And he slaughtered [it], and Moses took some of its blood,

 and placed it on the cartilage of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. (Vayikra 8:23)

 

The shalshelet marks a break between words and it always appears towards the beginning of a verse, over a verb conjugated in the singular. It comes to tell us that the subject of the verb suffers a difficult moment of indecision and hesitation. On each of the seven Days of Ordination, three offerings were made: a sin offering, a burnt offering and a peace offering. Tension builds from slaughter to slaughter. This is expressed by the cantillation sign appearing above the word vayish'hat (and it was slaughtered) in each verse. Verse 15, referring to the sin offering, uses the sign reviya, which marks a break of moderate significance. Verse 19 deals with the burnt offering, and the very first word of the verse, vayish'hat, is marked with an etnahta, signifying the most important division of the verse. Our verse treats the ram of ordination, and is marked with a shalshelet. There are those who explain that in the course of the service, Moses experienced spiritual exaltation while performing the tasks that would be later reserved for the High Priest. While dismayed by the thought that he will soon have to abandon this role, he remains true to the divine command.

(See Goren Zechariyah, Ta'amei Ha'Mikra Ke'Parshanut, Ha'Kibbutz Ha'Meuhad, 5755, pp. 75-6.)

 

It seems to me that Moses' hesitancy had a completely different cause. The third slaughter, on the seventh of the Days of Ordination, was Moses' final ritual act before handing over the priestly role to Aaron. In the course of those days, Moses served as an educator. Just before he executes the slaughter and completes his job, Moses asks himself: Have I taught flawlessly? Perhaps I have failed in my preparation of Aaron for his role? That is why the word vayish'hat is marked with a shalshelet. The great teacher is subjecting himself to merciless self-criticism.

Unlike Lot, Eliezer, and Joseph, Moses' hesitation is positively motivated; not by greed or status or carnal desire, but by concern for his student and for the future of the priesthood. Perhaps the cantillation signs reflect the Mishnah's statement in Pirkei Avot (4:21): "Rabbi Eliezer says: Jealousy and desire and status drive a person from the world." Moses, who was principally concerned with building up the world, did not hesitate because of jealousy, desire, or status.

(From Yossi Morgenstern's article in the Shabbat HaGadol 5766 issue of Shabbat Shalom)

 

 

 

Lo, I will send you Elijah the prophet

Deborah Weissman

Lovingly dedicated to Matya Ami Cohen

Who turned one year old on the 16^th of Adar.

He is the great-grandson of my father, Dr. Nahum Weissman, z"l

Who passed away on the 21^st of Nissan, 5753.

On the 16^th of Adar, a son was born to my nephew in Tel-Aviv. My nephew Nitzan and his wife Dorit maintain a secular life-style, but they have strong ties to Jewish sources. Nitzan is a man of the theatre, and many of his plays are based on the literature of the Sages or on Jewish history.

A few days before the brit, Nitzan called to ask me two questions: Does the Halakhah permit a woman to serve as sandakit [feminine form of sandak "godfather," who holds the baby during the circumcision], and if so, would I be prepared to serve as the sandakit at their son's brit?

I answered that it would be the greatest honor I have ever received and that I would investigate the matter. I checked in books and on the Internet, and also consulted with rabbis. The Shulhan Arukh (Yoreh De'ah 264:1) states that: "All are fit to perform circumcision, even... a woman," and the sandak is considered to be involved in completing the mohel's task. Given the story of Tzipporah in the Torah, it must be permissible in principle. Prof. Avraham Grossman writes in his book, Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe:

Another subject indicative of the roles of women in rituals conducted in the synagogue is the function of the woman as godmother (sandaq, or in the feminine, sandaqa'it; the person who holds the infant during the Brit) at the circumcision of her grandson or son. While testimonies to this custom originate from the thirteenth century, it appears that one is speaking of a much older custom. R. Meir of Rothenburg attempted to abolish this practice and waged war against it with great intensity. What troubled him was not so much the fact of a woman acting as godmother per se, but that she sat in the synagogue during the course of the circumcision ceremony, adorned in her finest jewelry and perfumed while surrounded by men participating in the celebration. In his opinion, this was definitely immodest... Rabbeinu Meir and his disciples were only partly successful in struggling against this phenomenon... (pg. 185 of English edition, Jonathan Chipman, translator)

Most of the later halakhic decisors prohibited the practice for reasons of modesty. However, in our own case:

1) The brit was to take place in a private home rather than in a synagogue.

2) It would be attended by family members.

3) In any event, I was going to deliver a devar Torah about the baby's name, so that the issue of modesty was not exactly relevant.

And so, I told Nitzan that it would all depend upon the mohel. As far as I was concerned, I had been honored by the offer itself - dayeinu: "It is enough." I did not want to make the mohel feel uncomfortable. However, if he would agree, I would certainly follow suit.

On the day of the brit I travelled from my home in Jerusalem to Tel-Aviv, not knowing until my arrival at their home whether or not I would serve as sandakit. The mohel - who was also a physician - said that he had also looked into the matter and that well-known rabbis in Jerusalem permitted it. And then he added: "In Jerusalem they honor women more than they do in Tel-Aviv." (I imagine he was thinking of congregations such as Yedidyah and Shirah Hadashah.)

