
Years later, Jewish history once again found itself "on the derech," advancing toward its destiny, and Esav, still alive, felt compelled to intervene. As Ya’akov’s burial procession neared the Me’arat HaMachpeilah, Esav and his warriors arrived, seeking to block his interment in Chevron. Chevron had become the sacred burial site of the family—a shrine to Jewish history. The brother who would be laid to rest there would be confirmed as the chosen son, the bearer of the divine mission. Esav, determined to prevent this final validation, attempted to halt the burial. Yet, as the Midrash recounts, he was struck down by a member of the funeral party, ensuring that Ya’akov, not Esav, would be enshrined in the cave of Jewish destiny.
Esav twice sought to obstruct the "derech" of Jewish history—once when Ya’akov returned from exile and once when he was to be buried in Chevron. His legacy of opposition would be pursued by his grandson Amalek, who would continue the struggle against Jewish destiny for generations to come.
ON THE WAY TO ISRAEL
Amalek, Esav’s grandson, lay in wait, biding his time for the next pivotal moment— when Jewish destiny would once again be in
motion. That moment arrived with yetziat Mitzrayim, as we left slavery in a blaze of miracles, marching toward Sinai to receive Hashem’s Torah and then onward to the Land of Israel. A swift and uninterrupted arrival in Israel would have sealed our destiny, ensuring our national mission.
But Amalek could not allow this march to proceed unchecked. They struck precisely at that moment, ambushing us "on the derech," seeking to derail our journey and sap our national spirit. Their goal was not mere military conquest but the disruption of Jewish history. Tragically, they partially succeeded. The battle did not conclude with a decisive Jewish victory but rather with an uneasy armistice, an unfinished struggle that would persist for generations.
ON THE DOORSTEP
Forty years later, after countless insurrections and rebellions, we once again stood at the threshold of the Land of Israel, ready to propel Jewish destiny forward. But Amalek, ever faithful to their sinister mission, could not stand idly by. They had sworn to blunt the momentum of Jewish history, to obstruct our march toward destiny.
Disguised as Kena'anim, they struck at a moment of profound vulnerability—while we mourned the loss of Aharon. Once again, they partially succeeded. The Torah marks their grim achievement, noting that they took captives—perhaps an entire group, or maybe even a single individual. Their attack was not just a military strike; it was a calculated attempt to stall our progress and to once again place themselves as the eternal obstacle in the derech.
About four hundred years later, another battle erupted between Amalek and our
people. Shaul HaMelech had been anointed, and though he was not destined to establish the eternal dynasty of Malchut Beit David, his reign marked the first stirrings of Jewish monarchy. With a king now appointed, Jewish history was poised to surge forward— toward national stability, and the construction of the Beit HaMikdash.
Though Tanach does not explicitly mention Amalek as the aggressor, it was clear that they had to be neutralized for Jewish destiny to advance. Shaul waged a decisive battle against King Agag and his forces, securing military victory. Yet, once again, the triumph was incomplete. Shaul, in an act of misplaced compassion, spared the Amalekite king, allowing Amalek to regroup and ensuring that their sinister mission to obstruct Jewish history would persist for generations to come.
A
NEW VERSION OF AMALEK
There was now a pause of about five hundred years until the next encounter between Amalek and our people along the road of Jewish history. We had been exiled to Bavel, and their empire had since ceded power to Persia. Yet even in exile, Jewish destiny stirred once more. A slow and arduous return to Israel had begun, as the foundations for the second Beit HaMikdash were painstakingly laid. This process met fierce resistance from local inhabitants who opposed Jewish resurgence in our homeland. Still, with enough perseverance and resilience, the rebuilding of the Mikdash seemed within reach.
Amalek’s descendant could not allow this to happen. Haman, a scion of Agag, fiendishly devised his genocidal scheme, seeking to erase the children of Ya’akov once and for all—avenging what he saw as the ancient theft of his grandfather Esav’s blessings.
But Haman altered the paradigm. No longer satisfied with keeping Amalek’s mission confined to his own lineage, he expanded the battle, weaponizing an entire empire against us. The enemies who stood poised to strike on that fateful day in Adar were not all biological descendants of Amalek. Haman had transformed the war against Jewish destiny into a broader ideological struggle.
Without realizing it, Haman sowed the seeds for future incarnations of Amalek— adversaries who would arise in every generation to obstruct our march through history. What had once been the battle of a single family had now become a banner under which all who opposed Jewish destiny could rally. The war against Amalek had shifted, but its essence remained unchanged: to intercept and dismantle Jewish progress whenever history placed us on the path to redemption.
Two and a half millennia later, we were once again on the derech.
RETURN
After two hundred years of wandering in the abyss, cast across the world like scattered seed, we found our way back to the road of history. We were returning—slowly but steadily—settling our land and laying the groundwork for a mass homecoming. By the early twentieth century, the Jewish people had swelled to an unprecedented population, larger than at any point in our history. The scent of redemption filled the air. And Amalek could not abide by it.
Hitler, yimach shemo, taking a page from Haman, sought to halt Jewish history in its tracks. Like Haman, his war against us was not framed in religious terms. He did not distinguish between the observant and the estranged, between those who embraced
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their heritage and those who sought to flee from it. He understood that Jewish destiny transcends personal faith or self-identification. To erase our future, he had to eradicate every last soul.
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We suffered unspeakable losses, but Jewish destiny is impervious to history. It cannot be undone by Amalek or by any of its modern incarnations. We rise, again and again, because our journey is eternal. Amalek lurks at every crossroads, but we march forward, unwavering, toward destiny.
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We are now battling a modern incarnation of Amalek.
We have succeeded in settling our land and building a vibrant, powerful, and spiritually sensitive nation. We are well on the derech to Jewish destiny. Millions of Jews have returned home, and Jewish spirit and historical consciousness have surged with unprecedented
force. Who could have imagined that we would travel so far, so quickly—especially in the aftermath of the Holocaust? This stunning journey has once again awakened the forces of Amalek, who have sworn to obstruct Jewish destiny, channeling their hatred and violence toward our people.
Their primary assault is directed at those most deeply engaged in shaping Jewish history—those who live in Israel. But like Haman before them, they understand that we are one family. To truly thwart Jewish destiny, they must wage war against every Jew.
Yet we stand unshaken. Amalek has risen time and again, only to be cast down by the tide of history. And so it will be once more. We march forward, determined and unwavering, toward the fulfillment of our eternal mission.
It is for this reason that we are commanded to foreground the story of Amalek. The tale
of Amalek serves as a mirror image of Jewish destiny. Our destiny will not unfold all at once; there will always be forces that oppose it—whether they are genetically Amalek or modern incarnations of universalized Amalek. Remembering the perennial battle with Amalek reinforces our awareness of Jewish destiny.
It also reminds us that this journey is long and arduous—one that may not fully come to fruition in our own lifetimes. All we can do is contribute to that process, placing our own bricks in the enduring wall of Jewish destiny.
Rabbi Taragin’s newest sefer entitled “Reclaiming Redemption Deciphering the Maze of Jewish History (Mosaica)” is now available at: www.reclaimingredemption.com and in bookstores.
HAFTORAH
INSIGHTS
Never Forgotten
The Haftorah of Parshat Zachor (Shmuel I 15) recounts Shmuel HaNavi’s command to Shaul HaMelech to destroy Amalek, a nation defined by its cruelty and unprovoked attack on Bnei Yisrael as they emerged from Egypt. Amalek’s evil is eternal, and we are mandated never to forget their treachery. Yet within this Haftorah, a contrasting group emerges—the children of Keini, descendants of Yisro, who are remembered for their kindness.
BY REBBETZIN DR. ADINA SHMIDMAN
DIRECTOR, OU WOMEN’S INITIATIVE
And yet, both are eternally linked to memory. We are commanded "Zachor"—to never forget Amalek’s evil. But we also see that kindness, too, is remembered. Before waging war, Shaul HaMelech warns the Keinites to leave, telling them: "You did kindness with all Bnei Yisrael" (Shmuel I 15:6). What was this kindness that extended to all of Bnei Yisrael?
According to Midrash Tanchuma (Yisro 6), Yisro’s recognition of Hashem’s greatness was an act of validation. When he declared "Blessed is Hashem, Who has saved you" (Shemot 18:10), he was not merely expressing personal belief—he was affirming the truth of what Bnei Yisrael had experienced. His words reinforced that their faith was not misplaced,
This contrast is no coincidence. The Torah itself places Yisro and Amalek side by side: at embodies recognition and alignment with Hashem.
character traits. At the end of the day, this is what we are all about. The central challenge to us is working on our personal Midot. The Vilna Gaon said that the reason we are here in this world is to improve a Midah, which we have thus far not perfected. Therefore, we must always work on this, for if we do not improve our Midot while we are here, what is the purpose of life? We must instill this concept in our children and grandchildren that bringing home a Report Card with all “A’s” on academic subjects will bring them a reward but getting all “A’s” on the Midot side will bring even a greater reward.
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Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook in his inimitable fashion offers a novel and most fascinating perspective on the mitzvah of mechiyat Amalek (obliterating the Amalekites):
ERASING IN ORDER TO CREATE
Rav Kook suggested a very unexpected comparison between the law of destroying or erasing Amalek with the law of erasing letters on Shabbat. Rav Kook pointed out that in order to transgress the prohibition on Shabbat of erasing letters it must be done with the intent of writing again on that surface (mochek al m’nat lichtov).
A purely destructive act on Shabbat is not technically forbidden. In order to transgress the biblical prohibition there must always be constructive intent or something positive in order for it to be considered a creative act on Shabbat.
a purely destructive act. The Jewish people engage in this mitzvah with the intent of “erasing in order to write.” We have a much more profound and elevated goal regarding our required assault on Amalek. Namely, to uproot a cancerous evil and thereby help transform the world into a place of peace where God’s presence can rest. We are to replace Amalek with the holy letters of God’s complete name. (based on Mo’adei HaRe’iyah, pp. 241-242).
