Noach – Learning our Lesson

Haftorah of Noach – Learning our Lesson

Last week’s Haftorah had some beautiful words of comfort and encouragement. The Haftorah of Noach also comes from Yeshayahu’s Pirkei Nechama, chapters of hope and comfort, offering very specific comfort for very specific fears, fears that we identify with all too well.

The comfort that Yeshayahu offers refers to Noach:

“For it is like the Waters of Noach to Me, as I swore not to let the Waters of Noach pass over the land, so too I have sworn not to be angry at you, nor to chastise you.” (Yeshayahu 54:9 )

What kind of comfort is this? It appears to be giving an answer without stating the question, so the Midrash fills it in, Jeopardy-like:

Israel said to G-d, “Master of the Universe! Hasn’t Jerusalem been rebuilt and destroyed again?” G-d said, “Because of your sins it was destroyed and you were exiled, but in the future, I will build her and I will not destroy her, ever!” (Midrash Tanchuma Noach 11)

The Midrash describes the Jewish People worrying that history will repeat itself, perhaps like this:

“How do we know that it won’t happen again? We’ve never lasted more than 75 years without some terrible conflict that led to our destruction, maybe we can’t help ourselves, maybe there is no hope for us, and we’re not meant to live together…”

G-d answers by referring to the promise He made to Noach. Just as G-d swore to Noach that no matter how badly humankind disappoints Him, He will not destroy the entire world, but will rather find other ways to deal with them, so too, He swears to the Jewish People not to destroy us, no matter how badly we disappoint Him.

I am not a prophet, but I teach what our prophets have said. Earlier this year, I taught a different Haftorah, the Haftorah of Shabbat Parah, which says, “I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” (Yechezkel 36:26).  I taught this class after I came back from the funeral of Ilan Ganeles, hy”d, the nephew of our good friends, who was shot in cold blood by terrorists. Wiping away tears, I told those who had joined from halfway across the world, that this is what it feels like for G-d to teach us not to harden our hearts towards each other. If He wants us to have a “heart of flesh”, then we will indeed have a heart of flesh, whatever it takes.

I am not a prophet. But I learned that a prophet’s job is to defend the Jewish People before G-d. I am not a prophet, but this Rosh Hashana, when I knelt before G-d, I asked that the cost of “whatever it takes” not be too high. I am not a prophet, so I was not answered.

But now a month has passed, and the Haftorah has more to tell us, so I will try again.

In a foam of fury, I hid My face but for a moment from you,

but with eternal commitment I will show mercy to you”  (Yeshayahu 54: 8 )

Living here in Israel for the past 26 years, I have gotten used to miracles. (My children serve in the army, I saw how the sausage is made: outright miracles, no question.) For one day, for just a moment, the miracles were taken away, and the monsters came through our gates. Just one day.

But with eternal commitment I will show mercy to you –

Is it time for mercy now?

We said on Rosh Hashana, and on Yom Kippur, “Teshuva, Tefilla, and Tzedaka avert an evil decree.” The decree of that one day was not averted, but what about what happens next? We’ve already imagined the kind of holiday we will make out of this one (will we all make Rachel’s cookies?) when it is over. But it is not yet over.

One doesn’t have to be a prophet to defend the Jewish People. So let’s see how we are doing:

Teshuva: a meme went around saying, “To our enemies, I just want you to know, whatever you thought you were trying to accomplish, all you’ve done is make the Jewish people love each other more than they ever have in their entire lives” @HeimishHumor

All the horrible things we said about each other have proven wrong, are gone, meaningless, never happened, how could we even have thought them. The same groups of people who made each other feel that they have no share in this land, no share in its flag, no share in its future, the very same ones shared everything, their very lives, for each other, for all of us. We said those things? No, that couldn’t have been us, we would never make our brothers feel like that – we feed them and clothe them and play with their children, we cry at their funerals and dance at their weddings.

Tefilla: people reaching out from abroad, singing Acheinu Kol Beit Yisrael all over the world, people who dust off their Tefillin to bind themselves to us…  Chanan ben Ari and Yishai Ribo and Idan Reichels, in hospitals and weddings and among the survivors, singing their songs which become our prayers.

Tzedaka: a million shekels raised in one day to rebuild Kibbutz Nir Oz, 2 million dollars raised in one day for supplies, sponsorships of hundreds of flights for reservists to get back home to serve. That’s just a sample, things I happened to have seen with my own eyes. A drop of what is being done, by the entire Jewish People, all over the world, all at once.

Perhaps we’re not such a disappointment after all.

And here is the part that I didn’t expect. Many people have been telling these stories, of courage and sacrifice, of unbounded giving, of creativity and laughter harnessed with love, and they point out that there is no leadership. Not from the right, not from the left, not from religious leaders, not from political leaders. We are doing this ourselves, and please, they say, just stay out of our way!

I ask myself, has that ever happened before? Have we ever bypassed our leaders and made them follow us, sheepishly, serving us knowing that they do not deserve us? Nothing in our history – ancient, medieval, or modern  – has quite the same tone.

It is as if we have a direct line to what He wants us to do, that our hearts of flesh hear His voice and we do it because it is crystal clear.

The Haftorah hints at that, too:

“All your children will be taught by Hashem;

great will be the peace of your children” (Yeshayahu 54: 13)

All of us, every one, are being taught by Hashem Himself, so that we can bring ultimate peace – peace from our enemies, peace within ourselves, as we see in each other the values that we need to build this beautiful nation. And our hopes and dreams for ourselves are there, too, in the Haftorah:

“You will be established in righteousness,

you will be distanced from oppression,

as you will have no reason to fear;

and from terror,

as it will not come near you.       “ (Yeshayahu 54: 14)

I am not a prophet, but Yeshayahu is.

