Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Yiddish Word Bashert: What Does it Mean? What is the Origin of the Word?

The word means predestined or predetermined as in the sentences:

He or she is not married yet because they have not met their bashert.

If it is bashert to have wealth, one has wealth.

Rav Dovid Cohen in his book, Ha-Safah Ha-Kedoshah: Yiddish, writes that the etymology of the word is from the Yiddish word sher, meaning a scissor. Just as a scissor can cut the shape of an object, bashert means the future shape of events was pre-cut or predetermined to be a certain way.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Two Lessons from The Rav: Don’t Wear Sneakers on a Date and …

Rabbi Yissachar Frand related the following story about Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik:

When the Rav was getting older he needed a student to serve as his personal aide in his apartment. One evening, after taking care of the Rav, the student said:
-- I have to leave now. I am going out on a date.

The Rav saw that his aide was wearing sneakers, and said:
-- Don’t wear sneakers on a date. I think you should wear dress shoes on a date.

The student responded, without thinking:
-- I am wearing white socks and I cannot wear dress shoes with white socks.

The student immediately realized that the Rav always wore white socks with black dress shoes. He was very embarrassed that he just said this to the Rav.

The Rav offered that he could borrow any pair of black socks or blue socks in his drawer. When the student heard this, he asked why the Rav wears white socks instead of blue or black. The Rav explained that the Rebbetzin is ill and it is hard for her to match up the black and blue socks. He makes it easier for her by wearing white for an easy match.

The second lesson is: … Be Considerate to Your Wife

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Sheva Berakhos: The Holiness of Kiddushin

What does holiness mean?

The root of kiddushin is kuf, daled and shin which means to separate. Something is holy because it is separated, distinguished, dedicated, sanctified and apart from something else.

The world is divided into three realms: Space, Time and Intellect; olam, shanah and nefesh. Hashem has given us mitzvos that sanctify each realm.

Some examples include:
Space – Eretz Yisrael as Eretz ha-Kodesh, the Holy Land
Time – Shabbos Kodesh for the holy day of the week, Shemittah for the years
Intellect – Purification of the mind through Torah study, kedushas and taharas ha-guf with the laws of tum’ah / taharah and kashrus

The Rambam named one of the 14 books that comprise the Mishneh Torah, Sefer Kedushah, Book of Holiness. There are only two sets of laws in Sefer Kedushah: 1 – Forbidden sexual relationships and 2 – Forbidden foods. The Rambam explains that with these two areas of law Hashem sanctified us and separated us from the goyim. In both cases the Torah says separation, ve-hivdalti and va-'avdil:

22. You shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them; that the land, where I bring you to dwell in it, vomit you not out.
23. And you shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you; for they committed all these things, and therefore I loathed them.
24. But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey; I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people.
25. You shall therefore differentiate between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean birds and clean; and you shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by bird, or by any manner of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.
26. And you shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from other people, that you should be mine.
--Vayikra 20

Marriage is called kiddushin because it sanctifies and dedicates the chassan and kallah to each other and separates them from everyone else. The birkas ‘erusin says:

Ve-tzivanu ‘al ho-‘aroyos, ve’asar lanu ‘es ho-‘arusos, ve-hittir lanu ‘es ha-nes’uos lanu ‘al ye-dei chuppah ve-kiddushin.

…Commanded us regarding forbidden unions; Who forbade betrothed women to us and permitted women who are married to us through canopy and consecration….
Holy matrimony is kiddushin. The chassan and kallah are holy to each other; dedicated to each other, permitted to each other and separated and forbidden to others.

Although, according to Rav Kafih, the Rambam did not conclude the birkas ‘erusin with the words ‘al ye-dei chuppah ve-kiddushin. The Rambam stopped at mekadesh yisrael because the kedushah of ‘am yisrael is not based solely on the chuppah and kiddushin of a pe-nuyah alone. Rather, kedushas ‘am yisrael is based on the laws of ‘isurei biah and ma’achalos ‘asuros.

May all chassanim and kallos be zokheh to a life of kedushah and taharah, kedushas ha-nefesh and kedushas ha-guf.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Sefer Yetzirah: The Letter Sav

Last Shabbos I spoke at a Sheva Berakhos about the mystery of the letter sav in the Sefer Yetzirah. The Sefer Yetzirah, Book of Creation, attributed to Avraham Avinu, tells about how God created the world with the alefbeis.

According to the Sefer Yetzirah, when God created the world, him’likh, He elevated, the letter sav b’chen, over chen.

What does this mean? The Sefas Emes (Parshas Vayishlach, 5646) explains, that when the inner light, ‘or ha-penimi, is seen in a person that is the appreciation of the ultimate, infinite truth about that person (i.e. the letter sav is the last letter of the alefbeis symbolizing infinity, the superlative).

I believe that when a chassan sees the true inner beauty in the person he chooses to marry that is the realization of emes, of the full range of qualities of that person [which starts with alef and ends with sav]. Then the true chen becomes apparent, as opposed to the chen that is false as in, sheker ha’chen v’hevel ha’yofi i.e. outward, superficial charm and beauty (Mishle 31). At that point chen, spelled with ches and nun get the letter sav added to it in the middle, and that spells, chassan.

And if you transpose the letters you get nachas, the pride and joy that the parents draw upon when they see the chassan and kallah aware of the inner light that they see in each other, ‘ad me’ah ve-esrim shanah.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Yishma’el’s Descendants and Prayer

I have recently heard people saying that the Arabs are as successful as they are against the Jews because they are descendants of Yishma’el , another son of Avraham, and they have a powerful faculty for prayer. God listened to Yishma’el and now He is listening to their fervent, sincere prayers five times a day.

I find this idea odious and contradictory to the belief in Hashem and that we are His chosen people.

