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Vayekhel Vol.28 No.22:Layout 1 uhevk vacug s; Volume 28 VAYAKHEL No. 22 PARASHAT SHEKALIM SHABBAT MEVARCHIM Daf Hashavua 5 March 2016 • 25 Adar I 5776 Shabbat ends in London at 6.34pm Artscroll p.516 Maftir p.484 Haftarah p.1213 Rosh Chodesh Adar II is on Hertz p.373 Maftir p.352 Haftarah p.993 Thursday and Friday Soncino p.573 Maftir p.540 Haftarah p.1191 Solutions in Countering Structural Assimilation the Sidrah by Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum, Hadley Wood Jewish Community Charles S. Liebman was a former professor of character and content. In this context, Liebman political science at Bar-Ilan University, as well questioned a secular basis for Jewish ethnicity, as a prolific writer on Jewish life and Israel. arguing that the Jewish nation must be based According to an obituary published in the upon the objective laws of the Torah in order to Forward magazine, following his death in survive. September 2003, Liebman was “widely regarded This week’s sidrah contains one of the greatest as the pre-eminent social scientist of Jews and examples in the entire Torah of the centrality Judaism in the latter third of the twentieth of the Torah, and specifically halacha century”. (Jewish Law), to the existence In 1965, he published a ground- of a Jewish community. The breaking essay in the American nation was about to commence Jewish Year Book, entitled construction of the Mishkan Orthodoxy in American Jewish (Tabernacle), a home for G-d’s Life, in which he noted that presence in their midst. This “earlier predictions of the demise was perhaps the loftiest spirit- of Orthodox Judaism in the ual endeavour they were ever United States have been destined to undertake. premature to say the least”. Yet precisely at that moment, According to contemporary Rabbi Reuven G-d reiterated the command to keep Shabbat Bulka, “Liebman's exhaustive study was an (Shemot 35:1-3). All work involved in building eye-opener for many who had dismissed the Mishkan had to cease on Shabbat. How- Orthodoxy as a negligible force on the American ever lofty and spiritual the project they Jewish scene….” were involved in – even building the Mishkan Commenting elsewhere on the state of itself – the requirement to keep Shabbat, as American Jewry in the twentieth century (see a central halachic tenet of Judaism, came first. Charles S. Liebman, The Ambivalent American The consequences of this passage for the Jew, Philadelphia, JPS, 1973, p.196), Liebman modern era are profound. As argued by argued that it was a mistake to think of Professor Liebman, it is the Jewish people’s assimilation simply in terms of individual allegiance as a nation to halacha which protects Jews abandoning their identity. There could against the possible onset of ‘structural also be ‘structural assimilation’, in which the assimilation’ and thereby also secures our Jewish community as a whole risked losing its ultimate future as a nation. Betzalel and the Meaning by Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman of the Segol New West End United Synagogue “See, the Lord has called by name Betzalel, the Both are depicted as three son of Uri, the son of Chur, of the tribe of dots, representing these three Yehudah. He has imbued him with the spirit of creative attributes. It is the G-d, with wisdom, with insight and with development of these knowledge, and with all manner of character traits that defines craftsmanship” (Shemot 35:30-31). us as a treasured nation. The Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 48:4) quotes the According to Rabbi Yisochor Berish Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), noting that the Eichenstein of Veretzky (d. 1924), when the world was created with the same three cantillation of zarkah segol is employed in the attributes given to Betzalel: “G-d founded the Torah, it often indicates an aspect of joy and world with wisdom (hmkc); He established the dancing. For example, he notes that the Heavens with insight (hnvbt); command to sprinkle salt on the through His knowledge (tid) the altar (Vayikra 2:13) is sung with depths were cleaved” (Kohelet the zarkah segol, because a 3:19-20). covenant was made at the The Zohar describes the Mish- beginning of Creation that salt kan (Tabernacle), which Betzalel should be used with all of the constructed, as a microcosm of offerings, which were ultimately Creation itself. It is no accident the purpose of building the that creative activities forbidden Tabernacle. on Shabbat due to G-d creating The Talmud (Berachot 54a) the world in six days and resting compares the table at which we on the seventh day, are directly related to eat to the altar. Rabbi Moshe Isserles (d. 1572) 39 creative activities associated with the writes that this is why we sprinkle salt on the building of the Mishkan. table