Seventh Day of Passover

Tonight we celebrate the Seventh Day of Passover, which is a holiday in its own right - the ending day of the holiday of Passover. I don't have much time to write now, so just a few short words about the whole holiday of Passover.

1. A true story: There is a big, successful, famous bakery in Israel, in the city of Jaffa near Tel Aviv, owned and managed by an Arab owner, Said Abulafia. Every year, they kept the bakery open during the seven days of the holiday of Passover, and sold Chametz (unleavened bread) to non-observant Jews. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Stauber, who saw this, felt a lot of pain. He turned to the owner and told him that he will pay him the entire sum of money that the bakery makes during that week, if the owner promises to close the bakery during the whole week of Passover. The owner had nothing to lose from this deal, so he agreed. He closed the bakery for the whole week of Passover, and enjoyed some free time to do his own things and to do some renovations in the bakery. The same story repeated itself the following year. Rabbi Stauber paid for a whole week of revenues, and the bakery was closed during Passover. After a few years of doing this, Mr. Abulafia turned down the rabbi's offer. He said: "I do not need to take money away from you". "Why?", asked Rabbi Stauber, sure that the owner of the bakery wants to open it on Passover. But the answer shocked him - Mr. Abulafia told him that since they started with this deal, the revenues of the bakery throughout the year became so great, he felt the blessing of G-d, and he didn't need the money incentive from the Rabbi to close the bakery on Passover. It's wonderful. I checked it with them before posting it here, just to be sure I'm giving the correct information. And the pictures speak for themselves (see below). This is how peace will come to the world. On the outside of their bakery, during the week of Passover, there is the a sign (you can see in the picture), which tells the whole story and is written by the bakery owner. The message of this is: If you help the Jews fulfill their mission in the world - help them observe their G-d given commandments, G-d will bless you.

Rabbi Stauber with Mr. Abulafia

2. I was impressed to see that at the entrance to the Hadassah Hospital, the guard doesn't look only for weapons, but also for Chametz. All chametz products that he finds are kept outside of the hospital gates.

3. I visited an older lady who had a stroke. Because of her situation, she had to do the Seder night of Passover at the hospital. She said that religious volunteers came to the hospital, set the tables with white table clothes, brought Kosher food and led the Seder in such an impressive, festive way. I am so impressed. There are good things done in this country. 

Shabbat shalom, and Chag Sameach!

R.

Passover 5779

I finished reading the traumatic book, "PuppenHouse" ("House of Dolls") by Ka-Tzetnick 135633 (AKA. K. Tzetnick), a strange name for an author. This name actually means "A prisoner in concentration camp" (short for Konzentrationslager). He was a holocaust survivor, and survived the worst. His book describes some of the horrors he and others have been through. I'm still shaking and feeling a deep sense of revulsion, as if my body wishes to purge itself of all that I had read. It is a harsh reminder to the evil that still exists in the world, to the fact that cultured people, who have free choice, can choose to use all their high intelligence, all their creativity and sophistication, to inflict the worst kinds of suffering and humiliation upon other human beings like themselves. It is something that is hard to grasp, the heart refuses to believe it can be. Yet, we know it can be, unfortunately. People, who have been endowed with so many gifts - instead of using these gifts to make this world a better place for themselves and for others, use their gifts to degrade themselves by degrading others. It is unfathomable, but this book is a reminder that this kind of reality exists. The Germans, who are considered to be of the highest culture in terms of music, literature, art, made themselves into the worst satanic beasts the world has ever known, using all their talents to ruin the world and endless numbers of lives in it. I just can't understand it.
Yet, the wheels of justice keep rolling, and even if it sometimes takes time, justice is being done. It is no coincidence that recent historic events made it so that all the Muslim refugees flood into Europe. And - mostly to Germany. The beginning of the end has started for Europe, and for Germany most of all. Sad, but true.
Similarly, the Notre-Dam in Paris was the place in which some 700 years ago they burned all copies of the Talmud they could put their hands on. And now, 700 years later, the same thing happened to the structure itself. Sad, but true. G-d is a G-d of justice and His hand in History shows this. At least the Germans recognize their responsibility and guilt and some of them try to make it better by volunteering in hospitals here, etc.. It's one thing I give them. One other thing that I give them is a neighbor of mine - she is a tall, beautiful ultra-orthodox woman, a doctor. She was born to a non-Jewish German family. She met a secular Israeli man in Berlin, they fell in love and moved in together. One day, she asked him to take her to a synagogue, to see what it was like. He wasn't enthusiastic about it, but they went anyway. And from there started her love story with Judaism. She converted orthodox conversion, and her secular boyfriend became very religious following this, and now they are ultra-orthodox, living in a huge, beautiful villa down my new street, raising 6 beautiful religious children who are bilingual, and doing a lot of Kiddush HaShem (sanctifying G-d's name by their way of living). Their home is always open for guests, and they are just beautiful. If Germany can produce people like her, then maybe Germany has hope after all.
So I went to the library to return this book today, and took three other books. One of them is about a topic that I wanted to read about long ago - the Eichmann trial. I didn't plan to look for the book this time, but the book just found me. My eyes fell on it, "accidentally", and I took it. It's a book by Haim Guri, a famous Israeli poet who was a reporter in the trial back then. I had a few minutes before my class, so I sat there at the Bet HaAm library and started reading. First of all, my eyes fell on this sentence by Guri: "I know now that I will remember this day all the days of my life. I'm writing it in my notebook: April 17th, 1961". I shuddered. April 17th. It's today. What are the odds... And then I keep reading, and it says that the trial took place in Jerusalem at... not other than BET HAAM! Where I was just sitting and reading the book... What are the odds? Same place, same time, just 58 years later... I've been to Bet HaAm many times before. I've never known that the trial took place there! What are the odds of finding it out this way, as I was accidentally sitting and reading the book there, at this time, at this place? I feel it is meaningful and that I should really read the book. Don't know why, but perhaps I'll know when I finish it. One thing that struck me there was that Eichmann kept saying he was not guilty. He didn't deny what he did, he just attributed the guilt to his commanders. He was just an obedient clerk, he said. Since he was a child he was trained for obedience, and even if they had ordered him to shoot his own father to death, he would have done so. What a horrible thing for a human being to say! As if he has no free choice, no moral reasoning that can help him choose when to obey and when to disobey. As if obedience for the devil is as praiseworthy as obedience to G-d. Horrible. I thought to myself that perhaps it is good that the Torah was not given to the Germans, because they would have fulfilled it with obedience to the letter - but not for the right reasons, just for the sake of blind obedience. The Torah, instead, was given to a stiff-necked people - a nation that chooses to choose, that chooses to exercise its own free will, and when such a nation observes G-d's commandments, it's not out of blind obedience to whomever. It's because they want to obey G-d. I must admit that I have the deepest respect for those of the Germans who were righteous and did exercise their right to choose, and chose right by saving innocent lives, often at the risk of their own lives and that of their families. I admire them because I know it is probably harder for them to overcome their childhood indoctrination to blindly obey authority and power. And there were many like them. Yes, perhaps Germany does have hope, after all. Still, when I tried to learn their language after my military service, I stopped short. I couldn't stand hearing those sounds coming out of my own mouth. It was too chilling for me to bear. My neighbors next door are ultra-orthodox - they and their children speak Yiddish. It's a much softer version of German, and it doesn't make me feel bad at all. To the contrary.

Yesterday, after a whole day of working and studying, I went to the Hadassah hospital to visit Esther, the woman I wrote about at an earlier post, from the hospice. I didn't plan to go, but something inside me urged me to. When I got to her room, I saw that it was empty. I rushed up to ask the nurse to which room they moved her. The nurse asked me what I was for her. I told her that I was just an acquaintance. She asked me to sit and brought me a cup of water. She said she was sorry. I was so shocked to hear it. I wasn't prepared at all. I thought she had at least a few good months to live. I felt so bad, and sorry. Yes, I feel relief for her. She was under a lot of suffering. I wanted to tell her that there will be a Seder at the hospital, and that she could join it, but this year she will look at us from above and see the Seder from there, without doing it herself. I'm sad for her family. But I think she must feel relief. She is an example of someone who observed the Torah to the last moment, even under very strong pain, exercising her right to choose by choosing the right way.

Passover is just around the corner, and in it we will tell the story of another holocaust we had, the Egyptian one, in which all the baby boys were killed and our fathers were enslaved in Egyptian arbeitslager, work camps. How sweet it is to lift my eyes from the horrible holocaust stories, look around me and see Jerusalem all around me... to realize we are a free nation in Zion, in the Promised Land, in the Land of Israel. What a gift, what a blessing. Even though our troubles haven't ended yet, our situation now is better than any we have ever had as a nation - even better than in King David's and King Solomon's time, and I'm thankful to have been born at such a time in history, when all the promises of G-d are being fulfilled - on me, and on all my neighbors, colleagues, friends, family.

There are so many places I wanted to be this coming Passover, and so many things I wanted to do, but I promised my mother that I will go there and be with the family this year, and I cannot let her down. She is working hard to make the house glatt-Kosher for Passover, for me, as she says. All the guests will be instructed not to turn on the TV, not to talk on the phone, not to discuss politics, etc., just to give me the right holiday spirit. And still, I'm apprehensive, as I'm going to be the only religious person there. All the others, while they believe in G-d, are not very observant, and I'm afraid it would ruin the holiday atmosphere for me. But I feel it's important for me to be there - to give the next generation a proper holiday experience in the hope that it would inspire them when they grow up to live a more observant life. Amen. Last Shabbat was Shabbat HaGadol, the birthday of my father of blessed memory. I hope it would make him happy, wherever he is in heaven, that the whole family will do the Seder together this year.

Anyway, for those of you who celebrate a real Seder or a model seder of some sort - have a good Pesach and keep writing to me! Your emails keep this blog going!

R.

Weekly Torah Portion: Metzora

What a blessed day for the people of Israel. To wake up to such good news - the leadership of our country is given to parties that will not give away our sacred land to other nations, parties that will preserve the integrity of the land of Israel, parties that are for the People of Israel, the Torah of Israel and the Land of Israel. With all my sympathy and appreciation to Benny Gantz and his fellows on the political left (and I do have a lot of respect for them, personally) - I am so happy that it is not them who are going to be sitting in the coalition and leading us towards another Oslo disaster. Our prayers were answered, and a coalition made of parties who love the land and the people will be ruling once again. Hallelujah!
I must admit - I did not vote for Netanyahu, because he is not fully observant (an acquaintance of mine is a close friend of his wife, and she told me that he does try to observe Shabbat, but he is not yet really observant, and I do not want to vote for a non-observant person). However, I think that overall he is a good Prime Minister, he knows the job and he's doing a good job under the given circumstances, and it seems like G-d is behind him as well, for whatever reason. And as to all the claims against him by the left and the super-leftist media - I won't have an opinion, until things are clarified in court. The media gives him an unfair field-trial - when we do not know all the facts. I'm not suggesting he is righteous, but I'm not sure he is so corrupt as they try to make of him. Time will tell and we will all be wiser then.
Yesterday was a wonderful day, with great beautiful spring weather, and a festive atmosphere all around. I voted for the first time in my new neighborhood. Voting in Israel takes place mostly in schools, and I was impressed by the schools I saw in this neighborhood (I saw two of them, because I wasn't sure in which one I'm supposed to vote). A lot of light, colors, motivational messages on the walls, works of art by the students. So different than the urban school I went to for the second half of my school years (the first half was gorgeous, but it wasn't in a city).
After voting, I took a walk in Nahal Tzofim (The Tzofim Wadi) below the neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol. They made it into a park now, with a bicycle trail. There were not that many people there. The few whom I did see were all ultra-orthodox, Hassidish man, each on his own, each walking around alone in a different part of the park, between the trees, talking to G-d. In Hasidism it is called "Hitbodedut" - talking to G-d alone, in your own language, in your own words, usually in nature. From time to time you could hear a cry "Oy, Tate!" (Oh, Daddy!), when they call G-d and turn to Him as a father. I wish I had the courage to do that, but I do my own Hitbodedut at home, silently, spontaneously, every day. Thankfully, thanks to my ceiling window, I can also look to the skies while doing so. I spill my heart to Him, talk to Him like the best, most loyal, most faithful friend. He is a person's best friend - the only fully trusted friend from whom we do not have to hide anything.
When I saw those Hassidish guys, it reminded me of a popular TV drama in Israel (I do not have TV at home, but I watched it online for work - long story...): Shtisel. This TV series is about a Haredi family in Jerusalem. To watch it, I need subtitles, because half of it is not even in Hebrew, it's in Yiddish! The actors are completely secular, but with some of them, it is hard to believe that they are not Haredi-born. To train themselves for the job, they had to live for a few good weeks in the ultra-orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem, to learn how to behave, how to say the blessings, how to talk, how to walk, how to speak Yiddish with the proper pronunciation, etc. The father in the show, Shulem Shtisel (Dova'le Glickman), used to be a very popular comedian when I was a little girl, so it's quite astonishing to see him playing a serious Haredi man. And he does such a good job at it!! And to think that in real life he is a super secular. Unbelievable. In short, yesterday I felt I was witnessing a scene from Shtisel, and it was very nice! You can see a trailer for the show here: https://vimeo.com/105325576