If there are people out there who think that this will inspire Jews to be more righteous and daven more and better they are off the track. How could anyone imagine that the prayers of terrorists who blow themselves up with innocent people on a bus or a pizza shop would be answered by Hashem.

We read in Parshas ‘Ekev last Shabbos:

6. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a special people to himself, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples;
8. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9. Know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
10. And repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them; he will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face.
11. You shall therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command you this day, to do them.
12. Therefore it shall come to pass, if you give heed to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord your God shall keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers;
13. And he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your grain, and your wine, and your oil, the produce of your cows, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.
14. You shall be blessed above all people; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, upon you; but will lay them upon all those who hate you.
16. And you shall destroy all the people which the Lord your God shall deliver you; your eye shall have no pity upon them; neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare to you.
17. If you shall say in your heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
18. You shall not be afraid of them; but shall well remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt;
19. The great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord your God brought you out; so shall the Lord your God do to all the people of whom you are afraid.
20. Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves from you, are destroyed.
21. You shall not be frightened by them; for the Lord your God is among you, a mighty God and awesome.
22. And the Lord your God will clear away those nations before you, little by little; you may not destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field grow numerous upon you.
23. But the Lord your God shall deliver them to you, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they are destroyed.
24. And he shall deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall destroy their name from under heaven; there shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.
-- Devarim 7

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Rambam’s 13 Principles of Faith: Missing the 14th ?

Is there a fourteenth principle that the Rambam does not enumerate?

The number 14 has special significance for the Rambam. Rambam consistently classifies the mitzvos into groups of fourteen: fourteen books, classes, or categories. This scheme is first mentioned by Rambam in the Sefer ha-Mitzvos and is also used in the Mishneh Torah and the Moreh Nevuchim.

The Mishneh Torah is also referred to as Yad ha-Hazakah, alluding to the fourteen books; the numerical value of the letters Yud and Dalet (Yad) equal fourteen.

Yet, the Rambam has 13 ‘ikkarim, principles of faith, in his introduction to Perek Chelek. The most familiar version of these 13 are the Ani Ma’amin’s in the Siddur.

Many reasons have been offered for the use of 14 in Rambam’s writings.

Rav Dovid Cohen feels that the Rambam memorialized his brother and benefactor by using the number 14, the gematria of Dalet Vav Dalet, 4+6+4 = 14.

R. Yehoshua ha-Nagid (1310-1355, a descendant of Rambam), quoted by R. N.L. Rabinovitch in Mishneh Torah im Perush Yad Peshutah, Hakdamah u-Minyan ha-Mizvot (Jerusalem, 1997), 68, offers the following explanation: [The number fourteen] is an allusion to the positive and negative commandments. The numerical value of the 248 positive commandments in small numbers is as follows: 200 = 2, 40 = 4, and 8 = 8. 2+4+8 = 14. Similarly, the 365 negative commandments in small numbers are as follows: 300 = 3, 60 = 6, and 5 = 5. 3+6+5 = 14. R. Rabinovitch questions this explanation in light of the fact that it was not customary to refer to the different numbers 248 and 365 as the breakdown between the positive and negative commandments in the time of Rambam. Rambam’s thirteen ikkarim, the Principles of Faith, are also actually fourteen. The fourteenth principle, not listed with the others but nonetheless underlying them all, is the belief in free will. Rambam says in Hilkhot Teshuvah 5:3 that free will is an important principle and it is the pillar on which the Torah and the mitzvos stand. Perhaps, R. Rabinovitch argues, Rambam therefore chose the number fourteen as the numerical scheme for his writings.
--See Elimelekh Polinsky, “Parent-Child Relationships and Ta’amei ha-Mizvot” in The Legacy of Maimonides: Religion, Reason and Community edited by Yamin Levy and Sahlom Carmy (Yashar Books, 2006), pp.175-176 n. 4. http://www.yasharbooks.com/Legacy.html

Thursday, August 03, 2006

The Kotel: How the Western Wall Survived and its Meaning

Titus told four commanders to destroy the Beis ha-Mikdash in order to squelch any idea of rebellion and political independence by the Jews. Titus understood that the only way to subdue the Jews was to destroy their spiritual center.

In the Tish’ah be-Av Kinah, Zekhor asher asah, R. Elazar ha-Kalir, tells us how the Kotel survived when the Beis ha-Mikdash was destroyed: “He left the one on the west side as a memorial.” The commanders were told to destroy their assigned walls and yet one did not do his job. The poet Kalir does not say why, but, the attack on the western side failed. Hashem wanted to leave a remnant. Hence, we have the Kotel today.

The poem continues later with the idea that the Shekhinah resides on the Har ha-bayis even after the churban, ve-tzag achar kosleinu. The Shekhinah is still there today behind the wall that He chose to keep standing.

Hineh zeh ‘omed achar kosleinu mashgiach min ha-chalonos mei’tzitz min ha-charakim, Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice (Shir ha-Shirim 2:9).

The Midrash Shir ha-shirim Rabbah (2:26) says:
BEHOLD HE STANDETH BEHIND OUR WALL: behind the western wall of the Temple. Why so? Because God has sworn to him that it will never be destroyed….

The Shekhinah is behind the Kotel, in the shadow and shade of the Kotel.

The Rambam in Beis ha-Bechirah (6:14-16): kidsha le-sha’atah ve-kidshah le-‘asid lavo. The sanctity of the mikdash is from the shekhinah and the shekhinah is always present, u-shekihnah einah betelah (Vayikra 26:31).

Based on: The Lord is Righteous in All His Ways: Reflections on the Tish’ah be-Av Kinot by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, edited by Jacob J. Shacter, (Toras Horav Foundation, 2006) pp. 204-207.