Torah Portion: Shelach

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When I used to think of the word ‘Negev’, I would think of it meaning ‘South’ or ‘Desert’. I never used to think of it as being something that one ‘goes up to’. In fact from my vantage point in Jerusalem today, I very much descend in altitude to the Negev.

However if we look at the topographic map pictured above, we can clearly see (as indicated by the orange and red colours signifying altitude) that if I was coming from Paran, which is part of the central valley system (running down the centre of the map in green and blue signifying a lower area) I would certainly be rising in altitude. In fact the whole Negev system, which is the southern part of the map from Beersheva to the Jordan and Arava valley running down the middle, is a highland.

But this phrase is not just talking about a rise in altitude, but also a ride in spirituality. A rise in the spiritual depths of wandering the Desert to the heights of the Holy Land.  This phrase was also used by Ben Gurion in his attempts to settle the Negev, he told the people;

‘Go up to this Negev!’

 

Torah Portion: B’ha’alotcha

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‘And this was the deed of the Menorah beaten out of Gold, from its base to its flowering it was beaten out, just as the Eternal revealed to Moses in a vision’. (Bamidbar / Numbers 8:4)

Why did Moses need to be illustrated the method of building the Menorah or Candelabra in a vision, why could n’t he just have it shown to him?

The making of the Menorah is described earlier in the Bible, it was supposed to be made of pure Gold and beaten out of one piece of metal. This involves two impossibilities:

Firstly if the Menorah was made of pure gold, it would not keep its shape. Most gold is mixed with an impurity so that it will keep its shape, gold is normally fairly soft. This is why we have the karat system, which is a system of grading the impurities in the gold.

Secondly, how could it be beaten out of one piece of gold, this is metallurgically impossible. It can be molded out of one piece, or many pieces could be beaten and then stuck together, but to get one massive lump of gold and beat out an intricate item  would be impossible.

This is why Moses required a vision, because the making of the Candelabra or Menorah was a miracle and only the Eternal could show him how to do it. The Menorah in the picture above is the Menorah that belongs to the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, it stands next to the steps to the Western Wall Plaza. To illustrate this point, it was made of a high quality of gold (but not pure gold)   and was formed by a chemical / electrical process called electrolysis.

Tazria – Metzora: The Mikveh

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“וכיבס המטהר את בגדיו  וגלח את כל שערו ורחץ במים וטהרו”

“The One who shall be Cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave his hair and bathe himself and be Cleansed.”

(Leviticus 14:8)

This weeks and last weeks Portion of the Torah focused on the concept of Purity in Jewish Law. Unfortunately in the modern world we don’t have much of an idea of what ‘Purity’ means. Most people will be familiar with Christian concepts of Original Sin, which connects impurity to sexual acts and women. This could n’t be further from what Purity is in Judaism. The verse above uses the phrase; ‘he shall bathe himself’, the Rabbis took this mean bathe in a Mikveh, a ritual bath. On a Tour of ancient sites in Israel one can see many ritual baths, but what is their significance, how do they ‘purify’ a person?

Purity in Judaism

According to the Mishnah, the source of most Impurity is Death. Rabbi Soloveitchik in his work ‘Halachic Man’ explained that the source of impurity in death is the inability to carry out mitzvoth (Commandments), one cannot fulfil one’s purpose which is to serve the Holy One. Our purpose in this world is to connect to the Eternal through the application of Mitzvoth.  Here are some examples of states of ‘impurity’:

1. When a woman gives birth she moves from a completely pure status of containing life within her to having that life removed from her. Even though this is not death, we understand that it is in fact the beginning of a life. However it is akin to death because for nine months there were in fact two lives in one body, now that there has been a birth the lady’s body undergoes a ‘change in status’. A life has been removed from her body so to speak. This is why it was explained in last weeks reading that a woman is impure for a certain period of time.

2. The Leprosy described in this weeks reading is a spiritual disease, with no connections to Hanson’s disease (what used to be called leprosy). This disease came about due to certain impure actions, one of which was malicious gossip. Malicious gossip was considered by the Rabbis to be akin to murder, some call it ‘character assassination’. The loss of reputation can be a form of death to many people and certainly impurifies the person who caused it.

Yet impurity itself is not a moral status rather an indicator of a spiritual status.

3. We would not normally say that a person who touches a vole or a lizard is an evil person, yet if a priest were to touch such a creature he would have to immerse himself in a ritual bath. He would do this, not because of an inherent evil in such things but because he came in contact with a forbidden animal, a creature that had no immediate connection with mitzvoth; they cannot be eaten and thus no blessing can be said over them. As there is no way of bringing such an action into divine service it becomes impure and the person must cleanse themselves.

In all the  examples of impurity above their is a connection to either death or the inability to carry out a mitzvah, the examples of child birth and leprosy, are examples of contact with things ‘akin to death’ and the forbidden creature is an example of  the loss of potential for the carrying out of mitzvoth.

What is a Mikveh ?

A Mikveh is a body of ‘living water’ 40 seahs deep. By a body we don’t just mean any man made ‘ritual bath’ but also oceans and streams. ‘Living water’ connotes water from a natural source. (40 seahs is about 144 eggs worth of water – 14.3 litres).

Living water is a symbol of Torah, of the Eternal’s teaching and of our connection to the divine. It makes sense that when a person changes their spiritual status that this can be rectified by this symbol of the Divine Law. In our time a mikveh is only used for conversion, women during their menstral cycle, for purifying utensils and for men who wish to connect with this symbolism.

This is an example of an ancient Mikveh from Herodion:

Ritual Bath from Herodion

Herodion, Herod's Palace South of Jerusalem contains a Mikveh.

A connection with the Divine

The concept of Purity is a method of describing the person’s connection with the divine, it is not necessarily a description of moral sanction. The symbol of the Mikveh, the bath of ‘living water’ is a parable for the divine connection to the Jewish People.

As it says in the last chapter and clause in the Mishnah of Yoma:

‘אמר ר’ אקיבה: “אשריכם ישראל”, ואומר: “מקווה ישראל ה'”, מה מקווה מטהר את הטמאים אף הקדוש ברוך הוא מטהר את ישראל’

‘Rabbi Akiva said: ‘Happy are you Israel, and it is said; ‘God is the Mikveh of Israel’, Just as a mikveh purifies the impure so too The Holy One Blessed Be He purifies Israel.’

Whisper of the Trees

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A very pleasant new song from Israeli – American vocalist Hayim Ani and his friends Ayelet Lobel and Avishag Vashdi
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbPa7EJnBmI
I really enjoyed it and was listening to it on repeat as I wrote the weekly Torah Portion blog, I think the two dovetail really well (pardon the pun).

Doves of Peace

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Portion of the Week: Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26)


‘ואם מין העוף עולה קרבנו לה”

“והקריב מן התורים ומין בני יונה את קרבנו

“If he is to bring an offering that is to be eaten to the Eternal then he shall bring it from the ‘Torim’ Doves and from the Doves”

This week’s portion fits in very well with the official start of my blog, for it is the official start of a new reading of a book of the Pentateuch; ‘Vayikra’ (Leviticus: the Laws of Priesthood or in Hebrew ‘He Called’). It also contains a very important concept to Jews; Peace.

The quote above is dealing with the laws concerning a person who wishes to offer a bird as an offering to the Eternal one. According to this verse, one can only offer either a Dove or a Rock pigeon. But this is very confusing as any decent bird watcher will instantly tell you; Rock pigeons (the Grand Daddy of our City Pigeons) are a type of Dove.

Why can’t you just say; ‘bring me your Doves !’ or some thing like that?

Also, why Doves? Why can’t you bring chicken? Most good Jews eat chicken (apart from vegetarians, I’m a veggie too, I was upset by the lack of a tofu sacrifice, but that’s a discussion for another time). There is a special significance to this choice of bird.

Most commandments are connected to the reality of the situation of the Children of Israel or the reality that they would face in the Holyland. There are 4 main kinds of Dove that visit Israel, the first was captured on camera by a friend:

The Rock Dove / Pigeon

(picture courtesy of Remi Rauh)

The Collared Dove

The Turtle Dove

Laughing Dove

All of the four fit into the general category ‘Dove’ or ‘Yonah’, the first three, according to scripture, can be categorised as ‘Tor’ in Hebrew, what I have called “‘Torim’ Doves”, the last is part of the Global Category of Doves and Pigeons (see ‘Daat Mikra’ published by Mosad HaRav Kook on this verse who names the first three categories). The first of the three the Rock Dove or Columbia Livia in Latin were commonly used in the ancient Middle East as farmed edible foul. It was very common to have a Columbarium (an underground cave with niches for the housing of doves, now means a mausoleum but originally came from the word ‘Columba’ in Latin meaning Dove) attached to a house as part of the family’s food supply. The picture below was taken in the ruins of a large settlement outside Jerusalem called Maresha, which contains a vast number of underground Columbaria including this massive one which also became a Church and later on a Mosque.

(Columbarium of Beit Guvrin courtesy of Remi Rauh)

It is even suggested that before their domestication it was fairly easy to catch a dove and these are the kind that frequented Israel. So the text is telling us, ‘bring an offering from the ‘Torim’ these are the easiest to find, if not buy a ‘Dove’, it gives us the easiest option first as the more preferable one. This sacrifice is to do with Hesed ; loving-kindness to the person bringing the sacrifice, that it should be a service to the Eternal which is easy to accomplish.

There is a much deeper reason why the Dove is used at all. The Dove is first mentioned in connection with Noah, it is the Dove that heralded the end of the flood and became for eternity the international symbol of Peace. The Great Rabbis said;

‘It is better to be one of the pursuers than one of the pursued and there is none pursued more than the ‘Torim’ Dove and the Dove’ (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Baba Kama 93 side A, quoting Rabbi Abahu).

This has a dual meaning, firstly it is a message to be essentially a peaceful person (I do n’t think it means get yourself killed, anybody who has tried to trap birds knows that they certainly struggle and if you want proof I’ll happily take you to a Dove ringing at one of the many Bird Survey centres in Israel and prove this to you). Secondly it means to be a person who is at peace with the service of the eternal, it is evident from the many columbarium in the environs of Jerusalem that they were the most common thing to be sacrificed at the temple, the easiest thing for a person to get hold of to serve the Holy One. The message we are given is that we should ourselves be resigned in peace to divine service both with ourselves and with others.

What is my blog about?

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בס”ד

Welcome to my blog!

A Scholarly Insight into the Spirituality and Physicality of Israel

Using my expertise gained on my course in tour guiding, in Yeshiva (Talmudic Academy) and as a ‘Land of Israel Studies’ teacher, I shall produce an informative entertaining weekly and monthly blog articles. I do not just aim to inform about the Land of Israel, Torah, Wildlife or the many wonderful people that inhabit or have inhabited his Holy Land, but I also wish to inspire and entertain. I believe that Israel is the most vibrant and exciting country in the world. The concept of ‘Israel: the Holy Land’ works on many levels both on a physical and spiritual level, in learning about Israel you can both become a better educated person and a more spiritually aware individual. As the Jewish Sages taught:

אווירא דארץ ישראל מחכים

The Atmosphere of the Land of Israel Makes one wise. (Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Baba Batra 138 B)

Israel: Land of the Bible – a weekly insight into the home of Monotheism

It is traditional for Jews to read a prescribed portion of the Pentateuch every week on Saturday and to review the portion through the week. This is known in Hebrew as the ‘Parshat Hashavua’ (the Weekly Portion). It is my contention that every part of the Torah connects with the land of Israel, this is not just a crazy idea that I thought up but a well known idea most recently popularised by one of my Rabbis, Rav Moshe Lichtman who wrote ‘Eretz Yisrael in the Parsha’. Each week I shall
produce an article connecting an aspect of this week’s parsha to a site that you can visit in Israel. I intend to include both modern and ancient sites, touch on aspects of archaeology, botany, zoology and history and reveal the spiritual aspect within the site of focus.

Spotlight on Nature

As the crossroads of 3 continents, Israel has been not just the meeting point for human civilisations but also for animal and bird migration. It possesses a variety of micro – climates which in turn produce varied ecosystems. Each month shall include a special spotlight on Nature. I shall introduce new ecological developments in Israeli culture. I shall discuss aspects of the multitudinous species that live in Israel.

Movement of the Month

Israel is a vibrant mixture of many cultures, philosophies and religions. I encourage you to read the ‘Movement of the Month’ section which will focus on a different movement in Israel will be it a counter culture, a present ideology or a civilisation long gone. I shall discuss the historical background of the movement, its philosophy and how it affected Israel and world history.

You the Reader

I know shocking is n’t it ? I expect something of you too!

Firstly: come and visit! Contact me and I’ll help you get here, I firmly believe that everybody regardless of wealth or race or belief should visit Israel at least once. If there’s a money problem contact me and I’ll find a way for you to get here.

Secondly: I’ll try and be as objective as I can without being some kind of grey robot, so long as you do the same. Please leave comments, please share ideas, do n’t be offensive or I’ll have to remove it. (That goes for both the ‘right’ and ‘left’ wing, do n’t assume that because you think I’ll agree with you that you will not get erased)

Thirdly: sign up, or just sit back read, watch, listen and enjoy…