Enliven your Seder with these new Haggadahs! TuE CHAZON lsH J{aggadah

ur era was blessed to have the Chazon !sh ?">1 as one of the Oprimary leaders of Jewry throughout the world. In addition to citing many of the Chazon lsh's halachic rulings and practices related to Pesach, this Haggadah presents stories about this Torah giant as well as selection of his insights and hash­ kafos, culled from many sources, and applied to the Haggadah. The Chazon /sh Haggadah is one you will treasure for many years to come.

Rl\V SH.IOMO ffeMAN }-JAGGADAH

ecome acquainted with the beloved, revered Shlomo BZalman Auerbach ?">i through this outstanding Haggadah! ··~~~~Iii This masterful blending of the notes and recollections of ' Rav Shlomo Zalman's family and close disciples brings his seder table and beis midrash to your own home, illuminating your Pesach with his customs, halachic rulings, and insightful discussions. This volume details his approach to the season in law and custom from thirty days before Pesach through the last day of the festival. The legacy of this gad of will come alive in your home, year after year, as you gain insight into Pesach through his teachings. THE REVOWTIONARY APPROACH THAT HAS ADDED MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING TO YOUR PRAYERS IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR YOUR SEDER! The sc!JOTTENSTEIN EOIT!ON THE INTERLINEAR HAGGADAH It's easy to recite the Haggadah with meaning in Hebrew using the new interlinear format developed by ArtScroll to give you maximum comprehension With minimum effort. ~~~~~·~ How can this new format help you? See for yourself! 1"'i3"T '1 ,"'°"1 ;.. -~, ~­ • Your eyes never stray from the Hebrew word. ~--- ...•;.· .,..::_ ,~~~~ ·-- •You view Hebrew and English simultaneously. ~.~~-~·t!\!l:l")'l'I" ~,:!!?,'.i'~--~.,::e~~ •Your concentration is unbroken. "".,, •You focus on the meaning of the Haggadah, because you see the ;=""-""':;:;:"".;:;:~=::: translation as you recite the Haggadah; ~~.:?.:' ni·~•. and the Debreciner Rav '"ltl. Numerous revisions and additions en­ hance this new edition, including many important p'sakim from .HaGa.on Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach >·~·, and """"'~' HaGaon Rav Yosef Shalom Eliyashiv ....,,,.,, This is a sefer that belongs in your home this Chol Hamoed!

;ewish IN THIS ISSUE .••

/BSEINE.R THE ELEVENTH HASHAS OF OAF YOMI THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 IS PU!\USl!ED MON!"flLY EXCJ~PT h1u· & AlJGUSr UY l!llC AGUDc\'11! hHAEL OF AMUllCA 42 HIHIADW,\Y, N1cw Yora:. NY 10004, RaL-ibi i\Jisson PuuODICA!.S POSTAGE l'!\ID IN Niow YorlK. NY. Sunscnrl'-r10N s2s.oo/YFA1~; 14 THE LAST OFTHE l\llC!HH:ANS, Rabbi Yechief 2 YL'\HS. S48.00;;} YL\llS. S69.oo. OUTSIDE CH' THE \JNJ n:n STAn·.s {!JS FUNDS DRAWN 0"1 ,, \!5 !lANK 16 l\lly Sarah ONLY) Srs.oo S\IROIARGL PER ncAK S!NG!.E COl'Y S:;.50; 0PTSIDE NY ,\fib\ S:;.95; FOHEIGN S4.50. 18 FROM THE S!DEUNES ... To THE FRONT E.T Rubin POSTMASTER: SEND ADDHFSS CHANGES TO: fur: JEWISH OBSERVER 42. BROADWAY, NY. NY 10004 fl·:L 212-797-9000. FAX 64H-254-1600 31 THE !JAY Robbi l'JONTJ·:D IN THE USA

RAfHH N!SSON WOLP11'. fditor 36 iNTRODUC!NG THE E!GHTH

Fdilorinl Hoard Shiorno Gottesrnan and Gcdofiah vv·e111bi1ff''" RABl\l JO.~!TI! ELIAS. U1mrma11 RAflBl A!HlA BIHJDNY JOSEl'H F!llEDENSON RAIHU YISROEI. Mun KJRZNEn RAJH~l NOSSON Scuu~MJ\N l'RO!'. AARON Tw1·:w,;t;.1 ON THE AGENDA

hnmdcrs l)H. ERNST L. BODl:NllEJMEft Z""J. RABBI Mo~;in: SHERE[~ Z""L 38 liURTllNG llOWN Tf!E SLIPPERY M1111oycmc11/ /Jmm/ .A.VI FISJIOF, NAFrOT.! Hrnsc11 Yonoson Rosenblurn IS1\t\C KH~ZNER, RABBI SHI.OMO LL~IN, NAC!ll'M STEIN Mrmuging !:ditor RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING PESACH JOTTINGS Pl!BJ.ISl!!\D BY •\(;1 i])A r!! Js1vuc1. OF f\MEIHCA

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SOUTH AFRICAN RJ:PIH:SENTATIVI·: !"HE JE\VISH OHSERVER DOES NO I ASSUMF SIYUM PHOTO CREDITS M!I. \'.TABACK l'O Box S15.')2. R!-:SPON.'il!llU !"Y FOn TH1' KASH!Hrs OF ·\NY PHO])!rcr. Rm·rlcnc . .f,1hon11r'shurq P{llll.!C1\TION, 0!{ 'iEHVICE ADVJ·~RTISEIJ IN ITS !'AGF.S ~124 SOI '!If At-mc:1 BACK Covui: CONT!1'FNT.''d. Allll.INICS AHENA BY Mosi-11: )';\HMISl-l

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~~-----·---~------._ .... ------·---~·-- _J . . then cariie the taxihgsch~dul~, tbe ,,;gistlc~f pl~n~ ·J.·.. hE! ··.p. repa.ra.ti.. o... n. for this ·l.or.ah.-i.nspired even. t began, in its way, over.eighty years ago;. when Rabbi ning, setting ~p communi~ations centers and (Oailings, introduced the idea of learning leasing of arenas, r;ieeting halls and auditoriums,. set­ throu~h the entirety of - one page atatime-Daf tingup satellite networks.making and 5onfir(Oing seat Yomi - at the Knessia. Gedo/ah of Agudath Israel in reservations, and .the ..countdown to. the end of , !twas advanced when.the Gerrer ,.,, ush­ Masechta Nidda • .. · ered in the New Year 5684 by learning the first folio \~e long:awai~E!d day came~ and highways, skyways, of Shas, 8erachos. daf Beis, and tens of thousands of trains, buses - all w!'Jre crowped with mesyemim (Shas com­ Chassidim followed his example, The more immediate pleters). and fell\)Wcelebrapts. The coqfluence of Yid den preparation for this Siyum began on September 29, '97127 outside Madison .Square Garden and the Javits Center in 5757, when on .six. continents began the Eleventh , Continental AirHnesArena .in , W

111··111e1f1erma111 01 the liJom J'bk.N J'#n'f;~uf1NT~.'\fdRDS.THA!JZ~HICli .. Wf!:JUST ~:x.rEtt!J;;)'.ICED;.fR?MJ;.Hf:MOMEN'l;'\fE WALKEOIN; /;t•}~tOO'(JRAMA2;IJ'..10SEATS, To•THJ!;:~~STKADJ)JSJ1. ···•· ;•, FRol\( RAss1W~9Hs~~N'.s"WE):V,'\cNT M:oRE" to .· RABIJI MATISYAau's "WEMtJS'.f po~.MIT ouRSELVEs," WE LEFT A FEW FEET TALLEk AND Fl<:Ii:LING ti KE

RA.·········.·.~11f:Aat£H F!ltGENBAUM . 'J?~-.:·ofGvugregation.·phr Ha:Toralt :ef.nd}~tµlfr Of,tllt }.Q~__17fe1&~.er_,tJ,allas ·.de~9gatio.n ~·(>'t.~,e Siyu'nl.

' .. Geao~i ouf people Israel, ·'foray f3~vened .•• t~ ation ori earth."1 f3t.111~.4~dath lsfil.¢}; . I look at thii dms, a }#rav '11-feir Sltapir.o · ·j Jlce attO$f the .audito' 'l>''ll! wondered aloud in 1 s, a ~.~ ()ft11~ li~ ofloca~ons, aIJci the S]let'Gh inwhiclthe introduced the 1 ·· izesthe~t()~therall~eofp~­ concept of DtifYomi how it wo'Uld be ~ts:Indeed,diversitymadelOr~mter- possible for the kadosh Rav Chaim 71 A P n ' ' 2 0 0 5 ·········-···-················ =l

Brisker to discuss matters with a everyone else, frorn wherever they were THE Joy OF COMPLETION German Rav from Frankfurt, or sitting. how a cultured Jew from Holland Perhaps to those of us who were part Rabbi Goldberg also captured the would find common ground with an of the massive New York area assemblies, explosion of joy at the conclusion of the Eastern European Jew from Poland. the Maariv following the Siyum - after actual Siyi11n: However, when he sat down to completing Shas - had suggestions of The body rejoices. Not just the learn a dafGemara, he realized that Ne'ila-the final prayer on Yorn Kippur, mind. Not just the soul. a blatt contains these diverse marking the last moments before the The last words of the are groups. The Gemara was written in doors close on Hashe1n's compassionate recited and duly explicated, then the Eave~ which today formal completion is Iraq; was ceremony and the written in France; accompanying, and the perushim unique is of the Rif, Rashba, also recited, and Ritva and then-then - Rambam were No instruction. written in Spain No sooner is the and North Africa. last word of this That is what Kaddish recited than is all the entire throng about, and that is breaks out in sponta­ the ratzon of neous dance. Hakadosh Baruch Have you ever Hu. The unity of danced together Kial Yisroel should with tens of thou­ co1ne - and could sands of people? only originate It takes seven and from limud a half years of daily haTorah.2 intellectual and spir­ "Echad," in awe, in itual struggle to joy, in dedication and explain this dance. determination. People lock arms. Somehow, on this People sing. Children occasion, the place and teenagers move to one occupied did not the front, hop the define one's role. security barrier, form Regulars at sporting circles and dance in events at the Garden or Continental forgiveness. J cannot comment for those front of the sages on the dais. The sages Arena know what to expect when they whose connection to the event was then1selves, some very old and infirm, enter: The players are in the rink or on electronic, but the me1nory of the rise and dance in circles, too. Young. the court. The coaches are on the side­ hushed, silent devotion, almost palpable Old. Eminences. Unknowns. Dancing, lines. And the stands are full of fans, root­ to us daveners, still inspires a chill in my all together. The body rejoices. Body. ing and cheering "their" team. This time, bones. (See sidebar for description of Mind. Soul. The ultimate unity. the major bulk of the players were in the Maariv at the Siyum by Rabhi Hillel Before G-d. stands, the coaches were seated on a dais, Goldberg, editor of Intermountain Jewish ''Our G-d." and everybody seemed to be cheering News, l)N .)3 The joy of celebration over the com-

'Plroro mptions were printed 011/y ji>r liiose sprnkcr.< q1wltd i11 this lll'tide.

8 -·······-·-···-···--·- ______. I THE .IEW!Slf Ons E R \! E H

pletion of Shas leaped over geographic One of the highest points was within, not an opportunity to let distances and was joined by a multitude viewing tens of thousands of people loose. I was thinking: G-d, look how of smaller groups. in New York and at all hookups break much your children love You and Back in , 500 celebrants out into spontaneous song and Your Torah! crowded the local )CC to partic­ The sense of togetherness ipate in a local Siyurn, watching was genuine, as we watched a col­ the New York event by satellite orful display of different types connection. Rabbi Aaron of Jews of all ages in Toronto, Yehuda Schwab, a Rosh Kolle/ of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles the Denver Community Kolle!, - and even , Poland. recalls A The excitc1nent was picked up Denver was one of the 70 in :S cities connected via satellite ... A satellite hook up to the to more than 120,000 Jews East Coast celebrations, Mara gathered in stadiums and D'Asra Rabbi Yehoshua Wender theaters also made a local throughout Siyum, followed the world. From the lntermountain Jewish News by a communi- People sitting When I watched the previous event And the group gives context to the ty-wide Seudas around 1ne at in 1997 via satellite transmission to a individual yearning. Mitzvah. There the )CC video screen in Denver, I saw, and faint­ And the groups expands the spiri­ was a genuine Theater were ly heard, tens of thousands of Jews tual consciousness. feeling of being moved to praying in unison. The 20,800 voices - in unison part of the tears of joy I was jealous of that. "Shema Yisrael" - "Yehei Shemei national Olam and sadness at I wanted to be there. Rabba" ~ put each of us on eagles' HaTorah, and the numerous I, too, wanted to say Shema Yisrael wings. crowd erupted points and Yehei Shemei Rabba with tens of Soaring. into song and throughout thousands of Jews, together. Enveloped. dance every time I made seven-and-a-half year men­ Elevating each Jew around us, and, the hookup. a there was singing tal note: Be there, G-d willing, in 2005. so much more powerful, elevated by Rabbi and dancing at [Hillel Goldberg did come. The this futuristic, vast assemblage Ephraim lines that follow describe Maariv in 2005 enveloped in earnest prayer. the other loca- Wachsman in the Continental Arena.] On the wings of eagles. tions. brought this The fourth word of the Eighteen Privileged. The thrill was gathering into Blessings is "ourG·d," followed by "the To be with the democracy of the experienced in focus: "There G-d of our fathers." Who is "our G-d"? Jewish people. Calgary, Alberta, are thousands This is the G·d of the , of the With #'our G-d." led by Rabbi Zev of us gathered individuals, we pray with on any given Jealousy consummated. Fricdn1an, who here to sancit­ Shabbos or weekday. extended the eel- fy Hashem's The group encourages the individ­ - Rabbi Hillel Goldberg ebration to Name, but the ual's spiritual quest. Editor Florence, generation Montana, cour- before us was gathered to sanctify dance. Local participants danced on tesy of contemporary technology. Hashem's name in a different way. the )CC stage, meshing with the ecsta- And the joy also reverberated m l'he Nazis gathered even more peo­ sy of the celebration of Torah on the , in the former USSR, as report- ple .... They died as Jews, we must live screen directly behind them. The ed by Betzalel Mandel: as Jews!" dancing was an expression of JOY from -- ~lthoug~the~ch~ol day~nd:J r-=·--.--.. -_-_-_·· ___ ------===A=P=;;;R·;;;··:·::L::::·:;;;··;;;:;;;·~-0;;;_;;;_;;;5:::: ------____ ,, ______I

3:30 PM, 38 boys from the oldest ing the last lines of the Gemara Nidda The Gemara tells us regarding the three grades in the Etz Chaim school - described the elation experienced at the asara harugei malchus (the ten holy remained for the event. In order to Siyum at the close of the second DafYomi martyrs in the time of the Roman prepare them for the Siyum, the Kolle! cycle. lt was then that Rabbi Stein began occupation), "gevilin nisrafim ba'eish Avreichim arranged for a program for learning DafYomi- in 5698 (1938), nine ve'osiyos porchos ba'avir-the parch­ the boys running throughout the cycles ago! ments were burnt, burning in the afternoon and flames, but the letters evening until the were hovering in the live hookup air.» During the began. At 2:00 Holocaust, all the PM, we brought holy yeshivos were the children into decimated, but their the auditorium spiritual ko' ach where we were remains with us until joined by the par­ this very day. The ticipants from very spirit of other mosdos. We Chachmei Lublin still alternated thrives with the between translat­ tremendous power of ing the speeches Daf Yomi, and from New York although the great and local speech­ yeshivos have been es in Russian, destroyed, it is their although the spiritual influence video was stream­ that has accompa­ ing throughout. nied us and has been The highlight was instrumental in the Siyum itself ensuring the rejuve­ and the dancing nation of Torah following, as today. everyone realized The suffering that we were cele­ through the brating the event Holocaust and the with rivevos survival and subse~ alphei Yisroel (tens of thousands He was present among the multitudes quent revitalization of and of Jews)! who celebrated that day with many 'forah life were more than points of ref­ Gedolei Torah of the time, including the erence at this celebration. Since the great Rosh Hayeshiva, Rabbi Elchonon Seventh Siyum HaShas, in 1975, the BLOSSOMING OF TORAH, Wasser1nan i"'i17"~T. Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Agudath ROOTED IN THE PAST In those days [prior to WWU], one Israel's Council of Torah Sages) has called was able to feel the imminent for dedicating the Siyum to the memo­ While most of the senior members of "puranuyos." Chazal say about the ry of the Six Million Kedoshim who per­ the gatherings could recall humbler times, suffering during Ikvesa DeMeshicha ished at the hands of the Nazis 111"'' in Rabbi Chaim Stein, Rosh Hayeshiva in (in the era before the advent of World War II. To give us a sense of how the Telshe Yeshiva in Wickliffe, Ohio - Moshiach) that it will be so intense, they kept the flame of Torah alive in who made the actual Siyum, comp let - they prayed that they not witness it. unbearable conditions, we quote from

10 ----·---.. ----·· --- ··-·---···----' T H E J E \V I S 1:1 0 tt S JO R V E H

--.---·---···-----~--- ··------.-~---.-·------··------.... ------·--- the recollections of Reh Yosef Europe, words to describe the feel­ Kattan, but I know that I will not be Friedenson, editor of Dos Yiddishe Vort, ings welling up within me are diffi­ able to finish it. Promise me that when former talmid of Yeshivas Chachmei cult to commit to paper. you get out of the concentration Lublin, and survivor of the The Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Levi camp, you will finish it for me ...." Ghetto as well as five concentration and Yitzchok Horowitz H~ added a stir­ And then he added, "Tell your chil­ labor camps: ring anecdote of the wartime rnesiras dren and the remnants of Kial The Nazis understood that the ncfesh for Torah, and its post-War ram­ Yisroel when you will be released that secret of the eternal survival of the ifications: they too must finish the learning that Jewish Nation was they began ... :' their attachment Our perspective to the Talmud, for appreciating what and they thus the Bostoner Rcbbc sought to utterly aptly described as "an annihilate event unparalleled, as Poland's Jews, far as the number of who to them sym­ people gathered bolized Jews total­ together, since the ly attached to the time the Yidden Talmud .... received the Torah at l recall cele­ Har Sinai," must also brating the third take into account the Siyum HaShas in remarkable changes 1946 in the DP in the spiritual land­ camps in scape in Ainerica - Germany. We both in terms of were a tiny group intensity and sheer of broken sur­ demographics. vivors, remnants Rabbi Chaskel of Polish Jewry Besser, Prcsidiu1n that had all but member of Agudath been wiped out. At Israel of A1nerica, the time, an we Founding Chainnan had were two vol­ of the Daf Yomi umes of Gcmara - Con1mission, symbolic of the re1narked: pitiful conditions The Siyum is for of Jewry at the time. At the previous 1'hcre was a inan in Vilna who the zechus of the kedoshim who were Siyum in Lublin, there had been thou­ took out time from his busy sched­ murdered in . The sands of Yidden with thousands of ule to learn Torah. His entire fami­ Nazis relished destroying every ves­ , and now we were only a few ly perished in Auschwitz. Even there, tige of Yiddishkeit, burning sefarim, broken Jews with two solitary vol­ in the Valley of Death, he and a cutting beards and ripping up any­ umes of C':iemara .... nephew spent time learning. One fate­ thing Jewish. What would be left after Today, as we celebrate the Siyum ful night, the uncle told his nephew, such destruction?... Who would HaShas together with more than "l know that tomorrow I will be taken have believed sixty years ago that a 100,000 Jews in North America, and away and killed. I am now in the mid­ day such as this would ever take place? many inorc in Bretz Yisroel and dle of learning Maseches Mo' eid Sixty years ago, no one would have

