Shaarei Tzedek - Orthodox Judaism in Downtown Toronto

services

servicesSeptember 9, 2007 - כ"ו אלול תשס"ז

Sunday morning : 1:00am
Monday morning : 7:30am
Tuesday morning: 7:30am
Wednesday morning: 7:30am

events and servicesJuly 22, 2007 - ח' אב תשס"ז

The Temple is no More but Sacrifices Continue

By: Rabbi David Lapin, Tisha Be’Av, 5766

What a hard time this is for us. This year that statement does not refer to our History, but to our current situation. The events of these weeks have led me to some reflection that I would like to share with you.

Will sacrificing be re-instituted?

Will Korbanot be reintroduced in the Messianic era? Absolutely! And I hope and pray that will be soon. Why? Because making a sacrifice is about demonstrating the will to pay a price. And the price we are willing to pay for something determines the value we attach to it. Korbanot (sacrifices), set the price we are willing to pay for our attachment to G-d. They set the value we associate with the Divine sanctity of the Jewish Nation.

We make sacrifices for our children’s education; because their education is valuable to us. We sacrifice for our families’ economic security; our families are important to us. We sacrificed in the Holocaust – heavily. We demonstrated to G-d as we walked to the gas chambers that we are willing, if necessary, to pay the highest price for that which is of the highest value to us: our divine mission, our attachment to G-d, our survival as a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. In the Holocaust we sacrificed our crown Jewels, the gems of our society. We sacrificed precious young men in the various wars and struggles that made Israel a reality. And now again as some of the finest and noblest of our young men are losing their lives Al Kedushat Hashem, Israel is sacrificing its gems for the safety of our land and our people. We are sacrificing all the time. If we had a Beit Mikdash , we could sacrifice our animals, our economic security and wealth. Now without a Beit Mikdash we can only sacrifice our children, our brothers and our sisters. This is what we mourn on Tisha Be’Av.

Tisha Be’Av is the day we remember the martyrs of the Holocaust; it is our Yom HaZikaron. But in the remembrance of that, one of the most catastrophic sacrifices of our history, we have so much for which to be thankful. Often we are accused of having gone “like sheep to the slaughter,” without a struggle, without dignity. But that is not so. We waged a massive battle against the Nazi’s….and we won. Where is Hitler? Where is the Nazi Party? Where is the Third Reich? Where is the Jewish People? We are thriving. Hundreds of thousands of people learning Torah around the world. A vibrant State of Israel. Worldwide economic prosperity. We did win the war against Hitler, but we lost 6 million casualties in that war. We mourn our casualties, but we celebrate our victory.

On Tisha Be’Av we mourn not only the loss of our Temple . We also mourn the loss of every drop of Jewish blood spilled in the service of Hashem and His people. We remember, we recognize and we mourn each of the human sacrifices we have offered up for our own survival.

Kabbalah and events and servicesMarch 17, 2007 - כ"ח אדר תשס"ז

Rosh Chodesh Nissan

Please join us for Shacharit services on Rosh Chodesh Nissan - Tuesday, March 20 @ 7.30 am.

The Month of Nissan According to Sefer Yetzirah (courtesy of inner.org)

According to Sefer Yetzirah, each month of the Jewish year has a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a zodiac sign, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, a sense, and a controlling limb of the body that correspond to it.

Nissan is the first of the twelve months of the Jewish calendar.

The first commandment given to the newly born nation of Israel before the Exodus from Egypt was: “This month [the month of Nissan] shall be for you the first of the months” (Exodus 12:2).

The month of Nissan begins, in particular, the “period” (tekufah) of the spring. The three months of this tekufah–Nissan, Iyar, Sivan–correspond to the three tribes of the camp of Judah–Judah, Issachar, Zebulun–who were situated to the east). In the Torah, Nissan is referred to as “the month of the spring” (chodesh ha’aviv).

In addition, Nissan begins the six summer months, which correspond to six levels of “straight light” (in Divine service–”arousal from above”). This is alluded to in the name aviv which begins with the two letters alef beit, in the “direct” or “straight” order of the alef-beit.

Nissan is referred to as “the month of the redemption.” According to the accepted opinion of our sages: “In Nissan our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt and in Nissan we will be redeemed” (Tractate Rosh HaShana 11a).

Nissan is a month of miracles (nissim). The fact that the name Nissan possesses two nuns implies, according to our sages, nissei nissim–”miracles of miracles.” Of the redemption of the future it is said: “As the days of your exodus from Egypt, I shall reveal to him wonders.” In Chassidut this verse is explained to mean that the wonders of the redemption of the future will be wondrous and miraculous relative to the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt–”miracles of miracles.”

Letter: hei.

The letter hei is the phonetic origin of all the 22 letters of the alef-beit.

Our sages teach us that “with the letter hei G-d created this world,” as is said at the beginning of the second account of Creation (which corresponds to the Jewish calender, beginning from Nissan): “b’hibaram–b’hei bera’am.” Thus, the month of Nissan signifies the annual renewal of the creation of this world.

Mazal: taleh (Aries–lamb).

The taleh symbolizes the Pesach sacrifice, the first sacrifice of the Jewish people to G-d upon their redemption. The Jewish people itself is symbolized as a lamb (amongst seventy wolves). Of all of G-d’s creations, the lamb possesses the innate ability to arouse mercy by its voice (the origin of the sense of speech of the month of Nissan).

Tribe: Judah.

Judah is the king (the “first”) of the tribes of Israel. His name means to give thanks, in speech (the sense of Nissan). The king rules his people by the power of his speech, as is said “for the word of the king is his rule.” The month of Nissan is “the new year for kings” (Mishnah Rosh HaShana 1:1).

Sense: Speech.

The sense of speech implies ones ability to express his deepest feelings and insights to an other. All forms of expression are referred to generically as “speech.”

“This world” (created by the letter hei of Nissan) is one that is founded upon (verbal) communication. Personifying the sefirah of malchut (kingdom), it is often referred to as “the world of speech” (or “the revealed world”).

The very root for “speech” means as well “to lead.” Thus the sense of speech is in essence the sense of leadership.

The central mitzvah of the month of Nissan, on the seder night, is the telling of the story of the Exodus–”the more one tells of the Exodus from Egypt, the more is he praiseworthy.” This is the foremost mitzvah of speech of the entire year. Of the 15 stages of the seder (15 = the sum of all numbers from 1 to 5), magid–the telling of the story of the Exodus–is the 5th stage. 5 = hei. The stage of magid begins with the word “hei” (hei lachma anya, “this is the poor-mans bread”).

The redemption from Egypt (the existential state of “confinement,” the inability to truly express oneself–”all exiles are referred to as Egypt”) symbolizes the “freedom of speech.”

Controller: right foot.

Just as “speaking” means “to lead,” so does one’s walking (with one’s right foot, the foot of trust and confidence) direct and control one’s sense of speech, as is said: “walkers on the way, speak” (Song of Deborah, Judges 5:10). Speaking words of Torah while walking on the way inspires new insights into the secrets of the Torah. And so do we find that many of the secrets of the holy Zohar were revealed in the context of “walking on the way.”

events and servicesMarch 2, 2007 - י"ב אדר תשס"ז

The Ship, the Island and the Fish - A Voyage of a People

by Yosef Y. Jacobson

One of the great Talmudic sages related the following episode:

Once, while on a ship, we came to what we assumed was a large island, since we saw on it sand and growing grass. We disembarked the ship, went on to the island, built a fire, and cooked our meal. Yet what we assumed to be an island was really a fish. When the fish felt the heat, he rolled over and we were plunged into the water. Had the ship not been nearby, we would have drowned.

– Talmud Bava Basra 73b.

What is the meaning behind this absurd Talmudic tale, related by one of its great sages Rabba Bar Bar Chana?

According to some of the great Talmudic commentators, this tale captures – in intriguing metaphor - one of the most essential truths about Jewish history, particularly one relating to the holiday of Purim.

Continue Reading »

Kabbalah and events and servicesFebruary 1, 2007 - י"ג שבט תשס"ז

Tu B’Shvat - New Year of Trees

The Tree — Man and the Torah

In accordance with the opinion of the House of Hillel, the 15th day of the month of Shevat–Tu Bee’shvat–is the “New Year of Trees.” The opinion of the House of Shamai is that the “New Year of Trees” is the 1st day of Shvat–Rosh Chodesh Shvat.

