The famous 19th century blood libel in Russia, which came to be known as the ‘Beilis Trial’, became much more than the trial of just one man. Judaism as a whole stood accused, and its faithful defenders were forced to fend off repeated attacks while world Jewry rallied to their support.
The judge challenged the defense. He said: “It says in your Talmud: You the people of Israel are called Adam, Man, yet the nations of the world are not called Adam.’ What then do you consider the nations of the world to be, if not men?” demanded the prosecution. “Would you call them animals? “
The rabbi who was acting as the defense attorney explained: “In Hebrew there are two terms for man: Ish and Adam. Israel is called Adam because this term appears only in singular; there is no plural form for Adam. The Jews are described as the singular form of man because they are more than a...
Bonding or Bondage
Why Serve the Divine?
“For unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My servants who I took out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord G- d.” ~~ Leviticus 25:55
There is an Eastern teaching that proclaims, “Be here and now.” Torah however would say, “Serve G-d here and now.” Indeed, this is the fullest experience of life.
The Kabbalah teaches that G-d wants to be present in the here and now, and our job is to serve G-d in that desire. Therefore, to serve G-d means to infuse each moment with the presence of G-d. In other words, I must always ask myself, “How can I serve G- d right now?”
If right now I am with my friend, spouse or child, I should see this moment as an opportunity to show him/her love and thus serve G-d, who is the source of all love. It’s not my love. I didn’t invent love. I didn’t...
We’ll call him Gabi (not his real name); he was a most unlikely recruit, and none of us had any idea how and why he had gotten into our unit. He was overweight, to put it mildly, and was always the last to finish every run and every physical task, and even most of the nonphysical tasks. He was the last to get his gun cleaned and ready for inspection, the last to get out to the parade ground in the morning and the last one on every run. Maybe he was way out of shape, but looking back, I think it was also his motivation; not sure he had a clue why he was there and spent most of his time wishing he wasn’t.
But on our masa’ot (forced marches) it became pretty obvious he was in the wrong place, and in a lot of trouble. I could hear his heavy breathing, groaning and agonizing as he struggled to keep...
Dating the Divine
Celebrating love
“These are the appointed holidays of G-d, holy convocations, which you are to proclaim in their appointed times.” — Lev. 23.4
Henny Youngman, the comedian, once said, "I tried being an atheist, but I gave it up. There were no holidays."
What is a holiday really about? Is it the same as a vacation?
A vacation is a time to vacate, but a holiday is a time to celebrate.
To vacate means to take off, get away from the everyday and clear yourself out from the tensions and challenges of the daily grind. Perhaps you'll suntan on a beach, play golf or catch a good concert.
A holiday, however, is a holy day. It is not an escape from everyday life to paradise. Rather, it is a time to infuse paradise into the everyday. This is the power of celebration. My guess is that the word celebrate connects to the word celestial. And from a Jewish perspective that would make sense,...
(reprinted from 2016)
Visit the Synagogue of the Maharal (Rav Meir Leibush Lowe) of Prague (known as the Altneu Shul, in Prague), and you will immediately notice its most distinctive feature: with the exception of some Hebrew letters very high up near the ceiling, the walls are completely blank; devoid of any art or decorations. Standing in stark contrast to all the other Jewish Synagogues of Prague (not to mention all over Europe) this detail demands explanation.
There is an intensity to this shul with its history of hundreds of years; perhaps this is why:
On April 17, 1389, Easter Sunday, a Priest apparently leading a procession past the Jewish community of Prague was hit with sand thrown by a few Jewish children. (It may be some sand kicked up by a game they were playing landed on the Host (the Eucharistic wafer representing their Lord.)
Claiming they had denigrated Christianity and desecrated the Host, his incitement led the clergy to encourage the mobs...
CAN YOU REALLY LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOUR SELF?
After reading this essay, you'll never look at yourself — or others — the same way again.
The actor Kirk Douglas, z”l, once told me that when people compliment him on a performance, they often tell him how great he was at losing himself in the part. "You just became Vincent Van Gogh! You were so wonderful." And he answers, "No, you lost yourself in the part. I can't afford to lose myself in the part. I have to pay attention to the director, to the cues. I have to hit the mark just right so the action is in the camera frame. I must stay aware that I am an actor acting a part."
So a good actor plays his part, but he doesn't get lost in his part. He can't even begin to think he is the character he is playing. On the other hand, it is not like he doesn't embrace...
Recently, on a Pesach program, an elderly gentleman named Yaakov Gross asked a few of us if he could speak before the Yizkor service. He wanted to share the story of his bar mitzvah in Bergen Belsen. This is the story he shared:
In January of 1945 the Nazis were still trying to convince the world that they were treating the Jews well. So, they invited a delegation of the Red Cross to visit the camp. As part of the ‘show’ that they prepared, they ‘invited’ a few of the boys from the kinder-lager, the children’s’ barracks, to celebrate their bar mitzvah in Bergen Belsen; true story. And for the occasion, they erected a platform (read: bimah) in the middle of the square where roll calls and hangings were normally held. And, no less incredible, they secured a Sefer Torah for the event!
And so, young Yaakov Gross, who was thirteen, along with five other boys, ascended to receive an Aliyah...
Achieving Sacred Selfishness
Happiness through holiness
I had a student that once came into my office and said, "My father who passed away was an atheist and a fantastic human being. He was such a moral human being. He was such a good human being. I don't believe that had he been a believer, he would have been any better. He was the epitome of being a good person. So I have a problem with Torah because I really don't believe that it would have made a difference."
So I told him that it isn't the goal of Torah to merely become a moral person. There is a lot more to it.
Morality is important, but morality is a stage in the journey. The destination is holiness — being whole.
Morality is an aspect of that, but it is not that.
So I asked him, "Do you think your father might have been more holy?" That shocked him, he never even thought about holiness. What...
Some time ago, after a lecture on the ethical challenges of the seventh commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”), I was approached by a fellow from Vienna who was a Holocaust survivor.
“Why do you assume stealing is always wrong?” asked the fellow, “Sometimes, it is even an obligation.”
“I always had a strong desire to take things, and I never understood why,” he continued,
“And it wasn’t that I necessarily needed the things I took, I just loved the prospect of being able to steal things out from under people’s noses. I became quite good at it, though my conscience always bothered me. Often, I was able to resist the temptation to take things that weren’t mine, but it was always a struggle. I often wondered why G-d had burdened me with this particular challenge. I knew it was wrong to steal, and never rationalized theft; I just loved the ‘thrill of the take’. Why did G-d create me with this challenge? It...
Look Who’s Talking:
The Truth About Gossip
“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” ~~Jane Austen
“Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.” ~~George Elliot
Whoever speaks with an evil speech- lashon hara – is as if he denied G-d . . . Evil speech kills three people – the one who says it, the one who accepts it, and the one about whom it is said. (Maimonides Hilkhot Deot 7:3)
A philosopher once said, “If a man finds himself, he has a mansion in which he can live for the rest of his life.” I would like to add: If a man does not find himself he can build mansion after mansion and try to compensate for the loss of self, but huge as his mansion may be, it won’t do the trick.
The real...
