ROSH CHODESH: We and the moon

 The Jewish month follows the moon’s cycle of 29 days and a half. That is why sometimes we have one day of Rosh Chodesh and sometimes (roughly: every other month) two days.
In those 29 days and a half the moon grows from virtually nothing until its plenitude, and then decreases and disappears, to be visible again. Our Rabbis talked about the resemblance between the cycle of the moon and the permanent renewal of the Jewish people.
“Whereas the sun is the symbol of unchanging nature, rising in the east, setting in the west, day in and day out every day of the year, the moon changes and it seems to be telling us something: You can be small and you can diminish until you almost disappear, but then, when things look their darkest, hope springs eternal. You can start looking up again. You can change a situation and yourself for the better, no matter how bad it seems. Nothing is static or set in stone. Human beings have free will and therein is their power of renewal — an ever-present struggle against the steady, cyclical, repetitive and predictable march of time and nature.”
The solar system determines the year, in Hebrew “shana,” which comes from the same root as to repeat, to go over, whereas the moon sets the months, “Chodesh”, from the Hebrew root “chadash,” — new, change, different.
The Jewish people are compared to the moon. Though they are small, and suffering has been an integral part of our history among the nations, we Jews know never to give up. As an individual and as a nation, we will rise up again and light up the night.

Adapted from “Rosh Chodesh”, an article by Dina Coopersmith
To read the complete article click here   



SEFIRAT HAOMER: Counting the days

In the times of the Bet haMiqdash, during the second day of Pesach, an offering was presented in the altar of the Temple which consisted of a preparation of one ‘omer of barley flour, signaling that from that moment the Jews are allowed to consume from the new harvest (chadash). ‘omer is a Biblical unit of measurement of approximately one gallon, and by extension, it became the name of that important offering. 
Following the Biblical instructions the offering of the ‘omer also indicated the beginning of a period of seven weeks or forty-nine days until the Holiday of Shabuot (Vaiyqra –Leviticus– 23:15-16).
This is known as Sefirat ha’omer –the Mitzva of counting 49 days from the ‘omer to Shabuot. Thus, the Holiday of Pesach, our physical or political freedom, is connected with Shabuot, when we achieve our ‘mental’–spiritual and cultural– freedom by receiving the Tora.  
  
Our rabbis explained that unlike physical liberty, mental freedom does not happen overnight. It is a long process of deprograming. In the case of the people of Israel, it consisted among other things of getting rid of all the former habits of slave-mentality and learning to take charge of their own lives. They also had to recognize and leave aside the pagan and immoral practices of the idol-worshipping Egyptian society (tum-a) which were obviously incompatible with the principles of our Tora. In Pesach we got out of Egypt. And during the days of ‘omer we had to get Egypt out of our system in preparation for the big day:  The giving of the Torah and the establishment of our covenant (berit) with the Almighty celebrated at Mount Sinai.
  
The counting of the Omer takes place at night and it is preceded by a by a blessing: ...Asher Kideshanu beMitzvotav veTzivanu al Sefirat ha’Omer. Then we proceed to count the day and the week. Today, for example, we count 9 days; that is: one week and two days from the ‘omer.  
  
(to be continued…)
  
Preparing ourselves  for Yom HaShoa
Click here



SHABBAT: Cooking from Yom Tob to Shabbat

 

Erub Tabshilin means “mixing of [cooked] foods,” whereby one prepares a plate with food prior to a Jewish Holiday (Yom Tob) which will be followed by a Shabbat. This year the seventh day of Pesach will be followed by a Shabbat, so we need to arrange the Erub.
Cooking is allowed on Jewish Holidays as we learn from Shemot 12:16 “…do no do any work on these days (Yom Tob=Holidays), except preparing food for everyone to eat-that is all you may do”. We can cook whatever will be used for consumption during that day, but we cannot prepare or cook food to be consumed after that particular day of the Holiday.  Thus, when a Holiday occurs on Friday we cannot cook from Yom Tob to Shabbat, unless the Erub Tabshilin is performed. 
Erub Tabshilin consists of cooking prior to Yom Tob (in our case, today!) some food for Shabbat. Today, Thursday April 12, around 7.00 PM (NYT) we put aside a plate with cooked and baked food prior to Yom Tob, keeping this food for Sabbath. Then, since some food is already prepared for Shabbat, the cooking that will take place on the holiday itself will be considered a mere addition, an extension (the word ‘erub‘ means in this and other contexts “extension”) to the cooking that has already begun before the Holiday started. When we start cooking for Shabbat before the Holiday begins, our rabbis authorized to continue cooking and preparing food from Yom Tob to Shabbat.
According to our community’s Minhag we place at least one cooked egg and one Matza in a plate. (Many people will add also meat, rice or other types of food). 
The following Berakha is recited–generally by the husband–while holding the plate (Erub) in one’s hands:  
“Baruch Ata A-donay E-lohenu Melech ha’Olam Asher Kiddeshanu beMitzvotav veTsivanu AL MITZVAT ERUB”
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּֽנוּ עַל מִצְוַת עֵרוּב
Then we read the following text which says that by doing this‘erub we are allowed to do all necessary cooking from Yom Tob to Shabbat. 
בַּדֵין עֵרוּבָא יְהֵא שָׁרֵא לָֽנָא לַאֲפוּיֵי וּלְבַשּׁוּלֵי וּלְאַטְמוּנֵי וּלְאַדְלוּקֵי שְׁרָגָא וּלְתַקָּנָא וּלְמֶעְבַּד כָּל צָרְכָּֽנָא, מִיּוֹמָא טָבָא לְשַׁבְּתָא
Then we place the plate in the refrigerator. 
For the concept of ‘erub to make sense, we have to actually eat that food at some point during Shabbat (April 13th at night, or April 14th).
Every household should do the Erub Tabshilin but if one forgets, cooking from Yom Tob to Shabbat will still be permitted relying on the ‘erub that the community Rabbi said, in which he normally would include all community members.
(In Yom Tob we can cook by lighting a fire from a fire lit before Yom Tob. This is done by leaving a candle lit from today, before the Holiday begins)
* Candle lighting today Thursday April   12th  at 7:14 PM (NYC )
* Candle lighting tomorrow Friday April 13th  at 7:15 PM (NYC)
* Shabbat and Pesach end Saturday April 14th at  8:24 PM (NYC)
√ MYC’s OMER SHEET 
√ OMER REMINDER for BBM (Shlomo Nouriely)
√ OMER REMINDER by EMAIL (UMJCA)
√ OUR COMMUNITY’S MINHAGUIM FOR SEFIRAT
 HAOMER (These restriction DO NOT apply during Pesach!) 


Lending Money and Tzedaqa

One of the 613 Mitzvot of the Tora is lending money, without interest, to a fellow Jew who needs it (Shemot 22:24). Helping a needy person through a free loan is a form of Tzedaqa. However, harassing a needy person into paying back the loan when one knows he/she lacks the money at the moment, is a very grave transgression which is explicitly forbidden in the Tora.
  
ILLUSTRATION: David, knowing that Josh’s business is in the verge of insolvency, offers to lend him the $10k needed to keep afloat. “You’ll pay me when things get better again” said David to Josh. David has just fulfilled a great Mitzva. Not only did David help a fellow Jew financially, but he did this without affecting Josh’s dignity. In fact, he prevented Josh from getting to the point that he would need to ask for financial help.
As long as David knows that Josh cannot yet repay the loan, he is forbidden from harassing Josh. The Halakha is that David cannot even “inadvertently” pass by Josh’s place in order to remind him of the loan, if David knows that Josh doesn’t yet have the money. 
On the other hand, Josh is forbidden from withholding payment longer than necessary. In other words, if Josh does have the money, it is forbidden for him to unduly delay paying back David.
Another thing. “Lending money” without expecting to get the money back is indeed the highest way to perform tzedaqa. A friend of mine borrowed a good amount of money from Mr A. “You pay me whenever you can “, Mr A. said. My friend was very grateful and a couple of years later he collected the money to pay his debt. When he returned the money, Mr. A. said: “I want you to keep this money and find somebody else who needs it. And when he gives you the money back, do as I’m doing now”. 


The 13 principles of Jewish faith: # 6: the mission of the Prophets (3 of 3)

 

Many people think of a prophet as any person who sees the future. While the gift of prophecy certainly includes the ability to see the future, a prophet is far more than just a person with that ability (see here ). A prophet was basically a spokesman for  God. A person chosen by God to speak to people on God’s behalf and convey a message or teaching.
Moshe, Yirmiyiahu (Jeremiah) and others, when they were appointed by God Almighty to talk to the people of Israel, were not eager to accept that mission. On the contrary, at the beginning they refused to accept God’s mission.  However, as Rabbi Hayim Pereira-Mendes said: “Once the divine message was received, it was irresistible. The inspired Prophet cannot help but speak.”
Being a Prophet of Israel was not a very popular position. The difficult task consisted in admonishing the people, the dignitaries and even the King.  The Prophets often became the target of persecution and opposition. The prophet Yirmiyiahu, for example, warned of the imminent destruction of Yerushalaim lest the people keep disobeying the Laws of HaShem. In return for his message Jeremiah was attacked by his own brothers,  beaten and put into the stocks by a priest, imprisoned by the King, threatened with death and thrown into a cistern.  Eliyahu haNabi had to flee for his life, and so did Yesha’ayahu, who at the end was killed by the wicked King Menashe.
Among the ideals of our prophets are: 1. The Fatherhood of God. That is: that God loves us and cares about us like parents love their children.  2. The brotherhood of Man, equality, righteousness, kindness, charity.  3. The Kingdom of God on earth. That God is our King, and as such we should faithfully obey His Laws. 4. The universal ideals: all nations should know and serve the one and only God; the establishment  of righteousness on Earth and universal Peace or arbitration instead of War.


RELIGIOUS INTEGRITY: Lying to preserve peace

Our Tora is very strict with the prohibition of lying. In Shemot 23:7 the Pasuq says:midebar sheqer tirchaq “Keep yourself away from lying”. 
There are exceptional cases, however, in which lying might be justified. The rabbis mentioned the case in which one would lie to promote or keep peace in the family. Provided this lie will only prevent harm, and it won’t cause harm to anyone else. 
The Rabbis learned this important principle from the brothers of Yosef. As we know, when Yosef was young he was betrayed by his brothers who kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. After many years, Yosef became the ruler of Egypt and his brothers needed him. Yosef behaved toward them without resentment, but they thought that Yosef still held a grudge  against them, and he behaved positively just to protect his father from more anguish. When Ya’aqob abinu died, the brothers thought that now Yosef will exert his revenge and punish them So they lied to Yosef. Bereshit 50:15-18   When Yosef’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Yosef bears a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong which we did to him?. They then sent a message to Yosef, saying, “Your father ordered before he died saying: Thus you shall say to Yosef, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong. Please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.”
Exceptionally, the rabbis justified the actions of Yosef’s brothers because the brothers understood that otherwise the harmony of the family would have been permanently compromised. The Rabbis also observed that this kind of white lies are limited to cases of family peace, and they are permitted only when no harm is caused to another human being, like the case of Yosef and his brothers. 
  
(To be continued….)
    
Click here to watch this recent and very important interview with Norman Finkelstein, a famous enemy of the State of Israel. Please, read between the lines to see the clear agenda of those who claim to protect the Palestinian people’s interests.   


SHABBAT: At-risk youth and Shabbat dinner

 

“A core predictor of which families produce children who grow up to be described as “mentchen” (=decent and good) children is the amount and quality of time spent by parents with their children.
In a fascinating series of studies that have recently received media attention, researchers have found a direct correlation between the number of times a week parents eat dinner with their children and the risk of abusing drugs. Families that eat dinner together once a week have children with lower risk for drug-abuse than those that never do.
With each increasing night that parents and children eat together, drug abuse risk decreases to the point that there is virtually no risk for drug abuse in families in which parents and children dinner together every night.
The importance of eating dinner together is not the ‘eating’ or dinner; it’s the uninterrupted, focused interaction that seems to bear such valuable fruit”
(From the book ‘Balanced Parenting’ by R. and D. Pelcovitz).
Shabbat dinner–among other things–creates a sense of belonging and responsibility: a young adult who spends quality time with his family feels strongly part of the family and will think twice before doing a wrong thing. Because he realizes that whatever negative action he might do, it will bear unwanted consequences for all his beloved ones. On the contrary, when the bond between the young man or woman with her family is weak, when the parents are there just to criticize, warn and punish and there are no bond-building experiences, the young adult will think more about pleasing his friends than about respecting or not damaging his family.
Shabbat dinner is a heaven-given gift to Am Israel, which not only enriches our souls but also strengthens our family.
Shabbat Shalom!
Candle lighting in NYC: 5:22
Shabbat ends in NYC: 6:31
WATCH
Yemenite Kiddush for Shabbat lunch


Rabbi Yehuda Bibas (1776-1852) and the independence of Israel

 

Previously we explained (see here) that Rabbi Yehuda Bibas served as the chief rabbi of the island of Corfu (today’s Greece) from the year 1831 to 1850. The influence of rabbi Bibas, however, was not restricted just to his own communjty. During those years he traveled to numerous Jewish communities in Europe and North Africa with a clear message: We, Jews, must come back to Zion.
But why now?
Rabbi Bibas saw a rare window of opportunity for the Jewish people in the fact that many countries in those days revolted against the ruling empires and achieved their independence. Living in Corfu, gave him the privileged perspective of being a direct witness of the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1832, and the ensuing Greek victory which lead to their independence.  Israel, called Palestine in those days, was also under the ruling of the Ottoman Empire. Rabbi Bibas estimated that the Jews were capable then to obtain their own independence, since the Ottoman Empire was weaker and in a process an inevitable decline. According to rabbi Yehuda Bibas:“The jews must conquer militarily the land of Israel from the Turks in the same way the Greeks conquered their own land from the Turks.” 
As we explained last week, Rabbi Bibas argued that the concept of teshuba needed to be understood then also as a call for returning to Israel. If you analyze carefully the book of Debarim Chapter 30:1-11 you will find that teshuba, mentioned there eight times, appears as the idea of national reconciliation with HaShem. Same as exile in the previous persahiot was the outcome of national abandonment of HaShem, coming back to Israel is seen as the peak of reconciliation between Am Israel and our God.
Rabbi Bibas had practical plans and ideas to inspire the Jews to come to Zion. His plan, which we will explain in more detail B’H next week, might be summarized with one single word: “education”.
(to be continued...)
 
WATCH: Shema Israel  Understanding the wisdom of Judaism’s most important prayer.
From Aish.com by Charlie Harary


PRINCIPLE 6: The Prophets of Israel (2 of 3)

Last week we explained what were the three prerequisites for a person to be a candidate for prophecy (see here). Besides being a God fearing Jew, the prophet had to adjust his mind to God’s reality, leaving aside his worldly reality. Being “behaviorally” wealthy, for example, meant that a person had to reach a level of complete lack of interest for material possessions. Obviously, a mind that expects to absorb God’s words could not be distracted with material pursuits.
Paraphrasing rabbi Hayim Pereira-Mendes: The prophets were prayerful men. It was the habit of this spiritual communication with God, and constant meditation upon His words and ways, combined with right conduct, that qualified the inspired men and women of the Bible to receive Divine inspiration or Divine messages. Just as physical and mental exercise result in greater physical and mental development, and consequently greater physical and mental possibilities, so spiritual exercises result in greater spiritual development, and consequently greater spiritual possibilities.
According to our tradition there were schools for the training of prophets, like the one established by Shemuel the prophet. The students were called bene hanebi-im.  In that school they would train to attain behavioral wealth, strength and wisdom and, according to some ge-onim, they will also train themselves in the meditation techniques which would mentally prepare them  to cope with the overwhelming experience of getting a vision coming directly from haShem.
(If the reader is interested in the fascinating subject of prophecy, I would recommend Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, z’l, marvelous books. Among them: “Innerspace” )
If a person attained such a perfection of character, he will be considered a Prophet, but not necessarily receive prophecy.  From this point of view prophecy could be compared with getting a phone call from God. Having attained perfection of character is like having a cell phone on. It enables you to be a potential receiver of God’s phone call. But still, God might or might not call you. That is God’s prerogative.
 Read “Surplus Jews” an excellent article from Jerusalem Post, by Daniel Gordis.  


RELIGIOUS INTEGRITY: Representing and misrepresenting God

The Tora is very strict about our obligation to say the truth and our duty to keep away from falsehood.  Speaking the truth and acting with truthfulness is seen in Judaism as one of the highest religious imperatives. So much so that our Rabbis asserted that upon our arrival to the World to Come (=the afterlife) we are faced with three questions, aimed to asses the spiritual level we have achieved in our worldly existence. The very first question we are asked by the heavenly court is about our financial behavior.  nasata venatata bemuna? “Did you handle your money matters with integrity?” Clearly, the way we act in our businesses and material dealings is seen by our Tora as the most accurate indicator of our religious level. 
  
Our rabbis explain that the seal of HaShem Almighty is “EMET” (=The Truth). The seal of a King, similar to today’s signature, was the visual mark or the logo that identified the King. When people saw the seal in a letter, they knew that letter was coming from the King. Similarly, in this world the presence of haShem our God is represented by The Truth.  In a sense, every time we act with truthfulness we turn into representatives of HaShem Almighty. By performing an act of integrity (and the higher the losses we are willing to take by upholding the truth, the greater the merit!) we become “HaShem’s seal”.  Our actions will inspire people who see what we do to say: “This is coming from HaShem” (or, from His Tora).
  
On the contrary, if we lie, fabricate stories or act deceitfully, we move further away from Him. When a Jew (and especially, an observant Jew) acts deceitfully He is “misrepresenting” HaShem. He desecrate His name, as if he would have ‘sold’ God’s reputationfor money…  
  


Good news for those who know Hebrew. You can find now yalqut yosef, the book of Halakha of rabbi Obadia Yosef,  online and free.  Click here.