VOLUME 3 • ISSUE 4 תשרי תשפ"א TORAT ERETZ YISRAEL • PUBLISHED IN JERUSALEM • DISTRIBUTED AROUND THE WORLD OCTOBER 2020 UK EDITION LONDON WITH GRATEFUL THANKS TO THE FOUNDING SPONSORS OF HAMIZRACHI – THE LAMM FAMILY OF MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon examines the case of benching lulav on Shabbat PAGE 8 Rabbanit Rachelle Fraenkel on how to enjoy the here and now... forever PAGE 21 Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks teaches us how to live with uncertainty PAGE 18 Rabbanit Shani Taragin offers consolation for Coronavirus PAGE 7 Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski explains why specifically Sukkot and Kohelet PAGE 17 Simchat Torah Sivan Rahav Meir INSIDE: and Yedidya Meir AN ISRAELI IN DUBAI PAGE 48 with eight thoughts for the sukkah THE WORLD OF ETROGIM PAGE 22 YOUR GUIDE TO THE HOSHANOT PAGE 32 PAGE 10 This edition is sponsored by Emma-Jane & Elliot Weider with hakarat hatov to the staff of Israeli yeshivot and seminaries who have worked tirelessly to make this year’s learning happen for overseas students TORAT MIZRACHI Rabbi Andrew Shaw www.mizrachi.org [email protected] +972 (0)2 620 9000 CHAIRMAN Reasons to Mr. Harvey Blitz CHIEF EXECUTIVE Rabbi Doron Perez Rejoice lobally, simcha seems to be once, somewhere in the oceans of the very far from humanity at the primordial Earth. Biologists call this moment, with the coronavirus one-time event ‘The Fateful Encounter,’ still spreading. and it suggests that complex life requires PUBLISHED BY THE MIZRACHI WORLD MOVEMENT G a good dose of random chance. EDITORIAL TEAM One of the main differences between Daniel Verbov this outbreak and pandemics of yes- The Big Bang, the moment when the Esther Shafier teryear is that now, due to science, we Universe came into being, seems like CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jonny Lipczer know exactly what is causing the infec- the greatest chance event in the story of GRAPHIC DESIGN tions and deaths. human existence. At the Big Bang, the Hadas Peretz ingredients of the Universe were created During the Black Death, when 25 mil- PRODUCTION AND ADVERTISING MANAGER – a set of numbers, called constants of lion people died, there was no under- Meyer Sterman nature, such as the speed of light, the [email protected] standing of germs or infection. Some of strength of gravity, and the number of the reasons given at the time included HaMizrachi seeks to spread Torat Eretz Yisrael throughout dimensions of space. Remarkably, these the world. HaMizrachi also contains articles, opinion pieces the movements of the planets, a punish- and advertisements that represent the diversity of views and numbers seem to be just right for our interests in our communities. These do not necessarily reflect ment from G-d, bad smells, corrupt air, any official position of Mizrachi or its branches. Universe to contain life. If they were just enemies who had poisoned the wells, If you don’t want to keep HaMizrachi, you can double-wrap it a little bit different, it might quickly col- before disposal, or place it directly into sheimos. staring at a victim and wearing pointed lapse, or not contain the right chemical shoes! elements, or stars and planets might not Science has endowed us with tremen- form. So is there a reason that we seem dous knowledge and insights about our to have won the cosmic lottery? world yet in many ways it has decided Surely the incredible ‘coincidences’ sci- there is no more need for G-d and ence has discovered points to a Divine religion. www.mizrachi.org.uk creator. Yet here we are simply told it is [email protected] “In the beginning, people believed in ‘random chance’ and a ‘cosmic lottery.’ 020 8004 1948 many gods. Monotheism came and Why? What scares us from believing? PRESIDENT reduced them to one. Science came and There is no need to detach our scientific Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis reduced them to none” (Rabbi Sacks, brain from our faith. CHAIR OF TRUSTEES Radical Then, Radical Now). Steven Blumgart During Sukkot, we journey into a CHIEF EXECUTIVE A few years ago, Brian Cox, the phys- rickety shack, look up at the stars and Rabbi Andrew Shaw icist, wrote a wonderful blog on the deeply understand that we are here for BOARD BBC website about how our existence a reason; that Hashem has created this Michelle Bauernfreund depends on an apparently unlikely universe and we are all here with a pur- Matti Fruhman pose, with a responsibility. Grant Kurland sequence of cosmic moments: Sean Melnick For a billion years, the only life on Earth Z’man Simchateinu at its core is simply David Morris Alex Pfeffer was single cells. Then something hap- to realise who we are and what we can Sammy Rubin pened which created the template for achieve, regardless of the current pre- all complex life. Two single cells merged dicament, and to place our faith not in finite humans but in an infinite G-d. As HAMIZRACHI together. They got inside each other and, Kohelet reminds us, “The end of the DEDICATION OPPORTUNITIES instead of dying, formed a kind of hybrid, which survived and proliferated. And matter, everything having been heard, If you would like to dedicate an issue of because every animal and plant today fear G-d and keep His commandments, HaMizrachi in memory of a loved one for this is the entire Man.” or in celebration of a simcha, please shares the same basic building block – send an email to [email protected] the same type of cell structure – we are Rabbi Andrew Shaw is Chief Executive of very confident that this only happened Mizrachi UK. 2 | Cover photo: Sharon Gabay TORAT MIZRACHI Rabbi Andrew Shaw Rabbi Doron Perez Celebrating Vulnerability here is no more intense feeling people and caused almost one million The author of the haunting Unetaneh of vulnerability than over the deaths, with over 1,000 in Israel, partic- Tokef prayer captures this sense of Yamim Noraim – The Days of ularly affecting the elderly and infirm. human transience and vulnerability TAwe. The very name conjures up trepi- Waves of widespread sickness continue with some powerful imagery: “like a dation for the Great Days of Judgement, and the situation seems far from under broken shard, like dried grass, like a when the world in general, and our lives control. COVID has profoundly altered faded flower, like a fleeting shadow, like in particular, hang in the balance. The our religious, social, financial and com- a passing cloud, like a breath of wind, image is powerfully captured in the munal lives and an inescapable feeling like whirling dust, like a dream that slips Mishna that says every creature passes of vulnerability hangs over us almost away.” before G-d to be judged, one at a time, every day. All these images describe the tenuous and humanity’s fate is determined over fabric of the human condition. Grass, these days.1 Vulnerability is linked to a lack of con- trol. When we think we are in control of flowers, shadows, clouds, dust... all are susceptible to external elements that This sense of vulnerability is particu- our lives, we feel things are stable, pre- can dry them up, blow them away or larly acute this year, as we embark on dictable and permanent. The moment make them disappear in the blink of an 5781. Each of us continues to experience we lose control, we begin to feel the eye. Their predicament is volatile and the unthinkable reality of how a tiny uneasy sense of instability, unpredict- unstable and their similarity to our own microscopic virus has wreaked such ability and transience. We are now fragility is strikingly all too close. havoc in almost every single corner vulnerable. Things can change for the of the earth. Over the last 10 months, worse in a moment and life, G-d forbid, Because the stark truth is that the this invisible foe has infected 30 million can cease in an instant. vicissitudes of life guarantee we will Continued on page 4 | 3 TORAT MIZRACHI Continued from page 3 profoundly encounter this existential theme, the species which degenerates unpredictability and purpose in seem- reality at different times in our lives. the quickest, the willow, forms the cen- ing chaos. This allows us to transform terpiece of our prayers on the final day our perspective and trust that the Somber? Most definitely. Depressing? of Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah. And the Almighty knows what He is doing. Not at all. megillah we read on Sukkot is Kohelet, which focuses on this very same theme Such is the transcendent power of faith The festivals of the month of Tishrei and belief. It is for this very reason the offer a strong spiritual response to this of life being vulnerable and transient while celebrating its inherent joy. Zohar calls the sukkah “tzila deme- unavoidable vulnerability. Yes, we do himenuta,” the shadow (or shade) of have an inevitable fear and concern, What happened here? How did the faith. Nothing is more temporary and awe and trepidation over the Yamim very feeling which provoked such con- transient than a shadow. It has no exis- Noraim – we are being judged and our cern, anxiety and trepidation suddenly tence of its own and can disappear in a fate is being decided. morph into joyous national celebration? moment. Nevertheless, our temporary But this is only part of the story. sukkah is the shadow cast by the most The answer is two-fold: the power of permanent reality of life – G-d, the Cre- When we fully accept our vulnerability acceptance and the power of Faith. ator and Sustainer of all Life.