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Past Reflections can be found by clicking on the months from 2012 below:

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BO

4th Shevat 5772 ~ 28th January 2012

Rabbi Dr Jeremy Collick

How many plagues does it take for God to convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites from Egypt?

If you answered ten, then I’m sorry to say, you’re wrong! It only took one plague, the last one, the one we refer to as Makat Bechorot, or the Death of the First Born in Egypt. The others were an annoyance and a warning. In themselves they were never meant to force the Egyptians to free the Israelite slaves.

In the end, they pale in comparison with the death of Pharaoh’s son and all the first born in Egypt. It was the last plague and the last plague alone, which broke the will of Pharaoh and forced him to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt, But God seems to have known this from the start so what was the point of this elaborate game of cat and mouse that Moses used to free the Israelites?

Moses seems to have begun with the end in mind. The first nine plagues were merely an introduction to the ultimate climax of this story.

Long before Pharaoh, the Egyptians understood that they were doomed. The people tell their leader, “How long shall this one be a snare to us… are you not yet aware that Egypt is lost?”

Perhaps the plagues were meant to show Pharaoh and all Egypt just how powerful God was. The plague’s purpose was educational. They proved that the Egyptian gods were powerless in the presence of Israel’s God.

But Davar Acher, another possibility is that by following the story of the plagues to its climax, the Torah teaches us that Makat Bechorot, the taking of lives, must always be the final resort to which we turn and never the first attempt to impose our will on others.

Certainly God could have convinced Pharaoh to free the Israelites from Egypt by killing the children in Egypt at the very beginning, but he chooses to give Egypt ever opportunity to change its minds before resorting to violence.

From the very beginning, Moses warns Pharaoh what is at stake: The other plagues are  a warning to Pharaoh that God can do what he has promised. All the other plagues are delay tactics. As hard as his heart may have been, Pharaoh always has a choice. He knows what’s coming.

We seem to live in an age where violence and the use of force is the norm. The Torah says otherwise, don’t resort to violence until you absolutely have to. Make every effort to destroy evil through other means even if your foe appears to be irrational and unreasonable.

So yes, God resorts to violence, but only as a final decision when all else has failed. And even then we take our wine cup at the Passover Seder and we remove a bit of the sweet wine from it as we mention the ten plagues. Violence and force, even when it’s necessary and inevitable, is a tragedy and should never be celebrated.

The tenth plague is the last resort. We must constantly pray that we are not forced to turn to it as means of turning to it, even in defence.

Mipnay Darchei Shalom is a major principle of Jewish law – doing as much as one can to ensure peace but if you have the ultimate deterrent, one day, God seems to be saying, you may have to be prepared to use it.

As my younger son Jacob celebrates his Bar Mitzvah today may that day be very far from us.

Rabbi Dr Jeremy Collick is rabbi at Edgware Masorti Synagogue


Mishnah Yomit from the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem

Berakhot, Chapter One, Mishnah Three  

prepared by faculty member Dr. Joshua Kulp

Introduction

The Torah says that one should recite the Shema “when you lie down and when you get up.”  In our Mishnah, Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel debate the meaning of this phrase.

Mishnah Three

  1. Bet Shammai say: in the evening every man should recline and recite [the Shema], and in the morning he should stand, as it says, “And when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:7).
     

  2. Bet Hillel say that every man should recite in his own way, as it says, “And when you walk by the way” (ibid).  Why then is it said, “And when you lies down and when you get up?” At the time when people lie down and at the time when people rise up.
     

  3. Rabbi Tarfon said: I was once walking by the way and I reclined to recite the Shema according to the words of Bet Shammai, and I incurred danger from robbers. They said to him: you deserved to come to harm, because you acted against the words of Bet Hillel.

Explanation

Section one:  Bet Shammai reads the verse quite literally.  In the evening one must lie down and recite the Shema and in the morning one must stand up and recite it.

Section two:  In contrast, to Bet Hillel these words refer to the time when people lie down and the time when they rise up.  The words “and when you walk by the way” prove that the Torah does not really care what position a person is when he recites the Shema.

Section three: Rabbi Tarfon, a sage who lived after the destruction of the Temple, testifies that one time while going on the way in the evening (probably riding on his donkey), he went out of his way to lie down on the ground and he almost incurred danger from robbers. The rabbis to whom he is talking tell him that he deserved whatever trouble he got in for going out of his way to act like Bet Shammai. The Halachah is like Bet Hillel and a rabbi who acts against this Halachah is endangering his own life.


VAERA

26th Tevet 5772 ~ 21st January 2012

Jessica Nyman

This week’s parsha explores Moshe and Aaron beginning to ask Pharaoh to free the enslaved Israelites, and with Pharaoh’s continuing refusal the onset of the ten plagues, each followed by Pharaoh’s heart being hardened and refusing to let them leave.

This parsha is a key turning point in the direction of the lives of the Israelites and the beginning of their transitional phase, although their situation is technically no different at the end than the start. But after 400 years of slavery, Moshe has emerged as an unwilling and unconventional strong leader. In last week’s parsha, it seemed to the Israelites that the actions of Moshe and Aaron had worsened their situation. However, Vaera is punctuated with a series of high points of hope. Several times, Pharaoh seems to relent and begs Moshe to plead with God to remove the plagues. Despite the continuous hardening his heart again, this is certainly a step forwards and the Israelites can imagine freedom and independent life in their own land for the first time. 

Vaera begins with God stepping up his direct actions in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and cementing his relationship with Moshe. God says to Moshe, “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by my name YHVH,” which suggests that not giving them his real name was not revealing his real self. We know that every word of God’s is meaningful, as for example Creation itself began with spoken words taking physical effect (“God said, ‘let there be light’, and there was light”). Thus this is a statement of the importance of his current relationship with Moshe, and shows his commitment and support.

Moshe’s role with the Israelites is a transitional role. He was not brought up a slave, and he never arrives in the Land of Israel – his responsibility is to get them out of Egypt and safely into the Promised Land, like a parent figure bringing up children. As a Student Fieldworker for MAROM [Masorti Young Adults Division], I see the journey of the Israelites under the guidance of Moshe as a metaphor for transitional stages we make in life. University is a time of transition from childhood to adulthood. Not only are students swamped with academic work, it is often the first time that they are living away from home and have to take responsibility for looking after themselves, their finances, handling difficult interpersonal issues and navigating their relationship to Judaism. Students are at a critical stage in their lives when they have to learn to challenge themselves to decide how to live their life – whilst they know they have a few years left in the structure of education, the reality of adult life is just around the corner.

Moshe’s confidence starts as minimal due to his stutter, his leadership qualities are nurtured with support from his special relationship with God, and he is able to approach Pharaoh and challenge him. MAROM believes in nurturing the confidence of young adults and aims to build grassroots peer-led relational communities on campus, developing student leadership to help the young community to be able to take themselves confidently to the next stage of their lives.

Jessica Nyman is the AMS Student Fieldworker


Mishnah Yomit from the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem

Berakhot, Chapter One, Mishnah Two - prepared by faculty member Dr. Joshua Kulp

Introduction

Today’s Mishnah proceeds to discuss when the morning Shema is recited.  The Torah says that it should be recited “when you get up,” so the debate in our Mishnah is essentially over the meaning of this phrase.  

Mishnah Two

From what time may one recite the Shema in the morning?

1)      From the time that one can distinguish between blue and white.

a)      Rabbi Eliezer says: between blue and green.

2)      And he must finish it by sunrise.

a)      Rabbi Joshua says: until the third hour of the day, for such is the custom of the children of kings, to rise at the third hour.

b)     If one recites the Shema later he loses nothing, like one who reads in the Torah.

Explanation

Section one:  Both opinions in the Mishnah determine when one can recite the morning Shema by whether it is light enough to distinguish colours. This is probably connected to the wearing of Tzitzit in the morning and the ability to recognize the colours of the threads.  The first opinion holds that one must be able to distinguish between blue and white, the two colours in one’s Tzitzit.  Rabbi Eliezer holds that one must be able to distinguish between blue and green. Green is close to the colour of Tzitzit, so Rabbi Eliezer is saying that one must be able to tell that the Tzitzit are blue and not green. This would require more light than distinguishing between blue and white.

Section two: According to the first opinion one must finish reciting the Shema by sunrise.  This is the time of day when most people would get up.

Rabbi Joshua holds that “when you get up” doesn’t refer to when an average working person rises, but to when the last people, the children of  kings who do not have to work, get up.

They rise at the third hour of the day, meaning when one quarter of the day has passed. Therefore, all of Israel has until this time to recite the Shema.

Rabbi Joshua adds that after the third hour one who reads the Shema has not transgressed. We might have thought that by reciting a prayer which he was not obligated to recite he thereby recited God’s name in vain.  However, this is not so because the Shema is in the Torah and reading the Torah and pronouncing God’s name is not considered taking God’s name in vain.  Nevertheless, one who recites the Shema after the third hour has not fulfilled the mitzvah of reciting the Shema.

To subscribe go to http://www.conservativeyeshiva.org/category/mishnah-yomit


VAYECHI

12th Tevet 5772 ~ 7th January 2012

Rabbi David Soetendorp

Sedrah Va-Yechi contains the moving blessing by Jacob of his children when he was preparing himself for his death. It was a very personal blessing in which he offers them a prophecy of their and their descendents’ future.  At first Jacob directs his gaze at Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh to bless them.  Rabbi Günter Plaut comments on Jacob’s blessing of these two grandsons: ‘Jacob sees his life spread before him.  He is aware of the continued presence of God and acknowledges this with deep feeling …He knows in this moment that his own complex life is crowned with hope.’

As his children are about to join him for their last meeting, he reflects on his life so full of struggle and travel, which is now coming to an end. He remembers his lonely night on the run from Esau, his brother; Jacob deceptively stole his birthright from their blind father.

That night Jacob dreamt of a ladder reaching into heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. And heard God’s voice comforting him: ‘Do not fear Jacob I will protect you’.

Now Jacob becomes aware that God kept His promise of protection of him from youth to old age.

When Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh he says: ‘The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day.  The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm, May He bless these boys and may through them my name be remembered, and the name of my fathers’.

That blessing became a traditional blessing with which Jewish parents have continued to bless their children.

My parents would bless us, their children with this blessing.  During the early years of their marriage my parents had been experiencing the oppression of the Nazi occupation of Holland.  Like Jacob before them, they had come through many a lonely night surviving to bring up their four children.

I am writing this Reflections on my mother’s Yahrzeit, remembering her passing away now nearly thirty years ago.  On her last night we, her children surrounded her in her bed.  In the peace that descended on us in my mother’s last moments together with her children we shared that after a difficult life, so similar to Jacob’s, our mother found strength in the presence of her children standing around her.

‘Ha-Malach Ha-Goel Otti Mi-Kol Rah Hoo Yevarech et Ha-Yeladim’;  ‘God who protected me from all harm; May He bless the children’. Thus Jewish parents continue to bless their children.

Through Jewish history we become aware that these words of faith and redemption have been spoken by many Jewish parents in difficult, even tragic, moments. Jacob’s blessing of his grandsons, full of its promise of redemption and hope followed them and gave them the support they needed to face up to their ordeals.

Rabbi David Soetendorp is visiting Rabbi to the Almere community in the Netherlands

 

Torah Sparks

Rabbi Joseph Prouser

"And Jacob called his sons and said, 'Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.'" (Genesis 49:1)

Derash: Study

  • "Jacob called his sons and said to them, 'Cleanse yourselves of impurity and I will reveal to you hidden secrets, and the unknown future, the reward awaiting the righteous, and the torment awaiting the evil, and the delights of paradise." (Targum Yerushalmi)
     

  • "Until Jacob, there was no illness. Jacob came and asked for mercy, and illness came into being: Thus, a man grows ill before his death, so that he might instruct his household." (Talmud, Baba Metzia 87-A; Rashi, ad loc.)
     

  • "From the day the heavens and earth were created, no man was ever sick. Rather, one would be on the road or in the marketplace, and would sneeze, and his soul would depart through his nostrils. Until our Father Jacob came and asked God for mercy in this regard: Lord of the Universe, do not take my soul from me until I am able to instruct my sons and the members of my household." (Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer, 52)
     

  • "Jacob becomes conscious of approaching death, and communicates his final wishes to his children. In speaking to define a reality that he is about to leave, Jacob is unique among the patriarchs. His is, in fact, the only deathbed scene in Genesis, indeed in the whole Torah." (Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire)

Questions for Discussion:

  • Jacob's blessings, admonitions, and instructions from his deathbed mark the beginning of the Jewish tradition of "ethical wills." Recognizing the fact of our own mortality, what values, goals, hopes, and guidance would we communicate to our loved ones and, in particular, our children and grandchildren? What is the most effective or meaningful way to communicate our message?
     

  • Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer describes Jacob's final illness as a welcome and merciful opportunity to gain new perspective and to pass on resulting wisdom. Is this a typical Jewish view of adversity? Why was physical decline necessary for Jacob to offer his "blessings?"
     

  • What is the significance of the "sneeze" which is purported by the Midrash to have marked departure of the soul? Does it represent the fragility of life? Our inability indefinitely to forestall death? What does Jacob do to modify or remedy this dramatic expression of our transitory existence?

From: United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism. More can be found on their website: http://www.uscj.org


To access 'Reflections' from previous years please click on the link below:

Reflections 2011

Reflections 2010

Reflections 2009

Reflections 2008

Reflections 2007

Reflections 2006


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