By Larry Gordon
Shabbos HaGadol is here, and there may never have been a bigger or more important one than this. There is so much to say, contemplate, and internalize. At the same time, there is so much to be grateful for and just as much—if not more—to be concerned about.
Rabbi Kenneth Hain
There was last week’s unfathomable tragedy in Brooklyn where seven children were—G‑d protect us—lost in a home fire over Shabbos. This was a great personal tragedy for the family but also a heartbreaking event that traumatized communities far and wide. On a broader scale, there is the rise of anti-Semitism all over the world and serious concern about the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, particularly in the aftermath of last week’s elections in Israel.
This Shabbos, the onus is on rabbinical leadership worldwide to rouse, inspire, and unite us as one worldwide Jewish community regardless of our differences. Out here on Long Island, the kickoff to the so-called derashah season was the appearance last Saturday night of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of Britain and a profound scholar and observer of the times we live in from a Torah perspective.
Rabbi Sacks, keynote speaker at an event sponsored by Yeshiva University at Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence, touched upon a broad spectrum of topics that impact the contemporary worldwide Jewish community. While he said that he is plainly concerned about the future of European Jewry, he nevertheless disagrees with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, urging all the Jews of France and the rest of Europe, “to come home to Israel.”
At the same time, he said that history has taught us that we are not to take lightly the threats of our enemies and as a community we need to be conscious of the need to make friends from within as well as from outside the Jewish community.
The chief rabbi struck an encouraging note for the future, explaining his belief that there is great hope in the months and years ahead as opposed to simply being optimistic for the future. He explained that optimism is a passive approach in which one looks ahead with a feeling of faith and expectation that things will be good. Hope, on the other hand, he said, is what we achieve as result of our active, diligent actions to secure a better future for our community.
Rabbi Yehuda Septimus of the Young Israel of North Woodmere is looking forward to expounding upon the theme of how to interface and deal with our enemies going forward while seriously considering their vile assurances of their objective to harm Jews and Israel. He titled his derashah, “Embracing Jihad,” a tricky, easily misunderstood characterization that is not the message it might seem to be on the surface.
Rabbi Septimus cites seemingly contradictory descriptions on the matter of what the relationship of Jews and non-Jews will be at the end of days, the period leading up to the coming of the long-awaited Mashiach.
“The shiur will examine Yechezkel’s and Yeshayahu’s very different prophecies regarding what will happen to the other nations be’acharis ha’yamim. For example, in Yeshayahu (perek 2, as well as perek 11, the haftarah for the eighth day) they recognize HaKadosh Baruch Hu and ascend from all directions to Har Hashem to seek guidance from Klal Yisrael on how to serve Hashem, recognizing that ki miTzion tetzei Torah. In Yechezkel (perek 38, as the culmination of the nevu’ah for Shabbos Chol HaMoed Pesach, the atzamos yeveishos), they descend upon us from all directions, leading to Gog u’Magog, and resulting in their utter destruction. These seem to represent irreconcilable visions of Mashiach—the Jewish People as the teacher nation living in peace with all the other nations and serving Hashem together versus the Jewish People as the last man standing.
“Clearly, we don’t live in acharis ha’yamim, but I believe the way we resolve the seeming contradiction between Yeshayahu and Yechezkel has implications for how we as a People interact with the gentile world—both friend and foe—as well as how we confront the ever more related challenges of Muslim fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Israel sentiment. As recent tensions between the U.S. and Israel have shown, our international friendships cannot be taken for granted. And as Rabbi Sacks spoke about so passionately last night, our international enemies most definitely cannot be underestimated nor their stated intentions to annihilate Israel taken as anything other than what they clearly mean,” Rabbi Septimus explained.
Current events and the interfacing between Washington and Jerusalem are very much on the minds of many of the rabbis this year. In Queens, at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld says he will be talking on the subject of kavod ha’briyos, or respect for our fellow man, or woman, as the case may be. The rabbi says we need to treat others—especially those with whom we disagree religiously, philosophically, or politically—with respect.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld
Rabbi Schonfeld, along with several other rabbis we spoke to, is focused on the role of the rasha, or the wicked son, at the Seder table. “We don’t agree with his lifestyle,” the rabbi said, “but we are still required to treat him with derech eretz.” And he adds once he is enunciating this theme that he is also mindful of the fashion in which President Obama has been treating Prime Minister Netanyahu these last few weeks. He believes there is room for lots of kavod ha’briyos and derech eretz in our everyday lives.
