First Day of School

This morning I began my studies at Matan, an institute for Torah studies, founded by Rabbanit Malka Bina in 1988. Rabbanit Bina is one of the pioneers of learning and teaching Torah to women, breaking ground by learning Talmud and teaching women to learn. Matan has a rich and varied schedule for both full time serious advanced students as well as part time students like Batya and me. There are dozens of classes given four days a week, both in English and Hebrew.  

Today I went to two classes. The first class I chose is a class in Talmud. tractate 'Brachot'. I have attended classes in Talmud before which were informal and we worked as a group along with the teacher to understand the materiel. So, it isn't like I've never see a page before. But in this class we are expected to do a bit more on our own in pairs. I was fortunate to be sitting next a very nice woman and we were able to figure out the work. Then our teacher, a relatively young (everything is relative) man, Rav Yitzhak Bazak, pulled it all together and we had an interesting discussion which included some practical conclusions and left me with as we say in Hebrew 'a taste for more'. I am so fortunate to be able to do this!

The second class is a comparison of several of the prophets and an exploration of the types of prophecy in Judaism given by a really gifted teacher Yael Schlossberg. I heard several of her lectures in the two weeks in September  when Matan held lectures by their scholars as well as others in preparation for the High Holidays and I was sold. She managed to create an intimate learning atmosphere, encourage participation and say everything she wanted in her allotted time in a packed auditorium with what I would estimate was about 150 women. 

I am looking forward to a fruitful and interesting year of learning. 

Jerusalem is the center of the world!

Baruch Dayan Emet ~ Rabbi Hanan Porat

report here:  Rabbi Hanan Porat Passes Away 

Over the years that I have lived in Israel there has been no one person who I felt ideologically closer to than Rav Hanan Porat. His total commitment to Torah both in learning and teaching, his commitment to building up the land and people of Israel and his commitment to social justice will probably remain unequaled for a long time to come. It is not just that he said the right things, he lived them. And he expressed these ideas clearly and what I can only describe as gracefully.
His life was a blessing to our people and may the family find comfort in the rebuilding of Zion and Jerusalem.
יהי זכרו ברוך

Announcing the Month of Av

On Shabbat in synagogues around the world we announced that on Monday we will be marking Rosh Hodesh (the first day of the month of) Av. We are already in the midst of the three weeks marking the period between the time that the walls of Jerusalem were breached (17th Tamuz) before the first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and the the 9th of Av 586 B.C.E (and again on that very same date by the Romans 70 C.E.) The 9th of Av, known as Tisha B'Av is a fast day in commemoration of the destruction and the book of Eicha (Lamentations) is read in the synagogue.

• I would like to recommend a series of podcasts published on the Internet by KMTT a daily podcast from Yeshivat Har Etzion which is just part of an amazing set of Torah resources made available by the Yeshiva. The series consists of 9 installments of about 30-40 minutes recorded by Dr. Yael Ziegler in 2009 found here. Dr. Ziegler teaches at the Herzog College in Gush Etzion and at Matan Women's Institute for Torah Learning in Jerusalem. She looks at the book through literary analysis and historic perspective without loosing sight of the religious message for all generations. I have listened to the series once and plan to listen again this week in preparation for this year's fast.

May we merit that this year the fast be cancelled and we all instead celebrate instead the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. Amen.

More blooming in the desert!

On Tuesday we went down to Mitzpe Ramon for the inaugural planting of "Kerem Ramon" (Ramon Vinyard).  The weather was unusually hot and dry and the sands of the Sahara were relocating to the Negev. It was one of those middle-east chamsin days, so called because of the Egyptian folklore about there being 50 days like this a year. (Hat tip to עברית שפה קשה). Fortunately for us there are usually a lot fewer than 50 days like this in Israel. 

In this age of post-Zionism it was refreshing to be part of this expression of faith in this dream of a Jewish state. Planting is the ultimate expression of faith. It would seem to me that there can be no atheists in a vineyard. A farmer sows his seeds and from that moment until the harvest those seeds are affected by so many environmental factors that even our modern technological agribusiness wisdom is incapable of controlling all of them. No, it takes the planter and the massive help of God to bring those seedlings that we planted to maturity and fruition. (See David's comment below) So it was fitting that this ceremony was begun with words of Torah by Rabbi Tzvi Kostiner of Mitzpe Ramon's Yeshivat Midbara KaEden. The Yeshiva is at the heart of a vibrant young community of families who make their homes in Mitzpe Ramon. Most of the men were once students at the Yeshiva. 14 of those families joined together to form an agricultural cooperative and bought the land where we planted the vineyard. They plan to use half the profits earned from the vineyard to further educational and social projects in Mitzpe Ramon. In addition they hope to be able to employ Mitzpe residents at the vineyard and the winery which they hope they will be able to build to make wine from the grapes.

