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Home , Chaim Herzog, Devarim (parashah), Nitzavim, Shemot (parashah)

20 October 2018 11 Cheshvan 5779 ends 6.44pm 6.38pm

Volume 31 No. 7 Lech Lecha Artscroll p.54 | p.1133 Hertz p.45 | Haftarah p.60 Soncino p.60 | Haftarah p.82

In loving memory of Yaakov Yehoshua ben Ephraim Hirsch

“God said to Avram, ‘Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father’s house to the Land that I will show you’” (Bereishit 12:1). 1 Sidrah Summary: Lech Lecha

1st Aliya (Kohen) – Bereishit 12:1-13 Point to Consider: Who came to tell Avraham God appears to Avraham (at this stage still called that had been taken captive? (see to Avram), telling him to leave his homeland, 14:13) Charan (Babylonia), and travel to a land “that God would show him”, where he would flourish 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 14:21-15:6 and father a great nation (see p.3 article). Avraham refuses the King of Sedom’s offer to Avraham takes his wife (at this stage still keep the spoils of the war. Avraham relays his called Sarai), his nephew Lot and his entire pain to God at being childless. God tells him that household. They arrive in Cana’an. Avraham his offspring will be countless, like the stars. travels throughout the Land. Famine strikes and they are forced to go down to Egypt in order to (Shishi) survive. Afraid of being killed if the Egyptians 6th Aliya – 15:7-17:6 discover that Sarah is his wife, Avraham asks her Wary of future sins, Avraham asks for a hint as to say she is his sister. to how his offspring will merit to inherit and to keep the Land (see the Ramban’s commentary). God instructs Avraham to cut up several animals, Question: Where did Avraham build an altar? indicating that the future Temple offerings will (12:8) Answer on bottom of page 6. protect the nation. Birds of prey descend on the carcasses. Avraham falls into a deep sleep. God 2nd Aliya () – 12:14-13:4 tells him that his offspring will be enslaved in a ’s officers take Sarah away to their foreign land for 400 years. Sarah, still childless, master’s house. They give Avraham copious gifts tells Avraham to take her maidservant, Hagar, as as ‘payment’. God strikes Pharaoh with a plague. a second wife. Hagar becomes pregnant and is Suspecting that Sarah may in fact be Avraham’s disrespectful to Sarah, who sends her away. An wife, Pharaoh confronts Avraham and then appears to Hagar in the desert, telling her orders him and Sarah to leave. They travel back to subjugate herself to Sarah. Hagar gives birth to Cana’an with Lot. to Yishmael.

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

United 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: Rabbi Daniel Sturgess, Rabbi Laitner, Sharon Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please contact Danielle Fox on 020 8343 6261, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected]

2 An Example to All by Rabbi Zvi Cohen, Kingsbury United Synagogue

“Few things are harder to put In truth, this is the role of every one of us. In up with than the annoyance parashat , we are told that there will of a good example” (Mark come a time when we are uprooted from our Land Twain, d.1910). and cast amongst foreign nations ( 29:27). Unusually the word “Mklwyv” – meaning With all due respect to Mark ‘he will cast them’ – is written with a large ‘lamed’ l Twain, not everyone will ( ). Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (d. 1880) agree with this statement. In my role as a Year writes that this teaches that we are not in exile Six school teacher, I have the pleasure of among the nations by chance, but by Divine accompanying the class on various end of year decree, with a clear purpose. The word lamed, activities. One of these is a walking tour around as well as being the of the letter, means Westminster, where we spend some time in to teach. We are spread far and wide to ‘lamed’, Parliament Square looking at the statues of to inspire the world how to behave. This various individuals who have made an impact responsibility, as indicated by the size of the on British and world history. These statues letter lamed, is a huge responsibility. encourage us to honour people who make a difference and to attempt to learn from their good We may never have statues of ourselves on example. display in Parliament Square, but our every action is under scrutiny and has an impact on those who At the beginning of this week’s sidrah, Avraham is observe us. As descendants of Avraham, we are given a command that is the first in a series of ten all challenged with continuing his mission and tests that he was given by God: “Go from your overcoming the tests that come our way, land … to the Land that I [God] will show you” conducting ourselves in an exemplary fashion (Bereishit 12:1). Rashi (d. 1105) points out that and making a Kiddush Hashem (sanctification of Avraham was not told his destination, which God’s Name) at every opportunity. made this test harder and thereby increased his reward. When Avraham is given his ultimate test Mark Twain may have found it annoying, but at the end of next week’s sidrah, the Akeidah following Avraham’s example is our very task (binding of Yitzchak), God again does not reveal in . the exact final destination (see Rashi to ibid. 22:2).

Yet perhaps we can suggest another meaning for the words “that I will show you” (Kara rwa). Instead of referring to the geographical destination, these words were referring to Avraham himself. God was saying to Avraham, go from your land and travel somewhere new, as I want to ‘show you to the world’. Humanity needs an example of someone who understands that there is a Creator of the world, as well as an individual who is a paragon of kindness and can teach the world how to behave. I, said God, want to display your exemplary conduct to the world. Parliament Square

In memory of Mordechai Avraham ben Nechemia 3 Jewish Contemporary Ethics Part 5: Mankind’s Moral Compass by Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman, New West End United Synagogue

So far in this series, we have cuckoos misappropriate the nests of magpies by argued that mankind needs laying their eggs in them while the magpie is still Divine intervention in order to incubating its own. Despite violent pecking, the develop an objective set of magpies are unable to evict the invading cuckoo moral and ethical standards. and eventually abandon their nests, leaving their Before we discuss those areas eggs behind. of God’s laws which may appear to us ‘unethical’, let us Most humans would accept these examples first deal with a more fundamental question. as part of animal behaviour; no one is planning to arrest a chimpanzee for murder or serve an Classical secular ethics are based on the premise eviction order to a cuckoo! Yet we would that mankind is able to reason into existence consider murder, cannibalism or theft between some kind of moral consensus. And many would other humans as immoral. Avraham’s sensitivity agree. to God’s moral code allowed him to deduce the whole of the himself. Whilst this was In his work To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi exceptional and none of us could claim to be as Lord Jonathan Sacks notes: “There is nothing morally objective as Avraham, it indicates that inherently ‘religious’ about a moral sense. The there must nevertheless be some inner source to Bible takes for granted that human beings know our innate sense of morality, however subjective the difference between good and evil”. There it may be. are many individual displays of morality and altruism by people outside of the Israelite nation, The Ramban ( d. 1270) explains such as Pharaoh’s daughter rescuing Moshe that God created humanity from both physical ( 2:5-10), the Cana’anite Rachav saving and spiritual matter, indicated by the formation Yehoshua’s spies ( 2:4) and the of Adam from both the dust of the earth and the Moabite showing compassion to Naomi (Ruth breath of God (see his commentary on Bereishit 1:16). Our sages note that Avraham, long before 1:26 and 2:7). Mankind is therefore comprised the Revelation at Sinai, independently deduced of both carnal desire and Godly intent. Our the existence of God and the 613 mitzvot, which animalistic needs and higher moral aspirations he observed (see Yoma 28a). often conflict, but we have the freedom to choose between them. As we will see in the next Rabbi Sacks quotes Rabbi Nissim Gaon article, this points to the original creation of (d. 1062) who stated unequivocally: “All mankind as the seminal moment in conceiving a commandments that are rational and amenable moral framework for human civilisation and the to human understanding have been binding on entire world. everyone since the day God created mankind on earth”. Mankind has the inherent capacity to deduce that acts such as murder, brutality and violence are immoral, without Divine revelation.

This immediately sets mankind apart from the animal world. Animals regularly kill, steal and use violence. A New Scientist article, for example, described how male chimpanzees have been known to beat, murder and cannibalise rivals when competing for a mate. A 2014 study published in Ethology reported that female

In memory of Tzemach ben Yisrael 4 Shaimos: The Inestimable Value of Jewish Texts by Dayan Elimelech Vanzetta, Rabbi of Ahavas Yisrael United Synagogue, Rabbinical and Halachic Administrator for US Burial On 30 April 2014 the our Bushey and Waltham Abbey Cemeteries branch of Christie’s, by the administrators of our constituent US the famous auctioneers, . The method of disposing of such sold a chumash (Five texts and objects will vary according to their level Books of ) printed of holiness, with some requiring a proper burial, in Bologna in 1482, for such as a which has been damaged US$ 3.87 million. The back beyond repair, damaged tefilin and mezuzah of the copy bears the parchments, as well as printed siddurim which signature of three 16th and 17th century censors, are no longer used. Other texts, however, such testifying to its presence in an Italian library as printed Torah articles and pamphlets intended at that time. to be used temporarily, have a lesser degree of holiness and may therefore be discarded in In the UK, we have the phenomenal other ways, such as double wrapping the item Genizah, housed at Cambridge University since before placing it in a regular domestic rubbish it was discovered in 1896. It boasts 193,000 bin. manuscripts, which had accumulated in a designated room of the Ben Synagogue, in Given the various types of sacred texts Fustat (Old Cairo). Such manuscripts include and objects and the different methods both sacred writings as well as more routine of disposing of each of them, US Burial has documents pertaining to almost 1000 years of created an extremely useful and concise Jewish life in Egypt prior to their discovery. Shaimos Guide, which is available online (www.theus.org.uk/shaimosguide). It helps us London was home to the Valmadonna Trust establish what is and what is not considered Library, a fascinating and unique private Shaimos, what should be sent to our cemeteries collection of some 13,000 historical printed and what may be dealt with locally. books and manuscripts, meticulously curated by Mr Jack Lunzer until his death in 2016. In January By treating our sacred books and objects with 2017, the library was sold by its trustees to the the deference they deserve, even when National Library of Israel. disposing of them, we are able to show the Almighty that whilst our old, damaged siddur or These examples indicate the importance chumash may not have a price tag of US$ 3.87m, ascribes to its books and manuscripts. it is nevertheless precious in our eyes. A cost- However, from a Jewish perspective, even a free way of performing a mitzvah of inestimable damaged book that is no longer fit to be used value! may be just as important as the Italian Chumash sold by Christie’s. Indeed, we find in Devarim 1 We normally use the Modern Hebrew pronunciation in the (12:4) that one may not destroy (erase or Daf for all Hebrew terms. However, this is the term more commonly used in our communities. discard disrespectfully) any of God’s . Furthermore, we are commanded to store all sacred Jewish texts in a box known as a genizah (more commonly referred to as Shaimos1), irrespective of the language they are written in ( Shabbat 16:1). These requirements extend to several objects used in the performance of mitzvot. One of the important mitzvot US Burial is routinely involved with is the respectful Schechter studies documents from the disposal of sacred texts and objects sent to Cairo Geniza (photo: Cambridge University Library)