Tu b’Shevat marks the day that the majority of the winter rains have passed and that new sap–lifeforce–begins to ascend from the earth into the trunk and branches of the trees. New fruit begins to appear at the tips of the branches, thus beginning (in halachah) a “New Year of Trees.”

In the Torah, the tree symbolizes both man (”You [the Jewish people] are called ‘man’”)–”for man is the tree of the field”–and the Torah–”It [the Torah] is a tree of life for all that hold onto it.” Both man and the Torah possess all of the four major components of the tree: roots, trunk, branches, fruit.

The roots of man (the Jewish people) are our ancestors, the patriarchs and matriarchs of our people–”the holy ones who are in the earth.” The trunk corresponds to the full body of the people of Israel that were redeemed (”born”) from Egypt, received the Torah at Mt. Sinai and entered the land of Israel.

The branches represent the tribes of Israel (in Hebrew, the word for “tribe,” shevet–identical with the name of the month of Shevat–literally means a “branch” of a tree), and the individual tribe-members, which spread out and away from one another, each settling his own portion of the Holy Land (and who subsequently become even more dispersed, around the world, in time of exile). The fruit of the tree are the good deeds performed by each Jewish soul.

Continue Reading »

Kabbalah and news and servicesJanuary 6, 2007 - י"ז טבת תשס"ז

The Rambam’s Hillula - 20th Tevet (Wed, Jan 10, 2007)

Maimonides

The 20th of Tevet is the Rambam’s Hillula - please join us for Shacharit Minyan at 7.30 am, Wed, Jan 10, 2007.

His biography courtesy of Chabad.org:

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, 1135-1204 (”Rambam”)

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, Talmudist, Halachist, physician, philosopher and communal leader, known in the Jewish world by the acronym “Rambam” and to the world at large as “Maimonides,” is one of the most important figures in the history of Torah scholarship; on his gravestone were inscribed the words, “From Moses to Moses, none arose as Moses.”Maimonides was born in Cordova, Spain, on the 14th of Nissan of the year 4895 from creation (1135); his father, Rabbi Maimon, was the Dayan (chief rabbinic authority) of Cordova and a descendent of King David. In 1148, the fanatical Muslim Almohades came to power and the Jewish population became subject to severe persecution and forced conversion to Islam; the family of Rabbi Maimon fled Cordova and wandered for ten years throughout southern Spain and northern Africa, lived for five years in Fez, Morocco, finally making its way, by way of of Jerusalem and Hebron, to Fostat (old Cairo) in Egypt.When the drowning death of his younger brother David, a jewel merchant whose ship went down in the Indian Ocean along with all the family’s assets, forced Maimonides to become the family breadwinner, he took up the practice of medicine (which he had studied in his youth); in time, he became personal physician to Grand Visier Alfadhil and to Sultan Saladin and authored a number of medical tracts. He also served as the leader of Egyptian Jewry.Maimonides began the authorship of his first major work, a commentary on the Mishnah written in the Arabic vernacular (which includes his famed “Thirteen Principles” of the Jewish faith), as a young man of 23; he also wrote a commentary on much of the Talmud (which has been lost), and Sefer HaMitzvot, which enumerates the 613 precepts of the Torah. His most important work is Mishneh Torah, a 14-volume codification of the entire body of Torah law; it was the first such systematic codification, and the most comprehensive ever written. (In 1984 the Lubavitcher Rebbe initiated a daily study cycle for the Mishneh Torah and Sefer Hamitzvot, bringing the knowledge of these basic Torah works to many thousands of Jews worldwide).In the last decade of his life, Maimonides authored his famed philosophical tract, Guide for the Perplexed. Maimonides passed away on the 20th of Tevet of the year 4965 from creation (1204) and was buried in the city of Tiberias in the the Holy Land.

Additional reading on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambam

events and servicesDecember 31, 2006 - י' טבת תשס"ז

10th of Tevet (Asara b’Tevet)

Courtesy of Chabad.org:

On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later — on Tammuz 9, 3338 — the city walls were breached, and on Av 9th of that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

Tevet 10 (this year December 31, 2006) is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak to nightfall, and add the Selichot and other special supplements to our prayers. More recently, Tevet 10 was chosen to also serve as a “general kaddish day” for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whom the day of their martyrdom is unknown.

Services: 9am Sunday morning, Minchah at 4.30pm

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