TISHA B' AV 5778 • JULY 2018

CANADIAN EDITION

SPECIAL EDITION FOR TISHA B'AV

Relief from the Arch of Titus in Rome, showing some of the vessels captured from the Temple

To advertise in HaMizrachi or to dedicate an issue in memory of a loved one or in celebration of a simcha: [email protected] Elan Mazer

Israel and Tisha B’Av – The Canada Way to Move Forward

rom the very first incidence of However, surely it seems rather sons and daughters, take wives for your sons sin in the , the consequence counterintuitive that as a punishment and give your daughters to men, and they F has always been Galut – Exile. But for not following the commandments, shall bear sons and daughters, and multiply what is the purpose of the punishment we should be placed in an environment there and be not diminished” (ibid. 5-6). of Exile? where we are no longer able to fulfill our Yirmiyahu teaches the lesson that has national purpose! given the Jewish people the strength to The Maharal of Prague, in Netzach overcome all suffering. Move on, never Yisrael (Chapter 1), defines Galut as an Rav Kook (LeMahalach HaIdeot 4) despair, never give up hope. After every unnatural state of being. Every creation explains that the goal of Galut is for pogrom, inquisition, or Holocaust, no has a place and a purpose defined by us to reflect on our ultimate purpose, matter the harm, suffering and torture, its creator. Thus its natural state is the specifically because we are presently we never stopped living. environment best suited to accommodate lacking the ability to accomplish it. this purpose. Galut is therefore a place or The method is similar to a teacher who We survived 2,000 years of exile with reality in which one cannot accomplish removes a disruptive student from these words ringing in our ears. one’s destiny, where one’s Divine purpose the classroom. The student was not is suppressed. taking advantage of the educational That was not the whole message though. opportunities, and the teacher’s hope After Yirmiyahu had prophesized the The ideal conditions for Am Yisrael to is that by removing him, he will realize destruction of for a number of accomplish its objectives are when we are what he is missing, and will return to the years, God told him, “Go to your uncle and living as a united sovereign nation in the classroom to take advantage of the tools buy land in Anatot.” (32:7) At a time when Land of . Our national Galut, under he needs to fulfill his academic purpose destruction and exile was imminent, the governance of others, suppressed our as part of the class. Yirmiyahu was to have a land-buying Divine purpose. ceremony in the . He was The tools we need to accomplish our to take the deed of sale and place it in an mission of representing God in the world earthenware jar and declare, “Houses and and forging humanity into a vessel for fields and vineyards shall be purchased once His presence are unity and sovereignty in again in this land.” (ibid. 15) After every our homeland. Refusing to despair and continuing to pogrom, In Galut we do not have these tools. So hope is a two-way street. We cannot " this is why we mourn during the Three just continue and move forward; we inquisition, or Weeks and Tisha B’Av. must also continue to hope for our return. Because we know that will Holocaust, no What should our reaction be to this always strive to do whatever it takes to reality? Our knee-jerk reaction may be buy land and live in the one place in matter the harm, despair: why continue if we cannot fulfill which our Divine purpose can be fully suffering and our purpose? accomplished. The prophet Yirmiyahu ( 29) torture, we never addressed this exact question. His answer was as simple as it was powerful; “Build Rabbi Elan Mazer is the National stopped living houses and live in them, and plant gardens Director of Mizrachi Canada and eat their produce. Take wives and have [email protected]

2 Rabbi Doron Perez

Torat Senseless Hatred – HaMizrachi Cause and Cure

ow is it possible to be genuinely But if you were part of another sect whose totally disqualified, we are treading dan- kind to someone and to hate values and beliefs threatened mine, you gerously close to the abyss of senseless H them at the same time? were scorned and hated. There was no hatred. middle road. Only black and white. Either Remarkably, this is what the you’re ideologically with me or against How blessed we are to have had a renewed seems to say regarding the spiritual cause me. Jewish society in Israel for 70 years now. of the destruction of the : We face many challenges in Israel and Thus the hatred and infighting in Jeru- around the world as to how best chart “During the Second Temple period the people salem was so disastrous on the eve of the way forward. These issues are often occupied themselves with Torah, Mitzvot destruction that Josephus describes the extremely divisive because they touch the and loving kindness. Why was the temple society as “a great body torn in pieces.”3 very essence of Jewish life and destiny. destroyed? Because they acted with Sinat Chinam, senseless hatred.”1 How do disagreements deteriorate into Hence we should always be very wary of such deep hatred? what the Sages tell us is the spiritual cause How is this possible? at the heart of destruction: totally disqual- In the War Scroll, found near the Dead ifying the views of others in our society The Netziv suggests an answer. The Sea in the caves of Qumran, we can per- and the inability to see any validity in their people being hated were not the same haps detect an answer. The text – prob- point of view. More than any other, the ones being showered with loving kind- ably written by the Essenes – describes month of Av is the time of year to reflect ness: “As a result of the senseless hatred in their its followers as “the sons of light” and all on this cause and to imagine and strive for hearts that one harbored for the other, they sus- others (including fellow Jews) as “the sons its cure. pected all those who did not follow their path of darkness.” as a God-fearing of being a Sadducee and 1 Yoma 9b. a heretic.”2 This changes the rules of discourse. 2 Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, HaEmek Davar, introduction to the book of Genesis. If you were part of my community of We are no longer debating views or 3 The Jewish War, Book 5:1. believers and followed my customs ideas. We are delegitimizing the other as you were accepted, but if not, you were a person. It is no longer about perspec- Rabbi Doron Perez is Head of rejected. tives but about the person – vicious ad the Mizrachi World Movement hominem attacks. It’s no longer about Sectarianism reigned supreme prior to right and wrong, but about you and me. the destruction. There were many distinct All who think and act like me are ‘good’ sects: , Sadducees, Essenes, Zeal- and bring spiritual light and morality to Would you like to distribute ots and Sicarii, and more factions within the world and all who disagree are ‘bad’ HaMizrachi for the Chagim in these sects. If you were part of my faction, and immoral, invoking spiritual dark- your community? Contact specific ideological group and commu- ness. When I am absolutely right and you [email protected] nity, you were worthy of endless kindness. are absolutely wrong; when the other is

Mizrachi World Movement Chairman Mr. Harvey Blitz Head Rabbi Doron Perez Editor-in-Chief Daniel Verbov [email protected] 54 King George Street, Jerusalem Creative Director Jonny Lipczer www.mizrachi.org Production Manager Meyer Sterman [email protected] Follow us Design Hadas Peretz, Estie Brauner Mizrachi Tisha B’Av in the Educators Independent State of Israel Rabbi Reuven Taragin

ur feelings on Tisha B’Av today The second reason is that Rabbeinu differ vastly from those of our Chananel believes that ‘peace’ means the O ancestors. Our ancestors mourned rebuilding of the Beit Mikdash. Even if something that was a distant memory and we absolutely controlled and lived com- no more than an imagined future. Today, all pletely peacefully in Israel, we would still True Jews – young and old – can walk the streets need to fast and mourn over the missing independence of Yerushalayim and daven freely at the Kotel. Beit Mikdash. " Some have even suggested that this dif- A close reading of Rashi (and the Ritva) and peace... ference makes on Tisha B’Av reveals that he mentions both indepen- anachronous. Support for this position is dence and the rebuilding of the Beit Mik- only with the brought from the in Rosh Hasha- dash as conditions for a transformation nah (18b) which states that, in a time of in the status of Tisha B’Av. I think this is rebuilding of the ‘shalom,’ the fast days become holidays. because the two are inextricably linked. Based on Rashi’s explanation that shalom Recent has shown us that Beit Mikdash means Jews achieving independence, one even the founding of a Jewish State – and might conclude that Tisha B’Av should even the willingness to make major con- reason for and the implications of the now become a day of celebration. cessions in the pursuit of peace – have continued churban. not put an end to Jewish suffering. Rashi’s There are two reasons why this position is linkage accounts for this by explaining As Religious Zionists, we feel an additional rejected. The first is that other Rishonim that true independence and peace will pain on Tisha B’Av. We see our return (Rashba, Ritva) explain that the inde- only be achieved with the rebuilding of to Eretz Yisrael as the beginning of the pendence Rashi refers to is a situation in the Beit Mikdash. redemption process so its being incomplete which Jews live without fear. Sadly, we is all the more frustrating. When we read of have not yet arrived at this stage. Continued anti-Semitism and Jewish suf- the churban we feel that we are closer than fering stem from the world’s rejection of us ever to completing the process of rebuilding as God’s people. This will cease only once the Beit Mikdash. God has returned us to God clarifies the world’s purpose and our our Land and awaits our response of truly place within it. All this will be indicated returning to Him in a way that justifies the by the rebuilding of the Beit Mikdash. rebuilding of the Holy Temple.

Tisha B’Av commemorates not only the May we fast and reflect on Tisha B’Av in suffering at the time of the destructions a way that can facilitate the realization of of the Batei Mikdash, but all of our the dreams of Jews all over the world and suffering till today (Crusaders, burn- throughout the generations who have still ing of books and communities, Holo- yearned while mourning for 2,000 years. caust, etc.), because it all stems from the destabilization of our relationship Rabbi Reuven and Rabbanit with God, reflected in the continued Shani Taragin are the Churban HaMikdash. Educational Directors of World Mizrachi and RZA-Mizrachi USA. Tisha B’Av’s message is much broader Rabbi Taragin is also Dean of than just the longing for the Beit Mikdash; the Yeshivat HaKotel Overseas Second Temple ruins in the Ophel Archeological Garden, Jerusalem (Tamar Jordanian, Wikipedia 0.3) it also includes the recognition of the Program

4 Beatings or Blossoms? Mizrachi Rabbanit Educators agin Shani Taragin

he three readings with his tribal name engraved upon “And it shall come to pass, that like as I have we read at this time of the it. The next morning, only Aharon’s watched over them (shakadeti) to pluck up T year begin with the first staff blossomed, brought forth buds, and to break down, and to overthrow and to chapter of Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) and bore ripe almonds, indicating destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over who was inaugurated as a prophet God’s selection of Aharon and his (eshkod) them to build and to plant, says 40 years before the destruction of descendants as priestly leaders. So God.” (Jeremiah 31:27) the first Beit HaMikdash. Upon Yirmiyahu could have seen the almond his initiation as national prophet, rod as a mateh of leadership and divine The same verb – “shakad” – used God asks him: “What do you see?” selection. for the word almond is employed in these words of comfort too! Yirmiyahu answers, “I see a rod However, God enjoins him to look Just as God brought the makel of (makel) of an almond tree (shaked),” closely – “What do you see?” i.e. striking quickly like the shaked, so whereupon God responds, “You do you see a staff of leadership and too will He bring redemption and have seen well for I shall bring My selection, or as you appreciate the rebuilding. The employment of the word quickly.” Rashi explains that context of God’s words and the same verb underscores the message of the almond rod is indicative of the religious-historical zeitgeist, do you consolation; sometimes we are meant speed of God’s punishment: Just as see impending punishment represented to anticipate the beatings of exile and the almond blossoms for 21 days by the makel? Yirmiyahu intuitively punishment, and sometimes we are until fruition, so too will God bring answers correctly – he sees a makel of meant to see the blossoming of fruit punishment during the 21 days between almond grain (Radak) – the imminent and redemption. the 17th of and Tisha B’Av. punishment. The Malbim (Jeremiah 1:11) explains What do we see? Do we see and that one should not just focus on Nevertheless, Yirmiyahu later encourages anticipate rods of retribution or do the almond, but on Yirmiyahu’s the people by telling them that God will we see blossoms of redemption? identification of the rod as a makel – a heal their wounds and return their wearied The answer lies not in prophetic rod. Not a staff of leadership (mateh) souls to the Land of Israel. interpretation, but in our internalizing or a cane of support (mishenet), the messages of the prophecies of the but a makel, a rod used for beating. past for the present. Are we deserving Yirmiyahu understood that God’s of the fruitful almonds and blossoms message was an indicator that He or are we to be wary of impending was to bring His ‘rod of striking and punishment for not properly following punishment’ upon the Nation. religious directives? The answer is that what we see is up to us! This is the Perhaps that is why God asks, “What season when we determine what will do you see?” for Yirmiyahu could blossom. Let us take these 21 days to have easily seen the same rod and heart and view our lives with clearer identified it as a mateh! In Parshat vision and understanding! Korach (Bamidbar 17), after Korach’s rebellion against the appointment of Aharon as the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), God demonstrated the divine nature of selection. Each tribal leader Rabbanit Taragin is a senior was commanded to bring a staff educator in women’s higher (mateh, which also means tribe) educational institutions in Israel

5 MK Yuli Yoel Edelstein If My Grandfather Could See Jerusalem Today

he period between the 17th For 2,000 years, we have mourned for of start-up incubators and to the cultural of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av is Jerusalem; for 2,000 years, Jerusalem has institutions, and playgrounds T laden with the pain of history. been the focus of every prayer, every which crowd the streets of modern Jerusalem. These are days for which our Sages request, and every hope; for 2,000 years, I would tell him, “Your hope was not instituted a number of decrees in order we have turned towards Jerusalem with for naught!” Jerusalem not only has a to keep the memory of the burning of deep longing. glorious past, but a wonderful present and the Beit HaMikdash and the destruction a promising future. Today, perhaps more of Jerusalem imprinted in our minds. Today thank God, after meriting the than ever, this is a city of beauty, and people And indeed, even 2,000 years after the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty 70 years ago come from around the world to enjoy it and Temple’s destruction, the Jewish people still and the liberation of Jerusalem 51 years learn from it. Finally, I would tell him that remember their national tragedies, place ago, we can see a different Jerusalem with despite all the challenges, Torah and tidings ashes on their heads, and together with our very own eyes. This is a colorful and – of creativity, blessing, and peace – still Jeremiah, lament, “How does the city sit solitary, developed city whose walls are strong and emanate from Jerusalem. that was full of people!” (Lamentations 1:1) streets are bustling; where Torah study and technological innovation combine. Today, the Three Weeks are not just a reminder that the prophecies of destruction If only I could take my own grandfather – were fulfilled in full. They remind us, to who did not merit seeing the dream and recall the words of Rabbi Akiva, that the yet continued to pray “L’Shana HaBa’a prophecies of comfort have also been fulfilled. BiYerushalayim HaBenuya” – for a tour of Jerusalem, I would show him how the city I am encouraged by the words of Zechariah, Thanks to is flourishing once again. who stood in Jerusalem at the beginning of Shivat Zion, the Return to Zion, and cried " I would take him to the Knesset, the out, “Jerusalem shall be inhabited without countless symbol of the sovereign State of Israel. I am walls for the multitude of men and cattle.” sure he would be proud to see his grandson (Zechariah 2:4) In other words, the walls prayers, presiding over the foremost symbol of and boundaries that confined the destroyed modern Jewish democracy. I know he city will one day burst from the sheer boundless would be moved to see the national amount of people and trade. institutions of today standing within efforts and eyeshot of those from the time of David Thanks to countless prayers, boundless and Solomon. efforts and daring acts of courage, this daring acts of prophecy is now our reality. Together I would take him to the Hebrew University, with Jews from around the world, I pray courage, this one of the world’s leading research that our eternal city will continue to grow institutions, and to the National Library, and flourish and that its light will shine which houses the spiritual and intellectual throughout the entire world. prophecy is now treasures of the Jewish people. I would take him to Machane Yehuda, filled to capacity our reality with vendors and customers, a cacophony of colors and smells and the lively sounds MK Yuli Yoel Edelstein is the of business. I would take him to the dozens Speaker of the Knesset

6 Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon Ask the Questions and Answers Rabbi

hen I brush my teeth and wash 2. The concern about brushing teeth is brachot. On the other hand, the Tefillat my mouth with water, am I that we may swallow water. Therefore, HaDerech text is like a prayer, and it W still considered to be fasting? since toothpaste is not fit for consumption, appears in the (Siman one can use it l’chatchila, since there is no 110) with other prayer issues, and not in It is forbidden to wash one’s mouth on a fear of swallowing it. And if the purpose Hilchot Brachot. The Tosafot (Berachot public fast day (Shulchan Aruch 5167:3), of washing our mouth is to remove the 60b; Pesachim 104a) also writes that although the Rema (Darchei Moshe toothpaste (and we have no intention of Tefillat HaDerech does not begin with 100:1) writes that the Maharil permitted swallowing the water), it seems that this “Baruch” because it is a “Tefilla B’Alma” (a ‘rubbing’ one’s throat with water, but is permitted l’chatchila. If one wants to be regular prayer). not on Tisha B’Av and . The stringent, one can brush and wash with Mishna Berura writes (5167:11) that mouthwash, and then there is certainly no Apart from that, the reason it is impossible brushing teeth can be allowed in a case of prohibition (because mouthwashes are not to fulfill someone else’s prayer obligation discomfort, but one should tilt one’s head fit to drink). is because of “a request for mercy,” and the so as not to mistakenly swallow, which whole essence of Tefillat HaDerech is a is also the Minchat Yitzchak’s opinion Therefore, it is permitted to brush one’s request for mercy! (4:109). teeth on a lesser fast day l’chatchila. However, this is not the case on Tisha B’Av So there are those that say one can exempt But in our times, we can allow tooth and Yom Kippur (although there is room others, but it is best if everyone says Tefillat brushing l’chatchila (from the outset)! Why? for discussion, but we are accustomed to HaDerech for themselves (Kinyan Torah be extra stringent on these days). Responsa 2:119). Others have written that 1. Because we are used to brushing one cannot exempt others (Rav Chaim our teeth every day, and we do feel When a group of people travel together, David Halevi, Mayim Chaim Responsa, 1:8). uncomfortable if we don’t brush. is it better that one person says Tefillat HaDerech for everyone or that each Indeed it is preferable if each person says it person says it for themselves? for themselves, but it is worth having one person say it out loud with everyone saying The answer depends on whether Tefillat it with him (if someone finds it difficult HaDerech (Prayer for a Journey) is a to say, or is concerned that perhaps there bracha or a tefilla, a blessing or a prayer. If is no obligation to say it on this particular it’s a blessing, one would be able to exempt journey, he should listen and answer others, but if it’s a prayer, the Gemara says Amen.) that prayer “is a request for mercy” and that each individual is supposed to pray for himself (apart from a person who doesn’t know how to).

Is Tefillat HaDerech a bracha or a tefilla? Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon is Head of On the one hand, when the Gemara or Mizrachi’s Shalhevet Educational the Rishonim talk about “Tefilla” they are Advisory Board, Chairman of the usually referring to the Amidah, and all Halacha Education Center and the brachot in the Amidah are considered Rabbi of Machon Lev

Photo of Rabbi Rimon: Yehoshua Halevi 7 Rabbi Listening to the Prophetic Voice Sacks

t this time, as we recall the became a major feature of Tanach. They predicts – of the future that will happen if destruction of our two Temples, were the world’s first social critics and we do not heed the danger and mend our A we read three of the most searing their message continues through the ways. The future depends on us and the passages in prophetic literature, from the centuries. To paraphrase Kierkegaard: choices we make. beginnings of Jeremiah and . when a king dies, his power ends; when a prophet dies his influence begins.1 Nor was the prophet distinctive in blessing Perhaps this is the only time of the year or cursing the people. In , blessing when we are so acutely aware of the The prophet was distinctive not because comes through priests not prophets. enduring force of Israel’s great visionaries. he (or she – there were seven biblical The prophets had no power. They prophetesses) foretold the future. The Several things made the prophets unique. were not kings or members of the royal ancient world was full of people who The first was their sense of history. The court. They were (usually) not priests or claimed to know the forces that govern prophets were the first people to see God in members of the religious establishment fate and “shape our ends, rough-hew them history. We tend to take our sense of time and they held no office. Often they were how we will.” Judaism has no time for such for granted. Time flows. As the saying goes, deeply unpopular, none more so than people. The Torah bans one “who practices time is God’s way of keeping everything Jeremiah, who was arrested, flogged, divination or sorcery, interprets omens, from happening at once. But actually there abused, put on trial and only narrowly engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, are several ways of relating to time and escaped with his life. Only rarely were or who is a medium or spiritist or who different civilizations have perceived it the prophets heeded in their lifetimes: consults the dead” (Deuteronomy 18:10- differently. Jonah for example, and he spoke to non- 11). It disbelieves such practices because Jews, the citizens of Nineveh. Yet their it believes in human freedom. The future is There is cyclical time: time as the slow words were recorded for posterity and not pre-scripted. The prophet warns – not turning of the seasons, or the cycle of birth, growth, decline and death. Cyclical time is time as it occurs in nature. All that lives, dies. The species endures, individual members do not. Kohelet contains the most famous expression of cyclical time: “The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course … What has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Then there is linear time: time as an inexorable sequence of cause and effect. As French astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace said in 1814: If you “know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed,” together with all the laws of physics and chemistry, then “nothing

Jeremiah on the ruins of Jerusalem (Horace Werner, Wikipedia 0.3) would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present” before

