Acharei Mot Vol.26 No.29:Layout 1

s; vacug s; tjrh nu, tjrh Volume 26 ACHAREI MOT No. 29 SHABBAT HAGADOL Daf Hashavua 12 April 2014 • 12 Nisan 5774 Shabbat ends in London at 8.41pm Artscroll p.636 Haftarah p.1220 Pesach begins on Monday night Hertz p.480 Haftarah p.1105 Soncino p.705 Haftarah p.1197 Sayings & Rav Ashi Sayers of the Sidrah by Rabbi Samuel Landau, Kingston, Surbiton & District United Synagogue Chumash: (referring to the High Priest’s cially successful. He was head of the Yom Kippur service): ‘And he shall place the academy in Sura, which flourished under his incense upon the fire before G-d, so that the leadership. cloud of the incense shall cover the ark cover that is over the [tablets of] Testimony, Rav Ashi, partnered by Ravina, had a so that he shall not die’. (Vayikra 16:13) single, great ambition – to record for posterity the discussions across the Talmud: ‘So that the cloud…shall generations that had elucidated cover’. Rav Ashi said: This [pas- the Mishnah, as well sage] tells us that the incense as recording the should be burned. Another [pass- mystical, cultural and age, elsewhere] tells us that if social statements of this is not done, the whole the sages. incense service is void‘. (Yoma 53a) Rav Ashi’s success in this project was due in no In c.500 CE, alongside his colleague small part to the length of time he devoted Ravina, Rav Ashi drew to a close the to it – 60 years! These 60 years were exact- Talmud/Gemara – the body of work that ingly allocated. Each Talmudic tractate codified three centuries of debate and required six months for the study of its explanation of the Mishnah. In fact, his Mishnah and the chronicling of its related contemporaries made an explicit com- teaching, thereby accumulating 30 years for parison between him and Rabbi Yehudah the 60 tractates. The same process was then HaNassi (Rebbe), who redacted the Mishnah repeated for another 30 years. The work was (c.200 CE). They commented that since then considered complete. Its study has the days of Rebbe "learning and social enlivened, fascinated and helped to sustain distinction were never so united in one the Jewish nation throughout the long years person as in Ashi”. Rav Ashi was a great of exile. Perhaps more than some Jews have scholar, as well as charismatic and finan- kept the Law, the Law has kept the Jews. What Lies Behind the Face? by Rabbi Emanuel Levy, Palmers Green & Southgate Synagogue In our sidrah, we learn of the contrasting Similarly, on Yom Kippur, fates of the two he-goats whose sacrifice nobody knows what his fate formed a central part of the service will be. Outwardly, people performed by the High Priest on Yom Kippur. look the same, but G-d Never for a moment could we imagine that looks beyond the mask of two animals that looked so similar to each external appearance. One other could meet such contrasting fates! The person may be granted life but two goats, chosen in a lottery cast by the another may meet the opposite fate. High Priest, were identical in height, weight, He alone knows the inner truth and decides appearance and monetary value. Yet one our future, one way or another. was accorded the greatest Furthermore, just as the two honour of being sacrificed goats looked identical, so can to G-d with its blood the same person adopt two sprinkled inside the Holy of different attitudes in life. Holies itself, while the other One moment he may be met the most ignominious classed as a sinner, yet after a fate of being cast over a thoroughgoing remorse he rocky precipice, to Azazel, can become a ba’al teshuva, bearing with it the sins of a reformed character. Out- the Jewish people. wardly he remains un changed but inwardly, the very core of his personality has taken on The Be’er Yosef, (Rabbi Joseph Salant, a new dimension. d. 1981), comments that when ever a lottery is cast and one commits oneself to abide by In our struggle to improve ourselves its decision, the result is dictated by Divine spiritually, we may also say that elements of providence. We leave the decision, so to all four sons of the Haggadah reside in each speak, to the Almighty Himself. one of us. Sometimes, like the wise son, we have an enquiring mind; sometimes like the Let us try to picture the tense moment before wicked son, we may feel reluctant to practice the lottery is drawn. Two tablets lie in the our Judaism. On other occasions we satisfy lottery box. On one is written ‘to G-d’, on the ourselves with short cursory knowledge of a other ‘to Azazel’. The High Priest blindly particular mitzvah, like the simple son. seizes