Author: shamyr

Rosh Chodesh Av
We are entering the month in which dire elements have occurred.

Mas’ei (מסעי – steps), Numbers 33:1-36:13.
^א אֵלֶּה מַסְעֵי בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֲשֶׁר יָצְאוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם–לְצִבְאֹתָם:  בְּיַד-מֹשֶׁה, וְאַהֲרֹן.
¹ This is the steps of the children of Israel, since they came out of the land of Egypt, according to their legions, under the conduct of Moses and Aaron.

The Jewish presence in Alsace is attested from the 12^th century. From 1336 to 1339, a movement of poor peasants, the Judenschläger¹ reigned terror. But the most terrible time was that of the Black Death (1347-1349) when thousands of Jews were massacred². The surviving Jews find refuge in the countryside. Alsatian Judaism became rural.
Kembs :
The Jewish community still present at the start of the 20^th century disappeared and the synagogue was razed.
Altkirch :
As of 1469, there is no longer a medieval Jewish community in Altkirch³. At the beginning of the XIX^th century Altkirch had 8 Jewish families⁴.  In 1834, the construction of the current synagogue began. In 1848, anti-Jewish riots broke out⁵, the synagogue and Jewish dwellings were badly damaged. Life resumed its course in 1864, Altkirch had a cemetery, a school and a mikveh. In 1870, entire families left the region after the Prussian invasion and emigrated to Algeria.
Built in 1834, the synagogue⁶ was the place of worship for the Jewish community of Altkirch, until in 2016, the year in which the last Jew in Altkirch died. Transformed into a cinema in 1940, the synagogue was restored in 1946 by the architect Edmond Picard⁷. Since 2016, there have been no more religious services and the building has been put up for sale⁸.

The 4^th step of the Tour of Alsace 2022 (July 30) connects
Kembs in Altkirch.

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¹Those who beat the Jews.
²More than 2000 Jews are murdered in Strasbourg , February 14, 1349, the day of Saint Valentine.
³ Emigration to Basel (1365) and to Mulhouse (1410).
⁴ For comply with the decree of Bayonne, of July 20, 1808, by Napoleon, in which it is said that the Jews of the Empire must adopt a surname and have it registered by a civil registrar of the commune where they are domiciled.
⁵ Juden Rumpel or Judenrumpell.
⁶ Listed in the general inventory of cultural heritage.
⁷ Edmond Picard (1893-1960), son of Abraham Picard and Pauline Schwab, architect, town planner, property developer. A combatant in the French army, he was decorated with the Croix du Combattant Volontaire 1939-1945. He is the grandfather of Dominique-France Picard, wife of Fouad II, the last king of Egypt (1952-1953).
⁸ Property of the Israelite Consistory of Haut-Rhin.

Matot (מטות – Tribes), Numbers 30:2-32:42 .
[…] ב וַיְדַבֵּר מֹשֶׁה אֶל-רָאשֵׁי הַ מַּטּוֹת , לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר
^{2 tribes of the children of Israel, in these terms […]}

The Ed Kahn Foundation Synagogue which is located across the street from Rabbi Elie Cyper^[1] in Dijon a was built in 1879. It is located in a district^[2] where the Jewish presence has been attested since the XII^th century. In 1394, the Jews were expelled from the city and would not return until after the French Revolution.

Appointed in January 1939 rabbi of the Community of Dijon, Elie Cyper was mobilized nine months later as captain-chaplain. He was taken prisoner in May 1940, but he immediately escaped. He resumed service as chaplain until his demobilization in August 1940. He then became the rabbi of the refugees. During the occupation of Dijon by the Germans (1940-1944), Canon Felix Kir^[3], so municipal councilor has the synagogue transformed into a clothing warehouse to avoid its destruction and warns Rabbi Elie Cyper to save the objects of worship. From May 1943, Elie Cyper was active in the resistance group Combat^[4]. He was arrested by the Gestapo on April 8, 1944, the first day of the Passover holiday. He was deported and assassinated by the Nazis in Kovno, Lithuania-Estonia, at the age of 35, on May 15, 1944. The population of Dijon and networks of smugglers allowed half of the Jews of Dijon, in particular the wife of the Rabbi Cyper and his 2 daughters to escape deportation.

The Dijon synagogue is listed in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments (March 15, 1989). In neo-Byzantine style, the building, the work of the Dijon architect Alfred Sirodot^[5], is composed of ‘a central nave and two aisles, interrupted by a transept with two small turrets. The choir is topped with an octagonal cupola. The decorative ornaments were made by Jules Schanovki (sculptures), Léon Leniept (paintings) and Eugène Oudinot^[6] (stained glass, especially those symbolizing the twelve tribes).

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^[1] Elie Cyper was born in Ukraine in 1908. He was decorated with the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945, the Medal of the French Resistance and the Medal of the Order of the Liberation.
^[2] The streets of Petite-Juiverie where there was a synagogue (currently rue Piron), of Jews (rue Buffon) and of Grande-Juiverie (rue Charrue) .
^[3] Félix Kir (1876-1968) priest, politician and resistance fighter (Commander of the Legion d’Honneur, Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, Medal of the French Resistance, etc.), he gave his name to a cocktail recipe based on Aligoté white wine (lively and fresh wine) and crème de cassis. When he went to the Assembly, he carried a bag containing the necessary to make kirs that he offered to his companions.
^{[ 4]} The most important of the eight great French Resistance movements created by Henri Frenay (Henri Frenay Sandoval, 1905-1988) and Berty Albrecht (born Berthe Pauline Mariette Wild, in 1893 in Marseilles and died on May 31, 1943 at Fresnes prison).
^[5] Philippe Auguste Alfred Sirodot (1831-1900) .
^[6] Eugène-Stanislas Oudinot de La Faverie, known as Eugène Oudinot (1827-1889), is a French glass painter. He also made

Pinchas (פנחס) Numbers 25:10-30:1

Regarding Pinchas, grandson of Aaron the Pontiff, Gd says:

כה יג וְהָיְתָה לּוֹ וּלְזַרְעוֹ אַחֲרָיו, בְּרִית כְּהֻנַּת עוֹלָם- תַּחַת, אֲשֶׁר לֵאלֹ לֵאלֹהָיו, וַיְכַפֵּר, עַל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.
He and his posterity after him will possess, as pledge of alliance,
the priesthood in perpetuity; because he sided with his God
and made atonement for the children of Israel.”

Rabbi Pinhas Ha-Cohen is a great Moroccan figure. Born in Taroudant, he was renowned for his kindness, his tolerance, his uprightness and his modesty pushed to the point of humility.

He died in Marrakech on Shabbat afternoon, 14 Tebet 5712¹. On the day of his funeral, the whole town was present. He is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Marrakech and his grave continues to attract pilgrims from all over the world. It is reported that he several times saved the life of the pasha of Marrakech, Thami El Mezouari El Glaoui² nicknamed The Black Panther.

The Jewish presence in Morocco is attested as early as the 2^th century BCE (some believe it dates back to the time of the First Temple). In 1062, when Marrakech was founded, Jews settled there. In 1492, Rabbi Yitzhak Deloitte, expelled from Spain, founded the Salat al-Azama³ or Laazama synagogue in the Mellah of Marrakech. The current building is a riad⁴ from the end of the XIX^th century in the traditional Moroccan style where zelliges⁵ are omnipresent. The building was renovated in the 50s and a space for women  (עזרת נשים – ezrat nashim) was created and on the upper floor, a yeshiva.

¹ January 12, 1952.
² Grandfather the French actor Moroccan Mehdi El Glaoui (Belle Et Sébastien).
³ Meaning: prayer of dissidents, outcasts or expelled.
⁴ Traditional urban dwelling of Morocco and Andalusia with a central patio or an interior garden.
⁵ Mosaic whose elements are pieces of glazed terracotta, cut and assembled geometrically. Originally from Morocco, this type of decor is present in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.

Balaq (בלק), Numbers 22:2–25:9
^{כד ה} מַה-טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ, יַעֲקֹב; מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ, יִשְׂרָאֵל.
^24-5 How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel!

So beautiful! A jewel in the Arab-Andalusian style. The Spanish Synagogue was designed by the architects Vojtěch Ignác Ullmann and Josef Niklas in 1868. It presents an incredible interior decoration with its stucco arabesques, its gildings, its stylized oriental motifs. After an initial renovation of 20 years and a reopening in 1998, the synagogue is undergoing a new but less extensive renovation in 2020.

On the first floor are exhibited no fewer than 6,000 pieces, the work of 13 generations of goldsmiths from Bohemia and Moravia.

‘Huqat (חקת – decree), Numbers 19:1-22: 1.
^ב זֹאת ַתּ הַתּוֹרָה, אֲשֶׁר-צִוָּה יי לֵאמֹר: דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְיִקְחוּ אֵלֶיךָ פָרָה אֲדֻמָּה תְּמִימָה אֲשֶׁר אֵין-בָּהּ מוּם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא עָלֶה עָלֶיהָ, עֹל .
² This is a decree of the law which the Lord hath commanded: Warn the children of Israel to choose unto thee a red heifer, intact, without any blemish, and which has not yet borne the yoke.

The Institute of Temple (מכון המקדש – Makhon HaMiqdash) located near the Western Wall (הכותל המערבי – HaKotel HaMa’aravi) is a museum and institute of research dedicated to the Temples. It was created in 1987 by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel. The Temple Institute has built many artifacts that can be used in the Third Temple. He also set up an ideal farm project, in a secret location in southern Israel, to create a small herd of cattle of the American breed Red Anguss¹. Several red heifers (פרה אדמה – Parah Adumah) were born there. They receive a rich diet and rigorous veterinary control. Jewish laws concerning the red cow are strict: For example, it is forbidden to use this heifer for agricultural use or transport. In addition, the cow must have reached the age of two years, not have calved and have only red hair.

¹ The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture does not allow the import of live cattle due to the threat of bovine diseases such such as foot-and-mouth disease or mad cow disease, so any farmer who wishes to breed a breed of cow not available in Israel must use frozen embryos.

1. 1722 copper color etching The Firstborn Redemption by Bernard Picart (14.5×20.5 cm), MAJH¹, Paris.
2. Silver and enamel tray by Henryk Winograd (1917-2008) with scene of Binding of Isaac (24.5 x 19 cm), Jonathan Greenstein & Co, New York.
3. Silver box and five silver coins minted in 1955 by Vivian Cohen (⌀ 3.5 cm, 21.05 gr), WorthPoint Corporation Digital Media Sales, Atlanta.
4. Goblet for kiddush, clear and cobalt blue Murano glassware enhanced with moldings and filigrees in gold and platinum (⌀ 8.5 сm, H 29.7 сm).

Qora’h (קרח), Numbers 16:1–18:32. In chapter 18, it is written:
^טז וּפְדוּיָו, מִבֶּן-חֹדֶשׁ תִּפְדֶּה, בְּעֶרְכְּךָ, כֶּסֶף שְׁקָלִ שְׁקָלִים בְּשֶׁקֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ: עֶשְׂרִים גֵּרָה, הוּא.
¹⁶ As for redemption, you shall grant it from the age of one month,
at the rate of five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, worth twenty ghera.

In Jewish law, every father² must redeem his firstborn son. This prescription is observed by all Jewish communities whether orthodox, traditionalist or liberal. Parents gather a minian³ and offer a seudat mitzvah⁴. Depending on the denominations, the ceremony takes place before, during or after this meal.

Running of the ceremony: The kohen takes the child. The father having placed the required 5 shekels on a tray, gives this tray to the kohen. The cohen then returns the child and places the tray above the child’s head and says “this in compensation for this child”. The kohen then lays his hands on the child’s head and blesses it. The Cohen then makes a blessing over a cup of wine.

If the father for whatever reason is unable to redeem himself, the child will have to redeem himself when he is old enough to do so.

¹ Museum of Jewish Art and History.
² It is is one of the 613 mitzvot. It falls to the father (like circumcision for that matter), even if the status of firstborn depends on the mother. The firstborn of a Kohen, a Levite, or the daughter of a Kohen or a Levite is not redeemed.
³ Quorum of ten men.
⁴ A seudat mitzvah (סעודת מצווה – mitzvah meal) means a meal that is in itself a (biblical or rabbinic) prescription, such as Shabbat meals or a meal held on occasion of a mitzvah, such as the Pidyion haBen.

Shelach Lekha (שלח לך – send for you), Numbers 13:1–15:41.

God grants the request of the people to send explorers who, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, consider the conquest of Canaan impossible¹. Forty years later, Joshua commissions two explorers (haftara Joshua 2:1–24):

^א וַיִּשְׁלַח יְהוֹשֻׁעַ-בִּן-נוּן מִן-הַשִּׁטִּים שְׁנַיִם-אֲנָשִׁים מְרַגְּלִים, חֶרֶשׁ לֵאמֹר, לְכוּ רְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וְאֶת-יְרִיחוֹ
¹ And Joshua the son of Nun sent secretly from Shittim two explorers, saying to them,
“Go, examine the land, especially Jericho”. […]

Tel Jericho is the site of the ancient city conquered by Joshua. Located near Tel Jericho, the Synagogue² Shalom Al Yisrael (Peace on Israel) dates from the end of the 6^th century century. The mosaic inscription at the entrance to the synagogue is a blessing for all members of the community. This blessing is crowned with 32 (gematria of לב – heart) circles (symbol of the unit) and 32 squares (symbol of rigor). Red (emotion) and green (logical) hearts dot the rest of the mosaic. In the middle of the mosaic, a circle. In the center of this circle, a menorah (holiness) flanked by a shofar (prayer) and a lulav (unit). Below the menorah is the inscription שלום על ישראל (Shalom Al Israel – Peace on Israel) and above, a parallelogram of colored squares surmounted by a semicircle, strangely resembles the plan of a synagogue with the ark.

¹ This denigration and lamentations of the Children of Israel will cause the people to wander, for 40 years old, in the desert.
² Discovered in 1936 by archaeologist Dimitri Constantine Baramki (1909-1984). One tradition holds that this is the place where Joshua met the leader of D.’s militia before setting out to conquer Jericho (Joshua 5:13).

Beha’alotekha (בהעלותך – when thou shalt raise), Nbr 8: 1–12: 16
^{ב דַּבֵּר, אֶל-אַהֲרֹן, וְאָמַרְתָּ, אֵלָיו: בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ, אֶת-הַנֵּרֹת, אֶל-מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה, יָאִירוּ שִׁבְעַת הַנֵּרוֹת.
2 Speak to Aaron and tell him:
When you arrange the lamps, it is opposite the face
of the candelabra that the seven lamps must project the light.}

Designed by Amsterdam-based architectural firm SeARCH¹, the liberal synagogue on the Zuidelijke Wandelweg (Southern Hiking Trail) offers two large windows in the shape of a stylized menorah that cast their lights the outside. Bricks from the old synagogue were salvaged and included in the building, linking history with modernity.

This is the second synagogue built in the Netherlands since the Holocaust during which 75% of the Jewish community was wiped out. On the holy ark is inscribed a verse from Isaiah chapter 40:

^ח יבש חציר, נבל ציץ, ודבר אלוקינו יקום לעולם.
⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our Gd endures forever.

¹ Stedenbouw En ARCHitectuur (Town Planning & Architecture) was founded by Bjarne Mastenbroek in 2002

Shavuot (שבועות) is one of the three pilgrimage festivals, prescribed by the Torah, during which we celebrate the beginning of the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah. The 304,805 letters¹ of the Torah are scrupulously reproduced by a sofer (סוֹפֵר – scribe) on a klaf² (קְלָף – parchment). The oldest ³ Torah scroll (1250), still in use, is in Biella, northern Italy. The synagogue where it is kept is located in the ghetto on the top floor of a building that stands in the courtyard of a house that cannot be identified from the outside. The age of the Séfer Torah is an indication of a Jewish presence from the 13^th century. A stable Jewish community is attested⁴ in 1577. The ghetto was established by the House of Savoy in 1723, in the medieval quarter where the Jews were settled. In 1761, there were ⁵ 26 people. With the emancipation of 1848, a hundred Jews resided in the city. Today, a small community still remains.

Inside the synagogue, you can admire at the bottom a holy ark (ארון הקודש – aron ha-kodesh), from the 18^th century, in carved wood painted in light blue and center a podium (תֵּבָה – tevah) in walnut carved with plant motifs dating from 1868. The ceiling is decorated with a fresco in the neoclassical style and the floor is in Venetian mosaic, the wooden chandeliers date from the 18th ^{th century.}

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¹ 5,845 verses and 79,976 words.
² It takes about 60 skins of a kosher animal to make a sefer.
³ Carbon 14 dating conducted by the geochronology laboratory of the University of ‘Illinois.
⁴ Appointment of Mosè Ebreo di Massera (Jewish Moses of Massera) as representative of Duke Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy.
⁵ First general census of the Biella ghetto, six families were counted.

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Yom Yerushalayim (יום ירושלים), Day of Jerusalem, is the commemoration of the liberation of Jerusalem during the Six Day War, on 28 Iyar 5727¹ (June 7, 1967).

On May 16, 1967, Egypt declared a state of alert, carried out major troop movements in the desert Sinai and demands the departure of the UN forces. On May 23, 1967, it imposed a blockade of the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships. Faced with this casus belli, on June 5, 1967 at 7:45 a.m., the Israeli air force attacked Egypt, destroying almost all of their air force. At 9:30 a.m. the Jordanians enter the conflict, then the Syrians bombard Israel. June 7 (28 Iyar), the Israeli air force destroyed the Jordanian air force and the Israeli paratroopers seized Jerusalem and all the western bank of the Jordan. The Israeli-Jordanian ceasefire takes effect the same evening. On June 8, Egypt also accepts a ceasefire. On June 9, Moshe Dayan decides to launch the Israeli army to conquer the Golan Heights. On June 10, the Syrians evacuated the plateau and a ceasefire took effect the same evening. Judea and Samaria, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights come under Israeli control, the navigation of Israeli ships is ensured and Jerusalem is reunited.

psalms 122 תְּהִלִּים
^ג יְרוּשָׁלִַם הַבְּנוּיָה-כְּעִיר, שֶׁחֻבְּרָה-לָּהּ יַחְדָּו
³ Jerusalem which is built like a city of harmonious unity.

In December 2017, fifty years after the liberation of Jerusalem, in the tunnel, running along the outer wall of the Temple, close to the Holy of Holies, after 12 years of development, a synagogue funded by the Delek Foundation and Yitzhak Tshuva² was opened. This underground synagogue has a very special atmosphere, with low vaulted ceilings and stone walls. The metallic spherical arch is crowned with a burning bush and its walls are engraved with the texts: Shma Yisrael (שמע ישראל – Listen Israel), Ana beKoach³ (אנא בכוח – By grace, by power) and Shir HaShirim (שיר השירים – The Song of Songs).

¹ Shabbat takes precedence over this day which is moved to the next day if Iyar 28 falls on a Saturday or the day before, if it falls on a Friday.
² Israeli businessman and billionaire, born in Tripoli in 1948, chairman of El-Ad Group, owner of the New York Plaza Hotel and the Delek Group conglomerate.
³ Ana beKoach: “Please, by the power of Your great right arm, free the bound nation“, liturgical poem recited during the morning prayer and after the counting of the ‘ Omer.