Reminds Me of a King

Mekorot in Honour of Tikkun Leyl Shavuot 5783

Mashal LeMelech

Louis Jacobs, Principles of the Jewish Faith

Maimonides is of the opinion that whatever attributes we use of God are to be understood in a negative sense. They do not tell us what God is but what He is not. Thus when we say that God is one we do not really mean to imply that we know anything about God's true nature but we merely affirm that He is not a plurality of beings. Or when we say that God is compassionate we refer to His acts, which if done by humans would be due to compassion, and that He is not cruel. Even when we say that God exists we mean that He is not non- existent.

Bereishit Rabba 2:2

The heaven and the earth… the earth was Tohu VaVohu R. Abbahu said: This may be compared to the case of a king who bought two slaves on the same bill of sale and at the same price. One he ordered to be supported at the public expense, while the other he ordered to toil for his bread. The latter sat bewildered and astonished [Tohe v’Vohe]: 'Both of us were bought at the same price exclaimed he, 'yet he is supported from the treasury whilst I have to gain my bread by my toil!'

Kach the earth sat bewildered and astonished, saying, ' The celestial beings [sc. the angels] and the terrestial ones [sc. man] were created at the same time: yet the celestial beings are fed by the radiance of the Shechinah, whereas the terrestial beings, if they do not toil, do not eat. Strange it is indeed!'

… Rabbi Tanchuma said Mashal LeVen Melech who was sleeping in his cradle, but his nurse was shocked and confused [Tohe v’Vohe]. Why? Because she knew that she was going to be punished under his hands.

Kach, the earth saw that she was going to be punished under the hands of humanity, as it is written "Cursed be the earth for your sake" (Genesis 3:17). Therefore the earth was Tohu VaVohu.

Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash

The very conventionality of the mashal-proper is thus its essential element and meaning. Seen in this light, it bears a semiotic function similar to "Once upon a time, there were three brothers" in folktales, by which we know: the third brother will do something which is good, from which we are to learn.

Thus the mashal assigns the roles, as it were, to the characters in the nimshal as the King's counsellors, sons, friends, pedagogues, guards, etc., providing us the semiotic code.

 

David Stern, "Rhetoric and Midrash: The Case of the Mashal," Prooftexts

The Mashal differs distinctly from [‘allegory’ and ‘parable’]: … to bring a certain message to bear upon an ad hoc situation before its audience by suggesting it to them through an allusive tale. The allegorical, or symbolic, or referential features of the mashal exist only for the sake of enabling its audience to grasp for themselves the ulterior message the mashal bears.

In literary forms like the mashal, midrashic exegesis - its microstructure - is used merely as a raw material, as it were, for compositions whose intended purpose moves far beyond exegesis into the macrostructures of midrashic literature, (p. 276)

 

Shir HaShhirim Rabba 1:8

The rabbis say: Do not let this mashal be light in your eyes, for by means of this mashal one comes to comprehend the words of Torah. A mashal: To a king who has lost a golden coin from his house or a precious pearl – does he not find it by means of a wick worth a penny? Similarly, let not this mashal be light in your eyes, for by means of this mashal one comes to comprehend the words of Torah.

 

1.    Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael Lauterbach I,224

And the angel of God, going before the Camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the Pillar of Cloud moved from before them and went after them (Exod. 14:19).

R. Yehudah said: a mashal; to what is the matter similar? To a king who

was going on the way, and his son went before him. Brigands came to

kidnap him from in front. He took him from in front and placed him behind

him. A wolf came behind him. He took him from behind and placed him in

front. Brigands in front and the wolf in back he (He) took him and placed

him in his (His) arms, as is said, "I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them on

My arms" (Hos.ll:3). The son began to suffer, he (He) took him on his shoulders, as is said, "in the desert which you saw, where the Lord your God carried you" (Deut. 1:31). The son began to suffer from the sun; he (He) spread on him his cloak, as is said, "He has spread a cloud as a curtain" (Ps. 105:39). He became hungry; he (He) fed him, as is said, "Behold I send bread, like rain,

from the sky" (Exod. 16:4). He became thirsty, he (He) gave him drink, as is said, "He brought streams out of the rock" (Ps. 78:16).

