Job Opening fit for a King (David)

A little piece of Zionist reality and humor.

I am currently unemployed and looking for a job. I receive over 20 emails a day informing me of a wide range of different jobs from every nook and cranny of the Holy Land. Today I received a job opening that has a long and hallowed history in the Tanakh. From Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, to Moshe, to the great David HaMelech himself - shepherding is certainly a prophetic career.

Do you know anyone who is up to the challenge? I am only a struggling Technical Writer, but one day maybe I can aspire to the illustrious career of Shepherding.

Rambo HaKohen?

Parshat Ki Tetze (דברים כ) describes the halakhah of the כהן משוח למלחמה, the kohen who is anointed and appointed for war. This morning on the מסילת ישרים train minyan - I witnessed a modern day of כהן משוח למלחמה. A new breed of battle priest who is poised to lead Israel into the 21st Century and beyond. A religious leader who knows that you have to be cruel to be kind in the right measure. That's right, I am talking about a gun-toting kohen. But that's not all, this is a fully armed kohen who is blessing the Jewish people at the same time!

All kidding aside - it certainly caused me to pause and think, when I saw this 20 year old kohen trying to decide what he should do with his rifle as he got ready for Birkat Kohanim. Ultimately he laid the rifle at his feet and then raised his hands to bless the minyan. It is all part of my Religious Zionist dream: to daven shacharit on the train, and to have birkat kohanim by an armed soldier. I think Ben Gurion and the Netziv (or any other Zionist gadol) would have been proud.

Planes, Trains and Minyanim

I am not sure if I have informed my little ד' אמות of the blogosphere of one of the hidden wonders of living in Israel - the daily Beit Shemesh train minyan which is called מסילת ישרים. It is wonderful to have a productive commute in the morning, we have a sefer Torah for Mondays and Thursdays and usually we even have birkat Kohanim. However, I am not such a big fan of davening Minchah on the train. At Shacharit we have enough people in the minyan that we take up an entire train car, and we do not disturb the other commuters. At Minchah, we daven in the space in between the two cars which I find to be less comfortable. Fortunately for me, there is a Minchah minyan at work and I do not lose out if I decide to avoid Minchah on the train.

Yesterday there was a bit of excitement and academia in action during Minchah on the train. Some of the men in the minyan refused to daven in the usual area for Minchah because there were some young women in tank tops sitting there. I suddenly realized that this was a real living example of Prof. Chaim Soloveithchik's article about Orthodoxy and חומרות. For years Minchah has taken place between the train cars. Come rain, shine or tank tops, Minchah always happened in the same place. I wondered, would this new attitude towards davening Minchah on the train forever change tefillah commuting that I have come to know and love? Fortunately, the חומרה did not hold and today Minchah returned to its regular location on the train.

Ramban Says, “Make Aliyah Now!”

I am not in the habit of recklessly recommending to people to make aliyah - it is a very difficult transition to change from being an American to becoming an Israeli. Nevertheless it is impossible to ignore the significance that the single greatest piece of religious Zionist propaganda falls out on the week of Yom HaAtzmaut. I am sure that at least one of my faithful readers has realized that I am talking about THE Ramban on Parshat Achrei Mot, where he explains that mizvot aseh only "count" in Eretz Yisrael.

Dramatic pause for self-satisfied Zionist sigh of contentment.

VaYikra 18:25 states: The land became defiled, and when I directed My providence at the sin committed there, the land vomited out its inhabitants.

The Ramban begins by explaining the connection between committing an aveirah and being ejected from Eretz Yisrael. His explanation is based on his Kabbalistic cosmology - each of the 70 nations of the world has a ministering angel which acts as the Divine intermediary between that nation and HaShem. That means that all reward and punishment for that nation is delivered by that ministering angel.

The Jewish people are different; they have Eretz Yisrael as their Divine intermediary instead of an angel. This is the explanation of the pasuk - Eretz Yisrael punishes its inhabitants that sin, by forcing them to leave the land. Yet the reverse is also true - once Eretz Yisrael was given to the Jewish people, then they are rewarded by Eretz Yisrael. (You can go back to Parshat Noach and the episode of Cham, where he is punished by losing his land to the descendants of Shet - the Jews.) This type of reward could also describe the 2nd paragraph of the Shema - the Jews will be rewarded with rain in Eretz Yisrael because they are doing mitzvot in Eretz Yisrael.

Yet, the Ramban does not stop there - he states that mitzvot have a limited effect outside of Israel. For example then nation of Brooklyn is outside of Israel. When the nation of Brooklyn does a mitzvah, the angel of Brooklyn takes that mitzvah and then brings it to HaShem. The angel of Brooklyn then returns with the reward to the nation of Brooklyn. However, this angel gets to “take a cut” in both directions. That is to say, the positive mystical impact of doing the mitzvah, and the reward are reduced in the process of going from the nation to HaShem. The angel of Brooklyn is profiting from all of the mitzvot being done there, at the expense of the Jews. But, if you do a mitzvah in Israel, Eretz Yisrael brings that mitzvah straight to HaShem without reducing the mitzvah or the reward at all. When you do mitzvot in Eretz Yisrael, there is no go-between angel involved in the mitzvah transaction at all.

The Ramban uses this statement about doing mitzvot in Eretz Yisrael to explain the Gemara in Ketubot 110b, which states,

“Anyone who lives outside of Eretz Yisrael, it is as if they have no God.”

According to the Ramban, you have no God outside of Eretz Yisrael because your mitzvot are going straight to your local angel. Whereas, when you live inside of Eretz Yisrael, your mitzvot are going straight to HaShem.

This Ramban is often misquoted and misrepresented (see earlier in this post!) to mean that mitzvot outside of Eretz Yisrael do not count. Rather, the proper pshat is that the Ramban means that the positive effects of the mitzvot are limited outside of Eretz Yisrael.

I highly recommend that you read the Ramban in the original Hebrew because I have certainly butchered him in my summary. Nevertheless, the bottom-line is that the Ramban in Parshat Achrei-Mot teaches us that HaShem REALLY REALLY wants us to live in Eretz Yisrael.

Chag Sameach.

Chol HaMoed in Israel and Talmudic Ovens

I am really sorry to keep going on and on about how wonderful it is to live in Israel, but I had another wonderful experience today and I feel forced to share it with the blogosphere. (I will also mention that making Aliyah is the single most difficult experience in my life, and that includes studying Biblical Hebrew. So I do not want any of you to get the impression that every moment here is flowing with milk and honey.) Today the family went on a tiyul in Naot Kedumim, which is a large park filled with Biblical fauna and flora.

It was a great hike, and I really enjoy getting to see a range of Israelis out and about on Chol HaMoed. There were examples of exciting Biblical plants like hyssop (אזוב), which was the plant that was used to sprinkle blood on the doorposts in Mitrayim. And there were loads of pesukim from Shir HaShirim next to the appropriate flora. But I was bubbling over with excitement when I saw a great example of Talmudic ovens.

Anyone who has learned the halakhot of Bishul on Shabbat, or even Mishnayot Shabbat with the fancy picture book – has surely struggled to understand what exactly these different Talmudic ovens looked like. There was an archeological village that contained some examples of some of these ovens.

Here is a picture of the famous “double oven” (כירה).

The fire would have been below and the cooking pots would have been placed on the holes on top.

Here is a picture of the “bread oven” (תנור).

This oven was used to bake bread, and the dough would be on a pole and stuck on the inside wall of the oven to bake.

So if you are visiting Israel, make sure to add Naot Kedumim to your itinerary.

Moadim L’Simchah

Pesach Seder - Israeli Style

I am trying hard not to be too smug about the fact that I do not have a three day Yom Tov, and we went on a tiyul today instead of recovering from our second Pesach Seder. Ironically, the children were complaining about the fact that they only got one Seder at Pesach this year! I guess they were not the ones working their fingers to the bone to get ready for Pesach.

I discovered yet another wonderful aspect about living in Israel (WARNING - Shameless Zionist Plug), we used wine that was Kedushat Shevi'it at the Seder. That meant that it was assur to spill drops of wine for the makkot. I love it when halakhah wins out over minhag!

SZP (Shameless Zionist Plug) - School Motto

I just got my son's first report card in Israel (since we are Olim Chadashim) and it came in a pretty blue folder with lots of photos and quotations on it. It has the first Mishnah in Pirkei Avot which emphasizes Torah, Avodah (davening) and doing Chesed. It also has a pasuk from Bereshit and one from Yishayhu - very nice ideas but nothing that is going to start an educational revolution. The final quotation on this pretty blue folder, rocked my educational world. So much so, that I realized I simply must share it with my minyan of readers out there in the blogosphere. (Quick aside - after writing a couple of self-depricating comments about the number of readers that I have, my handy-dandy blog analysis software tells me that I have 12 subscribers. Now that I have a minyan, I am not going to comment on the paucity of my audience. Rather I will simply say, "Thank you.")

לא מצאנו בשום מקום בתורה שמצווה אדם להיות למדן ובקי בכל חדרי התורה. שכן תכלית הלימוד אינה להיות למדן אלא להיות אדם טוב, לעשות הטוב ולהיטיב עם הזולת

We don't find any place in the Torah that a person is commanded to be a talmid chacham and an expert in all areas of the Torah. Because the purpose of learning is not to be a talmid chacham rather it is to be a good person, to do good and to act well to the other.

This is a quote from the Kotzker Rebbe and in my humble opinion (not all that humble in reality) is an excellent motto for a school. It is not that it is impossible for a school in Chutz L'Aretz to have a similar, or even the exact same motto - it's just that this pretty blue folder warmed my Zionist heart. Clearly every child is not destined to become a talmid chacham, but every child has the potential to be a mentsch.

Kabbalistic Cholent - Ramban's Introduction to Sefer Shemot

Did you know that the Ramban was not only a master of Parshanut of the Chumash, and a great innovator in explaining the Gemara - he was also a great Kabbalist. (There are indeed many great kabbalists lurking in the Rabbinic history of Judaism.) The Ramban was also an early lover of Eretz Israel and made aliyah to Tzefat towards the end of his life. Thus we can almost feel the electricity in the air as we turn to the Ramban to introduce Sefer Shemot.

According to the Ramban, Sefer Shemot completes the story that was started in Sefer Bereshit. Sefer Bereshit describes the creation of the world, the origins of the human race in general and the Jewish people in specific. The lives of the Avot and Imahot are paradigms of behavior for later generations, and they also create the core and foundations for the Jewish people as a nation. As a whole, Sefer Shemot emphasizes three historical events:

·         The redemption of the Jews from slavery in Mitzraim.

·         The acceptance of the authority of the Torah at Har Sinai.

·         The building of the Mishkan which becomes the physical place on Earth where there is the greatest potential for connection between human beings and HaShem.

We have previously introduced the Kabbalistic concept of Min haKoach el HaPoal (from the potential to the actual). According to the Ramban, Sefer Bereshit is the Koach of the concept of the Jewish people and Sefer Shemot is the Poal. These three historical events become three foundations of the Jewish people as a nation. The redemption from Mitzraim emphasizes the unique and special relationship between HaShem and the Jewish people. The Torah defines what the Jewish people need to do in order to be closer to HaShem. Finally the Mishkan becomes the place where people can be the closest to HaShem. These three foundations were initiated in Sefer Bereshit and are culminated in Sefer Shemot.

One final comment - (really a mini-SZP) the Ramban states that the mission of the Jewish people includes living in their proper place which is Eretz Israel. The Jewish people are not complete until they are living in Eretz Israel, observing the Torah, to bring the world closer to HaShem.

SZP - Shameless Zionist Plug

Learning Chumash in Eretz Israel

Like the world at large, my blog is ever evolving. Tonight I had a Zionist experience with my son and I felt the need to publicize it. My son and I were reviewing Parshat Toldot for his Chumash class. Since my son is an oleh chadash, he can sit in this class for hours and still have no clue what is going on.

Thus, we were reading the pesukim that describe the episode where Yitzchak visits the Philistine city of Gerar. And my son immediately asked, “Abba, where is Gerar?” I then pulled out a map of Israel and pointed to the Gaza Strip and said, “Near there.” Then I pointed to the city where we live and said, “Look we are only about one hour from Gerar.”

(Political Tangent - For better or worse, all of my children are very aware of the existence of the Gaza strip. For example, my five year-old asked me today, “Isn’t Gaza where the bombs are?” My children are completely ignorant of the magnitude of the Gaza military incursion, but they are still somewhat aware of the impact that Hamas is having on Israeli society. Nevertheless, the relevant point vis-à-vis my son is that he was aware of the Gaza Strip and it was a good geographic reference point for him.)

As we continued to read the pesukim, we also came across Rechovot and Be’er Sheva. Again I was able to point to these cities on the map and show him where they are relative to where we live and to Yerushalayim. I felt that he was able to make a more personal connect to the Chumash then he ever was in America. Another small reminder of why it was so important for my family to make aliyah.

Photo Credit © Christof Wittwer for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial