Tuesday, November 8, 2016

What do the Hebrew letters teach us about creation? Start saying the prayer for rain in Israel

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Rabbi Yehuda Lave

Focus On The Roses

"A person who gathers honey will not escape being stung by bees. A person who gathers roses will not escape being scratched by thorns."

The positive things in life also have negative aspects. Keep your focus on the beautiful roses of the world, and the thorns will seem trivial and inconsequential.

As we go into a new Jewish Calendar year, keep your focus clear.

The words for "dew and rain" are added to the weekday Amidah standing prayer as of Monday evening (last night) in Israel. Certain prayer books have a completely different paragraph.

Jews outside of Israel will make the change on the evening of December 4th or 5th.

 Love Yehuda Lave

Why Is the Prayer for Rain Based on the Civil Calendar? The connection between last night in Israel and Dec. 5 or 6 outside the land and Vetein Tal Umatar Livrachah

Question:

My siddur tells me to start saying the prayer for rain in the Amidah on the night preceding December 5 or 6. Why does it use a secular date rather than a Jewish one?

Answer:

Good question! As a rule of thumb, Jewish holidays and customs always follow the Jewish calendar, which is linked to the phases of the moon. One exception to this rule is the special prayer requesting rain, which Jews in the Diaspora begin saying on the night preceding December 5 (or 6) and last night November 7th in Israel (which varies every year in Israel but not outside the land).

To understand why, let's take a look at the history and significance of this small but important prayer.

Praying for Rain

Jews have been praying for rain for millennia. In the ancient land of Israel, rain was a life-and-death concern. A good rainy season meant a good harvest and ample drinking water, while a drought could be fatal to livestock and cripple the economy.

So when the Men of the Great Assembly set out to codify the prayers, they made sure to add a prayer for rain to the daily Amidah (silent prayer).

In fact, rain appears twice in the Amidah.

It is first mentioned in the second blessing, as one of a string of natural and supernatural wonders that G‑d performs. Not least among them is that "He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall."

Here we are praising G‑d, who brings rain, but we are not actually asking for rain. It is only later, in the blessing requesting a bountiful year, that we ask G‑d to "bestow dew and rain for blessing upon the face of the earth . . ."

In both instances, the rain-related phrase is said only during the winter (Israel's rainy season). However, the two prayers follow slightly different schedules. We begin to say "He causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall" on Shemini Atzeret. But, as you point out, we start saying the second prayer, the actual request for rain, only at the beginning of December.

Why the differing start dates? It's an interesting story . . .

In Israel

The Jews of ancient Israel made three pilgrimages to Jerusalem each year, for the holidays of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. Now, the official rainy season begins on Shemini Atzeret, when the Jews were about to start their journey back home after the festival of Sukkot. As much as they wanted the rain, they chose to delay their supplications in the interests of a safer and easier trip.

That is how the practice of delaying the prayer for rain began. In Israel, the prayer was begun only 15 days after Shemini Atzeret (the 7th of Cheshvan), allowing enough time for even the Jews living near the Euphrates to return home. This custom is followed by Jews living in Israel until today.

Outside of Israel, however, a more complicated calculation became necessary.

In the Diaspora

For much of our history, the primary Jewish community in the Diaspora was in Babylonia (modern-day Iraq), where the climate is much hotter than Israel's, and the autumn rains do not begin until much later. Therefore, the sages instituted that Jews living in the Diaspora should start praying for rain only 60 days after the start of the halachic autumn, which is known as tekufat Tishrei. (This should not be confused with the autumn equinox, which is usually September 22 or 23.) I will explain soon when exactly that is.

Nowadays very few Jews live in Babylonia, and the Jews of North America need rain at a different time than the Jews of Singapore. Nevertheless, we all start asking for rain on the day established for the Jews in Babylonia, regardless of when rains are actually needed in our respective locales.

The Chabad past Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, explains that even Jews living in the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed, should follow the schedule established for the Jews of Babylonia, because we pray for the needs of the Jewish people as a whole, most of whom reside in the Northern Hemisphere

Obviously, this does not preclude us from praying for rain at other times. An individual or community that needs rain at a different time may add a personal prayer into the sixteenth blessing of the Amidah, "Shomei'a Tefillah," where we add our unique requests

Now Some Math

We now know that the custom of Jews in the Diaspora is to start praying for rain 60 days after the onset of tekufat Tishrei. But when exactly is that?

In the third century, the Talmudic sage Shmuel calculated the length of the solar year as 365 days and 6 hours. Since the year is subdivided into four seasons, or tekufot in Hebrew, it follows that each tekufah is 91 days and 7½ hours (365.25 ÷ 4 = 91.3125).

This calculation happens to correspond with the Julian calendar, which was widely used from the year 45 BCE until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582 CE.

Based on this, tekufat Tishrei always began on September 24 on the Julian calendar and 60 days into tekufat Tishrei was November 22

Calendar Issues

It eventually became clear that the solar year is actually 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than previously calculated, and that the calendar was slowly but surely drifting ahead. In the year 1582, the spring (vernal) equinox—which had been on March 25 at the introduction of the Julian calendar—actually occurred on March 11. This was about 10 days earlier than March 21, which is the day that had been "fixed" as the vernal equinox in the year 325.

To remedy this, Gregory XIII made two changes:

He shifted the calendar back by removing 10 days in October, making October 5 of the year 1582 into October 15. This restored the spring equinox to March 21.

To ensure that the calendar would not shift again, Gregory implemented that every 128 years (or, more roughly, three times every 400 years), one day would be removed from the calendar. (This is because the discrepancy of 11 minutes and 14 seconds accumulates into a whole extra day every 128 years.)

The extra day normally appended to the month of February every four years (causing a leap year would not be added to all century years, except for those years which are multiples of 400. (Thus, it was not added in the years 1700, 1800 and 1900. However, it was added to the years 1600 and 2000.)

If you're still following me, it should be clear that the old calendars (Jewish and Julian) drift away from the new (Gregorian) calendar at a rate of three days every 400 years.

It's important to note that the Jewish sages were well aware that this calculation was not completely accurate. In fact, for most purposes the Jewish calendar follows the more accurate calculations of Rabbi Adda bar Ahavah, who gives the length of the solar year as 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes and 25.4 seconds. However, the sages of the Talmud chose to calculate the length of a solar year as 365.25 days for the prayer for rain and for Birchat Hachamah (the blessing of the sun), because it made the calculations much simpler for the average person to perform.

What to Do?

We know that the prayer for rain should be said 60 days after the beginning of halachic autumn. Since this date is based on the calculation of Shmuel (and the Julian calendar), and not the Gregorian calendar, we now have to translate this date into our Gregorian calendars.

Here's our final calculation: As mentioned earlier, in the Julian calendar, the sixtieth day after the tekufah is November 22. Now, keeping in mind that the Gregorian calendar chopped off 10 days from the Julian calendar, we have to add them back. Thus, the sixtieth day would be—in the year 1582—on December 2.

Additionally, every centennial year (except for the years divisible by 400) the Gregorian calendar loses one day not dropped from the older calendar. Thus, from the year 1700 and onward, the sixtieth day of the tekufah moved one day every 100 years. In 1700 it was on December 3, in 1800 it moved to December 4, and in 1900 to December 5. However, since the year 2000 is divisible by 400, and the Gregorian calendar did not drop the leap day, the day that is considered the sixtieth day of the tekufah did not move, and remains December 5 until the year 2100, in which it will move to December 6.

The reason that we begin saying the prayer on December 6 in the year before a (civil) leap year is that although the Gregorian calendar adds a day to the month of February every four years for a leap year, the extra day has essentially really been accumulated at the start of the winter season. Therefore, every December preceding a leap year, the sixtieth day is adjusted to December 6.

Also bear in mind that since the halachic day starts on the preceding night, we start reciting the prayer for rain during the Maariv Amidah on the night preceding the dates given above.

So, after all that, what you really need to know is that until the year 2100, in a regular year we start saying the prayer for rain on the night of December 4, and in the year before a (civil) leap year, on the night of December 5

As we begin to recite the prayers for rain this winter, let us have in mind that we are joining Jews all over the world—especially those in our Holy Land, where every drop of water is precious—united in our request for bounty and blessing for all of humanity.

US army's new armour turns soldiers into IRON MAN ROBOTS in bid to end casualties forever

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What do the Hebrew letters teach us about creation?

Two  Shabbat ago  we read from the Torah starting a new annual cycle of Torah reading.

 

Weread the first portion from the book of Genesis  - בראשית  (B'RESHIT).

 

The opening sentence of this portion is constructed out of seven Hebrew words.

 

In Judaism number seven (7) is recognized as a very special number. It is a number that speaks of spiritual completeness and fullness.

 

Now let's look at the first verse even more closely. The fourth word את  (ET) is an untranslatable word.

It is a unique Hebrew preposition not having an equivalent one in many other languages.

 

 

That unique thing about this word is that it actually consists of two Hebrew letters: the Aleph and the Tav.

The aleph-tav (את) does serve a grammatical purpose in that it points to the direct object of the sentence. These two letters do not actually form a word, but rather they express an understanding.

The aleph (א) is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the tav (ת) is the last letter of the alphabet.

 

The placement of these two very significant letters at strategic locations within many sentences of the Hebrew Scriptures express a total completeness.

 

It is equivalent to saying "from a to z, from first to last, from beginning to end." 

Thus, one can interpret the beginning of the first verse as:

 "In the beginning G-d created the aleph-tav (first to last letters...)".  

 

In other words, it means that the very first creation was the entire Hebrew alphabet.

 

The 22 Hebrew letters are the divinely ordained building blocks of life, by which all spiritual and all physical things have been created.

 

 

With respect to sound, the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are divided into five categories.

 

These are based on the organs of pronunciation:

1. Guttural letters - formed by the throat (AHaHY):

א   ה  ח  ע

(For the Western speaker the guttural letters are the most difficult to pronounce).

 

2. Lingual letters - formed by the tongue (DaTLaNaT):

ד   ט   ל   נ   ט

 

3. Dental letters - produced by the teeth: (ZaSTZaRaSH):

ז   ס   צ   ר   ש

 

4. Palatine letters - formed with the help of palate  (GIKHaK)

ג   י   כ   ק

 

5) Labial letters - formed by the lips (BUMaF)

ב   ו   מ   פ

 

A remarkable fact about the first word,

בראשית  

with which the Torah starts, is that that among its other unique virtues, it consists of exactly five letters and each one of those comes from a different category representing all of the above five categories:

 

  • The letter ב represents labial tellers
     
  • The letter א represents guttural letters
     
  • The letter ש represents dental letters
     
  • The letter י represents palatine letters
     
  • The letter ת represents the lingual letters

 

Thus, the very first word of the Torah represents completeness / fullness concept of the creation.

Strong political commentary--see if it matters

"Make 'Em Laugh" ~ Singin' in the Rain (1952)

See you tomorrow when we may know the results of the American Presidential election

Rabbi Yehuda Lave

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