Special Features The Greatest Two Words Ever Uttered Easy to guess. Reference is to NA'ASEH V'NISHMA, we will do, and we will hear (understand). But let's go back a sedra, to B'Shalach. Bnei Yisrael has witnessed a half year (at least) of unprecedented miracles and wonders. They have seen the Hand of G-d like no one ever had (of ever will). They leave Egypt, accompanied andprotected by a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire. They are then camped at the Sea and realize that the Egyptians are pursuing them. They panick and say terrible, terrible words: Aren't there enough graves in Egypt that you took us out to die in the wilderness; why did you take us out of Egypt; it's just as we told youmonths ago, leave us alone, we'd rather be slaves to Egypt than die in the wilderness. How could they (we) say such things? It gets worse. The protecting angel moves between the Egyptians and the Jews, etc. The sea splits, we pass through, the Egyptians are drowned and we are saved. to thank G-d for the Shabbat. And we burst forth with joyous songs of thanks. So far, so good. Three days without finding water;the people complain to Moshe. The Torah does not tell us the words of complaint, but they did more than "ask nicely" for water. They witness another miracle. Not too long afterwards, they (we) do it again. ALL the people of Israel complain to Moshe and Aharon about food. This occurs a month after the Exodus, three weeks after the miracles at the sea. We have a tradition that the supply of matza they took with them ran out after a month. They were hungry. Legitimately so, justas they had been thirsty. The People are not being criticized for wanting water and food. They are not criticized for panicking. But listen to what and how they said what they said. You took us from the plentiful food in Egypt to starve us to death here in the Midbar. They got the Manna. More miracles. They leave Manna over when they weren't supposed to. They go out to find it on Shabbat, against G-d's instructions. Then a while later, they are thirsty again. And again, it's why did you take us out of Egypt to kill us here. And we also know that the complaining and the harsh words against G-d and Moshe continue. But now let's get back to Na'aseh V'Nishma. Not only was that the "correct" response to G-d's offer of the Torah, but it seems to nullify all the negative comments, complaints, all terrible words, and all the misdeeds from before and after. When the Sin of the Golden Calf took place six weeks or so after we said Na'asehV'Nishma, it did not nullify those words. This is how totally perfect was that two-word statement of ours to G-d. It is as if we said: We hereby declare, that no matter what we have said or done in the past, no matter what we ever will say or do in the future, the basis of our commitment to You, G-d, is NA'ASEH V'NISHMA. That is our total, sometimes illogical promise. We mean it now. And we always will mean it. What they is and what they ain't Forgive the crude grammar in the title - it does, however, make several points about the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments. Note that what we call the Aseret HaDibrot in Hebrew and the Ten Commandments in English are referred to in the Torah as Aseret HaD'varim. They will be referred to here as commandments, although statements would be a more accurate term for them. Do not confuse the word commandment, in this context, with the word Mitzva. In fact, the 10 Commandments comprises 14 mitzvot as counted from Yitro with a 15th counted in Va'etchanan. Let's start with their unique feature in having two sets of cantillation marks - TRUP. One set, called TAAMEI HATACHTON, the lower notes (because most of the symbols for the notes appear below the words) treats the 13 verse - 172 word portion (that's the Yitro version; the Va'etchanan version of the Aseret HaDibrot has 189 words) as a set of verses - that is, the Aseret HaDibrot are read the same way any other portion of the Torah is read. With the "lower notes", commandments 2 and 4 consists of 4 verses each, and commandments 6, 7, 8, and 9 are all part of one single verse. The other commandments (1,3,5,10) are each one verse long. The other set of notes is called TAAMEI HA'ELYON, the upper notes (because many of the symbols appear above the words). In this way of reading, each commandment is read as a single verse, with 1 and 2, being two sides of the same coin, being combined into a single verse. This matches the parsha arrangement (meaning the way the text is actually written in a Torah scroll) of the Aseret HaDibrot rather than the pasuk (verse) arrangement. On the last point... the combining of commandments 1 and 2 would allow them to be understood as: "Because I Am G-d your G-d Who took you out of Egypt... therefore there shall be no other gods before Me..." - as opposed to viewing ANOCHI (commandment 1) as its own separate mitzva to believe in G-d. Nonetheless, the Rambam, and the Chinuch in his wake, count the first commandment as its own mitzva. Reading the Aseret HaDibrot with the lower notes makes them sound no different from any other portion of the Torah. Using the upper notes adds a fanfare to their presentation, and highlights them as unique and special passage. The almost-universal custom, in Jewish communities around the world, is to read the Aseret HaDibrot in public with Taamei Ha'Elyon on each of the three times we read it - Shabbat Parshat Yitro, Shavuot morning, and Shabbat Parshat Va'etchanan. Minhag Yerushalayim, followed by many (but not all) Ashkenazi congregations in Jerusalem (and elsewhere), is to read them in the upper notes only on Shavuot morning. On the other two occasions, the Taamei HaTachton is used. Parallel to the two possible ways of reading the Aseret HaDibrot, are two ways of understanding them. Take, as an example. commandment 8 - Thou shalt not steal. This is defined by Rashi, Rambam, Chinuch, and others as the prohibition against kidnapping. As such, it is one of several mitzvot in the Torah that deal with stealing in all of its forms. This way of looking at LO TIGNOV is consistent with the Taamei HaTachton reading. On the other hand, we may also view LO TIGNOV as a "chapter heading" - STEALING - which includes robbing, stealing, cheating, kidnapping, deceiving, "boundary encroaching", delaying wages, and several other mitzvot in the Torah. This view of commandment 8 would be reflected in the Taamei Ha'Elyon tradition. Which is right? They both are. As that which was heard at Sinai by the awe struck multitude that stood at the base of the mountain, the Aseret HaDibrot represent the "down payment" on the Torah which Moshe learned from G-d for the 40 days and nights which followed Ma'amad Har Sinai. They represent the whole Torah, and each commandment represents a slew of other mitzvot among the 613. On the other hand, the Aseret HaDibrot are a part of the Torah, all of which being that which G-d gave us at Sinai. Although we definitely view the Aseret HaDibrot in both the ways described above, there is a longstanding "warning" against overemphasizing them as being "special". There was a proposal made to incorporate the Aseret HaDibrot into the daily davening. This would seem to be reasonable because of the prominence of this Torah portion. Our Sages rejected the idea, for fear that "singling out" the Aseret HaDibrot would give credence to the apostate's distorted notion that only the Aseret HaDibrot were revealed by G-d, the rest of the Torah being of human origin. In fact, if one looks just at the Torah's account of Revelation at Sinai from Parshat Yitro, one can see where this popular misconception comes from. Our Tradition (and the verses in the description of Matan Torah as recorded at the end of Parshat Mishpatim) leaves us with no doubt that all of the Torah - the Written Word, the Oral Law, the Mitzvot and their explanations - is "from Sinai". So important to our Hashkafa is the concept of the Divine Origin of all of Torah, that the Sages took steps to avoid "feeding" any contrary notion. In this connection, the custom of standing for the reading of the Aseret HaDibrot is challenged by several halachic authorities. They fear that this custom may also strengthen the hand of the apostate. By giving this "extra honor" to the Aseret HaDibrot, might the misguided individual be lead to his erroneous conclusion? Although the practice of standing for the reading of the Aseret HaDibrot is very strongly challenged by some authorities - Rabbi Ovadia Yosef seems to be the most vocal opponent of this practice - it remains a time-honored tradition in most congregations. Some argue that since we read all of the Torah (from week to week throughout the year), our standing for the Aseret HaDibrot does not convey the wrong message. There are many who recommend that one should either stand for Torah reading all the time or sit for Torah reading all the time, thereby avoiding the impression that one part of the Torah is more important than any other part. This would include the Song of the Sea and the concluding verses of each of the Five Books - CHAZAK. Others are most concerned with the Aseret HaDibrot, for the reasons expressed above. They recommend standing a bit before, and remaining standing a bit after the Aseret HaDibrot, to dispel the wrong impression. The Aseret HaDibrot ARE special. They are the words that G-d chose as the formal representation of the Torah on the day He revealed Himself to us at Sinai. (Remember too that the Shabbat and other areas of mitzva had preceded the Giving of the Torah at Sinai.) We heard those words on the first Shavuot. The rest of the Torah is our Heritage from Sinai, no less Divine than the Aseret HaDibrot. Kept in proper perspective, the Aseret HaDibrot and the magnificent account of the Sinai Experience should serve as an inspiration for our greater reverence for all of Torah. A non-Jew is obligated to observe the Seven Noahide laws. When he or she desires to become Jewish and "come under the wing of the Divine Presence", he or she makes a commitment to the 613 mitzvot - a net increase of 606. (The number is not accurate because the Seven Noahide Laws include many more than our Taryag, 613. Furthermore, no one has all 613 mitzvot to keep. Some mitzvot apply only to a Kohen, some only to a non-Kohen. Some to a king, some to the Sanhedrin or the community as a whole. No individual Jew actually keeps all 613. Nonetheless, we all "have" 613 mitzvot, representing our full commitment to Torah. For the purpose of this G'matriya, however, 613-7=606 will do.) The two premier converts to Judaism - Yitro and Ruth, each have names which relate to the number 606. The word YITRO can mean YITEIR TR"O = he added TR"O=400+200+6=606. The name RUTH = 200+6+400 = 606. Is Your Oven Kosher? This is the third installment of an article by Rabbi Yaakov Luban, Senior Rabbinic Coordinator, OU Kashruth Div., that appeared in Daf HaKashrus in '96. In the previously cited responsa, Rav Moshe Feinstein tempers his ruling on ovens with two important qualifications: Zeiah does not circulate in the oven if (a) the food is covered (see Rama 92:8), or (b) the food is dry. Although dry foods contain some moisture, it can be assumed that an insignificant amount is converted to vapor during the cooking process (unless we observe otherwise). This provides a practical means of preparing dairy and meat foods in a single oven. The oven is designated as either dairy or meat. Foods of the designatedsort can be cooked in any manner. Food items of the non-designated group can then be baked in the oven provided they are dry or placed in a covered pan. (Preferably, the oven rack should be changed or the surface under the pot should be covered with aluminum foil. Furthermore, when baking a non-designated open dry item,the oven must be free of edible residue of the designated category. These issues are discussed further in this article.) The $64,000 question is, what constitutes a dry food? How do we treat pizza, blintzes (the cheese often leaks out of the leaf), and cheese cake? All of these foods have some moisture which evaporates into the air during the cooking process. Nonetheless, the level of zeiah is certainly less than that of liquids. How muchzeiah is halachically significant? It may be argued that these foods do not produce a visible stream of vapor and therefore they should be considered dry foods. However, visibility may not necessarily be a criteria for halachic zeiah. Indeed, even the zeiah of a liquid is not necessarily visible in an oven. When waterevaporates it becomes an invisible gas, and it only condenses when the air is over saturated. cont. next issue, IY"H FOR RENT, week of Pesach APARTMENT FOR RENT OR SALE IN
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