The 13 principles of Judaism. # 12: The Jewish Messiah

Maimonides explains that if a Jewish political leader possesses these three characteristics he has the potential to be the Mashiaḥ. He has to be 1. A ascendent of King David. 2. A role Model in Tora observance and teaching. 3. A man involved militarily in the wars of Israel (see here ).

Now, when would be known for sure that this person is the actual Mashiaḥ? Maimonides says: (MT, Melakhim 11:5) “If he succeeded [in the wars], and he builds the Bet haMiqdash in its place [the Temple mount, Har haBayit] and he brings back to Israel the remnants of the Jewish Diaspora, then we know that he is the actual Mashiaḥ. But, if he did not succeed, or if he died, then we know that he was not the Mashiaḥ but another one of the righteous and good Monarchs of the House of David, who passed away. “

Obviously, and unlike Christianity, we don’t believe in a Mashiaḥ that will die and then resurrect. Or that will be a son of God and a human female. (BTW, in the Tora every Jew is explicitly described as a “son of God” . Deut. 14:1 says: banim atem laHaShem Elokekhem , “You are the children of HaShem your God”).

Going back to the events which will prove the condition of theMashiaḥ, Maimonides says: (Idem, 11:1). “The torah itself testifies to this Messianic promise when it says (Deut. 30:3-5) “God, will have mercy on you, and gather you [again from all countries where He has scattered you]. Even if you remnants are at the ends of the heavens, HaShem your God will gather you and bring you from there. HaShem your God will bring you to the land that your fathers inherited. You will settle in it again, and He will make you even more prosperous and numerous than than your ancestors”

(to be continued...)

Ping-Pong, 11 years old Estee Ackerman, and a Jewish version of Chariots of Fire.

READ Devotion Wins Out, from the NY Post

Rabbi Refael Aharon ben Shimon (1847-1928)

As we said last week (see here) Rabbi Ben Shimon wrote many responsas about the new inventions of his time. As the highest authority in his community he had to pronounce a ruling on those issues.

In a rare and exquisite passage in one of his responsa (oraḥ ḥayim , 8, p.23) of his book umiṣur debash, he was asked about the usage of matches (a new popular invention in those days) in Yom Tob. Before he build the case against or in favor of using matches in Yom Tob, he writes the following [my own, free translation]:

“What a difficult task is for a Rabbi today to answer this kind of questions. New inventions in all areas of life are so many in our generation… Human knowledge has increased through the investigation and the new discoveries of the principles of Creation, and with it, man’s industrial and technical capabilities. Every day there are innovations which were inconceivable for our ancestors or even for our own elders. It is a very difficult task for a Rabbi to find the proper answers to questions about these new technological inventions. To determine, for example, if they could be used on Shabbat or Yom Tob. Because it is very laborious to compare these new inventions with the elements mentioned in our holy Talmud [1500 years ago], which is the guide of our lives and the source for establishing what is permitted and what is forbidden. Only through a great patient effort, and with a clear and calm mind, and with enough available time–free from all other troubles–it will be viable to analyze these innovations and compare the classic principles with the new discoveries. Searching with candles every comparable detail which could be found in the Talmud –which is like a deep ocean– to arrive, perhaps, to a practical conclusion and final ruling. And in addition to all this, once a conclusion is reached, one has to have a special merit to be spared from the critics, those whose expertise is to condemn, because they were trained to criticize arguments, and not to build them… “

AN EXCEPTIONAL MOMENT OF TRUTH

AT THE U.N. DISCUSSING ISRAEL .

(Do not expect to see THIS VIDEO in mainstream media…)

TEFILA: zoqef kefufim, the Rabbis’ version of Homo Erectus

כשעומד מברך: ברוך אתה ה’ אלוקינו מלך העולם, זוקף כפופים

When a person stands up straight –when he or she wakes up in the morning– recites the blessing, zoqef kefufim, “Blessed are You, HaShem our God, King of the universe, Who raises up those who are bowed down”.

The words zoqef kefufim are found in Tehilim (146:8). There, King David praised God for helping the suffering righteous, out of His love for them. HaShem defends them, feeds them, delivers them and among other things, He helps them to stand up (zoqef), when they are so exhausted, humiliated, troubled or oppressed that their bent backs (kefufim) can not stay straight.

Also, in the famous Psalms, Tehila leDavid (145. aka, ashre yoshebe betekha) David haMelekh praises HaShem Who supports all those who are about to fall, and straightens up all those who are bent down, providing them food and sustenance.

In birkot hashachar, the Rabbis used this Biblical expression, zoqef kefufim, and applied it beyond the concept of people who need God’s help to come up from their suffering. It is all of us who also use HaShem’s help to stand up every morning. Following the idea of seeing God’s intervention in every micro-activity we perform each morning, when we get out of our bed and stand erected on the floor we express our praise to HaShem saying this blessing. When sleeping, most people (see here) adopt a fetal position, i.e., lying curled on one side with legs bent. Therefore, we praise HaShem for the fact that we can stand in an erected position, which according to rabbi Hayim Palagge (yafe laleb), is one of the features that distinguish us, human beings, from animals.

