If your son asks you tomorrow, saying, "What are the testimonies,

you?"

 You shall say to your

with a strong hand. (Devarim 6:20-21)

If your son asks you tomorrow: Tomorrow [mahar] may [also] mean, "at a later

time."

(Rashi ad loc)

If

your son asks you tomorrow – This passage does not

mention entering the Land; it relates to the time of exile when Israel

is exiled from the Land. Then the son will ask, "Given that you have been

exiled from the Land, What are the testimonies, the

statutes, etc.?" To this the father replies that the blessed Lord

removed us from the land of Egypt in order to bring us to the land He swore

preserve us in life unto this day, we being prepared for the Land. For even

today we are prepared in the hope that He will bring us to the goodly Land and

thanks to keeping the testimonies we fear the Lord, that being the true good. And

the nation is sustained in exile to let it become worthy of the desired goal,

earned by our keeping the statutes as we had been commanded while dwelling in

the wilderness without a tent or shelter.

(Meshekh Hokhma ad loc)

Shema Yisrael, Destruction and Redemption

Dalia Marx

If you

ask Jews – whether they be men or women or define themselves as secular,

religious, or traditional – what is the most Jewish sentence they can think of,

it would be reasonable to assume that many of them will answer without

hesitation: Shema Yisrael – Hear O Israel. Indeed, that short

passage expresses faith in God, acknowledgment of God's uniqueness, and the

concept of Israel's

nationhood. However, beyond those lofty ideas expressed in the Shema,

the verse also bears a deep emotional meaning. The words Shema Yisrael

appear in a variety of liturgical settings (in a special unit of prayer in the

morning and evening services, in the Birkot HaShahar, at the time the

Torah scroll is taken from the Ark, at bedtime, during the deathbed confession,

etc.) and they are written on the parchment inside mezuzot and tefillin.

The

first mishnah of the first tractate (Berakhot) of the entire Mishnah opens with

a question relating to the recitation of the Shema: "From what time

do we read the Shema in the evening?" The Mishnah does not supply

us with the text of the Shema nor with formulations of its accompanying

benedictions; it does not even state that one must recite the Shema in

the evening and in the morning. Rather, it begins with a seemingly technical

question concerning the time of the Shema's recitation. Why does the

tractate (and actually the entire Mishnah) begin with this

"technicality"? Is it because everyone was already acquainted with

the text of the Shema, or was it that the editors of the Mishnah wanted

to lend authority to a practice that was insufficiently known and accepted? We

lack the means to decide this question.

Shema

Yisrael is the first liturgical text that infants are taught to recite, and

it is supposed to be one's final utterance before falling asleep. When death

approaches, Jews are expected recite a confession that concludes with Shema

Yisrael. Throughout their history, Jews have met their martyrs' deaths with

the words of the Shema on their lips. This practice began with Rabbi

Akiva, whose soul escaped him as he pronounced the word ehad – "one"

while being tortured by the Romans for teaching Torah in public (b. Berakhot

61b) and continued through to the victims of slaughter in Europe's

death camps, who went to their deaths uttering the words Shema Yisrael. The

six words of the verse sometimes constituted the only bit of prayer transmitted

by the Spanish anusim (conversos) from parent to child for generations. While

the Mishnah permits the Shema to be recited in any language (Sotah 7:1),

it was still recited in Hebrew even in synagogues where most of the service

took place in the local vernacular.

The

first paragraph of the Shema appears in our parasha, parashat

Va'et'hanan. One can only imagine Moses' mood in the beginning of the parasha

as he recounts God's rejection of his pleas to be allowed entry to the Land of Israel. That same leader now stands

before his people, charging them with a command that is very severe, both

mentally and emotionally: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your

heart, and all your soul, and all your might (Devarim

6:5).¹

It is

not clear when the People Israel first began reciting Shema Yisrael. Already

in the Mishnah we find the recitation of the Shema in its full three

paragraphs and with its accompanying benedictions appearing as part of the

priestly rite of the Second

Temple. After the

morning's daily sacrifice was slaughtered, dismembered, and salted, but before

the incense was burned, the priests would descend to the Hewn Chamber [Lishkat

HaGazit]. Here is the description of what transpired there:

The superintendent said: "Utter one blessing,"

and they uttered a blessing.

They recited the Ten Commandments,

Shema, VeHaya Im Shamo'a, VaYomer

They blessed the people with three blessings: Emet

Veyatziv and Avoda and Birkat Kohanim. (Mishnah Tamid 5:1)

According

to this description, the priests would recite the Shema in the course of

performing the holy service in the Temple.

As is the case with every account of the Temple

rite offered by the Sages, it is not clear whether our mishnah is a

contemporaneous report or a reconstruction produced in Tannaitic times.

Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the Jewish masses outside the Temple would also recite

the Shema; there is reason to believe that they did.

It is

interesting to note that alongside the Shema and its benedictions, the

Ten Commandments were also recited in the Temple

service; they also appear in our parasha. As we all know, the custom of reading

the Ten Commandments in the framework of the Shema and its benedictions

has not persisted. R. Shmuel bar Nahman and R. Matana offer an explanation of

this in the Jerusalem Talmud:

In principle, the Ten Commandments should be read every

day.

And why are they not read?

Because of the claims of the sectarians,

That they should not say: "Only these were given

to Moses at Sinai." (J. Berakhot 9b; 1:3)

That is

to say, it would be proper to read the Ten Commandments, but we don't do it

because of the "grievance of the sectarians" [taromet haminim].

It has been claimed that the excision of the Ten Commandments was a polemical

move made by the Sages against the early Christians who renounced the Torah's

commandments, accepting only the Ten Commandments, which they understood as

Divine laws.² The Sages wanted to show that the Ten Commandments

lack any special status among the Mitzvot, and that the entire Torah is holy. That

is why they removed the recitation of the Ten Commandments from the daily

prayer, and that is also why RaMBaM ruled against the custom of standing when

the Ten Commandments are read from the Torah.³

*  *  *

The

Jewish calendar marches us through the maze of history over and over again. Each

year we re-experience the saga of our people as it unfolded through the

generations; it is as if we experience the events ourselves. Three weeks ago

the cycle of destruction began with the 17^th of Tammuz, which marks

the start of the Tlata DePoranuta – the three mournful weeks of Bein

HaMitzarim during which we join the inhabitants of Jerusalem as they see

the siege grow worse and dread the expected destruction of the Temple. According

to Ashkenazic custom, no weddings are celebrated during these days; occasions

of joy and cheerfulness are not held. "When Av arrives, we reduce our

joy" (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6). The

mourning for the Temple's destruction reaches its

climax on the 9^th of Av, the day tradition claims both the First and

Second Temples were destroyed. But just as

someone who sinks into mighty waters, touches bottom, kicks at it, and finds

himself on the way back to the surface, so too in the afternoon Minha

service of the 9^th of Av our mourning is slightly abated with words

of consolation. During the weeks between the 9^th of Av and Rosh

Hodesh Elul – the Shivata DeNehemta – prophecies of consolation and Tikkun

(repair) are read each Shabbat.

Many of

our people do not look forward to the building of the Third Temple.

It may be asked what point there is to mourning the Temple's destruction when many of us think

its service would be inappropriate for our times, or are even repelled by it. Throughout

history there have been calls to abolish the fast day, but its meaning has

never faded; the 9^th of Av is a day of mourning and grief for

holiness destroyed and for a house of prayer torn down by a hateful hand. On

this day I can imagine Titus strutting wildly into the Holy of Holies with his

sword drawn; I am reminded of pictures of Germany's synagogues burning on the

Pogrom Night (popularly known as Kristallnacht); I think of the

synagogues that were burned and desecrated by our fellow Jews (yes indeed, even

here in our rebuilt Jerusalem). I also think of the houses of worship of other

nations destroyed by hate and zealotry. I hope that we will remember that the

Lord is one, even if He has many names.

Reading

parashat Va'Et'hanan – which includes the Ten Commandments and Shema Yisrael

– immediately before the 9th of Av creates an important and meaningful

combination. Many nations had temples grander and more impressive than our two

temples in Jerusalem.

When the enemy invaded and those fabulous buildings destroyed, the people who

built them were demoted to historical anecdotes; once their spiritual,

cultural, social, and economic centers were demolished, those people never

found anything else to unite them. It was not so with the People Israel. Despite

the confusion, the fear, and the hopelessness that accompanied the destruction

of the Second Temple

and the fall of the center in Jerusalem,

a group of intrepid and determined spiritual leaders took the helm and

established a new center in Yavneh. Those rabbis, led by Rabban Yohanan ben

Zakkai, offered their stunned compatriots the possibility of new hope and new

meaning to their being Jews.

The

sacrificial rite carried out by the priests in the Temple was replaced by words of prayer and

emphasis upon intention. Judaism had brought monotheism into the world, and

monotheism's purest and most touching expression can be found in our parasha. Indeed,

the People Israel presented the world with absolute ethical obligations,

symbolized by the demands made by the Ten Commandments.

Judaism,

as we know it, was formed after the destruction, and it brought another

tremendous new idea to the world – the house of prayer. In contrast to the Temple, the synagogue no

longer involves an almost completely passive audience of on-lookers who watch

the priests at work. Each and every one of us can stand in prayer to the

Creator at any location and without need for mediation. The democratization of

prayer is doubtlessly one of Israel's

most important gifts to humanity!

We

began with Moses' call to his fellow Israelites in the wilderness: Shema

Yisrael. The paragraphs of the Shema are bracketed by benedictions

established by our rabbis, and Jews continue to pour new meaning into them. The

Greek philosopher Heraclitus tells us that it is impossible to step twice into

the same river; it is similarly impossible to recite the same Shema

twice. At each recitation, we, the utterances of our mouths and the speech of

our hearts pour new insights into the words of the Shema, illuminating

them with surprising lights. As then, so too today we can draw consolation from

the words of Shema Yisrael, and, to no less an extent, we can be

encouraged by them and draw from them the strength to continue in the path of

our ancestors who did not allow the People Israel to sink into oblivion. The Shema

can embolden us to learn from the courage of our fathers and mothers and to

apply it to our own existence.

1. The

Sages interpreted the verses seeming repetitions as three distinct

commandments: with all your heart – with both your inclinations, with

the good inclination and with the evil inclination; and with all your soul

– even if He takes your soul [i.e., kills you]; and with all your might

– with all your wealth, another opinion, whatever measure [treatment] He metes

out to you (Mishnah Berakhot 9:5). See also Sifrei Va'et'hanan 32.

2. E.E. Urbach, HaZaL: Emunot Ve'de'ot, Jerusalem: 5736, pp. 317-318.

3. Teshuvot HaRaMBaM, Y. Blau edition, Jerusalem:5720 II:263, pp. 495-499.

Dalia Marx is the author of B'Eit Ishan Ve'A'ira: al Tefillot

shebein Yom uvein Layla. She is an Assistant Professor at Hebrew Union

College in Jerusalem.

The Danger of

"Idolatry" is Greater for Torah Scholars

…he especially warns

Torah scholars who deal with laws and statutes, only be on your guard and

guard yourself well. This makes it clear that the Torah scholar is more

likely than other people to fall into the corruption of idolatry. So it was in

reality: As Perek Helek

tells us, Yoravam, Ahav and

Menashe were great Torah scholars, and they were the

first to bring idolatrous offerings and made all Israel sin. The author of

Lamentations says, Lord, see my destitution, for the enemy has grown great

(28:59), and we later explained (28:59) in the name of the midrash

that the evil inclination has increased hold over Torah scholars, since the

Torah scholar can apply his intelligence to find ways to permit things,

twisting the words of the living God to conform with his own view, confusing

people into thinking that it is a commandment.

(The NeTziV's Ha'Amek Davar on Devarim 4:14)

Midrashei Tzafon

From the pen of our member, Ronen Ahituv

For

at all times that we call upon Him? And which great nation is it that has just statutes and

ordinances, as this entire Torah, which I set before you this day?(4:7-8)

Since it says God so near to it,

could it be that even a wicked Israelite calls upon God and is answered? We

learn from the verse just statutes and ordinances

that the Holy One, blessed be He, is only close to the righteous.

And since it says, statutes and ordinances,

could it be that one should not call out to the Holy One, blessed be He, but

rather perform commandments? But we learn otherwise from the verse, in all

our callings to Him.

So you learn that one should always perform

commandments and one should always call out to the Holy One, blessed be He. What

is this like? Like a road that passes between two paths, one of fire and

one of snow. Deviate to one side – and be burned with fire; deviate to the

other – and be burned with snow. What should a person do? Walk in the middle and

not deviate to either side.

The two verses express two complementary aspects of religious

experience. The first verse deals with religiosity, with the experience of

closeness to God expressed by prayer. The second verse deals with the

observance of the commandments as a system of good and right laws. The drasha

points to the need for both aspects and for balance between them. The drasha's

conclusion is borrowed from Tosefta Haggiga 2:2, which speaks of the

carefulness and balance required of those who enter the Pardes [mystical

knowledge]. It seems that that care also involves self-criticism and

maintenance of balance – and so, the drasha does not remove the quotation from its

original context.

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