In the Beginning....

 

בראשית א׳:

(א) בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹקִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

(ב) וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹקִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

 

Genesis 1:

(1) In the beginning, Gd created the heaven and the earth.

(2) Now the earth was unformed and void and darkness (was) over the surface of the deep and the spirit of Gd hovered over the face of the waters.

When I think about our lives and what has transpired over the last six months, the words 'unformed', 'void' and 'darkness' do not seem out of place.

How many of us have had to check our calendars to remind us of which day of the week we have been living through? How many of us listen to the news and try to make sense of the 'void' of Covid-19 that has overtaken our little blue planet? How many of us feel as though we are living in 'darkness'?

In the beginning, there was nothing.

The spirit of Gd may have hovered over the face of the waters, but below the waters, there was a deep, deep chasm with no end in sight.

And then…. 

(ג) וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃

(3) Gd said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

And once there was 'light', what did Gd do?

(ד) וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹקִ֛ים אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹקִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃

(4) Gd saw that the light was good, and Gd separated the light from the darkness.

Gd took that light and created a contrast between this light and the darkness.

He established this difference because, although He had created heaven and earth, until He had created the light and separated it from the darkness, the earth was void and unformed and plunged into a darkness that no human being or beast can envisage.

(ה) וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹקִ֤ים ׀ לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד׃

(5) God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

The first day was when Gd established a boundary between night and day or rather, the light and the darkness - you can't have a 'day' or a 'night'  when the sun and moon are three periods away from being created.

The 'light' that Gd created, according to our Sages was a spiritual light which was set aside for the righteous to use for a future world that we have not yet seen (Rashi). 

In the last six months, we have been searching for some sort of light to illuminate a path in the darkness that has overtaken our world. Some of our loved ones were nearly subsumed into the darkness but were blessed to be pulled back from the brink. Tragically, many others were beyond our reach, and we deeply mourn their passing.

The Midrash (Vayikra Rabba 29.1) tells us something fascinating:

“.... It was taught in the name of Rabbi Eliezer, "The world was created on the twenty-fifth of Elul....”

So, when the Torah tells us that:

 “In the beginning, Gd created the heaven and the earth.

Now the earth was unformed and void and darkness (was) over the surface of the deep and the spirit of Gd hovered over the face of the waters.”

According to the Midrash, this took place on the 25th of Ellul , whose date will begin tonight at sunset. In six days’ time, on Friday night, we will have reached the Sixth Day, when Gd's last act of creativity was the formation of Adam and Eve - the very first Rosh Hashanah, for this very festival marks the anniversary of the creation of mankind. 

It is no coincidence that Ashkenazim mark the week which precedes Rosh Hashanah (from around 25th Ellul) by commencing the Selichot prayers, which we will recite all the way through the Eve of Yom Kippur and indeed, during the Fast itself, culminating in the exhilarating Neilah prayer at the end of the day. These prayers are our cries to Gd, begging Him to forgive us for the sins we have committed over the last year and at the same time, beseeching him to grant us a year of health and stability. To ensure that our world does not continue to be formless, void and dark. To bring us the light that we need to survive and thrive, grow and develop and become the best versions of who we can be.  We are asking Him to bring us a new Beginning - a new Bereshit.

May you and your families be inscribed in the Book of Life for a year of good health and success in all of your endeavours and may He banish the darkness from our lives in the new year of 5781.  

Shanah Tovah Umetukah, a happy and sweet New Year.

Parshiot Nitzavim and Vayelech: Is Hakhel A ‘Mission Impossible’?

 

Deuteronomy 31:

(9) Moses wrote down this Torah and gave it to the priests, sons of Levi, who carried the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.

(10) And Moses commanded them as follows: At the end of seven years, at the time of the Sabbatical Year (i.e. Shmittah) during the Sukkot Festival,

(11) when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord, your Gd in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Torah aloud in the presence of all Israel. (Rashi and Rambam explain that the king stood on a wooden platform in the Temple and read from a Torah scroll starting with the first verse of the Book of Devarim until the end of the first paragraph of the Shema, the second paragraph and the majority of chapters 14 to 28, including the Tochecha/warning).

(12) Gather (Hakhel) together the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your cities—that they may hear and so that they may learn and they will fear the Lord your Gd and to observe faithfully every word of this Torah.

(13)  And their children who do not know - they shall hear and they learn to fear the Lord, your Gd, all the days that you live on the land to which you are crossing the Jordan to possess it.

 It is the seventh day of Adar and Moses is now one-hundred-and-twenty-years old. In a few hours, he will die and his successor, Joshua, will lead the people into the Promised Land. He knows that this will happen soon but as always, his entire focus is on the nation he has navigated through the desert over the last forty years. Through miracles and plagues, rebellions and wars, Moses has always been there for his people. He has pleaded with Gd for their salvation at times when they didn't deserve to be saved. His people - Gd's people are ready to enter the land from which he has been barred.

