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We of course have the benefit of centuries of subsequent history and human experience, and we know that things which happen fast are generally hard to handle. Imagine what would happen if we were all like the handful of child prodigies who are already finishing university degrees when they are barely into their teens. Adulthood would have come too fast. The struggle to grow up is never easy, but without the struggle we would not appreciate it. People who win the lottery and become instant millionaires are rarely able to cope with their good fortune; they are simply not ready. How long each stage in life should take is addressed at the end of the fifth chapter of Pir'kei Avot, a brave attempt at telling us what we should be doing at each milestone. It does not work in the same way for everyone, but the general principle is amply vindicated. Everything worthwhile takes time.]]> 1217985311 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:15:11 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217985222&archive=
There are other dimensions to the notion of sinning on Tishah B'Av. There are questions raised in Talmud Shabbat 119b about why the Holy City was destroyed. The sages could have said that it was because of a cruel enemy, but they looked inward to see if there were internal factors that made the destruction easier for the enemy. Abbaye said, "Jerusalem was destroyed because its inhabitants desecrated the Sabbath". Ulla said, "Because its inhabitants did not respect each other". Rabbi Chanina said, "Because its inhabitants did not rebuke one another when they did wrong". Rabbi Yehudah said, "Because its inhabitants ridiculed their scholars". Unfortunately some of these sins still seem to be committed even on Tishah B'Av. Would it not be a help to the Mashiach if this Tishah B'Av we abandoned these or any other sins? And if we succeeded in doing this on Tishah B'Av, how about continuing the next day, and the next?]]> 1217985222 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:13:42 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217985119&archive=
A. According to the Shulchan Aruch, Nachem should be said during all services on Tishah B'Av, but the Ashkenazi custom is to limit it to Minchah because the afternoon was the time when the Temple was set on fire. Now that Jerusalem is our thriving, revived, united capital, some say that we should no longer say a prayer that refers to the city being in a state of ruin. The "No" argument is that the full restoration of Jerusalem has not been achieved, especially since the Temple has not been rebuilt.

Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef (Responsa Yechavveh Da'at, vol, 1, no. 43) gives three reasons for retaining the prayer:
1. The prayer book was put together by great pietists whose words we must maintain.

2. Without a Temple, and with Muslim objections to Jewish access to the site of the Sanctuary, the city is still to be deemed to be "laid waste".

3. In the light of the remaining spiritual deficiencies of Jerusalem, whilst acknowledging all that has been achieved, the restoration is incomplete.

Rabbi Chayyim David Halevy (Responsa Aseh L'cha Rav, vol. 1, no. 14; vol. 2, nos. 36-39) has suggested a compromise, turning most of the verbs into the past tense - "the city that was (not 'is') despised and desolate". Rabbi Shlomo Goren revived an approach found in the Jerusalem Talmud and his wording was adopted in many modern orthodox circles and included in the Israel Defence Forces prayer book. An alternative would be to retain the traditional wording but to add a note explaining the situation or to specify that the text as formulated by the sages had in mind the smallish area of the Temple Mount.]]> 1217985119 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:11:59 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217984945&archive=
A. The kinnah you refer to is "Sha'ali Serufah Ba'Esh" - "Ask, O you who have been burnt by fire", by Meir of Rothenburg (13th cent.).

From the occasion which called forth this poem - the bitter day of 17 June, 1242, when, incited by an apostate Jew, and sanctioned by the Pope and the King of France, the mob threw 24 cartloads of Hebrew manuscripts onto the flames in a Paris square - through seven centuries of holocausts of Jewish books up to the Nazi attack on Jewish cultural treasures which destroyed three million Jewish books, there have been book-burnings.

Our enemies feared these books. They represented independent, deviationist thinking, a threat, a symbol of defiance, and had to be eliminated. But for Jews these books were often their only friends. They overcame the ghettoes: books set us free. In times of turmoil, books were a haven. Heine wrote: "Nations rose and were vanquished, states flourished and decayed, revolutions raged throughout the earth - but they, the Jews, sat poring over their books, unconscious of the wild chase of time that rushed on above their heads".

Jewish reverence for study went with reverence for books. Yehudah the Pious said in the 13th century, "If you drop gold and books, first pick up the books and then the gold". Jacob Moellin (14th cent.), said, "If two men are about to enter or leave a house and one has a book, the man with the book goes first".

Books were beloved companions, members of the family. If books were on fire, every Jew felt the pain and agony personally. That is why Meir of Rothenburg cried so bitterly (the translation is by Nina Salaman):

"Dismay hath seized upon my soul; how, then,
Can food be sweet to me,
When, O thou Law, I have beheld base men
Destroying thee?
In sackcloth I will clothe and sable band,
For well-beloved by me
Were they whose lives were many as the sand -
The slain of thee..."

Our enemies knew that even if a Jewish body was destroyed, the Jewish soul was indestructible. But they did sometimes confuse and weaken that soul - by burning Jewish books. That is why the Jewish book had such a struggle in the Soviet Union for decades. The miracle is that the message of the Jewish book seemed to circulate behind the Iron Curtain almost by telepathy. If our enemies could not kill the Jewish book by active attack, we must not let it die through neglect.

What Jewish books do most Diaspora Jews have? A Siddur, probably; maybe a Chumash - but what else? There is such a range of Jewish books available today that no one has an excuse not to have a Jewish bookshelf, add to it and absorb its inspiration. Asher ben Yechiel (14th cent.) ruled that the law to write a Torah can be fulfilled by building up a library of Jewish books.

How true are the words of Moses ibn Ezra:

"A book is the most delightful companion - an inanimate thing, yet it talks. There is in the world no friend more faithful and attentive. It will join you in solitude, accompany you in exile, and serve as a candle in the dark. It gives, and does not take."

On Tishah B'Av we mourn for the loss of books. On Simchat Torah we rejoice over the blessing of books. Fast and feast both tell us that the key to the future lies in the way we deal with our books.]]> 1217984945 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:09:05 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217391871&archive=
A. "Pidyon sh'vuyyim", ransoming captives, is a well known issue in Jewish ethics and until recent times, the charity boxes in synagogues included boxes for donations to facilitate it. The Mishnah (Sh'kalim 2:5) made rulings about what may and may not be done with "pidyon sh'vuyyim" money. When the problem was how much to pay for a captive, the 13th century sage, Rabbi Me'ir of Rothenburg, refused to allow the community to ransom him because it might encourage captors to kidnap other rabbis and demand huge amounts for their release. The law is that if a captive's life is at stake a high ransom may be paid, but in time of war an enemy must not be allowed an incentive to take hostages. The issue is never simple. National security is not the only concern. National emotion is important: we want our own people returned. National morality is also important: we have to do the decent thing even if we live in a tough neighbourhood.]]> 1217391871 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:24:31 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217391816&archive=
A. The lex talionis ("an eye for an eye") is understood as requiring a criminal to pay compensation. It is not a primitive law of revenge whereby if you injured my eye, I injure yours. It also establishes that the compensation paid by a criminal is not affected by whether the criminal is a noble or the victim is a slave.

The law of capital punishment (seen as necessary on the statute book in order to highlight the gravity of offences such as bloodshed) was hardly ever applied. The sages of the Mishnah (Makkot 1:10) say that a court which imposes the death penalty is a bloodthirsty court.]]> 1217391816 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:23:36 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217391767&archive=
A. It is not a prohibition like a mixture of milk and meat, which may not be cooked together, eaten at the same meal or used to derive any benefit, and requiring an interval between them - a brief interval after milk and several hours after meat. Fish and meat are not eaten together or served on the same plate, but people often have a fish course before a meat course. The sages stated that combining fish and meat could cause health problems. There are various opinions as to the nature of the health risk. It is certainly true that fish spoils easily.]]> 1217391767 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:22:47 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217391678&archive=
I must admit that though I try to follow his method I do not always succeed, but I certainly find something new each year which I did not notice the year before. I call this the Ben Bag Bag way. At the end of chapter 5 of Pir'kei Avot, Ben Bag Bag (the word "Bag" may be an abbreviation for "Ben Ger", "the son of a proselyte") is quoted as saying, "Turn it (the Torah) and turn it again, for everything is in it; contemplate it, wax grey and old over it and do not stir from it, for you can have no better rule than this". Every time we encounter a given verse or teaching our circumstances have changed; we are different people and it is a different world. Every time we read a parashah we inevitably "turn it and turn it again", and it speaks to us with a new message.]]> 1217391678 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:21:18 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217391604&archive= 1217391604 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:20:04 +1000 http://www.oztorah.com/allcontent/all.php?subaction=showfull&id=1217391541&archive= 1217391541 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:19:01 +1000