בס“ד Parshiyot Behar-Bechukotai 27 Iyar, 5778/May 12, 2018 Vol. 9 Num. 33 To sponsor an issue of Toronto Torah for $180, please email [email protected] or call 416-783-6960 Regular Empathy Training Rabbi Jonathan Ziring [King David] said: There are three Ours is a singularly ethical culture, may be, developing empathy is difficult. distinguishing marks of the [the Jewish which expresses itself through a And without that emotion, they may not people]. They are merciful, they heightened regard for human rights extend their hands with sufficient are bashful, and they perform acts of and dignity. (Reflections of the Rav, willingness and empathy. kindness... Only one who has these pp. 190-191) three defining characteristics is fit to To solve this, G-d instituted Shemitah, cling to this nation. (Yevamot 79a) However, if experience is crucial for and once every fifty years, Yovel. With empathy, what happens when the the approach of Yovel, the wealthy land Our sages propound that Jews have a Egyptian slavery is but a distant owner will suddenly face the same set of shared spiritual characteristics. memory? On one level, it may be to doubts as his poor sharecroppers. His Rabbi Shemuel Eidels (Maharsha, avoid that very problem that we are next meals will be in doubt; his future ibid.) suggests that these traits are enjoined to remember the Exodus from insecure. He will not enjoy it, but genetic, inherited from Avraham. Egypt, both intensely on Pesach, and perhaps he will emerge a better person. However, even if that is the case, G-d more superficially on a daily basis. But did not rely on the Jewish people to is there more than memory – does the While Rabbi Saba does not connect have good moral “DNA”. Rather, He put Torah still mandate such experiences? Shemitah and Yovel to the ethical laws them through the Egyptian bondage, that invoke the memory of Egypt, it which the Torah (Devarim 4:20) Rabbi Avraham Saba (1440-1508) seems they are on the same trajectory. describes as the “iron furnace.” The argues that it does. (Tzror HaMor, G-d wants Jews to be as kind and image implies that the Jews needed to Vayikra 25) He wonders why the Torah generous as possible. When our nation be purified, sensitized, to forge their would command a Sabbatical year, was first born, it shared a national character. Shemitah, that would forbid people to trauma that would sensitize it to the plant their fields for an entire year, suffering of others. However, every fifty This is evident in the number of ethical leading them to the brink of destitution. years, approximately once or twice a commandments that are framed with Even more shockingly, once every fifty lifetime, G-d ensured that we go reminders that we were also slaves in years, Shemitah is followed by Yovel, through a lesser ordeal that aims at Egypt. By remembering when we were the Jubilee, causing every Jewish instilling the same. downtrodden, we are prodded towards farmer to face this situation for two empathy for the orphan, widow, slave, consecutive years. Perhaps one could [It should be noted that this does not and other less fortunate members of store food for one year. However, to necessarily imply that the Torah society. As Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik plant and store enough in the preceding opposes capitalism – just that it needs said: year to last almost four years, until the to be kept in check, a point made by The Egyptian experience may new crop would grow in the year Zeev Jabotinsky here: http:// therefore be regarded as the following Yovel, is nearly impossible. www.saveisrael.com/jabo/ fountainhead and moral inspiration jabojubilee.htm and Rabbi Alex Israel for the teaching of compassion which While some contend that this law is here: http://etzion.org.il/en/utopia] is so pervasive in Jewish Law. It meant to engender faith in G-d, Rabbi sharpened the Jew’s ethical Saba takes a different approach. He The challenge in our age of ease and sensitivity and moral awareness. The notes that ordinarily, wealthy people prosperity is to make sure we too can Midrash has R. Nehemiah say this cannot fathom the experiences of the empathize with those less fortunate explicitly: “the Egyptian bondage was poor. Try as they may, they cannot than ourselves. of great value for us, since it served to understand what it means to wonder implant within us the qualities of where one’s next meal will come from, [email protected] kindness and mercy.” (Mekhilta de- or, more tragically, to find nothing to Rabbi Shim’on bar Yohai Ex. 13:3) eat. Thus, kind and generous as they 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 NADAV GASNER, COREY KAMEN, JAY KARON, BJ KOROBKIN, YEHUDA LEVI, COBY LYONS, ZACK MINCER, RONI PEREZ, JOSH PHILLIP, AARON ROSENFELD, MORDECHAI ROTH, DANIEL SAFRAN, EYTAN WEISZ, URIEL WEISZ, BARUCH WISE Find our upcoming shiurim on-line at www.torontotorah.com WOMEN’S BEIT MIDRASH RS RA IRING RS LLIEZRA EREZ M . O Z , M . E P CHAVEROT NOA BORDAN, MINDY CHAPMAN, SOFIA FREUDENSTEIN, LEORA KARON, We are grateful to ARIELLA SNOWBELL, MIRIAM RIVKA WEISS Continental Press 905-660-0311 והורשתם את הארץ וישבתם בה )במדבר לג( Marking the State of Israel’s 70th Year! Israeli Landmark: Peki’in Yaron Perez Peki’in is located in the Upper Galil, at the 11th century, when they fled Jewish community. Nonetheless, all of the foot of Mount Meron. persecution in Egypt. Jews also had the Jews left the area at that time. temporary settlements in the area, as Yosef and Mazal Zinati, with their Ancient Settlement well as a custom of visiting Rabbi daughter Margalit, returned after the Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, the second president Shimon bar Yochai’s cave for Pesach War of Independence; a family tradition of the State of Israel, was one of the Sheni. The custom is attested in Rabbi claims that they descended from important archaeologists to research Moshe Basula’s Book of Journeys (pg. kohanim who had lived there in the ancient Peki’in; his picture on Israel’s 17a) in 1522. Second Temple Period, and their family 100 NIS bill is accompanied by a had never left. In 1955, a new picture of Peki’in. He contended that In 1765, Rabbi Simcha ben Yehoshua community, “Peki’in haChadashah”, Jewish settlement in the area dated to visited and wrote about fifty farming was established nearby with the our entry into the land under Joshua, families living in a Jewish community support of President Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi. and was located in a place named Tel called “Peki’in”, in his Ahavat Zion. Charashim for the iron-workers There are reports of various In 2007, a quarrel over establishment (charashim) who lived there. Josephus communities moving to the area, of an antenna in Peki’in haChadashah mentioned Peki’in (“Beka”) in his Wars settling and then leaving, over the catalyzed riots by local youth. They of the Jews; he grew up not far from centuries thereafter – but a small attacked Jewish homes and kidnapped there. Other sources dating to the end Jewish community always remained a female police officer. This caused of the Second Temple Period mention beside the larger Druze community. some of the local Jews to leave. Margalit Peki’in as the city of Rabbi Yehoshua Zinati remains, though; she has opened ben Chananiah, who was a teacher of A synagogue, which remains standing a Visitors Centre to teach about the Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai today, was built in Peki’in in 1873; history of Jewish settlement in the was also a student of his, and per some claim it is on the site of the Beit area. Margalit lit a bonfire at the Kohelet Rabbah 10, he fled to a cave Midrash of Rabbi Yehoshua ben national ceremony this past Yom called “Peka”. One can visit a cave by Chananiah. ha’Atzmaut, representing our ancient that name in the area today, and see heritage in the land. remnants of a carob tree, and a spring, Modern Times near the cave. Before the State was established, [email protected] Arabs in the area sought to attack the The Middle Ages local Jews, but the Druze protected the Druze settlement in the area began in The Zionist Idea: The Centrality of Nationalism Adam Friedmann “Our state, the State of Israel, is the foundation of G-d’s was an ideological and political rift between the heirs of the throne in the world; its whole desire is that G-d be one and secular and religious Zionist movements. For many, this rift His Name be one.” This description was penned by Rabbi became painfully apparent for the first time in the execution Avraham Yitzchak Kook in one of his spiritual diaries. of the Disengagement Plan of 2005. The Israeli government (Notebook 1:186) While Rabbi Kook wrote before the founding reversed course on the initiative to settle parts of the Gaza of the State of Israel in 1948, his thinking has had a Strip. While the withdrawal from the Sinai in 1982 had been profound influence on religious Zionist leaders in Israel who traumatic, for many people this event represented the first used (and use) it to shape their world view. Following in his blatant anti-messianic/redemptive action that the state had father’s footsteps, Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook stressed the committed. supreme importance, and, indeed, sanctity, of the state and government per se as embodying and actualizing the process The result was a notable shift in the attitudes of the of the messianic redemption.