3 June 2017 9 Sivan 5777 Shabbat ends London 10.14pm 8.23pm

Volume 29 No. 36 Nasso Artscroll p.748 | Hertz p.586 | Soncino p.814

In memory of David Yochanan ben Moshe

"Then Shimshon (Samson) said to them, ‘Let me propound a riddle to you. If you can give me the right answer during the seven days of the feast…’ ‘Ask your riddle and we will listen.’ So he said to them: ‘Out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet.’ For three days they 1 could not answer the riddle” (/The Book of Judges 14:12-14). Sidrah Summary: Nasso

1st Aliya (Kohen) – 4:21-37 relative. The details the procedure if a Nazir Last week’s sidrah concluded with the detailing mistakenly comes into contact with a dead of the particular role of the descendants of Kehat, person in the middle of the Nazarite term. At the one of the Levi’s three sons, in taking down, end of the Nazarite term (whose length can vary), transporting and re-assembling parts of the the Nazir shaves his hair, brings unleavened bread Mishkan. The Torah now does the same for the offerings and three animal offerings. descendants of Levi’s other two sons, Gershon Aharon and his sons are commanded to bless the and Merari. A census is taken of each of these nation with the priestly blessing (birkat kohanim). three families, counting men aged 30 to 50. The Point to Consider: why does a Nazir bring a sin family of Kehat numbers 2,750. offering (chatat) at the end of his term (6:14)? 2nd Aliya (Levi) – 4:38-49 Question: where does the Nazir place the hair The family of Gershon numbers 2,630. The that he has shaved off' (6:18)? Answer on bottom descendants of Merari number 3,200. of page 6. (Chamishi) 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 5:1-10 5th Aliya – 7:1-41 The narrative switches back to the day that the On 1 Nisan, the leaders of all of the tribes bring Mishkan (Tabernacle) began to function (Rosh gifts to help the Levi’im transport the Mishkan, a Chodesh Nisan), as first discussed in parashat total of six wagons and twelve oxen. These (Rashi). God tells Moshe to instruct the leaders also take turns to bring voluntary people to maintain the spiritual purity of the main offerings, which are sacrificed on the first 12 days camp, in which the Mishkan was situated, by of the Mishkan’s functioning. The leader of the sending away anyone who was ritually impure. tribe of Yehuda gives a silver bowl and a silver The nation complies. A person who steals and basin filled with fine flour and oil for a meal then takes an oath in order to deny the crime, offering; a gold ladle filled with incense; a bull, a before eventually admitting to the theft, must ram and a sheep as elevation offerings (olah); a bring an offering and add a fifth to the amount goat as a sin offering (chatat) and two cattle, five stolen when paying back the victim. rams, five goats and five sheep as peace offerings (shelamim). The Torah lists the identical offerings (Revi’i) 4th Aliya – 5:11-7:1 of the other 11 leaders, starting with Yisachar, A married lady who secludes herself in a Zevulun, Reuven and Shimon. suspicious fashion with another man, and is 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 7:42-71 warned by her husband not to seclude herself The offerings of the leaders of Gad, Ephraim, again, but ignores the warning, is known as a Menashe, Binyamin and Dan are listed. sotah (wayward wife). She brings a barley offering to the Temple, where a Kohen gives her water to 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 7:72-89 drink. This miraculously proves her innocence or The offerings of the leaders of Asher and Naphtali guilt. If she is guilty, the waters cause her to die. are detailed. The overall total of each item offered Yet if she is innocent, the water will cause her to is enumerated at the end of the sidrah. become more fertile than before (Rashi). Haftarah A person can decide to take a vow to become a An angel of God appears to the wife of Manoach Nazir and abstain from wine and other produce of and tells her she will conceive a son who will the vine (see p.4 article). A Nazir is also prohibited be a Nazir and will help save Israel from the from having a haircut and from coming into Pelishtim (Philistines). She names him Shimshon contact with a dead person, including a close (Samson) – see p.4 article.

United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by US Living & Learning together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Editor: Chaim Gross Editor-in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Editorial Team: Ilana Epstein, Michael Laitner, Sharon Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please contact Loraine Young on 020 8343 5653, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected]

2 Solutions in the Sidrah: Positive Personal Reviews by Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum, Hadley Wood Jewish Community

Online product reviews and Rabbi Moshe Alshich (d. 1593) answers this consumer recommendations question through focusing on the opening play a very significant role in paragraph of the Amidah, which lists each of our influencing purchasing habits. forefathers independently, ‘God of Avraham, God For example, according to one of Yitzchak and God of Ya’akov’. The reason for recent study, seven out of ten this, he explains, is so that people should Americans consult online understand that each forefather came to their reviews before making a belief in God through their own intuition and purchase. Worryingly for sellers, however, people understanding, not simply because they followed often take more notice of the negative reviews their father’s example. than of the positive ones. As social psychologist Roy Baumeister observes, “people attend to, In a similar vein, writes the Alshich, the Torah lists learn from, and use negative information far more the gifts of the leaders separately in order to than positive information”. stress that each arrived at their decision to donate to the Mishkan independently of the Is there anything that a commercial enterprise others, and not simply because they decided to can do to ensure that people take greater notice follow the example of the first. of the positive reviews of their product? According to some fascinating research Using the above study into online reviews, conducted into 65,000 reviews of restaurants in perhaps we can appreciate the importance of America, there is one key factor that can make the Torah stressing this fact. The role of each all the difference. leader was to set an example to the members of his tribe. Having the courage of our On most online reviews there is an option for convictions in a religiously positive way, rather others to rate how ‘useful’ the review was to than simply following others, is a lesson we them. Generally, the negative reviews are voted learn from these leaders. On a related note, far more ‘useful’ than the positive ones. But the taking the time to provide timely feedback with researchers discovered that if the positive review conviction is reassuring for other consumers, stated explicitly that it was written on the same just as the convictions of each leader was day as the person visited the restaurant, then mutually strengthening. people considered a positive review to be at least as ‘useful’ to them as a negative one. Somehow, a review given ‘on the same day’ appears to be more reliable in the eyes of consumers. All business owners have to do, suggested the researchers, is to encourage people to leave a positive review and state that they were ‘there today’!

The second half of this week’s sidrah contains the lengthy account of the gifts to the Mishkan (Tabernacle) from the leaders of each tribe (Bemidbar 7:1-82). Many commentators question why the Torah did not simply describe the gifts once, rather than listing them 12 times, one per tribe, since the gifts were in fact all identical.

In memory of Yehuda ben Yaakov HaCohen 3 Crisis and Calibration by Rabbi Shmuli Sagal, Sutton & District United Synagogue

This week’s sidrah contains and spiritual, to introduce the section detailing a the laws of the Nazir Nazirite vow. Vows are the most powerful form of (Bemidbar chapter 6). The speech that God gives us. A vow binds us to haftarah reading, taken from our words. In the case of a Nazir, an entire the book of Shoftim (Judges lifestyle is changed merely by the use of words. chapter 13), tells the story surrounding the birth of encourages balancing and ultimately Shimshon (Samson). The harmonising our physical and spiritual selves. angels visited Shimshon’s parents to tell them Ideally we endeavour to follow the Rambam’s they would have a child and instructed them to ( d.1204) ‘golden mean’ rule of raise him as a Nazir. This is the connection to the developing our physical and spiritual worlds in Torah reading. equal measure.

Yet there is another, more subtle connection However, there are times which call for a between sidrah and haftarah; they contain the recalibration of the physical-spiritual fusion. same unusual Hebrew word. The Torah states: When the physical begins to dominate, as it naturally does, and the spiritual is in danger of ,יפלא) A man or woman who shall clearly utter“ yaflee) a vow, the vow of a Nazirite” (ibid, verse being overpowered, the Torah provides a peleh. mechanism that licenses a retreat from the usual ,פלא The word ‘yaflee’ is from the root .(1 In the haftarah, Shimshon’s father asks the angel golden mean of perfect balance, in order to re- what his name is. The angel responds, “Why do establish the proper harmony. This mechanism is .called the Nazir פלאי you ask for my name, seeing that it is (pelee)”. Once again, we have a derivative of the Shimshon was born into a time of crisis. The פלא Hebrew root . verse preceding the start of the haftarah begins We also use a derivative of this word in the with the words: “And the children of Israel again blessing recited after relieving oneself, which did that which was evil in the sight of God”. concludes with the words, “Blessed are you Physicality was rampant, at the expense of God, Who heals all flesh and act wondrously” spirituality. The wondrous fusion was out of u’maflee la’asot, see green equilibrium. This type of generation required a ,ומפליא לעשות) siddur, p.14). Rabbi Moshe Isserles (d. 1572) leader who was skewered in the other direction, explains that we are praising God for the fusion namely a Nazir. Thus, when Shimshon’s father of the physical and spiritual. These two elements wanted to know the name of the angel, he was constantly pull in opposite directions. It is a told that all he needed to know is that the mission continual wonder how God sustains us as a of the moment was one of pelee, of recalibrating fusion of the two. the wondrous fusion of physical and spiritual that God grants to us. Speech is one of the primary examples of this fusion between physical and spiritual. It is a uniquely human ability to take thoughts and express them in the world. Through the physical process of speech, intangible ideas are transformed into relatable forms. Animals may have cognition but do not have the gift of speech to express their thoughts meaningfully.

This explains why the Torah uses the word yaflee, connoting the wondrous fusion between physical

In memory of Mordechai Avraham ben Nechemia 4 Parallel Thinking Part 23: Evolution II by Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman, New West End United Synagogue

When Charles Darwin (d. However, there may be scientific mechanisms 1882) published On the which could account for this. Origin of Species in 1859, he articulated the evidence Assuming these questions can be answered, which implied that life evolution seems to present a theological emerged on Earth through challenge. If life had evolved through natural natural processes operating processes, the diversity of life on Earth could over millions of years. By presumably be accounted for without Divine the 1870s the scientific community and majority intervention. Neo-Darwinian evolution has of the public had accepted Darwinian evolution seemingly removed the need for God to explain as fact. Nevertheless, the specifics of how the the origin of life. evolutionary development of the species happened was still unclear. However, there is a logical flaw in this argument, as it assumes that God’s existence depends on The first clue to the process of evolutionary our need to explain things about the world. This development was noticed by the Czech abbot is not true. God was not ‘invented’ to explain the and horticulturalist Gregor Mendel (d. 1884) who diversity of life; His existence is absolute and noted that certain traits are inherited by unconditional. offspring. Swiss biochemist Freidrich Miescher (d. 1895) discovered the DNA molecule present Nevertheless, another question remains: if in every living cell, which is responsible for natural processes are driving the diversity of life, passing these traits on through sexual what role is there for God? On this point the reproduction. By the mid-1950s the structure of German scholar Rabbi Shimshon Raphael DNA was fully understood through the seminal Hirsch (d. 1888) noted that the laws of nature work of Rosalind Franklin (d. 1958, a member of can “no more do without the One Who governs the New West End United Synagogue), Maurice and guides the course of the Universe … than a Wilkins (d. 2004), James Watson and Francis steamship, operating with the laws of Crick (d. 2004). mechanics, can do without the helmsman who guides it”. Similarly, he states that: “the [natural] Biologists such as Ronald Fisher (d. 1965) and phenomena are present in nature, and God is Julian Huxley (d. 1975) proposed that random their invisible Source Who guides and maintains mutations in this DNA code could provide some them at all times”. Hirsch’s view of Darwinian organisms with more beneficial features, giving evolution was in principle to accept the idea of them an advantage in locating food more natural selection, but view it as guided by God. successfully or protecting themselves from Being able to explain the mechanisms of life, predators. In a competitive environment, those does not preclude the existence of a spiritual organisms would be more likely to survive, source and a higher purpose for existence. reproduce and pass on these traits. This adaption to the local environment would ultimately generate new species, accounting for the diversity of life on Earth.

There are however, a number of scientific difficulties with this idea. The mutation rate of DNA is actually very low. Moreover, mutations are often inconsequential or damaging; few mutations ever help an organism to survive.

In memory of Yisrael Shmuel ben Yirmaya Yehoshuah 5 Insights into Jewish History Part 71: Self-Sacrifice by Rebbetzen Ilana Epstein, Cockfosters & N Southgate United Synagogue; Head of Project Development, US Living & Learning

The Babylonian Chana and her seven sons were imprisoned by (Sanhedrin 74a) details Apollonius, the governor of the area. One by one, the Jewish laws of self- Apollonius brought the sons before him and sacrifice. In simple terms, asked them to bow to an idol or to give up their if we are being pressed lives. The first six refused, after which they were to transgress one or more murdered by Apollonius’ guard. When they finally of the Torah’s laws due to brought the youngest son before the governor, an extreme circumstance the governor suggested tossing his signet ring beyond our control, typically we are supposed to before the child. The child would pick up the ring, transgress the Torah law, due to the overriding thus giving the impression to the people that he principle that we should “live through” keeping was actually bowing down, and his life would be the Torah’s commandments, and not die for spared. The child refused and Chana begged to the sake of keeping them ( 18:5). In be allowed to hug her child for the last time. Hebrew, this is known as ‘ya'avor ve'al ye'hareg’, meaning ‘transgress and do not be killed’. As Chana embraced her last living child, she told However, in three exceptional instances, the him: “When you are up in heaven, let the patriarch governing principle is reversed to ‘ye'hareg Avraham know that he shouldn’t be so proud of ve'al ya'avor’, meaning ‘be killed but do not building an altar and nearly sacrificing his son transgress’. These exceptions are idol worship, Yitzchak to God. I have built altars for all seven of illicit relationships and taking another’s life. my sons and sacrificed them all before God”. The child was murdered whilst held in his mother’s However, the Talmud adds a caveat; at a time embrace. when the very fibre of Judaism is being threatened, even the smallest of transgressions This story and others began to circulate is not acceptable and the rule is ‘be killed but throughout the Land. Not a home was left do not transgress’. untouched by the devastation. Yet as the situation in Judea deteriorated, a new hero emerged, From writings in the , the Book of the whom we shall discuss next week … Maccabees and Josephus (the Roman Jewish first-century historian), we know that the period of the Seleucid government over Judea was just such a time. The Greek king Antiochus, assisted by the Hellenised Jews, issued decrees that forbade keeping Jewish laws and customs. Jews en masse faced the challenge of sacrificing their lives rather than transgressing the laws of the Torah.

There are a multitude of stories of individuals’ self-sacrifice in the face of enforced transgression. One particularly poignant story is that of Chana and her seven sons, as related in

the Midrash:

shelamim ) ( offering Answer: On the fire underneath his peace- his underneath fire the On Answer:

In memory of 6 US WOMEN ANNUAL DINNER

WEDNESDAY 21ST JUNE 2017

Woodford Forest United Synagogue* (*Transport will be available from North London)

Guest Speaker: Gillian Merron, Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews

Reception: 7.15pm Dinner: 7.45pm

Price: £32 per person (One table of 10 per shul)

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