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Shlach: United We Stand; Many Families Are Itching to Go Divided We Fall Somewhere – Anywhere

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Shlach: United We Stand; Many Families Are Itching to Go Divided We Fall Somewhere – Anywhere בס"ד שבת פ' שלח לך Shabbat Shelach Lecha Issue Number 957 כ״ח בסיון תש״פ - Sat. 19 - 20 Jun. 2020 - 28th of Sivan, 5780 מברכין החודש Mevarchin Hahodesh ראש חודש תמוז ביום שני ושלישי 22-23 יוני. .Rosh Hodesh Tamuz on Mon. & Tue. 22-23 Jun Shabbat Candles. 21:07 Latest Shema GRA. 8:52 Sunset. 21:09 Arbit Motzei Shabbat. 22:36 Mincha & Arbit. Next Friday: Candles. Shabbat. Korach 20:58 THE SYNAGOGUE IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE For further information please contact: Rabbi Asher Sebbag:- 07732 731786, Ghassan Cohen:- 07989 387881, Adel Darwish:- 07970 299077 or David Gigi:-07722 207307 Shahrit Sunday to Friday on ZOOM at 07:30 Please call Ghassan to join the sevice Daf Hayomi with Rabbi Asher Sebbag on ZOOM Sunday to Thursday at 18:00, Friday at 17:00 Please call Ghassan or David to join the Shiur can finally leave our homes. Shlach: United We Stand; Many families are itching to go Divided We Fall somewhere – anywhere. Did you knowthat in this Shlach 5780 (Numbers 13-15) week’s Torah reading we find the Jun 15, 2020 | by Rabbi Yitzchak Zweig GOOD MORNING! As the first use of the word “tour”? In world continues to slowly open this week’s portion, Moses sends up, we are confronted by the out twelve “spies” to explore the reality that we suddenly find land of Israel and bring back a ourselves in summer. reconnaissance report to the Summertime is the time generally Jewish people. The Torah calls ”to tour – לתור“ set aside for travel and touring, so this exploration now’s the time to consider what the land; quite literally the same we would like to do now that we DESIGNED & PRINTED BY: DAVID GIGI – 07722 207 307 - any query call Ghassan Cohen 07989 387 881 word in both languages. Thus, to positions of leadership when the tour really means to explore. nation entered the land of Israel. I am reminded of the joke Only Joshua, son of Nun, and about the tourist who drives along Caleb, son of Yefuneh, refused to the shore of the Dead Sea and participate. The twelve spies spots a fisherman with his rod spent forty days investigating the casting his line into the water. The land of Israel and upon their tourist, surprised, stops and tries return the ten conspirators twisted to explain in his broken Hebrew to much of what they observed into the fisherman that no fish can a very negative narrative about possibly live in the Dead Sea. The the land. fisherman says, “Actually, there Facts can be interpreted in a are fish here. For ten dollars, you number of ways. Invariably, when may sit next to me and I will show one has an agenda to promote, one you.” way or another the facts will The curious tourist paid the support whatever position one is $10 and waited patiently. After an trying to establish. Unfortunately, hour, the tourist says, “Hey, we see this constantly from even a where are the fish? And by the casual observation of the different way, how many fish did you catch news media outlets. Liberal and today?” The fisherman answers, conservative media outlets rarely “You are number six.” agree as to what is truly newsworthy, however, on the rare This week’s Torah reading occasion that they do, somehow recounts the tragic episode of the the same event manages to twelve spies who were sent by support their own narrative of Moses and the Jewish people to liberal or conservative fiction. reconnoiter the land of Israel and Honest and impartial reporting of to produce a report on the land the news hasn’t been a reality in a and its inhabitants. According to very long time. Jewish tradition, ten of the twelve spies conspired as a group to So, it should come as no slander the land of Israel. surprise that 3,300 years ago the According to some opinions, they ten spies used the same device to were motivated to do so by the promote their agenda. Here is fear that they would lose their what the Torah recounts: DESIGNED & PRINTED BY: GHASSAN & DAVID - 07722 207307 And Moses sent them to spy out (According to the Talmud they the land of Canaan, and said to had observed many funerals and them; “Explore the land, what it concluded that the land kills her is, and observe the people who inhabitants. In truth, God wanted live in it, whether they are strong them to be able to travel or weak, few or many. Examine unhindered and without being the land that they live in, whether observed so He set about it is good or bad; and the cities in distracting the inhabitants.) which they