בס״ד עֵ קֶ ב EIKEV

In loving memory of Harav Yitzchak Yoel ben Shlomo Halevi

Volume 32 | #46 “A Land of wheat, barley, grape, fig and pomegranate; 8 August 2020 a Land of oil-olives and date-honey” 18 Av 5780 (Devarim 8:8)

Shabbat ends: 9.31pm Sheffield 9.50pm Glasgow 10.13pm Edinburgh 10.10pm Birmingham 9.42pm 8.09pm

Please look regularly at the social media and websites of the US, Tribe and your community for ongoing updates relating to Coronavirus as well as educational programming and community support. You do not need to sign into Facebook to access the US Facebook page. The US Coronavirus Helpline is on 020 8343 5696. May God bless us and the whole world. INSIDE: Artscroll - p980, - p1197 An Englishman’s Brolly by Mendel Lew Hertz - p780, Haftarah - p794 Soncino - p1032, Eruvim Haftarah - p1051

Daf Hashavua by Rabbi Adam Edwards Sidra breakdown An Englishman’s עֵ קֶ ב Eikev Brolly: is rain 3rd Sidra in: a blessing or a ּדְְבָרִ ים Devarim nuisance?

By Numbers: by Rabbi Mendel Lew, 111 verses Stanmore & Canons Park 1,747 words If there is one topic nature of rain, the Torah does virtually guaranteed acknowledge the discomfort 6,865 letters to feature in of being caught in a conversations among downpour. In the the British it is the second paragraph Headlines: weather, especially rain. From a of the Shema drizzle to a downpour, downcast to - featured Uniqueness overcast, cheery to depressing, it in this is an ever-present part of British life. week’s sidra - the promise of the Land Rain may disrupt our carefully of ample rain in the Land of of Israel prepared plans, but it is, in fact, is given as a reward for following an unbelievable demonstration of the Torah: “and I will grant the Divine kindness and blessing. It early and late rains of your land at literally helps to sustain life! Far their proper time” (Devarim 11:14). from being terrible, it should be According to the commentary of categorised as beautiful! Rashi (1040-1105), ‘proper time’ is While emphasising the life-giving when people are less likely to be

United Synagogue Daf Hashavua In loving memory of Chaya Rachel bat Moshe Ben-tzion Produced by US Living & Learning together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Editor-in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Sidra Summary Editorial and Production Team: Rabbi Daniel Sturgess, Rabbi Michael Laitner, 1st Aliya (Kohen) – Devarim 7:12-9:10 Rebbetzen Nechama Davis, Moshe encourages the Israelites to keep God’s commandments. This will allow Joanna Rose them to prosper in the Land and to be the most blessed of peoples. In the same Available also via email US website way that God took them out of Egypt, so too He will allow them to defeat the www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue Cana’anite nations. The nation must destroy the Cana’anites’ idols. Moshe To sponsor Daf Hashavua please entreats the Israelites to remember the 40 years in the desert, including the contact Danielle Fox on 020 8343 6261, eating of the manna. God will bring them into a Land with abundant resources, or [email protected] where they will lack nothing. If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected] Point to Consider: Which is derived from 8:10? outside. Like Friday nights. overlooked is that the symbiotic project was rain. Why? The verse This is referred to as ‘rains of relationship between the human carries on with an explanation, blessing’. It descends in perfect being and God manifests itself “there was no man to work the soil." quantity, without harming the specifically through rain. It would appear that the arrival of environment either by insufficient In the opening chapter of the rain depended exclusively on the amounts or by flooding. Neither Torah, we read about Creation. human being. does it inconvenience pedestrians. For six days God paints the canvas Rashi explains that the human It is rain which can be genuinely and weaves the tapestry. There being was indeed vital to the viewed, and appreciated, with a is colour, purpose, beauty and project. He would immediately smile and with joy. structure. It is a beautiful world. realise the necessity and benefit of In all the discussion about Then God rests. rain upon the earth and – crucially – convenient weather patterns, In the next chapter (verse 5) pray for its arrival. Adam's first task what should not be the Torah returns to the narrative was to pray for his needs! of Creation, filling in a key detail. Ever since that early experience "Now all the trees of the field in the life of the human race, we were not yet on the earth and all have been obliged to ask for rain. the herb of the field had not It instilled in Adam, and continues yet sprouted, for God had to instil in us, the delicate balance not sent rain upon the of earning an honest living, while earth." never forgetting the source of our The world was success. all set and ready Rain is thus a symbol of our to go. The missing part of the strength and endeavour within the context of our relationship with God. We reach out to Him in prayer, and He responds. A true partnership, Rain may disrupt our carefully where one reaches out and there is reciprocation. prepared plans, but it is, in fact, May we appreciate the true “rains of blessing” and be an unbelievable demonstration of “showered” with every other Divine kindness and blessing. blessing as well.

2nd Aliya (Levi) – 8:11-9:3 Egypt, they repeatedly provoked God, initially with the sin Moshe warns the Israelites not to forget God once they of the golden calf, which Moshe now recalls in detail. He enter the Land. They should not fall into the trap of also reminds them of the sin of the spies. thinking that they inherited the Land thanks to their own efforts and merits; rather it was God who guided and 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 10:1-11 protected them during the years in the desert. Failure to Moshe describes how he carved two new stone tablets, heed this lesson will result in exile from the Land. having broken the first set upon seeing the worship of the golden calf when descending Mount Sinai. In the 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 9:4-9:29 aftermath of the golden calf, the tribe of Levi was set The Israelites should remember that they are a “stiff- apart for its special functions of guarding the Ark and necked people” and they are not inheriting the Land serving God. because of their own righteousness. In fact, since leaving Eruvim by Rabbi Adam Edwards, Eruv Co-ordinator for the London Beth Din

In recent years, more and more United Synagogue communities the public, and is at least 16 have had the benefit of an Eruv. The US has devoted considerable wide (about 24 feet). Some rabbinic resources to this project, which enables many of our members to authorities are of the opinion that it carry items outside on within the framework of halacha. also needs to have 600,000 people This is not a new invention, indeed, the Talmudic tractate of passing through it on a daily basis. , completed around 1500 years ago, is particularly devoted to this subject. Now, if it would be permitted to Participants in the Daf Yomi daily study programme are commencing this carry in open areas that are shared tractate at present, so we asked Rabbi Edwards to explain the concept to us: by many people but are not public domains per se, confusion would be In my work with the London Beth an eruv is not a loophole in a law likely to follow. So, to err on the side Din Eruv department over the last prohibiting carrying, let us first of caution, the expanded the 12 years, one of the questions I understand why and where carrying is carrying ban to extend to any area, am most asked is if the word eruv forbidden in the first place. unless it is both fenced in and owned translates as “loophole”. Tongue in privately. This rabbinic law provides cheek or not, the meaning of the word THE PROHIBITION a clear-cut distinction that eruv is ‘mixture’, an amalgamation On Shabbat, one of the 39 forbidden avoids confusion of courtyards. But, reasonably so, activities is to carry anything four and prevents people are confused. If the Torah says cubits (approximately six feet) within violation of that carrying outside is forbidden on a public domain. This also includes Torah law. Shabbat, how can a few barely visible transporting things from a private This wires make a difference? domain into a public one, or vice versa. The question is a good one… and In this context, “private” and “public” an old one. Almost 900 years ago, the has little to do with who holds the great medieval philosopher and poet deed and everything to do with the Rabbi Judah Ha-Levi (1080–1141) physical properties and function of wrote about an exchange between a the area. Jewish sage and a king who asked A “private domain” is an enclosed the same question (as recorded in his area. A “public domain” is generally work, Sefer HaKuzari 3:50). defined as an unenclosed major Before we can understand why thoroughfare that is used regularly by

In memory of Yisrael Shmuel ben Yirmaya Yehoshuah

5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 10:12-11:9 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 11:10-21 Moshe urges the Israelites to fear and love God and to Moshe goes on to say that God always has “His eyes” on open their hearts to Him. Moshe recalls the miraculous the Land of Cana’an. He then tells them a passage which we Exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the Sea of Reeds and recite twice daily as the second paragraph of the Shema (see the earth swallowing Korach and his rebels. green , p.68). It spells out the benefits of fulfilling the commandments and the consequences of neglecting them. The mitzvot of tefilin, mezuzah and studying Torah are stated. pseudo-public area is called a karmelit. But walls alone are not enough. In order for THE EXCEPTIONS an area to be private, it needs to belong to a In order for carrying to be allowed, you will need both an eruv and a tzurat single household or entity. ha-petach. The word eruv (which we will explain later) actually refers have many doorways, leaving large food to everyone) to be kept in one to food that serves to symbolically open spaces. Essentially, this is the of the houses. Since they all share transform the shared area into an kind of “wall” we are creating with food, they are now one household. area owned by a single household. wires and poles; the poles are the The word eruv means “blending,” as The tzurat ha-petach is a series of doorposts, and the cables strung the purpose of this food is to mix the structures that transform the karmelit above them are the lintels. entire community together into one. into a closed area. Together, the two In addition to providing people with In a communal eruv, this is done by mark the area as private. Although more freedom to enjoy their Shabbat, a local synagogue Rabbi on behalf of not technically correct, the term Rabbi Judah ha-Levi explains that the the community using matzah which is eruv has come to refer to the tzurat relatively simple route to privatising kept in a communal place , such as a ha-petach structure as well. The eruv a karmelit is deliberate, in order that synagogue, and can be accessed by is often large enough to include entire a distinction is made between the anyone. neighbourhoods with homes, flats rabbinic enactment and the biblical So to conclude, I would like to put and synagogues, making it possible to prohibition of carrying in a proper to rest the claim that an eruv is a carry on Shabbat, since one is never public domain. loophole, a circumvention of Biblical leaving the private domain. law. In a Biblically proscribed domain, But what kind of enclosure do you THE REAL ERUV an eruv would not be effective. In need? For a rabbinically ordained But walls alone are not enough. In order that one would not come to karmelit, under which category many order for an area to be private, it carry in a Biblically proscribed domain, neighbourhoods fall, a needs to belong to a single household the rabbis prohibited carrying in other technical enclosure or entity. domains, as well. However, the rabbis may suffice. This stipulation originated with allowed one to carry in rabbinically In that King Solomon, who foresaw that proscribed domains (the karmelit) if case the if people were allowed to carry in there was an eruv. In other words, wall public, albeit in enclosed areas, this it was the rabbis who proscribed may would result in confusion, and the carrying and it was the rabbis who entire law would be forgotten or permitted carrying in non-Biblically distorted. prohibited domains. In order to symbolically join multiple families into a single We thank Rabbi Edwards, both household, King Solomon and his for this article and for the tireless court established the concept of devotion that he and his colleagues eruvei chatzeirot, whereby everyone give to enable the construction and in the area contributes food (or, as is maintenance of many eruvim across usually done, one person can gift the Greater London.

In memory of Yehuda ben Yaakov HaCohen

7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 11:22-25 like a mother does not forget the child of her womb, so Moshe urges the people to remember their Torah learning too God will never forget the Jews and will avenge those and to have a connection with Torah scholars (see Rashi). nations who have persecuted them. Yeshaya famously calls upon the Jews to be a “light unto the nations”. Haftarah Taken from the book of Yeshaya, this is the second of the seven ‘haftarot of consolation’ read after Tisha B’Av. Just and Art part 4 ‘Mystery’ by Rabbi David Lister, Edgware United Synagogue

Sefer HaChi- and placing it in an odd con- nuch, a text. The sense of mystery monumental, in the picture is intensified encyclopaedic by the crispness of the commentary on the 613 shapes and colours, and the commandments, highlights a beautiful Renaissance-style challenging paradox within landscape, contributing to a the first of the Ten Command- deliberate sense of mystery. ments, the commandment to The questions posed by this acknowledge that God exists. picture are legion. Where are It points out that, intrinsic the bells from and how did to this knowledge of God’s, they get there? Why are they existence is our inability to so big? What are they going know what He is: to do next? How will people “We affirm that all react to them? Are the bells greatness and glory, all the “voice of space” and if blessing and existence are so, why? We can only hazard in Him, and that we cannot guesses as to what is going understand or relate to His on, and we know that there greatness and goodness. will be no clear answers. Because of His greatness When we look at this and glory He can only be picture and others like it, understood by Himself.” Magritte, The voice of space, 1931 they confound us. But this is Central to everything we not a bad thing. In accepting do with and for God is the sense that we do not understand, we are that we are trying to get to know Surrealist art can actually developing our own ability something which is ultimately enhance our own to be able to live without knowing unknowable. or understanding something. This is an unfamiliar concept for capacity for mystery, We can apply this enhanced our time. We are comfortable with for accepting that incomprehension to our perception the white heat of technology, but of God. On the one hand, we can when we see a magician perform, there are things appreciate the fragments and splin- we are not content to accept the beyond our ken. ters of God’s kindness and justice mystery: we strive to understand, which we can grasp, and attempt to know. my pictures, one asks oneself this to emulate them. Indeed, the Torah Surrealist art can enhance our simple question, 'What does that commands us to do so (Devarim own capacity for mystery, for mean?'” 28:9). accepting that there are things In his Voice of Space, for in- On the other hand, we can beyond our ken. Magritte delighted stance, we see three massive sleigh remember that we cannot truly com- in painting things which go beyond bells hovering in the sky over a rich prehend His greatness, kindness, meaning: pastoral landscape. This was a wisdom and justice. In thus failing, “My paintings evoke mystery typical Magritte technique, involving we succeed. By not understanding and, indeed, when one sees one of magnification of a common object God, we understand Him better. CRP COURSE FOR PARENTS & CHILDREN Join us for a six-part online series exploring a variety of Jewish topics

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