Editor's Note:
Dear Friend,
I remember the first time I stayed up all night on Shavuot, the anniversary of the revelation at Sinai. Facing the hazy orange glow generated by Chicago’s quarter-million streetlights, we walked to the synagogue where we would sit with the others, studying Torah, making up for our ancestors’ sleeping in on that fateful morning at the mountain. Once there, I nibbled cake and listened to the learning. Eventually I nodded off. A few years (and more than a few coffees) later, I managed to keep awake the whole night.
Since then, I have experienced Shavuot night in Budapest (followed by an immersion in the mikvah/bathhouse constructed in the community’s prewar heyday), Safed (followed by a dip in the ice-cold spring-fed Arizal Mikvah), Jerusalem (followed by early morning prayers at the Kotel), and now in Montreal (followed all too soon by kids climbing into my bed).
No matter the surroundings, the experience remains the same: spending the night preparing to receive the Torah while the world sleeps. It’s something not to be missed.
Menachem Posner,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
P.S.: Make sure you’re not too tired to make it back the next morning. The highlight of the holiday is coming—kids in tow—to hear the 10 Commandments read from the Torah at the synagogue. Chances are there’ll be some good cheese blintzes as well.
Daily Thought
Truth Concentrate
This Torah we were given is not of the world, nor is it something extraneous to it. Rather, it is the hidden essence, the primal thought from which all the cosmos and each thing within it extends. It is not about the world, it is the world—the world as its Creator sees it and knows it to be.
The sages of the Talmud told us that the Torah is the blueprint G‑d used to design His creation. There is not a thing that cannot be found there.
Even more, they told us, the Torah is far beyond the world, beyond time, beyond any sort of being. G‑d and His Torah are one, for His thoughts are not extraneous to Him, nor do they effect any change in Him, as do our thoughts. Rather, His thoughts, His wisdom, His desire—all are a simple oneness that does not change.
But He took that infinite wisdom and condensed it a thousandfold, a billionfold, and more, into finite, earthly terms that we could grasp—yet without losing a drop of its purity, its intimate bond with Him. Then He put it into our hands to learn, to explore and to extend.
So now, when our mind grasps a thought of Torah, thoroughly, with utter clarity, we grasp that inner wisdom. And when we are completely absorbed in the process of thought, comprehension and application, our self and being is grasped by that infinite wisdom which is the essence of all things. We have grasped it, and it grasps us. In truth, we become that essence.(Tanya, chapters 4–5)
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The Holiday of Savuot
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June 3–5, 2014 • Sivan 6–7
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Power or Influence?We tend to think of them as similar, if not identical. But it is not so. The two are quite distinct, and operate by different logic.
By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
There is a lovely moment in this week’s Parshah that shows Moses at the height of his generosity as a leader. It comes after one of his deepest moments of despair. The people, as is their wont, have been complaining, this time about the food. They are tired of the manna. They want meat instead. Moses, appalled that they have not yet learned to accept the hardships of freedom, prays to die. “If this is how you are going to treat me,” he says to G‑d, “please go ahead and kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”1G‑d tells him to appoint seventy elders to help him with the burdens of leadership. He does so, and the divine spirit rests on them. But it also rests on two other men, Eldad and Medad, who were not among the chosen seventy. Evidently, Moses had “Are you jealous for my sake?”selected six men out of each of the twelve tribes, making 72, and then removed Eldad and Medad by lot. Nonetheless, they too were caught up in the moment of inspiration.
Joshua, Moses’ deputy, saw this as a potential threat. Moses replies with splendid magnanimity: “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the L‑rd’s people were prophets, and that the L‑rd would put His spirit on them!”2
This contrasts sharply with his conduct later, when his leadership was challenged by Korach and his followers. On that occasion he showed no gentleness or generosity. To the contrary, in effect he prayed that the ground would swallow them up, that “they go down alive into the realm of the dead.”3 He is sharp, decisive and unforgiving. Why the difference between Korach on the one hand, and Eldad and Medad on the other?
To understand it, it is essential to grasp the difference between two concepts often confused, namely power and influence. We tend to think of them as similar, if not identical. People of power have influence. People of influence have power. But it is not so. The two are quite distinct, and operate by a different logic, as a simple thought experiment will show.
Imagine you have total power. Whatever you say goes. Then, one day, you decide to share your power with nine others. You now have at best one-tenth of the power you had before. Now, imagine that you have a certain measure of influence. Then you decide to share that influence with nine others whom you make your partners. You now have ten times the influence you had before, because instead of just you, there are now ten people delivering the same message.
Power works by division, influence by multiplication. Power, in other words, is a zero-sum game: the more you share, the less you have. Influence is a non-zero-sum game: the more you share, the more you have.
Throughout his forty years at the head of the nation, Moses held two different leadership roles. He was a prophet, teaching Torah to the Israelites and communicating with G‑d. He was also the functional equivalent of a king, leading the people on their journeys, directing their destiny and supplying them with their needs. The one leadership role he did not have was that of high priest, which went to his brother Aaron.
We can see this duality later in the narrative, when he inducts Joshua as his successor. G‑d commands him:
“Take Joshua son of Nun, a man of spirit, and lay your hand on him . . . Give him some of your honor [hod], so that the whole Israelite community will obey him.”4
Note the two different acts. One, “Lay [ve-samachta] your hand on him,” is the origin of term semichah, whereby a rabbi ordains a pupil, granting him the authority to make rulings in his own right. The rabbis saw their role as a continuation of that of the prophets (“Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly.”5) By this act of semichah, Moses was handing on to Joshua his role as prophet.
By the other act, “Give him some of your honor,” he was inducting him into the role of king. The Hebrew word hod, honor, is associated with kingship, Kings had power—including that of life and deathas in the biblical phrase hod malchut, “the honor of kingship.”6
Kings had power—including that of life and death (see Joshua 1:18). Prophets had none, but they had influence, not just during their lifetimes but, in many cases, to this day. To paraphrase Kierkegaard: when a king dies, his power ends. When a prophet dies, his influence begins.
Now we see exactly why Moses’ reaction was so different in the case of Eldad and Medad, and that of Korach and his followers. Eldad and Medad sought and received no power. They merely received the same influence—the divine spirit that emanated from Moses. They became prophets. That is why Moses said, “I wish that all the L‑rd’s people were prophets and that the L‑rd would put His spirit on them.” Prophecy is not a zero-sum game. When it comes to leadership-as-influence, the more we share the more we have.
Korach, or at least some of his followers, sought power, and power is a zero-sum game. When it comes to malchut, the leadership of power, the rule is: “There is one leader for the generation, not two.”7 In kingship, a bid for power is an attempted coup d’état and has to be resisted by force. Otherwise the result is a division of the nation into two, as happened after the death of King Solomon. Moses could not let the challenge of Korach go unchallenged without fatefully compromising his own authority.
So, Judaism clearly demarcates between leadership as influence and leadership by power. It is unqualified in its endorsement of the first, and deeply ambivalent about the second. Tanach is a sustained polemic against the use of power. All power, according to the Torah, rightly belongs to G‑d. The Torah recognizes the need, in an imperfect world, for the use of coercive force in maintaining the rule of law and the defense of the realm. Hence its endorsement of the appointment of a king should the people so desire it.8 But this is clearly a concession, not an ideal.9
The real leadership embraced by Tanach and by rabbinic Judaism is that of influence, above all that of prophets and teachers. That is the ultimate accolade given to Moses by tradition. We know him as Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our teacher. Moses was the first of a long line of figures in Jewish history—among them Ezra, Hillel, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Akiva, the sages of the Talmud and the scholars of the Middle Ages—who represent one of Judaism’s most revolutionary ideas: the teacher as hero.
Judaism was the first and greatest civilization to predicate its very survival on education, houses of study, and learning as a religious experience higher even than prayer.10 The reason is this. Leaders are people able to mobilize others to act in certain ways. If they achieve this only because they hold power over them, this means treating people as means, not ends; as things, not persons. Not accidentally, the single greatest writer on leadership-as-power was Machiavelli.
The other way to achieve it is to speak to people’s needs and aspirations and teach them how to achieve these things together as a group. That is done through the power of a vision, force of personality, the ability to articulate shared ideals in a language with Speak to people’s needs and aspirationswhich people can identify, and the capacity to “raise up many disciples” who will continue the work into the future. Power diminishes those on whom it is exercised. Influence and education lift and enlarge them.
Judaism is a sustained protest against what Hobbes called the “general inclination of all mankind,” nameless “a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.”11 That may be the reason why Jews have seldom exercised power for prolonged periods of time, but have had an influence on the world out of all proportion to their numbers.
Not all of us have power, but we all have influence. That is why we can each be leaders. The most important forms of leadership come not with position, title or robes of office, not with prestige and power, but with the willingness to work with others to achieve what we cannot do alone; to speak, to listen, to teach, to learn, to treat other people’s views with respect even if they disagree with us, to explain patiently and cogently why we believe what we believe and do what we do; to encourage others, praise their best endeavors and challenge them to do better still. Always choose influence rather than power. It helps change people into people who can change the world.
FOOTNOTES
1.Numbers 11:15.
2.Numbers 11:29.
3.Numbers 16:28–30.
4.Numbers 27:18–20.
5.Avot 1:1.
6.Daniel 11:21; I Chronicles 29:25.
7.Talmud, Sanhedrin 8a.
8.Deuteronomy 17:15–20; I Samuel 8.
9.So, at any rate, is the view of Ibn Ezra, Rabbeinu Bechayei and Abarbanel.
10.See Talmud, Shabbat 10a.
11.Hobbes, The Leviathan, part 1, ch. 11.
BY RABBI JONATHAN SACKS
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the British Commonwealth. To read more writings and teachings by Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, or to join his e‑mail list, please visit www.rabbisacks.org.________________________________________
More in Parshah:
• Behaalotecha in a Nutshell
Numbers 8:1–12:16
Aaron is commanded to raise light in the lamps of the menorah, and the tribe of Levi is initiated into the service in the Sanctuary.
The people are dissatisfied with their “bread from heaven” (the manna), and demand that Moses supply them with meat. Moses appoints 70 elders, to whom he imparts of his spirit, to assist him in the burden of governing the people. Miriam speaks negatively of Moses, and is punished with leprosy; Moses prays for her healing, and the entire community waits seven days for her recovery.
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SHAVUOT
Seeing the SoundsWhat if you could see with your ears?
By Chaya Shuchat
What if you could see with your ears?
Scientists at Hebrew University have developed a way to help blind people “see,” using a device that converts images into sound waves. With training, people who are blind from birth can learn to recognize faces, describe objects, and identify letters and words. This process of converting sensory information from one system to another is called “sensory substitution.”It has long been believed What if you could see with your ears?that if a child is blind from birth and the visual cortex in the brain receives no stimulation, it will never develop properly and the person will be permanently sightless. However, researchers were surprised to discover that adults who were taught to “see” with their ears were actually using the brain’s visual cortex to process the information—the adult brain developed in response to stimulation!
“The adult brain is much more flexible than we previously believed,” says Dr. Amir Amedi, who directed the study. These findings give hope for restoring sight to people who have been blind for prolonged periods, through futuristic interventions like retinal transplant or direct brain stimulation that bypasses the eyes altogether.
When describing the giving of the Torah, the verse states: “All the people saw the voices and the torches, the sound of the shofar, and the smoking mountain.” How do you see “the voices, the torches, and the sound of the shofar”? In his commentary, Rashi explains, “They saw what is usually heard.” The Jews experienced a moment of synesthesia: they were able to see the thunder and hear the lightning that accompanied the giving of the Torah.
Chassidut interprets Rashi’s statement as follows:
In our usual state, we see the physical, while the spiritual is something that we only hear about—it is abstract, removed from our everyday experience. Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, the renowned “defender of Israel,” was known to say, “G‑d, it’s not fair! You’ve placed all the temptations of the world in front of our eyes, and all the holiness in books. If You had placed the holiness in the streets and the temptations of the world in a book, nobody would ever sin!”
But when the Torah was given, that which is usually heard was seen. The veil was lifted, and the people were able to directly see and experience G‑dliness, while the physical world faded back into the abstract.
Since that day, we have been striving to recreate our experience at Mount Sinai. To “hear” the physical and “see” the spiritual. To remember that there is a world beyond that which we can see with our physical eyes, which we can access through effort.
We sometimes get so bogged The spiritual and physical worlds are not separatedown with the day-to-day routine that the spiritual world may seem like a distant dream. Our jobs, housework, chores, errands, childcare—these tasks consume our time and energy. Our goals may revolve around putting the next meal on the table and balancing the checkbook, and the grander picture gets lost in the process.
But what we need to keep in mind is that the spiritual and physical worlds are not separate. “Seeing what is usually heard” means realizing that the physical world already contains the greatest spiritual lights. Our everyday lives are actually infused with tremendous beauty, passion and power. Each small mitzvah that we do transforms an ordinary physical event into a spiritual power source.
As science moves rapidly to develop better ways to help blind people to see, the spiritual world is also advancing and becoming more accessible to us. This process will be completed when Moshiach comes, when we will no longer be blind to the spiritual radiance that lies just beyond our vision. It will become part of our daily reality.
BY CHAYA SHUCHAT
Chaya Shuchat is a mother of eight and the author of many popular articles on the interface between chassidic philosophy and modern life. She holds a master’s degree in pediatric nursing from Columbia University and works as a nurse practitioner, specializing in asthma and allergy.
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More in Shavuot:
• All About the Shtei Halachem - The two loaves offered in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on Shavuot (By Boruch Altein)
These days Shavuot is known as the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah. In Temple times, however, Shavuot was significant for several other reasons. In fact, the Torah uses three names for the festival, none of them directly related to the event at Mount Sinai: Shavuot,1 Chag HaKatzir,2 and Yom HaBikurim.3“Shavuot” means “weeks,” and refers to the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, during which each day is counted as part of Sefirat HaOmer. “Chag HaKatzir” means “the festival of the harvest”—in ancient Israel the holiday coincided with the wheat harvest, and “Yom HaBikurim” means “the day of the first produce,” since on Shavuot the first offering from the new wheat crop, known as the “Shtei HaLechem” (the two loaves), was brought in the Temple.4 5
In the agricultural society of ancient Israel, the wheat harvest was a very important event, and though it is not currently observed, the Shtei HaLechem bread offering was originally an essential part of the festival. Let’s take a closer look at the offering and its significance, both practical and mystical.
How It Was Done
The Torah commands the Jewish people to bring an offering from the new wheat crop to the Temple on Shavuot.6 It was to be brought from the choicest wheat,7 which would be husked, ground into flour and sifted twelve times to ensure that only the finest flour was used.8
The flour was brought to the Temple courtyard,9 where it was baked into two loaves of chometz,10 leavened bread, unlike almost all other offerings in the Temple, which were either flour or matzah (unleavened bread).11 (The korban toda, thanksgiving offering, was the only other sacrifice to have loaves of chometz brought with it.12 )
Along with the two loaves, two lambs were included in the offering. The priests would wave the lambs and the loaves in all four directions and up and down, and then place the lambs on the mizbeiach (altar). The loaves were eaten by the kohanim (priests).13
The Talmud14 tells us that no offerings Two lambs were included in the offeringfrom the new crop of wheat were allowed in the Temple before the two loaves were brought. This is similar to the Omer offering brought on Passover, until which no one was allowed to eat from the new crop of barley.
Thanksgiving
The commentaries explain that the Shtei HaLechem was an offering of thanksgiving. 15 As an expression of thanks to G‑d for the successful harvest of grain, the most basic food, we brought the choicest portion to Him. They point out that this is expressed in the details of the offering’s laws:
Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman16 (1195-1270) writes that the loaves were made into chometz, similar to the Toda offering, because both were offerings of thanksgiving. The Chinuch17 (13th century) adds that the more similar an action is to its reason, the more of an effect it will have on the person performing it. Wheat is considered food for humans and eaten in the form of bread. We thank G‑d for wheat by offering Him loaves of bread, reminding ourselves that all of our sustenance comes from Him.
The Talmud18 explains that by waving the loaves in the four directions and up and down, we acknowledge the One who created the four directions, heaven, and earth. Alternatively, waving in the four directions blessed the winds that originate from them, so that they should only be good, beneficial winds, and lifting the loaves blessed the dew, that it too should be beneficial.
The prophet Jeramiah also points to the blessings the Shtei Halechem bestowed. “The weeks of the laws of harvest [G‑d] keeps for us,” 19 he says, and Rashi20 explains: “Seven weeks in which He ordained two ordinances of harvest, the ordinance of the Omer, and the ordinance of the Shtei HaLechem keeps for us.” When we thank G‑d for the bounty of the present harvest, our future harvests are blessed as well.
Bread and Torah
In addition to the simple interpretation of the Shtei HaLechem as a thanksgiving offering, sages and commentators throughout the ages have found deeper lessons concealed within its laws. Often, they draw connections between the offering of the loaves and the giving of the Torah.
One well-known interpretation is that G‑d commands us to bring an offering from the new crop on the anniversary of the Torah’s giving to remind us that our commitment to Torah, too, must be renewed each year.21 One must consider the Torah not as an ancient document, but rather as if it were given today.22
We must not consider the Torah an ancient document
Many point to the contrast between the matzah we eat on Passover and the leavened bread used for the Shtei Halechem. Leavened bread was usually prohibited in sacrifices because dough that has risen is compared to pride and arrogance, traits associated with the yetzer hara (evil inclination).23 Studying Torah, however, subdues inappropriate pride,24 allowing us to use the energy of the evil inclination for good.25
The chassidic master Rabbi Tzadok Hakohen of Lublin (1823-1900) elaborates on this idea. On Shavuot the giving of the Torah elevates the world to the spiritual level that existed before the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, he writes. Just as then the evil inclination was only a positive force to help build the world, so too on Shavuot, we are empowered to use it once again for its intended purpose.26
This is also expressed in the Jews’ famous declaration upon receiving the Torah “naase venishma”27 (First we will do, and then we will understand). They agreed to have complete obedience to G‑d in every situation, without regard to their personal feelings and desires, a complete subjugation of the evil inclination that is only possible through Torah.28
The famous chassidic master Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger (known by the name of his magnum opus, Sfas Emes) writes that the divine wisdom contained in the Torah is the power from which the world was created. Normally this wisdom is hidden, and physical beings feel that their own efforts are what count. At the giving of the Torah, however, G‑d Himself spoke to man, meaning that the essential reality of all existence became visible and tangible. 29
He explains that the two loaves offered on Shavuot symbolize the duality that we perceive in creation: one signified divine blessings, the other the product of man’s toil. On the anniversary of the giving of the Torah, they were both waived towards heaven as an acknowledgment that both come from G‑d.
Animal, Human, and Divine
As we have seen, commentaries often compare the Shtei HaLechem to the Omer—the barley offering brought on Passover. The Abarbanel (1437-1508) points out that30 that while barley is used as food for animals, wheat is for human consumption.
Passover is the anniversary of the redemption from Egypt, when the Jewish people were compared to animals, having not yet received the Torah that allowed them to understand and appreciate G‑d. Thus it is appropriate that on Passover we bring an offering of animal fodder. On Shavuot, however, we matured into human beings capable of appreciating G‑d’s greatness, so it is fitting that the offering brought then was from wheat.
He concludes that an offering must be brought to G‑d in the same manner that a person would use it. Since humans eat their grain by turning it into bread, the Shtei Halechem was made into bread, and just as a human king would not eat bread alone, but would have meat together with it, so too the Shtei HaLechem came together with lambs.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains31 that the Omer and Shtei HaLechem offerings represent two stages in the service of G‑d that the Israelites experienced on their journey out of Egypt, a journey that we are empowered to re-experience each year.