live, whether in open Many of the facts were encampments, or in fortresses. woven together to create a And what the land is, whether it is narrative that entering the land of fat or lean, whether there is wood Israel was a suicide mission. As in it, or not. Have good courage much as Joshua and Caleb tried to and bring back some of the fruits dissuade the people from buying of the land” (Numbers 13:17-20). into the negative portrayal of the According to Jewish land, they were unable to do so. tradition, much of what they The Jewish people reacted with observed they turned into a horror and desperation and started negative narrative. They started wailing loudly – and quite positively enough by talking astonishingly – concluded that about a land flowing with milk they were better off appointing a and honey and they showed off new leader and returning to the very impressive fruits that Egypt! they brought back. Unsurprisingly, God was But, they cautioned, the very displeased and decreed that inhabitants of the land are very entirety of the nation would strong and are living in fortified wander in the desert for forty cities. In order to frighten the years (one year for every day that nation, they highlighted that the spies spent in the land) until enemy nations lived nearby; the entire generation died out. including one, the Amalekites, This happened on the 9th of Av, who had viciously attacked them and according to tradition God the previous year. They recounted declared, “You cried on this night seeing scary giants and that the for no reason. I will give you a land devours its inhabitants. DESIGNED & PRINTED BY: GHASSAN & DAVID - 07722 207307 reason to cry forevermore on this readers: The number ten that is the day.” minimum number needed to The 9th of Av is now the create a quorum for a “minyan” – anniversary of some of the most i.e. the minimum number of men horrible things that have that comprises a “prayer happened in Jewish history congregation“ – was actually including the destruction of derived from the story of the BOTH temples. Countless other spies. Of course one may, and is tragic events also occurred on that in fact encouraged, to pray at any day, such as on the 9th of Av in time – even while alone. But there 1492 when all Jews of Spain were are certain aspects of the prayer designated to leave the country. service, such as reading from the Torah, that can only be done in a In 1914, World War I broke th congregational setting of a out on the 9 of Av when valid minyan. Germany declared war on Russia. This totally disrupted the Jewish The Babylonian communities living between those Talmud (Megillah 23b), using countries and eventually set the the laws of exegesis passed down stage for the soon-to-come from Moses, extrapolates the Holocaust. On the 9th of Av in minimum requirement for a 1942, the mass deportation of congregation. We find in Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto Leviticus, “And I shall be began, sending them to Treblinka. sanctified in the midst of the The destruction of Warsaw, with children of Israel” (22:32). The its massive infrastructure of same word also appears in the Jewish learning and huge Jewish verse: “Separate yourselves from population, has been likened to the midst of the destruction of the Temple in the congregation” (Numbers 16: Jerusalem. There are many other 21). aspects to the 9th of Av and we This word, “eidah – will discuss them further in a few congregation” is found as the weeks, as the date draws nearer. description of the group of ten But here is a fact that is spies who rendered a negative generally unknown and will report on the land of Israel: “How probably come as a shock to most long shall I bear with this DESIGNED & PRINTED BY: GHASSAN & DAVID - 07722 207307 evil congregation which murmur So too here. Even though against me?” (Numbers 14:27). what the ten spies did was horrific Hence, the Talmud derives from and led to the death of the entire here that to sanctify God in a generation over the next forty congregation – the congregation years, they were working together must consist of at least 10 men. in unison. We learn from them Obviously, this needs an that the defining aspect of a explanation. How is it possible or congregation is to be unified. That even appropriate, to learn from is the ultimate definition of what these self-serving conspirators we are to expect from our that the minimum requirement for congregations and – by extension a congregation is ten men for a – from our Jewish communities. valid quorum? In this way, we can bring a sense of pride to the Almighty that His I once heard my father give children are all working together.
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