Serving as sandakit at the brit of my nephew's son was, without a doubt, one of my life's most emotional experiences.

This story certainly connects with the anniversary of my father z"l's death on the seventh day of Passover; after all, it was his great-grandson who was circumcised. But what does the story have to do with Passover as far the rest of us are concerned?

Both events involve blood: the blood of the covenant, the blood dabbed on the doorposts, and the verse cited by the Haggadah: In your blood, live! Many derashot explain that the Seder night symbolizes the feast of the brit /covenant of the People Israel. In fact, the three pilgrimage holidays symbolize three rites of passages in our lives: Passover is the nation's birth and its entrance into the covenant with God; Shavu'ot is a kind of bar/bat mitzvah for the nation, in the sense that it involves acceptance of the yoke of the commandments. Finally, Sukkot is a kind of wedding of the Congregation of Israel with God, in which the Sukkah represents the huppa.

I think that there is a more significant link between the brit and the Seder night. That is the Prophet Elijah, who arrives on the night of the Seder and for whom the fifth "questionable" cup of wine is named. He also attends britot, and the sandak sits on his chair. Elijah is seen as the harbinger of the Redemption. He is present at the Havdalah ceremony at the close of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is me'ein Olam Haba - it has something of the flavor of the World to Come, a more perfect world that will come to be at the End of Days. When the Sabbath ends, we sing about Elijah, "He will come to us soon, together with the Messiah, son of David." His presence at the Seder expresses our yearning for the future redemption (the redemption formulated in the word v'heiveiti - "and I shall bring"), as does the folk belief that when we open the door as a sign of freedom and redemption, we are opening it for Elijah to make him present at our "night of watching."

Elijah is also known as Malakh HaBrit - the angel of the brit/covenant. Passover marks the birth of the Jewish People and the Seder night celebrates its brit. Even in our yet-to-be-redeemed world we are commanded to observe our covenant with God. The covenant obliges us to walk in His paths, to practice kindness and justice. This thought might offer an alternative framework for understanding the State of Israel: instead of using the redemptive rhetoric of "the first flowering of the Redemption," we can relate to the state in terms of the covenant which demands that our behavior be governed by particular morals and values. These two approaches are not necessarily contradictory, but they certainly emphasize different concerns.

One final comment on Elijah: according to the tradition that developed in rabbinic times, he really is a sort of kindly grandfather who attends the various celebrations mentioned above. He is a sympathetic and even jovial character. How far this is from his depiction in Scripture, where he appears as an extreme and violent zealot!

In I Kings (19:10) he says: I was surely zealous for the Lord...for the Children of Israel have abandoned You covenant.

Contrastingly, the Mishnah (Eiduyot 8:7) concludes:

...and the Sages say: [Elijah will come] not to push away and not to draw near, but rather to make peace in the world, for it is said: Lo, I will send you Elijah the prophet, and [the prophecy] ends with: that he may turn the heart of the fathers back to the children, and the heart of the children back to their fathers (Malachi 3).

In order to prove to Elijah (and perhaps also to ourselves) that we have not abandoned the covenant, we invite him every time anew, both to britot and to the Seder.

If only all the zealots among us would follow in his footsteps, turn away from their zealotry and connect up with the People Israel wherever it may be found. And to all of us, may we have a kosher and joyous Passover!

Dr. Deborah Weissman is a founder of Kehillat Yedidyah in Jerusalem. She is an educator and serves as President of the International Council of Christians and Jews.

 

Change, Question, and Story

Our Rabbi taught: If his son is wise, he - the son - asks him. If he is not wise, his wife asks. If not - he asks himself. Even two scholars, who are well versed in the laws of Pessach - they ask each other, "In what way is this night different from all other nights? On all other night we dip only once, tonight twice..."He begins with shame and concludes with praise. What is the shame? Rav said: "In the beginning our forefathers worshipped abominations." Shmuel said: "We were slaves". Rav Nahman said to his servant Daro: "A slave whose master releases him and gives him silver and gold, what should he say?" He replied: "He must give thanks and praise." Rav Nahman said: "You have freed us of the obligation of saying 'Why is this night different?' He immediately began reciting: "We were slaves, etc."

(Pesahim 116a)

 

It is a mitzvah to tell the children even if they do not ask, as is written, And you shall tell your son. According to the son's understanding, so does the father teach him. For example, if he is very young or is not very bright, he says to him: "My son, we were all slaves - like this maid or this servant - in Egypt, and on this night the Holy One, blessed be He, freed us and took us out of Egypt." And if the son is grown and wise, he tells him what happened to us in Egypt, and of the miracles performed for us by Moses our teacher - all according to the son's comprehension. And he must make changes this night so that the children see and ask "Why is this night different from all nights" until he answers them and tells them this is what happened and so it was. What kind of changes does he make? He distributes roasted kernels and nuts, and takes away the table before they eat, and they grab the matzot one from the other, etc. If he has no son, his wife asks him, and if he has no wife, they ask each other "How is this night different?" - even if all were scholars. If he is alone he asks himself, "Why is this night different?".

(RaMBaM, Hilkhot Hametz UMatzah 7)

 

Leaving Both Mitzrayim - Egypt and the Metzarim

Pinchas Leiser

The Mishnah (Pesahim 10:5) states: "In each and every generation a person is required to see himself as if he had left Egypt, for it is said, And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, 'Because of this, the Lord did [this] for me when I went out of Egypt' (Shemot 13)." RaMBaM (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Hametz UMatzah 7:6) offers a different formulation of the command:

In each and every generation a person is required to show himself as if he himself had just left Egyptian enslavement, for it is said, but He took us out of there, etc. (Devarim 6). It was regarding this that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded in the Torah: And you shall remember that you were a slave (Devarim 5). That is to say: as if you yourself had been a slave and you went out to freedom and were redeemed.

Perhaps RaMBaM understands that in order to transmit the experience of liberation from slavery to the coming generations (and you shall tell, as the verse cited in the Mishnah would have it), we must experience it ourselves and perhaps even "show" it in our everyday lives. Every verse in the Torah which includes the phrase and you shall remember that you were a slave is followed by some binding commandment, such as the Sabbath law which relates to the repose of the slave and the stranger, the more general treatment of the Hebrew slave, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, and the gifts to the poor. It was no accident that RaMBaM chose to cite Devarim 5:14, where the Torah commands us to let slaves rest on the Sabbath; the verse just before it concludes with the words, so that your slave and servant-women will rest as you do.

 

Hassidic thinkers extended the commandment to tell the story of the Exodus to the individual/existential plane as well. They explained that Mitzrayim [Egypt] =Metzarim [straits/troubles].

For instance, Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Gur, 1847-1905) writes in his derasha for Passover of 5631:

...the truth is that one need only clarify it through faith, and the [word] sippur [story] [is used here] in the sense of clarification and explicit uncovering, that in each and every generation there is an Exodus from Egypt relevant to that generation, and all of that occurred at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. And in accordance with a person's faith that he is like one who had come out [from Egypt], this aspect is revealed and he feels the present Exodus from Egypt, and each individual can escape his own straits.

That is to say: the commandment to retell the Exodus from Egypt does not relate to the historical story, rather the commandment is to tell the story as a story of a personal, social, and national move away from both Egypt and our "straits." Such is the commandment which obliges every person in every generation.

If so, are the texts traditionally read at the Seder - the Haggadah, the eating of matzah (a commandment which RaMBaM says does not need kavanah/intention), the eating of bitter herbs - are these sufficient for the performance of the commandment as understood by the Sefat Emet?

I think the answer is clear.

Does the "protocol" for running the Seder along with all of the pre-holiday preparations serve this goal? I think that the answer to that question is complicated.

There is no doubt that - like the prayer book - any ritual protocol can serve as a framework without which most people would never turn their attention at all to matters of slavery and freedom. Be that as it may, one sometimes gets the impression that there is so much involvement with halakhic stringencies and ritualization of the Seder, that there is a danger of confusing the trivial with the significant. As Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkonus said long ago: When One routinizes his prayer, his prayer is no longer a supplication (Berakhot 4:4). In his Hilkhot Tefillah, RaMBaM also views the liturgy as a kind of historical compromise that had to be made when people's speech lost its spontaneity.

Serious preparation for Passover - beyond cleaning and shopping for kosher food - may be necessary in order to perform the commandment properly.

Perhaps each of us must ask himself just how far he feels he acts out of freedom and choice, and how much he is driven by other motivations: the fear of disappointing others, uncontrolled submission to authority, habit, or some other constraint. Perhaps it is to this (among other things) that the Sages are referring when they write: "If there is no one who can ask, he should ask himself."

It seems to me that the first existential question that every Jew must ask himself is: "Am I a free person, have I left my own Egypt?"

However, this question is not sufficient, and it is also connected to the question of granting freedom to others dependent on me; all the verses that command us and remember that you were a slave in Egypt and which say how God redeemed us relate to this memory as bearing ethical significance. Actually, the Torah tells us that our freedom is tied to the freedom of others and to concern for their dignity.

This important truth is independent of historical circumstances. Our Exodus from Egypt, its yearly retelling, and all of the commandments relating to the Exodus from Egypt constitute an opportunity and an invitation to think about our freedom and about the unnecessary control we exercise over individuals and groups subject to our influence.

This is true on the personal, societal, educational, and political levels; it is true in each and every generation and for each and every person, and for each and every people. As an am segulah - a specially treasured people - we are commanded to remind ourselves that the obligation to "leave Egypt" applies to the present.

As Sefat Emet would put it, the Exodus from Mitzrayim/Meitzarim - Egypt/staits - is a necessary condition for receiving the Torah.

May we succeed this year and every year in contending with this mission!

A joyous and liberating holiday to all,

Pinchas Leiser, Editor

 

 

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