GENESIS 1:27: Male and Female He Created Them

“And God created man in His image …. male and female He created them” Genesis 1:27

 The first thing we should notice in this verse is that the differentiation between male and female was not mentioned in the creation of animals. Obviously, this does not mean that God did not create animals with two different sexes, but that for some reason, only in the Creation of man and woman the Tora “mentions” the male and female condition. Why? 

CONSCIENCE and DISCIPLINE
The definition of the human being as male or female, does not appear in this pasuq as a secondary element but virtually as an ontological condition. HaShem created human being in His image, this differentiates them from animals. HaShem created then man and woman, this distinguishes them from each other. Only humans, unlike other living beings, have “consciousness” of their own sexuality and gender. And because humans are aware of their sexuality, only human beings are able to govern their sexuality.

MALE BRAIN vs FEMALE BRAIN
Unlike animals, human male and female are not only distinguished by their sexual and physical differences but also by profound psychological differences. Men and women are different in the way they think; the way they process emotions and express feelings; their body language and being wired for empathy or systems. These examples, and many, many more, are not related necessarily to hormones, and are not found in the animal kingdom. This explanation is consistent with what we saw in the first part of the pasuq, the “image of God in Man”. “Image” does not indicate a physical resemblance between man and God. This Divine resemblance refers to the human soul; thought; freedom of choice, etc. We could also assume then that in our text the distinction between male and female goes beyond the physical or the sexual realm. While in the creation of animals (Fifth and Sixth Days) the Hebrew word מין (species) is used seven times, hinting that haShem created a vast variety of animal species, our pasuq asserts that in the creation of humans HaShem designed “only two species”: 1. Man and 2. Woman.

HOW MANY RACES WERE CREATED?
We should also notice and appreciate what the Tora does NOT say. The myths of creation written by ancient pagan civilizations, refer mainly to the creation of humans from a national aspect. Pagan gods create more than one human race: in the Mesopotamian old myths, for example, the main gods create the locals (Sumerians, for example) who are always superior, and then other gods create the rest of the world, who are usually slaves or inferior. In the Tora, when HaShem creates humanity, it does not say that He created the Jews and the rest of the world. Or whites and blacks or slaves and slave-masters; or the people of the light and the people of darkness, as it appears in virtually all the pagan myths of creation. The Tora, the only book of Divine authorship, tells us that HaShem created only one human race. But divided into two species.

COMPLETION
Another important element to notice in this verse is that when the Tora refers to ADAM (ויברא א’ את האדם) it does so with the definite article “the” (הַ) to emphasize that the text it is not referring to “Adam”, the man, but to “ADAM”, the human being. This pasuq says then that God created the human being as male and female. The Rabbis explained this point stating that a man or a woman by themselves, are considered only half of a human being. The “word” ADAM (as opposed to the “name” Adam) means: man + woman (that is why in Hebrew “human being” BEN ADAM means: son of a man and a woman). Unlike other religions, Judaism does not see voluntary celibacy as a religious ideal or virtue, quite the opposite: it is considered a serious transgression. For the Tora, mind and body completion is only achieved when a man and a woman unite, i.e., get married.



GENESIS 1:27. The Natural And The Divine In The Human Race

We will begin to analyze today the text that deals with the creation of the first human beings. Genesis 1:27 “And God created man in His image … male and female He created them.”

There are two concepts that define in this pasuq (verse) the fundamental characteristics of the human being.

1. To have been created “in the image” of God.

2. To have been created as male and female

Let’s start with the first point. There is a rich variety of interpretations as to what “the image of God” means (צלם אלוקים). However, despite the diversity of opinions, there are two points that almost all rabbinic interpretations accept.

(a). צלם אלוקים  Is not a physical image or likeness, since God has no body or materiality.  The Divine image points to a spiritual and/or intellectual element that makes a human being similar to God.

(b). The Creation of man in this verse is narrated in the context of the creation of other living creatures. The “Divine image” in man appears in opposition to the absence of that image in animals. It is as if the text is saying: “Unlike animals,  human beings were created in the image of God. ”

Let us see the different interpretations of צלם אלוקים  which can be seen as complementary.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN: For Rashi, the Divine image in man should be understood as the seal of the Creator in man (דיוקן יוצרו). In other words, when we see the human body and especially human intelligence, we see a reflection of the Creator. A human being bears an invisible seal that says:  “Made by Divine Design”, which reveals its Creator.

IMMORTALITY: For Eben Ezra the Divine image refers to the human soul, which unlike all other earthly creations, is immortal.

FREE WILL: For Maimonides and other rabbis like the Meshekh Hokhma, the Divine image is the supernatural intellectual capacity of the human being and the possibility to think linguistically. “Thinking” allows man, among other things, to be aware of himself and to conceive the existence of God. Unlike humans, animals do not think. Animals perceive images, stimuli or sensations associated mainly with survival and procreation, and react. Not being aware of themselves and not able to understand linguistically what happens to them, animals lack the power to control their reactions. A human being, thanks to his or her super-natural rational ability, while exposed to similar external stimuli, can create a space between the stimulus and the response to this stimulus. This space is what we call “free will,” and it is only possible thanks to man’s ability to “think”.

The paradox of man’s creation, its place between the natural and the Divine, was analyzed by the Hakhamim of the Midrash. On the one hand, they said, man has been created with the same elements of other inferior beings (tahtonim). That is, body, instincts and drives, all earthly and worldly. On the other hand,  human beings were endowed by the Creator with a “higher” element (min ha’eliyonim), something “Divine” that allows him to react in an elevated way, and to control those “inferior” impulses.

Sexuality is a good illustration of this scenario. When a man does not exercise control over his appetites and let himself to be driven by them; when man does not create a space for the intervention of his super-natural power, free will,  between the stimulus and the reaction to the stimulus, he forgoes his soul and becomes another element of the animal kingdom.   Note that unlike other religions, Judaism does not see as an ideal to renounce sexuality or the satisfaction of other drives. The Tora teaches man to educate his impulses. This education is known in the Tora as Qedusha, a very important Hebrew word that is often translated as “holiness.”  Qedusha becomes manifest when the Divine image in man is the dominant force.

In the case of sexuality, for example, when we have the Tora as our guidance to determine when, how and to what extent we satisfy our earthly impulses, the life-generating act ceases to be a natural act of biology and becomes an act of Divine Creation.

(To be continued…)



GENESIS 1:27: Androgyny and Polygamy in the Tora

ויברא אלוקים את-האדם בצלמו, בצלם אלוקים ברא אותו, זכר ונקבה, ברא אותם

“And God created the human being in His image. In the image of God he created him/it. Male and female He created them. ” Genesis 1:27

Yesterday we explained the first part of this verse, “the image of God” in human beings. Today we will continue with the second part of this verse, where the Tora narrates the creation of man and woman. Before analyzing the most relevant part of this pasuq, the masculine and feminine identity, we will see two points.

ANDROGYNY? How were Adam and Hava (Eve) created? In one and the same act of Creation or in two separate acts of Creation? This question arises because there is an apparent contradiction between Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2. In chapter 1, it seems that it is a single act. This led the Rabbis of the Midrash to suppose that Adam and Eve were initially created as an androgynous being, man and woman simultaneously, until the Creator separated them according to their sexes, as it says in chapter 2.

However, the most famous Biblical commentator, Rashi (1040-1105) mentions this Midrash, but immediately clarifies that the literal meaning of the text peshat is different. That Midrash, according to Rashi, should not be taken as the literal interpretation of the text. The literal reading is that in chapter 1, the Tora  describes “when” man and woman were created, in the Sixth Day, and in chapter 2 the Tora describes “how” they were created. Namely, what was the order of the creation of man and woman, the state of Adam before the creation of Hava, whether or not they were created from the same source, etc.

POLYGAMY.  I would like to pay attention now, as one should do when reading the Tora, to what the text does NOT say. The Creator could have created the first man with several women. After all, polygamy was not the exception in many civilizations of antiquity, but the rule. We see, however, that the Tora indicates in this way that HaShem conceived man and woman in a monogamous relationship: one man and one woman.

Polygamy is mentioned in the Torah and the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). But hardly as the ideal situation, and mainly as the exception. In the case of Abraham, for example, Abraham takes a second wife Hagar, because Sara could not have children.

In Biblical times, polygamy was accepted in the Jewish people as a rule only in the case of the Monarchs (albeit in a limited way, וֹלֹא יְרֶּבֶּה לֹו נָשִׁים, Debarim 17:17). Kings had to make sure that their offspring were as numerous as possible, and thus ensure the continuity of their dynasty. Infant mortality was more common in the past and it was also expected that rival peoples or enemies would try to kill the king’s sons.

In the rabbinical period, polygamy was not commonly practiced beyond cases related to fertility; the death of the husband before having children (levirate) or other special situations.

Around the year 1000 of the common era Rabbi Gershon Meor haGola (960 -1040) from Metz, France, near Germany, established a HEREM, excommunication, for those who practiced polygamy. From that time, polygamy was definitively excluded among Ashkenazi Jews. Sephardic Jews —who lived predominantly among Muslims, and for whom polygamy is common to this day—were not technically subject to the law established by Rabenu Gershon. However, in virtually all Sephardic communities the Ketuba, marriage contract,  included  a clause prohibiting the husband from marrying a second wife without the consent of the first. This made the practice of polygamy practically fall into disuse, also between Sephardic,  and thus it was only allowed in exceptional cases  (infertility, illness, etc.).

In summary, we see that for the Tora the Divine ideal is monogamy, one woman for one man. Polygamy, although allowed, was the exception.

NES MOUSSAN

I received this week the following text (which I slightly edited ) from my friend, Mr. Morris Arking, an expert on the history and traditions of the Jews of Syria, explaining why Aleppo Jews observe the 13th of Sivan, today, as NES MOUSSAN.

“Abraham Ades (Antebi) of Bene Beraq, Israel, has a manuscript from Rabbi Moshe Sittehon’s collection (Aleppo 1797-1878) telling the story of Nes Moussan.

In Aleppo,  Jews lived among Muslims and Christians. On the 12th of  Sivan 1853, Shabbat afternoon,  a Christian woman came with two men to the house of a Jewish man named Moshe Moussan. The woman shouted at this man: “Where is my son? Yesterday he was playing with your son Yitshaq and now my son has disappeared!”

The woman accused the Jews of murdering her son, claiming that Jews had done the same to other children in the past, in Damascus and elsewhere. [These “blood libels” were obviously false, superstitious and malicious accusations against the Jews, claiming that they sacrificed Christian children near Pesah to knead their blood with the matsot. YB]

Then, the woman called the local Muslim authorities and the boy Yitshaq Moussan was put in jail. The incident was reported to the Turkish authorities, stating that it was impossible to live in the same city with the Jews, because of their common practice of killing Christian children (sic!). Moshe Moussan was summoned to appear in court. But because he was afraid, he hid. The Jews were very frightened by was about to happen, that could endanger their lives.

But on the following morning (the 13th of Sivan) a Protestant man, reported that that woman was hiding the child to vilify the Jews. Some members of the Jewish community were sent to that woman’s house. They took a hidden key,  opened the door of an inner courtyard, and looked there. In a room inside a room they found dirty clothes. Under the clothes they saw what appeared to be hair. They removed the clothes and found the “missing” child. The boy was taken to the Muslim authorities and a confession was obtained on the planned plot against the Jews.

The rabbis of Aleppo  declared that the 13th of Sivan should be remembered each year as a day of gratitude to HaShem, and in memory of this salvation the Tahanunim, confessional prayers should not be said.

[There is another explanation why Tahanunim are not said on this day: in the Diaspora, the days of tashlumim for Shabu’ot are finished the 13th of Sivan, not the 12th.]



GENESIS 1:27: The Bible vs. Sesame Street

The Tora shows that the Creator divided humanity into two genders: male and female.  We can also see that in the Tora the differences between man and woman are expressed not only in terms of sexuality. Man and woman are “company” and “emotional complement.”  For this to be possible, for a man and a woman to need each other, to be attracted to each other and to complement each other, man and woman were designed by the Creator DELIBERATELY as two distinct entities: in two separate acts of creation and from two different sources.

Male and female is also reflected in our anatomy and in our DNA. In our days we know that our cells bear a signature of our gender identity. If you have X and Y sex chromosomes in each one of your 37 trillion cells, then you are a man. And if you have X and X chromosomes, you are a woman.

Now, do we need to emphasize something that is so obvious?

I think we do. Why? Because today we confront a culture, a popular or media culture, that is not very friendly to the principles of the Tora. This manifests itself in many fields, but I believe that it is in the social arena where it makes its greatest impact, particularly in the area of ​​sexuality. Modern media culture challenges, among other things, the innate distinction between men and women.

Sometimes subliminal messages tackling gender-identity are presented in TV programs for children. And even for toddlers.

Would you want your children to be encouraged to reexamine their sexual identity? Or to question their biological gender? Or to confront the question: “Do I have to behave as a boy just because I’m a boy, or should I also learn to behave as a girl?”

This video, for toddlers,  presents this message, albeit subliminally:

Why would these issues loaded with contemporary ideological and political pointers, be forced into the minds of our little ones?

Let us see another example of how these questions are subliminally introduced to our children.

On July 23, 2016, the popular “educational” show, “Sesame Street”, whose targeted audience is children between the ages of 3 and 5, presented the episode: “Dress-Me Up Club”,  to teach the letter “D”(sic.!).

Abby (the girl ) and Elmo (the boy) and the other friends are just playing together and having the normal different tendencies of toddlers boys and girls. At the end, you see that the girls are frustrated with playing princesses and they want to be superheroes.  In the trailer you can hardly appreciate the sophisticated plot.

If you want to discover the real story behind the plot, read, for example,  the eye-opening commentary of this episode, its content and its profound message, by “TV-GUIDE”, a moral compass of the media culture.

Let’s see.

