30 September 2017 10 Tishrei 5778 Shabbat & Yom Kippur London 7.27pm end Jerusalem 7.01pm

Volume 30 No. 2 Yom Kippur

In loving memory of Susi and Freddie Bradfield Sara Gitel bat Mordechai Menachem l’’z and Yaacov ben Zvi l’’z

Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, 1878 by Maurycy Gottlieb, at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Sidrah Summary: Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur Morning Yom Kippur Afternoon (Mincha) From the first Sefer Torah we read the beginning We read the last part of parashat Acharei Mot, of parashat Acharei Mot which details the Yom concentrating on the laws of forbidden Kippur service of the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), relationships, such as with close relatives, or with including his once-a-year entry into the Holy of another’s spouse. The nation’s well-being in the Holies and the offerings he brought for himself, Land is dependent upon keeping these laws. his family and the nation. Point to Consider: why is this passage chosen This service included taking two goats on behalf to be read on Yom Kippur? of the nation. The ‘fate’ of the goats was subject to a lottery performed by the Kohen Gadol. The Haftarah (Mincha) lots would decide which goat would be offered as Yonah (Jonah), a Jewish prophet, is told to go to a sin offering (chatat), and which goat would be the non-Jewish city Nineveh, to encourage its taken to the desert and pushed off of a steep cliff. citizens to repent. Yonah refuses, instead The Mishnah (Yoma 6:6) tells us that a crimson boarding a ship bound for Tarshish. Yet the ship thread was tied between a rock on the edge of faces the danger of sinking. Realising that his this cliff and the goat’s horns. If the nation had own rebellion caused this danger, he asked been forgiven its sins, this thread would turn white the sailors to be thrown overboard. A big fish after the goat had been pushed off. swallows Yonah. After three days of suffering inside the fish, Yonah prays to God, Who Another feature of the Kohen Gadol’s special Yom instructs the fish to spit Yonah onto dry land. Kippur service was that he did not wear any of the God reinstructs Yonah to go to Nineveh. Yonah golden garments that he wore during his normal goes, warning the people of Nineveh of the service. This was so as not to create any allusions need to repent. They fast and repent, yet Yonah to the sin of the golden calf whilst seeking is distressed. God eventually comes to Yonah, atonement for the nation’s sins (see Talmud Rosh defending His compassion for the people of Hashanah 26a). Nineveh (see p. 6 article). Maftir is read from the second Sefer Torah, from Question: how did the sailors on the boat the section of parashat Pinchas which details the respond to seeing God’s exacting treatment of extra offerings brought on Yom Kippur. Yonah?(1:15) Answer at bottom of p.14. Haftarah The prophet Yeshaya (chapter 57) states that whilst God never ignores wrongdoing, the door to teshuva (repentance) always remains open. However, that teshuva has to be sincere; fasting and affliction carry little merit if one continues to mistreat other people. Yeshaya encourages not just keeping the laws of Shabbat, but also experiencing its joyous atmosphere, which can allow us to reach our greatest spiritual potential.

United Synagogue Daf Hashavua Produced by US Living & Learning together with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Editor: Rabbi Chaim Gross Editor-in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Editorial Team: Ilana Epstein, Michael Laitner, Sharon Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua please contact Loraine Young on 020 8343 5653, or [email protected] If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected]

2 Editors’ Message by Rabbi Baruch Davis, Chigwell & Hainault United Synagogue (Editor-in-Chief) and Rabbi Chaim Gross (Editor)

Publishers Jerusalem. We are grateful to Koren for allowing us to include Rabbi Amital's remarkable and thought-provoking recollections from Yom Kippur 1944 in Hungary.