WAR IS AN ACT OF PRUNING
Rav Kook, in his well known teachings concerning war in general (Orot HaMilchama 1:1) writes:
Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlop
“The time of the songbird has come, the weeding of tyrants…the world becomes perfected, and the voice of the dove is heard in our Land.”
Rav Kook explained that it would be wise for us to extend this principle to the mitzvah of “erasing” Amalek. Therefore, the mitzvah is not simply to obliterate Amalek so that we engage in crushing our enemy. That would be
The symbiosis between destruction and rebirth finds expression in Rav Kook’s metaphors of the “time of the songbird has come” and the “weeding of tyrants.” The original Hebrew contains a rich play on words which an English translation cannot convey. The
Hebrew word for songbird, zamir, also has the same meaning of pruning, or a cutting away of branches for the beneficial growth of the plant. War uproots tyranny, and the songbird, a metaphor for the nation of Israel, begins to return to her rightful place and song.
We sing, not over bloodshed and the slaughter of war, but over the fact that the victory reveals God’s Kingship over the world and the march towards the ultimate redemption of all mankind. (See War and Peace, Samson and Fishman, pp. 45-47)
A DANGER OF BEING CONSUMED BY HATRED
Rav Kook took note of a surprising teaching found in the Talmud which states that the grandchildren of Haman converted to Judaism and that they studied Torah in Bnei Brak (Sanhedrin 96b).
This indicated for Rav Kook that even the hatred for Amalek must be judicious and carefully administered. Here is Rav Kook’s exquisite language:
“When we contemplate the aggadah that teaches, “Among Haman’s grandchildren there were those who learned Torah in B’nei Brak,” (Sanhedrin 96b) we penetrate to the depth of kindness. We should not be washed away in the flow of hatred, even for the worst enemy. And from this we should deduce logically concerning those who cause us pain with their view and their [attempts] to bring destruction.” (Orot Hakodesh 3, Chassidut 13, p. 326)
Rav Kook asserted that we must be mindful that our enmity for Haman does not spill over into a hostility or violence that is unwarranted. In addition, Rav Kook underscores that we learn a poignant lesson from here that when relating to our brethren in
our community who may cause us angst or misery that without question we act civilly and with graciousness.
MECHIYAT AMALEK IS AN OUTLIER
Rav Kook's beloved student and dearest friend, Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlop, offered an important insight which directs the Jew away from any excessive hate.
Rav Charlop cites an obscure halachic category mentioned in the Talmud known as aveirah lishma (a transgression committed for sake of Heaven). Aveirah lishma leaves open the possibility that deviance from the standard law can sometimes be required. In an essay about Purim titled, “The Obligatory Hatred of Amalek as Aveirah Lishma in a Temporary Setting (Hora’at Sha’a),” Rav Charlop begins with the following provocative statement: “There are times that it is impossible for the world to continue (kiyum haolam) in its complete purity except by means of transgression in a temporary setting (aveirah b’hora’at sha’a) ...nevertheless the act [of aveirah lishma ] still contains a remnant of transgression.”
Rav Charlop is teaching that under normal circumstances hatred and murder are inexcusable transgressions, and it is only in compliance with the divine command to hate Amalek that makes hatred and the pursuit of genocide into a mitzvah. Although the enterprise of destroying Amalek is deemed a mitzvah, an element of transgression still remains in the performance of this mitzvah.
Rav Charlop’s extraordinarily novel insight
suggests that the mitzvah of mechiyat Amalek be categorized differently than any other. It is an outlier. It is implemented in only the most dire of circumstances. A Jew must be cognizant that the performance of this mitzvah is tainted with a smidgen of sin.
Rav Charlop also emphasized that the obligation to wipe out Amalek is intended, perhaps most importantly, to awaken the Jew to his fierce love for the nation of Israel. When we witness a fellow Jew in harm’s way our concern and sympathy for him expands and intensifies. As our sense of brotherhood increases the power of Amalek is enfeebled. (Mei Marom, vol. 5, p. 220)
Rav Charlop added a final point which beautifully echoes his master, Rav Kook. We seek Amalek’s destruction not, G-d forbid, on account of unbridled hatred or a thirst for revenge. On the contrary, we recognize that Amalek’s savagery is a danger to all humankind. The Jewish people who are replete in kindness and are meant to serve as light to others, boldly and heroically take responsibility for the welfare and safety of every man, woman and child. (Mei Marom, vol. 5, p. 244)
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Purim
Meshulash
Question: Could you please review some of the rules and rationale of the practices of Purim Meshulash (Triple Purim) in Yerushalayim?
Answer: When the fifteenth of Adar, celebrated as Purim in cities that were walled at the time of Yehoshua (notably including Yerushalayim), falls on Shabbat, when some of the mitzvot of Purim are inappropriate, the various mitzvot of the day are spread over three days, as we will explain. We will start conceptually and then review day-by-day activities.
Even in such a year, conceptually, the main day of “Shushan Purim” is still 15 Adar, even though it is the least “eventful” of the days. Therefore, matters that are connected directly to tefilla, and are not problematic on Shabbat, are done on Shabbat. This includes reading the story of the battle of Amalek (the last 9 p’sukim of Beshalach) as maftir and the special haftara and reciting Al HaNissim in Shemoneh Esrei and Birkat HaMazon.