Sesame Street Tackles Gender Expression in “Dress-Me Up Club”

By Malcolm Venable | Jul 21, 2016

“When it comes to playtime, girls should be pretty pink princesses and boys swashbuckling adventurers. That’s been the conventional wisdom for a long time, and it was only last year that retailers including Target and Toys R Us began to phase out toys labeled for “boys” or “girls.” Thanks to parents and progressives who’ve demanded that toy marketing encourages girls to build, lead or save the day, and avoids locking boys in a one-dimensional macho mindset, more kids understand it’s OK to play however they want. That’s also the wonderful and adorable message in a new Sesame Street episode, airing July 23, titled “Dress-Me Up Club,” the episode features Abby Cadabby playing with pals including Prairie Dawn and Elmo, when it’s decided they’ll all participate in Dress-Up Day. The fun is open to all, but the minute we see racks of costumes labeled by gender emerge, we can feel the constraints arriving. …Abby desires to be a superhero. Her friends calmly explain to Abby, however, that superhero play is for boys; girls should be princesses. But Abby wants to fly through the air like Elmo! Instead she gets relegated to a tea party — which, admittedly, doesn’t look as fun… Of course, by the end of it we’re all aware that girls can be heroes too… and boys, if they want, can play tea party and ballet too….

It’s sort of sad that the wonderful message here is even still needed at all in 2016, but here we are as a society: it doesn’t matter who wears what. Anyone can play in any way that makes them feel comfortable, and they can grow up to be whatever they want too. Though Sesame Street is clearly aimed at children, this is an episode that some adults could benefit from seeing as well.”

TV GUIDE indeed understood that this episode is not about teaching children the letter “D” but part of a larger agenda. Make no mistake:  the message is not feminism (although it might be disguised as that) , or the rights of women in the workplace. The toy of choice of this episode, clothes, is of the essence!  As TV GUIDE explains, the “wonderful” and “adorable” message is that: “it does not matter who wears what”. If you are a boy and you want to dress or look like a girl, or play ballet dressing as a ballerina it’s also OK, because it helps eliminating the gender differences and uprooting the heinous “one dimensional macho mindset” from boys!

If you look closely there are signpost of the gender neutral ideology everywhere: toys, clothes, language (pronouns) in official documents, etc.  The grand utopia of this new trend seems to be oriented to ending the labeling of people as boys or girls.  Ultimately, the goal is to have a “gender neutral humanity, where in terms of gender, individuals will be at an intermediate state between men and women, a state in which one is both or none, the possibility to switch genders, or a category entirely independent of the masculine and the feminine.“

But why would HBO target children with this loaded message at such young age?

Dr. Michael Gervais,  a psychologist, explains that it is possible to encourage gender neutrality in young children, before they are really aware of the differences between boys and girls. Gender neutrality gets tricky in older kids, because after about age 12, physical changes cause boys to become different from girls.

​​”Gender neutrality” goes against basic anatomy, biology, genetics and the Biblical  distinction between the two genders: “Male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). And there are also many studies done by renown psychologists warning about the side effects of gender neutral parenting.

Media culture is invasive, and it reaches out to the most vulnerable minds: our children’s.  Our mission, as Jewish parents, is to protect them!



GENESIS 1:21 Creation, reproduction and re-creation of life

INTRODUCTION: The topic “Sexuality and Judaism” is delicate and complex. It is usually reserved for private discussions. Before marrying, every Jewish observant person, male or female, studies an intense course on Jewish sexual education (Taharat haMishpaha), to understand and internalize the strong connection between sexuality and qedusha. “Qedusha”, the word the Tora and the Rabbis use systematically when referring to sexual behavior, is achieved by our constant effort to get closer to God, and reaches its highest level when we “imitate” God as life-giving creatures.  Those private conversations are the natural framework for the teaching and discussion of these issues.

What leads me to write the present reflections, outside of that traditional framework, is that at present time, many of us are being influenced about this delicate subject, voluntarily or mostly subliminally, by what is seen and heard in the media and even in the street. Moreover, many issues related to sexuality have nowadays become a matter of politics. Some times, they are part of a larger discussion between opposing philosophical visions: one that affirms the existence of God and sees Man as a creature endowed with the power to make moral decisions, vs. another vision that sees human beings as evolved members of the animal kingdom, where attention to one’s primary instincts becomes more important or more noble than one’s duty to mastering these instincts and drives. 

Since the subject is so broad, I will dedicate to this a few days or perhaps weeks.

I would like to invite the readers to contribute with their questions and comments (write your emails to: rabbibitton@yahoo.com)

Let us start today, literally, from the beginning.

The first time the Tora refers to sexuality is in relation to animals, and exclusively in reference to reproduction.  After the creation of the first animals, on the Fifth Day of Creation, the Tora says: (Genesis 1:22):

“And God blessed them [the animals] saying: ’Be fruitful and multiply,  fill the water in the seas, and the birds, increase on the earth’. ‘”

From this brief text, what it says, how it says it and what it does not say, we learn the first elements of the Tora’s view on sexuality.

REPRODUCTION vs. MORTALITY:

Unlike any other physiological function, such as breathing or blood circulation, the Tora highlights the reproductive function when it refers to the first creation of living creatures. Although the Tora has not yet mentioned “death”, the blessing of reproduction seems to hint that living beings, as individuals, will be subject to mortality.  This blessing expresses, however, that as a species, living creatures will continue to survive. Reproduction reminds us in one aspect, i.e., perpetuation, of some previous creative acts. (a) When HaShem creates the transition between day and night, according to Seforno, the Creator established the rotation of the earth on its axis, that is, the mechanism that “perpetuates” this transition. (b) On the Second Day of Creation, HaShem divides the waters. According to Rabbi Moshe Hefets, it was at that time that HaShem established the mechanism of evaporation> precipitation (= rain), which guarantees the “perpetual” production of freshwater. Likewise, in this verse, animal sexual reproduction is presented as the mechanism that the Creator is establishing for the “perpetuation” of living beings.

WHAT TYPE OF BLESSING?

This blessing that HaShem grants to animals, therefore, should not be understood as a regular formal blessings. Usually, a blessing expresses a desire: “May HaShem bless you” means more or less: “I wish that HaShem will heal you, or facilitate your success, etc.”

Sometimes, when the blessing comes directly from haShem, the blessing comprises a command. It is as if HaShem is saying to us, “This is what I command you to do, for YOUR OWN GOOD”( that is how HaShem’s order is expressed as a blessing).” In our text, when God blesses the animals,  HaShem is not wishing them to reproduce, nor is He ordering them to reproduce. HaShem is establishing the blessing of sexual reproduction as part of animal’s biology. It is a blessing mainly in the sense that it defeats mortality.

The blessing to animals, though expressed in the imperative, is completely different from the blessing that HaShem bestows on Adam and Hava (Eve), when referring to sexual reproduction (as we shall see in greater depth BH tomorrow.) In our text, HaShem does not  address or orders animals to reproduce. This is clearly seen in the use of the Hebrew word “lemor” which means “saying” (as opposed to “saying to them”, which is used when HaShem blesses Adam and Eve). Why doesn’t HaShem order animals to reproduce? Because an order, a mitsva, can only be given to a being who can obey or disobey, accept or reject it. Animals have no control over their sexuality or sexual behavior.  Humans do.

To be continued



How to celebrate Simchat Tora in times of COVID19?

By rabbanit Coty Bitton

One of the most beautiful memories of my childhood in Melilla, Spain, is that of the weddings celebration. All weddings were held in our Synagogue, “Or Zarua”, the Synagogue of Don Yamín Benarroch. I clearly remember that after the Chuppah the couple would descended and the bride circled around the Teba (the place from where the Tora is read) and all the guests looked at her with admiration as she passed close to them, and everyone celebrated her new married life.

Simchat Torah was also celebrated in a similar way in Melilla. For each of the Hakafot a single member of the community held the Torah and circled the Teba, while the rest of the congregants singed songs in Hebrew and Ladino in honor of the Tora, from their seats, looking at the Tora with admiration and affection and kissing it from afar.

As you can see, our celebration of Simchat Torah, particularly the dancing, was a little different from the Hasidic dancing we have today. And although not everyone danced with the Torah the Simchat Torah of my childhood was very joyful.

This year we have many restrictions due to COVID. And these new guidelines seem to take some of the happiness out of this special day. In many Synagogues it has already been established that this year we will not be able to dance with the Torah. And only one person is allowed to hold the Tora while everyone remains in their seats …

But, wasn’t this how Simchat Torah was celebrated in Melilla?

I think it is imperative that we put our feelings in order and not allow our happiness to be diminished at all during this Simchat Tora.

First of all, we have to be proud to have rabbinical and community leaders who prioritize what is most important! “Ushmartem Meod Lenafshotekhem”! Our Torah holds that the preservation of life is the highest value. And taking care of our health and safety is a beautiful way “to honor the Tora” and its commandments.

We also have to be very happy that this year we will have the opportunity to do a little more introspection, and understand that dancing with the Torah is not “the cause” of our happiness, but one of many ways to express our joy. The true “cause” of our joy is ASHER BACHAR BANU MIKOL HAAMIM VENTAN LANU ET TORATO that the Creator “chose us among all peoples and gave us His Torah ”. We are happy to belong to the nation of Israel. We are happy that HaShem has given us the Tora that guides our lives with the correct values.

At Simchat Tora we also celebrate the conclusion of the annual Tora reading cycle and the beginning of a new cycle. And even if we don’t dance with the Tora, we are happy to have the opportunity to start the new year by reading the same text but with a new look, and with our eyes full of curiosity. We are happy to live in times when we are free to study and observe the Tora. And that our children have access to Jewish schools and incredible teachers. Tora study is more accessible today than ever for all ages and levels. It is just “a click or a Zoom” away from us.

This year, in many Synagogues congregants will be invited to take a Chumash (a printed Tora book or Pentateuch), and hold it against your chest, while the Sefer Tora circles around us like the bride in a wedding ceremony. As we embrace our Tora book, we shuld resolve to be more ambitious in its study, and we should feel a desire to reach a deeper level of understanding and observance of Tora.

Even if we don’t dance to the Sefer Tora, let us express our gratitude to God and ask Him to inspire us to learn and share with our friends and family the beautiful life lessons that our Tora contains.

May we have the happiest Simchat Tora of our lives!

Coty bitton



Does it ever rain on Mars?

We have explained that in today’s modern world, when most of us live in urban areas and not in farms, it is difficult to appreciate the importance of rain. For us, rain is more an annoyance than a blessing….
Today, I want to share with the readers some facts about water and rain, which hopefully will help us to understand why we praise our Creator for the miracle of rain when we say the beautiful Tefila mashib haruah umorid hageshem (=You are the one Who makes the wind blow, and the rain to fall)
.
What makes our planet a unique place in the universe? You might say “life”. And that is true. But there is something that enables life to exist, and which according to our Tora was created before life. Something that scientists look for when they search elsewhere in the universe to find life. You would probably say “water”. And you will be partially right. To be more precise you need to say: “liquid water”. Why? Because water (H2O), or the evidences of its previous existence, was found in other planets, but always in the form of ice.  Our planet is blessed to be the only little place in the entire universe which possesses “liquid water”, thanks to the Intelligent Design of the earth’s mass, the sun’s mass, and particularly the fine-tuned distance between our planet and the sun. All these allows for earth’s temperature to be perfectly suited for maintaining water in a liquid sate. 
But this is not the end of the story of water. Normal water, i.e., ocean’s water, is not suitable for life on dry-land. All land creatures, including humans, need water-without-salt to survive.   That precious liquid is called “freshwater”.  Freshwater allows life to exist in our planet.  And the only source of freshwater in our planet is “precipitation”. (Precipitation includes: snow, mist, hail and mainly “rain”). According to Maimonides (More Nebukhim 2:30) the mechanism of rain was established on the second day of Creation. When HaShem separated the upper waters (clouds, rain) from the lower water (oceans). John Lynch, the author of the BBC Book “The weather” (p.84) describe with words very similar to the ones used by the Tora, the upper waters:  “We live on a water planet.  The seas dominate the world, but there is also an ocean around us and an ocean above us [=the clouds].”   The Second Day of Creation was dedicated entirely to describe the miraculous mechanism of converting ocean water into the most precious liquid in the entire universe: rain.  (See also melekhet mahashebet pp. 10-11, Viena edition and Rabbi Menashe ben Israel in his “Conciliator” ).
Now, let’s see some numbers to appreciate a little more the miracle of rain.  Freshwater is water with low concentrations of salt.  Out of all the water on Earth, only 2.75% of it is fresh water.  From it, 2.05% is water that is frozen in glaciers (North, South Poles), which originally comes from rain.  0.68% is groundwater, also, originally coming from rain. And just 0.0101% of all the water in our planet, is surface freshwater gathered in lakes and rivers. This 0.0101% is what all creatures that live on dry land, including us, drink for our survival!  The Second Day of Creation was dedicated entirely to establish the conversion process of ocean waters into the most precious liquid in the entire universe: rain. This is why our Rabbis considered rain one of God’s most important blessings to mankind.  In the second blessing of the ‘amida, when we say mashib haruah umorid hageshem we praise God for His Might (geburot), singling out His power, kindness and power to produce rain which supports and maintains life.
The sole source of freshwater in the entire universe is rain from the earth’s atmosphere.
“Imagine an entire planet where the universe’s finest liqueur is boiled out of fermenting seas by a brilliant yellow star, distilled in the skies and rained back down on the land, forming lakes and rivers of the inebriating brew. The planet, of course, is Earth, and the liqueur is freshwater.”   (L. O’Hanlon, Discovery)

 



The Exile After the Exile

Today is Tsom Gedalia, a fast day instituted to remember the murder of Gedalia Ben Ahiqam, the governor of Israel during the days of Nebukhadnetsar, king of Babylon. Fasting is observed on the day after Rosh haShana.

Why do we fast today?

DESTRUCTION OF THE FIRST TEMPLE
When Nebukhadnetsar, the emperor of Babylon, destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem (586 before the common era), he killed a large part of the population of the Kingdom of Judea (Yehuda), whose capital was Jerusalem. He also took tens of thousands of Jews captive to Babylon. Many other Jews escaped to neighboring nations: Amon and Moab, today Jordan, or Edom, today part of the Negueb.
Once Jerusalem was destroyed, the independent Jewish state ceased to exist. And Nebukhadnetsar declared Yehuda a province of the Babylonian Empire. The Babylonians allowed a small number of the defeated Jewish population, very poor peasants, to remain in Israel to work the land and avoid desertification.

GUEDALIA BEN AHIQAM
To govern these few remaining Jews in Israel, Nebukhadnetsar appointed Gedalia ben Ahiqam, a Jewish nobleman who lived in Babylon, as governor of Judea. It was an unexpected positive gesture from Nebukhadnetsar, a miracle, that a Jew was appointed to take care of Judea. Gedalia belonged to the Shafan family, noble Jews who settled in Babylon in the exile of Yekhonia (597 BC) and had the emperor’s trust. The prophet Yirmiyahu (Jeremias) who had chosen to remain in Israel joined Gedalia in Mitspa and he promised loyalty to the king of Babel, hoping that one day he would allow the Jews of Babel to return to Judea. When the fugitive soldiers from Jerusalem and the refugee Jews who had escaped to Ammon, Moab and Edom heard that Gedalia was assigned governor, they returned jubilantly to Israel. They settled in the land, worked it and reaped its fruits with great success. With Gedalia in charge, the hope of returning to a normal life and rebuilding the Bet haMiqdash was now more real than ever

THE MAGNICIDE
But then the irrational and unimaginable happened. Ba’alis, the king of Ammon (today Jordan), a kingdom that joined Egypt against Babylon knew that with Gedalia as governor of Judea it would be easier for Babylon to conquer Ammon. Ba’alis designed a plan to get rid of Gedalia. A violent man, from the dynasty of King David, Yishma’el Ben Netania, opposed Gedalia, claiming that the latter did not belong to the David dynasty and therefore could not hold the position of governor of the Jews. Ba’alis, knowing Yishma’el’s ambitions convinced him that he should kill Gedalia, and offered his help for the murder and the political support to proclaim him as the new King of Judea. On the third day of the seventh Hebrew month (Tishri) Yishma’el and a group of armed men arrived in the city of Mitzpa, where they were cordially received by the noble Gedalia with the honors due to a descendant of the Davidic dynasty. Gedalia had been warned of the possibility that Yishma’el would attempt against his life, but he refused to give credit to that information, convinced that a Jew would never kill another Jew. And besides, why would someone with a minimum of common sense jeopardize the renewed hopes of Israel’s redemption when those were crystallizing? … But the inexplicable happened. Yishma’el and his men murdered Gedalia and the other men who were with him in Mitspa, including some Babylonian officers. This murder would be considered a blatant act of insubordination against Nebukhadnetsar, a Jewish coup d’etat to become independent from Babylon …

THE SECOND EXILE
When news of this terrible crime was heard, the Jews who had settled in Mitspa panicked and thought that their best option was to flee to Egypt for fear of reprisals from Nebukhadnetsar. They asked the prophet Yirmiyahu what to do. The prophet prayed and waited patiently for the word of God. On the tenth day HaShem revealed to Yirmiyahu that they should stay, and that He would protect them. And if they decided to go to Egypt, the sword from which they were escaping would find them there. Incredibly, people ignored Yirmiyahu saying: “You are not telling the truth; that is not what God said. You are tricking  us into giving ourselves into the hands of the king of Babylon … “, and they fled to Egypt, where they found only more calamities, hunger, persecutions and death.

And so, the land of Israel remained virtually without Jewish population for 52 years. And the hopes of returning to Yerushalayim and rebuilding the Bet haMiqdash vanished. It was like reliving once again the exile that took place a few years ago. It was as if the First Temple had been destroyed a second time … Or worse, because this time, the exile was caused by ourselves …

In memory of this horrific tragedies our Prophets instituted the Fast of Gedalia on the Third day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, the day after Rosh HaShana.
TIMES OF FASTING FOR NY:
UMJCA                                                    5:10am – 7:06 pm
OTHER SEPHARDIC COMMUNITIES:           5:43 am- 6:57pm
OTHER CITIES: See here
Who is exempted from fasting today?
Minors: boys under 13 and girls under 12 years old are exempt from fasting.
Nursing women: According to the Sephardic Minhag, after giving birth women are exempted from fasting for 24 months, even if they are not actually nursing their baby. In some Sephardic communities and in Ashkenazi communities, nursing mothers are only exempt while they are actually nursing their babies. Pregnant women are exempt from fasting.
A person who feels ill or who experiences symptoms of flu or fever, or a person with a chronic disease, such as diabetes, should not fast today.
Elders should consult with their physicians if the fast will affect their health. If it will, they are exempted (or prohibited) from fasting.
The fast is observed today from daybreak till nightfall.

