7. Yona and My Mission Statement

י וַיִּֽירְא֤וּ הָֽאֲנָשִׁים֙ יִרְאָ֣ה גְדוֹלָ֔ה וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ אֵלָ֖יו מַה-זֹּ֣את עָשִׂ֑יתָ כִּֽי-יָדְע֣וּ הָאֲנָשִׁ֗ים כִּֽי-מִלִּפְנֵ֤י יְדוָד֙ ה֣וּא בֹרֵ֔חַ כִּ֥י הִגִּ֖יד לָהֶֽם:
 
The storm threatens to sink the ship and end the life of the crew. The sailors, in a state of panic, understand that they are not dealing with an abnormal climate event, but with a Divine intervention. The celestial intervention has also point to Yona as the sole responsible for what is happening. The sailors want to know more, and they asked Yona: “What have you done?” Yona confesses his crime: I’m escaping from the Divine call. Yona also realizes that, although not with words, but through a storm, HaShem will keep “calling’ for him (and pushing him) to carry out his urgent mission: saving the lives of the inhabitants of Nineveh.
 
HOW DO YOU ESCAPE FROM GOD?
Escaping from God means escaping from what He expects from you. In general, and especially in our privileged times, HaShem grants us a generous shower of blessings: material abundance, health and talents. Many times we are not able to recognize the “Divine intervention” in everything we have. HaShem then might use other resources. A friend of mine sent his son to study at a university abroad. The father deposited money in his son’s account every month so that he would not be lacking anything. But the son did not have a word of appreciation or gratitude towards his father: he took the money for granted.  After a few months the father stopped sending him money. And then, the son called: “Dad, how are you doing? How is everything? Such a long time we don’t talk. I wanted to thank you, by the way,  for all your help. I have not enough words to thank you for your generosity. …  Oh! and incidentally, I wanted to ask you a question: Is it possible that you forgot to deposit money for me this month? “
 
The Sages suggested that, just as this father, HaShem, may retain His blessing since some times, as Yona, the only thing that awakens us and pushes us back to reconnect with God is a “storm”.
 
 
HOW TO FACE A STORM?
What should I do when the generous Divine rain turns into a dangerous flood? Raba said: אם רואה אדם שיסורין באין עליו יפשפש במעשיו. “When you perceive that you are suffering, you must examine your behavior.” When ח”ו one suffers an illness, economic hardship, or other type of crisis—apart from looking for the practical ways to solve the problem and praying for Divine assistance—one has to examine his actions and his goals. And like Yona, refocus on what God expects of him or her.
 
DISCOVERING MY MISSION
We Jews have two existential goals. First,  to observe the covenant, a commitment,  I have with HaShem, learning and observing His Tora. But beyond this obligation I also have another mission. This goal is not as obvious as the first. I have to discover it. By looking into my special talents and virtues, innate or acquired, that I possess and stand out from others. And when I discover my talents, I discover my personal mission statement in life. Suppose I I have a high level of intelligence, and I use it to shine and become popular in video games and card games. Wouldn’t that be a great wasting of the talents that God granted me? Wouldn’t God expect me to use my IQ to study Tora, teach it, counsel others or find a cure for cancer? The same happens with an individual whom HaShem has blessed with money, or with deep empathy or eloquence. All these resources and talents must be channeled to the achievement of what God wants from me.
 
Yona evidently had the talents and skills to go to Nineveh and announce the people God’s word.
 
To ignore our unique talents and resources is to neglect our potential, and to escape, as Yona did, from what HaShem expects from us.
 


8. The Day After the Storm

ויאמר אליהם שאוני והטילני אל הים וישתק הים מעליכם כי יודע אני כי בשלי הסער הגדול הזה עליכם
VERSES 11-15
“[As the storm continued to worsen] the sailors asked [Yona]: – What should we do with you to stop this storm? ‘Throw me to the sea’, answered Yona, ‘and calm will return. I know that I am the only one to blame for this terrible storm that stalks you’. The sailors rowed hard to try to take the ship to the mainland, but the storm was so violent that they did not succeed. Then they cried out to HaShem, the God of Yona: ‘O HaShem’ they begged, ‘do not let us die for this man’s sin, neither hold us responsible for his death. HaShem, You have sent this storm over him and only You know why’. Then the sailors took Yona and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm [finally] stopped!
THE LESSON OF THE STORM
Every day when we recite the Shema Israel (vehayá im shamoa’…), we mention that rain is a blessing from HaShem, and its absence, drought, a synonym of starvation and death. But when rain is excesive is not a blessing anymore. The reward from heaven becomes a dangerous storm that causes destruction. In Yona’s story the storm is a means of Divine intervention, which, as we can see in the verses mentioned above, achieves its pedagogical objective: to teach Yona that he should not run away from a special msision he has to accomplish.
THE BEFORE AND THE AFTER OF YONA
Before the storm, Yona thought that he could escape from God. That where His word is not heard—outside of Erets Israel—His Presence is not manifested. Now Yona discovers that God is Omnipresent.
Before the storm, Yona ignored the direct call of HaShem, His “voice”. Now, Yona is able to decipher God’s subtle call in an extreme climate event.
Before the storm, Yona disobeyed God. Now he is ready to “jump into the sea” and entrust himself to the mission assigned by him.
And what seems more significant:
Before the storm, Yona does not think it is important to save the lives of the thousands of pagan inhabitants of Nineveh. The new Yona, however, is willing to sacrifice his own life to save a handful of sailors.
Thus, reading the text very carefully we discover that the Yona that we find after the storm is not the same Yona that we met before the storm. In an ironic sense, the escape and the storm helped Yona to be more prepared for his mission.
STORMS AND TORMENTS
There are several types of storms. There are weather storms and life storms. King David in Tehillim (127) used the metaphor of storms and floods to describe life challenges whose solution are beyond our control.
Storms are sometimes caused by ourselves: our bad habits, our bad decisions, like associating with those we should not, as happened to Shimshon with the Philistines.
Sometimes our torments are caused by other people, like Yosef who was sold as a slave by his own brothers. Something that unleashed an indescribable storm of collateral damages and pain not only to Yosef but also to his father and his entire family.
The storms, can also be isurim (יסורים מאהבה), providential sufferings not related to anytuhing worng we had done. Diffculties beyond our responsibility.
WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM YONA AND THE STORM?
Storms and challenges we face in our lives teach us and define us. And many times they show us who is who. A friend of mine, a physician, learned this lesson from a real weather storm. New York. “Sandy”. October 2012. The terrible storm destroyed his medical office, and it would take months to fix or find a different location. At that time a professional of the same specialty “took advantage” of my friend’s problem to promote his own practice, trying to still some of his patients.  But on the other hand, another colleague offered my friend a small space in his own office, so he can still see his patients until he has his own office back.
Storms that we live are also opportunities for change. They transform us and sometimes, like Yona, they help us to rediscover our own Divine call: the power to help others. Recently, a friend of mine suffered one of those storms, cancer, and after a painful period of thunder, lightning and hail, the storm ended. And he, BH, survived. Now he is a different person. And among other things he dedicates to helping those who go through these types of storms. And he became their savior. Because for those who are drowned under an endless rain of medical problems, there is nothing better than being helped by someone whose clothes are still wet.
Finally, we also learn from the story of Yona that even the most powerful and destructive storm, eventually stops.


9. The lesson we learned from the first chapter

We are finishing the first of the four chapters of the book of Yona
THE TORA AND THE SEA
One of the most fascinating elements of the biblical texts is that its stories contain much more than the narrative tells. In a way that only the Tora can do it, the plot of the story also hides a number of sub-stories, moral ideas and philosophical concepts that are interwoven with the narrative, and that a distracted reader would not able to perceive. When we read a Biblical text thinking that the message is limited to the story at hand, we are looking at the surface of the sea, ignoring its oceanic depth. The book of Yona is no exception.
Seemingly, the first chapter tells the simple story of a man escaping from Israel (God’s residence) by sea. But between the lines of the text we find several sub-stories containing moral concepts and dilemmas of not easy solution. For example: Can a man ignore his Divine call? What is the extension, and what are the limits of a man’s free will? What is the relationship between escaping from God and Yona’s psychological denial? What resources does God use to redirect us when we lose our way? Can we interpret natural phenomena, a storm, or misfortunes, as vehicles of Divine intervention or Divine calls? And if so, what are the rules of the game of these interpretations? And much, much more.
I would like to explore now what might be the most relevant and extensive sub-topic of this chapter. The behavior of the gentiles in the story of Yona.
WHO DESERVES TO BE SAVED?
Remember that the mission God assigns Yona is saving Nineveh, a non-Jewish city. Yona escapes from this mission, but the text does not explain why. We already mentioned three possible scenarios. The classic explanation, which most rabbis follow (see Radaq), is that Yona considered that if the inhabitants of Nineveh repent, the reputation of the Jewish people, who unfortunately almost never listened to the warnings of their prophets (there is no prophet in his own land?), is going to be badly affected.
And what happened on the ship seems to be aimed to modifying Yona’s ideas. Making him to see that, despite the price that Israel will be forced to pay, HaShem still wants to give the people of Nineveh the opportunity to be saved. As the story unfolds, Yona discovers that the non-Jewish sailors are not horrible people. On the contrary; when the sailors become convinced that Yona is the culprit of the storm, and that the only way to save their lives is to get rid of Yona, they do not rush to throw Yona into the sea. They try to return to the mainland, and do all in their hands to keep Yona safe and alive.  Rabbi Isaac Abarbanel explains that Yona now discovers the great compassion of these gentile sailors. They were willing to risk their lives to save the life of a Jew! It would be very difficult to deny that this gesture of the sailors did not make Yona reassess the objective of his mission in a more positive way…
LEARN TESHUBA FROM WHOEVER DID IT
When the storm does not stop, the non-Jewish sailors pray to HaShem (not to “their gods”), recognizing the God of Israel. Before throwing Yona into the sea, the sailors ask HaShem not to consider them guilty of the death of an innocent man. Likewise, in the last verse of the first chapter, when the storm stops, the sailors offer sacrifices to HaShem, and dedicate their vows and promises. Some commentators explained, based on all these invocations to HaShem—the God of Israel, as opposed to Eloqim, a general name for “God”— that the sailors embraced Judaism.  Yona must have noticed now that Gentiles can recognize HaShem, repent and avert a tragedy. His mission is feasible.
Perhaps Yona sees now that, if not able to learn from our own experience, the Jewish people might need to learn the greatest lesson about repentance from a story that involves gentiles. Which is what really ends up happening! The story of Yona — a Divine prophecy addressed to gentiles and their positive reaction to it— contains what the Rabbis considered to be the most important lesson for our own repentance on Yom Kippur. הזקן שבהן אומרלפניהן דברי כיבושין אחינו, לא נאמר באנשי נינוה, וירא האלקים את שקם ואת תעניתם , אלא וירא האלקים את מעשיהם כי שבו מדרכם הרעה. When the people of Nineveh repented …”God did not pay so much attention to the people’s prayers and fasts. God paid attention to their actions! He saw that they changed their bad behavior and improved their moral ways, and He forgave them.”

And that is the greatest and most important lesson for Yom Kippur.



ADAM and DAVID: A 70 Years Gift

 

By Shemuel Bitton (edited by Tehila B.)

We know that Adam, the first person created, lived a long life of 930 years. But our Rabbis tend to analyze every tiny detail in the Tora and ask why Adam did not reach the more “perfect” number of 1000?

There is a beautiful midrash providing us with an answer. Adam Harishon was originally granted 1000 years of life on this earth. He was privy to see all the neshamot which would reside on earth after him; but one neshama was not shining as brightly as the others, it was flickering. Adam asked HaShem about this odd soul. God responded, telling Adam that this neshama belongs to someone who will die immediately after he is born; and what a shame that is, because this soul happened to have great potential. Adam immediately asks HaShem to take 70 years off of his own life and grant it to this neshama, which just so happened to belong to David Hamelech.

Ok, very nice. Adam lived to 930, David lived to 70; together it equals 1000.
But surely there is more connecting these two Biblical characters other than the ages they reached.

Let us look back to the most famous, or rather, the infamous story of Adam. The sin of the forbidden fruit.
Adam and Chava are told that they can enjoy all the wonders of Gan Eden, and take from any tree they want- except for one! And of course, they go ahead and eat from that very tree.

Many Rabbi’s tell us that when HaShem told Adam and Chava not to take from the forbidden tree, HaShem knew they would fail to listen. After all, it is simply within the grounds of human nature to succumb to fault.,

So if HaShem really intended them to eat from this tree- was that really their sin?

Once Adam eats from the tree, HaShem calls out to him asking him what he has done. Adam responds trying to turn the tables on God- it was the woman YOU gave me who convinced me to eat the fruit! Why am I at fault??
He took zero responsibility, and managed to blame HaShem for his own mistake!
Most of us are in shock from this ordeal- how could he blame the faultless Creator? But this is in fact a sin in which many of us are guilty ourselves- we blame the circumstances we are put in (undoubtedly by God) for our own mistakes.

However, this is not something David Hamelech ever did.
Our king David is known for his ability to admit to his sins and apologize for them. After the incident with Batsheva, the prophet Natan goes to David and publicly calls him out, saying he is deserving of great punishment! David could have very logically concluded that he is king, and any man- prophet or not- audacious enough to rebuke him is deserving of death! Or at the very least, he could have kicked Natan out and ignored him. But David opens his mouth, and the first two words which come out are, “Hatati LaHaShem,” I have sinned to Hashem.
David took responsibility for his actions.

Perhaps in his 70 years of life, David did not only compensate for Adam’s 1000 years, but he also in a way compensated for his actions. He mastered the main trait Adam was lacking in.

Every single one of us is going to make mistakes; we are all going to do things that are not ok. HaShem knows that.
So what will we be judged on?
How we act after we make those mistakes.
Do we flail our arms around frantically, pointing fingers at anyone but ourselves? Or do we step up and admit to fault?

Once we recognize our mistakes, we can not only move past them, but learn from them, and we are less likely to repeat them in the future.

After all, this is the whole point of Asseret Yeme’ Teshuva. We first must recognize and admit to our sins, and then make a plan to change and grow from them.

Be’Ezrat HaShem may we all learn from David Hamelech and be able to imitate his humble ways as we stand before God on these precious days.



Hilkhot Teshuba 3:1-8 Teshuba and the tipping point

In the third chapter of his Hilkhot Teshuba Maimonides explains that in terms of religious behavior, there are three categories of people: rasha’, tsadiq and benoni. The rasha’ (the bad guy) is the person whose balance of good deeds against bad deeds is negative. The tsadiq (a righteous person) is the one who has done more good than harm. And the benoni (the average person) is defined by Maimonides as the person whose good and bad deeds are in a state of equilibrium (3:1). At a later Halakha (3:4) Maimonides explains that the calculation of our own fault and merits is inaccessible to us. This estimate does not depend on the number of Mitsvot we have done, as if the Tora would be a system of “points” in a scoreboard. Actually, this calculation is only known to God. Why? Because He is the only one who knows, for example, what our real positive potential is. If my potential is 10 and I reached 7, I have less merit than the person whose potential is 5 and reached 5. In another example, only HaShem knows the intensity of the negative psychological forces that might be driving a person to do what he or she does. The more intense these forces are, the more merit has the individual who overcomes them. For one person, it may not be very difficult to avoid stealing because he might have a natural inclination to honesty. For another individual, not stealing or lying might be a huge challenge. The balance of our merits and faults, says Maimonides, is only known to God. This thought leads Maimonides to the following question: Since I cannot know if in God’s eyes I am or am not a righteous person, how do I have to see myself? If I see myself as a great guy, I might rely too much on my merits and remain in a state of inertia, doing nothing to improve my life. On the other hand, if I see myself as a bad guy, I might think I’m already beyond redemption (= ye-ush, a state in which we give up) and will do nothing to improve. Maimonides concludes (3:8) that a person should always perceive itself as a perfect 50/50. As if my good and bad deeds are at a delicate balance, between merits and sins, permanently. Knowing that I am in that state of equilibrium, the next action I do will definitely count! What I will do in the next few minutes is extremely important because it will determine whether I am a good or a bad person. Thus, my next action becomes the tipping point of my entire personality. What I do next will determine who I really am.

 



THIRD TRIAL: Now you see Me, now you don’t

“אַל תִּירָא אַבְרָם אָנֹכִי מָגֵן לָך”
Do not fear Abraham, I (HaShem) am protecting you.
Bereshit, 15:1-
Abraham arrives in the land of Canaan, identifying and obeying the Divine Voice. And thus, taking upon himself by his own will, the commitment to follow God. He passes the first trial! The second test begins. The Divine Voice had promised him many rewards in the land of Canaan; prosperity, descendants, fame, etc… But when Abraham arrives in the promised land, the promises are far from fulfilled. In the very land where he was guaranteed plenty and riches, a famine takes over! And yet, our forefather does not take back his commitment. He does not flee back to the North, to his native land. Rather, he takes refuge in Egypt until the famine is over, and he can return to the land that God had sent him to. Abraham passes the second test. He learns to be loyal to HaShem,unconditionally.
THE THIRD TRIAL
However, his chalenges or “nisiyonot” are not yet over. If the lack of rain and food was not enough, Abraham’s wife is taken from him. Sara Imenu is kidnapped in Egypt and taken to Pharaoh’s harem. Abraham had actually anticipated that the Egyptians would be very interested in his wife’s beauty, and so he told her to present herself as his sister, but he did not imagine that Pharaoh himself would take Sara! He is completely powerless and can do nothing to rescue his beloved wife. Pharaoh gives Abraham a generous dowry for Sara: cattle and servants. Abraham is rich. But what use is his wealth without his beloved Sara? Throughout this ordeal, God does not reveal himself to Abraham. Did Abraham feel that he did something wrong and that God’s promise to give him offspring, perhaps, will not be fulfilled?
SURPRISE
And then, the unexpected happens. Abraham is summoned to Pharaoh’s palace. He is angry with Abraham: “How did you not tell me that Sara is your wife?! Why did you cheat me and tell me she was your sister? “. From Abraham’s perspective, Pharaoh’s reproach amounts to a death sentence. Pharaoh could punish Abraham with death and stay with his widow. But unexpectedly, the Egyptian monarch returns Sara, healthy and untouched, to her husband and Abraham is free to leave, with his wife, and with the generous dowry he had received from Pharaoh (Remember HaShem’s promise? Prosperity? Check!)
However, Abraham is oblivious to what we readers are told: that God intervened by punishing Pharaoh, and in so, warning Pharaoh that Sara is a married woman whom he must stay away from.
Abraham never actually discovered what really had happened. And despite his sufferings that seem undeserved and illogical, Abraham learns an invaluable lesson; God acts in ways that human beings will never fully understand or perceive. Sometimes in our benefit, as in this case, and sometimes in what seems to be against our interests, like in the binding of Isaac. Abraham learns that human logic cannot anticipate Divine wisdom, and God intervenes in ways we cannot imagine, or even dare to pray for.
This level of unsolicited Divine intervention, not necessarily perceived by us, is called “Magen,” a shield, an ‘unnoticed Divine protection’. HaShem protects us without us realizing it, He is constantly saving us from dangers we are not even aware of, and even before something bad happens.
To recognize this type of Divine protection, we praise HaShem every dayfor being “Magen Abraham,” the Protector of Abraham and his privileged descendants.
Rabbi Yosef Bitton


