This coming Tuesday, July 15th, we will commemorate the 17th of Tamuz, a fast-day.

Five tragedies happened to the Jewish people on this day.

1. The 17th of Tamuz occurs forty days after Shabu’ot. Moshe ascended Mount Sinai on Shabu’ot and remained there for forty days. The people of Israel made the golden calf on the afternoon of the 16th of Tamuz, when they thought that Moshe was not coming down. When Moshe descended from Mount Sinai and saw the Jews worshiping the golden calf, he smashed the tablets which carried the Ten Commandments.

2. Menashe –a Jewish King, the worst sovereign of the Kingdom of Yehuda– placed on that day an idol in the Holy Sanctuary of the Temple of Jerusalem, around the year 700 BCE.

3. In the time of the First Temple, in 587 BCE, the Kohanim (priests) were forced to discontinue the offering of the daily sacrifice. This sacrifice (qorban hatamid) had been offered by the Jews since the time of the exodus of Egypt.  On the 17th of Tamuz of that year this sacrifice could not be offered anymore due to the shortage of animals caused by the siege of the city of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army.

4. Around the year 50 of the Common Era, Apostomus, a Roman captain, seized a Tora scroll and with abusive and mocking language burned the Tora in public. (According to Maimonides it was Apostomus, not Menashe, who besides burning the Tora placed an idol in the Holy Temple as well).

5. In the year 68 CE the walls of Jerusalem were breached after many months of siege by the Roman army. Three weeks after the breach of the wall, the Bet haMiqdash was destroyed on the 9th of Ab.

Because of these five tragedies we fast on the 17th of Tamuz. We also recite special prayers (tahanunim) which inspire us to mourn and repent for our transgressions and the transgressions of our ancestors.

The fast begins at dawn and ends with the appearance of the three stars.

Rabbi Menashe Setton ( סתהון , also Sittehon or Sutton)  was born in Aram Soba (Aleppo) Syria.  He was a great Tora scholar, well versed in secular knowledge like astronomy, philosophy, mathematics and engineering. Although he was an ordained rabbi,  Rabbi Setton supported himself through business initiatives.  Following the tradition of Sephardic rabbis he was also an expert in Hebrew grammar (diqduq).

Rabbi Setton’s most famous book is “kenesiya leshem shamayim”, a “gathering for the sake of heaven”.  In this short book rabbi Setton argues fiercely against a prevalent superstitious ceremony called “Endulzado” (Spanish for “sweetening”).

In the beginning of his book Rabbi Setton describes this practice: Whenever there was a sick member of the family, a women about to give birth, or someone whose loved ones were dying, etc.  they would empty a house, remove all type of Tora books and Mezuzot and display in the floor all kinds of baked sweets, candies, honey, etc. The patient and the expert exorcist would stay and sleep for three consecutive nights in that house. All this time, it was forbidden for the patient to pronounce any word of Tora or Tefila. The exorcist, usually a female, would summon “demons” (shedim) to visit the house. The demons would come into the house freely, because the house was empty of anything “holy” which would drive them away. Once the exorcist felt that the demos were inside the house, she would offer the demons those sweets to appease them and ask them to cure the patient or release the patient from their curse.

Rabbi Setton first explains that this is a flagrant act of idol-worshiping, known in Hebrew as ‘aboda zara, the most serious offense in the entire Tora.  He also explained that these people learned this ceremony from the books of the ancient “sabians”, an ancient pagan sect who worshiped angels and demons.

After describing this practice, rabbi Setton referred to the silence of the rabbis of the city. He said that the reason the rabbis did not denounce this practice was probably because they were not aware of what was going on behind those closed doors. Many of them thought that perhaps, people were just praying in an intense way, etc.  Once the rabbis became aware of what was going on in those houses, ALL the rabbis “gathered together for the sake of heaven” (from here the name of the book) to ban and eradicated this pagan practice.

Rabbi Sutton was widely supported in his efforts by numerous other rabbis from his city (thirty six rabbis from Aleppo signed their approval of his book) as well as from rabbinic leaders in Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed, from both the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities.

Rabbi Menashe Setton died in Alexandria, Egypt in 1876

לע”נ אייל יפרח, נפתלי פרנקל וגיל-עד שאער הי”ד

In this Psalm David haMelekh prays to God to save him from the hand of his enemies.