2.    Sifrei Devarim 313

"He found him in a desert land" (Devarim 32:10)

This refers to our father Abraham. Mashal - A king and his soldiers go out to the wilderness, whereupon his soldiers bring him to a place of afflictions, invaders, and marauders, and they abandon him — whereupon there joins him a hero, who says to him: King, do not despair; fear nothing. I swear not to leave you until you return to your palace and sleep in your bed, as it is written (in respect to Abraham, Genesis 15:7) "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur Kasdim, etc."

3.    Bereishit Rabba 39:1

"God said to Abram, 'Go forth from your land…'" (Genesis 12:1)

Rabbi Yitzchak said: Mashal - a man who was traveling from place to place when he saw a castle aglow. He said, "Is it possible that this castle lacks a person to look after it?" The owner of the building looked at him and said to him, 'I am the master of the castle.'" What happened with Abraham our father was similar. He said, “Is it possible that this universe lacks a person to look after it?," the Holy Blessed One looked at him and said to him, 'I am the Master of the Universe.'"

And let the king be aroused by your beauty since he is your master (Psalms 45:12) And let the king be aroused for your beauty in the universe. Hence, God said to Abram, [go forth...]

 

4.   Leviticus 18:3

You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws.

 

Leviticus Rabba 23

Rabbi Hunya said: Mashal - a king who had an only daughter and he caused her to dwell in a particular alley and they all turned out to be masters of licentiousness (ba’alei zenut). He went and caused her to dwell in another alley and they all turned out to be masters of licentiousness and masters of magic (ba’alei keshafim). Her father said to her, “My daughter, give it your attention so that you will not practice like the practice or these or like the practice of those.” Thus, when Israel was in Egypt, the Egyptians were masters of licentiousness – “. . . whose members were like those of asses . . .” (Ezek. 23:20). And when they entered the land of Canaan, the Canaanites were masters of licentiousness  and masters of magic – “Because of the countless harlotries of the harlot (zenunei zonah), the winsome mistress of sorcery (ba’alat keshafim)” (Nahum 3:4). The Holy Blessed One said to them, “My child, be cautious not to practice either like the practice of these or like the practice of those.” Thus it is written, “You shall not copy the practices ...”

5.    Talmud Yerushalmi Taanit 2:2

R. Levi said: What is the meaning of erekh ‘apayim? (lit. long in anger) Mashal – a king who had two tough legions. The king said, “If [the legions] dwell with me in the province, when the citizens of the province anger me, [the legions] will make a stand against [the citizens]. Instead, I will send the legions far away so that if the citizens of the province anger me, before I have a chance to send for [the legions], the citizens of the province will appease me and I will accept their appeasement.”

Kach the Holy Blessed One said, “Af and Hemah [synonyms for anger] are angels of devastation. I will send them far away so that if Israel angers me, before I have chance to send for them and bring them, Israel will do teshuvah and I will accept their teshuvah.” This is that which is written, They come from a distant land, from the edge of the sky [God and the weapons of his wrath–to ravage all the earth] (Isaiah 13:5).

6.   Rambam Guide to the Perplexed 3:51 (Last chapter)

I will begin the subject of this chapter with a simile. A king is in his palace, and all his subjects are partly in the country, and partly abroad. Of the former, some have their backs turned towards the king’s palace, and their faces in another direction; and some are desirous and zealous to go to the palace, seeking “to inquire in his temple,” and to minister before him, but have not yet seen even the face of the wall of the house. Of those that desire to go to the palace, some reach it, and go round about in search of the entrance gate; others have passed through the gate, and walk about in the ante-chamber; and others have succeeded in entering into the inner part of the palace, and being in the same room with the king in the royal palace. But even the latter do not immediately on entering the palace see the king, or speak to him; for, after having entered the inner part of the palace, another effort is required before they can stand before the king—at a distance, or close by—hear his words, or speak to him.

I will now explain the simile which I have made. The people who are abroad are all those that have no religion, … I consider these as irrational beings, and not as human beings… Those who are in the country, but have their backs turned towards the king’s palace, are those who possess religion, belief, and thought, but happen to hold false doctrines…But those who have succeeded in finding a proof for everything that can be proved, who have a true knowledge of God, so far as a true knowledge can be attained, and are near the truth, wherever an approach to the truth is possible, they have reached the goal, and are in the palace in which the king lives.

 

7.    The Tainted Grain -  A Parable of Rebbe Nachman of Breslav (1772-1810)

A King once told his Prime Minister who was also his good friend, 'I see in the stars that whoever eats any grain that grows this year will go mad. What is your advice?'

The Prime Minister replied, 'We must put aside enough grain so that we will not have to eat from this year's harvest.'

The King objected, 'But then we will be the only ones who will be sane. Everyone else will be mad. Therefore they will think that we are the mad ones. It is impossible for us to put aside enough grain for everyone. Therefore we too must eat this year's grain. But we will make a mark [Heb. ot] on our foreheads, so that we will know that we are mad. I will look at your forehead, and you will look at mine, and when we see this sign [Heb. ot], we will know that we are both mad.'

 

Science and Religion – On the Eve of Shavuot

On Wednesday’s Radio 4 PM programme, former Cabinet minister Michael Portillo gave a critique of the Prime Minister’s appearance before the House of Commons Liaison Committee.

“For a long time, the government has been saying the government is being guided by the science. I hope we all know by now there is no such thing as “The Science.” It’s open to the Prime Minister to say, “I’m not going to accept your advice on 2 metres if the World Health Organisation says 1 metre, I’ll go with that.” The point the former politician was making is that decision-taking requires more than science, science presents options.

I was reminded of a moment on Radio 3’s Sunday Feature, ‘Writing Across Distance.’ Writer Dava Sobel shared her fear that “at the end of the lockdown, when immunologists have vanquished the coronavirus, we’ll relapse into disregard of the far larger [ecological]disaster in store.” Sobel read from Jane Hirschfield’s poem;

On the fifth day, the scientists who study the rivers were forbidden to study the rivers or to speak.

The scientists who study the air were forbidden to speak of the air.

And the ones who worked for the farmers and the one who spoke for the bees.

The facts were told not to speak and were taken away.

The facts, surprised to be taken were silent,

And now it was only the rivers that spoke of the rivers and the winds that spoke of the bees.

There’s a lot of science around, and it’s saving lives, and it will save more lives. But at the heart of the decisions that face us … none of us is purely guided by the science. For one thing, science isn’t designed to guide us. For another, a lot of science is complex and doesn’t translate well into guidance. But most importantly, and this is something scientists who hope to save our battered planet understand perfectly well, we make decisions based on psychology, social mores, ethics and a bunch of other invisible and unprogrammable parts of our psyche. And when scientific clarity comes up against these parts of our psyche – the invisible unscientific parts of our psyche prove dominant time and time again.

That’s where religion comes in. Religion is designed to guide. It’s designed to help us understand why chasing after immediate pleasure is not in our best interests. Religion helps us to care for things that are more important than self-interest. Religion is capable of moving us more powerfully than scientific papers or front-page journalism. For sure religion can guide in wrong directions, but it can also help humanity direct itself towards the decent and the good. I would claim religion have been the greatest force of turning towards the good in human history.

It’s this turn to a value beyond the immediate that is at the heart of religion. And for us, as Jews, it is revelation that is this moment. Revelation is the response to our lifting our hearts in search of something that means more than self-interest. Revelation contains our attempt to use the gifts of science for good, for peace and for security. It’s a battered world and a precarious one. But the path out of darkness is one we know to treat. It’s a path guided by the insights of science, but requiring also the illuminated of revelation.

Tonight, Shavuot begins. This is our moment to celebrate revelation. Join us for a Zoom Tikkun Leyl. I’ll be teaching, together with Rabbi Natasha, Chazan Stephen and Lester. 6:30pm in our normal Zoom service room. There is plenty of material on our FB page including my son’s leyning the Ten Commandments, Rabbi Natasha and I offering introductions to the Ten Commandments, liturgy from Chazan Stephen and tales and packs for youth to use.

Chag Sameach,

Rabbi Jeremy

Wherever You Go I Go

This time next week we will be on the cusp of Shavuot. The exodus, begun at Pesach, reaches the moment of revelation. But perhaps the most glorious Biblical text, associated with the holiday, is the Book of Ruth.

In this stunning novella Naomi loses both her sons and turns to her daughters-in-law and attempts to send them away. She is too old to have another husband, she tells them, and even if she were to remarry and have more sons, how could they possibly await their maturation? No, Naomi insists, she has nothing to offer these young women, and indeed Orpah does leave her. But Ruth does not.

Ruth’s response to being turned away is one of the great verses of the entire Torah, ‘‘Don’t entreat me to leave you; for wherever you go, I will go, where you will dwell, I will dwell, your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Where you die I will die and there will I be buried.’ It is a verse of utter commitment. We say to converts - in the blessing shared at the Bet Din, that they have ‘thrown their lot in with the people of the God of Abraham.’ Their model - our model - is Ruth.

Naomi has tried to send Ruth away, or at the very least void any responsibility she might feel to stay. She has, she says heart wrenchingly, nothing to offer. But she has failed to understand Naomi’s commitment to her adopted family. Her commitment is not predicated on what she can get. It’s predicated on love. This is the stuff of Buber.

Martin Buber’s great work, I and Thou, suggests there are two kinds of relationships; ones founded on reciprocity - what is there in it for me - called ‘I-It’ relationships, and then there are the ‘I-Thou’ relationships, not predicated on reciprocity. In these latter, far more rich relationships, the things we do for others are done out of love of them, they are not selfish, they are not calculating, they are open hearted. This is why this story becomes such a touchstone for conversion to Judaism - we want converts who convert from love, not because of what they might get out of a relationship with Judaism. This is why this story is such a touchstone for any relationship with Judaism. Indeed any relationship at all. When we do things for love we make Ruth’s declaration - we go with you wherever you go. When we calculate, measure and plot we live our life as a series of I-It relationships. So, as we near Shavuot, come up the mountain, don’t calculate. Just leap.

We are excited to celebrate Shavuot with you. We have a stunning Tikkun Leyl planned, with the wonderful Josh Baum and other guests sharing Torah, and opening hearts - and ice-cream tubs. Come for dinner or come for the evening or stay all night. Come for our regular morning services, in particular the welcome on second day of Yom Tov - also featuring Yizkor, is particularly warm. More information on booking for the Tikkun Leyl dinner is here - hurry booking deadline is soon.

Shabbat shalom

Rabbi Jeremy

On Revelation, Polemics and Reality

 

These are the sources from my Tikkun Leyl Shavuot shiur.
The idea was to look at the relationship between what the Mesorah says about Judaism and the kinds of langauge that polemically engaged Rabbis use to describe Judaism. You'll miss the white fire between the black fire, but I hope the sources will be of interest.

The first part of the shiur addresses revelation. I suggest the kinds of statements we recognise from contemporary orthdoxy do not reflect the full range of the Masorah, but rather can be seen as polemical responses. They do, of course, reflect the Rambam's teachings, but I aruge that these teachings should also be seen as polemical - engaging, as they do, with a critque from Islam directed at the Rabbis for 'changing' the Torah.

The second part of the shiur looks at a broader polemic engagement of ultra-orthdoxy, claiming that the Mesorah is opposed to all change, noting that some of the key battleground issues of the mid 1800s were indeed permitted by authorities such as Josef Karo and Moshe Isserlis.

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Revelation and the Origins of Jewish Fundamentalism

 

Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1

All of Israel have a portion in the world to come, apart from these … the one who says the Law is not from Heaven and heretic. Rabbi Akiva says, also one who reads the external books. [sefarim hahitzonim]

 

Rambam, Commentary on Mishnah

The Eighth principle of faith.
That is that the Torah has been revealed from heaven, this implies our belief that the whole of this Torah, found in our hands today is the Torah which was handed down by Moses and that it is all of divine origin. By this I mean that the whole of the Torah  came unto him from before God in a manner which is metaphorically called 'speaking' but the real nature of the communication is unknown to everybody except Moses (peace to him) to whom it came…

And there is no difference between verses like And the sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim, Phut and Canan (Gen 10:6) or And Timnah was concumbine (Gen 26:12) and verses like I am the Lord your God and Hear O Israel.

 

Newman, Faith & Knowledge of God

The entire text, in every detail, now in our possession is the one given to Moses at Sinai .

 

Lamm, The Condition of Jewish Belief

I accept unapologetically the idea of the verbal revelation of Torah… [God] willed that man abide by His commandments and that that will was communicated in discrete words and letters. The Divine will, if it is to be made known, is sufficiently important for it to be revealed in as direct, unequivocal and unambiguous a manner as possible…Language, though so faulty an instrument is still the best means of communication to most human beings.

 

Drosnin, Bible Codes 

 

 

Exodus 19/20 

God said to Moses, 'Go down, warn the people…' … And Moses when down to the people and spoke to them. [parshat stumah]

God spoke all these words saying …

Exodus 34

And the Lord said to Moses, Cut two tablets of stone like the first; and I will write upon these tablets the words that were in the first tablets, which you broke.

 

Exodus 17:13-14 

And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and recite it in the ears of Joshua; for I will completely put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

Deuteronomy 17

And it shall be, when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Torah in a book from that which is before the priests the Levites;

 

Devarim  Rabba 3:12, Ekev 12

Reish Lakish said that at the time Moses wrote the Torah he received a facial radiance [lit. ziv hapanim, see Exodus 34:29]. How did this happen? Reish Lakish said that Torah was given to Moses on a scroll of white fire and was carved with black fire, and the Torah was fire enwrapped with fire. While writing [Moses, at a certain point,] dried the reed on his hair, and from this he received a radiance.

 

Tanuhuma , Bereishit 1

It is taught about the verse

ולא תחללו את שם קדשי

'And they shall not profane my holy name' that if you make the letter heit into a hey you destroy the world.

It is taught about the verse

כל  הנשמה תהלל יה 

All that breathes should praise God, that if you make the letter hey into heit you destroy the world .

 

Talmud  Yerushalmi Taanit 4:2

Three books were found in the Temple court: Meoni, Zatuti and Hi. In one they found meon and in two they found meonah (Deut 33:27). They upheld the two and set aside the one. In one they found zatuti and in on two they found naari (Ex 24:5). They upheld the two and set aside the one. In one they found nine times Hi and in two they found eleven times Hi. They upheld the two and set aside the one .

Kimhi, Introduction to Commentary on Prophets

These variant words apparently developed because during the First Exile, the texts were lost, the scholars dispersed and the Torah Scholars died. The Men of the Great Assembly who restored the Torah to its former state found differences in the texts and followed the reading of those they believed to be in the majority. When they were not clear about this, they wrote one version without pointing it, or they wrote it in the margin and not in the text, or they …

 

Jeffrey Tigay

All forms of the Tanakh used today are forms of what is known as the Masoretic Text, abbreviated "MT," named after the medieval scholars (the Masoretes) who labored for several centuries to produce the most accurate text they could. The MT in use today is based on Masoretic manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries C.E., themselves based on older manuscripts. It has been largely unchanged since late Second Temple times (ca. the third century B.C.E., as reflected in the earliest of the Dead Sea scrolls from Qumran). But although the text has been largely unchanged, there is a large number of variant readings, most of which do not materially change the meaning of the text, but drastically affect the number of letters it contains. In fact, in the oldest complete manuscript of the entire Bible, Leningrad Codex B19A which was finished in 1009 C.E., the Torah has some 45 letters more than the 304,805 of the Koren edition .

 

Exodus 19 

God said to Moses go to the people and warn them to stay pure today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes. Let them be ready for the third day…

And Moses came down from the mountain to the people and warned the people to stay pure and they washed their clothes and he said to the people, 'be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.'

 

Ex 11:4-5

Moses said to Pharaoh, 'Thus said the Lord, "Towards midnight (c'hatzot) I will go forth among the Egyptians and every firstborn … shall die."

Ex 12:29 

In the middle of the night (b'hatzot) God struck all the firstborns.

Talmud  Berakhot 3b

Towards midnight? Can we say that the Holy Blessed One said to Moses 'toward midnight' Can there be any uncertainty in heaven? We have to say that God said 'at midnight' and then Moses said 'toward midnight.'

 

Genesis Rabba 

And they went towards Sodom but Abraham still stood before the Lord  R. Simon said: This is an emendation of the Soferim – tikkun sofrim, for the Shechinah was waiting for Abraham.

Albo Sefer Ikkarim

The meaning is not that any person changed anything in the Torah, G-d forbid, because no one would forge a book and then say "forged this" or "I changed this." How could they say that the Scribes changed it? Rather, the meaning is that... [the Torah spoke] like a scribe who changes his words out of respect for God."

 

Baba Batra 14b 

Moses wrote his books, the portion of Bilaam and Job. Joshua wrote his book and the last eight verses of the Torah.

 

Deuteronomy 1:2

These are the words which Moses spoke to all the people beyond the Jordan .

Ibn Ezra, Deut 1:2

If you know the secret of the twelve  and And Moses wrote (Ex 24:4, Num 33:2, Deut 31:9 ), and the Cananite was then in the land (Gen 12:6) and … you will discover the truth.

 

Rav Yehiel Yaacov Weinberg 

Rambam knew very well that these [texts] existed when he defined his principles. The words of Rambam must not be taken literally, implying that all the letters of the present Torah are the exact letter given to Moshe Rebbeinu. Rather is should be understood in a general sense that the Torah we learn and live by is for all intents and purposes the same Torah that was given to Moshe Rabbeinu.

 

Koran II 75,79

Do you then hope that they would believe you, some of you did indeed hear the word of God, then altered it after they had understood it, and they know [this] … Woe then to those who write the Book with their hands and then say this is from God .

 

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Devarim Rabbah 8:6

What is the meaning of [Torah] is not in Heaven (Deut 30:11)?

Shmuel said: The Torah is not to be found amongst astrologers who gaze at the heavens. People said to Samuel, 'But you are an astrologer!' He replied: 'I only learn astrology when I am free from studying Torah.' They said to him 'When is that?' He said 'When I am in the bath .'

 

Hatam Sofer Shutim HM 197 (1835)

[The community should elect a proper Rabbi] not, God forbid, one of those fraudlent pamphleteers who read external books and emply the vernacular [lozim belaz']. It is forbidden to receive Torah from his lips, it is likened to planting a grove dedicated to Asherah in the Temple.

 

Akiva Yosef Scheisinger Naar HaIvri

The halachah is clear, whoever negates in the study of external books is a sinner and an apostate because who is there in our time who has mastered the Talmud and the poskim (and even he would be permitted only to study natural science)? Those who read books of passion [novels], and almost all German books are such, not to mention philosophy and the books of heresy, their fate is clear. Rabbi Akiva states they have no share in the world to come.