The first step on the path of divine service is personal refinement. Natural impulses and emotions, as yet unbridled and animal-like, must be progressively controlled and transformed.
Passover is the anniversary of the birth of the Jewish nation. They began their service of G‑d by subduing their lower faculties and desires, symbolized by the offering of barley, a food for animals. The Omer was also made into unleavened bread, which lies low and is tasteless. This represents a stage in divine service when the path is one of subjugation, without any “taste” for what one is doing.
We are empowered to retrace their foodtsteps
The seven weeks of counting that follow Passover correspond to the gradual refinement of the seven human emotions, and by the time they reached Mount Sinai, the Jews had reached the level of mature adults with intellect and understanding, able to appreciate the greatness of their creator.
Even at this level, however, they had to be careful that the foundation for their divine service was not only a result of their own understanding, but rather because G‑d commanded them to serve Him (“We will do, and then we will understand”).
To teach us this, the Torah commands us to bring two loaves of leavened bread as an offering to G‑d. Wheat is associated with intellect in Torah, and leavened bread, which has more taste than unleavened, signifies intellectual appreciation. The lesson is that one’s higher faculties, too, should be subjugated to G‑d and used to serve Him to the best of one’s ability.
Just as the Jewish nation progressed through these stages on its journey through the desert, so are we empowered to retrace their footsteps each year, beginning with the rebirth of Passover, through the spiritual refinement of Sefirat HaOmer, culminating on Shavuot, when we receive the Torah anew and rededicate ourselves to G‑d—body, heart, and mind.
FOOTNOTES
1.Shemot 34,22 Devorim 16,10. 16, 16
2.Shemot 23,16
3.Bamidbar 28,26
4.Vayikra 23,16-21 Rashi Bamidbar ibid
5.The Talmud also refers to Shavuot as “Atzeret,” meaning a day when we refrain from work. See for example Pesachim 68b.
6.Vayikra ibid
7.Menachot 83b
8.Menachot 76b
9.Menachot 95b
10.Vayikra ibid,17
11.Vayikra 2,11
12.Vayikra 7,13
13.Vayikra 23: 19-20
14.Menachot 68b
15.Ramban and Sforno Vayikra ibid, 17
16.ibid
17.Mitzva 307
18.Menachot 62a
19.Yirmiyahu 5,24
20.On Yirmiyahu 5,24
21.Kli Yakar Vayikra 23,17
22.Sifrei Devarim 33
23.Brachos 17a; see also Rabenu Bachye on Vayikra 2,11, and Bamidbar 28,26
24.Kiddushin 30b
25.Kli Yakar Vayikra 2,1; 6,10; 23,17
26.Pri Tzadik Shemos-Chamisha Asar Bishvat
27.Shemot 24,7
28.Divrei Sofrim 17
29.>Bamidbar Shavuos 5631, see also 5637
30.Vayikra 23
31.Likutei sichos 32 pg 134ff, 22 pg 31,32
BY BORUCH ALTEIN
CELEBRATING THE TORAH
8 Torah Scrolls as Amazing and Diverse as the Jewish PeopleThese scrolls, chosen for their unique history or appearance, are as diverse as the Jewish people they represent.
By Mordechai Lightstone
Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. While we did not get the actual Torah scroll until many years later, the nucleus of the Torah's wisdom was given to us on this holiday. Appropriately, we have chosen eight special Torah scrolls from across the Jewish world as a tribute to the document that binds us to each other and to G‑d. These scrolls, chosen for their unique history or appearance, are as diverse as the Jewish people they represent.
1. Slavita Sefer Torah
This scroll belonged to the Schapiro brothers, chassidic printers in the town of Slavita. They were falsely accused of murder and arrested by the czarist police in 1839. After being forced to run the gauntlet, they were held first in prison and later under house arrest for 17 years. While they were detained, this was the Torah they used. The Lubavitcher Rebbe (pictured above) treasured this Torah, which he received in 1954.
2. The world’s oldest complete Sefer Torah
This 800-year-old lambskin Torah was preserved in a library in Bologna, Italy, where it was mistakenly believed to be of much newer vintage. Its true age was discovered only in the spring of 2013.
Image source: Huffington Post
3. The Torah that went from the camps to the stars
This pocket-sized Torah was used for a secret bar mitzvah at the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen during the Holocaust. Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, took it with him into space, aboard the Columbia in 2003. Tragically, the Torah was lost along with Ramon and his six crewmembers when the space shuttle broke apart as it returned to earth’s atmosphere on February 1, 2003.
Image source: Jewish Journal
4. Mizrachi-style Torahs in upright cases
Unlike the more common European practice of draping the Torah in cloth, Asian Jews traditionally house their Torahs in ornate cylindrical cases. This particular Torah was dedicated to the welfare of all missing or kidnapped IDF soldiers. Noam Shalit, the father of then-kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, is pictured holding the the Torah during its dedication.
Image source: Flickr
5. Children’s Torah
In 1981 the Rebbe called for “the writing of a special Torah scroll for all Jewish boys and girls below bar/bat mitzvah.” Each child was to purchase an individual letter in the scroll with his or her own money.
The Rebbe set a number of requirements for this special Torah and those to follow: He fixed the price of a letter in the Torah scroll as one dollar, or its equivalent value in local currency. The Rebbe also asked for it to be written in Jerusalem, signifying the unity of the Jewish people. Though normally writing a Torah scroll takes close to a year, this scroll was completed in just over five months. To date, some two million children have purchased letters in five scrolls, and the campaign continues.
6. Aleppo Codex
Though not a Torah scroll itself, the Aleppo Codex—penned by the mysterious Ben-Asher in the 10th century CE—has been treasured as an authoritative guide for scribes. Over the years it has been been used by Maimonides, stolen by crusaders, held for ransom and saved from riots. Today the scroll, missing some sections, is kept in Israel.
Image source: Wikipedia
7. Torah scrolls of the Sephardic (Spanish) Diaspora
These scrolls, decorated with elaborate rimonim (lit., pomegranates) on top, belong to a synagogue in Casablanca, Morocco.
Image source: Flickr
8. Moshiach’s Sefer Torah
In 1942, as the Holocaust raged in Europe, the Previous Rebbe initiated the campaign to write a Torah with which to greet Moshiach. It was finished by his successor, the Rebbe, in 1970. Not wanting to be the only one to have the merit of its writing, the Previous Rebbe opened participation in its funding to Jews around the world, creating a truly unified scroll.
BY MORDECHAI LIGHTSTONE
Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone is a rabbi by training, but a blogger by choice. He is passionate about using new media to further Jewish identity and community building. Mordechai currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two sons, where he happily tweets between sips of espresso.
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More in Celebrating the Torah:
• His Torah or Our Torah? - What is it that He wants? Obedience or self-initiative? Compliance or creativity? (By Tzvi Freeman)
If we’re here to repair the world, it makes sense that we must have been given some sort of manual, something to tell us how to put the pieces together and what this world is supposed to look like once fixed. You would also expect some sort of hotline, for those times when the parts don’t fit together so well.
Sure, all the world is nothing more than G-d speaking to us. But it’s broken, remember? By the time that voice gets to us, it’s all noise and no signal. As much as we can know much from our study of the stars above, the rocks below and all the creatures that fill the earth, all we get is what is. What should be, that they do not tell us.
So we’re told that there is one clear signal detected from the heavens, and that is Torah. In Torah, G-d speaks and says, “Do this. Don’t do that.” Torah is not about what is, but what should be.
Yet even that is a very puzzling signal.
It begins with a writing that Moses gave to us after forty years of direct reception from Above. When? Where? Around the end of the Bronze Age, in the Sinai Desert, traveling from a collapsed Egyptian civilization, on our way to set up farm in the Promised Land.
What do we do with a Bronze Age agrarian Torah in the post-industrial global village?
So what do we do with a Bronze Age agrarian Torah in the post-industrial global village?
No problem. It is a living Torah—a “great voice that never stops.” Once in our hands, it grows, germinates, propagates and breathes life into all its pupils. We investigate, we argue with one another, we arrive at deeper meanings of His words, extend those meanings, innovate and make applications accordingly. And the labor never ends.
Hello, Operator?
But you have to ask yourself: Isn’t that strange? If it is G-d’s word, shouldn’t it be straightforward from the outset? Shouldn’t He be the one to dictate every decision? How could it be that we can only work things out by arguing with one another and innovating our own applications?
What ever happened to prophecy? Certainly that would be an effective means to keep the channels of communication open. And indeed, the Talmud often tells of Elijah the Prophet, a mortal who never really died, but ascended to the heavens in a fiery chariot. Since that time, Elijah would frequent one or two sages of each generation with messages from Above. Basically, our man in heaven.
The Talmud tells of a certain Rabbi Aviatar, who had a prolonged Torah debate with Rabbi Natan, arriving at no resolution. At some point, Rabbi Aviatar met up with Elijah and asked him, “So what does the Holy One, may He be blessed, have to say about our little dispute?”
Elijah answered, “He says, ‘Aviatar my son says like this, while Natan my son says like this…”
So much for directions from heaven.
And that’s not the end of it. Another time, all the sages held a great debate with the greatest among them, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanus. He presented argument after ingenious argument, but they could not come to agree. Finally, they all heard a voice came from heaven chide them, “Why do you argue with my child, Eliezer? Don’t you know he is always right?”
It was then that Rabbi Eliezer’s closest colleague, Rabbi Joshua ben Chananya, stood up and declared, “We cannot accept the testimony of a voice from heaven. The Torah is not in heaven. It was already given here to us to decide. And the Torah says, “In all difficult cases, you must rule according to the majority.’ (Exodus 23:2)”
And so it was decided, by majority vote, that Rabbi Eliezer was wrong. Which means that so was G-d.
