Redemption, Exodus: Would You have been One of the One Fifth 1/5?

In the simplistic rendition, narrative of the Exodus from Egypt, when the Jewish "slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt" managed to flee with the help of Gd, multiple miracles, one gets the impression that all the Jews left together. But a more exact reading of the Bible and Hagaddah and commentaries tells a different story. Only one fifth 1/5 20% of the Jewish slaves to Pharaoh followed Moses and Aaron out of Egypt and through the for forty years of wandering and transformation into the Jewish People who entered the Holy Promised Land with Joshua.

That's a better percentage than Gd got a few hundred years before when He sent out the לך לך Lech lecha, "Go, yes, you" message, and only Abram and Sarai, later renamed Abraham and Sarah responded by voting with their feet.

I'm pretty sure that my husband and I, plus many of our friends would have been among those to have followed Moses and Joshua throughout all the challenges they had faced. Not only are we here now in the Holy Promised Land, but we've been here ever since we were old enough to make our own life decisions, marry and have children. Our children and grandchildren, bli eyin haraa, not to tempt the Evil Eye, are here, too.

What happened to the 4/5 four fifths 80% of the Jewish slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt? They're gone, wiped out. There's no trace of them anymore, unlike the descendants of the Hidden Jews of the Spanish Inquisition, who even after over five hundred years have been returning to Judaism.

Yesterday we returned to our first home in Israel, Maon Betar, in what is now called the Jewish Quarter of the Old Walled City of Jerusalem. Maon Betar has long closed down, but the building is in use. The section where we had lived is now a dormitory for the Netiv Aryeh yeshiva, and downstairs is the Plugat Hakotel Museum.

In my life experience and decisions, I see the beginnings of Zionism to build vibrant Jewish Life in the Land of Israel as the call from Gd, echoing  לך לך Lech lecha, "Go, yes, you." Then it got louder in 1948 with Israel's Declaration of Independence and even louder in 1967 when the State of Israel so miraculously defeated the Arab armies who aimed to totally destroy the State of Israel. Three years later we docked in Haifa Port and began our new lives as a married couple here in the Holy Land.

Contrary to the many negative predictions and warnings we received as we packed up our few possessions before boarding the Greek Lines Queen Anna Maria, our move to Israel in 1970 proved a wise move. The State of Israel has miraculously developed into one of the most advanced modern countries in the world. I can say the same for our 1981 decision to move to Shiloh, which then was a small isolated community, dependent on an unreliable generator for electricity and trucks bearing water. Today Shiloh is the main community in a large vibrant bloc of Jewish towns, home to a couple of thousand families. Nearby Eli is even larger than Shiloh. The Gush Shiloh Bloc extends from west of Highway 60 to the Alon Road way to the east. Just a ten minute drive north west of Shiloh is the City of Ariel, which not only has government offices and lots of stores but also the Ariel University. Today it's hard to imagine, but the Shiloh we first visited in early 1981 had barely thirty families.

As crazy as it had seemed to our family and some of our friends when we made aliyah as a young married couple in 1970, it was the right move. If you're still stuck in the Diaspora, join us. Don't risk disappearing like 4/5 80% of the Jews who had been slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.

The Mishkan and Post-Temple Judaism

Yesterday in Matan during the lecture by Yael Leibowitz, in which she described what we'll be learning this year, she mentioned that after the destruction of the Holy Temples, Chazal, our sages had the task of defining a Judaism which could survive in Exile and without a Temple. It had to be "portable."

After close to forty years living in Shiloh, it's no surprise where my mind went. I saw a chiastic structure framing the period between Joshua's leading the Jewish People into the Land of Israel and the Destruction of the Second Holy Temple which preceded the long two thousand 2,000 year Exile into the Diaspora.

Model of Inner Tabernacle, Ancient Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh

Main Synagogue in Shiloh, designed after the Biblical Tabernacle

The bridge was the Mishkan, Tabernacle, especially when it rested, stood temporarily in Shiloh for close to four hundred years. Prayer, more specifically communal, consisted of sacrifices and took place in and around the Mishkan. The Mishkan was first constructed according to detailed plans communicated by Gd right after the exodus from Egypt.

The Mishkan was made to be portable, and during the forty years the Jewish People were "in transit" between Egypt and the Holy Land, it could be moved. In the Holy Land, it then "rested" in Shiloh. Besides the stone foundation, it was still constructed of wood, fabric and animal skins. That's why it is so difficult to ascertain exactly where it stood in Shiloh. No stone walls remain, no matter how far deeply the archaeologists dig.

When we were a united tribal nation, the Tabernacle was enough to keep us together, build shared experiences, but with time the Jewish People needed more.

In the Holy Land, first the Mishkan was the center for religious pilgrimages. Later, during the Davidic Dynasty, it was replaced by the Beit Hamikdash, Holy Temple in Jerusalem. And then, after the destruction of the Second Temple and the dispersion of the Jewish People, a new version of Judaism had to be developed. No longer did Gd send specific instructions. It was in the hands of knowledgeable people, the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin developed/decided on a Judaism that has kept us a People for two thousand years. And now, thank Gd, we have returned to our Land. As Jews return from all corners of the world, it's time to erase our differences and build the Third Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Gd willing, speedily in our days...

Preparing Ourselves for Passover

For years I've loved the pre-Passover series, #blogExodus and #Exodusgram, that the Bima Ima, aka Phyllis Sommer, blogs and teaches about. That's because she reminds us that there is a lot of mental, emotional, spiritual efforts needed for us to prepare for Passover. We shouldn't think that the chametz is just in the kitchen or the house.

Here is her 5778, 2018 #blogExodus and #Exodusgram.

Today is already the 2nd of the Jewish Month of Nisan. That means that we must catch up. We have to Begin the process and Bless Gd and all that we have.

I look forward to these blog posts every year. The Bima Ima's blog used to be updated almost daily, but now it hibernates most of the time. And as Purim rolls around I start getting anxious and wonder if she'll resume posting in time for Nisan. Thank Gd, the Bima Ima is back blogging.

Begin- Here in Shiloh, we began the Month of Nisan with a special Kiddush after blessing the fruit blossoms, Birkat Ha'Ilanot, which show that Gd is giving us fruit from/via the trees. In our neighborhood we go to neighbors who have a lot of fruit trees in the yard, and some still have flowers.

Bless- I wish to bless my family, community and friends near and far that they have good health and enjoy the gifts that Gd has given us. It is truly a blessing, when we know how to see the good in our lives.

Shavua Tov, Chodesh Tov

BlogExodus Topics 2018/5778
1 Nisan - Begin
2 Nisan - Bless
3 Nisan - Cleanse
4 Nisan - Grow
5 Nisan - Hide
6 Nisan - Tell
7 Nisan - Ask
8 Nisan - Rise
9 Nisan - Thank
10 Nisan - Join
11 Nisan - Celebrate
12 Nisan - Find
13 Nisan - Welcome
14 Nisan - Praise

No Peace Possible Without Third Temple in Jerusalem

Here we are midway through the eight 8 day Jewish Holiday of Chanukah. Last night we lit the 3rd candle, and tonight before Shabbat we light the fourth.

Jerusalem is the very heart of the Jewish Nation, People, Religion and Land, and this has been for thousands of years. And to repeat something very crucial, the Jewish religion, People, Nation etcetera have existed thousands of years before the advent/invention of Christianity, Islam, the USA and the United Nations.

We celebrate Chanukah because it commemorates the Jewish victory over the Ancients Greeks, who no longer exist. They tried to exterminate, defeat us, and they failed. What appeared to be mighty was actually weak. This template has repeated many times in Jewish History.

When the "experts" think we're down, we rise again. Here we are in the Modern State of Israel defying the Arab armies and their many supporters. Two thousand years of exile, and we are stronger than ever, bli eyin haraa.

It really doesn't matter what the world thinks of the Jewish and Israeli rights to Jerusalem. The last and possibly only time Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem was after King Solomon built the very first Holy Temple. And maybe only when we build the Third Temple will we again get the acceptance that will bring the Moshiach. That's how it seems to me. We shouldn't fear. It's time for a Nachshon, the brave fleeing Jewish slave, who stepped into the water and caused Gd to make a dry passageway to facilitate the Exodus from Egypt.

Gd willing, speedily in our days....

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Urim Sameach

Powerful Women in Shmot This Week's Torah Portion

Over Shabbat my husband and I were in the Kinar Hotel in northern Israel which is on the shore of Yam Kineret, the Sea of Galilee.

The Shabbat Prayers we attended, (there was an amazing variety to choose from,) was led by a talented sweet-voiced chazan, cantor who was accompanied by a small choir which included the veteran Israeli singing duo the Tzemed Re'im. During the Prayer for The Welfare of the Israeli Government I noticed something rather surprising to me. While all the women I could see from my frontrow seat in the Ezrat Nashim, Women's Section were standing, very few of the men were.



How could that be? I wondered.  Then I thought back to the Torah Portion of the Week, Shemot, Names, Exodus 1,1-6,1, which tells how the "Children of Israel" suddenly fell from favor in Egypt. They had entered as honored guests and suddenly discovered themselves to be enslaved.

This Torah Portion is full of heroines:

• The midwives who defied Pharaoh and refused to murder Jewish baby boys at birth.
• Bat Paroh, the daughter of Pharaoh who rescued the obviously Jewish baby boy she saw floating in the Nile.
• Miriam and Yocheved who cared for the baby until he was old enough to live with Pharaoh's daughter in the palace.
• Tzippora, who circumcised her baby son.

We don't see the men fearlessly taking the initiative the way the women did in the Biblical narrative. Moshe would not have reached maturity if it hadn't been for those women I just listed. Yes, only after the women made it possible did the men begin to act.

I noticed that more men get up when the Prayer for the IDF Soldiers began. Considering my interpretation of the parsha, the Torah Portion of the week, we shouldn't be surprised. Should we?

He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.
May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.
May He lead our enemies under our soldiers’ sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.
Now let us respond: Amen. (Aish.com)

bhol.co.il

I searched but couldn't find the arrangement I had heard in the Kinar Synagogue.