Ivy Leagues

Q: I recently covered my school children’s books with a book cover that had the emblem from Yale University. I was surprised to see that Yale’s crest is written in Hebrew.  What does it mean?

A: Hebrew was an important language to the founding fathers of this nation. Ezra Stiles, the first president of Yale University, studied Hebrew from his Jewish acquaintances. Under Stiles’ leadership the seal of Yale bore the words “Urim v’Tumim” as it does to this day.

“Urim v’Tumim” were the names of the stones on the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol in Jerusalem during Temple days. The stones were an oracle of sorts, which deciphered the word of God for the people. The “Urim v’Tumim” therefore signifies the predominance of God’s power and the ability of humanity to grasp a fragment of the Eternal One. 

Dartmouth College has a seal which bears in the words El Shaddai, God Almighty. Columbia University prints the Tetragrammaton or full Hebrew name of God on its crests.

All these institutions recognized the critical importance of the Hebrew language when they were founded. No scholar of the 17th century could be ignorant of the holy tongue in which the Bible was written. Even the plain folk were admonished to attempt to read the engine text in the original. Roger Williams, Cotton Mather and the rest were all fluent in Hebrew.

Washing Hands

Q: Why do we wash our hands when leaving the cemetery?

A: the cemetery, as a house of the dead, is filled with impurity. As the Torah and Rabbinic literature spell out, tumah is contracted through contact with the dead. As an act of ritual purification we wash your hands after having visited such a place.

Water results of the symbol of life and birth, as it is the first thing that comes out when a baby is born.  Also it is the stuff of the primordial universe.  Remember in Genesis it says, “God’s Spirit hovered over the deep?”

We wash our hands as a gesture of the fullness of life. Death is not the end. We believe that those who passed from this world are eventually reborn in Paradise.

Mikveh

Q: Does the Mikveh have any purpose other than to make one pure?

A: The water from the Mikveh is call Mayim Hayim (living water) as it is flushed through the processes of nature.

Many people bring their new dishes to the Mikveh to ensure that they are fit to use.  Others will use the mikveh to kasher their dishes when they have become treif (unkosher).  And still others go to the Mikveh as a point of transition in their life.  It may be that they want to place a barrier between what has happened in the past and where they are headed.

Food on a Yahrzeit

Q: Why do some people serve refreshments in the Synagogue on the yahrzeit of their parent?

A: This custom is becoming less and less practiced among our people.  Yet it is an old and staid part of our tradition.  Two reasons are given for supplying food on the yahrzeit.  They are:

1.     It is an act of tzedaka.  And as is well known among our people, "tzedaka saves from death.”

2.     People say berachot over the food.  Thus the sponsor brings about praise to God at the memory of the deceased.

Minyan

Q: What happens when we cannot get a minyan (ten adult Jews) to pray?

A: We have the custom, which comes from the Torah, that ten adult Jews make a minyan.  The genesis of this practice is based in the Torah episode of the spies.  Ten of them were called a “congregation.”  From this we learn that ten is the minimum number needed to form a community.

Yet, at times it is difficult to assemble ten.  We may only achieve nine. In our congregation we accede to counting ten and number among us, God, as the final member of our minyan.  This is based on the word, v‘aron (and the ark) (vav, aleph, resh, vav, nun) are an acrostic for the words V'Echad Ro'eh V'eino Nereh, One who sees but cannot be seen. This obviously refers to God.

Yahrzeit

Q: Why do we observe the anniversary of the death of parents (yahrzeit) each year?

A: There are a few reasons why we recall our dead on their yahrzeit.  The most obvious of them is the idea of remembrance.  The yahrzeit forces us to remember their life, going over our moments spent together.  We recall the things they gave to us – life, education, clothes, morals….

A lesser-known reason for the yahrzeit rests on the belief that the souls of the dead are judged by the Heavenly Tribunal.  As their souls come before judgment, they are either permitted to ascend or are denied.

Children of the deceased thus pray for their loved ones.  The living can acquit the dead.

On the yahrzeit we vow to undertake acts of tzedaka on their behalf.  If one believes in memory as the primary motivating factor behind prayers, then tzedaka is practicing the morals the dead taught us.  As their soul so judged our charity pleads to tip the scales in their favor.