Rabbi Kenneth Hain of Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence is also thinking about and will be speaking about the wicked son in his Shabbos HaGadol derashah. Rabbi Hain, who hosted Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks on Saturday night at the Yeshiva University-sponsored event, says that the fact that the rasha is there, present at the table, tells us that he has to be dealt with.
“Rabbi Sacks said that through the years we have managed to overcome and even outlive many of our enemies,” Rabbi Hain said, “But the one enemy that has persisted and has the power to wreak havoc in the Jewish community today are we Jews ourselves.” It is something akin to your own worst enemy coming to town or the pithy adage that we have seen the enemy and it is us.
Rabbi Hain plans to discuss with his shul the idea that there is indeed a divide within the worldwide Jewish community and this so-called enemy is represented by the wicked son. He is right there at the table, which means we have to deal with him in some way.
He added that we tend to marginalize Jews who see things differently than we do. The rabbi says a high percentage of Jews did not make it out of Egypt or make it through that original Exodus for any number of reasons. But the rasha is there and it is incumbent upon us to figure out why and how to, if not make peace with him, figure out a way to manage the relationship.
Rabbi Aryeh Zev Ginzberg
Rabbi Aryeh Ginzberg of the Chofetz Chaim Torah Center in Cedarhurst is contemplating a message from a different perspective. He refers to this year’s Pesach observance as a trifecta of sorts. That means that the Seder occurs on Shabbos and it is also during a Shemittah year—which means we have Shemittah, Pesach, and Shabbos all rolled into that first day of the chag.
This occurrence, Rabbi Ginzberg says, is referred to by Kabbalistic sefarim as being a sign of the impending final redemption. He points out that the actual Exodus from Mitzrayim began on a Friday night—the same night on which we will conduct the first Seder this year.
While the rabbi says that we hope and pray that Mashiach will arrive and help us make sense of this world we now live in, there is the possibility that we will be disappointed and that will not occur as anticipated. If that does not occur, Rabbi Ginzberg says, we still have to seize the moment and internalize the experience of this trifecta and take the lessons with us and use them in the days, months, and weeks to come.
Rabbi Shmuel Witkin of Kehal Bnei HaYeshivos of North Woodmere is planning to address the issue of the four cups of wine, the dalet kosos. Wine is connected to freedom, Rabbi Witkin explained, adding that wine, like freedom, is something for which one acquires a taste that increases with time.
He will also discuss the message of the inordinate amount of attention that is directed and devoted to the mitzvah of matzah. “Matzah is a food reduced to its simplest state,” the rabbi says. He says that bread represents the fluff of life, while matzah tells us that it is time to recalibrate our lives, to go back to the basics in our attachment to Hashem, to Torah, and to mitzvos.
Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky of the Irving Place Minyan in Woodmere is also thinking about the wicked son and his presence at the Seder table. “Under normal circumstances he probably never would have made it out of Mitzrayim,” the rabbi says, “There are numerous sources and explanations on all sides of this issue, all of which are critically important as we contemplate our direction and future as a modern Orthodox community,” he says. The rabbi adds that he will also discuss the dynamics of the circumstances under which the Jewish nation exited Egypt. Were we ready to leave? Was it imperative that we leave at that point? He will expound upon the idea that our Exodus was nothing short of a profound kindness extended to us by Hashem to a very undeserving people—or was it something we did that qualified us for that distinction at that point in history?
My guess is that there will be a lot of mention of President Obama in derashos this year, perhaps because of his way too Pharaoh-like behavior as he proceeds to pick apart Israel’s leadership, at least rhetorically. So the president will be mentioned in a seasonal context if for no other reason.
The next big issue is our ability or inability to get along with one another on a much more significant level than the guy on the next block who doesn’t acknowledge or talk to you. If there is a theme this year, it is understanding the involvement and participation of the rasha or the wicked son at the Seder. He’s a troublemaker and he’s annoying, you disagree with everything he thinks and says. So what is he doing there? Well, he’s family; he’s your brother.
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