Author: shamyr

The Jewish Museum of Riga (4) devotes a whole section to famous Jews born in Latvia. Among them: Chief Rabbi Avraham Kook (1865-1935), who was the mentor of the religious Zionist movement and the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine under the British Mandate, Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994), Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997). On the building where Sir Isaiah Berlin lived is affixed a commemorative plaque. This building, like all those on the street, is due to the architect Mikhail Eisenstein (1867-1920), born in the kyiv region and father of the famous filmmaker Serguei Eisenstein > (1898-1948) director of the film The Battleship Potemkin, dealing with the 1905 mutiny of Russian sailors in Odessa.

The Holocaust resulted in the near-extermination of Latvia’s Jewish community. The Peitav Synagogue (1) is the only synagogue that was not destroyed during this period. Of the Choral Synagogue (2), only ruins remain which have been transformed into a Memorial. The ghetto has been transformed into a Latvian Holocaust museum.

Today, Riga has about 9,000 Jews and a community center (6) has been created by the chabads, (synagogue, mikveh, school, grocery store). A restaurant (5) is open in the basement of the museum.   

Lag Baʿomer (ל = 30 + ג = 3) – 33rd day of the omer)

The ‘omer (עֹמר) is an ancient unit of measurement used in Temple times, weighing between 1,560 and 1,770 kg. From the second day of Passover and until Shavuot, i.e. for 49 days, an ‘omer of barley was brought as an offering to the Temple in Jerusalem. The Hiloula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohaï (1st and 2nd century), which takes place on the 33rd day of the ‘omer, is one of the most popular celebrations in Israel and the Diaspora. Meron, in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, is particularly known for hosting the tombs of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai and his son, Rabbi Eleazar bar Rabbi Shimon. It is the second busiest place in Israel. There are also the remains of an old 3rd century synagogue which suffered several earthquakes, as well as the tombs of Hillel Hazaken and Shammai (1st century BCE).

Parashat Behar Sinai (בהר סיני – On Mount Sinai),
Leviticus 25:1-26:2

The parashah cites the laws of chemita (שמטה – remission, “fallow” ). That is to say that every seven years one should not take advantage of the land of Israel, nor cultivate it. The parashah also cites the laws of yôvēl (יובל – “jubilee). Every fifty years, alienated or pledged lands are freed, debts forgiven and slaves freed.

Pesach Chéni

A person who could not participate in the Passover sacrifice, can perform it a month later (14 Iyar), Numbers 9:5-14. Passover Sheni also gives rise to the celebration of Hilula¹ of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, who died on 14 Iyar during the 2^th century, while he was in exile. At his request, he was buried standing, in order to better welcome² the Messiah during the resurrection of the dead. His name is mentioned frequently in the Mishnah and his wife Brouria³ is one of the few women mentioned in the Gemara.

It is traditional to light a candle, give Tzedakah and say 3 times:
.אלקא דמאיר ענני
Ela-ha deMeïr aneni
D. from Meir – answer me.

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¹ Jewish custom of visiting the tombs of the tzaddikim (righteous) on the anniversary of their death, and commemorating this death by means of a festive ceremony during which the pilgrims make prayers, read Psalms and other texts sacred or considered as such (such as the Zohar).
² In a attitude of prayer (Amida).
³ Daughter of Rabbi Hanania ben Teradion, one of the “Ten Martyrs”, burned alive wrapped in a Sefer Torah by order of the Roman Emperor.

Parashat Emor (אמור – said) Leviticus 21:1 – 24:23

_{Leviticus , chapter 23}
.^ב דּבר אל-בני ישראל, ואמרת אלהם, מועדי יי, אשר-תקראו אֹתם מקראי קדש–אלה הם, מועדי
² Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
The days of the LORD, which ye shall observe, these are my solemnities.

Shabbat, Passover, the counting of the ‘Omer, Shavuot,
Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

In 1769, a certain Mr. Jew settled in Tahiti. He arrives on the Endeavour, the ship commanded by Captain Cook. In 1841, Alexander Salmon, an English banker settled there and married Princess Ari’ioehau Hinari’i Tepau a Tati. But truly the Jewish community was not created until the 1960s with the arrival of Jewish refugees from Algeria. In 1993, the Haava Vehahava Synagogue (אהבה ואהבה – Love and Friendship) in Papeete was built. It has a party room, a mikveh and a studio for visiting rabbis. In the prayer room with 60 places, the stained glass windows recalling the solemnities were made by Deanna de Marigny.