8 Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

your eyes. Karl Marx applied this idea to The second prophetic insight was society and history. It is known as historical the unbreakable connection between inevitability, and when transferred to monotheism and morality. Somehow the human affairs it amounts to a massive prophets sensed that idolatry was not just denial of personal freedom. false but corrupting. It saw the universe as a multiplicity of oft-clashing powers. Might Only by being Finally, there is time as a mere sequence of defeating right. The fittest surviving while events with no underlying plot or theme. the weak perish. Nietzsche believed this, as "faithful to God This leads to the kind of writing pioneered did the social Darwinists. by Herodotus and Thucydides, scholars of do we stay ancient Greece. Their third great insight was the primacy of ethics over politics. The prophets have Each of these concepts has its place, but surprisingly little to say about politics. Yes, faithful to one none was time as the prophets understood Samuel was wary of monarchy but we find it. The prophets saw time as the arena in almost nothing in Isaiah or Jeremiah about another which God and humanity played out the the way Israel/Judah should be governed. great drama of life, especially in the history Instead we hear a constant insistence that of Israel. If Israel was faithful to its mission, the strength of the nation is not military it would flourish. If it was unfaithful it or demographic but moral and spiritual. them. Jeremiah may have lost faith in would fail. It would suffer defeat and exile. If the people keep faith with God and one people; he never lost faith in God. That was Jeremiah’s tireless – and timeless another, no force on earth can defeat them. – message. If they do not, no force can save them. Prophecy ceased in the Second Temple era. But the prophetic truths are eternal. Only Jeremiah, the most passionate and by being faithful to God do we stay faithful tormented of all the prophets, has gone to one another. Only by understanding down in history as the prophet of doom. the deep forces that shape history can we Yet this is unfair. He was also supremely a defeat the ravages of history. Only by being prophet of hope. He is the man who said open to a power greater than ourselves can As the saying that the people of Israel will be as eternal as we become greater than ourselves. It took the sun, moon and stars (Jeremiah 31). He a long time for biblical Israel to learn these goes, time is the man who, while the Babylonians were truths. We must never forget them again. " laying siege to Jerusalem, bought a field as is God’s way a public gesture of faith that Jews would return from exile: “For this is what the Lord 1 Kierkegaard actually said: “The tyrant dies and his rule Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.” Papers and of keeping and vineyards will again be bought in this land” Journals, 352. everything from (Jeremiah 32). Jeremiah’s feelings of doom and hope were happening at not in conflict: they were two sides of the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is same coin. The God who sentenced His the Emeritus Chief Rabbi of the once people to exile would be the God who United Hebrew Congregations brought them back, for though His people of the Commonwealth might forsake Him, He would never forsake @RabbiSacks . www.RabbiSacks.org

9 Ordinary Heroes The Power of Jerusalem

hlomo (Nagosa) Mula, a former sacred place, with streets flowing with milk First, their guide got drunk. Secondly they member of Israel’s Knesset, was only and honey.” had to split up into smaller groups so they S 16 when he left his home to go to Israel wouldn’t be caught. And third, after hiding by foot. Jerusalem was very much part of young for a few hours in the trees, they were Shlomo’s childhood in Ethiopia. When confronted by a huge snake. It was the stories of the holy city of they slaughtered a cow, they would place Jerusalem – with the Golden Temple at it in the direction of Jerusalem. When they After they’d overcome those obstacles, its heart – that led him and his friends went to bed, they would lie with their heads they were then attacked by a band of armed to endanger their lives back in the early in the direction of the Holy City. And in the robbers, who made them strip to their 1980’s. winter, whenever a rainbow appeared, they underwear and stole whatever remaining would stand still and listen. “We believed money they had, eventually letting them “I had heard stories about Yerusalem it was a sign that God wanted to speak to continue on their way. (Jerusalem) ever since I was born,” he us. We would stand in silence, look at the recalls. “We would sit in a circle and the rainbow and wait expectantly for Him to Eventually, the group managed to make adults would talk. We were 11 brothers whisk us away to Jerusalem.” their way out of the jungle, only to be faced and sisters – I was number 5, the sandwich with the trek across the Kassala Desert. child – and we just listened. It was One day, after rumors began arriving that An endless sea of sand with no water in forbidden to interrupt an adult speaking.” Jews from the Tigray region had managed sight. After almost five days of continuous to reach Jerusalem, his friend Azamaro said walking – over 400 miles – with eyes Shlomo’s parents talked about Jerusalem to him, “Let’s go to Jerusalem!” burning, throats dry and feet sinking into as an enchanted place, almost heavenly; the sand, they reached the edge of the a place where the righteous people live. “How does one get to Jerusalem?” Shlomo desert. But it was there that despair began “We were told that anyone who gets to asked in wonder. “Just like the Jews from to set in. Jerusalem will never die, because it is a Tigray,” said Azamaro. “First we walk to Sudan, and then we cross the desert to It was Shlomo’s eldest brother who Egypt, walk to Beersheba (where our encouraged them all to carry on. “Not forefather Abraham lived), and on to much longer. Jerusalem is waiting for us. A Jerusalem.” few more hours of suffering and that’ll be it!” If only... It was a crazy plan. Escaping Ethiopia to Sudan was wrought with danger – As soon as they entered Sudan they were thousands of miles of jungles, deserts, captured and thrown into prison. They hostile locals, tigers, lions, snakes… the spent 90 days under torture and repeated stuff of movies… interrogations. The guards enjoyed beating them up with sticks and branches and tried But in 1981, Shlomo and 15 friends to break them mentally as well. – with no shoes, a cob of corn and an earthenware water bottle – set out for ”I almost gave in,” recalls Shlomo. “Was Jerusalem, after paying a local guide $2 the goal really worth all this suffering? to take them to Sudan. “We walked fast. But I knew that whoever broke first would With every step we felt that Jerusalem condemn the rest of us to death. I knew was getting closer.” But it certainly wasn’t a Jerusalem was waiting for us, with its sweet walk in the park. milk and honey flowing in the streets.”

10 The goal became even more important On February 3rd, 1984, Shlomo Mula and And then they saw a huge bird roaring in after Azamaro, the friend who had his friends reached Gedarif. A Mossad the sky, splitting the clouds before landing instigated the trip, died in jail. agent handed them some clothes. They nearby. “We were really scared. We’d never were able to change their shirts and pants seen a plane before.” One day they were suddenly transported for the first time in three years. to a refugee camp, Um-Rakuba, along with The soldiers pushed them into these thousands of other Africans who had tried “Follow me!” ordered the agent. Shlomo birds; it was dark, cool and very noisy to escape their own corrupt or war-torn and his friends didn’t know what to expect. inside. They sat on the floor. And then the countries. They had every reason to be suspicious . soldiers took off their masks and helmets and starting singing “Heveinu Shalom Although they didn’t know it at the time, But after yet another long walk, they finally Aleichem” in Hebrew. there were Mossad agents in Um-Rakuba, came to a clearing occupied by a group of charged with transferring the Jews to armed soldiers, faces covered and wearing “I had no idea what was happening until another camp at Gedarif, run by the Red helmets. someone told us: This is a plane from Eretz Cross. This too involved a night-time Yisrael. The white soldiers are Jews. We getaway, another long walk, hiding and “This time we thought we were finished,” have come to take you to Jerusalem!” bribing a local driver. said Shlomo.

Dr. Avshalom Kor

What’s in a ג ּ ְל ִידָ ה Word

, ְּג לִ י דָ א because we are talking about , ְּג לִ י דָ אִּ ,(f you come to Eretz Yisrael in the (for example in Tractate Mikvaot 7:1 summer, you are likely to find your- as one of the types of freezing cold water ice, as food! And the Torah even tells us its ְ“וטַעֲ מֹו ְּכצַּפִיחִית ּבַ ְּדבַ ׁש” )לא, שם( :The permitted for immersion in a Mikveh, a taste . ְּג לִ י דָ ה – I self eating ice cream “.“הַ ...ּשֶׁ הַ לֶ ּשֶׁ גלֶ ְוג ְוהַּבָרָ הַּבָרָ ד ְוד הַ ְוְּכהַ ְּכפֹור ְופֹורהִ ְוהִ גְלִ גְלִ יד...יד““ :is a fascinat- ritual bath ְּג לִ י דָ ה creation of the word at the end of a word is the Said Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the man who א ing story combining verses from Tanach, (The letter the revived the for day-to-day] ה הַ ְּי דִ י עָ ה Onkelos’s translation of the Torah, and Aramaic equivalent of the ְּג לִ י דָ א even Italian. definite article] at the start of a word in life: If this is sweet ice, then the word Hebrew.) is fitting for our summer food. And we’ll at the end, giving it the ה years ago, a need arose to give a name write it with a 140 , גְ בִ י נַ ה :to this beloved summer treat. Anyone However, in both places, in Bereishit and in same form as another Biblical food .or the Mishna in Mikavot, the text is referring cheese – ְׁשנִּיִ ים מִ ְקרָ א ְו דאֶחָ ּתַ ְרּגּום who reads anyone who just takes a look at Onkelos’s to plain ice, not to ice designated for translation – is familiar with the word consumption. And the Italians can add that the Hebrew -at the end, from word for ice cream, coined by Eliezer Ben א written with an , ְּג לִ י דָ א Ya’akov’s words to his father-in-law Lavan: Therefore, we must return to the first Yehuda, sounds very much like its Italian !morning we came across manna in the counterpart, gelato “ ה זֶ עֶרִים ְׂשׁשָ נ ה ָ אָ נ ֹו כִ י עַ ּמֵ ְך... ּבַ ּיֹום אֹכַ לֵ נִ י חֶרֵ ב :Sinai Desert, after we had left Egypt ְקֶ ורַ ח ּבַ ּלַ ְי לָ ה ” (בראשית לא, מ( Dr. Avshalom Kor is an Israeli וָתָעַל ל “וָתָעַ ׁשָ ְכַ ׁשָכַב ְב ּתָּתָהַּטַ הַּטַללְ וְהִ וּנֵההִּנֵה לעַלעַ ְְּפנֵינֵי הַּמִ ְְהַּמִדדּבָר רּבָ ּדַ ּדַקק linguist and expert on Hebrew מֶחֻ ְ פַ ס ס,ּדַ ק ּכִ ְכפֹור עַ ל הָאָרֶ ץ” )שמות )שמות טז, ידט,:יד) And . ְּג לִ י דָ א ice) as) קֶ רַ חְ Onkelos translates as grammar and semantics ְכפֹור is also found in the Mishna Here, Onkelos translates the word גְ לִ י ד the word

11 Photo of Dr. Kor: Roy Achiron 11 11 Rahav-Meir

Current Matot-Masei Torah

Keep Going Perhaps our history is the solution and but emerged victorious, the explanation. After all, the journey and it is incumbent upon us to continue “These are the journeys of the Children of Israel has not yet ended. The Torah details the to win.” who came out of the Land of Egypt.” journeys in the past but we still haven’t (Bamidbar 33:11) reached our final destination. The people Wheat and Chaff would reach the Land but would also his first verse of the portion of be exiled from it, and then they would Sometimes we don’t need commentary. Masei, which we read a week return and be driven out yet again, and The Torah verses speak for themselves. T before Tisha B’Av, reminds us only in our generation would they merit Before they left for war, the tribes of of the 42 geographical stations through a renewed ingathering in Eretz Yisrael. Reuben and Gad ask permission from which the Children of Israel passed on to leave their property and their way from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael. The expression “these are the journeys” not children behind: “Pens for the flock we shall The Torah spends many verses describ- only summarizes the journeys of the past, build here for our livestock and cities for our ing this long journey in between each of but foresees the journeys of the future: infants.” (Bamidbar 32:16) In that order. these places. we are destined to experience many First the business, then the family. more than 42 milestones. Cities and We can interpret the listing of these villages, shtetls and ghettos, pogroms Moshe Rabbeinu answers them, but he names in different ways. The Ramban and camps... changes the order: “Build yourselves cities (Nachmanides) writes that “The secret of for your infants and pens for your flock.” First this matter has not been revealed to us.” It’s And it’s not just our national journey. the kids, then your job. a mystery, something we need to decipher. According to Chassidic commentaries, the verses tell us that we should always This is not semantics. It’s an order of look back and contemplate the journeys ethical priority. in our personal lives, and know that there is a reason for and significance to As Rashi writes so simply: “they were every milestone. And that we should be more concerned about their money We should always looking forward to the next stop, than their sons and daughters…” Moshe always look back and remembering that our journeys will said to them, no! Make the important never end. important and the less important less " important. Career is for the family and and contemplate Rabbanit Esther Jungreis once wrote not vice-versa. the journeys in that throughout all these journeys, the Jewish people must preserve its sense This reminded me of the advice given to our personal of being created in God’s image: “In the parents in Israel so they don’t forget their midst of the Nazi horrors, I always said to children in the car in the heat of summer: lives, and know myself: In spite of it all, thank God I am leave your mobile phone next to the that there is a on the side of the murdered and not on child, because you’ll never forget that… the side of the murderers. I saw how the reason for and most cultured nation in the world could sink to carry out the most terrifying evil significance to in the world. And when I think about our journeys, it appears they shouldn’t be Sivan Rahav-Meir is a popular every milestone talking about us as victims but as victors. Israeli journalist, broadcaster The Jewish people was not saved from and author of #Parasha

12 Photo of Sivan Rahav-Meir: Eyal ben Yaish - Ma’ale HaYetzira David M. Weinberg

Israel If I Forget to Build in Insight Thee, O Jerusalem

hank God a thousand times that the streets of Jerusalem are no T longer empty. They are filled daily with close to one million residents and tourists. Darchei Tzion einan aveilot – the roads to Zion are no longer in mourning!

Keeping it this way requires constant renewal. Jerusalem needs 6,000 new apartments a year just to meet the demands

of natural growth. Unfortunately, there Yeshivat HaKotel (MathKnight-Ma’ale HaYetzira, Wikipedia 2.5) has been almost no major residential construction in Jerusalem for two decades, mainly because of diplomatic constraints. Haredi Jews. This has grim implications for Under the deanship of Rabbi Hadari, who the attachment of mainstream Israelis to passed away this year, Yeshivat Hakotel Jerusalem already abuts Ramallah in Jerusalem. grew into a powerhouse of scholarship and the north and Bethlehem in the south. leadership training, with alumni active in Environmental lobbies have stymied plans .Jerusalem must grow in order to remain a all walks of Israeli and Diaspora Jewish life. for housing projects in the green mountains pluralistic and modern metropolis; a city west of the city. So the only direction to for all Jews – and E-1 is the right solution. Rabbi Hadari’s powerful personality grow is eastwards, beyond the Mount and spiritual worldview were what drew of Olives and Mount Scopus into the Just 50 years ago, naysayers said that it me and so many others to the . quadrant known as E-1, along the road to was insane to build over the Green Line, He uniquely combined Volozhin with Ma’ale Adumim. This is the last significant or to move back into the mainly-Arab Old . He was questing for “Cossacks piece of unsettled land in the Jerusalem City of Jerusalem. Pioneers like with shtreimels,” as he once picturesquely envelope, and some 50,000 homes can be Aryeh Bina and Yeshayahu Hadari, the described it; meaning that he was seeking built there. founders of Yeshivat Hakotel, defied such to raise a generation of soldiers who were opposition. also scholars deeply entrenched in Jewish Every Israeli prime minister since learning. Specifically, this was Torah Yitzhak Rabin has promised to expand They waded into the ruins wrought by 19 flavored by the Hassidic thought of the Sfat Jerusalem into E-1, but has been blocked years of Jordanian occupation, intent on Emet and Rav Zadok, and infused with Rav by successive American administrations. bringing Torah study back to the Temple A.Y. Kook’s Zionist-transformational bent. Washington argues that Israeli settlement precinct. The first classes were held on of E-1 interferes with Palestinian territorial Tisha B’Av, our day of lamentation for the He was a true boneh Tzion, a builder of contiguity. Israel argues that a system of destruction of the First and Second Jewish Jerusalem. May his memory be a blessing. road underpasses is sufficient to connect Temples. It was more than symbolic that Palestinian autonomous areas. davka on this day modern Israel’s Religious Zionist frontiersmen trail-blazed their way The result of this standoff is that upwardly- back into ancient Jerusalem. mobile young Israeli families have few David M. Weinberg is the Vice- affordable housing options in Jerusalem, Great philanthropists like Kurt Rothschild President of the Jerusalem and they have been moving elsewhere. This of Canada and Maurice Wohl of England Institute for Strategic Studies leaves Jerusalem primarily with a socio- later helped build the yeshiva’s colossal www.davidmweinberg.com economically poor population – Arabs and building. www.jiss.org.il