We are also privileged to reproduce another extract from the From Exile to Redemption Machzor, about the incredible accomplishments Dear Readers, of the late -Klausenburger . The extract describes the Rebbe's efforts to help As we did on Rosh Hashanah, we are delighted other Jews on Yom Kippur and at other times in to again present an enlarged edition of Daf the Displaced Persons camps of Europe after Hashavua for Yom Kippur. World War Two and how he was the driving force behind the construction of the Laniado Hospital Mindful of the unique sanctity and significance of in Netanya later in his life. On this holiest of days, Yom Kippur and the memories of people and as we ponder the year ahead, the story of the places which it often recalls, we have included Rebbe is humbling and instructive. articles from figures past and present. We hope these will enhance your observance and The articles from current colleagues, along experience of the day. with the ever-popular Tribe Scribe, provide accompaniment for some of the most well- Over the last few months, we have marked the known prayers, music and themes of Yom 50th anniversary of the Six Day War. As well as Kippur. We hope they will provide you with the miraculous deliverance of Israel at that time, fresh and inspiring perspectives to go along with the effect on British Jewry was transformative in the uplifting services which our communities many ways. To that end, we have included some provide. reminiscences from that time by the late Lady Amelie Jakobovits, one of British Jewry's most On behalf of the entire Rabbinate, we wish you a beloved personalities, and we thank Vallentine safe and meaningful Yom Kippur; may your Mitchell Publishers for permitting us to do so. prayers and the prayers of the entire Jewish people be answered for the good, with The life and legacy of the late Rabbi Yehuda atonement for the past year and opportunities for Amital, a pioneering educator in Israel, continues the year ahead. to inspire new generations of students. Powerful recollections from his biography, By Faith Thank you for reading the Daf and don't forget Alone, were included in the acclaimed From that if you wish to see the Daf during the week, Exile to Redemption Machzor for the modern you can download our new app from both the commemorative days of the State of Israel, Apple Store and Google Play, helping you to read published recently by the US and Koren it wherever you are.

Rabbi Baruch Davis, Chigwell Rabbi Chaim Gross & Hainault United Synagogue (Editor) (Editor-in-Chief)

In memory of Yaakov Yehoshua ben Ephraim Hirsch 3 Tutorials in Time Part 2: Yom Kippur – The Festival of Speaking by Rabbi Shmuli Sagal, Sutton & District United Synagogue

There is perhaps no must be done verbally. Thus, according to the synagogue service as Rambam, the only positive mitzvah in relation to moving and captivating as teshuva on Yom Kippur is that of verbal Kol Nidrei. With its solemn confession. Again, we see that speech is central tune, increasing in volume to Yom Kippur. and intensity with each of the chazzan’s recitals, and a Perhaps we can now understand the relevance shul full of anticipation, the of the content of Kol Nidrei. On a day full of atmosphere on Kol Nidrei night is second to prayer and repentant speech, we begin by none. For so many, the music and memories of declaring the potency and power of the spoken that night form a large part of their Jewish word. In parashat Matot, the Torah states: “If a identity. man takes a vow to God or swears an oath to establish a prohibition upon himself; he shall not Indeed, the music and setting befit the awe of the desecrate his word; according to whatever occasion. However, the words of the Kol Nidrei comes from his mouth he shall do” (Bemidbar prayer seem surprising, given the context of the 30:3). God gave us 613 mitzvot. Almost all are service. Perhaps we would expect a resolute already set in stone. In contrast, the mitzvah of reproach regarding repentance, or perhaps a vows gives us the licence to create our own stirring reading about Jewish responsibility. personal prohibitions. By simply saying some Instead we have a dry legal text concerning words, we can impose restrictions upon annulling vows and promises. If we are striving ourselves of Biblical proportions. to ‘begin as we mean to go on’, it seems strange that the opening act of the holiest and most The music of Kol Nidrei sets the mood of the day. spiritually charged day in the Jewish calendar is Yet its words frame what the essence of the day a legal declaration. is about. We begin Yom Kippur by annulling our sometimes hastily-taken vows. In so doing, we Yom Kippur is a day full of words. Without the recapture the potency of our speech. With this distractions of eating and drinking, we are free to renewed appreciation of the power of our words, spend much of the day trying to engross we are ready to embark on a marathon of prayer ourselves in prayer. At certain points we pray in and teshuva. silent solitude, at others in a symphony of song. We chant and we whisper. We respond and we accompany. But at all times we are uttering words, thought-provoking words of prayer and supplication.

Yom Kippur is otherwise known as the Day of Atonement. This atonement is achieved through a four-stage process of repentance, known as the mitzvah of teshuva. These are cessation, regret, confession and resolve not to repeat the transgression. However, when the Rambam (Maimonides d. 1204) defines the mitzvah of teshuva, he only mentions the element of confession. In contrast to the other elements On the eve of Yom Kippur (Prayer), which involve thought and (in)action, confession turn of the 19/20th century by Jakub Weinles

In memory of Mordechai Avraham ben Nechemia 4 Yizkor and Yom Kippur by Rabbi Michael Laitner, Jewish Living Division Rabbi; Assistant Rabbi, Finchley United Synagogue

One ‘tradition’ which my The word ‘Yizkor’ literally means ‘He [God] will family has, in common with remember’. Why is this term used, given that many others, is to write God does not forget? the names and yahrzeit (date of passing in the The earliest use of this verb in the Torah states Jewish calendar) details of that God remembered (“vayizkor”) Noach after deceased relatives on a slip the waters of the Flood had subsided (Bereishit of paper at the back of a 8:1). Yom Kippur machzor (prayer book). Rashi (d.1105) explains that this term actually When Yizkor prayers are recited, these details, refers to God’s attribute of judgment. which sadly but inevitably grow longer with the The prayers of the righteous can turn judgment passing of time, help us to recall, even fleetingly, into mercy. God ‘remembered’ Noach’s both close and distant relatives, those who we righteousness and His covenant with him. knew and those who we did not have the opportunity to meet. Some of the memories are This teaches a powerful lesson about the Yizkor warm, others are raw, whilst for some relatives prayers. God does not forget and does not need or martyrs, painfully, there are no memories to prompting to remember. Yet when we pray recall at all. sincerely, especially on Yom Kippur, we have the opportunity to establish ourselves as righteous The ‘ultimate’ recollection belongs to God, and turn judgment to mercy. which makes Yizkor particularly appropriate for Yom Kippur. The Torah refers to Yom Kippur Yizkor therefore is not just our prayer to God for in the plural, ‘Yom Hakippurim’; the medieval deceased relatives and martyrs. It is also a plea German scholar Mahari Weil (d. 1456) explains that He should always relate to them in Heaven that this indicates that atonement applies to with mercy, continually extending the atonement both the living and the dead. This may explain which Mahari Weil referred to. why Yizkor was originally said only on Yom Kippur. It was introduced amongst Ashkenazi This past summer, I was fortunate to visit the Jews as a prayer for and memorial to those Jews quaint shul in Llandudno, North Wales, retracing murdered during the Crusades. my wife’s family roots in the town. Looking at the memorial boards, I saw mention made of many Sadly, the Crusades are of course not the only of her relatives. tragedy which our people have faced and the Yizkor prayers have expanded over the years It was particularly poignant to say Mincha to reflect this. Amongst the most moving (the afternoon prayers) in a shul where four experiences of recent years at Finchley United generations ago her family had prayed, and to Synagogue (Kinloss) has been Rev Simon Hass reflect on how they had bequeathed Judaism to (one of the greatest chazanim in the world, us. It also enabled me to add their details to the who served the Central Synagogue in Great slip of paper in my Yom Kippur machzor and to Portland Street for many years before retiring consider how perhaps our practice of Judaism to Finchley) leading some of the Yizkor prayers helps our deceased relatives be granted the on Yom Kippur. The prayers of Rev Hass, who remembrance by God that we pray for in Yizkor. grew up in Eastern Europe and survived several concentration camps, are spine-tingling, May God answer all of our prayers favourably especially when praying for those murdered and always ‘remember’ for the good those no Jews of whom there are no remaining memories. longer with us.

In memory of Rivka bat Leah 5 Was Yonah Right to Doubt Nineveh’s Sincerity? by Rabbi Daniel Epstein, Cockfosters & N Southgate Synagogue

