Author: shamyr

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.

Shabbat Parah Aduma (פרה אדומה – Red heifer) Numbers 19:1-22
In the Mishnah (Megillah tractate of Mo’ed) it is written that on the third Shabbat of the month of Adar, the law of the red heifer is to be read. We learn there how to get rid of impurity, to enter the Temple and to make sacrifices there.

Parashat Shemini (שמיני – eighth) Leviticus 9:1–11:47
ט.א יהי, ביום השמיני, קרא מֹשה, לאהרן ולבניו–ולזקני, ישראל
9:1 ​​When the eighth day came, Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel

^ט:ד ושור ואיל לשלמים, לזבח לפני יי
^9:4 and a bull and a ram for reward¹, to be sacrificed before the Lord

Jewish families settled in Newport. And in 1677, they laid out the Jewish cemetery in Newport. In 1760, Rabbi Isaac Touro² arrived in Newport to serve as cantor and spiritual leader. His sons Abraham and Judah would become great philanthropists³. Between 1760-1763, architect Peter Harrison built the synagogue. The Georgian-style exterior leads to a large hall with twelve Ionic columns symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel. It is the oldest synagogue in the United States. In 1780, although the community only had eight families, a school was created. Shortly before the end of the American War of Independence, the deeds and the Torah scrolls were transferred to the Spanish-Portuguese Shearith Israel synagogue in Nieuw Amsterdam (New York) and the community disappeared. For much of the 19th century, no Jews lived in Newport, and the building would not reopen until 1883.

Currently the congregation consists of about 175 families. Although most worshipers are Ashkenazim, they are constitutionally obligated to use Sephardic ritual in the synagogue.

¹ The peace offering (שלמים – shelamim) or sacrifice of thanksgiving
² Isaac Touro, born in Amsterdam in 1738, settled in Jamaica in 1758, died in Kingston, Jamaica in 1783 (Touro: bull in Portuguese)
³ Abraham Touro, born in Newport, in 1774, died in Boston in 1822 and Judah Touro born in 1775 in Newport, died in 1854 in New Orleans contributed financially to the upkeep of the cemetery and the synagogue and supported charities charitable.

In this parashah, it is mainly about the sacrifices; what should we bring; how to accomplish them; who should do it; who has the right to consume them and when; what to do with leftovers not eaten.
In Hosea in verse 14:3 it is written:

אמרו אליו, כל-תשא עון וקח-טוב, ונשלמה פרים, שפתינו
We will offer our lips as bull sacrifices.

Prayer is the substitute for sacrifices. Three times a day, we pray, even in the most difficult conditions (wars, pogroms, climate, etc.).

Tirat-Zvi (טירת צבי – fort Zvi) is the first religious kibbutz established in Israel. It is located in the southern part of the Bet Shean Valley. On June 30, 1937, 80 men and women, aged 20 to 25, from Germany and Eastern Europe established a settlement around an existing structure purchased, along with the surrounding land, by the JNF ( Jewish National Fund or KKL – Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael). They name this place Tirat-Zvi in ​​memory of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalisher, who supported immigration to Eretz. In this region, temperatures are particularly cold in winter (-5°C. or 23° F.) and high in summer (up to 50° C. or 122°F). In the early years, on cold nights, they light fires to protect crops from frost, and on summer nights, kibbutz members sleep outdoors under mosquito nets to escape mosquitoes. For more than ten years, they cleared the land and channeled water from the swamps, a source of malaria. The Arabs do not accept the new community, and six months after its creation, the kibbutz is attacked. The attack is repelled, but the tensions and the attacks will remain important until the war of independence.

Tirat Zvi specializes in the development, production and marketing of meat specialties (pastrami, sausages and other charcuterie).

Chronicles and the Book of Kings describe the conquest of the Northern Kingdom by the monarchs of Assyria, Tiglat-Pilesser III (תגלת פלאסר)¹ and Shalmaneser V (שלמנאסר)². The latter, in 722 BCE, took people of Israel into exile:

II Kings chapter 18.11
ויגל מלך-אשור את-ישראל, אשורה; וינחם בחלח ובחבוֹר, נהר גזן–וערי מדי
The king of Assyria took Israel into exile in the land of Assyria; he transported him to Halah, to the Haber, the river of Gozan, and to the towns of Media.

This is one of many cases of forced deportations implemented by the Assyrian Empire, during which many thousands of Jews were exiled to Assyria.
Based on the size and importance of Hamadān as a royal city or capital of the Medes, Vladimir Lukonin³ thinks it reasonable to assume that many of these Jews settled there, making the Jewish community of Hamadān the oldest outside of Israel⁴.
Benjamin of Tudela⁵ in his Sefer Massa’ot (מסעות ספר – Travel Book) recounts his visit to Hamadān. He estimates the city’s Jewish population at 50,000 and describes the tomb of Esther and Mordecai.
Shāhin of Shiraz⁶, a 14th century Persian Jewish poet, recounts, among other stories, in his epic poem Ardashir-Nāmah⁷, the journey of Queen Esther and Mordechai to Hamadān, where they are said to have died.

Warning: even if it is allowed to drink⁸ more than usual on Purim, avoid drinking a salmanazar (9-liter bottle) or a nebuchadnezzar (15 liters).

¹ Reign 745-727 BCE / ² Reign 727-722 BCE / ³ Vladimir Lukonin (1932-1984), Russian scholar in the field of ancient Iranian history, culture and arts / ⁴ The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, Lukonin, Cambridge, 1989 (English edition), page 48 / ⁵ Benjamin of Tudela (circa 1130-1173), rabbi, born in Tudela (Navarre), major figure in medieval Jewish geography and history . / ⁶ Shāhin-i Shirāzi worked during the reign of Abu Sa’id Bahadur Khan (1316-1335), and was a contemporary of the Persian poet Hafez (_^circa 1325-1390). / ⁷ The book of Ardashir or Ahasuerus or Achashverosh, generally identified with Xerxes I (_^circa 518-465 BCE). / ⁸ Shulchan Aruch 695.2, Orchot Chaim Halachot Purim note 38.

Parashat Vayikra (ויקרא – and he called) Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26
The parashah details the prescriptions relating to offerings and sacrifices.

Parshat Zachor (זכור – Remember) Deuteronomy 25:17-19
זכור, את אשר-עשה לך עמלק
Remember what Amalek did to you

It is a Torah obligation to read Parshat Zakhor on the Shabbat preceding Purim.

At the Nuremberg trials, the Nazi Streicher declares that he himself gave the order, in August 1938, to destroy the Great Synagogue of Nuremberg. On October 16, 1946, of the twelve sentenced to death, ten were hanged, the other two condemned committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule, one in 1945 in Berlin and the other a few hours before his execution in his cell. On the scaffold, Streicher behaves without dignity. As he climbs the stairs, he stares at the forty or so witnesses** and shouts “It’s Purim” (see Sacha Simon’s testimony).

תּמחה את-זכר עמלק, מתחת השמים
You will erase the memory of Amalek from under the sky

The bodies are cremated and their ashes scattered in the Pegnitz River, to prevent their graves from becoming gathering places.

* Arno Siegfried Hamburger (1923-2013): in 1972, he was the first president of the Jewish Community of Nuremberg (IKGN) and a municipal councillor.
** The witnesses: German Minister of Justice Wilhelm Hoegner, Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, Doctor Leistner, two American journalists, two English, two Russian and two French, including Sacha Simon and four generals, including General Morel , for France.

Parashat Pequdei (פקודי – Inventories) Exodus: 38:21–40:38

The parasha Peqoudei gives the inventory of the raw materials used for the construction of the Tabernacle, then describes the making of the sacerdotal vestments and the consecration of the priests. The book of Exodus ends with the manifestation of Divine Glory in the completed sanctuary.

7 Adar (Thursday March 10, 2022) Moché Rabenou’s Hiloula
(הילולא from הלל – to praise, to glorify, to exalt, to cry out with joy and fear).
May his merit protect the entire community of Israel.

The community was founded in 1907 by Russian immigrants. Rabbi Meir Ashkenazi, Chief Rabbi of Shanghai, supports the creation of a new space. In 1927, an existing building was transformed and named the Moses Synagogue (摩西会堂 – pinyin Móxī huìtáng). In the 1930s, some 20,000 German and Austrian Jews found refuge in Shanghai. In 1937, Japan occupied Chinese territory, but not Shanghai’s international concessions. In December 1941, the Japanese occupied the entire city and imposed restrictions on the Jews. In 1943, the Jews were rounded up in the Shanghai ghetto, forcing them to live there. In 1949, the synagogue was seized by the communist government and converted into a psychiatric hospital, and most of the Jews left Shanghai. In 2004, the Moshe Synagogue was added to Shanghai’s architectural heritage list. In 2007, the government restored the synagogue to its original architectural style and transformed it into a museum. A few residential buildings from the ghetto period still stand around the old synagogue.

Parashat Vayakhel (ויקהל – And he assembled himself) Exodus 35:1 – 38:20

In the Parasha Vayakhel, Moshe recalls the command to observe the Shabbat, then asks the people to bring the materials to make the tabernacle and the sacred utensils.

Parshat Shekalim (שקלים – Shekels) Exodus 30:11 – 30:16

The Shabbat which precedes the month of Adar (Adar II in embolismic years, like this year 5782 / 2022) is called Shekalim where it is remembered that every male adult, over the age of 20, had to give half a shekel for the needs of public sacrifices. A tiny stone weight from the First Temple period has been discovered during excavations near the Western Wall. This extremely rare and tiny weight bears the inscription bekah (half shekel) in ancient Hebrew script. It weighs 5.67 grams. During the day, the silver beka is equivalent to €3.80, ₪14.10, $4.30 or £3.20.

It is customary to make a donation to works, during the month of Adar, in remembrance of the half-shekel (זכר למחצית השקל – zekher le-machatzit ha-shekel). The most appropriate time to make this gift is the one before the Mincha service, before the Purim fast, in order to associate the Tzedaqah with the fast, contributing to the atonement (Mishna Berura 694, 4, Kaf Ha chaim 25). Some believe it is right for every member of the family, even the fetus in its mother’s womb, to give tzedakah in remembrance of the half-shekel (Kaf Hachaim 694, 27).

זכזכ לאבלאבםם ליצחק וליששאל עבדיך, אשאש נשבעת ללם בך, ותדבתדב אלאלם, אאבב את – זזעכם ככוכבי שמשמים; וכל-הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי, אתן לזרעכם, ונחלו, לעֹלם
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, saying to them, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven; and all this country that I have designated, I will give it to your posterity, who will possess it forever!

Moshe pleads for forgiveness of the fault of the golden calf. He is heard and God reiterates his promise made to the patriarchs.
The first mention of the existence of Jews in Ulm is recorded in the imperial tax book of 1241. In all European communities, Jews experience moments of tranquility followed by periods of violence. In 1499, the Jews were expelled from the city and it was not until 1856 that a real Jewish community was reformed. In 1873, a synagogue was built. In 1938, it was slightly damaged during Reich pogrom night, then razed by order of the mayor, a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP).
In 2012, a new synagogue was built. The architects Johannes Kister, Reinhard Scheithauer and Susanne Gross multiplied the perforations in the facade to create windows with patterns in the shape of a Star of David that illuminate the arch and radiate the synagogue outwards. The limestone used resembles that of many buildings constructed in Eretz Israel. The prayer hall, centered on the diagonal of the building, points exactly in the direction of Jerusalem. The central dodecagon-shaped light symbolizes the twelve tribes.