David recognizes that “His enemies are many, too many” for him to handle.  His enemies are completely aware that they outnumber David and his army.

And this is why they proclaim:

רַבִּים, אֹמְרִים לְנַפְשִׁי אֵין יְשׁוּעָתָה לּוֹ בֵאלֹ-הִים סֶלָה

“David’s life, has no hope anymore.”  The enemies believe that  “Now, not even God can save King David”.

וְאַתָּה ה’ מָגֵן בַּעֲדִי כְּבוֹדִי וּמֵרִים רֹאשִׁי

“But You HaShem, You are my shield”. You protect me against my enemies even before I request Your protection. Some times, I’m not aware that is was You Who saved me. And while You protect my life, “You don’t let my enemies to humiliate me”. You spare my life while “You hold my head up”.

אֲנִי שָׁכַבְתִּי, וָאִישָׁנָה הֱקִיצוֹתִי כִּי ה’ יִסְמְכֵנִי

Knowing that You are on my side, “I lay down in my bed and I’m able to sleep”. Because I know that during the night You are awake,  watching over me. And “when I wake up” in the morning, I’m confident, knowing that “You will sustain me” during the day.

לֹא-אִירָא מֵרִבְבוֹת עָם אֲשֶׁר סָבִיב, שָׁתוּ עָלָי

Knowing that You are on my side, “why should I be afraid of my enemies?” You are my shield, “why should I be afraid, even when millions of brutal enemies are surrounding me from every corner.”

לה’ הַיְשׁוּעָה

“The salvation”, the decision of who will be victorious and who will be defeated in battle, “is YOURS”. We have our army, our wonderful and courageous sons/soldiers who are ready to fight and if necessary, to sacrifice their lives to protect our people. But we know that at the end the “salvation” is Yours. You determine who is victorious and who is defeated.

עַל-עַמְּךָ בִרְכָתֶךָ סֶּלָה

Our enemies are many. Too many to handle by ourselves. They outnumber us greatly. Literally, 100 to 1. For them it is obvious that the end of Israel is inevitable. For them, it is not IF, but WHEN and HOW.  And even when they are busy fighting among themselves and killing each other, we are their biggest goal. The world, most of the world, is divided into two: those who are afraid of our enemies (because they don’t know YOU) and will never act in our defense, and those who are not afraid of our enemies but concur with their ideas that we, Israel, don’t deserve to live in peace.

You are our hope. Our only hope. HaShem, “bestow Your blessing” of victory and peace “upon YOUR people”, upon YOUR children.

The last berakha of the ‘amida, sim shalom, is the blessing in which we ask HaShem for Shalom/peace.

“Grant us peace, goodness, and blessing,
life, grace, kindness and mercy,
for us and on all Israel Your people.
And bless us, our Father, all of us, as one,
with the light of Your Presence…”

Shalom is the highest aspiration of the Jewish people. We do not pray for world dominion or for the death of our enemies. Our ultimate dream is to live in peace with other nations and among ourselves. From the beginning of our history the Tora’s  utmost promise is that, if we will keep HaShem’s commandments we will be left alone by our enemies and live in our land, Israel, in peace and tranquility (Lev. 22:5).  In May 14th, 1948, when the modern State of Israel was established, David Ben Gurion read in the Declaration of Independence “WE EXTEND our hand of peace and unity to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land.” In our days, this Shalom/Peace is still an ideal (utopian?) aspiration.  As if “Peace” could not be considered as the “normal” situation of the Jews but a God given blessing. To certain extent, “Peace” is a miracle, for which we Jews still pray everyday, three times a day.

The text of this berakha is modeled after the most important blessing to be found in the Torah: birkat kohanim. Thus, in birkat Kohainim, we ask for God’s blessing (יברכך), then for HaShem to  enlighten us with His Presence (יאר ה’ פניו) and  we end by asking HaShem to grant us the blessing of peace (וישם לך שלום). In sim Shalom we first ask HaShem to bestow upon us all His blessings (peace, life, kindness, goodness, etc.), then we ask Him to bless us with the light of His presence (וברכנו אבינו…באור פניך) , and we end by requesting HaShem to bless us with strength and peace (עוז ושלום).

