Sunday, May 10, 2009

REBELLION!!!


I was told that a sign that you're settled as an Oleh is that you stop writing a blog....

BAH!

I shall continue my blog, just to show how unsettled I am.


In fact, here is a picture of a weasel, just to show you how unsettled I am, this weasel is an accurate portrayal of my state of mind. It looks about 29, its just had its birthday, its on a tour guiding course, it lives in a pile of its own clothes, it eats lentils, its sniffing for frum girly weasels....

OK so maybe the blog was n't such a great idea in terms of selling the Yosele image. (When did that ever stop me?)

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Furry Happy Monsters

I find this appropriate to my current mood:

Friday, June 13, 2008

Parshat B’Ha’alotchaפרשת בהעלותך

The subject of this weeks Parsha in the first part of the parsha is a continuation of a description of the holy services and the orders of transporting the different holy devices and ends with the leaving of חובבHovav or also known as Yitro / Jethro). There then follows a nasty turn of events that effects the rest of the‘book of במדבר (Numbers) when the Israelites complained against Moshe and Hashem for not providing them with meat for which they were punished with a bizarre plague of having too much meat and many died from some kind of meat intoxication.

The Seven Books of the Torah

There is one strange looking passage in between the subject of Hovav’s leaving and the complaint where it is written;

] לה וַיְהִי בִּנְסֹעַ הָאָרֹן וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה קוּמָה יְהוָה וְיָפֻצוּ אֹיְבֶיךָ וְיָנֻסוּ מְשַׂנְאֶיךָ מִפָּנֶיךָ. לו וּבְנֻחֹה יֹאמַר שׁוּבָה יְהוָה רִבְבוֹת אַלְפֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל ]

(Backwards hebrew letter nun in bolder and larger font)

And it was when the Ark of the covenant would move Moses would say; “Arise Lord and disperse your enemies and they shall flee from your face”.

And at its resting he said “return hashem the thousands of Israel”.

(Backwards hebrew letter nun in bolder and larger font)

(Numbers 10: 35 – 36 במדבר י:לה לו)

There are a number of

bizarre things about

these verses;

Firstly why the big letter nun in the front and back of the quote?

Secondly why say this at all it does relate to anything that happened before or afterwards.

Thirdly according to my Rosh Yeshiva Rav Pesach Wolicki this never actually happened, the ark was only carried in to battle under the leadership of Yehoshua. It refers to a state that was meant to be and shall be in the Messianic Time to come, so why mention it now?

The Separation from Dangers:

The famous commentator on Torah Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi, (1040 - 1105 רבי שלמה יצחקי) Wrote that the two nuns are present to show us that this posuk is not in its correct place and has been placed here as “a separation between one danger and another” (כדי להפסיק בין פורענות לפורענות); the first danger being the sin of the golden calf and the second being the complaint about meat and other misdemeanours such as the slander of the 10 spies. Rabbi Wolicki expounded on this by saying this is what would have happened if these sins had not happened. Israel would have marched straight into the land of Israel with the ark at its head and destroyed all of its enemies.

The Fifth book of Moses

Rabbi Yitzhaqi was using a section of the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Shabbat (Page 115b) here where it discusses the rules to do with a fire on Shabbat and saving a scroll of Torah from being burnt. It discusses or verses and describes them as being a book of the Torah in its own right.

The Maharsha (Samuel Eidels 15551631 ר' שמואל אליעזר הלוי איידלס) explained that from the beginning of creation G-d had planned out the Torah and had planned it out so that it would parallel creation in having 7 parts. This insertion is not really an insertion but was planned from the beginning.

A belief in an omnipotent (all powerful) being would necessarily imply previous knowledge and control of all future events. This is straightforward, however what is astounding is that these events are in some way made important or holy by the fact that without them the Torah would be missing two books and according to the Maharsha this is significant.

The Divine Plan

A whole generation died in the desert as a punishment for the sin of the spies and before that thousands died because of the sin of the golden calf and the complaints about meat. This people were not appropriate to enter the land of Israel. It is a point that is difficult for us to accept as people who love our fellow Jews, but all these sufferings were completely necessary. As we have read from the Maharsha they were foreseen from the time of creation. The two verses were mentioned at this point to show that what follows is the alternative method of redemption, we must remember though that the second path is also towards redemption. We can take the message to our own personal lives that when something disastrous happens to not despair because it too is part of a divine plan. The general aim is that the Messiah should return speedily in our days, that our enemies are removed and Torah (as symbolised by the Ark) once again leads the way for the Jewish people.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Shavuot, Redemption and a new beginning