11 A P R I L 2 0 0 5

believed that there would be so Torah, unceasing dedication to him, the Rebbe immediately para­ much Yiddishkeit left in the world, learning, is what has preserved the phrased the Torah's words about and especially in America, where Jewish people throughout the ages. Noach who survived the deluge: Yiddishkeitwas non-existent at that The Imrei Emes of miraculous­ "Vayisha'eir ach Noach - and only time .... ly made his way to Eretz Yisroel in the Noach remained." Then the Imrei Sixty years ago, there were scarcely ten middle of the Holocaust. I 00,000 of E1nes turned to his grandson and said, yeshivas gedolos in the Western hemi­ his Chassidim and over one hundred "Noach, for so many years you have sphere, less than two minyanim of kol­ of his own descendants perished at not been abJe to learn. Go run to a lel yungeleit, and an Orthodox lay the hands of the Nazis w··,. There was beis midrash and take a (Jemara." corn1nunity suc- Learning Torah, cumbing to the learning Gemara is pressures of"making Appreciation - from the Perspective of a survivor the only thing that a living," in pursuit My father (a Holocaust survivor) and I attended the Siyum together. we have. It has of financial and The next day, he recalled: remained constant social advancement, "As we walked toward , I saw all those frum and unblemished even at the cost of Yidden surging towards the front entrance from all sides, and I saw throughout the shemiras Shabbos. the big sign on Seventh Avenue lit up with the words Siyum HaShas. entire history of The kedoshim's "let­ I just stopped and remembered where I was just a little over sixty years Kial Yisroel. ters hovering in the ago - and I started to cry. I probably did not stop crying all night. That We not only air" settled on the I should be seeing this, with my own eyes, when I remember a time capture the holy let­ untouched parch­ when Yidden looked in wonderment when they saw a single Yiddishe ters that escaped ment of the next child. And now this, in this 'treifeneh' city! Who would have believed the destruction of generation. such a thing?" Churban Europe, we Inspiration from have much to learn shearis haplcita NUTT! GOLDBRENNER (FROM PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE) and to emulate (survivors of Monscy, NY from Klal YisroeI's Churban Europe), resiliency. As Rabbi coupled with the Ely a Ber dedication of A1nerica's Wachtfogel 1'1"1"?1!!, Rosh Torah pioneers, blessed Hayeshiva of Yeshiva with incredible siyata Gedolah Zichron Moshe diShemaya, made this (South Fallsburg) empha­ transforming n1iracle take sized: place. The Yaavetz (Rabbi Rabbi Ephraim Yaakov Emden ?··~r) said Wachsman, of that the survival of the Meor Yitzchok (Monsey), Jewish people in galus is a posed the question: greater miracle than the Jews went to their Exodus from Egypt and death with "Shema the Splitting of the Sea. Yisroef' on their lips. This survival is only due From where do the Jewish people one grandchild who survived; his to their cleaving to Torah. But we derive this strength? This strength name was Rav Noach Joskowitz. yearn to go on to the next stage, after comes from the Torah, the pure and When he came to Eretz Yisroel after galus. unblemished Torah - it is our the war, he ran to his grandfather's The Gemara points out that each lifeblood, our strength. Toiling in home, and upon setting his eyes on of the three previous galus experi-

------· ···-.-~·~------_J THE J£w1stt OasERvr:n I ___ .... ______... , ____ ,.., ___ -···----.. -- ·------... -----.. ------·--·------··--·------·-

ences was of a precise, predestined the main manifestation of sinas chi­ ing. Through control of our speech, duration: Egypt, 210 years; Babylon, nam is through talking lashon hara. and the resultant enhanced purity of 70 years; and so on. Why is this cur­ He cites the Zoharthat teaches us that our intense lbrah study, we can bring rent exile, Galus Edom, the galus to an end and seemingly without end? usher in the much­ The Vilna Gaon longed-for . explains that the sins of the First Be is Hamikdash- idol wor­ TAKING THE ship, immorality and MESSAGE FURTHER murder-were external to the human being. Rabbi Matisyah u Its impact is finite. The Salomon ~·1'•?w, Second Beis Mashgiach of Bais Medrash Hamikdash was Gavoha (Lakewood) destroyed, usher- focused on one of ing in Galus the lessons we can - Edom, becanse of and must - pick up sinas chinam - Ourreach lhrouuh Dal Yomi fro1n this remarkable baseless hatred, Just two days after the Siyum HaShas, at a wedding in Lakewood, gathering, and inter­ an internal cor­ I found myself sitting next to two (not-yet-frum) relatives, who had nalize. ruption, not so traveled seven hours by car to participate in the simcha. He recalled that easily cleansed "Are you part of the Orthodox group who learns the 2,700 pages his rebbi, Rav from the national of the Talmud?" one of the brothers asked. Chaim Shmuelevitz neshama. I told him that anyone and everyone can learn. It is not limited to ?··:::lr, the Mirrer The Gra says a segment of Orthodoxy, whether they"do the Daf or have other study Rosh Yeshiva, had that sinas chinam sessions. He asked a little more about the Gemara, until I delicately asked a former is a midda that offered, "If you want to learn Gemara, I'm available. We can do it by camp inmate, nHow not only mani­ phone with telephone conferencing; you, your brother, and !?' did you survive five fests itself It was basically that simple. years of forced between man and For years, we had reached out to these relatives to try Discovery labor? How did you his fellow man, or Arachim seminars. Not even a nibble. But when l 00,000 Jews got remain a ma'amin? but can also cause together to celebrate the millions of blatt learned since the last Siyum How could you a person to reject HaShas, the media picked it up.A little national coverage of the Siyum come out with the the Torah itself. HaShas and two Jews bought their first ArtScroll Gemaras, cleared their same love for the While he may Wednesday nights to learn Torah, and have committed to master at Ribbono Shel learn, it is diluted; least a little of Shas. As Rabbi Frand said, "It's never too little. It's never Olam?n it is not learning too late." The survivor that stems from a RABBI YOSEF WIKLER (EDITOR OF KASHRUS MAGAZINE) responded: "The true ahavas , NY Nazis '\?.r~ deprived haTorah. It is not us of every opportu­ the learning that nity to keep Ghazal speak of which can bringthe it is due to lashon hara that the Beis mitzvos. We didn't have Shabbos or Geula. Hamikdash was destroyed and it is Yorn Tov. We couldn't learn; we The Chafetz Chaim explains that lashon hara that prevents its rebuild- could hardly daven. We were taken

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out in the early morning, marched lead us in Kiddush Levana. those borne [by Him J from the to the forest, worked all day, and at "He boomed forth: 111:JNJJ~ WN womb [i.e., the Jewish People], those night marched back. C'j7T1VNU. who are destined to renew themselves "But one thing they couldn't take "We would echo his words. And like it, and to glorify their Molder.' away from us - the levantL The moon those words penetrated our hearts: "Suddenly we were inspired with was always there. Some people kept 'Blessed are You, Hashem ... Who a sense of hope. Just as after the moon track of Rosh Chodesh, and they with His utterance created the heav­ has disappeared from view, leaving would look into the sky. When the ens and ... all their legions. A decree the sky in total darkness, it reappears moon made its first appearance, and and a schedule did He give them that - first as a sliver, then a crescent, and we were being marched back, with sol­ they not alter their assigned task .... a half moon - so, too, do we Jews seem diers on each side of us, we would They are joyous and glad to perform to be on the edge of oblivion. But we make Kiddush Levana. We used to the will of their Maker. To the moon too 'are destined to renew ourselves hold hands, and as we were march­ He said that it should renew itself, like the moon.'" ing, one man in the middle would which will be a crown of splendor for For a month, these prisoners had

The last of the Mohicans RABBI YECHIEL SPERO

As I stood dancing with my children each other's neshamos, bound by a ished Shas throughout his other in section 109 in the Continental timeless treasure, a priceless gift. I Talmudic travels. But this time, they were Airlines Arena on March l, 2005, I could glanced over to see a large section of seats, not sure they would be able to finish. not help but feel one distinct emotion. separated by a mesh net, in which proud They couldn't have been. Because Pappa This just might be what it will be like mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters was 85 when they started the cycle. But when Moshiach arrives. I watched a came to celebrate their sons', husbands', that was no impediment for Pappa. It group of yeshiva boys in section 232 fathers', and brothers' accomplishments, never has been. bouncing back and forth, imbued with beaming with pride and thrilled to be Pappa comes from a different world, a sense of purpose. I wondered if any part of the learning. Their very pride and a world where Yiddishkeit was not of them had finished Shas. Probably not joy a visible testament to who they are. taken for granted. He grew up in - they would have been too young to But perhaps what touched me most America in the early 1900s. It was a coun­ have started 7 1/2 years ago. But they was the sight of my father-in-law, try almost completely devoid of Torah were celebrating Torah and having the Rabbi Yehuda Lefkovitz, and his father, education and Torah learning. And privilege to be a ben Torah. our "Pappa;' Rabbi Moshe Lefkovitz, although , where he grew up, 1 watched as two men near me, appar­ standing on the floor directly across from had almost eighty Kosher butcher ently from completely diverse back­ us. You see, they aren't just a father and shops, none of the children went to a grounds - one wearing a knitted son coming to watch as observers in this full-time Hebrew Day school. In fact, yarmulka, the other a black hat, bent historic kiddush Hashem. No. They are many of those "kosher" people them­ upwards - holding onto each other, to much, much more. They are chavrusos. selves would head out to work imme­ Seven and one half years ago, my diately following shul on Shabbos RABBI SPERO, A Rf,'Hl:H IN THE TALMUDIC Pappa and father-in-law began learning morning. As the old adage went, Es iz ACADEMY OF BAI.TIM ORE. WAS REPRf:SENTf·;l) JN DafYomi. For my grandfather, this was­ shver tzu zein a Yid .... JO BY A ARTICI.£. "BATHS. BULLIES, AND n't his first time. It was at least his third, And although Moshe was one of the BARLEY'" (FF.8. 'ot). although I am almost certain he had fin- few fortunate ones, he wondered. He feared

14 T H E J E W I S 1-1 OBSERVER

no spiritually uplifting experience, but breath we say, "Had ran alach afresh. they knew that after four weeks, there vehadrach alan?'We're coming back, Part of the completion exercise is for would be another" Kiddush LevanU:' and we are starting all over again, the participants to carry away with them- We Jews selves the cnthu­ have that siasn1 and the power of From Down Under... to Shas Yidden glory of the his' chadshus - After our own Siyum HaShas on Sunday evening, February 27, with close to evening, 1nobi­ renewal - and 1,000 participants, Wednesday morning, March 2nd is again the scene of a lized with a sense as we bid kiddush Hashem that surely reigns supreme in the annals of Australian Jewish his- of resolve. As farewell to tory. Rabbi Yosef Masechte At l 0:00 am, right in the middle of a busy workday morning, almost five hun­ Harari Raful Nidda and the dred people arrive to view the satellite transmission from the North American i-t"1''°'1!1 Rosh entire Shas, in venues. A sense of pride surges through the audience \vhen Lublin comes up on Hayeshiva, the very same Yeshiva Ateret the screen, for Dayan Yonason Abraham shlita, currently on the Beth Din and former prestigious member of the Kollcl, has been invited to recite the hadran in Poland. This Siyum is truly global! what might be, cycle. Proud of what might At the conclusion of the event, when all rise to declare kabalas of Maleh us my father in­ become of the Shamayim, everyone instinctively rises to join with their brothers across the globe law and Pappa Torah world. He in accepting Hashem's Kingship. The only segment we could not participate in who had fin­ was present as a was davening Ma'ariv, because it was 2:00 pm Wednesday afternoon! ished their first young man The landscape of Australia is forevermore transformed. No longer shall together. Proud when the Australia be known as the land Down Under; henceforth it shall be known as the of my older dynamic land of Shas Yidden' brother who Lubliner Rav, - Rabbi Moshe Yudkowsky, Melbourne, Australia also was mak­ Rabbi Meir ing his first Shapiro, came siyum. Proud to develand. The Lubliner Ravwas young Brickner was the Rabbi at Fairmount to just be a Yid. But what was he feeling? at the time, perhaps in his mid thirties, bnt Temple, one of the largest Reform On the way home, I found out. He he was already a worldwide recognized fig­ Temples in develand. At a citywide gath­ wouldn't and perhaps couldn't fall ure. Spending a Shabbosmeal with this ering, Rabbi Brickner referred to the asleep. ''A man lives 93 years for a night in his parents' home had made a distinct Orthodox Torah Jews of the world as a like tonight:' I couldn't tell if he was cry­ impression on Moshe. He remembered dying breed. Those stinging words ing, although I knew that his children receiving a seferfrom him and learning one burnt a hole in yom1g Moshe's heart. The who were present were. So were his of his many beautiful niggunim, the com­ declaration regarding Torah Jewry had grandchildren and great-grandchildren. position of"Libi Uve'sari:' He knew that a been spoken. Torah Jews were, in Rabbi But Pappa? His tears were mixed with world of Torah existed in Europe. But what Brickner's cutting, callous words, "The laughter, perhaps the laughter that abouthimandhiskind?WhataboutTorah Last of the Mahicans ... ?' Dov id H amelech refers to .. . in Atnerica? . . . Az yimalei sechok pinu .. . Perhaps this anxiety stemmed from So I watched and wondered what Pappa He thought of the over 120,000 when Moshe Lefkovitz was a young man. Moshe was thinking, watching the Gedo lei individuals who had participated in He was present when Rabbi Barnet Yisroel celebrate with the largest celebra­ tonight's life-altering event, and he Brickner got up to speak in front of a tion for limud ha Torah since Har Sinai. I thought of Rabbi Brickner ...and his seri­ packed audience of Jews in Cleveland. was proud.... Proud of my father who, ously flawed prophecy of so long ago. Last In those days, things were different. Rabbi although not there, had finished his fourth of the Mohicans, indeed. B;J

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An extraordinary number ofladies were present at the Siyum Rabbi Friedman quoted the well-known story of Rabbi Al

I Mv Turn ..... SARAH SPERO I A lot has happened to me in the Garden, as well as venues in New Jersey, with 1500 others, and I don't know if their i seven and a half years since the Los Angeles, Chicago, Lublin, Poland, reaction was similar to mine. Some of the last Siyum HaShas. Some things Moscow and others. All done in an effort sniffles and red eyes may have made us I good, some things better, some sad and to unite us as one, across tl1e world. All I members of the same club, but I doubt . some sadder. I anticipated the event, but wanted was to be alone to wrap myself in that was it. by the time 1 had found my seat I was per- the arms of generations past. I did not want This eleventh Siyum Hashas was I fectly happy to be by myself. When the to make small talk or be pleasant with my attended by over l 00,000 men, women and i lights went down, the floodgates opened. seatmates. I was overcome with emotion children across the world. It is probably I was overwhelmed by the entire and I was too embarrassed to have any­ the largest gathering of Jews in modern I· evening. There was a video hookup con­ one else notice. I am tr}ing to figure out times. One of my sons was in Continental necting us to speakers in Madison Square what it was that made me feel like this Airlines Arena in New Jersey along with

MRS. SPERO LIVES IN CJ.,f.VfLANO. HER ARTICl.E, tonight. 25,000 others. He went as pa1t of four gen­ "REPORT !"ROM CLEVELAND. A Vff:W I-'ROM THE Was it the numbers? I was seated in an erations: his wife's grandfather, who OTHER S1DE." WAS FEATURr:D IN JO, Nov. '97. auditorium on a snowy Cleveland night completed the learning along with his son

Torah, a member of the Nesius, Agudath If all of us here tonight would just ful, beautiful thing, but we can Israel of America, said, spend one hour per week learning, always improve and enrich our The plan of DafYomi is a plan for either in person or on the tele­ learning even further. The typical Daf quantity. It causes people to cover a phone, with a fellow Jew - one who schedule allows for seven hours of daf a day, which adds up to large has not been as fortunate as we have learning per week, one hour per day. amounts over time. Let us hope that been, one who has not been privileged Perhaps it is time to add an eighth it will also contribute to the quality enough to have had a Torah educa­ hour: an extra hour devoted to gain­ of limud Torah, and cause people to tion - this would be a great way to ing a more in-depth understanding delve into the depth of Torah. fulfill the lbrah's command to "learn of the daf, or to reviewing the week's Quantity in learning should be fol­ teach, keep and do." We must focus study regimen, or perhaps to incor­ lowed by an enhancement in quality. on what we, as a community, should porate regular halacha study into the This theme was also addressed by take from the Siyum. Above all, we schedule, or time dedicated to study Rabbi 1'1"1'"'1!>, must leave here with a new sense of of mussar. If we come away from this Novominsker Rebbe, Rosh Agudas commitment to Torah study. Siyum with such a commitment, then Yisroel: Learning Daf Yomi is a wonder- the Siyum will truly have accom-

