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    Working day & night – Yitro

    February 9th, 2025

    Jethro visits Moses, by Gerard Jollain, 1670

    Yitro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a wise man. He recognised both the good and the not so good.

    He thought it was far from good that Moses was available to the people at all hours of the day: “Why do you sit there by yourself with the people standing before you from morning to night?” he asked (Ex.18:14).

    Yitro feared that Moses would wear himself out and had to learn how to ration his time. Working from morning to night was not good for anyone.

    Rashi, however, is not nearly as critical as Yitro. He thinks it was good for the leader to be engaged in giving judgment all day long. He took every case seriously and didn’t rush through an issue perfunctorily or impatiently.

    It is a lesson that we can all learn when we have a decision to make.

    Recently a problem I had at home illustrated the Rashi principle. We had a blocked sink; I called the plumber and told him, “It’s an easy one: it will only take you a minute”.

    In the event it took half an hour because the plumber was not prepared to rush through the job without looking at it properly and taking whatever time it needed to solving the problem.

    This careful attitude is what Rashi recognised in Moses. Nothing could be rushed, even if it meant devoting a whole day to working things out from morning to night.


    An Israeli Sinai? – Yitro

    February 9th, 2025

    After centuries of certainty that the site of Mount Sinai was in the Sinai desert in a no-man’s land between Egypt and Israel, an Israeli archaeologist, Emanuel Anati, thoroughly researched the area and in the late 1980s wrote a book called “The Mountain of God” in which he argued that Sinai was really in the Negev in the wilderness of Paran.

    After investigating over twenty theories as to the location of Mount Sinai he was sure that history had got the story wrong and the true Sinai was Mount Karkom in Israel in a place strewn with religious relics.

    The validity of his argument is now in the hands of the scholars but if it is true there are a number of major historical implications that need to be addressed.

    There is a dimension of the problem that speaks to ordinary human beings, Jews and non-Jews alike. It is suggested by a D’var Torah I heard many years ago on the subject of the burial place of Moses.

    The Torah insists (Deut. 34) that “no-one knows his burial place unto this day”. The D’var Torah I heard – and remembered – asserted, “Despite the Torah, I can tell you where Moses s buried. He is buried here in our own community where his Torah is neglected and spurned. That’s where Moses is buried – in our own midst”.

    In similar fashion I might say that I know where Sinai is. Wherever the Sinai message is known, loved and heeded, that’s where Sinai is located.

    Where is Sinai? Wherever we take it seriously.


    Hypnosis – Ask the Rabbi

    February 9th, 2025

    Q. What is the Jewish opinion on hypnosis?

    A. There are two issues – may a Jew practise or submit to hypnosis, and is an act performed under hypnosis deemed a conscious act by Jewish law?

    On the first issue, the answer depends on whether hypnosis is merely a resort to dark supernatural practices, which would presumably come under the heading of witchcraft.

    There was a time when hypnosis was rare and treated with suspicion by the medical profession, but now that it has some legitimacy we would tend to follow the view of the 19th-century authority, Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger, in responsum no. 67 in his Binyan Tziyyon.

    He was asked about a pious man who was advised to undergo magnetism or mesmerism. Gentile physicians assured the rabbi that the procedure had mental health benefits and was not necromancy. The rabbi therefore approved hypnotism as a valid treatment.

    In relation to the second problem, Rabbi Joseph Schwarz addresses the question of a hypnotised shochet (kosher animal slaughterer) in the magazine Vay’lakket Yosef. If the shochet carries out shechitah whilst under hypnosis, is his act halachically valid?

    Technically he does not need the same degree of mental intention as in saying the Shema, where mental intention is everything. Nonetheless, if the hypnotised shochet carries out the act properly he must have some level of mental awareness and his act is valid. The discussion is reported by Solomon B Freehof in his “Responsa Literature”, 1959, ch. 7.


    Where does “Daven” come from – Ask the Rabbi

    February 9th, 2025

    Q. Where do we get the word daven (the colloquial Yiddish word for praying)?

    A. Jewish popular etymology (e.g. the Sefer Ta’amei HaMinhagim) derives the term from the Aramaic d’avuhon, “of our fathers”, suggesting a link with the Talmudic statement, “The avot, the patriarchs, ordained the daily services” (Ber. 26b).

    Another Aramaic derivation (proposed by Avigdor Chaikin) cites the Talmudic phrase, ka davai lamizrach, “gazing wistfully to the east” (Shab. 35a).

    However, it is not until the Takkanot (communal regulations) of Cracow, 1595, that the term davenen is first found, and for the next 200 years there seem to be no more than six further literary references, which is strange if it is an ancient term with Talmudic origins.

    It is more likely that it has entered Jewish usage from some other language. The possibilities include Arabic (from diwan, a collection of poems or prayers), French (from devoner, to devote or dedicate), Latin (from divin, Divine) and even English (from dawn). An analogy is the custom of Jews in German-speaking lands to use oren for “to pray”, coming originally from the Latin ora.

    In an article entitled “The Etymology of Davenen” in the Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, vol.28, 1959, Judah A Joffe states that the word daven came into Yiddish from Slavic, as did zaide, bobbeh, tateh, mameh, etc. He derives daven from a Lithuanian/Latvian word for present, gift or tribute.

    However, a study by Mordechai Kosover of a 15th century Yiddish book of customs (in “For Max Weinrich on His 70th Birthday”, 1964) concludes that the word is from Middle High German doenen, to sing, play or sound.

    Judah Joffe warns against popular theorising about the origin of words, which can lead to such absurdities as saying that “roof garden” comes from the Yiddish, m’muz gehn aruf or that a “restaurant” is so named because er esst araan.


    Remembering a great man

    February 5th, 2025

    The first yahrzeit of Rabbi Raymond Apple zt”l, is this Shabbat, 10 Sh’vat (8 February).

    Y’hi zichro baruch.

    More information about Rabbi Apple: https://oztorah.com/about/