Parashat Bereishit: Rashi the Zionist

One feature that differentiates the first half of Sefer Bereishit (Genesis) from the other four books of the Torah is the focus on family lineage and geographical locations.  For Ba’alei Korei like me (people who read the Torah in public), this means our having to reacquaint ourselves annually with ancient names and places that don’t exactly trip off the tongue!

The Torah’s emphasis on listing the ten generations between Adam and Noach (in this week’s Parasha) and the same number between Noach and Avraham (in next week’s) teaches us that one’s ancestry is important in shaping the people we are, for good or bad.

We, the Jewish people, are all descended from Avraham who in turn hails from Shem, the son of Noach, who himself follows the line of Adam and Eve.  Family matters and families, in many cases, bring the next generation into existence (with help from Gd).

Without Adam, there would be no Avraham (or anyone else for that matter).

Twenty-nine.

That’s the number of generations that separate me from my ancestor, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, popularly known as Rashi and possibly the greatest and most famous Biblical and Talmudical commentator in Jewish history.  It’s also the time span between the world that he lived in and ours.  From the days when Jews were persecuted at the time of the Crusades for their beliefs, to the twenty-first century when Jews are being persecuted for their beliefs.  Nothing has changed.

This matters because the very first Torah commentary he provides is on the very first word of the Torah, ‘Bereishit’.  He writes:

בראשית IN THE BEGINNING — Rabbi Isaac said, “The Torah which is the Law book of Israel should have commenced with the verse (Exodus 12:2) “This month shall be unto you the first of the months” which is the first commandment given to Israel.  What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation?”

His question. on the face of it. seems a little odd.  He is suggesting that the Torah should have commenced with Gd’s commandment to Moshe to tell the Israelites that they are to create a calendar.  This is to mark their birth as a free and independent nation on the cusp of leaving Egypt.  The objective being to go straight to the country we now call Israel which at the time was much bigger.

However, we all know that if you’re going to tell a story shouldn’t you, quoting Oscar Hammerstein’s famous lyric, ‘start at the very beginning’?  Every archaeologist, palaeontologist, astronomer et al knows that the key component in trying to decipher an object is ascertaining its age or attempting to understand where it fits in the chronology of the world and universe.  Rashi’s question seems out of place until he explains the following:

What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation?  Because of the thought expressed in the text (Psalms 111:6) “He declared to His people the strength of His works (i.e.  He gave an account of the work of Creation), in order that He might give them the heritage of the nations.”

And continues his answer with a very contemporary response:

For should the peoples of the world say to Israel, “You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan”, Israel may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased.  When He willed, He gave it to them, and when He willed, He took it from them and gave it to us.”

Last Sunday, which was Simchat Torah, we marked the end of the reading of the Torah cycle with the death of Moshe Rabbeinu and followed it up almost immediately with Bereishit.  On that very same day, the Green Party echoed, to the letter, the words that my twenty-nine-generation grandfather predicted would happen.

It wasn’t so much a prediction as a sad acknowledgement that from time-immemorial, individuals and nations have accused us of being thieves, taking the land that they claimed was never ours.  It is, as the Walt Disney song claims, ‘a tale as old as time’ (a line written by the late, great Jewish lyricist, Howard Ashman for ‘Beauty and the Beast’).

We have also held onto the hope that the nations of the world would value and respect the Divine veracity of the Bible and the reason for its chronology but alas, for many, this is no longer the case.  At least not in a society that treats influencers, actors and TV commentators as demi-gods whose every pronouncement is, if you excuse the word, ‘Gospel’.

Rashi is highlighting a critical point in his commentary.

Follow the chronology from the creation of the world and the first couple through to their twentieth-generation descendants.  Gd makes it clear to Avram and Sarai (soon to be renamed) that the land of Canaan that they have been commanded to go to (as described at the start of Parashat Lech Lecha which we will be reading in a fortnight PG) will be given to their descendants (literally their ‘seed’) (Sefer Bereshit 12.7).

