4 August 2018 23 Av 5778 Shabbat ends London 9.39pm 8.13pm

Volume 30 No. 46 Ekev Artscroll p.980 | p.1197 Hertz p.780 | Haftarah p.794 Soncino p.1032 | Haftarah p.1051 Shabbat Mevarechim Rosh Chodesh Elul is next Shabbat and Sunday

In Loving Memory of Barry Taylor z’l (Benyamin Labe ben Pincus) Forever in our hearts and thoughts.

“For the Lord, your God, is bringing you to a good Land… a Land of wheat, barley, grape, fig, and pomegranate; a Land of oil-olives and date-honey” (Devarim 8:7-8). 1 Sidrah Summary: Ekev

1st Aliya (Kohen) – Devarim 7:12-9:10 Mount Sinai. At that time, the tribe of Levi was set Moshe encourages the Israelites to keep God’s apart for its special functions of guarding the Ark commandments. This will allow them to prosper and serving God. in the Land and to be the most blessed of peoples. In the same way that God took them 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 10:12-11:9 out of Egypt, so too He will allow them to defeat Moshe entreats the Israelites to fear and love God the Cana’anite nations. The nation must destroy and to open their hearts to Him. Moshe recalls the the Cana’anites’ idols. Moshe entreats the miraculous Exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the Israelites to remember the 40 years in the desert, Sea of Reeds and the earth swallowing Korach including the challenges involved in eating the and his rebels. manna. God will bring them into a Land with abundant resources, where they will lack nothing. 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 11:10-21 Moshe goes on to say that God always has “His Point to Consider: What is the meaning of the eyes” on the Land of Cana’an. He then tells them word ‘ekev’ in the first verse of the sidrah? (see a passage which we recite twice daily as the Rashi to 7:12) second paragraph of the Shema (see green siddur, p.68). It spells out the benefits of fulfilling 2nd Aliya (Levi) – 8:11-9:3 the commandments and the consequences of Moshe warns the Israelites not to forget God once neglecting them. The mitzvot of tefilin, mezuzah they have entered the Land. They should not fall and studying and are stated. into the trap of thinking they inherited the Land thanks to their own efforts and merits; rather, Question: What produce will the ‘early and late it was God who guided and protected them rains’ allow the people to gather? (11:14) Answer during the years in the desert. Failure to heed this on bottom of page 6. lesson will result in exile from the Land. 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 11:22-25 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 9:4-9:29 Moshe encourages the people to remember their The Israelites should remember that they are a Torah learning and to have a connection with “stiff-necked people” and they are not inheriting Torah scholars (see Rashi). the Land because of their own righteousness. In fact, since leaving Egypt, they repeatedly Haftarah provoked God, initially with the sin of the golden Taken from the book of Yeshaya, this is the second of calf, which Moshe now recalls in detail. He also the seven ‘haftarot of consolation’ read after Tisha reminds them of the sin of the spies. B’Av. Just like a mother will not forget the child of her womb, so too God will never forget the Jews and will 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 10:1-11 avenge those nations who have persecuted them. Moshe describes how he carved two new stone He calls upon the Jews to be a “light unto the tablets, having broken the first set upon seeing the nations”. worship of the golden calf when descending

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2 No Fear by Rabbi David Lister, Edgware United Synagogue

“And now, Israel, what does altogether: an awe-struck awareness of God’s the Lord your God require of power and majesty. you? Simply: • to fear the Lord your God To grasp this, think of something dizzyingly large or powerful: the biggest mountain you have ever • to walk in His ways seen, towering up into the sky, perhaps wreathed • and to love Him in clouds or capped with snow; a jet engine seen close up, so big that it dwarfs the people next to • and to serve the Lord your God with all your it and so powerful that it can thrust the aircraft heart forward at hundreds of miles per hour; a volcanic • and (to serve Him) with all your soul eruption, blasting through the sides of a mighty crater, spewing out countless tons of ash which • to observe the commandments of the Lord hang in the atmosphere for months on end. • and (to observe) His statutes” (Devarim 10:12- 13). Then remember that, however powerful that thing is, it is absolutely insignificant next to God’s power. On the divine scale, the mountain is not This Biblical passage is apt to provoke a wry even a wrinkle on the Earth’s surface. The jet smile. The introductory “simply...” (‘ki im’ in engine is a feeble, wheezing toy and the volcanic Hebrew) seems to be at odds with the seven- eruption is a tiny, gentle breeze. point menu which follows, especially when we see how profound and demanding the requirements are. Furthermore, the first directive Perhaps Moshe is telling us to bear this in mind – fear – seems like a recipe for unhappiness and above all else. The phrase “ki im”, normally anxiety. Is this really what God wants of us? translated as ‘simply’, in this context means ‘nothing but’. Moshe invites us to have ‘nothing but’ God’s supreme power at the forefront of our Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (d. 1888) minds. If we feel the might of His presence in a examines the cantillation of the passage and way that transcends and permeates all other derives a helpful understanding. He points out experiences, then following His commandments that there is a gedola which slows down becomes almost automatic. How can one do the reading for the word ‘fear’, followed by anything but walk in God’s ways, fall in love with v’azla, and , quicker notes that Him and keep His commandments when He is so hurry the reading of the rest of the passage. This, present in every part of our lives? he suggests, indicates that fear is the key to all the other tasks set before us. If we can but fear God, pausing and reflecting on this mindset, all the other ideas which Moshe outlines will cascade out, as unstoppable and inevitable as the way the rest of the passage is sung.

What kind of fear is it that brings about so many other lofty ideals as a natural result? Rabbi Hirsch writes that, rather than referring to panic or terror borne of the prospect of grisly retribution, Moshe is actually recommending something else

In memory of Devorah Bat Avraham 3 Solutions in the Sidrah: Anne Frank’s Final Message by Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum, Hadley Wood Jewish Community

The final entry in Anne what they could achieve ‘if there were no other Frank’s diary, dated 1 August people in the world’. In other words, how they, 1944, was written just three personally, could seek to ensure the fulfilment days before she and her of the mission of the Jewish people in their own family were betrayed to the lives. Nazis. It reads as follows: When we read the diary of Anne Frank we know the meaning of the blank page that follows her “Dearest Kitty, final entry. Yet we also know that is not what the I'm split in two. One side contains my exuberant book is about. It is about a 15-year-old girl trying cheerfulness, my flippancy, my joy in life and, to discover herself and her place within the above all, my ability to appreciate the lighter side inexplicable world that she had been born into. of things… This side of me is usually lying in wait to ambush the other one, which is much purer, Anne never had a chance to find out what she deeper and finer… could and would have become – the future that lay ahead of her. When everybody starts hovering over me, I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning But if there was one thing that Anne Frank would my heart inside out, the bad part on the have wanted people to take from her life and outside and – and keep trying to find a way to diary, to be her legacy, it might have been this become what I'd like to be and what I could be very question: ‘To find out what I could be if only if… if only there were no other people in the there were no other people in the world….’ world. Yours, Anne”. Ultimately, that is a view that the Torah wants us to take as well. In this week’s sidrah, Moshe recounts at length the events surrounding the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. However, at the conclusion of this description, a striking change in his tone occurs. Moshe describes how he remained on the mountain for 40 days and nights, after which God told the people they were to journey towards the Land of Cana’an (Israel).

Yet the next verse opens with a very personal question: “Now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you?” (Devarim 10:12). In the context of the description of the momentous events that occurred to the entire nation, this question is notable for the way in which it directly shifts the focus to every individual member of the Jewish people. It is almost as if it asks them to consider, like Anne’s final question, Anne Frank at school in Amsterdam, 1940

In memory of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Yaakov ben Harav Nata Gershon 4 Arguments for the Sake of Heaven: Part 4 by Rabbi Garry Wayland, Living & Learning Educator

“From Moshe to Moshe, presented the entirety of Jewish law in a clear, there was none like Moshe”. ordered manner. Written in 14 books, it covers This epitaph, describing what the Rambam understood to be basics of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon Jewish law as it is lived every day, as well as (Maimonides, usually known Jewish law as it is to be lived in the time of the by his initials Rambam), Messiah, with a functioning Temple in the Land reflects his almost unique of Israel. stature. Like the biblical Moshe, the Rambam stood alone. In compiling his work, the Rambam gave only his rulings, but did not quote those whom he Born in Spain in 1135 during the Golden Age, the disagreed with. Moreover, he did not provide Rambam and his family experienced the rising of sources or reasoning for why he decided one the Almohads; they subsequently chose exile way over another in halachic disputes. He also over forced conversion or death. Eventually claimed that studying this work, in addition to settling in Egypt after sojourns in Morocco and knowledge of the Tanach (), would Israel, the Rambam rose to prominence as a suffice for a full knowledge of the Oral Torah. rabbi, philosopher and doctor, leading the Jewish people through his writings and interventions in The Raavad (Rabbi Avraham ben David, c.1125- communal matters. He also became the doctor 1198, Posquières) was a critic of the Rambam’s to the Sultan of Egypt. halachic approach, and his hasagot, marginal criticisms, have been printed alongside the text Of the Rambam’s many works, two in particular of the Mishneh Torah since the 16th century. were revolutionary, and therefore inevitably drew Commenting on the Rambam’s introduction, the criticism and controversy. Moreh Nevuchim, the Raavad says that the Rambam, “attempted to fix, Guide to the Perplexed, was written in c. 1190 in but did not do so, as he has forsaken the path of Arabic. It is the main reference point for many of all authors who preceded him: they brought proof the Rambam’s philosophical views, a central part to their words and quoted by name their of which attempts to reconcile the Torah with sources… Why should I rely upon his ruling when Aristotelian philosophy. The Rambam also takes it does not appear fitting, and I do not know who a rationalist approach to many areas of Torah, the detracting opinion is?” including miracles, the nature of angels and prophecy. Whilst the Rambam may have sparked controversy, his works opened up entirely new After being translated into Hebrew, the work was vistas of Torah study, which continue to engage the subject of bitter and acrimonious arguments students and scholars to this day. about reconciling tradition with philosophy, and rationalism with mysticism. The arguments reached their unfortunate zenith when the Rambam’s manuscripts were seized and burned by Dominicans in 1232; although whether there was direct Jewish involvement is unclear. Nevertheless Rabbi Yonah of Geronda is reported to have written his famous work Sha’arei Teshuva (Gates of Repentance) in response to his part in the controversy.

Mishneh Torah, written in 1180, was a unique work of Jewish law, in which the Rambam Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (1135-1204)

In memory of Shmuel Nissim ben Yaacov 5 Shabbat Morning: The Need for Connection by Rebbetzen Shuli Liss, Highgate United Synagogue

A few years ago, in a group this world. However, He is hidden behind the discussion about shul, we mask of creation and it is our task to uncover that spoke about why people mask and connect to Him. come to shul and what they gain from the experience. It Through prayer, we can make that connection. was surprising to see that The Talmud (Taanit 2a) refers to prayer as the amongst the many different “work of the heart”. It is indeed work – as the answers given as to why average attention span of an adult nowadays people want to come to shul – sense of is estimated at only 14 minutes, it can be very community, friendship and volunteering difficult to concentrate and focus. Therefore, opportunities – prayer was not mentioned. Why? we need the motivation and the awareness that God is a) listening and b) capable of helping. Perhaps this is because the prayers are in There is no point talking to a brick wall or to a Hebrew and not everyone is familiar with the good friend who is unable to help at all. language. It is hard to speak to Someone (God, who we cannot see) in a language that we may In the prayer Adon Olam, said at the end of the not understand. In addition, beyond language, the Shabbat service, God’s greatness is described prayers were composed by the Men of the Great vividly: "He was, He is, He will be... He is my Assembly who possessed Divine wisdom and banner and my refuge" (see green siddur, p. 465). knew the power of each word in our prayers. Yet, in the 21st century, we may feel unable to tap into It can be hard to imagine this when we cannot that wisdom, without first taking a deeper look at see Him. If you had an audience with the Queen, the text. you would value the opportunity. By teaching us to recite these words, the Sages are enabling us In this series, we will discuss a few concepts to remind ourselves of the reality that God is our about prayer in general and also learn about the all-powerful friend who loves us even more than specific words we recite in the Shabbat prayers. we love ourselves, and is always waiting for us to talk to Him. People are created with a need to connect and love. According to the psychologist Abraham Maslow (d. 1970), these feelings are part of our hierarchy of needs, along with water, food, and the need to feel secure and safe.

We want to be loved unconditionally. We want to be cared for. We don't want to be judged unfairly and we want to be understood fully. Beyond that, we want our friends to always be there for us, and to have the power to help us when we fall and when we fail. Obviously, no human being can always fulfil such a challenging role, but there is Someone who can.

God loves us unconditionally. He created us and

knows all our thoughts and feelings, and He has the power to change anything and everything in oil and wine grain, Answer:

In memory of David Yochanan ben Moshe 6