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Home , Balak (parashah), Shemot (parashah)

kl kl kl vacug s; Volume 27 No. 3 LECH LECHA Daf Hashavua

1 November 2014 • 8 Cheshvan 5775 ends in London at 5.22 pm Artscroll p.54 • Hertz p.45 • Soncino p.60 Journeys with The Book of Yehoshua (Joshua) Chapter 5 the : Part 3 by Dr Moshe Freedman, Northwood United

Summary: The kings of Cana’an became that since the exclaimed that "I have frightened when they heard about the come now" (atah bati), Yehoshua was splitting of the Jordan River. Now that the exclusively liable for the ‘current sin’ of people had left the desert, an environment impeding study (Tosafot to Megillah 3a). viewed as unsafe for circumcision, Yehoshua In his contemporary commentary Mish- commanded the men to perform circumcision, betzot Zahav, Rabbi Shabbatai Sheftil Weiss after which they were able to highlights the difference between the offer the Pesach sacrifice. sacrificial offerings and Torah study. Offer- The manna dried up and ings and their contemporary equivalent prayer that year the people ate are certainly important mitzvot, but the study the grain from the Land. of Torah surpasses all other commandments. As they arrived at the outskirts The angel told Yehoshua to remove of Jericho, an angel appeared to his shoe from his foot, reminiscent Yehoshua, in the guise of a man with of Moshe and the burn- a drawn . ing bush over forty years A Deeper Look: According to (d. 1105), before. Interestingly, in the angel that appeared to Yehoshua was both cases, Moshe Micha’el (Rashi on 5:16). By appearing with a and Yehoshua enquired drawn sword, the angel was indicating to regarding the nature Yehoshua that he was worthy of punishment. of the vision they On reflection, Yehoshua realised that there saw ( 3:3 and were two offences which he had committed. Yehoshua 5:13). However, He had prepared so intensely for the battle of whereas Moshe was spoken to directly by G-d, Jericho that – according to Rabbi Shlomo Yehoshua was only addressed by an emissary. ben Aderet (‘the Rashba’ d. 1310) – the people Rabbi Yitzchak Abravanel (d. 1508) explains had neglected to perform the Tamid that the command for Yehoshua to remove (daily continual) offering with the required his shoe indicated that the Land was holy procession of Kohanim and . In and could therefore only be conquered with addition, Yehoshua had prevented the people G-d's help, not through physical might alone. from learning Torah that night. As Yehoshua's conquest of the Land begins, The medieval French commentators (the Tosa- this concept will become a recurring theme in fists) disagree with the Rashba and explain the coming chapters. And went with him by Rabbi Lister Edgware United Synagogue

This week’s sidrah recounts the calling to his personal mission. He Avraham that would change not only his life was not required to but world history as a whole. G-d called out change, rather to to Avraham, telling him to ‘go for yourself’ actualise the potential to a mysterious land and a dazzling destiny. lying inside of him. (Bereishit 12:4) This theophany was a This was a personal spectacular vindication of the theology that challenge, a challenge that Avraham had sought to spread through- Avraham rose to. out his life. Avraham reacted with the And Lot? Although he walked right next enthusiasm that we would expect of him: to Avraham, dressing, talking and looking “Then Avraham took Sarai his the same, he did not go with wife, Lot his nephew, and all a sense that this was his their possessions... and they mission. Avraham knew this, went to the land of Cana’an and included Lot in his (12:5)”. audience when he recounted the amazing news. There seems to be some confusion here. We have already But it was too late. Lot had seen that Lot “went with created an inner distance Avraham” in verse 4. Lot was between himself and his already on board. Why then did family’s calling, a calling he Avraham need to ‘take him’ could never quite make his again? own. Even though he valiantly resisted the worst excesses of the people of There is a deeper question here as well. If Sodom, the greatness that could have been Avraham included Lot so readily as a his was lost both to him and to the world. companion in his divine mission, why did Lot perform so miserably? In chapter 13, Lot This is a message to accompany us on our went to live in Sodom, the wealthiest and journey from to Chanukah. most hostile city of the time. In chapter 19, Our new year has begun. We journey he allowed his daughters to inebriate him onwards through time to bring light where and beget children from him, thus founding there is darkness. As Avraham’s descend- the empires of Ammon and that would ants, this is our mission, assigned to us cause trouble for the Jewish people in the by G-d. If we go through the motions future. because everyone else does, ‘going with the flow’ like Lot did, we will fail as The answers lie in the questions. G-d . Only when we encounter and unleash commanded Avraham to “go for himself”. the destiny within our own souls will we Avraham needed to have a sense that glimpse the ancestral grandeur that is founding and building the Jewish people was ours for the taking. Joining Jewish In Celebration of the Chief Rabbi’s Shabbat UK Time: Part 2 by Rabbi Gideon D. Sylvester, the US’s Rabbi

Last week, to they remind us mark Shabbat UK, that once upon a we looked at the time, we were all significance of slaves in Egypt. Jewish time and Mr. Speaker: We its particular rele- respect the Mus- vance to Shabbat. lim day of rest – We will continue that theme with a Friday. We respect the Christian day of focus on the role Shabbat plays in our the rest – Sunday. We ask all national life. nations to respect our day of rest – Shabbat. They will do so only if we Taking pride in our culture and our time respect it ourselves”. frames was an idea that the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin reflected Prime Minister Begin was reflecting an upon in 1977 as he planned the historic ancient Jewish tradition, recorded by first visit to Israel by Egyptian President the Ramban ( d.1274) in Anwar Sadat. Here is how he explained his his commentary to the Torah, which is a thinking to the Israeli Parliament, as related feature of modern Hebrew too. Hebrew by Yehuda Avner in his book The Prime days do not have individual names; rather Ministers (p.471), quoting an Israeli each day is numbered in the countdown to Government Press Office Bulletin: Shabbat, the focus of the Jewish week.

“President Sadat indicated he wished to For generations, Jews maintained this come to us on Saturday evening. I calendar of their own and this rhythm to decided that an appropriate hour would their weeks. This defined the community be eight o'clock, well after the termi- and held it together, leading the cultural nation of the Shabbat. I decided on this Zionist leader Achad Ha'am (d. 1927) to hour in order that there would be no make his famous proclamation in Shabbat Shabbat desecration. Also, I wanted the v’Tziyonut (1898) that: whole world to know that ours is a “It may be said without exaggeration Jewish State which honours the Sabbath that more than the Jews kept Shabbat, day. I read again that eternal Biblical it was Shabbat that kept them”. verse: "Honour the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Shemot 20:8) and was again As I hope you have seen with Shabbat UK, deeply moved by its meaning. These Shabbat itself has a profoundly positive words echo one of the most sanctified effect on Jewish life, which I hope you have ideas in the history of mankind and enjoyed this Shabbat as well. An in-Depth Lessons from the Villains Part 1 look at Kashrut by Rabbi Yehuda Spitz, KLBD

Previous articles have highlighted that the ultimately based on the deeds of 10 mistaken Torah’s descriptions of the actions of our fore- men, those sinful spies. fathers teach us ethical and halachic lessons. However, sometimes we find the exact 2. Time For Prayer opposite; a halachah is gleaned from the acts We even learn a halacha from Bilaam, the of those who are far from paragons of virtue. villainous of parashat (see Here are two examples: chapter 22). The (Berachot 7a) explains that Bilaam knew the exact 1. Double Agents millisecond that G-d ‘gets angry’ and Parashat Shelach details the knew how to utter a curse during grave sin of the spies’ negative that time. The commentators report about the Land of ask what type of curse was Israel. Of the 12 spies sent, possible for Bilaam to utter in only two remained loyal – such a limited time frame. Yehoshua bin (Joshua) One answer given is that once and Calev ben Yefuneh (see Bilaam started his curse at that Bemidbar 14:27). The other 10 exact point, he ‘locked it in’ and chose to slander the Land instead, and could continue as long as it took to finish. consequently suffered immediate and terrible deaths. Due to their report, the Jewish people Rabbi Yechiel Epstein (author of the ‘Aruch were condemned to remain in the desert for Hashulchan’, d.1908) applies this idea to daily an additional forty years, until the older prayer times. He maintains that as long as one generation eventually died out. It was their starts the amidah (standing prayer) before the descendants who were ultimately allowed to prayer deadline (known as sof zeman – ‘end enter the Land. time’), it is considered that he ‘made the cut- off’, even if the majority of his prayer actually G-d called the spies an ‘eidah’, literally a took place after the sof zeman. If such a design congregation (ibid). The Talmud (Megilah 23b) worked for one as negative as Bilaam to derives from this incident that the minimum enable him to curse the Jewish people, how requirement for a minyan is a quorum of much more so should it work for us regarding 10 men, since there were 10 spies who were our prayers! called ‘a congregation’. If 10 adult men can get together to hatch malevolent schemes, A third example of halacha based on the then 10 adult men can also assemble to actions of those less than virtuous is the well form a congregation for holy purposes. known law of waiting between eating meat This exegesis is codified in halacha, and is and milk, which we will discuss next week.

United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue, together with US Living & Learning Editor: Rabbi Chaim Gross Editor in Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please contact Richard Marcus on 020 8343 5685, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected]