When King Aḥashverosh appointed Haman as his Chief of Staff he ordered all the officers of the King’s court to bow-down to him. Everyone did, except Mordekhay.  As we explained yesterday (here) Haman’s reaction (his personal revenge!) to Mordekhay disobedience was the plan to execute all the Jews.

 We know of other occasions in which Jews have bowed down to others as a signal of respect.  So, why Mordekhay refused to honor Haman? The key to understand Mordekhay’s disobedience seems to be the word: “kore’im” (Esther 3:2) “everyone knelt and bowed down to Haman”.  In the Tora the verb leahishtaḥavot  (bowing down) is applied mostly in the context of prostrating in front of God. But we also find many times in the Tora that Jews bowed down to other people as an expression of respect. Abraham bowed down to the Hittites, Ya’aqob to Esav and Moshe to Yitro.  What we never find, however, is that people kneeled down to other people for respect. Knelling down (keri’a) has a religious connotation. As an expression of honor, kneeling down is an act of religious worship. We say in ‘alenu leshabeaḥ that we reserved “kneeling down” exclusively to HaShem (ki LEKHA tikhra’ kol berekh)!

As our Rabbis explained, kneeling to Haman (or to the idol he was carrying) was an act of idol-worshiping.  Mordekhay was following the example of  Ḥanania, Mishael and Azaria, the three Jews that 100 years before him refused to kneel down to worship Nebuhadnezzar statue, and were condemned to death.  Mordekhay assumed that, same as  Nebuhadnezzar,  King Aḥashverosh will order his execution as well. Mordekhay was ready to sacrifice his life (‘al qiddush haShem) to avoid idolatry, setting the example to all the Jews.

The villain of the story of Purim is Haman ben Hamedata, a descendant of Amaleq. King Aḥashverosh appointed Haman as his Vizier (or Chief of Staff).  The King also issued an unusual order (Esther 3:2) all the officers of the Kings’s court must bow-down to Haman. Everyone followed the King’s order except one man: Mordekhay (tomorrow, BH, we will discuss why) . When Haman learned about Mordekhay’s affront, “he disdained to lay hands on Mordekhay alone” (3:6), and anticipating the practices of the mafia, he decided instead to kill all of Mordekhay’s brothers and sisters: the entire Jewish nation. As we have explained, the Persian empire covered all the civilized world, so every single Jew in the planet was a target of Haman’s decree. Including more than 50,000 Jews that were living by that time in Israel.

How would Haman execute his pan? To persuade the King was very easy. Among other things, because there were zero operating costs involved. On the contrary: in exchange for his executive order Haman offered the King a lot of money for the Royal treasure (3:9). Now, how would Haman recruit so many soldiers and forces to find and execute hundreds of thousands of Jews?

Haman came up with a shrewd evil plan, which the Megila briefly describes with two words: ushlalam la-boz. A Royal Decree was sent saying: “If you kill a Jew on a certain day (Adar 13), you are not to be prosecuted. The police  will not oppose you. Moreover: you can keep the Jew’s money, his assets and his properties”. It was a genius plan! There was no need for professional army forces, trains to transport the Jews to death camps or gas chambers. Our Rabbis explained that there was no shortage of volunteers. Many people, particularly those who were not sympathetic to the Jews, were fighting among themselves to be the first to kill the Jews and keep their money!

Had Haman succeeded (and he was very close!) it would have been the end of the Jewish people!

At the end, as we all know, Mordekhay and Esther devised an effective plan, and HaShem, from behind the scenes, saved us from extinction.

“Despite some disappointments, he moved the strained Christian-Jewish relations one step closer.”

The fourth of the Ten commandments states: “Remember the  day of Shabbat to sanctify it”. This means that we should sanctify the Shabbat with words, by beginning and ending Shabbat with a ceremony in which we declare the holiness of Shabbat and its distinction from all other days of the week.

The opening ceremony we make at the initiation of Shabbat is called qiddush (=consecration). And the closing ceremony we do at the end of Shabbat is called habdala (=distinction).

The Rabbis, in this case the anshe keneset hagedola ( Men of the Great Assembly, ca. 450 BCE) instructed us to perform  these two ceremonies over a cup of wine.

The Habdala ceremony includes four blessings:  1. A blessing over the wine. 2. A blessing over aromatic spices 3. A blessing over the light of a fire.  4. A blessing in which we state the distinction between holiness (Shabbat) and the ordinary (= ḥol, i.e., weekdays).

Smelling an aromatic spices, according to the some opinions, is a symbolic compensation for the loss of the “additional soul” (neshama yetera) which accompanied us throughout the Shabbat.

