EMOR, LEVITICUS 21:1–24:23,
REMEMBERANCE DAY, YOM HA'ATZMAUT
יום זיכרון
יום העצמאות
In Parshat Emor we learn about the exalted character of the Kohanim and their responsibility to the nation of Israel. They were our teachers.
Who are our teachers today?
In our prayer service today, immediately before the Kohanim bless the congregation, they recite the following blessing:ברוך אתה הי אלוחינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו בקדןשתו של אהרון וצונו
לברך את עמו ישראל בהאבה
"Blessed are you Hashem our God, King of the universe who has sanctified us with the holiness of Ahron and commanded us to bless the people of Israel with love".
In the Ethics of the Fathers, 1:12, Hillel says:
הוי מתלמידיו של אהרן, אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה
"Be a disciple of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them closer to the Torah”.
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At 22:32 we learn:
At 21:23 we are taught “עַ֚יִן תַּ֣חַת עַ֔יִן שֵׁ֖ן תַּ֣חַת”, "An eye for an eye".
This is a principle that is sometimes referred to as reciprocal justice or measure for measure or in Latin, lex talionis, the law of retaliation or possibly equitable retribution. On its face this principle seems pretty straight forward: A person who has injured another person is to be penalized to a similar degree by the injured party.
I think the original intention of “An eye for an eye” may have been two-fold:
· To prevent excessive punishment at the hands of either an avenging private party or his Family or Clan or Tribe. It served to prevent feuds and vendettas.
· To ensure that the standard of care for a wealthy perpetrator, who may wish to buy his way out, be the same as for an improvised person.
At the time when we received the Torah at Mt. Sinai there was a Babylonian legal code present in Mesopotamia called the Code of Hammurabi. Included in this code was the principle of “An eye for an eye”. What the law would have been in Egypt I do not know. I do know that 500 years later at the time of the Judges, as shown in 1:5-7 and Chapter 30 the law of retaliation was still in force.
Looking at the Book of Numbers, Chapter 35: 31-32 except for the crime of murder it may have been possible for a monetary payment, כֹפֶר to be acceptable in place of bodily punishment. Sometime later, it is hard to say when, the lex talionis was "humanized" by the Rabbis who interpreted "an eye for an eye" to mean reasonable monetary compensation. The Rabbis of the Talmud interpreted it that way. And it is so today.
Question: Is this dangerous ground? Is the reinterpretation of lex talionis an example of the ability of Judaism to adapt to changing social and intellectual ideas
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יום זיכרון, MEMORIAL DAY
A reflection on יום זיכרון, Memorial Day, which we will celebrate this week.
I get to the cemetery early. Some young people handed me a bouquet. I turned to the graves; there were so many of them. I did not know which one to lay the flowers on. I chose 34-year-old Lt. Eliyahu Tadri who perished in July of 1948. It has been a most sad day. I am in a blue funk. Nearby to Lt. Tadri were the graves of three 18-year-olds.
It has been a very sad day.
Immediately following Yom HaZichoron, Memorial Day, we began to celebrate Independence Day, Yom Ha’Atzmaut. During the Maariv service the Ark is opened; we say the Hallel and the Shofar is blown. It is festive, but I am still wrestling with my emotions from Yom HaZichoron. I don’t feel like dancing and the fireworks of Independence Day hold little attraction.
I drink a L’Chaim to Lt. Tadri and go to bed.
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THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IN NAHARIYA,
REMEMBERANCE DAY, יום זיכרון
There is an on-going cost to keep us Israelis safe and free... And the people of Nahariya have not gone unscathed.
On this Tuesday evening, May 3rd we will begin observing Remembrance Day, יום זיכרון. At 8 PM a siren will go off. and another one on Wednesday at 11 AM, during which the country stands still for a moment of silence and remembrance for the fallen soldiers of the IDF and the victims of terror attacks. May their memory be for a blessing.
In 2016 there was a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv. Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on patrons at the Max Brenner Cafe in the Sarona Market, killing four people and injuring seven others.
The attack was horrific, but the paradigm is not a new one. While the slaughter was going on at Tel Aviv’s Sarona market, I was with a group of English speaking Olim in Nahariya. We had gathered by an apartment building located at 19 Balfour Street. In 1974 this building was also the site of a terrorist attack in which a mother and her two children aged 5 and 12 were murdered.
There were about two dozen of us Olim. We walked around the building led by Motti Zarenkin who lost his wife, son and daughter that tearful night in 1974. Motti began his story. He took us to the rear of the building and showed us the first floor apartment where he and his family had lived some 42 years ago. Motti pointed out two windows: a bedroom window through which his wife and children tried to make their escape and a bathroom window where he had started to climb through before being shot and severely wounded.
In 1974 there had been a series of terrorist raids in the Galilee. It made sense for Israelis to have a plan in place in the event that their home became under attack. The same is true today. The Zarenkin family had such a plan. If under attack, Motti would lock the front door and then the family would escape through a bedroom window.
The Zarenkins lived on the first floor of the building. Late on the night of June 23, the concussion of a grenade and the sound of small arms fire quickly brought Motti to the terrifying truth that the building was under attack. He feared that the terrorists would break into his apartment, but he and his wife had planned for this frightening reality and so he ran to secure the front door.
While Motti was locking the front door, his wife, son and daughter were exiting the apartment as planned on a rope previously woven from sheets. They reached the ground and began running toward the street. But they were spotted and a grenade killed all three of them. Motti did not know this; he thought that he had saved his family. When he tried to escape the apartment as well, through a bathroom window, he was shot. Wounded, Motti climbed back into his apartment, where he hid until found by soldiers.
Motti was taken to the hospital and was being prepared for surgery. This was the first of nine surgeries over a three month period. Just before he went under the anesthesia, his brother-in-law told him that his wife and children had been killed. “What will you do”, his brother-in-law asked? “I will get through this and make a new life”, Motti responded.
And although it is impossible to put yourself in his shoes, that’s what Motti did. There is another piece to Motti’s story. In 1979, Nahariya once again was under attack. This time a mother lost her only infant child. It was a terrible thing. The mother was beyond reconciliation. She would not able to speak or be with anyone. Her grief was unimaginable. Motti was asked to approach her which he did. She knew who he was and what unspeakable agony he had gone through. The mother and Motti spoke. Like Motti, despite her tragedy she persevered. Today she has a growing family. Motti had saved her.
Motti moved to Haifa. He built a new family, even grandchildren. This was the first time that Motti chose to tell his story. It was beyond riveting. We were honored to have been selected to hear his story. Motti was truly a man; resolute, a role model for all us Jews, and he makes me proud to be an Israeli. Moti passed away in 2020.
The terrorists who attacked the market in Tel Aviv were members of Hamas. They did not come from the sea as they did in 1974 and 1979. They came from a town near Beersheba. They are evil. Hamas and Fatah are evil. And as we have learned, sad but true; evil will not cure itself.
To the families of the slain Israelis in Tel Aviv: May the Almighty comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
For Motti’s deceased wife and children: Peace be upon them; May the memory of the Holy ones be for a blessing, and May Hashem avenge their blood.
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YOM HAZIKARON
As of last year:
The number of Israel's casualties of war stand at 24,068 as of April 2021. Since last Memorial Day, 140 new names were added to the roster of those who died defending the country. Of these, 56 deaths were members of the Defense Forces, with another 84 disabled persons dying as a result of injury in defense services.
That is the cost to keep us Israelis safe and free.
On Tuesday, May 3rd at 8 PM a siren will go off. and another one on Wednesday at 11 AM, during which the country stands still for a moment of silence and remembrance for the fallen soldiers of the IDF.
May their memory be for a blessing...Only simchas.
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OMER COUNT FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY
Let's not forget the counting of the Omer, Wednesday night being the 20th day of the Omer count.
Rabbi Simon Jacobson provides spiritual insight into the counting of the Omer for each and every day. For the 20th Day of the Omer, which is day six of the third week we are directed to correct the flaw in the Sefirat known as Yesod of Tiferet. Here Tiferet is considered as compassion, and Yesod having within it the ability to bond. Rabbi Jacobson explains how the compassion of the day can be rectified:
"For compassion to be fully realized, it needs bonding. It requires creating a channel between giver and receiver. A mutuality that extends beyond the moment of need. A bond that continues to live on. That is the most gratifying result of true compassion. Do you bond with the one you have compassion for, or do you remain apart? Does your interaction achieve anything beyond a single act of sympathy?"
The 20th Day of the Omer coincides with Yom Ha'atzmaut. Consider Rabbi Jacobson’s words in the context of a relationship between Jews outside of Israel and our Land of Israel.
To correct the flaw in this Sefriat, Rabbi Jacobson proposes the following exercise: Ensure that something eternal is built (the Land of Israel) as a result of your (Jews living outside of Israel) compassion.
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