This promise is repeated to Yitzchak (26.2-4) and then Yaakov (28. 13-15 and 35.9-12).

Joseph is sold by his brothers and ends up in Egypt to be eventually joined by his father and siblings which of course culminates in the events described throughout the remainder of the Torah.  For the present to make sense, you must know ,and just as importantly understand, the past.

When I entered one of the huts in Auschwitz, I was greeted by a plaque bearing the quote from the renowned Spanish born philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  How ironic that his native country is one of the most hostile and active players in the anti-Israel alliance.

Denying our connection to the land of Israel is therefore not a new phenomenon and in highlighting the significance of Bereishit and the narrative it follows, Rashi perceptively points out the ‘tale that is as old as time’.  Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov were treated as foreigners, but Gd told them that one day, their descendants would be anything but.

Zionism did not begin with Theodore Herzl despite those who try to convince us that it did.  It began with Gd’s promise to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov that one day we, the Children of Israel, i.e. the Jewish people, would inherit the land.  Firstly, through Joshua and the tribes and finally through the early Chalutzim (Pioneers) in the Yishuv (pre-mandate settlement of the land) who despite the odds battled nature and naysayers to reach the point we find ourselves today.

Their story and ours ultimately begins with Adam and Eve.

Shabbat Bereishit is a time to reflect on how we ended up where we are.  Despite our enemies’ attempts to deny Gd’s promise to the Avot (Patriarchs), this Parasha, at the very beginning of our new annual cycle, reminds us of the everlasting connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel.

Our enemies and naysayers in this country and throughout the world throw every spurious allegation and grotesque lie in our direction and call us whatever they want but nothing will ever stop the Jewish people also known as Bnei Yisrael being loud and proud Zionists.

Denying our inalienable link to Israel is racism in its most basic and vicious form.

Twenty-nine-generations ago, my ancestor wrote it down and what he wrote was as true then as it is now.  He was a Zionist centuries before the modern iteration of the word was coined by Nathan Birnbaum, an Austrian Jewish writer in 1885.

May Gd bless us all with a year of peace and we pray fervently that the nations of the world come to the realisation that Zionism, which is embedded in our DNA and souls, is as old as our nation to whom the land of Israel was eternally promised.

Shavuah Tov and Chodesh Tov.

Yom Kippur: Tzedaka in Manchester

 

_{© https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm9w47x890d2o}

For Melvin Leslie Cravitz מאיר אליעזר בן בנימין & Adrian Jonathan Daulby אברהם יעקב בן דוד בן ציון the Kedoshim/holy souls killed in the terrorist attack at the Heaton Park Shul in Manchester on 2^nd October 2025, Yom Kippur 5786.

On Rosh Hashanah, it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed.  How many will pass away and how many will be born.  Who will live and who will die; who in his due time and who before…but Repentance (Teshuvah), Prayer (Tefilla) and Charity (Tzedaka) will enable us to pass over the evil of the decree.

My sermons over these Yamim Noraim, Days of Awe, are focusing on the three ways in which a Jew is able to use these holy days (and the eight in-between, known as the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah or Ten Days of Penitence) to appeal to Gd to ask for, as Rabbi Sacks ztl puts it ‘a royal or presidential pardon.’

Today, Tzedaka, charity.

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, I talked about the 9/11 terror attacks in downtown Manhattan which is approximately 3,360 miles from Cheltenham Synagogue.  It would take between 11 and 14 hours to get there from here using the usual methods of transport. On the Second Day, my focus turned to the Bondi Beach attack.  Archer Park, which abuts the beach is approximately 10,621 miles from here.  That’s between 25 and 28 hours travelling time.

It is exactly a year in our calendar since we were in the process of reciting the ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ prayers during the repetition of Shacharit.  The Ark was open and our soon-to-be Barmitzvah Boy climbed onto the Bimah and quietly relayed the news to me.  At the time, we knew very little, except for the fact that, tragically, there had been some fatalities.  Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were the two martyrs whose names we would all become familiar with, following the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

Heaton Park Shul lies, not 10,000 or 3,000 miles from this very spot, but a mere 143 miles.