13 One on One Should we be Actively Building the Beit HaMik

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner Therefore, even though, with God’s So we have to wait. help, we have merited a government which has the status of kingship to Even when King David wished to build fter the incredible victory a certain extent, it is definitely not a the Temple, God told him that the time in the Six-Day War in complete kingship,1 and so we need to had not yet arrived. God told him: Now A 1967, our Rabbi, Rabbi focus all of our energy in this direction. is the time of wars. Now is the time of Zvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, would building up the kingdom. The time for emphasize ’ words at the However, there is something else that building the Temple will come later – beginning of the Laws of Kings, that the we should do to advance the building through your son Solomon. establishment of the Kingship of Israel of the Beit HaMikdash. Maimonides precedes the building of the Temple, wrote in Hilchot Beit HaBechira (6:6), The halachic delay tells us that the time and that our current mission is not that the holiness of the Land of Israel is has not yet arrived.2 We have a lot of to build the Temple but to build the established through conquest, whereas work ahead of us. When the Six-Day Kingship of Israel. the holiness of the site of the Temple War ended and Rav Tzvi Yehuda’s class is determined by way of the Divine for his top students recommenced, he Presence. humbly asked, “What should we learn now?” One student suggested, “Perhaps And how do we cause the Divine the laws of the Temple?” Our master Every Presence to come to rest on that site? warmly grasped that student’s hand and Through Torah and Mitzvot, kindness said to him, “Before we learn that we of every Jew and love. In the Amidah prayer, one of have a lot more to learn about the laws "throughout the blessings is “God builds Jerusalem,” of kings and their wars.” in which “Jerusalem” is referring to the the world and Temple and “builds” is in the present Nevertheless, throughout history the Jews tense. Yet how is God building it? We have expressed a longing for the Temple throughout the don’t see anything happening right now. and the , and every prayer Surely we should be saying, “He will ends with: “May it be God’s will that the generations build it”? Temple should be rebuilt speedily in our days.” We should derive strength and courage builds Jerusalem, We do not see because we are looking from this burning longing to add one and when a through our limited, mortal eyes. more mitzvah, more Torah learning, more Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook kindness and more holiness. certain amount explained that every mitzvah of every Jew throughout the world and throughout the One by one, mitzvah by mitzvah, kindness is reached, the generations builds Jerusalem, and when by kindness, the Temple will be rebuilt. a certain amount is reached, the Temple Temple will 1 will actually be constructed. A particularly Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook explains that since the actually be important mitzvah is groundless love, as in government was elected by a majority, it contains some of the Rav Kook’s famous words that the Third obligations of kingship but none of the privileges. 2 constructed Temple will be built through groundless If we are unable to build the Temple for halachic reasons, it is a love (Orot HaKodesh 3:324). sign that God does not yet want us to do so.

14 ely Building the Beit HaMikdash? Rabbi Rabbi Shlomo Aviner Yisrael Ariel

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel was a golden age in Jewish history. As the In the 13th century, Rabbi Yechiel of Sages said: “He who has not seen Herod’s Paris made with 300 other rabbis “Rise and Let us go up to Zion” Temple has never seen a beautiful building and planned to build the Mikdash in in his life.” place of the Dome of the Rock (exactly hy has the Third Temple where the First and Second Temples still not been built? After all, The Second Temple was destroyed and were too) and to begin the work of the W that is what we have been the Jewish people exiled, but attempts sacrifices. The plan was aborted fol- praying for in every generation: “May it to rebuild the Temple continued. A lowing the Tartar’s invasion of Jerusa- be Thy Will… that You take us up in joy very important description is found lem. And in recent generations, Rabbi to our Land and plant us in our borders, in the (Bereishit Rabbah 64) Kalischer, the Chafetz Chaim and Rabbi and there we will make our obligatory in which Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hana- Kook have aroused the public to make sacrifices before You.” nia – one of the heads of the Sanhe- the necessary preparations for building drin – went up with others from the the Temple again. Our generation merited the God of Exile to build the Third Temple with Israel restoring us to the Temple pre- royal permission. The people made Our modern spiritual and political cinct through miraculous events, with their way en masse to Jerusalem. As leadership has yet to completely free itself the army of Israel entering the Temple they reached the Rimon Valley, the of the Exilic mentality and suffices with a Mount to the moving sounds of the king’s clerk arrived with an annulment prayer area at the . But we are shofar. So our question is even louder: of the permit. There was a suspicion of comforted by a new and alert generation, why have the people delayed in fulfill- rebellion, and Yehoshua ben Hanania proudly carrying the “Flag of Jerusalem” ing their obligation to renew the Temple calmed the anger by expressing hope raised by Rabbi Kook, and calling for the service? that the Temple would soon be rebuilt. rebuilding of the Mikdash in Jerusalem. But the fire of rebellion had been Our young people are engaged in the Let us look at what our ancestors did for ignited, the people did not give up on laws of the Mikdash and acting to rebuild the sake of the building of the House of building the Bayit, and Bar Kochba, it speedily in our days, as they issue the God. In Second Temple times, approx- guided by Rabbi Akiva, fought the clarion call: “Rise and let us go up to imately 42,000 Jews made Aliyah from Roman legions. His soldiers reached Zion to the House of God our Lord.” Babylon. Despite being desperately short Jerusalem but were brutally thwarted of resources and surrounded by enemies, by Hadrian. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner is Rosh the first thing they did was to renew the Yeshiva of Ateret Yerushalayim Temple service (See Ezra 3:10). The mitzvah of building the Mikdash and Rabbi of Beit-El has occupied our Torah leaders in The Hasmoneans did the same after every generation, and a major part of Rabbi Yisrael Ariel is the expelling the Greeks from the Temple the Talmud is dedicated to the topic. Founder and Head of the – as we say in the “Al HaNissim” prayer Maimonides says that the mitzvah of Temple Institute in Jerusalem on Chanukah: “Your children entered building the Temple – which covers the Holy of Holies of Your House, cleaned 200 of the – is an To advertise in HaMizrachi or to Your Temple, purified Your Sanctuary, obligatory mitzvah in every generation. dedicate an issue in memory of a loved and lit candles…” Despite the hardships He himself endangered his life to pray one or in celebration of a simcha: and the wars, the Second Temple was at the Temple Mount, making that day a [email protected] built in all of its glory, and that period personal festival for the rest of his life.

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