s; vacug s; ju kpxj ak tjrui Volume 27 No. 26 EIGHTH DAY PESACH Daf Hashavua 11 April 2015 • 22 Nisan 5775 Yom Tov ends in London at 8.40pm Hallel by Rabbi Yehuda Black, Kenton United Synagogue Although the Talmud discusses three On Chanukah, we recite Hallel due to the different forms of Hallel, the popular usage miraculous nature of the miracle of the oil of the term refers to Psalms 113-118. and because Hallel is said on days when the entire nation was saved. The Talmud delineates the 18 days in Israel and 21 days in the Diaspora when full The Outline of Hallel Hallel is recited. It also explains that on the There are two parts of Hallel, very clearly Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) Hallel is not demarcated: recited, because G-d rhetorically asks: “My creations are standing 1. The first five psalms before me in judge- (up to and including ment and you are Psalm 117) are all reciting praises to me?” about the praise (hallel) of G-d. The Neither is Hallel said key word, used on Purim. Two parti- repeatedly is: Halle- cular reasons that are lukah – which literally given for this are: means: “Praise be a. the reading of the G-d”. Megillah is itself con- sidered like Hallel, and 2. From Psalm 118 the b. Hallel is not said about miracles that theme changes. Mention of hallel has gone. happened outside of Israel. Instead the significant word becomes Hodu – an imperative to ‘thank the Lord for He On Pesach we only recite full Hallel on the is good – for His loving kindness is forever!’ first Yom Tov days. During the rest of the festival, we say a shorter form (half Hallel). This format follows an order that we see in Why is this? On the seventh day of Pesach, other prayers, including the Amidah the Israelites crossed the Sea of Reeds. The (standing prayer). First we praise Him, Midrash reports that G-d exclaimed: “My afterwards we thank Him. Hallel prompts us creations [the Egyptians] are drowning in to become G-d centric, making Him the the sea and you wish to declare my praises?” centre of our lives. Great Wealth by Rabbi Chaim Gross Editor, Daf Hashavua Before leaving Egypt, Moshe was instructed by Egypt. The nation saw that G-d to tell the children of Israel to request however bad circumstances silver and gold vessels from the Egyptians could get, the nation would (Shemot 11:2). Miraculously, the Egyptians still survive. They clung onto agreed to this. The Jews took these riches with a promise of redemption, them when they eventually departed. which was ultimately fulfilled – this entrenched This was not a new idea, as more than 400 national faith (emunah) in G-d. They years previously, G-d told Avraham at the saw the Egyptians were eventually punished Covenant of Parts (Brit ben Ha-betarim) that his in the miraculous Ten Plagues, which showed offspring would be enslaved for hundreds of G-d’s mastery over the running of the world. years by another nation. However, G-d added They learned the benefit of hanging on to key that when the servitude would be over, facets of their Jewish identity, which the Avraham’s offspring would leave with “great Midrash relates was the merit in which they wealth” (Bereishit 15:14). were redeemed. In fact the Talmud (Berachot 9a) adds that In fact the Maharal of when Moshe was now asked by G-d to tell the Prague (Rabbi Yehudah nation to request riches from the Egyptians, Loew d. 1609) writes that he did so in a manner (so to speak) of the Egyptian experience ‘pleading’, lest Avraham (in the was far from a dis- heavenly realm) say to G-d that pensable obstruction. On “You fulfilled Your promise of the contrary, it was the enslaving them, but You did necessary backdrop for the birth not fulfil Your promise of of the nation. them leaving with riches and wealth”. Why was this material acquisition such Hundreds of years earlier, Avraham was an important element of the Exodus that it was concerned that this should be the case for his guaranteed from the original prophecy and so descendants. A forecast of slavery and suffering insisted upon at the end? with no clear purpose would have been without meaning. He hoped that the bitter experiences Perhaps we can suggest an answer to this would at least be productive. question: G-d was actually promising Avraham that the There was a possibility that leaving Egypt would Jews would leave Egypt with a national be taken by the people to be a new start, a new experience that they could build on for the rest dawn, a wiping clean of an old slate. The of time, a promise that He eventually carried countless years of servitude were painful and out. That was a great spiritual inheritance. The perhaps best forgotten. Now they could physical wealth was not an end in itself. It was forward to a better, brighter future. Look ahead, actually a physical reminder of the fact that no need to look back. they were not leaving personally or nationally However, to have adopted such an attitude ‘empty handed’. It had not been a pointless would have been a travesty, for invaluable experience. It was in fact the unforgettable lessons were learned through the experience in circumstances in which a nation was born. Yom HaShoah by Rebbitsen Ilana Epstein, Cockfosters & N Southgate United Synagogue A few years ago, just after Pesach, a friend of There are six things that the Torah commands mine was celebrating her son’s bar mitzvah at us to remember: the Exodus from Egypt; the the Kotel (the Western Wall in Jerusalem). receiving of the Torah at Sinai; Amalek’s evil attack; the making of the Golden Calf; Miriam’s I had first met my friend when my family was punishment and Shabbat. living in Caracas, Venezuela in the 1970’s. At the time the Venezuelan Jewish community We remember the Exodus from Egypt often; in was large and vibrant, numbering approxi- the Shema that is recited every morning and mately 45,000. We went to a wonderful night and in the retelling of the Exodus story at Jewish school called Colegio Moral y Luces the Pesach seder. Herzl/Bialik. We remember the receiving of the Torah every Despite immigration restrictions, time the Torah is brought to the bimah in shul. Venezuela absorbed German Jews We remember Shabbat all week before and after WW2, and North long, anticipating the experi- African Jews after 1967. Today ence of Shabbat. We long for less than 9,000 Jews live in the tranquillity that Shabbat Venezuela. Most have emigrated can bring. to Miami, Israel and Panama. These are the three that we Strangely, the courtyard of the actively remember. The other Kotel was nearly empty. We stood three – Amalek, Miriam and the there, a small group of people who, many years Golden Calf – are less easy to actively ago, had all lived in Caracas. As the boy finished remember. Unless you find yourself in shul reading his Torah portion, air-raid sirens on the respective Shabbat mornings to hear suddenly went off. the relevant Torah portions, you will miss them. The day was Yom Hashoah, Israel’s Holocaust Outside Israel, we are not forced to pause for Remembrance Day. To my friends and their two minutes in the middle of a spring day to families, who were just tourists, it came as a remember the Holocaust. We can watch shock. documentaries on TV some time in January, Once the sirens stopped, we explained the but nothing else is truly expected from us. meaning of this day to the group. Most of the In general, the hope is that we will come to shul group were of German descent, who had left to make an effort to hear the things we are Germany because of anti-semitism, and more commanded to remember. This Thursday, on recently had left Caracas. At that moment, Yom HaShoah, no matter where we find they were forced to stop everything and ourselves, I urge us all to take two minutes and remember the past. just to remember. As the sirens sounded, everything came to a This article is dedicated to my great standstill. Every adult present, every child grandparents Eliezer and Feiga Spitz and running circles around the chairs, stopped what Shlomo and Raizel Kaim (Beregszasz, they were doing and for two minutes – just two Czechoslovakia) who lost their lives in Ausch- minutes – stood still. witz, May 1944 . Shir HaShirim by Doreen Samuels, Pinner United Synagogue, Bradfield Graduate and Woman Representative to US Trustee Board For the last three or more decades, many of us Yet the Talmudic sage Rabbi Akiva taught have only viewed Shir HaShirim (the Song of (Yadayim 3:5) that “All of the books of the Songs) through the prism of the ArtScroll Tanach are holy, but Shir HaShirim is the Holy translation, whether in the series of ArtScroll of Holies”, so it is not a book to ignore. Megillot, the ArtScroll Tanach, or the Pesach While taking heed of the warnings, it is Machzor, having relegated our Routledge or fascinating to lose oneself in fluent, elegant our de Sola Machzor editions to the back of translation of the Sacks Koren edition, and the bookshelf. to experience anew the height- The Artscroll ‘translation’ is not a ened sensations of young and translation in the true sense of the compulsive love. word, as noted by its editors; it is Rabbi Sacks describes it as “… love an interpretation, based primarily that is as strong as death; love like on the commentary of Rashi purifying fire.” (d.1105) and other, later com- mentators.