Amen, ken yehi ratzon….

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Birkat Cohanim : Gifts and Favors

(D’var Torah delivered at Shabbat Sheva Brachot for Chaviva & Razi, Behaalotcha, June 3, 2023)

Until a few years ago, regardless of the time of year or the occasion, Zaidy would always speak about Naso, his Bar Mitzvah Parasha, no matter what Parasha it was, and I’m going to do the same thing. I’ll start by quoting his Dvar Torah which we all know well :

Naso (last week’s Parasha) has Birkat Cohanim: יבריך ה’ וישמריך וכו’

Zaidy then pointed out that יבריך, “may Hashem bless you”, is not enough – you can be blessed with wealth, brains, beauty, etc, and yet one day it could all disappear. This is why you also need וישמריך – we need Hashem to protect us.

(For those who don’t remember, Zaidy used to bring Bernie Madoff as an example of someone who had everything but then it all disappeared, and a bunch of us found it a very odd example, because if anyone deserved to lose it all, it’s him. But then recently I realized that that’s exactly why Zaidy used it, as opposed to an example of a good person who lost everything. Let it be Bernie Madoff.)

Anyway, that’s well and good for the first phrase of Birkat Cohanim, but there are 2 more phrases. And I’ve always felt like I don’t really understand what we’re saying and what we’re asking for, and all the usual answers didn’t sit right with me, so I went looking

The part that bothered me most was “ישא ה’ פניו אליך”. Usually, it’s translated as “forgive you”, and indeed, a lot of times, “ישא” is used next to sin, like לא תישא עליו חטא   or עונו תישא “. But it felt wrong to me, why would we bring up things we did wrong when we’re getting a Bracha, why would we mention it. The rest of the Bracha is positive, and the last phrase is negative? I didn’t like it.

The other use of it is favoritism: לא ישא פנים ולא יקח שוחד – G-d doesn’t take bribes or show favoritism. That also doesn’t quite fit.

Something I know about language, having studied linguistics a bit, is that words often shift their meaning several steps from the original, but in a particular direction. “Awe” is fear, “awesome” meant frightening, “awesome” meant jaw-dropping, “awesome” means wonderful

So same here, favoritism shifted to forgiveness, but what was it before it was favoritism, when it was just “favor”?

We have an example in the Tanach: when Yosef’s brothers bring Binyamin to Egypt, and they’re all eating together, we have the following:

וישא משאת מאת פניו אלהם ותרב משאת בנימן ממשאת כלם חמש ידות

I’m going to translate that literally:

“He sent a gift from his face to them – and the gift for Binyamin was 3 times the gift of the others”

Originally, a “Mas’et” was a gift from a ruler to their subject. “from his face” – from his own plate that’s in front of him.

It’s also familiar to us from Megillat Esther – after Esther becomes queen, Achashverosh makes a party:

ויעש המלך משתה גדול לכל שריו ועבדיו את משתה אסתר והנחה למדינות עשה ויתן משאת כיד המלך

“he gave gifts as a king does”

The greater the gift, the greater the favor that the king shows to his subject.

Thus: ישא ה’ פניו אליך is the same as וישא משאת מאת פניו – we hope that Hashem treats us as favored subjects and gives us gifts , from His own plate as it were, showing favor, showing closeness, showing the depth of our relationship with Him.

So now that we know that we’re looking at gifts – favors – given from a ruler to his subjects, we can understand more about the context and framework of Birkat Cohanim

Birkat Cohanim is part of the Avodah in the Mishkan. In fact, the first time it is mentioned was back in Shmini, when the dedication of the Mishkan was drawing to a close, they did all the things they were commanded to do, Aharon and his sons brought all the sacrifices that they were supposed to bring – that is, gifts from the subject to the ruler – and then

וישא אהרן את ידו ידיו אל העם ויברכם …:

Aharon raised His hands over the people and blessed them

The subjects give gifts to the ruler, the ruler reciprocates with gifts to his subjects – in our case, it is the job of the Cohanim to request those gifts through their blessings. That’s the role that’s in Nasso, again, in the context of the Mishkan. And so it was in the Beit HaMikdash as well.

Now, here’s the interesting thing. The Mishkan is gone, the Beit HaMikdash is gone, sacrifices are gone, but we still have Birkat Cohanim in our service. How does it still work?

תפילות כנגד תמידים תיקנום

When the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, and we lost our ability to give gifts to our Ruler, and to get blessing and gifts in return, Chazal replaced it with prayers, with the Shemoneh Esrei in particular. It still called Avoda, service, “Avoda shebaLev”

The gifts we give now are not our possessions, the lives of our cattle – but in its stead, we give the most precious commodity we have: our time and our attention, pieces of our own lives

And at the end of the Shemoneh Esrei, after we have placed our sacrifice before Him, and it has been accepted in Retzei and we have expressed our gratitude in Modim, then the Cohanim offer their blessing – requesting a Mas’et, the gifts of favor from our Ruler, a symbol of our relationship and closeness:

יברכיך ה’ וישמריך

יאר ה’ פניו אליך ויחוניך

ישא ה’ פניו אליך וישם לך שלום

But wait, you ask, it’s not the end of the Shemoneh Esrei, there’s one more blessing after it, isn’t there? And also, what if there are no Cohanim, or if you’re davening alone, what then, no blessing, no gifts?