I am so proud of this amazing initiative and I add my prayers to theirs for the success of this endeavor. 

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת

בְּשׁוּב יְהוָה, אֶת-שִׁיבַת צִיּוֹן--    הָיִינוּ, כְּחֹלְמִים.

  אָז יִמָּלֵא שְׂחוֹק, פִּינוּ--    וּלְשׁוֹנֵנוּ רִנָּה
אָז, יֹאמְרוּ בַגּוֹיִם--    הִגְדִּיל יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת עִם-אֵלֶּה.
  הִגְדִּיל יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת עִמָּנוּ--    הָיִינוּ שְׂמֵחִים.
  שׁוּבָה יְהוָה, אֶת-שבותנו (שְׁבִיתֵנוּ)--    כַּאֲפִיקִים בַּנֶּגֶב.
  הַזֹּרְעִים בְּדִמְעָה--    בְּרִנָּה יִקְצֹרוּ.
 הָלוֹךְ יֵלֵךְ, וּבָכֹה--    נֹשֵׂא מֶשֶׁךְ-הַזָּרַע:
בֹּא-יָבֹא בְרִנָּה--    נֹשֵׂא, אֲלֻמֹּתָיו.

A song of ascents. When God brought back the exiles of Zion we were like dreamers!

Then our mouths filled with laughter and our tongues with joyful songs. 

Then it was said among the nation: 

"God has done great things for them!" 

God did do great things for us and we rejoiced. 

Return our exiles Lord, like rushing streams in the dry desert. 

May those who sowed in tears reap in joy. 

May one who goes out weeping, carrying a bag of seed return with songs of joy, carrying his sheaves!

Milestones

Three years is a long time to wait for a haircut. Actually 3 years and two months. That's how long we've been waiting for our grandson to have his first haircut. 

Yesterday was the big day!

Early in the morning his parents gave him his new tzitzit, took him to the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik where Jerusalemites who don't want to go all the way to Meron for Lag B'omer go instead. 
There they met other families who were celebrating their three-year-old's first haircut as well. My son symbolically began the haircut there. They were given honey coated letters to lick. This is so that Hebrew letters should be sweet for them and they will enjoy learning to read Torah. There was music and dancing. Then they went to the Western Wall where the child gave charity. 

We met them and went to a friend's home in the Old City of Jerusalem where another friend, conveniently a barber, came to give a real haircut. David and the other grandfather, also named David, cut the first locks of hair. Then Nati the barber finished the job professionally. 

When the haircut was finished we danced with the kids and  Eitam got his cake and a present. 
Traditionally three years old is considered an age when a child's formal education begins. They begin to learn the letters and basic religious things. 
After this festive haircut, We went to the Mamilla Mall just outside Jaffa Gate and had lunch. 
Below is an interview with Eitam: 

Transcript
Q. What did we do for you today?
A. Chalakeh (haircutting, also sometimes called upshernish in Yiddish)
Q. What happened to all your hair?
A. It disappeared!
Q. Disappeared? Where did it disappear to?
A. Now I have payot! (sideburns)

Saturday Closed

 . This is a photo of my grandfather David taken in front of his store in Brooklyn in 1938.There are many reasons that I love this picture and have it hanging on my wall. First of all, I have very fond memories of my Zaydee Dovid who I remember well. I remember the adventure of going with my mother by subway to Brooklyn to visit him in his grocery store. I have a memory of coming into the store and he was sitting behind his counter with a book open propped against the counter. As we entered he put the book on a shelf under the counter and rose to greet us. He was a very tall man and in the shop he wore a large white apron and I remember looking way up at him as he handed me a red box of animal crackers. My mother told me that he once asked her, "do you think she'll remember that I gave her cookies in my store?" I do, Zaydee,  I do! 

