Nissan Antine's Torah

"What Gifts should I be giving for Chanukah"

2011-12-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

In the past three weeks, we have had Black Friday, Cyber Monday, tax free shipping whatever day, and now I just heard on the radio that the industry experts are saying that Black Friday has really turned into Black December!

It is really impossible to turn on the tv, open your newspaper, drive on the street without being bombarded with companies trying to get you to buy a gift for someone else.

This of course has me asking the following question: What is the Jewish Attitude towards Giving Gifts? This question can be asked with regards to Chanukah gifts specifically and more generally, what is the Jewish Attitude to giving and receiving gifts.

First question - Chanukah gifts. I promise you that if you look in the entire Talmud, Rambam, Shulchan Aruch you will find no discussion of giving gifts on Chanukah.

The first mention of this concept is in the Magen Avraham (17th century commentator on Shulchan Aruch) and listen closely to what he says:
מגן אברהם סימן תרע
נוהגין הנערים העניים לסבב בחנוכ' על הפתחים

There custom is that children who are poor go door to door on Chanukah [and collect gelt - money].
The original concept of chanukah gelt was to give it to the poor. It was then extended to giving Gelt to our Children and then Christmas Presents came on the scene and the rest is history!
So there is no Biblical Law, Rabbinic Law or even Custom which would mandate parents giving gifts to their kids on chanukah!

But just because it is not a halakhic requirement to give chanukah gifts, doesn't mean that it is forbidden. So what is the Jewish Attitude in general to gift giving?

Let us first begin with a story from the Talmud (Megilah 28a):

שאל ר"ע את רבי נחוניא הגדול במה הארכת ימים...א"ל מימי לא קבלתי מתנות.... דכתיב (משלי טו, כז) שונא מתנות יחיה
Rabbi Akiva asked Rabbi Nechunya: What did you do to merit to live a long life?
Now think about all of the wonderful things the great Rabbi Nechunya could have answered. He was a great Torah scholar. I am sure he was scrupulous in mitzvah observance. He was probably a wonderful father, husband etc.
Yet, what does he answer? He says: I merited to live long because I never accepted a gift in my entire life. As it says in the verse from Proverbs: “One who hates gifts, will live.”

Now this gemara understands the words “will live” literally. If you hate gifts, you will live a long life.
But there are other interpretations.
Rashi - “Will Live” means will live the ethical life. Rashi says:
"מי ששונא מתנות, כל שכן ששונא גזל"
If you hate gifts (which you have a right to accept) then you will certainly hate items obtained through theft. Other commentators talk about bribery, corruption and any other financial impropriety. In other words, if you are someone who always craves the next gift, you depend on material acquisitions, then you will be prone to bribery and corruption. So for Rashi, Hating Gifts is a strategy to make sure that you live the ethical life.
שונא מתנות יחיה - If you hate gifts, you will live the ethical life.

The Vilna Gaon interprets “will live” to mean you will live a happy life; you will be content.
"מחמת שהוא מצפה תמיד למתנה, אם לא יתנו לו, אפילו פעם אחת, יושב בצער"
“If you always expect people to give you gifts, then if they do not come through even once, you will be devastated”
This is true in many areas of life. It is all about expectations. If we expect too much from other people, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. The Vilna Gaon teaches, it is better not to expect anything. If people come through, wonderful. If not, we will still be happy.
So for the Vilna Gaon, שונא מתנות יחיה means, if we hate gifts, meaning we do not expect people to give us gifts, we will always be happy and content.

So far, it seems that Judaism has an anti-gift ethos! But how is this possible if there are Talmudic Passages which say that G-d Himself gives gifts to the Jewish People.

Of course the answer is that Gift Giving is not universally Good and not Universally Bad. It depends on the content of the Gift.

So let us look at the Gemarot which say that God gives gifts to find out what kinds of gifts G-d gives us. After all, we are supposed to imitate God so if we want to know what we should put on our Gift list for this chanukah, we have to see what kinds of gifts G-d gives to us and then we must imitate G-d.

One Gemara teaches us:
שלש מתנות טובות נתן הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל... תורה, ארץ ישראל ועולם הבה
G-d gave us three Gifts; … Torah, Israel, and a share in the world to come.
Another Gemara says that G-d said to Moshe. “I have one gift in my storage house and I would like to give it to the Jewish People and Shabbat is its name.”

Here is what G-d gives us as gifts: Torah, Israel, World-to-Come and Shabbat.
This means it is our obligation to imitate G-d and give these gifts to other people. Share these gifts with others.
Let me take the first two; Torah and Israel.
Last Night we had a tremendously inspiring Kabbalat Shabbat led by Sam Glazer. Sam is a Jewish Miusician par-excellence. He told us that in 1980, he was completely irreligious. Someone offered him a ticket to Israel. He went to Israel, studied at Aish Hatorah, become Observant and now he inspires many thousands of people every year. All because someone gave him a gift of a plane ticket. That gift gave Sam both Israel and Torah in one and now he shares that with so many others.
Think about the $1000 spent on that plane ticket. It could have been a gift of the newest computer, ipad hdtv etc. But all of those things would be an old model in just a few years and sold on Craigs List for $20. The gift that Sam received is eternal and priceless.

Lets take the last one, Shabbat. Let me tell you a story.
The Chozeh of Lublin (18th century - Poland - Hassidic Master) and his Rebbetzin (wife) were extremely poor. One Friday afternoon about 10 minutes before shabbat, the rebbetzin had set the table with a very modest meal but she could not even find two pennies to purchase two candles for shabbat. She looked all around the house, behind couches and in every corner, but she was out of luck.
So she runs out of the house to the street corner, she looks up to heaven and she starts crying, “Master of the Universe, please give me two pennies so I can be blessed with the shabbat light.”
Just then, a beautiful carriage is speeding by and it comes to a screeching stop right before the Rebbetzin. The driver opens the door, and low and behold it is one of the wealthiest men in town who is very kind but has left Jewish Practice many years before.
He says to the Rebbetzin, “Please tell me how I can help you, I cannot bear to see you in pain.” The rebbetzin says, I need two pennies for shabbos candles.” The man says, “Two Pennies! I am very rich. I can give you whatever you want. I will give you 100 rubles for all your needs.” The rebbetzin says, no, just please give me two pennies for shabbos candles.
He gives her the two pennies and then the Rebbetzin says, “You dont know how much this means to me. You just gave me the Gift of the Light of Shabbat so I bless you, that you should also have the Gift of the Light of Shabbat.
The man says, “you know I do not believe in that stuff but please enjoy the candles and he then rushes off on his way out of town.
The Rebbetzin quickly goes and buys shabbat candles just in time for shabbat.
Half an hour later: The Chozeh is in the middle of davening Maariv (Praying the evening service). He is taken to the heavenly court and they say: “Chozeh: We have a problem with you and your rebbetzin. Your rebbetzin just gave a beracha to a very evil person. Look at him now.” The Heavenly Court gave the Chozeh a view of what he was doing. He was about to get out his carriage in front of a nice hotel as (in the words of Shlomo Carlebach) he was about to visit his “Fancy Lady Friend.”
The Court continued: “He is such a sinner and your wife blessed him with the Light of shabbos. He doesnt deserve that gift.”
The Chozeh says back: “How do you know? Maybe he is only sinning because he never experience the Light of Shabbos. Give it to him for one hour and lets see what becomes of him.”
The Court agrees and instantly, the man feels different. He starts thinking about his life. He remembers that today is shabbos and he is about to commit a sin. He realizes that he doesn't even understand the true beauty of shabbat but he wants to learn and he knows who can teach him.
He turns around and goes right back to the house of the Chozeh and the Rebbetzin and knocks on the door. They invite him in for shabbos meal and rest is history. According to the legend, we do not know this man’s name but he became one of the greatest students of the Chozeh (and Rebbetzin) of Lublin.
The Rebbetzin Gave him the Gift of the light of Shabbos.

We are starting a new initiative here at Beth Sholom. It is called:
“Share the Gift of Shabbos”
Every Friday Night at Beth Sholom, we have a wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat, full of ruach, dancing and singing. I want you to think of someone in your life who does not have the gift of shabbat like you have it and share it with them. Invite them to come to shul on Friday night with you and then invite them to your house for shabbat dinner.
This initiative is for everyone in this shul regardless of where you live and whether or not your observance of shabbat is perfect. You have a shabbat table, you light candles, you make kiddush and Hamotzie. You know something about Judaism. Well there are thousands and thousands of Jews out there who know less. who do not have the Gift of shabbos like you have it. Please share it. Think of someone you know from work, from the Gym, from your kid’s school and make a commitment right now to invite them for shabbat sometime in the next two months.

Give the Gift of Torah. Perhaps you go to a Torah Class that you know someone else would benefit from. Take them. You could change their lives. Maybe you just read a book that was very inspiring. Give it as a gift to someone else. It could change thier lives.

As we buy gifts this Chanukah, lets think about giving gifts jewishly. To give a Jewish gift doesn’t mean one jew buys a gift for another jew from a jewish owned store.
It means to imitate Hashem. Hashem gives the gifts of Torah, Israel, World-to-Come and Shabbat.
Lets be creative this year. Lets think of ways to give these same gifts to each other.

Responsa Related to Israel - Class 1 - Rabbi Uziel on Conversion & Intermarriage

2011-10-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

To Listen to the class - click here

To Download the source sheet - click here

* New Class Taught by Rabbi Antine – Tuesday Nights at 8 PM

"Responsa of the State of Israel"

Topic: "Israel's first Sephardic Chief Rabbi on Conversion, Intermarriage, and Karaites"

This class will explore Halakhic Literature relating to the founding of the State of Israel and the attempt of Israelis to harmonize Halakha and a modern state. Topics will include:

· Should Israel have a separation of religion and state?

· How should a religious Israeli Police Officer behave on Shabbat?

· How should a soldier keep Shabbat and kashrut during time of war?

· What is the halakhic status of Israel's non-Jewish minorities?

In addition to learning the Halakhic material, we will also explore the biographies and contributions of some of the Great Torah Scholars (including a number of Chief Rabbis) who participated in this discourse.

Rosh Hashana Sermon 5772 - "The Silent Shofar of Begen Belsen"

2011-10-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

It was a few days before Rosh Hashana 1943 in Bergen Belsen. Wolf Fischelberg was waling back to his barracks and just over the barbed wire fence there was a block of “priveleged jews” with coveted foreign passports. All of the sudden, out of the corner of his eye, Wolf sees a rock flying towards him from the privaleged block. It nearly hits his head and then lands right at his feet. He notices that the rock has a note tied to it. He looks both ways to make sure nobody is looking and he picks up the note and slides it into his pocket. Later that evening, in a corner, at a distance from the others, Wolf read the note. It was written in Hebrew by a Dutch Jew named Hayyim Borack. ...Hayyim wrote that he was fortunate to have obtained a shofar and if the Hasidic Jews from the Polish transports wished to use the shofar for Rosh Hashanah services, Borack could smuggle the shofar in one of the coffee cauldrons of the morning distribution. In doing so they would lose the cauldron of coffee, for the shofar would be covered with a minimal amount of coffee, just enough to conceal it.
A vote was taken among the Polish Jews. Those in favor of the plan to smuggle in the shofar held a clear majority. They all agreed to give up their morning coffee ration on the first day of Rosh Hashanah....
The smuggling of the shofar was a success. Nobody was caught and the shofar was not damaged. But now a new problem arose. In order to fulfill the mitzvah, the obligation of shofar blowing, all present must clearly hear the voice of the shofar. The risk was great. If the sounds of the shofar reached the German ears, all present would pay with their lives.
The following question then arose in the Barracks: Would it be permissible to intentionally muffle the sound of the shofar so that it would not be heard by a passing Nazi?
(Story from Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust)

I promise you that I will get back to this question but I first would like to take a look at a seemingly unrelated passage.

If you look at the U’netaneh Tokef (478- second line) - ובשופר גדול יתקע וקול דממה דקה ישמע
“He will blow the Great Shofar; And a small thin voice will be heard”

Question: If it is a great shofar? why the small thin voice?

Answer: I think we can answer this by looking at two events that took place at Mount Sinai. The first event was Matan Torah, the Giving of the Torah. There was thunder and lightning and a shofar blast which was holech v’chazak meod (it got stronger the longer it lasted). This is the shofar gadol. Awesome. Powerful. Extraordinary.

But then we turn to the next event that occurred at Mount Sinai. About 400 years later, Elijah the prophet was hiding in desert מדבר. An angel then tells him to walk for 40 days and 40 nights and he arrives at Mount Sinai. All of the sudden, there is a רוח גדולה מפרק הרים (a powerful wind that shatters mountains) - But the angel says - “Hashem is not in the wind:” (לא ברוח ה’). Then there is an earthquake. But the “hashem is not in the earthquake”. Then then a fire. But the Angel says -Hashem is not in the fire. After the fire there is a still, thin sound (Kol Demama Dakah).
Elijah is being taught that if you want to look for Hashem, dont look in the spectacular, in the amazing, in the extraordinary. If you want to find Hashem, you have to listen to the still thin sound of the mundane day in and day out reality, you have to look for Hashem in the ordinary.

We call this Halakha. The Definition of Halakha - Our attempt to encounter/hear G-d in the seemingly boring details of everyday life. Our attempt to make the ordinary, holy.

Which one lasts longer? The Shofar Gadol lasts for 40 days (40 days after revelation at Mount Sinai they committed sin of the golden calf). The Kol Demama daka lasts forever.

Let me give a few examples.

A boy or a girl has a bar or bat mitzvah. It is amazing. Everyone is in shul. The child does so well. The child is so inspired in his or her judaism. This is the Shofar Gadol (The great shofar).
But the real challenge is, what happens tomorrow and the next day. Does the child take the inspiration of the Bar Mitzvah and look for G-d daily throughout the teenage years and into college. This is the real challenge. This is the Kol Demama Dakah.

A couple gets married. So beautiful. So inspiring. Every couple wants to get every Jewish detail right for the wedding. This is the shofar gadol. But what happens the day after. There are so many halakhot that pertain to married life (laws of family purity, laws of setting up home, laws of raising children. How committed are we at that point. This is the Kol Demama Daka.

Today is Rosh Hashana. Everyone is here! The davening is beautiful so inspiring. Everyone is thinking about their lives and praying for a good year. This is the Shofar Gadol. The question is who shows up on a random Thursday in November? Who takes five minutes out of their lunch break to daven mincha. Who remembers to Bentch (Grace after meals) when we are just by ourselves. It is quiet. Nobody is watching. This is the Kol Demama Daka.

I recently taught a class on the Laws of Shabbat. I have to say, I was nervous. Would anyone be interested in learning about all of the seemingly boring details. I was so moved by your response. Everyone wanted more and more detail. Everyone was thirsty to learn subtle distinctions between between cooking and reheating, liquid food and solid food, ovens vs. hot plates vs. warming ovens vs. blechs, 105 vs. 110 degrees, shehiya and chazara.
This is beautiful. This is how we turn the ordinary into the holy. This is how we listen for G-d in the Kol Demama Daka.

Now for the controversial part (there always has to be something controversial!). Many in this room are so worried about our children. How will they turn out. Will they be observant. Will they be committed and passionate jews. Will they intermarry?
So what do we do? We spend thousands of dollars (perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars) on Day School, Israel trips, holocaust trips, summer experiences and Birthrights so they will have that moment of amazing inspiration that will bind them to Judaism forever. - we are trying to give our children the shofar gadol. This is beautiful but We also need to give them kol demama daka.
We need to give them the boring everyday judaism. The Shabbat, the Kashrut, the consistency of davening and Torah study.

We, our Jewish community, is excellent at creating “Extraordinary Judaism.” But are we good enough at doing “Ordinary Judaism”? I have a harsh observation. If we do not do better (all of us regardless of our current level of observance) at “Ordinary Judaism” then the hundreds of thousands of dollars that we spend on “Extraordinary Judaism” is one big waste of money. The shofar gadol is important to recharge our batteries, to give us great moments of inspiration. But we also need the Kol Demama Daka and without it, the shofar gadol is meaningless.

Now I would like to return to Bergen Belsen. Was it permitted to intentionally muffle the sound of that shofar blast? Well based on the lesson of the Kol Demama Daka, it would seem that it might even be spiritually preferable to to have a muffled silent sound then to have the poweful shofar Gadol blast.

However, spiritual intuitions are not sufficient. We must consult the Halakha.

And this is precisely what happened in Bergen Belsen. “A heated debate developed among the scholars and rabbis” in the barracks on this topic.”

While the halakhic arguments are not recorded in the story, I can imagine that the following source might have been quoted.

Mishna Rosh Hashana 3:7 "If someone blows a Shofar into a pit, cistern or barrel, then he is Yotze if he hears the sound of the Shofar, but not if he hears the echo"

Why would someone blow a shofar into a pit or a barrel? Is this just an example of the rabbis sitting around and discussing crazy hypothetical cases for their intellectual enjoyment.

Meiri (quoting Rav Shrira Goen) - This was a very real and practical question. This mishnah was composed during the Hadrianic Persecutions (Post Bar Kochba in 135). Sounding the shofar was illegal and if a Roman overheard the shofar blast, Jews could be put to death. They therefore wanted to know if they could blow the shofar into a pit or a barrel to muffle the sound.

The answer was, if you hear the echo, you do not fulfill the mitzvah. But if you hear the shofar (no matter how muffled) you fulfill the mitzvah. Shulchan Aruch - כל הקולות כשרות (All sounds are kosher no matter how loud or how soft).

The rabbis and the scholars in Bergen Belsen must have discussed these sources and then a decision was reached to blow the shofar quietly. God would surely accept the muffled sounds of the shofar...thought Wolf Fischelberg as he was about to blow the shofar.
As little Miriam, Wolf’s daughter, listened to the shofar, she hoped that it would bring down the barbed-wire fences of Bergen Belsen just as the blasts of the shofar had in earlier times made the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. Then the service was over.
Nothing had changed. The barbed wires remained fixed in their places.Only in the heart did something stir – knowledge and hope; knowledge that the muffled voice of a shofar
had made a dent in the Nazi wall of humiliation and slavery, and hope that someday freedom would bring down the barbed-wire fences of Bergen Belsen and of humanity.

I believe that the hope came from the fact that no matter what was going on in the Concentration Camp, they still listened for the Kol Demama Daka, the muffled sound of the shofar. Their focus until the end was on the Halakha and how it could sanctify very difficult and seemingly very unholy moments of life.

And Miriam’s hope came to fruition less then two years later in May of 1945. While Miriam and her family were traveling on a Death Train through the German countryside, their train was liberated by the US army.

I hope that this year, 5752, we can hear both sounds of the shofar. The shofar Gadol which provides those amazing moments of inspiration and deep connection. But then also the Kol Demama Daka, which we have to listen very carefully for and sanctify the other 99% of seemingly ordinary times in our lives. It is the kol Demama Daka which ultimately will have a deeper impact on ourselves and on our children.

And as we try to do our part and listen for Hashem’s voice, May Hashem listen to our voice as well and grant us a year of prosperity, health and fulfillment of our deepest prayers. Shana Tova.

9/11 10th Anniversary Sermon

2011-09-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

9/11 10th Anniversary Derasha

I have thought long and hard about what I would say on this 10th anniversary of 9/11. So much has been said. So many speeches, so many articles, opeds and essays. But at a certain level, nothing needs to be said. Every person in this room remembers exactly where they were and exactly what they felt when they first heard or saw the planes crashing in to the towers. We remember vividly the emotions, the fear, the concern, the confusion, the sense of loss. So nothing needs to be said.

Yet, I find myself up here talking so I will go to the place where I always go whenever I confront tragedy. Whenever, I struggle with a difficutl situation, I turn to Halakha and more specifically, to the “Responsa Literature” to see the religious struggles that Jews have had when going through difficult times.

So I am going to begin with a Halakhic question that was sent by the Beth Din of America to Rabbi Ovadya Yosef (former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel). I am going to quote the testimony of Delphine Saada. Delphine’s husband, Thierry Saada (The Saada’s are French Jews of Tunisian Descent who arrived in the US in the 90’s), worked as a Trader for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor on the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

“My husband called me at 8:02 am to wake me up. At 8:50 (4 minutes after the North Tower was hit which occured at 8:46), I called him on his cell phone but he did not answer. I left a message. At 8:52, he called on his cell phone and told me they were evacuating the building. That was the last time I heard his voice.”

The question in this case was do we have enough evidence under Jewish law to declare Thierry dead. If not, then in addition to all of the suffering that Delphine, as a 9/11 widow encountered, she would now be an agunah (a chained woman not free to remarry).

No remains of Thierry Saada were found. No teeth that could be verified with dental records. No DNA evidence. Nothing. All they had was a call from the office at 8:02 and cell phone call at 8:52. The problem with the cell phone call is that it could have been made anywhere withing the range of the cell phone tower. It is possible that some time after 8:02 and before the plane hit, Thierry left the building and then after the towers were hit, he took the opportunity to disappear.

Some of you might be thinking that this is crazy. Hasnt this woman suffered enough? Why can’t we just assume that Thierry is dead and allow her to get on with her life?

I would therefore like to demonstrate to you how important it is to prove with as much certainty as possible that a husband is dead, before we allow a woman to remarry. I will do this with another responsum, this one date the 12th day of Tishrei 1942 (just 2 days after Yom Kippur) in the Kovno Ghetto. The Germans discovered that there were way more women in the ghetto than men. They were unhappy with this so said that any woman who is not married by such and such a date will be killed. All the single women in the ghetto went out and married any man they could find. One particular woman’s husband had been taken by the Nazis a few years earlier and she had heard a number of reports that he was dead. She was confident that he died because if not, he certainly would have tried to contact her.
This woman goes and married a second man and they have a child. They all survive the war move to America, send this boy to yeshiva. He eventually gets married and becomes a rabbi.

One day, 30 years after the holocaust, guess who shows up?
The first husband. He doesnt really have a good explanation as to where he was for the last 30 years, but he is here. This means that this boy is a Mamzer (the product of adultery) for his mother was still married to her first husband when she had him). The result was that this young man who was now a rabbi was actually forced to give up his position as rabbi and he was forced to divorce his wife because he was not allowed to be married to her.

Verifying that a husband is dead is certainly very important and that is what the bet din in our case set out to do.

The question was specifically sent to Rabbi Ovadyah Yosef because the Saada’s were a Sephardic family.
So how does Rabbi Ovadyah Yosef rule?
Rabbi Ovadyah Yosef and others who dealt with these questions (there were about 15 9/11 agunot) takes a two prong approach.

First, he establishes that Thierry was in fact on the 104th floor when the plane hit.

He argues that we may use the phone records and the testimony of the wife and he employs a concept called chazakah which says that if Thierry was there at 8:02, we can assume that he was there until we know for sure that he was not there.

The second prong is as follows. Now that we can place Thierry in his office on the 104th floor at the moment of impact, we can apply the Talmudic concept of “One who falls into a burning furnace.” If we have witnesses who see someone fall into a furnace, even if no body is recovered, we can declare the person dead. Since we know of no living survivors from the North Tower who were above the 92nd floor at the moment of impact, we can declare Thierry dead.

Thierry’s wife, Delphine was given permission to remarry as well as all of the 9-11 agunot. Some of the cases were more difficult but the rabbis found leniencies in every case.

As I was learning these responsa related to the 9/11 agunot, I found myself comparing them to the many agunot responsa throughout Jewish History, where Jewish men have been killed or disappeared without sufficient evidence and rabbinic authorities deal with whether or not the wives are agunot. These case occured during the crusades, during the Spanish Inquisition (men disappeared into the Inquisition Jails never to be heard from again), and of course the Holocaust. The major difference between all the other cases and the 9/11 agunot is as follows.

In all the other cases, the husbands were targeted for one reason and one reason only, they were Jews. However, in this case, while it is true that Jews died on 9/11, they were not targeted becasue they were Jews. They were targeted because they were Americans, or living and working in America. They were targeted because of everything that America stands for; Freedom, Democracy and all the values that we cherish.

This is true about every ethnicity and group that lost members during 9/11. While it is true that African Americans were killed during 9/11, they were not targeted because they were Black but because they were American. Everyone was killed; Jews, Christians, Buddhists, even Muslims. Rich, Poor, Black, White. All of us Americans. All of the classifications that usually divide us did not matter to the Terrorists.

I think this understanding that 9/11 transcended any of those divisions was deeply felt right after 9/11. This is why everyone wanted to help their fellow American. There was a sense of Unity. A sense of helping out my neighbor regardless of where he or she comes from.

I remember the first time Sarah and I visited Ground Zero in the summer of 2002. All we could think of were the majestic towers that once were there and what was in their place? A deep dark pit of death. I had one thought. This is a mass grave. As Jews were are unfortunately too familiar with Mass Graves. You can go and visit them all over Europe. But this is different. This is a mass grave of all peoples. All religious, all ethnicities. There is no Jewish or Christian section of Ground Zero, everyone is one.

I remember asking myself, can any light come out of this deep dark pit of destruction? I think the only light might be if we remember how much they hate us and we ask ourselves, “do we love each other as much as they hate us.” They spent months and maybe years scheming and planning to destroy. Do we spend time trying to build. They worked so hard on hurting and killing, do we spend equal amount of time on healing and sustaining? Maybe, the one light that can come out of 9/11 would be if we try to love each other as much as they hate us.

I would just like to conclude with Thierry Saada and his wife Delphine. The following triibute was written about him in the New York Times a few months after 9/11 and I am going to read parts of it.

When Thierry Saada came to New York in 1999 from Paris, he sublet Delphine Zana's apartment through mutual friends in the Sephardic Jewish community. Both their families were originally from Tunisia, but moved to France after Tunisian independence. Mr. Saada was tall, handsome, and "sportif," she said, and they fell in love.

Last November, they married, and Mrs. Saada became pregnant. Mr. Saada was so excited he played Tunisian music and sacred Sephardic melodies for his unborn child, and he would "talk to my bellybutton," she said. Mrs. Saada was scared about the delivery, but "he said we would be together, that he would push with me."

On Sept. 11, Mr. Saada, 26, a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, was on the 104th floor of 1 World Trade Center. The baby was due on Sept. 16, but Mrs. Saada did not go into labor. "I was hoping he would come back," she said. In the end, the labor was induced, and on Sept. 27, their son, Lior ‹ "my light" in Hebrew ‹ was born, with Mrs. Saada's mother, Dolly, and sister-in-law, Carole, at her side.

After everything that Delphine went through she had her Little Light, her Lior to remember her husband.

I think we all have a little light, our own lior, to take out of 9/11. It is that is to try to revive that sense of unity and mutual caring that occurred right after 9/11. And if we do our part, May HaKadosh Baruch Hu, May G-d do his part and grant this amazing country peace, safety and security and spare it further sorrow for many years to come.

Converso Responsa Class 6 - "Circumcision and Soloman Molcho

2010-11-30T19:44:00.000-08:00

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Converso Responsa Class 5 - From Portugal to Salonika

2010-11-16T19:36:00.000-08:00

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Converso Responsa Class #4 - The Marrano Kohen and Polygamy

2010-11-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

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Converso Responsa Class #3 - The Duran Family and the Mamzer

2010-11-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

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Conversos Responsa Class #2 - The Agunah and the Categories of Conversos

2010-10-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

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Responsa of the Conversos - Historical Background and Rivash - Class #1

2010-10-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

This class introduces the historical background of the Massacre of 1391 and focuses on the Rivash, one of the most important Halakhic thinkers of the Converso Era.

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Holocaust Responsa Class #20 - Birkhat Hamazon on Tisha B'av

2010-07-07T04:36:00.000-07:00

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Holocaust Responsa Class #12 - "Beracha on Non-Kosher food"

2010-01-27T06:44:00.000-08:00

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Holocaust Responsa Class #10 - "The Mass Graves"

2010-01-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

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Holocaust Responsa Class #9 - "The Bris (Circumcision) in the Ghetto"

2009-12-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

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Holocaust Responsa Class #8 - Removing Tattoos from Concentration Camp

2009-12-11T05:58:00.000-08:00

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Holocaust Responsa Class #7 - Becoming a Christian

2009-12-02T09:50:00.000-08:00

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Holocaust Responsa Class #6 - The Attorney and the Kapo

2009-11-28T18:58:00.000-08:00

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Holocaust Responsa Class #5 - Spiritual Freedom and The Cantor

2009-11-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

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Holocaust Responsa Class #3 - Tefilin in the Ghetto

2009-11-04T07:38:00.000-08:00

Holocaust Responsa: Class #2 - The Tragic Mamzer

2009-10-21T17:07:00.001-07:00

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This class, taught by Rabbi Antine, will explore the Halachic questions asked by the residents of the Kovno Ghetto and the responses that they received from their rabbi, Rabbi Ephraim Oshry.

Holocaust Responsa: Class #2 - The Tragic Mamzer

2009-10-21T17:07:00.000-07:00

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This class, taught by Rabbi Antine, will explore the Halachic questions asked by the residents of the Kovno Ghetto and the responses that they received from their rabbi, Rabbi Ephraim Oshry.

Holocaust Responsa: Class #1 - Post-Mortem C-section

2009-10-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

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This class, taught by Rabbi Antine, will explore the Halachic questions asked by the residents of the Kovno Ghetto and the responses that they received from their rabbi, Rabbi Ephraim Oshry.

Yom Kippur Sermon 5770

2009-09-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

As humans, we really have two very different selves. There is the outside me, the self that I present to the world. The things I say and the things I do all my actions and deeds. This self is completely open and observable to anyone who pays attention.

Then there is the second self which is the inside self; my thoughts, my emotions, my feelings my inner struggles. This second self is completely hidden from the world. This inside self certainly has aspects which are good and noble but there are probably also parts of it that are negative and maybe even a little ugly and we are pleased that nobody can see them. We are full of resentments, anger, envy, jealousy and the list goes on and on.

Question: With regards to these negative inner emotions or thoughts, if I keep them inside, if they never manifest themselves in negative words or behavior, If they remain “sins of the heart” and never the leave the heart, Have I sinned? According to Judaism, are sins of the heart considered sins?

What we are going to do in order to answer this question if first, look at the Torah and then look at the Yom Kippur liturgy to answer this question which is so important on Yom Kippur as we have to know if we must do Teshuva on sins of the heart.

First lets look at the Torah. Example #1: The Torah teaches us in the final of the 10 commandments, לא תחמוד ...וכל אשר לרעך do not covet … everything you’re your friend owns.
The straightforward understanding of this text would be that the Torah recognizes sins of the heart and considers them to be a sin. The Torah seems to be telling us that even if the feeling of jealousy remains inside, it is still a sin. However, Maimonides based on the Talmud teaches us that as long as the feeling of jealousy remains inside, does not translate into action, it is not a sin. In order to violate this prohibition one must take the jealous feeling into action and actually pressure your friend into selling the object to you. So we see that Halakha does not legislate emotions. It does not consider a sin of the heart to be a sin.

Example #2 where the Torah seems to be forbidding an emotion. Vayikra 19:17 – לא תשנא את אחיך בלבבך do not hate your brother in your heart. Where is the hatred? It is in the heart. Once again, the straightforward reading of the Torah seems to legislate emotions. It seems to tell us that we cannot have hatred even if it remains in the heart.

But once again the rabbis connect this prohibition to an action. They connect the above line with the next line, הוכח תוכח את עמיתך which means rebuke your friend. What is the connection between hating and rebuking? Our rabbis teach us that if someone harms you, you must rebuke the person because if you pretend that is everything is ok, you will come to hate him in your heart. In other words, the Torah is not legislating emotions. It cannot tell us that we cannot hate someone for hate is an emotion. However, the Torah can tell us that we must confront our friend if we fell they have harmed us because if we do not, it will lead to hatred in the heart.

The above two examples show that while the straightforward reading of the Torah might indicate that there are sins of the heart, the overwhelming thrust of rabbinic thought comes down strongly on the side that the torah does not prohibit thoughts, only actions.
It is therefore somewhat surprising when we read one of the על חטא 's that deals with this topic. ע"ח שחטאנו לפניך בהרהור הלב – on the sin that we have committed before you through thoughts of the heart, through sins of the heart. The question is obvious. If, halacha does not legislate emotions, if the realm of jewish law is deed and not thought, then why are clapping על חטא for sins of the heart?

And in order to strengthen the question, let us look at a very strong statement from Yoma 29a
הרהורי עבירה קשין מעבירה – thoughts of sin are worse than sin itself. How can this be? If we have established that Judaism does not legislate emotions only actions, then how can the emotion of feeling of sin be worse than the sin itself. And if sins of the heart are not sins, then why are we asked to do teshuva on them?

In order to answer the question, I would like to turn to one of the most important books ever written on the topic of Teshuva, and it is not even a Jewish book; The Alcoholics Anonymous Blue book, commonly referred to as the Big Book. I have a brother who works in an Addiction Clinic in Florida and he is doing amazing work running addiction support groups. The famous 12 step program is based in the Big Book and I often discuss with my brother the similarities between the teachings of AA and Jewish teachings. These comparisons are very important especially on Yom Kippur as we are involved in our own teshuva process and those of you who anything about addiction recovery know that it is all about Teshuva.

In the big Book, we are told that when it comes to addiction, “liquor is but the symptom, so we had to get down to the causes and conditions.”
What are the causes and conditions if not the drinking itself? The Big Book goes on to enumerate them. “Resentment is the #1 offender.”
The Big Book list goes on. We were selfish, dishonest with ourselves, self-seeking, selfish, full of fear and full of blaming others.

What is remarkable about this list is that all of these sins are sins of the heart. The underlying sin isn’t the drinking. It isn’t the lying that an addict does to his friends and families. It isn’t the stealing to get more alcohol or drugs. All of those things are actions and as awful as they are, they are just the symptoms. The causes and conditions are all of the sins of the heart.

This amazing teaching from the Big Book can help us answer the question that we posed before. We had a contradiction. On the one hand, Judaism teaches us that we are not legally responsible (we cannot be punished), for sins of the heart. But then we find in the Yom Kippur Vidui that we must do Teshuva for sins of the heart.

The answer is obvious. In Judaism, sins of the heart are not sins but they are the causes and conditions which lead to sin. The sin itself, the actual bad deed is only the symptom. The disease is internal. The disease is in the mind, heart or soul.
S
o as we are engaging in our process of Teshuva this Yom Kippur let us not lose the forest in the trees. True, we must look at individual particular sins and figure out how to stop doing them but we must also ask the deeper question. What kinds of sins are in my heart that case theses sins of action. To take one example, we will confess the sin of Lashon Hara and we definitely need to work on stopping this. But the more important question that we need to ask is, “what kind of person am I, on the inside, that I would sit around fro a ½ hour gossiping about another persons.”

This process could be painful but it is also full of joy. When you speak to someone who is a recovering addict, someone who has really done teshuva, they have a certain sense of joy and they will tell you something amazing. They say that the best thing that happened to them was their drug use. Because the drug use was just the symptom of a disease that they already had. And it was only because the symtoms got so bad that they had to address the disease. And now they are better off than they were before the drug use. There is something very promising and joyful about the possibility of teshuva and this reminds me of a story that I would like to conclude with.

The Holy Baal Shem Tov was once traveling before Yom Kippur and he was not going to be able to make it home for Yom Kippur. So he stopped in a small Jewish town and he asked some of the townspeople, who will be the Chazan for Yom Kippur Davening. The townspeople responded that the Rabbi of the town leads the davening. The Baal Shem Tov asked if the rabbi does anything special during the davening and the people said, that when he reads the Vidui, the confessions, he does it with very joyous niggunim (songs). The Baal Shem Tov thought that this was a little bizarre so he asked them to call the rebbe to come and see him. When the rabbi arrived, the Baal Shem tov asked, why do you sing the Vidui with such happy songs. The rabbi responded as follows. When I clean my house, it is difficult work. I have to bend down on my hands and knees and scrub and sometimes I uncover things that aren’t so nice, but there is a sense of joy because I know that when I am done cleaning, my house will be clean. So when I clean the house, I usually hum a joyous tune. If that is true about my physical house, how much more so when I am cleaning my spiritual house, my soul. When I am done with the Confession, my seal will be clean. My soul will be pure and ready to connect with G-d and that is why I am full of joy and I sing happy tunes. When the Baal shem tov heard this, he said, we are staying here in this town for Yom Kippur. I would like this rabbi to lead the davening for me.

Doing Teshuva, confessing, being truly honest with ourselves, trying to address not only the symptoms but the root cause of the disease, this isn’t easy work. It is difficult. But what an amazing opportunity that we are all given once a year. And this is why we should approach it with a sense of happiness. A sense of joy because we can clean our spiritual house. We can become spiritually healthy. And in that merit, may we all be blessed to be inscribed and sealed in the book of life. For a year of health, prosperity, peace and only good things for ourselves, our families, the jewish people and all of the inhabitants of this world.

Rosh Hashana Sermon 5770 - "The Best Version of Yourself"

2009-09-21T05:18:00.000-07:00

Mr. Goldberg, a Middle Aged overweight man, visits his doctor for his annual checkup. The doctor tells him, “You’re not doing too well. Your cholesterol level is high and you have gained 10 pounds since the last time I saw you.” To this Mr. Goldberg says, “Doctor, I don't understand this. My wife and I joined a nice upscale gym last year, we pay the dues and we have even paid our building fund assessment in full.” The doctor turns to him and says, “It is not enough to belong to the gym, you actually have to use it. Do you ever go to the gym?” Mr. Goldberg responds, “Sure, I go all of the time. You see, they have these great Kids exercise programs and we drop the kids off every Sunday morning, the cafe also has great food and the smoothies are delicious, and I love the music that they play during the exercise classes, so I like to poke my head into the last few minutes of the exercise class. And doctor, could you believe it, after all the time, I spend in the gym, my health isn't getting better?”

Now Mr. Goldberg was having his annual physical checkup. We are all here today on Rosh Hashana to have our annual spiritual checkup. And many of us are probably wondering why our Judaism is not as strong as it could be. We pay our synagogue dues, we invest 20 – 60 K in our children's day school education, we come to shul on shabbat and for other programs, but something is missing.

And the answer is the same answer that we would all give to Mr. Goldberg. If you want to be in good physical shape, you have to put in the hours doing exercise. You have to sweat and work hard. Spiritual health is the same. We have to put in the hours, we have to sweat we have to work hard in order to see results.

In Judaism, there are a number of different paths, a number of different ways to work on our spiritual health. There is davening, studying torah, acts of chesed, But the path that I would like to focus on this morning is the Path of Mussar.

What is Mussar? Mussar is beautifully describes by a contemporary student of Mussar, Dr. Alan Morinis in the following way (I have slightly adapted this definition):
We all have our actual selfs and our ideal selfs. The actual self is the person I am right now, with all my moral failings and shortcomings. The ideal self is the version of you that you would like to become, the best version of yourself. Mussar is the path to get from your actual self – to your ideal self. It is the path that allows you to become the best version of yourself. It doesn’t lead to perfection, but it can get you closer to your perfect self.

Before I explain how mussar can help you become the best version of yourself, I would like to set down some of the history of the Mussar Movement. While the texts utilized by the Mussar Movement are ancient, the Mussar Movement as a movement is only about 150 years old. In the 1850's Judaism was going through lots of turmoil. Traditional Judaism confronted the Haskalah, the Nascent Reform Movement, Secular Zionism and all of the other isms that were forming in the 19th century. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, the founder of the Mussar Movement, discovered that as a result of all of this, there were many jews who were jewishly knowledgeable but leaving the life of mitzvah observance.

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter therefore founded the mussar movement to encourage people to work on their character and development.

Something very interesting happened in the development of the mussar movement. When Rabbi Yisrael Salanter first proposed the study of mussar, his intended audience was not the yeshiva students but the general population. He proposed the creation of a mussar shtibl, a room for people to gather on shabbat afternoon in groups and “In the quiet of reflection, in reasonable deliberation, each will strengthen his fellow and cure the foolishness of his heart and eliminate his lazy habits. It was on Shabbat afternoon because this is when working jews would have the time to do mussar.

However, Rabbi Salanter failed. He was not able to get the average Jew to take on the path of mussar. It was too difficult. So he changed his focus. The study of Mussar moved away from the synagogue and the common folk, to the Yeshiva and the Yeshiva students. It was believed that only the yeshiva students had the time and spiritual will to perfect their middot, their soul-traits. And from the 1860 on, Mussar was primarily something that only was studied by yeshiva students.

Why am I giving you all of this history? Because an interesting twist has happened. In the last 10 years, there has been a renaissance of the study of mussar, not only by yeshiva students, but by all Jews. One observer of the contemporary Jewish spiritual scene, referred to Mussar as the “New Kabbalah.” (I am not confident that we will soon see Madonna learning mussar, but it is becoming more and more popular amongst jews who are discovering its spiritual power and potential for self-transformation).

So now that I have given you some of the historical background, I would like to explain how mussar works and why I believe it is so important that I am dedicating my Rosh Hashana sermon to it.

I already mentioned that Mussar is the path from one's actual self to one's ideal self. It is the path that leads to the best version of yourself. But how does it get us there?
Let me explain this by introducing two Mussar Terms, #1 – Tikkun Ha-Midot and #2 – Cheshbon Hanefesh. Tikkun Ha-Middot means to fix the traits of the soul. Soul traits. What are these traits (middot)? They include things like, patience, humility, equanimity, generosity, compassion, gratitude. Tikkun HaMidot simply means improving these traits. So if your ideal version of yourself is more generous or if your ideal self would not get frustrated as much or have more patience, or be more satisfied with your lot, Mussar is the path for you. How does it work? That leads us to our second term, Cheshbon Hanefesh, which is a method of keeping track and working on your traits. There are many different approaches to Cheshbon Hanefesh. Some require keeping a journal, others require forming a mussar vaad, which is a group of people who work together on their traits and there are many more tools which I would like to explore with you this year as I hope some of you will join me in creating a mussar vaad so that we can help each other become the best version of ourselves.

We are about to begin Mussaf of Rosh Hashana, one of the most powerful tefilot of the year. The mussaf has three themes; Kingship, Remembrance, and Shofar blasts. In the middle section of Rememberance we declare, “Everything is revealed before G-d.. everyone's deeds, accomplishments, thoughts, schemes and motives.” So when we say that G-d remembers, this means more than the fact that G-d does not forget. It means that G-d penetrates into the depths of our minds and souls and judges us. We can fool others, we can even fool ourselves, but we cannot fool G-d. Perhaps we can take G-d's penetrating insight and use it as a mirror so that we can see into our own minds and souls. For one day a year, we can be honest with ourselves. Who are we? What do we need to become? I therefore encourage us all during mussaf, especially during the zichronot section to do the first step of mussar, which is to become a little more self-aware. What is our ideal self, and where are we holding right now. Because the first step in closing that gap is becoming aware that the gap exists. And I would like to suggest that during mussaf we come up with one Middah, one trait, that we would like to work on this year. So next year, when we come back for our annual spiritual checkup we will we healthier. We will be closer to our ideal self, to the best version of ourselves.

I would like to conclude with two stories about Rav Yisrael Salanter that illustrate two of his wonderful traits and what the path of Mussar can do for you.
Story #1 - When Rav Yisrael was trying to spread the mussar movement he realized that nobody in Lithuania would take his seriously unless they knew that he was a Talmid Chacham. So he went from town to town delivering amazing lectures on complex talmudic topics. He was once in a town and he was going to give a shiur on shabbat afternoon. On Wednesday, he posted a sheet of 50 Maareh mekomos (listing of 50 sources) on the bulletin board so people could prepare for the lecture. There were some troublemakers in the town and they decided to do a prank and they removed Rav Yisrael's list and replaced it with a different source sheet of 50 other sources. On Shabbos afternoon Rav Yisrael arrives, the beit midrash is packed, and he goes up to the bimah and asks the Gabai to bring him the list of sources. He gets the list and his face turns white. He sits down for 10 minutes and everyone is waiting. Finally he gets up and gives a brilliant lecture based on the new sources which he had not prepared. In a moment of candor, he explained to his students why he waited 10 minutes. It wasnt because he needed 10 minutes to prepare the lecture. He could have done it right away. But he had an internal battle going on. Should he give the class with new sources and risk displaying his genius and compromise his desire to be a humble person. But on the other hand, if he would admit defeat, he would look like an Am Haaretz (ignoramus) and it would compromise his ability to spread the mussar movement. This story is an amazing illustration of Rav Yisrael's humility and how self aware he was and this of course was because of mussar.

Story #2 – When Rav Yisrael was a Rosh Hayeshiva he was once visiting the wealthiest jew in town to collect money. The Jew invites him in and invites him to join him for dinner. Both the Rich Man and Rav Yisrael go to wash their hands netilat yadayim, and the rich man notices that Rav Yisrael only washes his hand up until the knuckles and not until the wrist which is the preferred way to wash one's hands. After they make Hamotzie, the rich man turns to Rav Yisrael and says, “If I can be so bold let me ask you a question. You know that I am very wealthy and that I lack nothing so why were you being so stingy with the water? Rav Yisrael responds, it is true that it is halakhically preferable to wash until the wrist and when I am home and using the water that I drew from the well, I wash until the wrist. But now that I am in your house and I know that the maid had to shlep the water from the well, I am not going to be machmir on Netilas Yadayim on the shoulders of the maid.” She is the one who will have to do more work, for my chumrah.” This story beautifully illustrates the middah of compassion. Not many of us would have been thinking about the maid in that situation.

We are probably never going to have as much humility and compassion as Rav Yisrael, but through mussar, we can become the best versions of ourselves. And if we commit to working on ourselves this year, then I am willing to guarantee that next year Rosh Hoshana, at our next annual spiritual check up, we will be healthier than we are this year, we will be closer to the best version of ourself. And in that merit, may we all be inscribed in the book of life for a year of prosperity, a year when only good things happen to us and our families. A year of physical health and a year of spiritual health. Shana Tova.

Rabbinic Response to Jewish-Christian Disputation Class #6 - Rabbi Moshe Feinstein

2009-08-13T05:31:00.000-07:00

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This class focuses on two reponsa penned by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein in which he formulates his opposition to all Jewish-Christian Dialogue. Rabbi Feinstein's position is critical of Rabbi Soloveitchik's moderate approach that we studied in the previous lecture.

Rabbinic Response to Jewish-Christian Disputation Class #5 - "Rav Soloveitchik's Confrontation"

2009-08-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

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This class will focus on the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's essay, "Confrontation." "Confrontation" is commonly read as as essay that opposes interfaith dialogue. We will also look at Nostre Aetate, The Catholic Church's Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.

Rabbinic Response To Jewish-Christian Disputation Class #4 - "The Disputation of Tortosa 1412 -1413"

2009-08-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

Rabbinic Response to Jewish-Christian Disputation Class #3

2009-07-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

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This class will focus on the the Barcelona Debate of 1263. The two major disputants were Nahmanides (Moshe ben Nachman) and Pablo Christiani (a Jew who had converted to Christianity).

Rabbinic Response to Jewish Christian Disputations Class #1

2009-07-06T05:24:00.000-07:00

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This class will focus on the the first major disputation of the Medieval Era. It took place in Paris in 1240. The two major disputants were Rabbi Yehiel of Paris and Nicholas Donin (a Jew who had converted to Christianity).

Lecture: Priorities in Tzedakah Giving

2009-01-21T06:39:00.000-08:00

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This lecture primarily deals with the complex question of how should one distribute his or her tzedakah funds.

Yom Kippur Sermon 5759

2008-10-10T08:13:00.001-07:00

Yom Kippur Sermon 5759

I am sure you have said it a thousand times, Ignorance is Bliss, Ignorance is Bliss. A corollary of this statement is that Ignorance or the lack of knowledge is an excuse. On this Yom Kippur as we Klap Al Chet for our sins, I would like to ask the following question. According to Judaism, Is ignorance an excuse for our sins? Is ignorance really that Blissful?

Allow me to focus the question through presenting two scenarios…
You have been observant for some time. You still violate Shabbat from time to time but not out of disregard or lack of commitment. But because of lack of knowledge. You simply do not know all the rules of Shabbat. Are you responsible? Or Is ignorance an excuse?
You meet someone new, hit it off, and quickly begin a friendship. A couple of months into the friendship you make what you think is an innocent comment but it deeply offends and hurts your new friend. Without knowledge you have just reopened a very deep wound that you knew nothing about. Have you committed a sin? Or Is ignorance an excuse?

At first glance it seems that Judaism strongly supports the notion that Ignorance is Bliss or Ignorance is an excuse. In Halakhic terminology there is a distinction made between a sin committed במזיד – intentionally (with knowledge) versus ones committed בשוגג – unintentionally (without realizing they were sins). Sins committed בשוגג (unintentionally) are not punishable. In practical terms this means that if I go out and commit a capital crime, say murder, I am only legally punishable if two witnesses approach me before the murder and inform me that murder is a capital crime. Without the warning, I can always say, I didn’t know murder was illegal! In other words, Ignorance of Law in Judaism, is a valid defense to any criminal charge. Ignorance is an excuse.

This is in stark contrast to every western legal system which follows the Ancient Roman Legal principle which states Ignorantia juris non excusat which means “ignorance of the law does not excuse.” Ignorance is not an excuse in every western legal system. Yet in Halakha, ignorance is a legal excuse.

Halakha takes this one step further. Not only does halakha consider ignorance to be a legal excuse, it even, on occasion, encourages ignorance.

The example that is found in the Talmud of rabbis encouraging ignorance actually touches on the issue of Tefilah decorum which is a subject of debate here at Beth Sholom. Some of us find a spirited tefilah with clapping and dancing very spiritually uplifting. Others of us believe that clapping and dancing are inappropriate forms of expression during Teffilah; especially during the High Holidays. Putting aside the issue of decorum and spiritual preference, there is actually a halakhic issue at stake. The mishna in Beitzah says: ולא מטפחין... ולא מרקדין – On Shabbat and Yom Tov, we may not clap hands…and we may not dance.

The straightforward halakha seems to be that clapping and dancing are prohibited but that did not stop Jews living in Talmudic times. They still clapped and danced. And whats more? The rabbis didn’t even stop them. So the Talmud asks, why are none of the rabbis rebuking the sinners who clap and dance on Shabbat and Yom Tov.

The Talmud answers and here is the important line:
הנח להם לישראל, מוטב שיהיו שוגגין ואל יהיו מזידין
Leave the Jews (leave them with their anti-halakhic practice)
For it is preferable that they be unintentional violators (out if ignorance) then intentional violators.
In other words, it is better for Jews to remain ignorant and therefore give them a legal excuse, ignorance of the law. This is Amazing! This halakha actually advocates ignorance. Ignorance is not only a legal excuse, it is encouraged. Ignorance is bliss.

Before I leave this example, I do not want anyone leaving this talk saying that Rabbi Antine said that it is prohibited to clap and dance on Shabbat and Yom Tov. After all, I hope that before the end of this evening, I will be moved to clap and maybe even dance! So how can we do it? Well most commentators explain that clapping and dancing are prohibited in the Talmud because the rabbis were worried that if we would clap and dance we would get so into it that we might repair musical instruments to accompany us. But since we are no longer experts at repairing instruments it is now according to most rabbis 100% permitted to clap and dance on Shabbat and Yom Tov.

I would like to throw out one more halakhic example of rabbis encouraging ignorance. This one comes from Algeria, a small port city called Oran, in the 14th century. Jews first arrived in Oran in 1392. They were fleeing persecutions in Spain and the Muslims of Algeria were actually quite welcoming. A young rabbi named Rabbi Amram ben Merrovas Ephrati of Valencia arrives in Oran and he is frustrated with some of the practices of his new community. He writes to his teacher Rabbi Yitzhak bar Sheshet (Ribash) (1326-1408) the following question: In Oran, Rabbi Amram tells his teacher, the Jews have a מנהג רע an awful custom. Each morning of shiva they leave the shiva house and go the cemetery and daven at the grave. Rabbi Amram is convinced that this bad custom came from the Muslims. Rabbi Amram has told them that it is prohibited, he tried to stop them, but they are not listening. So rabbi Amram is writing to his teacher back in Spain, The Rivash and asking what should he do. The Rivash responds as follows:

First of all, what they are doing is not against halakha. While it is true that mourners should not leave their house during the shiva. But since these mourners are leaving to honor the dead, it is permitted. What about the fact that the Muslims do it. This is also not a problem for if we follow that logic that we do not do what the Muslims do, we wouldn’t have eulogies because muslims also have eulogies! That was Point #1.

Second piece of advice that the Rivash teaches the young rabbi is,
וכבר בקשתי ממך כמה פעמים לבל תדקדק לשנות מנהגיהם בדברים כאלה, אם תרצה לעמוד עמהם בשלום
“I have already pleaded with you many times to not try to change their customs … if you want to live with them in peace.” The Rivash is teaching his student that a new rabbi should not come into town and try to change everything!

Finally, says the Rivash to his immature student,
ואפי' בדבר שהוא אסור גמור, כל שאין מקבלין, אמרו ז"ל (שבת קמח:): מוטב יהו שוגגין ואל יהו מזידין.
Even if they were violating an explicit prohibition, Our rabbis have taught us that it is preferable that they sin unintentionally (out of ignorance) than intentionally (out of knowledge) and therefore you better keep quiet if they are not going to listen. Once again, our sources are encouraging ignorance. Ignorance seems to be an excuse.

All of the sources seem to favor ignorance until we turn to the Yom Kippur Liturgy. The third על חטא (confession) reads: על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בבלי דעת. We confess the sins that we have committed against you without knowledge. Out of ignorance. Ignorance is no longer bliss. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. How can this על חטא be reconciled with all of Jewish law which seems to encourage ignorance and deem ignorance an excuse?

In order to answer this question, I would like to turn to one more responsum, this one closer to our time. In 1963, a rabbi named Mordechai Telem asked the great Rabbi Moshe Feinstein the following question that pertains to an experience that we all had 10 days ago. On Rosh Hashana before the shofar is sounded, the Rabbi usually announces that it is prohibited to make an interruption from the time that the berakha on the shofar is made before mussaf all the way until the end of mussaf when the final shofar blast is sounded. This means no talking during the entire musaf. Now apparently, Rabbi Telem’s shul had the same problem that we have. Despite the Rabbis announcement there is still some talking during davening! So Rabbi Telem wanted to know if maybe it would be better not to make the announcement. For if he continues to make the announcement and his community doesn’t listen, they will be considered intentional sinners but if he doesn’t make the announcement they will remain ignorant of the law and they will be considered unintentional sinners.

Rav Moshe’s response was as follows: Rabbi Telem should certainly continue making the announcement before tekiat shofar. Rav Moshe says that the rabbis only encourage ignorance when they know that nobody will listen. If however, there is even a possibility that the people will listen, that people will learn and change, then we must inform people of the law and take them out of their blissful ignorance.

This to me sums up Judaism’s view on ignorance. Ignorance might be a legal excuse but it is not a spiritual excuse. Nobody is expected to know everything. We do not know everything about halakha, we do not know everything about others and we don’t even know everything about ourselves. And when we lack knowledge we make mistakes; in ritual observance in our friendships (we hurt people). The question that everyone must ask him or herself is: Am I someone who is thirsty to learn more and change based on that knowledge? Am I someone who is content with where I am at, or am I always striving for more?

Allow me to conclude with a short story:
A Chasid comes to his rebbe and says Rebbe: I am not doing too well. My business just went bankrupt and I have no money to support my family.
The Rebbe says: “so why don’t you try another business”?
The chasid says you don’t understand, not only did this business fail but every business that I ever tried, failed. I am just not a good businessman.
The rebbe thinks for a moment, looks at his Chasid and says: “You always were a great student of Talmud. You are very knowledgeable. You work very well with people. I have an idea. Why don't you become a rabbi?"
The chasid sheepishly turns to his teacher and says: "Rebbe, you know the truth of the matter is that I always dreamed of becoming a rabbi. But I am scared to be a rabbi. Rabbis must make a Halakhic decisions for people. Rabbis must give people advice about the most important issues in their lives. A rabbi’s judgment might affect the destiny of a person's soul. I can't be a rabbi. I do not know all of Torah. I do not know everything about people and human psychology. I'm afraid I do not have enough knowledge to be a rabbi.
The rebbe looks at his chasid and says to him: Who do you think should be a rabbi. The person who thinks he has enough knowledge to be a rabbi! The day you think you know enough to be a rabbi is the day you are no longer fit to be a rabbi.

Just like the chasid of that story, we are not obligated to be know everything. But we must be prepared to work on ourselves. We must be prepared to accept the possibility that there is more to learn and that that knowledge might change our lives. We can never be satisfied with our lack of knowledge. We must learn more about our tradition about others and about ourselves.