Well, let’s look at it, let’s see how we end our Avoda SheBaLev:

שִׂים שָׁלוֹם טוֹבָה וּבְרָכָה, חֵן וָחֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים

עָלֵינוּ וְעַל־כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל עַמֶּךָ

בָּרְכֵנוּ אָבִינוּ כֻּלָּנוּ כְּאֶחָד בְּאוֹר פָּנֶיךָ

כִּי בְאוֹר פָּנֶיךָ נָתַתָּ לָּנוּ ה’ אֱלֹהֵינוּ תּוֹרַת חַיִּים

וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד, וּצְדָקָה וּבְרָכָה וְרַחֲמִים וְחַיִּים וְשָׁלוֹם.

טוֹב בְּעֵינֶיךָ לְבָרֵךְ אֶת עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל

בְּכָל־עֵת וּבְכָל־שָׁעָה בִּשְׁלוֹמֶךָ

Sim Shalom is a restatement of Birkat Cohanim

It’s all there:

Barcheinu Avinu B’Ohr panecha

Ke B’Ohr Panecha, natata lanu – we ask for a Mas’et, for gifts, and we even list the gifts that we request from Him – Torah, Chesed, Rachamim, Chaim, Shalom  – the foundations of our relationship with Him

Each time we get up in front of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, our Creator, our master and ruler, we offer him the sacrifice, the gift, of our time, and when we’re done, we request the blessing and favors and gifts from Him to us as His servants, משאת כיד המלך

So – Razi, we are all – not just Chaviva – thrilled to finally have a Cohen in the family, to have Birkat Cohanim at our “Camp Sirote”. Saying Sim Shalom is good, but it’s not the same as having an actual direct descendent of Aharon HaCohen, tasked with continuing to develop the relationship between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, until such a time as we see you do it in Yerushalayim, in the Mikdash

May all the blessings that you request be granted, upon us, upon yourself, and upon Chaviva and you together

(The reference to משאת בנימין is suggested by Bechor Shor, and was pointed out to me by R’ Johnny Solomon)

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Communal Memory

(Drasha given in Kinor David on the occasion of the 10th Yahrtzeit of my father, Peter Rozenberg, פנחס בן נתן נטע z”l, 18 March 2023, Shabbat VaYakhel / HaChodesh)

My father’s Yahrtzeit is always a week before the new month of Nissan, which is coming up this Thursday.

The new month of Nissan was the very first commandment that G-d gave the Jewish People, just as we were about to leave Egypt. G-d told us how to make our calendar, and that this month should be referred to as the first of the months.

Now, you might ask, was this really the first commandment, right before they left Egypt? What about Bris Mila? Wasn’t that given to Avraham?

Actually, that commandment was given to an individual, a family. The commandment about the calendar is meaningless for individuals, it requires a community, a nation. We can’t each have our own calendar – at the very minimum, we all need to agree which day Passover falls out on.

What about the commandment after that, the second one? That was to bring the Passover offering – to eat the lamb and put its blood on the doorposts, and there too, G-d says to Moshe: “speak to the entire community of Israel”. That commandment is both for each family, each household, but also, for the entire community – one of the first actions that we take to remember the Exodus from Egypt.

Shabbat is another example – this week’s Parasha, VaYakhel, starts with Moshe gathering the entire community of the Jewish People to tell them about how to keep Shabbat. We keep Shabbat as individuals, as families, and also as a community. In fact, the Ohr HaChaim points out that we learn from Moshe that we should gather together on Shabbat – as indeed, we do.

So there are commandments for individuals, for families, and for the entire community – and there’s memory of individuals, of families, and of the entire community.

A few years back, I was corresponding with a person online, not Jewish. They wrote to me that they were a little jealous of me for having a national, communal memory. Apparently, their memory is only about things that happened to them personally, a little bit of their family history, and that’s it. They don’t have any national or communal memory.

I found that to be more than a little shocking. Communal memory is such an important part of my identity, my view of the world, it is hard to imagine that people live without it; it must be so lonely and disconnected.

I am listed on the Nefesh BeNefesh web site for people making Aliya to Ra’anana, and I get occasional phone calls asking for advice. One of the points that I always make is the importance of community, especially for Olim. It’s something that we take for granted outside of Israel, but is unfortunately less prevalent here, except in Ra’anana and other places that Olim have settled and influenced. We do have community – that is, a rav and even a rabbanit, and Torah lessons, and events, and meals for people who have given birth, and kiddushes, and memorials and shivas.

This week was the 10th Yahrtzeit of my father, Peter Rozenberg, Pinchas ben Natan Nota, z”l.

When a person – especially a person who made a difference to a community – passes a way, they leave a “Chalal”, a hole, a gap in the cosmos, a gap in the sum total of G-d’s Presence in this world. When they’re gone, the gap that they leave needs to be filled, and then we each feel the need to fill it.

The gap in G-d’s Presence – which we might call “Chillul Hashem” – is filled through Kaddish. When the community answers, “Yehei Shmei Rabba” – “may His Name be blessed forever” – that fills the empty space, a little bit.

Also, each of us find ways to fill it, in our own way.

For the past ten years, I have given a Drasha in my father’s name, and each time I try to bring to life an aspect of his character – on Parashat Parah, I talked about the heart of flesh and greeting everyone with a smile; on Ki Tisa I talked about Rav Chessed – dedication to kindness, on VaYakhel about Shabbat and community, on HaChodesh about “one day at a time”.

These are my individual memories, and the Torah that flows from me, inspired by him.

But every time, each year, members of our community tell me their own recollections, their own memories, what they learned from him: how to be a grandfather, a friend, how to greet a person they meet on the street with true joy, how to show respect to each human being.