And so it was decided, by majority vote, that Rabbi Eliezer was wrong. Which means that so was G-d.
Later, one of the rabbis who had been present met up with that same above-mentioned agent to heaven. He asked, perhaps somewhat nervously, “Elijah, please tell me: When we determined that Rabbi Eliezer was wrong, despite the voice from heaven, what did the Holy One, may He be blessed, have to say about that?”
Elijah replied, “He smiled and exclaimed, ‘My children have beat me! My children have beat me!’”
Not only does He see both sides—even when we disagree with Him, He acquiesces to our decisions.
Don’t Touch That Letter!
This wouldn’t be so puzzling, were it not for the other end of the stick: Has He given the entire thing over to us? Absolutely not.
King Solomon was the wisest of all men. If anyone would be allowed to play around with Torah, it would be him. And he did.
For one thing, the Torah—in the Book of Deuteronomy—instructs that a king must not have many wives. Solomon had a thousand wives. Being so wise, how did he justify himself? He said, “The Torah doesn’t just say ‘Don’t have too many wives!’ The Torah provides a reason: ‘Lest they turn his heart away.’ But I’m a wise man. My heart will not be turned away by having more wives. And, for the sake of international affairs, it’s vital that I have a wife from each nation and province in the world. This way, I will bring peace to the world!”
What happened then? Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai fills us in on the rest of the story:
The Book of Deuteronomy rose and prostrated itself before the Holy One, may He be blessed. “Master of the Universe!” it said. “You wrote in Your Torah that if a person annuls anything of his will and final testimony, he has annulled the whole thing. Which means that even if one small letter could be removed from me, even a fragment of the smallest letter, I am invalid. And now, here is Solomon attempting to invalidate these words from my text!”
To which G-d responded, “Solomon and a thousand like him will disappear, but not one word of you will ever disappear.”
If even Solomon the Wise could have been so subjective, what can we predict of our own decisions?
So here you have tremendous tension: On the one hand, it’s His Torah; we can’t change a thing—not one letter. After all, are you going to argue with the Master Programmer of all creation about how to fix up His own creation?
Further than that: it’s not about us, our understanding or desires at all. When we accepted it at Mount Sinai, we said, “We shall do and we shall obey.” It wasn’t just a matter of accepting a Higher Authority because He knows better. Accepting the Torah meant we are no longer our own beings. The Creator Himself spoke, and we lost all sense of existence. We became agents of the Infinite Light.
And yet, He put us in situations that demand we make decisions based on those instructions. And He relies on us entirely to make the right decision. So what is it that He wants? Obedience or self-initiative? Compliance or creativity?
Plugging In Your Brain…
The answer, once we realize it, is so obvious: We human creatures ourselves are also in need of fixing up. This process of wrestling with G-d’s word is our therapy.
Are we broken? Most of us would probably admit we are. But you don’t have to be broken to need fixing up. Moses himself disputed his brother Aaron’s application of Torah in one specific instance—and ended up admitting, “You were right and I was wrong.”
Prayer fixes up your heart. Struggling with Torah fixes up your brain.
Repair means that this created being must become one with its Creator—one through and through, in every cell of its being. That means not just the soul—the soul is one with G-d to begin with. It means the physical body, and the personality that inhabits that body.
Prayer takes care of your heart, to make room for G-d to dwell there. Many other mitzvahs take care of your actions, to the point that, “in all your ways you will know Him.” Torah takes care of the brain.How does a human brain become one with G-d? Not by Him doing our homework for us, but rather, by leaving it up to us to figure things out.
When that two-and-a-half pound slab of grey meat is entirely absorbed in trying to understand, “What exactly does G-d want of me in this situation? What do His words mean? How did the sages understand it? How do I understand it? Why am I not getting it? What am I missing?”
And then this human creature realizes he can’t get it on his own, so he debates with others, listens to their arguments, admits where he was wrong, defends where he was right, all the while plunging deeper and yet deeper into the issue.
If his mind is a memory tank, he must connect the dots between all he remembers. If his mind is a gushing fountain of creativity, he must squeeze out of it every ounce of innovation he can muster. Whatever skills and talents he has, all must be enlisted, one hundred percent, into grasping, “What is Torah telling me here?”
And then, after repeatedly smashing into dead-end walls in a dark maze, a flash of light sparks in his brain and everything is clear.
…and Lighting It Up
But, hold on—how did that spark-generating process begin? It began because an intelligent person was humble enough to admit, “I don’t understand G-d’s Torah.” And this person could have easily said, “So I guess it’s wrong.” But he doesn’t. Because his starting point is that this is the wisdom of the One who created me, so what makes my reasoning the measure of its truth?
When dealing with the Being that created you, that’s the only place to plug-in and start: It’s His Torah, not mine. If you’re not plugged in, nothing is going to light up. Plugged in not only to the words of the written Torah, but to the wisdom of all its sages who made decisions for the Jewish People throughout all the generations as well—since, after all, G-d Himself submitted to their decisions.
But once you’ve made that connection, the next step is to absorb the light, to let it penetrate every cell of your brain, through sweat and hard work. Until Torah is no longer a light that descends from above, but one that is generated by your very own mind. His Torah becomes your Torah.
That’s real Torah, in all its paradoxical essence: The place where G-d and man become one.
Likutei Sichot volume 19, page 254. Sefer HaSichot 5752, volume 2, pages 507–510.
BY TZVI FREEMAN
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, a senior editor at Chabad.org, also heads our Ask The Rabbi team. He is the author of Bringing Heaven Down to Earth. To subscribe to regular updates of Rabbi Freeman's writing, visit Freeman Files subscription.• A Bridge Across Infinity (By Eli Rubin)
What’s the Occasion?
Each year the festival of Shavuot is celebrated in commemoration
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| "Revelation" by Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik, nicejewishartist.com |
According to the Talmud, our forefather Abraham (and others before him) had studied the Torah3 and fulfilled its precepts centuries before it was “given” to his descendants at Sinai.4 In other words, a significant body of legislation and moral lore was already in existence long before the historic event described as “the giving of the Torah.” Indeed, even without the Talmudic tradition it would seem that all of the Ten Commandments given at Sinai are either philosophical axioms (e.g., monotheism), moral imperatives and ideals (e.g., do not murder, do not steal, honor your father and mother, do not covet), or previously received mandates (e.g., the Sabbath). In other words, not the sort of material that would seem to warrant a divine revelation—and certainly not one of such grandeur.5Does the Sinai revelation carry a game-changing message of universal application?
One might further question why such basic philosophical and moral axioms need be enforced by divine “command” at all. As intelligent and responsible human beings, we should act upon them purely by virtue of their own inherent ethical quality. Surely G‑d Himself desires us to act upon such imperatives because we know them to be good and right, rather than as dutiful executors of His command.
The question begs to be asked: What momentous innovation did “the giving of the Torah” at Sinai embody? Why is this event remembered and celebrated as the ultimate foundation of Torah authority and religious instruction?6
On a different note, was the revelation at Sinai relevant only to the Jewish people, or does it carry a game-changing message of universal application?
Ostensibly, it is its revelatory nature that makes the event at Sinai noteworthy. Abraham, his descendants and disciples had previously adhered to a moral and mystical code inspired by philosophical inquiry into the purpose of existence. Before the revelation at Sinai, Torah study was an effort made by man to gain knowledge of divine intent, and the mitzvot were an attempt to live accordingly. At Sinai, G‑d provided the Jewish people with inside knowledge of that purpose. The foundation of legislative authority is shifted from the relative standards of human logic and judgment to the absolute standard of a divine mandate.7
Upon deeper examination, however, it is difficult to argue that the unique relevance of “the occasion of the giving of our Torah” lies in its revelatory nature alone. Several commandments were given to the Jewish people by G‑d prior to the revelation at Sinai (including the laws of the Sabbath),8 and even Abraham had been a recipient of direct divine instruction.9 Likewise, it is difficult to argue that the unique historic significance of this revelation lies in it being an occurrence of mass prophecy. According to Talmudic sources, this would be the second time that the entirety of the Jewish people experienced prophecy, the first being on the occasion of the splitting of the Red Sea. “A maidservant saw at the sea that which Ezekiel son of Buzi never saw.”10
Cosmic Shift“The lower realms shall rise to the higher realms and the higher realms shall descend to the lower realms, and I will be the initiator.”
In Chabad chassidic literature the answer to these questions is drawn from a midrash whose striking assertion invests the historic significance and eternal relevance of “the giving of the Torah” with an innovation of cosmic magnitude:
“When the Blessed Holy One created the world, He decreed and said, ‘The heavens are heavens of the L‑rd, and the earth He gave to the offspring of Man.’11 When He sought to give the Torah, He nullified the earlier decree and said, ‘The lower realms shall rise to the higher realms and the higher realms shall descend to the lower realms, and I will be the initiator.’”12
Encapsulating an argument central to many Chabad texts dealing with this issue, the seventh rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, paraphrases the Midrash: “Before the giving of the Torah there was a decree . . . that the plane of divinity that is completely above the world shall not be drawn down into the lower realms. After the giving of the Torah, He nullified the earlier decree and said, ‘The lower realms shall rise to the higher realms and the higher realms shall descend to the lower realms,’ to the degree that the lower creations can become united with the dimension of divinity that is completely above the world.”13
The chassidic reading equates the midrashic “higher realms” and “lower realms” with a hierarchical conception of the relationship between divinity and created existence:
To one who creates and sustains a reality out of a complete void, that reality would seem to have no real consequence whatsoever. From this perspective, there is no reason that any of our actions or devotional efforts should bring us into any kind of relationship with divine essentiality. The “higher realms” are entirely transcendent relative to the “lower realms.”The very notions of selfhood and existence themselves are designations drawn from the reality constructed ex nihilo by the creator, and have no bearing at all on the essential “being” of divinity.
