Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
August 19th 2016 -Volume 6, Issue 46
15th Av 5776
Parshat Vaetchanan/Tu B’Av and Nachamu
The Greatest Love of All
They had known each other for years, but their
love had never been consummated. They had grown closer and closer. They could
feel the hot oxygen emanating from each other on their faces. But yet they
never touched. They never felt that physical contact or the loving embrace of
their beloved, their counterpart. All around them was a world full of color,
full of connection, generations giving life to new generations. Yet like Romeo
and Juliet these two remained doomed to never realizing that dream. They were
frozen in time. Only about 2 inches from one another, but there it seemed they
would always remain. Until a few months ago. When the tragic love story, seemed
like it might just have a happy ending, despite many geologists predictions.
I’m talking of course about stalactites and
stalagmites, you understand. Why what did you think this was about? For those
non-scientific types out there or non-geologists. Stalactites and stalagmites
are these little icicle-like looking things that are formed in caves from
cracks that are formed by water dripping through a cave with a certain humidity
level where the CO2 kind of burps out of these little cones and drips water
with some of the stone dust and minerals to form another cone from the ground
up. I know it doesn’t sound too romantic-especially with the burp in there. Nor
does this sound to scientific. But I’m a Rabbi and a tour guide not a
scientist. And the geology part of our course was in Hebrew about two month
after I moved here when my Hebrew pretty much consisted of ‘shalom’, ‘peetza’,
‘falafel’ ‘shwarma’, ‘toda rabba’, ‘sherutim’. You know the important
words. So when they started talking about
pachman and chamtzan du shtayim, I was kind of at a loss.
Anyways in Israel in Mearat Hanetifim they have the largest concentration in
one place of the greatest variety of these magnificent S&S’es. It’s a great
place to really appreciate the beauty of Hashem’s creation. They take on all
types of shapes and forms. With a bit of imagination one can see spaghetti,
broccoli, a bride a groom, a wedding cake, a boat, smurfs, eggs a finger, Moses
and even the Lion King. It’s really cool. Just to think that this is really
something that geologists estimate with a growth rate of .2 mm a year it took
hundreds of thousands of years if not more to form which for us observant Jews
who believe that Hashem created the world 5776 years ago would mean that he
created it this way in the 6 days of Creation. So stepping into these caves
that were left untouched by man, until they were uncovered in 1968 by a
dynamite blast, is like stepping into that pristine world of Creation and it is
truly awesome.
One of the highlights of the cave that tour-guides
like to show is the stalactite and stalagmite that they have named Romeo and
Juliette. They stand literally an inch or so apart and for some reason before
connecting it dried up. There was no water dripping out from the top to the
bottom. It was the unrequited love. I would bring tourists there and I always
commented that it was to me like that love between Hashem and the Jewish
people. From top to bottom. We had almost connected. We had almost joined
heaven and earth. But it stopped. I always believed that one day they would
come together and just few months ago. The impossible seemed to happen. They
started dripping once again. There is hope. Much to the geologists and
scientists predictions that it was hopeless. Which of course gave me much
satisfaction. Like most Yeshiva guys we like when scientists are proven wrong-
it makes me feel less bad about skipping all those classes when we were in
yeshiva J. That true eternal love is on its way. I’m not one for
interpreting heavenly signs. But I sure am hopeful… Maybe that happy ending
will be here as well for us.
It’s a romantic week this week. This Friday is
the holiday of Tu B’Av- the fifteenth day of Av (Tu is the numerical value of
15 Tet-9 plus vav pronounced U as 6). The Talmud tells us that in early times
‘there were no happier days for the Jewish people then the 15th of
Av and Yom Kippur, when the daughters of Israel would get dressed in white and
dance in the vineyards and court the young men to marry them”. A little
different then I would say we celebrate Yom Kippur today- I must say. But
that’s another E-Mail. In modern times I’ve seen many places that advertise and
call this the “Jewish Valentines Day”. Oyy… Primarily flower stores and
synagogues that are trying to get people into their doors with some extra
enticing summer singles programming. I saw one ad that called it “Tu B’Av is
Two B’Love” Oy Oy Oy….
I don’t think that’s what our sages were talking
about.
So what is the reason for this holiday? How
come most people haven’t heard of it? What’s it about?
The Talmud at the end of Tractate Taanit 26:
says
“"On
these days, the young maidens of Yerushalayim would emerge in the
streets wearing borrowed white clothing [so as not to embarrass the poor who
did not have garments of their own. They would form a circle (and dance) in the
vineyards. What would they say (while they danced)? 'Young man, lift up your
eyes and appreciate whom you are selecting (to marry). Don't look at our
beauty. Instead, look at the family (from which we descend).' It is written
(Song of Songs 3:11), 'Go out and look, you daughters of Zion, at King
Shlomo's crown, which was adorned by his mother, (for him to wear) at the day
of his wedding and the day of his heart's rejoicing.' The expression 'at
the day of his wedding' refers to the Giving of the Torah, (Yom Kippur when
the second tablets were given) and the expression 'the day of his heart's
rejoicing' refers to the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash (the
Temple in Jerusalem), may it occur swiftly in our lifetime."
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? What happened on
this day? Perhaps Jacob found his beloved Rachel? No? Adam met Eve? No. How
about Ruth married Boaz? And again no? So what did happen on this day to make
it such a special day?
The Talmud tells us quite a few things. Some
seemingly not so comprehensible. The first thing historically that happened we
are told that the Jews as the end of the forty years in the wilderness stopped dying.
Doesn’t that sound romantic to you? Makes you just want to go out and dance in
the vineyards, doesn’t it? Why is this a happy thing? The reason why the Jews
stopped dying is because all the men age 20-60 that were meant to have died
over the 40 years were dead. Meaning that there tens of thousands of orphans
and widows that entered the land of Israel. This would seem like a good day to
make a fundraiser or prayer ceremony for widows and orphans. Or maybe just to
have a marry-a-widow holiday. In fact that theme seems to continue for the next
point in history where it comes up we are told is even before the temple was
built- which would then make it obviously before its destruction on the 9th
of Av-is in the end of the book of judges after the great civil war where we
almost wipe out the tribe of Binyamin and the tribes did not want to marry
them. On Tu B’Av, our sages tell us, they decided to once again allow their
women to marry them. And they would gather in Shilo and dance and carry off
their brides. This is certainly a little more romantic however again it is only
after they tribe was on the brink of destruction.
To make matters even stranger some of the next
reasons for the holiday seem even more bizzare. The Talmud tells us that it was
a day that the10’s of thousands of dead after the Bar Kochva revolt were
finally permitted to be buried. And because it was on this day that they would
stop cutting trees for the altar, as the summer equinox was ending and there
was no longer enough sun to dry out the trees. So maybe this should be an
ecological holiday or a day for the Chevra Kaddisha- Jewish burial
society. What does this have to do with marriage? With romance? With Tu B’Love?
If you ask me perhaps the most romantic thing
about Tu B’Av which is not mentioned in the Talmud is that it is the middle of
the month. It’s a full moon. Is there anything more romantic then that? The sky
is clear, you are out in the field with your beloved. The sun is setting and
that huge moon starts to rise and shines its beautiful light amongst the stars
down on the face of your beloved. The 15th is the peak of the month
of Av. It’s when the moon is at its fullest. In the words of Rabbi Nachman of
Breslav it’s when the Kinnot-lamentations turn to tikkun- to fixing to
completion. This past Sunday we were sitting on the floor mourning the
destruction, yet we are told that at Mincha on Tish B’Av from that destruction
Mashiach is born. The Talmud noted above calls Tu B’Av the day of the
rebuilding of the Temple. In it is pointed out by many that the first day of
Passover always falls out on the same day of the week as the 9th of
Av. To tell us that just as the first redemption took place on Passover the
eventual celebration of the building of the Temple will as well take place on the
same day in Av. Just as by Pesach it took us until the 7th day by
the splitting of the sea until we truly realized the salvation was complete and
we burst out in song. The 15th of Av- the 7th day from
the 9th of Av is the realization the simcha of that day of the
building of that Temple. It is when the moon is fullest it was when we can see
clearly that the smoke of destruction has been pre-empted already with the day
of return. It is when we reveal that we can reconnect and the juices, the
oxygen the fuel that we need to rise up and meet our beloved once again is
within us.
Let’s work backwards. Rabbi Akiva and his
students felt that the revolt against the Romans was the Messianic period after
the destruction of the Temple. Yet they were crushed. Hadrian slaughtered us.
It was when we thought it was truly all over. We couldn’t even bury our dead.
Hadrian didn’t permit it. Why not? Why do we bury any dead? Because we believe
that they are our treasure, because we were taken from dust, we will return from
dust, but most importantly because we believe we will rise up again by the
resurrection of the dead. There will be a future. Our death is merely like a
seed being returned to the ground only with time to grow and flourish. When we
were able on the 15th of Av able to do that again. We didn’t just
have closure. We understood that Hashem was telling us that our future would
come. We will rise again.
In the times of the Temple ceased to cut the
wood for the altar on this day. The sun would no longer be hot enough to dry
out the logs. We had all the fuel we needed. We could now light the fire from
ourselves. Hashem had provided us with the wood, all we needed to do was to
ignite it. With our fire, with our faith, with our longing with our love. The
Talmud tells us that on Tu B’Av as well the barriers that were set up to divide
the Jewish people by Yeravam and keep the northern kingdom-the 10 tribes
separate from Jerusalem were removed by the King Hoshea. We had thought we were
divided. That Hashem Echad that can only be seen when the nation is one
on this world would never happen. And yet on the 15th of Av, we
realized we are ‘too small a people to be a small people’. We can get together.
Love and connection that we share can see past all the politics, the fights and
the religious differences. The Jews returned to the Temple.
Even before the Temple when we first came to
the Land as well. Can you imagine the devastation after the civil war. The
vision of that kingdom of Israel, that dream to one day build the Temple would
never happen. Jew killed Jew tens of thousands from the tribe of Benjamin would
murdered and tens of thousands of Jews were murdered by them. One can’t even
fathom that. The Civil War in America was ‘peanuts’ compared to that war. And
yet when all was said and done. On the 15th of Av we saw that full
moon and realized that we could still reconnect. We can still find love. That stalactite
from above still had some juice in it and we just need to join in a circle find
our bashert and create the highest love, the holiest marriage from what seemed
like the ashes of our destruction.
And finally to where it all began from. The
first 15th of Av. It was a week after the last 9th of Av
in the wilderness. For forty years each morning after the 9th of Av
the tribes woke up and buried their dead. But that year they didn’t. They had
all died. It was all over. Was it a mistake? Did they miscalculate? They waited
a week and on the 15th they realized that they had truly come to the
end. Yet is that a cause for celebration. For weddings? For romance? The Talmud
tells us that something else happened that year on that morning for the first
time in 38 years Hashem spoke to Moshe face-to face once again. The shechina
had once again returned to that same pristine state that it was before we
rejected and complained about Israel. The claim that we had that Hashem took us
out of Egypt because He hates us was finally eradicated. There was no longer
any hate. We had healed. The voice of Hashem returned. Rashi notes in last
week’s parsha that although Moshe did not do anything wrong by the sin
of the spies, Hashem didn’t speak to him directly with that clarity until the
15th of Av. “to teach us that the shechina only spoke to him in
that merit of Israel”. 38 years we don’t have that clarity. Which if you
ask me is why there is so little in the Torah about that period of time. Once
the shechina comes back Moshe doesn’t stop transmitting. The entire book
of Devarim is the ecstasy of that returned and reunited love. There is
nothing more powerful than that.
There are those that say that one does not
realize how special, how important, how much you loved someone until that
person is taken away from you. The 15th of Av, that most powerful
day of rejoicing is the day that after you realized how much you have lost, how
much, you have loved, how much you need that relationship and how much you are
in pain and your life is in disarray and incomplete without it, that all of
sudden you get it all back. You get it for real. It’s not a day of romance.
It’t a day of true love. Of eternal love. Not of Romeo and Juliet and not of
stalactites and mites, but of heaven and earth, of Hashem and his beloved, of
our people with one another. It is His kingdom and His home finally on earth.
It is the greatest love of all. And if those stalactites are any sign, we
should be experiencing it pretty soon…
Have a love-filled Shabbos that is doubly
comforting and full of love!
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL VIDEO CLIPS OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmyKFLQDHns
– Yaakov Shwekey newest video ‘We Are a Miracle’
Powerful!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T1dnPU0ZlM –Romeo
and Juliet stalagtites in Hebrew if you want just skip 2:04 to see Romeo and
Juliet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3tMvGgCEx0
– Chevron massacre of 1929 this week Yartzeit of the
week- graphic pictures warning but very moving and chilling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWWuYadWME0
–and finally bonus Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach live Nachamu!
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S
FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Az da krigst zikh, krig zikh azoi du zolst
zikh kennen iberbeten.”- If you quarrel- quarrel in
a way that you can reconcile
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S JEWISH PERSONALITY AND HIS
QUOTES IN HONOR OF THE YARTZEIT OF THE WEEK
“Hard as the
world is to explain with the Almighty, it is harder yet without the Holy One”
""Accordingly,
you and I should go there so they can have a sample of each.".- quoted when he was once seated at dinner next
to an important personality and an anti-Semite, who told him he had just
returned from Japan where they "have neither pigs nor Jews."
Sir Moshe
Chaim Montefiore- 16th Av this Shabbos (1784-1884)-Moses
Montefiore was born in the Italian city
of Livorno. His grandfather, Moses Chaim Montefiore was a Sephardic Jew from
that city, who later settled in London. He had 17 sons, one of
whom, Joseph Elijah, was the father of Moses. When Joseph Elijah,
together with his wife, traveled on business to Livorno, Moses was born there.
Moses
Montefiore was raised in England in an atmosphere of Torah and Mitzvoth,
and he remained a staunch, devout Jew throughout his entire life. In London he
developed a big business, together with his brother Abraham. They did business
with the Rothschilds: dealt in finance, and large industrial and commercial
establishments. They formed an Insurance Company; a Gas Company, that
introduced gas-lighting into many of the important cities of Europe. They also
had a hand in the building of railroads, and in many other industrial and
financial enterprises.
Moses
Montefiore accumulated great wealth and became famous. In 1837 he was appointed
"Sheriff" of London. He was the second Jew to occupy that important
position. In the same year, Queen Victoria, who had just ascended the British
throne, gave him the honorary title of "Knighthood," with the title
"Sir" and in 1846 he was elevated to the rank of Baron.
Moses
Montefiore differed from certain other Jews who, upon accumulating wealth and
honor, sad to say, turn away from their religion. Moses Montefiore, remained a
religious Jew his entire life. At an early age, he started to interest himself
in the lot of his fellow Jews. Later on, he used his great influence to obtain
equal rights for the Jews in England. He was Gabbai (trustee) of the
Sephardic Congregations of London, and was six times elected as Community
Leader (Rosh HaKahal). For a period of 36 years, he was the head of the
"Jewish Board of Deputies" - the organization of the United
Congregations, and of elected Jewish officials, who represented British Jewry.
When, at the age of 90, he gave up his position, the United Congregations of
England gave him a farewell gift -12,000 pounds sterling. He donated the entire
sum to build houses for the poor in Jerusalem. Being an orthodox Jew, he
naturally loved the Holy Land, and he supported the worthy institutions most
generously. He visited Eretz Yisroel seven times -the last time being in
1875, at the age of 91. If we take into consideration that a journey in those
days entailed great difficulties, we can then realize what it meant for a
person of such an advanced age to undertake such a trip. He distributed a vast
amount of money in Eretz Yisroel; he built Synagogues, supported Yeshivos,
and founded various types of important institutions. He had previously built a
tomb over Mother Rachel's grave, in 1866, the magnificent tomb which is so well
known. The Jews in Eretz Yisroel regarded him as a G‑d sent messenger,
sent to help them in their great need.
When the
terrible blood-libel broke out in Damascus in 1840, Sir Moses Montefiore went
there personally to defend the falsely accused Jews. The outrageously false
blood-libel (that Jews use Christian blood in the Matzah for Pesach)
that had cost so many Jewish lives in the dark times of the Middle Ages, and
was then renewed in Damascus, not only threatened the lives of the accused, but
also those of the entire community, and of Jews everywhere. Sir Moses Montefiore
(with the help of other prominent Jewish and non-Jewish leaders) managed to
persuade the Sultan to issue a "firman" (decree) in which he declared
the blood-libel to be false and prohibited its renewal.
In 1846 the
Russian government officially invited Sir Moses Montefiore to visit Russia in
connection with the Jewish situation in Russia. The Czarist government, aided
by some leaders of the "Haskalah" ("Enlightenment")
movement, tried to Russify, i.e., assimilate, the broad masses of Russian
Jewry. The government hoped that with the support of such an important Jewish
personality as Sir Moses Montefiore, it would certainly win its fight against
the religious Jewish leaders in Russia, who refused to cooperate with the
government in this matter, and who hindered every effort to force assimilation
on Russian Jewry. Montefiore accepted the invitation, with the intention seeing
what he could do about the persecutions and pogroms which so often plagued the
Jews there.
When
Montefiore arrived in Petersburg (now called Leningrad), the Czarist minister, Minister
of the Interior and Minister of Education, greeted him with a long list of
"accusations" against Russian Jewry and their religious leaders. He
undertook a trip through the towns and villages where the Jews lived, and upon
returning to London, he compiled two memoranda from the material he gathered
during his trip. Following that visit Sir Moses Montefiore wrote to them in a
polite but firm manner, so as not to incite them that the Jewish problem in
Russia had nothing to do with the Jews' education, which happened to be on a
high level. He denied the false accusations made against the Jews, and in turn,
accused the government of dealing falsely with the Jews; he described the
terrible economic position of the Jews because of government decrees,
expulsions, pogroms, and economic sanctions. He demanded equal rights for the
Jews, and stressed that it would also be a blessing for the country. Thanks to
the great self-sacrifice of the Russian Jews, who were strengthened and encouraged
by Montefiore's efforts on their behalf, the government finally gave up many of
its plans to force conversion and assimilation of the Russian Jews. Their
economic position also took a turn for the better because of Montefiore's
recommendations.
Sir Moses
Montefiore was also received in audience by the Pope in Rome (in 18 5 8 ) when
he went there to intercede on behalf of an Italian Jewish boy who was forcibly
converted as a small child lying ill in bed. The gentile maid "sprinkled
him with water," and the church declared him to be a Christian. The boy
was forcibly taken away from his parents and brought up as a Christian. The
case of the child Murtara caused a great storm of indignation, but no
intercession helped to return the child to his Jewish parents.
When in
Rumania, on a visit to help his Jewish brothers there, Sir Moses Montefiore
once found himself in grave danger when a wild mob wanted to attack him. He
narrowly escaped with his life. Nothing deterred him, however, when it was a question
of helping his poor, persecuted brothers.
Sir Moses
Montefiore died on the 13th of Av 5645 (1885) at the ripe old age of
over 100 years.
His Yahrzeit(anniversary)
is observed yearly by the institutions which are maintained even today from the
funds that he left for this purpose.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
In the past, the Jews of Acre were buried in:
A. Kfar Yassif
B. Yarka
C. Jadide
D. Tel Regev
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL RASHI OF THE WEEK
OK we’ve been doing this for close to a year
now. It’s your turn to learn a Rashi the way it should be learned. Let’s see
how far you’ve come. Let’s see if anybody actually reads this section of the
E-mail. Let’s do it different this week. I’m going to give you a Rashi and it’s
your turn to examine and try to come up with the secrets, the ideas and perhaps
something Rashi is trying to teach us. It’s a verse that we are all familiar
with. We recite it twice a day it’s part of the Shema. The Torah tells us
(Devarim 6:7)
V’Shinantom l’vanecha- and you
shall teach them {the words of Torah) to your sons
The verse seems simple enough, the previous
Rashi notes the strange terminology of Vshinantom rather then Vlimadita
means to express sharpness so that they know it well enough to answer anyone.
Then comes the Rashi that I want to focus on that has been troubling me this
week here it is
L’vanecha-to your sons Rashi- these are your students. We have
found in all places that your students are called sons as it says (ibid
14:1) ‘You are sons to Hashem, your God’ and it says (Kings
II 2:3) ‘The sons of the prophets who were in Beit El’ and so
it is with Hezekia who taught Torah to all Israel and called them sons, as it
says (Divrei Hayamim II 29:1) ‘My sons do not be negligent now.’
And just as students are called sons so is the rabbi/teacher called a father
as it says Kings II 2:12) Avi Avi Rechev Yisrael- My
father my father chariot of Israel etc…)
That’s it. That’s the Rashi. Anything bother
you about it? I’ll pause for a minute so you can read it again. Ok. So I had
about 10 questions on this Rashi. Let’s see what you came up with.
Here’s what bothered me. Remember our rules
about Rashi. First of all Rashi as we know is coming to explain the simple
understanding of the text, in his words so that even a five year old may
understand it. Second rule Rashi only quotes sources when necessary. He only
quotes additional sources when one is not fully sufficient. Third rule Rashi
only quotes the words necessary that he quotes to understand any problems he
might have in the text. Ink cost a lot of money and when Rashi writes etcetera
that means everything until the etc. was necessary. Fourth rule Rashi generally
will try to utilize the words of the Midrash that he needs to explain it. If he
changes the words of the Midrash it means he wants to express something
different over here. Finally Rashi doesn’t just throw in extra information ‘while
I’m at it’ when he writes something it as well is necessary for understanding
the text.
Ok now go back and read the Rashi and tell me
if you have any questions….
So I’ll share with you some of mine. And perhaps
from there I’ll even give you a hint on where to go with it. But you have to do
the rest of the work on your own,
A)
The simple understanding of sons is actually children why does
Rashi understand that this is not the simple pshat of the verse and says
that it means students?
B)
Why he does he need to quote so many sources? What does one have
that the other doesn’t? Seemingly Rashi feels that need because he says that we
‘find in all places’ that it mean students. He thus needs to prove it from
Torah, Prophets and scripture. Why?
C)
Why does he have to add in the children of the prophets of Beit
El, why does he have to add in the words do not be negligent and why mention
chariot of Israel as parts of the quotes.
D)
The Sifri-which is the Midrashic source for this is
changed a bit by Rashi. There it mentions that Hezekia is the king of Israel
which Rashi leaves out, yet Rashi adds in that he taught Torah to all of
Israel.
E)
Finally why does Rashi have to add in that a teacher is called a
father and why does he say it in an interesting way that just as they are
children a teacher is a father what does one have to do with the other and what
is he adding by that?
There’s some food for
thought to ponder. I’ll give you an answer to at least the first part of the
question A by the Lubavitcher Rebbe (you can cheat and look there for the
answers to all of them as well as some other questions). He suggests that Rashi
is troubled by the notion that a child will ask. If there is a mitzva for the
father to teach his son Torah then why do I have to go to school? Why are there
Rabbis and students? We don’t find anyone going to a Rabbi to fulfill any other
commandment for them why by the teaching of Torah would someone try to absolve
themselves of their commandment by having a Rabbi do it for them. Thus Rashi understands
that the simple meaning of the word ‘sons’ over here is as it is in many places
not literal natural children, rather it means spiritual children.
So there’s the beginning
of your answer. I’m leaving it up to you figure out the rest.
But isn’t it amazing
how much info can be found if we just took the time to really examine Rashi
in serious way! Amazing!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL HISTORICAL EVENT THAT HAPPENED ON THIS
DATE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-
The Palestine Riots
and Massacres of 1929- 10th Av August 15th 2005- In the summer of 1929 the Arabs of
Palestine initiated rioting and massacres against the Jewish population in
several towns. The targets were not Zionists who had dispossessed Arabs of
their lands, but for the most part Jewish communities of the "old
Yishuv," communities that had lived in Palestine for many hundreds of
years. The pogroms were of the same general character as pogroms that had taken
place sporadically in Palestine for
hundreds of years, usually referred to euphemistically by Jews of Safed,
Tiberias, Jerusalem and Hebron as "Meoraot" - "events." The
worst massacres took place in Safed, Hebron, Jerusalem and Motza. Like the
pogroms of past ages, these "disturbances" featured angry crowds
stirred up over a religious or other dispute, Imams preaching "Kill the
Jews wherever you find them" and mobs screaming "Aleihum"
(get them) and "Itbach Al Yahood" - murder the Jews. In a few
days, over a hundred Jews were murdered and several hundreds were wounded.
Throughout the 1920s,
tension had been brewing between Palestinian Jews and Arabs for some time, with
little or no action by the mandate government to alleviate it. The Husseinis
controlled the Palestine Arab Executive and Supreme Muslim Council. Haj Amin El
Husseini was Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The Husseinis hoped to further their
position by exploiting hatred against the Jews. The issue of contention was an
imagined Jewish threat to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, centering around Jewish
attempts to improve the facilities of the nearby wailing wall, a remnant of the
Jewish temple, where they gathered for prayer. The wailing wall is part of the
West Wall, Al Buraq, where according to Muslim belief, Muhammed tethered his
horse when he was miraculously transported to Jerusalem. Thus, it is holy to
Muslims too.
There is no doubt that
the mosque built on the site of the temple was never a source of joy for Jews,
but Jewish tradition holds that the temple can only be rebuilt when the messiah
comes. The Zionists certainly had no designs on the mosque itself. The wailing
wall however, because of its proximity to the mosque of Al Aqsa, was long a
source of friction. Islamic law holds that no non-Muslims may pray in proximity
to a mosque while prayers are held in the mosque, because that would disturb
the prayers of the faithful. The Jews of Jerusalem had gotten many warnings
during the hundreds of years of Muslim rule, about prayer at the wailing wall
or in synagogues in the Jewish quarter that supposedly disturbed the prayers of
the Muslims. This "Holy Place" was a natural place of contention.
In 1928, the Muslims
tried to get the British to confirm their rights over the Western Wall,
including the space used by Jews for worship. Husseini had helped to organize
refurbishing of the long neglected mosques in Jerusalem now he initiated new
construction activities in October of 1928. Bricks from the
"construction" fell "accidentally" on Jewish worshippers in
the wailing wall area below. The Arabs drove mules through the prayer area.
Muezins (the announcers of the mosques) who called the faithful to prayer
turned up the volume in their PA systems so as to disturb the Jewish prayer.
The Zionist community,
especially the right, took up the challenge. Right-wing Zionists of the
revisionist movement demanded Jewish control of the wall. Some even demanded
rebuilding the temple, alarming the Muslims even more and providing a factual
basis for the agitation. On August 14, 1929, about 6,000 Jews paraded in Tel Aviv
and that evening, about 3,000 gathered at the wall in Jerusalem for prayer, a
huge crowd for the then very cramped space. The next day the right-wing Betar
revisionist youth paraded by the hundreds, carrying billy-club batons. Rumors
circulated that the Jews were about to march on the Haram as Sharif - the
Al-Aqsa mosque compound. The Arabs circulated inflammatory leaflets, apparently
printed earlier. One read, "Hearts are in tumult because of these barbaric
deeds, and the people began to break out in shouts of 'war, Jihad...
rebellion.'... O Arab nation, the eyes of your brothers in Palestine are upon
you... and they awaken your religious feelings and national zealotry to rise up
against the enemy who violated the honor of Islam and raped the women and murdered
widows and babies." The Jews had killed no-one, and had attacked no-one.
On Friday August 16,
after an inflammatory sermon, a mass of Arab demonstrators proceeded from the
mosques to the Western Wall, where they burned prayer books. The British were
woefully unprepared to deal with disturbances. In all of Palestine there were
292 British police. In Hebron, there was a single British police officer
commanding a tiny force of Arabs, many of them old, and one Jew.
On August 17, a riot in
the Bukharian Jewish quarter of Jerusalem left one Jew dead. The funeral, held
August 20, turned into a mass demonstration with cries for vengeance. Beginning
on August 22, Arab villagers, armed with sticks, knives and guns, gathered in
the Haram as Sharif. Following Friday prayers and the usual inflammatory sermon
on August 23, they poured out into the streets of Jerusalem and proceeded to
murder and loot. By the time the riots were over in Jerusalem on August 24, 17
Jews were dead. The rioters opened fire simultaneously in several
neighborhoods. The small town of Motza was attacked by Arabs who killed every
member of the Makleff family but one. A very young boy, Mordechai Makleff, hid
under a bed. He grew up to be Chief of Staff of the IDF for a brief time during
the War of Independence. Several settlements next to Motza had to be abandoned.
Kibbutz Hulda was evacuated by the British. Arab marauders burned the kibbutz.
The British killed 40 Arabs there. The worst fury of the Arabs, however, was
directed at the tiny ancient Jewish community of Hebron, where 64-67 Jews were
massacred in a few hours of rioting on August 24, 1924.
The British flew in
additional reinforcements from Egypt and elsewhere. The riots spread to
Tel-Aviv and Haifa and Safed. In Safed,
18 Jews were killed and 80 injured.
In all 133 Jews and 116
Arabs were killed in the riots, 339 Jews and 232 Arabs were injured. Most of
the Arabs were killed by the British police and some by the Haganah in self-defense.The
massacres of 1929 had thus launched two themes that were to recur in the
history of Israel and Palestine: agitation related to the al-Aqsa mosques and
the Jewish desire for separation from the Arabs of Palestine, for
self-protection.
The immediate
consequences of the riots were that the British caved in to every demand of the
Arabs. Though only a small number of Jews had immigrated to Palestine under the
mandate, the British accepted at face value the claim of the Mufti that these
immigrants, rather than the world economic depression, were at fault for the
real or imagined woes of the Arabs of Palestine. In the year 1930, when
unemployment reached 25% in some countries, Palestinian Arabs had an
unemployment rate of 4%. This "misery" was the "fault" of
the Zionist immigration. These were the findings of the Shaw commission which
investigated the "causes" of the riots, and of the Hope-Simpson
report, which was commissioned to justify the policy changes. Simultaneously
with the Hope-Simpson report the British Government issued the Passfield White
Paper, which made it clear that Britain intended to sharply curtail Jewish
immigration. The Passfield White Paper of 1930 caused an uproar in Parliament
however. The British also issued a set of discriminatory regulations that
restricted Jewish rights in the wailing wall, returning the situation to the
same state as existed under the Ottoman Empire, when Muslim - Jewish relations
were governed by the inferior dhimmi status of Jews in Islam. And thus the
stirrings of the War of Independence had begun.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S JOKES OF THE WEEK
Q: Did you hear the one about
the geologist?
A: He took his wife for
granite so she left him
Q: What did the boy volcano
say to the girl volcano? A: I Lava You!
Q: How did the geology
student drown? A: His grades were below C-level
. Q: Anyone know any jokes
about sodium deposits? A: Na
Geology One Liners Did you
hear oxygen and magnesium got together? OMg
And the one that helped me
remember the difference in the above E-mail which is which
Cave formations are like ants
in the pants: the mites to up and the tights come down
**************
Answer is A – To be honest I don’t even know where the other places are
on this question although I have heard of Yarka and sure I must have passed it
just to lazy to check. But the truth is I pass Kfar Yasif often as it’s a few
miles out of Akko. Jews back then would be buried over there as there is a
question in the Talmud if the present day Akko was part of the biblical borders
of Israel as the border cut inland. So they wanted to be sure that they would
at least be buried in Israel. In fact there is a grave in this arab village in
the old jewish cemetery that supposedly said Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato on it.
Although today his grave can be found in Tiverya by Rabbi Akiva. Where is he
truly buried? Was he moved? Why to Tiverya? You need come on one of my tours to
find out J
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