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Knesset Passes Basic Law: Learning Torah
A victory for Torah: the Knesset plenum approved this week a Basic Law for its second and third reading: the bill presented by Rav Moshe Gafni, chairman of Degel HaTorah. For the first time since the passing of the Israeli State's original Bill of Rights, a new constitutional law has been passed, anchoring the study of Torah "as a basic fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel." The bill passed by a majority vote of 63 verses for and 52 votes against.
The office of the Degel HaTorah Chairman, MK Rabbi Gafni, applauded the passing of the law:
One of our readers sent us an article written by HaRav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch in 1855, when laws were passed in Germany aimed at denying civil rights to the Jewish population. These were minor economic laws but HaRav Hirsch was already able to see in his wise eyes the drastic ramifications of denying elementary rights to the citizens.
In the work, Maagalei Hashana, his thoughts appear under the title, "Denying Basic Rights is the First Step Towards Murder." Dozens of years before the Nazi rise to power, when no one could even imagine a dreadful rule such as that, yet in such an 'enlightened' and 'cultured' nation, HaRav Hirsch already warned against the tangible danger developing from such a denial of basic civil rights. Even without a comparison to such a dire past, these words should surely serve as a warning signal in the present battle against the chareidi public in denying it elementary civil rights. Following are his words:
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Part II
This series was first published in 1992, or, 24 years ago.
Seeking the Yerushalmi
At the end of 5661, they heard that the largest kameiya was kept by a wealthy Jew named Suleiman Benveniste. They rushed to his house, their hearts beating wildly, almost ripping off the manuscript's silk covering in their haste. Their joy however was not complete for their hopes were not entirely fulfilled: the long version of seder Nezikin which the Sdeh Yehoshua had written about, was not there.
They ascertained that another descendant probably had it and that it may yet be retrievable. Again, "sadly," the manuscript of Kodshim ended abruptly in the middle of the second perek of Arachin and here unfortunately, there was no hope, for the subsequent pages had been worn away and disappeared.
The valiant pair managed to secure the manuscript on loan for six months. A contract was drawn up with the publisher, who undertook to explain and elucidate the text and to print tens of thousands of copies. The income from the venture would be divided; half for the publisher and half for the two "detectives." At long last, the manuscript had finally reached the publishers eager hands on the twenty-eighth of Kislev 5662 (1902).
The publisher then describes the appearance of the ancient manuscript. The parchment which the Yerushalmi was written on was strong and thick. Each page had writing on both sides, each side holding two columns, each thirty-four lines in length. The bold, square letters attested to the quality of the work carried out by the Sephardi scribe.
At the beginning of every mishna, halacha or sentence, were large, red letters, which had been illuminated with gold and decorations. There were no abbreviated words or phrases; everything was written in full. At the end of maseches Menochos, the publisher had deciphered the following lines: "I, Yitzchok bar Yosef Ibn Ilbargeloni the scribe, have written the Talmud Yerushalmi up to this point, and, as Hashem helps me, will complete it, for the Chacham and prince in Yisrael, Don Yitzchak Halevi, who has paid from his purse for it to be glorified and embellished."
Further on, the "scribe" notes that his work was copied from accurate manuscripts which had been corrected by Rav Hai Gaon. "And the work was completed on the twenty-fifth day of yerach Tammuz in the year 4972 (1212)."
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Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
HaRav Nissim Yagen, zt"l
by M. Samsonowitz
A few months ago, I bumped into a friend on the street who told me that Rav Nissim Yagen had returned from the States, and would be speaking that night in a shul in Ramot. Rav Nissim Yagen is speaking? I asked enthusiastically. "Pick me up -- I'm coming!" It was months since he had spoken in public because he had been undergoing treatment abroad.
The speech was called for 8:30 p.m., and we arrived at 8:45 p.m. What a mistake! The synagogue was packed so tightly that it was impossible to push in past the door. When a listener had to leave through that entrance, we seized the opportunity and pushed ourselves into the main hall and could now hear his booming voice. It was impossible to believe that here was a mortally sick man. (His son told me that for that lecture, he had taken the highest dosage of pain-killer available.)
It was vintage Rav Nissim. He denounced the appalling ignorance of Judaism among Israelis today. He talked about the Final Redemption and various supernatural phenomena that he had personally witnessed, and urged us to feel the clarion call to get into spiritual shape for the great events coming up. You could feel the tension surging through your body by the end of the shiur. End to complacency! Time to start putting things in order!
That was Rav Nissim. His style was blunt and demanding, yet calm. Earthy and pragmatic, but not complex. Invoking higher worlds and heavenly intervention, but no hocus-pocus.
Early Years
Rav Nissim Yagen was born in 1940 in Jerusalem to Chacham Yaakov, one of the Torah scholars who frequented the beis hamedrash of the mekubal HaRav Mordechai Sharabi in Jerusalem. His grandfather was a noted scholar from Aleppo who merited gilui Eliyahu Hanovi, and his father too was a humble tzaddik of stature.
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Opinion & Comment
From Bein HaMeitzorim to Bein HaZemanim
by HaRav Moshe Man
The period between Shivah Asar BeTammuz until after Tishah B'Av during which we observe minhogim of aveilus is called by Chazal in the beginning of Midrash Eichah, "the days of bein hameitzorim," based on the posuk "All her persecutors overtook her bein hameitzorim" (Eichah 1:3).
What were the causes of the churban? Chazal (Nedorim 81a) tell us that the Jews incurred Divine wrath because "they did not make a brocho before studying Torah." The well-known explanation of the Ran that he found in a megilas setorim of Rabbenu Yonah is that Hashem's rebuke was not simply for abandoning the Torah, since actually they were engaged in Torah, and therefore the Sages wondered why the land was lost. "Until HaKodosh Boruch Hu Himself who discerns the depths of the heart, explained that they did not make a brochoh over the Torah before [studying it], i.e., the Torah did not seem important enough to them to make a brochoh over it."
During this period it is sensible that we strengthen ourselves in Torah study so as to correct our imperfection that caused the churban. This is especially so since a few days after Tishah B'Av is the 15th of Av, about which the Mishnah (Nedorim 4:8) writes, "There were no yomim tovim for Yisroel like the 15th of Av." The gemora (Ta'anis 31a) explains that "it was the day they stopped cutting wood for the ma'arochoh."
Maran HaRav Y. S. Kahaneman at the openings of the Ponevezh Yeshiva's yarchei kalah cited Rabbenu Gershom's explanation many times (Bova Basra 121b): "When they were busy in cutting wood for the ma'arochoh they could not study Torah. On the day they stopped cutting wood they made it a yom tov since afterwards they would be engaged in studying Torah."
The period after Tishah B'Av is popularly called bein hazemanim (the inter-session of yeshivos).
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