Practical advise “How to get out of bed when you really can’t” from Wikihow.com

American Rabbis on celebrating New Year’s Day

We have written in previous HOTD about the views of modern orthodox rabbis regarding the celebration of different American holidays (see here). All rabbis are very strict in forbidding, for example, the celebration of Halloween in any way, while most would not oppose (and some would even encourage) the celebration of Thanksgiving.

The difference between Thanksgiving and Halloween is that the later (i) has a clear origin in pagan culture, and (ii) some of those customs are still practiced in its celebration today.

What about New Year’s day?

According to Christian tradition, January 1st, is the day of the circumcision of Yeshu (eight days counting from December 25), when his name was given to him. Five centuries ago, the rabbi Terumat Hadeshen and the Rama, both living in Christian countries, classified New Year’s day as a religious gentile holiday (Darkhe Moshe and Rama, Yoreh Deah 148:12). Terumat Hadeshen refers to January First as “the eighth day of Christmas.” He clearly viewed this holiday as ‘religious’ in nature.

Other Rabbis, however, have a more lenient view, because in their opinion New Year’s today has lost entirely its religious overtones and can be rationally explained as a celebration of a new civil calendar’s year. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Iggerot Moshe, Even Haezer 2:13) writes with regard to New Year’s: “On the question of celebrating any event on a holiday of Gentiles, if the holiday is based on religious beliefs [such as Christmas], such celebrations are prohibited …. even without intent, it is prohibited because of marit ayin . . . The first day of the year [January 1] and Thanksgiving is not prohibited according to law, but pious people [ba’ale nefesh] should be stricter [and avoid the celebration].” Following Rabbi Feinstein, Rabbi Michael Broyde (see below) asserts that the status of New Year’s day has changed in the last three hundred years. In contemporary America there is little religious content on New Year’s Day, and while there might be many problems associated with the way New Year’s is celebrated (drinking, etc.) he thinks that few would classify it as areligious holiday, since there is a clear secular reason to celebrate the beginning of the new calendar year.

Most community Rabbis I know would oppose to celebrate, and won’t promote any commemoration of the New Year’s eve or day. If not for its religious content, for ḥuqot hagoyim (See Rabbi Hofman’s article). But at the same time, based on the above mentioned considerations, they won’t actively preach against its private celebration by individuals, as they do with regards to Halloween, for example.

√ Rabbi Michael Broyde on the celebration of New Year’s Day

√ Rabbi Hoffman, objecting Rabbi Broyde’s opinion

Rabbi Refael Aharon ben Shimon (1847-1928)

Rabbi Refael Aharon ben Shimon was born in Rabat, Morocco in 1847. In 1854 he came to Israel with his father, Rabbi David ben Shimon, who was also his main teacher. The family established themselves in Jerusalem. Besides his Rabbinical studies, especially in the field of Jewish law, Rabbi ben Shimon learned European languages. He was fluent in Italian, French and Spanish. In 1890 he visited Morocco and once there, he searched writings that were unpublished and he recommended the establishment of a institution mekiṣe nirdamim to publish old books and manuscripts of Moroccan Rabbis which were not accessible to the general people. On his way back from Morocco he was invited to visit the important Jewish community of Egypt. Once there, he was offered to serve as the Chief rabbi of Cairo, instead of the previous rabbi Yom-Tob Israel, who retired from the rabbinate. He served the Egyptian jewish community from 1891 until 1921.

Rabbi Ben Shimon had to face new challenges. The modern world brought about many innovations in technology and social values which needed to be reassessed from an Halakhic perspective. In the introduction of his most famous book, umiṣur debash, he mentions a few subjects that he had analyzed in research-like responsas. Among them: the use of electricity and matches on Yom Tob. The use of chariots driven by gentiles for the sake of burying a death during Yom Tob. The assessment of the Cairo water supply system in order to be considered as mayim lo she-ubim (non-transported waters), and therefore be suitable for a Mikve. The status of the children of mixed marriages, converts, etc. And the status of a wedding which took place in a private ceremony.

Let me refer briefly to this last issue. Rabbi ben Simon witnessed a new trend. Men coming from Europe would marry a Jewish girl in a private ceremony and then, after a few years of staying in Egypt, these gentlemen would come back to Europe abandoning their wives. These poor women would be considered now‘agunot, i.e, not formally divorced from their husbands and therefore unable to marry again. Together with rabbi Elyahu Ḥazan from Alexandria and Rabbi Mendel haCohen, the rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Cairo (sic.) they forbade the celebration of secret marriage ceremonies, annulling those weddings retroactively (hafqa’at qiddushin) and thus, releasing these women from their status of ‘aguna.