David Ben-Gurion¹, on May 14, 1948, declares the independence of the State of Israel.  The Independence Day Law was enacted the following year: It was decided to celebrate “State Day” on its Hebrew date, 5 Iyar, rather than the calendar date of May 14 and name² Independence Day (יום העצמאות – Yom Haʿatzmaut). It is also recorded that the Shabbat takes precedence over this day, and that it must therefore be moved to the next day, if the 5th falls on a Saturday or to the eve, if the 5th Iyar falls on a Friday.

In 1950, David Ben-Gurion convened a commission which decided to pay tribute to those fallen during the war of independence on the eve of Yom Haʿatzmaut. Again, preeminence is given to Shabbat³. The Heroes’ Remembrance Day⁴ Act was enacted in 1963. Since the Six Day War of June 1967, the ceremonies of opening stand in front of the Western Wall. This day of commemoration was extended, in 1998, to Jewish victims of terrorism. The sadness of Yom HaZikaron begins with a ringing at 8 p.m. in the evening. Another bell will ring in the morning at 11 a.m. Israel is in meditation and mourns its 24,068 martyrs.

On May 15, 1952, in the Negev desert south of Beersheba on the road to Mitzpé Ramon, soldiers founded a kibbutz.  They decide to call it Sdé Boker (שדה בוקר – literally “herdsman’s field”), because they plan to farm there. In 1954, David Ben Gurion resigned as Prime Minister and joined the kibbutz; his dream, to make the Negev bloom. Returning to political life in 1955, he continued to live there. In 1962, institutes were initiated emphasizing environmental studies. David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula are buried on the cliff overlooking the Zin Valley.

¹ David Grün born in Poland in 1886 adopted the name Ben Gurion in 1909. He is the main national founder of the State of Israel. He was Prime Minister from 1948 to 1954 and from 1955 to 1963.
² At the instigation of Avraham Elmalih (1885-1967) journalist, Zionist activist and Israeli politician.
³ Moved to Thursday if Yom Haʿatzmaut falls on a Sunday.
⁴ The full name: יום הזיכרון לחללי מערכות ישראל ולנפגעי פעולות האיבה (Day of Remembrance For The Victims Of The Desraeli And Desraeli Wars). >

Be holy: for I am Holy (קדשים תהיו: כי קדוש): Parashat Qedoshim, Leviticus 19:1–20:27 . Lord, through Moses, enumerates a series of prescriptions regarding holiness¹. He insists on the love of neighbor, the stranger and the respect due to the wise.

As early as the 12^th century, a Jewish presence is attested in Nancy, but in 1477, Duke René II of Lorraine had them expelled from the city. It was only in 1721 that Duke of Lorraine Léopold the 1^st authorized Jews to reside in Nancy. On June 11, 1790, the synagogue, built on a marshy area away from places of passage by Augustin-Charles Piroux, was inaugurated. Access to the interior is through a back door. Due to the urban extension, two centuries later, it is found in the heart of the city. In 1935, after having been enlarged twice (1841 and 1861), a new facade, the work of Alfred Thomas, was put in place. On this facade is inscribed in French the verse of Leviticus (19.18)

ואהבת לרעך כמוך
You shall love your neighbor as yourself
TU AIMERAS TON PROCHAIN COMME TOI-MEME

On July 18, 1942, Edouard Vigneron, head of the Foreigners Service² of Nancy, learns that a raid must take place the next day at dawn. He summons all the policemen he can reach to scare away all the threatened Jews. He does not hesitate to have them accompany them to the station, to give them tickets, false-real identity cards and passes. Some of these police even sheltered Jews in their homes. Edouard Vigneron and his assistant Pierre Marie and the policemen Charles Bouy, Henri Lespinasse, Charles Thouron, Emile Thiébault and François Pinot thus saved more than 360 people³. On June 30, 1996, five of them received the medal of Righteous Among The Nations⁴.

In his Book Of The Righteous, Lucien Lazare describes the precise circumstances of this story and Patrick Volson is inspired by these facts to make the film The Time Of Disobedience (2006).

Currently the Jewish community of Nancy has about 450 families.

¹ It follows parashah A’harei Mot (אחרי מות — after death), Leviticus 16:1–18 :30, read last week in israel and associated with Qedoshim this shabbat in the diaspora.
² A service whose mission was to enforce the racist laws of the French State and to collaborate with the Nazis.
³ 18 Jews were arrested instead of the planned 385
⁴ Pierre Marie, Charles Bouy, and Charles Thouron and posthumously Edouard Vigneron and François Pinot : See the site “The Foreigners Service of Nancy (French Committee for Yad Vashem) “

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo. Through the game of complex alliances, the First World War is triggered. In 1918, the Ottoman army allied with Germany was defeated and the British invaded Lebanon and Syria, took Damascus, then Aleppo and other strategic points, while French naval forces occupied Beirut. In 1920, near the bank of the Euphrates, British soldiers installed machine guns behind a section of wall which gave way under the weight of the weapons and huge frescoes appeared.
It is the ancient city of Doura-Europos¹ which has just been brought to light; a Macedonian colony founded in 313 ^BCE by Seleucus I, King of Asia, former general of Alexander the Great.
In 64 ^BCE, Pompey defeated King Mithridates VI and transformed the kingdom of Syria into a Roman province, ending the Seleucid dynasty. But it was only under Lucius Verus (co-emperor with Marc Aurelius), in 165, that Doura-Europos was incorporated into the Roman Empire. The population is estimated at around 5,000 inhabitants and many buildings were built: temples, sanctuaries, thermal baths, amphitheater, house of Christians, synagogue. In 244, the enlargements of the synagogue were completed and important frescoes embellish the walls and bear witness to the importance and wealth of the city’s Jewish community.
In 256, to defend against the Sassanid army of Shapour I, the walls of the synagogue were filled in by the defenders (this would protect the frescoes from destruction).. The city is taken, the population deported and the city delivered to oblivion.

On the seventh day of the Passover feast, we read the parashah Beshalach (בשלח – when he let go), Exodus 13:17-15:26 and that of the additional offerings offered on the seven days of the feast, Numbers 28 :19-25.

Lord said to Moses (Exodus – Chapter 14):

^טז ואתה הרם את-מטך, ונטה את-ידך על-הים–ובקעהו; ויבאו בני-ישראל בתוך הים, ביבשה
¹⁶ And you, lift up your rod, reach out your hand to the sea and divide it;
and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.

On the west wall², at the top right of the holy ark, the fresco represents the departure from Egypt, the crossing of the Sea of ​​Reeds by the children of Israel and the drowning of the Egyptian army. Moshe is shown extending his staff. Above him a powerful and protective arm.

the synagogue was completely dismantled and rebuilt at the Archaeological Museum of Damascus in 1936.

¹ Doura Europos: Europos was the name of the birthplace of Seleucus I in Macedonia. The term Doura means “fortress” in the ancient Semitic languages.
² Jerusalem is to the west of the site.

Passover (פסח)
Exodus 12:21-51 and Numbers 28:16-25, haftara Joshua 5:2 to 6:1
The second day in the diaspora
Leviticus 22:26-23:44 and Numbers 28:16-25, haftara II Kings 23:1-9 then 21-25.
On the evening of 15 nissan, the omer count begins

The Sarajevo Haggadah is the most richly illuminated Hebrew manuscript. It was made in the Kingdom of Aragon (Spain) in the middle of the 14th century. It is probably a wedding gift bringing together two families whose coats of arms appear in the book (Shoshan = rose and Elazar = wing) associated with the coat of arms of the city of Barcelona. The manuscript contains 142 folios. The first 40 folios are decorated with 69 miniatures representing scenes from the Torah. On the other folios, no illustration, only the liturgical text with illuminations appears there.

The presence of the Haggadah is attested in Italy in 1609. In 1894, it was sold to the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina by a Sephardic family from Bosnia. In 1941, during the German occupation, museum staff hid it to prevent the Nazis from seizing it. During the wars of Yugoslavia1 (1991-2001), during the intensive bombardment of the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996), the manuscript was put in safety in a safe of the national bank. In 2002, a room was set up in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to be able to exhibit the Haggadah in complete safety. The manuscript is included in the list of national monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

¹ Wars of independence of the constituent states of Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia

Metsor’a (מצורע – person with tzara’at), Leviticus 14:1 – 15:33

The tzara’at (צרעת “leprosy“) could affect an individual (his flesh, his clothes, his house). The Sages of the Talmud mentioned 7 faults causing the appearance of the tsara’at: backbiting, murder, immorality, useless oaths, arrogance, theft and avarice.
This evil is therefore the index, the sign of a moral degeneration. All dictators should be treated like metsor’im (“leper”) and suffer total international isolation.