Megillat Esther is not read on Shabbat for one of two reasons (Megilla 4b). Rabba says that it is out of fear that someone will carry the megilla in the public domain and
Rav Daniel Mann
thus desecrate Shabbat. Rav Yosef says it is because at the time of the megilla reading, poor people look forward to receiving charity, which they cannot do on Shabbat. As the rule is that Megillat Esther is never read later than the fifteenth of Adar (based on the words, “and they shall not pass,” see Megilla 2a) the reading is pushed forward to Friday, 14 Adar. One who is celebrating Purim Meshulash should be extra careful to hear the megilla with a minyan in such a year (Mishna Berura 690:61), as when megilla is read early, it requires a minyan.
Matanot la’evyonim (presents to the poor) follow suit and are given on Friday (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 688:6). After all, according to Rav Yosef, that was the reason to read the megilla early, and even Rabba must accept some level of linkage between reading the megilla and giving matanot la’evyonim (see Megilla 4b).
The seuda (festive meal) is held on Sunday, 16 Adar, according to most authorities (Shulchan Aruch ibid.). The Yerushalmi (Megilla 1:4) learns that it is not held on Shabbat because it must be a seuda whose obligation can be attributed only to Chazal’s decision at the time of Mordechai and Esther. On Shabbat, of course, there is a mitzva to have a festive meal irrespective of Purim. Therefore, it says to delay the seuda. There are opinions that one can/should have a Purim meal on Shabbat, and so some make an effort to have more food and wine than usual at the Shabbat-day meal (Purim Meshulash (Diblitzki)
Eretz Hemdah, the Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, is headed by Rav Yosef Carmel and Rav Moshe Ehrenreich, founded by Rav Shaul Yisraeli, zt”l, to prepare rabbanim and dayanim to serve the National Religious community in the Israel and abroad. Ask the Rabbi is a joint venture of the OU, Eretz Hemdah, and OU Israel’s Torah Tidbits. 5:11). At the Sunday meal, Al HaNissim is not recited, at least not in the body of Birkat HaMazon (see Mikraei Kodesh, (Harari) Purim 15:(34) in the name of Rav Yisraeli).
The mitzva of mishlo’ach manot (presenting foods to a friend) is apparently linked to the Purim seuda, and thus we give them on Sunday (Mishna Berura 688:18). Those who want to be have a Purim seuda on Shabbat (see above) can attempt to fulfill mishlo’ach manot as well by giving to a neighbor or having a guest at the meal.
Visitors to Yerushalayim over Shabbat (even if they celebrated a full Purim on Friday) are obligated (according to most authorities - see Mikraei Kodesh ibid. 15:30) to do the mitzvot of both Shabbat and Sunday (wherever they are on Sunday) even if they leave Yerushalayim soon after Shabbat. This is because the obligations of Sunday are tashlumin (a make-up date) for what ideally should have been done on Shabbat (Purim Meshulash 8:15). (One should give the mishlo’ach manot to one who is obligated in the mitzvot of Sunday). Based on the same logic, one who comes to Yerushalayim after Shabbat is not obligated (ibid.).
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The Meaning of Amalek
There are a few Shabbatot throughout the year that have special names, commemorating significant events or meant to evoke particular emotions: Shabbat Shuva during Aseret Yimei Teshuva, urging us to return to Hashem; Shabbat HaGadol before Pesach, preparing us for the awesomeness of the upcoming holiday, celebrating salvation through overt miracles; Shabbat Shira, when we read Parshat Beshalach, recounting the song of redemption; Shabbat Chazon, setting the tone for Tisha B’Av with Yishayahu’s rebuke; and Shabbat Nachamu, offering comfort and the promise of future redemption.
This week, right before Purim, we read Parshat Zachor, hence the name of this holy Shabbat. In it, we are commanded to remember the evil that Amalek did to us when we left Egypt and to eradicate any remembrance of them from the face of the earth. But what exactly are we being charged with? What is our call to action?
Unlike the other special Shabbatot that uplift and inspire us (except for Shabbat Chazon, which prepares us for mourning), the Torah reading of Shabbat Zachor seems to have us dwell on a nation of enemies that is paving the way for more enemies. What is the deeper message of remembering
Amalek? Why is this remembrance considered so important that many Halachic authorities deem it a requirement for men and even women to hear the special Zachor reading? Additionally, what is its connection to Purim, a holiday celebrating the foiling of Haman haAmaleki’s plot to destroy the Jewish people?
The Torah recounts Amalek’s attack on Israel in Devarim 25:17-19:
Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt. How, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when the Lord your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
Amalek did not frontally attack like other enemies would. They ambushed those who were weak and tired, unable to defend themselves. Hence we are commanded to remember their evil deeds and their ambush to inspire hatred of them.
Still today our holy soldiers in Tzahal are fighting day and night to rid the world of barbaric enemies within and surrounding Israel’s borders. The halachic implications of “timcheh et zecher Amalek”—erasing Amalek—is complex.
For us, the fight against Amalek is clearly not just physical—it is ideological, emotional,
The nation Amalek displayed a complete lack of fear of Heaven. They sought to disconnect us from Hashem, to instill doubt and weaken our faith. The command to remember Amalek )קלמע ךל השע רשא תא רוכז ( isn’t just about the past—it’s about recognizing the ongoing battle between good and evil. “Amalek” represents these forces that seek to destroy holiness, to extinguish faith, and to sow doubt. On this Shabbat, we are to reaffirm our commitment to stand against those forces, both externally and internally.
The story of Purim illustrates this battle perfectly. Haman, a descendant of Amalek, sought to annihilate the Jewish people, much like his ancestors before him. But how did the Jews defeat this threat and overturn Haman’s entire plan? םידוהיה לכ תא סונכ ךל. Esther instructed Mordechai ‘here’s the plan: go gather all the Jews. Fast and pray.’ Not through military strength, nor through strategic alliances. They won through fasting, prayer, and returning to Hashem with full faith-in Unity.
Hashem’s name is famously absent from the entire Megillah, yet His presence is felt in every twist of fate that leads to our salvation. This is the essence of Amalek’s defeat—not in an obvious, miraculous redemption like Yetziat Mitzrayim, but in the hidden miracles of everyday life. Purim teaches us that when we call out to Hashem, when we recognize Him even when He seems hidden, He rescues us.
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This is the process King David expressed in chapter 22 of Tehillim, a chapter very intertwined with Esther and the Purim story: ינתבזע המל יל-א יל-א My God, why have you deserted me? Why are You so far from saving me? By the end of the perek (v.29-29) David
haMelech recalls the charge: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn back to you Hashem…
The kingship belongs to Hashem and He rules the nations.
The Torah’s command to remember Amalek is not a call for revenge but a call for resilience in our faith. We are reminded not to let Amalek’s ideology take root in our hearts. We are to erase doubt, despair, and see beyond what’s right in front of our eyes, and instead look further and deeper, strengthen our connection to Hashem and reach out in prayer and supplication.
Purim reminds us that the ultimate victory comes not from physical might but from spiritual strength. When we recognize Hashem’s hand in our lives, when we remain unwavering in our faith, Amalek—both external enemies and internal doubts—can never defeat us.
As we approach Purim, let us take the lesson of Parshat Zachor to heart: to eradicate Amalek’s influence within us—the doubts, the disconnect, the despair and instead call out to Hashem with complete faith, just as our ancestors did in Persia. Hashem, our loving Father, will always come to our rescue, just as He has throughout our history.
May we merit to see the day when קלמע and all evil are erased from the world, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu showers us with revealed good with the ultimate Redemption, speedily in our days.
PORTION FROM THE PORTION
PORTION FROM THE PORTION
BY RAKEL BERENBAUM C ontributor, Torah Tidbits
RAKEL BERENBAUM CONTRIBUTOR, TORAH TIDBITS
Between Life And Death
Achashverosh, Mordechai, and our Jewish Soul
Our parsha begins with God telling Moshe to tell Aharon’s descendents, the Kohanim, that they are prohibited from becoming tamei – impure. They must not participate in the burial of most dead people “lnefesh lo itama b’amav” (21:1).
Michal Silverstein, MS
We all know that dealing with the dead is a very important mitzvah of chesed so much so that the person who is occupied in burying the dead is exempt from other mitzvoth even from wearing tefillin, saying Shema and davening. It is one of the ways that we follow in the footsteps of God and do the mitzvah of ‘Vhalchta bdrachav” (Dvarim 28). So it seems strange that the Kohanim would be prohibited from such an important mitzvah.
I recently gave a talk about Simcha Raz z"l who passed away two months ago at 93. He is most famous for his book about his Rabbi, Rav Aryeh Levin, titled "A Zadik in our Times". I wanted to read more of the 28 books he wrote, so when I passed a used bookstore, I entered to see if I could find any. I found one and also stumbled on a beautiful book about Purim titled "The Scroll of Life. The story of Purim with a message for our lives. Adapted from the words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe". I was very excited by this find, since the Rebbe was the one who inspired Simcha Raz to write his book about Rav Arye Levin, and with Purim around the corner I felt God was sending me something to write about for this column. The Rebbe often pointed out parallels between the events of Purim and the reality of our lives.
One reason is that the Kohanim need to remain pure so that they can do their important work in the Mishkan or Temple. Coming in contact with the dead would make them impure and then they wouldn’t be able to enter the Holy places and wouldn’t be able to do their work – so when there are other people who could bury the dead person it is best if they do it.
Here I will share the Rebbe's Purim message from 1973 on the beginning words of the Megila "Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus -- he was the Ahasuerus who reigned from Hodu to Cush..." What is the verse trying to hint at when it repeats the words "he was the Ahasuerus..."? Rashi explains that "throughout his life he always remained wicked", even when seemingly being nice to the Jews.. At the end the Megilah says that Mordechai
The Oznaim LTorah brings another reason. He says it is important for people to
was appointed viceroy to the king (10:3). The Rebbe asks, what this Jewish spiritual and halachic leader was doing as an advisor to the king? Shouldn't he be in the Beit Midrash? He answers that this was understandable when we read Rashi about Achashverosh's wicked personality. Mordechai wanted to keep a position in the king's court to protect his fellow Jews with this capricious king. Although Achashverosh let the Jews protect themselves fighting their enemies - that could change in the future because Achashverosh "was the Achashverosh"- always wicked. He could change his mind.
