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BESHALLACH - Shabbat Shirah
11th Shevat 5772 ~ 4th February 2012
Shabbat begins in London at 16.38 and ends at 17.44
Chazan Jaclyn Chernett
The B’nei Yisra’el have left Egypt. The long years of wandering
are to begin, led by Moses through a circuitous route. The
story tells of the miraculous crossing of the Reed Sea which
inspires the famous shirat hayam, the song at the sea, led by an
exultant Moses (and repeated, at least in its incipit, by
Miriam).
Dr Ora Horn Prouser, Bible Scholar and Principal of the Academy
for Jewish Religion in New York (my alma mater) has recently
published a commentary on how the Bible embraces those with
special needs.1 Examining the roles of various biblical leaders,
each of whom with a physical, neurological or behavioural
difficulty, she writes, “To the extent that the Bible is a
repository of Israel’s historic encounter with God, this study
shows that one of God’s treasured roles is Master Teacher of
special needs students.”
Traditionally, we view Moses as the greatest leader in the
Bible. To attain the almost impossible goal of releasing people
from tyranny (not difficult to appreciate, even today) how
remarkable it is that God sends a leader who is ‘heavy of mouth
and heavy of tongue’, a speech disorder that is commonly
understood as a stutter. Can you imagine in our time a
diplomatic mission where the leader cannot express him/herself?
The film ‘The King’s Speech’ depicts George VI’s frustration at
having to prepare his rallying address to the nation as World
War II approaches. Would the result have had the desired effect,
had he used a ‘mouthpiece’ such as Aaron? The king knew he had
to do it himself.
Moses had been faced not only with ten attempts at persuading
Pharaoh but with many other difficult personal exchanges with
the B’nai Yisrael as he led them through forty years in the
wilderness. Aaron speaks occasionally but Moses, directed by
God, summons his resources and faced his challenge of speech.
The phenomenon of people with speech impediments who have the
ability to sing fluently and word-perfectly, has been charted by
many scientists, including Oliver Sacks, physician, author, and
professor of neurology and psychiatry. Some of us may be people
who have no difficulty with music even though we might have
neurological issues including speech issues. It is not hard to
understand, then, that Moses sang fluently and with jubilation
at the crossing of the sea!
Dr Prouser comments that Moses’ speech impediment ‘... adds to
our understanding of his relationship with God. God sympathises
with Moses’ disability and tries to help him overcome it. God
pushes Moses to appreciate his own self-worth and to trust the
Divine Instructor. Perhaps God purposely chooses an individual
who stutters for the job of spokesman so that God’s success
cannot be attributed to charismatic speechmaking by a human.’
She concludes, ‘As readers of the Bible, we all have a great
deal to learn from disabilities... and from those whose lives
are most intimately touched by them.’
1Prouser, Ora Horn, Esau’s Blessing: How the Bible embraces
those with Special Needs, Ben Yehuda Press, 2011.
Chazan Jaclyn Chernett is Chazan at KNMS and director of the
European Academy of Jewish Liturgy
Mishnah Yomit from the Conservative Yeshiva in
Jerusalem
Berakhot, Chapter One Mishnah Four
prepared by faculty member Dr. Joshua Kulp
Introduction
This mishnah deals with the blessings that come before and after
the Shema in the morning and evening. It will help you
understand this mishnah if you open a siddur while learning it.
Mishnah Four
-
In the morning he recites two blessings before it and one
after it; in the evening two before it and two after it, one
long and one short.
-
Where they [the sages] said that a long one should be said,
he may not say a short one; where they said a short one he
may not say a long one
-
[Where they said] to conclude [with a blessing] he is not
permitted to not conclude; where they said to not conclude
[with a blessing], he may not conclude.
Explanation
Section one: In the morning the Shema is preceded by two
blessings. The first is called “Yotzer Or” and it deals with the
creation of light and darkness. The second is called “Ahavat
Olam” (in the Sephardi tradition) or “Ahavah Rabbah” (in the
Ashkenazi tradition) and in it we thank God for choosing us as
worthy of the Torah. The blessing after the Shema is called
“Emet veYatziv” and it finishes with “Goel Yisrael.” The
general theme is one of gratitude to God for redeeming Israel.
In the evening there are two before the Shema, both of which are
similar in theme to the two morning blessings. The first is
“Hamaariv Aravim”, “who causes the sun to set” and the second is
“Ahavat Olam,” similar to that in the morning. The blessing
after the Shema is also similar in theme to the blessing after
the Shema in the morning. It is called “Emet veEmunah” and it
finishes with “Goel Yisrael” as does the morning’s blessing.
The major difference between the morning and the evening is that
in the evening there is a second blessing after the Shema called
“Hashkivenu” whose theme is peace and wellbeing and mentions
going to sleep at night. Of these two blessings the first is a
long blessing and the second is short (according to Rashi’s
explanation; for another explanation of “long and short” see
below).
Section two: The mishnah now proceeds to give some general
rules concerning blessings. The basic gist is that if the sages
said to recite a blessing in a certain way, the supplicant may
not deviate from this prescribed manner. If the sages said that
the blessing should be long, then it must be long. Rashi
explains that long refers simply to the length of the
blessing—hence the first blessing recited after the Shema is
long and the second is short. However, Maimonides explains that
long refers to a blessing that begins and concludes with a
blessing. This would be characteristic of the first blessing
recited before the Shema in both the morning and evening but not
of any of the other blessings. The first blessing of Birkat
Hamazon would also be a long blessing.
Section three: Some blessings conclude with a blessing
formula—“Barukh At Adonai.” This is true for all of the
blessings surrounding the Shema. However, other blessings begin
with a blessing formula but do not end with an additional
“Barukh” formula. This is true of blessings recited over food
and other pleasures (smell, seeing things and others—we will
explore these blessing in chapter nine). Again, one cannot
deviate from these formulas.
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