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(our mechutan), grandson and great­ much so, that I do not think of it as intru­ mitto a study cycle oflearning Torah that grandson. What a privilege! sive or obligatory. It is simply there. One's is empowering. This must have something to do with day revolves around it. It is Torah in its My participation in the Siyum touching eternity. Oral fonn written down and JY.lssed to gen­ tonight was as a spectator who has erations. You are either starting your day embraced this event with reverence.I am with the Daf or ending your day with it, not only the wife of a participant, b_ut I That is what the Dafis all about. It is a or learning it somewhere in the middle. am also the mother of another. I am commitment to the past and a promise Learning the Dafhas nothing to do with humbled bythe enormity thatthis entails. to the future. It is something that I have school or yeshiva. It is simply a way to com- This form of study is male dominated, shared with my life's part- but I do not think of ner for the past four Hakaras Halov learning Torah as anti­ cycles. (Each cycle is women. I will not apol- about 7.5 years) That's a To the Editor: ogize to those who want 'lotta' years. It is wed clings The Torah Communications Network would like to express grat­ me to feel it is. My soul and births, sickness and itude and appreciation to Agudath Israel for arranging the mag­ is neither male nor death, and everything in nificent Siywn HaShas, that just took place - as it does every seven female. That is only my between. He likes to say and a half years. It was truly a Kiddush Shem Shamayim berabbim_ body. The Torah learned that_ he has either slept Hopefully, we will all celebrate the next Siyum together in Yerushalayim in our family belongs through or turned the ir hakodesh with Melech HaMoshiach as the featured speaker. neither to him norto me, pages dnring most of the We would also like to thank all our outstanding maggidei but to the soul within us, cycles. But that is not true. who brought the voice of Torah over the telephone to thousands as a couple, as a family, What is true is that I have oflisteners worldwide. We also wish a hearty mazal tovto our thou­ as a unit and as a:nation. watched with awe and sands of daily listeners, who have been on-the-line with us for the I am a part of it. respect, a commitment past seven and a half year Daf Yomi cycle, upon their completion Tonight I stood with that has changed our of the entire Shas_ Jt's our dedicated listeners who are with us almost those past, present and lives. The Daf, and every­ 365 days a year that deserve the credit for their persistent, unwa­ future, to celebrate the thing it entails, has vering, and relentless daily commitment to Torah study. May Hashem eternity of our .Torah become an integral part of grant them the strength and heahh to continue for many siyumim and our people. And my who and what we are. So to come. soul soared. !l;l RABBI Eu TEITELBAUM (ON BEHALF OF THE TORAH COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK) plished its purpose. Brooklyn, NY THE SECRET OF [The Rebbe then JEWISH SURVIVAL: added,] we members of We, in turn, extend our deepest admiration and hakaras hatov to SAVORING the Torah community Rabbi Teitelbaum for directing his extraordinary vision, remarkable skills THE SWEETNESS should engage in intro­ and talents, and unwavering dedication to initiating, fine-honing, and OF TORAH spection in several expanding the Torah Cornmunications Network to bring a wide range aspects. Tonight is 21 of Torah shiurim to the ears oftens of thousands offews, whenever and Rabbi Yisssachar Fraud , the Yahrzeit of wherever they are able to tune in The amount of Torah being spread ~, Rosh Yeshiva in Ner the renowned Noam through his pioneering efforts is beyond our calculation- N. W. Israel, , addressing Rl:;rieiech, Rav a Siyum gathering of 5,000 . In the famed the good qualities of one another and in Chicago, noted two factors in the virtu­ tefilla that Rav Elimelech composed iiGt their failings?' This beautiful event, al doubling of the number of people who and that many Jews say before dav· which so symbolizes unity between are finishing Shas as compared to the pre­ ening in the morning, it states, "Put all segments of Jewry, should spur us vious Siyum: in our hearts that we only focus on to focus on the message of achdus. One, is the inspiration generated by

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the Siyum HaShas itself. Sefer The second factor is that the nish­ of an assimilated Jew - a boxer by pro­ Hachinuch comments concerning the mas Y1STVel can only achieve satisfaction fession -who, seeing the enthusiasm of Yoveil year that a master must free his through the sweet and fulfilling study his newly observant son for Gemara eved (slave) - undoubtedly a hardship of Torah. The neshama thirsts for learning, was determined to share in the for him. Yet, when he hears the shofar something, but temporal pleasures can experience, despite his lack of back­ blown and remembers that everyone be compared to junk food - it cannot ground. It took more than a year of per­ else is also freeing his slaves, this real­ provide nourishment. We all must sistence for the man, with his son's help, ization makes it easier. Similarly, see­ leave here tonight committed to accom­ to master one daf The father wanted ing so many involved in Daf Yorn~ plishing more. The inspiration will find to celebrate his achievement with a for­ despite the discipline it demands, cre­ expression in various extremes. While mal siyum, but his son thought it unjus­ ates a ripple effect and drives home the some will be moved to undertake Daf tified. He brought the matter to Rav message that it is feasible. DafYomi is Yomi and finish Shas, others will Moshe Feinstein 7"lll, who concurred no longer an elitist enterprise. "If you encounter their first dafof Gernara. with the father. So the son organized a can do it, so can I:' May I share with you an actual story seuda to mark the long-awaited mile- From the Sidelines ... To the Front lines

E.T. RUBIN AMother's Reflection on the SiJUm HaShas he excitement was mounting, soon. And then came the big question. of children. I work part of the day away the countdown had begun. Each "Mommy:' came the inquisitive voice, from home. I often feel like I am swim­ T morning, two shining black eyes "are you corning to the Siyum HaShas?" ming against the tide, trying to keep house would peer at me. ('Mommy:' a voice Clearing my throat, I responded, and ensure that my children are cared for would begin, "when is the Siyum HaShas? "No, I don't think I will be able to go this physically, emotionally and spiritually. If I want it to be today:' time:' I am out late, even one night, it can Laughingly, I would tell him the exact Deep down, in the dark recesses of my adversely affect my household for the rest countdown and gently remind him that his mind, however, an active conversation "ras of the week .... No. I shouldn't go ...." job is to concentrate on his learning, and taking place. One voice kept repeating, And then, a conversation with my when the big day would come, it would "Why don't you go? You will get such an grandmother came to mind. We had. been come. The day would then pass, filled as enormous amount of chizuk! Imagine, discussing working dway from the house usual by the myriad obligations ofa moth­ joining with a crowd of thousands of vdSU8 otayrng home with the children. er, working, cleaning, cooking, shopping, Yidden for one purpose, to celebrate the My grandmother reminded me that the caring for the children and serving supper momentous occasion of the completion Gemara says that a woman earns sachar until ... The door burst open, "Mommy, of Shas! What could be more sublime? (reward) for Torah by sending her hus­ Mornmy!"My heart plummeting, I quick­ It is not every day that such an oppor­ band and children to learn, by being home ly ran to the door to see what tragedy had tunity comes your way! Go, gc; go!" to greet them when they return, by occurred. "Mommy! Did the tickets come And then came the secoN' voice. "Yes, enabling them to learn. She added, yet?" Breathing a sigh of relief, I explained I agree that I would de,iVe tremendous "Any decision that you have to make in that no, the tickets had not yet come, but inspiration from ti< siyum, but is that life should center around those goals; the they were ordered and shoul~ be arriving what Hashem re<•lY wants from me at this learning of your hnsband and children particular roint in my life? Baruch should always remain top priority. If you MRS.RUBIN 1.tVES IN LAKF.WOOD, NT- :n-llS JS HER i"IRST CONTRIBFTJON TO ·p,i:;Sf: PAGES. Hashem, 1have been blessed with a house ever have a question whether you should l. Tut-: JEWISH OHSERVER

stone-celebrating the siyum of one daf Among those attending the Siyum cel­ it to be transforming. Being part of ilie Siyum of Getnara, with Reb Moshe in atten­ ebration at Madison Square Garden is a Wall was even more than that:' dance. Later that night, the gentleman Street executive who "re-discovered" his tefill­ The imprint on all of us was far from passed away in his sleep. Reb Moshe in a year ago, and has been assuming 'lbrah litde. !twas not too late.And surely, it can­ spoke at his levaya (funeral) and said learning and additional mitzvos in the weeks not be enough. ffi1 that just as Ghazal tell us that there are since. In his words: ''I've been hoping that those who acquire Olam Hahbawid1 one my growth through assuming more l Fron1 -the She111one/1 Es·r;i- of M-incha on deed, so too, one can accomplish this mitzvos shouldn't just be incremental. I want Shabbos. with one daf of 2 Quotations based on transcripts published in Gemara. The lesson Echoes from seven and a Half Years Ago , Mar. 3, '05. is that it is never too 3 !JN Mar. 4, '05 late and never too lit­ Rabbi Frand mentioned two reasons why there were so many more peo­ 4 From !JN Mar. 11, '05 tle, but yet, never ple involved in Daf Yo mi during the eleventh cycle than there were in the 5 Reported in Yated enough. tenth. I would suggest a third reason: Rabbi Fraud's address at the Tenth Ne'e1nan, Mar. I J, '05 Siyum HaShas. When 1 think back to that event, I remember listening to Rabbi Fraud's acknowledgement of the wives and mothers who make it pos­ sible for the men to learn, and in particular, 1 recall his description of the go somewhere, or mother of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, and how she instilled in her son the recog­ from school to do something, con­ nition of the importance of learning each and every day. I was a newlywed, ensure that they sider whether or not married less than one month, and at the time, I did not really understand would make it to the it will assist you to what it would mean to make this kind of a commitment. But after hearing Siyum on time; achieve this goal." Rabbi Frand's words, 1 decided, then and there, that I would support my when I took out Remembering husband in this monumental task. I don't believe that I was alone in being their white shirts this conversation, I motivated by his words. and vests, and saw realized the decision their eyes dancing GOLDIE HUTLER (IN A LETTER SENT TO RABBI AVI SHAFRAN) had been made. Yes, with excitement; it would have given when I closed the me enormous chizuk to personally wit­ not for the upcoming Siyum, bnt for the door behind them, wishing them a ness, by attending the Siyum HaShas, how next one, in 7 and a half years, when,"! chizuk-filled evening; when I turned much our husbands and children can will be sixteen years old and I will be able around to care for my daughters, and we accomplish. Yes, I would personally grow to begin learning Daf Yomi from discussed the Siyum HaShas over a spe­ from the experience. For me, however, at Masechta Berachos together with Kial cial dessert in honor of the Siyum; when this particular time, it was more impor­ Yisroel!" This zest for Torah, this thrill at I was able to tuck my danghters in and tant to send my children for tl1e experi­ being able to see and hear Roshei Yeshiva, put the telephone to their ears so that they ence of their life, while keeping things Rabbanim and Admorim, as displayed by went to sleep to the sound of the songs running smoothly at home. Speaking for my sons, was my very own personal being snng at the Siyum HaShas; I knew myself, I know that by not going to the Siyum. It was seeing the fruits of my efforts that although I was only participatingvic­ Si yum HaShas, I will be more capable of "to send them off to learn." arionsly through the male members of my achieving my goals as a mother. family, this was the greatest manifestation tooking back over the past few weeks, of the Gemara's words regarding how a I realized that dominating my children's When my son woke me np bright and woman reaps reward for Torah learning. conversations, their focus of excitement, early on the day of the Siyum HaShas, I was accomplishing my purpose. So - was the npcoming Siyum HaShas. shouting ecstatically that he cannot wait althongh I was seemingly participating Another thread that ran through our con­ for the evening; when I ran to prepare only from the sidelines- in truth, I, too, versations was the sense of anticipation, everybody's lunches, and pick them up was on the front lines. ffi1

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Rabbi , Mirrer Rosh Ha Yeshiva with Rabbi , Rosh Yeshiva Torah Ohr, at the.first-ever English language Siywn HaShas in . The Sivum HaShas in Eretz Yisroel Vayakheil Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisroel... And Moshe gathered the entire congregation of the Children of Israel ... The worldwide celebration of the in tl1e south, and concluded with take over a small country. completion of the 11th cycle of the Daf the Siyum shel hasiyumim at Binyanei But each and every one was a Hayomi took place during the week of Ha'uma in Yerushalayim .... bonafide celebrant. The words of Rabbi parashas Vayakheil. Anyone searching for Aaron Leib Steinman, N''t»?v, dispelled a connection between the event and the any notion that we might be nothing parasha need look no further, as multi­ WHO BELONGS? more than paparazzi of the pious, mere tudes of Jews - an estimated quarter of hangers-on at somebody else's party. a million - were brought together in a The excitement was palpable among After pronouncing the historic global kahal by the Torah of Moshe the crowd at Yad Eliyahu, where in which Hadran on Masechta Nidda and all Rabbeinu. the main Siyum was held. Every one was of Shas, Rabbi Steinman quoted the In Eretz Yisroel, we were witness to an a prime participant. Did they all com­ Gemara in Kesubos 103b, concerning unprecedented, week-long series of plete Shas that day? Not quite. Some were the passing of Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi massive gatherings in honor of the Torah. missing pages here and there. Some had (known as Rabbeinu Hakadosh as Beginning at 's Yad Eliyahu arena, joined Daf Yomi less than seven and a well as "Rebbi"). The Gemara the venues ranged from Tsefas and half years ago, and were still some declares that anyone present at his in the north to Be' er Sheva and masechtos away from their personal passing was mezuman le'chayei

RABBI RUTMAN TEACH ES GEMORA TO BEG! N N ERS siyum. Some were not learning the Daf Olam Habba, would merit the World IN YESHIVAS OHR YAAKOV, WHICH IS LOCATED at all. Among them were yeshiva and ched­ to Come. (The Maharsha comments IN ZICHRON YAAKOV. IN ERETZ YISROEL A FW.E­ er students whose rebbei'im had brought that it refers to those who participat- QUENT CONTRIBUTOR TO TH~~SE PAGES, HIS them, sons accompanying fathers, as well ed in the hespeidim.) Tosafosask: But i ARTICLE, 'i\N EXERCISE IN A VOVAS HASHEM," WAS as reporters and photographers, and an FEATURED IN JO, DEC. '04, surely all of Israel has a portio]in army of security personnel sufficient to the World to Come? The answer is

.._20 ·------·------______------that even the righteous and the of Sadigura, Nadvorna, Biale, DIVINE PROTECTION I learned may face an accounting Modzhitz and others. Rabbi Menachem before the Heavenly Court for their Porush, chairn1an of Agudas Yisroel of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, 7··~1, the origi­ transgressions. But those who were Yerushalayim, who was present at the first nator of Daf Yomi, had much more in at the petira (passing) of Rebbe are Siyum HaShas, addressed the gathering n1ind than just another adult education mezuman, summoned directly to with great emotion, saying: "The great­ program for baalei battim. His broad Olam Habba, without prior judgment ness of the Jewish people is that we have vision encon1passed the salvation and or affliction. Rabbi Steinman noted upon V\lhom to rely. We are continuing protection of the Jewish people. As he that, while we are far from the spir­ the chain of the generations in this holy declared 75 years ago, at the first Siyum itual level of the generation of place. We are not the first and not the of DafYomi: "On this day, 2,700-plus dap­ Rabbeinu Hakadosh, it nevertheless last, because we have been promised that pim of Gemara learned by tens of gives us an ink.Jing of the great Torah will not be forgotten from the thousands of Jews will ascend to reward for honoring the Torah. Jewish nation." Heaven. They will stand in front of Indeed, it is codified in Yoreh Deia 246:26, where the Rama rules that it is a mitzvah to make a feast upon the completion of a Talmudic tractate. The Shach there quotes Yam Shel Shlomo, who cites Shabbos ll8b: "Abaye said: 'May it bring me [eter­ nal life], that when I saw a Torah scholar completing a masechta, I would make a yom tov for the rab­ banan: From here we learn the cus­ tom to finish masechtos and to give praise and thanks to the Omnipresent and to puhlicize the simcha to which someone has mer­ ited. Therefore, we make a feast upon the completion ...." The Yam Shel Shlomo derives from Abaye's words, THE VORT • The menu for the seuda is "when I saw... " that even though he • The Vort celebration is to be limited to 3 courses followed by a himself was not completing anything, discontinued. The L'chaim (held at regular dessert. and he merely saw someone else do the time that the engagement is • No Viennese table and no bar. so, it was a festive occasion for announced) should also not turn everyone. into a Vort. THE MUSIC This was part and parcel of Rabbi Meir •A band may consist of a maximum Shapiro's vision of the DafYomi. It was THE WEDDING his wish that the first Siyum, the only one • For typical families, only 400 invit­ of 5 musicians (one ofthe musicians he was to attend, be a gathering not only ed guests may be seated at the chas­ may act as a vocalist) or four musi­ of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin or the local suna seuda. (The Guidelines make cians and one additional vocalist. population. The simcha should embrace provision for exceptional circum­ • A one-man band is recom­ all of Polish Jewry and beyond. To that stances - see full text.) end, he sent out a letter of invitation to mended. •The kabbo/as panim smorgasbord Jewish co1nn1unities all over the world. FLOWERS & CHUPA DECOR As a result, thousands of Jews converged should be limited to basic cakes, on Lublin for that first Siyum on 15 fruit platters, a modest buffet, and • The total cost of these items for 5690/l 930. the caterer's standard chicken or the entire wedding should not That original vision was once again meat hot dishes. exceed $1 ,800. realized when, this year, for the first time in 67 years, the yeshiva building in Lublin FOR THE FULL VERSION OF THE SIMCHA GUIDELINES once again hosted a large, public DafYomi WITH ITS RABBINICAL SIGNATORIES AND THE I siyum. About a thousand attended, led ACCOMPANYING KOL KOREH, please email , by rashei yeshivas and admorim from [email protected] or call 212-612·2300 I Europe and Eretz Yisroel, including the L______I ______--;-p -_ ..-. --.-0 -0 -5------=------_-_-__ I

Hashem like melitzei yosher--protect­ early each day to attend the shiur in a near­ everyone who might be coming to the shul ing agents--for the salvation of Kial by an hour before Shacharis. that morning, and warned them to stay Yisroel."1 The completion of the 11th One morning, he went to the shul, only away. cycle represents millions of more pages to find it in flames. The fire department Reb David's minyan in Munich was not learned since then. had been called out, but, curiously, their the only target ofanti-Semitic attacks that We cannot know precisely how Daf efforts seemed to be focussed on contain­ day. Thousands of and Jewish Yomi has weighed in the scales of ing the conflagration, rather than putting businesses all over Germany had been set Divine judgment over the years, but occa­ it out, and the building was already in afire the night before. (Firemen were dis­ sionally, we are afforded a glimpse of its ruins. Then, a c;ern1an fireman accosted patched only to contain the conflagrations, special merit. him and told him threateningly, "Go home, so that non-Jewish property would not be Reb David Freilich of Munich was and don't come back!" Reb David took it, affected.) A hundred Jews were killed, and among the charter members ofDafYomi, correctly, as a veiled warning that a pogrom many more were wounded and arrested. having joined the first machzor (cycle). His was planned. It was November 9, 1938, known to his­ commitment to the Daf led him to rise He hurried home, where he contacted tory as Kristalnach t. 2 The Germans had noted the schedule of prayer services, and had planned to attack Jewish congregants on their arrival. Because of his faithful adherence to the Daf Yomi schedule, however, he arrived before the punctual Germans, and so he and his neighbors were spared from the violence. I More recently, here in Eretz Yisroel, ) This sefer "Chazarat Hashas" is unique. death again lay on the other side of the . It will be of great help to the scholars, Yeshiva and Daf Hayomi students. Daf I On Tuesday, 17 MarCheshvan last year, I What benefits can one derive from it? a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv's HaCarmel , market left three dead and many more Magid shi'ur: All 1ninute details for the lesson are prepared for you. wounded. Moshe Sha 1nai's cheese e1npo- Yeshiva students: Your bki'us seder made easy, and fruitful. Guaranteed! Now you can rium ivas turned into a smoking ruin by i prepare a shi'ur based on Ra1nbam, Ra'vad, and Me'iri. the blast, but the owner escaped I Talmidey Daf Hayomi unscathed. That's because, although the 1 attack occurred in the middle of the busi- 1 1] Before the Shi'ur: Preview the dafahcad of time. Knowing what it is all about ness day, at l l:JO a. in., Shamai had left beforehand, will help you to concentrate and understand the Gemara fully. It ·will also his store just seconds before the blast went 11 enable you to participate in class discussions. off, , on h is way to an important meet111g· 1 After the shiur: Review intensively the psak halacha relevant to the daf _ his shiur in Daf Yon1i. 1. Test Yourself: Find out how \Veil you have revie,vecl the daf You will note that the first When Shamai heard the explosion, he I. lines of each halac/1a are highlighted, \\'hile the balance is not. This will help you test immediately turned and raced back to his I yourself by looking at the highlighted lines, and thereafter see whether you know the rest. business, where he helped tend to the vie- . Your : \Vhen you test yourself - as indicated above - you serve as your own -..,------·------.. ------·-----.. ------" ----·------·--- 1 1 li1 chavrusa, you ask the questions and you answer then1. 1 '.,:na~~tse-~as~rac~'.~·o:t',;_·'hM"ai~.~e~r1'/:,'.,a;;e,d•bli!n\i~,cb:esoc·ia:au'.s~e~s,~u~snt'a~r~te-- -"'l , Mastering the daf. Now you will have the ability to have the Ra1nban1, Shulchan Aruch, ._ " , , 1 l 1 1 the Me'iri on the tip of your fingers. ed with the laws of in1purity and you finished with the laws of purity." 1 Seder Zra'im, , NoshiJn and Nezikin covering 28 gen-wros, have been printed by Rabbi Mendel Kaplan used to say that the 1 now. Each set is in two voluines, and cost only $35.00. Gemara responds happily to our loving study of ] Seder Nezikin already printed and is on its way fron1 Israel. lt will be available in book it, and "becomes your friend ... as you'll sec if you'll look at the Hadran,. We promise the tract<1cte, 1 stores in mid January '05. La nisnes11ei nzinach- we will not forget you, And 1 Seder Kodshim, Taharos will be printed in two volumes shortly I:t-.1"YH. we ask of it, la nisneshei minan-And please don't ) This \vill con1plete the whole Sbas in eight volu1nes and 39 masscchtos. forget us, either." (Yisroel Greenwald, Reb Mendel and his V\lisdo1n, pp. 77-78) I always wondered \ what "meant." But now I know - as Rabbi Meir I I Shapiro said: Speak up for us in Shamayin1. , 2 This story was told to the author by Boruch I \ Brooks of Yerushalayi111, who heard it froin Reh , Dovid Freilich's son. I ~------·-··----·-··------·--··----·---·------·----·--·-_J THE JEWISH 0DSEHVEI{

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tin1s, so1nc of- the1n his own employees. Admorim of Ger and Tsanz, and Rabbi Hu," over and over again. Tears were Despite the trauma, and the fact that his Ovadia Yosef, along with hundreds of streaming down faces. All the differences shirt was covered with blood stains, he roshei yeshivas and n1aggidei shiurin1 - among us, the barriers that separate us managed to make his way to the shiur that were on their feet. The world stopped as - Chassidi1n, Misnagdhn, avreichim, day. (Since he normally arrived early to l 4,000 Jews danced together, singing "A­ ba' alei battim, Israelis. Americans, old and learn Chumash and say Tehillim before na, A-na, A-na, avda de'Kudesha Berich young - made no difference. All the sor- the shiw; there was still time to get there.)3 & W' • SERVANTS OF THE HOLY ONE, Just one year at. .. WHO IS THE SOURCE OF ALL BERACHOS ... ~~~ l'1111n :1pv~ 111"3 io~1'o n..~.w I At Yad Eliayhu, when the gedolim l~i1Y~koi i. ScmmarL THE NEW BAIS YMKOV SEMINARY entered the hall, I felt an unexpected surge of emotion. The orchestra struck up "Yamim al yemei melech tosif,' and the ... opens the dOor to a f!fetime efposswillties! entire asse1nblage rose in unison. What is the source of the emotion? In the world Our students have been accepted Adelphi U. has established to the finest graduate schools! academic scholarships in addition to Financial Aid we live in, when a crowd co1nes to its feet, ------..-- M Speech Pathology it is usually for "The Star Spangled >.:PT/OT _i:~~l, TAP, ET~------M Education Banner;· or for some idol of the enter­ I M Social Work SEMINARY SCHOLARSHIPS !lot Special Education M Business IAVAILABLE tainment world. We, on the other hand, stood up because we knew that we were REBBETZIN SORA F. BULKA, n7ooo RABBI VESHAVA LEVY, 7i1JD Pt' MRS. GITTIE NEUFELD, ASST.PRINCIPAL in the presence of truth, as embodied by 2600 OCEAN AVENUE, BROOKLYN, NY 11229 M. 718.769.8160 M. FAX: 718.769.8640 the sages of our generation. And because every assemblage for Torah has in it something of the grandeur of Ma'amad Har Sinai, the longing for which the heart cannot contain. But that was not to be the peak of emotion that night. Between the Hadran and Rabbi Shmuel HaLevi Wosner's address prior to con1mencing Berachos, there was a n1usical interlude. Mona Rosenblum conducted the Yachad Shivtei Yisroel Orchestra playing a piece he had composed for the occasion, with a 100-strong choir. As the music played, I noticed that across the arena fron1 where l was sitting, so1ne people were swaying to the music. (I later learned that they were the talmidei kollelim of , the Call me today for the attention you deserve. organization sponsoring the event.) (718) 268· 1700 Then I saw a sn1all group a few rows below me circle-dancing in the aisle. Next Martin Levy thing I knew, the fellow next to me had 103·20 METROPOLITAN AVENUE hold of my hand and I was dancing along FOREST HILLS with the others in my row. Down at the [email protected] dais, the Gedolei Yisroel - among them Allstate, Rabbi Steininan, Rabbi Wosner, the You're in good hands. Ca!I for a free quote. 3 The shi;~;~~;:;;;~-~ -~i the-;~~-;~\h~;1 i2o sP~;~·;;;~~l by Mcoros IJaf Hayo1ni, headed by Rabbi Chaim David Kovarsky. 'J'heirweekly publication of high­ Insurance subject to ava1lab11ity and qualil1calions Allstate Insurance Company and Allstate Property and Cas~ualtyjI lights on the daf reaches so1ne 40,000 readers. Insurance Company Northbrook !llmo1s c 2004 Allstate Insurance Company ~~~~~~;;;;;;;;;=A~P=R~I =L~·~o~o=s~=--~~~~~~~~~==--i

rows of!ife in 2005, the intifada, the anti­ I Semitism, all the hatred and ignorance and the rest of the vale of tears, dissolved in the moment. All that mattered was the For careful attention to your joy of the Jewish people united in the individual needs, call us today! study of Torah Hakedosha.4 At the Jerusalem event the next (845) 354-8445 night, the dancing enveloped the stage, as well. Rebbis embraced and danced with each other and with their talmidim. The GEFEN If ..-1. same scene was repeated in siyuniim around the world. The sin1cha was uni- FINtJk~AL~· versal. Reg;"e1ed Moltgoge B10kecs .... NYS Dept of Banking •• THE MEANING OF HADRAN Corpmate Keadquarwrs' 2164 v,aory Blvd., • S\Men l>li!nd, NY 10314 Phone 718-983-9272 • 914-MORTGAGE Rabbi Chezkiyahu Mishkovsky 973-MORTGAGE • 212-983-1000 ~··v>'ro, Mashgiach of Yeshivas Orchos Lo3n1 arionged !h1ough 3rd pa!ty pmviders HaTorah, spoke at the Siyum of the Zichron Moshe Center for Daf Yo mi in Yerushalayiin. "What," he asked, "is the meaning of the expression hadran? It comes from the word hadar, splendor, and it refers to the hadarthat is poured out upon the face of one who merits Personal responsibility throughout service - NOT JlJST "PAPERWORK" learning 'I'orah. One \Vho learns Torah, ORIGINATOR OF THE PRESENT RABBINICALLY APPROVED METHOD Highly recommended by Gedolai Hador- Here and in Eretz Yisrael according to the Zahar, is transfigured by it - his life is changed and he 104J-42ml Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219 becomes a different person." Day&N'ightphone: (718) 851-8925 Many of the people learning the Daf ]))t"1:lN1~l:lNj7 ))l"j? - ]'1~ 1Nl nll:lY)) '1l~ these days are bnei Torah who have gone Kavod Haniftar with Mesiras Nefesh and compassion for the bereaved family. ont to work after years in yeshiva or kol­ TAHARAS HANIFTAR SHOULD NEVER BE COMMERCIALIZED lel. The pressnres of work and commut- ing make it hard to keep a regular learning schedule, but one of the ways back from neglect of Torah is paved by DafYomi. The framework, the moral sup­ FROM- port it provides, often makes the differ­ *US$ ence. And its influence is felt not only by them, but by their families, as well. 15 .90 Instead of bringing home news from the PER DAY office, and what the boss said, they bring home chiddushim from the sugya they're learning, and what Ravina and Rav Ashi FIAT PUNTO 3 DR have been saying. OPEL CORSA HYUNDAI GETZ 1.3 A friend of mine who's been teach­ TOYOTA COROLLA ing DafYomiwas asked by one of his stu­ MAZDA6 dents if it was worth it for him to MAZDA MPV continue. The pace and difficulty of the B.MW520 u.s.A 4-tf~re, too, was a connection to th~ parasha. The Tel: 1-800..938-5000 phrase is familiar to us froin the prayer fOr Divine 718-998-5500 favor, Berich Shen1ei, customarily recited when tak­ www.eldan.co.il ing out the . Berich She1nei is taken from the Zahar to Vayakhcil (369:1 ). i '------

24 ______J fME JEWISH OBSERVER ------···--···---.-·------·-- ···--···--···------· material is such that be often understands very little. My wise friend replied: "That may be true. But it's worth it just so that your little boy will see you walking out of the house with a Gemara in your hand. And when he asks, 'Where is Daddy going?' the answer will be, 'He's going to learn Torah: It will impress upon him the importance of Torah, and that jus­ tifies the effort:' The power of the Dafto change lives is further illustrated by the following story told to Yated Ne'eman (Israel edition) by Rabbi Pinchas Gutfarb ><"""'""' of Zicbron Moshe, where some 800 peo­ ple currently attend shiurim on the Daf A shady character showed up 10 years At the Siyum J-IaShas in Binyanei Haumah, Yerushalayim ago at Zichron Moshe. He was well known to me, very well known, involved in all sorts waves of assimilation and intermar­ authentic Jewish life, like the young ofquestionable deals. He approached me riage that threaten to engulf us in our man in the story. And as the tzaddik and said: "I want to learn Daf Yomi." I generation, by grabbing onto the daf held onto the coattails of his ances­ was afraid. "What is he setting me up for?" - the daf of Gemara." tors, so we hold onto the Daf And I thought .... But I couldn't turn him away. Rabbi Weinbach recalled a story just as the young man in the story After all, I invite everyone to come and told by the Bluzhever Rebbe ?"''1t of held onto his coattails, so do our fel­ learn. So I put a Gemara in his hand ... an incident during the Holocaust.S low Jews are holding onto our coat­ and he held it upside down. But it turned The Nazis were forcing a group of tails." out, he really did come to learn. Today, he Jews to leap over a yawning pit. In In these momentous days, literally is one of our finest teachers. He gives the their starved, emaciated condition, hundreds of new shiurim are being start­ early morning shiur. the leap was virtually suicidal. A ed up in Eretz Yisroel and around the "Ha' or sheba machaziram lemutav - young, assimilated Jew turned to the world. It seems there is hardly a syna­ The light in the Torah returns them to tzaddik standing next to him, and gogue or Jewish workplace that doesn't good." remarked on the futility of the exer­ have its own DafYomi shiur. At the gath­ cise: "Why bother to jump? Why not ering in Tel Aviv, the Belzer Rebbe just defy them, refuse to jump, and issued a call for each member of a Daf AN ENGINE OF OUTREACH let them shoot us here on the spot?" Yo mi shiur to persuade a friend to come he asked. along, and thereby double the numbers. One of the innovations of the I Ith The tzaddik would not succumb Indeed, Daf Hayomi bas become an Siyum was the special gathering at to despair. He leapt, and made it to engine of outreach. In New Jersey, Binayanei Ha'uma in Yerushalayim for the other side. When he looked Torah Links made use of a live satellite the English-speaking public, organized around a moment later, he saw that link to the Siyum to help make the greater by Kolle[ Iyun Hadaf, headed by Rabbi the young man was there, too. He world of Torah a visual reality for those Mordecbai Kornfeld N"1'>?W. Rabbi turned to him and said: "I trnsted in who have had little contact with it. N-1"':>v of Ohr the zechus of my heilige zeides, my Likewise, in , Phoenix and Staten Somayacb, one of the founding fathers righteous ancestors, to get me across. Island, the Siyum was the focal point for of the baal teshuva movement, I held onto their coattails, and it saved local outreach events. addressed the assemblage with fiery elo­ me. But you - what got you across?" It may seem impractical to expect quence. He told the story of bow Rabbi he asked incredulously. someone with little or no background Akiva survived a shipwreck: The young man replied: "I held on in Torah study to plunge into the sea of "Nizdamna Ii hadaf, venitzalt~ a to your coattails." Tahnud and not drown in confusion. Yet, plank of wood came by and I was "There are millions of our fellow when people would ask Rabbi Shach ?-'1t saved;' said Rabbi Akiva. Jews;' said Rabbi Weinbach, "who are what part of Torah would be suitable to "He grabbed onto that daf,' said assimilated and alienated from an learn with people who are new to Rabbi Weinbach, "and it saved him, 5 Incici'~ntall}r, the Rebbe-~as pre~·ent at the fi·;; Torah, he would advise them to do just even as wave upon wave washed over Knessia Gedolah in 1923, when Rabbi Meir Shapiro that- to begin with Gemara. Ha' or sheba him. We, too, can be saved from the inaugurated the Daf I-Ia Yon1i. machaziram lemutav! !ifJ

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N MARCH 1 / 20 ADAR I,

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE

CELEBRATED THE COMPLETION OF

':.THE 11 TH CYCLE OF OAF YOM

@N JUNE 5 I 27 IYAR,

AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERIC

WILL PAY TRIBUTE TO THOSE

WHO HELPED MAKE IT HAPPEN,

THE HEROES OF OAF YOMI:

THE MAGGIDEI SHIUR EVERYONE'S MITZVAH (whether by homicide bombers in Tel than to witness the overwhelming and Aviv, or by the sudden deaths of young breathtaking sight of these Neviim uch has already been written fathers and mothers in our local com­ walking around in the fire and emerg­ and n1uch will yet be written n1unities), in order to be n1echapeir ing unscathed? What is meant by that M about the recently celebrat­ (atone) for the colossal Chillul Hashem question? ed Siyum HaShas. Clearly, the theme is (desecration of His Name) of our fore­ Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler ':,..~1 explains - and will continue to be - about Kiddush fathers in the days of the Churban Bayis. that we learn a vital and important les­ Hashem. And, if so much was invested by the son from this Midrash. Kiddush Hashem Kiddush Hashem is not just a good organizers of this great event - in terms is not generated by an event per se, no thing; it is vital for the very future of Kial of effort, tin1e, and money - to assure 1natter how powerful it may be; it is the Yisrocl. 'J'hc Ran1llam writes that every that a Kiddush Hashem be realized, it response to the event that determines the person is n1etzuva (con11nanded) to per­ would behoove us to understand what level of Kiddush Hashem. fonn Kiddush Hashe1n. In some gener­ truly makes a Kiddush Hashem. If the idol worshipers who witnessed ations, that responsibility entails giving this open miracle would have returned up of one's life; in others, it's living in a home and gone about their business as n1anner that sanctifies Hashenl's Name. THE CRUCIAL FACTOR on every other day, then this miraculous Some are given the opportunity to do event would have been many things - so with their great wealth, and others do We may be able to offer a definition wonderful, inspiring, miraculous - but so in the tnidst of their great poverty. with a closer look at a perplexing what it would not have been was a While the situations and the tin1es Midrash. The Midrash in Shir Hashirim Kiddush Hashem. But the Midrash vary, the underlying theme is the san1e. ( 1-15) describes the famous incident when reports that all the idol worshipers who Every n1an, wo1nan and child is metzu­ the three prophets, Chanannia, Mishaeil were present at that great miracle va in Kiddush Hashem. and Azaryia, were thrown into the fire for returned home, took their axes in hand Even more so, Chazal teach us that not worshipping an idol. After three days and smashed their idols to pieces. This only a great, colossal and unified act of and three nights in the fire (according to was the Kiddush Hashem. Kiddush Hashe1n will ensure our one opinion), they emerged unhurt and And so when the historians, colum­ redemption and salvation from a world complete. Even their clothes, Chazal say, nists or political observers of current where Jewish blood still flows freely were unsinged, nor did they have a smell events will need to know how to classi­ ----·------··--- --·----- of fire or smoke. This took place before fy this Siyum HaShas- whether to refer i RABBI GINZRERG. HHJNl)JNG RAV OF 0Hlt the eyes of all those gathered there. MOSHE TORAH INSTITUTE IN l-llLJ.CltEST. NY. IS to it as a massive Kiddush Hashem, pos­ I1 1 CUHRENTLY RAVO!' THE TORAH What is so perplexing is that the sibly unmatched anywhere in the histo­ Midrash then asks, "What was the ry of American Torah Jewry- they will I ~~::»'~.::::~':~·;;:~:·.:·Ni.··:N;~·.',:;:.;;~;·,: Kiddush Hashem?" Could there be any have to focus their attention on "the greater Kiddush Hashem in the world morning after."

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How did we, the participants, react das hakodesh, and maybe most impor­ resources spent on this event were well on thf morning after? Did we return to tant of all, the idol of the American dream worth it, because we achieved a signif­ our homes, pick up our axes and smash that climbing the ladder of corporate icant and massive Kiddush Hashem. away at our idols - our idols of apathy, America is the ultimate goal and of cynicism, of spiritual void, oflack of achievement? If we did so, then, in Rabbi commitment and discipline in our avo- Dessler's view, all the energy and CALLING IN THE RESPONSE

Obviously, with over twenty thousand Tour of Eastern Europ Torah-loyal Jews at Madison Square Garden, from all types of backgrounds You 'lie gone with her and commitments, the reaction on ((the to Washington ... to ... day after" would be greatly varied, as well. Around 9:30 Wednesday morning, I to Virginia ... and even to Eretz Yisroel... received two calls on my cell phone, with­ 6th in minutes of each other. Despite the Now, for the~time, proximity of these two calls, they were the well-known travel guide, SHEILA SCHWEBEL as different from each other as they could possibly be. will be leading a select group of The first call came from a good friend Sais Yaakov girls to Eastern Europe. who is a prominent attorney and com­ munity leader in Silver Spring, Rediscover the rich Torah life of pre-war Europe Maryland. Years ago, Judah Lifshitz began leading a Daf Yomi shiur in his '; From the beauty of Prague ... community, and despite a very busy prac­ to the destruction of Warsaw ... ~ tice and involvement in every aspect of ! to the original in the growth of the Torah community there, i Cracow ... to Ger, Lublin, L he dedicates his evenings to preparing and & Kotzk, Budapest and more. teaching the Daf to a small group of friends. He had traveled by railroad with ""' I Follow in the footsteps of the Gedolai other members of his DafYomi shiur to j Yisroel ... Daven at Kivrai Tzadikim ... celebrate their siyum together with 1, Sadly face the devastating remnants thousands of others also being mesayeim. I of the holocaust at Theresienstadt Without any hint of exhaustion, Ii $ Madjanek, Auschwitz and more. only with an infectious sense of enthu­ '•'~"'"\\•>,•,,;;>_•c7'''"·'-;"f·'""•'''""''""'""·'"'-o\'< WES!PR!NT 732.886.1455 www.butterfleye.com siasm and excitement, he said, "Rabbi Ginzberg, I have a problem. On Monday, I couldn't go to work because I was busy organizing my shiur's com­ munity-wide siyum held that evening. MOTHERS AND FATHERS ALIGNED SAVING KIDS On Tuesday, my and I traveled Support for Parents of Children·ln·Conflict to New York to attend the Siyum, and returned late that night by train to Silver CONFIDENTIAL HOTLINE Spring. The train was filled with people Parent Support Groups returning from the Siyum HaShas to Yeshiva Liaison Baltimore, Washington, Silver Spring, and E-Mail Support Group environs. We were even privileged to have Sibling Support Groups the Rosh Hayeshiva of Ner Yisroel, STARR Female Sibling Program Hagaon Rabbi Ahron Feldman, 1<""""'1, Private Consultation traveling with us. And now it's Referrals Wednesday morning, and I'm in my car driving to my office in Washington, and Prevention and Awareness to tell you the truth, I just can't go in. Parent Mentoring Group After such an evening of inspiration and hisorerrus (inspiration), how do I just go Lending Library back to the 'real world; to the cho~ when

32 ------======:..-:;o-=--=-;..._THE JE'\VIS!f Ott~ERVEH we are filled with so much kodesh from the Siyum HaShas?" I shared with him ChazaI's descrip­ tion of the schedule of the Chassidim Harishoni111, who would devote three hours to each tefilla: the first hour to pre­ pare for tefilla, one hour of tefilla itself, and the third hour after tefilla. The com­ mentaries ask, "The need to prepare before tefilla is understandable, but what was the purpose of the hour after tefilla?" They explain that when one dav­ ens properly, with concentration and feel­ ing, one's ncsharna is raised to a higher dimension, and thus needs an hour after­ ward for his neshama to return to the 1nundane world that we live in. So, too, I advised my friend, you should dedicate SEE ISRAEL THE WAY an "hour after tefilla" to allow the return OUR FOREFATHERS DID ••..... of your neshama from kodesh to chol. T\vo or three 1ninutes passed, and .... AND HAf/E THE EXPERIENCE another call followed, from an old OF A LIFETIME!!! friend who lives on the West Coast. He explained that while he doesn't learn Daf Yo1ni, he thought it was important to FOR BOYS 15-19 attend, and so he traveled with his wife and two children to New York for the JULY 13 -AUGUST 23 great event. I asked him how long he would be staying in town, and he replied that once he \Vas already here) he would UNDER THE DIRECTION OF DAVID STERN, make the most of it. He had arrived on EX U.S. MARINE COMBAT INSTRUCTOR Tuesday, went to a five-star restaurant, Under the Auspices of Yeshivas N1sr1mas Shlomo, Tzfas, Israel and then proceeded to the Siyum HaShas. !-le slept over at a hotel, would Rabbi Yaacov Orimland, Rosh HaYeshiva be attending a show that afternoon, and · Character building and leadership are at the heart of our program. would return home later that evening. · Feel at home as you walk empty handed into the wilderness. After hanging up the phone, I was · Build a personal connection with the land of Israel and its creator struck by the significant difference as you use it to meet your survival needs. between the two early morning calls. One person was so uplifted and inspired with · Learn to build multiple shelters,primitive fire making techniques, the event that he was finding it difficult edible plants, wilderness medicine, animal tracking, natural to return to his office, and the other finds camouflage and enough skills for a lifetime. no difficulty with the transition from the · Uplifting Shiurim by dynamic Rebbeim. ethereal treat of the Siyum HaShas to the · Masada, Ein Gedi, Kivrei Tzadikim, Kosel, Dead Sea, Eiltat & more. bright lights of Broadway. The first caller · Kayaking, rappelling, scuba diving, swimming, biking, jeeping, saw the Siyum as a source of chizuk and hisorcrrus; the latter saw it as just hiking, overnites, barbecues & much more. another event, another place to go, anoth­ · Lots of ruach in a warm & caring environment. er venue of entertainn1ent. According to Rabbi Dessler, Kiddush Hashcn1 is measured by the event's ra1n­ ifications "the n1orning after." How for­ tunate are those whose priorities and values enable them to fulfill this crite­ rion of Kiddush Hashem!

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CLOSER TO HOME morning. I wanted to share this experi­ "People say the world is not the same ence with so many of my fellow Jews from since 9/11. I say our world is not the same Another reaction came from one of my around the world, even if only for one day:' since March !st, the day of the Siyum own baalei battim, who showed up on He hesitated for a moment and then HaShas. Look at how our attendance has Wednesday morning to begin the 12th added, "You probably think that it's not so multiplied, that we're forced to move cycle of Shas at 5:30 a.m. in my shul (the really that much, to just come for the first to larger quarters ...." Chafetz Chaim Torah Center of day:' In Monsey, Rabbi Yisroel Rokowsky's Cedarhurst). As he came in, he must have I responded, "Not much?" Referring shiur grew from an average of 30 to over noticed 1ny expression of surprise at see­ to Rabbi Dessler's insight, I offered, "This I 00, necessitating an expansion of the shiur ing him at that early hour. We have had is Kiddush Hashem in all its glory, and room. In Denver, two new shiuriln nu1nerous conversations about the signif­ there's absolutely nothing in this tem­ sprouted up, and the old one went up icance of learning in the early morning poral world that we live in that is more from eight members to over 20. Similar hours, and he had explained that his work significant than that." responses are being heard fro1n all over finds him staying up to very late hours on We may have wasted much time the the USA .... Rabbi Chaim Veshnevsky, who the Internet, researching the latest activ­ 1norning after, with discussions at the brought a busload of"searching" congre­ ity in the foreign markets. His schedule water cooler as to who spoke how long; gants from the Jewish Learning Center in requires him to attend a late Shacharis in whether too much was spoken, Manalapan, NJ, called the day after the the morning, and precludes the possibil­ or too little Yiddish; and who did and who Siyum with the following message: "To ity of an early morning learning session. didn't speak. That's all insignificant. What the Siyum organizers: You blew them away. He approached me quietly and shared is significant is how many people pulled You exposed my friends to Orthodoxy in the following with me: "Rabbi, my late themselves out of bed early Wednesday a way they never would have - nor ever night work schedule hasn't changed, and morning and, for the first time ever, began - imagined. The next day there were 13 so I am unable to participate in your early the first M ishna in Shas. Early reports members who signed up for my DafYomi morning DafYomi shiur. However, after indicate a four-fold increase of the aver­ shiur! In Manalapan! Many of them did­ coming home last night from the Siyum age Daf Yomi shiur .. .. n't know which way to hold the Gemara. HaShas so full of inspiration, I just had In Flatbush's Young Israel of Avenue But they were there. Thank you!" to come at least once, at least the very next J, Rabbi David Levine commented, Kiddush Hashem, indeed. !i'.i1

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'!lm Pesach cookbook of the year! ---THE--- ffiE COMPLETE REDEMPTION a tasteef GUIDE TO NON­ ttAGGADAfl GEBROCHS Tracfitton &KOSHER COMMENTARY or THE GLUTEN­ Pesacfi am{ Beyond" FREE By Ta1n-ar Ansh COOKING DUBNO TA Thy is thisJ1ew, cookbook different from MAGGIO V V all others? Because it's perfect for those who do not eat Hgebroclis'", (as well as £or n honor of the Dubno Maggid's those who cannot eat-gluten all year1round)! I 2ooth yahrtzeit, we are proud to If Pesach cooking intimidates, bores, or overwhelms you, this beau- present - for the first time in English - this special edition of the tiful cookbook will revit,alize your, culinary experience'. Haggadah, containing the Maggid's complete commentaty. With :tull-colol' photos, mouth-watering recipes for Known primarily for his illuminating 11wsholim Rav Yaakov Kranz the everything from soup to fish to chicken to dessert, 1 1 and step-by-s,tep instructions for more, intricate Dubno Maggid, was .also a brilliant scholar who left behind a magnif­ recipes, this cookbook offers every cook a wide icent legacy of inspired written wotks, Panoramic in scope and rich range of options. Feast your eyes on the delightful wilh insights based on Midrash and Chazal, this beautiful Haggadah recipes, and treat your family to a Pesach feast that _will invigorate your Yorn Tov witl1 t11e same intensity that the they will truly remember! Maggid's n1eslioli1n inspire your soul.

rial@fer: ®mil Let My Nation Go Halachos THEHAGGADAH By Rabbi Yosef Deutsch ANTHOLOGY of Pesach Selected & compiled by et My Nation Go reads like By Rabbi Shimon t Ral1l1i Yissachar Dov Rubin La novel, but inspires and Eider informs like a scfcr. Based lear and compre­ l n anthology of ~,(,;'~~' upon Chumash, Tai1nudic and A insights and com­ Chensive, practi~ Midrashic sources, the author cal halachah that ments fron1 a virtual relates the story of Yctzias galaxy of Torah lu1ninar- encompasses every­ Mitzrnyi1n as fact-based histor­ thing, from the l ies, past and present. ical drama. Spiced with stories, beginning of Nissan Majeslic in scope, written with compelling insight ! anecdotes, and vignettes, vvith Talelei Oros to products for l and historical precision, this book will forever r you'll never run out of things to say - at your Pesach, from the Jaws of the Seder to the change the vvay you look at Yctzias Mitzrnyi111. days of Chol HaMoed, counting the Omer, and much more. i ~:~:!:::~ Pesa ch .. till!~~·.~ 1md"'111'" ;uul r.11ftralm Haggadah tea>:•· Mi11.t.l)'in> Elishama and Three E11hraim Leave Special Days Mitzrayim By Yaakov Meir Strauss oin Naftali and his family oin Elishatna 'and as they journey to Efraim, two young !emshalayim and expeti~ lrothers who live in ertce the joy of celebrating Mitzrayim.. and journey Pesach in all its splendor with them from golus to and glory. I geulah. This intriguing work Chronicles !heir aliyah l'regel at I This one-of-a-kind haggadah combines great story­ the time of the Second Bais HaMikdosh. Learn about ''l!"l'l! 1'111tn )£!VN) il'.J telling along with insights based on Torah and Midrash, Yerushalayim, the Bais HaMikdosh, the Avodas .,.,,) fit)!) ')il)J:l) :!11J?ilil .n1?'i1P ::n1:i 0')1i1)i1 '11Vi1 'arid the complete Haggadah presented in large1 easy-to­ haKorbonos, and especially the Korba11 Pesach. 0')J:lN) !11llpn bY ;,N'1'lJ' read type, to create a text that will delight and excite Great storytelling, history, and learning all com­ I your children, and be sure to keep them up on Seder fl:'.'?i1 'PD~ CIYl ,OtP\)l!'.J? b.ine to create a volume that wUI delight, excite, night. n1;nv ;).l:i 11nn D')il)Dl and enthrall young and old alike. !li').I' t!li llN.)f'I ,!li').I' '"V'l~t 'i''O!l'li' ;Ni~' 6 Torah Literature of Quality 800-237-7149 P.i www.feldheim.com A I' R I L 2 0 0 5

SHLOMO GOTTESMAN AND GEDALIAH WEINBERGER Introducing the Eighth Hour

s of this writing, the memorable valuable and enduring commodity of all; Frand, akin to that of a tourist, a visi­ sights and sounds of the Siyum second, our target audience is the para­ tor charging from place to place with lit­ A HaShas are still crystal clear in digm of a captive audience - literally tle time to reflect on what he sees. our 1ninds, and the reverberations of that thirsting for the opportunity to increase 10 help overcome these difficulties, great Kiddush Hashem are still being felt their commitment. in a small but meaningful way, Gedolei throughout the Torah world. We expect­ Yisrcelhave designed a program entitled ed very large crowds, rivevos alfei Yisroel "the Eighth Hour - the Sha'a (tens of thousands of)ews), would turn EARLY RETURNS: Hasheminis." The program adds, at a out lichvod Ha Torah, and we were right. ENCOlJRAGI NG minimum) one hour a week to the stan­ We expected to witness Yikra deOraisa, dard DafYomi program. This hour can the Glory of the Torah, and we were not Early anecdotal returns are very be scheduled at the convenience of each disappointed. We expected to be uplift­ encouraging. Many existing shiurim shiur, and can be used for a variety of ed by the words of chizuk and encourage­ are reporting increases ranging from 50 purposes. ment of Gedolei Yisroel, and were indeed to 100°/o, and scores of new shiurim and I. Chazara (review). While it may elevated. But perhaps above all, the Daf chavrusos have been established. seem difficult to review a whole week's Yomi Commission hoped that the Siyum Hundreds of safsalim (benches) have learning in an hour) specific programs HaShas wou]d serve as a major impetus been added to the battei midrash, as thou­ have been designed for this purpose, and for a dramatic increase in the scope and sands of people from all walks oflife have they work. In fact, many shiurim already intensity of the Daf Yomi program. taken on the significant and 1neaning­ have existing chazara programs in place. Recognizing the opportunity a new ful commitment to DafYomi. We look 2. Shiur Iyun. This idea speaks direct­ cycle represented, gedolei Yisroel charged forward to assisting these shiurim in any ly to the need to have participants learn us with the task of helping significantly way we can in continuing their melech­ be'amkus (in depth). Each maggid shiur increase the DafYomi program. The goal es hakodesh (sacred work). (or, where qualified, a participant) they set was challenging - to double the In addition to helping increase the would prepare, on a weekly basis, a shiur number of learners. A daunting task and kamus (quantity) of the DafYomi pro­ iyun on a topic that was covered during one which required significant advance gram, we were also given the charge of the previous week. Participants would thinking and planning. This increase raising the eichus (the quality level). It be learning with their regular maggid would only be achievable because of two is a truism that the relentlessly swift pace shiur, and this bond would help ensure important fuctors: first, the "sechora" we of the DafYomi inevitably extracts a steep the success of the chabura (study group). were marketing, the Torah, is the most price- the lack of time to delve into top­ In conjunction with the Siyum ics in depth, and the inherent difficul­ GEDAJ,lAH WEINBERGER IS CHAIRMAN 01' THE HaShas, the Torah Projects and DafYomi lJAr YOMI COMMISSION. HE ANO SHLOMO ty in retention. Without the opportunity Commissions published a seferentitled GOTTESMAN SEHVE AS Co-CHAIHMEN OF for iyun (in-depth analysis) or chazara Hamei'ir LaOlam. The sefer contains a AGUDATH lsf~AEL's COMMISSION ON TORAH (review), the experience remains, in the section with samples of shiurei iyun on 1 PROJECTS. memorable words of Rabbi Yissachar sugyos (topics) of DafYomi. These shi- I

36 ------__ ----_---_ ------~----__ ------IHE JE.WISH Oasr,RVER

--·-.... ---.-·~------.. ··----"-----~---"--'------

urim, written in a clear and concise man­ We intend to reach out to our Daf fied the two determining facets of Rabbi ner by distinguished talmidei Yomi shiurim through their respective Shapiro's personality: ahavas Yisroel chachamim, are designed to be delivered maggidei shiur and stand ready to help and ahavas Ha Torah, the love of his fel­ to baalei battim, and cover the basic issues organize community-wide shiurim or low Jew and the love of Torah. We can of a sugya - in yeshiva parlance, "the design specific programs. only speculate as to how much nachas rayd:' Appended are extensive footnotes Hagaon Rabbi Meir Shapiro ';"~t the Luhliner Rav is having as he looks with citations to 1nany sources for envisioned the Daf Yomi program as a down from the Daf Yomi shiur in those wishing to explore the sugya in its unifying force for the many disparate cir­ deRakia. 6 Clearly, we can create full depth. Shiurim on Masechtos cles of Torah Jews. The secret of the suc­ much more, if we redouble our efforts Berachos and Shabbos are included. cess of Daf Yomi, explained Rabbi to improve his brainchild in quantity and Should those samples prove to be ben­ Yechezkel Abramsky, ?":

37 ··---·-----··-··--·---··-··-··------·······-·-·-··------··-----.. READING Subsequently, both a United States dis­ of respondents would not want to be TERRI SCHIAVO's MIND trict court judge and the three-judge kept alive in Terri Schiavo's condition. panel of the 11th Circuit refused to order But surely the only relevant question erri Schiavo has breathed her last. the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feed­ from the point of view of American law But the issues raised by her ing tube, and the Supreme Court is not what someone else would want, T tragic case will continue to declined review. but what Terri Schiavo wants, or would haunt us and to have a large impact on Defenders of the order of a Florida want. I And the answer to that is far from the future of American society. district court judge to remove Schiavo's clear. Many of those who have had con­ Schiavo has been sustained by a feed­ feeding tube project the case as one con­ tact with her, including doctors and nurs­ ing tube for 15 years following a heart cerning the "right to die." It is anything es, testify that she is responsive and attack that left her severely brain dam­ but. sometimes animated. aged. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, sub­ Schiavo left no written instructions Signing the Schiavo bill into law, sequently petitioned a Florida court to in the event that she suffered irreversible President Bush said rightly, "[W]here remove the feeding tube, claiming that brain damage, as happened following a there are serious questions and substan­ his wife would not have wanted to live heart attack. Her husband's testimony tial doubts, our society, our laws, and our in her current condition. Terri Schiavo's about an offhand remark she is alleged courts should have a presumption in favor parents have bitterly contested that to have made after viewing a movie about oflife." The criminal law requires proof request for years. a comatose patient, is the only support of "guilt beyond all reasonable doubt" The case has attracted massive cov­ to the claim that she would not want to before the state can contemplate the tak­ erage, particularly with the March 21 pas­ live. Removing a feeding tube is forbid­ ing of a murderer's life. Surely the con­ sage by Congress, in an extraordinary late den by Schiavo's Roman Catholic faith, stitutional requirement of due process, night session, of a bill granting Terri and fervently opposed by her parents, before the state may deprive a person of Schiavo's parents the right to federal court who are prepared to bear the full bur­ life, liberty or property, requires no less review of a Florida court order to den of keeping her alive. before Florida allows Schiavo's hus­ remove her feeding tube. President Terri Schiavo is not being sustained band to let her starve to death over a peri­ Bush flew back from his Texas ranch to artificially by machines. She breathes od of more than a week. And that burden sign the bill in the early hours of the independently and her brain-stem and has not come close to being met. morning. other parts of her 1nind continue to func­ The Florida district court basical­ tion. All she requires to sustain life is to ly allowed Schiavo's husband to deter- RABBI ROSENBLUM, WHO UVES IN JJ.:RlJSALEM, be fed, just as infants and many elderly IS A CONTHl6UTING EDITOR ro 1HE IFWISH TFr~;;-th-;p~-int of ~i~;·~f halacha, it-i~-d;-ubt- 01:JSERVER. Hr·: IS ALSO D11t1:CTOR OF THE people have to be fed by others. ful that even the prior expression of a desire to !SRA EU DIVISION OF AM ECHAD, THE AGUDATH A March 20 letter writer to The New be removed fron1 life sustenance would be accept­ ISUAEL-JNSPIRED EDUCATIONAL OlFfREACH York Times considers the whole matter ed. But that discussion is far beyond the con1- EFFORT ANH MEDIA RESOURCE. settled by an ABC poll showing that 78% petence of this author.

38 ~._J !=- ----·~··--- ••-- _____ .. .,,_·_• ·_··=---~-~·-_-._·:;=-~~--,_,,_'_•·_~.-,_-~-._:_~~=·=Ii--,...- .. -~-·-_-.. -.-~.. ---~=·=·--~· __ ;_:"'="=.--,_,----·••~-.- ••---·-•m-- ·=-1 mine what her will would be if she in the Schiavo case are right that carv­ abstract legal doctrine. I could express it. Yet his credibility on ing out a narrow set of cases tradition­ Clearly, the argument here is largely this subject is highly suspect. Michael ally within the domain of the states for theological. Supporters of Michael I Schiavo may sincerely believe that his federal court review, and especially a Schiavo's "right" to starve his wife to death wife would not want to live in her cur- set of one, makes a travesty of the fed­ deny the existence of a human soul, and rent state, and no one would envy his eral system. But the choice, as Charles see a person as nothing more than the situation. But there is no gainsaying the Krauthamer points out, is "between a sum of his or her capacities for pleas­ fact that he is entangled in a web of legal travesty on the one hand and ure. Below a certain threshold of poten­ conflicting interests. Terri Schiavo's human tragedy on the other:' It is pre­ tial for pleasure, in their view, life continued existence is, to put it crude­ cisely in such cases where a human life ceases to have value. That same view ly, an inconvenience to him. He has is at stake that liberals have always been underlies the classification of a fetus by fathered two children with another most impatient, and rightly so, with advocates of abortion on de1nand as wo1nan who1n he hopes to n1arry. And Frankfurterian insistence on rigorous nothing more than an appendage of the he would inherit whatever remains of adherence to established procedures and mother's body. a $ l.2 million medical malpractice judgment he brought on her behalf, before turning to the Florida courts to terminate her life. If someone has to make a decision here, shouldn't it be those dose relatives who wish to keep Terry Schiavo alive and are willing to assume the burden of doing so.

SPARING THE MURDERERS, STARVING THE INNOCENT

Many of those eager to see Schiavo dead and buried must explain why they "\1'hnt gives us success in u1ar? Please use my donation to: demand end!css direct and collateral The spiritual jbrlresses of Tu rah." • Help a young Choson­ appeals for convicted axe murderers and Rabbi Ychoshuah hen Levi (A1akos) Kallah get married! serial killers, but have set the procedur­ For thousands of years, the Torah has kept Am • Give a Tbrah scholar in Yisroel alive. need of surgery peace al bar so low for starving Schiavo to Keep the ]earning of Turah alive. of 1nind! death. Why do so many of those who • Enliven the lives of a oppose the death penalty for convict­ Due to severe reductions of 8091) or n1ore in Israeli Turah family with a Ybm government subsidies, Yeshivas and Torah families Tbv grant! ed killers in all cases feel only outrage arc turning to us vvith ever-increasing requests for at the attempts of politicians to prevent • Help provide a home assistance. We cannot let the1n dcnvn. Ezras Turah for a newlywed couple! the taking of Schiavo's life? now than ever needs your help. 1norc • Endow a Free Loan What assumptions about the Become partners vvith Ezras 'Turah and send in Fund or Medical human soul. or the absence thereof, your generous contribution today! Emergency Fund! inform the positions of those who Call The 24-Hour Ezras Torah Tzedekah Hotline 1-800-514-0348 uppose imposition of the death penal­ ty in every case, but wish to see 1"erri . J4.z~s!r2~~·~-'!;~~~~~~!!~~":~~~~~~:~~~tJ:!~h- __ , Schiavo die? Do they view as human I "lT.e1Ct f I would like to help Ezras Tor:::ih'o .ieedy. only those still theoretically caiuule of I _LI: 0 • Enclosed is my tax ueauctible contribution for: experiencing pleasures with which I D $18 D $36 D $50 D $100 D $180 D $250 D $360 D $500 D $1,ooo D $ _____ they can easily identify? I Method of payment: D Check 0 Visa D MIC D AfE Ac. #: .. ---.---· Exp. Date: __ _ Critics of Congressional intervention I Please contact me regarding establishing an Ezras Torah Endowment Fund for a: I 0 Free Loan Fund D Medical Emergency Fund Please send me an Ezras Torah lialachic Pocket Calendar & Guide, for the current year. (checked below, contributionen..;!osed) KARKA IN ERETZ YISROEL D Pocket-sized Hebrew Luach D Pocket-sized English Luach 0 Wall-sized Hebrew Luach Call Rabbi Gavriel Beer for information on obtaining cemetery plots in Beth Name Te!. ( Shernesh and other locations in Israel. t Address City __ St~te Zip 011-972-2-656-9427 I Please make check payable to: Ezras Torah, 235 East Broadway, New York, NY 10002 • (212) 227-8960 JO ~------

39 A P R I L 2 0 0 5

of the American people. Opponents of the Florida court deci­ IN THE EQUATION This loathing of religion and religious sion are correct to worry that the Americans has led those eager to see the Schiavo case will prove the first step down Rabbi Aryeh Spero, writing in Jewish Florida court's order executed into all the slippery slope to euthanasia of all World Review, is surely right that much sorts of interesting contradictions. Every those whose "quality of life" does not of the fury of those opposed to prolong­ self-respecting feminist would roil with meet a certain societal standard. Indeed, ing Terri Schiavo's life derives from their anger at the suggestion that a wife is not the removal of a feeding tube from a sen­ perception of Schiavo's defenders as reli­ an autonomous decision maker, co1n­ tient, responsive woman, who requires giously motivated. In their conception pletely independent of her husband. Yet no artificial life support, is already a long, of democracy, religious views have no today, feminist proponents of cutting off long way down the road. place in the lawmaking process. The only Terry Schiavo's feeding tubes cite "the We have before us many examples of religion entitled to be heard in public sanctity of the marital bond" as reason how rapidly the slippery slope is traversed. debates is the religion of secularism, enough for the state to fulfill Michael In the Netherlands, for instance, where regardless of the views of the majority Schiavo's wish to terminate his wife's life. euthanasia is legal, there is clear evidence that many elderly and infirm people are pressured by their families to "consent" to their own killing so as not to consti­ \'au read llie lanua101 issue tute a burden on them. In just a few years, the Netherlands has come close to the ideal vision of Princeton bioethicist '~HOW MENTORING Peter Singer, in which society jettisons "doctrines about the sanctity of life" so that it is "the refusal to accept killing that, CAN MAKE A in some cases [will be seen as] horrific."2 In other areas as well, we have wit­ DIFFERENCEU nessed a dizzyingly rapid shift in social norms. Fifteen years ago, the idea that any state would ever define marriage as Isn't it time for you son1ething other than a relationship between a man and a vvoman seemed to call 718.758.3131 wildly farfetched. Yet the Massachusetts and say: Supreme Court and a California judge have already ruled that their states may not constitutionally define marriage in "I'm ready to give that fashion, and at least one other state an hour a week to has created civil unions barely distin­ guishable from marriage. Within the save a child!" precincts of , to advo­ cate the traditional definition of marriage is to mark oneself as a Neanderthal. It is some slight consolation that Terri Schiavo's fate has transfixed America, and ',. that "letting her die" is not accepted as 10 "10NSn' ' BRIJ(;~tr" " co_mmonplace. 'fhere is no other Western lraimn~ 11 : Tr•inlng #1 15 '7,00 - ~;J~~"ll: 7:00' 8:3~i~-· ~18~.--,-,- industrialized society in which her claim 20 21 to life could still get a hearing. And that MONS£Y ; 8RCOKlYN , T"in;ng •2 ; lrnlnin9 i1 •7:00 ·8:JOpm:7:00-S.JQpm is why her fate concerns us all. ffiJ 2 Even as the Schiav~ .. ~-~~-;,_,.ii~d;-t::i it;~J;;~fu"J conclusion, the Israeli Knesset has passed on first Project Y.E.S. reading "living will" legislation that would per­ Working with families on behalf of our children mit citizens to give written instructions in advance concerning certain end of life medical pro 718.758.3131 • [email protected] cedures. The legislation was drafted with the assis- tance of Orthodox medical ethicist Rabbi Dr. Project Y.E.S. {Youth £f1rithment Service) l~ a division of Agudath Israel of Am!!rita Community Services, Inc. and is dedicat ~ A.vraham Steinberg and had the support of Rabbi in the m!!mory of Shloime Horowitz, l'l".11 Our telephone services hotline is dedicated bj Reuvein and Mordechai Elssenberg and p1N:'l'i '-i Ovadia Yosef. MKs from United 'IOrah Judaism, Raizel Harrar, '""' their parents, l!I t>n'P and .,.,..,li"'I lf!I ';'tlHKT /t'l%1 1 ---h-m-vever, voted agamstthe~~~~ first readmg I -···--··-·-··-··-··-·---··---·-···- ----··-·-----····-·----·-·-·------·-- THE JEWISH OBSERVER ·----·-----·--·--··------·-----·------.----·--·------·------··------·-·-·--·-

! SJMCHA LEIB GROSSBARD I

The Importance of Preparation A commonly stressed theme in Chassidic teachings is the Jew can find himself in the Sefas Emes. Consequently, importance of preparation before performance of mitzvos. studying Sefas Emes in the original can open the read­ With Pesach approaching, an English rendition on this theme er to expanded and subtler understandings. Another in regard to Pesach is presented. reason is that his written words can stimulate the It is based on a Sefas Emes Al Ha Torah (parashas emotion, as his ideas stimulate the intellect. Bo, 5659). I recommend, for those able, studying this Though much of this is lost in translation, still, it is hoped Sefas Emes in the original Hebrew, for several rea­ that an appreciation and longing to understand the writings sons. The primary reason is that a Sefas Emes can be of the Sefas Emes and, more importantly, an interest to engage understood in more than one way. Alluding to this in the challenges of his spiritual and ethical calls will be aroused. quality, the lmrei Emes, ., .. ,,, son of the Sefas Emes, The author of Sefas Emes al Ha Torah, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh ?·YT, and his successor as Gerrer Rebbe, said that every Leib Alter, was Gerrer Rebbe from 1871 until his petira in 1905.

n regard to mitzvos, it is not enough makeup of mortals can change through thoughts. Yet, the Talmud seemingly can- to simply perform them, even with performance of mitzvos. tradicts this position by stating, "Evil I the greatest of kavanos. Mitzvos are rfhe impression that mitzvos n1ake on thoughts are worse than doing evil" 1neant to leave an impression on the per- the performer is not an auto1natic (Yo1na, 29a). for1ner, as it is written, "and fin regard result of mitzvah performance. In fact, Actually, both answers are correct, and to] My mitzvos, enshrine [them] in your- more than the performance of mitzvos, there is no contradiction at all. The act self (Mishlei, 2:1, 7:1 ). This is not an it is the attitude one has towards of sin certainly causes worse effects in abstract or allegorical concept. The mitzvos that brings about the change in the cosmos than evil thoughts alone. In Zahar writes, "A tzaddik has his merits the performer. regard to the effect upon man's charac- embedded in his bones" ( Vayikra, I Sb, ter, however, evil and lewd thougl1ts affect 275a). The spiritual mitzvah is to be him in a worse way. For to sin takes just impressed upon the physical world; the THINKING AND DOING a moment, and while the cosmos will be s1McHA LE1•G••"•A•o. A

1 As co-AoM1N1sTRAToR oF B1-;TH MEuRAstt let us contemplate the fo1lowing ques- on, haunt and steadfastly chip away at 0 GovoiiA " lsRAEL IN h:inJsA1.EM. HE is Al'THon tion: Which is worse, sinful thoughts or a person's moral fiber. Consequently, in OF TWO sr.TAJUM HASEO ON 5Ef'AS EMES transgression? We would assume that the regard to one's character, it is thoughts I "KA.<;HF.l.FG L\/,IHNU (Al. JNYF:Nlo"f MU.'>SAR uMAcosttAvA AND AL PAHsuios HASHA vuA)" deed is worse. After all, beis din dispens- - planning before doing illicit acts, I AND THE "Sl".'f"As EMHS HAGGADA S"llE1, PE-~ACH... es punishment only for actual acts, not savoring and relishing memories after- L ______------·------·-- 41 r-=- -_ ------A ~---;,-,,--. o~-5 --

; ward - that are more detrimental. tunity to do mitzvos, will be much affect, impress and embed good moral Taking this theme one step further, stronger at resisting the beckoning of evil character in the performer. I we can say that what is true for evil is temptations than the person who does i true for good. Just as moral character is mitzvos all the time, but without enthu- weakened not only by sinning, per se, but siasm. EXALTATION THROUGH even more so through evil thoughts, so According to the above thesis, the fol- ANTICIPATION 1 moral character is built not only lowing can be concluded. The verse that through performance of 1nitzvos, per se, urges one to enshrine mitzvos into one- This theme clarifies GhazaI's expla­ I but even more so by longing and enthu- self, and, Chazal, who spoke of mitzvos nation, quoted by Rashi (Shemos, 12,6), · siastic preparations towards performance becoming embedded in mortals, are why G-d commanded the Jews in Egypt of mitzvos, and by recalling and savor- referring to the anticipation of the to set aside the Pascal lamb four days ing past performance of mitzvos. A per- mitzvah before its performance, and to before it was to be slaughtered. The Jews son who does less mitzvos but is the savoring of the mitzvah after its per- then in Egypt, say Ghazal, were barren enthusiastic and anticipates the oppor- formance. Such thoughts and emotions of mitzvos - the verse, "and you were exposed and bare" (Yechezkeil 16,7), is quoted in allegory- and did not merit redemption. To remedy this situation, G­ d gave them this mitzvah to occupy themselves with, and thereby merit redemption. What is puzzling is that one would think that the actual mitzvah of the Pascal sacrifice would be a hetter merit than the preparatory act of setting aside the lamb. The answer is that GhazaI's intention was not in regard to actual redemption. Redemption was promised to Avraham together with the tidings of exile. The children of Avraham had G-d's word, as is written, "Afterward they [Am Yisroel, the offspring of Avraham] shall go out with great possessions" (Bereishis 15,14), and were destined to go out of Egypt whether or not they were deserv­ ing of it. Ghazal were bothered by a dif­ ferent question: what good is redemption when Am Yisroel, after so many years of slavery, had no moral character to speak of? As the verse quot­ ed in allegory states, "and you were exposed and bare;' meaning they were as susceptible to sin as the underdressed are susceptible to illness. With their first experience with temptation, they would fall prey to sin, and then be punished with a return to exile. Therefore, Ghazal explain, G-d commanded the Jews to set aside the Pascal lamb four days prior to the day of the actual sacrifice to occu­ py themselves. Because, unlike the actual mitzvah of sacrificing, which would only take a second, setting aside .

the lamb in preparation would induce 1· much anticipation and longing for the

------mitzvah. For four day~, Am Y1sroel w°] ------·------~---~~~-~-~-~-_:_--~~--~~-~-~~-"---=-==-====1

I 1 be occupied in preparation, and would wings of a master nation. eat anyway. The Rambam says that the 1 be filled with yearning to perform the The importance of the pre-stage increased selection of mitzvos makes it Pascal sacrifice. Thus, their n1oral char- (preparation, anticipation, longing, etc.) easier for one to pick a 1nitzvah that is 1 acter would develop and become a layer mitzvah performance, and the post-stage best suited for him to excel in, and per- of protection against the ill winds of (recalling, savoring, etc.) mitzvah per- form with perfection, so that he can temptation. formance, can be the nuance of the fol- receive its full reward. This theme can also be used to give the following verse a profound reading. "And the people carried their dough, before it was leavened; their leftovers bound up in their garments upon their JUST AS MORAL CHARACTER IS WEAKENED backs" (Shcmos 12,34). MAINLY THROUGH EVIL THOUGHTS, SO MORAL Rashi) as co1nmonly understood, CHARACTER IS BUILT MAINLY BY ENTHUSIASTIC explains the above verse as follows: "Leftovers - leftovers of matzah and mar­ PREPARATIONS TOWARDS PERFORMANCE OF ror (which they had been commanded MITZVOS, AND BY RECALLING AND SAVOIHNG to eat together with the Pascal lamb, on PAST PERFORMANCE OF MITZVOS. the previous night). Upon their backs­ though they brought many animals with them rwhich could have carried this food], they loved the mitzvos [and there­ fore chose to carry the leftover matzah lowing Mishna: Hashe1n wanted to Applying our theme in this Mishna and marror themselves]." That is, Am make Yisroel meritorious (lezakos), removes the need for co1nments such as Yisroel deemed the leftover matzah and therefore He multiplied (heirba) for them the ones cited above. Translate lczakos n1arror so precious, that they preferred Torah and mitzvos ... (Makkos 3:16). The to mean purify (from the word zach), and to carry it themselves rather than load con11nentaries present various opinions hirba to mean increase or expanded. it onto their ani1nals. as to the need for multiplying the "Hashen1 wanted to purify Yisroel, there­ nu1nber of mitzvos. Rashi, for example, fore He expanded for them Torah and says that we would keep many of the pro­ mitzvos." Iiashern increased, or expand­ THE LINGERING IMPRINT hibitions anyway, for they are disgust­ ed, each mitzvah - by adding on pre­ OF A MITZVAH ing (i.e., eating worms, etc.). Still, and post-stages - so that the physical Hashem made them into n1itzvos so that makeup of Israel would become puri­ With our then1e, Rashi can be under­ we would now receive reward for fied and morally strong. stood in the following, deeper manner: abstaining from so1nething we would not May we all merit such fulfillment."'1 Rashi's comment regarding "leftovers" isn't as leftover food. Rather, Rashi is refer­ ring to the memories of the recently per­ formed mitzvos of eating matzos and n1arror-for n1emories are the true and everlasting leftovers of any experience. To verify this point, Rashi explains that An1 Yisroefs ani1nals would have carried the leftovers if the intent were food. They loved the 1nitzvos so much, that the memory of folfilling the mitzvos the pre­ FOR vious night was still stark and vivid, and THE FINEST· prevailed even in their rushing to leave Egypt. So stark and vivid were these left­ IN overs (me1nories), that they became bound up in their garn1ents, entwined 11111111 AND VIDEO into Am Yisroel's character, beco1ning a protective garment against the ill USA/ISRAEL winds of temptation that they would inevitably face as an independent peo-

L no long~unde~1~rotective- ·--·------·--- 43 --···-··· ------~-... A P R I 1, 2 0 0 5

A''Praise''worthv Tradition

"My FAVORITE PART" as the conductor. The beautiful nusach, she'asisa im avoseinu ve'in1anu - The which we all learned as small children, kindnesses that You did for our fathers ''Tatty, can you guess my favorite part united us throughout the seder. The aro­ and for us." At first, it was for the usual of the Pesach seder?" My brother, age six, mas coming from the kitchen let us know things that l'viommy cried. Baruch looked up at my father with expectant a delicious shulchan aruch was in store Hashem, she was seeing Yiddishe nachas eyes aud awaited my father's reply. after the matzah and marror. And then from her children. And she had the zechus "Watching Tatty choke on the mar­ came Hallel. of having her mother and mother-in-law ror?" For as long as I can re1nember, my join us year after year at our seder. «Uh uh!" father took my brothers - as his father "Opening the door for Eliyahu had taken him - to Born Park from our Hanavi?" Flatbush home to join Rabbi Moshe Bick THE CHANGING MESSAGE «No!" ~·~1 at the end of the second seder for OF THE WORDS "All right, Tattele. Tell me, what is your the first counting of sefiras ha'omer. My favorite part?" brothers commented that the simcha of 1~hen, as the years went on, the words "Halle/ and Nish mas." aliya laegel at the time of the Beis seemed to arouse a personal thanks to How could so young a boy appreci­ Hamikdash must have felt similar. My the Ribbono Shel Olam for the yeshuos ate Halle[ and Nishmas? In our family, family, generally arriving in time for the family had experienced that year. it's really no question at all.At our Pesach Halle/ was warmly welcomed. The same Eleven years ago, just four days after sit­ seder, my parents were truly transformed nusach that they heard at Rabbi Bick's ting at the sedarim with Tatty, two of their from ordinary baalebattim into shining seder, and every Yam Tov in his shu~ was married children and their families, and royalty. Tatty in his kittel, and Mommy used at our table. me, Mommy was rushed to the hospi­ in her embroidered apron, sat at the The feelings with which every word tal with unexplained stomach pains. Over heads of the table, with the children in was said by my father was reflected in the last days of Yorn Tov, before my eyes, between. Throughout the seder, we his son's voices. My sister and I, howev­ she fell into a coma. For days, we feared were as players in an orchestra with Tatty er, took our cue from our mother i1''V. that she would never awaken. Finally, she She swayed back and forth in her arm­ opened her eyes, and two days later MRS. BERGER IS A Mt:CHANF.'CHES, WHO LIVES chair, and whispered the words with their uttered her first word - « amein" - to a IN LAKEWOOD, NJ. THIS IS HEH FIRST APT'~;AHANCE nusach. The tears streamed down her wish from her cousin for a refua IN THESE l'AGES. cheeks as she thanked Hashem: "Hatovos sheleima. She made a miraculous recov-

44 ery from a terrible infection, and ca1ne Baruch Hashern, three and a half years azarunu racha1ncclza vela azavunu hon1e three weeks after entering the hos­ after Mommy got sick, she was zache to chasadecha - until now, Your pity has pital, but n1ore was yet to con1c. \Valk me to the chupa. The n1edication helped us and Your kindness has not left Two months later, Mommy was diag­ had changed her outwardly, but noth­ us" - were the last words he heard as he nosed with an incurable form of the ing could hide the smile on her face. walked out the door. When he returned dreaded disease. She committed herself to a strong fight - after all, she wanted to walk n1e, her youngest, to the chupa. For six months, she went through ago­ nizing chemotherapy treatments, telling no one but immediate family. Every THE EMOTIONS AROUSED BY THE WORDS Shabbos, I sat next to her in shul, and OF HALLE/, AND NISH MAS GREW AS WE heard her daven Nishmas quietly with our nusach. How thankful she was for every UNDERSTOOD MORE AND MORE HOW day. She told me that she really knows MUCH WE HAD TO BE THANKFUL FOR, the ineaning of the morning declaration, "Modch ani ... shehechezarta bi nish1nasi bcchen1la - Thank You ... for returning n1y soul to nlc with con1passion." finally, when Pcsach arrived again, she was in re1nission. We sat at the seder with con1- Hashe1n gave her the strength to dance two hours later, he found her still on the pany again, and when we got to Nishn1as, at n1y chasuna and join us for Sheva same v.1ords of Nishmas. "Ad heina there wasn't a dry eye at the table as we Ilerachos. The next day, severe medical azarunu rachan1echa vela azavunu davened, "ha1ne'areir yesheininr complications forced her to be hospital­ chasadecha:' Mo1nmy's n1ind was not vehan1eikitz nirdaminl' - Hashe111, thank ized. Most of her remaining ti1ne was You for allovving Mo1n1ny to awaken from spent in the hospital. ~ ~ '2.- '2.- '2.- '2.- ~ a deep slumber, and allowing us to have Each week, one or another of 1ny Finished Shas? another Pesach together as a family. brothers would spend Shnbbos with 'fwo n1ore years passed with their ups Mommy. She insisted that a white sheet THIS TIME AROUND and downs, but the scder remained the be placed on her hospital tray, and that You Can Also highlight of the year. The emotions all zemiros be sung. My brother Yaakov REMEMBER SHAS! aroused by the words of Halle/ and spent her last Shabboswith her. She began With the Newly Published MonumentJ/ WOik Nish mas grew as we understood n1ore davening Shacharis early Shabbos n1orn­ and 1norc how 111uch we had to be thank­ ing. When Yaakov left for shu/, she was ful for. in the middle of Nishmas. "Ad heina I NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY I AS TO STUDENTS J'l"Sl1 '1t.)1:J"'O The Rabbi Naftali Riff Yeshiva Inc. admits students of any race, color, o;p111'11~r.i1 111•i1tm ni~tm •'::>'::>:i '1 'JI ~I; The most concise summary of the entire national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and Talmud Bavli activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It W• Review a Daf in less than 2 minutes tft-- Sharply focused format of each Sugya does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin l<¢-' /ndudes major points discussed by R.lshi in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and Tosfos ~~ Enables memorization of many Dafim at once and loan programs, and athletic and other school administrated programs. t<" Indispensable when reviewing for tests ~~An invaluable tool for Lomdei Gemara l(~ The perfect gift for Oaf Yomi followers The Rabbi Naftali Riff Yeshiva and arr Bnei Tor ah South Bend, Indiana BE A SHAS YID! Available at Sefarim stores 3207 S. High Street, South Bend, Indiana 46614 • (574) 291-4239 as a 4-vo/ume set or as indMdual volumes Call 732-905-2590 or 732-901-5506 Applications are now being accepted for Elut 5765/August 2005 Distributed by Im Hasefer - Levitz: 718-377-0047 -~-;S' ~~"5' ~ ~ I L:_ ----··----·-··----·---~ r-==- .~ ~- ~~ ., :~.~ :--- ~~----~-~~-=-i

' entirely clear, but still, my brother was the Skulener Rebbe N"V'W during dav- wasn't there to Join us. As we i I shocked that she seemed to be stuck on eningto ask him to daven for our moth- approached the highlight of our seder I that line for more than two hours, er. "She is only 5 J years old;' my brother - Halle[ and Nishmas - we would just The following Shabbos, Shabbos lamented. The Rebbe had been standing picture Mommy in her white apron I I Hagado4 Tatty and the children joined at the Aron Kodesh to remove the sifrei telling us, "Be thankful for the time we Mommy one last time at the hospital. Torah for leining when they entered. He did have together - Hashem's chessed has I I Right before the zeman for hadlakas stood at the open Aron Kodesh and said still not left you:' Of course, the tears haneiros, Tatty helped Mommy do her "Ana Hashem hoshia NA" - Please, flowed, but the nusach and feelings were 1 erev Shabbos mitzva one last time, He lift­ Hashem, save the woman whose years of stronger than ever. ed her almost lifeless hand, placed life equal the numerical value of NA - money between her fingers and helped 5 l. On her last complete Shabbos, Seven years have passed since then, and her release the coins into her Rabbi Meir Mommy had repeated, "Ad heina now I sit each Shabbos and Yam Tovwith Baal Haness pushka. After Kabbalas azarunu racha1necha velo azavunu my three-year-old daughter, her Bubbie's I Shabbos, the men sang Shalom Aleichem chasadecha" - You helped us Hashem, namesake, next to me on the couch. I and Eishes Chayil for her one last time, and Your chessed has not left us:' open my Siddur and daven. When I reach and that evening she returned her pure We got up from shiva and sat at the the words of "Nishmas kol chai;' I say it neshama to her Maker. seder that night. My husband and I and with the nusach that I learned at my par­ I After Slwbbos, we sat together and rec - my oldest brother and his family joined ents' seder. I daven that Hashem contin- ollected our last weeks with Mommy, and my father at his house for a difficult ue to treat us with chessed so that I can my brothers noticed something incred­ evening. The food had been cooked by watch my children grow to daven and ible. When she had been sick four years us in Mommy's Pesach kitchen with her thank Hashem with the words of earlier, two of my brother had gone to utensils) and her recipes, but Mom1ny Nishmas as their Bubbie did. 6JHEvmt WSEH (JHESEIJ) Hats • Shirts • Ties • Accessories @Ei1GlfDA.PH ISRAEL

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RABBI AVI SHAFRAN 1 I

... And Basha Makes Four tanding in the Manhattan ter1ni­ response; in fact, he 1nay not even have for when they heard that even resha'im nal waiting for the stayed around after making his point. We would be considered part and parcel of S Ferry one day, I witnessed two aren't really"answering" him at all, says the nation, they realized that the reve­ 111en engaged in a peculiar conversation. the Gaon, only responding to his words, lation bespoke a wondrous thing, a new They were facing one another and talk· for the benefit of the other members of concept: Kial Yisroel. For such news, one ing, but their dialogue, although entire· the household. We even speak of the bows, deeply. ly audible, was oddly disjointed. The pair rasha in third person: " ... since he And now the perfect words of the looked normal, even respectable, but the removed himself from the group ... Haggada reveal a deeper meaning: Had interaction 1nade no sense. Each n1an's had he been there ..." the rasha been there, we announce, he response to the other's question or state­ And so, vvith regard to the rasha, the would not have been redeemed. But he ment seemed a puzzle. But it was quick­ Baal HaHagadda counsels us to "set his is, in fact, here, at a point after Yetzias ly enough solved when the doors to the teeth on edge" with the response: "Since Mitzrayim, and thus, despite his scoff­ ferry opened and the pair turned away, he removed himself from the group, he ing, a part of our people. fro1n n1e and fron1 each other, revealing has denied a basic belief. Had he been How though, in fact, is he here? People the wires running fro111 each one's ear there [in MitzrayimJ, he would not have like him in Egypt, after all, perished dur­ into his coat pocket. They had been been redeemed:' ing the days of darkness. speaking, but not with each other. But the Jewish nation was still in ges­ So1nething sin1ilar seems to be occur­ tation then; after Yetzias Mitzrayim, it is ring in the exchange the Torah describes No NACHAS, fully born'. After the exodus from regarding the Haggadds bein harasha, the BARUCH HASHEM Egyptian slavery and the coalescing of "wicked son:· whose question is foreshad­ the individuals descended from Yaakov owed in parshas Bo. The first indication Yet an interaction on some level with into soinething new, an ahn1, Klal that our conversation with him is not real­ the rasha does see1n iinplied; otherwise, Yisroel perforce encompasses all of its ly a conversation at all is son1ething the how could our state1nent have any members, even the lapsed; and they all, Avnei Neizer (cited by his son, the Sheim effect on him, setting his teeth on edge? by the merit of the nation they comprise, MiShmuel-the Sochatchover Rebbe), the And in fact, the Sheim MiShmuel have the ability to return to their spir­ Meshech Chachma and others point out explains, the very fact that the Torah itual source. - the rasha, unlike the chacham, doesn't alludes to the rasha as someone whose "ask," at all; he just "says." challenge concerns us indicates that, as difficult as he is being, he is not entire· WE Do IT ALL FOR You ly lost, at least, not this night. That, the SECOND SON, THIRD PERSON Sochatchover explains, is what lies Our words about the rasha in the behind Rashi's strange comment on the Haggada - "he was kofeir be'ikar:' he And we return the disfavor, since, as reaction our ancestors had to Hashem's "denied a basic belief" - may subtly reflect the Vilna Gaon explains, we realize that presaging of the bein harasha's question. that very idea. Because the "basic belief" he is not really interested in hearing our The Torah tells us that Kial Yisroelbowed that he denies might refer not to any of down, and Rashi elucidates the reaction: the l 3 Ikkarim (it is difficult in fact to imag· RABBI SHAFRAN SEHVES AS AGUOATH lsRAEL 01' AMr-:RtcA's DiRt:c-roR oF Pun1.ic AFr·AiRs AND "Because of the tiding of the sons that ine to which it could allude) but rather As n1F. AMt:1~1cAN n1rn:cron ol' AM EcHAJJ, -rt-1E they would have:' to his own basis. In other words, what we A(;uJJATH lsRAE1.-1NsP1R:ED t:nucAT10NALou-r- Of all sons to rejoice over- the bein are celebrating, we tell him, is ... him! 10 1 0 00 L'~FF "'~"~'"~"'' "c' --·-harasha>-Ye-s,-sa_y_st-he-5-heim M-iSh_n_iu_el_, ·-p-u-t 1t mo-re-bl-u-nt-ly_,ou-r-se-d-er commem· 47 r-=-··_··· ··- ======;;;;;.;;;===------A P f{ I L 2 0 0 5

orates the fact that something transpired MOMENTOUS MOMENTS the camp, the Nazis gathered the sur­ that allowed persons like him to remain vivors and, in an evil attempt to seize undeniable parts of our people. Even the And how often do we in fact see Jews some sort of"victory" before their final phrase, "set his teeth on edge;' carries a who have lived lives distant fro1n their defeat, they ordered the Jew to publicly meaning beyond the one commonly heritage somehow make their way back! eat a piece of non-kosher meat or be shot. assumed. Because a form of the word At last fall's Agudath Israel national con­ He refused, and was murdered on the "hak'hei;' in the Talmud, can refer to some­ vention, Rabbi told the spot. thing that evokes a tingling of desire. A story of a Jewish man in Israel who found The in1age of that rnesiras nefesh, so waiter, the Gemara in Kesuvos (6la) says, himself standing in line at a non­ diametric to what he himself was doing, must be allowed to sample whatever foods kosher eatery waiting to buy han1 sand­ hit the grandson like a sledgehammer. he serves that possess kiyuha, because to wiches for his family, and who suddenly "Either my grandfather was crazy;' be told not permit him to do so would be cruel. remembered a family story about his himself, "or lam." And so he left the line, Could our response to the rasha's grandfather, who had been interned in determined to discover who the madman question have a similar intent? Might it a concentration camp during the was. After attending an Arachim semi­ be engineered not only to n1ake hi1n real­ Holocaust. The inmate had made a point nar and learning enough about ize how wrong he is to remove hin1self of not eating anything clearly treife dur­ Yiddishkeitto intrigue him to learn more, from the klal, but also to inspire in him ing his internment, even a1nid aU the star­ he eventually becan1e observant (and, in the desire to re-assume his identity as part vation and disease. \A/hen, at the end of fact, the chief executive officer of of the Jewish people? the war, Allied troops were poised to enter Arachim itself). It is but one story, but all of us know You can! Jus1: call of similar ones, where people estranged The Yitt:i Leibel from Torah~ even active rejecters of it - have, in a seemingly inexplicable Helpline. n1oment's realization, turned around and HOURS: begun journeys that led them to the full­ Monday-Friday ...... Sam -12ptn Monday-Thursday ...... 8pn1 -l lp1n ness of their religious heritage. Sunday ...... 9an1 .. J 2pm, 9pn1 - 11 pm Where do such n1oments spring from? Are they truly spontaneous, or is ~~ 718-HELP-NOW there something we can do to help bring \:,il'P (71s) 435-7669 them about? Chicago ...... (800) HELP-023 Lakewood...... (732) 363-1010 Clevdaod ...... (888) 209-8079 .. (410) 578-1111 RIPPLE EFFECTS .. (877) 435-7611 .. (866) 385-0348 After the tsunami that ravaged parts fornnto ...... (416) 784-1271 The Rebb<'tziri Phyllis Weinberg Br<>rich of the Yitt• Leibel Helplirie of Southeast Asia in January) Gedolin1 '1"~ o~n·;-r';r•11 -;1::.; s::rn::n:; ·; rr:.i ~·t;n ;rn rrnt'J ~1'.J~·';r called upon us to regard the literally seis- 1:i·';;:·;: ~"K K-' Cl~t'~ll I ;-r·;,· Jltr~Cl1,'.;ic ~;;;.:i.~'~J;J 1 ;-:·)"'t" ·1 1nic event as a spiritually seismic one, as Dedicated by Mr. & Mrs. Shmuel Boruch Wllhelm a spur to teshuva. It surely occurred to more than a few Jews who heard that call to wonder, "Are there not sufficient sins in the non-Jewish world to have allowed for such a catastrophe? And we are the ones who are called to repent?" Kial Yisroe~ though, we know, is at the center of history. Could it be that the very sins of the larger world, so prominent Malka Schulman.cc and well evident to anyone who perus­ es the newspaper, might in some way Coach • Catalyst • .{gcti1rPr result from our own more subtle but not insignificant missteps? If there is base- (416) 782-1462 [email protected] (416) 781-9116 less ill will among Jews, might it some­ how express itself, in a broader geopolitical realm, in bloodshed? If , ~~rn;o~ . face to fa~ _._~op' ffio« "' Jow; ill~fficim"; """"':_j -----, ~ ------~ H_:__~I E-~----~~-.. --~~~::-~ E H -- .. _. ____ _,___ I

1 1 tzenrus or shnnras ha' e1nay11n, might that ways for slu1nber1ng neshan1os to be about the entire klaZ:' i impel im1norality of a much more roused. The application of that principle to I gross scale in the wider culture? And so, in addition to the 1nore obvi- the logical \Vorkings of phrases in lf so, then our own teshuva may be ous and direct efforts to advance the baal pesukim is well known to anyone \¥ho a pivotal part of the world's own 1noral teshuva 1novc1nent-like the work of the has learned Gcmara. But ChazaI's words state - and a tsunami in Indonesia, a fine kiruvorganizations, and the person- often operate on different levels. It message to us. al outreach that each of us should might seem a stretch, but perhaps this Certainly - here we leave the realn1 endeavor to undertake - we mustn't midda shehaTorah nidreshes ba holds a of mere conjecture - the actions of Jews devalue, either, the i1npact that our own lesson - an indictment of sorts, but n1ore­ who understand \vhat Torah ineans do personal spiritual sclf-i1nprovernent can so a counsel, food for thought - about influence the wider Jewish world. And have. our responsibility to affect the resha'im so, when Jews who are shon1rei 111itzvos ainong us. but have room for «fine-tuning" their For the bein harasha is himself a observance endeavor to be better, the KI.AL WORK "yotzei min haklaf' - son1eone who was yield is not for them (or better, us) alone, part of the klal, Kial Yisroel, and who left but for Kial Yisroel as a whole. The deter­ The rasha denies his essence, the Baal the kla~ who rejected his roots. The rem­ n1ination of any of us to learn more HaHaggada tells us, because "he has edy for his estrangement, however, may Torah, to be better exemplars of prop­ removed himself from the klaZ:' The not lie entirely with him. What is being er conduct hein ada111 laMako1n or bein phrase "hotzee atzn10 n1in haklal," "taught" us might not be anything ada111 lachaveiro, can create a spiritual intriguingly, is strongly ren1iniscent of about him, but rather about us, the klal seed that can suddenly fall into the heart the words of the Beraissa we say each itself: That if we were who we should be, of a Jew standing in a McDonald's line 1norning, cnu1nerating Rabbi he might be who he should be. somewhere. And even if he has no stir­ Yish1nael's thirteen n1ethods of exege­ And then we will be able to speak, ring family story (or zechus) to further sis. One of them, translated literally, is truly, to each other. ffi1 impel him, Chazal teach us that" har­ "Anything that was in a klal and left the bei shcluchim laMakom - Hashem has klal to teach, does not leave the klal to *The meta-phor is perh-;ps particu!;;ly aJ)t. Th~ many n1essengcrs." There are li1nitless teach about itself, but rather to teach dann1 placed on the pcsachim of the battir11 of Kial Yisrocl n1ay be a rc111cz to daan1 Leida.

Now

completed~tii'll·ve5 has ti~~ to ~it,?hulcMan Aruch

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ARIZ. ZIVOTOFSKY

Tax Filing Season - As Required bV Halacha This year, Arnericans living in Israel During the first six years of the cycle, tithes Following the biur Maaseir, Vidduy are aware of two tax filing dates within and other gifts are taken from the pro­ Maaseiris recited on the last day of Pesach a period of two weeks, and each triggers duce and given to the Kohein and Levi, of years 4 and 7. It is the beautifully for­ a unique set of obligations. One is defined and during the harvest, certain sections mulated oral declaration found in by Uncle Sam, for their cousins living in of the field and produce are left for the Devarim 26, l 2-15, which affirms that the USA 1 and the other is due to poor (pei'a, lekket, and shikcha). In during the previous three years, one has requirements of halacha. April 15 is when years I and 2, and 4 and 5 of the 7-year executed properly all of the specified sep­ one submits a complete reckoning of the cycle, an additional tithe is separated and arations and distributions. This year previous year's taxable incon1e to the IRS is eaten by the farmer and his family in (5765) is year 4 of the cycle, so this Pesach and remits a certain percentage there­ Jerusalem (Maaseir sheini), while in includes the reckoning day. of. Mercifully, this reckoning is demand­ years 3 and 6 of that cycle, that portion There are thus two separate mitzvos ed only once a year. The halacha "tax is given to the poor (Maaseir ani). The involved in this process of wrapping up reckoning" is even less frequent, occur­ seventh year is Shemitta (Sabbatical the Shemitta half-cycle: biur Maaseir and ring only twice every seven years, and this year), and all produce that grows is con­ Vidduy Maaseir. We should determine the year, 5765, is one of those years. This 21 sidered hejker (ownerless). It may be con­ applicability of each of these in today's Nissan (April 30) is the final day to "file" sumed by anybody and is exempt from circumstances. The Rambam (Hilchos one's Vidduy Maaseir ("declaration of tithing. Maaseir Sheini l l :4) rules that the mitz­ tithes") and give away one's terumos and The Torah (Devarim 14, 28-29) vah of biur Maaseir applies today, as well ma'asros (biur Maaseii·), before they are requires that at the conclusion of each half­ as in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, and, overdue.2 cycle, a reckoning be made, and the dis­ as the Radvaz notes, the Raavad does not The "Jewish tax" is comprised of sev­ tribution of all accumulated terumos and debate this point. eral different components - actually gifts ma'asros must be completed. The - with well-defined recipients for each. removal of all remaining teru1nos and Portions of the agricultural produce from ma'asros is called biur Maaseir, and, THE CONTEMPORARY the Land of!srael are earmarked for the according to the Mishna (Maaseir Sheini RULE OF GIFTS Kohein ( teruma and trumas Maaseir), for 5:6), the final date for biuris Erev(the day the Levi (Maaseir rishon), and either for before) the first day of Pesa ch (14 Most consumers in Israel today buy the poor (Maaseii· ani), or to be set aside Nissan). The Rambam apparently had a fruits and vegetables from stores that dis­ and consumed (by the owner) in the different version of the text of the play a te'uda (certification) attesting to shadow of the Beis Hamikdash, within the Mishna, and specifies (Hilchos Maaseir the fact that a mashgiach has already taken confines of Jerusalem (Maaseir sheini). Sheini 11:7) Erev the last day of Pesach care of separating all required teru1nos and (20 Nissan) as the date for biur Maaseir. ma'asros. But there are also n1any indi­ As an attempted resolution, Rabbi Yechiel viduals who maintain a «peruta chamu­ THE TORAH'S SCHEDULE Michel Tukachinsky, in a collection of ra" (a coin on which to transfer the FOR FILING ha/,achos related to Eretz Yisroel published sanctity of various tithes) to deal with in the back of Rabbi Ganzfried's Siddur untithed or questionably tithed produce. The Torah established a seven-year Avodas Yisroel, states that the ze1nan biur For them, this Erev Pesach will entail two cycle for all terumos and ma'asros. extends from erev the first day through with erev the seventh day of Pesach. 2W~~7~~~!iy··~·~~~~~i·;t~--vidduy conf~~~-~i-~-~--~f RABBI ZIVOTOFSKY LIVES IN BElTSHEMESH, FROM wrongdoing, yet here it is used to describe a dec­ \\/HERE HE WRITf:S WIDELY ON JEWISH TOPICS. rfz;:-Ar~eri~;~~"i'i~i·;;g-;b~~;~~i A~;riJiS't"i~'i~ -~-d~Y laration that everything \Vas done according to 1 HIS L1\ST APPEARANCE IN THESE PAGF;S WAS like any other day of the year. \Ve have until June /1alacha. For a beautiful explanation ofhow~thesei "HAND OR MACHINE: Two ROADS TO f'UIYILUNC 15th~ without requesting an extension - to file ,1re two sides of the same p1occss of perfecting THE MrrZVA OF MATZA" (APR. '04). our U.S. taxes. ourselves see: Hada' a• 1-Ia'metz (5765), pp. 36 37

50 THE Jr:w1s1-1 OASERVER I . ------" ------~------··· ------"------~------~ ------·- --·------I

biurim (ritual eliminations): biur ("I did not consu1ne it in a state of con­ Kohein Gadal abolished the saying of cha1neitz and biur Maaseir. They have to ta1nination") cannot be recited. Vidduy Maaseir. He did this because there ensure that all cha1neitz is out of their pos­ However, the Aderes quickly was one sentence in the vidduythat could session. And they have to ensure that all backpedals. Noting that the Shulchan no longer be said. According to the I actual terurna and Maaseirproduce is out Aruch, Rama, Shach, Gra, and his Gemara ( Ycvanws 86b ), when Ezra went of the house and properly disposed of, ancestor, the Lcvush, all support its appli­ fro111 Bavel to Eretz Yisroel, the Leviiln as and that all redeemed Maaseir is trans­ cability, he proceeds to disprove each a group failed to accompany him. As a ferred to one coin, which is then thrown justification for non-observance that he collective punishment for their lack of into the Dead Sea, or otherwise totally had suggested. Thus, he demonstrates appreciation that they could leave Bavel destroyed. that when we perform the mitzvah of and emigrate to Israel, Ezra decreed that According to the Rambain (Hilchos separating teruma and n1aaservvhile in Maaseir ris/1011 should henceforth be given Maaseir Sheini l l :4), the mitzvah of a state of tuma, we are actually heed­ to Kohanim instead of Leviin1. Because of Vidduy Maaseir applies whether or not ing the rabbis and fulfilling the Torah's that change, the verse in the vidduy that there is a Beis Hamikdash, and thus it intent for us, and arc not thereby under- states "And l have given to the Levi'' could applies nowadays as well. The Raavad 1nining the vidduy. In conclusion, he objects, and states that since the vidduy decides that the mitzvah is indeed oblig­ must be" liji1ci Hashem - before G-d;' it atory at this ti1ne. only applies in the period of the Beis Hamikdash. The liambam (ibid. ha la cha 6) interprets" liji1ei Hashem" to teach that A SIGNIFICANT SETTING ideally the vidduy should be said in the ...... Beis Han1ikdash, but even if it is said else­ An indication of the importance of this where, one has fulfilled his obligation. vidduy is its placement among the 613 Thus, it can be recited even when the Beis mitzvos. Approaching the end of Sefer Hamikdash does not exist. Devarim, the Torah focuses on global con­ 3 priceless concept of d1cirus. At The Aderes - who was appointed to cepts. Examples often discussed are the Metropolitan succeed Rabbi Shmuel Salant as Rav of final two commandments: the obligation Jewish Geriatric Yerushalayim in l 90 l on the advice of upon each person to write a private Sefer Cc11te1; our residents Rabbi Chai111 Ozer c;rodzinski -writ­ Torah and the communal gathering of will also celebrate the ing in 1893, says that possibly because Hakheil. These two mitzvos are about the cheirus they enjoy of our distance from Eretz Yisroel, we public and private learning and teach­ receiving - devoted had never heard of the mitzvah of ing of Torah. Immediately preceding these care in a heimish Vidduy Maaseir being observed. Yet, is the obligation to recite Vidduy contmunity selling. according to authoritative sources, it Maaseir, in which one stands before G­ seems that it should be applicable, so d and declares that one has fulfilled his May you and he attempts to justify the apparent non­ obligation to support con1munity func­ your family observance. He notes that the Tur tionaries and the poor by proclai1ning: celebrate omits any mention of it, and he offers "I have removed all the holy produce from clteirns in a five reasons why it should not be my house, I have given it to the Levi, the joyous and applicable today. For example, he sug­ stranger, the orphan, and the widow meaningful way. gests, as does the Chayei Adam, that according to all the laws that You have because we arc all tamei (ritually con1mandcd." Even today, when the unclean), verse 14 from the declaration separated produce is not distributed to the Kahein and Levi, the implicit lesson JiJ;-~-Ad~;~;~-(1842- !905) published a sefcr Acharis of the need to support the Torah cdu- Hnsl1a11im on Vidduy Maascir in 5653 I 1893], cators and the downtrodden is among the when he was still Rav in Ponevezh. Later that year, A Participating Agency of Metropolitan Jewish Health System he becaine Rav in Mir, and in 1901 , in fundan1ental messages of the Torah. Ycrushafayi111. lt received linskanws fron1 the 1\lctzil' Rabbi Tukachinsk:y notes that there are '''~Tl n'.lttt~ • 7N"'1~·" rin (Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin), and Rabbi many individuals who take the )N•llll' :>.)n • ,Ill:> l)N)) Ycchicl Michal Halcvi Epstein, author of the Aruch Ranzba1n's position into account, and thus Hashu/chan. The Adercs wrote it anony1nously, I d b · and even included his own hnskama and anno- not on y o tur Maaseir, but also recite tations to throw off those who n1ight hope to guess the vidduy. It sec1ns, however, that it is the author. It was 1nost recently reprinted in 5761. not universally accepted that one can or , 5653 was a fourlh year in the Shcr11ittt1 cycle, as may recite it today. The Mishna (Maasch· "°' ·-----···------·----·· .... ~heinI5:15) mcnt101~th~Yochana~------·------L'' 51 --~------~--.

A P R I L 2 0 0 5

no longer be said, and Yochanan Kohein proclaim that he has caused the Kohein rather as a section of Torah learning Gadol thus abolished the entire recitation. to rejoice by giving him teruma, if all ( Shu"t Mishpat Kohein, Inyenei Eretz The Rambam paskens in accordance Kohani111 and all teru111a are tamei, and Yisroel, 56). The Chazon !sh (Demai 2:6) with this decree (Hilchos Maaseir Sheini thus no Kohein 1nay cat it? Or how can was of the opinion that, based on the 11: 13) by stating that at a time when one declare that he has not separated fact that the Raavad and Se/er Maaseir rishon was given to a Kohein the tithes while tmnei, when all the sep­ Hachinuch held that there is no mitz­ instead of a Levi, no vidduy was recited. aration today is done in a state of tun1a? vah of vidduytoday, as well as the con­ The Mishna (Maaseir Sheini 5:12) cern that the mitzvos of separating the explicitly states that if one separates various terun1os and ma'asros 1nay not TODAY'S PRACTICES: maaser sheini while tatnei, he 111ay no have been fulfilled 100% correctly, that Mo1m QUESTIONS longer pronounce the vidduy.4 Because one may not recite the vidduy today. of these issues, n1any of those who want Despite the many opinions that the It would seen1 that similar issues to honor the Ran1bam's opinion no vidduy is no longer applicable, sugges­ apply today. For example, how can one longer recite the vidduy qua vidduy, but tions to com1nemorate it have been made. Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinowitz­ Tcomim, the Aderes suggested a public reading of the Vidduy parsha. He advised making it "lifnei Hashem" by reciting in a beis midrash or shul (or for those who can, at the Kosel). Gatherings should be made at these locations after Mincha on the last day of Pesach, and the vidduy recited publicly. The gloom that is often associated with April 15 is in sharp contrast with the attitude required of the Jew when Charle! J. ttyne1, RABBINIC CONFERENCE giving tithes. The declaration includes Brooklyn D.A. a statement that the Maaser Sheini was Sponsored by Dr. David Pelcovitz not eaten by a mourner, was not used Shalom Task Force for the needs of the dead, nor was it con­ Rabbi Yaakov Perlow and Project Eden sumed by a tamei person. Giving it to the Kohein, Levi, and the poor was Rabbi Matti1yahu )aloni.n~' : meant to be a joyous occasion. Rabbi Peretz lteinberg, •: :;: According to the Mishna (Maaseir Preserving Sheini 5: 12 ), the declaration's proclama­ Rabbi Abraham 1wm:~j;J:}?i tion that "I have done all that You com­ M.D. the family manded" n1cans "I have rejoiced and Rabbi Dovid Weinb1(fl made others to rejoice through it," by Domestic Abuse: giving them their due with a positive Rabbi Tzvi Hmh1 ·w111 countenance and with joy-a summing Ph.D. A Rabbi's Responsibilities up of the attitude one should have in and Sensitivities dealing with the blessings he has received.

TITHES: EXPANDING THE FIELD

Most of the biblically mandated tithes did not apply to capital gains from , only to agricultural produce in the Land of Israel. As Jews moved

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14 Popular Features

5.9¢ Israel, CeU-12,9¢ no additional. 'l'll(lllthly' international fees A P R I I 2 0 0 5 I ------·--·--- (or were removed) from farming in the duy that we all hear, but may not appre­ brought the Maaseir to the storehouse:' Land oflsrael and started making a liv­ ciate, is the Haftorah for Shabbos Some held that only if Erev Pesach is not ing trading in commodities, the Jewish Hagadol. The opinion of the Gra is that on Shabbos is this Haftorah read, since people focused on their obligation to the special Haftorah of "Ve'arva" is Erev Pesach was the time for biur tithe all income, giving I 0% to the poor. recited only in those years when Erev Maaseir. The Gra held that the purpose Using Vidduy Maaseir as a guide, it Pesach is not on Shabbos, so it would not of reading the Shabbos Hagadol Haftorah became common practice to keep a spe­ be recited this year. The Aruch every year is as a reminder that it is time cial book in which to record all of one's Hashulchan ( OC 430:5) observes that to do biur Maaseir. If Erev Pesach is on earnings and subsequent dispersal to while some hold that" Ve'arva" is read Shabbos, however, it is too late, and thus the needy. A number of such" Maaseir only when Erev Pesach is on Shabbos, the there is no longer a reason to read that books" dating from the medieval peri­ custom in his community followed that special Haftorah. od are still extant. of the Gra. What is the point behind this Another reminder, at least according special Haftorah that leads to this differ­ to the Gra, of the mitzvos of biur and vid- ence of opinion? The key line is "and they A BLESSED RECKONING

Most people would be glad to submit their I 040 and never hear from the IRS again. By contrast, the Israeli farmer who ~"" .:1~a'jJr;yr:J~ has just joyously distributed all his remaining tithes and declared such to Hashem, then turns around and makes ,..;'··•.·~~ a request beseeching Him to "keep in artil;···i~lawei~ltiv~·•·• touch." He concludes his confession by asking: "Look down from Your Heavenly -~N~i.~~~~~~~i~r¢tt~A··~E~~~~~,1~ Abode and bless Your nation Israel and ·~l'H~'f'..:vVltt'!\:~'.fl •Al'J··.EN'.flR£ YEAR?{:,'····· the land You gave us, as You promised '-''·--···· ' -"-- ·,_,.• to our forefathers, a land flowing with milk and honey." 'fti~tltieserecl~c~d On what is this request for a beracha r;.;:filled witltthe · based? Solely on the fact that the requester has performed acts of tzedda­ ka. Rashi (Bereishis 18,16), based on a Yerushalmi (Maaseir Sheini 5:5), makes a very powerful observation about this -e~~ll