Torah Portion Ekev: A Land of Light

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Olive Trees, Haas Promenade

Olive Trees, Haas Promenade by YossiTourGuide

Olive trees on the Haas Promenade

“A Land of Wheat, of Barley, Grapes, Figs and Pomegranates, a land of  Olive Oil and honey” (Deuteronomy / Devarim  – 8:8)

This weeks portion of the Torah discusses some of the blessed qualities of the land of Israel.

There is a slight textual difficulty in that it only mentions one product of a fruit; Olives. It does not say a land of ‘Wheat Bread’ or ‘Grape wine’ or ‘Pomegranate slushies’.

What Are Olive Trees Good For ?

So one answer given by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (10th Century Torah commentator) is to tell us that the Olive trees were used for oil. But is n’t this a bit obvious; we can get 2 things from an olive tree:

1 Olives

2 Olive Oil.

Surely we could say that about all these fruits.

Ah! but all these other fruits have multiple uses: you can have beer or bread, pomegranites, pomegranite slushies or grenadine etc. With olives thats pretty much all you get; olives and oil. Ever heard of Olive wine ? Normally (unless we’re constipated) we do n’t drink Olive Oil. All these other products are edible as well.

Its all Part of the Process

Three of the fruits have a process associated with them. Both wheat and grapes can be fermented to make bread, beer or wine, by extension all of the fruits except for Olives can be fermented but that’s fairly uncommon, people mosly ferment wheat and grapes.

Olives have a special process associated with them. Firstly they are squashed normally releasing a tiny little bit of oil. This first squeezing releases the best oil or ‘Virgin Oil’. Then the pips and skins are gather again, put in baskets and squeezed once more. Since antiquity Olives have undergone this intricate process of squeezing.

This is for collecting the virgin Oil from the first crush, the upper stone is called a memel, the lower stone is called a 'yam.

This is a re -constructed ' beam and weight' press from Tel Hatzor, the baskets of olive bits are squashed by the Kora 'beam'' to collect the lower stage of Olive Oil.

Olives: Not just for Salad Dressing – a symbol of Light

 

Olive oil was the main source of lighting in the Ancient Near East, the purpose of the process mentioned above was light. The product of Olives – oil gets a special mention because of its high value.  My teacher, Rabbi Yitzchak Hirshfeld said that Olives are a symbol of the Jewish people that they are crushed through the travails of history and continue to produce the Light of Truth, the light of the Torah.

 

 

(These words of Torah are dedicated to the speedy recovery of Zlata bat Sima, please include her in your prayers and in the memory of the seven precious souls who were killed today in Southern Israel)

Haftarah for this Week: ‘Like a booth in a field of Gourds’.

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A Shomera in Wadi Jinan near road 443 (Watch this space, I am going to upload a better picture of a Shomera that I saw)

“The Daughter of Zion is left like a (sucah) booth in a vineyard, like a (melunah) shed  in a field of gourds” (Isaiah Chapter 1:8)

This week is part for the 9 days of mourning leading up to the 9th of Av which commemorates the destruction of both Temples and the various tradgedies of the Diaspora. There is a tradition to read on the Sabbath before the 9th of Av from the first prophecy of Isaiah. In his prophecy he predicts the downfall of Judah and anthropomorphises her and explains how she is abandoned like a special type of building described as a ‘booth’ (a sucah) or some kind of lodging place (a melunah). Both are types of ‘Shomera’ which is a concept which has existed since ancient times and is used in arab agriculture.

The Shomera

A Shomera is used as a watchman’s booth in harvest time. During the harvest the harvester lives in a little hut next to his field until he has finished his harvesting and no longer has any more produce to protect.

So What’s So Bad about being abandoned like a Shomera?

A few weeks ago I was hiking in the beautiful hills of Sataf, which is an old abandoned village just West of Jerusalem. There is a wonderful trail that I can recommend called the ‘trail of the Shomerot’. Where you follow a trail of such booths up the hillside. It was just after midday and incredibly hot, my companions and I were forced to seek refuge inside an ancient Shomera. It certainly is not luxury accommodation, its a dank crampt little stone hut that you hide in from the scolding midday sun.

