Hakhel or the Story of Two Torahs

I haven't posted in almost 2 years. I was sure that my blog got deleted, but to my great surprise it was still there today when I felt a great need to post again.

I went to the Kotel today with my family for a commemoration of the mitzva of Hakhel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakhel). The Torah commands that every 7 years on Succot after the year of Shmitta all Jews, men women and children, should gather at the Bet Hamikdash for a public Torah reading, done by the king, of the book of Devarim. Even though the mitzva doesn't apply today since we don't have the Temple, it has been revived in a symbolic fashion. 

So today was the big day. There were thousands of people at the Kotel. It was so packed that I couldn't even walk through the plaza and had to turn around and go back to the steos of Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi just so that we could stand in place. The ceremony was suposed to start at 3pm. After waiting for over an hour for it to start I started to give up. I understand that everything runs on Jewish time, but when thousands of people are waiting you would think it should start at least almost on time. The delay was caused by the fact that the Chief Rabbis, both Ashkenzi and Sefardi, current and previous, who were supposed to come and read the Torah, didn't show up. Well finally by 4:15pm they started to show up one by one. We watched their cars escorted by police drive up to the Kotel plaza gates and then they would walk into the crowd to make tot he Kotel itself.

I thought to myself what kind of chutzpah is this to show up so late to such a massive, public, and rare event. And not just one of them, all of them? Unbelievable! 

At about 4:30pm they still didn't start, so we decide to keep going up the hill back into the old city, since we couldn't see anything anyway except for a wall of people. As we got to the Churva Shul Square (that's where the big arch used to be) the ceremony started. There was a large screen setup in front of Churva Shul with loudspeaker that broadcasted the whole thing. I was actually glad that we went there, because this way it was like we got front row seats. 

The first person to read was one of the Sephardi Rabbis, I couldn’t tell exactly who it was. He read from a Sephardi Sefer Torah in its wooden case that stands upright by itself. He got up to Shema and then he was switched by one of the Ashkenazi Rabbis, who I believe was Rav Meir Lau. As the Ashkenazi Rabbi got up to read a thought went through my mind: “Are they going to switch the Torah for him to an Ashkenazi Torah?” I thought that would be so contrary to what the mitzvah of Hakhel is all about that they would never dare do that. But low and behold they closed the Sephardi Torah, put it away, took out an Ashkenazi Torah and then he continued on reading.

I was really upset at that moment. I couldn’t believe it. Two Torahs? The mitzvah that out of all unifies the Jewish people by bringing them all, young and old, to one place to read out of The One Book – and they take out Two Torahs? And for what? To emphasize one of the largest rifts in the Jewish People – Sephardim and Ashkenazim? Once in seven years we couldn’t be as one nation and read from one Sefer Torah? 

Soon after that, with great disappointment, we left the Old City and started making our way back to the car.

I am at home, hours went by since we were at the Hakhel reading, but I still can’t get over it. Two Torahs?

There is a prohibition in the Torah of Lo Tisgodedu, that the Jewish people should not divide themselves in a way that it would appear that there are two Torahs. Rashi (Succah 44a) emphasizes this point regarding shaking the Lulav on the first day of Succot that falls out on Shabbat, that even in Eretz Yosrael it’s not taken so that the Jews would not divide themselves between Jews in Israel and Jews outside, so that it doesn’t appear like there are two Torahs. 

How ironic is it that on Succot we would do something that shows our division when Chazal established on the same Succot regarding the Lulav that we shouldn’t divide ourselves. And not only that, but we literally showed everyone that we have two Torahs - a Sephardi one and an Ashkenazi one.

**********************************************

Here is a picture of what the Kotel looked like today.

What have I been up to?

I am really behind posting again. So let me tell you why.

First of all we finally moved into our new apartment. It took about 3 weeks to complete all repairs and changes, but we are in. I love this place. We got 4 bedrooms, 2 porches, a huge living room / dining room area, and a mamad (sealed room). And it’s all mine. I constantly have this urge to drill something so I can continue upgrading. My piece of Eretz Yisrael is here.

Also, I got into reptiles lately. We have 3 Mediterranean Chameleons, 2 adults and a baby. My friend picked up the baby in a tree in his yard. He was probably around 2 weeks old and had some kind of a defect on his head, which wouldn’t change color and remained black. I doubt he would have made it in the wild, but he is doing great in his little cage. We also got a frog, European Green Toad, 2 Leopard Geckos, and last but not least and Roughtail Rock Agama, better know in Hebrew as Hardon (חרדון מצוי). The geckos live in my office, the frog in the kids’ room, and everyone else on the porch. I am also trying to breed some crickets so the food supply will remain steady and free.

Finally, I got into graduate school in Technion for Electrical Engineering. Besides the regular graduate classes they are making me take 4 additional undergraduate courses due to the fact that my bachelor’s is in Mechanical Engineering. So I end up going to school in Haifa now twice a week for half day.

Life is very crazy. I love it.

Rebuilding The Broken - Part 2, or "I told you so!"

During the war I posted about how Hizzbolah pledged to rebuild the Lebanese houses that were detsroyed during the war, but our government wasn't rushing to rebuild our broken homes. See my original post here.

Well, guess what? I was right.

This is from today's JPost.

"The Hizbullah abused us for a month; but the property tax has been abusing us for three months already," said Eitan Davidi, head of the northern communities' forum. "The Israeli government has disconnected from us and is giving us the cold shoulder, and therefore we decided on these severe measures." Davidi added that the ministers were always saying how they were supporting the North, but instead of offering their "strength," they should bring money.

Davidi pointed out that the Hizbullah had already financed rebuilding the majority of the destroyed towns in southern Lebanon, but Israel had made no progress.

Read the rest of the article...

After Yom Kippur Thoughts

I have been behind on posting. The last few weeks have been really insane and I will post about them a bit later.

It's just a few hours after Yom Kippur now. This was probably the most exciting Yom Kippur of my life for 2 reasons.

1) I saw a gemora in Kerisus 7a that says that you get forgiven on Yom Kippur regardless if you do Teshuva or not. So all that fear of not doing good enough teshuva on Yom Kippur that was put into me in Yeshiva turned out to be a big lie, as usual.

2) I turned on the TV (more on that later) about 2 hours after Yom Tov was over (which happened at 6 pm) and all Israeli channels were off and a posting said something like this: "Gemar Ksiva veChasima Tova. The programming will resume after Yom Kippur at 8:30 pm." It really made my day. I really hope that one day such a posting will appear on every Shabbos and all other Yamim Tovim. We are getting there, slow, but steady.

They Never Lose, We Never Win

I found this article by Rabbi Berel Wein about the latest war with Lebanon very enlightening.

We got a new pet

We got a new pet - a gecko. He ran into a our bed room in the middle of the night. My wife saw him running on the ceiling right above the bed and started screaming on the top of her lungs. It was really funny.

He was running on the ceiling.

And then I got a mop and got him to run down the wall.

And then he ended up inside a cup.

This is a Mediterranean House Gecko. In Hebrew he is called Shmamit HaBatim - שממית הבתים

We didn't name him yet. I still have to get a terrarium for him, because I don't think he is very happy in his plastic container.

Welcome New Olim!

The largest number of new olim from the US, UK and Canada in one day, landed yeterday in Israel. Welcome to all new olim!!!

I am glad see that my worries about Olmert saying something stupid didn't come true. He welcomed the new olim yesterday at the airport. Luckily he didn't say anything dumb. But he didn't get a standing ovation either.

Soon afterward, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the crowd, which gave him a muted welcome. He noted the difficult experience the country has recently been through, but said, "One thing that really strengthens this country is aliya."

He told the audience of teary immigrants, boisterous children and squealing pets, "When more than 500 Jews on this day come to the State of Israel, what they say to the world is, 'We are afraid of no one, because we trust the State of Israel, we believe in the future of Israel and we will build the State of Israel with all the Jewish people.'"

Rebuilding the broken

Hizzbolah announced that they will pay for destroyed homes in Lebanon. What I thought was interesting that they didn't just promise to pay for it, but they actually specified exactly what they will do.

A Hizbullah official said that people whose homes were totally destroyed will get money for one year of rent as well as for new furniture. Those whose homes were damaged will either fix it themselves and then collect money, or Hizbullah will send workers to do the job.

I don't know if these are just empty promises or they really mean it, but from what I have heard about HIzzbolah, if they say it, they mean it. I know they are doing it for PR and to restablish their image in Lebanon, and not out of the goodness of their heart, but still.

Is our government going to pay for people's broken homes, pay their rent, or send workers? Or how about at least reimburse them for what they spent in order to flee the rockets? Probably not.

The View

As I was reading the article about how our Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, sold all of his stock shares right after the soldiers abduction (I guess in anticipation of a war and the market crashing), and his probable resignation over the disaster in Lebanon, I remembered the poem by a famous Russian-Jewish (apostate) author, Alexander Galich, which was shown to me for the first time by my late grandfather a"h.

The original Russian commentary and text appears on this site. I have pasted it below, as well. Excuse my crude English translation.


Alexander Galich – The View

In Serebryaniy Bor (a small town near Moscow), near the entrance to the Rest Home (Boarding House) of the Central Theater, there is a wooden pillar that is sticking out of the ground. On it there are painted on division lines with numbers, from one to seven. On top of the pole there is a pulley wheel through which passes a steel cable. From one side of the pole the cable goes into the ground and from the other there is hanging a heavy weight.

The guard of the house explained to me:

This is Alexander Arkadyevich is a shit-meter. The cable is connected to the outhouse pit. As the level of the crap in the pit goes up, the weight goes down. While it’s on two or three, it’s ok. But when it reaches five or six, that means it’s a problem, need to call the scoopers.

I thought that this creation of the Russian masters wasn’t only useful, but also very educational. Therefore I dedicated to it the following philosophical piece, which I humbly named:

The View

It was murky and grey
And the forest stood still
Just the shit-meter’s weight
Slightly swayed on the hill.
Not all is in vain in this world
Although it’s not worth a spit
As long as we have weights
And you see the level of shit.

---

А.Галич - Пейзаж

В Серебряном Боре, у въезда в Дом отдыха
артистов Большого театра,стоит,врытый в землю,
неуклюже-отесанный, деревянный столб. Малярной
кистью, небрежно и грубо, на столбе нанесены
деления с цифрами -- от единицы до семерки. К
верху столба прилажено колесико, через которое
пропущена довольно толстая проволока. С одной
стороны столба проволока уходит в землю, а с
другой -- к ней подвешена тяжелая гиря.
Сторож Дома отдыха объяснил мне:
-- А это, Александр Аркадьевич, говномер...
Проволока, она, стало быть, подведена к яме
ассенизационной! Уровень,значит, повышается --
гиря понижается... Пока она на двойке-тройке
качается -- ничего...
А как до пятерки-шестерки дойдет -- тогда
беда,тогда, значит, надо из города золотариков
вызывать...
Мне показалось это творение русского
умельца не только полезным, но и весьма
поучительным. И я посвятил ему философский
этюд, который назвал эпически-скромно:

ПЕЙЗАЖ

Все было пасмурно и серо,
И лес стоял, как неживой,
И только гиря говномера
Слегка качала головой.
Не все напрасно в этом мире,
(Хотя и грош ему цена !),
Покуда существуют гири
И виден уровень говна !

What's wrong with this picture?

This just showed up on Haaretz's front page. Look at the picture and look at the headline underneath it. See anything wrong with it? Why is that soldier engulfed in a ton of flames while crossing the Lebanese border back into Israel?


An IDF soldier atop an armored personnel carrier crossing back into Israel from southern Lebanon on Tuesday. (Nir Kafri)