Celebrating Memorial Day

A number of years ago, if you would have asked me what Memorial Day meant to me, I would have said – Our annual family barbeque, no school!, and Memorial Day sales in stores. That was as meaningful as it got.

Until one year when I decided to take my kids to watch the Memorial Day parade near our house. In addition to the marching bands and groups of police and firemen were groups of veterans, in their uniforms, marching as well. It was then that for the first time I really appreciated Memorial Day for what it is – Yom HaZikaron for America.

Along with feeling concern and gratitude for חיילי צה"ל, I also feel appreciation for American servicepeople, stationed all over the world, who help make this world a safer and better place for everyone. If not for the sacrifice that every one of them makes, leaving safety behind to face unknown dangers, America would not be the country that it is, a country that stands up for democracy and that is a haven for the oppressed.

Memorial Day is our opportunity to pay homage to those soldiers who gave up their lives so that we could live in peace, and to show appreciation to those who fought and came back - sometimes wounded or traumatized - so that our lives could carry on like normal, although theirs would likely not.

It is an American holiday, not a Jewish one, but celebrating it meaningfully is an expression of the very Jewish value of הכרת הטוב. So if you have the opportunity, watch a parade and clap as the veterans walk by, or if not, let’s take a moment away from our barbeques and shopping trips to think about the real meaning of the day, and appreciate those whom it is meant to honor.

Amazing Story in the News (CLICK HERE)

This is a brief news report about how a frum Jew became the principal of one the most dangerous public schools in the Bronx and turned the school around. A real Kiddush Hashem!

Heartbeats

First of all, I want to give a huge yasher koach to the organizers, performers, audience, and everyone who contributed to this amazing event. I feel so privileged to be in a school with students, faculty, and a parent body who are so committed to Chessed.
Two things came to mind tonight while I was watching the amazing performance.
The first is a Gemara in Masechet Ta'anit and Makkot in which Rebi states, "Harbeh Torah Lamaditi M'Rabotai, u'mechaverai yoter mehem, umeitalmidai yoter m'kulan"-- I learned alot of Torah from my teachers, and from my peers I learned even more, and from my students I learned more than from them (my teachers and peers).
The fact that despite your busy schedules you have been involved in this tremendous act of Chessed--and have put your "all" into it-- is truly inspiring and has reminded me about the importance of giving to others and the attitude with which we should give to others.

The second thing that came to mind is a passuk in Tehillim, "kol atzmotai tomarna Hashem mi kamocha"--all of my bones should say to you Hashem, who is like you? (The Gemara in Masechet Brachot actually learns from this passuk that one should bow during Shmoneh Esreh). I think the idea behind this passuk is that all of our limbs--our entire beings--should be involved in Avodat Hashem. While this passuk talks specifically about praising God, I think the idea can be applied to other aspects of Avodat Hashem as well. Heartbeats is a wonderful example of how a person can use her body for singing, dancing, etc. to serve Hashem by performing Chessed.

Yasher Koach again, and I hope that all you blog readers have not only enjoyed watching and listening to Heartbeats, but have taken away from it some important religious lessons as well!

"But what can I do?"

As we find ourselves in the week of committee head applications, a bit of inspiration. 

כי מציון תצא תורה

Esteemed Alum Atara Staiman sends:
hiii blog moderators.....

just wanted to know i felt very proud when i saw the question about eating before "tefillah" aka shemoneh esrei because i think it's a big misconception that you can have your breakfast after saying just brachot on any regular day.
totally didnt know that before this year and i am so happy that is clarified and i hope everyone takes it to heart!
and yes i stalk the blog still.... i just check up on what everyone is thinking- it's so entertaining.
just letting you all know...
and regards from the holy land :)
see you all in maayanot in 2 short little weeks


hope all is great!

Hashem Gave Us a Present...

A little late, but there a still a few hours to line up some reading material going into שבועות.  As always, YU Shavuot To Go is likely to be a good read, though I wonder of it will measure up to other issues, as they have a theme (shidduchim and marriage) for many of the articles.  I've sometimes found that when you limit the writers or speakers by topic, you don't get the same product as when you just ask for their best essay on שבועות.  The one article that I know I'm looking forward to, and that is not compromised in any way is one by our own Mrs. Sinensky.  If that's not enough to keep you busy, you can check out last year's edition, highlighted by an outstanding essay by Mrs. Kahan.

Of course the highlight of שבועות is the annual overnight learning program (Mishmover II?) at Roemer.  While I will unfortunately not be there, I wish I could, as the lineup of shiurim from faculty, alumni and seniors is really amazing.  It's also a great opportunity to study for Talmud exams that many of you have coming up.

חג שמח!

Post Yom Yerushalayim reading recommendations

With Yom Yerushalayim just behind us, and a long Yom Tov break ahead of us, I want to suggest two of my favorite Yerushalayim books. One is Forever My Jerusalem by Puah Shteiner, who was a young child during the fall of the Old City in 1948. It vividly describes Jewish life in the Old City before the 1948 war as well as the agony of the evacuation of all the Jews from the Old City. It's sad in parts, but as we celebrated last Wednesday, we know there's a happy ending to the story. The other book is O Jerusalem, by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre, which is non-fiction but reads like a thriller, with vivid writing and sharp, memorable portrayals of both major and minor players during the War of Independence. I read that about 15 years ago but I still remember many of the scenes. Enjoy!

Dual Perspectives

Reading what Rabbi Besser wrote about היינו כחלמים reminds me of an Ibn Ezra I love on the pasuk in Tehillim 122:2, עמדות היו רגלינו בשעריך ירושלים. He brings two possibilities of why the olei regel might be stopped, standing still in the gates of Yerushalayim. The first is that they were awestruck by its beauty, and were just standing still, staring at the beauty of its walls. The second possibility is because there were so many people going in and out of the gates of Yerushalayim that there was a little bit of a traffic jam, and they couldn’t move (sort of like trying to get through the halls of Ma’ayanot between classes).

Many years ago, when I was teaching this perek, I asked a girl who had never been to Israel to describe what she thought Yerushalayim was like. She described a quiet, peaceful city, with men in long beards walking around with sefarim under their arms, and a palpable feeling of kedusha in the air. Then I asked a student who had traveled to Israel many times to describe Yerushalayim. She described the hustle and bustle of the city, the noise of the traffic, the shops, and how parts of it don’t seem so different from New York City.

I think we can understand this Ibn Ezra as reflecting two types of olei regel. The idealists and those who had never seen Yerushalayim before only saw the beauty and were mesmerized by it. Others, who had “been there, done that” had a more realistic view of it, complete with crowds and long lines.

But maybe we need to incorporate both aspects when we take the leap and go to Israel. We have to be realists so that we know what to expect and that it’s not going to be easy, but we need to be dreamers, mesmerized by its spiritual and physical beauty. Then, with the combination of both perspectives we can take that little leap of faith and still land on our feet.

I Have a Dream...

Interestingly, the last two posts have been about the same chapter of Tehillim - the שיר המעלות that we say on special days before bentching.  Ms. Gordon discussed the first Passuk - "בשוב ד' את שיבת ציון היינו כחולמים".  She explained it "when G-d returns us to Israel, it will seem as if we are dreaming."  Many years ago, on the only Yom Ha'atzmaut I ever spent in Israel, I heard two other interpretations of this phrase within a couple of weeks of each other that are virtual opposites.
The first was very harsh מוסר- when Hashem was bringing us back to Zion, היינו כחולמים - we were like day-dreamers, as in the time of Ezra.  The chance to rebuild Israel was there, but most of the Jewish community was too comfortable in גלות, and just slept through the unique historical opportunity.  This packs a lot more of a punch to me now, with my home and family settled in the North Jersey capital of what some call the Center for the Jewish Past, than it did a post-high school idealist with all of life's big decisions ahead of me.  Understanding it this way, it is very appropriate that we say the line so often; to either jar us out of our complacency in גלות, or typify it, if we don't realize what we are singing.  It is all the more pointed, considering that the occasions on which we sing it - leaning back, stomachs full, around a table of family and friends after Shabbos & Yom Tov meals - capture the picture of religious comfort in the diaspora. 
The other explanation was far more uplifting.  In order to get back ציון, we need to be כחולמים - like dreamers.  Both politically on a national level, and for people on an individual one, a cost benefit analysis will rarely yield the answer that going to Israel is realistic or prudent.  In order to actually end up there, you need to dream a little - to see beyond what is real or responsible, and take a little leap of faith.  That's the way it has always been, from the first time Bnei Yisrael complained that they were thirsty, through history, particularly the last hundred years, and so it remains today.  That's why I so greatly admire those who actually take that leap.

Yom Yerushalayim

I hope everyone had a great Yom Yerushalayim and got a chance to check out the Kotel Cam live video set up in the lobby. I thought it was really amazing to see how the Kotel plaza got more and more crowded as the day went on, finally filling up completely with everyone wearing blue and white and dancing with Israeli flags. It's really a tremendous thing to realize that today we have the opportunity to visit, daven and live in Yerushalyim, something that our ancestors could only dream about. As we say in שיר המעלות before ברבת המזון (Tehillim 126): "בשוב ה' את שיבת ציון היינו כחולמים" - when G-d returns us to Israel, it will seem as if we are dreaming. Attached are a few Yom Yerushalayim videos (one was shown this morning after Tefilah, the others are new) to help us reflect on the messages and significance of the day. You can also click here to read some first hand accounts of Israeli paratroopers liberating the Kotel in 1967. Plus, click here to hear the reflections of the 3 paratroopers in the famous picture standing at the kotel. Enjoy!

http://www.aish.com/jw/j/48970916.html (video #1)

Introducing...Nothing

One-time blog skeptic, turned All-Star Questioner, Talia Friedman asks:

Can you say the Shir Ha'Maalot before benching if you do not intend to bench? 

While you might understandably think that the two are inseparable, and that there is no reason to say the introduction if it doesn't introduce anything - thus leading to the prohibition against saying Hashem's Name in vain.  This would indeed be true in other similar contexts, like saying the ברכות קריאת שמע without saying שמע itself, or the ברכה for הלל, without saying הלל.  Shir Hama'alot is different in that it is simply a chapter of תהילים that can be recited for no reason at all.  In fact, any פסוק from תנ"ך may be said, with the Shem Hashem, as long as the complete פסוק is completed.

More on eating before davening

In response to Rebecca's follow up question "I've heard that if you say brachot then it is ok to eat...is this not true?":

The way the halacha is phrased in the S"A is that it is prohibited to eat anything before Shemona Esrai. The Be'ur Halacha says that even someone who is permitted to eat (like a sick person) should say Kriat Shema before eating so as not to violate the putting one's own importance before G-d's aspect of the prohibition. Meaning, even the sick person should say Shema so that he is מקבל עול מלכות שמים before eating.

Since, however, according to the Rambam, women fulfill their chiyuv in tefilla by just saying any praise, request and thank you to G-d, some poskim allow women to eat after they have recited birchot ha-shachar, since reciting birchot ha-shachar can, (for a woman,) be considered having fulfilled one's obligation to daven according to the Rambam (See Minchat Yitzchak 4:28-3.) It seems, however, that many of these poskim only allow women to rely on this leniency under specific circumstances. For example, R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Halichot Bat Yisrael 2:10) allowed girls who davened in school to eat breakfast at home before going to school because davening in school was part of their chinuch and therefore they would be missing out on something if they had to daven at home before they ate. He says that in addition to saying birchot ha-shachar, these girls should say kriat shema for the reason described above.

(The reason this would only apply to women is because the Rambam believes that the aforementioned in the d'orayta commandment, and the formal structure we use is the d'rabanan. Since the formal structure is a mitzvat aseh she'hazman grama, women aren't obligated in that part of it and only are obligated to do the minimal d'orayta requirement. Ashkenazi women do not pasken like this Rambam, למעשה.)

Thoughts on "TGIF"

We are all familiar with the acronym "TGIF"--thank God it's Friday. (My father recently shared with me a new one--""HITSIC"--hang in there, shabbos is coming:) Both of these express our appreciation for a break from the craziness of our week. In Letters for the Next Generation (a must read, check out chiefrabbi.org), R' Jonathan Sacks writes something really interesting that so eloquently express the amazing quality of Shabbos and the spiritual lesson that we can learn from it.

He writes:
There was one moment in the Torah when the people
started worshipping gold. They made a Golden Calf. The
interesting thing is that if you read the Torah carefully you’ll
see that immediately before and after the Golden Calf,Moses
gave the people a command, the command of Shabbat.Why
that command, then?
Shabbat is the antidote to the Golden Calf because it’s
the day when we stop thinking about the price of things and
focus instead on the value of things. On Shabbat we can’t
sell or buy. We can’t work or pay others to work for us.
Instead we spend the day with family and friends around the
Shabbat table. In shul, we renew our contacts with the
community. We listen to Torah, reminding ourselves of our
people’s story.We pray, giving thanks for all the blessings God
has given us.

The Center for the Jewish Past

This Shabbat we had a friend from Israel for lunch. We started discussing the topic of aliyah, and he turned to us and said, "Do you really want to stay in America, the Center for the Jewish Past?" After first laughing at this witty remark, I started to think more about it. He was presenting the approach the the future of Judaism lies in Israel, not outside of Israel. What do you think? Agree or disagree?

Not eating before Davening

Rebecca Peyser asks:

I was wondering, what's the deal with not eating before you daven, specifically on Shabbat? I know that you can't eat before kiddush, but I thought that that only kicks in after you daven. So where does not eating before you daven come from?

You are correct about not eating before kiddush, but there is also an additional prohibition to eat before davening shacharit, any day of the week. That comes from the gemara in Brachot 10b where the gemara explains the pasuk of "לא תאכלו על הדם" as meaning "לא תאכלו קודם שתתפלו על דמכם" meaning that one should not eat before he davens for his wellbeing. The gemara continues and says that one who eats or drinks and then davens is guilty of putting his own "pride" or importance before Hashem's. The Shulchan Aruch brings this down l'halacha in Orach Chayim 89:3 and says that one should not eat or drink before davening shemona esrai (referring to shemona esrai of shacharit.) The Shulchan Aruch gives the exceptions of cold water and food and drinks for the purpose of refuah (healing.)

So, the basic principle is not to eat before davening. Acharonim discuss various exceptions to this rule, and some allow tea or coffee with certain conditions (See Mishna Brura Orach Chayim 89:22.)

This is where the issue of kiddush comes in. If one is going to drink water before davening on shabbos morning, kiddush is not required before the water, because kiddush only kicks in after davening. Once a person has davened and his kiddush obligation kicked in, however, even water, wouldn't be allowed before kiddush. (See Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 289:1.)

Searching for a כלל גדול בתורה

Talia Friedman asks:

I was wondering,

How could HaShem have killed off 24,000 people if that was the last generation to have semicha? I understand that he was punishing them for sinas chinam yet why was he punishing the future of as yisrael? (my Rabbi just gave a speech saying how after the 24,000 students were killed R'Akiva gave 1 more smicha and was in the process of giving 5 more people semicha when he was killed. Then the Romans killed the one to whom he gave semicha, and that is why we have no more semicha.)

The Romans killed/tortured 12 Jews from then, Hashem killed 24,000. If any one of the 24,000 had survived we might still have real smicha. How could HaShem have destroyed real semicha?

These are hard questions.  I would defer to the Jewish Philosophy department, but I'm not sure they have answers either.  Why did Hashem allow His home to be destroyed?  How could he allow the עשרה הרוגי מלכות, including Rabbi Akiva himself to be so brutally murdered?  The gemara says that the angels asked Hashem this very question (זו תורה וזו שכרה?).  And that is all before we get to the unanswerable questions of the last century.  Imagine what life would be like with the בית המקדש.  Think how much Torah is missing because of these inexplicable tragedies through the generations.  If everyone from איוב to contemporary scholars have fallen short of comprehending Hashem's ways when it comes to these issues, at some point you study all you can, and then admit the imperfection of humanity's ability to understand the 'דרך ד, and move on.

I did see an interesting theory from Rabbi Ari Enkin (see the comments) that the 24,000 students who were killed were Rabbi Akiva's students who were pressed into military service (the first hesder yeshiva) in the Bar Kochva rebellion, and that they died in battle.  Presumably, the reason of שלא נהגו  כבוד זה בזה, is some variation of the שנאת חנם that destroyed the 2nd בית המקדש, which they were trying to rebuild under the Melech Hamashiach who they thought was Bar Kochva.  This would imply that he could have been Mashiach, but the flaws in the nation that led to the destruction of the בית המקדש were not repaired.  So Jewish History teachers - is it plausible?

Interesting Quotation

“Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.”
- Unknown

Agree? Disagree? Comments?

Video message from Gilad Shalit's father

A guest post from current senior, Rebecca Schenker:


Hi . My mom sent me this video today of Gilad Shalit's father, Noam Shalit, that was made on Yom Ha'atzmaut. Apparently one of the local shuls sent out an e-mail with it saying that it only got 200 views on youtube. I just watched it and it had almost 24,000. I wanted to share it with all of you because I think it is a very worthwhile video to watch.

- Rebecca Schenker

Ma'ayanot Did a Mitzvah

Just in time for our blood drive last week, the Jerusalem Post published this article by Rabbi Shlomo Brody about donating blood and bone marrow.  This is an interesting halachik issue that we address in our junior Gemara class; we saw many of the sources that he cites inside. For those not inclined to read the whole thing (though I recommend it), here's a key paragraph:

While bone marrow naturally regenerates, donors do undergo general anesthesia and get hospitalized for a couple of days. While Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch does not obligate donation, even as he deems it extremely meritorious (Teshuvot Vehanhagot 5:387), Rabbi Shlomo Auerbach believes that a potential donor should be cajoled into donating, especially if he does not fear the surgery (Nishmat Avraham EH 80). Yet rabbis Mordechai Willig and J. David Bleich obligate one to donate since the dangers represent common and minimal risks regularly performed for less pressing needs.

 He says that he will address kidney and liver transplants, as well as the question of commercializing (buying and selling) organs in his next column.  We'll keep you posted.

Yom Iyun on Talmud & Tanach Tommorrow (Sunday) at YU!!

Go to kollelyomrishon.org for more info.