Covenant & Conversation
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Tzav 5772 Volume XIX Number 26 Toras Aish Thoughts From Across the Torah Spectrum CHIEF RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS To this day, these are the situations of hazard Covenant & Conversation (many nowadays include air travel as well as a sea voyage) on which we say Hagomel when we come mong the sacrifices detailed in this week's sedra through them safely. is the korban todah, the thanksgiving offering: "If In his book A Rumour of Angels, the American Ahe offers it [the sacrifice] as a thanksgiving sociologist Peter Berger describes what he calls offering, then along with this thanksgiving offering he is "signals of transcendence"-phenomena within the to offer unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened human situation that point to something beyond. Among wafers spread with oil, and loaves of fine flour well- them he includes humour and hope. There is nothing in kneaded and mixed with oil." (Lev. 7:12). nature that explains our ability to reframe painful Though we have been without sacrifices for situations in such a way that we can laugh at them; nor almost two thousand years, a trace of the thanksgiving is there anything that can explain the human capacity to offering survives to this day, in the form of the blessing find meaning even in the depths of suffering. known as Hagomel: "Who bestows good things on the These are not, in the classic sense, proofs of unworthy", said in the synagogue, at the time of reading the existence of G-d, but they are experiential evidence. of the Torah, by one who has survived a hazardous They tell us that we are not random concatenations of situation. selfish genes, blindly reproducing themselves. Our What constitutes a hazardous situation? The bodies may be products of nature ("dust you are, and to sages (Berakhot 54b) found the answer in Psalm 107, a dust you will return"), but our minds, our thoughts, our song on the theme of giving thanks, beginning with the emotions-all that is meant by the word "soul"-are not. best-known words of religious gratitude in Judaism: There is something within us that reaches out to Hodu la-Shem ki tov, ki le-olam chasdo, "Give thanks to something beyond us: the soul of the universe, the the Lord for His lovingkindness is forever". Divine "You" to which we speak in prayer, and to which The psalm itself describes four specific our ancestors, when the Temple stood, made their situations: offerings. 1. Crossing the sea: "Some went out on the sea Though Berger does not include it, one of the in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters... "signals of transcendence" is surely the instinctive They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the human wish to give thanks. Often this is merely human. depths; in their peril their courage melted away... Then Someone has done us a favour, given us a gift, they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he comforted us in the midst of grief, or rescued us from brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm danger. We feel we owe them something. That to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed." "something" is todah, the Hebrew word that means both 2. Crossing a desert: "Some wandered in "acknowledgement" and "thanks". desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they But often we sense something more. It is not could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their just the pilot we want to thank when we land safely after lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in a hazardous flight; not just the surgeon when we survive their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress." an operation; not just the judge or politician when we 3. Recovery from serious illness: "They loathed are released from prison or captivity. It is as if some all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they larger force was operative, as if the hand that moves cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them the pieces on the human chessboard were thinking of from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed us; as if heaven itself had reached down and come to them; he rescued them from the grave." our aid. 4. Release from captivity: "Some sat in Insurance companies tend to describe natural darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in catastrophes as "acts of G-d". Human emotion does iron chains... Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, the opposite. G-d is in the good news, the miraculous and he saved them from their distress. He brought them survival, the escape from catastrophe. That instinct-to out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away offer thanks to a force, a presence, over and above their chains." natural circumstances and human intervention-is itself a 2 Toras Aish commandment: You shall not give Hitler a posthumous TORAS AISH IS A WEEKLY PARSHA victory. The historian Salo Baron called this the NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTED VIA EMAIL "lachrymose" reading of history: a story written in tears. AND THE WEB AT WWW.AISHDAS.ORG/TA. I, for one, cannot agree. Yes, there is Jewish suffering. FOR MORE INFO EMAIL [email protected] Yet had this been all, Jews would not have done what in The material presented in this publication was collected from email subscriptions, computer archives and various websites. It is being fact most did: hand on their identity to their children as presented with the permission of the respective authors. Toras their most precious legacy. To be a Jew is to feel a Aish is an independent publication, and does not necessarily reflect sense of gratitude; to see life itself as a gift; to be able the views of any synagogue or organization. to live through suffering without being defined by it; to TO DEDICATE THIS NEWSLETTER PLEASE CALL give hope the victory over fear. To be a Jew is to offer (973) 277-9062 OR EMAIL [email protected] thanks. © 2012 Chief Rabbi Lord J. Sacks and torah.org signal of transcendence. That is what was once RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN expressed in the thanksgiving offering, and still is, in the Hagomel prayer. But it is not just by saying Hagomel Shabbat Shalom that we express our thanks. uring the majestic and magical evening of the Elaine and I were on our honeymoon. It was seder, how many matzot does the leader of summer, the sun was shining, the beach glorious and “Dthe proceedings take, two or three? And how the sea inviting. There was just one problem. I could not many cups of wine do the participants drink, four or swim. But as I looked at the sea, I noticed that near to five? I daresay the overwhelming majority of my readers the shore it was very shallow indeed. There were will respond: three matzot and four cups of wine. But in people several hundred yards from the beach, yet the my seder, we all take two matzot and drink five cups of water only came up to their knees. What could be safer, wine. Cynics may comment that it is indeed a I thought, than simply to walk out into the sea and stop gastronomic and digestive boon to trade a matzah for a long before I was out of my depth. glass of good, red, dry wine, but my reason is purely I did. I walked out several hundred yards and, halakhic and Zionistic, as I hope to prove. yes, the sea only came up to my knees. I turned and The simple interpretation of a Talmudic started walking back. To my surprise and shock, I found passage (Berakhot 39b) would suggest two matzot: myself suddenly engulfed by water. Evidently, I had "Rav Papa maintains that everyone agrees that on walked into a deep dip in the sand. I was out of my Passover evening, we place the broken matzah within depth. I struggled to swim. I failed. This was dangerous. (or under) the whole matzah and make a blessing There was no one nearby. The people swimming were thereon". This implies two matzot or rather one and one a long way away. I went under, again and again. By the half, and the Vilna Gaon rules that this is our normative fifth time, I knew I was drowning. My life was about to practice. end. What a way-I thought- to start a honeymoon. The origin of our usual custom of taking three Of course someone did save me, otherwise I matzot - two whole and one broken stems from Rashi would not be writing these lines. To this day I do not (Commentary on Pesahim 116a). He insists that we know who it was: by then I was more or less must have two whole matzot to retain our custom of unconscious. All I know is that he must have seen me lehem mishneh (parallel to our two Shabbat hallah struggling. He swam over, took hold of me, and brought loaves). Maimonides, on the other hand, insists upon me to safety. Since then, the words we say on waking one and one-half, ruling that "lehem oni", the matzah / every day have had a deep meaning for me: "I thank bread of affliction, trumps "lehem mishneh", the double You, living and enduring G-d, for You have restored my portion of the manna which we commemorate on the life to me: great is Your faithfulness." Anyone who has Sabbath (Laws ofHametz and Matzah 8,6).