Category: History

  • Costumes on Purim: Background, History, & Meaning

    Costumes on Purim: Background, History, & Meaning

    March, 2019

    Many years ago, a young boy sat across from me the night of Purim dressed as Haman. He had the hat, the vested garments, and was wickedly mustachioed.

    It was, I had to admit, a great costume.

    The laining of the Megillah commenced and before we knew it Haman’s name was mentioned. Now, the first and last time his name is mentioned is always the loudest and longest, and that laining was no exception.

    I looked, and this boy was in one hand wildly shooting his cap gun (remember those?!) and in his other violently shaking his enlarged and very loud gragger. He was enjoying the laining immensely.

    With each mention of Haman’s name, I watched how deeply into blotting out the name of Haman he was.

    I watched him because I could not help but wonder how incongruous it all was.

    How can one be dressed in the likeness of someone while also acting out the need to blot them out of history?!

    As a side note, while some do bring down that we should not dress like a rasha, or a non-Jew –see Shulchan Aruch Hamikutzar –many, such as Rav Ephraim Greenblatt, are lenient, and the custom among many is indeed to be lenient. However, the Klausenberger rebbe and others are quoted as urging choosing costumes that represent tzadikim.

    But this then led to another thought –why do we dress up at all on Purim?

    The questions started to grow: How can we wear a costume during davening? What if a costume is so good that it will distract others from their davening? Does anyone check their rented costumes for shaatnez? Etc.

    While we cannot focus on all of the myriad issues Purim costumes touch upon, we can try to unlock some of the core mysteries, and perhaps explain why so many dress like Haman.

    Although beloved by many, there is no source or allusion to this minhag of wearing costumes found in chazal.

    Now, at first blush this does not seem too concerning, however some have pointed out a fear that this minhag came from non-Jewish festivals around this time year, i.e. Lent and the Roman carnivals that took place at its time.

    If correct, this could potentially be in violation of b’chukoseheim lo seileichu.

    However, the Steipler (Orchos Rabbeinu) says that this is not the case at all. In fact, it would be hard to argue that such a non-Jewish custom-followed in only a handful of places around Purim time –would have caused a spontaneous minhag to develop all over the Jewish world.

    Some even suggest that it is the other way around –some non-Jewish communities began to imitate the already burgeoning Purim minhag of dressing up to do the same during their holiday that took place around the same time.

    So where does our minhag come from?

    The earliest mention of this minhag is actually referenced by the Rama in the Shulchan Aruch. The Rema brings a teshuva from the shu’t Mahari Mintz, from a century earlier, who discusses some concerns with the costumes worn on Purim in his day in Italy, particularly relating to the issue of lo yilbosh (dressing only in clothes of one’s gender). Rav Yehudah HaLevi Mintz’s life spanned the entire 15th century (he was born in 1405 and died in 1508!). At the age of sixty-two he left Germany and became the rav of Padua in Northern Italy, and, due to his long life he was able to serve them for over forty years.

    It was here in Italy that he first sees this custom.

    While it is certainly possible that this minhag existed in fits and starts before his mention of it, it seems unlikely it was popular.

    The question still remains as to why we dress up.

    The most famous answer given is similar to why we eat kreplach on Hoshana Rabba. Kreplach –with its hidden meat-represents the hidden nature of that day, and costumes on Purim best represent the hidden nature of the miracle of Purim.

    However, as pointed our relating to Hoshana Rabba, there are far less drastic ways to reflect this type of ness.

    Others, like Rav Soloveitchik and Otzar Taamei Haminhagim point to all those who dressed up or who hid who they were in both the Megilla and throughout Jewish history. Eliyahu pretending to be Charvona; Haman saying he was Memuchan; Esther not revealing she was a Jewess; Mordechai being dressed by Haman in the kings royal clothing; Mordechai placing upon himself sackcloth.

    Our doing the same as the above is explained as either a way to recall the ness of the story of Purim, a persumei nissa in action, or, to remind ourselves that just like in this story, the outside is not what matters rather only the pnemius.

    The Ktzos HaShulchan and many others (see also Shalmie Todah p. 326; Nittei Gavriel p. 409, inter alia) explain this minhag brilliantly. In Bamidbar 21:1 the Torah teaches us of how after the passing of Aron and the removal of the ananei hakavod, Arad and the canaanim attacked bnei yisroel.

    Chazal teach (see Rashi ad loc, Yalkut Shimoni, and Tosfos to Rosh Hashana 3a) that in fact this was Amalek who gave over the appearance as if they were Canaan so that they would not be recognized.

    Based on this, some suggest that on Purim, when we recall Amalek, we poke fun of their failed plans by also dressing up.

    Others use this Midrash to explain costumes on Purim in a different way, also explaining how we can dress as Haman. Chazal teach that although they acted and spoke like Canaan, we still recognized them due to their clothes which were amaleki clothes! We therefore dress in the clothing of Amalek to make fun of how they foiled their own evil plan by not also changing their mode of dress.

    Another fascinating explanation (see Shalmei Todah ad loc. and others) to our minhag of costumes is based on a pasuk in the Megilla (8:17) regarding how many Gentiles converted to yiddeshkeit after the ness Purim. The Vilna Gaon on this pasuk points out that we did not accept these converts because although they made themselves look likeJews, this was only on the outside, and they did this out of fear. Based on this, we too dress up to recall this episode.

    Others point to the language of the targum (Ch. 3) in the Megilla who explains Haman’s hate for Mordechai as stemming from Yaakov tricking Eisav into selling his firstborn rite. Yaakov, of course, was correct in this action –an action facilitated by his dressing up and ‘stealing’ the berachos!

    This last explanation perhaps also explains why some dress like Haman, or other reshaim, for that is precisely what Yaakov had to do!

    The Maharam Chagiz (Eleh Hamitzvos #543) suggests another explanation for our minhag of dress-up. Chazal teach (Megilla 12a) that just like the Jews only bowed to Haman from the outside, internally holding strong to their yahdus, so too did Hashem only give the appearance as if He was to destroy klal yisroel, but internally knowing He will save them. To recall that this whole episode only happened in ‘outside appearance’ we conceal faces and outside appearances. The Bnei Yisachar records a similar explanation.

    The sefer Kol Aryeh and others suggest that the reason we dress up on Purim is to solve a technical problem. On Purim there is not only a mitzvah to give out mattanos le’vyonim, but to give tzedaka to anyone who asks.

    Because of this and all people who have fallen on hard times could use this day to their benefit. However, how can we prevent some of them the shame of asking for help? We do so by asking everyone to dress up, thereby never knowing to whom we just handed money!

    Based on this last answer, the Nittei Gavriel (siman 30 in the back of his sefer) teaches us something brilliant.

    Have you ever wondered why on Purim-more so than any other Yom Tov-we always ask friends, family, and even strangers for a vort on the holiday or Megilla?

    He explains that this was due to the above. Because we give tzedaka to anyone on this day, and, because we dress up to help facilitate this, there is a real fear of some taking advantage of this Jewish kindness. We therefore have a secret code to make sure the receiver is worthy!

    This may also explain why ‘Purim Torah’ is synonymous with strange and humorous divrei Torah. Perhaps this is due to the fact that not all aniyay yisroel were well versed in Torah to give a decent vort over. So to continue the tradition of not embarrassing them, we not only dress up on Purim, but we say over strange divrei Torah so that they will not be embarrassed if when giving over our ‘secret code’ they do not have anything brilliant to offer!

    As we always say –there is so much Torah and beauty in minhagei yisroel!

  • Knock-Knock

    Knock-Knock

    The Ushpizin In Our Lives

    September 2015

    One Never Knows Who is Knocking at Our Door

    We all have secret and mysterious visitors from time to time.

    Sukkos is the perfect time to share surprising stories and amazing events involving sudden and unexpected guests.

    Indeed, after the Zohar (emor) teaches us about the seven ushpizin, he then states that the food ‘set aside’ for them should be given to poor guests, for one can not sit in the shade of a Sukkah and not also help the needy.

    However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the earliest recorded and most celebrated moments of ‘guest-hood’ is when Avraham invites three strangers into his home. According to many, although visited often by melachim, in this case Avraham and Sarah did not know that these were angels, rather they thought these were simple orchim (Rashi, 18:16 s.v. lishalchem).

     The gemara (Rosh Hashana 11a) teaches us that this event took place on Sukkos.

    But the correlation does not end there.

    The midrash (Bamidbar Rabba, 14) interprets the pasuk (Bereishis 18:4) “…v’hishu’uh’nu tachas ha’etz –and (you shall) recline beneath the tree” as referring to a sukkah that Avraham had built in honor of the chag! (See shu’t Seridei Eish 2:53 who questions how mitzvos dependent on past events could have been observed before they even happened)

    The meforshim understand this midrash literally, as both the Avnei Nezer (likkutim, p. 131) and Rav Chaim Kinevsky (Taamei D’kra, Vayeira) seek to discover how an attached tree would have been kosher for Sukkah useaccording to halacha.

    With the above in mind – some stories.

    The Longist Shachris

    Last year, at around this time, my shochein tov in this magazine, Rav Mordechai Kamanetzky shlita, asked if I would speak to his talmidim at yeshivas South Shore. It was the then 15’th anniversary of 9-11.