Others, less noble, less humble than Moses, Moshe Rabbeinu - 'our teacher', may not have been in the proper frame of mind to focus on anyone else but themselves. Moses is different. He has a job to do. There are two more mitzvot, commandments that he needs to teach the people. The six-hundred-and-thirteenth is to tell them that they each need to write their own Torah Scroll so that the holy words of our Torah will never leave their lips. Indeed, if one can inscribe a letter in a Torah Scroll, one has fulfilled this commandment (Chazal, our Sages interpret this to mean that, were one unable to do so, purchasing a Chumash is tantamount to writing in a scroll - as long as you read the book!).

The penultimate commandment however, as described above in Chapter 31 seems to be one of those that we are no longer able to fulfil, as we have neither a king nor a Beit Hamikdash/Temple.

Is it really a case of Mitzvah #612 being an example of a 'Mission Impossible'?

In 1994, I was single and without many cares in the world.

I seized the opportunity to spend a month in Israel, encompassing all the Chagim, from Rosh Hashanah through to the end of Simchat Torah.

I had a fabulous time!

A friend was renting a flat in downtown Jerusalem (in the German Colony of Emek Refaim) which meant that I could stay with him was within walking distance of both the Old and New Cities. The weather was glorious. I flitted around from Tel Aviv to Eilat and ventured to Haifa. Yom Kippur in Jerusalem was a touch challenging, granted the heat but I made it through the day without too much suffering endured.

When Sukkot came along, I heard of an event taking place at the Kotel/Western Wall that still sends chills down my spine to this very day.

1993-94 (or 5753-54) was the seventh year in the Shmittah cycle,  which meant that Chol Hamo'ed Sukkot was also the time when, in the past, the Hakhel Assembly had taken place in the Women's Courtyard of the Beit Hamikdash. This ceased with the destruction of the last Temple but was reinstated with a modern twist by the Israeli Government in 1952. To my delight, I happened to find myself in Jerusalem over Chol Hamo'ed Sukkot, at the exact time when the ceremony was being re-enacted.

I made my way to the Kotel and was greeted by what appeared to be an ocean of people. Men, women and children as far as the eye could see. The throng of the crowd took up the entire plaza in front of the Wall, all the way back to the security barriers. 

Proceedings began with the Kohanim/Priests, dressed in their traditional white robes, blowing the silver trumpets (Chatzotzerot) which had been recreated from the Biblical specifications by the craftsmen at the Temple Institute,  an organisation which are currently preparing the artefacts that will be (Please Gd) used when the Moshiach finally arrives.

The Kohanim were lined up along the wall by the gentlemen's entrance to the Kotel, just north of the hand-washing area.

Trumpets having been sounded, we were then treated to speeches by the respective Ashkenazi and Sephardi Chief Rabbis who described the Hakhel ceremony (as per this week's Parsha) and its significance in our collective history.

With the speeches over, we then had the opportunity to move over to one of the numerous shaded tables where Baalei Korah/Torah readers were reciting the said chapters from a myriad of Torah scrolls of different shapes and sizes. I heard the familiar Ashkenazi melody from one, a fascinating and virtually unrecognisable chant from a Yemenite sage (which is probably one of the most authentic versions, along with those emanating from the Iraqi and Persion traditions) as well as many other recitation.

We may not have witnessed a single king doing the job that day, but each Baal Korei was wearing a crown, in my opinion, for they were all magnificent. For all intent and purpose, I was present as the Hakhel Assembly prescribed by Moses, all those years ago.

It is interesting that we spend a great deal of our year mourning the destruction of the Temples, particularly the recent period of the Three Weeks, encompassing the Nine Days and Tisha B’Av.

Four out of our six annual public fasts have come about as a direct result of these catastrophic national events. The fifth fast , our most important one, is Yom Kippur whose highlight (during the repetition of the Musaph prayer) consists of the intricate description of the Avodah, the holy service which took place every year in the precincts of the Temple on this very day.

When we bow down and say "Baruch Shem Kevod...." numerous times, we are instinctively and directly connecting with a tradition that has survived two millennia. In fact, you could even add that the sixth fast, of Esther, would not need to have taken place had the Jews not been exiled to Persia as a consequence of the events that took place after the Babylonian Exile and destruction of the first Temple. Six fasts, all linked with Jerusalem.

As for myself, a twenty-first century Jew, to be able to participate in this ancient ceremony, at our holiest site, in the city of Jerusalem, the capital of Medinat Yisrael is truly remarkable.

Hakhel will (Please Gd) take place again in two years’ time. It will be another opportunity to fulfil a mitzvah that previous generations could never have envisaged and most importantly, Moses would have been extremely proud to see his vision enacted. 

He may not have physically entered the land of Israel but there is not a single day that passes when his name is not mentioned in awe – in our Promised Land.

Shabbat Shalom.

Parshat Ki Tavo: The Blink of An Eye

Jean-Dominique Bauby and Sarah Ezekiel.

These two names might be unfamiliar to most of us but each of these respective individuals has managed an incredible feat.

Jean-Dominique was a French journalist and author who was a former editor of the French fashion magazine, 'Elle'.

Sarah is a British artist whose works have been exhibited internationally.

There are many talented writers and artists in the world, however very few can claim to have created their output without the use of their hands.

Or feet (remember Christy Brown of 'My Left Foot' fame?).

Or virtually any other limb in their body.

Apart from their eyes.

In 1995, at the young age of 43, Jean-Dominique suffered a major stroke.  He woke up in hospital unable to speak, completely paralysed aside from the use of his left eye, which still had the ability to blink.  He was diagnosed with 'locked-in' syndrome (LIS), which is also known as 'Pseudocoma'.

Sarah was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) when pregnant with her second child.  She was only 34.  She has been living with this condition for twenty years and is unable to walk, talk or move on her own. Both Jean-Dominique and Sarah were afflicted with life-altering conditions.  A successful writer and journalist found himself 'locked-out' of his own body overnight.  An artist who expressed her innermost thoughts through her artwork lost control of how her most personal creation, namely her body, could function effectively.  To the point where she too, was 'locked-out'.

What makes these two individuals so inspirational is how they faced these challenges and 'what they did next'.

Jean-Dominique decided to write his memoir 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly', which was adapted in 2007 into one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 21st Century's first decade.

He had the entire book composed, edited and arranged in his head.  In order to have this inscribed, his literary assistant (technically called his 'amanuensis'), Claude Mendibil, recited the alphabet over and over again.  Whenever Claude (what a great name!) reached a letter that matched Jean-Dominique's choice, he blinked and Claude wrote it down.  Letter by letter, word by word, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter.  Each letter was dictated by a blink. 

The system is known as 'partner assisted scanning'.

The book was published on 7th March 1997 and Jean-Dominique died unexpectedly two days later from pneumonia.

Sarah, meanwhile, utilizes a technology called ‘Eye Gaze’.

Its website explains that "Thanks to an inbuilt light sensor, the (electronic) tablet monitors reflections from the pupils, tracking eye movements and converting them into mouse movements and co-ordinated commands.  By looking anywhere on the screen, the user’s eye controls the cursor, while blinking performs a click."

Despite not being able to use her greatest assets, namely her hands, Sarah has created inspirational works of art and she even sells these online on a highly successful 'Etsy' website (you can read about her at http://sarahezekiel.com/photos/4534201453).

This week's Parsha of Ki Tavo contains the apocalyptic nightmare that is the Tochecha, Gd's warning to the Bnei Yisrael/Israelites of what will happen to them if they don't follow the just path described in the Torah.  The description is particularly disturbing, not only because it describes the horrors that our nation will endure but specifically due to its unnerving accuracy.

A cursory reading of Chapter 28 (Pesukim/verses 15-69) leaves one in no doubt as to how prophetic these words proved to be, granted the suffering our nation has endured since the time they were written.  I don't wish to dwell on the minutiae of horror therein but one Pasuk relates to both Jean-Dominique and Sarah and their ability to overcome the seemingly unsurmountable challenges that faced them:

In describing the horrific events that will befall the Jewish people, Pesukim 28 and 29 state:

“The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and dismay.  You shall grope at noon as a blind man gropes in the dark; you shall not prosper in your ventures, but shall be constantly abused and robbed, with none to give help.”

No-one can imagine what it must have felt like to experience the respective medical conditions inflicted on both Jean-Dominique and Sarah.  The startling image of a blind man 'groping in the dark' feeling completely vulnerable and open to potential abuse is surely not dissimilar to the way that Jean-Dominique and Sarah must have felt when faced with their stark new realities.

Which is why the way they faced these obstacles is so inspirational.

They were reduced to communicating through sight, blinking or scrolling a message over and over again until they achieved their result.

In the ghettos of Warsaw and Lvov, in the Shtetls of Russia and Poland, in the hidden cellars of Spain, in the walled inferno of Clifford's Tower in York or in the hidden tunnels of Jerusalem, our relatives and ancestors groped in the dark.  Verily were they robbed and oppressed and yes, there were very few who lifted a hand to save them.

But, despite all odds, they refused to stop blinking, letting in light wherever they were able to find it.  Whether it was scratching messages in their own blood, burying diaries under floorboards, hiding Shabbat candles behind closed cabinets or leaving behind reminders of their peril in the ancient Jerusalem dust, they refused to be browbeaten.

They may have groped in the darkness, but they never once closed their eyes.

We all face challenges, some more significant than others but the lesson that we can learn from people like  Jean-Dominique and Sarah is that, despite the hurdles and perils that face us, even those described in this week's Parsha, the human spirit has the ability to overcome these.

Victor Frankl a survivor of Auschwitz and described by Rabbi Sacks as 'one of the moral heroes of the 20th century' famously wrote:

"The prisoner who lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed.  With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and become subject to mental and physical decay."

Jean-Dominque, Sarah and Victor bring light to the darkness because they prove that, in the blink of an eye, we can indeed save the entire world.

Shabbat Shalom.