MAN, TORAH, AND NESHAMA

Torah and Man are connected by God's lamp on earth; the Torah is a flame which leaps from the spark of He who sits

in heaven; Man, with both his

components (body and soul) is a torch which draws its light; his back – a twisted wick, and his soul – pure olive oil. When they are in accord and are

together, the entire house is filled with light.

(Malbim, Commentary on Shemot 21:20)

"FOR KINDLING LAMPS REGULARLY"

This expression for kindling lights occurs only in reference to the

service of the menorah. It is the precise description of the demand to

keep the kindling flame against the wick until the latter "burns by itself".

The work of a Torah teacher is to make himself superfluous! Not to keep the "laity"

in lasting dependence on the teachers or priests. At the same time it is an

admonition to enduring patience for teacher and pupil.

(Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, Shemot 27:21)

BELL AND MELODY

George

Savran

            "On its hem make pomegranates of blue, purple, and

goes out – that he may not die."

(Shemot 28: 33-35)

At the end of the instructions regarding Aharon's ephod,

there appears a short description of the set of bells, which seems ostensibly

to be a minor decorative ornament within the resplendent outfit of priestly

garments. Each detail of the of the service garments has symbolic and

ceremonial significance, most of which receives expression in the chapter. So,

for example, the Breastplate of Judgement is to serve "for remembrance

before the Lord at all times." (28:29). The purpose

of the frontlet of gold is "to win acceptance for them before the Lord."

(28:38). They provide a reminder before The Holy One,

Blessed Be He, of his closeness to the Children of Israel at the time of Aharon's

performance of the holy service. The presence of the bells was considered to be

indispensable to the work of the priest in the Mishkan, for in their absence an

express threat of death hovered. But beyond this, there is no rationale for the

task.

For Whom Do These Bells

Toll?

For the God of Israel? For the Children of Israel?

For Aharon himself? Study of this question raised important aspects about man's

condition as he stands before God in prayer.

In Rashi's opinion, death threatened was the

punishment not only for dereliction in the matter of the bells, but also for

all shortcomings regarding the vestments and utensils employed in the Mishkan

service: "Should he enter lacking one of these garments, he is deserving

of death by the hands of Heaven."

This position is buttressed by a similar warning

regarding the linen garments (28:43), which is intended to

serve as a general rule. Rashi interprets the passage not in accordance with

its plain meaning in order to enlighten a basic principle – the wholeness of

the priest. Just as the priest must be complete in body, without any blemish

whatever (Vayikra 21) so must his clothing be complete in all its

details and accessories.

This general rule is in itself a exalted one, but it

would seem that the passage's syntax emphasizes that the threat of death is

tied specifically to the sound of the bells. Because every activity in the

Mishkan is directed towards God, it is reasonable to assume that here too the

sound is intended for The Holy One, Blessed Be He, as the Ramban explains:

"Therefore He said that He so ordained in order

that his voice will be heard in the holy place, he must come before his master

– as it were – only with His permission, for royal protocol decrees that one

who enters the hall of the king unexpectedly deserved death, as in the case of

Ahasuerosh."                                      

According to this explanation, the ringing of the

bell is a signal to The Holy One, Blessed Be He, that the priest wishes to

approach in order to serve Him;d as a faithful and obedient servant he requests

permission before entering, lest the hour be inappropriate or should the king

not desire his presence.    

Here too, however, the explanation does not conform

to the realia in the Mishkan; the priest is not required to request permission

before entry. If such were the case, one would expect such a request by means

of prayer or a verbal entreaty, not by the indirect means of a bell's ringing.

If so, we must try to identify the object "and its sound will be heard"

from among those present, i.e., human beings. In this spirit Abarbanel suggests

that the sound was heard by the people outside the Mishkan, in order to inform

them as to the situation of the priest inside:

It might be said that the sounding of the bells was

to inform the people outside that the priest was still alive; if he had died,

they would not be heard, and this is the meaning of "And its sound will

not be heard… and he shall not die". As Chazal said: If they [the

priests] had improper beliefs in their hearts, they would have died upon

entering the Mikdash, and when they would not hear their footsteps, they would

know that he died because of his sin.

Approaching holiness entailed great danger, as is

described in the story of Nadav and Avihu (Vayikra 10:1) and

in the instructions for the dismantling of the Mishkan by the Levites (Bemidbar 4). Since the priest – when he entered the Mishkan – was

the representative of all the Children of Israel, this concern reflected real

anxiety on the part of the community, and his exit unharmed was cause for relief.

(Yoma, 7:4)

In addition to the fear for the welfare of

the priest, the Hizkuni – in his rationale for

the ringing of the bells – stressed the role of the nation when Aharon entered

for the holy service: "So that they know the hour of the service, and thus

they will direct their hearts to their father in Heaven."

Even though the Cohen performed the ritual in the

Mishkan in physical isolation from the rest of the nation, the Children of

Israel participated in the ritual through their internal identification with the priest. They were conscious of the Cohen's

ritual actions, especially those which he performed twice daily, as he entered

the Mishkan in full attire in order to light the golden menorah and to burn the

incense. In light of this participation by the Children of Israel in the

activity of the Cohen, we can consider the ringing of the bells as a

call to prayer, as a means for focussing the

hearts of the nation upon the Cohen's Mishkan service and its meaning. True,

God was the primary addressee of the service, but the nation was not apathetic

to the activity inside, even though the Cohen's actions were hidden from their

eyes. The tintinabulation of the bells sharpened the awareness of the Children

of Israel, encouraging their identification with the Mishkan activity.

Rabbi Yaakov Zvi Meklenburg, in his commentary "Haketav

Ve'hakaballah" goes even further, suggesting that the phrase object "and

its sound will be heard" relates to the Cohen himself:

It is my opinion that the commandment regarding the

bells is similar to the mitzvah of tsitsit. The latter mitzvah serves as

a reminder via the sense of sight; the former is a reminder via

the sense of hearing… for upon hearing the sound of the robe's bells he will

be aroused to concentrate his mind and heart upon Him before whom he wears

these garments. . . and to what purpose he alone is charged to wear such

clothes. So he will suit all his thoughts and ideas to the service of the

Supreme King, Blessed be He. And not only while he is engaged in the divine

service, but also upon his exit from the sanctuary to his home and in the

streets, the bells will loudly ring in his ears to remind him… that he not

forget that he is constantly standing before God, and that he not divert his

attention from holiness for even a second…

OUR RELATION TO THESE

BELLS, HAVING NEITHER

MISHKAN, HIGH PRIEST,

NOR RITUAL VESTMENTS

A Jew praying to God is part of the Kingdom of Priests,

coming to divine service in his 'miniature Mikdash'. The sound which

accompanies his divine service is the niggun, the melody. In the light of Rashi's words, one can see this niggun as

a complement to his verbal prayer; the prayer 'is attired' in the niggun –

without it his prayer is incomplete. Or, following the Ramban, the sound is

directed to God, as a petition to enter, as a cry for help, or as a song of

praise. Or perhaps, as per the Hizkuni, the prayer's melody is the main means

of communication between the supplicants, as they call to each other in prayer.

Or perhaps, as suggested by the Ketav VeHakaballah, the niggun is a method of

concentration for the supplicant himself, to help focus his attention and to

concentrate his thought. In all these ways, the sound of the bells is heard

during our prayers in the form of the niggun.

 Dr.

George Savran teaches Bible in Machon Shechter for Jewish Studies

"REMEMBER – DO NOT

FORGET"

The Sages of the Midrash see in Amalek the archetype of the enemy who

deviates from the accepted rules of warfare behavior, who – without cause –

exploits a situation which seems to him to be easy and convenient, starting a

war which does not bring glory to its warriors, choosing a tactic of "attacked

the stragglers at the rear" – particularly those who are feeble, weak,

and unprotected…

It should be emphasized that in its broader significance, "the War

Against Amalek" is the war against wrong and evil in the world, traits

which existed from time immemorial in all human nature without exception, and

in this respect Jews are no different from the rest of the peoples of the world

and the nations of the lands… from this it follows that this is not a milhemet

mitzvah – an obligatory war – commanded upon Israel alone, but it is even "a war of God against Amalek", and

as such in its very essence it is an eternal struggle.

 (From Y. Leibowitz, Seven Years of

Discussions on the Weekly Parasha, pp. 875-877)

WHEN IS THE MEGILLA

READ – AND WHY?

"Megilla is read on the eleventh, the twelfth, the thirteenth, the

fourteenth, no less and no more…" (Mishna, Megilla 1:1). That which we explained regarding the Megilla

reading on these particular dates, is valid only when the Bet Hamikdash is in

existence, and the times are normal, with no nations decreeing religious

persecution, and it is possible to sanctify the months and to dispatch

messengers to all the lands, and there is no chance of error. But in these

days, when the masses look to the Megilla reading in order to count thirty days

to Pesach, we read only in its ordained time… and some explain that the

reason is because the poor look forward to the Megilla reading in order to

receive Purim contributions – something which did not exist in the times of the

Bet Hamikdash, when the years were normal without high prices and drought, and

poverty was not common, but today, when poverty is widespread, if they do not

collect on the day of the reading, the poor despair and leave.

 (Commentary of the Meiri to Megilla 2:1)

Readers Write:

REFUSAL TO

OBEY AN ORDER AS AN

EXPRESSION

OF RELIGIOUS-MORAL COMMITMENT

While serving in the territories, we witnessed with

our own eyes how Tzahal daily oppresses a population of three million people,

an entire nation under our control, without human rights. With our own eyes we

saw that we perpetrate cruel collective punishment. We deny people such basic

rights as the fight to freedom, the right to make a living, the right to move

freely, and even the right to evacuate its wounded in an ambulance. We say: No

more.

The most terrible of the atrocities is the killing

of innocent people. Every month we hurt children, women, and the elderly. All

this is accidental, unintentional. For

example, in the week between 19/10/01 – 25/10/01, Tzahal killed, in the

Bethlehem area alone, fifteen Palestinians, eleven of which were civilians,

including two minors and three women. If this is not a violation of "You

shall not murder" – which appears in the Ten Commandments which we read

two weeks ago – I know not what is. Service in the territories inevitably leads

to transgression of commandments appearing in the Ten Commandments, and to

unprecedented moral decline in the history of the Jewish nation.

The prohibition against hurting and punishing

innocent people is a foundation stone of Judaism. It was our father, Avraham, the

first conscientious objector in the world, who

rose up against this phenomenon. When God was about to destroy Sodom, Avraham

said to Him:

Far

not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" (Bereishit 18:25)

The prohibition against punishing the innocent is

repeated again and again in the Torah. When Yaakov's two sons – Shimon and Levi

– committed the massacre in Shechem in revenge for the rape of Dinah, he cursed

them until the end of their days. He spoke of them in terms unparalleled for

their harshness:

Shimon

anger so fierce, and their wrath so relentless. (Bereishit 49:5-7)

Obedience to the laws of the state were never a

supreme value in Judaism. The prophets of Israel and their prophesies serve as

archetypes of vigorous and uncompromising criticism against the regime which

basely exploited its might and power against a weak population lacking rights.

They decried the thievery and the depredation, the killing and the denial of

rights. They did not hesitate to call for disobedience to governmental orders

when the government had corrupted its ways.

The black flag need not relate particularly to the

order to commit a specific act in a specific place. It waves over all of

Tzahal's actions in the territories; the

imposition of collective punishment, the punishment of innocent persons, the

killing of women and men, children and infants. This is the result of extended

rule over another people.

A soldier sent to the territories receives an order

which sounds approximately like this: Go and fight a civilian population, steal

its property, take over its homes, starve its sons, encircle its villages, deny

its people the right of travel, and embitter their lives until three million

people agree to be conquered and submissive. This is an immoral order; it

corrodes the army because it affects Tzahal's moral power and the justice of

its ways.

Above

the order to serve in the territories there waves a black flag of illegality

and immorality, written in the giant letters of Kiddush Levana. Therefore, we commit ourselves to continued service

in Tzahal, as long as it remains loyal to its purpose, but not when it breaks

faith with its historic and Zionist destiny.

                                                                                    Shammai

Leibowitz, Lawyer

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