The Sephardic custom is to say the same text for this berakha in every ‘amida, while the Ashkenazi custom is to say this berakha in its entirety only when Birkat Kohanim could be recited, namely, in Shaharit and Musaf. This is why the Ashkenazi custom is to replace sim shalom for shalom rab, a shorter version, for Minha and Arbit. 

Rabbi Capsali was born in the Island of Crete (today Greece) in 1420.  Not much is known about his early life, except that he went to study Tora in Germany, became a rabbi and then in 1450 he settled in Constantinople (modern day, Istanbul). 

Rabbi Capsali became very prominent thanks to his closeness with the Turkish Sultan Mehmed the Second, also known as “The Conqueror”. Mehmed II brought the end of the Byzantine empire and conquered Constantinople in 1453. He was one of the most powerful men on the planet in those days. The Sultan appointed Rabbi Capsali as the Chief Rabbi or Hakham Bashi of the Ottoman empire.    

As the Chief rabbi of the Empire, rabbi Capsali was in charge of appointing other rabbis and supervising the collection of taxes coming from the Jews. He also acted as a civil judge. It is said that the Sultan’s respect for the rabbi was because, disguised as a civilian, Mehmed II was present one day while Capsali was rendering his decisions and he assured himself that the rabbi was incorruptible and impartial in his judgments.

The Sultan appreciated so much Rabbi Capsali that he assigned him a seat beside the Mufti, the Muslim highest authority, and above the seat of the Christian patriarch.

One of the most important contribution of Rabbi Capsali to Am Israel is that thanks to his favor with the Sultan, the Sultan opened the gates of his empire to tens of thousands of Jewish refugees who were escaping form the horrors of the Inquisition in Spain and from persecutions they suffered in many Christian countries. The Sultan allowed and even encouraged the Jewish refugees to build homes, synagogues and houses of study (Bate Midrash), and to practice their religion freely.

In 1492, towards the last years of Rabbi Capsali’s life, the great tragedy of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain took place. His advanced age notwithstanding, Rabbi Capsali dedicated himself in soul and body to help the victims of the expulsion. Many Sephardic Jews were captured by pirates when escaping from Spain and were sold as slaves. Rabbi Capsali personally traveled to various Jewish communities in his country to collect funds for Pidyon Shebuim, to redeem these Jews.  It was thanks to rabbi Capsali that the most prominent Sephardic communities in those times flourished in Constantinople and other cities of the Ottoman empire.

Rabbi Capsali died in 1495 at the age of 75 he was succeeded as Hakham Bashi by  Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrahi.

There is a difference in English between killing and murdering. While “killing” is a verb than can be applied to causing the death of humans or animals, “murdering” refers exclusively to the act of killing another human being.

Our rabbis explain that the context of the 10 Commandments refers to actions from a person to another person, and not from a person to someone’s property. The Eight commandment לא תגנב, for example, usually translated as “You shall not steal” has been explained by our rabbis as “You shall not kidnap” (You shall not steal…a person), an unfortunate practice that leads to forced-labor or slavery. There is another commandment in Vayqra (Lev.  19:11) that uses the same words, לא תגנבו, but the context refers to damages against other people’s properties. In Leviticus, therefore, לא תגנבו is translated as: “You shall not steal”. This method, the understanding of a word or a law according to its context, is one of the 13 principles of hermeneutics (=legal interpretation of the Bible) known in rabbinic literature as דבר הלמד מענינו, “a law that is deduced by its context”.

Going back to the Sixth commandment, we should then translate it as “You shall not murder”, referring to the act of killing another human being,  and not “You shall not kill”.

This is a short commandment in terms of its length, just six letters, but it is, perhaps, the most comprehensive in terms of its details, scope, applications, etc.

First, Jewish Law, similar to American Law differentiates  between different levels of murder: premeditated murder, murder by negligence, accidental murder, etc. Then, we also have the case of killing as an act of self defense or preemptive murder.  We also need to define the application of this commandment to complex situations, Halakhic scenarios which are very prevalent in our days. For example: is abortion considered murder? Is euthanasia (=killing a person who is suffering) permitted in Jewish law?  Does Jewish law allow organs’ donation? These subjects require a clear definition of the moment in which life begins or end; quality of life vs. termination of life, passive vs active euthanasia, etc.   In the following weeks BH we will analyze these matters one by one.

The eighteenth berakha of the ‘amida, Modim, is the longest one and the main blessing of the third section of the ‘amida known as hoda-a (gratitude). The Hebrew word modim actually means: “We thank… (You God)”.

After having focused in the previous blessings on what we need and want from God, now we turn our attention to all what we have been given by God. Gratitude, Jewish gratitude, consists in the acknowledgment that God is the ultimate source of what we are, of what we have, and of all good things that happen to us.

The psychological effect of this berakha cannot be underestimated. “Modim” educate us. It trains us to feel a sense of endless indebtedness toward God. As if for a moment, we abandon our selfish sense of entitlement and we reassess the blessings that we usually take for granted. By enumerating the multitude of “gifts” we constantly receive from HaShem, this berakha opens our eyes to appreciate. Appreciation is the prerequisite for gratitude.

It is important to notice that we begin by thanking haShem for being our God. In other words, we express our gratitude to God for having chosen us among the nations.

Then, we turn our attention to the fact that we still exist as a nation, despite having so many enemies who wish we were not here. We acknowledge that our physical survival depends on Him.

This is the beginning of Modim

“We thank You,  that You are HaShem, our God,
and the God of our fathers. (You are our God) for ever.
You are the Protector (tsur=rock) of our lives.
You are our Shield and Savior.

This berakha is so important (second only to magen Abraham) that our rabbis instructed us to bow-down at the beginning (modim anahnu lakh) and at the end of this blessing (hatob shimkha…).

This Mizmor was composed by King David at the beginning of his kingdom. All the kings of Philistines (pelishtim), fearful of the new Jewish King, got together and conspired against David and his people.  The Philistines thought that they could easily defeat David and were singing their own praise.  In verse 2:4 David describes what was happening in heaven while the enemies of Israel were bragging about destroying us.

יושב בשמים ישחק ” [God] the One Who sits in His heavenly [throne] laughs”… at their thoughts.  This powerful literary motif, “HaShem’s laughing” is used here to express that the enemies of Israel, when they plan their battles and attacks against us, they are oblivious of Hashem’s intervention to protect us.

David haMelekh says that although Hashem intervenes in all areas of our personal life, His oversight is absolutely critical when our enemies conspire against us.

In 2:7 David haMelekh explains “how” HaShem protects Israel.

ה’ אמר אלי בני אתה “HaShem told me You are My child”. First, we learn that Hashem loves us as a parent loves his or her child.  But then, David haMelekh takes us to a deeper level of understanding of God’s love for us.    אני היום ילידתיך  “I gave birth to you today“.

Two different motifs are expressed in this verse, a child and a newborn baby. Why?

1. Imagine a mother with her nine years old child in the park. While he would be playing with other kids or on his own, the mother will supervise him. And she will assist him just upon his request. A baby is different than a child.  A newborn baby demands 24/7 attention, supervision and total-care.  The mother would not abandon her newborn child even for single moment. The mother would nurture, help and assist her baby all the time. Even when the baby would not be asking for anything.

2. A nine years old child knows what he needs and recognizes his mother’s intervention in helping him. A baby is not conscious of what he needs. The mother feeds him, nurtures him and protects him without him been aware of his mother intervention!

David haMelekh says that HaShem’s ultimate level of protection is when He takes care of us like a loving mother takes care of her newborn baby.

I think about “Israel” as a baby under haShem’s constant invisible supervision. We all know that many bad things happen all the time. But think about this: Medinat Israel is in the midst of the most volatile area of the planet. Surrounded by the most violent people on earth. Kamikazes, who don’t mind to immolate themselves if they would kill a Jew in the process. People for whom the desire to destroy Israel is the only thing stronger than the desire to destroy each other. And many of those live within Israel. We are all very, very sad for all the bad things happening in Israel right now. But at the same time we need to be in awe, and very grateful to haShem, for all the many tragedies that are not happening in Israel, and we are not even aware of.  Our incredible IDF has a great part in this endeavor, and they are surely acting as agents of HaShem in protecting our people. But above every human effort, it is HaShem who protects us in ways that we, like a newborn baby, can’t even begin to realize.