14 April 2018 29 Nissan 5778 Shabbat ends London 8.45pm Jerusalem 7.45pm Volume 30 No. 30 Shemini Celebrating Yom Haatzmaut at 70 Artscroll p.588 | Haftarah p.1207 Hertz p.443 | Haftarah p.948 Soncino p.651 | Haftarah p.1189 Shabbat Mevarechim. Machar Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh Iyar is on Sunday and Monday Yom Hazikaron is on Wednesday Yom Haatzmaut is on Thursday In loving memory of Moshe ben Avraham Zarach David Ben-Gurion publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the State of Israel, beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, in the old Tel Aviv Museum of Art building, Rothschild St on 14 May 1948. Zoltan Kluger, IGPO, D836-087 1 Sidrah Summary: Shemini 1st Aliya (Kohen) – Vayikra 9:1-16 one of the chatat offerings instead of eating parts The sidrah begins almost a year after the Exodus of it. Aharon defends their actions, based on their from Egypt, on Rosh Chodesh Nissan. After status as mourners (Rashi). Moshe accepts seven days of inaugurating the Mishkan Aharon’s justification (see p.5 article). (Tabernacle), Moshe instructs Aharon to bring two 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 11:1-32 special offerings, an elevation offering (olah) and God teaches Moshe and Aharon some of the a sin offering (chatat). The people are also told to laws of kashrut. Only an animal with completely bring a chatat, two olah offerings and two peace split hooves and which chews the cud is kosher. offerings (shelamim). Aharon approaches the Therefore, animals like the camel and pig, which altar (mizbeach), together with his sons, and they have only one of these characteristics, are begin the process of bringing these offerings. forbidden. Fish are only kosher if they have both 2nd Aliya (Levi) – 9:17-23 fins and scales. The Torah lists forbidden birds Aharon and his sons finish the offerings, after by name. Flying insects are also prohibited food, which Aharon blesses the people with the priestly with limited exceptions (that are today difficult blessing (Rashi). Moshe and Aharon then bless to identify). Kosher animals which die without the people that the Divine presence will rest upon proper slaughter (shechitah), as well as dead them (Rashi). non-kosher animals, transmit ritual impurity (tumah) to one who touches them. 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 9:24-10:11 Point to Consider: why do the laws of kashrut A fire comes from heaven and consumes the follow straight after the story of the inauguration offerings on the mizbeach. The people fall to the of the Mishkan? (11:1) ground in praise to God. Nadav and Avihu, two of Aharon’s sons, bring an incense offering 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 11:33-47 (ketoret) in a pan, which they had not been The Torah lists some basic laws of how certain commanded to do. A fire descends from God, utensils can become impure (tameh) and how killing them instantly (see p.4 article). Aharon is they need to be treated thereafter. All creeping silent. Moshe asks two of their cousins to remove insects are forbidden to eat. Keeping these laws the bodies. Moshe tells Aharon and his two allows a person to become sanctified and holy. surviving sons, Elazar and Itamar, not to display any mourning in public. God relates to Aharon Question: What is the status of a person who that no one is allowed to do service in touches the carcass of a non-kosher animal? the Mishkan drunk. (11:39) Answer on bottom of page 6. 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 10:12-15 Haftarah Moshe tells Aharon and his sons to eat the The haftarah is the special reading for Shabbat remaining parts of a special meal offering Erev Rosh Chodesh, from the Book of Shmuel (mincha) that they themselves had brought that (Samuel). It relates how Yehonatan (Jonathan) day, as well as parts of the shelamim offering risked his life to protect his friend David from the which they had also brought. wrath of Yehonatan’s father, King Shaul (Saul). Their initial discussion of how to ensure David’s 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 10:16-19 safety took place on Erev Rosh Chodesh, the day Moshe criticises Elazar and Itamar for burning before Shaul’s special feast. United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by US Living & Learning together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Editor: Rabbi 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 From Atzamot to Atzmaut by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis The question of why Israel is exiles to Israel from right around the world, such an important part of culminating in the Declaration of Independence what it is to be Jewish in in 1948. the 21st century is one that many people are faced with at work, school and That was a journey from ‘atzamot’ to ‘atzmaut’ – university. As we celebrate from the depths of our deepest despair during our 70th Yom Haatzmaut, the Holocaust through to the exhilaration of our surely one of the best answers to this question celebrations of independence. lies in the word ‘atzmaut’ – independence, itself. The skeleton holds the human frame; it is the It is taken from the root ‘etzem’, which means a very structure around which our physical form is ‘bone’. constructed. And isn’t that exactly what the State of Israel is for us today? For 70 years it has been central to our existence. It has been So, what is the connection between a bone and the frame which holds us upright, giving us independence? immeasurable pride. The first time that the term ‘etzem’ is mentioned As we approach this Yom Haatzmaut, we in the Torah is in the Book of Bereishit (2:23) – celebrate that just as Chava became an “Etzem me’atzamai” – God took a bone from independent being in her own right, Israel has Adam and with it he formed Chava (Eve), who overcome unfathomable challenges to become became a separate person in her own right. An a proud, independent country amongst the independent individual. Hence, the connection nations of the world. On this significant between ‘etzem’ and ‘atzmaut’, a ‘bone’ and anniversary, we celebrate the journey from ‘independence’. darkness to light, from exile to redemption and from ‘atzamot’ to ‘atzmaut’. In one of the most evocative Biblical passages, the prophet Yechezkel (Ezekiel ch. 37) describes a remarkable, graphic vision of a valley of dry bones. It is his prophecy of the ingathering of the exiles in which bones rise from beneath the ground, flesh appears upon them and then those very people become clothed and begin to march towards the Land of Israel. Was this not the story of the 1940s? Among the most disturbing images of the Holocaust are those of the piles of skeletal victims and of the starving and emaciated survivors wondering how they might begin the process of rebuilding their lives. And yet, within just a few years, we saw the most miraculous ingathering of Jewish In memory of Yaakov Yehoshua ben Ephraim Hirsch 3 Don’t Drink and Sacrifice by Rabbi Yonosan Golomb, Sheffield United Synagogue At the first service of the God. This is the “fire that came out from before newly-inaugurated Mishkan God and consumed them”. In simple terms, their (Tabernacle), two of Aharon’s intoxication was in order to assist this departure sons, Nadav and Avihu, took from the physical so as to come close to the it upon themselves to bring shechina; this is exactly what happened – they offerings on the mizebach became one with God’s presence and ceased haketoret (altar of incense). living in the realm of the physical. Perhaps that is This was not a response to what Moshe meant when he said they were a Divine instruction and the result was that “greater than us”. “A fire came out from before God and consumed them and they died before God” (Vayikra 10:2). However, the overall impression one gets from the Torah’s verses is that it was not right. It might If their intentions were to honour God through say a lot about Nadav and Avihu’s lofty spiritual their offerings, what was their transgression? level, but in the final analysis, this is not what God wants. Rashi (d. 1105) cites two reasons. Firstly, they should have verified all matters of law with God wants us to live in this world and to make Moshe, who was the authority in charge. this world a holy place. Many mitzvot require Secondly, they had drunk wine before performing using something material and turning it into a Temple service. Rashi seems to emphasise the something sacred. Animal skin makes a Sefer second reason, noting that in the following Torah, wax candles draw down the presence verses, God warns the Kohanim not to serve in of Shabbat and matzah from flour must be eaten the Mishkan after drinking wine (ibid. 10:8-11). to celebrate the Seder. Divorcing oneself from the material world is not what God wants for us. Why did Nadav and Avihu make the mistake of On the contrary, He wants us to use this physical becoming intoxicated in the first place? Surely it world for spiritual endeavours. In the words of the was obvious that being drunk while performing Rambam (Maimonides, d. 1204): “A person might ritual service was hardly appropriate, especially say… I won’t eat meat or drink wine or marry or for such exalted individuals.