A mixture of Protection and Abandonment

The image here is stark, the ‘daughter of Zion’ is fleeing from the Sun; the harsh judgement that has been meted out to her and her only protection is a dank hut on a mountainside. Yet she does have some protection even though it is rickety and unsafe. The Shomera is a symbol of both the oppressive situation of the Jewish people and their ability to ‘cling on’ and survive in the oppressive heat of history. It is not the ideal situation but it is survival.

(These words of Torah are dedicated to the speedy recovery of Zlata bat Sima, please include her in your prayers)

Torah Portion Massei: The Borders of Israel

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“And you will have the corner of the Negev, the Wilderness of Zin by way of Edom, and this will be the border of the Negev to the edge of the Salt Sea to the East. The border shall go around from th South to the Scorpions Ascent and cross over towards Zin and it shall come out at Kadesh Barnea and it will go out at Hatzar Adar and Atzmona. And the border from Atzmona will go to the river of Egypt and it will go out West.  This shall be the Northern border: from the Great Sea and this shall be the Sea (Western) border.  This shall be the Northern border, from the Great Sea it shall turn to Mount Hor, it will come to Hamat and will go out to Zared …” (Numbers / Bamidbar 34: 2- 10)

This is an abridge version of the border of Israel as described in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers).  It is one of the divine descriptions of the Land of Israel (another is from Ezekiel, also shown on the map).

Divine Privilege (?)

Although there are many descriptions of Israel’s size and shape in the Bible they all focus on the idea that the size and shape is dictated by  God. In a post – modern world this seems to be a very backward concept.  We live ina world that despises divinely bequeathed privilege.

Duty

The earlier verse says :

“This is the Land that which fell unto you as an inheritance”

Why does it use the phrase ‘fell’ ?

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (11th century commentator) wrote:

” Being a land wherein many  commandments form its culture  and do not form part of the culture of the rest of the world necessitated the delineation of its borders, meaning to say ‘this is the land and inside it are its commandments”.

The bizzare term ‘fell’ coupled with the extensive description of the land indicates that it is  land where specific duties form its culture.

Moral Purpose

The inheritance here was not merely an inheritance of physicality but an inheritance of a moral purpose bound in the physical ‘clothing’ of land.

 

Haftorah for Torah Portion: Matot – Jeremiah’s Northern Prophecy

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Stearn Family Tour - Pointing North

Stearn Family Tour – Pointing North by YossiTourGuide

‘And the word came to me a second time and he said;

“what do you see?”

I said; ” A bubbling pot and its face its pointing North.”

The eternal said;

“From the North shall spout forth evil on to all of the inhabitants of the land.”‘ (Jeremiah 1: 13 – 14)

This week’s reading of the Prophets (Hafarah) is from the Book of Jeremiah. It is part of a series of Haftarot leading up to the ninth of Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples and subsequent Diaspora of the Jews.  In it God speaks to him telling him that “From the North Shall spout forth Evil”.

Trouble Up North

 

Historically Jerusalem was invaded from the North. In the period of history before, when Isaiah was prophesying, Sennacharib, the King of Assyria invaded (unsuccessfully) from the North. During Jeremiah’s time Nebuchadnezzar conquered from the North, as did the Romans and when the Crusaders invaded Israel they came from Lebanon and Syria. In recent history, in 1948, the Jordanians shelled the City from the North and East. Though, counter to our rule, the Israeli paratroopers, in 1967, entered the Lions Gate in the North to conquer the Old City. Seemingly most conquests Jerusalem come from the North.

The Meaning of North

 

In tactical terms we can say that conquests typically come from the North because that is where the highest ground is; from the Mount of Olives and Mount Scopus. However there is a more spiritual reason to do with the meaning of the word North. In Hebrew North is:

צפון – Zafon

 

As we learnt in the Torah Portion of Balak, words in Hebrew have ‘root’ letters which tell us about their meaning. We can make a number of words from the root letters of Zafon:

A Zofe in Hebrew is a scout.

Lizpot is to forsee

Mazpen is a compass

Mazpun is a conscience

The word North is to do with looking forward, forseeing and looking with an agenda in mind.

 

Negative Prophecies

 

Not all looking with an intent is negative, without an ability to foresee certain actions and their  moral consequences we would not have a conscience. There is a type of prophecy that is always negative, this is the type that is common amongst people with depression. It consists of statements such as:

‘I always make mistake X’

‘I will never succeed

‘This type of thing is always happening to me.’

These over generalisations plague our speech and harm our lives, and become true, not by virtue of an innate truth of these statements, but by the belief of the person stating them.

It was God that told Jeremiah to look North, normally it would have been a really bad idea to make such a negative prophecy. In fact if we look at the text it took two prophecies, one with a almond tree stick and the other more disturbing image of a bubbling cauldron. Surely one warning was enough?

The lesson that we learn by the doubling of the prophecy and the harshness of the imagery is that it was not a normal matter, rather it excels in abnormality. The prophecy is the exception that proves the rule:

that a person should not become the prophet of his own downfall.


Spotlight on Nature: Coypu the Fuzzy Invader

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httpv://youtu.be/o2Ajqoqs-es

This is the South American Coypu, what is it doing in the Hula valley in Northern Israel?

So the story goes…

A number of years ago an enterprising Israeli farmer wanted to start a fur farming business. The problem is that mink and ermine do n’t do too well in the hot winters in the middle east. So he found this charming South American rodent that produces wonderfully thick fur every winter.

There was but one snag…

Israeli winters are not cold enough for these little fellas. So what did he do … he released them into the wild.

Big Mistake!

These fellas eat up the roots of plants and do a great job at messing up the local attempts to re – invigorate the wetlands by eating through irrigation pipes and messing up canals.

I think they are very cute and look forward to the day when we will be able to live side by side with these fuzzy invaders.

Torah Portion: Pinchas (Phineas)

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Elijah went a days walk in the desert and sat under a Rotem Bush (1 Kings 19:4)

This weeks Haftarah (reading of the Prophets that accompanies the Torah Reading) is
from the part of the Book of Kings. It describes how the Prophet Elijah was being persecuted by the Evil King
Ahab and his wife Jezebel. So he ran to the wilderness and sat in despair under a Rotem Bush (pictured above).

So the Question might be:
Why sit under specifically a Rotem bush?

So here’s where the hiking comes in. When I go on a hike the picture above is normally the last thing that I expect to see. What I normally see is a spindly little bush with no leaves.In fact the Rotem bush is well known for having no leaves andcarrying out photosynthesis through its branches.

The meaning of this is that Elijah felt depressed and abandoned and so he sat under a Bush with No Leaves.

Leaves are a symbol of Chesed, lovingkindess.

In the next scene God catches on and sends him an angel who brings him food.

The Rotem Bush is a metaphor for a lack of lovingkindess and God responds with kindness.

Movement of the Month :The Aliyah of Yehuda Hachasid

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Finally …. as promised – The Movement of the Month this Month is the Aliya of Rabbi Yehuda HaChasid.

Yehuda HaChasid’s followers built this beautiful synagogue pictured above. This synagogue was destroyed in 1948 by the Jordanian forces and was rebuilt this year. But this was not the first time that it was destroyed….

Judah the Righteous or Yehuda HaChasid (the Righteous) was a mystical leader in Southern Ukraine in the late 1600s. He wrote many mystical works and started 2 movements: a movement for mysticism in Easter European (Ashkenaz) Jewry called ‘Chasidei Ashkenaz’ and a group to settle Israel. He believed that the Messiah ‘s coming was imminent and so he went with some of followers  to the Holy Land. This group that went to Israel were called the Holy Community or ‘HaChevra HaKedosha’.

The group was shunned by many who assumed them to be associated with the groups of the False Messiah Shabbtai Tzvi.

Before their ‘Aliya’ or immigration (also means to go up) they collected many pledges of money to help them build their new community.

Calamity befell- soon after their arrival in the Holy Land Rabbi Yehuda fell ill and died. As all the pledges were in his name, the community became impoverished and unable to pay their debts to the local Ottomans. The synagogue was destroyed and the people beaten and a law was made forbidding Ashkenazic Jews entry to Jerusalem until a repayment was made nearly 500 years later.

The synagogue was known as a ruin or ‘Hurva’ for a very long time., so long that when it was rebuilt in the 19th and twentieth centuries (yes it took that long to rebuild it! – nearly 80 years due to money problems, again!), even though it had the name ‘Beit Yaakov’ (House of Jacob) it was still known as the Hurva. Unfortunately the name became a prophecy, it joined 56 other synagogues destroyed by the Jordanians.

Today one can still visit the remnants of the old European Jewish colony (Deir Ashkenaz) and the Hurva Synagogue; the ruin of Rabbi Yehuda HaChasid.

Torah Portion: Balak

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“And he looked out onto the Yeshimon (wilderness)”

(Bamidbar / Numbers 21:20)

This weeks portion discusses Balaam’s unsuccessful cursing of the Children of Israel at the behest of King Balak. There is a scene where he is looking out onto the wilderness or ‘Yeshimon’ in hebrew.

The Bible mentions 4 types of arid terrain which are many times confused under the same heading ‘desert’, these are:

Midbar

Negev

Arava

Yeshimon

A Midbar, IS NOT a real desert. In hebrew, words have root letters the root letters connected to other words with the same root letters.. The family of root letters ‘d’ ‘b’ ‘r’ are to do with grazing or raising flocks. In a few places; in the book of Micah and Isaiah, the word ‘Dover’is used, meaning to graze cattle. Midbar is an a arid terrain which cannot sustain crops but can sustain flocks for part of the year. The picture above is Wadi Kelt in Midbar Yehuda; the Judean (for want of a better word) desert.

Negev means both South and desert its root letters are associated with being dry, Naguv means dried up. Negev is true desert, the area south of Beer Sheva is all desert.

Arava, means East and also is to do with mixing things. An Eruv is a mixture of things. The Arava area is a valley in the south of the Country which has a subterranean water supply. It is also a ‘mixture’ in terms of being the place where the red mountains of Moab (modern day Jordan) meet the land of Israel.

Yeshimon is just a waste. Its root letters ‘sh’ and ‘m’ appear in the word ‘shamam’ meaning waste. In fact it is used in the first usage of the phrase ‘howling waste’ in Deuteronomy 32:10. In our portion in represents what Balak and Balam wished to find; a wasted nation devoid of hope and purpose, instead they found a great nation and were forced to bless them.

Torah Portion: Korach

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‘And behold, the staff of Aaron or the House of Levi had sprouted and blossomed and there were almonds.’ (Numbers / Bamidbar 17:24)

In this week’s portion we have the story of the rebellion of Korach where Korach’s leadership was called into question. The Eternal set a ‘competition’ between all the tribes to proves Aaron’s right to the Priesthood. They were all to take staffs and write their names on them and place them in front of the ‘Tent of Meeting’, all the staffs remained the same except for Aaron’s which sprouted almond blossoms.

The significance of almond blossoms is understood by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (an 11th century Torah scholar) as being a sign of promptness, he says that ‘ with one who objects to the priesthood, his calamities shall be prompt to come’.

The image of the  almond is synonymous with judgement. I carry out the following experiment;

I found a wild almond tree that had produced fruit, it was easy to find as the almond tree is indigenous to Israel and a common site to see when walking in the forests and hills of Israel. I tried to open the fruit, but the nut was so tough it took a good whack with a rock. The effort was not that worth it, you got a tiny fruit, yet the taste was really bizarre. I’m used to the kind of almond that you get in the supermarket, the taste was really strong, really bitter and kind of sweet at the same time.

The message that I take from this is that the almond is a symbol of divine judgement, what is called in Hebrew, Din. Din is strong and powerful, like the taste of the almond and strength of its shell. Yet it is meant for the betterment of humanity, symbolized by the flowers of the almond and its sweetness.