Judaism

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BLESSING FIT FOR A QUEEN

Dear Rabbi

Now that we’re all gearing up to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, some of us might catch a glimpse of HRH in person and certainly on the telly. I was told there is a blessing to be recited. Is this true and could you share with readers what that blessing is?

Sandy

Dear Sandy

The Talmud states categorically that there is an obligation to recite a special blessing when seeing a monarch. Jewish law codifies this by stating the blessing, Baruch etc. she’noson mikvodo l’basar v’dam. (“Who has bestowed from His glory upon mankind”)

However, the Talmud is vague as to the definition of “monarch” and what kind of authority they must have. This is a matter of debate in the codifiers. Several maintain that an actual monarch requires a blessing regardless of their abilities and duties. Some even specify in particular our Queen as requiring a blessing. However, they are all of the view that this applies only when seeing the monarch in person, and not any other way.

WHAT’S SHAVUOT GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Dear Rabbi

Platinum Jubilee followed by Shavuot. Talk about one long extended holiday. Is there a message in there somewhere?

Efrim

Dear Efrim

I remember my father a”h once telling me how he was in Luton airport heading to Holland to deliver a lecture. At one point he wandered into an area that was devoid of any people. He couldn’t quite understand it. Then he looks up and lo and behold he’s standing literally within arm’s length of her majesty the Queen. He said, “I could literally touch her.” Apparently he wandered past some cordoned off area, and, as this was mid 90’s we were still a little less security conscientious, so no one pounced on him. It was the Queen’s jubilee year and she was opening up a new wing in the airport as part of the yearlong celebrations. And then he stood there deliberating: “Do I or don’t I make a blessing?” Most of us would be standing there thinking, “Oh my, it’s the Queen,” maybe even move in for a selfie, but my father stood there pondering the halachic implications of Queen Elizabeth. When he finally concluded, in what really just a few seconds, that yes, he should recite a blessing, she was already gone. The moment passed him by.

When the Torah was given to us at Sinai we were proclaimed a mamlechet kohanim – a regal nation. We all became kings and queens as it were, tasked with the responsibility of being trailblazers of morality to society. The way to go about that is prescribed in the Torah. Inasmuch as we were given the gift of the Torah on Shavuot, our Sages tell us that every day we should consider the Torah as though given anew. This means there’s tremendous opportunity that presents itself daily by which we are able to make significant differences and maintain our regal bearing. You could literally reach out and seize those opportunities. Don’t hesitate and risk letting the moments pass you by.

JEWS & THE JUBILEE

Dear Rabbi

Should the Jewish community get involved in celebrating the Queen’s jubilee? Do we even recognise such milestones in Judaism?

Harris

Dear Harris

Milestones are important and recognised in Judaism. The Mishna in Ethics of the Fathers talks about the significance of reaching milestone birthdays, from ages 5 through 100.

The Torah itself talks about the importance of a jubilee year. This was celebrated in a big way, with special rituals both in the Temple and throughout Israel. Fifty years is a special milestone and the Torah instructs that every fifty years in Israel should be recognised as such.

But what was the underlying point of all the celebration and commemoration? Was it merely to mark the milestone, or was it something more? The Hebrew for jubilee is Yovel, which comes from the root word havalah which means to move forward. In other words, take this moment and move forward with it. It was a very significant year. Most people would have only ever lived through one. Today, you would be more likely to live through two. But that’s it. It’s a unique moment in time and if you were fortunate enough to be there, to experience it, then you cannot allow the moment to pass you by. You have to Yovel – let the moment move you forward. Consolidate the experience and the inspiration up until this point and build upon it as you enter into the next fifty years.

Quite curiously, the Torah sometimes uses a different term to describe the Jubilee year – Olam. We know the word to ordinarily translate as “world.” Why then is it also used to describe the Jubilee year? Because, I suggest to you, this milestone is essentially a transformative experience and moment in time. Indeed we find other instances where fifty is a transformative phase in Jewish life and living.

