בס“ד Parshat Bo 8 Shevat, 5777/February 4, 2017 Vol. 8 Num. 22 This issue of Toronto Torah is dedicated by Rochel and Jeffrey Silver נ“י in honour of the birth of their granddaughter Faigy Rivka Three Steps to Father’s House Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner Over a two-week period our ancestors To Father’s House works on several Seen in this light, the Exodus requires were told how to prepare for our levels, one of which is a parable for our that we be identified as the rightful national Exodus. Those commands, departure from Egypt. As the Talmud heirs of Avraham and Sarah, to merit recorded in our parshah, described (Sotah 11a) describes, our labour in that return home. This is the role of three activities: Egypt was perpetual and unrewarding, the three preparatory activities outlined Designation and sacrifice of the and we shared the protagonist’s sense in our parshah: korban pesach (Shemot 12:1-6); of not belonging. Suffering made us long Circumcision was Avraham’s mitzvah, Placement of blood from the korban for the house of our Father, and we left and it became the mark of the Jew. pesach on the entrances of their in haste. (Shemot 12:11) We displayed Korbanot were a hallmark of Avraham homes (12:7, 21-23); great ambivalence, though, en route to and Sarah, who built altars each time Circumcision of all males (12:43-50). our land; we even claimed that we had they settled a new part of Canaan. been better off in Egypt. The end of the Placement of blood from the korban We could view these three activities as book of Yehoshua (24:2-4) is part of the pesach marks the structure as a elements of the korban pesach. Haggadah, and the tavern’s “set table” home dedicated to G-d, like the However, we might also see in them a parallels the Shulchan Orech phase of landmark tent of Avraham and Sarah. broader theme, crucial for the Exodus. the Seder – but the heretic as well as Having performed these deeds, we were the liquor, presumably grain-based, visibly ready to return home. Agnon’s Exodus don’t fit at a reunion with our Father on In the late 1920’s, S. Y. Agnon wrote a Pesach. These events represent our own Arrival short story called L’Veit Abba, “To troubled journey to Israel. And in the The conclusion of this arc comes in Father’s House”. The protagonist end, like the generation of Jews who left Yehoshua, Chapter 5, when G-d begins the story working at home, but Egypt, the hero does not actually enter “removes the shame of Egypt” from our he is frustrated by labour which “has the land. nation. (Yehoshua 5:9) The males are neither beginning nor end, which you circumcised. (5:2-8) They bring a start without benefit and from which Leaving Egypt or Going Home? korban pesach. (5:10) And they camp in one can never walk away.” He also With this story, Agnon does more than Gilgal (5:10), their first step in building suffers from an uncomfortable sense summarize forty years of troubled a home in the land. that he does not belong there. travel; he puts the Exodus itself in Abruptly, he decides to go to his proper perspective, as a central stage in One odyssey met its completion long father, whom he has not seen for many a greater arc. The arc starts with the life ago, but our religious and physical years, for Pesach. He departs in haste, of the family of Avraham and Sarah in wanderings continue to describe a still but he then encounters delays which Canaan, continues with our descent to longer arc. While we work toward the may be a product of his own Egypt, and sees our subjugation in final Exodus, let us remember the need ambivalence about visiting his father. Egypt. Then we leave Egypt, receive the to identify ourselves as part of that Once in his father’s town, he Torah at Sinai, build a Mishkan and original family. Whether through encounters a heretical individual who journey home. As Agnon hints with his circumcision, korban and the Jewish wants to discuss the end of the book of title, the Exodus is not merely yetziat home, or through other actions, we Yehoshua. A little further along he Mitzrayim, a group of slaves departing must identify ourselves as descendants finds himself in a tavern with “a set from Egypt. Rather, it is l’veit Abba, a of Avraham and Sarah, as part of table” holding bottles of liquor, even as journey of Hebrews back to the home in meriting the long-awaited return To Pesach is about to begin. Finally, he which we were raised in Bereishit, from Father’s House. arrives at his father’s home – but he which we had departed, and to which remains outside, unable to enter, as we had always been meant to return. [email protected] the story ends. OUR BEIT MIDRASH ROSH BEIT MIDRASH ABBI ORDECHAI ORCZYNER R M T SGAN ROSH BEIT MIDRASH RABBI JONATHAN ZIRING AVREICHIM DAM RIEDMANN ARON EREZ A F , Y P CHAVERIM EZER DIENA, URI FRISCHMAN, NADAV GASNER, SHIMMY JESIN, BJ KOROBKIN, YOSEPH LEVI, ZACK MINCER, RONI PEREZ, JOSH PHILLIP, JACOB POSLUNS, DAVID RIABOY, MORDECHAI ROTH, ARIEL SHIELDS, DAVID SUTTNER, DAVID ZARKHINE Find our upcoming shiurim on-line at WOMEN’S BEIT MIDRASH MRS. ORA ZIRING, MRS. ELLIEZRA PEREZ www.torontotorah.com CHAVEROT YAKIRA BEGUN, NOA BORDAN, MAYTAL CUPERFAIN, MIRA GOLDSTEIN, KAYLA HALBERSTADT, LEORA KARON, RIVKA SAVAGE, KAYLA SHIELDS, ARIELA We are grateful to SNOWBELL, SARAH WAPNER Continental Press 905-660-0311 Book Review: Shu”t Puah: Fertility, Lineage and Genetics Rabbi Jonathan Ziring Shu”t Puah (Fertility, Lineage and standards for their work and gain The topics covered Genetics) community-wide acceptance. These The most important feature of the Ed. Rabbi Aryeh Katz relationships allow them to book is that it deals with the newest Machon Puah 2015 understand the range of existing questions and provides the medical positions, and finetune their guidance and halachic basis for understanding About Machon Puah for each couple, based on the them. The book is divided into several Machon Puah (puahonline.org) is an community they come from. sections: Checking for Male Fertility Israel-based, international organization Issues; Infertility Procedures; Sperm that works with Jewish couples with This volume collects many of the Donation; Egg Donation and fertility problems. It was founded in central questions Machon Puah has Surrogacy; Lineage; Issues of 1990 by Rabbi Menachem Burstein at dealt with over the years. For each Matchmaking; and Genetics. Within the request of Rabbi Mordechai question, it provides a basic these sections, the book considers how Eliyahu, to address fertility treatment introduction to the halachic and to deal with the halachic issues that from the perspective of Jewish law. The medical issues that relate to the arise when testing for fertility, institute offers counseling services and specific case, as well as all the questions of fatherhood and technical support. questions they directed to the motherhood, the process of infertility authorities they contacted. Then, each treatment, the permissibility of What is unique about this book? of the responses are included as they choosing the sex of children, brit milah Most books of responsa include many received them (only typographical and pidyon haben for children queries sent to a single halachic errors and the like have been conceived through IVF, and many authority, who then publishes his legal corrected). Sometimes the responses other issues. opinion on the issues. This volume is are long and detailed; sometimes they structured in the opposite way. After are as short as one line. The answers The book is accessible to the educated providing a general, but well-researched are offered by authorities from the layperson, but is also a critical introduction to the halachic and Religious Zionist world, such as resource for the halachic scholar who medical issues of infertility, the book Rabbis Yaakov Ariel and Dov Lior, and wants to understand the modern provides discussions of various halachic from the Chareidi world, such as issues that arise in these sensitive questions that arise when dealing with Rabbis Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg, areas. these issues. One of Machon Puah’s Avigdor Neventzal, and Asher Weiss. In goals is to forge relationships with addition, there are poskim from the [email protected] many leading halachic authorities from Sephardi world, such as Rabbis both the Religious Zionist and Chareidi Mordechai Eliyahu and Meir Mazuz. worlds to ensure the highest of halachic Israel’s Chief Rabbis: Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Rabbi Baruch Weintraub Rabbi Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu considered by many to be continuing his father’s path. 1929 (Jerusalem) – 2010 (Jerusalem) Rabbi Mordechai passed away in 2010, and was buried in Chief Rabbi (Sephardic) of Israel 1983-1993 Har HaMenuchot, near the grave of the Chid”a, whose bones he had brought from Livorno, Italy, 50 years earlier. Life Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu was born in 1929 in the Jewish Legacy quarter of Jerusalem. His father, Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, was Of Rabbi Eliyahu’s many achievements, we will focus on a prominent Iraqi rabbi and kabbalist. The Eliyahu family left three key elements which were dominant in his activity: Iraq for Israel on the instructions of Rav Salman’s great Promotion of Halachah: Rabbi Eliyahu dedicated his life to teacher, the Ben Ish Chai. The family was poor, and young encouraging halachic observance in as much of the Mordechai sometimes had to learn on the floor for the lack of Jewish community as possible.