Besamachta Bechagecha!

 

Start with this:

Hebrew-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUbOLu3Up_o

not just online...

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5Ad1gW2i_4A

Simchat Torah according to . . . Blair Bleichman?!?

 

Blair Bleichman is a Senior in High School at Francis Parker.  Blair stopped learning about Judaism the second her Bat Mitzvah was over with, and hasn’t bothered with learning Torah since.  Consequently, she can’t get important details of Judaism right anymore, and has mixed-up almost everything she learned in Religious School.  Even the fun of Simchat Torah is something she has trouble with.  You will be helping review her two (2)  page report she made for her Social Studies teacher at Parker High School. It’s due this week and it doesn’t look good at all.  If she hands this work in as it is, she’s heading for a D on her report, which she will explain by saying “Judaism is stupid and makes no sense.” Can you underline any factual mistakes she made, and if possible correct them for her so that Blair doesn’t flunk her assignment and then blame her people’s faith?

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT BLAIR SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN:

When the seven days of Sukkot end, the Bible decrees yet another holiday, Shemini Atzeret—the eight  Day of Assembly. This Shemini Atzeret holiday  is in fact mentioned in the Torah. It marks the beginning of the rainy season in Israel and, therefore includes the year’s first prayer for rain.

 

Unlike like the seven days of Sukkot, the observance of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are mostly in the synagogue. On Shemini Atzeret, some still eat meals in the sukkah  (the outdoor  shack Jews make for the holiday), but in contrast to Sukkot no blessings are made for eating inside of it.

 

It is traditional to include the Yizkor, or memorial service, as part of the prayers for this eighth day. The final portion of the Book of  Devarim is read in the synagogue followed by the beginning of the Book of Genesis. In this manner, the annual cycle of Torah readings continues unbroken. Although Shemini Atzeret is a one-day holiday in the Torah, among Jews outside of Israel, Shemini Atzeret is a two-day festival. However, during the medieval period/ the second day of Shemini Atzeret began to develop a unique character.

 

The second day of Shemini Atzeret became the day on which the last Torah portion of the year would be read and the very first Torah portion begun, all over again. Therefore, this day became an Occasion for joy and an opportunity for demonstrating the Jewish community’s love  of God for giving us the torah. The day itself took on an additional name, Simchat Torah, meaning the day of “being joyful with the Torah.” Simchat Torah is celebrated by joyful dancing with Torah.

Since the whole day is so exciting, special honors are given to honor people who volunteer for the synagogue.  Anyone who wants an aliyah on Simchat Torah is given one, even little kids. Flags with large apples  are often given to children to help celebrate having the Torah. The majority/many adults will carry the Torah Scrolls and  the synagogue dancing and singing. They will make these Hakafot seven times so that Jews show they are happy to have the Torah.

What you need to know about . . . Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah

 

Things about Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah

·       Shemini Atzeret is a holiday commanded by the Torah.  The name roughly means “The Eighth Get-together-day.”

·        It’s sort of the end of Sukkot, but sort of its own holiday.

·       Shmini Atzeret is two days long outside of Israel.  The second day is called Simchat Torah.

·       There is no more lulav and etrog waving once the holiday begins.

·        Though we can  eat in the Sukkah, we no longer say the blessing for sitting in the sukkah.

·       Both days are celebrated with lighting of candles at sundown.

·       Both days are celebrated with festive meals with family and friends.

·       The Torah says we should not work on this festival.

The first day is Shemini Atzeret, when in synagogue…

·       Yizor, the special prayers remembering those who have died are said. This includes Kaddish Yatom, the Mourners Kaddish.

·       There is a special prayer for rain (Geshem) said during Musaf. When a cantor chants Geshem, they often wear a white robe called a Kittel (just like on Yom Kippur) because this prayer is so serious and so important.

·       We Say Hallel.

·       We read Torah and Haftorah.

·       From now through Pesach, there will be a short line in the Amidah every day, asking God to provide rain: Mashiv Haruach Umorid Hagashem. We wait until this day to say this prayer because we don’t want it to rain until we’re done sitting in the sukkah.

 

The second day is Simchat Torah when in synagogue….

·       The atmosphere is one of fun and celebration, and things get a little silly.  Prayers are often sung  to pop music tunes (Think the Beatles, music from “Frozen”, etc)

·       The end of the Torah is read, as is the start.

·       There is food and drink  (but usually not in the Sanctuary itself)

·       People play (simple) pranks on each other.

·       Every Torah scroll is taken from the ark. People dance with the scrolls and around the scrolls in a series of seven processions known as Hakafot.  At least one usually breaks out into the halls or even outside.

·       Everyone of Bnei Mitzvah age gets an aliyah.

·       Young Children are given flags to wave, and all kids under BM age get an aliyah together under a Chuppah.

·       A special honor is to be  a Chattan/Kallah  (Groom or Bride) Torah at Night  and a Chattan/Kallat Beresheet  during the day.  Anshe Emet gives this honor people who have been active and helpful in the community in numerous ways.\

The letter that shaped a nation

            https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/haventohome/timeline/haven-timeline_1.html

 

To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island

[Newport, R.I., 18 August 1790]

Gentlemen.

While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes of Citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good Government, to become a great and a happy people.

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

Go: Washington

 

Ki Anu Amecha: p. 347 in Mahzor Lev Shalem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLI6yVKB5OI

AVodah service: skipped in some places,  but in others is a way to think of the glory of our ancestors and a time when all jews shared in a central place of prayer.

1^st temple :    

https://armstronginstitute.org/files/W1siZiIsIjIwMjMvMDgvMjQvM2YyejRmMXp0Nl9TY3JlZW5zaG90XzIwMjNfMDhfMjRfYXRfMTAuMzcuMjFfQU0uanBnIl0sWyJwIiwidGh1bWIiLCIyNDAweD4iXSxbInAiLCJlbmNvZGUiLCJqcGciLCItcXVhbGl0eSA4MCJdXQ/47e0e27eec25f5ab/Screenshot%202023-08-24%20at%2010.37.21%20AM.jpg.jpg

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/jerusalem-1st-temple-period-blmj-museum-1f6b15ceb017484b859b17875c14ce5a

https://www.blueletterbible.org/assets/images/esv-study-bible/big/illustration_14_jerusalem-in-the-time-of-hezekiah.jpg

 

https://armstronginstitute.org/files/W1siZiIsIjIwMjQvMDIvMjEvMm1hcDY5dmg4al85Ml85My5qcGciXSxbInAiLCJ0aHVtYiIsIjI0MDB4PiJdLFsicCIsImVuY29kZSIsImpwZyIsIi1xdWFsaXR5IDgwIl1d/e8fc2cdb0ae8a6a4/92-93.jpg.jpg

 

2^nd temple era Jerusalem:

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Jerusalem_Modell_BW_2.JPG

 

Marei Koheyn – not in the Machzor Lev Shaleym. Why not? What’s so difficult or dangerous about this song?

A supplemenhttps://youtu.be/MMtk0Di7qok?si=s6SPp6F46HGSumMz- but only a third.  Why?

https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/MLS%20MarehKohen.pdf

 

Here’s the rest

https://www.zemirotdatabase.org/view_song.php?id=413

 

Yigal Calek’s famous melody!

https://youtu.be/MMtk0Di7qok?si=s6SPp6F46HGSumMz

 

 

 

Holiday Music, but for Jews:   

 

 

Active listening Yishai Ribo’s Seder Ha’avodah

https://youtu.be/ECy3CMxShIQ

3rd of Tishrei, 5786- Tzom Gedaliah- When studying Torah, always read the comments!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGADf89DBv0&t=48s

https://lyricstranslate.com/en/haaderet-vehaemunah-wondrous-power-and-faithfulness.html

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_of_Gedalia

Matching game: https://www.studystack.com/picmatch-672266

 

The chant!

 

Fruits:  https://www.learnhebrewpod.com/vocabularies/12/fruits

 

Mechalkel: https://www.sefaria.org/Siddur_Ashkenaz%2C_Weekday%2C_Shacharit%2C_Amidah%2C_Divine_Might?vhe=The_Metsudah_siddur,_1981&lang=he

 

 

 

Vayelech /Ha’azinu  and introducing the Mephorshim,  Mikra’ot Gedolot,  and more.

Quiz on Vayelech OR Quiz on  Ha’azinu

Bim bam video = vayelech- https://youtu.be/MYg58RK6j6E?si=xFhVuoZNCqFfhO1a

Commentary- it’s in the window (stained glass) Be a commenter!

First of all the comentators: Rashi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDATOzHjm2w

Give me a two sentence explanation: Why start with Beresheet?  Why not start with the rules?

Comments on the first verse in the Torah.  Why so different?  Which one is the truth? 

How jews study Torah:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Mikraot_Gedolot.JPG

 

https://jps.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CommentBibleExcerpt.pdf

 

The first Comment Rashi makes on the Torah:

Rabbi Isaac said: The Torah which is the Law book of Israel should have commenced with the verse (Exodus 12:2) “This month shall be for you the first of the months” which is the first commandment given to the Jewish people. What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation? Because of the thought expressed in the text (Psalms 111:6) “He declared to His people the strength of His works (i.e. He gave an account of the work of Creation), in order that He might give them the heritage of the nations.” For should the peoples of the world say to the Jews, “You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan”, our people may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to the Holy Blessed One; The ONE created it and gave it to whom God pleased. When God’s will was such he gave it to them, and when God willed God took it from them and gave it to us” (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187).

Three Generations later,  Nachmanides says something very different:

One may object (to Rashi) and instead say that it was indeed very necessary to begin the Torah with the chapter of “In the beginning God created” for this is the root of faith, and one who does not believe in this and thinks the world just exists denies the essential principle of the [Judaic] religion and has no Torah at all.  This answer is saying the process of creation is a deep mystery not to be understood from the [literal reading of the] verses, and it cannot truly be known except through the Mesorah going back to Moses our teacher who received it from the mouth of the Almighty, and those who know it are obligated to conceal it.

 

A few generations later,   Rabbi Ovadiah Ben Seforno has a different starting point:

בראשית, at the beginning of time; this is the first moment which is indivisible into shorter periods. There had not been a concept “time” previous to this, i.e. there had only been unbroken continuity.

Seforno is teaching that  “time” as one of the things created by God!

 

And not all that long ago,  R. Shimshon Rafael Hirsch,  went very deep in his first comment on the Torah, speaking about free will.

…and just as God freely rules God’s world, so God did also grant freedom to humanity, into whom God breathed a spark of God’s free being. With this spark, God gave humanity freedom over its small world, freedom over the human body and its forces, and placed humanity as the free image of the free God in the world ruled by God’s omnipotence….

Humanity, created by God, with all it’s  moral failings, has the capacity, with all it’s moral flaws, to achieve supreme moral perfection and rise to the moral ideal set before humanity by their Creator. The very possibility of human failings is part of human moral perfection; it is, in fact, the fundamental condition of human moral freedom.

With this freedom, both, the world and humanity will reach the highest goal of good, for which they were both created. For the God who set this goal for them created them both for this goal, through God’s almighty, unhindered, free will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hebrew			English
אֲנִי			I
אַתָּה			you (m. sing.)
אַתְּ			you (f. sing.)
הוּא			He/Him
הִיא			She/Her
אֲנַחְנוּ			We/Us
אַתֶּם			You/Y’all (m. pl.)
אַתֶּן			You/Y’all (f. pl.)
הֵם			They/them (m. pl.)
הֵן			They/them (f. pl.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VAYELECH

1.      This week’s Torah portion only has two commandments.  One of them is?

a.     Not to eat the Etrog

b.     To say the Amidah

c.     To Not work on Shabbat

d.     To not eat shellfish

e.     For the entire Jewish people to gather every 7 years for a super-massive reading of the Torah.

 

2.     Great!  But what’s the other one?

a.     Every adult Jew needs to go to Jerusalem once in their lives.

b.     Every Adult jew must fast on Yom Kipuur.

c.     Every adult jew must write a Sefer Torah (scroll).

d.     Every adult jew must pray to God  3 times a day.

e.     It’s a warning not to disturb the Ark of the Covenant.

 

3.     What?  But I don’t even know what you need to do that.  I mean,  you would need to know all the ______________ in the Torah

a.     Commandments

b.     Traditions

c.     Suggestions

d.     Holidays

e.     Calculus

 

4.     And to make it, don’t you need to use a

a.     Chisel

b.     Feather Quill

c.     Red-hot steel branding tool

d.     Steel tipped fountain pen

e.     A 9.8 petawatt argon laser

 

5.     And you need something special to write on,  namely

a.     Animal Parchment

b.     Plant Parchment

c.     Papyrus

d.     Archival paper

e.     Peizo-electric agar-agar

 

6.     And the ink!  Isn’t the ink special?  Itsn’t it made with…

a.     Gall Nuts

b.     Cow bile

c.     Onion peels

d.     Human tears

e.     Fried chicken skins

 

7.     Wait a minute,   don’t you need a professional to that,  a whats-it-called?

a.     A Hazzan

b.     A Moihel

c.     A Yibbum/Yevamah

d.     A Sofer/Soferet

e.     A Shabaknik

 

8.     And the time!  How could I do this, when it takes____ to finish one?

a.     Three years

b.     One year

c.     Six months

d.     One month

e.     You can silkscreen print the thing in an afternoon.

 

9.     Okay, fine, I could pay someone.  But that would cost

a.     The same as a Minecraft expansion pack

b.     The same as sponsoring kiddush lunch after a bar/bat/Bnei mitzvah at AES

c.     The same as a new SUV

d.     The same as a new house

e.     The same as a B-2 stealth bomber

 

10.  But what would be the point of my writing out an entire Torah scroll?

a.     I would have great Hebrew handwriting

b.     I would be supporting my local ink merchants

c.     I would be keeping alive the nearby parchment factory

d.     I would be showing I am smarter than everyone

e.     I would have spent hours studying or memorizing most of the Torah, and it would be in my mind and heart.

 

The Decree? What Decree?

 

UTANEH TOKEF, OR,  CAN YOU CHANGE YOUR DESTINY?

Unetaneh Tokef Audio

Zelermyer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhl-VAzI-G8

start at 2:12

 

Zamir Chorale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6xfzjJe5AI

start 3:48

 

Lind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZvuWNpimxQ

start at 1:30

 

R. Angela Buchdal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT2qKC43PBY

start at 1:50

 

C. David Propis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxGabs2rk6I

start at 0:36

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5cUsrviZdc