The purpose of the blessing over the light “Blessed are You, haShem…the Creator of the light of the fire” – is to show thatmelakha (=an activity forbidden on Shabbat) is now permitted. It also remind us that a new week begins, and the first thing God created in the Creation-week was light (Gen.1:3).  When saying the blessing over the light one should actually benefit from the light. The Rabbis said that the light should be intense enough to distinguish, for example, between two similar coins, one from your country and one from another country. The custom is to bring our hand –semi closed– near the candle, distinguishing between the shadowed area and the lighted area of the hand (light vs. darkness).  Some have the custom to look at their fingernails, benefiting from the light which helps to recognize the nails from the fingers.

Candle lighting in NYC:  5:05 pm

Shabbat ends in NYC:      6:03 pm  

WATCH

Yoram Gaon,

The thirteenth principle of the Jewish faith states our believe that the dead will be brought back to life.   This is known as resurrection or in Hebrew teḥiyat hametim. (“Resurrection” should not be confused with what ḥakhme haqabbala call gilgul neshamot , or reincarnation).

In his “ma-amar ‘al teḥiyat hametim” Maimonides explains:

“The concept of resurrection is well known among all Jews, and there are none who dispute it. It is mentioned many times in our prayers… prophets and sages.  The body and the soul will be reunited again after they have been separated by death. This concept if found in the book of Daniel (12:2): “Many who sleep in the dust shall awaken, some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame and reproach”.

We have no specific details about how or when exactly teḥiyat hametim will take place.

For Maimonides, the resurrection of the dead is just for the righteous (ṣadiqim).   “It will be absurd for the wicked to be brought to life again, for even when they are alive they are consider dead”.   In the wise words of Rabbi Hayim Pereira Mendes. “The reward of the righteous in future life is spiritual happiness, the punishment of the wicked is exclusion from it.” Wicked people, do not recognize God and are not aware of the existential goal of this life: coming closer to Him (uldobqa bo). If given a new opportunity the wicked would waste his life in vanity, physical pleasures and material endeavors.

To better understand Maimonides idea, let us imagine a scenario close to teḥiyat hametim. If I’m now 80 years old, and I’m offered the elixir of youth to become again a 20 years old, what would I wish to do with my life now?   If I say: “Well, now that I know what is important in this life, and I’m given this new opportunity, I will dedicate myself to strengthen my connection with HaShem”, then, I qualify for Maimonides’ teḥiyat hametim!.  But if I say: “If I’m 20 again, I will party all day long” or something like that, then I don’t.

VERY IMPORTANT FOR PARENTS OF TEENAGERS

by Audrey Weitz

After being in Tripoli for a few years (see this), rabbi Eliyahu Hazan was invited to serve the Jewish community of Alexandria, Egypt, replacing rabbi Moshe Pardo, who passed away in 1888.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Alexandria was a cosmopolitan city, with a strong European influence.  The Jewish community was at the vanguard of the socio-economic progress. Those were times of reform and secularization. Jewish education was not popular at all. Many parents were sending their children to the “prestigious”  Christian (some of them missionary!) schools of the city.  As they struggled to find the delicate balance between Jewish education and the increasing demands of the parents for dedicating more time to secular studies (including: art, tennis and dance) the few Jewish schools of Alexandria did not achieve the desired goals in terms of basic Jewish scholarship, particularly with the Jewish girls.   The schools (or the parents) would provide special tutoring in preparation for the boy’s Bar Mitzva. The girls, however, were largely ignorant of Judaism and “could not utter a single word in Hebrew”.

Attentive to this issue Rabbi Eliyahu Hazan introduced a new ceremony, not practiced until then among Sephardic Jews: The communal celebration of the Bat Mitzva. Unlike the boys’ Bar Mitzva, which was centered on the reading of a portion of the Tora from the pulpit, the girls’ new ceremony consisted in the recitation of some prayers and answering questions dealing with the basic principles of Judaism.

For Rabbi Hazan the Bat Mitzva ceremony served a higher purpose: it allowed Rabbi Hazan to develop an innovative educational curriculum. The new program of Religious studies for girls was a prerequisite for participating in the Bat Mitzva ceremony. Now the girls and their parents, eager to participate of the popular celebration,  were provided with a great stimulus to read fluently Hebrew; to learn the basic prayers, and to master the foundations of Judaism.

Rabbi Hazan served the Jewish community of Alexandria for 20 years, until his sudden death in 1908.

He was succeeded by Rabbi Raffaello Della Pergola (from 1910 to 1923) and Rabbi David Prato (from 1927 to 1936). Both from Italy.

כשהוא הולך, הוא אומר: ברוך המכין מצעדי גבר.

This blessing, “Blessed are You, haShem, our God, King of the universe, Who makes firm the steps of man” is based on a verse of Tehilim, the Psalms of King David.

“The steps of a man are made firm by HaShem, when He likes that man’s way” (Psalms 37:23). The pasuq means that when a person has the intention of conducting himself in the right way, going in a path that conforms with the will of God, HaShem will help him, watching that this man will not stumble on his way. As it says in the next verse (37:24): “If that man stumbles, he will not fall down, because HaShem will hold his hand [somekh yado i.e., will support him, preventing his falling] “

The Talmud says that one should say this blessing when he walks (ki masge) in the morning. For Maimonides  (MT Tefila 7:6) it is said when a person is ready to walk out from his house in the morning  to go to Synagogue, to work, etc. (laṣet lederekh). The same idea expressed in the Psalms: once we have chosen the right path, we ask HaShem to prevent us from falling down.

It seems that according to other opinions, this berakha alludes (also) to the first steps we take in the morning, upon getting out of bed.

“Just how do we tall, two-legged creatures manage to stay upright while in motion, or even standing still? How can we possibly keep our balance on those two small platforms we call feet? The answer lies in a remarkable web of coordinated systems-voluntary and reflexive, neural, muscular, and skeletal-that collectively allow us to walk along a sidewalk or run along a forest path, largely without a second thought.” (Nova)

This berakha reminds us of the gratitude we owe God for our capacity to walk.   Recognizing that the Creator has endowed us, the human specie, with the extraordinary ability to walk upright.

“My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish.” by  Rabbi Benjamin Blech

We have explained that Shabbat begins at sunset and that we are instructed to add some additional time at the beginning of Shabbat. Thus, we always receive Shabbat before sunset (see this).

Now, at what time does Shabbat end?

We must bear in mind three time-references: sunset (sheqi’a); nightfall (ṣet hakokhabim) or “dusk”, which Halakhically is determined by the visibility of three medium-size stars, and twilight (ben hashemashot) which is the lapse between sunset and nightfall.

Technically speaking, Shabbat concludes at nightfall. And similar to what we do when Shabbat begins, we extend Shabbat, adding a few minutes after nightfall before we actually end Shabbat.

Now, let me explain briefly why we cannot set a universal time for the end of Shabbat. The conclusion of Shabbat depends on the length of the twilight time-zone. And twilight varies depending on the year’s season and especially on the latitude of the observer. In the Ecuador, for example, twilight would last approximately 10 -15 minutes, while in some cities of England, a couple of hours. Another point to bear in mind is that there are different criteria to establish what twilight is (for Rabenu Tam, for example, “sunset” takes place at a later, time!) even in the non Halakhic world. We find that there is “civil twilight”, “naval twilight” and “astronomical twilight” (see this), depending on the angle of the sun below the horizon, which obviously affects the darkness of the sky and the visibility of the stars.

In Israel twilight is calculated at 13 and a half minutes. In New York, for example, it is estimated by most Rabbis that twilight lasts for approximately 30 minutes (this is close to the “civil twilight” or “civil dusk”). Therefore, what is beyond debate is that in New York you cannot end Shabbat less than 30 minutes after sunset.  As a result, in some communities they would end Shabbat 35 minutes after sunset, extending Shabbat for just 5 additional minutes. In most communities they would end Shabbat 40 or 50 minutes after sunset, i.e., 10 or 20 minutes extension (tosefet).  The truth is that, since there is no minimum mandatory length of time that it should be added to Shabbat, the amount of time you add to Shabbat once twilight is over is a matter of conventionalism or Minhag (tradition, custom).

Candle lighting in NYC:   4:56 pm  (sunset is today 5:14 pm)

Shabbat ends in NYC:      5:54 pm  (30 minutes twilight + 10 minutes additional time, tosefet)

Interesting MIX Jewish voices of Lekha Dodi

In the last chapter (Chapter 1000th) of his monumental book Mishne Tora, Maimonides conveys a very interesting idea about the Messianic times, which sheds light on the limits and credibility of Jewish oral tradition.

First (MT, Melakhim 12:1) Maimonides asserts that nature will not change in Messianic times. He also says (12:2) that apparently, it will be a war between Gog and Magog and before that a Prophet will come to guide the Jewish people in the right path and to establish peace on earth.

Then he explains: vekhol elu hadebarim…. “in all these matters [related to the messianic age] and similar to them [=events which will happen in the future], no man will be able to know how will they happen until they actually happen. Because although the Prophets wrote [metaphorically] about these matters, the meaningof what they said is unknown to us [debarim setumim] because our Rabbis do not have any tradition [kabbala = oral tradition] as to how these words should be understood. And that is why the Rabbis have different opinions on these matters.  In any case, the order in which these events will occur or their details, are not a foundation of our faith. [And since there is no tradition on these matters, and the Rabbis just speculated about the interpretation of the words of the Prophets] a person should therefore not involve himself in analyzing the Hagadot [=Rabbis parables] and Midrashim [=Rabbis interpretations] on these matters, because learning these subjects will not bring a person to love God or to fear God.  One should likewise refrain himself from calculatingwhen the Mashiaḥ will come. Our sages have warned us about this negative practice by saying: ‘May the souls of those who calculate the coming of the  Mashiaḥ be rot’. One must hope and believe in general that the Mashiaḥ will come, as we have explained”.

READ

All about the Mashiaḥ by Aryeh Kaplan z”l,  from Aish.com

Rabbi Eliyahu Hazan  (1846-1908) , son of Yosef Rafael Hazan, was born in Izmir, Turkey . His grandfather was Rabbi Hayim David Hazan, the author of nedib leb and the Chief Rabbi of Israel (Hakham Bashi and Rishon LeZion) in 1861. In 1856, when he was 10 years old and with the blessing of his parents, he was taken by his grandfather to Yerushalayim. There, he studied day and night for many years. At a very young age he was part of the Bet Din (rabbinical court) of Rabbi Abraham Ashkenazi. In 1866 his grandfather granted him his Rabbinical ordination.

In 1872 when visiting Tripoli (Libya), he was offered to serve as the Chief Rabbi of Libya, a very important and numerous Jewish community on those days.

The first task he took upon himself was to make some improvements in the area of education. In his most famous book,ta’alumot leb Rabbi Hazan describes the situation of the Libyan community in this area: “And I saw that the cause of their insufficient education in Tora and general studies (derekh ereṣ) is the lack of a proper Talmud Tora (a Jewish school), because the children attend some informal classes in the Synagogues… where there is only one teacher for 60 or 70 students at a time… and those parents who want to give a better education to their children are forced to send their children away to Europe or to the [private] Catholic schools in the area”

Despite some opposition, Rabbi Hazan founded a Jewish day school in Tripoli, in which Jewish children were given instruction in religious topics, as well as in other subjects, like mathematics and the Italian language, which was the most essential tool to guarantee that the students will have a melakha (profession or commerce). He also required that all school instructors would be certified teachers.

(To be continued…)

Upon leaving Yerushalayim to establish himself in Libya he writes: “My family and I left with a broken spirit the Holy city, the city of my ancestors’ graves… “. In honor of Yerushalayim Rabbi Hazan wrote this beautiful poem “ochil yom“, where he expressed his deep longing for the Holiest city.  This piyut is very popular among Jews from North Africa.

כשהוא מניח רגליו על הקרקע, הוא אומר: ברוך…רוקע הארץ על המים

The Rabbis of the Talmud said that when we wake up, as we are getting out of bed and we step on the solid ground, we should recite the blessing “Blessed are you, haShem our Lord, King of the universe, Who extends the dry-land over the waters”.

The words of this berakha are borrowed from a verse in Tehilim (Psalms, 136:6) in which King David praises and thanks the Creator of the world for all His favors toward mankind, among them, the creation of dry land (=the continents).

Dry land was not, technically speaking, “created” (=out of nothing) but extended over the waters. According to the Tora God ordered the waters to recede and gather together so dry-land could be seen as it emerged from the oceans and spread over the planet’s surface (1:9).

Contrary to what ancient civilizations believed, but compatible with what modern science affirms, our Rabbis asserted that upon its creation planet earth’s surface was covered by water.   The Tora refers to this in the second pasuq of Genesis. The earth’s surface is defined as “tehom”, i.e., the oceans in their primitive state, before they were organized into yammim (= our oceans), see Gen. 1:10. As this blessing states, on the surface of our planet water was there first, before land, and not the other way around.

In a different Psalm (Tehilim 104:9) but referring to the same event our blessing describes, Kind David also remind us that the Creator has established a “border” (gebul) to the waters –an invisible miraculous fence which we call “gravity”– by which He rules the dynamics between the oceans and the continental land, allowing life to continue.

Intelligent (and astoundingly beautiful) design underwater.  By David Gallo, from TED.com