Balaq (בלק), Numbers 22:2–25:9 כד ה מַה-טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ, יַעֲקֹב; מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ, יִשְׂרָאֵל. 24-5How 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 . 2This 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 ofTemple (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. 16As 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 Synagogue2Shalom Al Yisrael(Peace on Israel) dates from the end of the 6th 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.
1Stedenbouw 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 13th 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 18th 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.
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.
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 theIsraeli 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. 2Israeli 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.
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 (בהרסיני – 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 2th 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.
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.
