MIKVEH ISRAEL RECORD 24 Tammuz 5772 Shabbat Pinhas July 13-14, 2012
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MIKVEH ISRAEL RECORD 24 Tammuz 5772 Shabbat Pinhas July 13-14, 2012 Parashah: In this week's parashah, after the sin of Baal-Peor, G-d announced that because Pinhas had displayed his passion for G-d, G-d granted Pinhas Shabbat Services G-d's covenant of peace and priesthood for all time. G-d then told Moses to Candlelighting: 8:11 P.M. attack the Midianites to repay them for their trickery luring Israelite men to Friday Night Service: 7:15 P.M. worship Baal-Peor. Shabbat Morning Service: 9:00 A.M. G-d instructed Moses and Eleazar to take a census of Israelite men 20 years Shabbat Ends: 9:11 P.M. old and up, and Moses and Eleazar ordered it done. The census finds 601,730 men between the ages of 20 and 60. G-d instructed Moses on how the Land FROM THE RABBI is to be divided by lottery among the tribes and families of Israel. The Levi'im By Rabbi Albert E. Gabbai men aged a month old and up amounted to 23,000, and they were not included in the regular enrollment of Israelites, as they were not to have land The following is the explanation of some of the Minhagim of assigned to them. The only persons whom Moses and Eleazar counted that Tish'a Be'Ab (TBA) we do at KKMI: were counted in the first census at the wilderness of Sinai, were Caleb and The reason we call the Three Weeks (between the 17th of Joshua. Tammuz and Tish'a Be'Ab) "Yeme Ben Hametsarim" is The daughters of Zelophehad approached Moses, Eleazar, the chieftains, and because it is written in Ekha 1:3, "Her (Jerusalem's) pursuers the assembly at the entrance of the Tabernacle, saying that their father left caught up with her "Ben Hametsarim". On the 17th of Tammuz no sons, and asking that they be given a land holding. Moses brought their the walls of Jerusalem were breached and on the 9th of Ab the case before G-d, who told him that their plea was just and instructed him to Temple was destroyed. Hence the name for the three weeks, transfer their father's share of land to them. G-d further instructed that if a Ben Hametsarim. man died without leaving a son, the property was to transfer to his daughter, The reason we read during the fast of TBA from the section in or failing a daughter to his brothers, or failing a brother to his father's Parashat Va'et'hannan "Ki tolidu Banim" is because of the brothers, or failing brothers of his father to the nearest relative. severity of the day. We recall the transgressions that the Children of Israel committed and the consequences that came G-d told Moses to climb the heights of Abarim and view the Land of Israel, or will come out of it. Otherwise we would have read the saying that when he had seen it, he would die, because he disobeyed G-d's passage of Vayehal Moshe of Parashat KiTissa as we do in all command to uphold G-d's sanctity in the people's sight when he brought other public fasts (except Kippur). That is why in Minha we water from the rock in the wilderness of Zin. Moses asked G-d to appoint read this last passage because it contains someone over the community, so that the people would not be like sheep G-d's thirteen attributes of mercy. This is very appropriate without a shepherd. G-d told Moses to single out Joshua, lay his hand on him, since at the time of Minha of TBA we recite the Nehamot, and commission him before Eleazar and the whole community. Joshua was to verses of consolation. present himself to Eleazar the priest, who was to seek the decision of the Urim and Thummim on whether to go out or come in. There is a Minhag (a custom) that the same three people called to the Torah in the morning of TBA are the same who The parashah ends with a listing of all the offerings for regular days, the are called also on Minha of TBA. The reason being is that Sabbath, Rosh Hodesh, Passover, Shabuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, when they were called in the morning they did not receive the and Shemini Atzeret. blessing of MiShebarakh and in the afternoon, the time of consolations, they will receive that blessing. You will notice that it is our Minhag not to give a Misheberakh blessing in the Parashat Pinhas (Dibre) has 168 verses morning of TBA to those called to the Torah. Haftarat Pinhas (Dibre) has 22 verses It is a Sephardic Minhag to read the scroll of Ekha both in the Sefer HaHinukh: Parashat Pinhas (Dibre) contains 6 Mitzvot. evening and in the morning of TBA, while in other communities Street Address it is read only in the evening. Those who read it only in the Suite 555 evening follow what is written in Ekha itself 1:2 Bakho Tibkeh This City,week's State Haftarah 55555 is from Jeremiah and will be read by Dr. Jonathan Kaye. www.webaddress.com Balayla, "You will surely cry in the night." However, the If you would like to deliver a Devar Torah on a special Shabbat, please talk Talmud says that we lament with dirges both in the evening to RabbiE: [email protected] Gabbai or call the office, 215-922-5446. and the day. So, some read Ekha in the evening and dirges in P: 555-555-5555 the morning and the Sepharadim read Ekha in the evening and M: 555-555-5555 F: 555-555-5555 the morning in addition to dirges. Mikveh Israel Record 1 Continued on page 3. The Origin of the name "Mikveh Israel" By Dr. Andrew Gluck We have all heard Rabbi Gabbai expound upon the (continued from previous column) name of our congregation and its origin in Jeremiah, denoting God as the "hope of Israel." We have also London and the American colonies. heard him warn us that it has little or nothing to do with the words "mikveh" or "mikvah," as when they denote Sometime before the year 1650, Menasseh ben Israel, collections, particularly of water in a ritual bath for a famous rabbi of Amsterdam, wrote the equally purposes of purification. This of course is true but I often famous book entitled Mikveh Yisrael and it was wondered whether there might also be a subtle play of instrumental in convincing the Puritan rulers of words between the two very different meanings of the England to re-admit the Jews to that country. Hebrew word in question. Somewhat earlier he had met a man named Antonio Montezinos who claimed to have found some of the It might initially be noted that in Genesis I: 9-10 the lost tribes of Israel in South America. The purpose of collection and separation of water was declared a good the book was to announce the imminent coming of the thing by God. Water has often been viewed as the primal Messiah, which must be preceded by the scattering of element from which all material things emerge. Hence, the Jews to the four corners of the earth prior to the running water is often viewed as the purifying element in return to the land of Israel. He specifically mentioned material existence. In the Bible purity and impurity were the establishment of synagogues in America as proof viewed as constant and unremarkable aspects of human that this will have occurred. Many Christian existence. Unlike the ancient pagan cosmological view theologians were also eagerly awaiting these events of a universe that goes through repetitive cycles, and one of them (John Drury the chaplain to Mary, however, the prophets of Israel tended to stress the Princess of Orange), addressed a letter to Menasseh absolute beginning and end of human history as a ben Israel in 1649. The immediate answer and the process of estrangement from and return to God. The subsequent translation of his larger treatise were ultimate end (and hope) is a messianic era in which extremely influential in both the Jewish and non-Jewish many if not most of human ills would be abolished. This worlds. One of the major themes in the book was the great hope had very little to do with the endless cycles of Spanish Inquisition. At that time many so-called purity and impurity described in the priestly biblical Marranos were still leaving the Iberian Peninsula and writings but with a qualitative and irreversible change in the Jewish world was not altogether certain regarding human life that could nevertheless be described whether they were still Jews and how they were to be metaphorically as purification. Whether ritual purity rules treated. The short answer was that since the Messiah would still be in affect in such a world is open to question is coming soon all these problems will soon be but in the Mishna (tractate Yoma) an opinion is rendered resolved. But the book was addressed not only to that God, who is the hope of Israel, is also the purifier of Jews. Protestants welcomed his condemnation of the Israel. Inquisition. The looking forward to messianic times among Jews world-wide and among gentiles in England led to a revived interest in Jewish prophecies While an adequate discussion of purity and impurity in as well as questionable messianic speculation. In Judaism must await another time, it is worthy of note that SAVE THE DATE it changed from biblical times when it was mostly 1666 Shabbatai Tzvi (who many Jews believed was the Messiah)Please converted mark to Islamyour calendarsand three quarters of concentrated in the Priesthood and Temple to late Second Temple times when the Pharisees introduced the city of London was destroyed by fire.