Home Home / Chag He-Asor (1958)

Outline

April 26, 1958

Chag He-Asor (1958)

Yom Ha'atzmaut & Yom Yerushalayim
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Outline

Israel Independence Day (1955)

I. Sidra opens with Jews concerning childbirth. אשה כי תזריע וילדה זכר וטמאה שבעת ימים... וביום השמיני ימולו בשר ערלתו. Seven days of uncleanliness, of separation, + then circumcision. II. Our Rabbis most profound comment in reason for טומאה and relation of mother's 7-day uncleanliness to child's 8-day ברית → (נדה ל"א ב') – R. Simon bar Yochai – during those 7 days mother is still in state of anxiety that remains with her from before + during _______ birth-giving. It takes 7 days to recover not only from physical experience, but from the mental
Yom Ha'atzmaut & Yom Yerushalayim

Synagogue Sermon

Grandeur: A Jewish Definition (1960)

This week our country and our city have been hosts to one of the most distinguished visitors ever to come to our shores. General Charles de Gaulle, Premier of France, is a man who has captured the imagination of the world, teaching men that it is possible to raise a modern nation from the throes of despair by holding before it the image of its ancient splendor. In particular, there is one word or quality associated with his name and character that is descriptive of his role in modern history. That word is: grandeur.The word and the man come to mind on this Sabbath preceding the Yom Ha-Atzma’ut, Israel’s Twelfth Anniversary of Independence. Is there a quality appropriate to Israel that is equivalent to the grandeur of France? Do we Jews have a grandeur of our own? What, in other words, is the specifically Jewish definition of grandeur?I believe there are three Hebrew words that, together, can best spell out for us what Jewish grandeur is. Each represents another aspect of this elusive but very real quality. Combined, they represent the Jewish definition of grandeur.The first word is: tiferet. We might loosely translate that as dignity. There can be no grandeur without a sense of dignity.Of course, dignity has certain external manifestations, certain outer appearances that enhance it. But the dignity of tiferet is also expressed in an inner quality which, ultimately, proves far more important. We read in the second chapter of Avot: Rabbi said, what is the right way that a man ought to choose for himself? And he answers: whatever is tiferet l’oseha and tiferet lo min ha-adam – whatever gives dignity to him who does it and appears dignified to his fellow men. I prefer to interpret that somewhat differently. The right way a man ought to choose, the way of grandeur, certainly includes tiferet l’oseha – it gives an air of dignity, a dignified atmosphere, to whoever acts in the proper manner. But of far more crucial significance is tiferet lo min ha-adam – that the dignity…
Yom Ha'atzmaut & Yom Yerushalayim

Synagogue Sermon

Every Name Under the Sun - editor's title (1957)

Since last Independence Day, a major change has come over the situation for Israel: it has lost the goodwill of the great powers. Before, only the Arabs damned her; now no one has any love for her. This 9th birthday finds the United States and Russia both appeasing the Arabs and opposing the Israelis. Israel’s very existence has been called into question, and she has been called upon to justify her very survival as well as her attack on Egypt. Israel has now been called every name under the diplomatic sun: aggressor, war-maker, offensive. And an argument repeated often enough can affect even the strongest partisans and make them over into opponents.Our Rabbis of the Midrash tell us that God showed Moses *dor dor v’dorshav*—each generation and its leaders, its prophets, its wise men, and so on. This means that He showed him the *kohanim* of the future who would remain spiritually *b’nei Aharon*. But also included in this vision, though less known, were each generation’s *gazlanim* and *chamsanim*—and we wonder: are these too *kohanim b’nei Aharon*?And the answer is: no, it is not that the descendants of Aharon will be robbers and thieves. But the meaning is that despite their being the preachers and leaders and prophets and wise men of every generation, they will be called robbers and thieves. As though God said to Moses: they still are to Me, despite all the names so unjustly applied to them by others, *kohanim b’nei Aharon*.And so, when we find that Russia calls Israel an aggressor, the United States calls her an unjust intruder, and India calls her a thief, we open the Bible and the Midrash, and we find that God tells us that those whom others call, in their generations, robbers and thieves, remain the “priests, the children of Aaron,” the priests of all nations and the kingdom of holy people.Why is Israel right? Why do they remain the *kohanim b’nei Aharon*? What is the underlying principle of Israel’s claim to statehood, its justification of Operation Sinai, an…
Yom Ha'atzmaut & Yom Yerushalayim