True, we speak of divine immanence within creation, and the very act of deliberate creation implies a descent from the divine self into an association with created existence. But to confine our conception of G‑d to the role of creator would be a mistake.
Only insofar as G‑d does condescend to perform that role may we surmise that created existence does serve some divinely ordained purpose. Through philosophical inquiry, Man may even achieve knowledge of that purpose and make effective efforts towards its realization.
There is yet no apparent reason to suggest that this is more than a “divine whim,” rather than something of essential value to the divine self. We might assume that the divine self far transcends the peripheral role of creator, and is only mildly interested in the outcome of the creative project. Certainly, there is no way for the created being—however intelligent—to attain knowledge of the essentiality of divine selfhood and existence, which might have no association at all with the created realm. The very notions of selfhood and existence are themselves designations drawn from the reality constructed ex nihilo by the creator, and have no bearing at all on the essential “being” of divinity.14 There can be no way to enter into coherent discourse with the utterly ineffable.
This was the state of affairs before the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Man’s purpose, Man’s attempt to perfect the world, indeed the very concept of perfection, remained apparently irrelevant to the essentiality of the divine self. For all we knew, it may have been no more than a peripheral whim. Created reality may have sought meaning, but in the face of the utterly unknowable, meaning itself—a concept that, like all others, is authored from the void—may be left bereft of true meaning.
At Sinai—the Torah tells us—“G‑d descended upon the mountain.”15 This From a legislative perspective the Ten Commandments are not revolutionary, but from a theological perspective —in terms of the subversion of the cosmic hierarchy embodied in these commandments—they are.is a vision of hierarchical disintegration and collapse. The mountain is the bridge that leads across the infinite gap between created earth and the ultimate transcendence of the loftiest heaven. From this point on, man would be able to enjoy a direct relationship with the essentiality of the divine self. This is the moment when a cosmic shift of immense significance occurs: “The lower realms shall rise to the higher realms and the higher realms shall descend to the lower realms, and I”—says G‑d—“will be the initiator.”
The significance of the Sinaitic revelation as the moment when the essential ineffability of the divine self is communicated within the created realm is alluded to in the opening statement of the Ten Commandments—“I am the L‑rd your G‑d.” Here uniquely, the word used for “I” is the Egyptian anochi rather than the Hebrew ani used elsewhere in the Torah. According to the Talmud,16 the word anochi is employed because it is an acronym for ana nafshi ketavit yehavit, an Aramaic phrase that expresses the unique depth and intimacy embodied in the giving of the Torah. G‑d is saying to the Jewish people, “I have written My very self into the Torah and given it over to you.17 In giving you the Torah, I am giving you My deepest essentiality.”18
The true significance of the innovation embodied in “the giving of the Torah” is difficult to articulate precisely because it transcends any quantitative or qualitative measure. The innovation does not lie in the details: not in the precepts that were communicated, nor in the earth-shatteringly spectacular nature of the revelation. This is not about the path, but about where the path leads. The giving of the Torah at Sinai was the event that revolutionized the significance of organized religion and reinvented the relationship between Man and G‑d. From a legislative perspective the Ten Commandments are not revolutionary, but from a theological perspective—in terms of the subversion of the cosmic hierarchy embodied in these commandments—they are.The Rebbe’s answer was breathtaking in its simplicity. “It’s not for G‑d,” he said, “it’s for us.”
In a video interview recently published by Jewish Educational Media (JEM), a lawyer by the name of David Stauber recalled his 1973 meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. By his own account, Stauber “had [at the time] a very skeptical and aggressive attitude towards Judaism.” He asked the Rebbe a single question: “If G‑d is so great, why does he insist on all these tiny details?” Reflecting on the conversation years later, he enlarged on the point: “It seemed to upset Him [G‑d] if you missed one . . . if you used a meat spoon in the cottage cheese, you have to bury it and pull your hair out . . .19 I could never get that; it really was beyond me . . .” The Rebbe’s answer was breathtaking in its simplicity. “It’s not for G‑d,” he said, “it’s for us. G‑d wants us close to Him, and this is the path that He gives us.” The Rebbe’s response cast the commandments of the Torah in a whole new light. As Stauber puts it, G‑d is providing us with “a means to find proximity”—a means to create the deepest possible relationship with the divine self.
No longer must we resort to any kind of philosophical, mystical, sociological or psychological rationalization to justify the rituals mandated by the Torah. The real significance of such precepts lies not only in their quantitative or qualitative value, but in the divine essentiality with which they are imbued.20
Endless Possibility
Such a view of the Sinaitic revelation and its significance forces us to re-examine the very nature of morality. Given the supreme moral authority of the divine mandate, what role does natural moral intuition play? Led into discourse with the unknowable essence of the divine self, can the moral compass of human instinct maintain bearing and relevance, or is it rendered useless in the face of directionless inconceivability?Led into discourse with the unknowable essence of the divine self, is the human moral compass rendered useless by directionless inconceivability?
To phrase the question slightly differently: While the path of Torah may allow us to embody divine essentiality, can the Torah communicate such absolute ineffability in terms coherent to, and consistent with, human sensibilities and rational considerations?21 Are we forced to treat Torah as pure and absolute dogma to which any human reason must surrender absolutely? Is any attempt at reason futile and self-defeating in the face of the ineffable essence of the divine self?
To answer these questions, we need to digress into the most esoteric of theosophic abstractions. In Kabbalistic literature, the most essential core of divine selfhood is referred to as “without limit” (ein sof). In the words of the fifth rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneersohn (Rashab), this term “negates all descriptions: it is the negation of finitude and the negation of infinitude, the negation of positive designation and the negation of negative designation.”22
Free of any definition, the possibilities are endless. As Rashab puts it, the term “without limit” (ein sof) precludes all descriptions “and by extension includes all within it.” At its very apex, the hierarchy of divine transcendence may itself be transcended, and the ineffable may be communicated.
In giving us the Torah, G‑d chose to communicate the ineffable, chose to become coherently accessible.23 The revelation at Sinai created a situation where man’s rational mind and moral compass can fully assimilate and reflect the ultimate potency of the divine self. Revelation does not render our moral compass obsolete. Revelation is the magnet that provides the compass with direction.24
But revelation is only half of the equation; by descending upon the mountain, G‑d began a process. It is incumbent upon us, however, to finish the job. After telling us that “G‑d descended upon the mountain,” the Torah tells us that Moses followed the instruction to “ascend” the mountain.25 Just as G‑d transcends the bounds of infinitude, so must we transcend our own limitations. It is for us to apply ourselves with rigor of mind and openness of heart to objectively discover and subjectively assimilate the mandated precepts of the Torah. It is for us finite beings to walk the bridge across infinity.
A “Higher” WorldWhile the Torah was given to the Jewish people, the revelation at Sinai was of momentous import to all of humanity.
In several instances the Rebbe pointed out that while the Torah was given to the Jewish people, the revelation at Sinai was of momentous import to all of humanity. In a classic piece of rabbinic hermeneutics, the Rebbe highlighted a passage in Maimonides’ code of Jewish law, Mishneh Torah,26 which carries two apparently opposing messages. The passage begins with an exclusionary statement: “Moses our teacher did not bequeath the Torah and the commandments to anyone but the Jews . . . and to anyone who wishes to convert from the other nations.” Maimonides continues, however, to assert that the commandments to the Jewish people include a mandate to enforce a universal code of law for all mankind. While the universal code consists entirely of moral precepts and civil ordinances, Maimonides writes that a non-Jew who lives according to the code can be considered “a righteous gentile” only if he or she does so “because G‑d commanded so in the Torah, and made it known through Moses our teacher that mankind had previously been commanded such.”
This seems rather strange: Since the command delivered at Sinai is directed at the Jewish people specifically, it would appear that the non-Jew is not actually obligated by that command. It is only the Jew who is obligated by divine command to promote the universal code. Why, then, is it not sufficient for the non-Jew to follow such a civil and moral code simply by virtue of his or her own moral instinct? Why must the non-Jew consciously act in fulfillment of a mandate prescribed to the Jewish people at Sinai?
This anomaly is resolved if we take into account the cosmic theological shift embodied in the revelation at Sinai: The Jews were given the Torah in order to bridge the gap between heaven and earth, and raise the entirety of the “lower realm” into the “higher realm.” Such a project calls for a collaborative endeavor in which all the people of the world work to build a “higher” form of society. Many of us envision a civilization that upholds a moral code for the just governance and mutual good of all the world. But the Torah vision of a higher world is far more ambitious. The Sinai mandate is to make all existence utterly transparent to the ineffable core of the divine self.If all mankind acted out of the reverential volition that such awareness might inspire, the world would be a higher place indeed.
A universal code of moral and civil legislation can reflect and communicate the absolute potency of the divine self only if it is consciously practiced in fulfillment of the mandate prescribed at Sinai. Without that condition, the significance of such ordinances may be reduced to selfish utility. Reduced to selfish utility, such a code is left bereft of real significance and potency, and risks deterioration or manipulation into amoral barbarism.27 With that condition, even the smallest act for the good is imbued with the absolute significance invested in it by the very essence of the divine self. If all mankind acted out of the reverential volition that such awareness might inspire, the world would be a higher place indeed.28
It was the Jewish people who were charged with the Torah mandate, but in order to achieve its implementation, they must enter into a partnership with all of humanity.29 According to the Midrash,30 the Ten Commandments were transmitted in all the seventy languages of the world, a mark of the universal relevance of the Sinai revelation to all of mankind.31 By harnessing ourselves to the divine cause revealed to the Jewish people at Sinai, all of humanity may rise higher than any human ideal. Together, we are empowered to walk the bridge across infinity, so that all reality embodies and communicates the infinite potency of divine being.32 Together, we can achieve the ultimate subversion of the cosmic hierarchy.
FOOTNOTES
1.Text of the festival liturgy.
2.See Exodus 19–20; Yalkut Shimoni, Exodus 19; Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 88a–89b.
