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.

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.

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.

 by Peter Kreeft, 

“Blessed are you, HaShem… Who gives the rooster the understanding to distinguish between day and night.”

Birkot haShaḥar is a series of blessings that we say in the morning thanking God for the renewal of the day. As we explained last week, as soon as we wake up we begin by thanking God for being alive (see this). Then, we pronounce the second blessing, acknowledging that the Creator granted the rooster the understanding to distinguish between day and night.

To properly grasp the rational of Birkot haShaḥar we need to bear in mind that these blessings were said as a person was waking up, getting up from bed, walking and getting dressed.

This blessing was pronounced when one would hear the rooster’s crow. The rooster does not crow necessarily when it sees light or when the sun rises, but before dawn. Thanks to a biological process known as circadian rhythm, roosters  can  keep track of time after midnight, which is when they usually start crowing.  Some species of rooster would crow four times during the night with the third cockcrow at around four o’clock in the morning (see a very interest article here).

This berakha emphasizes the fact that the Creator endowed the rooster with this extraordinary skill, which used to help us to wake up and serve our Creator (Time measurement is traditionally regarded as an exclusive human ability. Many Rabbis actually understood the word sekhvi not as rooster, but as “heart” or human cognition).

The Rabbis discussed if this blessing should be said only when we actually hear the rooster’s crow (Maimonides) or even if we did not experience the rooster’s crow directly (haAri).  Yemenites and a few other Jewish communities follow Maimonides, but the majority follows the custom to recite this blessing anyways.

READ “An Open Letter to William Hague from Aunty Mindy“

Rabbi Ḥayim Palachi (also Palaggi or Palacci) was born in Smyrna, Turkey in 1788.  He was the grandson of Rabbi Yosef Ḥazan, the author of Ḥiqre Leb, and the disciple of Joseph Gatenio, author of Bet Yiṣḥaq.

In 1847 he became the ab bet din of Smyrna and of another six neighboring communities. In 1855 he was appointed Ḥakham Bashi of Izmir by the Ottoman authorities .

During his Rabbinate period he gave importance to social welfare; and as an important mission he thought of founding a Jewish hospital. He requested assistance from the wealthy Jews in town. With the help of respected Senior Leon Adut they contacted Baron Rothschild in Vienna and received the necessary support. He was also able to receive the support from Sir Moses Montefiore. The Jewish hospital was established. At the time, the population of Izmir was 220,000, with the Jewish population consisting of about 16,000 souls.

Rabbi Palachi’s set a goal to maintain mandatory education to all Jewish children. He adopted a community law which required every Jewish father to give Talmud Tora education to his children. Children would continue their education until they were able to read and write properly, and could grasp the fundamentals of Tefila. Only the instructor was allowed to decide when the students had achieved the required educational goals. Rabbi Palachi made sure that all the poor children also received education.

Rabbi Ḥayim Palachi was very sensitive to events that affected Jews outside Izmir as well. During the blood libel in Damascus in 1840, he called for the support of his Egyptian Jewish friend Don Abraham Kamando, Baron de Rothschild and Sir Moses Montefiore. Through their intercession, the innocent Jewish victims in Damascus were exonerated.

(Adapted from Rabbi Naftali Haleva, present day Rabbi in Istanbul, Turkey)

This is a picture of the Izmir community in 1896. In the center, one can see rabbi Abraham Palachi (rabbi Ḥayim Palachi’s son)

Rabbi Ḥayim Palachi was an extraordinarily  prolific writer. He  authored more than 70 works, most of them have been published. Many of his manuscripts were burned and a great number were not published. Most of his books contain in their titles his name, “Ḥayim”  or “Ḥay”

*Darke Ḥayim  on Pirqe Abot.

*Leb Ḥayim a, responsa, interpretations, and comments on the Shulḥan ‘arukh.

*Nishmat Kol Ḥai , rabbinical responsa.

*Ḥiqeqe Leb , homilies and eulogies.

Other books: Nefesh Ḥayim; Tora ve-Ḥayim; Kaf ha-Ḥayim; Mo’ed le-Khol Ḥai; Ḥayim ve-Shalom; Sefer Ḥayim; Ginze Ḥayim, etc. 

א’ נְשָמָה שֶנָתַתָ בִי טְהוֹרָה, אַתָה בְרָאתָהּ, אַתָה יְצַרְתָהּ, אַתָה נְפַחְתָה בִי, וְאַתָה מְשַמְרָהּ בְקִרְבִי…

“Elo-hay! Neshama...” is the first blessing of Birkot haShaḥar, the morning benedictions that we say upon waking up in the morning. The Talmud  (Berakhot 60b) explains that when we wake up–before we even open our eyes– upon realizing that we are alive, we praise God for having restored our souls to our inert bodies.  The Rabbis explain that every morning we witness in our own bodies a virtual act of resurrection (teḥyiat hametim), the beginning of a new life, since when we sleep, the soul–a fraction of it– departs the body.

This berakha also states an extremely important idea that differentiates Judaism from many other religions. We do not posses an unclean soul. Our God-given souls are originally pure. The task ahead of us is not reparation but preservation: each new day we must apply ourselves to keep our souls pure. We are beginning each morning anew, clean and pure as a newborn individual.

In this blessing we also acknowledge that our soul does not really belong to us.  God insufflated it within us; He did not give it to us. We know (and we say) that in the same way God gave us (= lentus) our soul, one day He will take it back… In the meantime, while the divine soul is within us, we will praise Him and thank Him for the most generous gift of all: life.

“A Cantor’s tears” Dudu Fisher sings  Elokay! Neshama… at a Synagogue in Krakow.

Rabbi Ḥayim Naḥum was born in 1872 in Izmir, Turkey. He was an extraordinarily intelligent person with an exceptionally diverse education. He received his formal Jewish education in Tiberias and his secondary education at a French Lycee. He held a degree in Islamic Law from Constantinople. He attended the Sorbonne’s School of Oriental Languages in France while at the same time attending the Rabbinical Academy of Paris. He then returned to Constantinople and taught at the Turkish Military Academy.

Rabbi Naḥum’s unusual background and eclectic interests earned him great respect. From 1909 until 1923, he served as Ḥakham Bashi (Chief Rabbi) of the Ottoman Empire and was granted the title of “Effendi” (Lord) by the Turkish government. Rabbi Naḥum successfully intervened in favor of Jews in various localities of the Empire, especially in assuring government protection for them during World War I (it seems that it was due to him that the project of expelling the Jews from Jerusalem was averted).

In 1923, Rabbi Naḥum agreed to become the head of the Jewish community in Cairo, and thus the Chief Rabbi of Egypt. Here, too, Rabbi Naḥum became a man of noted success within the greater gentile society. From 1930 to 1934 he was a member of the Egyptian Parliament. He helped found the Royal Academy of the Arabic Language, and was instrumental in making possible the reconvening the Society for the Historical Study of the Jews of Egypt.

With the rise in Arab nationalism in the late 1940s, life for Egyptian Jews became increasingly difficult. There was an abundance of political intimidation and economic oppression. Although he gave into government pressure to denounce Zionism (using vague, meaningless phrases), he held firm in his refusal to have synagogues recite prayers for an Egyptian victory in the 1948 war. Ignoring his own failing health (and blindness), Rabbi Naḥum spent his final years in service to the greatly diminished Egyptian Jewish community. He was 88 years old when he died.