The 20th of Adar is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yoel (ben Shmuel) Sirkes of Cracow, (the Bach) (1561-1641), author of Bayis Chadash on the Tur, in which he traced each law to its source in the gemarah. In his youth, he studied under Rav Shlomo Leibush of Lublin and Rav Meshulam Feivush in Brisk. He had several rabbinic appointments throughout Poland, lastly as Chief Rabbi of Cracow in 1619. He was the teacher and father-in-law of Rav Dovid HaLevy, the Taz.

In 1979, Rabbi Elijah Schochet told me about the following Responsum, which he wrote up in, “A Responsum of Surrender.” I no longer have the book, but here is the question:

Teshuvah #43-Censored and removed from second edition of Responsa of the Bayit Chadash:

This concerns the false accusations leveled against the city of Kalish against a Jew who was arrested in the matter regarding the theft of their savior. As he was being led away he handed over his bag to others, among them his father-in-law and brother-in-law, who were standing in a large crowd of non-Jews.

After this Jew had suffered martyrdom his libelers leveled a charge against the community claiming that the father-in-law who was the Shamash of the community had taken the bag from the prisoner’s hand and the “savior” was inside.

The officials of the Royal Court handed down the verdict that the elders of the Jewish community were responsible for surrendering the Shamash to stand trial before the Wojewoda. Should they not turn him over to authorities, it would be they who would suffer the punishments intended for him meted out by the Royal Court.

In the interim, the Shamash escaped and is being hidden by friends.

There is reason to fear that if, God forbid, he were to be forced to stand trial before them, he would be tortured in ways beyonds their own established practices.

This is evident from the decree which they have issued against the Community, for according to their own rules and regulations, there is no reason for the community to be held responsible.

Since, as we have observed, they do as they please with us, contrary to their own rules, it is a matter of life and death should he be forced to stand trial.

What is the ruling regarding this man? Is it or is it not permissible to surrender him to stand trial?

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We began our discussion of the laws of cooking on Shabbat in, “Cooking With the Miraculous.”

When we speak of the miraculous we are speaking of that which is otherworldly. When we speak of the otherworldly we not only speak of that which we cannot understand or explain, we are also speaking of that which is not directly in front of us but something for which we must wait. We wait for our reward in the World to Come. We wait for the Redemption. There is quite a bit of waiting in our spiritual lives. I am currently experiencing a powerful lesson in the role of waving in a more immediate sense:

Those of you who read The Foundation Stone Newsletter, know from “As A Parent,” and, “Debate Performance,” that I write these words as my mother is currently in the world of Waiting. She lies between this world and the next, between life and death. In it is not only she who is in this world of Waiting; her entire family, her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and the countless people she has helped and guided for so many years, are also stuck in this world of Waiting. We are waiting to see what happens next. I am not handling the world of Waiting very well. I’m having trouble writing, thinking, and planning. This heterotelic transivity of Waiting, although seemingly disconnected from the Shabbat laws as described in, “Consciousness, Intention and Purpose,” “What’s Your Purpose?” and, “Purpose Driven Action,” added its viscidity when we considered, “Probable Consequences.” Although the laws of Shabbat are very purpose oriented, perhaps it is even fair to say Tangible Purpose, “Cooking with the Miraculous,” has introduced us to the world of Purpose For Which We Must Wait.

The Biblical prohibition of Bishul, is defined as “causing a change in the properties of a food or substance by use of heat (Rambam, Laws of Shabbat 9:6).” These laws do not only apply to cooking a raw food until it becomes edible, they also apply to any action that brings about a change in non-foods as well. Heating wax until it melts, or causing metal to become red-hot, are included in this category (Rambam). Heating a soft or pliable substance to cause it to harden is also considered Bishul. This is why we may not place bread near the covered stove with the intention of toasting it (Shevitat Shabbat, Bishul #92; Sho’eil U’Meishiv II:20).

The aspect of Bishul that most concerns our discussion is that unlike most of the other categories of prohibited creative work, it is a slow process that takes time to complete. We are culpable for violating this law only upon completion of process the cooking (Shabbat 3b). Because Bishul takes time to complete, it follows that if one places a pot of raw food on the flame, he can still avoid the transgression by removing the pot before it finishes cooking. He is required to do so (Rambam 9:5).

We now have one of the 39 major categories of prohibited work that addresses our issue of Waiting: there is a period of time between the prohibited action and the fulfillment of its purpose which will retroactively make us liable for an earlier action. As far as the Biblical law is concerned, the moment I place a raw food on the stove to cook, I am in a state of Waiting. The action is only triggered when the purpose is achieved.

Let’s consider this idea in the context of the Primal Shabbat. God created the world. Each Utterance of Creation resulted in the immediate appearance of its expression. However, we do not speak of the Creation only in terms of its immediate expression, but , primarily in terms of its purpose, its Ultimate Purpose, which was initially achieved with the creation of Adam, the purpose of the rest of the creation (The Way of God, 1:2:4–5). This would mean that although all the creations had physically appeared, they were all in a state of Waiting until Adam appeared. “These are the products of the heaven and the earth when they were created in the day that God, the Lord, made earth and heaven; all the trees of the field were not yet on the earth and all the herb of the field had not yet sprouted, for God, the Lord, had not sent rain upon the earth and [because–Rashi] there was no man to work the soil (Genesis 2: 4–5).”

However, the world was still not considered complete even with the Creation/Formation of Adam: “And the Lord completed His work which He had done, on the Seventh day (2:2).” The world was not complete until the Creation of Shabbat. This is why we speak of Shabbat as a “Taste of the World to Come,” for just as the world was not complete until the primal Shabbat, the world is not complete, meaning, its Ultimate Purpose has not been achieved until the World to Come. All of creation is in a state of Waiting!

I find it interesting that the Sages compare the formation of Adam’s body as “baking,” when they speak of Adam as the Challah of creation. The laws of Bishul take us back to the beginning of creation, to the first appearance of Adam, and to the Primal Shabbat. The laws of Bishul remind us that we constantly exist in this World of Waiting: a world in which we wait for the fulfillment of purpose.

We must therefore study the precise point at which Bishul is “finished,” as addressed in the laws of “Ma’achal ben D’rusai, Mevushal kol Tzarcho, and Mitztamek.

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“But to return, if I may use the expression, to the future…(J.B.S. Haldane).”

Haven’t we been here before? Have we not experienced Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Succot, many times? Have we not dreamed of a fresh start year after year? How

will this year be different?

“Every man takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world (Arthur Schopenhauer).” I suspect that there is a hint in the imperfect roof of the Succah to Schopenhauer’s point: The open spaces in the S’chach are a reminder that our vision is limited, there are other views, the ones through which we glimpse that stars. Succor is an exercise in seeing God’s vision for us, rather than our own.

Even when the serpent spoke to Eve to convince her to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, he hinted to God’s vision of human potential, “You will be as Powers.” God’s vision of a human being is that of a true Power that can transform creation. Adam had two choices when he first stepped out of the Garden: he could look ahead terrified that he had no idea what to do. He was accustomed to being cared for by God. He could carry the failure of his past on his shoulders, dreading the world outside his protected place, his Succah, the Garden. Or, he could recall God’s first words to him, “Go out and conquer and master the world.” He had been equipped to master the world from his first moment of life.

Adam, unfortunately, began by choosing to focus on what he had lost. He blamed Eve and separated from her. He did not become a builder of the future until more than a hundred years later. He was weighed down by his vision of himself. He forgot God’s opening charge; God’s vision of what he could do.

I look up through the open spaces of my Succah to glimpse the heavens that, in God’s vision, are ours to reach. Hopefully, it will become my vision as well.

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“It would be madness, and inconsistency, to suppose that things which have never yet been performed can be performed without employing some hitherto untried means (Francis Bacon).”

I use the same Succah every year, the same poles, the same canvas, the same support beams, and the same s’chach, but I always end up needing to add one thing to fix a problem that occurred the previous years.

I use the same system every year to keep my Haddasim and Aravot fresh throughout Succot, and always need to add one more trick to perfect my system. I’m now up to keeping everything perfect for about five days. (Open to suggestions!)

I daven the same prayers every day, but always find that I must add new Kavanot to keep my prayers fresh and meaningful.

I learn the same Torah every year, and always search for new insights, a new approach, a new commentary, so I can learn more from each portion.

I suspect that the reason the Succah is an imperfect structure is to challenge us to find something new each year to add or fix. It is a challenge to use the festival to consider what new means we can use to make this year better than the last. A new practice, a new approach to prayer, a new ingredient to add to our Shabbat. Who knows? Perhaps we will perform what hitherto has not.

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My wing is poised to beat

but I would gladly return home

were I to stay to the end of days

I would still be this forlorn

– Gershom Scholem, “Greetings from Angelus” [tr. Richard Sieburth}

A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating.

His eyes are staring, his mouth hangs open, his wings are spread.

This is how the angel of history must look.

His face is turned toward the past.

Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one catastrophe, which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage, hurling it before his feet.

The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed.

But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence the angel can no longer close them.

This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward.

This storm is what we call progress.

(Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosphy of History,” in Illuminations [1940])

“Succot,” as “Yiskah (Genesis 11:29),” means to see the future. I certainly hope we do not use our Succah vision to see the future as does Klee’s angel. We see a wind, not a storm, that blows from Paradise; it is not a wind of destruction but a wind that pushes us forward to accomplish despite the wreckage behind us. Thus, Halachah teaches us that a Succah, a temporary structure, must be sufficiently strong to stand in a normal wind. We consider a storm on Succot, sent by God to prevent us from fulfilling His Mitzvah of living in the Succah, as a sign of God’s displeasure. So, no storms, Mr. Klee; just a gentle wind propelling us forward.

The Succah is named for the S’chach, the symbol of Divine Protection. The gaps are not the wreckage of the past; they are the areas where we have yet to find God in our lives, but, we are told, there are magical ways to fill in the gaps: Lavud, Dofen Akumah, Gud Asik, etc., all laws that allow us to use our imagination to fill in the gaps.

Our angel does not face the past, but the future. He propels us forward into the year with hope.

The Succah is our symbol of the future. It is an expression of hope and expectation that despite our shaky foundation, we can succeed in building a world that flies forward on the winds from Paradise; a world that reflects the beauty of Paradise, a world that expresses our conviction that God is constantly present in our lives.

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“Waiting for Godot” follows two days in the lives of a pair of men who divert themselves while they wait expectantly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. They claim him as an acquaintance but in fact hardly know him, admitting that they would not recognize him were they to see him. To occupy themselves, they eat, sleep, converse, argue, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats, and contemplate suicide – anything “to hold the terrible silence at bay” (Wikipedia).

As often happens, I find myself waiting in line. Although a few days early, I feel as if it is Succot; a word (and structure) often associated with waiting:

“So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir. Jacob, however, went to Sukkoth, where he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is called Sukkoth (Genesis 33:16-17).” Jacob was waiting to see what Esau’s next step would be.

“Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city (Jonah 4:5).”

I am waiting to see whether we will be able to eat in the Succah or if the rain will prevent us from fulfilling the Mitzvah.

It is impossible to read about the agreement to trade 1,000 terrorists for Gilad Shalit without waiting for he actual exchange to take place, waiting to see what these soon to be freed convicted killers will next do, and thinking about the Shalit family’s five years of waiting for Gilad and his waiting for his freedom.

What does the Succah teach us about waiting?

Unlike the marriage Chuppah, which has a roof but no walls, the Succah has walls but an incomplete roof. The new couple experiences God’s Presence and must now go out into the world and build their home. They are facing the world. The Succah, however, does not focus us out into the world, but, up, toward God. Yonah could not observe Nineveh from his succah; he had to exit to see, hence, the need for the Kikayon to provide shade when he was outside his Succah. He was too upset with God to wait for God’s next step. When he stepped outside his succah to watch the dastardly city, and was overwhelmed by the heat, God miraculously provided for him.

Jacob built his succah, not to wait for Esau’s next step, but for a hint from God as to Jacob’s next step. He was waiting for Divine guidance.

We too “wait” in our Succah. We will address building the future outside he walls when we shake our Four Species out toward all directions. Our Succah sitting is to focus our attention up, toward Heaven, waiting for our response to God’s Presence in our lives. There are gaps in the s’chach, aka Clouds, open spaces that represent the areas in our lives where we do not yet perceive God’s Presence. We can stare at the open spaces and wait, but nothing will happen. The S’chach will not magically expand and cover the open spaces. Nothing is accomplished by our sitting and waiting for God to fill the gaps in our lives where we feel Him missing. Yes, we are waiting; waiting to see how we will choose to fill the gaps.

The “Four Species,” when pointed up, can be our tools to actively fill the gaps we experience when looking up toward Heaven. We can accept responsibility to fill in all the gaps that still remain after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Perhaps then we will experience the same sense of freedom that Gilad will hopefully taste in the next few days.

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“In the “Judgment” of the Book of Changes, whenever one encounters dangerous circumstances the advice is always: “Cross the river.” One can see from this that the real purpose of boats is to deliver people from danger rather than to provide comfort.” Pleasure Boat Studio by Ou-yang Hsiu (1007 – 1072)

We seem to take Hsiu’s advice quite seriously. We refer to our first patriarch, Abraham as “Ivri” – what Hsiu would call a river crosser. In fact, many people referred to us as Ivrim for a long time.

But we do not cross the river to avoid dangerous circumstances. We actually cross towards them: “For you are crossing the Jordan to come and possess the Land that God, your Lord, gives you.” We are certainly river crossers, not to avoid, but to confront.

Our definition of Ivri is not “from the other side” but one who can bridge both sides of the river. Our challenge is to stand on both sides of the river – to bridge the spiritual and physical worlds.

We also differ from Hsiu’s definition of a boat’s purpose: “This world is like the shore and the World to Come like the sea.” (Kohelet Rabbah 1:36) The Midrash compares the World to Come as a journey on the sea. There will be no dangers to escape. The journey will be filled with joy and comfort.

We are Ivrim – River Crossers and Bridges – in order to prepare for the ultimate journey on the sea of the Coming World. No wonder we live by Halacha – Instructions for Journeying!

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In January 1864, the U.S. Army forcibly removed between 8,000 and 9,000 Navajo Indians from their traditional lands in the eastern Arizona Territory and the western New Mexico Territory to internment camps in Bosque Redondo in the Pecos River valley. They had been conquered by a campaign whereby the U.S. Army had systematically destroyed their crops and other food sources, and the old and weak among the Navajo had to either surrender or die. During the Long Walk, at least 200 died  or were kidnapped along the 300-mile trek that took over 18 days to travel by foot. Their settlement in Bosque Redondo had such catastrophic consequences in death and disease and was so disastrously expensive that the U.S. returned them to a reservation in their original homeland in a second “Long Walk” in June 1868.

We are far too familiar with such Long Walks. The Babylonians marched the Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon. We still remember the cruel taunts of the Arabs as our crushed and defeated ancestors walked out of Jerusalem. The Romans imposed their own Long Walks as they exiled the Jews from Israel. The Germans forced their infamous Death March from numerous concentration camps so that they could finish off the Jews who had refused to die in the camps. The “Walk” offers a glimmer of hope; ‘You are walking to a better place,’ but it is always “Your Walk;” you have to survive on your own. The walkers are vulnerable to enemies who attach them on the way, as the Arabs attacked us, as the Poles murdered us, and as the Zuni and Jemez tribes attacked the Navajo Walkers.

The Walkers must call on heroic strength to survive. They are helpless, starving, exhausted, vulnerable, weak, and desperate, but they are also heroes. Perhaps this is why the Sages describe our laws as Halacha – Walking: They remind us that when we continue to Walk with Halacha, no matter how vulnerable, weak, and desperate we may be, we are heroes. The Sages teach us that Halacha trains us in the heroism of these Walkers.

I can see Jeremiah linking himself to the chain of exiles so that he can walk with them. The Babylonians repeatedly refuse to allow the great prophet to join the lines of exiles, but he persists: He too wants to be a walker. He pays honor to their heroism and empowers them to survive until they reach Babylon where they can thrive. Jeremiah wants them to understand that the strength on which they call as they walk, is the strength that will allow them to continue living.

Many of us reflect on our life’s journey as we prepare for Tisha B’Av and the period of Teshuva that follows. We are encouraged to reflect on our failures and disappointments as a way of experiencing the Churban, or destruction. We should remember that when we recall the painful parts of our journey that we too, called on hidden strengths and heroism. We possess the strength to keep on marching through life; the same strength that will help us achieve our potential.

If we are going to recall our Long Walk, we would do well to rejoice in the strengths we discovered. It will be those strengths that will allow us to repair the effects of Tisha B’Av.

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The first entry in my Service of God Notebooks in which I realized that there is Music to Halacha: “Everything that is brought to people who are having a meal that has a particularly wonderful aroma and thereby adds to the craving to eat the food; those who are eating must offer some of that food immediately to the person serving them. Offering some of every one of the dishes is a particularly fine way of doing this religious act (Shulchan Aruch; Orach Chaim 169:1).”

