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27 April 2019 22 Nissan 5779 Shabbat and Yom Tov end in London at 9.10pm Shabbat ends in at 7.54pm

Volume 31 No. 34 Pesach Eighth Day

In loving memory of Malka bat Peretz

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Sidrah Summary: Pesach Eighth Day

1st Aliya () – Devarim 14:22-29 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 16:4-8 There is a mitzvah to produce grown in the One is not allowed to own chametz on Pesach. , including ma’aser sheni, the The Pesach offering can only be offered in the ‘second tithe’, which is taken to Jerusalem to Beit Hamikdash (Temple), not elsewhere. It eat. However, one who is unable to carry the should be roasted and eaten on the night of produce can redeem its value and, having added 15 Nissan. an extra fifth, take the money to Jerusalem, to purchase and consume food there. 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 16:9-12 Shavuot comes after the seven-week counting Question: Which produce is specifically of the Omer. One should enjoy the festival mentioned in relation to tithing? (14:23) Answer together with one’s family and servants. on bottom of p. 6. 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 16:13-17 2nd Aliya (Levi) – 15:1-18 Succot is celebrated at the time of year Every seventh year is shemita, whose agricultural when crops are gathered in from the threshing laws are detailed in parashat Behar (Vayikra 25:1- floors and the vineyards. On each of these 24). Existing loans are cancelled, yet the Torah three festivals, one has to bring special festive warns against withholding a loan from a pauper offerings to the Temple. before the shemita year, out of fear that it will not be paid back in time. A Jewish servant works Maftir (Bemidbar 28:19-25) for six years, after which he can go free. When Maftir is read from a second Sefer Torah, from he leaves, his master must give him significant the section of parashat Pinchas detailing the farewell gifts. extra offerings brought during Pesach.

Point to Consider: Which specific Haftarah circumstances caused this Jew to become a The prophet Yeshaya paints a moving picture servant? (see Rashi to 15:12) of the future redemption, in which justice and righteousness will prevail. Even the animals 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 15:19-23 will be at peace with one another – “a wolf One is not allowed to work a first born male will dwell with a sheep and a leopard will lie animal from the flock or herd; rather it must be down with a kid”. The tribes of Yehuda and brought as an offering and its meat consumed Ephraim, previously enemies, will unite for by its owner. the messianic cause. Israel will declare God’s Name to the nations of the world and sing 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 16:1-3 His praises. The nation is to celebrate Pesach in the “spring month”. The Pesach offering should be brought on 14 Nissan and we are to eat matzot to recall the haste with which we left Egypt.

United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by US Living & Learning together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Editor: Rabbi Chaim Gross Editor-in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Editorial Team: Rabbi Daniel Sturgess, Rabbi Michael Laitner, Sharon Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please contact Danielle Fox on 020 8343 6261, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected]

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Keeping Yom Tov Going by Rabbi Chaim Gross, Editor Daf Hashavua

It may seem like much why when Yom Tov departs into a weekday do longer, but just seven days we not include spices in the havdalah ceremony ago, Shabbat departed and instead only say a blessing over wine? and the second night of Yom Tov began. At the start How can we justify the Rashbam’s position – why of the second Seder, we is there no blessing over spices after a regular said a combination of Yom Tov if we indeed have an ‘additional soul’, kiddush and havdalah. How just like we do on Shabbat? this combination should be formulated was debated at great length by the Rabbis of An answer to this can be found in the writings of the (Pesachim 102b-103a). The halacha the Ramban (Nachamides d.1270). He notes that follows the view of the Talmudic sage Rava, who whilst on both Shabbat and Yom Tov we are ruled that the correct order for the blessings is granted a neshama yeteira, there is a crucial signified by the acronym z’’hnqy – wine (Nyy); difference. After Shabbat that ‘soul’ departs, yet kiddush (wvdyq); candle (rn); havdalah blessing after Yom Tov, it remains with us, meaning that (hldbh) and shechecheyanu (Nmz). there is no need for a blessing over spices.