For example, the Jewish people left Egypt, counted forty-nine days, and on the fiftieth day they were given the Torah and proclaimed G-d’s nation. They were leaving one life and entering into another. It was a whole new world. In Temple times, a Levite was only allowed to do service in the Temple until the age of fifty. That was his world up until that point, and now he is moving on into something else. So fifty takes you into a new phase of your existence.

One of the primary rituals during the Jubilee year in Israel was the blowing of the Shofar. The commentaries explain that the shofar was sounded for one and all to hear reminding everyone that, they are all in this together. Nothing strengthens the spirit of mankind like universal public action. The fact that everybody is a part of it is the greatest source of encouragement.

If the Queen is marking a platinum jubilee, which, to be frank, anyone celebrating will only ever do so once in a lifetime; and bearing in mind we live in, and benefit from, a benevolent host country, then as the occasion is being marked in a special way, it is only right that we appreciate that we are all in this together and we should get in on the action. With a yearning and a prayer that we will all be propelled from the experience as a united people and a healthy and prosperous nation.

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Pirkei Avot

In Memory of Jacqueline Curzon A’H Perek 4: Mishna 9

This week we meet Rabbi Yonatan, who gives us his precious pearls of advice.

“Whoever learns Torah as a poor man will merit to learn it as a rich man. And vice versa, anyone who neglects Torah study as a wealthy man will end up neglecting it as a poor man.”

As Rabbi Moishe Weiss writes, people will always have excuses not to do something. It’s too hard. It’s too early. It’s too late. Gemoroh is too fast. I need to learn slowly. I would but I am too busy. Our Rabbi tells us that every person is capable of making time to learn Torah and no one can ever say they couldn’t learn at all. No one is that busy. In heaven if they hear someone say he was too poor, they bring our the famous Hillel, who was so poor that he could not afford the entrance fee to the Beit Hamidrash and famously was found unconscious on the rooftop, desperate to hear words of Torah whilst shivering on the rooftop in the freezing snow. They will ask if you were poorer than him? Look how much Torah he learned!

If you say you were too busy, or too good looking and were involved with world affairs, they will wheel out Yosef Hatzadik. A famous rabbi in the Talmud was so wealthy his servants didn’t even recognise him as he had so many, and others were so rich they travelled on a golden chair carried by their servants. Yet all the above made time for Torah. Rich and poor alike they made time for Hashem in their day and so can we. So we MUST! If we all look carefully and honestly at our daily and weekly schedules we can all find little pockets of time here and there to add Hashem’s Torah into our lives. Read a book. Attend a shiur. Watch a shiur online. Five minutes less Netflix per day adds up to 2.5 hours per month of Torah. The Chofetz Chaim did a calculation in his book Torat Habayit, where he calculated how many words a person can say in a minute to work out how many mitzvot you can achieve. As we approach the festival of Torah, let us use this Shavuot to reconnect with Torah like never before, Amen!

Bemidbar Sidra Summary

“God spoke to Moshe in the Wilderness of Sinai” (Bemidbar 1:1)

1ST ALIYA (KOHEN) – BEMIDBAR 1:1-19

On Rosh Chodesh of the second month after the Exodus from Egypt, G-d instructs Moshe and Aharon to take a census of men above the age of 20. (The Talmud adds that men above 60 were not counted). The leader of each tribe is to be present when his tribe is counted. The name of each leader is stated. The census is carried out as commanded.

2ND ALIYA (LEVI) – 1:20-54

The Torah lists the results of the census. The tribe of Reuven numbers 46,500; Shimon 59,300; Gad 45,650; Yehuda 74,600; Yissachar 54,400; Zevulun 57,400; Ephraim 40,500; Menashe 32,200; Binyamin 35,400; Dan 62,700; Asher 41,500; Naftali 53,400. This comes to a total of 603,550 men. The tribe of Levi is not counted with the rest of the tribes. They are assigned to dismantle and transport the Mishkan (Tabernacle) when the nation travels in the desert, as well as to guard the Mishkan when it is stationary.

3RD ALIYA (SHLISHI) – 2:1-34

G-d tells Moshe and Aharon how to position the 12 tribes (other than Levi) around the Mishkan. They are to be organised into four groups of three tribes, each group led by one particular tribe. To the east of the Mishkan are the tribes of Yehuda, Yissachar and Zevulun, led by Yehuda. To the south are the tribes of Reuven, Shimon and Gad, led by Reuven. To the west are the tribes of Ephraim, Menashe and Binyamin, led by Ephraim. To the north are the tribes of Dan, Asher and Naftali, led by Dan.

4TH ALIYA (REVI’I) – 3:1-13

Aharon’s sons are listed. G-d tells Moshe to bring the tribe of Levi to Aharon in order to assist him in his work as the Kohen Gadol. The tribe of Levi is to take over the role that had been designated for the firstborn, who were sanctified on the night of the Exodus from Egypt, when the Egyptian firstborn were killed and they survived.

5TH ALIYA (CHAMISHI) – 3:14-39

G-d tells Moshe to count the men of the tribe of Levi, aged from one month upwards. The count is divided up into three main groups, according to the descendants of Levi’s three sons, Gershon, Kehat and Merari. Each main group, whose constituent families are also listed, is given a different location in relation to the Mishkan. The overall number of Levi’im counted in the census is 22,000.

6TH ALIYA (SHISHI) – 3:40-51

Moshe is told to count the male firstborn and to ‘replace’ them with the Levi’im. The firstborn number 22,273. The extra 273 firstborn (over and above the 22,000 Levi’im) are to give five shekels each in order to redeem their status.

Parshat Bemidbar & Shavuot: What’s Left of Mount Sinai?

BY GAVRIEL COHN

How did we preserve the Divine Revelation at Mount Sinai, of G-d appearing to us amidst the mountain? What lasting memory was there of

this epic event?

Remarkably, the way the Jewish People lived in the desert, as described in Parshat Bamidbar, was an exact model of the Revelation, their encircling camps reflected the order and structure of Matan Torah. The Sanctuary, representing Har Sinai, stood in the middle of the camp, “filled with G-d’s glory.” Its golden vessels symbolised the blazing fire that lit the mountain as “G-d descended upon it.” In the desert, Moshe heard G-d’s voice from atop the Ark just as he had heard it emanating from the peak of Mount Sinai. The formation of the tribes surrounding the Sanctuary were like the angelic groups that gathered around Mount Sinai on that “great and awesome day” (Ramban; R’ Bachya). Later, when the Jewish People settled in the Land of Israel, this same structure, perpetuating the memory of the Divine Revelation, was kept. The city of Jerusalem represented the outer camp of Israel, the encircling tents of the tribes. The Temple Mount represented the camp of Levi, and the holy chambers wherein symbolised G-d’s Sanctuary (Rambam). In short, the very structure and layout of Matan Torah was preserved by how the Jewish People pitched their tents the desert and then in how they lived in the Land, the divine dwelling place always stood in the centre, surrounded by the People.

Sadly, this form is gone from us today (– although perhaps the layout of our Shuls is reminiscent of it). We no longer live in that ordered structure reflecting G-d’s appearance to us at Sinai. What remanent do we now have of “when we stood before G-d at Mount Chorev, when He commanded to Moshe: ‘assemble the people for Me and I will let them hear My words?’”

The philosophers speak of both form and matter, and of objectivity and subjectivity. In other words, the outer shape of something and the inner material or experience within it. Somewhat similarly, we too can speak of those terms in regards to what we still have left of Har Sinai today. True, unlike in the desert or in the Jerusalem Temple, we are devoid of the form and outer structure of that epic Revelation, our houses and suburbs do not encircle the Divine camp. Nevertheless, nowadays, whenever we learn Torah, we still possess the matter, the inner content and personal sensation, we experienced at Mount Sinai.

Whenever a person studies Torah, he is replicating and re-experiencing the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, meeting and uncovering the Divine. As our Sages describe, “every day, an echo resounds from Mount Chorev… whoever learns Torah, the Divine presences rests upon him.” Every question murmured by an unsure student and each Torah thought a child wrinkles his forehead over is part of that remarkable conversation that took place upon Mount Sinai, perpetuating Har Sinai (R’ Soloveitchik). Today, G-d joins our investigations of Torah as well, and the classroom exchanges of a teacher with his young charges is also “uttered by G-d,” so-to-speak, a real-time, modern-day Revelation (Nefesh haChaim, chapter 4). Every act of learning Torah carries the memory and experience of that event of long ago.

So, the form and structure of the Divine Revelation, preserved in the desert encampments and by the Jerusalem Temple, is lost today. We are no longer physically assembled like we once were at Mount Sinai. However, we still preserve the experience of Har Sinai each time we open a sefer, debate a Torah topic, or think briefly about the Parsha. Whenever we study Torah, it is as if we are “standing before G-d at Mount Chorev… hearing His words.”

Whenever a person studies Torah, he is replicating and re-experiencing the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, meeting and uncovering the Divine.

7TH ALIYA (SHEVI’I) – 4:1-19

The specific role of each of the three main families is now detailed, one in this week’s sidra, two in next week’s sidra. The family of Kehat are to take down, transport and reassemble the holy Ark (Aron), the Table (Shulchan), the Menorah, the Golden Altar (Mizbeach Ha’zahav) and the vessels used together with these features of the Mishkan.

HAFTARAH

The start of the haftarah is linked to the sidra, with the Children of Israel compared to “the sand of the sea, which can neither be measured nor counted”. The prophet Hoshea then goes on to liken the sinful Children of Israel to an unfaithful wife. However, they will eventually return to ‘their husband’ (G-d), who will take them back with kindness and mercy.

Gav works as an Account Executive in Public Relations. The views expressed here are entirely his own. Questions? gavcohn@gmail.com

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Shavuot: Why Did G-d Speak With Us

BY RABBI MOSHE TARAGIN

About twenty years ago, I arrived in Chicago’s O’Hare airport for my turnaround flight back to NYC. Entering the airport, I discovered that my flight was delayed. At 1:00 AM, after several hours of waiting patiently, my flight was finally cleared for takeoff. I dragged my tired body onto the plane, taking my seat at the back of the plane, and courteously wishing a “pleasant flight” to the passenger next to me. Finally, after close to sixteen hours of teaching and lecturing, I could enjoy two hours of anonymity, where no one knew my name. Settling in to my gemara, I would soon discover that fate would not cooperate with my plans.

The person next to me curiously inquired about the book I was reading, and I politely responded that I was studying ancient Jewish law. He asked me which area of Jewish law I was reading. As I was studying maseches Niddah, I replied that I was reading about ancient “Jewish hygiene”. At which point he confessed to me that he was Jewish. Here I was, at 30,000 feet and, evidently, I would have a busier flight that I had anticipated.

We made small talk. He was a professor at MIT and I am a Rebbe at the Gush yeshiva, so right off the bat we shared common ground. After I offered him some pedagogic tips, he popped the question I was waiting for: “Rabbi, I always wondered what makes Judaism different from any other religion? After all, faith isn’t empirical but draws entirely from traditions handed down through the generations. Every major religion has its long-standing traditions, so what makes Judaism different?” It would be a long flight.

I explained to him that though Judaism is transmitted in a manner similar to other religions, the content of our tradition is radically different. Most religious traditions speak of miracle workers, dreams containing divine instructions, or personal prophecies. Our tradition asserts something entirely different: G-d spoke directly with an entire nation three million strong. This public revelation was broadly corroborated and could not be attributed to hallucination. No other religion has ever dared assert this audacious notion. We alone spoke directly with G-d.

Sinai isn’t provable but demands a leap of faith, based upon the truths delivered to us throughout the generations. However, once we accept the “truth” of Sinai, we possess absolute “certainty” and direct access to the will of G-d. Mass revelation at Sinai is what distinguishes Judaism from other religions.

A few weeks ago, I was visited by someone struggling with their religious belief. Part of his struggle stemmed from his uncertainty about Sinai and his incredulity that that Hashem actually spoke with us. It was too difficult for him to imagine.