In memory of Moshe ben Avraham Zarach 5 100 Years since the Birth of Chaim Herzog by Rabbi Michael Laitner, Jewish Living Division Rabbi; Assistant Rabbi, Finchley United Synagogue

185 Cliftonpark Avenue in reassured his listeners. The broadcasts have North is an unlikely been preserved on YouTube. starting point for a great After spells in industry, he was one of the Jewish journey. It was the founders of the prominent Israeli law firm home of the renowned Herzog Fox Neeman, also serving as Israel’s Rabbi Dr Yitzchak and Ambassador to the UN from 1975-1978. Rebbetzen Sarah Herzog who, on 18 September His knowledge of Jewish law, history and the 1918, were blessed with their first son. Named Tanach (the ), was demonstrated in Chaim, after the great Talmudist Rabbi Chaim his literary activity. He authored important books Soloveitchik of Brisk, who passed away earlier on Biblical and Israeli military history, as well as that year, the newborn child was to have a his fascinating memoirs Living History. He also decisive impact on the Jewish world, including edited a book of his father’s writings in English, serving as Israel’s sixth President, from 1983- Jewish Law and Ethics (, 1975). 1993. He passed away in 1997. His wife, Aura Eliyakim Rubinstein, former Deputy President of Herzog, was a social activist and a full partner in the Israeli Supreme Court, who worked in his work. Herzog’s presidential team, related that Herzog would begin meetings with a Torah thought from As part of the commemorations for the 100th the Tanach. anniversary of Chaim Herzog’s birth, there is a special service this Shabbat at Finchley Perhaps the most memorable of his many fine Synagogue. This and following articles will survey public moments was his remarkable speech at the his achievements, alongside those of his famous United Nations General Assembly in 1975, against parents and his younger brother, Rabbi Yaacov the infamous ‘ is Racism’ Resolution. Herzog. Concluding by putting trust in “our Providence, in our faith and beliefs…” he ripped up the Resolution The Herzog family left Belfast in 1919, when at the podium. The speech is preserved on Rabbi Herzog took the position of of YouTube and reproduced in Living History as well Ireland in . Chaim later followed his parents as the United Synagogue/Koren , From to , when his father was Exile to Redemption. The historian Simon Sebag appointed Chief Rabbi. Chaim studied at Yeshivat Montefiore included it in his book Speeches that Merkaz Harav and Yeshivat Chevron before Changed the World (2013). serving in the . He then read law at London University and qualified as a barrister. Chaim Herzog’s family remains active in Israeli life. Notably, his son Yitzchak held several roles in the His active service in the during and , including chairman of the Labour Party. after World War Two included a period in military He is the current Chairman of the Jewish Agency. intelligence, when he interrogated many leading Nazis. Chaim Herzog’s life story should be of great interest to British . It may also inspire us, He fought in the Israeli War of Independence of even from unlikely starting points, to do great 1948, remaining in the military until 1962, things for the including a stint as Israel’s Military Attache in Jewish people. Washington. He later returned to the military, notably during the Six Day War of 1967, rising to the rank of Major-General. During the Six-Day Ben-Gurion War, his English-language broadcasts with their and Chaim Herzog

familiar Irish lilt, told Israel’s story to the world and at the Answer: Beit El Beit Answer:

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Due to unforeseen personal circumstances, we were unable to produce a Tribe Scribe; this is a reproduction of Lech Lecha 2016.