Tehiyat haMetim and the new evolution theory

Yesterday we explained that the last one of the 13 principles of the Jewish faith is the belief in Tehiyat haMetim, or resurrection. We also said that every day, 3 times a day, we mentioned in our Tefila, in the Amidah, that HaShem exclusively has the power to restore life.
Today and tomorrow I will try to explain a little deeper this important concept.
In Bereshit we read that the Creator created life through inorganic matter. On the fifth day through water and on the sixth day by the dust of earth.
The creation of life from inorganic matter marks a boundary, a frontier that man cannot cross.
In my latest book “Dinosaurs and the Bible” (which has not yet been published) I explained that the Achilles heel of the theory of evolution, which is rarely mentioned in the schools, is the scientific research of the origin of life, i.e., how does  science justify the appearance of life from inorganic matter. While the issue is too extensive to summarize in a few words, what the reader should know is that modern science has no definitive, nor convincing answer to explain “life”.
In the early twentieth century, at the height of positivism, scientists believed that very soon, once science explains how life began on our planet, it would be easy to recreate life in a laboratory. Since if life arose from a combination of random processes (=accidents of nature) over millions of years, it is obvious that in a laboratory it will be possible to avoid those millions of years and simply combine all that is needed to produce some simple biological entity, say: a cell.
Nothing was further from reality … Not only that all experiments failed to produce life (such as Stanley Miller, for example, although it is still incredibly cited in biology textbooks) but the more science advanced in its understanding of the genetic elements of life, such as DNA, the phenomenon of biology became more sophisticated than previously thought, ergo, it was much more difficult to argue that life appeared spontaneously through a chain of random processes .

In the words of the eminent British scientist Fred Hoyle (1915-2001):

“Life as we know it, is, among other things, dependent on at least 2000 different enzymes. How could the blind forces of the primal sea manage to put together the correct chemical elements to build enzymes?  …. The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one in 10 ^ 40,000   (1 over 10, followed by 40,000 zeros) … [this number] is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of Evolution …. These are the odds [for the spontaneous appearance] of just a single, simple cell, without which evolution cannot even get started. Never mind the odds of more advanced compounds like an organ or all the enzymes in a human being. “
Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) also made a dramatic analogy to illustrate the impossibility of the theory that life arose spontaneously from inorganic matter: “Imagine a tornado sweeping through a junk yard, and as it passes on its way, there in its wake is a brand new Boeing 747 Jumbo jet, which of course, has been fashioned and assembled by random chance out of the junk in the yard”
For Hoyle, the likeliness that life has appeared spontaneously through random processes is equal to the probability that the Jumbo jet has been assembled by chance, by the passing of a tornado thru a junkyard.
The emergence of life is a divine phenomenon that humans cannot explain, and cannot imitate. Living creatures were created with a miraculous mechanism that allows us to reproduce ourselves, but ironically we cannot re-produce life out of ourselves, from atoms.
If the origin of life could be explained scientifically, life could be produced from inorganic material in a laboratory, and vice versa.
However, even in our days, when science has advanced so much, and when we know the secrets and codes of DNA, and we can cure and prolong life, and we have learned to manipulate cells and modify genes in a laboratory, and we have developed artificial intelligence and we know how to apply the techniques of nanotechnology to the DNA, it is still impossible to create a living being from atoms.
That impassable frontier between the human and the Divine includes an additional element, which is similar to generating life from nothing organic. That is, Tehiyat haMetim, “restoring life” into a dead body.
Allow me to explain: as already indicated, it is impossible to re-create a living being, say a mosquito (a real mosquito, not a robot-mosquito!) from inorganic matter. Among other reasons, because it would be too complex to assemble and join together all the parts of its tiny body, its organs, its brain, etc. But what if we gave a biologist, equipped with the most modern laboratory in the world, a mosquito with its full body in one piece… .a mosquito that was declared dead, for “natural causes”, only five seconds ago …
Can any scientist restore life into this mosquito, or any other living creature, whose organs are complete, and the connections between organs and all its physiological systems are still in place? Can a human being ever practice, not the re-generation of life, but something seemingly simpler: the restoration of life or Tehiyat haMetim?  The Jewish answer is NO.   The 13th principle includes the belief that Tehiyat haMetim is an insurmountable boundary between the human and the divine.
We human beings have advanced in our understanding and in our control of the phenomenon called “life”, and we are now able even to clone life. However, Tehiyat haMetim, the restoration of life, is, and it will always be, the exclusive prerogative of HaShem, the Creator of life.




What should I think while listening to the Shofar?

“When the doors of compassion are opening, on the day that I will lift my hands in prayer to God, please, Almighty, keep in mind on this day of Judgment, the merit of the sacrificer (Abraham), of the sacrificed (Isaac) and the altar (which they built together) ”.

One of the best-known piyutim of the Rosh HaShana Tefilla (liturgy) is “ET SHAARE ​​RATZON”, “When the doors of compassion …”. This poem is recited immediately before hearing the Shofar, which officially announces the beginning of the Divine judgment. At that time, we ask God not to judge us according to the strict letter of His law, but with compassion. And we also ask Him to take into account the merit of Abraham, our patriarch, when he was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac (Aqedat Ytzjaq). We remember this event at this very moment, first, because the Shofar, a ram’s horn, reminds us of the last “test” to which our patriarch Abraham was subjected.

“It was the final test, the last of the ten: “Take your son, the one born to his wife Sarah, whom you love so much, and offer him as a pure sacrifice to God, on the mountain on which the glory of God manifests ”.

The most difficult test Abraham Abinu had to go through was the binding of Isaac.

The biblical text begins with an exceptional clarification: Genesis 22: “And God put Abraham to the test and said … sacrifice your beloved son Isaac.” God was not asking a human sacrifice. The text clarifies that He was “testing” the limits of Abraham’s love and loyalty to Him. It is a “test” —and an exercise that will train the Jewish people for generations. To understand it better, let’s think about the drill that is normally done in a school or a building when the alarm sounds, pretending that there is a fire, and everyone must leave in an orderly manner. This test not only shows if the school, students and teachers are prepared to face this eventuality in real life, but also serves as training for the future: if everyone responds well in this simulation, it means that they are prepared to respond if someday, God forbid, there is a real fire.

With this example in mind, let us now turn to Abraham’s test. What our patriarch learns in this test — and teaches for posterity — is that a Jew must be “willing” to sacrifice everything for his or her allegiance to God. And that is how we Jews did it for generations: Hananya, Mishael and Azaria, refuse to betray the Tora, knowing that they will be sentenced to death for refusing to bow down to an idol. The same happened with Chana and her seven sons, or with the “Hasidim Rishonim” in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (2nd century BCE). And with Ribba Aquiba and with millions of Jewish martyrs from the Inquisition to the Shoah. All those who were willing to give up their lives – or that of their children – instead of renouncing their loyalty to God in these extreme circumstances were inspired by the test Abraham Abinu went through when he demonstrated that his love for God was absolutely unconditional.

Today, we don’t have to face any of those dire tests. The challenges we must overcome to observe the Tora are ridiculously small compared to the past: I must sacrifice a little of my sleep to pray with Minyan in the morning (especially now in Selichot) or to study Tora at night, or I must sacrifice part of my money to help others, or my business activity to keep Shabbat, etc., etc. Everything is insignificant compared to the challenges our ancestors faced, when fulfilling the Tora might have costed the loss of life …

It is important to keep in mind when listening to the Shofar, that at this very moment, I’m judging myself. I’m trying to recognize what I am doing wrong and acknowledging what I am not doing right  in terms of observing God’s will. And when we judge ourselves we always need a reference, an example with which to compare ourselves. What better reference than Abraham Abinu? If my Father Abraham was willing to sacrifice what he most loved in the world in order to obey God’s will, shouldn’t I be willing to make a few sacrifices to be more careful and vigilant in my allegiance to HaShem?



ACHOT QETANA: The First Prayer Of The Year

 

HARD TIMES
In just over a month we will celebrate Rosh HaShana, the new year 5782.
To officially inaugurate the Rosh HaShana prayer, on the evening of, we read a beautiful “piyut,” a liturgical poem, called Achot Qetana. Interestingly, this piyut does not allude to the Judgment Day or even to the Shofar; it instead focuses on our desire for a better year than the one we are coming out of.
At the end of each stanza, there is a special verse repeated; “tikhle shana veqileloteha,” may the year- and all of its curses- end.
It is at this very moment, right before the official tefilot of Rosh HaShana, during the final minutes of the year 5781, that we are opening up our hearts to HaShem and asking for better times.
Before delving into the piyut itself we should clarify that fortunately, as privileged Jews of the 21st century, it will be quite difficult to relate to the content of this poem, as it describes the terrible “curses” that the Jews of that time were experiencing. However, it is through this piyut, and through understanding the pain of our ancestors, that we will be able to recognize and appreciate all that HaShem has given us today.

