The blessing of success--and how to handle it: Vayetzei 5785

Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov all suffered from jealous reactions to their success from the local populations in which they lived. Avraham is recognized as the “prince of God in our midst” and yet is begrudged a grave in which to bury Sarah. Yitzchak is sent away from the kingdom of Avimelech because, the latter says, “you have grown too great from us.” And, in this week’s parsha, Lavan tells Yaakov that everything that Yaakov owns really belongs to Lavan. 

The blessings of God and His promise to protect the patriarchs and matriarchs of Israel do save them from their neighbors, relatives and enemies. However, the success and achievements of this small family, as per God’s promise and against all odds and opposition, raise the hatred and jealousy of their neighbors—even though the neighbors themselves, such as Avimelech and Lavan, benefit mightily from the achievements of Yitzchak and Yaakov. 

The rabbis of the Talmud taught us that “hatred destroys rational thought and behavior.” So, instead of gratitude and friendship, the accomplishments of the patriarchs and matriarchs only bring forth greed, jealousy and persecution, with the ever-present threat of violence hovering in the background. All efforts to maintain a low profile and to mollify Lavan result only in increased bigotry and hatred. 

It is not for nothing that the Pesach Haggadah makes Lavan a greater enemy to the survival of the Jewish people than even the Pharaoh of Egypt. But almost all the enemies of the Jews over the centuries suffer from the same basic moral faults regarding the Jews: ingratitude, jealousy and greed. These are all revealed to us in this week’s parsha. 

Someone mentioned to me that perhaps, if we maintained a lower profile in the world, didn’t receive so many Nobel prize awards, and were less influential in the fields of finance, and the media, that anti-Semitism would decrease. “What if?” is a difficult thought process to pursue intelligently. There is no question that the world and all humankind would be so much poorer if the Jews purposely withheld their energy, creativity and intelligence and ceased to contribute to human civilization. And there certainly is no guarantee that the world would like us any more than it does now if we were less successful and prominent. 

The mere fact that God blessed the patriarchs with success and influence indicates that this is His desire for us. The Torah specifically states that every nation and family on earth will benefit and be blessed through us. So, in our case, less would not necessarily be more. Yet we were enjoined from flaunting our success in the faces of those less fortunate than us.

Modesty in behavior and deportment is an important partner in times of success. This is also a lesson that our father Yaakov intended to teach us. We are not allowed to rein in our talents and achievements. We are however bidden to control our egos and bluster. That is also an important Jewish trait that should be a foundation in our lives. 

Shabat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein 

Peninei Halakha: pearls of Jewish law

Beit Knesset Hanassi has just purchased for its Beit Midrash library a set of the multi-volume magnum opus on Jewish law in the contemporary world, Peninei Halakha. 

What does this purchase mean for our shul? Rabbi Kenigsberg explains:

The Peninei Halakha series, authored by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed (right), is a comprehensive and accessible guide to Jewish law that addresses a wide range of halachic topics. Written in clear and concise language, these volumes present halacha in a way that combines depth with clarity, appealing to both scholars and laypeople. 

Rav Melamed’s unique approach integrates classical sources with contemporary applications, emphasizing the beauty and relevance of halacha in modern life. His works also reflect a profound commitment to the values of Zionism and the centrality of the State of Israel in Jewish destiny, which of course resonates strongly with the ethos of our community.

 These volumes will both enhance the shul’s library and serve as an invaluable resource for congregants seeking to deepen their understanding of halacha (and improve their Hebrew!)

Rabbi Melamed is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Bracha and, since 1988, rabbi of Har Bracha, on the southern ridge of Har Gerizim. Apart from writing the Peninei Halakha, he also produced a new edition of the Shelah’s classic Shenei Luchot HaBrit and the first two volumes of the new edition of the writings of Rabbi Zadok HaKohen. Together with his parents he was involved in the establishment of the radio station Arutz Sheva, where his popular daily halacha broadcasts formed a basis for the first volumes of Peninei Halakha.

Jews under threat -- and Jews seen as a threat: Rabbi Wein explains

In this, the fourth in his series of eight lectures on ‘The Jewish World 1880-1914’ Rabbi Wein continued his discussion of the plight of the Jews in Russia, taking up with the last of the Romanov Tsars—Nicholas II (right), who strictly enforced the harsh decrees imposed by his father Tsar Alexander III.

These three decrees were as follows:

1.       Jewish men of 18 had to serve in Russian Army for 25 years. Around 50,000 Jews were forced into the army; hardly any came back as observant Jews. Many tactics were employed to evade this conscription, such as changing surnames to make it look as though there was only one son in the family.

2.       All Jews had to live within the Pale of Settlement; this excluded them from living in the great cities of Moscow and St Petersburg. Once again, it proved possible to get round this restriction, at least for the wealthy.

3.       Heavy taxes were imposed, but these too could be evaded since Russia had a culture of corruption.

Nicholas was the head of the heavily antisemitic Russian Orthodox Church. He was also a cousin of Kaisar Wilhelm in Germany and King George V of England. All were grandchildren of England’s Queen Victoria and this was assumed to be a positive indicator of peace. Unfortunately it did not, since nationalism drove the family apart and led to the First World War.

The Jews in this period were divided. The maskilim (secularists) believed that society could order itself without religion and that history displayed a progressive improvement in human life and conduct. This movement began in Germany but spread throughout Europe. The maskilim regarded Judaism as being devoid of culture, with no real culture, literature or music of its own. Their philosophy is now reflected in the acronym DEI (“diversity, equality, inclusivity”) and in denial of the notion that the Jews are a special, unique people.

The Russian government, with which the maskilim cooperated, was sympathetic to this view, and to the solution of the Jewish problem by converting one-third, killing one-third and driving the remaining third out. Local rabbis were the “enemy”.

The orthodox community was not however beaten. Thanks to the Gaon of Vilna (left), the foundations of Jewish survival through Torah education were firmly established in the institution of the yeshiva. The establishment of the yeshiva enabled the best and most promising students to study in depth and also involved whole communities in their support.  Yeshivot also produced communists and free-thinkers, as well as what turned out to be leaders of the Zionist movement. One by-product of the establishment of yeshivot was the ongoing tension between the Rosh Yeshiva and the Rabbi of the town: not many people could fulfil both functions at the same time.

The yeshiva world was not immune from disagreement and dispute. Reb Chaim Brisker’s popular new way of analysing the text of the Talmud was at odds with the traditional methods used by the Netziv. This caused a split in learning methodologies that exists to this day—but in the nineteenth century they were both taught within the same institution. Added to this was the emergence of the Mussar Movement of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, focused on establishing a world view based on ethical and behavioral values. Some yeshivot were in favour of mussar, others against it. And then came the political issue of Zionism: should the yeshivot be for it or against it? All these issues contributed to the fragmentation of the Torah world, not just in Lithuania but throughout the world.

A further idea promoted by the Gaon was that the Jews should stop waiting for the Messiah and should move to Israel. He encouraged those whom he influenced to leave and settle here. He himself got as far as Odessa, but never completed his Aliyah. The idea of moving however took root in Russia, where entire villages were emptied out as the Jewish poor fled to the United States to escape the cruelty of Tsar Nicholas. They knew they would struggle in their new land but reckoned that it was worth the struggle for the sake of their children.

There were however some Jews who did not want to leave Russia: they wanted to remain there and improve the country. They spoke Russian but were seen as a constant threat to Russian society because they tended to espouse far left and anarchist political causes. Nicholas was always worried about the threat that these Jews posed. Hounded by the police in Russia, some of them left for the United States, bringing their left wing sentiments with them.

Dear Maimonides, by Andrew Sanders (Book of the Month, Kislev 5785)

Dear Maimonides: a discourse on religion and science is described by its author as “a major attempt to understand the ‘meaning of it all’”, using the viewpoint of someone far removed in space and time from our world. This might seem something out of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—but it isn’t. It transports Yosef ben Yehudah ibn Shimon, the original addressee of Rambam’s Guide to the Perplexed, to 20^th century North America. By doing so, the author seeks to provide a new and empirical worldview that incorporates the teachings of both the ancient and the modern Jew.

