Yomim Noraim 5781
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Clilei Torah Volume 6 Yamim Noraim 5781 Young Israel of Greater Cleveland Beachwood Branch 2463 South Green Road Beachwood, Ohio 44122 Phone (216) 382-5740 E-Mail: [email protected] Hebrew Academy Branch 1860 South Taylor Road Cleveland Heights, OH 44118 Rabbi Naphtali Burnstein, Rabbi Rabbi Aharon Dovid Lebovics, Associate Rabbi (Hebrew Academy) Jeffrey Belkin, President Production Team Sarah Rudolph, Editor Rabbi Moshe Berger, Scholar-in-Residence Kenny Fixler, KF Graphics, Cover Esther Frayda Safrin, EF Graphic Innovations, Cover Design Scott Wolfson, Eveready Printing Clilei Torah of Cleveland 2 Table of Contents Rabbi’s Message..……………..……………………………………………………………….…4 Editor’s Note.……………………………………………………………………………………….5 Sponsors .……………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Articles The Avos and Overcoming Death Jeffrey M. Albert ………………………..……………………………………………………..………7 The Surprising Importance of the Ketoret Offering Rabbi Yehuda Appel ………………………..………………………………………………………21 The First Five Verses of Kerias Shema: Counter-Intuitive Readings Rabbi Moshe Berger .………………………..……………………………………………………..26 For Hashem’s Sake Rabbi Naphtali Burnstein ..……………………………………………………………….………31 Melancholy, Music, & Monarchs: “Ruach” in the Story of Shaul & David Alan and Sarah Goldman ……………………………………………………………………….…32 Refrigerators on Shabbos Moshe Gottlieb …………..……………………………….……………………………………..…..36 Is Teshuva a Mitzvah? Michael Kurin ………….…………………………………..……………………………..………… 42 Kiddush Levanah: Lessons from the Moon Moshe Prero ……….………………………………………………………………………………..…51 We are His, and He is Ours Sarah Rudolph …….………………………………………………………………………………..…56 What in the World Was Zimri Thinking? Shmuel Stern …………………….………………………………………………….………………...61 From Our Youth The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Calev Kahn ……….………………………………………………………………………………….....68 What is a Name? Avigayil Rudolph ………………………………………………………………………………………70 Yamim Noraim 2020 / 5781 • Volume 6 3 essae ro te Rabbi Often, we thin of Ro Hashanah and om ppu in em of e ast, beue e e beng udge o ou p deed. oeve i is impor o emembe ou Yom Hadin is ot on e last ay o the ye u on e r day. Teshuva involes oth looking e ast, o eognize d ree ou sin d looking e o e uue a e eolve o o ete. The past months ave een lleing n many way u ou ul has ome ogehe to emain ong ommunity unie y Torah and avodas Hashem. Eve en e ouldn’ ute physiclly we wee le o maintain scheule o leing togehe, n we re prou o peen thi orah ournl o ou membe d es eminde o ho orah leing an e shae eve e e are ap. Wi ee ord of orah n and we look e o e oming yer and en ha we will e able to oin ogehe ully e soon. Than you o ll e ers o e eorts, ell o Rabbi Moe ee and rah uolph o bringing e ord o ll o us. el than ou as ell to ou eeous sponors, o made ossible o podue this euful orah ournal. e loo ahe to ou uue d make ne resolutons, urge ll ou membe o onside contributing o thouht o e upoming monly iue o Clilei HaChodesh ell nex er’ orah ournl. M e o om chayil o chayil, om se o reng ogehe, o many ye o ome. Shanah tovah. Rabbi Natai urstein Clilei Torah of Cleveland 4 Editor’s Note One should take leave of another only in the context of a matter of halakha, so that in that context, he will remember him. (Beracho 1a) Several months o e l oo leav o one other somewhat suddenly, perhaps thout nce o ar wi word o rah Yet, throughou mon o intens istanc etween u we ave manag nonetheles to aintain meaningful nnections in in with mara’ sdom, remembering other ugh rah learning online, o he hone, outside – and throug u Clilei publications Thi ear mor than any ther, ne it most, Clilei Torah of Cleveland represents powe o Torah o ni community Our writers have provid us best possibl contexts in ch thin othe onnect Rabbi ei apiro oquentl express this potential o Torah learning serv unifying rce wh present id fo af Yomi in 1923 ew travels…15 ays rom Ere srael to Americ d ay h learn the daf When e iv in meri he beis medrash … and nd ew earning very same daf that studied on day, and gladly oins them Ano Jew eav and vel o razil Japan d fir go to the beis medrash h finds everyon learning same daf himsel earn that d Could b greate unity o ear than s? (Translation from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daf_Yomi) Wherever are – wheth w are l to tend hul or not, whether in eveland, n etz Yisrael n il, o i Japan – the though shared here represent on or Torah scend hysical istance and nd oge wherever Than ou to writer o thei tremendous effort amid andemic; to sponso o eir crucial support; and o all h memb YIGC fo ing in orah no atte wha Please contact i er o m to contribute o upcomin edition f Clilei HaChodesh and/or to nex ear’ volume f Clilei Torah. Shana tova! Sar C. dolph Yamim Noraim 2020 / 5781 • Volume 6 5 osors Jeff and Jane Belkin Dr. Mark and Mrs. Miriam Berkowitz In memory of ark's ther, rahm ben Yechesel eh eib Ezzie Goldish and Atara Engel Alan and Lisa Schabes Ronnie & Alizza Shulman In ono of ou parents Warren & Marlene Sobol Kol Hakavod o bbi ee and he wrie Meir and Deborah Pollack In memory of Meir’s mother, Mrs. Phyllis Pollack Ira and Barbara Taub Mike and Sandi Kaplan Shaya & Tamara Lempel In memory of Tm's her, srael en undel z"l Clilei Torah of Cleveland 6 e Avos and Oeroig eath effrey M. lbert1 he Gemorah ractate earim 64b) lists four sitations in hich a person is considere as if dea. mong these are childlessness, blindness, and overty. he fourth, hich e ill not consider here, as it is no longer manifeste in our ay, is tzaraas. hese three afflictions hae a connection to the Avos, as each of the three Avos was, at least temporarily, sected to one of them. amely, Avraham sffere from childlessness, itzhak became blind, an aakov eperience overty. he aove emorah may be tie to a statement in Pirkei Avos 4:28 that says three things remove us from this orld: kin’ah (ealousy), ta’avah (hysical desire), an kavod esire for honor, or one might say arrogance. e ill suggest that these three ‘sins’ represent root causes of the three ailments haal analogize to death, an that they can e linked resectively to the three Avos of course, at their lofty leel. 2 he orah shos us how each of the Avos corrected his articlar stle neative midah, and therey overcame the corresonding malady reresentative of eath. s can e inferre by its contet, the ‘death’ referred to in the emorah is a sirital eath. hs, it is this – sirital eath – over hich the Avos ere ictorios. 1 effrey M. Albert, Ph.. is a professor of Biostatistics at ase estern Reserve niersity. Originally from Los Angeles, eff also reside in nn rbor, Michigan for gradate school) an Rockville, Marylan where he orke at the ational Instittes of Health efore moing to leeland. He lies in niersity Heihts ith his ife, Tamar Leah, an granaughter, ebecca. Thanks o to abi Moshe erger and arah Rolh for their helful suggestions an encouraement howeer, the author takes responsibility for any inaccuracies in this aer. A ortion of this analysis as preiously rinted in Clilei HaChodesh, Iyar . 2 Although there are ifferent aproaches to ealin ith aarent flaws in our Avos and other heroes of the orah, one traition, represented y numerous commentators from the emorah to the present day, seeks to acknowledge and learn from their limitations. As expressed by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, “The Torah never hides from us the faults, errors and weaknesses of our great men. Just by that it gives the stamp of veracity to what it relates… Were they without passion, without internal struggle, their virtues would seem to us the outcome of some higher nature… no model that we could hope to emulate. It may never be our task to whitewash the spiritual and moral heroes of our past… They do not require our apologies, nor do such attempts become them…” Recognizin the flaws an challenes of the Avos can lea s to een reater apreciation of their reatness. Yamim Noraim 2020 / 5781 • Volume 6 7 Avraham Difficulty ith conceiving is a common theme in the humash and, in fact, throughout the Tanach. hile it is particularly rife among the mahos, the Avos specifically, Araham and itha also had this problem. haal explain (Yeamos 6a) that Hashem afflicted his most beloved tzaddikim in this manner in order to induce them to pray. We can also see the connection beteen childlessness and prayer in the humash; for example, hen itha daened prayed due to this problem (ereishis 25:21. hile itha had a temporary bout of barrenness, it as Araham Ainu ho had the most notable association ith childlessness. t as a problem that he repeatedly took up ith Hashem. “hat can you give me, being that I go childless?” (ibid. 152. “Then Abram said, ‘See, to me you have given no offspring and see, my steward inherits me’” (15:3). Rashi suggests one anser, from the emorah, as to hy Araham in particular was so long afflicted by this problem. hen Hashem commanded Araham to leae his birthplace for retz anaan (“Lech lecha”), He promised that there “ will mae of you a great nation” (Ber. 122, indicating that “here, you do not merit having children” Rosh Hashanah 16b). his suggests that Avraham needed to correct himself in some manner, hether simply by moving to retz anaan or by dealing ith some deeper issue.