Rabbi Jacob Zvi Sacks (Sir Jonathan Sacks¹) writes in
The Home We Build Together p. 79:
Pride means valuing others because you value yourself. Arrogance means devaluing others so that you can think highly of yourself. National arrogance is unforgivable. National pride is essential.

Shabbat HaGadol (הגדול = the great), Haftarah in Malachi 3:4-24
^{Name given to the Shabbat preceding Passover}

^ה וקרבתי אליכם, למשפט, והייתי עד ממהר במכשפים ובמנאפים, ובנשבעים לשקר; ובעשקי שכר-שכיר אלמנה ויתום ומטי-גר, ולֹא יראוני–אמר, יי צבאות
⁵ And I will approach you to do justice; I will be an eager witness against magicians, against adulterers, against perjuries; against those who wrong the laborer in his wages, the widow and the orphan, against foreign oppressors, who do not care about me, says the Eternal of Justice.

From 1940, the Nazis tried to destroy the synagogue in the city of Belz in Ukraine, first by fire, then by dynamite, finally they conscripted Jews to dismantle it stone by stone. This dismantling will continue until 1950, under the Stalinist regime. Today, 3 thick walls and some stones remain.

The Beit Hamidrash HaGadol Belz (בעלזא בית המדרש הגדול) in Jerusalem, inaugurated in 2000 after 15 years of work, is an enlarged replica of the building constructed in the city of Belz. The main prayer hall can accommodate up to 8,000 worshippers. The building includes many study rooms, reception rooms, libraries. It is currently the largest synagogue in the world. The carved wooden Holy Ark is 12 meters high and weighs 18 tons. Its size allows it to store more than 100 Torah scrolls. The nine chandeliers, 6 meters high by 3.5 meters wide, are each made of more than 200,000 pieces of Bohemian crystal.

¹ Chief Rabbi Jonathan Henry Sacks (1948-2020), was also a university professor, politician, theologian and British lord.

When Rosh Chodesh Nissan falls on Shabbat, three Sifrei Torahs are brought out.
In the first Sefer-Torah, the parashah of the week is read:
This year, Tazria (תזריע — she shall conceive), Leviticus 12:1–13:59

In the second sefer, it is that of:
Rosh Chodesh, Numbers 28:9-15
In which it is a question of the sacrifices of the Shabbat and those of the neomenia

And in the third that of:
Hachodesh, Exodus 12:1-20
HaShem says Nissan is the first of the months
and He gives His instructions for Passover.

The reading of the Haftata is in:
Ezekiel 45:16-46:18 (Ashkenazi) and 45:18-46:15 (Sephardi)
יח בָּרִאשׁוֹן בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ, תִּקַּח פַּר-בֶּן-בָּקָר תָּמים; וְחִטֵּאתָ, אֶת-הַמִּקְדָּשׁ
18 In the first month, the first of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary.

1. Tazria begins with the commandment of circumcision. Then, we deal with the sources of ritual impurity. A woman who has given birth to a child must undergo a process of purification which concludes with immersion in a Mikvah (מקוה – ritual bath), a pool or natural water source, and the bringing of sacrifices to the Temple. After that, a new cycle begins.
2. Rosh Chodesh is related to the renewal of the moon; it is the beginning of a new cycle.
3. HaChodesh: The month of Nissan is given as the first of the months, it is the first time (French: Printemps), it is the spring, it is the grain which germinates (אבִיב); so it is also a new cycle. Especially since the parashah HaChodesh relates the preparations for the first Passover. This is the time when the Jewish people pass from the state of slaves to that of free men.

Until 2019, Jewish women in Korea had to travel to Japan or China to soak in the mikveh. Getting to a nearby beach was also a possibility, but that meant waiting until late at night when the beaches were empty. Since April 2019, thanks to Rabbi Osher Litzman and his wife Mussy, women can go to the new mikvah in Seoul. The building was built on a hill in an ancient royal Korean style combined with the modern high-tech architecture currently in vogue in this country. The ritual bath has the shape of a drop of water, a strong symbol of rebirth.