Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

14 April 2024

Parashat Tazria: The Power of Words

It is a two-hundred-year-old English rhyme that every child knows from the school playground ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.’

I was fortunate not to be one of those poor kids who was bullied, possibly because I always stood up for myself and was not averse to getting into a scrap to prove it. Did the names hurt? Of course, but I wasn’t going to let the bully know it. You can recover much more quickly from a minor physical wound than the psychological damage inflicted by a well-aimed barb. Words hurt and nasty words really hurt.

We, the original ‘People of the Book’, understand the power of words. Chapter five of (Pirkei) Avot that we will begin reading after Pesach on Shabbat afternoons as part of the Mincha Service tells us that ‘B’asara ma’amarot nivra ha’olam. – The world was created with ten utterances.’

The Chief Rabbi (https://chiefrabbi.org/all-media/words-create-worlds/) quotes the Mishna which asks the question (of) why it took Gd ten utterances to create the world. Surely, He could have done this with only one! He writes that the Mishna responds that this was to increase the reward of the righteous who sustain the world through ten acts of speech. On the opposite end, Gd ‘exacts punishment from the wicked who destroy the world with ten acts of speech’. Rabbi Sacks ztl explains that the word ‘Vayomer’ – ‘and He said’ appears ten times in the first chapter of Bereshit prefacing Gd’s creative work.

The Jewish point of view therefore disagrees with the rhyme. The power of words can do much more than ‘break our bones’…they really can hurt us!

The joint parashot of Tazria and Metzora (the latter of which we will read next Shabbat) deal with the affliction of Tzaraat which was translated into Greek as ‘leprosy’ in the 6^th Century C.E. and unfortunately this mistranslation has remained in our vernacular (and certain Bibles) to the present day.

Tzaraat describes a series of skin afflictions which could spread to a person’s clothes and even their house (as described in Parashat Metzora) although there are Sages who doubt that the latter ever happened. The Gemara (Erchin 16a) states that the condition was supernatural in nature in that it originated from Gd and the recipient, according to Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, was afflicted for the following sins:

1. malicious speech known as Lashon Hara (literally ‘evil speech’)

2. bloodshed

3. an oath taken in vain

4. forbidden sexual relations

5. arrogance

6. theft

7. and for stinginess

All of these can be classed as falling under the category of ‘anti-social behaviour’.

Before the advent of ASBOs, Gd had a different way of isolating a person from their community. This is described in detail within the verses of our Parashot. Being afflicted with Tzaraat would therefore be described in contemporary terms as a person becoming a ‘social outcast’.

The most famous individual in the Torah afflicted with Tzaraat was Miriam. If you recall she spoke Lashon Hara regarding her brother Moshe following his separation from his wife Tzipporah. She was punished by being excluded from the Israelite camp for seven days as per the commandments listed in this week’s Parasha.

Although all seven sins were considered reason enough for Divine punishment to be enacted, I will focus on the first, that of Lashon Hara. I believe that we can justifiably state that we haven’t murdered, stolen, acted in an immoral manner or been any less than generous in our financial dealings with others. Who amongst us can claim that we haven’t spoken Lashon Hara?

After all it’s so easy. All it takes is a simple conversation which begins with:

“Did you hear about ‘x’? Just last week, they were seen…”

“I can’t believe that ‘y’ said that about their colleague. Do you think it’s true?

“I’m not going to be buying there again because...”

A careless slip of the tongue can cause a great deal of harm to a person’s reputation. One that may have taken years to establish. Do we think about the repercussions that may occur because of our words?

In most instances, we don’t speak ill of others with the intention of causing them distress. Over the last few years, two Jewish charities, Seed and Gift (both of which are particularly close to my heart) have created a joint programme called ‘The Clean Speech Project’ (https://www.cleanspeech.co.uk/).

This consists of many communities, schools and individuals, such as Stephnie and myself, undertaking to spend a month working on improving the way we communicate with each other through, in their words, ‘promoting positive speech’. This is the second year that we’ve joined the project, which ran from 5^th February to 12^th March this year.

I can’t say that I’m ‘there yet’ but both Stephnie and I have made a conscious effort to minimise the amount of Lashon Hara we both speak and hear.

‘Tariq Silma Ousa Abu Shlouf’ may not be a name that you are familiar with. If I tell you that he was the ‘Spokesperson of Islamic Jihad’ who was captured by the IDF, you might have a better idea of who he is. In the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxrZXt46-5E) he admits that they lied about the rocket that fell on the Al -Ahli Al-Ma’mdani Hospital. The terrorist was amongst the more than 500 that were arrested during the recent IDF operation to clear the Al-Shifa hospital.

He says, “It was a local rocket, we said it was Israeli. I remember it from the beginning (of the war)...in order to erase the story, the organization made several moves, it fabricated a story (that) the rocket belonged to ‘the occupation’ and that the target was the building (the hospital). They relied on some of the stories from the international stories, from the international press.”

