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xxx Contents The Jewish Day ............................................................................................................................... 6 A. What is a day? ..................................................................................................................... 6 B. Jewish Days As ‘Natural’ Days ........................................................................................... 7 C. When does a Jewish day start and end? ........................................................................... 8 D. The values we can learn from the Jewish day ................................................................... 9 Appendix: Additional Information About the Jewish Day ..................................................... 10 The Jewish Week .......................................................................................................................... 13 A. An Accompaniment to Shabbat ....................................................................................... 13 B. The Days of the Week are all Connected to Shabbat ...................................................... 14 C. The Days of the Week are all Connected to the First Week of Creation ........................ 17 D. The Structure of the Jewish Week .................................................................................... 18 E. Deeper Lessons About the Jewish Week ......................................................................... 18 F. Did You Know? ................................................................................................................. -
Yamim Noraim Flyer 12-Pg 5771
Days of Awe ………….. 5771 Rabbi Linda Holtzman • Rabbi Yael Levy Dina Schlossberg, President • Rabbit Brian Walt, Rabbi Emeritus Gabrielle Kaplan Mayer, Coordinator of Spiritual Life for Children & Youth Rivka Jarosh, Education Director 4101 Freeland Avenue • Philadelphia, PA 19128 Phone: 215-508-0226 • Fax: 215-508-0932 Email: [email protected] • Website: www.mishkan.org DAYS OF AWE 5771 Shalom, Welcome to a year of opportunity at Mishkan Shalom! Our first of many opportunities will be that of starting the year together at services for the Yamim Noraim. It is a pleasure to begin the year as a community, joining old friends and new, praying and learning together. This year, Rabbi Yael Levy will not be with us at the services for the Yamim Noraim. We will miss Rabbi Yael, and hope that her sabbatical time is fulfilling and energizing and that we will learn much from her when she returns to Mishkan Shalom in November. Our services will feel different this year, but the depth and talent of our many members who will participate will add real beauty to them. I am thrilled that joining us to lead the davening will be Sue Hoffman, Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, Cindy Shapiro, Karen Escovitz (Otter), Elliott batTzedek, Wendy Galson, Susan Windle, Andy Stone, Bill Grey, Dan Wolk, several of our teens and many other Mishkan members. As we look ahead to the new year, we pray that 5771 will be filled with abundant blessings for us and for the world. I look forward to celebrating with you. L’shalom, Rabbi Linda Holtzman SECTION 1: LOCATION , VOLUNTEER FORM , FEES AND SERVICE INFORMATION A: WE HAVE • Morning services on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and all services on Yom Kippur will be held at the Haverford School . -
A USER's MANUAL Part 1: How Is Halakhah Organized?
TORAHLEADERSHIP.ORG RABBI ARYEH KLAPPER HALAKHAH: A USER’S MANUAL Part 1: How is Halakhah Organized? I. How is Halakhah Organized? 4 case studies a. Mishnah Berakhot 1:1, and gemara thereupon b. Support of the poor Peiah, Bava Batra, Matnot Aniyyim, Yoreh Deah) c. Conversion ?, Yevamot, Issurei Biah, Yoreh Deah) d. Mourning Moed Qattan, Shoftim, Yoreh Deiah) Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 From what time may one recite the Shema in the evening? From the hour that the kohanim enter to eat their terumah Until the end of the first watch, in the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer. The Sages say: Until midnight. Rabban Gamliel says: Until morning. It happened that his sons came from a wedding feast. They said to him: We have not yet recited the Shema. He said to them: If it has not yet morned, you are obligated to recite it. Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 2a What is the context of the Mishnah’s opening “From when”? Also, why does it teach about the evening first, rather than about the morning? The context is Scripture saying “when you lie down and when you arise” (Devarim 6:7, 11:9). what the Mishnah intends is: “The time of the Shema of lying-down – when is it?” Alternatively: The context is Creation, as Scripture writes “There was evening and there was morning”. Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 (continued) Not only this – rather, everything about which the Sages say until midnight – their mitzvah is until morning. The burning of fats and organs – their mitzvah is until morning. All sacrifices that must be eaten in a day – their mitzvah is until morning. -
Yom Kippur Customs: •Wearing White
Yom Kippur Customs: •Wearing White There are those who teach that we wear white on Yom Kippur to be like the angels with whom we sing Kadosh! Kadosh! Together we yearn to ascend, to be lighter, more clear, clean, pure and transparent. And also, wearing white and particularly wearing simple organic fibers like linen or cotton, approximates the garments that we wear when die and are buried. Indeed, you may have already noticed among us those who wear a kittel, a simple white cotton robe worn over the clothing. Why is this? First it is important to know that when we die, in Jewish tradition, we are all lovingly bathed and dressed for burial in a white linen or cotton outfit, simple, light and entirely biodegradable (as is the simple wood coffin). We are all dressed in white, simple pure and and clean, and the same for everyone - men and women, rich and poor. All distinctions cease. When we fast on Yom Kippur it is not a punishment – it is only to help us be lighter like the angels, and like the souls of those who have died. We wear white, sometimes even the exact garment in which we expect to be buried -- – like a kittel– -- because we understand that Yom Kippur is designed to bring us to the edge of our own death. We know that the most scrupulous honesty we may ever engage in might well be on our deathbed, as we review our lives and make amends if we still can. The honesty of one who faces death is amplified by the uselessness of pretending and lying any more. -
The Talmud in Tractate Rosh Hashana, Based on Expositions of The
yom kippur 5774 The Talmud in Tractate Rosh Hashana, based on expositions of the relevant verses, teaches us that there is an affirmative Mitzvah to eat and drink on the day prior to Yom Kippur until sunset, when the fast and the restrictions of the day begin. Indeed, the Talmud tells us that the reward for this feasting is equivalent to the reward for fasting on Yom Kippur itself. While it certainly is a wise practice for one who is about to commence a fast to fortify himself with food and drink, why does the Torah make it a special Mitzvah to do so? And why the great reward? Rabbi Yonah in his epic Mussar (Ethics) classic, Sharei Teshuva (4:8,9,10), provides a few reasons for this Mitzvah, two of which provide a particularly meaningful understanding of the Holiday. First, the feast before the fast recognizes the great opportunity Yom Kippur affords us to cleanse ourselves and draw ever closer to G-d. We effect a new reality for ourselves on Yom Kippur, one that anticipates and compels spiritual elevation. The feast before Yom Kippur is a celebration of this new reality and testifies to one’s longing to attain this additional intimacy. Second, it is critical that our inspirations not dissipate nor our commitments go unrealized. We need to conceive of strategies so that we do not fall prey as we have in the past and we must devise ways to ensure that our newly-inspired spiritual resolutions are actualized. This of course requires mental and physical energy. -
Yom Kippur Yizkor – out of Time – 9.28.20
Drasha – Yom Kippur Yizkor – Out of Time – 9.28.20 One of the details we’ve had to contend with as we work on coming back to synagogue is the signage. We want to make sure that, as different as things are, everyone knows where to go and where not to go, what to do and what not to do. We have signs with arrows pointing us in the right direction, we have signs with rules about COVID safety protocols, and we have signs telling not to go beyond this point. The Torah has a similar sign in the form of a verse in the Book of Leviticus. It says (Vayikra 16:2) V’Al Yavo B’Chol Eit El HaKodesh – And don’t come at any time into the [Inner] Sanctum. Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, author of the biblical commentary Kli Yakar, explains the verse as saying that the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) couldn’t go to the Kodesh Kadoshim (Temple Inner Sanctum) on any day of the year related to time. He was only allowed to go there on the day of the year that is beyond time, which is Yom Kippur. Time is a creation. This is the reason time has limitations, such as before and after. There is one day a year that is above time: Yom Kippur. On this day, we don’t eat or drink; we become like angels, heavenly beings, beyond the boundaries of the physical world. The Kodesh Kadoshim itself was beyond time and space. As the Talmud (Megillah 10b) says “We received the tradition from our forefathers: The Ark of the Covenant didn't take up any room." The Kohen Gadol went to this heavenly place on Yom Kippur because they are both beyond the boundaries of this world. -
Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah
בס"ד CEREMONY & CELEBRATION FAMILY EDITION WITH RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS SHEMINI ATZERET & SIMCHAT TORAH 5781 Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in a Nutshell SHEMINI ATZERET is a strange day in the members of the Royal Family. At the end of Jewish calendar. It is described as the eighth the evening, after most of the guests have day, and thus part of Succot, but it is also desig- taken their leave, there is a small and intimate nated by a name of its own, Atzeret. Is it, or is it gathering of just a few individuals – on that not, a separate festival in its own right? It seems occasion the Queen, Prince Philip, the Queen to be both. How are we to understand this? Mother, the Prime Minister and a few others – for a more relaxed and personal conversation What guided the Sages was the detail that with the guest of honour. It was this kind of whereas on the seven days of Succot seventy occasion, with its Royal protocol, that best young bulls were offered in the Temple, on illustrates how the Sages understood Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day, there was only one. Atzeret. Connecting this to Zechariah’s prophecy that in the Messianic time all nations would cele- SIMCHAT TORAH (celebrated the day after brate Succot, they concluded that the seventy Shemini Atzeret in the Diaspora, and combined sacrifices of Succot represented the seventy into one day in Israel as there is only one day nations of the world as described in Chapter of Yom Tov) is unique among festivals. -
Teacher's Guide & Student Worksheets
Teacher's Guide & Student Worksheets An interdisciplinary curriculum that weaves together Jewish tradition and contemporary food issues www.hazon.org/jfen Hazon works to create healthy and sustainable communities in the Jewish world and beyond. Teachers Guide and Student Worksheets www.hazon.org/jfen Authors: Judith Belasco, Lisa Sjostrom Contributing Author: Ronit Ziv-Zeiger, Jenna Levy Design Work: Avigail Hurvitz-Prinz, Lisa Kaplan, Rachel Chetrit Curriculum Advisors: Mick Fine, Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, Elisheva Urbas, Molly Weingrod, David Franklin, Natasha Aronson Educational Partnerships & Outreach Advisor: Elena Sigman Min Ha’Aretz Advisory Board: Judith Belasco, Cheryl Cook, Rachel Rosenfield, Nigel Savage, Elena Sigman, Elisheva Urbas, Molly Weingrod Special thanks to: Gayle Adler and educators at Beit Rabban, Mick Fine, Benjamin Mann, & Dr. Steven Lorch at Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan for their extensive work to develop the Min Ha’Aretz curriculum Hazon Min Ha’Aretz Family Education Initiative Staff Judith Belasco, Director of Food Programs, [email protected] Daniel Infeld, Food Progams Fellow, [email protected] Hazon | 125 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038 | 212 644 2332 | fax: 212 868 7933 www.hazon.org | www.jcarrot.org – “Best New Blog” in the 2007 Jewish & Israeli Blog Awards Copyright © 2010 by Hazon. All rights reserved. Hazon works to create healthy and sustainable communities in the Jewish world and beyond. “The Torah is a commentary on the world, and the world is a commentary on the Torah…” Cover photos courtesy -
Daf Ditty Pesachim 78: Korban Pesach Today (?)
Daf Ditty Pesachim 78: Korban Pesach today (?) Three girls in Israel were detained by the Israeli Police (2018). The girls are activists of the “Return to the Mount” (Chozrim Lahar) movement. Why were they detained? They had posted Arabic signs in the Muslim Quarter calling upon Muslims to leave the Temple Mount area until Friday night, in order to allow Jews to bring the Korban Pesach. This is the fourth time that activists of the movement will come to the Old City on Erev Pesach with goats that they plan to bring as the Korban Pesach. There is also an organization called the Temple Institute that actively is trying to bring back the Korban Pesach. It is, of course, very controversial and the issues lie at the heart of one of the most fascinating halachic debates in the past two centuries. 1 The previous mishnah was concerned with the offering of the paschal lamb when the people who were to slaughter it and/or eat it were in a state of ritual impurity. Our present mishnah is concerned with a paschal lamb which itself becomes ritually impure. Such a lamb may not be eaten. (However, we learned incidentally in our study of 5:3 that the blood that gushed from the lamb's throat at the moment of slaughter was collected in a bowl by an attendant priest and passed down the line so that it could be sprinkled on the altar). Our mishnah states that if the carcass became ritually defiled, even if the internal organs that were to be burned on the altar were intact and usable the animal was an invalid sacrifice, it could not be served at the Seder and the blood should not be sprinkled. -
EREV PESACH WHICH OCCURS on SHABBOS: a Practical Guide
Rabbi Aaron Kraft Dayan EREV PESACH WHICH OCCURS ON SHABBOS: A Practical Guide When Erev Pesach coincides with Shabbos, we benefit from Friday (13th of Nisan; this year, March 26, 2021) or Shabbos having a restful and spiritually uplifting day leading into the (Erev Pesach; this year, March 27, 2021)? The Shulchan Aruch Seder night. However, this infrequent calendrical occurrence (ibid.) says to burn most of the chametz on Friday, leaving some also raises practical questions relating to the halachos of Erev for the Shabbos meals (see next section). Whatever chametz Pesach1 as well as to the proper fulfilment of the mitzvos of remains after the meals should be broken into small crumbs Shabbos. This article will address these concerns. and disposed of in a manner that destroys it completely but does not violate the laws of Shabbos. Preferred methods include flushing the crumbs down the toilet, feeding them to TAANIS BECHOROS a pet, or throwing them into a garbage outside of the house. While on a regular Erev Pesach, firstborn males customarily Larger quantities may also be given to a non-Jew (but you fast, fasting is prohibited on Shabbos either because it detracts should not directly ask the non-Jew to remove more than from the mitzvah of oneg Shabbos or because an obligation to a meal’s worth of chametz from your house – see Shulchan eat three meals exists (OC 288:1 and Beur Halacha). Therefore, Aruch 444:4 and Mishna Berura 444:18-20). the Beis Yosef (OC 470) cites opposing positions whether to According to the Shulchan Aruch (OC 444:2), the burning observe the taanis on Thursday or not at all this year. -
As a Halakhic Argument in Rabbinic Texts
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Jewish Thought, July 2006 Summary of M.A. Thesis: ]אם כן אין לדבר סוף[ ”If so, there would be no end to the matter“ As a Halakhic Argument in Rabbinic Texts Submitted to Prof. Moshe Halbertal by Nadav Berman S. This work investigates the Halakhic argument “If so, there would be no end to the matter” and its functions in the literature of the Talmudic rabbis. The work [אכאל"ס :henceforth] is divided into four main parts: 1. Preface, in which I present the academic background for exploring halakhic arguments, mainly the emergence of values as a main paradigm in the philosophy of halakha in the last decades; the significant place of halakhic arguments in the field of the halakhic decision-making [pesika]. 2. The main body of the work, in which I analyze the biblical context and halakhic ,in Talmudic sources: Mishnah (Pesachim אכאל"ס functions of the nine occurrences of 1:2; Yoma, 1:1), Tosefta (Sotah, 1:1; Sanhedrin, 9:5; Parah, 2:1; Nidah, 7:5) Jerusalem Talmud (Pesachim 27:3) Babylonian Talmud (Bava Metzi'a 28b; 60a). In order to give a concrete example, I will review two of them briefly: [חמץ] I Mishnah, tractate Pesachim: in the context of the ritual search for chamets before Passover, there is a biblical commandment (Ex. 12:19; 13:7), based on which is a rabbinic ruling that after searching for the chamets and burning it, one should not be worried by the possibility that a rat might grab a piece of bread and bring it from one location to another. -
KMS Sefer Minhagim
KMS Sefer Minhagim Kemp Mill Synagogue Silver Spring, Maryland Version 1.60 February 2017 KMS Sefer Minhagim Version 1.60 Table of Contents 1. NOSACH ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 RITE FOR SERVICES ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 RITE FOR SELICHOT ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 NOSACH FOR KADDISH ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.4 PRONUNCIATION ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1.5 LUACH ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 2. WHO MAY SERVE AS SH’LIACH TZIBUR .......................................................................................................... 2 2.1 SH’LIACH TZIBUR MUST BE APPOINTED .................................................................................................................. 2 2.2 QUALIFICATIONS TO SERVE AS SH’LIACH TZIBUR .....................................................................................................