one with each hand. He puts the lot in Finally, like the son who does not even ask, his right hand on the goat standing on his we may adopt a lethargic attitude to mitzvot. right and the lot in his left hand on the goat The different answers given by the Torah to standing to his left. No-one on earth knows these questions reveal the strategy and the which animal will meet which fate, but G-d psychology we must adopt to arrest the in His wisdom has decided how to guide the different moods that we encounter. hands of the High Priest and He alone will In that way, we will achieve ‘freedom’ from make that decision. our own human frailty. An Eggs-istential Thought by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis At the Seder table we eat an egg in salt water, the popularity of eating an egg can easily symbolising our anguish and sorrow for the cause the afikoman not to be eaten with an Israelites who suffered bitterly under Pharaoh. appetite, as required. He declared that he The egg is likewise eaten in a shiva house and himself did not keep this custom and on the eve of Tisha B’Av (9 Av) as a sign of suggested that others should follow suit. mourning. But, why the egg? The reason given for eating an egg at the The Remah (Rabbi Moshe Isserles d.1572) in Seder table that resonates most with me his gloss to the Shulchan Aruch (O.C.476:2) relates to the properties of an egg. mentions the custom of eating a hard-boiled Other foods, when heated, become softer. egg at the Seder as a symbol of mourning. Eggs, however, become harder. Eggs are Indeed, some commentators point out that a unique food. the first day of Pesach always falls on the same day of the week on The egg symbolises the Jewish which Tisha B’Av falls in that people. We were forged in slavery year. Others suggest that and tested through 40 years in we grieve for the absence the wilderness. We had to of sacrificial meat at our battle for the Promised Land Seder table and lament the and, once there, saw the fact that nowadays all that destruction of two Temples remains is an egg. and suffered prolonged exiles. The Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Eliyahu When the heat is on in life and we Kramer d. 1797) challenges the are confronted by difficulties and Rema’s view that the egg is a symbol of grief. challenges, we need to harness our inner He contends that it would be inappropriate for resources and strengthen our resolve to us to engage in mourning on a Yom Tov. prevail against all odds. No matter what Rather, he asserts, the egg represents the comes our way, whether as a people, a festive Chagigah sacrifice which was eaten in community, as families or as individuals, the Temple times in a joyous spirit to celebrate the egg shows us how to fortify ourselves. In the festival. The Vilna Gaon insists that our Seder face of fire you might expect an egg to melt experience is one that we should and disintegrate. That which looks like it wholeheartedly enjoy. It should not be marred might destroy us can in fact make us stronger by sadness. and more resilient. Interestingly, the Chayei Adam (Rabbi Eating eggs around the Seder table reminds us Avraham Danzig d.1821) advocates that the of the remarkable tenacity of the Jewish custom of eating an egg at the Seder table be people through the ages. We turn adversity abolished. He notes that many people cannot into opportunity. We find light in the midst of differentiate between Biblical law and custom. darkness. Pesach is the festival of hope and of Thus, in many homes eating an egg had freedom. And the little egg, as it becomes attained a misplaced status similar to that of stronger in the face of adversity, reminds us matza and maror. The Chayei Adam adds that that we too can and will triumph. The 'Great' Shabbat (Shabbat HaGadol) by Rabbi Jonathan Hughes, Richmond United Synagogue and US City Rabbi Why is this Shabbat called ’HaGadol’ (‘the into our conception of G-d and to our prayer Great’)? The Chiddushei HaRim (Rabbi Yitzchak liturgy. Their greatness was indeed to restore Meir Alter d.1866) suggests that to answer this G-d’s crown to its former glory! we must first contextualise the use of word 2. Greatness ('gedula') is also used to refer to 'gadol'. Creation. The Sefat Emet (Yehudah Aryeh Leib 1. The Men of The Great Assembly – the Torah Alter d.1905) explains that the apparently self- leaders in the early years of the Second perpetuating world of nature appears to Temple – were known as the ‘Anshei Kenesset contradict G-d's existence.

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