As we approach the last few He would forgive them. Indeed the Talmud hours of Yom Kippur, and states: “…How did they act? — they separated feeling rather weary, we the animals from their young offspring and they are presented with the said, ‘Master of the Universe, if You will not have reading of the Book of mercy upon us, we will not show mercy to these Yonah (Jonah) during the [young animals]!’” (Ta’anit 16a). Mincha service. Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg, (known by Many of us are familiar with the story. Yonah was the acronym Rav Shaga”r, d. 2007) explains a prophet who lived in the first Temple period. that this was tantamount to ‘threatening’ God Nineveh was a large non-Jewish city, perhaps the with animal cruelty. Surely this was arrogant most prominent city in the world at the time. behaviour, hardly synonymous with repentance? Yonah was unwilling to follow God’s command So why did God actually pay heed to such and implore the people of Nineveh to repent their behaviour? ways. He tried to run away from his mission but Rav Shaga”r compares this to some of our – via a miraculous journey inside the belly of a experiences on Yom Kippur. Many of us have not large fish – ultimately arrived in Nineveh to fulfil come near to wholehearted repentance, yet we his task. are calling out to God to tear up bad decrees. Is The Mishnah (Ta’anit 2:1) refers to the repentance this not tantamount to arrogance? Is there really of Nineveh, when detailing how cities should pray value in this? on fast days: He answers that the very fact we are turning “…the eldest among [the city elders] shall then towards God and addressing Him is a valuable address [the people] in heart-rending terms: ‘My shift, as we see from the model of Nineveh. At brethren, consider that it is not written in respect this critical juncture of Yom Kippur, late in the to [the repentance of] the people of Nineveh, that afternoon, we may be grappling with the God hearkened to their having wrapped overwhelming challenge of psychologically themselves in sackcloth, nor to their fast-days, committing to full repentance. This calming rather that ‘God saw their acts, that they had message reassures us that moving ourselves turned from their evil ways’” (ibid. 3:10). even slightly in the right direction is worthy in the eyes of God. What were these ‘acts’? The King of Nineveh responded to God’s 40-day ultimatum for In fact, the king’s response, as explained by Rav repentance by telling his nobles to convey this Shaga”r, reminds us that we are not necessarily message to the people: expected to change everything in one day. Starving the animals and calling out to God may “No man or beast—of flock or herd—shall taste not have been fully altruistic, but at least it was an anything! They shall not graze, and they shall not act! Even the smallest of changes can eventually drink water! They shall be covered with move us towards a path of real growth. sackcloth—man and beast—and shall cry mightily to God. Let everyone turn back from his evil ways and from the injustice of which he is guilty. Who knows but that God may turn and relent? He may turn back from His wrath, so that Yonah cast out we do not perish” (ibid. 3:7-8). by the fish, It would appear that the king was ‘testing’ God wood carving, by telling the people to starve their animals until 1873

In memory of Harav Binyamin ben Harav Shalom 6 Yom Kippur, Hungary, 1944 by Rabbi Yehuda Amital, told by Elyashiv Reichner, translated by Elli Fischer

Rabbi Yehuda Amital (1924-2010) became one of Among the worshippers were Jews who had lost Israel’s leading educators and was appointed a parents, children, spouses, and siblings. Yehuda Minister without portfolio in 1995 by Prime was gripped by a powerful storm of emotions Minister Shimon Peres (d. 2016). In 1968, Rabbi during those prayers; he began to realise the Amital founded the famous Har Etzion Yeshiva in impossibility of basing one’s service of Alon Shevut, Israel, where he taught and inspired God solely on the recognition of God’s goodness until the end of his life. and kindness. It became clear to him that a Jew who lost his wife and children is unable to A native of Hungary, Rabbi Amital (then known as base his worship of God on gratitude alone. Yehuda Klein) was rounded up with other Jews “For the generation that experienced the during World War Two. Whilst on a forced labour greatest destruction in Jewish history,” he would camp march on Erev Yom Kippur 1944, Rabbi later explain to his students, “love of God Amital and his fellow prisoners suddenly found could be based only on faith that stands strong themselves free when their Hungarian guards fled even during a time of hester panim (God’s as Soviet troops drew near. Rabbi Amital never ‘concealment’). As Iyov (Job) said (13:15): forgot his gratitude to God for this salvation. ‘Though He may slay me, in Him I trust”.

The passage below is excerpted from his Another insight that coalesced in Yehuda’s mind biography, By Faith Alone, and is quoted in the during his prayers in the midst of the Holocaust United Synagogue’s and Koren Publications related to reciting the blessing “she-lo asani goy” Jerusalem’s From Exile Towards Redemption (“Who has not made me a non-Jew”) during the Machzor, for the modern commemorative days of daily morning prayers. He never recited “she-lo the State of Israel. In it, the biographer describes asani goy” with fervour like he did at that time. Rabbi Amital’s feelings that Yom Kippur: Despite all the suffering he experienced during that period, Yehuda was proud to belong to the Yehuda and his friends were left alone, without murdered and not the murderers; to the commanders. For the first time in several persecuted and not the persecutors.1 months, they felt freedom, even though uncertainty about their fate dampened that Extracted from: feeling as well. Yehuda and his cousin [Wolf] By Faith Alone: The decided to stay at the family’s home in the Story of Rabbi destroyed ghetto until the Soviet occupation Yehuda Amital, materialised. The community-owned building Elyashiv Reichner, where the Kleins had lived had a cellar for (Maggid Books, storing wine. Yehuda and Wolf chose to hide 2011), p.114-115. there for the duration of the holy day. Available to purchase at local They got there a few hours before the beginning Jewish bookshops of the fast. Their only food was a slice of bread. or from They shared part of it for their pre-fast meal, and www.korenpub.com saved the rest for after the fast. They found other Jews and were thus able to pray with a minyan in the dank cellar. They had one machzor from which one of the worshippers would read aloud, with the rest listening and responding. 1This blessing acknowledges that, as Jews, we have the privilege of keeping the mitzvot in the Torah. Rabbi Amital used it to reflect his terrible experiences. There were many righteous gentiles in the war, but, clearly, Rabbi Amital did not experience them.

In memory of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Yaa kov ben Harav Nata Gershon 7

A Call to Arms by Lady Amélie Jakobovits z’l, as told by Gloria Tessler

Lady Jakobovits and her husband, Chief Rabbi As they left the hall, a young Israeli woman Lord Immanuel Jakobovits z’l, arrived in the UK approached them and said, ‘Rabbi Jakobovits. in March 1967 when Rabbi Lord Jakobovits I cannot pray. Will you please pray on my assumed the position of Chief Rabbi shortly behalf?’ Her words seemed almost a metaphor before the Six Day War of May/June 1967. for the polarisation between the Jewish religion and the Jewish state, evoking the most spiritual longings expressed in the writings of Amélie’s Over recent months, Israel and Jewish father, Rabbi Eli Munk, and the reality of war. communities across the world have been The Chief Rabbi looked at the young woman, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the deeply moved. He recalled the incident Six Day War. In these selected extracts from frequently and was fated to meet her again, in Lady Jakobovits’s biography, written by Gloria 1973, at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Tessler, the author describes Lady Jakobovits’s when she repeated her request to him for a memories of 1967. prayer.

6 JUNE 1967. Amélie and Immanuel had Amélie paid her first visit to Israel just after the travelled to Gateshead, where he was delivering liberation of Jerusalem in 1967. She could a lecture, when word came through that war had barely contain her utter excitement and disbelief broken out in the Middle East. At the request of as the plane began its descent, waxing lyrical the late Lavy Bakstansky, then secretary of the about her emotions: ‘Can I ever forget the Zionist Federation, and Rev. Reuben Turner, beating of my heart at such a speed that I then director of the Zionist Federation’s thought anyone could see it!’ Synagogue Council, they took the first train back to London. They were met at the station by community leaders, who informed them that Her most vivid memory is of walking with her a huge communal gathering was due to meet at husband through the streets of Jerusalem on the Albert Hall that night, which the Chief Rabbi the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, Tisha was to address. B’Av, which commemorates the destruction of the Temples. It is a day of total desolation, when religious Jews sit on the floor rather than on Jakobovits had only taken office three months chairs, wearing plimsolls and fasting. Yet on that before and when he stood on the platform night they were among 100,000 other Jews who staring at 10,000 people all highly charged and came streaming from every street in Jerusalem, waiting for a response from him, he understood all of them dressed in white, floating like surreal that this moment was his first real emotional Chagal figures towards the Western Wall, which exchange with his community. Amélie will never was illuminated for the first time in over 2,000 forget it. ‘God gave him inspiration that night years. To Amélie it was a divinely inspired and he carried the whole community with him. experience. ‘What was supposed to be the He, as leader, lit the hope of his community that saddest day of the year turned into the most peace would come soon.’ glorious and exciting Yom Tov that you could

In memory of Harav Yisrael ben Eliyahu 9 imagine – an answer to the prayers of our Extracted from “Amélie, The Story of Lady people throughout the world.’ Jakobovits”, p.199-201, Gloria Tessler, Vallentine Mitchell books, London, 1999, ISBN 9780853033417, with kind permission Later memories would be less euphoric and of Stewart Cass of Vallentine Mitchell Publishers. would resonate with the symbolism of the Israeli woman who did not know how to pray. One of Amélie’s most poignant experiences was during a visit to Britain of a group of soldiers wounded in the Yom Kippur War. ‘It so often happened that one of our wounded soldiers would approach the Sefer Torah and ask, “What do I do? I have never been so close before to a Sefer Torah.”

The Six Day War had a dramatic effect on the Jewish community. Fund-raising for Israel reached unprecedented heights and numerous volunteer groups suddenly sprang up as if from nowhere.

Even internally, and particularly in the structure of the Chief Rabbi’s Office, the war left important and permanent marks. At an emergency meeting of rabbis and ministers, the Chief Rabbi announced that he would open an Israel office for the mobilisation and organisation of volunteers and other Israel- related activities.

Rabbi Maurice Unterman of the Marble Arch Synagogue (today the Western Marble Arch Synagogue) offered to take charge of this Israel portfolio, and this was soon followed by other departments being opened within the Chief Rabbi’s office.

In memory of Harav Yitzchak Yoel ben Shlomo Halevi 10 My Yom Kippur Self Checklist by Rabbi Daniel Fine, Community Rabbi, Stanmore & Canons Park United Synagogue

In 2007, The Washington • Where in my life do I make space for God? Post placed Joshua Bell, the world-renowned violinist, in • How have I developed myself over the past a Washington Metro Station. year? His task was to play the same music which he had • Am I a giving person and in what way? played when he filled ’s Symphony Hall (for • Do I have clarity on what I want to achieve? If at least $100 a seat) only three days earlier. This not, how can I take steps to achieve this? time he wore jeans and a t-shirt and modestly placed a hat on the ground front of him for • Do I talk and listen to others well? donations. • If I could change one thing about myself what In the three-quarters of an hour that he played, would it be? seven people stopped what they were doing to take in the performance, at least for a minute. 27 • If I could tell people in 100 years time one gave money, most of them on the run; their thing about my life, what would it be? donations totalled $32, with a few cents change. Approximately 1,070 other people hurried by, • If I were able to have a two-way conversation oblivious to the presence and music of the with God, what would I speak about? celebrated violinist only a few feet away from them. There was never a crowd, not even for a • How have I felt a connection with God over the second. past year?

Much has been written about the above event, • Is there a particular mitzvah that resonates yet on Yom Kippur it has further significance. with me, that I really want to make more of an We are reminded of the importance of stopping effort with? to contemplate the lives we live, rather than rushing along, often oblivious to ‘our • How has my knowledge of Judaism improved surroundings’. The prayers and atmosphere over the past year? of Yom Kippur provide an excellent opportunity. Below are some questions which I find • How can I carve out time for Jewish learning? useful for this purpose. I hope they will be useful for you too. • How do I contribute to my community?

• How have I worked on my relationship with my • Which of my achievements over the past year family? am I most proud of: why? • How do I help to welcome people to shul or • Which of my actions over the past year do I other settings? wish I had done better? • Do I value my private achievements, even the • Where do I feel most fulfilled in my life? ones that nobody sees or knows about?

• How much do I prioritise others over myself?

In memory of Moshe ben Avraham Zarach 11 Black Fire on White Fire: The Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe, Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam by Rabbi Chaim Fachler