May we all be blessed with a Yom Kippur of Teshuva Gemura, of complete repentence. A yom kippur where we go deep inside ourselves and discover areas where we lack knowledge that will transform us. And finally a Yom Kippur that leads us to the wonderful realization, that knowledge and awareness, in all its forms is blissful!

Rosh Hashana Sermon 5769 - The Shofar of Revelation

2008-10-02T07:02:00.001-07:00

“The Shofar of Revelation”

A young man, in his mid twenties, not sure what he wants to do with his life, (the kind of person who we say “is trying to find himself) decides to travel to Israel. He is on a spiritual mission. He wants to find G-d in the Holyland. He arrives in Israel, and after a few months of travel, he enrolls in a Yeshiva and begins his studies. Now, a typical day in a yeshiva consists of an hour and a half of prayer, what I would call direct contact with G-d, and 10 to 12 hours of Talmud study. The young man had come to Israel and the yeshiva to learn about G-d but that year the yeshiva was studying tractate Baba Kama. Baba Kama, for those of you who have not studied that particular tractate, is not the most spiritually exciting tractate. It deals with theft and violence. It spends a considerable amount of folios discussing what happens if my ox gores your cow and the legal differences between an ox that has gored three times and an ox that has gored fewer than three times. Suffice to say that this was not exactly what our young man was looking for.

After a number of months, the young man begins to get depressed; he cannot take it any longer. He approaches the Rebbe, his teacher, and says, “Rebbe, I came to yeshiva to find God and all I am doing is learning about property damages and theft and cows?

The rebbe looks at his student and gives him a 4 word answer:
Nefesh Hachaim chapter 4.

What is Nefesh Hachaim Chapter 4? Nefesh Hachaim is one of the most important books of the 19th century. The book was authored by the great Rabbi Chaim of Voloshin. Fortunately, one of the greatest scholars of our generation, Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, wrote his doctoral dissertation on the life of Rav Chaim of Voloshin and I will rely heavily on Dr. Lamm’s research in this sermon.

Rabbi Chaim’s greatest contribution to Judaism was the following: He invented the modern yeshiva. The yeshiva of Voloshin which he founded became the model for all subsequent yeshivot. It is true that before the Voloshin Yeshiva individual Jewish young men found teachers and become scholars. But the 18th century was really a period of neglect of Torah study. Jews simply could not afford to study.

Rav Chaim’s yeshiva was probably the first to have a professional fundraiser on staff. His name was R. Yosef Krynky. In one letter penned by Rabbi Krynky to prospective donors illustrates the degree of neglect of Torah Study before the establishment of the Voloshin Yeshiva. Rabbi Krynkry writes that “before the Voloshin Yeshiva was established, even in synagogues of large towns, a complete set of the Talmud could not be found, for there was no need for it, since hardly anyone was engaged in the study of Torah.” We must take the letter with a grain of salt because it was after all a fundraising letter, but the fact the someone could say this is astounding. Think about the Beth Sholom community. Before Rosh Hashana I went around and counted that we have almost 10 sets of the Talmud! And I am sure that almost every family sitting here today has a set of Talmud at home. Yet in major cities in Eastern Europe in the 18th century, one complete set of Talmud could not be found!

Rav Chaim comes on the scene during this period of great Torah neglect and created a yeshiva, a Talmudic Academy par excellence with the greatest teachers and the brightest students from across Lithuania. He even procured funding so that the students could study without financial worries.

What did the students of this great yeshiva actually do all day? It is true that the young men came to get close to God. But they did not spend all day praying or saying to tehilim with great piety. They didn’t even spend much time perfecting their mitzvah observance. These young men spent almost every hour of every day and every night studying Talmud; studying laws of damages, tort law, laws of marriage, divorce, laws of 1 person trying to cheat another. Why? Why would Rav Chaim set up a yeshiva at great cost to himself and the Jewish community for 200 young men to study laws of damages for a legal system that to many, was no longer relevant?

This question is the subject of Nefesh Hachaim Chapter 4 and it was the topic of many discussions and debates in the Yeshiva. Reb Chaim taught his students that if you really want to find G-d, you shouldn’t look to prayer. You shouldn’t look to chesed and you shouldn’t even look to scrupulous observance of mitzvoth. If you really want to find God you need to study Torah.
Now it was undisputed that Torah study was of utmost importance. But why was Torah study so important?
And herein lies on the greatest controversies of Jewish History.
During Rav Chaim’s lifetime, a debate was raging that threatened to rip European Jewry apart. The Baal Shem Tov had recently revealed himself and his followers, the Chassidim, were debating the anti-chasidim (mitnagdim) with tremendous acrimony. One focus of the debate revolved around the purpose of Torah study.

In Hassidic thought, most notably in the writings of Elimelech of Lizhensk, the author of Noam Elimelech, The purpose of Torah study is Dvekut, clinging to God. The Chassidim would take the words of torah and meditate on them with tremendous piety and devotion and use the words of Torah to cling to God. For many chassidim, Torah study was not about comprehension and intellectual rigor. The goal is to use learning spiritually to cling to God.

It was this Chassidic, anti-intellectual approach that so angered Rav Chaim of Voloshin and became his motivation to author the 4th chapter of Nefesh Hachaim and offer another theory.

For Rav Chaim, studying Torah is not about spiritually clinging to God, but it is about intellectually comprehending the word of God. While the Chassidim use Torah as a means to get to God. Rav Chaim uses God to get to God’s Torah.
I do not want to get bogged down in this highly nuanced debate about Torah study between the Chassidim and the Mitnagdim. Some of us are more inspired by the spiritual approach of the Chassidim and others are more attracted to the intellectual approach of the Mitnagdim. I would like to make this conversation more concrete by turning to a text that we recite at least twice a day, the shema.

We say that the shema is the most important liturgical paragraph. We close our eyes in deep concentration when we say it. We say it the first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It is the first prayer that we learn as toddlers and it is the last prayer on our lips before we die. It could be called the Jewish People’s mission statement. But I have a difficult question that we need to ask ourselves on this Rosh Hashana morning. How many of us really take the shema seriously? How many of us really live by its mission.

Allow me to read one line from first paragraph of shema and I am going to use it to plug some of the learning opportunities that are coming this year. You can follow along with me on page 276 of the machzor:

ושננתם לבנך - “Teach them thoroughly to your children”
The cornerstone of Chinuch; of raising our children as Jews is teaching them Torah. Note what is not said. It does not say “send your children to day school so that teachers can teach your children.” It says you should teach them. It is true that many of us do not have the time, resources and knowledge to be the primary Jewish Educators for our children. But we have to remember that that ultimate responsibility is on us. ושננתם לבנך.
After sukkot, we are going to have a Sunday morning learning program for Parent – Children learning. We will provide the source material, we will be there to answer questions, but you will teach your children Torah.

ודברת בם - “Speak of them (speak the words of Torah),
Its not enough to teach your children. In order to teach you have to learn as well. You have become knowledgeable in order to impart knowledge. I have had some very frustrating conversations with Jewish adults, none of them of course from this synagogue. Some of these people are the smartest I know; doctors, lawyers and professors. So knowledgeable. But when it comes to Judaism, they are on the 6th or 8th grade level, whatever the last year of formal Jewish education. We need to continue learning. We need to be Jewish adults, spiritually and cognitively. Please take advantage of our new Wednesday Night Live adult ed program. We will have something for everyone; Talmud, Bible, Jewish thought, jewish art. Take learning seriously. Make the commitment to learn this year.

At this point, if I have done a good job, you are probably thinking, “ok I want to study Torah, I want to recommit, but what does Torah Study have to do with Rosh Hashana?

My answer is the following: In the entire 5 books of the Torah, the shofar is only sounded once, at Mount Sinai during the Revelation. The Shofar of Revelation, of Torah study. The final section of the Mussaf amidah which we are about to recite is called Shofarot. All of the Torah verses quoted are taken right from the Revelation, from the Giving the Torah. There are so many voices that we can hear in the shofar but one that we often ignore is the shofar of revelation. The shofar of Torah study. That Shofar calls out to us giving a voice to the Torah. It says, “please study me. I have been neglected. Take me seriously and it will enhance your life.”

I would like to conclude with a story. Reb Hershele Riminover was just 21 years old when he became the Rebbe. He was still a single man. One day, a woman in her 20s comes to see him. She says, “Rebbe, you have to help me. I am an orphan and I have not parents to find a match for me. Please help me find a shidduch.” The rebbe looks at the woman, and he studies her a little better and he says, “Let me ask you a question. Would you marry me?” The woman thinks the rebbe is making fun of her and she breaks down crying. She says, “Rebbe, I am so broken, please don’t make fun of me.” And the Rebbe says, “My question was serious. Are you from such and such town. The woman says, yes. And do you have 10 brothers and sisters. The woman says yes, but how do you know that. The rebbe says “and was your father’s name R’ Moshe? She says yes. So the rebbe asks her, do you remember a boy named Hershele. She says, “of course I remember. Hershele was the tailors son and my brothers were very wild and they would always rip their shabbos pants and we would send them to Hershele’s father. On Erev shabbos, Hershele was often come to deliver the pants. The rebbe said, I am Hershele and every time that I would go to your house I saw something so beautiful. Your mother, your father and the your 10 brothers and sisters would sit at the shabbos table and study of the parshah of the week together. I would leave your house and I would start crying because my father was a poor illiterate tailor who did not know how to learn and I so envied your family. And I would cry to God, “Please let me have a family like that. Bless me so that I can marry one of those girls.” And the rebbe looks at the orphan and he says to her, “And now, you have come. It is as if we are soulmates. Please marry me.” Of course the couple got married, they raised a beautiful family, and every shabhos they would sit as a family at the table and study Torah together.

This year, as we hear the shofar, let us recommit to Torah study. Rosh Hashana, which is also a day of memory (יום הזכרון) forces us to ask what kind of memories to do want our children to have of us. Lets create memories of family Torah study. Of parents who were always making time to go to classes and to study. Of parents who learned with each other. And most important, lets create memories of parents who made time to study with their children and grandchildren. Our success as jews depends upon it.

May we all be blessed with a year of learning, a year of health and year when we can see all of those important things in life become a reality. Shana Tova

"How to Become G-d" Sermon August 9, 2008

2008-08-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

This morning marks the beginning of the 5th and final book of the Torah, ספר דברים – The book of Devarim. The Book of Devarim is often translated as the book of speeches. After all, the entire book consists of a series of very long sermons that Moshe gave to the Jewish people right before they entered the Land of Israel.

Now there is something ironic and a bit surprising about the fact that Moshe is all of the sudden giving these long sermons. Those of you who have been following the story of Moshe and know anything about his natural abilities might know what I am referring to.

Way back at the Burning Bush when Moshe originally was interviewing for the job, he said לא איש דברים אנכי which means, “I am not a man of words” and we know that this was Moshe’s major impediment. But yet now at the end of his life he is giving one long sermon after another!

The Midrash Tanchuma lays out this question in a somewhat humorous way and puts the question in the mouths of the Jews who had to listen to these speeches.

במדרש תנחומא אלה הדברים וגו'
אמרו ישראל למשה אתמול אמרת לא איש דברים אנכי ועכשיו אתה מדבר כ"כ

This is a loose translation of the midrash: The Jews say to Moshe, when you interviewed to be our rabbi, you promised you would never speak and that is why we hired you. But now all of the sudden you are giving sermon after sermon and each one is way too long!

I would like to answer this contradiction (whether Moshe is a man of no words or a man of very many words) with a very powerful thought of the Chasidic Master, Reb Nochum of Chernobyl. Since Reb Nochum is probably someone who many of you have never heard of and are not familiar with his thought, I would like to introduce his idea by first giving over some of his biography and his story which I believe will give added insight into his idea.

I am sure that many of you heard of the Twersky family. The Twersky Chasidic dynasty began in the Ukraine with Reb Nochum of Chernobyl. Reb Nochum (1730 – 1787) studied under the Baal Shem Tov (the founder of chassidut) And then under the Maggid of Mezeritch. He was one of the first to propagate Ḥasidism;

Now there are actually two kinds of rebbes or Chassidic leaders. One kind of leader is the classic rebbe. The Rebbe has a court and is based in one town. He has a small tight nit group of followers and then a larger group of Chassidim who live in other towns and come to visit him on the holidays. But the other kind of Rebbe is called a Maggid, or a preacher. A maggid would travel from city to city and town to town and try to offer words of inspiration and chassidut to the masses. Reb Nochum was a Maggid. Being a maggid isn’t an easy job. You are away from home, it is very tiring; but it is a labor of love because it is the only way of bringing Judaism and Chassidut to the people. And Reb Nochum was really one of the first Maggidim in Hassidut.

Now back to Moshe. Was he a man of words or not? In order to answer the question, Reb Nochum first has to explain some key kabbilistic ideas. Reb Nochum tells us that there are essentially two kinds of people in terms of their spiritual orientation. There are some people who are what is called מוחין דקטנים which comes from the Hebrew phrase מוח קטן which I will call small brained. And then there are people who he says have מוחין דגדולין which means big brained people. What is the difference between these two groups? It comes down to whether or not you have what is called דעת or knowledge. The small brained people don’t have it and the big brained people have it.

So then the next question is, what is this דעת that separates the big brains from the small brains. Well Reb Nochum defines people who have דעת, and this is very important, as those who understand that it is possible that when they speak, God is speaking through them.

How does God speak through people? Well according to Hassidic and Kabbilistic teaching, the shchinah is trapped in all of us. We are all God at our core. But we have layers of Ego and impurity that traps the shechinah inside of us. But as soon as we can pull away all of those layers, The shechinah starts talking through our mouth (השכינה מדברת מתוך גרונו).

This is what divides the small brain people from the big brain people. The small brain people worship God out of יראה or fear. They pray to God to avert punishment and they ask God to take care of their needs; health, parnasah, all important things but from Reb Nochum’s perspective, not ideal.
The Big Brain People on the other hand worship God so that they can strip away those layers and so they can experience the ecstasy of being egoless, having God speak through you and in a certain sense becoming G-d.

This is how we can understand how Moshe went from someone who couldn’t put together a sentence to being someone who delivered the most important speeches in history. He started off as being one who couldn’t speak and at the end of his life he was still someone who couldn’t speak. So who was speaking those important speeches on the Plains of Moav just before he died? Over Moshe’s 40 year career his brain got bigger and bigger. He now truly divested himself of his ego and everytime he opened his mouth, he mouth was moving but it was God who was talking. To some extent Moshe became God.

Now I would like to get back to Reb Nochum’s personal story. He was a Maggid. I mentioned being a maggid is difficult. You have to leave home and never really settle down. But now I think I understand Reb Nochum and what motivated him. He truly believed that wherever he was teaching, he was allowing God to speak through him. He must have craved the spiritual pleasure of transcending himself and becoming God.

On this Shabbat of דברים of speeches, I ask us all to remember that the shechinah resides in all of us. And even if we cannot perfect ourselves like Moshe or even like Reb Nochum, we can at our own level transcend our egos, go beyond ourselves and allow God to speak through us. And yes, if we do that, we can in some way become G-d!

A Living Covenant - Class 3 - "Oven of Akhnai"

2008-05-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

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This class will focus on amazing story from the Talmud, "The Oven of Achnai." In addition to learning Hartman's take on the story, we will introduce an exciting methodology of the study of Rabbinic Narrative.

A Living Covenant - Class #2

2008-05-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

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"A Living Covenant" - Introduction

2008-05-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

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This class will focus on David Hartman's book, A Living Covenant. The book's premise (taken from the bookcover) is that Jewish life "need not be passive, insulated, or self effacing, but can be lived with... passion, tolerance and spontaneity." "The Living Covenant explores the thought of Maimonides, Rav Soloveitchik and Yeshayahu Leibowitz so we will also spend time on these three thinkers.

Yizkor Sermon: 8'th day of Pesach 5768

2008-04-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

Why do we light a Yizkor Candle?
Yizkor Derasha, Pesach 5758

It has only been about two weeks since we were shocked to find out about the tragic deaths of Rabbi Jake and Debbie Rubinstein of Scarsdale New York. One particularly horrific aspect of this tragedy is the cause of death. They died through fire. There was no illness, no period of waiting to allow them to in some sense come to terms with their deaths. There was just a sudden, unexpected, overwhelming, overpowering and utterly destructive fire.

What strikes me on this Yizkor morning two weeks later, the first Yizkor after their deaths as their family and community are just going through the initial stages of grieving is the way in which we will memorialize them and all of our departed loved ones. Besides reciting Yizkor, we do one act. Most of us did it last night as Yom Tov came in. We light a candle, a little fire. Most of us have candles lit at home and if look in the back of the sanctuary you will see hundreds of little electric candles that were lit by our lamplighters in memory of Beth Sholom members who are no longer with us. And my question this morning is very simple; Why? Why do we take the fire, which can be and was so destructive just two weeks ago and has killed so many jews throughout the ages; Why do we take the destructive force and use it to memorialize our loved ones?

In order to answer this question, I think we need to take a step back and understand the significance of fire in the Torah.In the Torah, Fire is present at almost every important communication between God and the Jewish People. At the brit bein habetarim, God is represented by a לפיד אש – a flaming torch which blazed through animals that Avraham had cut in two. And how does God first appear to Moshe? At a bush set on fire. At the revelation at Sinai, the mountain is said to be full of smoke because God descended upon it in Fire. Finally, God leads Israel through the desert for 40 years with an עמוד אש a pillar of fire.

So if it is true that Fire is present at almost every important moment in Jewish History, then why is it missing during the most holy day of the week. We all know that there are 39 categories of prohibited work on shabbat. But the only prohibition that is explicitly mentioned in the Torah is לא תבערו אש בכל משבתיכם ביום השבת – Do not light a fire in all of your dwelling places on shabbat. Shabbat is sandwiched between fire. We light a fire right before shabbat with the Shabbat candles and we light a fire right after shabbat (Havdalah).But on shabbat itself there is no fire. If fire is so holy and Shabbat is the holiest time, then the absence of fire on Shabbat is glaring.

Perhaps we can offer the following thought which will help explain the nature of fire and Shabbat. Everyone knows that without Fire, there is no civilization. Fire is necessary for light, for cooking, for fuel, for building. Fire is therefore understood as the symbol of creativity and ingenuity. This is the reason that at almost every important moment in the Jewish people’s historical relationship with God, fire is present. When God appears to Abraham, he is asking Abraham to be the builder of a new nation. It is about holy building, fire is therefore present. At Har Sinai, the Jewish People are given the Torah. The Torah is meant to be used as a blueprint for the jewish people to create a state and build a home in the land of Israel. It is all about holy creating, fire is therefore present. But then it comes to shabbat and the point of shabbat is to stop creating. To turn inward, to catch our spiritual breath and gain an inner balance. Fire is therefore absent on shabbat.

There is a very important idea in Judaism which I think is applicable to our understanding of fire. Judaism teaches us that anything that has tremendous power for good (כח לטוב), also has potential to be very bad, very destructive (כח לרע). That is why the same fire which creates, which provides food, which builds, also has the power to destroy. The same power which brings so much joy also brings pain and suffering. Fire is either really good or really bad. It is never pareve, never neutral.

To some extent, the same can be said of relationships with parents and close relatives. I never heard of someone who had a pareve relationship with their parents. I never heard someone say, “My parents, they are alright. It is ok to spend time with them, nothing special, but it is alright. At times, you are so drawn to your parents like a candle which provides light and warmth. But at other times, the relationship might be difficult and then it is like a fire which is overwhelming and overpowering; you need to be away.

Perhaps that is why we light a yizkor candle. The fire is contained but it has a bright glow. The candle represents the neshama of a person because fire represents the life force, the creativity. And now during yizkor we remember the loved one during those times when their light was a guide providing warmth and comfort.

I would like to conclude with a fascinating halakhic dispute concerning the lighting of the Yizkor candle and it has to do with when and how you light the candle. When did you light the yizkor candle? Most of us probably lit the candle last night right after we lit the Yom Tov candles. The problem is that there is actually a halakhic problem with lighting the yizkor candle. This is because even though it is permitted to kindle a light on Yom Tov (from an existing flame), it is only permitted if we need the fire for cooking, for warmth or for light. But if just light it for the sake of lighting a candle, it is called a נר של בטלה a light that serves no purpose and it is forbidden to light this kind of candle on Yom Tov, even from an existing flame. Therefore the question about whether one may light a yizkor candle on Yom Tov was raised in the beginning of the 19th century and it was actually the subject of a debate.

Rabbi Meir Eisenshtat was asked whether or not a yizkor candle may be lit and he said that it is forbidden. Ironically, the name of the book that records this prohibition of kindling the Yizkor candle on Yom Tov is called אמרי אש which means The Sayings of Fire. So the Imrei Eish would have told all of us last night that we should not light our yizkor candles.

But then a few years later in the middle of the 19th century, Rabbi Abraham Sofer, the son of the famous Chatam Sofer was asked the same question. And I think that he understood the spiritual and emotional need of children to light the Yizkor candle for their parents. But he also knew the law. And the law said that if a candle was not going to be used to enhance the simcha of Yom Tov that it could not be kindled on Yom Tov even if it was for a memorial. He therefore he came up with the following compromise. He said that the Yizkor candle could be kindled on Yom Tov. But that it needs to be placed on the table where people would eat or read and thereby use the candle to enhance the simcha of Yom Tov. I think that some of us might be taken aback by Rabbi Abraham Sofer’s suggestion. We should use the Yizkor candle? Doesn’t it represent the soul of our departed loved ones? Isn’t it holy?

But I think the suggestion is beautiful. It teaches us that we need to take the light which represents the soul, the life and creative force of our parents and grandparents and use it to provide light in our own lives.

In this vein, I would like to offer a possible ritual that we can adopt which will not only make our lighting of the Yizkor candle conform with halakha, it will also provide a powerful ritual in the spirit of Yizkor. This afternoon, take a few minutes and open up a Jewish text or a book that your parents or grandparents thought was very important. Maybe a parsha from chumash, the shema or a favorite Psalm or Prayer, maybe a mishna from Avot or even something from secular literature. Sit down next to the yizkor light and use the flame that represents their neshama and learn the text. And as your learning, imagine that they are there with you and learning with you BeChavruta – in partnership. What kinds of questions would they ask about the text? What kinds of insights would they derive from the text and take this as an opportunity to allow their light to still shine in the world and to help guide you in your life today.

My berakha to us all on this Yizkor morning is that the lessons that we have learned and continue to learn from our parents and grandparents be passed down to our children, grandchildren and all of the Jewish people for many generations to come. And if that happens, the light of their souls will always burn. Chag Sameach.

"Passover Seder Seminar" Class #3 - My father was a wandering Aramean

2008-04-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

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Seder Seminar class #2 - "Mah Nishtanah: The Four Questions"

2008-04-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

The "Mah Nishtana" is always an enjoyable part of the seder because it is often recited by our young children. In this class we will examine the "ma nishtana" and come to realize that many of us are really missing the point in forcing our children to memorize "the four questions."

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"Passover Seder Series" - Class #1 "The Four Children"

2008-03-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

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Is the Law immutable? (Purim Sermon 5758)

2008-03-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

For the first 20 or 30 years of the Reform Movement, in the early 19th century, most of the movement’s reforms were relatively minor, from a halakhic perspective. They included; a sermon in the vernacular, a mixed male and female choir accompanied by an organ, and a combination of Hebrew and German prayers. From the point of view of Jewish law, these reforms were relatively small in scale.
Yet one rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Sofer (commonly knows as the Chatam Sofer) fought these reforms with all of his energy. His most famous anti-reform slogan was “Chadash Assur Min Hatorah” – which means anything new, any innovation whatsoever (even one that was a minor halakhic change) is 100% forbidden. To put it another way, for the Chatam Sofer, Change = Transgression and Jewish Law never changed and never should change.

The Chatam Sofer had his reasons for using this slogan and employing this strategy in combating reform. But it is interesting to ask whether or not the slogan is true from an historical perspective. Is it the case that from the moment that the Jews received the Torah at Mount Sinai, Jewish Law has never changed?

Since today is Shushan Purim, I would like to analyze this question in light of Megilat Esther.

There is a tiny word, just 2 letters that is the most common and most important word in Megillat Esther. The word is Dat (דת). It is a word that is used in Israel today to distinguish between the religious and the secular. The word for one who is secular is חלוני and the word for one who is religious is דתי. But דתי and דת means more than just religious. It means a religious law. Under the Chupah, the chatan says to the kallah, הרי את מקודשת לי בטבעת זו – With this ring, you are betrothed to me, כדת משה וישראל according to the religious Law of Moshe and Israel.

The megilah depicts an Ancient Persia that is obsessed with דת ודין. – with laws
There is a law for everything: There is a law telling you what happens to Vashti when she refuses to show up upon the king’s request. There is a law concerning how much makeup and perfume a woman must wear before she appears before the king. There is even a law telling you how much alcohol you must drink at the King’s party.

But ancient Persia is not unique because it had many laws. It is unique because these laws were immutable. In the language of the Megilah, these laws were לא יעבר – they could not change.

Much of the Megillah is satire. It is satire in the sense that it makes fun of many of the practices of Ahasuerus’ royal court; the drinking, the corruption, the rash way that decisions are made.

I would argue that the aspect of Ahasuerus’ court that is most ridiculed by the Megilah is the idea that laws cannot be revoked, they are immutable.

This theme runs through the Megilah. In the beginning of the story, Ahasuerus gets upset at his wife Vashti and he makes a decree that she shall never again appear before him. Of course after he calms down and sobers up he realizes that he loves and misses her and he wants her back. This shouldn’t be a problem. He should have been able to simply change his mind and forgive her. The problem was that his decree was לא יעבר. It could not be revoked; it was immutable. He therefore tragically loses his wife forever.

The story continues. Haman convinces Ahasuerus to allow him to issue a genocidal decree against the Jews. On the 13 of the month of Adar, the non-jews were to get up and kill all of the Jews; men, women and children.

We all know what happens. Esther invited Ahasuerus and Haman to a party and “outs” Haman as the one who is trying to kill her people. Ahasuerus orders that Haman be killed and then Esther asks Ahasuerus to revoke the decree of Genocide against her people. And here Ahasuerus does something very strange. Instead of revoking the original decree of genocide, he issues a second decree which allows the Jews to get up and defend themselves. And why doesn’t Ahasuerus just revoke the first decree? Because he cannot כי כתב אשר נכתב בשם המלך...אין להשיב – a decree issued by the King cannot be revoked. The law is immutable. And therefore a second decree permitting the Jews to defend themselves must be issued. And what is the result of this silly provision which doesn’t allow the king to revoke his own decree after he changes his mind? In the process of defending themselves, the Jews had to kill 75,000 people. 75,000 people are killed because a law cannot be changed. This is satire but I have to say, it isn’t funny. When laws are immutable, tragedy occurs.

So if Megillat Esther makes fun of Ahasuerus and Ancient Persia for having immutable laws, why is the common perception that Halakha, or the Jewish Legal system is immutable?

So here is the controversial statement that is the crux of my talk: It is a mistake to say that Halakah has never changed. The History of Halakha is a history of innovation and change. It is true that there is a body of law that is immutable. That goes back to Mount Sinai. These laws are known as Halakha L”Moshe M’Sina. Laws of Moshe which go back To Sinai. But the Rambam, in his introduction to his Legal Work, the Mishna Torah teaches us that besides for those laws which goes back to Sinai there is an even larger body of laws that “were not received from Moses but rather were innovated in every generation using the 13 principles of Biblical Exegesis.

For the Rambam, it is very important for us to believe that a core group of laws go all the way back to Sinai. This gives us stability, authenticity and it anchors us in a direct line going all the way back to Moses and the giving of the Torah. But that is not sufficient. Because if the law remains immutable then it is not a Torat Chayim, a Living Breathing Torah which is relevant to people in every generation regardless of changes that are taking place in the world. Therefore, again using the term of the Rambam, the rabbis of each generation are מחדש – they innovate laws for their time.

How does the law change? When can it change? Who can make it change? These are all important questions and I hope to teach on this topic in the future. But for this morning, I think that the following statement is sufficient. One of our obligations on Purim is to recognize the major difference between Ancient Persian culture and Judaism. Both cultures are centered on law. But for the Persians, Law is immutable and for the Jews, the Law is a Torat Chayim; an expanding, adapting, living, breathing organism.