However, there is one blessing that is normally Practically, this means that if we had any special said in havdalah on motsei Shabbat (Saturday experiences over the course of Yom Tov – night) that is glaringly absent from this perhaps a new insight into the Haggada, a feeling formulation – the blessing over spices. Why are of unity at the Seder table or a certain sense of spices excluded when motsei Shabbat coincides simcha at the festive meals, we have the ability to with the onset of Yom Tov? take this with us beyond the festival and into the realm of our normal working lives. Being uplifted In his commentary to the Talmud, the Rashbam over Yom Tov can leave us uplifted for the rest of (Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir d. 1158) explains that our lives! the reason we say the blessing over spices on a regular motsei Shabbat is because every Jew is The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter given a neshama yeteira on Shabbat – literally ‘an d. 1905) writes that this is the deeper meaning additional soul’. The Shita Mekubetset (Rabbi behind isru chag – the day after the festival ends, Betzalel Ashkenazi d. 1598) explains that this which we try to mark in a minor way – for means we have greater spiritual sensitivities and example, we do not say the tachanun prayer inspiration during Shabbat. When Shabbat (which is omitted on festival days) and some departs, so too this neshama yeteira leaves. This people have the custom to eat something may be a source of pain and anguish; the sweet special. It is an opportunity to try to integrate the aroma of the spices are designed to provide spiritual gains we have hopefully made over Yom comfort by providing a subtle pleasure to the Tov into our lives forever. soul.

However, continues the Rashbam, when Shabbat flows into Yom Tov, this ‘additional soul’ remains, meaning that there is no need to include spices in the z’’hnqy havdalah ceremony. However, the Tosafists (a term used to refer to the group of French medieval Talmudic commentators) question the Rashbam’s explanation. If it is true that we also have an ‘additional soul’ on Yom Tov,

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Yom Hashoah: Remembering the Past to Build the Future by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

This article originally appeared in ‘60 Days for 60 Years’ (United Synagogue, 2005)

The Holocaust is a black we are not God nor can we see events from the hole in human history. There perspective of eternity. Halacha summons us not was never anything like it to understand and thus accept the existence of before, and if humanity is to evil, but instead to fight it as partners with God be worthy of its existence, in the process of redemption. there will never be anything like it again. In this mode of Jewish spirituality, there is a profound insistence on human dignity, often At some time in the spring or early summer of in the face of immense and unfathomable 1941, Hitler issued an order for a “Final Solution suffering. The halachic response is not naïve. of the Jewish Question”, a brutal euphemism for It does not hide from questions, but it is the planned, systematic destruction of the courageous. It says: we must continue to affirm Jewish people. Four years later, as the Second Jewish life even in the absence of answers. World War came to an end, the first soldiers to In that, there is a faith that defies even the angel enter the concentration camps began to realise of death. what had been done, and they did not believe it. Six million human beings, among them one and One of the most important halachic responses a half million children, had been shot, gassed, to tragedy is the act of remembering, Yizkor. burned or buried alive for no other reason than More than it has history, the Jewish people has that they were Jews. Where once there had been memory. There is no word for history in the community after community of sages and Tenach, and modern Hebrew had to borrow scholars, poets and mystics, intellectuals and one, historiah. But the word zachor, remember, visionaries, there was the stench of death. As appears no less than 169 times in the Hebrew Jews we mourn, and still today we refuse to be Bible. The difference between them is this. comforted. History is someone else’s story. Memory is my story. In history, we recall what happened. The Holocaust raises many questions. In an Through memory we identify with what essay entitled Kol Dodi Dofek, the late Rabbi happened so that it becomes part of us and Joseph B. Soloveitchik made a profound who we are. History is the story of a past that is distinction between two Jewish responses to dead. Memory is the story of a future. We cannot suffering. There is the metaphysical question, bring the dead to life, but we can keep their “Why did this happen?” But there is also the memory alive. That is what the Jewish people halachic question, “What then shall I do?” The always did for those who died as martyrs halachic response invites us to react to tragedy al (sanctifying God's name). not as objects but as subjects, not as figures of They never forgot them, as we must never forget fate but as masters of our destiny. We are not the victims of the Holocaust. defined by what happens to us but by how we respond. But there is a specifically Jewish way of remembering. When the word yizkor is Judaism has never sought to deny the existence mentioned in the Torah it refers not to the of evil. But equally it has not sought to come to past but to the present and to renewal. “Vayizkor terms with it by explaining it away, mystically Elokim et Rachel – God remembered Rachel” or metaphysically. There is, says Rabbi and gave her a child, and thus new life. Soloveitchik, a theological answer to “Why did “Va yizkor Elokim er B’ritoh – God remembered this happen?” But it must always elude us, for His covenant" and began the process of

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rescuing the am Egypt. When we contributors to this book reminds us, Hitler’s remember as Jews we do so for the sake the Anti-Semitism was not accidental. Hitler future, so that those who died may live on in us. declared that “conscience is a Jewish invention” and he was right. Nazi Germany was intended to Commemorating the sixty years that have demonstrate the triumph of everything Jews passed with sixty days of study, linking have fought against since the days of Avraham individuals with holocaust victims and and Sarah: might as against right, power as communities with communities that perished - against justice, racism as opposed to the this is the Jewish way of remembering. Few respect for human dignity, violence as opposed things could do more to give those who died to the sanctity of human life. Jews have always a living memorial. lived by and for a different set of values, and as a result we have always been called on to have the courage to be different. We need that At the core of Judaism is an affirmation of life. courage now. It is not too much to say that Unlike other religions we do not venerate death. humanity needs it now. In Judaism, death defiles. asked the Israelites to “Choose life”, and his words still echo today. One third of our people died If each of us in the coming year makes a because they were Jews. The most profound significant personal gesture to show that Judaic affirmation we can make is to live Judaism is alive and being lived, there can be because we are Jews; to live as Jews, affirming no more momentous signal to humanity that our faith with courage, our identity with pride, evil does not have the final victory, because refusing to be traumatized by evil or intimidated Am Yisrael Chai, the Jewish people lives. by Anti-Semitism.

Whenever, through indifference or fear, we drift away from living as Jews, the Holocaust claims Learn more at www.rabbisacks.org and yet more belated victims. As one of the @rabbisacks

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Shir Hashirim by Rabbi Danny Bergson, St. Anne’s Hebrew Congregation, University Jewish Chaplain, Manchester

Shir Hashirim (the Song of story of love and estrangement between man Songs) is read every year on and woman. The Torah sees the marital the (final) Shabbat of relationship as holy, a vehicle for revealing God’s Pesach. It alludes many presence in the world. Hence the term for times to the Exodus. For betrothal, kiddushin, is cognate to kedushah example, a verse towards meaning holiness. the end of the second chapter reads: “At the sea, Other commentaries interpret Shir Hashirim as He said to me: ‘O my dove, trapped at the sea as an allegory. For example, Rashi (d. 1105), whose if in the clefts of the rock, the concealment of the commentary we quoted above, understands terrace. Show Me your powerful gaze, let Me it as the love story between God and the Jewish hear your supplicating voice, for your voice is People. This provides another explanation as sweet and your countenance beautiful’” (2:14). for reading it on Pesach, which represents our ‘engagement’ to God. The subsequent Rashi (d. 1105) explains that this is an allegory to ‘chuppah’ was at Mount Sinai, tragically followed the Israelites approaching the Sea of Reeds, by our unfaithfulness to God through the sin of with Pharaoh and his army chasing behind them the Golden Calf. and the great sea in front of them. They were akin to a dove being chased by an eagle from A third view is that Shir Hashirim is an allegory of behind, yet with a poisonous snake lurking in the love between the human soul and God. Both the clefts of the rock ahead. With no recourse God and the soul yearn to connect and reunite. to a natural escape, the dove can only call out Yet somehow the timing is never quite right and in desperation. So too God wanted to hear each partner misses the other. the Israelites cry to Him at the Sea (“your supplicating voice”), as the verse says in parashat Beshalach; “the Children of Israel cried None of these three interpretations need to be out to God” (Shemot 14:10). mutually exclusive. They share a common theme – that relationships are complex, two lovers may sincerely seek unity yet so much can get in the On a general level, the (Yadayim 3:5) way: circumstance, mood and distractions. records a fierce debate amongst the Talmudic Sages about the exact nature of Shir Hashirim (the Song of Songs) and whether it should be included as part of the Biblical canon.

Is it a book containing the human (albeit sophisticated) wisdom of King Shlomo (Solomon) or is it Divinely inspired and hence to be canonised? Rabbi Akiva held the prevailing view that “if the Torah is holy then Shir Hashirim is the Holy of Holies!” It was therefore canonised as one of the five Megillot.

Some commentators (see Rabbi Shmuel ben

Meir d. 1158) interpret it on a literal level as the Answer: grain, wine and oil and wine grain, Answer:

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SUNDAY 26 MAY 2019 9:15-11:45AM WHAT’S ON @ STANMORE SHUL 9:15 Breakfast 9:35 Keynote - Rabbi Malcolm Herman: Finding God in a virtual reality world Childrens’ programme: 10:00 Choice of sessions: a) Driverless cars with Rabbi Moshe Friedman 0-3s creche, b) Why ask a Rabbi when you can ask Google? 3-7s Froggle Party entertainer with Rabbi Marc Levene & 7-12s Tie-Dying workshop

10:45 Refreshments Cost: Early-bird £5 per adult until 20th April £10 per adult thereafter 11:00 Choice of sessions: £5 per child a) Smart-home: hive, alexa and #myshabbos with Rabbi Dov Birnbaum b) Effective communication in an age of messaging with Debbie Rowe Closing words of inspiration by Rabbi Alex Chapper

To book go to myus.theus.org.uk/events/59331/mini-bereishit/ Eighth Day Pesach Vol.31 No.34.qxp_Layout 1 26/03/2019 15:27 Page 8