(To be continued…)

TEFILA: matir asurim, appreciating our ability to move

ברוך אתה ה´ אלוקינו מלך העולם מתיר אסורים

The expression matir asurim, “HaShem sets free those who are imprisoned” appears in the book of Psalms (Tehilim, 146) and it is part of the pesuqe dezimra, the Psalms that we read every day in the morning prayer. In Tehilim its author King David praises HaShem for His compassion with the needy. God defends the cause of those who are oppressed, He gives bread to those who are starving, and He sets free those who are imprisoned.

In the ‘Amida the idea of setting free the prisoners appears in the second berakha (blessing). This blessing, Geburot (God’s powers), describes God’s infinite might asserting that He employs His power to nurture, to support, to cure and to deliver (matir asurim).

In Birkot haShachar the Rabbis used the idea of matir asurim, applying it to a different context. Almost as a poetic motif. They instructed to say this berakha in the morning, at the time of waking up, when a person stretches his body and sits in his bed. The question is: what is the connection between the idea of setting free the prisoners and the movements of our body?

The simplest explanation is that when we are sleeping we have no control over our body. It moves involuntarily. Our conscious mind, i.e., the seat of our willpower, is asleep. And we are, in a sense, imprisoned inside our bodies. Not only our bodies but our minds as well are beyond our control. While asleep we have no voluntary thoughts, but involuntary dreams. When we wake up and we start moving our limbs we realize that we have recovered control over our mind and body. Now, our body moves if we just will so. We are in control. We are free.

When saying this blessing we recognize the power and wisdom of HaShem behind the recovery of our ability to move our body.

10 Unknown facts about the West Bank

The Tenth of Tebet and the Kaddish haKelaly

This coming Friday, December 25th 2012, we observe the fast of the Tenth of Tebet. We remember the siege of Yerushalaim, in the year 586 BCE, at the time of the destruction of our first Bet haMiqdash (see this).

On the 10th of Tebet there are only two prohibitions: eating and drinking. The fast begins at dawn and it ends at 5:03 p.m. NYT.

NO additional limitations apply, such as the prohibition of wearing leather shoes, working, driving, washing the body, etc.

Most contemporary Rabbis (R. E. Melamed, Rab O. Yosef) authorize to wash one’s mouth or brush one’s teeth in this Ta’anit, when necessary, provided you are very careful to lower your head, avoiding swallowing water unintentionally.

In modern Israel, the 10th of Tebet is also recognized as the day of the Kaddish haKelaly. According to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, on the Tenth of Tebet a remembrance-candle should be lit in the Synagogue and the Hazkara leHalale haShoah should be recited. Additionally, all those whose parents are not alive should say the Kaddish Yatom (luach dinim uminhaguim 5772, pages. 55,109).

This point requires more explanation.

In 1949, and before the day of Yom HaShoah was established, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel decided that the Tenth of Tebet should be assigned as the national remembrance day for the victims of the Holocaust. They recommended traditional Jewish ways of remembering the dead, such as the study of Mishna Mikvaot, saying Tehilim, lighting a candle and a communal recitation of the Kaddish for the victims of the Holocaust whose names and date of death remain unknown. Fasting, the most common Jewish expression of sorrow, was already prescribed for this day.

In Israel many people felt that the horror of the Holocaust should be remembered on its own, and a special day should be dedicated to the Shoah’s victims’ memory. “For the Holocaust survivors there was only one day worthy of being a memorial anniversary for the Holocaust–April 19, the beginning day of the Warsaw ghetto revolt the greatest revolt of them all, the uprisings that had held the Nazis at bay for a longer period than the great French army” (I. Greenberg). That is how the 27 of Nissan was chosen to commemorate Yom haShoah. Yom HaShoah was inaugurated in 1953, by a law signed by the Prime Minister of Israel David ben Gurion.

Since then, and in practical terms, there are two days in which we mourn for the Holocaust: Yom haShoah, the official day, and‘asara beTebet, in which people say the Kaddish haKelaly to remember the victims of the Nazi genocide.

The Tenth of Tebet and the Greek Translation of the Tora

Yesterday we mentioned two of the three events that we remember in the Tenth of Tebet (see here). Once again, it is important to clarify that the main reason for which we fast on this day is the siege of Yerushalaim. The other two events are brought to our memory because they roughly coincide with the same date.

3. Approximately in the year 300 BCE, on the 8th of Tebet, in Alexandria (Egypt) King Ptolemy forced 70 (some say “72”) Jewish scholars to translate the Tora (the five Books of Moshe or Pentateuch) into Greek. King Ptolemy wished to disprove the existence of an unified Jewish tradition on the understanding of the Scripture, so the scholars were placed in separate workrooms. Yet, they all translated the Tora in the same exact way.

This translation of the Tora is known as the Septuagint. Although it was done by prominent Rabbis, the Septuagint is not considered a translation which follows necessarily rabbinical tradition. As explained in Talmud Yerushalmi (Megila 9) the authors of the Septuagint in many cases deliberately deviated from the traditional Jewish understanding and adapted the Biblical text to the Greek mentality and sensitivities to please the Monarch and avoid a situation of danger for the Jews

As a whole, translating the Tora to Greek was considered a dark event by Jewish historiography. Why? Because the new Greek Bible advanced the agenda of the Hellenist Jews who sought to incorporate Greek values into Jewish life. Moreover, eventually the Septuagint paved the way for the advancement of non-Jewish “Biblical” religions. Unlike pagan cults which were clearly antagonistic to the Tora, these new religions were now supposedly grounded on the Jewish Scripture! The Hebrew Bible was now interpreted and reinterpreted to justify whatever ideas or beliefs non-Jewish monarchs or priests wished to say or teach “in the name of the Bible”.

(BTW, the official Jewish translation of the Tora is Targum Onqelos (=Targum Didan) done ca. 100 CE).

Read here more about

the month of Tebet ,

from ou.org.

The fast of the Tenth of Tebet

This coming Sunday December 23rd, 2012, we will observe the Tenth of Tebet, a fast day, which reminds us of three tragic events.

1. The main event we remember in this day is the onset of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuḥadnezzar, the King of Babylonia. The siege of the city signaled the beginning of the battle that ultimately destroyed Yerushalayim and the first Bet haMiqdash in the year 586 BCE. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed or sent as captives to the Babylonian exile. The date of the Tenth of Tebet was recorded by the prophet Yeḥezqel, who was already in Babylonia, with the first group of Jews exiled by Nebuḥadnezzar, eleven years earlier than the actual destruction of the Temple.

2. On this day we also remember the death of Ezra haSofer (=the Scribe). Approximately in the year 516 BCE a group of Jews (roughly forty thousand) came back to Ereṣ Israel with the blessing of the Persian Emperor Cyrus. They were led by Neḥemia and Ezra the Scribe. Ezra had the responsibility to reeducate the Jews who, after more than two generations in exile, had forgotten their language, the Tora and its laws and adopted many customs and values from the Babylonian culture. In the absence of a King or any other political institution, Ezra formed the Anshe Keneset haGedola, the first “Jewish Congress”, composed of 120 scholars and prophets. They established many rulings to maintain and retrieve Jewish values. For example, the days of Tora reading, the text of the Amida (main prayer), many decrees to prevent intermarriage and much more. Ezra was considered by the Rabbis as the historic link between the written Tora and the oral Tora. Together with Neḥemia, they began the building of the second Bet haMiqdash. Ezra died on a 9th of Tebet. He was regarded by our Rabbis as second to Moshe Rabbenu.

(To be continued…)

Click here to read

Talking to your kids about the Connecticut school shooting.

by Yvette Alt Miller, from Aish

TEFILA: Opening the eyes of the blind

ברוך אתה ה´ אלוקינו מלך העולם, פוקח עורים.

As we explained last week, the Birkot haShaḥar are the blessings which we say following the different daily events that we experience as we wake up in the morning. These berakhot help us identifying these occurrences and seeing them as miracles that we witness every day.

Previously (see this), we talked about awakening from sleep, which the rabbis described as a sort of resuscitation or revival (consciousness), and listening to the rooster (hearing), appreciating its God-given ability to differentiate between nocturnal and diurnal cycles (see here).

Today we will examine the third blessing, poqeaḥ ivrim, which was originally established to be said when we open our eyes for the first time in the morning (sight). The berakha says: “Blessed are You, HaShem, our God, King of the Universe, Who opens (the eyes of) the blinds”.

When we are asleep our sense of sight does not function. We don’t see not because our eyes are closed. Actually, many people might sleep with their eyes open and they still won’t see. The rabbis understood then that during sleep we are “virtually” blind, and in the morning, we recover our sense of sight. Upon realizing this “miracle” we say the blessing, poqeaḥ ivrim, acknowledging that God has equipped our bodies with these amazing abilities.

This berakha also helps us to value the preciousness of our sense of sight. Normally, we take for granted that we see. Unless we have a problem with our eyes, we don’t stop every day to think (and thank!) for the privilege of seeing. This berakha, when said with the proper kavana or understanding, inspires us to value what we have while we have it. Moreover, by acknowledging God (and not just nature) as the One responsible for our sight, this berakha enables us to discover and acknowledge HaShem’s Presence behind this daily routinely events, keeping our minds more focused on Him.

If Good and evil exists, God exists.

by Peter Kreeft,

Professor of Philosophy at Boston College

(from Prager University).