3.Kiddushin 82a.
4.Yoma 28b.
5.See the discourse entitled Ve-Chol Ha-Am, Sefer ha-Maamarim 5706 (Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society, 1986), 94.
6.See Maimonides, Commentary to the Mishnah (Tractate Chullin, chapter 7): “All that we abstain from or practice today, we do or do not do at the command of G‑d to Moses, not because it was commanded to the prophets before him. For instance, the fact that we do not eat a limb from a living animal is not because G‑d forbade it to Noah, but because Moses forbade it to us by the command at Sinai . . .” See also sources cited below, n. 26.
7.See Sefer Ha-Arachim Chabad (Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society, 1970), 1:24–26, and the sources cited there.
8.See Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 56b.
9.Among other things, he was famously commanded to circumcise himself and the male members of his household at the age of ninety nine. See Genesis 17.
10.Mechilta, Beshalach, Shirah 3.
11.Psalms 115:16.
12.Genesis Rabbah 12:3; Tanchuma, Va’eira 15.
13.Likkutei Sichot 15:77.
14.For more on the essential nature of divine being, see here and here.
15.Exodus 19:20.
16.Shabbat 105a.
17.Ibid.
18.Likkutei Sichot 4:1093; Sefer ha-Maamarim Melukat 3:338; Likkutei Torah (Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society, 2002), Shelach 48d.
19.Although this is entirely beside the point, it should be noted that in such a case the law would actually not require you to bury the spoon nor pull your hair out. In such a case, a competent halachic authority should be consulted as to how to proceed.
20.See the discourse entitled Ve-Chol Ha-Am referenced in note 5 above, and sources cited in Likkutei Sichot 15:75, n. 1.
21.See the discourse entitled Ki Yish’alcha Bincha, in Sefer ha-Maamarim Melukat 3:144. There the potential dichotomy between embodiment and communication is described in terms of hamshachah and gilui. Often these words are perceived as being interchangeable, but in truth there is an important distinction to be drawn between the two forms of relationship that they describe. The term hamshachah translates literally as “drawing down,” and may be associated with water that flows (is nimshach) from a fountain into an opaque receptacle; the very same water that was earlier present in the source is now present in the receptacle, but due to the opacity of the receptacle, the water cannot be seen. The term gilui translates as “disclosure,” and may be associated with light that radiates (is nisgaleh) from the sun to reach the earth; the sun itself remains in the heavens and is not present on earth, but nevertheless its light extends beyond the sun’s own parameters and illuminates the earth.
Another application: The biological connection between a father and son may be unknown to both of them, and yet it is there; the son is a product, an extension—or a hamshachah—of the father’s own self whether he knows who his father is or not. Conversely, the relationship between a teacher and a pupil is one of gilui: the teacher imparts knowledge and insight, which the student may assimilate, but their relationship remains ethereal; the student does not in any way embody the teacher’s physical self. Of course, while the differences between hamshachah and gilui must be recognized, sometimes both elements may coincide in the same context. An example might be the case of a father and son who have benefited from an involved and positive paternal relationship; in such a case their biological bond will be reflected in more manifest ways, and an observer will likely notice many overt similarities between their respective mannerisms, inclinations and attitudes.
Hamshachah refers to the actual embodiment of one thing in something else; gilui is the coherent communication of something to something else. Here, the issue at hand is as follows: If ineffable divine essentiality (atzmus) is drawn down (nimshach) via the study of Torah and the fulfillment of mitzvot, does any rational or humanly conceived attempt to coherently relate to the divine mandate retain relevance. Can the ineffable be coherently communicated? Can we enter into a relationship with the core of divine selfhood that extends to the realm of gilui?
22.Yom Tov Shel Rosh ha-Shanah 5666 (Brooklyn: Kehot Publication Society, 1991), 168. See also Avodat ha-Kodesh 1:8.
23.See the discourse entitled Ki Yish’alcha Bincha (referenced in note 21).
24.See below, note 27.
25.Exodus 19:20.
26.Laws of Kings 8:10–11.
27.For more on this topic, see Tzvi Freeman, Humanity, Humanism, Holocaust: The War Against the Divine Image in Man; Yitzchok Block, What Is Morality?
28.See Tzvi Freeman, The Discovery of Planet Earth: On the Seven Universal Laws of Life.
29.See Likkutei Sichot 20:140– 141.
30.Genesis Rabbah 28.
31.Likkutei Sichot 4:1094.
32.Likkutei Sichot, loc. cit. and 20:140, n. 27.
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I’m Pharaoh—and I’m MosesJust how do you propose to run a nation if not modeled on the cosmic pyramid?
By Tzvi Freeman
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• Healing Secrets of the Sages (By Simcha Gottlieb)
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• A Vision for the Ages (By Moishe New)
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WOMEN
Life Worth Celebrating: A Chuppah 25 Years LateIt all started one year ago, as my husband Felix and I were celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary . . .
by Katherine Agranovich
Who would have thought that after 25 years of civil
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| The chuppah (wedding canopy) |
It all started one year ago, as my husband Felix and I were celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary at a restaurant in Las Vegas. As we were enjoying our dessert of rich chocolate cake, my phone rang. “Happy Anniversary! Best of everything for many years to come,” my mom’s voice exclaimed. “So, what are you going to do next year for your 25th?” she asked before hanging up.I’ve always wanted to see Paris
“Let’s just go somewhere,” Felix suggested, answering the question. “Just the two of us. How about Paris?”
My eyes lit up. I’ve always wanted to see Paris, and celebrating our big day at the top of the Eiffel Tower, watching the sun set over the sparkling lights of the city, would be a dream come true.
But I surprised both myself and my husband by responding with something completely different—the opposite of what he’d suggested!
“What I’d really like to do is celebrate our day with people who matter to us, whom we love, cherish and adore. People who have been there for us for the past 25 years, guiding us, supporting us, and sharing our journey . . . Oh!” I exclaimed, as I realized what I wanted. “I’d like for us to have a chuppah and invite our rabbis from Chabad of Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and San Clemente. After all, they’ve contributed greatly to our religious unfolding and spiritual awakening, and I would like to acknowledge them for that.”
I don’t know what came over me at that moment, but suddenly there was this inner need—a deep craving that was definitely not coming from my socialist, atheistic, preprogrammed mind.
“A chuppah?” Felix glanced at me suspiciously. “Rabbis? Why? Besides, do you realize that if we invite all the rabbis, we have to serve kosher food? And we could care less about eating kosher, so why pay extra for that on top of everything else?”
The happy bride
I had to admit that my logical and practical husband was right. Even though our family is, in many ways, spiritual (I meditate, eat organic, read New Age self-help books and occasionally attend High Holiday services at our local Chabad), in no way are we observant.
However, in my heart I already knew that what I was proposing had to be. There was this profound sense of surety and knowing, a sign that my inspiration was coming directly from my neshamah, my eternal soul. I just needed to convey to my husband’s I don’t know what came over me at that momentintellect—and my own—that when there is this deep sense of certainty, it is G‑d’s way of telling us what to do. And that it would be wise to listen.
You see, when we originally got married 25 years ago, back in Soviet Russia, there were no religious weddings of any sort, especially for Jews. Judaism was considered a nationality, marked on the fifth line of your passport, something to be ashamed of and persecuted for. Our ceremony had been a civil one, like everyone else’s, conducted by a stern and serious Communist Party official at city hall. The marriage license proved we were legally married, but it had nothing to do with spirituality.
And now, so many years later, flourishing in America, we were free to make a conscious choice about how we wanted our wedding ceremony to be. And it felt more right than ever to invite G‑d into our celebration—and into our marriage. This chuppah ceremony would mean to us, Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union, so much more than just fulfilling another commandment in the Torah. It would symbolize our freedom in this country, where we are allowed to be who we really are, to be freely and fully self-expressed—not just as people and citizens, but as G‑dlike, Jewish-soul-pulsing human beings.
It’s been a year since that day in Vegas, and finally, on Sunday, January 5, 2014, following G‑d’s inspiration, and after much fun and joy, imagining, planning, creating and praying, He has made it happen in the most perfect way possible.
My heart is pounding with excitement as I walk down the aisle toward my chuppah, which stands gracefully, like a glorious crown, rising majestically against a backdrop of topaz-blue sky and glistening, aquamarine ocean. The chuppah canopy is made of shimmery white tulle with gold Hebrew lettering, maroon-red roses entwining its poles.
With each step, my heart fills with such joy, as My heart fills with such joyif G‑d Himself is walking next to me, guiding, supporting and loving me, guarding my every step. And as I continue to walk toward my glowing husband waiting beneath our chuppah, my precious Mama and Papa, parents-in-law, five children, dear friends and sweet, greatly adored rabbis all beam with pride and joy. At some point I burst into blissful laughter, realizing that life, indeed, is worth celebrating. And that just as I’m using this event as an opportunity to consciously surrender to Him and to let Him in, I can choose to do the same in every moment, turning toward Him and allowing Him into every nuance of my life.
And nothing feels greater, or more profoundly right, than walking down my human path, immersed in the brilliant light of my Creator.
Thank you, Batsheva, and thank you, Pedouth, for making this experience magical and unforgettable, forever embedded in our hearts and the hearts of our guests.
BY KATHERINE AGRANOVICH
Dr. Katherine (Rivka) Agranovich was born in Belarus, FSU, and now lives in Orange County, California, with her husband and five children. She is a doctor of natural health and the founder of a holistic health clinic. Katherine is passionate about studying Judaism, and enjoys writing. She is the published author of Tales of My Large, Loud, Spiritual Family.LIFESTYLES
Cupcake BouquetThis edible bouquet is an easy way to brighten up your table and impress your guests on Shavuot.
By Faygie Goldner
When I think of Shavuot, I think of flowers. The house smells like a garden, and big bouquets adorn the tables.
One of the classes I am most asked to teach is the cupcake flower bouquet, and with Shavuot right around the corner, I can’t think of a better time to learn! This edible bouquet is an easy way to brighten up your table and impress your guests.
You will need:
- Terra pot or vase of your choice
- Styrofoam ball
- Toothpicks
- Green tissue paper
- 1M rose tip
- Leaf tip (any size)
- Cupcakes
- Pink or red icing
- Green icing
- 2 decorating bags (if you don’t have a decorating bag, you can use 2 large heavy-duty Ziploc bags)
NOTE: You can find basic cake and icing recipes in this post.
Directions:
1. Place your tips in your decorating bags and fill with icing. The 1M tip goes with the pink/red icing; the leaf tip goes with the green icing.
2. Pipe the buttercream roses. Using the 1M tip, gently press down in the center of your cupcake. Lift up and, while still applying pressure, drag your tip around the cupcake going outward, creating the rose.
3. Let the cupcakes set for a bit while you do the next step. You can also put them in the fridge to firm up faster.
4. Place the Styrofoam ball in the pot or vase of your choice. Choose your size depending on how many flowers you would like in your bouquet.
5. Stick two toothpicks close together into the Styrofoam as shown—this will attach your cupcake to the ball. Gently press your cupcake onto the toothpicks to secure. Make sure not to press too hard or too quickly, or your toothpick may go through your cupcake and pop out the icing end. If this happens, take a toothpick and poke holes into the bottom of your cupcake so it can slide onto the toothpick more easily (see photo). Note that the bottom layer of toothpicks is angled upward to make sure the cupcakes don’t fall off the toothpicks!
6. Take green tissue paper and cut it into squares. Crunch the paper and gently stick it between the roses so that no Styrofoam shows through.
7. Using your leaf tip, squeeze some leaves around your flowers to give the bouquet a more realistic look. Use the leaves to fill in any gaps you see.
Step back and take a look; you just made your first cupcake flower bouquet!
BY FAYGIE GOLDNER
See more of Faygie Goldner's creations at Cup of Cake NJ.
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More in Lifestyles:
• Shavuot Recipe Roundup (By Miriam Szokovski)
The traditional dairy food on Shavuot can make menu planning a little trickier, so I've put together some suggestions for you. Between these appetizers, soups, salads, mains, desserts and non-dairy dairy-style options, I hope you'll find some cooking inspiration.
Appetizers
1. Cheese Balls
2. Homemade Tortilla Chips with Guacamole
3. Easy Olive Pizza Puffs
4. Cheesy Corn Latkes
Soups
1. Nearly Instant Vegan Thai Coconut Corn Soup
2. Ginger Infused Roasted Carrot Soup
3. Very Healthy Zucchini Soup
4. Carrot Quinoa Spinach Soup
Salads
1. Greek Salad
2. Greek Pasta Salad
3. Grilled Radicchio with Goat Cheese Fondue Dressing
4. Creamy Yellow Dressing - this dressing goes well with pretty much any vegetable salad.
Fish Main Dishes
1. Baja Fish Tacos with Chipotle Mayonnaise
2. Mediterranean Baked Trout with Fennel Salad
3. Herbed Tilapia
4. Fresh Sea Bass with Grapefruit Relish
Other Main Dishes
1. Cheese Enchiladas
2. Spaghetti Squash Baked Ziti
3. Spinach Cheddar Calzone
4. Thin Crust Pizza
Non-Dairy Options
1. Cheeseless Cheesecake
2. Vegan Garlic Gnocchi with Creamy Mushroom Sauce
3. Non-dairy Mac and Cheese Bake and other dairy-free recipes.
4. Tofu with Stir Fried Bok Choy
Desserts
1. Layered No Bake Cheesecake Cups
2. Vanilla Ice Cream with Cinnamon and Chocolate Bits
3. Pavlova
4. Healthier Baked Cheesecake
Get Creative!
1. Decorate your table with these Distressed Mason Jar Vases
2. Mount Sinai Cake
3. Set up a Shavuot Ice Cream Party for your guests, children and/or grandchildren.
See here for more Shavuot recipes. Or check out our food site for all our recipes.
Happy Shavuot!
• Genesis 3:4–9 Gold and Rainbow (By Alyse Radenovic)
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
Artist’s Statement: This is my painting of the full Hebrew text of Genesis 3:4–9. It is painted in gold, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.
JEWISH NEWS
From All-Night Learning to Delectable Dessert, Prepping for ShavuotThe cows were milked, the cheesecakes have been ordered from Israel, and the handouts are copied and collated. Like thousands of others, Rabbi Chaim Hillel and Devora Leah Azimov of Northern Cyprus are preparing for Shavuot.
By Menachem Posner
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| Rabbi Chaim Hillel Azimov of Northern Cyprus has prepared a special batch of cheese and other dairy items for this week's holiday of Shavuot. |
However, unlike their counterparts in Israel or more established Jewish population centers, the Azimovs must either import or make everything they serve—something they say they’ve gotten used to since they first arrived on the sun-drenched Mediterranean island in 2008.
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is celebrated the evening of Tuesday, June 3, through the evening of Thursday, June 5, commemorates the day that G‑d descended on Mount Sinai and proclaimed the Ten Commandments to the nascent Nation of Israel, whom He had just rescued from Egyptian slavery 50 days earlier.
Hebrew, English, Russian, Spanish and, of course, Turkish will be heard as the Azimovs and their flock of natives and tourists begin the holiday celebration with prayer services, followed by a festive meal. Then the rabbi will be joined by a handful of congregants who plan to study Torah for the rest of the night, following an ancient tradition found in the Zohar and other mystical writings.
In Bozeman, Mont., Rabbi Chaim Bruk says his community will hold an all-night learning session for the very first time.
“We plan to light candles at 8:50 in the evening, pray, and have our holiday meal. By 11 o’clock, we’ll be sitting down to learn, and that is what we will do until daybreak,” says Bruk, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Montana with his wife, Chavie. He notes that a number of community members have already committed to be with him when the sun rises on Shavuot morning.
Like hundreds of other communities, the Bozeman group will base their studies on a curriculum prepared by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) called “All Night at Sinai.”
Longer Night Than Most
While the night is relatively short in the Northern Hemisphere, Rabbi Yonason Johnson, who leads Kollel Menachem Lubavitch in Melbourne, Australia, says he is planning an eight-hour program to last the long winter night.
“From 10 to midnight, we will have symposium-style discussions geared toward the wider community that we expect to attract several hundred people,” reports Johnson . “Then, from midnight to the morning, we will have more intense classes on Jewish law, ranging from one individual’s responsibility for another’s wrongdoing to the halachic standards for a mechitzah.”
Since the night is so long, Johnson notes that many attendees recite Tikkun Leil Shavuot—a condensation of the entire Torah, with selections from Tanakh, Mishnah, Zohar and Maimonides’ listing of the 613 mitzvahs—and still have time to join the classes that interest them.
According to the Zohar, the nightlong learning is but a preparation for the following morning, akin to a bride preparing for her wedding day.
Accordingly, even after a full night of learning, Bruk and his Montana community will be back at the synagogue by midmorning for a special holiday prayer service that includes the reading of the Ten Commandments from the Torah scroll—an event that the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, encouraged every Jew to attend, even small children.
In order to make the daytime services attractive to children, Chabad centers host special ice-cream parties, in line with the time-honored tradition of eating dairy food on Shavuot. While in the past, the Bozeman community delayed the Torah reading until the afternoon so that children would be able to attend after school, Bruk proudly notes that his community has progressed to the level of Jewish awareness and observance that many of them keep their kids home on the holiday and plan to bring them to services in the morning.
All About the Kids
Dix Hills, N.Y., Rabbi Dovid Weinbaum has recently joined Rabbi Yaacov and Zoey Saacks at the Chabad-affiliated Chai Center, where he serves as youth director.
Weinbaum says that between a children’s program during the holiday evening meal and lecture, one the next morning during services where kids will join the adults to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments and another special reading of the commandments in the afternoon for the 100-plus kids in Hebrew school, he will teach and entertain as many as 250 youngsters during the course of the two-day holiday.
While the kids are sure to pile on the ice-cream, more discriminating palates can satisfy their dairy desires with quiches, cheesecakes, traditional blintzes and lasagnas (click here for great Shavuot recipes)—requiring Azimov, the Cypriote rabbi, to supervise the milking of the cows right after Passover, so that a specially supervised run of kosher cheese and other delicacies will be ready for congregants after services on Wednesday morning.
Yet he notes that the food—however fresh and scrumptious it may be—is but a small component of the holiday.
“We gather to pray, to study and to celebrate,” says Azimov, “and it’s really special that the children will be there with us.”
The Azimov children—Chana Miriam, Chaya Mushka and Menachem Mendel—know their way around livestock on the sun-drenched island where they live.
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More in Jewish News:• New Facility for 4,000 Jewish Students at Florida State (By Mindy Rubenstein, Chabad.edu)
In terms of Jewish life, Florida is hotter than ever. And that applies to the student situation as well.
At Florida State University, for example, the Jewish student body has been growing at a significant rate, and accordingly, the Chabad center that’s there to serve them has continued to grow as well, meeting their needs as they vary and develop.
Chanie and Schneur Oirechman moved to Tallahassee, Fla., the state’s capital, about 15 years ago. At the time, they were operating Chabad-Lubavitch of the Panhandle-Tallahassee and Chabad at FSU from their five-bedroom home, using three of the bedrooms and the main living space for programs, classes and hosting guests.
About a dozen students regularly came to programs in the beginning. That number rose to as many as 100 after just a few years.
“As our family grew (they are the parents of eight children) and Chabad grew, we needed a new facility,” says Chanie Oirechman, who is originally from Israel. Nine years ago, the couple moved into a new building, and again the time has come for them to expand.
Last month they purchased a 3-acre property on the edge of campus, with plans to knock down the building that’s there (a church) and construct a new one. The new Chabad center is expected to be about 20,000 square feet—four times larger than their current building and closer to campus as well.
