Month: September 2022

Parash VaYelekh (וילך – he went), Shabbat Shuva¹, Deuteronomy 31:1-30.
At 30 verses, this is the shortest of the weekly sections.

Moses recalls his old age and entrusts Joshua with leading the people. He gives the text of the Torah to the Levites, so that they place it in the Ark of the Covenant.
The haftarah consists of 2 (or 3 passages)² from the Prophets: Hosea 14:2–10 [, Joel 2:11–27] and Micah 7:18–20

Hosea 14 הושע
^ב שובה, ישראל, עַד, יי אלקיך : כי כשלת, בעונך.
² Return, Israel, to the L-rd your Gd; for you have only fallen by your sin.

From the 18^th to the 20^th centuries, the tsarist autocracy made state anti-Semitism reign. It is often the cause of pogroms. In 1917, with the advent of Bolshevism, new forms of anti-Semitism, on a communist ideological background, appeared.
In the years 1928-1938, in response to the Jewish question, Stalin moved around 40,000 Jews³ to an uninhabited territory at the eastern end of Russia, Birobidjan⁴ . From 1947 to 1953, state anti-Semitism raged there with virulence, when Jews represented nearly 40% of the population. Jewish schools, synagogues and all specifically Jewish places are closed. In 1978, a decree from the Central Committee again authorized Jewish culture in the region. But it was not until the advent of perestroika and glasnost⁵ in 1985, under Mikhail Gorbachev⁶ that Jewish life was revived in the region.

In 1986, the Beit T’shuva Synagogue in Birobidjan opened in a simple Siberian-style wooden house. At first, elements of Jewish and Christian traditions mingle. In 2005, the cult became strictly Jewish. In September 2017, the synagogue was renovated and Rav Eli Riss sounded the shofar there.

¹ Shabbat before Yom Kippur
² Depending on communities: Sephardim or Ashkenazi
³ Currently about 3,000 Jews live in Birobidjan.
⁴ The Jewish autonomous region of Birobidjan, named after its capital located at the confluence of the Bira and Bidjan rivers. The official languages ​​are Russian and Yiddish.
⁵ Perestroika (reconstruction): economic, cultural and social reforms and glasnost (transparency): politics of freedom of expression
⁶ Head of state of the USSR (1985-1991), Nobel Peace Prize winner (1990), born in 1931, died on August 30, 2022 in Moscow.

Parashat Nitzavim (ניצבים — standing), Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20. It is always read on the Shabat preceding Rosh Hashana.

Deuteronomy chapter 30 – דְּבָרִים פרק ל
^ו’ ומל יי אלוסקיך את-לבבך, ואת-לבב זרעך:  לאהבה את-יי אלוסקיך, בכל-לבבך ובכל-נפשך–למען חייך
⁶ you love the Eternal, your Gd, with all your heart and with all your soul, and ensure your existence.

Rashi: When you repent, Gd will help you overcome the obstacles that the evil inclination seeks to place in your path. בא להיטהר מסייעים אותו. God helps those who seek to purify themselves (Talmud Bavli, tractate Shabbat 104a:13).

The Talmud¹ by Daniel Bomberg : Circa 1530, an edition of the Talmud printed by Daniel Bomberg² reportedly commissioned by Henry VIII, fascinated by the wisdom of Jewish law in a land forbidden to Jews³. Following his politico-theological dispute⁴ with Pope Clement VII, he proclaimed himself in 1531: supreme head of the Church and clergy of England. In 1546, he founded the Regius chair of Hebrew at the University of Oxford and placed there the following year Richard Bruerne (~1519-1565) who would take possession of the famous Talmud which he bequeathed to his death to the Church of Oxford . A few years later, the Talmud became the property of Westminster Abbey (before 1629). In 1980, Jack Valmadonna Lunzer (1924-2016), a manufactured diamond industrialist and great collector of rare Hebrew books ⁵ acquired the copy of the Talmud from Westminster Abbey in exchange for a medieval copy of the charter of the said abbey. In 2015, the Talmud was put up for sale by Sotheby’s. Leon Black, American investor and art collector, buys it for 9.3 million dollars.

In January 2017, the remaining works from the Valmadonna Trust Library were handed over to the National Library of Israel.

¹⁾ Printed in 9 volumes (393 x 266 mm), it includes the treatises of the first (1519/20-1523 ) and the second (1525-1539) editions. see the detail of the book on the site of Sotheby’s (see the site). We only count, nowadays, only 14 copies of this edition.
²⁾ Daniel van Bomberghen, Flemish publisher-printer of the Renaissance, born in Antwerp around 1483, settled in Venice in 1516, specialist in printing of texts of Hebrew religious literature. Died in this city in 1549.
³⁾ Jews have been forbidden to live in England since their expulsion in 1290 by King Edward I. In 1656, Oliver Cromwell put a definitive end to this prohibition.
⁴⁾ The sovereign wanted his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, widow of his brother Arthur Tudor, to be annulled by the papacy. Controversy based on Leviticus 18.16: prohibition against marrying his brother’s wife, Deuteronomy 25:5: Levirate and Deuteronomy 22:13-21: Repudiation.
⁵⁾ Library of Valmadonna Trust: 13,000 books and manuscripts.

Parashat Ki Thavo (כִּי-תָבוֹא – when you will come), Deuteronomy 26:1-29, 8.

Deuteronomy – 26 – דְּבָרִים
:^_ה וְעָנִיתָ וְאָמַרְתָּ לִפְנֵי יי אֱלֹקיךָ, אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי, וַיֵּרֶד מִצְרַיְמָה, וַיָּגָר שָׁם בִּמְתֵי מְעָט; וַיְהִי-שָׁם, לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל עָצוּם וָרָב
^₅ And you will say aloud before the L-rd, your Gd: An Aramean has [wanted] to annihilate my ancestor. He went down to Egypt and resided there in small numbers and there they became a great, mighty and numerous people.¹

The Aramean is Laban² (לבן), brother of Rebecca, father of Leah and Rachel, uncle and father-in-law of Jacob. He is a devious character who deceived Jacob, then pursued him with the intention of destroying him (see Genesis 31, verses 29 and 30).
The name Lebanon comes from the same root LBN (לבן) meaning white, in reference to the snowpack that covers the mountains in winter.

The first signs of Jewish presence in Lebanon date back to 132, following the Bar Kokhba³ revolt against the Roman Empire. In 1920, the Lebanese State was created by France⁴ following the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. In 1926, a constitution was adopted. It gives equality and freedom of worship to all Lebanese⁵. During the Second World War, Lebanon welcomed some Ashkenazi families fleeing the genocide. In 1948, when the State of Israel declared its independence, many Jews fled the belligerent Arab countries (Syria, Iraq, Jordan) and some emigrated to Lebanon. Currently, there are about 4,000 Lebanese Jews, half of whom work abroad, notably in Cyprus and Greece.

The Maghen Abraham Synagogue⁶ is known to have been the most beautiful in the Middle East. Abandoned and damaged during the Lebanon War (1975-1990), its renovation, undertaken in 2010, was completed in 2019.

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¹ According to Rashi’s translation and the interpretation of the Sifri, and this is also the version found in the Hagada.
² לבן הארמי – Lavan (white) ha-arami (the Aramean).
³ Ben Kozevah” (בן כוזבה) or “Ben Koziva” (בן כוזיבא). Thanks to archeology, we know that his name was actually Shimon Bar (or Ben) Koseva (שמעון בר כוסבא or בר כוסבה).
⁴ Mandate of the League of Nations.
⁵ Chapter 2 of the Lebanese Constitution (in french):
Article 7 All Lebanese are equal before the law. They also enjoy civil and political rights and are also subject to public offices and duties, without distinction of any kind.
Article 8 Individual liberty is guaranteed and protected. No one may be arrested or detained except in accordance with the provisions of the law. No offense and no penalty can be established except by law.
Article 9 Freedom of conscience is absolute. By paying homage to the Most High, the State respects all faiths and guarantees and protects their free exercise provided that public order is not undermined. It also guarantees to the populations, to whatever rite they belong, respect for their personal status and their religious interests.
⁶ shield of Abraham

Ki Tetze (כי תצא — when you leave), Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19.

According to the Sefer HaHinukn¹ (ספר החינוך – Book of Education), parsha Ki Tetze has 47 negative prescriptions and 27 positive prescriptions, including the one levirate².

Deuteronomy – 25 – דְּבָרִים

ה כִּי-יֵשְׁבוּ אַחִים יַחְדָּו, ּמֵת מֵהֶם וּבֵן אֵין-לוֹ- לֹא-תִהְיֶה אֵשֶׁת-context הַחוּצָה, לְאִישׁ זָר:  יְבָמָהּ יָבֹא עָלֶיהָ, וּלְקָחָהּ לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה וְיִבְּמָהּ.

⁵ If brothers remain together and one of them dies without issue, the widow cannot marry a foreigner abroad; it is her brother-in-law who must join her. He will therefore take her as his wife, exercising levirate over her.

Levirate and the renunciation of levirate play an important role in the story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis chapter 38), as well as that of Boaz and Ruth (Book of Ruth chapter 4)³. Before a quorum of ten men, Boaz acquires all that belonged to Mahlon and marries Ruth, his widow so that the name of the deceased does not die out.

Ruth – 4 – רוּת

^י וְגַם אֶת-רוּת הַמֹּאֲבִיָּה אֵשֶׁת מַחְלוֹן קָנִיתִי לִי לְאִשָּׁה, לְהָקִים שֵׁם-הַמֵּת עַל-נַחֲלָתוֹ, וְלֹא-יִכָּרֵת שֵׁם-הַמֵּת מֵעִם אֶחָיו, וּמִשַּׁעַר מְקוֹמוֹ:  עֵדִים אַתֶּם, הַיּוֹם.
^ט וַיֹּאמֶר בֹּעַז לַזְּקֵנִים וְכָל-הָעָם, עֵדִים אַתֶּם הַיּוֹם, כִּי קָנִיתִי אֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר לֶאֱלִימֶלֶךְ, וְאֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר לְכִלְיוֹן וּמַחְלוֹן–מִיַּד, נָעֳמִי

⁹ Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people: You are witnesses today that I acquire from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, and also to Kilion and Machlon.
¹⁰ And Ruth also, the Moabite, wife of Machlon, I acquire as a wife to maintain the name of the deceased in her patrimony and to prevent the name of the deceased from becoming extinct among his brothers and in his native town. You are witnesses to this on this day.

The Rutland Jewish Center is a synagogue and community center housed in a Richardsonian Romanesque building⁴. Originally, it was a library built in 1889 by Brunner & Tryon in honor of Horace Henry Baxter, New York financier and co-owner of the Rutland Marble Company. Then in 1927, the building was bought and converted into a synagogue by the Adath Israel Congregation. In 1978, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

¹ Sefer haHinukh, Book of Education is a medieval text published in Spain in the 13^th century, featuring the 613 commandments of the Torah.
² Formed from the Low Latin levir “brother-in-law” and the derivational suffix “ate”.
³ Boaz and Ruth had for son Obed, father of Jesse, himself father of King David.
⁴ Style of historicist American architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson.