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12 November 2016 • 11 Cheshvan 5777 ends 5.06pm 5.27pm

Volume 29 No. 7 Lech Lecha Kl Kl Artscroll p.30 | Hertz p. 45 | Soncino p. 60

In loving memory of Lottie and Heimann

1 Sidrah Summary – Lech Lecha

1st Aliya (Kohen) – Bereishit 12:1-13 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 14:21-15:6 God appears to Avraham, telling him to leave his Avraham refuses the King of Sedom’s offer to keep homeland Charan (Babylonia) and travel to a land the spoils of the war. Avraham relays his pain to that “God would show him”, where he will flourish God at being childless. God tells him that his and father a great nation. Avraham takes his wife offspring will be beyond counting, like the stars. , his nephew and his entire household. They arrive in Cana’an. Avraham travels throughout 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 15:7-17:6 the Land. Famine strikes and they are forced to go Wary of future sins, Avraham asks for a hint as to down to Egypt to survive. Afraid of being killed if the how his offspring will merit to inherit and keep the Egyptians discover that Sarah is his wife, Avraham Land (see Ramban). God instructs him to cut up asks her to say she is his sister. several animals, indicating that the Temple offerings Point to consider: Why is leaving home will protect the . Birds of prey descend on the considered one of Avraham’s Ten Trials, given carcasses. Avraham falls into a deep sleep. God God’s promise? tells him that his offspring will be enslaved in a foreign land for 400 years. Sarah, still childless, tells 2nd Aliya () – 12:14-13:4 Avraham to take her maidservant, Hagar, as a ’s officers take Sarah away to their master’s second wife. Hagar becomes pregnant and is house. They give Avraham copious gifts as disrespectful to Sarah, who sends her away. An ‘payment’. God strikes Pharaoh with a plague. appears to Hagar in the desert, telling her to Suspecting that Sarah may in fact be Avraham’s subjugate herself to Sarah. Hagar gives birth to wife, Pharaoh confronts Avraham and then orders Yishmael. him and Sarah to leave. They travel back to Question: How old is Avraham when Yishmael is Cana’an with Lot. born? (16:16). Answer on bottom of page 6.

3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 13:5-13:18 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 17:7-17:27 Arguments break out between the shepherds of God gives Avraham the of . God Avraham and Lot. Avraham suggests that they part says that Sarah will have a child, Yitzchak. Avraham ways. Lot chooses to live in the immoral city of circumcises himself and Yishmael. Sedom. God appears to Avraham and promises that his offspring, who will be countless, shall inherit the Land. Yeshaya reassures that even when they are downtrodden, God does not forget them. He 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 14:1-14:20 remains in charge of Creation and we remain His A war breaks out among nine kings. The king of chosen people. Sedom is defeated and Lot is taken captive. This prompts Avraham to mobilise his small force, which miraculously defeats the victorious kings and rescues Lot.

United Daf Hashavuah Produced by the 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, Laitner, Sharon Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavuah please contact Loraine Young on 020 8343 5653, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavuah please email [email protected]

2 Solutions in the Sidrah: Journeying Towards Shabbat by Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum, Hadley Wood Jewish Community

This week’s sidrah opens with What sort of person might I have been? What sort perhaps the most famous of a life might I have lived?” journey in Jewish history. Avraham is told to, “leave Most poignantly of all, however, are Oliver Sacks’ his land, his birthplace and final words. Appreciating that his time is short, he his father’s house” and seeks to impart a lasting message about life and its go towards an unknown meaning to his readers. His own journey is coming destination that God will to an end. But ultimately, he realises, it is the “show him” (Bereishit 12:1). Throughout the concept of Shabbat which has enabled him to find centuries, many Jews have read in these words the true peace: story of their own personal Jewish journey, which often also leads towards an unknown destination. “I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath, the day Here is one poignant example: of rest, the seventh day of the week, and perhaps the seventh day of one’s life as well, when one can Just two weeks before his passing on 30 August feel that one’s work is done, and one may, in good 2015, the well-known British neurologist and author conscience, rest….” Oliver Sacks published a moving article in the New York Times entitled ‘Sabbath’. In the piece, At the end of his life, Oliver Sacks discovered the Sacks recounted the unexpected journey his own all-encompassing power of Shabbat. As his story life had taken, from his observant upbringing in beautifully illustrates, regardless of upbringing, Cricklewood, North London, through his personal religiosity, or current level of Jewish knowledge, struggles with his faith and his eventual sense of Shabbat has a place inside the soul of every single ‘finding peace’ with himself at the end of his life. Jew. The aim of Shabbat UK is to encourage us all to take the next steps in our journey towards A turning point for Sacks in terms of his relationship discovering that ‘peace of Shabbat' in our own with was his ongoing friendship in his later lives. years with his cousin, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert John Aumann. Although Sacks was not observant himself, he admired Aumann’s own unwavering dedication to Jewish law. In particular, Sacks quotes Aumann’s personal reflection on the value of keeping Shabbat: “The observance of the Sabbath is extremely beautiful and is impossible without being religious. It is not even a question of improving society — it is about improving one’s own quality of life”.

Invited to join Aumann and his family for Friday night dinner on a visit to Israel in 2014, Sacks found himself reflecting once again on his own life’s journey: “The peace of the Sabbath, of a stopped world, a time outside time, was palpable, infused everything, and I found myself drenched with a wistfulness, something akin to nostalgia, wondering ‘what if’: What if A and B and C had been different?

In loving memory of Israel (Bobby) and Betty Epstein 3 A Superior Pleasure by Rabbi Zvi Cohen, Kingsbury United Synagogue

As soon as Avraham arrived in Avraham’s arrival in Cana’an was the first time that the land of Cana’an, God God had actually appeared to Avraham. On this appeared to him and made a basis, he disagrees with and explains that promise that contained two God’s appearance was the cause of Avraham’s wonderful tidings: “… and He gratitude and the building of the altar. said, I will give this land to your children” (Bereishit 12:7). The Ohr Hachaim (R’ Chaim ibn Atar d.1743) takes He was going to have children this idea a stage further, using it to show what our and he was going to be given what was later to priorities should be. Avraham was childless and had become known as the . become a nomad, at God’s command. Now he was informed that he would have children, who Avraham’s response was to build an altar “to God would become a nation that would spread who had appeared to him” (ibid). The plain reading knowledge of God throughout the world. Moreover, of the verse implies that the altar was built because they would inherit the Land of Israel, the most God had appeared to him. However, Rashi (d. spiritual and beautiful of lands. There is no doubt 1105) writes that the reason for this altar was in fact that Avraham was grateful for this. Yet there was to thank God for this prophecy and the wonderful something he was even more grateful for – the very news it contained. The Siftei Chachamim (Rabbi fact that God had appeared to him! Shabtai Bass d. 1718) justifies Rashi’s explanation: if the altar was built just because God had appeared Rabbi (d.1746) writes that to him, then Avraham would have built one earlier, the whole purpose of our creation and our time here in Charan, when God originally appeared to him on earth is to earn the reward of experiencing God's and gave him the command to leave for Cana’an presence in the World to Come. Connection to our (ibid 12:1). Creator is the greatest spiritual pleasure imaginable. The ( 4:17) describes one However, the Ramban ( d. 1270) moment of that pleasure as superior to our entire writes that the original command to leave Charan earthly existence. For Avraham, being spoken to by had been given to Avraham in a dream. Therefore, God was the greatest pleasure possible, like the World to Come here on earth!

When we stand in prayer, we have much to ask for.

We understand that our health, wealth and happiness are dependent on the blessings that God showers upon us. Yet we can strive to realise that it is the very connection that we are making, the very standing before God in prayer, that is most crucial. Whether we are learning His , fulfilling His commandments or turning to Him in praise or supplication, we can remember the words of King : “as for me, closeness of God is my good” (Tehilim/ 73:28).

4 Parallel Thinking Part 4: Information Theory and the Oral Law by Rabbi Dr. Moshe Freedman, New West End United Synagogue

God’s revelation at Mount The contains many arguments (machlokot) Sinai was a unique event, between . A machloket may indicate a which began the communi- degree of ‘noise’ in the transmission process. cation of His Torah to the However, the Oral Law contains internal methods Jewish people. The written of analysis which correct any error, by testing every Torah was accompanied by a opinion against other established facts, in an set of oral instructions, from attempt to decipher the correct approach. God to Moshe, which form Sometimes, the Talmud will ascertain that one the basis of Jewish law. position is incorrect and refute it.

This was necessary; the complete written Torah On other occasions, it will assert that both positions contains the source of all of the mitzvot, but the presented in a machloket are equally acceptable. instructions for Jewish living cannot be derived It is only when these positions are applied that solely from the written text. It does not usually detail practical differences emerge, such as in the practical requirements of Jewish observance. determining the time of sunset when calculating For example, when commanding us to place a Shabbat times. Is ‘sunset’ when the sun starts to on our doorposts, the Torah instructs: set or when it has finished setting? The application “write these words on your doorposts” ( of these equally valid positions will yield radically 11:20). Yet the Torah does not specify which words different results. This is relevant to defining when should be included, which doorposts require them Shabbat starts and ends. In this case, we are or how we are to write them. All of these details are forced to operate within the most stringent position; explained in the Oral Law. The same is true for all of we use the earlier time for the beginning of Shabbat the 613 commandments; their source is in the and the later time for the end. Written Torah, but the practical instructions and real-world applications are not. The next article will examine the special function of the Ten Commandments, viewed from the Therefore, it is clear, both logically and textually, that perspective of Information Theory. God related the practical laws of Jewish living to Moshe orally. These instructions were passed on from teacher to student (see 24:12). The Talmud (Berachot 5a) relates that this transmission continued orally until approximately 200 CE, when Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi compiled a concise summary of the legal teachings and discussions of leading Sages into the Mishnah. Approximately 300 years later, Ravina and Rav Ashi compiled the , which developed the Mishnah. The two are studied together as the Talmud; this forms the foundation text of applied Jewish legal principles and debate. The first Mishnah in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) describes this chain of transmission (see green p.524).

Sponsored by an anonymous donor 5 Insights into Jewish History Part 51: Ptolemy’s Capture of Judea by Rebbetzen Ilana Epstein, Cockfosters & N Southgate United Synagogue; Head of Project Development, US Living & Learning

With the death of Alexander, Temple. The Jews allowed him entrance on Judea became highly Shabbat, with their guard down. Ptolemy took over contested between the the city. He then conquered Judea and carted off northern Seleucid kingdom 120,000 Jews as slaves to Egypt. Judea was now and the southern Ptolemaic controlled by the Ptolemaic kingdom. kingdom. During the period of the , Judea Yet this period was not all darkness and descent. changed hands five times. For One of the most enduring personalities in Judaism, 25 years after Alexander’s death, the Seleucids Shimon HaTzadik (Simeon the Righteous), lived reigned over Judea, establishing their presence by during this time and served as the Kohen Gadol granting lands in and around Judea to Greek (High Priest). He was also the last member of the soldiers. These soldiers, now landowners, spread Men of the Great Assembly, the legislative body that their culture amongst the receptive Judean had been initiated by the and aristocratic classes. Soon the Jewish aristocracy Nechemiah. He led the people to greater spirituality, was copying the Greeks in dress, language and and his ethical statements have withstood two culture. The two previous exiles – Babylonian and thousand years of Diaspora. Persian – had been physical; the Greek exile was a spiritual one. The second Mishnah in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers – see green siddur p. 524) states: “Shimon As well as the new culture infiltrating the Land, a HaTzadik was from the remnants of the Men of the new set of morals took hold, exemplified by the Great Assembly. He would say: ‘On three things the Greek system of tax collection which perpetuated world stands: on Torah, on the service of God and corruption. Every Greek governor was asked to on acts of loving kindness’”. collect a specific amount of taxes from his province; for our purposes, let’s say it was 3,000 talents of silver. The governor, rather than collecting the taxes himself or hiring an underling to do it, would auction off the rights to tax collections to the Jews. The bidding was won by the person who offered to collect the highest taxes.

Accordingly, the winner of the bid may have offered to collect 4,000 talents of silver for the Greek governor. Escalating the corruption, he could then go out to his area and choose to collect, for example, 5,000 talents of silver, thus escalating the demands on the people, whilst at the same time exempting his friends and family. Jews visiting the grave of Shimon HaTsadik, 1927 As the Diadochi (the rival successor generals to Alexander) continued fighting, the Judeans were once more thrown into the centre of battle. General Ptolemy I Soter made a pilgrimage to Seleucid-controlled Jerusalem. Ostensibly, he was

in Jerusalem to make a sacrifice to God at the old years 86 Answer:

In loving memory of Zahava and Tzvi Rosental 6