The interrogator asks, “Okay and after that they published it to the whole world?” to which he replies, “Yes.” He continues by explaining that along with the Hamas spokesman, they tell one story to the internal media organizations and the Gazans and a different one to the international organizations. He says, “The international media differs from the Arab ones, they focus on humanitarian issues, we don’t speak to them in the language of violence, destruction and revenge.”

We have seen the result of his work in the terrifying backlash we are witnessing on the streets of London and other cities around the world. Lashon Hara has enabled our enemies to shed their pretence and demonstrate their hatred of Jews and Israel. Hateful, antisemitic statements are being made by people across the political and cultural spectrum in terms that we thought had been buried after the ashes and bodily remains of the six million were still extant. This is all down to the abuse of words. The destructive impact that they can have on the world in which we wish live in harmony with our fellow human beings.

I can’t conceive of a timelier reminder of how the causes for Tzaraat are tragically still with us. Our enemies have been afflicted by the spiritual poisoning that Tzaraat used to highlight on the epidermis. However, instead of being socially isolated, it is we, the victims who are the outcasts of their Lashon Hara regarding our amazing Jewish State and our brothers and sisters, the captives, citizens and soldiers.

How can we fight this epidemic? I suggest that our most powerful weapon is through looking at ourselves and eliminating the Lashon Hara that we speak within our Jewish nation. If we can work on improving our own linguistic deficiencies, we will be in a far stronger position to fight back against our enemies.

The heartbreaking scenes which last year saw Jews fighting Jews through the streets of Israel and even in our own city of London shook us. When 7^th October arrived, we realised that we needed to harness our minds and bodies and turn to reciting words of love and prayer. We have turned to our ancient texts and started reciting them in ways that we could not have envisaged this time last year.

We reminded ourselves of the power of words to heal, fortify and steel us against those who wished us harm. We reached out to those who felt isolated within our communities and held them close. Hamas and their murderous companions did not distinguish between right and left wing, orthodox or secular, Sephardi or Ashkenazi, gay or straight, the elderly or the young, male or female.

Sticks and stones may break our bones and names may even hurt me. Words, however, when spoken in love, will never do me harm.

May our enemies be struck with an inner and external Tzaraat that isolates them from those amongst whom we live who value the extraordinary power of constructive words and may we and they only be conversant in ‘clean speech’ because our world needs this more than ever.

Shavuah Tov.

31 March 2024

Parashat Tzav (Parah): My Jewish Journey

It was one of the greatest and longest journeys I’ve ever taken and it didn’t even require me to leave my study.

On the Fast of Esther, I was waiting for the broadcast of the Shema prayer (live-streamed from the Kotel/Western Wall) to begin. As I was fasting, I was happy to engage in some soul-searching, commensurate to the significance of the day.

Some people engage in hobbies like golf and photography (which according to many sources is the UK’s most expensive pastime). My choice is genealogy. I have the ‘My Heritage Complete Subscription’ package, which fortunately renews in August, so I have some time to save up!

Back to my journey…I recently discovered that I am a seventh-generation descendant of the highly respected Rabbi Yechezkel Landau on my mother’s maternal line. As well as being the Chief Rabbi of Prague in the 18^th century (he died in 1793), he is called the Noda Biyehuda (The Known One of Judah) after his renowned two-volume work which provided Halachic Responsa for almost every area of Jewish Law (you can find out more at: https://tinyurl.com/22jh8az5).

His rulings are still used today and when I mention that I’m his descendant, I’m met with raised eyebrows amongst my contemporaries. He’s that important!

When discussing his own antecedents and, by extension mine, he said that he was a direct descendant of Rashi. I set about investigating the family line linking me to one of our greatest commentators.

An early discovery in my online journey on the website enabled me to locate the ship’s manifest for my father and grandparents’ journey from Antwerp to New York in 1940. This was a thrilling find, even though they spelled my dad’s name as ‘Isidor’ without the final ‘e’.

Back to my ancestral roots.

Previously, I had managed to pursue Rabbi Landau’s family tree to about 1580 CE and had come to a brick wall which often happens in these searches. I decided to try a different tack this time. You click on a person’s name and a host of links appear, having been assembled from hundreds of different family trees. You can then compare these, granted that there are numerous errors in the spellings of names and accuracy of dates. I managed to find a site that looked relatively trustworthy and clicked on the link that would bring up the current person’s profile, along with a link to his father, mother, spouse and children.

You can see an example below:

Clicking on his father’s link took me back a generation and before I knew it, I had reached his Great-Grandmother Gittel, who was born in Krakow and was the daughter of a Cohen, by the name of Rabbi Yosef HaCohen Katz. I should also add that Rabbi Landau was a Levi through his father’s side. However, the Cohen path was the one I pursued and followed back through the centuries via Macedonia and Istanbul to Salonika in Greece in the 16th and 15th Centuries. My ancestor Rabbi Akiva Hoken Katz known as the ‘Alter (the revered Elder) of Salonika was born in Toledo in 1360 and died in Salonika in 1450. I presume this was probably due to the persecution that led to the Inquisition just over forty years later. His ancestors had lived in Toledo for hundreds of years as was demonstrated through following his paternal line.

This, however, was not the end of the journey. I clicked and clicked my way back through Jewish history, encountering my direct ancestors who included a number of Gaonim, namely the Presidents of the prominent Yeshiva of Sura in Babylon and their forebears whose names I recognised from the Talmud (such as Hiya bar Abba HaCohen, Abba Bar Abba and his son, Shmuel Bar Abba.)

How far back would this dynasty stretch? My heart was literally thumping at a thunderous rate as I entered the era of the Second Temple and came across Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya (who we mention at the Sedarim) and three generations of priests who died in the First Jewish War of 66-70 CE, which ended with the destruction of the Temple. I felt a genuine pang of sadness knowing that here I was, their descendent, reconnecting with them through this extraordinary quest. However, nothing prepared me for what was about to transpire, as I clicked on the father of Meshulam and realised that he was none other than Ezra HaSofer – Ezra the Scribe who is credited with saving the Jewish people after their return to Israel with those who had been exiled to Babylon during the period of the destruction of the first Beit Hamikdash (Temple). It literally brought tears to my eyes.

More clicks and I realised that I am directly descended from the 18 High Priests who served under the Judean Kings. This inevitably led to their ancestors culminating with Aharon, the son of Amram and Grandson of Levi. By the end of the exercise, I had traced my ancestral line back to Adam and Eve, which is a mere 125 generations! 32 pages in all which I am happy to share with you if you wish.

To say that I am overwhelmed is an understatement. If that weren’t enough, I also managed to follow The Noda BiYehuda’s father’s line all the way to our ancestor, Rashi. One of his four daughters, Yocheved, married into the family.

What does all of this mean?

Nearly six decades ago my mother, who was in the early stages of pregnancy, won a competition to visit Israel. Due to the outbreak of the Six Day War, she had to delay her trip but following the reunification of Jerusalem, she found herself standing in front of the Kotel (Western Wall) a few hundred metres from the Temple where her and by extension, my ancestors, the High Priests, had carried out the Avodah (holy work in the Temple). She promised herself that if the child she was carrying would be a boy, he would celebrate his Bar mitzvah at the Wall. Thirteen-and-a-half years later, I had that honour. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the structure of the Beit Hamikdash and the work of the Cohanim therein. I believed that this was due to my having visited the Kotel in utero. I now feel that the souls of my Priestly antecedents were calling out to my mother and reminding her of the eternal chain that was travelling through Jewish history from their era to ours - at the Kotel which lies below the holiest place on earth in our religion.

We have just started reading Sefer Vayikra, the Book of Leviticus, which provides intricate details regarding the sacrifices and the Avodah that my (and some of your) ancestors carried out for hundreds of years. The book itself is known as ‘Torat Cohanim’ or ‘Laws of the Priests’. Towards the end of Parashat Tzav, the Torah describes Hashem’s instructions to Moshe on how to consecrate Aharon and his sons for their Priestly duties. Moshe carries out the commandments to the letter and Aharon, my 100th direct ancestor, became the very first Cohen.

In our age, it is difficult to understand the meaning behind many of the commandments and rituals described in Sefer Vayikra and why this integral part of our religion was so important in the evolution of Judaism. Conducting this research has enabled me to connect with my past in a way that I couldn’t have foreseen when, sitting in my study on a fast day, I clicked on some links in a website using the technology that we all take for granted.

My discovery has been extraordinary but at the same time, very humbling.

I had a friend that told me something years ago which has stayed in my memory. He said that ‘Yichus’, which is the Hebrew word for lineage, are like potatoes because “the best parts are underground!” I believe that each of us is the culmination of the ancestry that preceded our entry into the world. We hope that the positive choices we make and the actions we do will mean that we may too be counted as worthy successors of their legacies.

We should try our best to ensure that one day, we will be the ‘potatoes’ that our descendants look to for inspiration. Some of my ancestors carved their names and reputations into the annals of Jewish History. I am so honoured to be the current link in this particular chain but, at the end of the day, I know that it is the next generation that matters even more.

I am a descendant of Avraham Avinu stretching back 106 generations. It is to the 107^th and future generations that we need to look for encouragement as our journey as a people has only just begun. With all that history behind us, I have a strong feeling that they will do us proud.

They have a lot to live up to and no doubt, numerous hurdles to overcome but as my, and by extension, your ancestry demonstrates, the Jewish people are eternal - just like the lights of the Menorah that my ancestors lit in the Temples thousands of years ago.