If you chose to drive to the shul (after Yom Kippur of course!), it should take you less than three hours to reach your destination.

Three hours.

At the time, we were not aware that within less than a year, terror would strike much closer to home, in the place I grew up in and on the streets I have walked along on more occasions than I am able to recall, 93 miles away in Golders Green.

10,621, 3,360, 143, 93.

If we focus solely on the actual ‘Tzedaka’ or charity donated following these attacks (from New York to Golders Green over the last quarter century), we would be referring to amounts that number in the billions of dollars (and their equivalent in pounds sterling), particularly given the outpouring of grief and sympathy generated as a result of the events of 11^th September 2001.

However, I feel that this would not be addressing the true nature of Tzedaka and crucially, its place as the third constituent part of the Unetaneh Tokef prayer that we recite three times over the Days of Awe.

Casting our minds back to Manchester, the jarring image that immediately presents itself is that of Rabbi Daniel Walker standing outside the shul in his white Kittel bearing the blood of the victims of the attack.  Alongside Melvin and Adrian were Andrew Franks, Bernard Agyemang, a Ghanaian security guard, and Yoni Finlay, who was standing near Adrian and was hit by the same bullet that passed through him and killed Adrian.  Rabbi Walker, Yoni, Adrian and others were barricading the door in the foyer to protect the community and stop the attacker entering.  It was there that Adrian passed away.

Andrew, Bernard and Yoni were injured during the attack and are, thank Gd, all currently recovering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRyQHq-Hfg8

‘Tzedaka’ comes from the root ‘Tzedek’ which means righteousness, fairness or justice.  The word ‘Charity’ used in the English vernacular does not convey what ‘Tzedaka’, one of our key mitzvot, really means in Judaism.

Many Jewish people are under the assumption that giving Tzedakah is an option, rather like certain other commandments in the Torah which apply only in particular circumstances, such as our being required to put a guard rail on our roofs if we own a property that has an accessible roof.

Although many people wear Tzitzit under their clothes (and some even over their clothes), the mitzvah we are commanded to keep is to put fringes on the corners of garments that are four-cornered.  If it doesn’t have four corners, it doesn’t require Tzitzit!

In Parashat Ki Teitzei, we are given the mitzvah of ‘shiluach haken’ – to send away the mother bird before taking the eggs or chicks from her nest.  If we don’t come across a nest, this would not pertain to us (and incidentally, it’s also illegal to remove eggs under this country’s laws).

Three examples of mitzvot that would only apply in given circumstances.

Giving Tzedaka is not one of these.

It is mandatory for everyone, irrespective of how much or little money they own.  We are instructed to give as per the amount we can afford to donate.

If you are interested in researching the topic, an excellent place to start is by studying the Rambam’s Eight Levels of Charitable Giving, listed in the Mishneh Torah (his fourteen-volume legal code) (Hilchot Matanot Aniyim (Laws of Gifts to the Poor), Chapter 10, Halachot 7 to 14 – you can read a summary at https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/eight-levels-of-charitable-giving)

Although we are instructed to give Tzedakah and the word itself is mentioned in our prayer in the context of these High Holy days, ‘Tzedakah’ is much more than just the simple act of donating to a charity.  If we consider the money that we receive (indirectly from Gd and directly from the sources which provide our income) as belonging to us and us alone – we deny the existence of Gd as a power of good for all society.

Another derivative of Tzedek is Tzidkut, which can be roughly translated as righteousness, piety or moral integrity.  A person who gives tzedakah willingly should be the same individual who donates to society in a way that goes significantly beyond the simple definition of ‘donating.’

All the above underscores a Jewish person’s requirement to contribute in a way that results in a society that is significantly more just, equitable, ethical and moral – or in a single word, ‘righteous.’

Earlier this year, I made my first trip to Poland as part of the British delegation to the annual ‘March of the Living’ event which takes place during the week of Yom Hashoah.  As the child of a survivor and a refugee, this is a journey that I had resisted for decades and truth be told, I have been very much affected by what I experienced.  That said, although I understand why many people feel that they could not go to death camps like Auschwitz or Treblinka (as we did), if you can, you really must go.  Amongst the many survivors who joined us (unfortunately fewer than usual from Israel due to the travel restrictions caused by the Iran War), we were honoured to have Yoni Finlay who had been invited to come along as a survivor of the Heaton Park Shul attack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9e5PieqCNI

He is an extraordinary and inspirational young man who I bonded with instantly and a fine example of Tzidkut – righteousness.  He literally risked his life (and suffered tremendous injuries as a result) to protect others and told me that he was determined to get back to shul by the end of the Chagim.  Sure enough, he was at Heaton Park Shul on Simchat Torah.  He has subsequently put his efforts into, as posted on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation’s Facebook page:

‘[making] it his mission to help ensure that Manchester’s Jewish community emerges stronger, more resilient, and determined not to let the horrific events of Yom Kippur define us.’

Earlier this month, I attended the Chief Rabbi’s Annual Rabbinic Conference and one of our esteemed guests was Rabbi Walker whom I had not previously met.  I took the opportunity to introduce myself to him during the reception that preceded dinner on the first evening.

Rabbi Walker is a quiet and extremely humble man whose tzidkut was in evidence throughout the careful words he employed to address us (although he is too modest a man to admit this).  He led the efforts to protect his community by reinforcing the same barricade that was being manned by Adrian and Yoni.

The Chief Rabbi interviewed Rabbi Walker who explained what had taken placed in a calm, measured and non-sensationalistic manner.  An introverted and thoughtful man who wanted to be anywhere but in front of a journalist’s camera or recording device.  Whose complete dedication to Chabad and the Rebbe’s teaching shone throughout.  We gave him a standing ovation before and after his speech.

The evening concluded with the presentation of the Chief Rabbi’s Annual Award to Rabbi Daniel and Rebbetzen Esther Walker with this citation:

“In recognition of the extraordinary Kiddush Hashem that you have achieved.  Your sterling leadership, courage and charisma have inspired many across the globe to stand tall with Jewish pride, to find light in the midst of darkness and to discover hope at a time of despair.  Your Ahavat Yisrael, selflessness and humility are a beacon of light and inspiration to us all.”

(from the Chief Rabbi’s Facebook Page)

Or in a single word, Tzidkut – righteousness.

Circumstances such as these, in which we should never find ourselves, brought out the very best in the individuals I have described throughout these three Drashot.

From the unnamed fireman who risked his life to save his colleagues at the World Trade Center or Rabbi Schlanger ztl blowing his shofar and praying at Nikki’s bedside in Sydney to Rabbi Walker and Yoni in Manchester, we have looked at what Teshuvah, Tefilla and Tzedaka entail and how central they are to our understanding of the importance and power of the Unetaneh Tokef prayer.

These are the tzaddikim, holy human beings who refuse to give up on humanity despite the very real darkness that threatens to envelop us, whether it lies 10,000 miles away or less than 100.

We wear white on Yom Kippur because that is the colour of purity and we are aspiring to reach this level.

We are like angels because we know that we must rise, if only for one day, in the year above those who seek to cause harm to ordinary law-abiding people from all faiths and none.

We pray to Gd on this holiest of days precisely because we are beseeching Gd to protect us from the blood-stained New Yorks, Manchesters, Bondis and Golders Greens of the last year and quarter century.  Please, Gd, let there be no more.

This is the time for us to act.

To do Teshuvah through our genuine repentance.

Tefilla through our heartfelt prayers.

And Tzedaka through acts of righteousness that will turn this tiny little blue planet into the world that Gd created so many years ago.  The one that is so precious to every one of us.

Wishing you an easy and meaningful remainder of the fast and a safe, peaceful and meaningful new year.

Gmar Chatima Tovah – may we all be blessed with a ‘good final Divine signature’ for 5787

Amen.