Each one fills the space that he has left, in their own way, and that in turn, lifts each of us up.

This way, an individual that helped create a community, even when they’re gone, their influence continues to be felt, through the community itself, through community memory, memory that extends to more than just one person, and memory that extends forward through time.

May his memory be blessed

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Happy New Year!

(Drasha given over zoom on my father’s 8th Yahrtzeit , March 7, 2021)

This coming week is Shabbat HaChodesh, which celebrates Rosh Chodesh Nissan – one of the Rosh Hashanas that we have in our calendar

As you have probably heard, there’s a Mishna in Rosh HaShana that says that there are 4 New Years – 1st of Nissan (coming up), 1st of Tishrei, 1st of Elul, and Tu Bishvat.

1st of Tishrei everyone knows, we make a very big deal about it, and that’s how we count our years, this being 5781 תשפ”א.  But then, we also know that the months are counted from Nissan, so our Rosh Hashana is the 1st of the 7th, and the 1st of the 1st is next Sunday. It doesn’t have its own chag, so we forget about it, and it’s overshadowed by Pesach. (Imagine if we had to have another 2-day chag right before Pesach like we do right before Succot!!!!)

But – when it comes to when our years start, it’s not so simple.

Of course the very question of when a year starts is kind of silly if you think about. The year is a circle. One rotation around the sun. It doesn’t have a beginning or an end, it keeps going and going… like the song in Rechov Sumsum: the seasons are like a circle …

You can pick any day in it and call it the beginning. So, the Western World picked the darkest time of the year. Your birthday is a new year of sorts, why not. In my birthday greetings, I wish people, “have a wonderful year” – their personal year begins on March 3rd or whenever.

And we like to say that Rosh Hashana is the birthday of the world, היום הרת עולם, and that’s why we start there, right? well.. not surprisingly, this is a Machloket:

R’ Eliezer vs R’ Yehoshua: R’ Eliezer said, The world was created in Tishrei; R’ Yehoshua said, The world was created in Nissan.

And it’s not like this machloket is resolved, not even le’Halacha – if you recall Birkat HaChama, blessing of the sun, which we did last time in 2009 – it’s in Nissan, not in Tishrei

Not only that, but that machloket between R’ Eliezer and R’ Yehoshua keeps going:

You know how we often hear around this time of the year: “Be’Nissan Atidim lehigael” (we will be redeemed in Nissan) ? Well, that’s the opinion of R’ Yehoshua, not R’ Eliezer:

R’ Eliezer said: In Nissan they were redeemed, and in Tishrei we will be redeemed, as it says, “On that day the Great Shofar will be blown.” R’ Yehoshua said: In Nissan they were redeemed, and in Nissan we will be redeemed, as it says, “A night of keeping”, a night that was kept from the six days of Creation

But what does it all matter, if the seasons are like a circle anyway?

I was reading a book recently, just a novel, and it was describing the passing of the seasons in a rural community, waxing poetic about how in touch they were with each change. And then the author pointed out something that I hadn’t thought of before: they said, “and because these cycles keep repeating, nothing ever changed.”

So they have the circle of seasons, and the circle of life, but it ended up in the same place every time, and they don’t ever escape it.

I found this to be quite shocking. Because we don’t think like that. I mean, we do, on Succot, read Kohelet when it says, “דּוֹר הֹלֵךְ וְדוֹר בָּא, וְהָאָרֶץ לְעוֹלָם עֹמָדֶת

“Generation passes, generation comes, and the earth stands in its place”

which is plenty depressing, but for us, it’s only part of the story

The more important part is that the world has a beginning. That, by the way, is the only real proof R’ Yehoshua brings for his opinion that Nissan is the season of Geula. He says that it comes from the ליל שמורים הוא לה’ לילה המשומר ובא מששת ימי בראשית – it’s reserved from the 6 days of Creation. The world is not eternal, therefore, the world can change, therefore, it has the potential of Geula.

Whether that happens in Tishrei like R’ Eliezer, or in Nissan like R’ Yehoshua, the point is that our lives are not stuck forever in the same rut again and again. It’s a spiral, not a circle

Last year, when I did this, one of the first zoom meetings of the shul if I’m not mistaken, I spoke about my father’s philosophy of “one day at a time”. How to deal with the unpredictable. I must say, it has truly helped me this past year, narrowing my focus to just a few days, at most a week, ahead. We’ve survived that.

But we cannot live our lives like that forever. It can’t be the only tool in our kit. Because people who believe that nothing ever changes have no incentive to change anything ever. And that’s not us, that’s not the Jewish People, and that wasn’t my father

He disliked change, and when something was good, he would stick with it long after others would give up – he had the opportunity to take a vacation in Niagara Falls, and then for the next 10 years, they went to Niagara Falls. He saw that we liked fruit compote, so he made fruit compote every week.

But – when something needed to be changed, when he needed to show up for Geula – he left everything he knew, and he walked out into a world that he knew nothing about, seeking new beginnings – because beginnings are possible

B”H now we are entering a season of new beginnings – we see Geula on the horizon, the ability to rebuild our lives, perhaps, to look ahead beyond a day or a week at a time. On a personal level also, as you probably heard, Dedushka has a new great-grandson who will be entering the Brit of Avraham Avinu be”h on Wednesday… generation passes and generation comes, but no, the world does not stand still, because this is a new year, and a time of Geula

Happy New Year!