Who is the man who dares to do this? Our author, Andrew Sanders, was born and raised in Hungary, where he lived through both the Holocaust and the subsequent Communist regime. Leaving Hungary at the age of 24, he was educated as a chemist, and worked in that capacity at the University of Toronto. Later, he learned computer applications, was an early practitioner of that field, became an executive of a major financial institution, eventually starting his own computer software company, which was highly successful. Thereafter he devoted his time and effort to researching and writing on Jewish subjects, from philosophy and theology to historical fiction. In 1989 he and his wife made aliyah.

This volume forms part of the Marvin N. Hirschhorn collection, housed in Beit Knesset Hanassi. You are welcome to borrow it.

Family, foes and painful choices: Toledot 5785

The troubling question on this week’s parsha that has persisted throughout the ages of biblical commentary is: Whatever is Yitzchak thinking when he plans to give the blessings and heritage of Avraham to Eisav? Basically, explanations fall into two categories. One view is that Yitzchak, fooled by Eisav, is quite unaware of his true nature and wanton behavior. Rashi, quoting Midrash, interprets that Eisav “hunted“ his father with his pious speech and cunning conversation. Yitzchak is taken in and believes that Eisav, a man of the world and a physically powerful figure, is better suited to carry on Avraham’s vision than is Yaakov, the more studious and apparently less sophisticated of the pair. 

The other opinion, more popular among the later commentators to the Torah, is that Yitzchak is aware of the shortcomings of behavior and attitude of his elder son. His desire to give the blessings to Eisav is due to his wish to redeem and save him, to enable Eisav to turn his life around and become a worthy heir to the traditions of his father and grandfather. Yitzchak thinks that even if he gives the blessings to Eisav, Yaakov will not really suffer any disadvantage in his life’s work, while Eisav will find his way back to holiness through the blessings that he will have received. 

These two divergent attitudes towards the wayward child in Jewish families are enacted daily in Jewish family life. Later Yitzchaks either wilfully allow themselves to be deluded regarding the behavior and lifestyle of children or, aware of the problem, they attempt to solve it through a combination of generosity and a plethora of blessings. 

Rivkah, the mother of both Eisav and Yaakov, is not fooled by Eisav’s apparently soothing words; nor does she believe that granting him blessings will somehow accomplish any major shift in his chosen lifestyle. To a great measure she adopts a policy of triage, saving Yaakov and blessing him while thus abandoning Eisav to his own preferred wanton ways. 

The Torah does not record for us the “what if” scenario of Eisav receiving the blessings. Would he have been different in behavior and attitude, belief and mission? However, from the words of the later prophets of Israel, especially those of Ovadyah, it appears to be clear that God concurred with Rivkah’s policy, holding Eisav to be redeemable only in the very long run of history and human events. 

The moral of this episode is that one must be clear-eyed and realistic about the painful waywardness and misbehavior of Yaakov’s enemies, be they from within or without our immediate family and milieu. There are many painful choices that need to be made within one’s lifetime and especially in family relations, and few pat answers to varying and difficult situations. Perhaps that is why the Torah does not delve too deeply into the motives of Yitzchak and Rivkah, being content merely to reflect the different emotional relationships each had with their two very different sons. The Torah emphasizes the role that human emotions play in our lives and does not consign all matters to rational thought and decision-making.   

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein       

The power of "ignorance, illiteracy and superstition": Rabbi Wein

Last night, in the third of his eight lectures on "The Jewish World 1880-1914", Rabbi Wein introduced us to the condition of the Jews in the days of the Russian Empire. This lecture was quite unlike its two predecessors. While Jews were moving into Western Europe and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, quite the opposite was happening in Russia where it was the Empire that was moving into areas that already contained Jews.

Much of this lecture was taken up by Rabbi Wein’s vivid depiction of social, political and religious conditions in Russia which, remarkably, had remained more or less unchanged since the 15^th century. Russia was a primitive, feudal country that was controlled by a powerful aristocracy. The country was also dominated by the Russian Orthodox Church—a body that cultivated deeply superstitious and sometimes pagan practices, and which could not tolerate, within the borders of Russia, the presence of those who worshipped any other religion. This was because, for the Russian Orthodox Church, Russia was effectively The Holy Land.

For those who were not members of the aristocracy, life was hard. With an illiteracy rate of 95% there was no educated middle class to counter the power of the Church. Nor was there any trade of the sort that brought prosperity to the lands further to the West. The vast majority of the population consisted of serfs—effectively slaves—who worked the land in exchange for the food they ate. The serfs had no rights and could not leave the land to which they were born. Poverty was endemic but, because all were poor, being poor carried neither shame nor stigma.

Russian society was in effect frozen. The aristocracy wanted no change since they lived comfortably off the labour of the serfs. The Church likewise had no interest in change since it was only by keeping the masses ignorant, illiterate and superstitious that they could retain their influence and, as Rabbi Wein quipped, “The wonderful thing about a superstition is that you can never prove it wrong”.

It was not until the Napoleonic wars that there was any thought that change might occur. While the invading French army overreached itself and had to retreat, Russians who encountered the French were shocked into realising what a backward and primitive people they were, when compared with their better educated and more sophisticated invaders.

From this point onwards, the stability of serf-bound Russia began to weaken. Moves were made to emancipate the serfs, which alienated the nobility and while leaving the serfs with nothing they could do with their freedom. Meanwhile anarchists began to spread their doctrine that man was basically good and that it was only government that was bad: destroy government and self-rule by the inherently good would follow.

It was against this backdrop that the Tsars (Alexander I, right, and his successors) had to consider what to do with the Jews who lived to the west of their empire. The government, increasingly paranoid, imposed censorship on all Hebrew publications and simultaneously operated contradictory policies: it was sought to assimilate the Jews into Russian society via military conscription—thus forcing them to learn the Russian language and become part of Russian culture—while also depriving them of basic legal rights.

What happened after that? Stay tuned to Rabbi Wein’s next lecture to find out!

The struggle for succession: Chayei Sarah 5785

Death is not only tragic for those intimately affected: it also poses problems of succession and reorganization of the family, company or institution. In this week’s parsha Avraham and Sarah, the founders of the Jewish nation, pass from the scene. They are succeeded by Yitzchak and Rivka. Indeed, the majority of the parsha is occupied by the story of how Yitzchak marries Rivka and they establish their new home together. 

In personality, temperament and action,n Yitzchak and Rivka differ markedly from Avraham and Sarah. Whereas Avraham and Sarah devoted themselves to reaching as many outsiders as they could, being actively engaged in spreading the idea of monotheism in the society that encompassed them, Yitzchak and Rivka seem to take a more conservative approach, seeking only to consolidate what they had accomplished and to build a nation built on family rather than on strangers whom they might attract to their cause. 

As we will see in next week’s parsha, the struggle of Yitzchak and Rivka is an internal family struggle, as the world conflict that engaged Avraham and Sarah now take place within the family itself. The outcome of this struggle will turn on how to raise Eisav and Yaakov, and how to guarantee the continuity of Avraham and Sarah’s beliefs through their biological offspring. Eventually it is only through Yaakov that this is achieved and they are able to live through the blessing that the Lord promised them.

It becomes abundantly clear that the main struggle of the Jewish people will be to consolidate itself and thus influence the general world by osmosis, so to speak. The time of Avraham and Sarah has passed. New times require fresh responses to the challenges of being a blessing to all humankind. There are those in the Jewish world who are committed to “fixing the world” at the expense of Jewish traditional life and Torah law. Yet the simple truth is that for the Jewish people to be effective in influencing the world at large for good, there must be a strong, committed Jewish people. King Solomon in Shir Hashirim teaches us the cost of failure to do so: “I have watched over the vineyards of others, but I have neglected guarding my own vineyard.” 

The attempted destruction and delegitimization of the Jewish people or the State of Israel, God forbid, in order to further fuzzy, do-good, universal humanistic ideas is a self-destructive viewpoint of the purpose of Judaism. Without Jews there is no Judaism and without Judaism there is no true moral conscience left in the world. It seems evident to me that the primary imperative of Jews today is to strengthen and support Jewish family life, Jewish Torah education and the state of Israel. 

We are among the generations of Yitzchak and Rivka and therefore have to husband our resources and build ourselves first. We have as yet not made good the population losses of the Holocaust seventy years ago! If there will be a strong and numerous Jewish people, the age of Avraham and Sarah will then re-emerge. The tasks of consolidation of Jewish life as represented by the lives of Yitzchak and Rivka should be the hallmark of our generation as well. 

Shabat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein