OzTorah

Q. My husband gave me a necklace with the Hebrew words, Dodi Li (“My beloved is mine”). May I wear it in the bathroom?

A. Religious objects and Biblical verses, even without the Divine name, must be treated with respect and in general must not be taken into the bathroom.

Maimonides ruled that a tallit with a b’rachah or Biblical verse on the collar must not be worn in the bathroom (Shulchan Aruch,Yoreh De’ah 284:2). One should not wear t’fillin in the bathroom unless they have two coverings (Mishnah B’rurah on Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah 282:4).

The whole or part of a verse (e.g. Sh’ma Yisra’el) must not be taken into the bathroom unless it is a phrase like your Dodi li (the source is Shir HaShirim 1:13) which is a common expression of love.

More problematical is Mitzpah (“a watchtower”, which is part of a phrase, “The Lord watch between me and you” (Gen. 31:49), though it could be argued that some people do not realise that it is part of a Biblical passage.

If a person has an amulet bearing the letter heh, which is a symbol of the Divine name, they should not wear it to the bathroom.

An associated issue is the question of how to dispose of religious texts which as a general rule must be placed in a g’nizah (storage receptacle the contents of which will be buried in due course).

Most views are strict and say that any Torah material in English – even if the name of God is not spelt out in it – must not be discarded in the garbage, etc., though if it has not been used for prayer, study, etc., some allow it to be placed in a paper recycling bin. This applies if you print out OzTorah.

The first thing we learn from these words is that God does not appear to anyone in a physical form since by definition He is not physical and has no shape or form, a point which is made abundantly clear in Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith. When God appears, He appears by means of His name, His character.

Note that there are two names in this passage – E-l Shaddai, “Almighty God”, and Y-H-V-H, “HaShem”. The first name signifies His power, the second His Being.

To the Patriarchs, His revelation was more in terms of the created world. He was the One who, from outside the system, created the system. From outside the sun, moon and stars, He created these phenomena.

This is why Abraham, followed by Isaac and Jacob, saw the evidence of finite Creation and reasoned that the world had to have had a Creator.

Moses, on the other hand, knew Him as HaShem, the One who is pure Being, the One who is Presence, whose name derives from the Hebrew verb “to be”.

Moses knew Him not merely for what He does but for what He is.

The sidrot at this time of year focus on the Divine call to Moses that changed the whole of human history.

Pinhas Peli tells the story of a student who sought admission into the s’michah program of a rabbinic seminary. Faced with a bench of Talmudic scholars the student wanted to show what g’maras he had learnt and how he would fit into the seminary.

Trying to be friendly, one of the examining panel, Abraham Joshua Heschel, asked a simple practical question: “If you were on a desert island, what would you like to have with you?”

The student spoke about his siddur, tallit and tefillin, Mishnayot, and various Talmudical tractates.

Heschel said quietly, “Very nice, young man, but I have a better answer. What would I want on a desert island? Sandwiches and a sweater!”

Living in the heavenly clouds is not unimportant, but neither are the practical necessities for life on earth.

Q. Why do the kohanim take off their shoes before they duchan (recite the priestly blessing)?

A. The priests in the Temple ministered barefooted. Shoes do not figure in the list in Ex. 28 of items with which the priests had to be equipped.

Shoes not only bring in mud and dust but represent the need to protect oneself from the harshness of the ground, whereas in a holy place one feels as safe as the angels (does any artist ever depict angels with shoes on?).

Samson Raphael Hirsch says in his commentary on Exodus (Isaac Levy’s translation, 1956, pages 25-26): “Taking off one’s shoes expresses giving oneself up entirely to the meaning of a place, to let your personality get its standing and take up its position entirely and directly on it without any intermediary.

“So the kohanim in the Mikdash had always to function barefooted, and nothing was allowed to intervene between their feet and the ground, or between their hands and the holy vessels used during the avodah, or between the priestly garments and the body…

“If one wished to act in the service of the Mikdash, one had to identify oneself directly with it, and become sanctified by it and be a part of it”.

There are a number of other mitzvot which are carried out without any intervening object (chatzitzah) – e.g. nothing must intervene between one’s person and the water of the mikvah and nothing must intervene between one’s skin and the tefillin.

Q. Tombstone inscriptions seem to end with the Hebrew letters, tav, nun, tzaddi, bet and hey (ת׳ נ׳ צ׳ ב׳ ה׳). Is this a word? What does it mean?

A. These are the initials of tehi nafsho (nafshah for a woman) tzerurah bitz’ror hachayyim – “May his/her soul be bound up in the bond of life”.

The words are from Abigail’s prayer for David in I Kings 25:29. Abigail meant this as a prayer for the living, i.e. “May his soul long be preserved in life”. The Targum, however, applies the words to life after death.

In this vein, the Metzudat David paraphrases the prayer: “May the soul of my lord be bound up in the bond of eternal spiritual life after its separation from the body.”

The Hebrew letters on a tombstone thus convey our confident hope that the deceased will enjoy immortality.

#headstone #gravestone #monument #matzeivah