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Filed under Shabbat HaChodesh, Special Shabbatot, Yahrtzeit

One Day at a Time

(Drasha given over Zoom to Kinor David – March 19, 2020)

Today is the yahrtzeit of my father, Peter Rozenberg, Pinchas ben Nassan Nota, z”l

This upcoming Shabbat, Shabbat HaChodesh is the last of the 4 special Shabbatot that precede the Passover season.

The special maftir of Shabbat HaChodesh is the very first mitzvah that Am Yisrael got as a nation. Before telling the Jewish People in Egypt to prepare their houses for the Korban Pesach, no chametz, blood on the doorposts and all, G-d first tells them: – החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים  – this month shall be for you the first month of the year.

The first commandment that we got was about the calendar – how to identify the new moon, and how to combine the solar and lunar year, and when to start counting the months.

If you were G-d, and had to choose one of the 613 mitzvot to say, this is Mitzvah #1, which one would you choose?

The Rambam, when he wrote his compendium listing the mitzvot, chose “Belief in G-d” to be the 1st

The Sefer HaChinuch went in chronological order, with “be fruitful and multiply” (a universal mitzvah)

We might consider others – perhaps R’ Akiva’s choice: “ve’Ahavta le’reacha kamocha” (love your friend as yourself)

So why HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem? Why the calendar?

The Jewish People were used to getting commands from their Egyptian taskmasters. As slaves, they would be told, do this, and do it now, and keep doing it for the foreseeable future. Slaves do not have calendars because they do not plan their lives.

Free people have calendars, and a calendar and its holidays is one of the most visible and notable aspect of a national identity.

So, in order to make us free – a free and independent nation – G-d gave us our own calendar. So that we can plan our lives and plan our future.

Today, this year, before Shabbat HaChodesh, we don’t feel like we can plan anything. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, and what we will be asked to do – or not do.

My father, z”l, used to say to us, “one day at a time”. He would say it a lot, when we’d try to make plans a bit farther in advance than he was comfortable with, or whenever he heard us worry – “one day at a time”

Focus on today, worry about what you’re doing now. Who knows what you’ll need to worry about tomorrow? One day at a time.

Those of us who are planners, who like to know where they will be for all of the year’s holidays, and where they’re going for summer vacation, find it very hard to live one day at a time. But now, we must. Nobody knows where they will be for Shavuos, or Yom HaAtzmaut, or even Pesach. We have to live like my father, one day at a time.

But there are days and there are days.

The first day on the Jewish calendar,  the first of the first – was Aleph Nissan

Besides being the first day ever, it was the first for many other things, too

The Gemara says:

That day took ten crowns: first to Creation, first of the Nesiim, first of the Cohanim, first for Avodah, first for the descent of the fire, first for eating sacred food, first for the dwelling of the Shechina, first for blessing Israel, first forbidding individual altars, and first of the months. (Shabbat 87b)

8 of those events happened on a single day: the 1st month of the 2nd year, on the 1st of the month, when the Mishkan was first built – the first official sacrifices were brought by the first Cohanim, the first time that the fire descended from Above, the first time G-d’s palpable Presence appeared among us, the first time the Cohanim blessed the people, and so on

Busy, busy day.

But only a single day.

Living one day at a time can feel unproductive. If we can’t plan, if we don’t control your calendar, what does that do to our independence, our identity?

The First of the First, HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem, teaches us that one day, a single day, can be full to overflowing with G-d’s Presence.

So that is how we must live our lives now, too

One Day at a Time

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The Book!

Isn’t it pretty?

Buy it here:
https://www.amazon.com/Haftorah-Unrolled-Kira-Sirote/dp/1988022142/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=F30AXRQTC1PA64H7FJ5B

Contact me to arrange a lecture / book signing in Israel , or to purchase autographed copies

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Be’Ahava U’Ve’Ratzon

Drasha given in Kinor David on Shabbat VaYakhel-Pekudei / Parah, 23 Adar 5778.

Today is the Yahrtzeit of my father, Peter Rozenberg, Pinchas ben Natan Nota, z”l; who was a member of Kinor David for ten years. It’s been five years since his passing. This Drasha is in his memory.

Moshe gathers the Jewish People to tell them about the commandment to build the Mishkan, to fulfill the ambition of “I shall dwell among you” – G-d’s Presence within the Jewish People, serving G-d through sacrifices, the Holy of Holies.

This is how he starts:

“Moshe gathered the entire Jewish People; he said to them: This is what Hashem commanded you to do:

Six days, you should do work, and on the seventh day, you shall have holiness, Shabbat-Shabbaton to Hashem… (Shemot 35)”

And only then does he continue:

“Moshe said to the entire Jewish People, saying: This is what Hashem commanded you: take donations from among you for Hashem…”

Before the building of the Mishkan could begin, they had to be told to keep Shabbat.

So, first of all, on a practical level, this is how we learn what is considered “work” for the purposes of the Laws of Shabbat: anything that is necessary for the building of the Mishkan is forbidden on Shabbat. That is the source of the 39 Melachot of Shabbat.

But taking a step back, there is a bigger picture. The two commandments are two related ways to serve G-d, two forms of sacrifice: keeping Shabbat, and the sacrificial service of the Mishkan.

In our Siddur, there are phrases that we add on Shabbat. They begin with the word “Retzei” (accept). We say, “Retzei ve’Hachlitzenu”, “Retzei be’Menuchateinu”. This term is normally used in the context of serving G-d through sacrifices (and the prayers that substitute for them). For instance, the blessing in the Amida, “Retzei”, is labeled by the Koren Siddur as “Avodah” (Service). It says, “Accept the Jewish People and their prayers and bring back the Service …. May their Service be accepted by You”. “Retzei”, “accept”, refers to the Service of G-d, Avodah.

What, then, is “Retzei be’Menuchateinu”, “accept our rest”?

Our rest is, in itself, our Avodah, our Service. Shabbat, too, is sacrifice.

Those of us who grew up keeping Shabbat do not always appreciate how much of a sacrifice it really is – a sacrifice of our time, our money, of opportunities; in our career, our businesses, our lives in general. This is true even living here in Israel, where it’s relatively easy to keep Shabbat; not to mention other times in our not-too-distant history when people would be told “If you don’t come in on Saturday, don’t come in on Monday.”

And even so – for those of us in hi-tech, which needs to run 24/7, for university students who might have a test on Thursday and a project due on Sunday, for family that lives out of town that you don’t get to see, for friends that go out on Friday night that you can’t join – this is sacrifice, this is serving G-d. We pray that our sacrifice, our rest, will be accepted: “Retzei be’Menuchateinu.”

I read an article recently, about the sociology of Modern Orthodox people, in particular, of women, which suggested that we have three shifts. Work is one shift, family is the second. The third shift is Shabbat. It’s not one day of seven, it’s an entire “shift”.

When I read that, I thought, yes, well, till I finish clearing up after Shabbat, it’s around … Tuesday… and by then I’m already inviting guests for the next Shabbat. So yes, it’s a whole shift.

But that same article pointed out how that third shift, Shabbat, gives balance to the other two, and meaning to the rest of our lives. It is an opportunity to be with the family, with ourselves, to get dressed up, to enjoy good food, to see friends, to come to shul, to sing and to pray. It is not a punishment, it is a gift.

There is another phrase that we add to our prayers for Shabbat – in fact, we will do so this Pesach, which is approaching all too soon. In the Kiddush of the Seder, we will add “Be’Ahava”. And during the Amida, we will add “BeAhava u’ve’Ratzon”. Not just Ratzon, but also Ahava. Because Shabbat is a gift of love from the Ribono shel Olam, His love for us, and our love for Him.

My father, as you might know, did not grow up with Shabbat. It was not possible to observe Shabbat in the Soviet Union, to say the least. So when we came to America and were reunited with a Torah observant Jewish community, it was very difficult for him to understand Shabbat. Why are some things considered Melacha, and forbidden, and other things, which require more effort, are permitted? We were invited for many Shabbat meals by families in our community in Far Rockaway, week after week for years at a time, but it was Shabbat from the outside.

Then we all went to Israel for a 3 week trip, and there, my father experienced Shabbat from the inside, the whole thing. When we got back, he said, “I understand that He wants me to go to Shul on Shabbos.” So he did. And clearly, when one comes home from Shul, one makes Kiddush, and if one makes Kiddush, one has to have a bite of something, yes? And so it was.

He had Shabbat, with friends in shul, with singing, and davening, with an ironed shirt, and brandy for Kiddush. Be’Ahava u’ve’Ratzon.

And on his last Shabbat, he came to Kinor David, in a Shabbat shirt, to be with us all, and enjoy Shabbat, be’Ahava u’ve’Ratzon.

Shabbat Shalom


Source of “third shift”

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Shvi’i shel Pesach – Yeshuah

All nations have enemies, and all nations fight wars. The primary purpose of a leader of a nation is to defeat these enemies and provide security for his people. The term used in the Tanach for defeating enemies is “ישועה,” deliverance. There are many stories in the Tanach of G-d appointing leaders in order to bring about “yeshuah.”
One of the earliest examples of this is found in Shoftim, when Midian had been raiding Jewish towns in the north of the country. An angel of Hashem came to a young man who was threshing his wheat in a wine press, so that the Midianites wouldn’t find it and steal it, and said to him:

…וַיֹּאמֶר לֵךְ בְּכֹחֲךָ זֶה וְהוֹשַׁעְתָּ אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִכַּף מִדְיָן הֲלֹא שְׁלַחְתִּיךָ:
He said, ‘Go with this strength, and deliver Yisrael from the hand of Midian; as it is you that I am sending.’ (Shoftim 6:14)

This young man was Gidon, who went on lead the Jewish People to a decisive victory over Midian, and entirely eliminated them as a threat. The same term appears when describing the actions of other leaders, and in particular, the kings Shaul and David, who were appointed to bring yeshuah by defeating Israel’s enemies.

However, the first time that the enemies of the Jewish People were soundly defeated, the yeshuah did not come from a human king or leader. The term first appears at the Splitting of the Sea, which is the Torah reading for the last day of Pesach, the anniversary of that event.

וַיּוֹשַׁע ה’ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִיַּד מִצְרָיִם וַיַּרְא יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת מִצְרַיִם מֵת עַל שְׂפַת הַיָּם:
Hashem delivered Yisrael on that day, from the hand of Egypt. Yisrael saw Egypt dead on the shore of the sea. (Shemot 14:30)

It was G-d Himself who defeated Egypt and delivered the Jewish People from their enemies. The magnitude of the defeat was such that they expressed their stunned reaction in song:

עָזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ וַיְהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה…ה’ אִישׁ מִלְחָמָה ה’ שְׁמוֹ… ה’ יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד:
My strength and my song is G-d, He became my deliverance… Hashem is a man of war, Hashem is His Name … Hashem will be the king for all eternity!
(Shemot 15:3-4,18)

By effecting this yeshuah, G-d showed us not only that He is all-powerful, but that He is specifically our King, and that He uses His power to defeat our enemies.
But if G-d is our king, why did He need to appoint mortal leaders to bring about yeshuah?

It seems that it is not ideal for G-d to directly intervene and miraculously get rid of our enemies. Part of the function of the Jewish People as the Nation of G-d is that we have a partnership with Him. He doesn’t fight our battles for us while we stand around helplessly wringing our hands, He expects us to defend ourselves. At the same time, we must realize that we will not succeed without His assistance, and it is vital that we continue to see Him as our King, and the source of our yeshuah. It needs to be clear to us that we will only defeat our enemies if Hashem, Ish Milchama, is with us.

A prime example of this is yet again with Gidon:

וַיֹּאמֶר ה’ אֶל גִּדְעוֹן בִּשְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת הָאִישׁ הַמֲלַקְקִים אוֹשִׁיעַ אֶתְכֶם וְנָתַתִּי אֶת מִדְיָן בְּיָדֶךָ וְכָל הָעָם יֵלְכוּ אִישׁ לִמְקֹמוֹ:
Hashem said to Gidon: with these three hundred men who lapped up the water, I will deliver you, and I will hand Midian over to your hand; everyone else should go home. (Shoftim 7:7)

Gidon took these three hundred men and used them to wreak mayhem on the Midianite war camp, who turned on each other in their confusion. As a result, the victory of the very few over the very many was credited to G-d.
That brings us to the Haftarah that we read on the last day of Pesach, after reading of the Splitting of the Sea. It is the song that David composed to praise G-d for delivering him from his enemies:

אֱ-לֹהֵי צוּרִי אֶחֱסֶה בּוֹ מָגִנִּי וְקֶרֶן יִשְׁעִי מִשְׂגַּבִּי וּמְנוּסִי מֹשִׁעִי מֵחָמָס תֹּשִׁעֵנִי. מְהֻלָּל אֶקְרָא ה’ וּמֵאֹיְבַי אִוָּשֵׁעַ
My G-d is my rock that I can shelter in, my shield and the ray of my deliverance, my sanctuary and my refuge, my deliverer – from injustice, You deliver me! Praised, I will call Hashem, from my enemies I will be delivered. (Shmuel II 22:3-4)

None of David’s victories were miraculous; no seas were split. It would have been natural for him to credit his own courage, his military prowess, and the dedication and training of his staff. Instead, he attributed all of his victories to G-d.

As the king of the Jewish People, David HaMelech was responsible for fighting and defeating our enemies. As the king of the Jewish People, David HaMelech was also responsible for making it known to everyone that the victory belongs to our true King:

עַל כֵּן אוֹדְךָ ה’ בַּגּוֹיִם וּלְשִׁמְךָ אֲזַמֵּר: מִגְדּוֹל יְשׁוּעוֹת מַלְכּוֹ וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לִמְשִׁיחוֹ לְדָוִד וּלְזַרְעוֹ עַד עוֹלָם:
Therefore, I praise Hashem among the nations, and to Your name, I sing. The greatness of His deliverance for His king, with devotion to His anointed, to David and his descendants, forever. (Shmuel II 22:51)

And so, even as we wait for the descendants of David HaMelech to do their part in defeating our enemies, the yeshuah that we hope and wait for, is from Hashem, our King.


Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my parents, Peter & Nella Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ואמי מורתי חנה בת זעליג ז”ל

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Rav Chessed ve’Emmet

Drasha given in Kinor David on Shabbat Ki Tisa / Parah, 20 Adar 5777, in memory of my father, whose Yahrzeit is 23 Adar

The Sin of the Golden Calf made it clear that despite all the miracles of the Exodus, of the Splitting of the Sea, and of the Revelation at Sinai, the Jewish People really did not understand G-d. They were too bound up in the pagan mindset of Egyptian culture, where every god had his own set of characteristics.

Therefore, Moshe asked G-d to describe Himself to him in terms of His characteristics, and G-d responded:

ה’, ה’, אל רחום וחנון, ארך אפיים רב חסד ואמת
Hashem, Hashem, G-d Who is merciful and gracious, patient, and has “great kindness and truth” (Shemot 34:6)

This expression, Rav Chessed ve’Emmet, which is usually translated as “great kindness and truth,” is actually quite hard to interpret. Rashi says that “Chessed” is when one is given more than one deserves, and “Emmet” is when one is given precisely what one deserves. He sees the two words as antonyms – Chessed vs Emmet.

As you know, I do a fair amount of translation, having translated all the Haftarot, and I must say that this interpretation does not work for most of the times that these words are used together in Tanach. For instance, the verse made famous by Yonatan Razael’s beautiful song:

קטונתי מכל החסדים ומכל האמת שעשית את עבדיך
“I am unworthy of all the kindnesses and all the truth that You have done for Your servant” (Bereishit 32:11)

It makes sense to say, “I am unworthy of all that you have given me beyond what I deserved,” but how does it make sense to say, “I am unworthy of all that you have given me that is precisely what I deserve?”

Moreover, what does it mean to have “great truth”? Truth is binary; something is either true, or not. But here we have “Rav Emmet,” a lot of truth. So there’s such a thing as only some truth, and a lot of truth? And sometimes, we can also have all the truth?

Dr. Amos Chacham, who wrote the Da’at Mikra commentary of Yeshayahu and Tehillim, points out that the word “Chessed” is not only used together with “Emmet,” it is also used together with “Brit” (covenant). For example:

לְעוֹלָם אֶשְׁמָר לוֹ חַסְדִּי וּבְרִיתִי נֶאֱמֶנֶת לוֹ
I will always keep for him My “Chessed”, and My “Brit” is faithful to him. (Tehillim 89)

It is very clear that the two parts of the verse are parallel; the words “Chessed” and “Brit” are synonyms, not antonyms. “Chessed” here is the fulfillment of promises. The three words, “Chessed,” “Emmet,” and “Brit” are variations on the same theme – the idea of keeping one’s word.

In English, we would translate “Chessed” as “loyalty,” “constancy,” “devotion.”

I’m not saying that “Chessed” isn’t kindness; the actions that result from it are indeed kind. However, Chessed does not come from feelings of compassion or benevolence; it comes from commitment.

And what, then, is “Rav Chessed?”

To help us understand the distinction between plain “Chessed,” and “Rav Chessed,” I will tell you a story about my father, z”l.

When my sister and I were growing up in America, we were a small family. Just parents and two children (although two children is already a big family for Russians 😉 ). With the exception of some very dear friends who were distantly related to us, all of our extended family was behind the Iron Curtain, and we were able to be in touch, with great difficulty, with only a handful of them.

Then our parents came to live in Israel, and it turned out that we had a whole bunch of second and third cousins, many times removed, who lived here. One of them was Aunt Donya, my father’s mother’s youngest first cousin, who was at the time in her early eighties, living in Ashdod. Needless to say, my father made an effort to make contact and visit her. That is “Chessed,” devotion – remembering connections and commitments, and strengthening them, despite the passage of time.
But my father did not stop there. He called Aunt Donya every single week, every Tuesday, for ten years. In fact, she was one of the first people to find out that he had passed away, because it was Tuesday, and he hadn’t called.

That is “Rav Chessed” – great devotion; unfailing commitment.

Emmet must also be understood from that perspective. It is not binary truth, true or false; it is truth over time, that is, keeping one’s word. The blessings of the Haftarah are phrased in those terms:

הָאֵל הַנֶּאֱמָן, הָאוֹמֵר וְעוֹשֶׂה, הַמְדַבֵּר וּמְקַיֵּם,שֶׁכָּל דְּבָרָיו אֱמֶת וָצֶדֶק
“The faithful G-d, Who says and then does, Who speaks and then fulfills, all of Whose words are truth and justice. “

How do we know if prophecy is true? When it is fulfilled. So when the prophet Yechezkel says in the Haftarah:

וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִן הַגּוֹיִם וְקִבַּצְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִכָּל הָאֲרָצוֹת וְהֵבֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם אֶל אַדְמַתְכֶם
I will take you from the nations, and I will gather you from all the lands, and I will bring you to your land. (Yechezkel 36:24)

We look around us, and we see that these words have been fulfilled. How lucky are we, our generation, to be able to say that?

So now we know that “Rav Chessed ve’Emmet” means that G-d keeps His word despite the passage of time, with great commitment and devotion.

This is important because in the pagan mindset, this is not at all obvious. In the pantheons of many cultures around the world, there is a god who is described as a “trickster” – Loki – a god whose main characteristic is his unpredictability; not only can he not be trusted, he goes out of his way to wreak havoc. There is something in the human psyche that makes us want a god like that, perhaps to explain the chaos in the world around us.

This has even affected Jewish culture: there is an expression in Yiddish: “Der mensch trakht un gott lacht,” “man plans and G-d laughs.” But for us, it is not coming from the same place. It is not that we think that G-d enjoys it when our plans go awry, and that He’s doing it out of some perverse pleasure in our pain. It is that we realize that His plans are greater than ours, and that we are limited human beings who can only do so much.
As we say on Yom Kippur:

מה אנו מה חיינו מה חסדנו מה כוחנו
“What are we? What are our lives? What are our commitments? What is our strength?”

But Hashem, our G-d, He is Rav Chessed ve’Emmet – He speaks and He fulfills His word.

Now, to explain “Rav Emmet.” The Haftarah helps us here as well:

וְהוֹשַׁבְתִּי אֶת הֶעָרִים וְנִבְנוּ הֶחֳרָבוֹת
I will cause the cities to be settled, the ruins rebuilt (Yechezkel 36:33)

G-d words of Emmet would have been fulfilled if Yerushalayim had been rebuilt within its original boundaries. But that is not what we see. We see hill after hill covered in buildings, miles of them. Hundreds of thousands of people.
G-d promised:

וְהָאָרֶץ הַנְּשַׁמָּה תֵּעָבֵד
This abandoned land will be tilled (36:34)

His words of Emmet would have been fulfilled if the land were simply supporting its population. But we export cut flowers to Holland, and tropical fruit to Italy.

This is what Yaakov Avinu meant when he said, “I am not deserving of all the Emmet that You have done for Your servant – for I crossed the Jordan River with just my walking stick, and now I have grown to two full camps.”

G-d had promised him that He would take care of him. And He did, through very trying times. That promise would have been fulfilled if he had just gotten back safely. When Yaakov looks around at what he was given, he is overwhelmed by the quantity of Emmet, of fulfillment.

We also look around, and we are also overwhelmed by the quantity of Emmet.
Because that is our G-d, Hashem, Who says and then does, Who speaks and then fulfils. G-d Whose characteristics are Rav Chessed ve’Emmet.

Unfailing devotion, and eternal, overwhelming commitment.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my parents, Peter & Nella Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ואמי מורתי חנה בת זעליג ז”ל

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Miketz

Miketz is read rarely, as it is almost always either Shabbat Chanukah, either the first or the second.

But this is one story that everyone knows: Mishpat Shlomo, The Judgment of Solomon:

Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Miketz
Judgment of Solomon

The Haftarah gives us insight into Yosef’s behavior in Parshat Miketz: Wise and Perceptive

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