April 12th, 2024
The two busiest months of the year are Nisan and Tishri. Tishri actually has more festivals, but Nisan has a unique multiplicity of activities, domestic, liturgical, social and intellectual.
The demands that Pesach makes on us are almost unbelievable, and yet it is the one festival that almost every Jew on earth observes, at least to some extent.
Samson Raphael Hirsch explains why the other name for Nisan is Aviv, “The Month of Spring”. In springtime the earth is a season of hope. As Shir HaShirim puts it (2:11-12), “The winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing is come”.
In history this is symbolic of the people of Israel on the very first Pesach, when the gloom of night gave way to dawn and the people were about to experience national rebirth.
Hirsch adds that this should also be a source of comfort to the individual when “the bitter hours of trial in your own life… bring you near to God as your Guardian and Shepherd”.
Those who live in the Southern Hemisphere with a different springtime can still learn the same lesson.
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Festivals & Fasts, Pesach | 
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January 21st, 2024
Trees are a constant theme of our literature, both metaphorically (e.g. Psalm 1) and literally (e.g. Deut. 20:19).
Trees and human beings are often compared. The Psalmist (Psalm 1:3) likens man to a tree: both grow if they are properly nourished.
The Midrash says that the righteous, like a tree, is strong and solid and like a tree he produces results. The Maharal of Prague says that if well rooted, both humans and trees grow upwards.
Chassidic philosophy says that a tree grows quietly and gradually, and so does a human being. You can’t see a tree actually growing or see the human spurt of growth; but both have observable results.
Posted by oztorah | Festivals & Fasts, Tu BiSh'vat | Permalink
January 21st, 2024
This week’s Torah portion begins (Ex. 15:1) Az Yashir Moshe.
These words are usually translated “Then Moses sang”, though literally they mean “Then Moses will sing”.
In the Talmud the future tense of the verse indicates “Then (thereafter) Moses will sing”, i.e. in the future messianic era.
Rashi suggests that the verse combines past and future; when he saw the miraculous redemption at the Red Sea, he thought he would sing a song about it in the future.
Others say we are dealing with a strange Hebrew grammatical form which, though it looks like future tense, refers to history, i.e. to events in the past tense.
Posted by oztorah | B'shallach, Parashah Insights | Permalink
January 21st, 2024
The Bible is not sure that Miriam herself sang at the Sea, but Dead Sea texts say she did.
In the Torah, Moses says ashirah, “I sing”; Miriam tells the women, Shiru “(You) sing!” Possibly the women responded with the words beginning with ashirah.
The text says Vata’an, literally “she answered” (verse 21), but the root ayin-nun-heh cannot mean “to answer”, unless there is a preceding statement to which to respond (e.g. Deut. 26:5, 21:7, 27:14-15; II Kings 1:11, I Chron. 12:18); hence it means “to utter” (here, “in song”) or “to chant”.
Targum Pseudo-Yonatan renders vata’an as v’zamrat, “she sang”. Mechilta Shirata says, “As Moses recited the song for the men, so Miriam recited the song for the women” (JZ Lauterbach’s translation). In Ex. 32:18, anot is “tune” or “song”. In I Sam. 18:7, vata’anennah hanashim is, “and the women sang”. Gersonides says they sang a one-verse precis; Chiz’kuni agrees that the Torah gave a precis.
In Onkelos and Peshitta, vata’an is ume’anya, “and she answered”, i.e. the women responded to Moses’s lead. Malbim says that the women insisted on singing as a contribution to the redemption.
Posted by oztorah | B'shallach, Parashah Insights | Permalink
January 21st, 2024
Chapter 16 verse 3 of Sh’mot – part of this week’s reading of the Torah – reports that the fleeing Israelites complained in the wilderness that life had become too difficult.
“When we sat by the flesh pots,” they said in recollection of life in Egypt, “we ate bread to the full”.
It seems that in Egypt they had to cook the meat for their masters but they were not permitted to eat it. So their task was limited to warming their bread on the vapour of the roasting meat. They enjoyed the savoury smell even if they got no actual meat.
In the wilderness they didn’t even get any meat vapour.
Posted by oztorah | B'shallach, Parashah Insights | Permalink
