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Judaism
ASK THE RABBI
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ARE ONLY JEWS CONSIDERED HUMAN?
Dear Rabbi
Someone at University mentioned to me recently that the Talmud says that only Jews are considered human beings but non-Jews are not. He insists that Jews are racist and we don’t have a right to complain about antisemitism as we bring it on ourselves. I don’t know the source of this Talmudic statement and just told him I don’t believe it says that anywhere and that he was just looking to find excuses for his hate. Can you enlighten me about whether such a statement exists anywhere?
Jonathan
Dear Jonathan
There is such a quote in Tractate Yevamot 60b in which Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai cites a verse that says “adam” – loosely translated as human-beings, and says: “You (Jews) are called “adam” but non-Jews are not called “adam.”
This Talmudic passage has often been cited by Antisemites that look to justify their inexplicable hatred against Jews. One of the most famous examples in which this Talmudic passage was quoted was at the trial of Mendel Beilis in Ukraine, in 1913 (read up on his story – a classic blood libel). The prosecution cited this Talmud to make the case that Jews would have no problem killing non-Jews as they don’t consider them human.
The then Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Yaakov Mazeh offered the following response: “In Hebrew, almost every word has a singular and plural form: “Ish” is man; “Anashim” are men. “Isha” is woman; “Nashim” are women. “Har” is mountain; “Harim” are mountains, etc. There is one word which has no plural form: “Adam.” There is no word “Adamim.” So Adam can only be applied to a single person, not to many people. Hence, no nation can be called “Adam,” as each nation is comprised of many individuals.
The exception are the Jews. The Talmud is teaching that there was something about the title Adam which could not apply to anyone besides the Jewish people. There may be millions of Jews around the world, but they’re called Adam, they are considered a single human being. This trial demonstrates the point. One Jew, Mendel Beilis, is accused of killing a child, but who is on trial? The entire Jewish world! Together with all of the Jewish texts from the beginning of time! Imagine,” he added, “if a Russian gentile was accused of murder. Would anyone entertain the idea of putting the entire Russian people on trial?! Moreover, even as one Mendel Beilis is put on trial, the entire Jewish world stands at his side like one man, all trembling for his welfare and willing to do everything in their power to free him.” (This explanation left a deep impact on the court. Ultimately Beilis was set free).
If there is one message that Pesach drives home it is that we are one! We say it at the Seder: “One is the wise and one is the rebellious and one is the simple and one cannot ask.” We reiterate the “one” by each because each is one with the other. We are an Adam - a single organism.
Look at the world today. When our brothers and sisters are in peril in Ukraine, we ask: “What can I do to help, spiritually, financially, and in any way possible?” And we step up.
As for your University “friend,” tell him, that “in every generation they rise up against us,” (as we sing at the Seder) but we are still here to tell the tale. He and all the likes of him disappear into oblivion.
WHO LETS THE DOG OUT?
Dear Rabbi
I was discussing with my husband about why we open our front doors on Seder night? I mean it’s cute but apart from keeping kids entertained, is it really that important? I’m afraid the dog will run out!
Tabatha
Dear Tabatha
Do you know why pirates wore an eye patch over one eye? They would fight battles on the high seas. On deck, the sunshine over the open water is blindingly bright, but once a pirate swung himself over to the enemy ship, he’d often be forced to take the battle into the bowels of that other vessel. It takes about four minutes for the average person’s eye to gain “night vision” and allow them to see in the darkness. Four minutes, when you’re fighting for control of a ship, is a long time. So the pirates would leap below deck and then tear off their eye patch, which enabled them to have instant night vision, since their eyes had already adjusted to murky darkness.
Opening the door is about peering into the darkness and capturing a vision of the light that beckons. Hence we open the door and we speak of welcoming in Elijah who will be the one bringing that light.
Rabbi Aryeh Levine, the Tzadik of Yerushalayim, used to visit prisons on the intermediate days of Pesach. On one such occasion he asked the inmates: “What did you do for Seder last night?” And they said, “We were able to do everything. We had matzah and wine and charoiset and bitter herbs. We had haggadot and we were able to sit and discuss all about the exodus story. We did everything. There’s only one thing we couldn’t do. When it came to that part where you are supposed to open the outside door to let Elijah the Prophet in, well – we’re in prison, so that wasn’t an option! Said Reb Aryeh to them: “You’re making a mistake. You don’t need to open doors. You just need to make a small opening in your heart. Everything else will come pouring in.”
Mystically, it is a powerfully spiritual moment at the Seder to ask for whatever you want. Utilise it properly.
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Pesach
RABBI DR RAYMOND APPLE
THE HAGGADAH LEFT MOSES OUT
Moses comes only once in the Haggadah, in an incidental quotation. It was the Jewish people who decided to leave him out.
You would think it was logical to call Pesach the Festival of Moses. But big-noting Moses would have given the impression that it was he who took the people out of slavery.
The sages insisted that G-d alone should get the credit; the Midrash makes G-d say, “It was I who brought the people out of Egypt – I and not an angel, I and not an agent, I and nobody else”. All that Moses got in the Haggadah was an incidental nod.
The next opportunity Moses had to become a hero was Shavu’ot, when it was he who ascended Mount Sinai to fetch the tablets of the Torah.
One would think Shavu’ot would be the Festival of Moses. But the verdict was against him this time too, and Shavu’ot became the festival of King David.
What gave David the edge was not his kingly status but the fact that G-d was the one who gave the Torah even though David founded the dynasty from whom Mashi’ach will emerge.
Could not the case for Moses have outweighed this argument? Wasn’t he a great leader and poet, did he not mould Israel into a nation and launch Jewish history? Was it not he who established both the Written and the Oral Torah?
But Moses was not a people-person. David had folk appeal; Moses was an authority figure whom everyone respected but did not always love as one of their own.
Moses suffered on Shavu’ot as on Pesach – to give G-d the ultimate credit.
WHY NOT FOUR RABBIS?
There must be something wrong. There are four questions, four sons, four cups of wine – but five rabbis. To be consistent, the Seder should have four rabbis, not five.
Let’s imagine that we could tell one of the rabbis to stay home, leaving only four to sit at the Seder table in Bnei Brak and talk about the going out from Egypt all night.
Who were the five rabbis of the Haggadah? Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon.
They were five of the greatest sages of the Roman period. They somehow found new things to say about the Exodus each year even though none of them had ancestors who had been enslaved in Egypt (Eliezer, Elazar ben Azaryah and Tarfon were kohanim, Yehoshua was a levi, and Akiva was descended from non-Jews).
We probably would have expected a sixth sage to be there – Rabban Gamli’el, the rabbinic leader, but he was a difficult personality and the others wanted to depose him, and maybe the Bnei Brak meeting was a disguised anti-Gamli’el conspiracy, though the five rabbis did not all agree concerning how to handle the problem.
If one rabbi could have been uninvited to the gathering, it could possibly have been Rabbi Tarfon, whose memory was not always completely reliable. But the question of how many rabbis there should be is artificial, and in the end it doesn’t really matter whether there were five rabbis or four.
Rabbi Raymond Apple was for many years Australia’s highest profile rabbi and the leading spokesman on Judaism. After serving congregations in London, Rabbi Apple was chief minister of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, for 32 years. He lives in Jerusalem and blogs at http://www.oztorah.com
34 JUDAISM Seder Night: The Nation and I
BY GAVRIEL COHN
We tend to think of Yetziyat Mitzrayim as a national event; the collective terms of “we” and “us” feature heavily in the story. On Seder Night, we tell over the journey of our nation, of G-d “taking out a people from amidst another.” How in Egypt the Jewish People were enslaved, yet “on this night, the Holy One, Blessed be He, redeemed us and took us out to freedom” (Rambam, Hilchot Chametz u’Matzah, chapter 7). Certainly, this is the dimension stressed by many of the commentators (Rambam; Sefer haChinuch). However, it was also a deeply personal occurrence. On Seder Night each one of us is meant to feel this freedom personally.
As individuals we have to try and to taste the bitter suffering that we each would have endured. Every person was assigned a gruelling daily quota of bricks and labour and wallowed in suffering. Each of us was disregarded and abused by Pharoah, seen as “foul and odorous” and exposed to the brutal beatings of his taskmasters (Shemot, chapter 5). The marror and charoset should linger on our palates. Then, each one of us around the Seder Table should “view themselves as if they personally left Egypt,” enrapt, singing and rejoicing, in their personal rescue. We each stood and witnessed G-d’s mighty hand swooping in to free us and watched awestruck as the Divine manifested Himself in all His grandeur at the Sea; “even the simple maidservant” saw this revelation of G-d. All of us, “the ordinary people and the downtrodden, were led with compassion out of Egypt, with tremendous power and a strong hand.” Our personal plight had ended and our dignity was restored (Rambam, Hilchot Sanhedrin, 25.5).
Throughout his writings, Reb Nachman of Breslev stresses this deeply personally aspect of Jewish history, that “the essence of exile is one’s personal exile,” one’s challenges and stresses, our own private Egypt experience, and our redemption is one of the soul, of “being taken across the sea of helplessness and onto dry land” (Likuttei Halachot, Yoreh Deah, Hilchot Shiluach haKan, 7-8). Although composed in the plural, as with all of our prayers, one of the first brachot of the Shemoneh Esre is a plea for personal salvation too, that G-d should see each of our afflictions and lifted us out of our unique troubles, “redeeming us quickly for the sake of Your name.”
Indeed, we were rescued in the Spring, when the natural world blossoms and bursts into life. Again, we tend to think of this season as nature as a whole rejuvenating. However, in truth, of course, the trees and wildlife only bloom because each and every bud slowly sprouts anew, flowering freely into a new creation.
So on Seder Night, as we sit discussing these events of the Exodus amongst each other, we should also relive this journey privately and individually, of each of us being taken out of our difficulties, marching out of our own slavery reborn.
Gavriel Cohn is an Account Executive at The PR Office. If you would like a free PDF booklet on “Insights for Seder Night” please email: gavcohn@gmail.com
Weekly Dvar Torah
FROM ERETZ YISRAEL The Land Springs Eternal
BY RABBI BEREL WEIN
It has been a long, cold and rainy winter here in Jerusalem. Because it is a leap year, spring in the Jewish calendar has been delayed almost until the beginning of April. Nevertheless, it has arrived with warming weather and flowering greenery.
The holidays of the Jewish calendar undoubtedly were meant to be celebrated here in Israel, where the climate matches the mood of the individual holiday. Here in the Holy Land, we do not have snow falling on the Sukkah or freezing temperatures to accompany the Pesach Seder. Because of this confluence of calendar and nature, the holidays here in Israel take on a different perspective, an additional layer, so to speak, than the celebration of the holidays in the Diaspora. As we recite the words of rapture that compose the Song of Songs of Solomon, we, here in Israel, are struck by the detailed and exquisite description of the nature of the land that we see before our eyes.
Part of the idea of the Exodus from Egypt is that we were not just taken out from a land of slavery and oppression but were also guaranteed to arrive at a particular destination – a land of beauty, sustenance, and inspiration. In the first message to our teacher Moshe Rabbeinu, G-d already informed him of the destination and mission that was to be entrusted to the later generations of Jews. It was not sufficient merely to be redeemed from slavery and remain in Egypt as free citizens treated with equality and fairness. That is still deemed to be exile, for the country and the land is not ours, and never will be. It was, rather, the goal of arriving in the Land of Israel, settling it, creating there a Jewish national state, a Holy Temple, having a civilization that would serve to be an example for others to emulate, a light unto the nations.
I think, therefore, that the natural weather patterns which visit our planet, year in and year out, are meant to reinforce this idea that the Jewish national dream can only be fulfilled in the Land of Israel, for only there exists the connection between the natural, almost predictable, environment of weather coinciding with the great moral values and teachings of the Jewish holidays. The coming of spring, of sunlight and warmth, also attests to the coming of freedom and a purposeful national existence. The Jewish people, so to speak, are born again every Pesach. It is not only that nature is renewed in the Holy Land, but also that the holy people find new spurts of energy each year, and a glimmer of the great future that yet awaits us and all of humankind. Jews have observed Pesach meticulously in every climate and geographical location on this planet. But, as our sages pointed out in many of their commentaries on the Torah, the observance of the holidays, and even of the commandments themselves outside of the Land of Israel, were only meant to remind us of their existence so that we would be able to observe them correctly when we would eventually be restored to our homeland and our national existence. The holiday of Pesach restores this fundamental value in Jewish life and history and propels us towards the great future that we are yet to experience.
Rabbi Berel Wein is Senior Rabbi of Beit Knesset HaNassi in Jerusalem and Director of the Destiny Foundation.
1st Day & 8th Day Pesach Leining Summary
FIRST DAY
TORAH READING (SHEMOT 12:21-51)
This reading is a section of parashat Bo, in which Moshe relates the laws of the Pesach offering. The blood on the door frame will ‘indicate’ to G-d to ‘pass over’ the Israelite houses and to smite only the Egyptians.
The tenth plague strikes Egypt at midnight, leaving no house without a death. Pharaoh searches frantically for Moshe and Aharon (Rashi) and tells them to leave. The Jews take their dough with them before it has time to rise. The Egyptians agree to let them take gold and silver items. The nation travels from Ra’amses to Succot. They bake the unleavened dough and make matzot.
MAFTIR – FIRST AND SECOND DAYS (BEMIDBAR 28:16-25)
Maftir is read from a second Sefer Torah, from the section of parashat Pinchas detailing the extra offerings brought during Pesach.
FIRST DAY HAFTARAH
The reading is taken from the Book of Yehoshua (Joshua). 40 years after leaving Egypt, all uncircumcised males (who had been exempt from fulfilling the mitzvah in the harsh conditions of the desert) fulfilled the mitzvah of brit milah in a place called Gilgal. The nation then brought a Pesach offering and ate matzot. The preparations for conquering Jericho then began.
EIGHTH DAY
1ST ALIYA (KOHEN) – DEVARIM 14:22-29
There is a mitzvah to tithe produce grown in the Land of Israel, including Ma’aser Sheni, the ‘second tithe’, which is taken to Jerusalem to eat. However, one who is unable to carry the produce can redeem its value and, having added an extra fifth, take the money to Jerusalem, to purchase and consume food there.
2ND ALIYA (LEVI) – 15:1-18
Every seventh year is Shemitah, whose agricultural laws are detailed in parashat Behar (Vayikra 25:1-24). Existing loans are cancelled, yet the Torah warns against withholding a loan from a pauper before the Shemitah year, out of fear that it will not be paid back in time. A Jewish servant works for six years, after which he can go free. When he leaves, his master must give him significant farewell gifts.
Point to Consider: Which specific circumstances caused this Jew to become a servant? (see Rashi to 15:12)
3RD ALIYA (SHLISHI) – 15:19-23
One is not allowed to work a first born male animal from the flock or herd; rather it must be brought as an offering and its meat consumed by its owner.
4TH ALIYA (REVI’I) – 16:1-3
The nation is to celebrate Pesach in the “spring month”. The Pesach offering should be brought on 14 Nisan and we are to eat matzot to recall the haste with which we left Egypt.
5TH ALIYA (CHAMISHI) – 16:4-8
One is not allowed to own chametz on Pesach. The Pesach offering can only be offered in the Beit Hamikdash (Temple), not elsewhere. It should be roasted and eaten on the night of 15 Nisan.
6TH ALIYA (SHISHI) – 16:9-12
Shavuot comes after the seven-week counting of the Omer. One should enjoy the festival together with one’s family and servants.
7TH ALIYA (SHEVI’I) – 16:13-17
Succot is celebrated at the time of year when crops are gathered in from the threshing floors and the vineyards. On each of these three festivals, one has to bring special festive offerings to the Temple.
MAFTIR (SAME AS 1ST DAY)
The first three verses are omitted on the eighth day.
HAFTARAH
The prophet Yeshaya paints a moving picture of the future redemption, in which justice and righteousness will prevail. Even the animals will be at peace with one another – “a wolf will dwell with a sheep and a leopard will lie down with a kid”. The tribes of Yehuda and Ephraim, previously enemies, will unite for the messianic cause. Israel will declare G-d’s Name to the nations of the world and sing His praises.
38 JUDAISM
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Pesach: A Revelation not a Revolution
BY RABBI MOSHE TARAGIN
On this night we were chosen to inspire the world to monotheism and to moral conscience. Pesach is our Independence Day, the genesis of our nation, and the launch of our historic mission.
Sadly, during our long and bleak exile, this mission was suppressed. Exile banished us to margins of society, and we lived as an ostracised and persecuted nation of victims. Valiantly, we withdrew to a deep inner world of eternity, studying G-d’s will, loyally submitting to His commandments, and building robust Jewish communities across the globe. For two thousand years, our influence upon humanity was muted, and we lived entirely “within” ourselves.
Sadly, because of this historical isolation, we lost our universal “voice”, as consciousness of our universal mission became clouded. Even during this long exile, there were “historical pockets” during which we influenced the general society. During the Jewish “Golden Era” in Spain (roughly 950-1400) and, more recently in 19th and early 20th century Western Europe, Jews shaped their host societies, achieving prominence in commerce, politics, science, philosophy, and culture. Yet even during these “universalist” moments we didn’t influence society with our Jewish values. We spearheaded general societal progress, but didn’t directly inspirit Jewish values. We helped society draft its “story” but it wasn’t our distinctly Jewish story.
OUR LOST VOICE
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks revived our “lost voice”, reminding us that “our story” is their story. We weren’t just meant to spearhead technological and cultural change, but to inspire the world through Jewish values. He reminded us that our Jewish ideals carved out the modern world of democracy, human dignity, family and social equality.
His writings about Pesach, in particular, highlight our universalist mission which was launched on this day of national memory. His profound ideas and elegant articulation continue to deeply impact my own Pesach experience.
As much as I identify with his overall message, I disagree with his framing of the exodus story. My respectful disagreement isn’t meant to detract from his overall message about our universal Jewish mission.
STARTING A REVOLUTION
For Rabbi Sacks, yetziat mitzrayim is a universal drama pivoted upon values and ideals common to all of humanity. The exodus from Egypt was a political revolution, showcasing a new socio- political model for humanity. Ancient society was oppressive and exploitative, leaving little room for personal freedom or for personal economic advance. The gods clearly favoured established rulers who wielded unlimited power and preserved the rigid “order” of society. These societies of “might and power” held little regard for rights of the weak and of the vulnerable. Wealth was monopolized by a limited few, with much of society living on the brink of starvation. Strangers were distrusted as aliens, unentitled to rights or citizenship. These were cold, brutal and merciless societies.
To Rabbi Sacks, our liberation from Egypt introduced a new social paradigm to human history. He cites the historian, Paul Johnson who wrote that the Jews introduced society to the notions of “equality before the law… the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person… individual conscience and personal redemption…collective conscience and social responsibility... and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind”.
For Rabbi Sacks, on Pesach, G-d intervened on behalf of the weak and the defenseless, and urged these former victims to craft a more egalitarian and compassionate society. The nation we fashioned would serve as a social microcosm for humanity, offering them “horizons of morality”. The exodus was the first, and perhaps, the greatest, political revolution in history. It didn’t merely overturn the established political order but distilled a new social fabric and a new vision of G-d Himself.
For Rabbi Sacks, “our story” is “their story” and, to a degree, their story is our story. Our story is embedded within humanity’s endless pursuit of political liberty, economic freedom, and social equality.
REVOLUTION OF REVELATION?
In many ways, I completely agree that PART of “our” story is “their” story, but, our story contains numerous other chapters which aren’t related to “their story”. The exodus was not a social revolution but a night of covenant and of national selection. Hashem descended into history, reenacting an ancient covenant which had been in hibernation for two centuries and fulfilling an ancient promise to our ancestors. On this night Hashem once again chose us as His people, selecting us to receive His eternal Torah and to style our lives based on his Will. On this magical night we were chosen to travel to the land of G-d and to build a Temple
of ritual and divine encounter. This is the night of Jewish destiny, of the grand mission- to bring G-d into human realm through study, ritual, commandment, moral behaviour, and settlement of the land of Israel. Pesach is not a night of social revolution but of ritual and religion.
Of course, an additional method of bringing Hashem into our world is by constructing an ethical social model for others to follow. However, this social agenda isn’t the only, or even the primary feature of our redemption or of the national mission launched on that night. This night we were called to the mountain of the divine. This night we were called to eternity and not just to social equality. This night we were called to heaven and not just to a city on the hill. This night was one of revelation not revolution.
SOCIAL EQUALITY OR A S’NEH?
To illustrate his perspective, Rabbi Sacks portrays the departures of Avraham and Moshe from the homelands as escapes from morally dysfunctional empires. Avraham fled the wicked society of Mesopotamia and similarly, Moshe, identifying the exploitative tyranny of Egypt, ran away, ultimately initiating a social revolution.
Is this true? Do we have any record of ancient Mesopotamia as morally deficient? Theologically wayward maybe, but not morally dysfunctional- as Sedom was. Doesn’t Avraham relocate based on divine command and isn’t he more drawn to the land of Israel rather than escaping from the corruption of Mesopotamia?
Is Moshe’s heroism an ethical awakening in response to the horrors of Egyptian persecution? Wasn’t the rendezvous at the s’neh the turning point in Moshe’s career prompting him toward redemptive leadership? His conversation with Hashem at the s’neh surrounded the divine promise to our ancestors and our national destiny in Israel and not the design of a moral society. The private revelation at the “sneh” would later become a mass revelation atop this mountain of “Sinai”. Revelation, not revolution sparked both Avraham and Moshe’s relocation and redemptive fervor. Mitzrayim, Rabbi Sacks writes “we do no justice to the originality of Israel’s faith if we seek to remove it from history altogether, for it was precisely in, and through history, that Israel sensed the providence of G-d.” Exodus cannot be severed from history because it was part of a larger social evolution.
Once again, I am not sure I agree. Yetziat Mitzrayim resurrected an eternal covenant between G-d and his people which lies beyond this earth and beyond human history. Of course, the revival of this covenant occurred at a particular historical juncture and influenced the broader trajectory of human experience. At its root though, Pesach lies beyond history. It is a night of Shir Hashirim and of a love-like no other love- between Hashem and his precious but sometimes errant people who He took as His wife. It is not a night of political theory or of social dynamics. It is a night of a marriage in heaven.
Rabbi Sacks restored an important Jewish voice which had vanished for centuries. As he himself writes “Jewish religious imagination, still suffering the effects of trauma and dislocation, has not yet recovered its poise, scope, intellectual breadth, or prophetic depth.” In our generation, Rabbi Sacks pioneered the rediscovery of that intellectual breadth and prophetic depth. I hope that others, many of whom he inspired and continues to inspire, will help us fully recover that voice.
He is correct, that our mission for humanity, which began the night of Pesach, forever changed history. However, Pesach was not a universal revolution, but a moment of national revelation. The march of social progress wasn’t launched on that evening; the march to the promise land was. Amidst the dark nightmarish world of Egypt, amidst unimaginable suffering, Hashem appeared to us affirming His love and His Loyalty to us. Revelation not revolution.
Pesach samei’ach
The writer is a rabbi at Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, a hesder yeshiva. He has smicha and a BA in computer science from Yeshiva University as well as a masters degree in English literature from the City University of New York.
