During the 50 day period between the Festival of Pesach and the Festival of Shavuot, we count each day - Sefirat HaOmer.
What is the reason for this counting?
When the Jewish People left Egypt they were told by G-d that their physical redemption (the Exodus from Egypt) was soon to be complimented with an unprecedented spiritual Revelation in which G-d A-lmighty Himself would speak to them (the Giving of the Torah). Upon hearing this they eagerly counted each day - another day closer, another day closer, etc. And so, each year, as we prepare to once again receive the Torah, we re-enact this count down.
While this is a beautiful explanation it leaves a number of questions unanswered.
If it is indeed true that they were counting DOWN to the Revelation of Sinai, then why is it that we count UP? Why do we say "Today is 24 Days of the Omer"(meaning since Pesach) when we should really be saying "Today there are 24 days left until Shavuot"?
Furthermore, why do we use the cardinal "Today is 24 Days"? Surely we should use the ordinal "Today is the 24th Day"?
Finally, if we are counting towards the fiftieth day, why is it that in actuality we only count 49 days?
To get a grip on this, we first need to understand a strange verse in the Bible. Concerning Abraham it is written, "And Abraham was old, coming in days". Now we know that no word in the Torah is superfluous, so why the additional phrase "coming in days"? It doesn't seem to add anything!
According to the Holy Zohar, however, it is very meaningful. There are many people who are old, but have really achieved very little in their lives. Long lives, but empty days.
Abraham was not like that. He lived a long life with full days. The Hebrew phrase "coming in days" can also mean "coming with days". He "carried" his days with him. He didn't pass time. He filled time!
In a similar vein, as we approach the Giving of the Torah, it is not sufficient to merely count down the days. That is not a preparation for the Revelation of Sinai. We have to come to G-d prepared. We need to fill each and every one of our days with good and holy activities so that we don't arrive empty-handed.
And it is for this reason that we count up and not down, and that we use the cardinal numbers rather than the ordinal numbers. It is as if we are saying, "Today we have achieved one days worth, Today we have achieved two days worth...Today we have achieve twenty-four days worth, etc." until on the last day we say, "Today we have achieved forty-nine days worth."
Still, the final question remains unanswered. Why is it that we do not count the fiftieth day?
And here there is an important lesson that we can all learn from. In Yiddish there is an expression, "Mir darfen tohn, der Aibishter vet auftohn" - "We need to do, it's up to G-d as to whether we achieve". Far more important than the destination is the journey. Whether we arrive at the destination is G-d's affair. Our business is to do everything that we possibly can to try to get there.
And so the fiftieth day, the Giving of the Torah on Sinai, is G-d's affair. Doing everything we can to get to Sinai is ours.
These lessons are of course not only relevant during the Sefira counting period, but every day of our lives.
We must be deeply committed to achieving the goals that G-d has set for us in life, both spiritual and physical. They must be the shining sign-posts of our lives. But we cannot just dream of achieving them. Once we understand where we have to go, we must slowly, step by step, day by day, invest all our energy in implementing whatever is necessary to attaining the vision that we have set ourselves. Whether we actually achieve our goals or not is dependent on G-d, not us. It is not on this that we will be judged. What we have to account for is how much effort we have invested in travelling the road.
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
The Messiah and the Passion
The last day of Pesach is a day dedicated to anticipating the future redemption through Moshiach.
This has special poignancy this year when much of the Christian world is the throes of rediscovering Jesus through the prism of Gibson's most unfortunate film. Let us remember that Jesus, in the eyes of the early Christians who were of course Jews, was the embodiment of the long anticipated Jewish Messiah.
What then is the difference between what became the Christian understanding of the Jewish Messiah, and the Jewish understanding of the Jewish Messiah?
While the following is very far from an exhaustive exposition of this subject, it touches upon one of the most fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity.
Whereas Christians believe that there is something unique about Jesus, we Jews believe that what Christians believe concerning Jesus is true of every Jew.
Christians believe that Jesus was the son of G-d. We Jews believe that every Jew is a child of G-d. ("You are Children to G-d, your G-d"; "My son, my firstborn, Israel")
Christians believe that Jesus was the ultimate priest. We Jews believe that every Jew can be a priest. ("You shall be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation").
Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah. We Jews believe that every Jew has within him a spark of the Messiah.
In the haftorah that we read on the last day of Pesach, it is written concerning Moshiach, "And a sprout will go forth from the trunk of Jesse; and a shoot will blossom from his root"). The difference between a trunk and a root? The trunk is visible; the root is invisible. The trunk refers to the revealed national Messiah of the Jewish people; the root refers to the hidden personal Messiah within every Jew.
Every Jew, man or woman, has within him or her this holy spark of the Messiah. It comes as a legacy of our being the children of G-d, of our each being a priest and teacher for all mankind.
With the knowledge that each of us have within ourselves a spark of the Messiah we can understand an apparent contradiction. Whereas the Christian world understands Isaiah's "suffering servant" to be the Messiah, most early Jewish commentators understand him to be the Jewish people as a whole. The noted exception is the Midrash which interprets him to be the Messiah. However, on the basis of the above we see that there is really no contradiction at all. The Jewish People are the Messiah!
This is why in Christianity it is the priest in church who says the HaMotzi on the bread, and HaGefen on the wine - whereas every individual Jew in his or her own home says HaMotzi on bread, and HaGefen on the wine.
True, there will be a national Messiah as well - a great and holy individual - sage, teacher, prophet and leader. But his main job will be to draw out the Messiah within us all. So that all of us together will be able to bring the world to redemption.
This is similar (and please don't read too much into this) to what Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said concerning the Rebbe: "What was remarkable about the Rebbe was the exact opposite of what was usually attributed to him. This was not a man who was interested in creating followers. Instead, this was a man who was passionate about creating leaders."
This has special poignancy this year when much of the Christian world is the throes of rediscovering Jesus through the prism of Gibson's most unfortunate film. Let us remember that Jesus, in the eyes of the early Christians who were of course Jews, was the embodiment of the long anticipated Jewish Messiah.
What then is the difference between what became the Christian understanding of the Jewish Messiah, and the Jewish understanding of the Jewish Messiah?
While the following is very far from an exhaustive exposition of this subject, it touches upon one of the most fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity.
Whereas Christians believe that there is something unique about Jesus, we Jews believe that what Christians believe concerning Jesus is true of every Jew.
Christians believe that Jesus was the son of G-d. We Jews believe that every Jew is a child of G-d. ("You are Children to G-d, your G-d"; "My son, my firstborn, Israel")
Christians believe that Jesus was the ultimate priest. We Jews believe that every Jew can be a priest. ("You shall be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation").
Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah. We Jews believe that every Jew has within him a spark of the Messiah.
In the haftorah that we read on the last day of Pesach, it is written concerning Moshiach, "And a sprout will go forth from the trunk of Jesse; and a shoot will blossom from his root"). The difference between a trunk and a root? The trunk is visible; the root is invisible. The trunk refers to the revealed national Messiah of the Jewish people; the root refers to the hidden personal Messiah within every Jew.
Every Jew, man or woman, has within him or her this holy spark of the Messiah. It comes as a legacy of our being the children of G-d, of our each being a priest and teacher for all mankind.
With the knowledge that each of us have within ourselves a spark of the Messiah we can understand an apparent contradiction. Whereas the Christian world understands Isaiah's "suffering servant" to be the Messiah, most early Jewish commentators understand him to be the Jewish people as a whole. The noted exception is the Midrash which interprets him to be the Messiah. However, on the basis of the above we see that there is really no contradiction at all. The Jewish People are the Messiah!
This is why in Christianity it is the priest in church who says the HaMotzi on the bread, and HaGefen on the wine - whereas every individual Jew in his or her own home says HaMotzi on bread, and HaGefen on the wine.
True, there will be a national Messiah as well - a great and holy individual - sage, teacher, prophet and leader. But his main job will be to draw out the Messiah within us all. So that all of us together will be able to bring the world to redemption.
This is similar (and please don't read too much into this) to what Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said concerning the Rebbe: "What was remarkable about the Rebbe was the exact opposite of what was usually attributed to him. This was not a man who was interested in creating followers. Instead, this was a man who was passionate about creating leaders."
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Have Your Say!
Let's face it. Sometimes you agree with me, sometimes you disagree. Sometimes you agree but feel that you could have said it better. And sometimes you feel a real need to set me straight.
I have often been asked if it were possible to have questions and answers, perhaps even debate, on the issues that I raise during my sermons and in my articles - especially those that are perceived as "controversial".
I have often been asked if it were possible to have questions and answers, perhaps even debate, on the issues that I raise during my sermons and in my articles - especially those that are perceived as "controversial".
There is now a way.
I have set up a blogging site that makes it very easy for me to place my writings, lectures and sermons on the internet. At the same time, it is a forum in which you can agree with, further develop or argue with my ideas and teaching.
For many of us the "silly season" presents a chance to do the kind of things that we don't have time for during the year. Here's your chance to share your thoughts on a variety of Jewish themes. I really hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity during this quieter, and more relaxed, time of the year. It will give us the opportunity of learning from each other.
I have set up a blogging site that makes it very easy for me to place my writings, lectures and sermons on the internet. At the same time, it is a forum in which you can agree with, further develop or argue with my ideas and teaching.
We Jews have always believed that interactive learning is the way to go. It is after all the principle upon which the Jewish Education Day of the year - the Seder Night - is founded. The Internet gives us a way of learning interactively on a scale that was not previously possible.
For the time-being the URL of our new blogging site is http://www.southhead.blogspot.com. I have uploaded a number of articles that I have recently written. You can choose those of interest from the right-hand column of the webpage. At the bottom of each article, you will find the word "Comments". It's now up to you to agree with, debate against or expand upon the themes that I discourse on.
With best wishes for a happy and healthy summer,
Rabbi Benzion Milecki
Sunday, December 28, 2003
The Jewish Attitude to the Passion
I could have been famous this month. It's been a long time since journalists from three media outlets called me within the space of twenty four hours asking me for interviews. Channel 7, Associated Press, SBS.
I didn't return the calls.
It was obvious what they wanted to discuss - and I was not prepared to give it any more airing in the secular media than it already had.
You see what matters is not what is true, but what is perceived to be true.
Hannan Ashrawi is an anti-Semite. No question about it. But she is perceived as a Peace Maker. And any attack upon her was construed as an attack on Peace. There was simply no way that we could have won that media war, something that the powers that be should have realized from the onset.
I learned this the hard way. I strongly opposed the Oslo Process in 1993 and made no secret about it. I was not opposed to Peace. I was opposed to what to me and many others was obviously a phony peace - a peace that would lead to more deaths. But we were in the minority and that is not how it was perceived. Anyone opposing Oslo didn't have a chance to even state their case. People's eyes and ears were shut. Anti-Oslo, according to popular sentiment, equaled anti-Peace. No discussion, no debate. Even today, after all the horror and the bloodshed, the architects of Oslo are still judged as the major architects of Peace. Popular wisdom, even when false, dies a slow death.
The Passion is a remake of the worst form of anti-Semitic incitement. It is a monstrously scaled up version of the medieval passion plays which incited believing Christians to murder Jews. Every year, before Easter, Jews feared for their lives. And for good reason. It was not unusual for Christians, following a particularly poignant passion play depiction of Jesus' death, to invade the Jewish Ghetto and murder Jews.
It was the belief that Jews killed Jesus that incited the First Crusade destruction of Rhineland Jewry. One crusader's account recalls, "Behold we journey a long way to seek the idolatrous shrine and to take vengeance upon the Muslims. But here are the Jews dwelling among us, whose ancestors killed him and crucified him groundlessly. Let us take vengeance first upon them. Let us wipe them out as a nation."
And lest anyone think that was only a medieval phenomenon: in 1942, the Slovakian papal nuncio, when asked by the famous Rabbi Weismandel to intervene on behalf of Jewish children slated by the Nazis to be deported to concentration camps, refused. "There is no innocent blood of Jewish children in the world. All Jewish blood is guilty. You have to die. This is the punishment that has been awaiting you because of that sin [of deicide]," he replied.
We Jews should know this. And we should not support a film based on a belief that has brought untold tragedy to our people.
Dennis Prager argues that modern Christians see the movie in terms of Jesus' suffering for all mankind rather than in terms of Jewish culpability for his death. This may be true in some cases. But there are Christians in countries other than the US and Australia who may not make such a subtle distinction. And I am not at all that sure that he is right even in our "enlightened" countries. It was only last year that I was accosted by a Macquarie Street solicitor at gym who told me, "Well you Jews are responsible for the world's problems. After all, you murdered our lord".
But should we come out publicly against it? I don't think so. The Passion is based on the New Testament - hardly a pro-Jewish document in its depiction of Jewish culpability in the death of Jesus. But it is the gospel of millions of people. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Jews seen "attacking" the New Testament will come out on top? On the contrary, it would only attract more free publicity, create more frenzy, and make more money for Mel Gibson.
I hope that it is not futile to expect some decent Christians to speak up against the true and on-going Deicide - the murder of G-d's Chosen People for no other reason than that they are G-d's Chosen People - and the incitement that leads to it.
As for us, I think that this is an occasion where we would be wise to follow the words of our Prophet Isaiah: Come, my people, ... hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath has passed.
I didn't return the calls.
It was obvious what they wanted to discuss - and I was not prepared to give it any more airing in the secular media than it already had.
You see what matters is not what is true, but what is perceived to be true.
Hannan Ashrawi is an anti-Semite. No question about it. But she is perceived as a Peace Maker. And any attack upon her was construed as an attack on Peace. There was simply no way that we could have won that media war, something that the powers that be should have realized from the onset.
I learned this the hard way. I strongly opposed the Oslo Process in 1993 and made no secret about it. I was not opposed to Peace. I was opposed to what to me and many others was obviously a phony peace - a peace that would lead to more deaths. But we were in the minority and that is not how it was perceived. Anyone opposing Oslo didn't have a chance to even state their case. People's eyes and ears were shut. Anti-Oslo, according to popular sentiment, equaled anti-Peace. No discussion, no debate. Even today, after all the horror and the bloodshed, the architects of Oslo are still judged as the major architects of Peace. Popular wisdom, even when false, dies a slow death.
The Passion is a remake of the worst form of anti-Semitic incitement. It is a monstrously scaled up version of the medieval passion plays which incited believing Christians to murder Jews. Every year, before Easter, Jews feared for their lives. And for good reason. It was not unusual for Christians, following a particularly poignant passion play depiction of Jesus' death, to invade the Jewish Ghetto and murder Jews.
It was the belief that Jews killed Jesus that incited the First Crusade destruction of Rhineland Jewry. One crusader's account recalls, "Behold we journey a long way to seek the idolatrous shrine and to take vengeance upon the Muslims. But here are the Jews dwelling among us, whose ancestors killed him and crucified him groundlessly. Let us take vengeance first upon them. Let us wipe them out as a nation."
And lest anyone think that was only a medieval phenomenon: in 1942, the Slovakian papal nuncio, when asked by the famous Rabbi Weismandel to intervene on behalf of Jewish children slated by the Nazis to be deported to concentration camps, refused. "There is no innocent blood of Jewish children in the world. All Jewish blood is guilty. You have to die. This is the punishment that has been awaiting you because of that sin [of deicide]," he replied.
We Jews should know this. And we should not support a film based on a belief that has brought untold tragedy to our people.
Dennis Prager argues that modern Christians see the movie in terms of Jesus' suffering for all mankind rather than in terms of Jewish culpability for his death. This may be true in some cases. But there are Christians in countries other than the US and Australia who may not make such a subtle distinction. And I am not at all that sure that he is right even in our "enlightened" countries. It was only last year that I was accosted by a Macquarie Street solicitor at gym who told me, "Well you Jews are responsible for the world's problems. After all, you murdered our lord".
But should we come out publicly against it? I don't think so. The Passion is based on the New Testament - hardly a pro-Jewish document in its depiction of Jewish culpability in the death of Jesus. But it is the gospel of millions of people. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Jews seen "attacking" the New Testament will come out on top? On the contrary, it would only attract more free publicity, create more frenzy, and make more money for Mel Gibson.
I hope that it is not futile to expect some decent Christians to speak up against the true and on-going Deicide - the murder of G-d's Chosen People for no other reason than that they are G-d's Chosen People - and the incitement that leads to it.
As for us, I think that this is an occasion where we would be wise to follow the words of our Prophet Isaiah: Come, my people, ... hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath has passed.
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