The Door to Freedom
You’re standing in the center of a large Roman arena. Thousands of rowdy spectators crushed together on stone benches rise steeply all around you. Directly in front of you are two massive doors constructed of thick oak planks overlaid with huge iron fittings. Behind one door is life, freedom and bliss; behind the other awaits a pack of hungry lions and an excruciating death.
The princess up in the grandstand catches your eye and is about to indicate the door leading to life and redemption. For some inexplicable reason, you the bewildered slave have caught her eye and her tender heart. She’s decided to deny the crowd its bloodthirsty appetite and save your life. But at that moment the court…
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The Taste of Matzah
Matzah, is not only the world’s first fast food (it not being allowed to rise), it is also the, “Poor man’s bread that our forefathers ate in the Land of Egypt.” / Today, matzah sits at the heart of our Pesach Seder, from the recitation of the Hagadda over the smaller half of the middle matzah, to the eating of the afikomen at the meal’s end. Indeed, the Biblical name for Passover is “The Festival of Matzos,” for it is the matzah that embodies the essence of Exodus.
But why are there three matzohs and not four? After all the number four is a recurring theme at the Seder. We drink four cups of wine, ask Four Questions, and invite…
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The Swallow…the Taste
Years ago the community Rabbi eagerly awaited the Shabbat preceding Pesach, since it was one of two weekends the spiritual leader was expected to sermonize, the other being Shabbat Shuvah (the Shabbat between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur). Synagogues have changed, with contemporary Rabbis pontificating every seven days. But way back when, the semi-annual drasha (sermon) was a huge event. The talk, to be considered successful, had to combine three ingredients; halacha (a point of law), pilpul (analysis) and drush / (an ethical lesson). Thus in honor of my Rabbinic forbears, I offer you the following:
In the section of Talmud dealing with Passover (Pesachim 115B) Rava proclaimed, “If one swallows his piece of matzoh the first night of the…
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The Rabbi Answers a Question
Our community has grown in so many ways, including the most important one; its families are hungry for more Jewish knowledge. Nowhere is this more evident than a week before Pesach. The Rabbi’s phone is constantly ringing with ever more difficult and complex questions.
Today, people want more than an answer. They want to understand the why and how come of Judaism. In fact, the resolution to their halachic query is not enough; they want to comprehend the evolutionary process of how the Rabbi arrived there. Therefore in brief…
Secular law is primarily concerned with who gets to make a decision. Hence the American system of governance is so structured that sharp disagreements between the Judiciary, the Legislature, and the…
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The Child Teacher
THE CHILD TEACHER
The decor’s incongruence is quite stark. After all, one does not expect a mounted mortar shell in a child’s classroom. But this is not any mortar, nor is it any class. This is a Jewish school in the Gaza Strip decorated by one of the 5,347 rockets to have fallen on the Katif settlements these last four and a half years.Despite the violence, the business of education continues. Even though the disengagement plan specifically states that no Jews will be left in Gaza, the Education Ministry has yet to issue guidelines on placing the 3,600 school children in alternative establishments. On the contrary, parents remain legally bound to register their children now for schools which are supposed…
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The Last Pesach
Our community has grown in so many ways, including the most important one; its families are hungry for more Jewish knowledge. Nowhere is this more evident than a week before Pesach. The Rabbi’s phone is constantly ringing with ever more difficult and complex questions.
The Seder Is No Gamble
It was raining hard, the roads were slick and my eyes should have been glued to the street. But with a dark, angry sky filled with heavy clouds, it was the flashing neon light that caught my attention instead. I looked up and saw, for the very first time, a sign that read, “Coconut Creek CASINO….Open 24 hours.
It’s been there for months I am told. But somehow, I’ve just never noticed. So why of all days with the festival of Pesach fast approaching do I see it now? I ask myself that very question and the answer hits me like an overcooked matzoh ball.
The Casino is the last stronghold of the once proud and mighty Seminole Indian; a…
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All Are Welcome
“Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat, whoever is in need, let him come and join in celebrating the Pesach Festival.”
The table is set, the children sit eager to ask the four questions and all are anxious to begin the Seder. But wait! Before one can begin, rich and poor alike prepare to share their meal. The invitation, if studied closely, consists of two phrases. According to our Sages, “Whoever is hungry” refers to those so poor they cannot afford the basic necessities for the Seder. To them we gladly say, “Come and eat.” The second phrase, “Whoever is in need” refers to another sort of hunger. Among our brethren there are those who are poor in spirit….
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Question & Listen
The summer of 656 CE was hot and bloody. In the Arabian Peninsula temperatures ran high, but tempers flared even higher as an armed revolt erupted against the third Caliph (successor) since Mohammed. Only thirty four years had passed since the Koran had been written and already there existed scribal variations. Othman the Caliph issued an official text and declared all the others to be un-kosher. This incensed the faithful of other tribal groups and a civil war arose which still plagues the Moslem world.
In contrast, the Five Books of Moses have enjoyed more than thirty three hundred years of consistency. Torahs today read exactly as they did when the Jews first crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land….
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Four Sons Drink Four Cups
When one grows up in a religious community, there are a completely different set of jokes and teasing one must endure. Therefore every Pesach I would brace myself for the annual taunt that some chacham (wise-guy) thought he invented. You see, I am the third child in a family of four boys. Thus, I was labeled the tam, the simple son who happens to be the third sibling in the Haggadah.
It was not until many years later when studying Chassidus (Jewish mystical philosophy) that I discovered hidden meanings that revealed another dimension of the four sons. Even the last child, the one that cannot ask was explained by the Rebbe Rashab (the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe) as an individual who…
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A Precious Prayer
Four sons related to each other by their Father in heaven: one of them is wise, the other is wicked, the next is simple and the fourth, alas, is one who does not even know how to ask.
Which son are you? Which one would you like your own child to be? I have a sneaking suspicion that even the wicked sibling would not relish the thought of being the one who could not even formulate a question. But is this son really so bad? In Chassidic lore, the Rebbe Rashab once highly praised the last child, explaining that this refers to a person who, despite the many challenges that life presents, does not question his Creator.
Or as another…
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Joseph & the Four Cups
Why do we drink the four cups of wine at the Seder? The usual explanation focuses on the four expressions of redemption found in G-d’s promise to Moses. Other reasons offered are connected to the four sons mentioned in the Hagaddah and to the four Matriarchs.
One fascinating interpretation attributed to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi suggests that the four cups of wine are related to the four times that the word “cup” is mentioned by Pharaoh’s jailed butler as he recounts his dream to Joseph in the prison. Although it may interesting that the word appears four times, we certainly may wonder what relevance do the troubles of Pharaoh’s butler have for us on our night of freedom? Of course,...
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I Don’t Know Any Wicked Sons
Moses’ message on the eve of the Exodus is revolutionary. He speaks of Jewish duty; not to G-d or country, but to the children. In three very distinctive passages, he instructs the soon-to-be-freed slaves to relate to the kinderlech the story of liberation from Egypt.
To gain liberty, Moses declares, is the work of one night; to sustain it is the work of every generation. Freedom requires a hands-on education. Only when children taste the bread of affliction, can they fight its scourge.
Political or military victories alone are not enough. Freedom lies in the human heart; when it dies there, no constitution can save it. This liberty is not merely the freedom to do as one pleases. That is…
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Who Knows One? Not the Angels
It is not Judaism’s most famous song. That honor, I believe, belongs to Dayeinu, or according to others that I have surveyed, I have a little Dreidel. Nonetheless, it is an old camp favorite that is prominent in many Hagaddahs. Indeed, I can still remember those long Shabbos afternoons in camp listening to a staff member bellow, “Who knows one?”
Of course, all the children would respond, “I know one. One is Hashem. One is Hashem in the heaven and on the earth.” Even first-time campers caught on quickly. It all seemed very simple and straightforward.
However, as I grew up, I discovered that Judaism, even its songs, is anything but simple. The question, “Who knows one?” was not rhetorical….
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Delegation of Power to Sell Chometz
Delegation of Power to Sell Chometz
I the undersigned, fully empower and permit Rabbi Yossi Denburg to act in my place and stead, and on my behalf to sell all chametz possessed by me, knowingly or unknowingly as defined by the Torah and Rabbinic Law (e.g. chametz, possible chametz, and all kind of chametz mixtures).
Also chametz that tends to harden and adhere to inside surfaces of pans, pots, or cooking utensils, the utensils themselves, as well as pet food that contain chametz and mixtures thereof.
Rabbi Yossi Denburg is also empowered to lease all places wherein the chametz owned by me may be found, particularly at the address/es listed below, and elsewhere.
Rabbi Yossi Denburg has full right to…
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You Make a Great Team
When civilizations looked for a scapegoat, Jews died. So it has always been. But why should anti-Semitism be the world’s longest hatred? If we imagine a hidden intelligence explaining Jew-phobia, we are looking for reason where there is none. Anti-Semitism is illogical, indeed contradictory. Jews were hated because they were capitalists or communists; because they were godless or religious; because they kept to themselves or they infiltrated everywhere.
Countless books have been written about the root causes of anti-Semitism. However the simplest explanation was given by Haman, an ‘honest’ anti-Semite: “There is a certain people dispersed and scattered…whose laws are different.” Jews were hated because they were different.
To be sure, every nation is different. Jews, however, were unusual in…
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The Holiday of Esther (9:22)
Each year, we fulfill the observances of Purim as they have been practiced for twenty three centuries: we read the Megillah, we send gifts of food to our friends, increase in charity to the poor, and partake of a festive meal replete with food, drink, and unbridled joy.
Originally, however, there were two different conceptions of how the miracle of Purim should be commemorated, propagated by the two heroes, Mordechai and Esther. Our sages tell us that it was Mordechai’s desire that Purim should be a full-fledged holiday, a day of sabbatical rest like Passover and Sukkot.
On the other hand, while both Mordechai and Esther instituted the practice of sending food, charity and feasting, the concept of the Megillah…
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Jewish Light (8:16)
Haman’s star shone brighter than ever before. Appointed as Prime Minister and given the King’s signet ring, there didn’t seem to be anything Haman could not do. Still, as powerful as he was, he did not directly attack the Jews. Even the letters ordering genocide did not openly proclaim the Jews as the intended victims. Of course, our Rabbis wonder, “What could the potent Haman have feared that would cause him to use caution and subterfuge?”
Interestingly enough, the two heroes of the day react very differently to the evil designs conceived by the enemy. Mordechai, leader of our people, “clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes, went out into the middle of the streets and cried a great and bitter…
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Purim Eternal (6:11)
Although G-d’s name is not explicitly mentioned in the Megillah, the Talmud teaches us that the word “king” refers not only to Achaveirosh, mortal ruler of Persia, but also alludes to the King of Kings, Almighty G-d. ,
“. . . Parade him on horseback through the streets of the city proclaiming before him, ‘This is done to the man whom the king wishes to honor’. . .”
A restless night. All across the city potent forces were awake and brooding. Queen Esther was busy preparing another royal banquet. Mordechai, weak from fasting, gathered thousands of children to study and pray. Haman too felt compelled to stay up and supervise the gallows being erected. Even Achashveirosh, the mighty ruler who…
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In Conclusion (3:8)
Haman, arch-enemy of the Jews, flexed his political muscle in convincing King Achashveirosh to issue an edict of annihilation against the Jews. What argument did Haman use to persuade the monarch?
“There exists one nation, dispersed amongst the nations. . . their laws are different. . . the laws of the king they do not keep.” Such dangerous national characteristics reasoned Haman lead to the conclusion that “it is not worthwhile for the king to allow them to exist.”
Obviously Achashveirosh concurred. What then changed his mind later? Haman’s contentions remained unchallenged, for where in the Megillah do we find a refutation of his arguments?
Some suggest that the Persian king annulled the decree merely to appease Esther. That is…
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Why a Jew Marches? (3:8)
There were tears and there were smiles. There was mourning and there was celebration. There was the foul stench of death and there was the sweet scent of life. There were inert bodies in caskets and there were restless actors on floats.
In Tel Aviv there was tragedy and in the streets of Margate, Florida there was a Purim Parade, the likes of which our community had never before seen. In Israel, the press wondered would Jews worldwide call off the planned Purim parties and in Florida the TV reporter asked, “Whether those who had lost their lives were forgotten amidst the joyous event, or were they still on our minds?”
Let us turn to the character of Haman for…
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