The Rebbe said that just as Achashverosh remained wicked throughout - the opposite is true of Mordechai who remained a Jew even as viceroy to the King.
He said that a Jew always remains a Jew no matter how far removed he seems from a Jewish way of life. A Jew has a pure Godly soul within him throughout his life, no matter what his behaviors. We have been witness to this during this war. The heartwarming stories of hostages who, although far from other Jews, in the worst conditions, began to grow closer to God. Some began to keep Shabbat, fast on Yom Kippur or say blessings. Their faith in God grew. Once a Jew always a Jew. The Lubavitcher Rebbe
care for the dead and to go to the home of a mourner because all mortals will die one day and that way we can remind ourselves of our end and improve our behavior. He says that the Kohanim don’t need this reminder because they are always living in the shadow of death. Their job puts them on the tight wire between life and death every day since they work in the presence of God. If they come to the Holy areas to do their work in inappropriate ways, ( such as drunk, impure, without their special garments, without washing their hands and feet…) the punishment is death. This we saw with the death of the two son’s of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, “b’kirvatam lfnei Hashem” (10:1). They live with a constant threat of death so they are more apt to be careful with their behavior. Yet there are a few exceptions to this prohibition, when the Kohanim are actually obligated to deal with the burial of a dead person, such as for the very close relatives that are listed in verses 21:1-3 and for a dead person who has no one else to bury them. There are times in everyone’s life, even the Kohen’s, when they are confronted with death and they must rise to those occasions as well. The Rambam learns from these verses the general mitzva for all Jews, not just kohanim, of aveilutmourning. The Torah does not want us to ignore tragedies that may befall us. Crying and mourning are normal stages when
exemplified someone who saw this Jewish spark in everyone and always tried to ignite it. This Purim is an opportunity to follow in his path. Try bringing mishloach manot to neighbors who might not celebrate Purim, invite them to your Purim seuda or even to megila reading. One never knows how these small gestures may inspire someone to reconnect with their Jewish soul.
Above we discussed the Jewish soul that every Jew has, that sometimes may seem hidden. In Megilat Esther, G-d's face seems hidden ( hester panim) and is hinted at in numerous places like the use of the proper noun “King” (ha-Melekh) in the verse "On that night, the King's sleep was disturbed- Bleila Hahu Nadeda shenat HAMELECH" ( Esther 6:1). I've included a quinoa recipe., the only
one my family likes, thanks to the sweet potato that is “hidden” in it. This is good to serve at the Purim seuda or to include in a mishloach manot. Purim Sameach.
QUINOA WITH HIDDEN SWEET POTATO
• 1 tbsp. oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 sweet potato, diced
• 3 cups quinoa, washed to remove bitterness
• 4.5 cups water
• salt & pepper to taste
• dash cinnamon (optional)
Saute onion in oil till golden, add sweet potato and saute a few minutes till soft. Add quinoa, water and spices, and cook covered for about 20 minutes till water is absorbed. Serve warm, but it is also good served cold.
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"Take care of Mine, and I will take care of yours."
If we want Hashem to shower us with blessings, we must first ensure that we are taking care of those whom He has entrusted to our care—the widow, the orphan, the Levite, and the ger. Parshat Mishpatim recently cried out to us not to “mistreat” any widow or orphan. And Rashi understands this to signify our personal responsibility to care for them – because they have no one else. (Shemot 22:21-23)
"When Adar enters, we increase in joy." –Taanit 29a. Rambam in Hilchot Yom Tov 6:18 reminds us that real joy for yom tov can only come once we ensure those less fortunate have food for the holiday. This year, we are again committed to supporting
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In the ten commandments the Torah promises, "Hashem’s kindness extends for thousands of generations to those who love Him and keep His mitzvot." (Shemot 20:6) When we do good, we bring bracha into our homes. This Adar, let us increase in simcha by sharing joy with those who need it most. May Hashem bless our homes with health, happiness, and prosperity and may there be no more widows or orphans in Israel.
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Reassuring a Friend After A Heartbreaking Breakup
Question: How can I reassure my friend after a guy she really liked and felt like they had great chemistry broke up with her?
Aleeza answers:
Breakups are hard—especially when your friend really liked the person, felt amazing chemistry, and truly believed it could lead to something serious. Now, she’s left wondering, If it felt so right, why did it end? Will I ever find someone like that again?
First, acknowledge her pain. It’s real, and it’s valid. This relationship mattered to her, and its ending can feel like a huge loss. But then, gently shift her perspective: If this wasn’t her person, imagine how much more wonderful her actual soulmate will be.
THIS WAS PROOF THAT IT’S POSSIBLE
Right now, she may feel hopeless, like she’ll never find someone she connects with so deeply again. But this breakup isn’t proof
that love doesn’t work for her—it’s proof that it does. She had a great connection with someone! That means she can and will feel that way again. Remind her it needs to be the right person at the right time and he exists.
When people are upset after a breakup they often think, Maybe there’s no one out there for me. Although in this situation he didn’t want to continue dating her, we know the right person will choose her back. A true match is when I pick you and you also pick me.
HASHEM’S PLAN IS ALWAYS FOR HER GOOD
It may not feel like it now, but Hashem isn’t just taking something away—He’s redirecting her toward something more suited for her. Maybe this relationship was there to open her heart, to show her what’s possible, or to help her refine what she truly needs.
HELP HER LOOK FORWARD
She’s allowed to grieve, and may even want to try a dating detox, but she doesn’t need to get stuck. Let her know she’s not alone, and that you believe in her love story. Maybe she needs a small distraction, a fun outing, or even just someone to sit with her while she processes.
Encourage her to trust that her journey is still unfolding. This heartbreak is not the
end—it’s just another step toward the person who will love and choose her. And when that happens, she’ll look back and realize this breakup was actually a blessing in disguise.
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THE
THE DAILY PORTION
BY SIVAN RAHAV-MEIR
BY SIVAN RAHAV-MEIR
PORTION
International Bible Quiz Champions Speak
International Bible Quiz Champions Speak
Remarkable Faith
recently published an article by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik explaining to the American public the significance of her Shabbat observance in Gaza).
the first time?' Yet I simply forgot it. I thought afterwards that HaShem caused me to forget the answer in order to remind me that I do not know everything, that I am human and not perfect."
the first time?' Yet I simply forgot it. I thought afterwards that HaShem caused me to forget the answer in order to remind me that I do not know everything, that I am human and not perfect."
Much excitement has surrounded Emunah Cohen and Neta Lax, the two fresh winners of the annual International Bible Quiz. Yesterday I interviewed them and heard their story.
"Man's Search for Meaning" is the name of the wonderful work written by Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist *Viktor Frankl*. He explained how much the divine image within humans, their soul, the meaning in their lives – gives them strength to face challenges. It seems that these days a new book is being written: "The Jew Seeks Meaning" or perhaps: "Man Seeks Judaism".
*Shai Graucher* became known during the war for his gifts and assistance to the bereaved families, the wounded, and hostages.
Much excitement has surrounded Emunah Cohen and Neta Lax, the two fresh winners of the annual International Bible Quiz. Yesterday I interviewed them and heard their story.
It turns out that they studied long hours together and were confident they would be the leading competitors. "We planned on winning together," Emunah revealed. "We thought both of us would answer every question correctly so that we would both be champions, tied for first place.
"The more you learn," Neta said, "the easier it gets. When you learn a lot of Tanach (Bible) you simply see how everything connects to your life. I truly felt that what I learned accompanied me wherever I went. It made my heart feel good."
"The more you learn," Neta said, "the easier it gets. When you learn a lot of Tanach (Bible) you simply see how everything connects to your life. I truly felt that what I learned accompanied me wherever I went. It made my heart feel good."
It turns out that they studied long hours together and were confident they would be the leading competitors. "We planned on winning together," Emunah revealed. "We thought both of us would answer every question correctly so that we would both be champions, tied for first place.
These days, Viktor Frankls are returning from Gaza. Well, they don't write books, they post stories and social media updates. This week I started collecting these modern legends.
In closing, Neta declared: "The two of us will continue to study the Tanach. There were parts of the Tanach that were not in the material covered by the quiz, and it's important for us to learn them too."
But in the end Emunah won. "They made a big deal about our big hug after I lost," Neta said. "But it was the easiest thing to share in her happiness. Besides, we were just relieved that the competition was finally over."
In the course of the entire contest, Emunah made only one error. "I knew the answer to the question: 'When did King David cry for
In closing, Neta declared: "The two of us will continue to study the Tanach. There were parts of the Tanach that were not in the material covered by the quiz, and it's important for us to learn them too."
And Emunah had this recommendation: "Study the Bible for 5 minutes every day. Not for school, not for the Bible quiz, but just for how much fun it will be."
But in the end Emunah won. "They made a big deal about our big hug after I lost," Neta said. "But it was the easiest thing to share in her happiness. Besides, we were just relieved that the competition was finally over."
In the course of the entire contest, Emunah made only one error. "I knew the answer to the question: 'When did King David cry for
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For example: *Eliya Cohen* who offered to swap places with another hostage ("When they informed him about his release, Eliya offered to switch with one of his friends who was physically and mentally weaker than him and remain captive in his place. The terrorists refused," his father said), or *Omer Shem Tov* who observed Shabbat in Gaza ("He only had a flashlight, and he made sure not to turn it on during Shabbat, to symbolize and honor the Sabbath," his mother Shelly recounted). And of course – the story of *Agam Berger* which has already become known worldwide (The Wall Street Journal
Recently, he's been observing an interesting phenomenon: he brings an iPad - they ask for tefillin. He brings a cell phone - they ask for Shabbat candlesticks. This week it happened with hostage *Ohad Ben Ami* from Kibbutz Be'eri. Ohad asked for tefillin, and then on Monday, asked to do Havdalah. Havdalah is performed on Saturday night, but Ohad explains that he became more religious in Gaza. In videos that were posted, he speaks powerfully about faith, about God, and also about the Havdalah that hostages did, which gave him strength in captivity, and then he simply asks to be taught how to perform Havdalah on Monday and finishes by singing "Am Yisrael Chai"
And Emunah had this recommendation: "Study the Bible for 5 minutes every day. Not for school, not for the Bible quiz, but just for how much fun it will be."