This coming Shabbat in synagogues, after reading the weekly Torah Portion, we will read a part from the Prophets. Because this is the Shabbat just before Passover, a Shabbat we call Shabbat HaGadol ("The Great Shabbat"), there is a special part of the Prophets: Malachi 3: 4-24. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is there. It is a verse that ten years ago, when I was living in Tel Aviv but yearning to move to Jerusalem - when I was traveling in the morning to Jerusalem a few times - I saw this verse sprayed on one of the closed doors of one of the shops on King George street: "שובו אליי ואשובה אליכם" - return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Wow, what a powerful sentence. Back then, this verse gave me power to keep praying to move to Jerusalem - to find work and a place to live here, and I did manage to do that. I remember the hope and inspiration that I got from these words, and the motivation it gave me to keep praying.
Another favorite verse is there as well - when G-d tells us that we can test Him with only one thing: if we give tithes, He will open the treasures of heaven for us. "Bring the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now with this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour unto you a blessing with no ending". I love this, and I found it is true on my own flesh, in my own life! When I moved to Jerusalem, I didn't have a regular job, and my income was very very small, sometimes less than my rent. But I started giving tithes to the poor - trusting G-d to take care of me - and slowly, gradually, my situation got better - I found a stable job, with a salary that is enough to pay the rent and more, and to do other things that I want. Baruch HaShem! It is so good to be Jewish!
I love hearing stories of faith, and I love to tell of my own stories of faith. Such stories give us so much strength, hope and inspiration. They show us the way. In our lives we all face times of hunger, different kinds of hunger, different things we're missing - and faith is the only remedy, the only solution. I'm trying to post messages of hope and inspiration in my Facebook page, "Jewish Inspiration". Make sure you give it a Like and follow us daily: https://www.facebook.com/JewishInspiration5773/

12.4.19:
I wasn't near a big screen when the first Israeli spaceship, Bereshit ("In the beginning" or "Genesis"), made history and landed on the moon  (landed, just not in one piece 😅) . I was walking the long walk home from the city center to my new neighborhood, but I was listening to the live news from the event on my smartphone as I was walking home. I was so impressed with the vision of the young people who decided to start this project, and even more impressed with everyone's reactions to the 'failure': instead of lamenting and crying and feeling sad or disappointed, or worst - trying to find people to blame, everyone took it with a positive spirit and decided to emphasize the achievement part of it and to look for the future, saying: 'if we failed now, we will succeed next time'. The big donor for the project was present and already promised to undertake the next project of an Israeli spaceship. Such a positive spirit, of vision, of looking forward, of daring, of getting up after falling. Such a healthy, dynamic spirit!
The last time we had a connection with the spaceship was when it was 150 meters above the surface of the moon. Shortly before crashing, the spaceship managed to take two 'selfie' pictures of itself approaching the moon. On the spaceship there was a tiny sign in Hebrew: "עם ישראל חי" (The Nation of Israel is Alive), together with an English scripture: "Small Country, Big Dreams". So moving!
As I was walking and listening to the broadcast, I looked up to the sky, trying to find the shattered pieces of the spaceship Bereshit 😅   I didn't see them, but the moon was so beautiful!

One spiritual message we can learn from the spaceship Bereshit (except for the fact that it is OK to fail as long as you know to get up and try again) is the following: Each of us have a moon in our lives to which we are striving - a big, distant goal we want to reach. In order to do that, we have to keep our eyes on the goal, and keep moving, mentally and otherwise, in its direction. The spaceship Bereshit didn't go to the moon in one direct line. Rather, it had to get closer and closer, in orbits that were closer and closer to the moon, until eventually it crossed a critical point and was pulled by the moon's energy to its inner orbit. Similarly, if we invest spiritual effort (prayer, yearning, etc.) in trying to achieve our goals, in many cases we will reach a critical point in which reality will pull us in the desired direction. Not always - after all, G-d doesn't work for us and He is not obliged to give us all we want (some of the things we want are not even good for us) - but in many cases it would help take us in the desired direction. The important thing is to keep pushing forward, to do our own spiritual effort, let go of the past so that it won't pull us in the wrong direction, and hopefully we will be attracted by the inner orbit of our own personal moon. Letting go of the past can be very hard to do. It's like trying to disconnect from planet Earth, with its huge gravitational field, and breaking free from it. It's hard, but it's possible... It must be possible! Keep our eyes on our moon.



Thank you, and Shabbat Shalom!
R.

Weekly Torah Portion: Tazri'a (Leviticus 12:1 - 13:59)

I was supposed to go to a special Hebron tour this Friday morning, but had to cancel, since I developed a cold. Earlier this week I started feeling off, with a congested throat and chills of cold all over my body. I hoped it would be better by today, but it is actually getting worse, so I decided to cancel and stay home. So the good news is that now I have time to sit here and write.

This week I saw the nation of Israel in its greatness. There were two occasions that made me feel this way.

Alex Sasaki Z"L

One, Alex Sasaki, a young new Oleh (new Jewish immigrant) who served in the IDF as a lone soldier (a soldier whose family lives abroad) died last week. His bereaved parents came from the USA to Israel for the funeral of their son, who was buried on Mt. Herzl. They stayed at the Crown Plaza hotel and sat "Shiv'ah" there (Shiv'ah means the customary seven days of mourning, in which the bereaved family of a deceased person sits and mourns, and friends and neighbors come to comfort them). They do not know anyone here, but during the seven days of the Shiv'ah, their room was filled with people. People of all walks of life came to visit them, to hear from them about Alex, to be there for them, to comfort them. It was SO moving to see. Someone placed an empty notebook there, and people were writing messages of consolation to the family, in English, in Hebrew. I saw there religious people, from all the variety that exists - from the ultra-orthodox to the "religious-lite" as we say, and then secular people, traditional people, everyone, of every age. They all came to be with the family, without knowing them, without having known their son. I must admit I was so impressed with the parents. In the face of this tragedy, they didn't stop smiling, talking with people, expressing their feelings, being strong and positive. Alex's father said that he has faith, and that he knows that Alex's life had meaning in Israel, and that he was supposed to be here, despite the bitter end. I was so encouraged to hear him talk like this. I sat there for an hour or so, but really wanted to stay much longer, but people kept streaming in and I had to go and teach. It was very moving to be there. I don't know of any other place on earth in which something like this could happen this way . I think the parents feel now that they have a big warm family in Israel - the people of Israel.
The second moving thing was that Zecharia Baumel - a name I remember since I was a little child as a synonym for someone who went to battle and never returned - was finally brought to his final place of rest and merited to have a Jewish burial in Israel, in Jerusalem, on Mt. Herzl. I couldn't believe it when I heard that - they found Zecharia Baumel's body and it is being brought back to Israel! I was so impressed and proud of the whole nation - of our leaders for actually managing to do this, and of the rest of us - that we haven't forgotten Zecharia, even though it's been 37 years since he was gone, and that we didn't give up hope. Zecharia's father, Yonah, did everything in his power to find his son and waited for him for 27 years, but passed away some ten years ago without meriting to see his son's body being brought to burial in Israel. Zecharia's other family members were there at the funeral, as well as our Prime Minister and other top officials in Israel. What a nation!

Yonah Z"L and Miriam Baumel, holding the picture of their missing son, Zecharia.

This Shabbat is special - it is both a Shabbat and a Rosh Chodesh (the first day of the new month of Nissan), and since it's Nissan, everybody is starting to get ready for Passover: cleaning the houses more meticulously than usual, getting rid of unneeded clothes and items in the house, finishing all the pasta and other foods that are Chametz (unleavened bread) and therefore are not Kosher for eating (or even keeping at home) during Passover.

The Torah Portion of this week is that of Tazria (Leviticus 12:1 - 13:59). It talks about laws of purity for women after birth (laws that don't apply today because the Temple is not in place), and about the laws of Tzara'at, a mysterious skin disease (that can also affect house walls and clothes), and that is diagnosed not by a doctor, but by a Kohen, a Jewish priest from the descendants of Aaron (Moses' brother). The fact that it is diagnosed by a Kohen shows us that it has a spiritual origin, not a medical one. The connection between mind and body is stressed here with this form of mysterious disease. It is translated as Leprosy in English, but it is not the Leprosy we know from recent centuries, it is another form of disease that we are not familiar with today. The cure for this disease is for the affected person to sit in isolation outside the camp, not to come in contact with people for seven days, and after a week - the disease is cured.

Every week, after reading from the Torah (five books of Moses) we also read a portion from the Prophets and Scriptures. This week we read from II Kings 4:42 - 5:19 - the story about Na'aman, the Syrian (Aramean general who had this Tzara'at disease). A little Israeli girl, who was a captive at his home, said that he should go to the Land of Israel and meet the prophet, the man of G-d there, so that he would be cured of his disease. The general listened to her advice and went. He did as the prophet told him, and was cured. He then exclaimed: "Behold now, I know there is no G-d in all the earth, but in Israel." Of course, we know that G-d is everywhere - not just here - and He is the G-d of all people and of all nations, but this exclamation means, I think, that there is a special connection to G-d here, and within this people, and this connection nourishes and strengthens the connection of the whole world to G-d. 

The portion doesn't explicitly specify what causes this disease, but elsewhere in the Torah it is mentioned in relation to Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, when she spoke not-nicely about Moses and his wife, and was punished for it with this disease, and in order to be cured from it she was asked to sit outside the camp in isolation (Book of Numbers, chapter 12). From this, our sages infer that the cause for this disease is bad use of language, or simply: evil tongue. The evil tongue includes a few categories of immoral use of speech, but they all come down to saying bad things about other people behind their backs: disgracing others, putting them down, mentioning their flaws, exposing things that violate their privacy (and privacy is sacred!), telling lies about them and also telling bad things that are true about them. Some think that if we say bad things about someone, but those bad things are true, then it's OK for us to tell these things. But this kind of gossip is forbidden and can cause a lot of harm to three parties: to the speaker, to the one spoken about and to the listener. It diminishes the level of love in society and the social glue that keeps people together and causes disdain towards the person spoken about and a feeling of superiority for the speaker and the listener. There won't be love there the next time they see this person. This is the reason why the cure for the Tzara'at disease is to sit in isolation outside the camp: it's like saying - if you want to weaken the social glue between people in your community, if you want to make someone else be treated with disdain, you should taste your own medicine (literally) and be isolated (and put to shame) yourself. It is no big honor to sit outside the camp alone for a week because of this spiritual-physical disease. 

Only in specific cases is one allowed (and even encouraged) to say bad things that are true about another person (for example: if you know that Dana is going to marry or get into business with Danny, who is a dishonest person, you must warn her, but make sure your motives are to help her, not to bite Danny). 

Words can heal and words can kill. Speech is what distinguishes us humans from other animals, and it is such a lofty gift we humans got, that we just must use it responsibly and with discretion. With speech we can change someone's world, or even change the world (and there have been quite a few examples for this in human history). A tender word for someone in distress can sometimes save their lives, and a bitter word said to someone or about someone behind their back can ruin their lives.

Words have power, and every word we say leaves an impression in this world. We can truly heal the world with positive speech (and also positive inner speech, directed towards ourselves!). And it costs us nothing. It is a free gift we got, and we can give good words to others and lift them up without any cost to us at all. 

So this Shabbat (and this month, and just generally), let us find ways to use our speech in a constructive way towards ourselves and towards others and truthfully make this world a better place.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov! 

Revital