I guess it was around the time that I started school my grandfather suffered a stroke. Early one day the regular customers came to get their fresh rolls and when he didn't come down to open the shop they called an ambulance (he was always there early in the morning). I was not allowed to visit him in the hospital but I remember my mother telling someone that there was a note on his bed saying 'kosher food only'. Eventually he was released from the hospital but it was clear that he could not live on his own any more nor keep the store. The doctors thought he would probably no be able to even walk much again. He came to live with us. But my Zaydee Dovid was a very determined man. He was determined not to be an invalid. He had been independent too long for that. At first it was difficult but he would walk with my mother and hold on to my brother's carriage. (Baby carriages in those days offered a lot more support than the folding contraptions we used to nowadays.)  My father made him a cane and he slowly started walking by himself. He had soon surprised everyone and was taking long walks in the neighborhood.  

It wasn't until I was much older that I realized the real strengths of my grandfather's character. Now when I look at this picture I can read the "Saturday Closed" (and in Yiddish on either side שבת געשלאסען shabbes geshlossen). In New York there were laws that forbade opening stores on Sunday so in order to keep Shabbat  an orthodox Jew had the choice of keeping his store closed two days every week or to open on Sunday and if a policeman passed by pay a fine. My grandfather did a little of both. So what was only a marginally profitable business in the dark days of the Great Depression became even more marginal. That book he kept under the counter, it was a Talmud. His father had been a Talmud scholar but my grandfather was the youngest of his children born from a second marriage when his father was already a grandfather himself. My Zaydee Dovid was jealous of his older brothers who had studied with their father longer. But he kept the study of Torah part of his life. Even in America, even where it was hard to keep you store closed on Shabbat.He could have given up on the Shabbat, rationalized like so many others did that family obligations took precedence. But he didn't. He had his priorities and he stood proudly by them. 

And that's why I love this photo.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hat tip to Leora who mentioned that her grandfather sold eggs in Brooklyn in a post about watching a movie with her 7 year old daughter about the Great Depression of the 1930's (here). I have been meaning to write about my grandfather for a long time. 

What's In A Name?

Now that Risa has graciously invited me to be a guest on her blog (please do NOT call me IsraDad) I would like to share something about our name.

In the beginning of parshat Noach G-d says to Noah "You shall make an ark...A 'tzohar' you shall make for the ark" What is the 'tzohar'? The Koren bible translates 'a window' while Hertz tranlates 'a light'. This is a modern expression of the dispute Rashi brings from Midrash Rabbah where R' Abba bar Kahana says 'it is a window' and R' Levi says 'it is a precious stone'. R' Yochanan in the Gemara says 'the holy one - blessed is he said to Noah 'set precious stones in the ark so that they will give light as if it were the afternoon (tzoharaim צהרים)

How did I adopt the name Tzohar? Almost forty years ago I was a soldier named David Fenster serving in the Jordan Valley. It was shabbat parshat Noah and I was talking with a friend about family, where we were from etc. I happened to mention my mother's maiden name was Lichtenstein.
He said, "wait a minute! I want to show you something from the parasha."
He showed me the Rashi that said: tzohar - some say a window and some say a stone emitting light.
I said "so?"
He said, "don't you get it? In Yiddish, Fenster is a window and Lichtenstein is a stone that gives off light. You are the Tzohar!!

From that time I began thinking of myself as David Tzohar. When Risa and I decided to get married we decided to take a Hebrew name. I suggested Tzohar and she agreed. (Maybe because Tzohar happens to be the acronym for TZionut HaRevisionistit - Revisionist Zionism, the political movement founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky - and Risa was a member of Betar, the Revisionist youth movement.*) 

I think that I can suggest an interpretation of Tzohar that is a synthesis of the two meanings, a window or a stone which gives light. Modern optic technology has created a scope that amplifies ambient light at night enabling the user to see almost as if it were daytime. This technology was successfully used by the IDF for night time operations in Lebanon and Gaza. During the Flood the world was shrouded in darkness, the light of the sun and the moon could not penetrate. G-d was saying to Noah 'make a special window out of precious stones that will amplify what little light there is left in your world so that you can see enough to tell day from night"

The great Hassidic master, the Noam Elimelech (R' Elimelech of Lizhansk) said that the Tzohar is a metaphor for our lives. We must open a window to our souls and let in the light that G-d has created in His world. But, in times of darkness we must seek out that gem, that spark of holiness and divinity and use it to generate a light that comes from within.

*Although I did make the connection it was NOT a factor in the decision (Risa)