Special Features
for Parashat Tzav

EDITORIAL COMMENTS
Not taking the "advice" of some, who have "suggested" that I stick to Divrei Torah and not make editorial-type comments and observations, but taking the warning of others to be careful how I say what I'm going to say, I offer the following points for your consideration.

The Pope and his Visit

The Pope has apologized on several occasions for the terrible things that Christians and Christianity has done to the Jews throughout 2000 years of their existence. Let's leave aside whether or not the apologies are enough, whether they mention the Crusades, Inquisitions, Ritual Murder charges, Blood Libels, persecutions, pogroms, the Holocaust. Let's leave that aside for now. It may be so that offical Vatican policy is truly conciliatory towards the Jews and Judaism. It may be actually so that this pope has a much more favorable attitude towards the Jews than (most of) his predecessors. Maybe.

But whatever Vatican policy is and/or is becoming towards the Jews, its policy vis-a-vis Jewish sovereignty in Israel and especially over Jerusalem will always be a bone in their throat, thorn in their side, or choose your own favorite expression. They don't and they won't accept with a smile or otherwise our return to our Homeland and to the Holy City of Yerushalayim.

Our "stubbornness" in not accepting their messiah constantly erks them, but our return to Israel and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty continues to tie their theology in knots. We are supposed to be cursed to eternally wander the face of the Earth in homelessness.

Some political analysts attribute the Where-is-your-embassy problem that most countries have to the influence of the Catholic Church throughout the world.

Judaism is one thing; Israel is another.

Daylight Savings Time

There is no halachic preference to staying on Standard Time or to switching to Daylight Savings Time or to staying on DST or switching back to Standard Time at any time of the year.

We've got our earliest times and best times, and latest times that different prayers must be said, that mitzvot must be performed. And we will always have them, regardless of the clock time that we will have in operation.

If there are some Jews who will be inconvenienced by having to stay up later, or get up earlier with one or the other time system, there will be others who will be inconvenienced the other way.

I've quoted her before, but I'll do it again. Sam Levenson a"h used to say that his mother's comment about daylight savings time was that it was like cutting off the edge of a blanket and sewing it on the other side, to make the blanket longer.

If there are benefits to a longer season of Summer Time - and there are great benefits - and there are no halachic objections that we can put forth, then we (the religious community in Israel) should not introduce a religious angle, where none need intrude and put us at loggerheads with the rest of the population.

Slichot for S'faradim in Elul has been used as the reason for early switch back to Standard Time. But Slichot precedes Shacharit. And if Shacharit is later because we stay on DST longer, then what does Slichot have to do with the issue. Anyone who has to daven Shacharit and then go to work can potentially have a problem. Bosses will have to be understanding in situations where religious workers need to be able to come late.

School children going to school when it is still dark out is a safety problem for us all. It is not a religious issue and should never have been made into a religious issue.

10+6+60+80 + 300+200+10+4 = 5+40+50 + 5+200+300+70 Interesting?

Of the 206 bones in the human body, 106 are in the hands (54) and feet (52).

TORATHON 5760

THU 8:30am to FRI 10:00am, March 30-31
251/2 hours of Torah. Theme: The Multi-faceted Shabbat

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