Duchenen- The Priestly Blessing

And  Hashem spoke unto Moshe saying:"Speak unto Aharon and his sons saying:

Thus shall you bless the children of Israel , say unto them

May Hashem bless you and keep you

May  Hashem make his face shine upon  you and be gracious unto you

May Hashem lift up his countenance unto you and  grant you peace

So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them"

                                                                                     Num6:22-27

In Parashat Naso, after the laws of the Nazir, the Torah brings the commandment of Birkat Cohanim-the priestly blessing. This is called "duchanen" in Yiddish after the word duchan (originally a hebrew word) which means the platform from which the Cohanim blessed the people in the temple.

I havealways felt that the duchenen holds a special place in the synagogue service. It is said that the Shechina (the appearence of G-d in this world) emanates from the hands of the Cohanim when they bless the people. This is the only ceremony from the Temple that we continue to perform in the synagogue. Just as the Cohanim in the Temple ascended the duchan to bless the people, today they get up in front of the congregation, remove their shoes ( as was required in the Temple), put their talitot over their heads and raise their hands in a special configuration. I always get a spiritual high when they intone the same tripartite blessing that was said in the Temple 2,000 years ago.

One of the privilages of living in Eretz Yisrael is that we have birkat Cohanim every day. In the galut birkat Cohanim is done only during musaf of the holidays. Why is this so? According to the RAMBAM and Sefer Ha-Chinuch, birkat Cohanim is one of the 613 laws of the Torah, and must be said every day.
Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook ZTZL said that the essence of the blessing is "simcha"(joy or gladness). The Jews in galut lack simcha because of all the troubles and tribulations of living among the Goyim. Only on the holidays is there an atmosphere of joy and gladness as we are commanded "vesamachta bechagecha" (be joyful on your festival) Only then can the Cohanim bless the people. The REMA and the Mishna Brura paskened that in the galut ducchanen is done only on the festivals and yom Kippur.

Harav A.I. Kook ZTZL said:" From the source of exalted unity the divine sovereignty of the commandment (of  birkat Cohanim) is revealed in His world as a blessing of love, chesed and rachamim" Only in Eretz Yisrael in the time of the ingathering of the exiles, can that exalted unity be found. This is part of the beginning of  our redemption, may Hashem fulfill it speedily and in our days.

Bar Yochai

Thirty nine years ago like this year Lag B'omer was motzai shabbat.Where was I on that shabbat? Thats right I was in Meron for the Hilulla of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
I wasn't yet 21 years old and just married a couple of months. Risa and I decided along with two other couples to make the trip from Yerushalayim to Meron for Lag B'Omer. No one had a car. We packed everything we needed for 3 days and got on an Egged bus for the North. We arrived at Meron on Friday, set up our tents and got ready for Shabbat together with the hundeds already on Mt Meron near the Holy site where Rashbi is buried.

I will never forget that Shabbat. I dovened with the Sfinka Chassidim. At the end of Kabbalat Shabbat everyone got up to dance. About fifty men, hands linked at the waist and the small of the back formed a circle. Slowly at first we began the dance, a shuffle really. We were singing "pizmon Bar Yochai" Invoking the name of the Holy Tanna "Bar Yochai, nimshachta oshrecha, shemen sasson mechaveirecha"  "Bar Yochai you are annointed in gladness" Singing the refrain over and over, stamping one step back and two steps forward. This continued for more than half an hour, but I lost track of time and place. The strangest thing was here I was dressed in a short sleeved white shirt and kippa seruga in the middle of a throng of black coated chassidim wearing fur shtrrimels, but no one looked at me as if I didn't belong. It was as if we weren't in Israel 1972 but were connected to something above and beyond the present. It wasn't hard to imagine that there were Jews who almost 2,000 years before had come to this mountain in the Gallil to bury their Rebbe, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

Hadran Ma'asrot Yerushalmi

I once heard from my teacher and rabbi Rav Shlomo Aviner shlita, that a ben-torah must learn all of the written Torah and all of the oral Torah of the Tanna'im at least once in his lifetime. This would include Tanach,mishna, tosefta , midrash halacha and aggada and of course Gemarra Bavli and Yerushalmi.

I had the great zechut of finishing all of the Gemarra Bavli with my rav muvhak Rav Yechezkel Daum ztzl, twice in two cycles of  seven years each. Two years ago I started learning Gemarra Yerushalmi with the intention of  learning one daf every day. I soon discovered that I would have to devote an entire seder (4hrs) in order to finish a daf every day.There is no Rashi on the Yerushalmi and there are many girsaot often contradictory.Instead of the shakla vetaria (give and take discussion) of the Bavli, the Yerushalmi learns by tradition of rav letalmid with many maaseh rav as examples.In the end I did hattarat nedarim on my intention of doing .daf yomi, but I continue learning Yerushalmi one or two hours a day. So far I have finished Berachot,Peah, Demai, Kilayim,Trumot and most recently  Ma'asrot.

I made the siyyum of masechet Ma'asrot in honor of the Yohrtzeit of my father in law, Abe Rich Alav Hashalom. who passed away 11 years ago erev Pesach. Another word for a siyyum is hadran, from the Aramaic meaning to repeat. We give thanks that Hashem has helped us to learn this masechet, may he help us to repeat and learn other masechtot in the future. The subject of Ma'asrot is the mitzvah of tithes, taking 10% of all agricultural produce for the Cohanim and Leviim. The last Mishna in Ma'asrot deals with the obligation of taking ma'aserot from grains and seeds. There are three dinnim:
1-The five grains;wheat oats spelt rye and barley must be tithed d'oreita and even grain that sprouted from what was tithed must again be tithed.
2-Kitniot (legumes) must be tithed derabbanan, and what sprouts from it is exempt.
3- Zir'onei gina (garden seeds) which are not ordinarily for human consumption are exempt from tithes.
The Gemarra brings a maaseh that came before R' Yochanan. A woman was carrying a basket of asparagus, some seeds dropped on the ground which sprouted. The question was asked whether or not maaser must be taken from the sprouts. Rav Yochanan ruled that the sprouts are exempt from all tithes.
One of the the talmidim who was present, Rabi Hiyya Bar Vah said to Rabi Yochanan that it is clear from the Mishnah that asparagus seeds are considered zironei gina and of course the sprouts are exempt even though the vegetable itself must be tithed.Rabi Yochanan replied disparagingly, "You Babylonian! I gave you the oyster and you show me the pearl? Had I  not made the ruling you would not have been able to answer! Here we see the Yerushalmi typically learning the din from tradition and case law. We also see some of the tension between the Tannaim of Eretz Yisrael and those of Bavel.

                                                                     Hadran alach masechet Ma'asrot

Avraham Avinu, Ha-Yehudi Ha-Rishon

When I was nine years old, in the third grade, we were presented with our first book in Hebrew. It was called Hayehudi harishon The first Jew). It had a drawing on the cover of a family dressed like Arabs, with the children sitting on camels. This was the story of Avraham avinu, the patriarch Abraham.

This was in a Conservative  after-school Hebrew school where we learned twice a week after going to public school from 8:00 till 3:00 PM. For almost all the kids this was a real burden and they did it because their parents forced them. From the beginning I was fascinated by learning another language, an ancient tradition that I was connected to. We were chosen, we were special, and I was part of it. Of course I was well aware that we were Jewish. My granpdparents spoke Yiddish, we celebrated the major holidays and the Christians (who my parents called "the Goyim") had their own holidays. But what did it mean? Until then I had no idea. It was just a fact of life.

After learning the aleph-bet and the basic grammar we got our first book and we started learning, in our own special language, about Avraham who at the age of five, wondered who put out the light in the sky in the evening and lit it again in the morning. When one night he saw a lamp burning in a window and he thought that just as the master of the house lit the lamp,the Master of the World must light up the sun. He didn't accept the explanation that the sun itself was a god, and even less that the clay idols that his father produced had anything to do with it. He knew, there must be a God. This simple faith struck a chord in me. At the time I was much too young to put such a thought into words, but looking back, I think that it was really there.

 Later I identified with the idea of "Lech lecha" Hashem commanded Avraham to "go forth", to leave behind his homeland and his father's house and go to the "land which I will will show you". In my early teens I decided that the lifestyle of my fathers house would not be mine. The commandments of the Torah meant something real to me, without defining for myself the theological basis. When I was sixteen I read an excerpt, translated into English from Orot by Rav Kook. It changed my life. Here was a coherent, all encompassing view of what it meant to be a son of the Jewish people.It said that Torah was part of peoplehood and it all flowed from Hashem.There was an absolute unity of the universe with the Jewish people and the Land of Israel in the center and Hashem above it all.

Another interpretation says that "Lech lecha" means not to go forth, but to go into yourself, to find your inner self. That is what it meant for me as it  had meant for Avraham Avinu, Hayehudi  Harishon.

The struggle of Gush Katif: an exercise in futility

This week is the anniversary of the hitnatkut, "disengagement" from Gush Katif. Thousands of idealistic hardworking Jews including some who had already been expelled from settlements in Sinai, were forcibly thrown out of their homes. Then their once thriving settlements were razed to the ground. The Batei Knesset and Yeshivot were left standing. According to Halacha it is forbidden for Jews to destroy a synagogue. So as soon as we left the Palestinians looted them and set them aflame.May we see Hashem avenge his houses of worship that the sons of Yishmael so wantonly destroyed.

None of the purported goals of the hitnatkut were achieved ; certainly not peace. Instead we got a strengthening of Hamas, a major military campaign (Cast Lead) which destroyed much of what was left of Gaza worsening the suffering of its inhabitants. Then there is the endless suffering of the displaced settlers which continues to this day. The government continually reneged on the promises made to them. Many are still unemployed and live in temporary housing.

With passing years, admittedly with the help of Professor Hindsight, it becomes more and more clear that the struggle to resist the hitnatkut was an exercise in futility. Tens of thousands participated in demonstrations against the government culminating in the march  of over 50,000 from Netivot  to Kfar Maimon on the way to Gush Katif. There they confronted the police and the army but after a few tense hours the leaders decided not to escalate the violence and the demonstration fizzled out. Meanwhile hundreds infiltrated across the border to strengthen the resistance of the settlers.They were all removed by the army in the next few days. Naively they believed that these actions would have an influence on the outcome of events. It was not to be.

The fact is the fate of Gush Katif was sealed the moment Arik Sharon succeeded in pushing his plan through the government and the Knessest. That is how democracy works if you don't have or don't know how to use political power don't expect to twist the arm of the government to do your will.

We lived in the Golan Heights for 20 years. In the late '80s Yitzhak Rabin proposed a peace plan which included offering to give back the Golan to Syria. A grass roots movement sprang up called H'am im Hagolan (the people are with nthe Golan) A well organized media blitz brought the message to th nation. At  the same time political pressure was brought to bear on political elements who had connections to or were sympathetic to the Golan settlements. Within a year Rabin decided that it was politically expedient to shelve his proposals indefinitely.

Why didn't this happen in Gush Katif? The main reason is that while the people were with the Golan, the people were NOT with Gush Katif. It was a struggle waged almost solely by the Zionist-Religious sector. With their moral, political and religious certitude they were convinced that the whole country was behind them but when they looked back they only saw their own soldiers coming to take them away.

Rav Tzvi Tau founder and spiritual leader of Yeshivat Har Ha-mor and the "mamlachti" (statism) trend, said that we must strengthen the state not weaken it. As Rav Kook said "the state of Israel is the basis for the Sechina (presence of G-d) in this world. We can take part in the political process, but once a legitimate government is elected it stands in the place of the Jewish Kings as sovereign rulers of Israel/

I only hope that in the coming struggles in Eretz Israel we will have learn our lesson.

Davening

I have always had trouble with davening. I never felt that I was talking with our father in heaven or that my prayers were answered. I never felt that I was standing before the king of the universe because really, who am I that the king should summon me to stand before him. So why, you may ask do I daven three times a day? It is because I believe that there is a supreme intelligence, a force in the universe that chose the progeny of  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as his emissaries in this world to proclaim his presence and do his will.I have no choice, my soul was at the foot of Sinai and the mountain was suspended above us. There we pledged to obey his commandments and that oath obligates us for all time. I daven because I am commanded to daven, not only because I fear punishment but because I am in awe of something that I can never hope to understand.

The Rambam explains that love of G-d can be compared to the love of a man who is obsessed with a women. She is constantly in his thoughts, he will do anything she asks, he would gladly sacrifice all his worldly goods and even his life for her. But how can a human being express love for that which is not human? Our consciousness fills our being, how can we relate to something that is beyond that consciousness?

The only answer is that we must evacuate that consciousness and seek within that spark of the divine that was part of our souls at Sinai.However if the answer is within us perhaps we are not worshiping Hashem but worshiping ourselves? But then again Hashem created Man in his image and .breathed in him the breath of life. He is part of us. If we remember that then davening can become more than a ritual. It can be an attempt at connecting to that which is within us and thereby begin to approach the One who was is and forever will be the master of the universe.

The Destiny of the Firstborn

                                               For all the firstborn of the children of Israel 

                                               are mine, both man and beast,on the day I 

                                               smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I 

                                               sanctified them unto me.

                                               And I have taken the Levites in the place of 

                                               all the firstborn of the children of  Israel.

                                                                      Bamidbar 8:20        

     The Torah calls the firstborn (bechor) "petter rechem"- he who opens the womb. He is the first expression of life of the new generation. The next link in the chain of generations of the Jewish People and as such is sanctified to the service of  Hashem.. This primogeniture  has its expression in all of the living world. The first fruits of the new season, the bikkurim , were brought to the temple on the festival of Shavuot. The firstborn  calves and lambs were sanctified and offered to the cohanim.

.

   It is very interesting that the Torah has a very ambivalent attitude towards the firstborn. Cain is the firstborn but Abel is preferred by Hashem. Yaakov has to buy the bechora from Esau. Yaakov's firstborn was Reuven, but Yehudah becomes the leader of the tribes. Ephraim recieves Yaakov's blessing instead of his firstborn brother Menashe in spite of the protests of Yosef..David was chosen as the annointed king even though he was the youngest of his brothers.It seems as if the Torah is telling us that biological primacy is not enough. Leadership must be earned and if  the firstborn is not worthy he will not be chosen.

  The most telling example is the displacement of the firstborn of the Exodus by the levites. When Hashem smote the firstborn of Egypt and passed over the firstborn of Israel they were sanctified to the service of Hashem. However when the firstborn of Israel worshipped the golden calf  they forfeited their exalted status. In their place the Levites, the tribe of Moshe and Aharon who did not sin at the golden calf were chosen. In spite of this some primal holiness was retained by the firstborn of future generations.That is why we perform the ceremony of  pidyon ha-ben ( redeeming of the firstborn) when a firstborn baby is one month old.

  My grandfather and father were the firstborn in their families. I am a firstborn myself, I have a firstborn son and he also has a firstborn son. We are five generations of bechorim. Each of us in his time has expressed the special character of the bechor "he who opens the womb" by breaking out of the mold, not being satisfied with living within the circumstances into which he was born. My grandfather David Fenster was born in Eastern Europe where very likely our ancestors had lived for the past thousand years.He was the first in his family who realized that there was no future for the Jews in Europe. He emigrated to America at the beginning of the last century. My father, Henry Fenster grew up the son of immigrants in Philadelphia. He was the first in his family to join the U.S Army to fight the Nazis and was probably the first Jewish soldier in our family since the Exile. He was seriously wounded in France but baruch Hashem survived the war and came home married and started a family. I grew up in a typical suburban, middle class Jewish home, but for some reason at a very early age the fact of being Jewish became the most important, driving force in my life. I heard the same call as the patriarch Abraham "Go out of your land, the place of your birth, out of your fathers house to the land which I will show you" As soon as I finished high school and turned eighteen I emigrated to Israel.My son Efi was the first in our family to go to Yeshiva and dedicate himself to the study of Torah.

  I don't know yet what challenges my first grandson, Oz, will face. I pray that he will be the first to greet the Mashiach, may Hashem send him speedily and in our days.