on Shabbat when eating challah. Rabbi Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub of Modzitz (d. However, some have the custom to sprinkle the 1947) writes that these three fundamental salt in the shape of both segolim, forming two attributes (wisdom, insight and knowledge) are triangles, one on top of the other. By doing so, developed by a person at different stages of they also produce a symbol which represents life. He also links them to a verse that appears the Magen David, the Star of David. in the Torah before the Revelation at Sinai: The creation of the world, the construction of “And now, if you obey Me and keep My the Tabernacle (and by extension the laws of covenant, you shall be to Me a treasure out of Shabbat) and the creation of mankind itself all peoples…” (Shemot 19:5). The Hebrew word are founded on these three Divine attributes. for treasure is segulah (hlvgs) and is related to May we hope and pray that our creative work the word segol (lvgs), which is both a Hebrew is also imbued with wisdom, insight and vowel (ֶa) and one of the ta’amim, the knowledge and the fruits of our creative cantillation marks for reading the Torah and labours compliment the foundation of G-d’s Haftarah (A), usually preceded by a zarkah. very own creation. Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook in London: Part 4 by Rabbi Z M Salasnik, Bushey & District United Synagogue When Rav Kook accepted the invitation from However, despite the personal risks, he was the Machzike Hadath Community in the East moving to centre-stage in the Jewish world. End of London, he and his wife were taking a I have a personal connection to the story. The brave step. President of Machzike Hadath was Binyomin In the year and a quarter since the start of the Leib Deichowsky, son-in-law of the former First World War, they had been in St Gallen, a community Rav, Rabbi Aba Werner. He worked medium sized city in Switzerland, with a small as a wine merchant, together with his sister’s Jewish population numbering no more than a husband, my great-grandfather, Menachem thousand. One generous host was Avraham Mendel Chaikin. The Chaikin wine cellar was Kimche, a businessman, whose grandson, beneath Machzike Hadath and also served as Rabbi Dr Avraham (Alan) Kimche, is the long- the bomb shelter. Rav Kook would stand by the time Rabbi of Ner entrance to the cellar to Yisrael community in invite passers-by in during Hendon. It was in St zeppelin raids. Then he Gallen that Rav Kook would chant Psalm 43 in met Rabbi David Cohen Hebrew, both as a prayer (1887-1972), known as and so as to calm people’s the ‘Nazir’, who was to feelings. become one of his most Rav Kook did not return devoted students, as to Palestine immediately well as the father of St Gallen, Switzerland after the War ended. Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Some months later, in May 1919, a number Cohen, the former Chief Rabbi of Haifa of Jerusalem Rabbis, led by Rabbi Ben-Zion and father-in-law of the late former Israeli Uziel (1880-1953), Rav Kook’s former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren. colleague as Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jaffa, While St Gallen is close to the German border, and later to become Sephardi Chief Rabbi Switzerland was neutral and safe. Rav Kook of Israel, invited him to be Jerusalem’s could learn, think and write relatively Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi. In August 1919, undisturbed, a luxury that he had not enjoyed Rav Kook and his wife sailed from Liverpool as Rabbi of Jaffa. to Port Said, and from there by train to Lod. Although he had many enthusiastic In accepting the call from the Machzike supporters, there were also opponents from Hadath community, which came in November the more anti-Zionist orthodox Jewish com- 1915, he was moving to a city under German munity of Jerusalem who would have preferred air attack. He was choosing a large com- Rav Kook to return to Jaffa. munity, both the synagogue itself and the wider London and British Jewish community. Although pleased to return to the Holy Land, He would have much less time to think and Rav Kook would no longer enjoy the communal write, and there would be the risk of bombing. harmony that he had experienced in London. Insights into Cyrus’s Command to Rebuild the Temple Jewish History by Rebbetzen Ilana Epstein, Cockfosters & N Southgate Part 25 United Synagogue; US Living & Learning Educator In the Book of Yeshaya (Isaiah) there was treasure and had them sunk in the a prophecy regarding Cyrus the Great. Euphrates, at which point they were lost. The When Daniel showed Cyrus this prophecy, Midrash tells us that as soon as Cyrus issued the ruler was convinced that it referred to his edict, returning the Jews to their home, him.
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