The author of Achot Qetana is Rabbi Abraham Hazan from the city of Gerona, Spain. We know almost nothing about him, except that he was a contemporary of Nachmanides (Ramban, 1194-1270).
Fittingly, most of the text in the piyut focuses on the painful and tragic history of the Jews in 13th century Europe. In its nine stanzas, the text describes- by a poetic and somewhat elusive form- the many persecutions and abuses that the people of Israel had suffered at the hands of the other nations with whom they had tried to find refuge and protection. It narrates the nightmare that had come to life for generations upon generations of Jews. In fact, for most of our history in exile our ancestors were defenseless refugees- unwelcome, demonized, abused.

A CINDERELLA STORY
אָחוֹת קְטַנָּה תְּפִלּוֹתֶיהָ
The youngest sister directs her pleas to You, and sings [today] Your praises Oh God, please heal her from all her ailments, May this year conclude along with all of its curses!“

“Achot Qetana” literally means the “little sister,” the youngest of all siblings.
The nations of the world are the older siblings, coming from the same Father; the Creator of our world. Israel, always considered the smallest nation (Debarim 7:7) lives in exile, banished from her land, depending on the mercy of her older siblings. But far from defending and protecting their youngest sister, these siblings are jealous of her. She is the “chosen one,” the most loved.
The beautiful and adored
Cinderella has been abandoned by her Father, and left at the mercy of her evil stepsisters. But unfortunately, this was no Grimm-brothers tale; this was the very harsh, very real experience of our people for millennia.

רְעֵה אֶת צֹאנְךָ אֲרָיוֹת זָרוּ
[Please, Almighty,] tend back to your flock, which has been scattered by the wild lions, [and direct Your anger not towards us], but towards the enemies of Israel, those who shout “Destroy her!” who have uprooted the delicate branch of the vineyard that You planted, who have destroyed and uprooted it, and have not had compassion even for its little grapes.

Israel is the flock, and God the shepherd. But this flock has strayed from their protector, and now the sheep are scattered, more vulnerable than ever. They have run away to exile, to escape the claws of the cruel lions who took over their land. Israel is also compared to a delicate vine, planted by God. But the enemy has trespassed into the vineyard; not only to steal the grapes, but also to uproot the vine, to stop it from ever growing again. The enemies have destroyed the tender plant, and have not even allowed the “olelot” to survive. “Olelot” refers to the small baby grapes which have not yet ripened; a metaphor to the Jewish children, taken from their parents’ into slavery, or forced conversion. Ripped away from their vine before they were allowed to grow.

חֵילָהּ קָבְעוּ הַגּוֹי כֻּלּוֹ
They dispossess her … they degrade her … and from the pit of her exile her soul is consumed … she has become the poorest of the poor … When will You pity her and when will You rescue Your little daughter from her dungeon?

The youngest daughter sought refuge in Europe. Yet she suffers constant persecution and expulsion; Europe has turned into a prison… but ironically it is the walls of this horrible dungeon that protect her from her enemies. What can possibly be worse than this prison? Being thrown out, having absolutely nowhere to go, no home to return to. Being humiliated and exposed to her enemies that seek her complete destruction. Israel has no army, no base, no power, no political influence. She is completely alone…

FINAL REFLECTION

Reading and singing ACHOT QETANA nowadays leaves me with a bittersweet taste. On the one hand, it is impossible to ignore all what our ancestors went through for 2,000 years… And on the other hand, remembering their suffering helps me to have a better perspective of our contemporary problems as diaspora Jews- which seem so insignificant after reading this poem. Most importantly, Achot Qetana fills my soul with the enormous satisfaction and endless joy to see that after so much suffering, finally, the Youngest Sister is back home! And against all odds, she sees that the prophecies that announced a redemption which seemed impossible even to visualize, are finally realized in our privileged times!

שנזכה לגאולה שלמה, אמן

To be continued

 

Rabbi Yosef Bitton