Chabad hosted 500 people at their recent Passover seders—one for students and one for the community—for a total cost of $35,000. Florida Gov. Rick Scott was there, as he is for many Chabad events, including the annual Chanukah public menorah-lighting. The Oirechmans gave out 1,000 menorahs during Chanukah and typically host hundreds of students for holidays.
One-on-One Relationships
“We do see a lot of growth,” she says of FSU’s Jewish student body, and “there’s a great need” for the services Chabad provides.
They estimate that roughly 4,000 Jewish students attend FSU—a number that’s steadily climbing. The couple also serves the local Jewish community, which includes about 1,500 families and individuals.
As for FSU, in addition to a champion football team, the school boasts one of the top law schools in the country. “The school is getting better and better. And there is more of a need for structured Jewish life,” says Rabbi Schneur Oirechman. “More and more students want to come be a part of it.”
The new facility will include a synagogue, library, dining room, laundry room and a gym—basically, a one-stop spot for student needs. While the Oirechmans currently provide some kosher food to students who request it, with the expansion they plan to implement more meal options for a nominal fee.
While their events, services and programs tend to bring a lot of Jewish students together, a big part of Chabad’s success on campus has been with their one-on-one relationships.
“We’ve impacted a lot of students this way,” says the rabbi. In fact, he estimates that 15 to 20 couples have met through Chabad and gotten married.
The $1 million property was purchased thanks to Moris (Moshe) and Lilian Tabacinik, who are well-known philanthropists, especially in Florida, where they reside. The Oirechmans will continue to fundraise to build the new facility.
‘Fulfillment and Meaning’
Anna Marks-Shafton, 22, of Sarasota, Fla., became Shomer Shabbat (observant) in large part because of Chabad and the Oirechmans. Originally from Sarasota, she recently graduated from FSU with a degree in hospitality.
The Oirechmans had suggested that she attend IsraeLinks, a Chabad on Campus program that offers college students an in-depth exploration of Israel and their Jewish heritage. After her trip last summer, Marks-Shafton says she came home transformed and next year plans to attend seminary in Jerusalem.
The graduating senior has regularly attended Chabad classes and programs for four years. “It completely changed my life, changed my direction,” she says. “I now have a feeling of fulfillment and meaning.”
Michelle Faidengold of Westin, Fla., who graduates this month with a degree in marketing management, started going to Chabad her very first week at school.
The 22-year-old notes that she grew up traditional, but learned more from taking classes—and the ensuing deep conversations—at Chabad. She was very active with Chabad all four years on campus and even created the Chabad at FSU Facebook page.
Faidengold studied at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies program in Jerusalem during the summer between her sophomore and junior years, which she describes as a “totally different experience” for her in that it added vibrancy and helped really connect her to her Judaism.
On a more personal level, the Oirechman family has had a huge impact on her life, she says. She has spent quality time with them, helping prepare Shabbat meals each week, and sharing holidays and university-related events.
“I always call Chanie and ask for guidance. She always gives me good advice,” says Faidengold, adding that the highlight of her time at FSU has been her connection with Chabad.
For her part, Chanie Oirechman says she just tries to be there to offer support. And she adds that the college students boost her family as well: “Our kids have benefited a lot from all the people who come to our home.”
Faidengold, however, attributes the credit right back to them.
“When people go to college, they try to find themselves. Many just let loose before marriage and a career,” she says, emphasizing that Chabad was her “rock”—a constant source of connection and spirituality. “I was very fortunate to have a home away from home.”
Continues Faidengold: “I definitely applaud and appreciate their dedication and hard work, the excitement and joy they bring, and the way they move to an area like Tallahassee that has no Jewish community and dedicate their lives to teaching people about Judaism.”
Chabad holds classes, events and holiday programs for university students, and also hosts more casual activities, like this barbecue.
• Caribbean Islands Offer Sand, Sea—and Full Access to Jewish Services (By Menachem Posner)
Summer has come early to Puerto Rico, and in the backdrop of such balmy weather, a local businessman named Chaim found himself sitting recently around a table laden with kosher food, together with a dozen black-hatted, bearded rabbis. It was a far cry from when he first landed on the U.S. territory for business back in the winter of 1990.
“At that time, I was walking around the streets of Puerto Rico wearing a kipah or other head covering. Seeing that I was Jewish, people would approach me with questions, and I felt I needed a place to refer them to,” says the New Jersey native, who divides his time between his Teaneck home and his Puerto Rican business interests. “When I saw that I was going to be invested here in the long term, I recognized that this was a place ripe for a permanent Chabad presence.”
As the “founder” of the first Chabad center in the Caribbean and a key force behind its growth, Chaim—who requested that his full name not be published—was invited to be the lead speaker at the recent regional conference of Chabad rabbis earlier this month, which was attended by Chabad rabbis serving the Caribbean Islands, as well as two from Mexico (Cancun and Playa del Carmen) and senior Chabad officials from New York.
Chabad’s involvement in the Caribbean dates back nearly 60 years to 1957.
At the time, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, now the chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, and the late Rabbi Leibel Raskin, who went on to serve as a shaliach, or Chabad emissary, in Morocco, were sent by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—to travel from island to island, bringing Torah literature and a personal connection from the outside Jewish community to Jewish people in Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
Throughout the years, young “Roving Rabbis” also hopped from island to Island—even making clandestine visits to Cuba. In 1999, Rabbi Mendel and Rochie Zarchi would be the first Chabad couple to move full-time to serve local Jewish residents and the numerous tourists who flock year-round to the Caribbean’s emerald seas and pristine sands.
Beyond Puerto Rico, Rabbi Zarchi quickly became the point person for Judaism in the Caribbean, as communities turned to him to facilitate certain services, as well as entreat the presence of “Roving Rabbis” sent from the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y. In time, he worked with headquarters and donors to bring permanent Chabad couples to a growing number of islands.
‘A Beautiful Place to Live’
Nine Chabad couples now call the Caribbean islands home, two serve Mexico's Carribean coast—and more are on their way.
Joining the Zarchis, Rabbi Asher and Henya Federman moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2005. They were followed by Shimon and Michal Pelman, who moved to the Dominican Republic in 2008. The following year, Rabbi Moshe and Simcha Nemni founded Chabad-Lubavitch of Martinique, and Rabbi Moishe and Sara Chanowitz settled in St. Maarten.
On the Mexican coast, Rabbi Mendel and Rachel Druk opened the doors of Chabad Jewish Center of Cancun in 2006, and Rabbi Mendel and Chaya Goldberg opened a branch in Playa del Carmen in 2010.
Chabad of Puerto Rico opened a satellite branch in Old San Juan under the directorship of Rabbi Levi and Leah Stein in 2011. In 2013, Rabbi Berel and Rikal Pewzner moved to Grand Cayman Island; Rabbi Boruch and Chaya Rozmarin set up a Chabad on Campus for Jewish medical students in Grenada; and Rabbi Ahron and Chaya Blasberg made Aruba their home in the very end of December, catching the last few weeks of the major tourist season.
“We heard that the folks with timeshares were still on the island, and we hopped on a plane,” says Rabbi Blasberg, who was born in Israel and is married to a native of Leeds, England. “It’s really a beautiful place to live. People have been so welcoming to us. On Passover, we had 70 people at our seder the first night, and the next night we had 30 guests—almost all locals.”
.Blasberg is quick to point out that the warm reception is largely due to the personal connections and goodwill fostered by the young rabbis who have been visiting the island for decades. In fact, the Jewish prime minister of the Dutch state, Mike Eman, has had a longstanding relationship with these Chassidic men, from whom he even received his own pair of tefillin.
While Chabad on Aruba is still in its infancy, the Chabad centers in some of the other islands have grown beyond anyone’s expectation. Both Puerto Rico and St. Thomas boast daily prayer services, kosher catering facilities and satellite welcome centers near cruise terminals. They are also in the midst of constructing spacious new centers that will host mikvahs and other amenities.
“Having a daily minyan was one of our early priorities,” says Chaim, who notes that he never missed a day of Kaddish during the respective years of mourning for both of his parents, thanks to the consistent services at Chabad of Puerto Rico. “It’s just beautiful to see people—some of whom may have become distanced from Judaism at one point or another, and others who never put on tefillin in their lives—coming every day to Chabad to pray, and whose lives were changed.”
Eighty miles of blue sea to the east, Rabbi Federman says he sees similar dynamics.
“There was a family whose child recently celebrated a birthday, and they wanted our children to be able to come to the party,” he recalls. “So they had the whole party catered by our kosher food service. There has been an enhancement of Jewish awareness and observance that is just amazing to see.”
Federman explains that the center currently being built, which is being constructed with seed money supplied by the late philanthropist Sami Rohr family on a hilltop with a sweeping panoramic view of the ocean, will help accommodate the crowd, in addition to creating a larger home for Chabad’s activities and programs. At the same time, he says that he and his family will be living on the one-acre campus so that it retains the homey atmosphere that attracted people in the first place.
Like the St. Thomas Chabad center, the 11,000-square-foot facility currently being built in Puerto Rico is a tribute to the generosity of the Rohr family and many local donors, including Saul Scherl, a developer whose firm has taken responsibly for the construction and who is co-chairing the project with Chaim.
The network of Chabad centers and rabbis has broadly expanded the vacation options for Jews looking to unwind without relaxing their religious observances. The availability of kosher food, prayer services, Torah classes—and now even mikvahs—provides unprecedented opportunity for Jews to take a vacation and uphold their religious standards.
Reflecting on the regional transformations that have snowballed as a result of his initial phone call and support, Chaim helps paint a larger picture.
“The rabbis themselves may not realize what an imprint they have on people—how many lives have been changed as a result of their efforts,” he says. “But I’ve seen firsthand what amazing relationships they have established, and how Jewish life and awareness have exploded as a result.”
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