I would like to conclude with a rather famous passage from the Talmud which I now understand in a new light. The Talmud teaches us that when the Jewish people originally received the Torah, G-d picked up Mount Sinai like an inverted barrel and said to us, “if you accept the Torah fine but if not your burial will be there.” In other words, the Torah was coerced upon us. It was an immutable Law forced upon us that will never change. And there is this tremendous moment of tension in the Talmud. For if the Torah was forced upon us then we never willingly accepted it and the deal is off.

But then Rava, the great Talmudic Sage saves the day. He quotes a verse from Megilat Esther that says קימו וקבלו. The Jews reaccept the Torah at the time of Ahasuerus and this time they do it willingly, out of love. Because the Torah the Jews accept on Purim is contrasted with the Law of Persia. It is a living Torah; One that adapts, lives and breathes and is accepted by all of Israel willingly as a guide for life.
I hope that on this Purim we can all reaccept the Torah as a Torat Chayim; a torah which is meaningful and relevant to every aspect of our lives.
Shabbat Shalom and Shushan Purim Sameach!

Rambam's Essay on Resurrection - Class #3

2008-01-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

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Maimonides Class - Essay on Resurrection

2008-01-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

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The Essay on Resurrection is the Rambam's response to accusations that had been made against him that he did not believe in Resurrection of the Dead. It deals with the nature of the Resurrection, the world to come, reward and punishment and miracles. It is a fascinating letter because, at points, the rambam shows his personal frustration and pain over being accused of heresy.

Epistle to Yemen - Class # 3

2007-12-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

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Maimonides Class: Epistle to Yemen

2007-12-04T10:19:00.000-08:00

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Over the course of the next few weeks we will study "The Epistle to Yemen." In the 12th century, a fanatical Muslim movement was forcing the Jews of Yemen to convert to Islam. Maimonides wrote a letter to the community addressing the following questions: (these questions are taken from Abraham Halkin's book)
.1) What was the significance of the community's suffering?
2) How should the community respond to a convert who had become a missionary for Islam and claimed that the Torah itself confirmed the prophethood of Muhammad?
3) What should they make of the claim of another individual to be the Messiah, come to rescue them from their persecutors?
4) Could the date of the Messiah's coming be predicted by astrology?

Rambam Class: The Epistle on Martyrdom

2007-10-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

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Epistle On Martyrdom - In the 1140s, an extremist Muslim sect, the Almohads, invaded Spain and North Africa. Spanish and Moroccan Jews were forced to publicly affirm that Muhammad was the Prophet. Many Jews succumbed to the pressure. This letter deals with consequences of this tragic period of time. The study questions are below.

What was the dilemma faced by the letter writer? (1)

What was the first answer that the letter writer received (from one who thinks himself to be a sage!)? (3)

Why is Rambam so upset at the "sage" who offered the first response? What was the basic distinction that the original responder failed to make? (11)

Should one pretend to be an idolater / heretic for self-protection? (12,13)

Can one who worships idols, repent? (17)

How does rambam know that Jews who publicly converted but secretly remain Jews, will be rewarded? (20)

The Triennial Torah Cycle: Not Just for Reform Jews - Sermon Shabbat Bereishit 07

2007-10-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

In 1924, the reform movement in America published its first Siddur, The Union Prayer Book. Amongst the many innovations in this Prayer Book was the triennial Torah Cycle. Traditonal Jews, then, now and for hundreds of years divided the Torah into 54 portions. Each portion is called a Parsha and one is read every week. This allows us to begin the Torah this week, parshat bereishit and conclude it on annually on Simchat Torah. But the reform movement decided that each parsha was too long. So they further subdivided the parshah into three, read the first third the first year, the second third – the second year and the final third – the third year. Thus, the triennial cycle. In the 60’s and 70’s a number of conservative synagogues adopted the triennial cycle and the question was brought before the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards in the early 80s. A series of response were written, most notably this scholarly 51 page responsum by Rabbi Lionel E. Moses which endorses the triennial cycle. The responsum was voted on and adopted and the Conservative Movement officially sanctioned the Triennial Cycle. To date, I am not aware of any attempt within the Orthodox community to adopt a triennial cycle.

This Shabbat is Shabbat Bereishit and we are about to begin a new cycle of the Torah reading. I therefore think is a good time to ask if our system is the best way to go. Perhaps the Triennial Cycle might be the most appropriate cycle for all synagogues, Liberal and Orthodox alike.

So first I would like to take a moment with you to brainstorm some of the pros and cons of the triennial cycle. Let us begin with the cons. What are some disadvantages of the triennial cycle?
Decrease in the amount of material learned.

1.) You cannot really celebrate Simchat Torah annually because the entire Torah has not been completed.

OK. Now let us list some of the advantages of adopting a triennial cycle.
1.) Easier to find leiners because the sections are smaller
2.) More time to teach
3.) Easier to concentrate and learn a small section than a large section

It is really this last idea that I would like to focus on. Every year during parshat Yitro when we read the 10 commandments, I always have the same question. The 10 commandments constitute the only sermon that God gave to the Jewish People. Think about it. Every Shabbat rabbis get up and give a sermon, usually about 15 minutes. Then on the high holidays for the really special sermon, most rabbis go on for ½ hour or maybe even 45 minutes. So you would think that God’s only sermon in history, the original Sermon on the Mount, would go on for hours. Yet how long was the sermon? Just 10 short statements. It only took a few minutes to deliver.

I think God was trying to teach a lesson to all future teachers and rabbis – “Brevity is of utmost importance.” (I am not sure if we got the message!) And this is the major appeal of the triennial cycle. It is short, easy to concentrate on and conducive for a serious learning experience.

The question that I have and that I think we need to ask is while the triennial cycle might be more pedagogically sound, it is authentic. Does it follow the dictates of halakha and is it authentic to our tradition?
I mentioned that the reform movement adopted by the Triennial Cycle by 1924 but in reality they were far from the first to adopt such a practice. As early as the 6th century, we find the following statement in the Babylonian Talmud (Meggilah 29b):
בני מערבא דמסקי לדאורייתא בתלת שנין.

The people of Israel would complete the Torah every three years. In other words, they had a triennial cycle.

And then in the very important but relatively unknown Gaonic work called ספר החילוקים בין אנשי מזרח ובני ארץ ישראל – The book that records difference in customs between Bavel and Eretz Yisrael, this custom is once again reported.

בני בבל עושין שמחת תורה בכל שנה ושנה...בני א"י אין עושין שמחת תורה אלא לשלש שנים ומחצה

The inhabitants of Babylonia observe Simchat Torah annually…The inhabitants of Eretz yisrael celebrate Simchat Torah only every three and a half years… (trans. Lionel Moses).

Most scholars believe that this triennial cycle was popular in the Land of Israel and Egypt from about the 3rd century through the 12th or 13th century.

Why this custom died out we do not really know. One theory has to do with the dominance that Babylonian customs had towards the end of the 1st millennium. The death of the triennial cycle might have been one casualty of this trend. A second and more compelling theory is that we have some evidence that people from Israel visited their Babylonian counterparts on Simchat Torah and perhaps, they were so inspired by the Simchat Torah celebration that they too wanted to finish the Torah and celebrate Simchat Torah annually.

And that is exactly where the historical irony lies. In an attempt to adopt the current system that we have which allows us to finish the entire Torah in a year, we end up never finishing the Torah. And that is because each Torah reading, each torah lecture is too long and people get bored, lose focus. We forgot the most basic pedagogical lesson that we should have learned from G-d’s 10 commandment sermon. Brevity is of utmost importance.

Ultimately, what happened is that because the Torah portion was so long, we forgot that it was a lecture, we forgot that the point of it was to learn. It just became part of davening. This point can be illustrated very well with another difference between the orthodox and the liberal denominations. Which way does the Baal Koreh face, towards the Aron or to the people? In many liberal synagogues the Baal Koreh faces the congregation but in Orthodox shuls the Baal Koreh faces the Aron. Which one makes more sense? If the Torah reading is davening then it makes sense to face the Ark which represents the presence of God in our shul. But if the point of Keriyat Hatorah is to learn and the Baal Koreh is teaching then it makes no sense for him to face the ark. Could you imagine if I got up to give this sermon and I gave the sermon facing the ark. It would be pretty ridiculous. Well that is sort of what happens during keriat hatorah every shabbat.

Let me put it another way. There are two things we do in shul; we pray and we read torah. The praying is our chance to speak to God and the Torah reading is our chance for God to talk to us. Every week, we get to find out what God has to say to us. So what do we do, we read the Torah facing God as if it is part of davening as if we are telling the Torah to God. But God’s reaction is, “Don’t tell it to me, I know what it says, I wrote it!!!. Tell it to the people.”

I am not suggesting that we change our custom and have the Baal Koreh read facing the congregation and I am also not suggesting that we adopt a Triennial Cycle. Either of those changes would take away the traditional character of our service. I am however suggesting that we have a paradigm shift in the way we think about Torah Reading. The torah reading should not be thought of as part of davening. It is learning. And we need to learn the Torah portion in order to get guidance for the week ahead.

I would like to conclude with a story. Reb Hershele Riminover was just 21 years old when he became the Rebbe. He was still a single man. One day, a woman in her 20s comes to see him. She says, “Rebbe, you have to help me. I am an orphan and I have not parents to find a match for me. Please help me find a shidduch.” The rebbe looks at the woman, and he studies her a little better and he says, “Let me ask you a question. Would you marry me?” The woman thinks the rebbe is making fun of her and she breaks down crying. She says, “Rebbe, I am so broken, please don’t make fun of me.” And the Rebbe says, “My question was serious. Are you from such and such town. The woman says, yes. And do you have 10 brothers and sisters. The woman says yes, but how do you know that. The rebbe says “and was your father’s name R’ Moshe? She says yes. So the rebbe asks her, do you remember a boy named Hershele. She says, “of course I remember. Hershele was the tailors son and my brothers were very wild and they would always rip their shabbos pants and we would send them to Hershele’s father. On Erev shabbos, Hershele was often come to deliver the pants. The rebbe said, I am Hershele and every time that I would go to your house I saw something so beautiful. Your mother, your father and the your 10 brothers and sisters would sit at the shabbos table and study of the parshah of the week together. I would leave your house and I would start crying because my father was a poor illiterate tailor who did not know how to learn and I so envied your family. And I would cry to God, “Please let me have a family like that. Bless me so that I can marry one of those girls.” And the rebbe looks at the orphan and he says to her, “And now, you have come. It is as if we are soulmates. Please marry me.” Of course the couple got married, they raised a beautiful family, and every shabhos they would sit as a family at the table and study the Parshah of the week.

What a beautiful way to spend a Shabbat. On this Shabbat of Bereishit, of beginning the cycle, we should make a commitment, to really learn the parshah every Friday night at the shabbos table, by ourselves, with our spouses or with our family. And if we do that and we truly make an effort to learn every parshah, then next year on Simchat Torah when we dance and sing with the Torahs, we can be happy, inspired and elated with the knowledge that we did our best to finish the entire Torah. Shabbat Shalom.

"The Heart of Stone" - Yom Kippur Sermon 2007

2007-09-23T06:50:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong decade. I am not going to tell you which decade I was born in because I already get enough comments questioning whether I am old enough to be a rabbi!! I will say though that sometimes I wish I grew up in is the 60’s. The 60’s with its free and open culture, its subversive music, and its strong critique of authority. So every once in a while, I go online and listen to music from the sixties. The other day, I was on a Rolling Stones website surfing through some of their song lists and I came across a song called “Heart of Stone.” I was intrigued by the title, so I clicked on the song to listen. The refrain, sung by Mick Jagger, was as follows: “You’ll never break, you’ll never break this heart of stone.”

Each and every one of us knows what it feels like to have a hard heart, a heart of stone. Sometimes the heart of stone is necessary just to keep us emotionally stable and to allow us to go on. But Yom Kippur is the one day of the year that we must not have a heart of stone.
In the next 24 hours we are going to recite the Full Vidui – the confession, 8 times. The second confession reads על חטא שחטאנו לפניך באמוץ הלב - “God, we confess before you all of those sins we have committed against you through hardness of the heart.” On Yom Kippur, we cannot have a hard heart. We remove our hearts of stone and we try to soften our hearts. So I have two very simple questions that I would like to focus on this evening:

1.) what does it mean to have a hard heart, a heart of stone?
2.) How, on this evening, can I soften my heart?

What is a Hard Heart?
I would argue that there are actually two types of hardness of heart. The first kind of hardness of heart is what I would call “interpersonal hardness of heart.” A hardness of heart that occurs between one individual and another. This hardness of heart can be illustrated with one of my favorite stories from the Talmud.

The great Rabbi Eliezer son of Shimon, a rabbi from the 2nd century, was riding on his donkey. He was in a great mood because he had just finished an amazing session of Torah Study. He was also feeling a little conceited for he had just discovered some profound Torah insights. So he was riding on his donkey and he chances upon an exceedingly ugly man. The ugly man greets the rabbi. The rabbi is so taken aback by his ugliness. The ugly man might have smelled a bit, he might have been homeless; and the contrast between the rabbi’s dignified torah session and the ugly man’s problems was just too much for the rabbi. The rabbi responds, “How ugly are you, perhaps all the people of your city are as ugly as you?”

The ugly man, without missing a beat, responds, “I don’t know, but go tell the Craftsman Who made me, how ugly is this vessel that You made.”

The rabbi immediately realizes that he has committed a horrible sin. He begs forgiveness for his callousness, for his hardness, for his heart of stone. The ugly man eventually forgives the rabbi and the rabbi enters the study hall to share with his students the profound lesson that he has learned:
“A person should always be soft like a reed and not hard like a cedar tree,” The Rabbi desclares, “For this reason, the reed merited to have the קולמוס the quill come from it to write the Torah, Teffilin, and Mezuzot.”

We usually value the hardness and the strength of the Cedar Tree. It symbolizes strength, confidence, and the will to see something through. But this story teaches us that the softness of the reed is more valued. Flexibility, the ability to move with the wind, to adapt to ugly and difficult situations, to be soft and to be empathetic.
It is certainly a human tendency to have hardness of heart, but on Yom Kippur we say על חטא שחטאנו לפניך באמוץ הלב - we confess before You Oh God for those sins that we have committed with a hardness of heart.

The story of the Rabbi and the Ugly Man is one type of hardness of heart, which I am calling “Interpersonal hardness of heart.” But there is a second type of hardness of heart, one that might even be more harmful on Yom Kippur. The second hardness could be called “intellectual or spiritual hardness of heart.” It is often a crime against God and it is always a crime against our own souls.

There is well know example from the Torah of someone who had this kind of hardness of heart. Do you know who I am referring to? Pharaoh. The Torah describes Pharaoh’s heart as being כבד, חזק and קשה. All of these Hebrew terms denote that Pharaoh had a hard heart, a heart of stone. When God sends Moshe and Aron to Pharaoh with the message, “let my people go”, Pharoah’s heart hardened and he did not listen. He was so entrenched in his Egyptian Pagan beliefs, that his heart was not open to hear the word of God. His heart was also not receptive to the moral-abolitionist message of Moshe. His heart was so closed that he could not see an economically viable Egypt that did not depend on the subjugation of the Jewish People.
על חטא שחטאנו לפניך באמוץ הלב – Oh God, we confess to you those sins that, like Pharaoh, we have committed through hardness of the heart.

How can we soften our hearts and be more open to God and Jewish Wisdom on this Yom Kippur? There is a powerful story about a Young Jewish man. It was Yom Kippur 1913. The young Jewish man was about to convert to Christianity but before his conversion, he decided to attend one more Kol Nidrei Service. He chose a small orthodox synagogue in the small German town called Kassel. And something happened to him on that night. He was so moved by that service that he decided not only to remain Jewish but to dedicate his life to Jewish studies. That young man was none other then Franz Rosensweig who became not only an observant Jew but, arguably, the most important Jewish Philospher of the 20th century. His major work, “The Star of Redemption” is one of the best explanations of the three most important concepts in Judaism; Creation, Revelation, and Redemption. That Yom Kippur service in Kassel, Germany, not only changed Rosensweig, it changed the course of Jewish intellectual history forever.

The Kol Nidrei Service has the potential to transform us and to help us transform the Jewish People. But are our hearts open to the experience? Have we hardened our hearts so much, like Pharaoh, that we just say, “Ahh, it just another Yom Kippur. I had one last year, I’ll have one next year and they never really change me.”

We need to remove our hearts of stone. We need to remove the cynicism. Its not only about Yom Kippur its about the entire year. How many times do we learn about a new kind of religious experience, a new way to encounter the divine, and we approach it with cynicism. “it will never work, we say, why should I try something new?”

If we don’t soften our hearts, if we do not open ourselves up for new experiences, we will never grow. A heart of stone might be strong, fortified and protected but it cannot expand. It cannot grow. It cannot reach new heights. On this Yom Kippur, we need to promise God and ourselves that we will remain open, just like Rosensweig, to experience something that will transform ourselves and help us transform the Jewish People.
על חטא שחטאנו לפניך באמוץ הלב – Oh God, we confess those sins that we have committed against you through hardness of the heart.

There is a beautiful chapter in the book of Ezekiel that powerfully describes the softening of the heart. Ezekiel describes a time when the Jewish People were so ensnared in their sinful ways that they couldn’t even think about doing teshuva. So God takes the first step. And God’s action is described in one of the most beautiful pesukim in Tanach:
(כו) וְנָתַתִּי לָכֶם לֵב חָדָשׁ וְרוּחַ חֲדָשָׁה אֶתֵּן בְּקִרְבְּכֶם וַהֲסִרֹתִי אֶת לֵב הָאֶבֶן מִבְּשַׂרְכֶם וְנָתַתִּי לָכֶם לֵב בָּשָׂר:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel Chapter 36:26

It is true that the heart of stone is strong fortified and protected, and the heart of flesh is soft and vulnerable. But we prefer the soft and vulnerable heart of flesh because the heart of stone is dead but the heart of flesh is living. With all of its weakness, it still beats. And with all of its vulnerabilities, it can still grow.

Allow me to conclude with a confession and a prayer:
על חטא שחטאתי לפניך באמוץ הלב
Oh God I confess all of those sins that I have committed against You through hardness of the heart. And I promise you that on this Yom Kippur I am going to try to soften my heart. I am going to try to remove my heart of stone that separates me from other people and the heart of stone that separates me from my own soul and from You. But I ask you Oh God, that if I cannot remove my heart of stone on this Yom Kippur, that You help me out. That You purify me, that You put a new spirit within me and remove my heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh so that I can do my service to humanity and to You.

Please join me in this confession and commit together with me for the next 24 hours to have an open heart.

Pre Yom Kippur Class: "The 13 Attributes of Mercy"

2007-09-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

The 13 Attributes of Mercy: A-donai, A-donai E-l Rachum VeChanun....
The reciting of the Thirteen Attributes is the central part of the Yom Kippur and Selichot service. According to the Talmud, G-d promised Moshe that "whenever the Jewish People sin, let them recite the 13 attributes before Me and I will forgive them." In this class, we will study the Biblical background to the 13 attributes.

How does reciting them get us atonement?

Does it work with or even without teshuva?

Click Here to Listen to the Lecture

Click Here for the source sheet

"The 25'th Hour" - Rosh Hashana Sermon 2007

2007-09-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

This past summer I was in St. Louis and I was walking behind two friends, a man and a woman who were deeply engaged in a conversation. I was trying to mind my own business but I overheard the man ask the woman a question that literally made me stop and think about my entire life. The question was, “if there were 25 hours in a day, what would you do with the extra hour”?
I have really been meditating on this question and I think that it is a question that we should all be asking ourselves on Rosh Hashana. One of the most often used words in the Rosh Hashana liturgy is “HaYom” (HaYom Harat Olam, Hayom Ya’amid Bamishpat). I did a quick search on one of my Torah cd roms to find out how often it appears. The word “Hayom” and its derivations appears an outstanding 174 times. It is almost as if the liturgy is trying to send the message of how important a day is, how important are those 24 hours that never seem to be enough. I would therefore like to ask the question, if you had a 25 hours in the day, what would you do with the extra hour?
I have been asking my friends and family this question and it’s quite amazing to see what happens. When you first ask the question, most people respond, “If I had an extra hour in the day, I would use it to get more sleep. And that is fair answer. After all, we are a sleep-deprived country. According to recent studies more than half of Americans do not get enough sleep. But then if you ask the question again, most people conclude that they would not use the extra hour for sleep. They would use it to accomplish some goal, something that they believe to be missing in their lives but that they cannot accomplish because there are simply not enough hours in the day.
So I have been asking this question and I have been getting some really powerful answers. One of my brothers said that if he had an extra hour in a day he would make sure to exercise daily. One friend said that if she had an extra hour in a day, she would write a book. Someone else said that if he had the extra hour he would study the entire Bible. Another friend said that he would like to do some more social action and provide some support for the homeless in his area but that he can never seem to find the time. Someone else paused, began to choke up and said, “if I had an extra hour in a day, I would spend some time with my kids.
And I started thinking that if only there were 25 hours in a day, this world would be amazing.
Parents would spend more time with their kids
people of conscience would spend more time fighting homelessness, poverty and disease.
People would study more and write important books. Knowledge would spread.
And then all of this good work and amazing ideas would snowball and our world would just be a better place.
But then reality settled in and I realized that I was getting excited for no reason because we do not have 25 hours in a day and we never will. Our world will remain unredeemed.
It will always be a place where parents don’t spend enough time with their kids.
A place where people really want to study some important work but just cannot find the time.
A place where people want to do acts of kindness, but their lives are just too busy getting by.
Our world will never be redeemed because we will never have that 25th hour.
But then I realized, that perhaps I was asking the wrong question. The question to ask is not, “if you had 25 hours in a day what would you do with it,” rather the fact is that “if you had 25 hours in the day, you would probably do something important, something “life transforming” Well if you would do something so amazing with that 25th hour, why not do it now? The question that I overheard asked on that summer day in St. Louis, really asks us to figure out what we think is really important. The question assumes that we do not have enough time to do it but why do accept that assumption? If we really think it is important to become better people, to transform our lives, why can’t we make the time for it in the 24 hour day. Are we really spending all 24 hours engaged in activities that are more important than what we do in the 25th hour? If you had a 25th hour in the day, you would do important things, why not do them now?
If you had a 25th hour in the day, you might spend time learning. With that extra hour you would create a curriculum for yourself. In the first year, you would finish the entire Bible, the second year you would study then mishna, in the third you would master the Talmud. And before you know it, you would be a Scholar of Judaism. You would be able to take our people’s 3000 year wisdom tradition and apply it meaningfully to your life. If you had 25 hours in the day, you would become a Scholar of Judaism, why not do it now?
If you had 25 hours in a day, you would do more social action or chesed work. Think about the possibilities. With an extra hour in a day you can spend a year getting involved in different chesed or social action causes. You would learn what is out there in terms of needs and eventually figure out where your passion lies. Then during the second year you could identify some need that is not being met. And during the third year, you might begin a new organization or partner with an existing one to make your unique chesed or social action contribution to this world. If you had 25 hours in a day, you would make a huge social action or chesed impact, why not do it now.
If you had 25 hours in a day, you might make exercise a priority. We are commanded by our Torah ונשמרתם מאד לנפשתיכם (ViNishmartem Me’od LeNafshoteichem). We are obligated to take care of our health. Yet so many of us cannot seem to find the time. Is that extra hour in the office really more important that our health? Jewish tradition tells us that we do not even own our bodies. They belong to God and they have just been entrusted to us. We owe to God, to ourselves and to our children who count on us so much, to be healthy. If you had 25 hours in the day, you would do more exercise, why not do it now?
If you had 25 hours in the day, you would spend more time with your children. If we take a step back and look critically at our culture of work, work, work; it is so absurd. We work so hard, so many hours, so we could provide the good life for our children. All parents want to take their kids on nice vacations. So we work so hard and never see our kids for 50 weeks of the year and never see our children, so that we can take them on a nice vacation the other 2 weeks. We also want to provide them with a nice house nice things, So we work hard. but then we are never home to spend time with them in that house or to play together with them with those things. I know it is difficult and I am not coming from a place of judgment. But I think we need to reorient ourselves and ask the question. If you had 25 hours in the day, you would transform your family life, why not do it now.
Friends: I believe that we can transform and redeem this world even without the 25th hour. We all know Herzl’s most famous quote: אם תרצו אין זו אגדה – if you will it, its not just a dream. If we will it, we can make it happen. We can do some serious reflection and introspection into the way we spend the 24 hours of our days and I am confident that we can come up with an hour or even a half an hour to become healthier, to learn more, to spend more time with our families.
Perhaps some of you have been inspired by what I have said today. Maybe some of you are ready to make a mental commitment to do more exercise, or to spend more time with your family or another personal commitment. The problem is that research shows that mental commitments don’t really work. I don’t remember the exact statistics but I once heard that when you make a mental commitment there is only about a 10% chance that you will actually follow through. However, if you take that mental commitment and verbally articulate it even to yourself, the chance of follow through goes up 10%. And then If you report your commitment to another human being, your chance of follow through goes up another 10%. Finally if you write your commitment down, your chance of follow through goes up yet another 10%. So I ask you to find a moment before you leave shul today, to verbally proclaim you commitment, at least to yourself. And then sometime after davening but before this day is over, report your commitment to a friend. Finally, after shabbat is over tomorrow night, and we are allowed to write again, please write down your commitment and keep it in a prominent place. You might want to keep it on your office desk, or in your wallet, or your screen saver. If we do not remind ourselves about our commitments, we will not remain committed.
Rosh Hashana is the birthday of the world. It is a day of renewal; a day of hope. We can change ourselves. We can redeem the world. The choice is ours. If we had 25 hours in the day, we would transform our lives and our world, well let us begin to do it now.

Rosh Hashana: To Tremble or to Dance?

2007-09-11T05:11:00.000-07:00

"Rosh Hashana: To Dance or to Tremble?" The class will analyze the nature of the day. Should we be be rejoicing on rosh hashana or should we be nervous about the impending judgment? This question obviously has huge ramifications on the tone of prayer. Should the prayer be joyful (with clapping and singing) or should it be solemn and subdued?

To Listen to the lecture Click Here

To see the source sheet Click Here

Rambam Class: Why Celebrate the Jewish Holidays?

2007-08-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

The next class will focus on the holidays. The central question asked about each holiday is "what is its function." This is a very important question for the Rambam because every mitzvah needs to be logical. The most interesting section of this chapter is a tangential passage (paragraph #11) that deals with the nature of midrash (Did the rabbis really believe that their interpretations of Bible were "correct.") Some guiding questions are below. After each question, I have noted the paragraph number where you can find the answer to that particular question.

1. Shabbat: What is the practical function of shabbat? What is the spiritual/intellectual function of shabbat? (1)
2. Yom Kippur: What is the function of the day? Why do we abstain from bodily pleasures on Yom Kippur? (2)
3. What is the primary function of the festivals? (3)
4. Why is Passover 7 days? (4)
5. If Shavuot is only a day, why isn't Passover also only 1 day? (5)
6. Why, according to Aristotle, would it make sense for Sukkot to take place right after the harvest? (7)
7. What other reason can account for Sukkot taking place at that time? (8)
8. What opinions and moral qualities are inculcated in us through the observance of Sukkot and Passover? (9)
9. How does the rambam define "midrash"? What were the two going theories of midrash that were rejected by the Rambam? (11)
10. Why do we take the 4 species (lulav, etrog, Hadasim and aravot) on Sukkot? (12)

Click Here To Listen to this Lecture

Click Here To Download the Source Sheet

Rambam Class: Forbidden Sex and Circumcision

2007-08-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Preparation for this Class:
This class will continue with a focus on the Rambam's theory of forbidden sexual activity. The text is the Guide for the Perplexed: Section III chapter 49 (The link to the text is at the bottom of the post). Read from paragraph 13 to the end of the chapter. Below are some study questions. After each question, I will list the paragraph number where you can find the answer.

What is the purpose of circumcision? (the men are not going to be too happy with this one!!) (13 - 15)
Why is circumcision done during childhood? (16)
How does halakha define a "bastard"?
Why is a bastard not allowed to marry other jews? (19)
How does rambam account for the fact that he cannot give a reason for every single mitzvah? (21)

Click Here to Listen to the Lecture

Click Here to see the source sheet