Shema Israel: Pasuq 1. God exists. He is our God. And He is one.

Last week we explained the first word “Shema”. Which in Hebrew means, listening while paying attention and understanding what you are told.

Elsewhere, I have shared with the readers a derasha on the second word: “Israel”, and how it hints to the names of our three patriarchs and four matriarchs.
These two words are announcing that a very important message will be delivered to the members of the Nation of Israel.

“HaShem is our God, HaShem is one”

“HaShem”, literally means “The Name” and it alludes to God. So, anytime you find “HaShem” you could mentally replace it for “The God of Israel”.

Rabbenu Bahya Ebn Paquda (Span, XI century) in his book Chobot haLebabaot explains that this verse includes three principles, the core beliefs of the Jewish faith.

1. HaShem IS our God…: The first thing you affirm when you say “the book is blue” is that the book “is” = exists. Similarly. The first message of “Shema Israel” is that HaShem exists.

2. HaShem is OUR God: Evidently, HaShem is the God of every human being. He is the Creator of heavens, earth and life. What does it mean then OUR God?“Our” God is saying more about US than about God. It means that God established a special covenant, a unique relationship with us, by choosing us and giving us His Tora. He made us HIS People, the “chosen people”. Which implies that we have more responsibilities and we are expected to follow higher moral standards than gentiles.

3. HaShem is ONE: The unity of God is a cardinal principle. There are no gods or other forces outside God’s control. One example: We don’t believe in “Nature” as an independent force. God is the artifice of nature. He controls, runs and operates nature.


Pidyon haBen. How frequent is it?

Last week we explained the Mitzva of Pidyon haBen, and why the first born males have to be redeemed from a Cohen.
The Pidyon HaBen applies only to males (women were not bound to the service of the Tabernacle and Bet haMiqdash).
To be redeemed, the baby must be a bekhor, a natural-born-first-born-boy, who “opened his mother’s womb” (peter rechem). Therefore, if his mother have previously given birth to a baby girl, the boy who is born after her is not considered a first-born.
If the mother had a miscarriage or an abortion, the first-born is not considered a bekhor. This is when the miscarriage occurred after the third month of pregnancy. However, if the miscarriage occurred during the first 40 days of pregnancy, redemption is required. If it occurred after forty days, but before the fetus developed distinguishing physical characteristics, redemption of the first-born is still required, but the ritual berakha said by the father is omitted.
The bekhor, has to be born naturally (peter rechem). Therefore, if the first born is a boy, but he was born via C-section, he is not considered a naturally born bekhor and he is not redeemed.
Also, if the father or the mother are Cohen the Pidyon is not performed. And lastly, if the mother or father are Levites (levy), the Pidyon is not done. Why? Because the Levites are still obliged to assist the Cohanim in Divine service, andcannot be redeemed from this religious obligation. Levites remain irredeemably to this day, and are expected to report for duty as soon as B’H our Bet HaMiqdash will be rebuilt.
All these conditions mean that Pidyon haben is rather the exception, not the rule. It happens in approximately in 35% of all first time births.
ISRAEL TODAY
This is a rare video, of Benjamin Netanyahu (he was called then “Ben Nitay”) when he was student in MIT, and 28 years old. It is remarkable to see that the issues that concerned Israel today have not changed a lot, and that Mr, Netanyahu has maintained his consistency since 1978…
Don’t miss it: Click here


Organ Donation in Jewish Law

In today’s Halakha we will focus exclusively on living donors. The cases under this category are, for example, kidney donation; bone marrow and blood donation.

It is a consensus among modern orthodox rabbis that one should be willing to undergo a minor risk in order to save someone else’s life.

In the past, many rabbis, among them Rabbi Yitzchak Weiss and Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg z'”l, had certain reservations about the permission to donate a kidney, because they thought that although a person can have a normal life with one kidney, the risks involved for the living donor, during and after surgery, were too high and would endanger his life.

In our days, however, donors are carefully screened physically and psychologically, and the surgical and post-surgical risks of complications for the donor have diminished dramatically, thanks to the advances of modern medicine. Today it is consented by most (if not all!) Modern Orthodox rabbis thatdonating a kidney is at least permitted, if not mandatory. Nevertheless, one may never obligate or coerce someone else to donate an organ, even to save the life of another person.

In his rabbinical response Rabbi Obadia Yosef evaluates the objections of Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Waldenberg, and asserts that since today the risks involved in kidney donation are so low, it is considered a great Mitzvah to donate a kidney, fulfilling the commandment of saving a life, (piquach nefesh). Donating a kidney to save a life, he suggests, might be also required by the Tora’s commandment “lo ta’amod al dam re’ekha“, “You shall not stand still while your fellowman bleeds to death (i.e. is dying)” .

To understand the impact of this great Mitzva, let us keep in mind that a typical patient who receives a kidney, will live 10 to 15 years longer with a kidney transplant than if kept on dialysis.

(to be continued…)

For a comprehensive and reliable source of information about Jewish Law and organ transplant see Halachic Organ Donors Society



The 13 principles of the Jewish Faith. # 1. God exists

In his Perush haMishanyot, Maimonides (1135-1204) formulated the principles of the Jewish faith.

“The first principle involves the belief in the existence of God”.

God is our Creator, the Creator of the universe and the Creator of life.

“The ultimate foundation and the pillar of wisdom is the realization that there is a Being, a first cause, who brought everything into existence.”

In Mishne Tora Maimonides describes this belief as knowledge of God.

What is knowledge of God? We, the Jewish people, experienced collectively God’s revelation at Mount Sinai. In a sense, our knowledge of God is based on historical facts. At this very basic level, our knowledge of God is intimately related and depending on our trust in our forefathers –beginning with Abraham, Ytzchaq and Yaaqob– as credible witnesses of God’s revelation and as credible testifiers of all historical facts related in our Tora.

But this historical knowledge (=legacy) is just the basic ground of our faith. On an individual level, every Jew should set for himself as the ultimate goal of his and her life to acquire knowledge of God. “Knowledge” should not be confused with “understanding”. We do not expect to understand God! This “knowledge” is a function of closeness, of us being aware of God’s Presence, and our awe and love for Him. Praying to God, following His commandments and especially, studying His Tora, increases our closeness and knowledge of God.

The pursuit of this knowledge represents the fulfillment of the first of the Ten Commandments “I’m the lord, your God”.

Don’t miss this BRILLIANT presentation!!!

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks response to atheism



Understanding the Shema Israel

The Shulchan Arukh clearly writes that the kavana (usually translated as attention, or focus) we are required to have when we pray consists primarily in understanding the meaning of the words we are pronouncing.

If we are not fluent in Hebrew, we should make the effort to understand the meaning of the words we pronounce. In the following weeks, B’H, we are going to explain the words of the Shema Israel and the ideas behind it.

When we pray, we should know first the simple meaning of a word. But then, we should also delve into the ideas behind the words. For example: the word ATA, means in Hebrew “YOU”. And the idea behind “YOU” is that we are addressing God in the second person! When we say baruch ata, after we understand that ATA means “YOU”, we must also realize and bring ourselves to think and feel that we are standing directly in front of Him. That God Almighty is present here and now.

Let us explore now the first word: shema’.

“shema” means “listen”, in the imperative form. In addition, and same as in English when in opposition to “hear”, “shema” means: listening while paying close attention. The rabbis mentioned that in this sense,“listen” precisely implies “understand” (bekhol lashon sheata shomea).

Our rabbis explained that the word “shema” also indicates that when we read the Shema Israel we need to be completely focused on it. It is obviously forbidden to talk and even to make a sound or a body signal, even to greet someone. We must reach a state of total concentration while reciting the Shema Israel.

In sum: “shema israel” means: You, members of the Jewish Nation, pay close attention, focus and understand the following crucial statement: “Hashem is our God, HaShem is one”.


ISRAEL TODAY

Israel and the apartheid slander, by Richard J. Goldstone



Understanding the Mitzva of redeeming the first-born son

In Biblical times, the first-born males would be consecrated to the service of God, assisting the priests (similar to what Channa did with his son Shemuel). That was the tradition among the Jews and even among other nations, like the Egyptians, Babylonians. etc. Once the Tora was given to Am Israel, Aharon and his descendants were granted the Priesthood. They serve HaShem in the Mishkan (mobile sanctuary in the dessert or tabernacle) and later on in the Bet haMikdash. Following the ancient custom , the first-born males should have been appointed to assist the Kohanim. God Almighty, however, consecrated the tribe of Levi to assist the Kohanim. The Leviim were then responsible, for example, of assembling, transporting, maintaining the Tabernacle and many, many other chores related to the Sanctuary and its service. At the time the Leviim were appointed, the Israelite first-born males were ‘released’ from serving in the Sanctuary, however, they had to be formally redeemed by his parents from a Kohen.
This is a Biblical commandment, found in Bamidbar (numbers)18:15 (“You must redeem every first born…”).
The redemption is performed by given to a Kohen five silver coins, in accordance with the instructions given by the Torah in the next verse, in Bamidbar 18:16 “You should redeem them at the redemption price of five sheqels of silver“.
The equivalent weight of the five sheqalim is a 96.1 grams of pure silver (Rab Hayim Nae). The custom, however, is to round up the number to 100 grams of silver.
In our days, the Israeli government issues a silver coin, weighting 20 grams each, to be used for this Mitzva.


Rabbis Jacob and Isaac Abendana (17th Century)

 

Rabbi Jacob Abendana was born in Spain in 1630. At some point in time, his family moved to Amsterdam where he studied at the De los Pintos famous Rabbinical academy. In 1655 he was appointed as the Rabbi of the city of Rotterdam. In 1660 he published the Biblical commentary Mikhlal Yofi by Rabbi Shelomo ben Meleklh including his own commentary, Lekket Shikcha.
in 1663, in response to questions about Judaism from Christian scholars, he translated Rabbi Yehuda haLevy Kuzary to Spanish (Spanish was the lingua franca at that period, in many intellectual circles, like English in our days).
In 1680, he was brought to London to succeed Joshua da Silva as Hakham (Chief rabbi) of London where he served for 15 years the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. He completed a Spanish translation of the Mishna, with the commentaries of Maimonides and Bertinoro (Bartenura). Jacob Abendana died childless in London in 1695.
He was succeeded by his brother Isaac Abendana (1640 – 1710). Besides being the Hakham of London, Isaac Abendana taught Hebrew at Cambridge university (Isaac Newton, might have been one of his students). He completed an unpublished Latin translation of the Mishna for the university in 1671.
Rabbi Isaac Abendana wrote the first book of Tora written in the English language: “Discourses on the Ecclesiastical and civil Polity of the Jews” (1706), where he explained the basics of Judaism to gentile scholars. In this book he describes: the jewish judiciary system; laws concerning tithes (ma’aser), Priesthood; Jewish prayers; the Jewish educational system, Holidays, etc. Like his brother, he maintained an extensive correspondence with leading Christian scholars of his time, most notably with the philosopher Ralph Cudworth, the leader of the Cambridge Platonists.
The first Jewish book of Tora in English, by Google books.

 

 



The celebratory meal

The berit mila is one of the most important and joyous events in the life of the parents and family of the newborn baby.
 
The ceremony is always followed by a se’uda: a festive meal or banquet. This banquet is considered a se’udat mitzva, i.e. by taking part of this meal, we fulfill a Mitzva.
 
The Rabbis indicated, therefore, that the participation in this meal is not optional but virtually mandatory. Rama (rabbi Moshe Isserles), in his notes to the Shulchan Arukh asserted that one who does not participate of this important banquet ‘should be banned from heaven’. That is why in the Ashkenazi communities, the hosts are very careful not to ‘invite’ formally any guest to the Berit Mila, because if they are invited and do not come to the seuda it could be considered as if they rejected this Mitzva, and would be under a heavenly ban. In the Ashkenazi communities, then, the tradition is that people are not formally invited to the Berit Mila. The hosts just announce publicly the date and place where the berit mila will take place (pitche teshuba).
 
Because this banquet is not a regular meal, but the fulfillment of a Mitzva, people who are in mourning, after the shiba (the first seven days of mourning) are allowed to participate of the ceremony and the meal (when no music is played at the banquet). According to rabbi Refael Pinchasi (chayim vechesed), before thirty days (sheloshim) the mourner participates of the ceremony, but he should not participate of the banquet.
 
There are many different Minhagim (customs) on this issue. Rama, for example, says that during the twelve months, the mourner should not take part of any meal outside his house (YD 393), even if is a se’udat mitzva. Each one should know and follow his or her community’s traditions.
 

 

 

 



Should we forgive?

The days of Elul are days of Teshuba. We ask forgiveness from God, for any ritual transgressions we might have done. And we should seek our peer’s forgiveness for any offenses we might have caused them.

We also need to be willing to forgive.

In Chapter 2, Halakha 10, Maimonides talks about the appropriate attitude of the victim of an offense. He says: “It is forbidden for a person to be insensitive (akhzari) and refuse to be appeased… rather, when someone approaches him seeking his forgiveness, he should forgive him wholeheartedly and with a positive spirit”.

Forgiving is one of the most difficult emotional acts we might be performing in our lives, but at the time we ask forgiveness from God, we should be willing to forgive others as well.

Seeking revenge or even bearing a grudge is actually a Biblical prohibition. According to Maimonides, these altruistic values have had such an impact in the Jewish nation that it became already a ‘second nature’, or part of the Jews present genetic makeup. “[forgiving is part of] the nature (darkan) of the descendants of israel and the inclination of their hearth”

I must clarify, however, that we are referring here to social and personal forgiveness: when a friend, a colleague, a neighbor, etc.did something wrong to me.

 

Political forgiveness is a more complicated matter (I urge the reader to read this): we have no right to forgive the perpetrators and accomplices of the Shoa or those who had any involvement in brutal terrorists acts in Israel or in the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Actually in this week’s Persaha the Torah states clearly that some instances, like the irrational hatred of Amaleq, should never be forgiven or even forgotten, but constantly remembered, lest it repeats itself.

 

SHABBAT SHALOM!

 

Candle Lighting in NYC: 6.57 PM

Shabbat Ends in NYC: 8.03 PM

Rabbi Yosef Bitton.

130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024.

Email: rabbibitton@yahoo.com

 

Click here to see a wonderful presentation by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on this Perasha, about forgiveness and remembrance.

To watch and to remember: SEPTEMBER 11, memorial



The original sin and blame displacement

In Maimonides opinion Teshuba consists of three steps:
1. hakarat hachet or, admission of our personal responsibility .
2. viduy, or confession with sincere remorse for the wrong we have done
3. azibat hachet or the resolve to abandon a bad habit.

Personally, I believe that hakarat hachet is the most difficult challenge in Teshuba. Because naturally, we tend to justify and rationalize whatever wrong we have done. Or play the oldest human game: “blame displacement“.

Everyone knows that God punished Adam and Eve expelling them from Paradise. But why did He expel them? What did they do wrong? Eating from the forbidden tree?

Try this. Put on a table all kind of candies, sweets, and cakes in front of a six years old child. In the middle of the table place a simple cherry-tomato. Now, tell the child: ‘You can eat whatever you want except for the tomato’. It will be only a matter of time until the child disobeys, leaves everything else and eats the tomato. The ‘forbidden fruit’ syndrome triggers an irresistible curiosity and desire. According to Rabbi Yosef Albo, Adam and Eve’s sin was not eating from the fruit. God, he said, knew they will succumb! God wanted to train them to take charge, confess and repent for one’s wrong actions. He was teaching them to do Teshuba!

Adam’s real error happened when God approached him and asked him: ‘What did you do?’ and instead of admitting his responsibility and asking for God’s forgiveness, Adam ‘transferred’ the blame to Eve. He said: ‘the woman that You (You=God. Adam was blaming God!) placed next to me, she offered me the fruit’. Then, God approached Eve, and she said: ‘It wasn’t me! The serpent made me do it’.

‘Blame displacement,’ blaming others for our misdeeds, is probably the main obstacle for repentance, or at least the oldest one.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton.

130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024.

Email: rabbibitton@yahoo.com

 

 

Click here to see what the three most important words in a relationship are.