Joshua J. Adler, formerly Rabbi of Chizuk Emuna Congregation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has lived in Jerusalem since 1972, and serves as managing editor of The Jewish Bible Quarterly. THE TRIPLE TRAGEDY OF THE GEDALIAH ASSASSINATION JOSHUA J. ADLER Chapters 40-41 of Jeremiah tell the story of Gedaliah son of Ahikam, appointed by the king of Babylon as governor of those Judeans who had not been exiled. This occurred some time after the Chaldeans had put down the Jewish revolt (c. 586 BCE), resulting in the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the social elite. Since the Neo-Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, was aware that many Judeans (such as Gedaliah and the prophet Jeremiah) had opposed the revolt, he was willing to give the Jews who remained a chance to live and rebuild their country. The new governor was supported by Jeremiah and many others of the peace party. Gedaliah intended to restore some semblance of normal life to the land while it was under Chaldean rule, and he invited Jews who had sought refuge in neighboring countries to return. However, this period of semi-autonomy was short-lived as Gedaliah was assassinated by Ishmael son of Nethaniah, a fellow Judean, whom Baalis king of Ammon had sent to kill him. Fearing retaliation by the Babylonian king, the remaining Judeans fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them. The first tragedy in this story is the murder of a Jewish leader by a fellow Jew. The biblical narrative does not explain why Ishmael wished to kill Gedaliah. It seems likely that he regarded Gedaliah as a traitor, and the fact that Ishmael killed some of the Chaldean troops along with Gedaliah indicates that he may have wanted to continue the war against them (Jer. 41:3). We are also told that Ishmael was of royal descent (41:1), suggesting that he considered himself more fit than Gedaliah to rule. There is an additional element, however, since the text (40:14, 41:15) relates that he was sent by the neighboring king of Ammon, indicating that Gedaliah’s assassination may have been part of an Ammonite move against Chaldean interests in the region. When Johanan ben Kareah (of the peace party) discovered that Ishmael was bent on killing Gedaliah and warned him of this, the new governor simply dismissed it as an unfounded rumor (40:15-16). The Talmud (TB Niddah

JOSHUA J. ADLER JEWISH BIBLE QUARTERLY 24861a) cites Gedaliah’s naïve refusal to heed the warning as an example of the lesson that “although one should not accept this leshon ha-ra [evil speech] as a fact, one should take note of it.” Apparently, Gedaliah could not believe that a fellow Judean would want to kill him. While his optimistic attitude may have given him the strength to try and rebuild a shattered nation, he lacked the shrewdness needed to beware of enemies who did not share his vision. After the murder of Gedaliah and his allies, a group led by Johanan ben Kareah succeeded in freeing many of the hostages who had been taken by Ishmael, although the assassin and his accomplices managed to escape and find refuge in Ammon. The murder of his appointee enraged the king of Babylon and even the loyalists feared that he would now punish the survivors. These loyalists then asked the prophet Jeremiah, who had also opposed the revolt, if their planned escape to Egypt was approved by God. When the word of the Lord was not for the people to seek refuge in Egypt but to stay put, they refused to obey God’s command and even forced Jeremiah to accompany them to Egypt (Jer. 42-43). This was the second tragic outcome of Gedaliah’s assassination. The third tragedy involved a reversion to idolatry by many of the Judean exiles in Egypt, who started to worship the moon goddess known as the Queen of Heaven. They blamed all the calamities that had afflicted the people on heeding the admonishment of the prophets to worship only the God of Israel (Jer. 44:15ff). When Jeremiah heard these arguments from his fellow Jews, he realized that all the preaching and instruction by him and by prophets of the First Temple era had been in vain. This was the third tragedy resulting from the murder of Gedaliah and its repercussions, which deprived the Judeans of a leader in their own country. It signified a rejection of the God of Israel and a return to idolatry. These three tragedies mark a reversal of the Exodus from Egypt. Then, the people had been rescued from Egyptian slavery by the prophet Moses, fulfilling God’s command; now they had brought the prophet Jeremiah back to Egypt, ignoring God’s clear disapproval. The relapse into idol worship in Egypt recalls the prophet Ezekiel’s description of the Egyptian “fetishes” with which the enslaved Israelites had defiled themselves (Ezek. 20:7-9). Even the idea of Israelite infighting is mirrored in the period of Egyptian slavery,

THE TRIPLE TRAGEDY OF THE GEDALIAH ASSASSINATION Vol. 42, No. 4, 2014 249when Moses tries to break up a fight between two Hebrew slaves (Ex. 2:13). Although the Gedaliah episode may be seen as a minor tragedy when compared to the destruction of the First Temple and exile to Babylonia, it marks the dashing of any hopes of restoration, and a reversal of all that had been accomplished generations earlier by the Exodus from Egypt. עשהתורתךקבעTHE TRIENNIAL BIBLE READING CALENDARDEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF CHAIM ABRAMOWITZ October Joshua 10 – 24 Judges ` 1 – 13 November Judges 14 – 21 I Samuel 1– 20 December I Samuel 21– 31 II Samuel 1– 17 January II Samuel 18– 24 I Kings 1– 22 February II Kings 1– 25 Isaiah 1 – 3

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