אור Ohr HaTzafonהצפון $ VOLUME 5 • KISLEV 5777 • BEIS HAKNESSES OF NORTH WOODMERE Ohr HaTzafon Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere Volume 5 Kislev 5777 Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere 649 Hungry Harbor Road North Woodmere, NY 11581 www.bknw.org Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz, Rav and Mara D’Asra Editorial Team Rabbi Yehudah Balsam, General Editor Moshe Grushko, General Editor Tani Sussman, Publication Lead Moshe Buchbinder, Founding Editor Rob Shur, Design and Layout www.rbscreative.com TABLE OF CONTENTS $ Editors’ Preface ........................................................... p. 5 דברי פתיחה Beracha on Hiddur Mitzvah RABBI ARYEH LEBOWITZ ........................................................... p. 23 Being a Jew Inside and Out RABBI SHALOM ROSNER ........................................................... p. 29 חנוכה ?Obsolete שלום בית Is GAVRI BUTLER ........................................................... p. 35 s Chanukah Question’ פני יהושע The JOSEPH ETRA ........................................................... p. 45 From Haman To Hellenists: Celebrating The Downfall Of Our Enemies RABBI NATAN FARBER ........................................................... p. 55 Forget “What is Chanukah”, How About “Where is Chanukah” MICHAEL GEWIRTZ ........................................................... p. 63 and the Ability to Find Light Amidst the Darkness רוחניות of יום טוב the – חנוכה ELISHA GRAFF ........................................................... p. 73 Chanukah as Thanksgiving: The approach of the Pachad Yitzchak MOSHE GRUSHKO ........................................................... p. 79 אמות Candles Below 20 חנוכה and the Pit: Why do we Light , מבוי the , מנורהThe JEREMY HERSKOWITZ ........................................................... p. 85 חנוכה and סוכותThe Connection Between RABBI ASHER KLEIN ........................................................... p. 93 The Symbolism of the Menorah on Chanukah ELI SCHIffMIllER ........................................................... p. 101 Chanukah: Its History, and a Little Mystery JONATHAN AND RICHARD SIDLOW ........................................................... p. 109 פורים פורים Drinking on RABBI YEHUDA BALSAM ........................................................... p. 117 What is Amalek? MOSHE BUCHBINDER ........................................................... p. 125 Two Paths, One Religion: Purim’s Message for the Ages ELLY ROSMAN ........................................................... p. 143 פרי חדש in Jerusalem: The View of the תענית אסתר Abolishing GEDALIAH WIELGUS ........................................................... p. 151 שונות Deal Or No Deal? ERIC COHEN ........................................................... p. 161 or Just Billable Procedure Z41.2 קיום מצוה :In-Hospital Circumcision MICHAEL I. OPPENHEIM, MD ........................................................... p. 169 D.C. v Heller in Halacha: The “Right” to Bear Arms in Shul, in the Street, in the Woods, and in our Hearts EITAN ZERYKIER ........................................................... p. 187 דברי תורה בעברית בענין תפילה בשכרות הרב אריה ליבוביץ 221 ........................................................... חנוכה ופורים: נסים גלוים ונסים נסתרים הרב יהודה בלסם 213 ........................................................... אף הן היו באותו הנס יונתן זאב קירשנער 203 ........................................................... Friends of Meredith for my friends to join me on the journey to new lungs OHT Vol 5 Editors Preface 22 Thankful Thursday…… Dec by BKNW friendsofmeredith 2016 ith gratitude to Hashem, we introduce the 5th edition of the Ohr Hatzafon, a compilation of Divrei Torah written by the Wbaalei batim of the North Woodmere community. This edition discusses the holidays of Chanukah, Purim, and other miscellaneous topics, and is joyfully dedicated to the ongoing refuah shleimah of Meredith Farrell, Rachel Miriam bas Shifra Yenta. Before becoming ill, Meredith worked as a Child Life Specialist with medically ill children to help make the hospital be less of a scary place. Meredith herself was hospitalized during Hurricane Sandy with pneumonia and adenovirus, during which time her lungs were badly damaged. She eventually learned that she would need a lung transplant, and was accepted as a potential candidate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Meredith and her mom relocated to Pittsburgh in anticipation of her transplant. The community there adopted her as their own. She spent more than a year there, full of ups and downs, and took a turn for the worse in mid- August. Baruch Hashem, she finally received a lung transplant on August 29. She is now in the process of rehabilitation, working to regain her strength after more than 10 months in the hospital. Neither this brief summary nor an entire book could adequately describe the trials and tribulations Meredith has experienced, is experiencing, and may have to endure in the future. Despite these tough times, she has remained steadfast in her Emunah and Bitachon. Meredith lives with a keen sense of hashgacha pratis, always giving thanks to Hashem for helping her along her long journey. In fact, throughout this time period of her life, Meredith (or someone in her stead) has been contributing posts on friendsofmeredith.wordpress.com and on the Friends of Meredith Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Friends- of-Meredith), describing day-to-day events leading up to her transplant and all that has transpired since. In addition, every Thursday there is a new Thankful Thursday post which describes and specifically delineates a variety of things אור הצפון • KISLEV 5777 Z 5 Y OHR HATZAFON • כסלו תשע"ז and people for which she is thankful to the Ribono Shel Olam. These include the ability to perform basic functions of life such as breathing on her own again, to the simple pleasures in life, and the lifesaving procedures and the people and physicians responsible for them. It becomes evident from reading these posts that aside from her amazing character, Meredith has a never- ending recognition of Hashem as Ein Od Milvado, and her desire to thank Hashem for the ever present role He plays in her life. One of her posts following Rosh Hashanah, read as follows: Meredith’s friend Linda told her what Rabbi Wasserman said in Temple and it really resonated with her. Rabbi Wasserman spoke about the sounds of the shofar: when you first hear it there’s a long sound. That sound, called a “tekiah,” is kind of like going through life: you’re just going, and going straight. Then sometimes, there are three short blasts. These are called “shevarim.” These blasts are akin to life’s little interruptions, that you struggle with, but can still get through. Sometimes, though, you hit the “teruahs” – the bumpy very short sounds (blown on the shofar by 9+ even shorter blasts) which can be symbolized when life’s difficulties seem to overwhelm you, and it’s almost like everything is coming at you at once. Just when you feel like everything is going wrong, there always comes again the “tekiahs” – the long straight sounds which let you know that everything’s going to be okay. Mer appreciated this symbolism as a way of saying that all those things seemed rough before: HemoLung, ECMO, transplant, two more surgeries, complications in the CT-ICU, etc. but now, G-d willing, she’s coming back to the long straight sounds. Hopefully that is what the new year will bring to Mer – and to all of us – long smooth sailing, with little (to no!) bumps in the road. In this context, the sounds of the shofar take on new meaning for our community. When we hear, Meredith’s brother Scott, one of our baalei tokea, blow the very emotional, tefilla-like meah kolos on Rosh HaShanah, we all join together in beseeching Hashem to allow Meredith to return to - and stay on - the “straight and smooth path”. Chanukah and Purim are holidays during which our respective spiritual and physical annihilation was imminent. We were living in dark times with little hope. But miraculously we were saved. And so these days became days of simcha and thanksgiving for the miracles that occurred. We say in כסלו תשע"ז • Z 6 Y KISLEV 5777 אור הצפון • OHR HATZAFON the Al Hanisim – “Bayamim Ha’haym Bazman Hazeh.” On the surface, the days at the end of Kislev many years ago contained the nisim of Chanukah, therefore we celebrate nowadays during the same period days of simcha, hallel and hodaah to Hashem. But Rav Shimshon Dovid Pinkus zt”l asks whether we can take the words Bayamim Ha’haym Bazman Hazeh literally. Do we in fact witness similar miracles bazman hazeh? It seems that all of our blatantly miraculous events happened well in the past. The 10makos , yetzias mitzraim, krias yam suf, Bnei Yisroel entering Eretz Yisrael, the miracles of the Beis Hamikdash, were all in our distant past. Could it be that only the generations of old were zocheh to see overt nisim? Was this a merit of the Chashmonaim, but not us? Though Rav Pinchus admits this a straw man argument, the answer teaches us a great lesson. He explains that even though Hashem leads this world b’derech hatevah, we are surrounded by overt nisim every day of our lives. Unfortunately, we do not sense or appreciate these miracles as nisim. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon us to work to have an “ayin roeh” and “ozen shomaas.” Rav Pinkus quotes a question from Rav Yosef Dov Soloveichik zt”l: the Gemara Shabbos (daf 22b) states that the ner hama’aravi of the menorah stayed lit for many years in the mikdash, and that throughout