Why is it becoming difficult for our generation to imagine Hashem speaking with an entire nation and delivering immutable truths to them?

First of all, to believe that G-d speaks to us, we must first believe in the glory of Man. Lower beings do not receive the direct word of G-d. Sadly, a four-hundred year long process of devaluation has converted Man from a masterpiece into a monster.

Traditionally, Man was viewed as the pinnacle of creation, a noble creature crafted in the image of His creator. Tragically, that is no longer the human image staring back at us from the abyss. The decline of the dignity of Man began in the 17th century when Copernicus revealed that our world was no longer the “center” of reality. Subsequently, the discovery of fossils suggested that human “history” was just a small blip within a larger timeline spanning millions of years. Copernicus shattered our sense of “space” and fossils obliterated our sense of time. Darwin further devalued Man by illustrating that we are just one small spoke of a larger evolutionary wheel being spun by forces beyond human free will.

As the 19th century English poet Tennyson observed, we are lost a world of “one hundred million years and one hundred million spheres”.

In this cultural whirlwind it is almost impossible to believe in the supremacy of Man and in his distinctive dignity. Instead of a being, brushed by G-d’s splendor, we are reduced into a small infinitesimal collection of genes floating in space and lost in time. As Nietzsche lamented “Gone, alas, is his faith in his dignity, uniqueness, irreplaceableness… he has become animal … rolling faster and faster away from the center into nothingness, into piercing sensation of his nothingness.” Is this “animal of nothingness” a creature G-d would actually speak with?

Jews reject many of the direct conclusions of these philosophies about the history of the Earth or the origin of Man. Yet we still live in a broader culture which does embrace these “truths” and the loss of human dignity is suffered by us all. The world is becoming larger, and we are becoming smaller. Human dignity has been eroded by mass media, market capitalism and misplaced trust in corrupt leaders. We are far less noble and self-respecting than our ancestors.

Faith comes in different levels of intensity. Even though we continue to believe that Hashem spoke with us, how deeply do we identify with that “moment”. How ready are we to submit to its binding truths rather than being swayed by modern convention? Additionally, how deeply do we imagine that Hashem continues to speak with us and continues to lodge personal expectations and demands. For many, the Sinai moment hasn’t vanished but has withered.

For other Jews, Sinai isn’t just faded, it has become abrasive. For some, the specter of Hashem choosing one nation at Sinai rankles their sense of justice and of equality. After all, we all share 99% of the same genetic makeup. Why would Hashem speak with us and not with every other human being created in his image?

Regrettably, the modern world has distorted the terms of our “chosenness”. We weren’t chosen at Sinai for privilege or luxury, but for mission. After 2000 years of theological confusion and moral chaos, Hashem selected us as role models for humanity. Humanity had repeatedly proven incapable of grasping the concept of a “One” G-d nor were they disciplined enough to preserve moral integrity. Hashem selected us to illustrate the dignity of a life of commandments and of restraint. We are meant to model “613” so that humanity is drawn to “7” (Noachide laws). Sinai was the moment we were missioned to history.

Unfortunately, the modern world has erased the words mission, duty or responsibility and replaced them with the terms “rights”, “claims” and “entitlements”. Our market-driven society has become very transactional: which rights does our government owe us and how much will it cost us to attain those rights.

Ideally, humans should live for obligation and responsibility. Protecting human rights is valuable as a precondition to provide humans the resources – both material and emotional- to perform their responsibilities and their missions without inhibition.

In a culture of duty, selection of a chosen people isn’t racist. In a culture of “rights” it feels unjust. Buried in a culture of “rights” some view Sinai as discriminatory and less morally authoritative. They may believe that it occurred, but its truths fell less relevant and less seminal.

On Shavuot, at Sinai, G-d spoke to the only creature worthy of divine revelation. Realizing that humanity had lost its course, Hashem chose one nation to speak to, with the hope that we would relay His message to an unbelieving world. Sinai is the source of Judaism and the more deeply we identify with that “moment” the deeper our faith runs.

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.