Sivan Rahav-Meir is a media personality and lecturer. Married to Yedidya, the mother of five. Lives in Jerusalem, and formerly served as the World Mizrachi Shlicha to North America. Sivan lectures in Israel and overseas about the media, Judaism, Zionism and new media. She was voted by Globes newspaper as most popular female media personality in Israel and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.
Sivan Rahav-Meir is a media personality and lecturer. Married to Yedidya, the mother of five. Lives in Jerusalem, and formerly served as the World Mizrachi Shlicha to North America. Sivan lectures in Israel and overseas about the media, Judaism, Zionism and new media. She was voted by Globes newspaper as most popular female media personality in Israel and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.
And here's another true legend: *Keith Siegel* shared in a video this week that he tried to say a blessing over everything he ate in Gaza, but didn't know how to make the blessings. He simply said "bore minei mezonot" (Who creates various kinds of food) over every food. When he returned home, his family asked what special food to prepare for Friday night, for their first meal together. Keith said: "No need for special food, first of all I want a kippah and Kiddush."
His wife Aviva who was released in the first deal recounts in another viral video, with tears: "The kidnappers asked me to pray with them. I said to myself: I will not pray to Allah. I pretended with my lips, but didn't actually pray with them. I am so proud of myself for that."
This is a very partial list, but already we can see: something is happening here. Everyone is invited to think about what it means.
Sivan Rahav-Meir is a media personality and lecturer. Married to Yedidya, the mother of five. Lives in Jerusalem, and formerly served as the World Mizrachi Shlicha to North America. Sivan lectures in Israel and overseas about the media, Judaism, Zionism and new media. She was voted by Globes newspaper as most popular female media personality in Israel and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.
At the end of this week’s parsha, we learn about the inner חבזמ, the תשוחנה חבזמ, upon which the תרטק was offered. The passuk mentions the placement of it in depth; it stood in the שדוק, opposite the שדוקה ןורא. But why does the Torah emphasize its placement? What is its deeper role?
Unlike the other םילכ, the תשוחנה חבזמ is called ׳הל םישדק שדק. The outer חבזמ atones for sins of the body, for actions that pull us away from Hashem. But the inner חבזמ atones for something deeper—when a Jew’s mind and heart drift away, when he feels disconnected inside. A physical ןברק can’t repair that. Only the תרטק, rising like a hidden whisper of longing, can draw a person back to his המשנ, back to the תמשנ םייחה within him.
The smell that comes for the תרטק is intangible. No one sees it, but it’s there. A Jew’s תימינפ הדובע, his hidden yearning for closeness, isn’t always visible, but it’s sensed. When a Yid is truly connected, he brings a חיר חוחינ, a fragrance of holiness, into the world.
That’s why the ימינפה חבזמ stands opposite the ןורא. Torah fills a person with Hashem’s light, but it must begin with inner work— בלה ןויקינ, purifying the heart and returning to the תוימינפ. True השודק isn’t just about ourselves; it must spread, like the glow of the הרונמ, igniting others with love for Hashem. 'הל םישדק שדק—the holiest thing is a Jew’s yearning to return.
SHUA RAICE
10TH GRADE, BEIT SHEMESH
EASY COME, EASY GO
In Parshas Tetzaveh, the Torah lists the materials donated for the Mishkan, including precious stones for the Kohen Gadol's ןשוח. Surprisingly, these valuable stones are listed last. Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz explains that they were donated effortlessly.
As a result, their contribution was less meaningful in the Torah's eyes.
This teaches us that true giving comes from effort. When we sacrifice for something, we cherish it more. This concept is central to avodas Hashem; the most valuable mitzvot require dedication and effort. Investing time and energy into relationships even when it's tough, Torah study even when you're tired,
and tzedakah when money is tight makes them more meaningful.
We see this lesson in Megillat Esther, where Haman's pursuit of status and honor led to his downfall. The Torah reminds us to invest in things with eternal value, not fleeting goals. The precious stones, though valuable, were placed last due to the lack of effort. This reminds us to focus on what truly matters and dedicate our efforts to worthy pursuits.
Where are we putting our greatest efforts? Are we focusing on Torah, mitzvos, and relationships? By investing in what truly matters, we ensure our actions are valuable and meaningful.
Shabbat Shalom!
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Whether you would like a fully catered Pesach or complementary dishes to add to your menu, fill up your freezer with fresh, delicious home-made food, made by a culinary chef.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for the delicious food you sent for Pesach. Everything was very tasty and so appetizing. All the food came packed so well which made yom tov preparation so much easier.