    Try as I might, I can not recall that words that I spoke, but I do remember with great clarity the words spoken by another presenter that day.

    Eli Polatoff, is a leading Hatzalah member in the Five Towns, and was an individual who arrived at the scene of the Twin Towers almost immediately. He shared the following amazing story –which he heard from someone who was there.

    Every morning across from the World Trade Center there was a minyan for shacharis. This allowed these individuals a quick walk after davening to their offices in the WTC.

    This was not a known or advertised minyan, and every day the same dozen or so people –and only them –would arrive.

    One idle Tuesday morning a stranger, oddly, showed up. He asked for the amud as, he explained, he was in aveilus.

    As he rose to lead them they realized, or thought, that they had made a huge mistake. This fellow was schlepping out the selichos. He drew each word of supplication and, later, he did the same throughout the davening.

    We have all been in these shoes before. We roll eyes, share knowing glances with our friends at the minyan, as if to say: look at this guy, ‘Mr. Frum’ who is going to make us all late for work.

    Indeed, they were alllate for work that morning. I am sure your guessed it, it was the morning of 9/11/2001.

    That man saved their lives.

    Over the past 15 years each member of this private minyan has searched for this mysterious visitor to their minyan –one of the only visitor they ever had.

    They have yet to locate him. He was never seen or heard from again.

    The Chasam Sofer’s Guest

    The Chasam Sofer was had an unusual hakpada. He would only make a beracha if there was someone there to answer amein.

    Late one evening the Chasam Sofer woke up with a aching thirst.

    He went to to fill a cup of water, and then searched his home to see if there was anyone awake who could respond to his beracha.

    Nobody was.

    As he was contemplating what to do, there was a sudden, and light, knock at his door. He opened it to find one of his prized talmidim standing there.

    “I am so sorry to bother rebbe. I knocked softly so as not to wake anyone, as I was hoping rebbe would still be up learning.”

    “Go on” replied the Chasam Sofer.

    The bochur continued, “I was troubled by a deep concept that rebbe related in shiur this morning. Try as a might I simply can’t fathom it, and I simply can’t relax until I understand this bit of Torah. Can the rebbe explain it to me one last time?”

    The Chasam Sofer could not have been more delighted. “With pleasure! But, please, first would you do me a favor? Please answer amein to my beracha.”

    And so, the Chasam Sofer received his amein and the bochur his explanation.

    The next morning after shachris, the Chasam Sofer went over to the bochur to thank him.

    “You probably were nervous knocking softly on my door so late, but I want you to know how much I appreciate it. I was musing the halachic allowance of breaking a neder of not saying a beracha without an amein, and then you showed up!”

    Confused, the bochur looked at the Chasam Sofer and said earnestly, “I have no idea what rebbe is talking about. I did not come to rebbe’s house last night and indeed slept through the night”!

    Three Cities-One House

    If my wife did not witness this next story, nobody would believe it.

    Several years ago two young single women from Maryland were coming to Niagara and wanted to know about accommodations for Shabbos. My wife, not wanting them to stay in a strange hotel alone, invited them to spend Shabbos in our home.

    Sitting down to the seuda Friday night I asked what they did for a living and how they knew each other. They explained that they both taught in a frum girls’ high-school and were on break. Both being single, they decided to combine their resources and go on a trip together.

    We talked a little about teaching in general and their school in particular. The guests became very passionate. They explained that the main job of a teacher – especially one in limudeo kodesh – is to forge relationships outside of the classroom and teaching.

    One teacher gave the example of a particular girl-who is going through some challenges-with whom she is struggling to build an outside the classroom relationship. Her mission for the year is to build a bond with her.

     Now, Friday night, in the midst of a Shabbos meal, a knock on the door of the rabbi’s house is usually a sign of an emergency. So I was alarmed when during the soup someone was at the door.

    Standing there was a young man in his twenties and his sister. The man explained the strange events that brought him to my house.

    He was driving with his sister from NY to Toronto for Shabbos. Due to a confluence of events their trip took longer than they had planned and they realized that they will not be making it before Shabbos.

    As the sun was about to set they got off of the highway and pulled into the first hotel they found. With no food or provisions for Shabbos, they pulled back the curtain in their room see a sign across the street that said “Young Israel of Greater Buffalo”, along with davening times and the name of the rabbi.

    They ran to the front desk, asked for a phone book, found my name and address, got directions and…here they were looking for a hot Shabbos meal!

    What a zechus!

    Could there be a better example of true orchim?!

    During this time that I was by the door, my wife and house gusts were continuing the seudah, none the wiser to the amazing story of hashgacaha pratis they were about to hear.

    But soon, I too would be stunned.

    Inviting our new guests into the dining room I announced, “Everyone! You won’t believe this siyatta d’Shmaya…”

    As our new company walked into the dining room the eyes of one of the teachers met the eyes of the young lady. Both of their mouths fell to the floor. After what seemed like days of awkward silence, I asked “Do you two know each other?”

    “Yes, she is my student!” Later the teacher explained further: when she was opining about the need to develop a relationship with students outside of the classroom, it was this particular girl that she had in mind!

    If we open our doors to our homes and minyanim, we can never know who Hashem will cause to come through!

    The correlation between Sukkos and guests runs even one fascinating step further, in that it was the merit of hachnasas orchim that we were gifted with this chag.

    The midrash (Berishis Rabba, 48) teaches that Hashem said to Avraham, because you told the three orchim “…and (you shall) recline beneath the tree”, therefore I will repay your children…in this world with the yom tov of Sukkos!

    The midrash ends that it will be this very merit of hachnosos orchim that will alight in the time of Moshiach, as it says (Yeshayahu 4:6) ‘and a ‘Sukka’ (i.e. Tabernacle) for shade…”

    May we merit to perform this great mitzvah, and seethe gifts and stories that it brings, and be zocheh to reap from its ultimate reward.

    Chag Kosher V’Sameach!

  • The Goral HaGra

    The Goral HaGra

    Its History, Efficacy,
    &
    Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel, Hy”d

    See also post: ‘Dates, Segulos, & War’

    June, 2014

    Rav Binyamin Elyashiv recently performed a Goral HaGra to help shed light on the status of the three missing yeshiva bochurim. We will therefore discuss the issue of Goral HaGra in general as well as examine the Goral performed by Rav Elyashiv.

     Ami has confirmed with Rav Elyashiv that our reporting on his implementation of the Goral HaGra is accurate.

    Justice Antonin Scalia once wrote in a Supreme Court decision that while Ben Bag Bag taught the Jews long ago that everything is found in the Torah, such is not the case with a human document like the United States Constitution.[1]

    “Divinely inspired text may contain the answers to all earthly questions, but the Due Process Clause most assuredly does not.”

    In the past we discussed in this column selections from mathematicians and scientists brilliantly demonstrating this maxim of Ben Bag Bag.  However, beyond matters of great depth are matters that effect klal yisroel writ large.

    For instance, it is well known that when yidden learn something in unison it has the power to relate greatly to our daily lives. In fact the Chasam Sofer (Drashos, Sukkos, p.52) teaches that when one is in doubt about something he should look at the parshas hashevua to find the answer. This is especially true of the aliya one may receive in that parsha (see ‘Melech B’yofiuv’ p. 5).[2]

    Famously, the gemara in a number of places (Chullin 95b, Yoma 22a, Sanhedrin 17a, et al) mentions the practice of asking a child what pasuk they are learning so that from it one can glean the answer to the doubt they were having.

    This is not just agadata; the Shulchan Aruch (Rama, Yoreh Deah 179:4) discusses the halachik allowance of acting on such information (see Biur HaGra there. Cf. Rambam).

    While this latter form of relying on serendipitous texts is based on the prophesy of children,[3] there is another, more famous method.

    “The Goral HaGra”.

    This ‘goral’ is achieved through opening a Chumash or Tanach in certain ways that will bring the petitioner to a verse that provides a clue or an answer to one’s question. While most written sources mention the use of a chumash, the many storied brought below, including that of Rav Binyamin Elyashiv, demonstrate use of a Tanach. There is even one tradition of simply using a sefer Tehillim.

    Aside for this disputed tradition, is the question of how the lines of the text in the sefer being used for the goral need to be formulated (one column or two). All this only adds to the mystery, and the need for a clear mesorah in this matter.

    We find in the gemara (Chullin 95) an allusion to such a goral. The amara Shmuel would open a sefer Torah before a trip and the pasuk he arrived at would foretell if this was indeed a worthwhile trip on which to embark. As we will see in the stories below, the Goral HaGra as well was most often utilized in times of war and seeking to discover where one should escape to, what trip to make (see Birkei Yosef ibid. #6).

    This past week it was reported that someone approached Rav Chaim Kinievsky about possibly doing a Goral HaGra so as to discover the state of the three missing yeshivah students.

    Rav Chaim is purported to have declined, explaining that in order to perform a Goral HaGra one need ruach hakodesh.[4] Instead, he suggested they go to Rav Steinman.

    When Rav Steinman was later approached, he found it humorous that people thought that he had ruach hakodesh. Instead, he told them to daven.

    If true, Rav Chaim likely said this based on the words of his father, the Steipler. In Orchos Rabeinu (1:p.218) the Steipler is quoted as being very opposed to utilizing the Goral HaGra (see below for reasons). Rav Chaim Kinievsky himself is quoted[5] as saying that he never heard of his father or the Chazon Ish ever taking advantage of this tool.

    The sefer ‘Tamim Tehiyeh’ (9:p.39) explains similarly that although there is a prohibition from the Torah against divination –see Shulchan Aruch ad loc.– a goral performed through using a tanach is allowed because that is aided through ruach hakodesh (and even then, it would be forbidden to find out about the future –rather only to find out, say, if someone is still alive presently etc. would be allowed).

    Contra the above, the Brisker Rav once sought to do a Goral HaGra and came to the very pasuk (Devarim 18:13) of “Tamim Tiyehe…’ which exhorts us to be simple in our faith in Hashem and not to seek out tricks or the future. The Brisker Rav saw this as a sign not to continue (‘HaGaon’ p. 1126).

    Everyone agrees, however, that it is not something to be done often, or with an improper mindset (see Chida in shu’t Chaim Shaul 38:41). In fact, many would go to the mikveh first, and certainly prepare through teffila.

    In addition there is the concern brought by the Sefer Chasidim that utilizing such forces too often can cause them to harm a person R’l (see Shalal Rav, Devarim, p. 335).

    Furthermore is the very serious issue of having to listen to the goral. Say one does a type of sefer goral to find out if the girl he is dating is the right shidduch for him. After being faced with a verse that seems to indicate she is not the one he suddenly realizes that he indeed wants to grow through with the shidduch. Is he allowed to ignore the goral that indicated otherwise? The Teshuvos Rabbanei Kadmei (#60) says that ignoring the answer one receives through a goral is like ignoring the aseres hadibros.[6]

    All of this should give one pause before seeking out such methods to answer life’s many problems.

    Not withstanding the above, other reports came out this week that Rav Binyamin Elyashiv did perform a Goral HaGra. He explained –quoting his father – that if one had ruach hakodesh they would not need to perform a goral in the first place.

    The other concerns we mentioned also would not apply because this is an extraordinary circumstance, and not done daily, and performed only for the purpose so as to discover if they are alive, not the future.

    This morning (erev Shabbos parshas Korach) I contacted Rav Elyashiv and confirmed that he indeed did perform a Goral HaGra. I further asked him he followed a mesorah from Rav Aryeh Levin, his grandfather. He said that this is the mesorah he based himself on (see below for Rav Aryeh Levin’s Goral HaGra story).

    When I asked what pasuk his goral came to he became energetic.

     He quoted the pasuk (Shoftim 15:14):

     “He [Shimshon] came to Lechi and the Philistines shouted at him, A spirit of Hashem came over him and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that had been singed in fire; his bonds melted from upon his hands” (translation follows Artscroll).

    Not only is the pasuk a reference to being taken captive, but the Philistines shouting with excitement over their prisoner. Rav Elyashiv himself expressed amazement.

     The town lechi where Shimshon was taken was only named so due to the miracle with the jawbone (lechi) that was about to take place, making the true name for this town a mystery. I therefore wondered aloud to Rav Elyashiv if the town of ‘lechi’ mentioned in the pasuk is a reference to Chevron, as some of the reports regarding Rav Elyashiv’s Goral HaGra assert.

    Rav Elyashiv responded by quoting some peirushim who indeed say so![7]

    Amazingly, and as we shall see below, this is not the first time modern Israel heard of a goral that landed in sefer Shoftim.

    We should here mention that the Goral Ha’Gra’ is not an invention of the Gra per se. Rather, although such traditions have existed long before the Vilna Gaon, much of our current mesorah regarding how to do it comes from the Netziv, the Chofetz Chaim and others who trace their mesorah to Rav Chaim Volozion, the prime disciple of the Gra.

    Indeed, we find already in the 15th century discussion of a goral very similar to the mesorah we have today for the Goral HaGara.[8]

     While this is not the place to discuss exactly how it is done, suffice it to say that the popular understanding is incorrect.

    There are any number of famous stories involving the Goral HaGra and there is great toeles in repeating them (see introduction to Rav Chaim Vital’s ‘Goral Kodesh’).[9]

    When Rav Aaron Kotler was escaping Europe he had a certificate for entrance to eretz yisroel, as well as one to enter America. While his heart ached for eretz hakodesh, he also understood the work needed to be done in America. On the other hand were the many challenges of America. Not knowing what to do, he performed a Goral HaGra, which came to the pasuk (Shmos 4:27) “And Hashem said to Aaron, Go greet Moshe in the wilderness”.

    Of course, Rav Aaron understood that the ‘Moshe’ alluded to here was Rav Moshe Feinstein who was already building Torah on these shores, and the midbar was America. 70 years later, with Lakewood near 7000 current students –v’kein yirbui!– we can say that this directive from 3000 years ago came true once more in our lifetimes.

    Rav Yeruchum Levuvitz revealed (Daas Chochma U’Mussar vol.3 p. 273, as well as other sources) a Goral HaGra that he had performed. The legendary mashgiach ruchni of Yeshivas Mir he had the option to move to Kelm. Unsure as to the right decision to make he turned to the goral. He arrived at the verse (Shmos 25:15) “In the rings of the aaron shall the staves be…” which Rav Yeruchum understood to mean that he must stay in his place. He wrote later to Rav Shimon Shkop (ibid.) “…It is a certain matter that this was revealed not due to my merits but to the merits of the rabim (public)”

    A better-known story is the following:

    On Tisha B’Av of 1914 World War 1 broke out. Germany was gaining ground and nobody knew where to run or hide. Many ran deep inside of Russia. Rav Tzvi Hirsh Levinson asked his father-in-law, the Chofetz Chaim, if the yeshiva too should flee. To stay put ran the risk of being taken over by the Germans, yet to flee ran its own sever hazards. When he approached him, the Chofetz Chaim responded that he did not know the right thing to do. He nevertheless continued to press him, yet the Chofetz Chaim was firm in that he was unsure.

    With armies fast approaching, Rav Tzvi Hirsh performed a Goral HaGra. It came to the pasuk (Bereishis 32:11) of ‘ketonti mekol hachasadim’ which ends ‘…and now I have become two camps’.

    Rav Tzvi Hirsh ran to the Chafetz Chaim with the pasuk in hand. As he stepped into his office the Chofetz Chaim told him that he decided to do a Goral HaGra to ascertain the proper path. Opening up a chumash to show his son-in-law the verse it came to, the Chofetz Chaim showed him the very same verse!

    Rav Tzvi Hirsh exclaimed that this was a clear sign from the heavens. Yet, he was still unsure how to decipher it. “Let us do another goral so that Hashem can further explain what He meant” he suggested to the Chofetz Chaim.

    The Chofetz Chaim responded, “I do not want to bother Hahsem more than is absolutely necessary”.

    They ended up splitting the yeshiva into two camps. The Chofetz Chaim and Rav Tzvi Hirsh assumed the risk of fleeing (to Minsk), while Rav Moshe Landinsky and the mashgiach ruchni assumed the risk of staying put.[10]

    While there is not enough space to share with you all of the amazing stories involving the Goral HaGra, I do however want to end with what perhaps is the most famous.

    We pointed out above that Rav Binyamin Elyashiv received his tradition how and when to execute the goral from his grandfather, Rav Aryeh Levin.

    In Israel’s War of Independence thirty-five soldiers were sent to help secure Gush Etzion. They were ambushed by arabs and killed, hy’d. The army was able to recover all the bodies, however they could not identify twelve of them.  

    When Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank was approached as to what to do, he suggested a Goral HaGra. It was decided –based on the many reason stated throughout this article – that the great tzadik Rav Aryeh Levin would be the one to perform it.

    After lighting candles and saying Tehillim, Rav Aryeh stood in front of each of the twelve unidentified caskets. The first pasuk[11] was from Yehoshua (21:4), which refers specifically to the tribe of Binyamin by a goral! This grave was considered to be of Benjamin Bogulavsky. Next came a verse from Shmuel (I 9:21) where the term ‘ben yemini’ is found. This was used to identify Oded ben-Yemini!

    This continued for the rest of the identification! (See the full details in A Tzadik In Our Time, 162-170; Hebrew edition p. 111-117).

    In fact one can still find a picture of the minutes from that holy meeting with Rav Aryeh Levin’s signature.

    This week, the community of Buffalo made an asifas tefilla for the three missing yeshivah students.

    Before the recital of Tehillim I asked each of the rabbanim to speak for a few minutes. After the many beautiful speeches, it was my turn. Knowing I could not add to the inspiring speeches before mine – and basing myself on the Chasam Sofer we quoted above which teaches us that when the klal studies something in unison one can then find answers to serious doubts by looking at the words from that study – I opened up to that day’s daf yomi (Taanis 4a).

    There the gemara teaches tat Hashem does not desire the death of the young, especialy when it could be prevented.

    The gemara quotes a pasuk (Yirmiyahu 19:5) to make its point:

    “….that which I [Hashem] have not commanded, nor spoken, nor has it even entered My mind”

    The gemara then explains:

    “ ‘that which I have not commanded’ refers to the son of Miesha (who died brutally);

    “‘nor spoken’ refers to Yiftach (whose daughter was unnecessarily turned into a korban –either literally or monetarily, see commentaries to pesukim by this event);

    “‘nor has it even entered My mind’ refers to Yitzchak the son of Avraham”

    There in that day’s daf was a reference to three children whose harm Gd did not desire – the very essence of what klal yisroel has been storming the heavens for these last several days in regards to the three students.

    This was not coincidence.

    Let us hope that with or without the Goral HaGra the present horrible events will have a happy ending.

    ‘that which I have not commanded’ – Eyal ben Iris Teshura

    ‘nor spoken’ – Gilad Michoel ben Bat Galim

    ‘nor has it even entered My mind’ –Yaakov Naftali ben Rochel Devorah

    [1] Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co, quoted Pirkei Avos 5:26 {although he quotes it as Mishnah 22.

    [2] Indeed Rav Yair Chayim Bacharach (d. 1702) named his famous sefer ‘Chavos Yair’ based on an aliyah he received (Bamidbar, 32:41) on the very Shabbos he wondered what to name his work! When I mentioned this story the other night between mincha-maariv a visiting Talmud chacham shared with me that when he was a bachur he was unsure about a girl he was dating. He received an aliyah that Shabbos and a transliteration of the girl’s nickname was used in a pasuk warning to stay away. He explained that he saw this is a sign that it was not a shidduch.

    [3] See Bava Basra 12b with Ran to Chullin ibid. Kesef Mishna to hil. Avodah Zara 11:5

    [4] He says this explicitly in Derech Sicha p. 10

    [5] Ibid.

    [6] See further sources in the Margolios edition of Sefer Chasidim p. 430 footnote 3). For another concern, see Michtav M’Eliyahu vol. 2 p. 129)

    [7] I am hoping readers can inform me who comments thus. See also Midrash Hagodel to Bereishis 24:64 regarding where Yitzchak lived when he met Rivkah for the first time at Be’er Roey Lachi. Cf. Ramban and Rashi there. My thanks to R’ Eichorn who joined me on this call.

    [8] See ‘Divrei Hayaim’ found in the collection ‘Sifrei Fes V’Chochmeha’, where the goral performed by Rav Shaul Seriro of 16th century Fes, Morocco is discussed

    [9] In this sefer Rav Chaim Vital recorded many methods of goralos. He explains in the introduction that although one is not to perform these capriciously, people could use chizuk

    [10] Goral HaGra p. 137

    [11] In truth, this was not the first pasuk. They first performed a goral to see if they were correct in what they were doing –they were!

  • Yom HaShoah – Halacha & History

    Yom HaShoah – Halacha & History

    Rabbi Moshe Taub

    May, 2019

    Every year at this time I begin to write a column devoted to the controversies and history behind the establishment of Yom Hashoah- Holocaust Remembrance Day. Every year I start, and every year I lack the courage to complete it.

    It is a sensitive topic, understandably, as so many reasonable people may be confounded as to why any reasonable person –let alone gedolim who lost so much in churban europah – would not fully embrace this day.

    However, as I trust the dedicated reader of this space had learned, my goal in this column is rarely to give my own opinion, rather to share information of the views of true talmidie chachamim. Or, as I often tell my balla battim: a rabbi like myself is as best a part of the judicial branch of halacha, not the legislative, hameivin yavin.

    Yom Hoshaoah is an interesting polemic, for as opposed to other areas of halacha and hashkafa where the Jewish State and our gedolim have disagreed, this dispute was not a quarrel over importance –as neither side held a monopoly on suffering during the war-rather one of zemanim, or dates.

    Across the gamut of the frum world –from the holy chassideshe Rebbe’s to Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igros Moshe Y’D 4:57;11) to Rav Soloveitchik (Nefesh Harav 198; Halakhic Positions of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Volume 4, p. 98) –many felt that such a tragedy should rather be reserved for Tisha b’Av.

    This would be different than, for example, the massacres of tach v’tat.

    For those perhaps unfamiliar with that history, in the mid 1600’s we suffered horrible death and destruction at the hands of Chmielnicki. The suffering was horrendous, and even the types of death were savage, tortuous and unspeakable. The total numbers of kedoshim killed was in the tens of thousands, at least, as we do not have known exact figures (some estimates go as high as a half-a-million deaths!).

     In commemoration of those events the gedolim of that time sanctioned a day of remembrance, the 20th of Sivan. Although seemingly a strong proof to the veracity of also establishing a special day of remembrance for the Holocaust outside of Tisha B’Av alone, Rav Moshe and others however point out a crucial distinction.

    “This that six times 600,000 were killed at the hands of Hitler and his henchman, would certainly be worthy to commemorate with a special day of fasting and teffilah, and you are bothered why we (the olam hayeshivos) have yet done no such thing…this is not comparable to the Cossack Chmielnicki of tach v’tat where we were killed largely in Ukraine and Poland and for which a special day of fasting and selichos was established. This is because that tragedy was in a centralized location, and in addition did not happen through the governing body rather from those rebelling against their own government [the Cossacks were a paramilitary organization, MT]. Whereas (the elected leader) Hitler had sought to capture places all over the world where Jews lived, wishing to take over the world, and kill all Jews in the process, and for which, further, (was not only a governing body, but) was a vociferous force for which we were not saved until Gd had mercy on us…”. (Igros Moshe, ibid.)

    Rav Moshe was expressing the idea that precisely because the Holocaust was so enormous and unique in its vastness that we are obligated to see it not as an isolated incident but rather as a part of the mosaic of our long and prophesized galus. This in turn demands its reservation for Tisha B’Av.

    Rabbi Soleveitchik, in fact, seemed to have had convinced Prime Minister Menachem Begin to seek to change the date to Tisha B’Av –they indeed had a history together for Dov Begin, Menachem’s father, served as gabbei in Rav Chaim Solevietchik’s shul in Brisk! – but to no avail. The Prime Minister was told that to do so would rob children-then on summer break-of a Holocaust education.

    Indeed, Rashi alludes to their view of reserving Tisha B’av as our day of remembrance for all galus tragedies.  

    King Yoshiahu gave birth to a renaissance in Torah at a time when it was needed desperately. His death at the hands of Pharao Necho was a horrible blow to bnei yisroel  and the future of eretz yisroel.

    In Divrei Hayamim the pasukim relate –in far greater detail than found in sefer Melachim – the exact circumstances of his death. After which we read the following pasuk (2:35:24): “Then Yirmiyahu said kinnos over Yoshiahu; all male and female singers would mention Yoshiahu in their kinnos until this day –they created a firmly established custom in Israel”.

    Rashi explains the meaning behind this ‘firmly established custom’ by explaining that we remember this incident on Tisha B’av. He goes to say that this is day we remember our galus tragedies. He offers an example of how in his day the recalled their own tradjedies. He was referring to the Crusades of 1096.

    A few years ago my father was asked to speak at Michlalah Seminary in Israel on Yom HaShoah. He built a brilliant thesis around one of the most fascinating discussions of the subject, one articulated by Rav Yitzchak Hutner in a famous piece written for the October 1977 issue of the Jewish Observer. This article galvanized vociferous debate, and offered a scathing history to the founding and philosophy about this day of commemoration, even rejecting the term ‘Shoah’ and Holocaust. He further critiqued seeking to establish this as a day to show our newly found strength, might and ability to now self-defend –culminating in their seeking to establish this day on the day of the Warsaw uprising. In fact, many may not even know that the official full name for this day is not Yom HaShoah, rather Yom Hazikaron L’Shoah U’L’Gevura –The Day Remembrance For The Holocaust and Strength.

    In his view, although more enormous in size than in the past, it still must stay linked to the narrative of our galus, and not independent of it.

     I would not dare seek to capture the style and grace of Rav Hutner and would rather simply urge the reader to find the article and read his views themselves, as well as some of the respectful responses to it.

    However, there is another concern, and one that pains me greatly. Over the past fifteen years that I have been in the rabbinate, and as alluded to above, I have attended many, many events on this day. My first one, in Buffalo, was attended by well over 1000 people at the local JCC. The next year it was 800. By the time I left twelve years later it was about 150 people…and people were still saying “We got a good crown tonight”

    Some survivors passed on, many non-affiliated may not be as aware of the exact Hebrew date, and the marching of time itself have all colluded to lead to a dampening of this day’s force in so many places.

    Perhaps the gedolim who did not wish to officially establish this day understood that we can be confident that even if Yom Hashoah sadly loses its force in 30, 50 or 100 years, we will always remember these kedoshim on Tisha B’av. For, as we ended last column: “There is a danger, always, of trying new things, new ways to celebrate and remember the old. Rather, by staying true to how we have done things in the past we secure the memory of important events and people for the future. For, when and if the world stops marking the holocaust yearly, we will still be saying the Bobover Rebbe’s and Rav Schwab’s haunting kinnos on tisha b’av.”

    Zechuseihem Yagen Aleinu

  • How To Live Forever

    Jews and Their Deep Memory

    July, 2019

    My very first column, in the inaugural Ami Magazine, opened as follows:

    “At 9:20pm, on Thursday February 12, 2009, Continental flight 3407 from Newark to Buffalo crashed into a residential home in Clarence New York, a suburb of Buffalo. A total of 50 people were killed including the occupant of the home into which it crashed.

    “At 6:30am on February 13, oblivious to the crash, I started my car to go to Shul. As serendipity would have it, the night before I installed my wife’s birthday present – a satellite radio, as I do a lot of traveling and this would allow me from time to time to listen quickly to commercial free international news.

     “Assuming I would hear Fox News reporting on international and national events I was surprised that morning to hear the radio discussing something – it was unclear what – about streets and places near my home. Thinking my new radio was ill-installed and that I was listening to local radio I turned off the car and reinstalled the radio. I cranked the engine and listened: again local news. As I drove to shul I realized that indeed this was Fox News but on this fateful erev Shabbos Buffalo was the national story.

    “When I arrived in Shul members and guests alike besieged me. “Were any Jews on this flight from New York?” It was, and still is, quite common for Torontonians to fly to Buffalo from NY whose flight-cost is about half of a direct flight to Toronto.

    “I did not know the answer.

    “I was about to put on my teffillin when I thought I should call the airline. I asked if any rabbi was on file in Buffalo for emergencies such as these. The kind woman explained that there was no rabbi on file but there is a minster. I gave her my contact info. Pressed further she then explained that the names have not been released and she had no idea if Jews were on this flight. In hindsight it was a mistake to then Daven. Clearly osek b’mitzva patur min hamitzva applied here (one’s involvement in one mitzvah relieves one from duties in all other positive commandments). In my defense, there was little to do at that juncture…”

    That column, and the next, went on to discuss what was and still is the hardest days I have experienced in the rabbinate.

    But there is one story from that event that I have not yet shared, nor even thought about, in years.

    What reminded me of the events I am about to share was in thinking about what to say before yizkar this past Pesach. Not only was it my to be my 60th yizkar drasha to give, it would be audience’s untold to have to sit through. What more was there to say? How could the same words of yizkar be given new meaning, yet again?

    That is when this story came back to mind.

    The following events affected me deeply, and perhaps its lessons will hit home for the reader as well.

    A few weeks after the crash, I was driving in my car with the news on. The city was still recovering from the tragedy and the station was taking calls from listeners so that they can air their concerns and thoughts.

    Now, many have had moments where they catch themselves yelling back at the radio, say after a biased report. But I never had to pull over in anger…until now.

    One caller began by making a very valid point. He explained the human nature is to forget. It is only a matter of time that this national story will become eclipsed by a bigger event and it would, then, only be talked about here in Buffalo. And then, in another a few years, people here would forget about this event. When reminded they will say, “Oh, right! I forgot about that.” Several more years go by and the memory becomes even more faded. And so on.

    The host, impressed with the caller’s mature point, asked, “Well, what would you suggest we do to prevent that?”

    What the caller said next was so foolish I shall never forget it. He suggested naming something after the flight that went down, something that would be around for a long time. This way if in one hundred years someone asks why it is so named it would be explained, and the memory would be kept alive.

    So far, so good.

    He continued with his suggestion. “McKinley Parkway is a major artery of the city, why not rename it the 3407 Parkway, in honor of the flight? This way could never forget it”

    I literally had to pull over to catch my breath.

    To understand the sheer absurdity of this suggestion, let me take the reader back in time once more, this time to the turn of the last century.

    It was 1901 and Buffalo was hosting their six-month long Pan-American Exposition (this was at a time that Buffalo was one of the five largest cities in the union).

    President William McKinley was a year into his second term and desired to visit the fair. Refusing security detail – and the advice of his senior staff who feared an assassination attempt –he arrived in Buffalo on September 4. On September 5th he gave what would be his final speech. And on September 6th he was assassinated at a public event made in his honor. McKinley Parkway was named in his memory…so that people should never forget that inceident!

    This man on the radio was disproving his own point. McKinley Parkway was so named so as to keep the memory of the horror of a local presidential assassination alive for generations to come. Yet, never having even thought of why the Parkway was named so, this caller suggested that in order to remember Flight 3407 we should re-name McKinley Parkway!

    There is a powerful lesson here.

    We are all heirs to history. Few people in the world truly understand how they came to be, how their way of life was formed.

    Klal Yisroel, with the benefit of halacha, never forgets, partly because we never change how we remember.

    We still remember and pantomime yetzias mitzraim the same way for 3500 years, we will always light a licht for the same neshamos, and when and if the world stops marking the holocaust yearly, we will still be saying the Bobover Rebbe’s and Rav Schwab’s haunting kinnos on tisha b’av.

    There is a danger, always, of trying new things, new ways to celebrate and remember the old. Rather, by staying true to how we have done things in the past we secure the memory of important events and people for the future.

  • Dayeinu – Rebbe Akiva’s Song?

    April, 2012

    Over yom tov, and even starting from the Shabbos hagodol drasha, countless people will return home and be asked, “So what did the rav speak about?”

    Pretty much, no matter what question the rav dealt with, some in the family will respond ‘Oh, that at is a famous question”.

    And, they would often not be wrong. There is virtually no question that can be asked on the seder and its hagada that cannot be located in any of its tens-of-thousands of commentaries. I think it is fair to say that there has been no book in the history of mankind that had the number of commentaries written on it, and people investigating openly and vocally its contents.

    So I want to beat everyone to the punch. I want to open with a question which is not just, arguably, one of the most famous questions on the hagada, but a question so famous that we as children likely all asked it.

    This most famous question comes from the most famous song in the hagada. A song whose tune and refrain is known even to some outside the Jewish world.

    In fact, every year the famous, world-broadcasted NPR southern radio show ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ ends their pre Passover edition with a solo piano of this tune.

    I am referring in general to the piyut of ‘Dayenu’, and specifically to one refrain therein: Ilu Keirvanu Lifnei Har Sinai, Vlo Noson Lanu Es HaTorah, Dayeinu –Had You brought us before Har Sinai, even without giving us the Torah, that (too) would have been enough”.

    The question is more than obvious. As a nation we bleed the Torah, our fidelity to its teachings and to our instruction of those to our children is not just at the core of our lives, but something we, quite literally, tie to our bodies each day, and hang on the entrances to every room we enter and exit from.

    That the paytan would add this simply to wax poetic is untenable. There must be a deeper meaning here.

    This question has vexed virtually every gaon who has written on the hagada; from the Brisker Rav to the Chofetz Chaim.

    But before we see some of their approaches, a corollary question must be raised: who wrote Dayeinu? Is it from chazal? Is it a later edition that although today is standardized, was not in fact a part of Torah Sh’bal Peh? In fact, the Rambam does not include Dayeinu in his version of the Hagada at all!

    The first hint to the antiquity of the piyut comes from the fact that it is found already in the Hagada of Rav Sadia Gaon (d. 942), although it is unclear if this is a later addition to his work.

    However, Rav Avraham Ben HaRambam does point out (manuscript; quoted in Maaseh Rokeach on Rambam, chametz u’matzah-hagada) that although left out of his father’s written Hagada, this does not mean that he did himself did not include it personally. In fact, he writes, not only did the Maimon family say this piyut growing up, but it went back generations. As for why Rambam left it out, this was for unrelated technical reasons (it not being well known everywhere, etc.)

    So where, then, does this piyut then come from?

    The answer to this last mystery comes from someone we have quoted often in these pages these past few months, the Tashbeitz, Rav Duran (d.1444), in his Magen Avos to Pirkei Avos (3:14). He says two things that are nothing short of spectacular; both of which will offer new meaning to this ‘piyut’.

    First he points out that in old editions of the halachic midrash Mechilta, Dayeinu was taught by none other than Rebbe Akiva! In his Zevach Pesach, the Abarbenal also says that this was taught by Rebbe Akiva. Rav Duran goes on to suggest that this is alluded to in the Hagada itself, as the statement right before Dayeinu is, “Rebbe Akiva says: from where do we know that every single Makkah that Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought on Mitzraim had contained with it five makkos?...” Dayeinu is a just a continuation of this lost text!

    The other statement that Rav Duran says ages Dayeinu even more outstandingly. He asserts that Dayeinu was a part of the nusach said when one would offer their bikkurim in the time of the Beis Hamikdosh! (See Mesivta Hagada, p. 309 in the otzros)

    Dayeinu, now, explodes with an even deeper significance. Note its opening sentence to Dayeinu: “Kama Maalos Tovos LaMakom Aleinu”.

    The non-sequiter term maalos is noted by both Maharal and the Vilna Gaon as being a reference to the 15 shir hamaalosfound in sefer tehilim!

    Indeed, there are 15 mentions in Dayeinu as well (the reader should be careful when counting, as the first Dayeinu only appears after the second praise)!

    In fact, each Dayeinu seems to match it kpittel Tehilim. So, for example, the final, 15th, Shir Hamaalos 134, contains the pasuk (pasuk aleph) retaling to the Beis Habechira, like the final stanza of Dayeinu; kpitel 134, the 14th Shir Hamaalos, contains a pasuk that relates to our connection to eretz hakodesh (pasuk gimmel), as is the focus of the 14th stanza of Dayeinu, and so on!

    Many in fact tie the above 15 to another 15 found at the very opening of the seder – the 15 simanei haseder with which we open the seder (“kadeish, urchatz…)!

    Being Torah Sh’Baal Peh, we should not be surprised that even more significance can be found in Dayeinu and its number.

    Abarbenel points out that in Sefer Yechezkal (16:9-13) the navi describes 15 expressions of Hashem’s love that we experienced in yetzias mitzraim:

    (1)And I washed you with water, (2)and I rinsed your blood off you, (3)and I anointed you with oil. (4) And I clothed you with embroidered garments, (5) and I shod you with [the skin of the] badger, (6) and I girded you with fine linen, (7) and I covered you with silk. (8) And I adorned you with ornaments, (9) and I put bracelets on your hands and a necklace on your neck. (10) And I put a nose ring on your nose and earrings on your ears, (11) and a crown of glory on your head. (12) And you adorned yourself with gold and silver, (13) and your raiment was fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth; fine flour, honey, and oil you ate, (14) and you became exceedingly beautiful (15) and you became fit for the throne.

    We have, I hope shown, that this question we opened with is not only a strong question, but the statement on which it is predicated may very well be a part of our Torah Sh’baal Peh!

    Now that what have seen that Dayainu is not simply any piyut, we can return to our opeing, and famous, question. How can it be that we would dare suggest that not receiving the Torah would ever be enough.

    Instead of listing for you a litany of various approaches, let me share one with you that, to me, is the greatest chiddush. In Hagadas Maasei Hashem rav Elizar Ashkanzi (d. 1585) suggests a fascinating approach, not just to our question, but to the whole meaning of Dayeinu.

    This word “Dayeinu’, that we typically translate to mean “It would have been enough”, he suggests means “Dayeinu?”  – Would it indeed have been enough?

    We are speaking in a note of request throughout this piyut, reminding Hashem and ourselves how each level of birchas am yisroel was necessary!!

    This is similar to how some translate the word ‘Mah’ in Mah Nishtaneh, not as “Why?”, or “In what way is this night different…” but, ‘Why!’ As in, “My! (or ‘Why!’), is this night different than all other nights! (Aruch HaShulchan, inter alia).

    In terms of Dayeinu, this brings it into a whole new light.

    “Ilu Keirvanu Lifnei Har Sinai, Vlo Noson Lanu Es HaTorah, Dayeinu?” “Had You brought us before Har Sinai, even without giving us the Torah; would that have been enough?!”.

    The answer then is, assuredly, no, and by this stanza we give over by the seder a new naaseh v’nishma.

    So many secrets in our Hagada!

    Wishing all readers a simchadek and chag kosher!

  • Surnames -Some Jewish History

    Surnames -Some Jewish History

    May, 2015

    Once, by a simcha in Buffalo, a man showed up to shul, took a yarmulke from the bin and placed it on his head. He came over and introduced himself to me as a lawyer in town, friendly with the father of the groom.

    “Babad is my last name”.

    That name seemed so familiar, but I just could not place it. “Do you possibly have relatives in Toronto (my home town)?” I asked him.

    He did not.

    I shrugged my shoulders, as if to say ‘my error’, and turned to move on to greet the next guest when he tapped me on my shoulder.

     “Perhaps my name is familiar to you because you know of my great ancestor, I think he wrote a book on the commandments?”

    Why, of course! Rav Yosef Babad was the author of the classic commentary to the Sefer Hachinuch, titled Minchas Chinuch. While I had never determined exactly how they were related, it was a reminder of just how last names can sometimes reveal so many secrets about a Jew.

    Last week we explored the idea of everyone having a unique story. In my time in the rabbinate I have been surprised over and over again with the amazing backgrounds of so many in my memberships, often from those one would least expect it.

    We talked about a neighbor of mine in Buffalo whom I had never met until several years there and his amazing background –to be continued in a future week.

    With the right knowledge a rav can sometimes begin a conversation with someone just from hearing their last name –where their family likely stemmed from (e.g. Reiss/Rice, Halpern), if they are a Kohen, and, sometimes, what possible minhagim they may have.

    While the genesis of Jewish last names is somewhat murky, historians agree that it was the sefardim who were first to take on this custom long ago. Indeed, there are some sefardim who may carry names that are predicated upon pesukim, teffilos or zemiros. Those examples may be described as more than simply chosen last names, rather they represent, better put, a type of quasi family coat of arms.

    Some of the oldest sefardi surnames –and the oldest Jewish surnames-go back to the end of the geonic era, and include Berdugo and Alfasi (refer to Dr. Chanan Rappaport’s article Sheimos U’Mishpachos B’Yisroel).

    When it comes to ashkanazim, however, the practice of last names begins far more recently. Up until not too long ago an individual was very often known through their paternal line, e.g. Avrahan ben Yitzchak.

    Of course, there were some exceptions, such as, for example, Teumim, Weil, Eiger, Bacharach, Mintz and Lowe, variations of which we find already in the 1400’s.

    It was not until 1787 and 1804, when the Austria-Hungarian empire and the Russians, respectively, issues decrees on many Jews to choose family names when surnames really took-off.

    Nevertheless, kinnuiyim or nicknames (for lack of a better term) to describe families dates back further, especially in larger cities. Examples of these range from Metzger, Kaufman and Kaplan/Rokeach for certain occupations, and Frank or Frankel for those stemming from Germany (Frankfurt). The latter surname would often begin as a nickname when someone moved to, say Italy from Frankfurt.

    For example, Rav Yehudah Mintz, known today as the Mahari Mintz, moved from Mainz in Germany to Italy in the 1400’s. Once settled in his new home, he became known by the city he emigrated from, Mainz, or, Mintz.

    Beyond the examples above, and because a paternal name for a kohen or a levi would often anyway end with that term, last names like Cohen, Levi, Levin and Katz (abbreviated from ‘Kohen Tzedek’) are also older than most last names.

    Most famously is the last name Rappaport, and one of the rare last names with its own Wikipedia page! While some argue that this last name goes back to the 1400’s, the best evidence to its modern provenance is from the 1500’s when Rav Shlomo ben Menachem haKohen Rapa of Venice likely made a shidduch with Rav Avraham Porto haKohen. The former was the rav of this Italian community while the latter was its parnas. Together, the two last names form Rapa-Porto, Rappaport. Further, it seems that both of these families were able to substantiate their yichus all the way back to Ahron hakohen. For this reason, until today, kohanim with the last name of Rappaport are prized. Indeed, it is widely written that the Vilna Gaon would consistently throughout his lifetime redeem himself with coins for his pidyon haben out of fear that each kohen was not really a kohen. He did this until he met a kohen who was carried the last name of Rappaport, at which point he was satisfied.

    Speaking of the Vilna Gaon and last names, we discover another secret to surnames. In a recent biography on the life of the Vilna Gaon, the volume had the subtitle, ‘The story of Rav Eliyahu Kramer’, and in other books his surname is spelled Kremmer.

    However, historians now seem to agree that neither were his true last name, and this particular surname had only begun to become attached to the Gaon over the past sixty-seventy years.

    One resourceful researcher went back to look at the old Vinius (Vilna) census records, and lo-and-behold the true last name of the Vilna Gaon may have been discovered!

    “Eliasz Zelmanowicz, wife Chana, son Zelman, daughter Basia, and servant Nechama”. Later records show his second wife Gittel. However, even this researcher admits that the last name Zalmanovitz likely refers to the fact that his father’s name was Zalman. This is an illustrations of another way surnames sprung up.

    Some last names are of more recent vintage. Many changed their names upon moving to the new state of Israel. In Buffalo there was a young rav names Rabbi Freidfertick. A deep lover of Eretz Yisroel, about ten years ago he decided to pick up his family and learn in kollel and write sefarim the rest of his life. Upon doing so, he changed his last name to Tzion! (And he has written at least ten sefarim since the move!)

    My own last name, Taub, has a number of meanings. Some suggest it refers to a dove, others that it stems from tov/good. But there is another possibility.

    Once, an older gentleman, a guest in his shul, went over to my father to give shalom.

    “Vuz iz de rav’s nummen?” (What is the rabbi’s name?)

     “Taub”.

    “Voz?” (What?)

    “Taub”

    “Nechemul; vuz?” (Once again, what?)

     “Taub”

     “Ahn shuldiks mir, ubber ich bin toyb” (Excuse me, but I am the “deaf” one.

    You see, Taub in Yiddish can also mean deaf.

    I was reminded of this potential etymology when doing research on the topic of deafness in halacha for this column several years ago. I kept finding variants of my last name scattered throughout the literature. Often poskim of a couple of hundred years ago would discuss spending time with the deaf/mute they would describe these institutions as: Taub/Stummer-Schul (Deaf/Mute School).

    I like to imagine, that if this is indeed the source for my last name, it is not due to a deaf ancestor, but rather to a gadol who was ‘deaf’ to lashon hara!

  • Of P’tcha & Pedigree

    A Guest Reveals His Amazing Yichus and Backstory

    May, 2015

    “Everyone has a story to tell, everyone is a writer. Some are written in the books and some are confined to hearts.” American Proverb

    Indeed, everyone does have a story, just some are more remarkable than others.

    When I first moved to Queens, I made it a point to meet, over the course of a year, with every member of my shul. Naturally, the main purpose for such meetings would be to get to know them on a personal level.

    But there was something else driving me. I have come to learn that there is no single person in this world who does not have something fascinating in their background.

    So, whether it was the remarkable stories of survival of the holocaust by so many of their parents, the genius math-wizard father who worked together with Albert Einstein at Princeton, or the member who was Rabbi Schneerson’s physical therapist during his final years, these new members did not disappoint.

    In my old shul in Buffalo as well there were many stories. When I moved to Buffalo I naively believed that yiddeshkeit – at least the backgrounds I was used to –was confined to the major Torah centers of the world.

    But I was wrong.

    There was the one-hundred-year-old man from Dvinsk who was forced to bury his own family during the war. In his younger days, although unlearned, he recalled listening to the holy fires that left of the lips of the Meshech Chochma and the Rogatchover gaon. Although he never learned even a modicum of English, he would come each evening for davening and listen quietly to my divrei halacha. There was the retired Chabad rosh yeshiva, Rav Greenberg, who was chavrusos with Rav Shisgal and Rav Simcha Schustal –in their younger days they were known as ‘the three musketeers’ among their peers. He even once spent a Shabbos with Rav Menachem Zemba hy’d, while in yeshiva in Europe.

    However, due to language, sickness, or time –and sometimes all three- I was never able to develop a close relationship with either of these two men.

    But then came Shay.

    He had a ponytail and walked with a cane. He looked about eighty-years old, and had a small kipa seruga pinned to his grey, thinning slicked-back hair.

    I was walking to shul Shabbos morning when I first spotted him, lumbering slowly on the other side of the street.

    At this point I had lived in Buffalo for seven years and I had never seen this man before.

    I would have ventured that he was a guest, yet he was walking in an area that was residential and not near the many hotels where visitors would be staying.

    As I watched him slowly make his way to shul I asked the person I was walking with, who himself had lived in the neighborhood for many decades, “Who is this man?”.

    “Oh, him?” he responded, pointing to the older gentleman, “That is Shay Mintz, he lives a block away from you”.

    I was surprised, as I thought I knew of all the Jews-religious or otherwise-that lived in my close proximity.

    After davening I went over to give him a hearty shalom aleichem, and he could not have been sweeter.

    In fact, he asked me a question on the parsha. I can not now recall what the question was (and I wish I could!) but I do remember thinking that it was a good question, in fact, I recall thinking that it was too good of a kasheh for an amateur, someone new to Torah.

    I inquired more about this neighborhood visitor to shul and was told that although he himself has always been frum, he worked for many years for the adult education at the local conservative synagogue and helped run the Hillel at the University of Buffalo. The university’s campus was down the block from our shul and the reason why he was never in our shul is because he had been, for decades, running their Shabbos services.

    Once retired he still felt that perhaps he would be considered persona-non-grata in a frum shul, so he reluctantly stayed away. But he he could not go anymore without a minyan, and although quite sickly he began to walk the short distance to shul, which for him took much effort and time.

    I thought to myself that he must have come from a different, more confusing time in America and, nebech, got lost in the shuffle somehow. I mean, how ‘frum’ could he really be, could he really have been?

    The next week he was back, and then the week after that, and again after that. He soon became one of the the Shabbos regulars. Every week after davening he would always first comment to me about the drasha and then ask me a question on the parsha.

    In time I came to realize that every question he asked was taken from the sefas emes. ‘Interesting that he seems so fascinated with the sefas emes’, I would think for but a moment, but I never gave it any more contemplation.

    At one kiddush soon after he began coming to shul each week I mentioned to him that I wanted to get home as I had made fresh ptcha for Shabbos and wanted to see how it came out.

    Shay closed his eyes and, as if going back in time, he smiled and said “What I would do for a geshmekah piece of ptcha”.

    Naturally, I invited him for lunch. “Bring your wife as well”, I sincerely encouraged.  Sadness suddenly engulfed his face as he shared with me his present reality; his wife was in a home, suffering from late-unsought Alzheimer’s disease. So, from that Shabbos onward, Shay would come to my house almost every Shabbos lunch thereafter.

    It was at this first Shabbos seudah together that I discovered who this man really was.

    “So, Shay” I asked, as I cut him a healthy slice of my ptcha, “Where did you learn to eat such heimeshe food”.

    “Yerushalayim”, he replied.

    “Oh, you spent some time there?” I innocently inquired.

    “I was born there, before there was modern state”

    He paused, “Perhaps in your time in eretz yisroel you have seen some streets named ‘rechov mintz’ found in Yerushalayim, Bnei Brak and other cities?”

    “Yes” I replied with, in truth, only a shadow of a vague memory of such streets.

    “Well, these were named after my father”

    He then pointed to a sefer I had on my shtender from the great gaon and bibliophile Rav Reuvein Margolios zt’l. He began to swell with tears how recounted the time he had spent with that genius in Torah.

    Just who was this man at my Shabbos table, who lived just a block away from me in, of all places, Buffalo, New York?!

    Well, my dear reader, Shay Mintz, passed away last week in Yerushalaim. Sitting and writing this column has been cathartic, my way of dealing with his passing.

    There is so much I want to share with the reader about his amazing life. But the news was so sudden, I am scrambling to find in my boxes the letters he kept from Rav Meir Shapiro, the great rebbes of Gur, and the biography of his father that he published, and much, much more.

    Just who was Shay Mintz, and how he went from a chassideshe yingle in pre-Israel Yerushalim to Upsate New York?

    For that story the reader should seek out his book -about his father’s life and his -titled Ai Shel Efshar (Hebrew).

  • A Lag B’Omer Secret

    A Lag B’Omer Secret

    The Mystery Behind Why We Celebrate.


    Why Do We Celebrate The Plague Ending, If It Already Killed ALL 24,000 of Rebbe Akiva’s Students ?

    April, 2015

    Lag ‘Bomer always falls on the same day of the week as that year’s Purim.

    Perhaps this is not simply by chance.

    After all, if there are two days during the year when the focus is on children, and that our children look forward to the most, it is these two days.

    We may find an even deeper connection between these two days. The Shulchan Aruch points out the above Purim-Lag B’omer day connection (siman 428:1), also providing us with a siman to remember this rule: the Hebrew word peleg (pe’lg= purim/lag b’omer).

    Perhaps this word alludes to the very heart of the potential breech that can take place between these two days each and every year.

    On Purim we provide each other with mishaloach manos, in large part to foster closeness, friendship and camaraderie between Jews. However, and as the word peleg (sect, or faction) alludes, too often that closeness can quickly dissipate.

    After all, at the heart of Lag B’omer is the history of Jews not showing each other proper respect. So, whereas on Purim we had an enemy from without, on Lag’B’omer we recall the lurking enemy from within.

    For, although chazal make no mention of this period of mourning that precedes Lag B’omer (it was a minhag that became solidified as law in the days of the geonim), they do often recall the death of the students of Rebbe Akiva during these days, and the reason for their demise –their lack of kavod for one another.

    However, even this is somewhat murky. When chazal share with us the story of Rebbe Akiva’s students’ death, not always are the same terms used.

    In the gemara (Yevamus 62b) the story is told as follows: “Rebbe Akiva had 12,000 pairs of students…who all died in the same period because they did not show each other proper respect”. Later, the gemara will inform us that this ‘same period’ was in fact during the days between Pesach and Shavuos.

    However, in the midrash (Bereishis Rabba 61:3) when these same events are taught, there are some slight discrepancies: “Rebbe Akiva had 12,000 students…who all died in the same period. Why did they die? Because they looked at each other begrudgingly (ayin tzara)”

    The first difference between these two sources is the number of talmidim we are told that died –the gemara teaches a total of 24,000 (12,000 pairs), while the midrash gives us their number as 12,000 total. Even more difficult is the Tanchuma (Chayay Sara, 6) that teaches us that the total number of Rebbe Akiva’s students, as well as the total of those that perished, was 300.

    To answer this first discrepancy, we could suggest a simple solution. Chavrusa’s are supposed to be symbiotic and united as one. For this very reason does the gemara describe them as 12,000 pairs instead of simply saying 24,000. The midrash was only furthering this same idea by actually counting each pair as one entity. As for the 300 figure, see Shekalim 21b as well as many other gemaras where the number ‘300’ is often used as a descriptive for any large number (see Gra ad loc.).

    However, the greater difficulty – at least as it relates to our own personal growth – is how on the one hand the gemara describes their bad behavior as a general lack of respect for each other, while the midrash designates a specific flaw of jealousy and contempt for each others’ personal and Torah growth.

    The Sifsei Chaim quotes from the Ponivitcher Rav who explained that there is in fact no discrepancy at all. Chazal are informing us how even a small putrid midda can sometimes metastasize and destroy so much more. The midda they failed in was,as the midrash accurately teaches, ayin tzara. However, that seemingly small failing colored so much else, to the point of each student becoming so fearful of the other’s growth as to not show proper respect to one another. This then caused all of their learning to be for the sake of their own personal benefit – to be better than the other – and not l’shmah. (Sifsei Chaim, 3).

    The Maharsha echoes this idea by asserting that due to their jealousy they likely spoke lashon hara about each other. In fact, he points out that the disease that killed them –asakrah- is taught to be related to the sin of lashon hara (Shabbos 33a).

    As to why they died specifically during this period of the year, the Beis Yosef brings from the Tashbetz a stunning explanation: the chillul Hashem caused when talmidei chachamim do not act properly leads people to say, “Woe to those who study Torah!” R’l. For this reason, they perished during our countdown to Shavuos and the giving of the Torah!

    The Maharsha suggests the reason this time of the year was chosen for their demise was for a more technical reason. Hakodosh Barush Hu wanted it to be clear that this was a Divine punishment. Chazal teach (Shabbos 147a) that the period between Pesach and Shavuos is set aside with the special power to heal. Their death during that same period would suggest to the homan am that this was clearly a punishment from Above.

    On the point that this time of year contains the power to heal, the Chasam Sofer to that gemara suggests that it refers specifically to the month of Iyar, and is alluded to in the pasuk ‘Ki Ani Hashem Rofecha’ (I am you Gd, your Healer), the first letters of the last words spelling out ‘Iyar’.

    There is so much more that lays beneath the surface of these days, but let me end with one more hidden message contained in the many chazals that discuss this story.

    Both in the midrash and the gemara, always, the discussion that leads chazal to mention the students of Rebbe Akiva was a lesson derived from Koheles 11:6 “Do not be idle in the evening”.

    From here chazal derive the lesson that if you study Torah in your youth, make sure to also study in your old age. Whenever this lesson is taught, invariably, it causes chazal to teach us the story of Rebbe Akiva’s students. This is because the greatest lesson we can draw from it is how Rebbe Akiva never gave up. Even when he lost everything, he rebuilt his yeshiva again in the ‘evening’ of his life.

    This may also explain the significance of Lag B’omer as a day of celebration – a famous debate (as, after all, there were no more students left to perish!), and which was the subject of last year’s column.

    Lag B’Omer always falls out on the 18th of Iyar.

    In the gemara (Rosh Hashana 11) we learn that according to R’ Yehoshua the first day of the mabul in the days of Noach was the 17 of Iyar.

    According to many (see Sefer Hayashar, cf. Ibn Ezra) the waters by the Flood killed everyone on the first day, so that by the 18th of Iyar the deaths ended. The 18th of Iyar is also the date when we recall how another mageifa ended on this same day –the deaths of Rebbe Akiva’s students.

    Perhaps, then, Lag B’omer, or the 18th of Iyar is set aside as a time of renewal. It reminds us of two people who saw their world lay desolate, having witnessed all they built destroyed by a Divine decree. More saliently, it reminds us that on this date, twice in our history-by Noach and again by Rebbe Akiva- neither surrendered to forlorn, rather they galvanized themselves to start over, again.

    As we see the dead trees of winter suddenly revivified by Spring, so too may we take the lessons of these days and work to have those relationships thought to have also withered on the vine have a second chance.

  • Turkey: A Bird, Name, and Some Halachic History

    Turkey: A Bird, Name, and Some Halachic History

    November, 2018

    “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

    ― George Orwell, 1984

    The other day, as I was walking into shul, an elderly man, a guest, came over to me with an intriguing question.

    “Why is it that the word for turkey in English refers both to a bird and a country of the same name?”

    Sensing my curiosity at to why he would direct this question to a rav, and not perhaps to a student of William Safire, he continued.

    “In Hebrew too we call this bird tarnegol hodu, which means ‘Indian bird/rooster. So why do these two languages choose to name this bird after a country?”

    The truth is that he was touching upon an issue that relates directly with halacha, as we shall soon see.

    But he was also mistaken, Hebrew and English are far from the only two languages that one finds this strange occurrence.

    I first answered him with the following question of my own: “How does one say ‘turkey’ in Yiddish?”

    “Indik!” he responded.

    Of course, indik is also the Yiddish word for India!

    Already in Megilas Esther we find that hodu refers to India, so indeed why did we choose this name, in Hebrew and Yiddish, for the turkey? And why does the English language also name it after a country, although a different one?

    The truth is that one would have many reasons to think that Americans and Israeli’s have a lot in common when it comes to turkey. It is fascinating to note that the number one and two countries in their per capita consumption of this bird is Israel and the United states respectively! (sliced turkey by Shabbos morning’s seudah is likely what puts us at the top spot in the world)

    However, as a point in fact, Hebrew, Yiddish and English are not alone in this odd linguistic phenomenon.

    We find the same ‘Indian’ name for this bird in Italian, Russian and French, and many other languages. If anything, English is the outlier in that it is named after Turkey -and not India.

    To make matters even more bizarre: In Turkey itself this bird is called a hindi –‘from India’! And in India (Hindi) it called… tarki-‘from Turkey’!!

    Several year’s ago The Atlantic magazine (2012) dedicated much space to the issue of the Turkey/turkey English question, even zeroing in on its possible Hebrew origins:

    “In the early 1990s a debate broke out in the “letter to the editor” section of The New York Times over the possible Hebrew origins of the word “turkey.” On December 13, 1992, Rabbi Harold M. Kamsler suggested (as a follow-up to a Thanksgiving-themed piece titled “One Strange Bird”) that the New World fowl received its English name from Christopher Columbus’s interpreter, Luis de Torres, a Jewish convert to Catholicism. In an October 12, 1492 letter to a friend in Spain, de Torres had referred to the American bird he encountered as a tuki, the word for “peacock” in ancient Hebrew and “parrot” in modern Hebrew.

    Kamsler’s letter, however, was met with a firm rebuttal from the president of the Association for the Study of Jewish Languages, David L Gold”

    [Cf. see Sota 31a, mishneh, with Rashash with regard to a Halacha relating to a ‘talking bird’ and its identification and name]

    So what is going on here, and how does it relate to halacha?

    While no one is one-hundred percent certain about why this particular fowl has such an odd dialectal commonality across so many cultures, the general theories that abound have a few things in common that can help us understand its peculiar naming history.

    According to Mario Pei of Columbia University, an expert in linguistics and neologisms (newly formed words), in early America guinea-fowl –a completely different species of bird –were imported through Turkish merchants. Mistakenly believing that what we know today as turkeys were guinea-fowl, early settlers named the bird ‘Turkish hens’, which soon became, simply, ‘turkey’.

    So, that explains the Turkey/turkey connection in America and American English; but what about the India connection in most other languages?

    If one recalls, a few months back I sent to the shul an article about the West Indie esrogim being used in America in the 1850’s.

    What was not mentioned is why was this southern local to the United States termed with this imprimatur.

    Well, when Columbus sailed to the Americas, he thought that he arrived in the ‘West’ Indies. The East Indies, of course, was a part of India proper, and Columbus assumed he simply arrived at the other side!

    Even after we realized that the Americas was in fact a new continent the name ‘West Indies’ largely remained.

    With this bit of history, we can begin to unfold this bird’s naming.

    When the American turkeys were shipped from the Americas back across the Atlantic in the 1500’s many named it after the ‘West Indies’, and soon ‘India fowl’, and then finally…’India’!

    So, how does this all relate to halacha?

    As many of you are likely aware, the issue of the kashrus of turkeys has been questioned over the years. In fact, some do not ever eat this fowl.

     Their concern is not insignificant. The Rama codifies a simple rule based on Rashi—we eat only those birds for which we have a mesorah that they are kosher. Meaning birds and animals of which we have been eating for many, many generations are the only animals we consume. Should a new animal be discovered which has all the signs of being a kosher animal we would still need to refrain.

    While the Shulchan Aruch agrees with the Rama, he allows for certain leniencies in regard to particular classes of birds.

    Now, it would seem that turkeys –  seemingly only introduced late in our history (although, truth be told, some poskim argue they have been around for longer) should then not be eaten!

    The rational behind why a super majority of frum Jews still eat from this bird is beyond the scope of this brief monograph. However, it is critical to point out one of the Netziv’s rationales for our allowance of consuming this ‘new’ bird, against the ruling we follow of the Rama (Meishiv Davar 22): the mere fact that Jews had begun, even mistakenly, to eat this bird, which aside for the Rama’s strict view has no clear signs of being non-kosher –would allow us to continue to eat it.

    But why, indeed, did we begin to eat this new bird before the posekim sanctioned it? To this question many have suggested the following brilliant approach:

    After this new bird arrived in India and Turkey the sefardim –not bound by this Rama and thus allowed to eat new birds –began to consume them.

    When then these birds were sold from these countries to Europe and Russia, it carried the name indek, which many Jews wrongly assumed was due to the fact that these birds were indigenous to India and had been eaten in that and other sefardi countries for centuries, when in truth A) The name was based ona nickname for America and B) sefardim ate it because they were not bound to refrain from new animals. In other words, the name of this new creature mistakenly convinced many that this bird had a mesorah!

    What a story!

    Let me end on two notes. First, nothing written above is to question the consumption of turkey. I eat turkey and rely on the Netziv and the many poskim who allow its consumption for a variety of reasons. Primarily, I rely on minhag avosei, and so should the reader.

    Finally, how amazing that the turkey in Hebrew also shares its root in the word for ‘thanks’. For, regardless of our many mesorahs from rebbeim and parents regarding how to celebrate this day, we most certainly all thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for gifting us and the world with this amazing country.

    May her best days lay ahead.