The passage below is extracted from the United after liberation that his greatest hour came. In the Synagogue’s and Koren Publications Jerusalem’s displaced persons (D.P.) camps of Germany, rather From Exile Towards Redemption Machzor, for the than allow himself prolonged mourning for his own modern commemorative days of the State of Israel. losses, he went about spiritually and physically rehabilitating young survivors. Rabbi Chaim Fachler, formerly Director of PR at Laniado Hospital, is the Rabbi of the SNAC In 1947, the Rebbe was still living in the community in Netanya and Director of International Foehrenwald D.P. camp. On Erev Yom Kippur there Resource Development at Mayanei Hayeshua was a knock on the door to his room. He went to Medical Centre in . open it and saw a young girl standing there, with tears in her eyes. Rabbi Fachler reflects on lessons about Yom Kippur and the Jewish people that can be drawn from the “Rebbe, every year my father would bless me life of Rabbi Halberstam: before Yom Kippur. My father was burned alive and I have no one to bless me”. Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam was born in 1905 into one of the greatest dynasties of Polish The Rebbe, who had lost all his own children, Chasidim: Sanz. At the age of 22, he became invited the girl to come in and said, “My child, I will Rabbi in Klausenberg, a city on the Romanian- be your father”. Hungarian border (today Cluj, Romania), making him one of the youngest Rabbis of his generation. Holding his hands over her head, he blessed her As the community head, he was known for his with emotion and concentration. The girl left the devotion to the welfare of the poor, so much so Rebbe’s quarters smiling and fortified. A few that the lay leaders of the town were eventually minutes later, a group of forlorn girls came to the forced to give his salary directly to his wife, as he Rebbe’s door. was donating it all to the needy. “We, too, would like to be blessed, Rebbe,” one of By the time World War Two broke out in 1939, he them said. “There is no one to bless us either”. had established a reputation as a Torah scholar and was destined for renown, though his true Once again, with patience and tears, he blessed greatness was to come not through peace but each of the girls. The news spread, and soon through war. Over the next five years, he would orphaned girls from all over the D.P. camp were suffer the extremes of the fate of European Jewry, coming in numbers. The Rebbe blessed every losing his wife, all their eleven children, hundreds single one of them, 87 in all! By the time he had of members of his extended family and most of his finished, he had little time left for any personal beloved students and community. Yet during the preparation. In reality though, the Rebbe felt there long period of slave labour and the hell-fires of could be no better way of preparing for Yom Auschwitz, he remained an incredible symbol of Kippur than to spend the day comforting broken- faith and strength to all those who came into spirited orphans. contact with him. His devotion to mitzvot earned Two years earlier, the D.P. camp was visited by him numerous beatings from the Nazis, none of General Dwight Eisenhower, the Allied Forces’ which deterred him from his determination to serve Supreme Commander (later to become President his Creator anywhere and everywhere. of the United States). He was greatly taken by The Rebbe managed to survive nine months in the the Rebbe’s saintliness. The Rebbe used this Muldorf camp near Dachau without eating non- opportunity to create a personal connection kosher food, trading any food for bread. Yet it was with General Eisenhower which continued for

In memory of Frida Mirel bat Chaim Simcha 12 many years, to the benefit of survivors of the A second was the requirement to pay all staff. A Holocaust. third was to ensure that hospital staff viewed the hospital as a centre to heal both the wounds of the On one occasion, having been offered new boots body and the pain of the soul. Laniado Hospital by his Chasidim in the camp, he replied: “When all today is the only hospital in the Netanya area, a the survivors here have new boots, you can get non-profit community hospital offering its services some for me”. to over 250,000 people, where staff never go on strike and treat every individual regardless of Though it had been the Rebbe’s wish to move to religion, race, or nationality. the Land of Israel, he felt that in the aftermath of the War, he was needed in America and went there The Rebbe also began a wide-scale movement in 1947. But his heart was always turned towards to replace that which had been lost spiritually in Israel and in the late 1950s the Rebbe moved the war. He founded Jewish day schools and there, founding the Kiryat Sanz community in the institutions of higher learning. He launched coastal town of Netanya. At the inauguration he revolutionary programmes for comprehensive said, “Many times I asked myself why I was spared study of the Talmud, creating a programme … only I remain of my family. Today I know clearly called ‘Mifal Hashas’, in which students master that it happened so that I could lay the foundation either 30 or 70 folios of the Talmud each month, stone for Kiryat Sanz in our Holy Land”. for which they sit a written exam.

After years of planning and fundraising, he also Hundreds enrolled in his girls’ schools and the built the famous Sanz-Laniado Medical Centre in Rebbe kept track of each one’s spiritual condition, 1976, fulfilling a vow he had made when seriously listened to each girl’s troubles and gave them wounded during the Death Marches of the all moral support. In particular, he assumed Holocaust. responsibility for finding them suitable spouses. His attitude towards them was so fatherly and “I remember when I was shot in the hand,” the personal that some people regarded his Rebbe once recounted. “I was afraid to go to the achievements in this area as the pinnacle of his Nazi-run clinic, although it had doctors. I knew that activity. the moment I entered that place, I would not come out alive. So what did I do after being shot? When the Rebbe died in 1994, so many people Despite my fear of the Nazis, I found a tree, picked attended his funeral that the city of Netanya was a leaf, and held it tightly over the wound to staunch virtually forced to shut down for the day. But his the bleeding. Then I tore off a branch and tied it legacy of achievements in Netanya, his writings around the wound to hold the leaf in place. With and his inspiration of faith and prayer live on. God’s help, I recovered in three days. At that point, I resolved that if God granted me life and I was healed – for I looked like a walking skeleton, a musselman – and if I left this place and the evil Nazis, then I would build a hospital. It would be founded with doctors and nurses who believed Advert that there is a God in this world. They would know announcing that when they heal a patient, they are doing the that the greatest mitzvah in the Torah”. Klausenberger At the opening, he addressed the staff and said, Rebbe, Rabbi “Our Torah is a Torah of chesed (loving-kindness). Yekutiel Yehuda Our hospital is therefore indeed a Torah Halberstam, institution”. He also printed a series of instructions. was to deliver a One was the need for medical staff to be hired Yom Kippur not only for their medical competence, but also sermon at the for their warmth and concern. They would be Fährenwald DP responsible for fostering an atmosphere of care. Camp, 1945

In memory of David Yochanan ben Moshe 13 The Crescendo that is Neilah by Rabbi (Major) Reuben Livingstone LLM CF, Senior Jewish Chaplain to HM Armed Forces and Chaplain to AJEX

Neilah, meaning ‘the closing would happen when they would go back to of the gates’, is the very final mundane life? chance on Yom Kippur to ask God for forgiveness; as This is a direct parallel to Yom Kippur, the the well-known piyut (poem) anniversary of the giving of the second set of that is part of the Neilah Tablets. It is much easier to make promises and prayers says, “Find for us act righteously on the holiest day of the year. Yet forgiveness at this hour of the shofar reminds us that the Almighty wants to the closing of the gates”. Apart from being the see what we will do ‘when we get home’. culmination of our Yamim Noraim (High Holydays) prayers, Neilah is unique among all However, when Neilah begins, we are not yet other prayers of the year. On all other days the ready for those final shofar blasts. Neilah is our various prayer services are separate from one final chance to confront our imperfections another, but on Yom Kippur, we have an almost honestly and take upon ourselves tangible continuous ‘day of prayer’, with Neilah serving as commitments in order to correct these issues. If the culmination or crescendo. It almost appears we mean it, if we believe in our hearts and minds as if a person who does not pray the other that we will do better, our prayers will make it services could lose the opportunity to pray past those gates before they lock shut. As Neilah. It is not free-standing; it cannot fulfil its another piyut says, “May you merit long years, role on its own. sons and daughters, with joy and gladness (through your teshuva, repentance) at the time of The last moments of Yom Kippur are often very the locking of the gates”. challenging. We may be tired and hungry. The ancient liturgy can seem obscure and we do not We do not have to be instantly perfect – yet always understand the words that we say. Yet Neilah, as the climax of Yom Kippur and the there is also an urgent ‘now or never’ quality to entire Yamim Noraim, demands concrete steps, this time. We must pray for our lives, the lives of honest commitment and the most sincere, our families, of our entire nation – and of the heartfelt prayers of the year. It is the time to pray wider world too. for our lives, which are truly on the line.

At the end of Neilah (or after the Ma’ariv evening This article originally appeared in Daf Hashavua prayers in some communities), we blow the for Yom Kippur 2009 / 5770. shofar. One reason for this is to announce that the Shechina (Divine Presence) is ascending from the Camp of Israel back to Heaven. Another is to celebrate the triumph and joy of a successful Day of Forgiveness.

The shofar was also blown following the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai. God then told Moshe to send the people back to their tents (Devarim 5:27). According to Rabbi (d. 1859), this blast was telling

them that the true test was about to begin. It was

vows. k

relatively easy to stand to attention and submit too and Him to sacrifice to the Divine Presence at Mount Sinai. But what a offered greatly, God feared They : Answer

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