Yom HaShoah

Q: Why do we celebrate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day?

A: Not so long ago we remembered the victims of Nazism on Tisha B’Av, not on a separate day.  Tisha B’Av commemorates the saddest events of Jewish history: the destructions of two Temples, the exile of our people, the desert wanderings, and the Spanish expulsion….

Since Tisha B’Av recalls so many tragedies throughout the ages, it was felt that the holocaust should be folded into its observances of weeping and fasting.

The immensity of the Holocaust coupled with the proximity to our lives threatened to turn Tisha B’Av solely into a day of mourning for the Six Million.  In addition, the enormity of the evil was so profound that the people felt it needed a day of its own to mourn and remember.

It was agreed that Yom HaShoah should be positioned during the counting of the Omer, a sober time for all Jews.  During those weeks following Passover we do not perform weddings.  The ill-fated Bar Kochba rebellion was squashed during this period and a plague attacked scholars under Rabbi Akiva.  In keeping with the solemnity of those weeks, Yom HaShoah was given its own place after Pesach.

Tzitzit

Q: Are we obligated to wear tzitzit throughout the day?  I see some Jews who have them dangling from beneath their shirts all day.

A: The biblical mitzvah for wearing tzitzit to be attached to the “corners of your garments.”  Modes of dress have radically changed throughout the centuries, certainly since the time of the Patriarchs.  Generally, people no longer wear four-cornered clothes.  Hence the obligation of wearing tzitzit all day long does not apply.

In its place Jews wrap themselves in a tallit each day in order to fulfill the mitzvah.

If one were to wear clothes that had four corners the law (halacha) was demand that we attach tzitzit to them.  There are many Jews who, eagerly wanting to fulfill God’s mitzvot, will put on a four cornered undershirt with tzitzit attached to them to both mete out God’s word as well as be reminded of God throughout the day.  This undergarment is called a tallit katan, literally a small tallit.

Around the World

Marranos, also called crypto-Jews, held their services in their basements to avoid detection from the Church.  Kabbalists ventured out into the fields as dusk on Friday evenings.  Samaritans burnt animals on an altar, worshipping in biblical style.

For mainstream Jews synagogue architecture and decorum differs from place to place.  From Singapore to Hackensack sanctuaries are distinct.  Some have stained glass; others have marble floors and frescoed walls.  Torahs are positioned on wooded handles as in our synagogue, while Sephardic Torahs are encased in an adorned wooden case.  In Muslim countries they have woven rugs on the floor while on the islands they have sand.  Traveling through the Jewish world is like viewing a panoramic sweep of diverse cultures.

Despite the wide variety all synagogues contain the same five basic elements:

1.   A Torah to read and learn from.

2.   An Aron HaKodesh in which to keep the holy scroll(s).

3.   A shulchan or reader’s desk, from which the prayer leader acts as the focus for the community’s prayers and where the Torah is read.

4.   They face Israel.  In the west sanctuaries face east; in the east the face west; in Haifa it is oriented toward Jerusalem while in Beersheba they face north.

5.   Al synagogue must have windows.  Our tradition demands that we not pray in a sealed environment, apart from the outer world.

Sin and Forgiveness

Q: I understand that on Yom Kippur we are forgiven from ALL our sins.  Is this true?

A:In the Mishna we find, “For transgressions between a person and God, Yom Kippur brings atonement; but for transgressions between people, Yom Kippur only grants atonement when there has been forgiveness between the aggrieved.” (Yoma 8:9)  People are generally familiar with the first point, less so with the second.

There is an entire section in the Shulchan Aruch (the Code of Jewish Law) devoted to what people must do to appease one another when there has been a hurt (O.H. 606).  Until the victim has been asked for their forgiveness  -- and they have granted it—the sin remains.  A wrong that has not been resolved or redressed remains a wrong.

The Shulchan Aruch also indicates that a person should be predisposed to accept an apology and not cruelly refuse to forgive.

If the sin involves fraud or theft the guilty person must make the victim whole.  What if the theft cannot be repaid but the victim wishes to repair the relationship?  Someone who has a financial claim on another person should waive what is owed to him or her or there cannot be remission from sin.  In some instances they might say, “I forgive you but I am not erasing the debt that you owe.”

One final note:  Even forgiveness must be done with kindness.  One can run over someone with our contrition by telling them all the ruthless, terrible things we said about them or specifying the slander we heard all year long.  That is not nice.

Rabbi Israel Salanter said that it is not right to hurt another human being while seeking atonement for oneself.  “Your steps to piety should never be on someone else’s shoulders.”

On Hebrew

Q: Why do we still hold services in Hebrew?

A: The Sages were insistent on making Judaism and its liturgy intelligible to all.  In the Talmud they state that virtually every prayer may be recited in the language of one’s comfort.  In fact we still have included in many traditional volumes ancient translations of the Bible (called the Targum) and prayers (the Kaddish, for example, is in Aramaic).  On the other hand, we cling to Hebrew perhaps because it is the language of God, or perhaps because there is a spiritual fulfillment in annunciating the letters that our ancestors uttered in the past.  In this sense, we are at least as faithful to Hebrew as our forbears.

Sometimes the mystery of a language not understood can enhance the spirituality of the event.  When we cease thinking analytically we access the other part of our brain, the intuitive, so-called right side of the brain.  An anomaly? When we think less we are more attuned to feelings, sensations and our deeply rooted concerns.

Language is embedded in our soul.  Language allows us to traverse continents, worlds, make leaps of imagination, spur new constructs –and don’t forget we are the People of the Book – and Hebrew, in particular, borders on the awesome.  Glance at the English on the other side of the page.  We need to know what we are saying.  But the majesty conveyed by the Hebrew holds a different power.

Perhaps most telling of all is that if we had abandoned Hebrew as our unifying language it would have long ago become fossilized, meaningless to all except scholars.  Instead, generation after generation rises to the bima to express their solidarity with their past and present.

And who could dismiss the power of being able to pray in any synagogue anywhere in the world because Hebrew is the glue that binds us?