Shalom Friends;
Our Rosh Hashanah 5779 Vort is being sponsored by Avraham and Miriam Deutsch of Efrat wth Special ’Shana Tova wishes for our brethren, the former residents of Gush Katif, as well as wishing Zahal and Kol Am Yisrael L’Shana Tova! To the Deutsch family, many thanks for your continued kindnesses. Avraham and Miriam, may you know only simcha, success, good health, nachas from your children, and only good things in the year to come and in all years to at least 120!
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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Every year, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, we read the Parsha known as the Akeidah: the binding of Yitzchak for slaughter, which is found near the conclusion of Parshat Vayeira (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 22, posukim 1-19). The question arises: What does the Akeidat Yitzchak have to do with Rosh Hashanah?
Torah relates the beginning of the section on the Akeidah:
” And it happened after these things that Hashem tested Avraham and said to him, ‘Avraham,’ and he replied, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘Please take your son, your only one, whom you love — Yitzchak — and go to the land of Moriah; bring him up there as an offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell you.” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 22, posukim 1-2)
This author excerpts from “The Complete Artscroll Machzor for Rosh Hashanah” (Nusach Ashkenaz, pages 402-403) which provides background commentary of the events of the Akeidah:
Avraham and Yitzchak demonstrated their willingness — indeed their eagerness — to make any sacrifice to comply with Hashem’s will… (According to Pesikta Rabbasi #40), [the Akeidah] took place on Rosh Hashanah.
The Shofar of Rosh Hashanah is customarily made of a ram’s horn to recall the merit of the Akeidah, because a ram was substituted for Yitzchak on the altar. In return for Avraham’s superhuman dedication to Hashem, he was given the promise of survival of the Jews and triumph which sustains us to this day. The tefillot of Rosh Hashanah are filled with references to the Akeidah, so central is its place in [Judaism].
This section [the Akeidah] constitutes the very reason for Israel’s existence in Hashem’s eyes…. and accordingly warrants a more penetrating study than other areas. (citing Abarbanel)
Rambam [explains] that the Akeidah… portrays the extent of Avraham’s fear of Hashem. …Avraham finally was rewarded with a child who, he was promised, would become the father of a great nation… Yet, as soon as he was commanded to slaughter him [Yitzchak], he [Avraham] set aside all considerations and undertook to comply with Hashem’s command, not out of fear of… punish[ment], but because it is man’s duty to love and fear Hashem. That is why the angel told him, “for now I know,” i.e., your action proves that you truly deserve to be called a G’d-fearing man, and all people shall learn from you the extent of the fear of Hashem.
Ramban explains: Since man has full charge over his own actions, the concept of trial, refers to the perspective of the person being tested To Hashem, the outcome was not in doubt. Nevertheless, He imposes the trial in order to translate into actuality the latent potential of the person being tested so that he can be rewarded for the actual deed, not only for the good intention…. Thus, all trials described in the Torah are for the benefit of the one being tested.
And so, the “Artscroll Machzor for Rosh Hashanah” (Nusach Ashkenaz, pages 402-411) continues its commentary describing the chain of events of the Akeidah — the Sages’ depiction of the emotional intensity of the participants: Avraham’s mixture of joy — for fulfilling Hashem’s Will, and sadness that, apparently, his beloved son was to die; and Yitzchak’s request for secure binding out of fear that, in his youthfulness, he might involuntarily, reflexively jerk and injure his father, or injure himself rendering him unfit for sacrifice or cause his father to be unable to perform the ritual properly.
The commentary (ibid, pages 406-408) continues with the account of the melochim (the angels) appealing to Hashem invoking Avraham’s merits — his hospitality to strangers and his proclaiming to them that Hashem is the Source of all blessing, as well as the birth of a child, in Avraham’s merit, to Sarah in her advanced age, and thus promising Avraham that his progeny will be father to a great nation. Was this promise now to be broken?
And so, in response:
“A Meloch of Hashem called to him [Avraham] from Shemayim… and he said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad nor do anything to him, for now I know you are a G’d-fearing man, since you have not withheld your son… from Me.'” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 22, posuk 12)
Thus, the story concludes, with a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns, being offered as a korban instead.
Again this author asks, what does the Akeidat Yitzchak have to do with Rosh Hashanah? Can the main or only reason that we leyn its Parsha on the second day be, as Pesikta Rabbasi teaches, because the Akeidah took place on Rosh Hashanah?
In Kiddush and in Bentching (Grace after Meals), we refer to Rosh Hashanah as Yom HaZicharon (Day of Remembrance) and one of the attributes of the day is the Coronation of Hashem as the Sovereign King of All.
To cite the “Artscroll Machzor for Rosh Hashanah”overview, (page XVII):
Hashem’s Sovereignty is the primary theme of Rosh Hashanah and the Ten Days of Judgement it [annually] inaugurates. The service of the day is filled with references to Hashem as King with prayers longing for the day hen His mastery will be acknowledged by all human beings.
It would seem then, that Avraham’s supreme dedication to Hashem would serve as a paradigm for Am Yisrael, and ultimately for the nations, of serving and following in the ways of our Divine Creator, The Sovereign over All. And so, it seems that leyning the Parsha of the Akeidah on the secord day of Rosh Hashanah also serves to strongly connect us to a recognition of Hashem’s Kingship and Dominion over all.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them and that the twice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes, at government expense; both due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. May our dear brother Jonathan Pollard be liberated and truly free — only upon his return home to Israel, and that the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of four years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
L’Shana Tova! May You, All of My Brothers and Sisters, be Inscribed and Sealed for another Year of Life… Now and always!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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