3 December 2016 3 Kislev 5777 Shabbat ends London 4.47pm 5.21pm

Volume 29 No. 10 Toledot ,uksu, Artscroll p. 124 | Hertz p. 93 | Soncino p. 140

In loving memory of Lawrence Krendel

“And the servants of Yitzchak dug in the stream and found a well of fresh water there” (Bereishit 26:19) 1 Sidrah Summary: Toledot

1st Aliya (Kohen) – Bereishit 25:19-26:5 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 26:23-29 Yitzchak, aged 60, prays for his wife Rivka to have Yitzchak moves to Beersheva. God appears to him a child. Rivka conceives twins and is told in the night, telling Yitzchak He will bless him. prophetically that the two children would herald two Yitzchak builds an altar. Avimelech brings an separate nations. Esav is born first, red and hairy. entourage from Gerar, offering Yitzchak a new Ya’akov then emerges, holding on to Esav’s heel. peace treaty. As they grow up, Esav becomes a hunter, whereas Ya’akov dwells in tents (of Torah study - Rashi). 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 26:30-27:27 Yitzchak loves Esav, whereas Rivka prefers Yitzchak agrees to the peace proposal. Esav Ya’akov. One day Ya’akov prepares a red lentil marries two Hittite women. This pains his parents, stew. Esav returns exhausted from the fields, as both women worship idols (Rashi). The ageing demanding that Ya’akov give him some of the stew. Yitzchak, almost blind, asks Esav to go and hunt Ya’akov agrees, but in return for Esav transferring some game for him to eat, after which he will bless first-born rights to him. Esav agrees, taking an oath Esav. Rivkah overhears and instructs the reluctant in return for the food. Ya’akov to go to Yitzchak disguised as Esav, with Famine hits the Land of Cana’an (later ). God two cooked goats, so as to receive the blessings tells Yitzchak not to leave the Land in order to get instead of Esav. provisions from Egypt and assures him that he will Question: How old was Esav when he got be a forefather of a great nation. married? (26:34) Answer on bottom of page 6. Point to Consider: Why was Ya’akov cooking a 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 27:28-28:4 stew? (25:29) Rivkah’s plan is successful; Ya’akov receives the 2nd Aliya (Levi) – 26:6-12 blessings. Esav returns from the field, realises what Yitzchak lives amongst the Plishtim nation has happened and lets out a bitter cry. Yitzchak (Philistines) in Gerar. Afraid to reveal that Rivka is also gives Esav a blessing, but it includes his his wife, Yitzchak tells the locals that she is his subservience to Ya’akov. Esav plans to kill Ya’akov. sister. However, the ruler Avimelech discovers that Rivka realises this, and tells Ya’akov to escape to they are actually married. He accuses Yitzchak of her brother Lavan in Charan. Yitzchak instructs deceiving him, but warns the people not to harm Ya’akov to marry one of Lavan’s daughters. Yitzchak and Rivka. Yitzchak sows the land and is 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 28:5-9 very prosperous. Ya’akov sets off to Charan. Esav marries a third 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 26:13-22 wife, the daughter of his uncle Yishmael. The Plishtim, jealous of Yitzchak’s prosperity, stop Haftarah up his wells. Yitzchak carries on digging wells; the arguments eventually stop. The prophet Malachi speaks of God’s love for Ya’akov and rejection of Esav. However, Ya’akov’s nation have to justify God’s favour; the prophet rebukes them for being lax and insincere in their Temple service.

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In loving memory of Shprintze bar Meyer 2 Solutions in the Sidrah: An Ode to Envy by Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum, Hadley Wood Jewish Community

In July 2013, New York Times Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (d.1888) literary critic Parul Sehgal questions why the Plishtim were envious of presented a TED talk entitled Yitzchak’s wealth but not that of his father An Ode to Envy. “Jealousy Avraham, who like Yitzchak, was blessed with an baffles me”, Sehgal said. “It's abundance of material possessions. Rabbi Hirsch so mysterious, and it's so explains that during Avraham’s lifetime, despite the pervasive. We know babies fact that, like Yitzchak, he was a stranger amongst suffer from jealousy. We know the nations of Cana’an, the force of his personality primates do. Bluebirds are actually very prone. We enabled him to gain such respect that he was know that jealousy is the number one cause of viewed by them as a “prince of G-d” (Bereshit spousal murder in the United States. And yet, I 23:5). He was therefore able to live in relative have never read a study that can parse to me its harmony, without provoking envy on their part. loneliness or its longevity or its grim thrill… .” As soon as Avraham died, however, the Plishtim In her talk, Sehgal’s central premise was that the became consumed by envy towards his son. The world of literature is the only tool we have to help us fact that Yitzchak was different to them became properly understand what drives envy. In fact, there more pronounced, and the wealth and prosperity is an episode in this week’s sidrah which powerfully he attained led them to become envious of the conveys the damaging effects of envy: “And honour and position his wealth had brought him. [Yitzchak] had … much farmland and the Plishtim (Philistines) became envious of him. All the wells As a result of their jealousy, the Plishtim were that his father’s servants had dug in the days of determined to prevent Yitzchak gaining from his Avraham, his father, the Plishtim had stopped them material possessions, despite the inevitable up… .” (Bereshit 26:14-15). suffering that stopping the wells would also cause them. During a time of famine, those wells would surely have benefitted them as well. Yet the ‘pervasiveness’ of envy meant that those basic considerations were forgotten by the Plishtim.

In a famous speech to the Conservative Party conference in 1975, Margaret Thatcher said, “The spirit of envy can destroy. It can never build”. In Yitzchak's case, envy was provoked by his being noticeably different. At other times, the causes of envy may indeed be 'mysterious', as Parul Sehgal notes. But its destructive effects, as also demonstrated in this sidrah, are all too apparent.

In loving memory of Rivka bas Gershon 3 Achievements of the Spirit by Rabbi Daniel Fine, Community Rabbi, Stanmore & Canons Park United Synagogue

Daf Yomi, the international The Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Yehuda Loew study of one page of Talmud d.1609) writes that women excel at gevurah, as a day, is attributed to its physically reflected in the process of childbirth: the founder, Rabbi Meir Shapira woman cultivates the biological potential provided (d. 1933). This was not Rabbi by the man and provides form in bringing a baby Shapira’s main project – the into the world. As bastions of gevurah, women Yeshiva of Chachmei Lublin have traditionally exhibited more loyalty than men and his work in the Polish throughout Jewish history; it was the women who Parliament (Sjem) took up most of his time. Yet Daf remained strong in Egypt, as well as at the Golden Yomi was ultimately seen as his greatest success. Calf and in the sin of the Spies. They were also the In fact, it was the Chasidic Rabbi Avraham heroes of the Purim and Chanukah stories. Mordechai Alter, (the ‘’ of the Gerrer Chasidim’ d. 1948) who publicly sat down to learn Today’s media often accentuates fame, publicity the first page of the cycle on the day of its and public achievement. Facilitating others' inauguration. Seeing the Rebbe do this, hundreds achievements is often hidden behind the followed suit; so perhaps the Gerrer Rebbe is the scenes and cannot be calibrated. Yet from a unsung hero of Daf Yomi. Torah perspective, as we see from the life of Yitzchak and the inspiration of the Gerrer Rebbe, This week’s sidrah is the only one in which Yitzchak this is not to be underestimated. plays the main role. The achievements of Avraham and Ya’akov are well known; but what about Yitzchak? Perhaps his greatest achievement was the Akeidah (Binding of Yitzchak – Bereishit 22). Yet this is seen as Avraham's test. Moreover, this sidrah is called Toledot, meaning ‘descendants’; it is named after ‘others’!

Yitzchak embodied the spiritual quality known as gevurah. Gevurah is the ability to know when to consolidate, as opposed to innovate. Gevurah involves taking an existing concept and bringing it to its fruition. This does not seem glamorous, yet it is a necessary part of the project. Avraham was the one who discovered God and spread active Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter monotheism. Ya’akov was the one who formed a nation. Yitzchak's achievements were not in creating novel ideas; rather he gave form and substance to Avraham's mission and laid the foundations for Ya’akov to form a nation. One of his most significant achievements was indeed the Akeidah, because he facilitated Avraham's test. In the same vein, ‘his’ sidrah refers to the descendants he enabled.

In loving memory of Dr Alfred and Mrs Estelle Hymen l ’ ’ z 4 Parallel Thinking Part 7: The First Thing that Led to Another by Rabbi Dr. Moshe Freedman, New West End United Synagogue

Every moment that we live I would suggest not. Krauss confuses the pre-Big and every choice that we Bang ‘nothing’ (a total absence of space, matter make is the result of an and time) with the post-Big Bang ‘nothing’ that we abundance of interconnected observe as a vacuum. Fluctuations in quantum causes and effects; from effects in a vacuum require both quantum fields the seemingly mundane to and quantum particles (which require space to the momentously significant. exist) and fluctuations (which are changes in time). Philosophers refer to the idea David Albert , Professor of Philosophy at Columbia of cause and effect as determinism. It is the University, points out that Krauss undermines his doctrine that all events, including human actions, argument by redefining the word ‘nothing’ to mean are ultimately determined by prior physical causes. ‘almost nothing’.

Since the mid-20th century, scientists have agreed In fact, if the formation of a finite Universe from that our Universe began approximately 13.8 billion nothing means the beginning of space and time, it years ago. (In future articles, we will discuss how/if would require some kind of trigger that is beyond this position fits with the Torah.) Imagine all of the the finite boundaries of space and time, and events in the physical world – the almost therefore beyond the finite Universe about to be uncountable causes and effects that have taken created. place in the 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang; then rewind them one by one. Theoretically, we This is why the Rambam (Maimonides d. 1204) could trace each action back to a prior cause. But cites philosophers before him who refer to there is a catch: God as ‘The Primal Cause’. The unavoidable characteristic of a finite, deterministic world is As we continue winding the tape of universal that it had to be created by an infinite, Primal history back, we will eventually reach the beginning, Cause. That moment set into action the series the moment of the formation of the cosmos. If the of effects which became causes of further effects, physical world is run by causes and effects, its very and so on. But Something had to start it. inception – arguably the most important cause of all – must have also had a prior cause. The Universe is defined as having space, matter and time. Yet before the Big Bang there was nothing: no space, no matter and no time. What therefore could possibly have caused a physical Universe to come in to existence ex nihilo, from nothing?

American physicist Laurence M. Krauss proposes a scientific explanation of how the Universe came into being from nothing, pointing to fluctuating quantum (sub-atomic) effects that occur in a perfect vacuum and appear to be non- deterministic. Quantum theory predicts sub-atomic particles popping in and out of existence in this apparent nothingness, ex nihilo. Could this hint to a cause for the Big Bang?

In memory of Ya’akov Zelig ben David and Chaya bat Giezer Goulden 5 Insights into Jewish History Part 54: The Death of Shimon HaTzadik by Rebbetzen Ilana Epstein, Cockfosters & N Southgate United Synagogue; Head of Project Development, US Living & Learning

Shimon HaTzadik had died. Josephus tells us that this later Chania wrote a His sons had fought over the letter to King Ptolemy Philometor and his queen, position of High Priest, sadly Cleopatra. In the letter, he asked their permission to turning the Temple into a build a temple in Alexandria, based on the setting of sibling rivalry. prophecy of Yeshaya (Isaiah) 600 years earlier, Shimon HaTzadik’s younger who foretold that there would be a temple built in son Nechonion (Onias) Egypt by a Jew to God. The king granted Chania immigrated to Egypt. permission.

The spiritual decline in Jerusalem became Rabbi Zvi Ralbag of New York suggests that when profound. From this point forward, the Kohanim the first Chania (Nechonion) fled to Egypt, he built halted the use of the ‘the explicit Name of God’ a temple to God for the non-Jews to worship at, (Tetragrammaton) in the Temple. The exact because the Jews living in Egypt at the time were pronunciation of the Name (referred to in Hebrew spiritually close to Jerusalem and the Temple. as the ‘Shem Ha’Mefurash’) has been lost to us. Rather than worship at an altar in Egypt, they would make the pilgrimage three times a year to In Jerusalem, the high priesthood passed to Elazar, Jerusalem. the half nephew of Shimon HaTzadik, then from Elazar to his son Menashe and then to someone By the time of the second Chania, the author of the named ‘Chania, the son of Shimon’. letter to Ptolemy, the gap between the people and Jerusalem had grown. If this Chania wished that Much debate has ensued as to the identity of the Jews of Egypt should sacrifice, the only way Chania? Was he the same person as Nechonion they would do so would be at a local temple. the son of Shimon HaTzadik, or was he someone Therefore, he asked permission to build one for the else? use of the local community. It was Chania the High Priest of Egypt and contemporary of Ptolemy Philometer who went on to become the High Priest The debate goes beyond the identity of this in Jerusalem. particular person. There is also a debate about what Nechonion did when he reached Egypt, where he built an altar. Was it dedicated to God or to idol worship? If the altar had indeed been used for idol worship, then how could this same man later return to Jerusalem and act as the High Priest?

Josephus, the Roman Jewish first-century historian, sheds some light on the episode. He sets up Chania as being a figure who was in fact active a number of decades after the story of Nechonion,

the son of Shimon HaTzadik.

40 years old. years 40 Answer:

In loving memory of Anita and Martin Aizen, and Norman Helman 6