 

Jewish Encyclopaedia, Breslau Seminary, Judisch-Theologisches Seminar, 1854

The institution had at the beginning three divisions, namely: the regular rabbinical department, which admitted only such students as were entitled to enter the university; the preparatory department, receiving students who possessed the knowledge required for entrance to the "Secunda" of a Prussian gymnasium; and a training-school for religious teachers.

 

Samson Raphael Hirsch, Religion Allied with Progress

The more the Jew is a Jew, the more universalist will be his views and aspirations, the less alien will he be to anything that is noble and good, true and upright in the arts and sciences, in civilization and culture… The more the Jew is a Jew, the more gladly will he give himself to all that is true progress in civilization and culture – provided that in this new circumstance he will not only maintain his Judaism, but will be able to bring it to ever more glorious

fulfilment.

 

Pesak of Michalowce, 1865

Bimah at front of Synagogue

Choir

Robes

Preaching in German (rather than Yiddish)

Wedding in the Shul

Deemed 'houses of heresy', banned from attending .

 

Rema, SA, EH 61

Some say the Huppah should be held under the open heaven.

 

Karo, Kesef Mishnah, MT Tefillah 11:3

Placement [of the bimah] in the centre is not mandatory, everything depends on the time and place. In times when Synagogues were very large the bimah had to be placed in the center so that all the people would hear. But in our time, when unfortunately our Synagogues are small and everyone can hear well, it is more pleasing that is be to one side, rather than in the middle.

 

Schelsinger, Lev HaIvri 39b

These are the things which out saintly forefathers transmitted to us as the very root of Jewishness [shorshei ha-yahadut]; name, language, dress [shem, lashon, malvush – And Jacob arrived 'shalem' in the City of Shechem Gen 33:18] … These three things were instituted by our ancestors in Egypt and because of their merit the Jewish were worthy of being redeemed. On balance they outweigh all the commandments of the Torah, as stated in Tanna deBei Eliyahu.

 

Tana deBei Eliyahu 1 23:4

King David used to praise those who went out of Egypt. Even the one commandment they possessed brought much more pleasure to God than several of our commandments … They drew up a covenant that they will do acts of lovingkindness, that they will preserve circumcision,  that they will not abandon the language of Jacob and that they will not learn the language of Egypt because of the ways of idol worshippers .

 

Mishnah, Orlah 3:9 - Teshuvot Hatam Sofer OH 28 

Hadash Asur MiDeoraita bchol makom

• New is forbidden as a Torah mandate everywhere.
• New[ly grown wheat product from plants that took root after Pesach of the first year] is forbidden as a Torah mandate [from the time they are harvested until the bringing of the omer offering on Pesach of the following year, whether the wheat grew in the Land of Israel or beyond.]

 

Hatam Sofer Responsa OH 28

Any change in the custom of our ancestors, even if it is not intended in imitation of the gentiles, or even if it is not halachically interdicted, is nonetheless forbidden because it deviates from the tradition of our forefathers. … Someone once asked, why, if we need to be cautious concerning the customs of our forefathers, should we utilize new useful things which gentile scientists have invented in our times? They answered him. In matters of human affairs, certainly the new is preferred over the old, for all that is new adds benefit; a rule which does not apply in the conduct of religion, whose source is God.

 

Hillel Lichtenstein

Take care my children. It is a difficult skill to know the four parts of the Shulchan Arukh, but it can be mastered. But in order to know the fifth Shulhan Arukh – to rule and teach in accordance with the state of the generation and the demands of the time and place, to gather and disperse, to rule leniently or stringently – that requires great assistance from heave.

 

Hatam Sofer, Kan Sofer letter 61

It is not that we do not know how to rule leniently, on the contrary. But we do know very clearly that in the present state of decline of our poor generation, faith is endangered on all sides. And everyone should admit that a weak sick body needs more care and protection than a healthy body.

 

Lev HaIvri, end Vol 2.

Every rule in the Shulchan Arukh is equal to the Ten Commandments and every Jewish custom is equal to the Ten Commandments.

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Looking Back and Forwards

A moment to look back – a lifetime to look forward

 

This has been a wonderful week to be part of the community. The tremendous success of our Torah Hadashah celebration on Sunday was a highlight of my time at New London. Two hundred members, from tots to nonagenarians shared in the completion of the sefer torah, there was infectious klezmer music, a flawless and beautiful first reading, in the name of Ronnie Kosmin by his daughter Joanne, and the premier performance of Julian Dawes’ piece, Shema. Even the scribe, who had come from Israel to deliver the scroll to us remarked how committed everyone seemed to the project, how excited everyone in the community was to receive this new Sefer. In amongst so much good done by so many it might appear invidious to pick out any highlights, but I do want to applaud, particularly, the members of the Cheder, lead by Susannah Alexander, for their two terrific performances, funny, touching and wonderfully well sung. Photographs and videos will shortly be arriving on a web-site near you.

 

And then we journeyed on to Shavuot. The Tikkun Leyl was wonderfully attended – my thanks to all who booked following last Friday’s e-mail (though our wonderful caterer Jon Kaye would like us to stress how much earlier bookings make it possible to cater on the scale we are now accustomed to).

 

If Torah Hadashah was the marking of the gift of a tangible physical Torah, Shavuout is the marking of the gift of Torah in its broadest, poetic sense. We have been gifted tremendous gifts, this last week. And now the obligation follows in their wake. We are called upon to tend and care for our most precious gifts, to hold fast to them and in so doing bulwark not only our inheritance, but also our future.

 

My grateful thanks, again, to all the Kosmin family, to everyone who took part in Torah Hadashah and our Shavuot celebrations and Shabbat Shalom

 

Rabbi Jeremy

 

Up late, Must be Shavuot Coming

The count-up to Shavuot is reaching its climax.

The Omer has been ticking away these past 43 days and this coming Thursday evening we will celebrate.

Our celebrations at New London will involve food – of course – and learning.

 

Shavuot is curiously bare as a festive celebration. In Temple times it was the festival of the first fruit and pilgrims would present the priests with baskets of fruit while reciting a special formula which spoke of their place in the holy narrative of their people. When the Temple was destroyed that ritual ended and even the special formula (which begins, ‘Our ancestor was a wandering Aramean’) was stripped away from Shavuot – it is now a core part of the Passover Seder.

But just as nature abhors a vacuum, so too the Rabbis, and particularly the mystics.

First Shavuot is connected to the moment of revelation – on Sinai.

Next comes a charming midrash that suggests that the Children of Israel overslept on the night before revelation and God had to wake them/us up.

So develops the tradition of fixing the error of the night of Shavuot –literally Tikkun Leyl Shavuot – preparing ourselves through the night to arrive at the dawn ready to consider ourselves as if we personally received the revelatory experience of Sinai (and now Shavuot draws from the narrative of Passover – as if you yourself went forth from Egypt).

 

The theology of our community is one of liberal supernaturalism.

We are rational, we understand history, but we remain ‘souls open,’ turned towards the miraculous.

So, when it comes to Tikkun Leyl, we know it is a Rabbinic construction and we can date the origins of this piece of the ritual and that.

But to spend the night in study, to watch the sun rise in the morning and to greet the dawn with prayer is a glorious way to plug into the power of the day, the history of our people and the moment, at the heart of our Jewish experience, when God spoke at Sinai and the mountain quaked and the people saw lightening and heard thunder.

 

There will be Shacharit next Friday morning beginning at the normal time, but if you are persuadable, do join us for the dawn chorus. The learning through the night will be great fun, the angels may well appear and there is no better way to re-experience the moment of revelation.

Shabbat shalom,

 

Rabbi Jeremy