Dear Friends,
I apologise that I have not written in so long, technical difficulties, computing errors and military service have prevented me from updating this journal.
I would like to start the new session of blog writing on the right foot and relate a dvar Torah that I gave last year at this time in the army.
We had my favourite kind of army event; a lesson, I discovered that if exiled from learning that my favourite kind of army exercise is a lesson. After a day of physical exercise on basic training I really enjoyed learning something new from a new person no matter whether I had heard it before or whether it was a banal lesson on some aspect of army logistics or basic field craft I derived much enjoyment from the experience of learning. On this occasion we had a special treat, that of a lesson from our רכזת ציונות (Rakezet Zionut - Zionism Coordinator) on the subject of שבועות (Shavuot - Pentecost). I very much enjoyed this lesson in which she presented a very challenging reading of the Book of Ruth in relation to the subject of conversion. At the end of the lesson she posed a very challenging open question;
"What is the relation between the Book of Ruth and שבועות?"
What follows is my answer:

Firstly we must take a holistic approach to שבועות and the rest of the Jewish calendar. I need to refer to Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman Gerondi's (Ramban - רמבן or Nachmanides 1194 - 1270) concept:
" ימי ספירת העומר הם כמו חול המועד בין פסח לעצרת "
"The days of the counting of the omer are like a period of festivities (Chol hamoed) between Pesach and Shavuot"
The phrase חול המועד (Chol ha moed) refers to the intermediate days between the beginning and end of a festival that is evident in 2 of the 3 pilgrim festivals; Pesach and Succot (excluding Pesach). This creates an interesting question; why does Shavuot not have a חול המועד ?
The counting of the omer "ספירת העומר" counts as a חול המועד . A chol hamoed is an interesting concept, it is both part of the festival and part of an ordinary day except on a chol hamoed we abstain from certain things and bring special sacrifices(if we have a beit hamikdash or Temple. On ספירת העומר we abstain from hair cutting (like on chol hamoed) and other things and we used to bring a grain sacrifice everyday. On the חול המועד we raise the level of the mundane to the level of holiness, the same is true of the counting of the omer ”ספירת העומר " where as well as all these rituals we count down each day (49 in total) until Shavuot each day representing a different level of holiness ending in the highest level of holiness we can perceive ( מלכות the sovereignty of the all present one over all creation). We must say that counting of the omer "ספירת העומר" is also a חול המועד.
Pesach and Shavuot operate along the same continuum and share the same theme; גאולה (Geulah - Freedom). According to Sir Isaiah Berlin freedom has two facets; positive and negative freedom. Pesach's theme negative freedom; not spiritually negative but freedom from oppression. Shavuot's theme is positive freedom; the freedom to follow the commandments, we changed from being Pharaoh’s slaves to being the eternal's servants. Slaves to a finite being are truly slaves, servants of the divine are agents and partners in a higher and greater purpose. Shavuot commemorates the reception of the Torah and all the laws, our ultimate freedom.
The subject of the book of Ruth at first seems to be a charming story about a Moabite convert who sustains her Jewish mother in law through crippling poverty and wins out in the end by marrying the Bethlemite Prince; Boaz, a happy story the like that we enjoy reading to our children before bedtime. The Book of Ruth has a political / spiritual subtext where the word freedom based on the root form גאל appears in the book in many verbal forms no less than 14 times making it the most common word in the whole book. At the end of the book Ruth is described as being the grandmother of David who is typically seen as the symbol of Messiah and redemption. The redemption of Ruth and Naomi by Boaz can be seen as a metaphor for the redemption of the Jewish people as a whole.
We read the book of Ruth on Shavuot to complete this season of redemption stretching from out release fro Egypt (Pesach) to reception of the Torah (Shavuot) and look forward to our ultimate redemption when the Messiah will come (with the help of the All Mighty) and redeem the whole of Israel.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Free Yossi Silverman !

This is an erratum to the erratum. A month or so ago the IDF decided to tell me that they had made a mistake and that I was serving another 6 months.
eek!
So I've placed a request to leave early, based on my last discussion with Human Resources I was supposed to have left two weeks ago. Based on that I left my apartment and planned to start in Yesodei HaTorah and a course in copy editing.
Oh dear.

I have been told that I shall be released soon, nobody is sure on a date though, I shall be waiting for a while, anyway, I'm sure all is for the good.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Erratum

A favourite word of mine because it sounds like how an elderly academic would describe an unsavoury body part mentioned in an obscure greek poem.
It really is a posh way of saying 'correction'.
Due to an unfortunate clerical error (although it may be intentional as I am not doing the mashak dat course), I shall only be serving another 2 months instead of 8.


Oh what a shame.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

The continuing, continuing adventures continue.

After two weeks fraught with various torturous adventures, like travelling the entire length of Israel due to an Army clerical error, wnadering (far far worse than wandering, I have been wnadering, which is far more aimless and less satisfying) around beer sheva in the hot sun on Tisha b'Av and still not being given proper written orders and still haviong (haviong, I believe the capital of Kyrgistan) no date for tu b'Av (!)....
I have finally been accepted by the IDF as a Mashak dat (Non commisioned officer in charge of religion).

The down side is that I shall be de - mobbed (set free) next May instead of November.
The next post I shall try to edit in amore sensible manner, withoutmaking upnew wordsorrunnigwordstogetherinanirritatingmanner.

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