My father zt”l applied this law to any time I was eating a snack that looked particularly delicious, and insisted that I share it with my sister. He also insisted that when I was having a special joy in my learning, joy that was obvious to people around me, that I offer to study with anyone I would see who was not deriving joy from his learning. “Perhaps,” he said, “this is the meaning of what the Sages described as happening just before the destruction of the Second Temple: people were studying Torah even at a time of baseless hatred. People were soaring with joy in their learning and did not think to share that joy with others.” (Shabbat Devarim 5728 – 1968)

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Dear Rabbi Weinberg; I have heard you say on numerous occasions that the laws of Kashering are a guide to repairing spiritual damage. Since the laws of Kashering are in this week’s Parsha, Matos, “Everything that comes into fire, you shall pass through fire and it will be purified (Numbers 31:23),” I was wondering where you got such an idea that I never heard in Yeshiva or from my rabbeim. How can you teach an idea which has no Mesorah/Tradition? YG

Dear YG;

I do have a Mesorah as do you:

“It is a matter that is clear and revealed that the laws of impurities and purity are biblical decrees. They are not among the ideas that a person’s logic will derive. and they are included in the category of, “Chukim,” statutes, as are the laws of immersion to be purified; for impurity is not mud or waste that are removed by water, but a biblical decree, and the matter depends on one’s intention. Therefore our Sages taught that one who immerses in a Mikvah that lacks an established status as a Kosher mikvah, is considered to not have immersed.

Even so, there is a lesson hinted in these laws that one who has intention to purify himself is purified once he has immersed even though he did not affect any physical changes. So too, one who intends to purify his soul from spiritual impurities, such as wicked thoughts and destructive ideas; once he has committed himself to separate from such ideas and immerses himself in the purifying waters of pure knowledge, of him the verse says, ‘Then I will sprinkle pure water upon you, that you may become cleansed; I will cleanse you from all your contamination and from all your idols (Ezekiel 36:25)’ [Rambam: Conclusion of Hilchot Mikva’ot].”

Many commentators wonder why the Rambam only mentions Teshuvah from destructive thoughts and not the purification of Teshuvah from all sins, and why the Rambam does not address the idea of immersion in the pure waters of Torah as part of every Teshuva.

The Beit HaLevi (Lecture 15) teaches that beyond the punishment that results from the sin of violating the Divine Will, the sinner has damaged more than one level of his higher soul, and has dulled his heart as is taught in the Talmud (Yomah 39a).

He continues, “We find that the impurity of the sin follows him around as a dog follows his master (Avodah Zarah 5b), and, our Sages have taught that the sin clasps onto him and precedes him into the Heavenly Tribunal on the day of his final judgment, as Ezekiel says, ‘For their iniquities remain upon them (32:27).

“When the person comes to do Teshuvah, besides that he needs atonement to negate the punishment, he must purify himself and repair the spiritual damage he caused his soul. and remove the blocks he has placed over his heart, as the verse teaches, ‘You shall cut away the barrier of your heart (Devarim 10:16).’

“When he has gone through the tree steps of Teshuva, which are total regret over the past, resolving to not again sin in the future, and the Vidui, immediately the impurity of the sin is removed from the surface of his soul, and he remains as a vessel without anything non-kosher on the surface, but still has impurity absorbed into the inside of the vessel.

“This is true on two levels: One, the habit of sinning has changed the essence of his soul and makes it easier to again sin, and two, the impurity of the sin as like something non-kosher that has been absorbed into a pot and must be kashered as the same heat at which it absorbed the non-kosher. The pot must first be rinsed of any surface non-kosher before it is kashered at the appropriate temperature.

“This is the idea taught by the Talmud, ‘When the serpent came upon Eve he injected a lust into her (Shabbat 146a),’ the same lust for sin that is injected deep into our souls each time we sin; a lust that corrupts our soul and empowers our physical side to overcome our spiritual nature, without any negative external influence to sin. The next sin will come from within. This is what needs to be Kashered, as the verse says, ‘Everything that comes into fire, you shall pass through fire and it will be purified.’

Nothing Kashers as does Torah study, as the Mishna teaches, “Whoever engages in Torah study for its own sake…‘machsharto, it makes him fit to be righteous (Avot 6:1),’ ‘machsharto’ as in Kashers him, after Teshuvah to remove the impurities absorbed in his soul and the barriers to his heart (Beit HaLevi; Derush #15).”

This is why the Rambam focuses on ‘one who intends to purify his soul from spiritual impurities, such as wicked thoughts and destructive ideas,’ for it is such sins that are the most difficult to Kasher.

My father zt”l taught me that the heat/passion/intensity at which the negative influence was absorbed determines the necessary heat /passion/intensity to burn out the evil.

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