Rosh Hashanah II: Tefilla in Sydney

 

Dedicated to Rabbi Eli Schlanger zt, the London born, assistant rabbi at Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi and the other 14 kedoshim / holy souls, murdered in the terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia on 14^th December 2025, the 1^st Night of Chanukah 5786

On Rosh Hashanah, it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed.  How many will pass away and how many will be born.  Who will live and who will die; who in his due time and who before…but Repentance (Teshuvah), Prayer (Tefillah) and Charity (Tzedakah) will enable us to pass over the evil of the decree.

My sermons over these Yamim Noraim, Days of Awe are focusing on the three ways in which a Jew is able to use these holy days (and the eight in-between, known as the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah or Ten Days of Penitence) to appeal to Gd to ask for, as Rabbi Sacks ztl puts it ‘a royal or presidential pardon.’

Today, Tefillah, prayer.

It is nearly 9 months or 39 weeks or 273 days since the terrorist attack on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia which left fourteen families’ lives shattered beyond belief.  The victims were Jewish and Gentile.

One of the most inspiring and moving books I’ve read this year is called ‘Conversations with My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World’ by Rabbi Eli Schlanger and Nikki Goldstein, HarperElement Spirit (an inaugural Imprint of HarperCollins, 26^th May 2026 Conversations with My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World: Amazon.co.uk: Goldstein, Nikki, Schlanger, Rabbi Eli: 9780008833367: Books

(Before I continue, I must give an honourable mention to the extraordinary memoir by Eli Sharabi – ‘Hostage’ of his experiences as a captive of Hamas in Gaza.  It is one of the books that deserves to be included in everyone’s library and was published in English on 21^st May

Hostage: OFFICIAL EDITION: The first memoir by an Israeli hostage: Amazon.co.uk: Sharabi, Eli: 9781800756557: Books )

In September 2022, Nikki Goldstein, an Australian journalist and writer, was admitted to St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney with what she thought was a ‘routine chest infection’.  On her website (https://nikkigoldsteinauthor.com/about-nikki), she writes:

“Within hours, the head of the ICU told me my heart would give out if they didn’t put me into an induced coma.  I had minutes.  I called my husband, told him I loved him, made him promise to keep my feet warm — I have always had cold feet, and the thought of lying intubated with no socks filled me with a specific, disproportionate anxiety that I have come to think of as entirely reasonable — and then everything went blank.”

The doctors told her husband Rowan and their teenage daughter, Liberty, to (as she puts it in the book), ‘prepare for the worst.’

Whilst they sat at my bedside – watching, waiting, holding my hand – Liberty nudged Rowan and whispered, “hey Dad…is that a rabbi over there?”

Rabbi Eli writes:

“It was the month of Ellul…a time of introspection, of returning, of soul-preparation before the High Holy Days.  I had been called to the ICU to visit a man from our community who’d taken a sudden, serious turn.  I arrived with my tefillin in one hand and a shofar in the other.  I stood quietly by the man’s bedside, whispered prayers into the space between us and sounded the shofar.  A cry.  A call.  A trembling, ancient sound that reached places words can’t…just as I stepped into the corridor, a man approached me.  He looked desperate and anxious.  “Rabbi,” he said, “can you please come say a prayer with my wife?  She’s Jewish.  I’ve had every religious minister in this hospital visit – but I haven’t seen a rabbi until now…”

Rabbi Eli followed Rowan back into the ICU where Nikki lay unconscious and saw Liberty sitting at her mother’s bedside with her head bowed and ‘tears streaming down her face.’ He explained the meaning of the shofar to Rowan (who isn’t Jewish) and Liberty and said that ‘it’s a wake-up call, a sound that pierces the heavens.  It’s not just heard, it’s felt’.  They ‘both nodded…and understood more than words can explain.’  ‘And so, I blew the shofar once more’ (following his previous visit).

He said a prayer and explained the mitzvah of giving charity, Tzedakah, which they said they would do.

And then he left.

He visited the hospital a week later and to his delight, she was now in the recovery ward on the 9^th level.

Nikki writes:

“What happened in that coma is the story I’ve been trying to understand ever since.  A rabbi appeared.  A shofar was blown.  Prayers were whispered into the space between my near-lifeless body and Heaven, and then, something shifted.  I woke up, and I was not the same person who had gone under.”

These most challenging of circumstances led to a loving, deep friendship between two Jews from opposite ends of the religious spectrum.  Their families connected and Nikki experienced a religious awakening that culminated in their deciding to write this book together.  One that, tragically, Nikki would complete on her own following Rabbi Eli’s murder on Bondi Beach.  The preface is dated December 17, 2025, three days after the massacre and the epilogue on January 22, 2026.  There is also an extremely moving afterword written by Rabbi Eli’s father-in-Law, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, dated February 24^th.

Rabbi Eli and Nikki were weeks away from completing the project together.

The book is structured as an exchange of ideas built around Rabbi Eli’s lifelong desire to teach the Seven Noahide Laws to both Jews and non-Jews alike.  To make this world in which we live more ethical, compassionate and spiritual.

That Rabbi Eli left us the way he did is the cruellest irony imaginable granted the background behind and subject matter of this remarkable book.

Bondi Beach lies approximately 12 miles away from the house in which my maternal grandfather, Philip Vecht, was born.  He was given the middle name ‘Sydney’ to honour the city of his birth.  When I heard about the attack, my thoughts immediately turned to how differently things might have been.  Had my great-grandfather remained in Australia rather than travelling to South Africa, it is entirely possible that I, or someone in my family, could have been the sixteenth victim.  That realisation brought the horror of what had happened painfully close to home.

UveShofar Gadol Yitakah, VeKol demama dakah yishama…

A great shofar sounds and a still small voice is heard, angels rush forward and are held by trembling, shaking.  They say, “Here is the Day of Judgement visiting all the heavenly hosts for judgement – for even they are not innocent in Your eyes in judgement, and all who have come into this world pass before You like sheep”.

Yesterday, as it was Shabbat, we were bathed in the sound of silence.  Today, the Shofar blasts its way into the very essence, the very depths, the deepest, most embedded spiritual atoms that constitute our souls.

We are blessed not to find ourselves at death’s door like Nikki was on the day she was visited by Rabbi Eli.  With his shofar and his tefillot, his prayers, he rekindled the flame that had nearly been extinguished.  The lifeforce, that was ebbing away from her breath by breath, was miraculously restored.  With the horn of a ram, a voice and a prayer book.

In the Torah, Rosh Hashanah is referred to as ‘Yom Teruah’ – the Day of Blasting or the Day of Sounding the Shofar – that’s how integral this is to the festival itself.  The Hebrew word for breath is Neshima which contains the same Shoresh, root, as Neshama, a soul.

Judaism believes that Adam (and subsequently, Eve) were created on the Sixth Day which was Rosh Hashanah.  Gd breathed life into Adam and we communicate with Gd through the breath that we use to sound the Shofar.  They are one and the same.

We therefore need the shofar to wake us from our spiritual coma, in tandem with our voices and the prayers they recite.  No-one can explain why Gd chose to take Rabbi Eli and the fourteen other holy souls on that blissful Antipodean summer night. 

We are here to celebrate our existence for another year and be handed the opportunity to use this auspicious time to pray that this year will be different, better, memorable for the right reasons.

I will conclude with a quote from Nikki who writes in the epilogue

This book is a dedication to Rabbi Eli’s light and wisdom.  It’s our combined offering to G-d and to humankind.  Forgive me if these words seem hubristic; I don’t mean them to sound grandiose, but that was our intention and shared mission when we began this project.  We wanted to create something timeless, meaningful and useful…what would Eli have said? Simply, “Baruch Hashem.”

Friends, with the sound of the Shofar ringing in our ears and the echo of our prayers pouring from our lips, let us, together, work to make this world a better place.  For us, for Nikki and in the memory of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Zecher Tzaddik Livracha.

Shana Tova and Chag Sameach.