Books & Bagels: May 26, 2013
May 22, 2013
Join us as Robin Shulman discusses her book “Eat the City” this Sunday morning, May 26 at 10 am.
Fishing Trip: Sunday, June 30, 2013
May 21, 2013
Sun. June 30:
Great Neck Synagogue Men’s Club GOING FISHING (again!)
Have a fun day, bring the whole family On the CAPT. PETE from Freeport, NY
(30 minutes from Great Neck) on Sunday, JUNE 30, 2013
The boat will be departing at 9:00 am, with the return to dock at 1:30 pm
The cost, which includes breakfast and lunch, is $48 per person
$36 for children 6‐12 (no children under 6)
(the first 6 kids 12 and under free with paying adult-1 per family)
Contact Steve Blumner 639‐8941, Mark Friedman 482‐1062 or Hilly Milun 448‐4890
I am going fishing! Children under 17 MUST be accompanied by an adult
Name ____________________________________ Phone # ___________________
Number of adults and teenagers _________ at $48 per person $ _______________
Number of children 11 and under _________ at $36 each $ _______________
Krav Maga: Tuesday, June 4, 2013
May 21, 2013
SISTERHOOD
Tuesday night, June 4th at 8 PM ‐
Krav Maga class for women only.
This method teaches simple self protection techniques specifically catered to reality based attack situations incorporating instinctive movements and real‐world situational training.
You will get a full understanding on how to escape “unpleasant” situations without ever raising your hand , how to develop and use simple items found in your purse to discourage a would be attacker.
There will be a (small) fee of $10 per person.
Please wear comfortable clothing and bring a water bottle. If you have any questions, please email Judy Lillien at syny98@gmail.com
Sponsorships: May 25, 2013
May 21, 2013
Kiddush is sponsored by Debbie & Jeffrey Feith in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of their son Jason.
Seudah Shlishit is sponsored by Drs. Edmund & Joel Kessler in memory of their mother Lillie Kessler, z”l.
Sunday Breakfast is sponsored by Farah & Issac Sachmechi in memory of his father Nissim ben Avraham,z”l.
Within Our Family: May 25, 2013
May 21, 2013
Mazal Tov to Debbie & Jeffrey Feith on the Bar Mitzvah of their son Jason.
Mazal Tov to Farah & Issac Sachmechi on the engagement of their daughter Amanda to Dr. Eldad Simantov Mazloumi.
Mazal Tov to Moselle & Daniel Berkowitz on the birth of a daughter. Mazal Tov also to grandparents Ada & Dov Berkowitz.
Mazal Tov to Isadore Sirota on the Bar Mitzvah of his great-grandson Shmuel, son of Elisheva & Danny Fein in Israel.
Mazal Tov to Magda & Sam Yehaskel on the birth of a son born to their children Michelle & Joseph Yehaskel in London.
Mazal Tov to Talia Mizrahi on graduating from University of Maryland with a BA in Hearing and Speech.
Mazal Tov to Paul Marcus who has published his most recent book: How To Laugh Your Way Through Life. A Psychoanalyst’s Advice (Karnac).
Mazal Tov to Jane & Yosi Tuvia on the engagement of their daughter Tali to Yishai Yehonadav, of Zur Yigal, Israel, and on Tali’s recent graduation from medical school.
YOUTH BASH: June 8, 2013
May 21, 2013
The Grand Raffle and End of Year Youth Bash Luncheon will take place on Saturday June 8, 2013
June 15: Graduation and Congregational Kiddush
May 21, 2013
Celebrate all your graduates and all your other smachot with us on June 15 at our Gala kiddush.
$100 per family for your smachot to be listed in our program that shabbat.
You can also memorialize a loved one that day as well.
Please call the shul office or email mtwersky@gns.org
Parshas B’Ha’aloscho 5773 S. Rabinowitz, MD
May 20, 2013
Parshas B’Ha’aloscho 5773 Eldod & Meydod S. Rabinowitz, MD B”H
Parshas B’Ha’aloscho is the third of ten parshios in Sefer BaMidbar. The parsha contains 136 verses, including three positive mitzvos and two prohibitions. Chapter 11, verses 24-29, presents the story of two men, Eldod and Meydod (translation adapted from R. Chaim Miller who bases it on Rashi):
The Gemara Sanhedrin17a, Sifrei 95-96, and Tanchuma B’Ha’aloscho 12 relate that Moshe had a political problem in choosing 70 elders from the 12 tribes to form a Sanhedrin which could lift some of the administrative burden from his shoulders (with Moshe presiding, the Sanhedrin would have 71 members). If he took six elders from each tribe, he would have 72. If he took six each from ten tribes, and five from each of the two remaining tribes, he would cause resentment, especially if they were to rule on a dispute between tribes. Moshe therefore selected a list of six men from each tribe, took 72 lots, wrote “elder” on 70 of them, and left two blank, intending to tell the two men who drew blanks that HaShem did not want them on the Sanhedrin. He then had the 72 candidates draw lots. Eldod and Meydod remained in the camp and declined to draw, saying they were not worthy; an alternative explanation is that they feared rejection. The two blanks were drawn by other men, but Eldod and Meydod did not know this, so their lots remained in the box. HaShem said that Eldod and Meydod had humbled themselves, so He would add greatness to their greatness, by permitting them to continue as prophets for the rest of their lives, long after the others had stopped. Three opinions are offered as to the content of their prophecy: 1) Forecasting about 38 years, they said “Moshe mes, Yehoshua machnis (Moshe will die, Yehoshua will lead (the nation into Eretz Yisroel)).” 2) Forecasting just a few days, they prophesied about the imminent arrival of the quails. 3) Forecasting until the end of time, they prophesied about Gog, King of Magog, who will attack Yisroel before the arrival of Moshiach. The Gemara considers that Yehoshua may have objected to the content of the prophecy if it concerned Moshe’s death, or he may have objected to any lesser person prophesying in the presence of the greater prophet, Moshe Rabbeinu. Ramban (1194-1270) adds that Yehoshua may have thought Eldod and Meydod to be false prophets or madmen. In our verse 28, the word kilo’aym may mean “destroy them” derived from the root chof-lamed-heh/destroy, or it may mean “imprison them,” derived from chof-lamed-aleph/prison, or it may mean that they should be given burdensome communal responsibilities. The spirit of prophecy only rests on happy people, so the burden would disqualify them from prophecy. If relatively small communal responsibilities did squelch their prophecy, the superior prophetic status of Moshe Rabbeinu, who bore enormous responsibilities, would be clear to all.
Rashi (1040-1105) questions whether Eldod and Meydod had committed a sin worthy of the death penalty. If they were not guilty of such a sin, and had been commanded by HaShem to publicize their vision, the burdening might be a legitimate way of silencing them. If, however, they received a vision of Moshe’s death, but were not commanded to publicize the information, and did it on their own initiative, this might constitute treason against Moshe, their King, and might merit the death penalty.
Targum Yerushalmi (probably compiled after Rashi’s lifetime, since he doesn’t mention it) and Yalkut Shimoni (13th century) say that Eldod and Meydod were maternal half-brothers of Moshe and Aharon. Amram divorced Yocheved because he didn’t want to bring more children into the world after Paroh ordered all Jewish boy infants drowned. She then married Elitzofon ben Parnach, Prince of Zevulun, and gave birth to Eldod and Meydod. Later, at Miryam’s urging, Yocheved was divorced from Elitzofon, remarried Amram, and bore Moshe. Da’as Zekenim mi Ba’alei haTosfos (probably in 1200s) say that Eldod and Meydod were paternal half-brothers of Moshe and Aharon. When Amram learned prophetically or from Moshe that the Torah would prohibit marriage with one’s aunt, he divorced Yocheved, married another woman, and they had Eldod and Meydod.
Rabbeinu Bachya (1255-1340) provides proofs that Eldod and Meydod were superior in prophecy to the other 70 elders. First, the Torah names them, but none of the other 70. Second, their prophetic spirit came directly from HaShem, without Moshe placing his hands on them, as is implied by our verse 26. Third, they foresaw the distant future, whereas the others foresaw only the imminent arrival of quail. Fourth, their prophecy did not cease after one day. Fifth, the other 70 elders all died in the desert, but Eldod and Meydod entered Eretz Yisroel: in BaMidbar 34:21 and 24, Eldod is called Elidod ben Kislon, the leader of the tribe of Binyomin, and Meydod is called Kemu’ail ben Shifton, leader of Efrayim (also found in Tanchuma and in BaMidbar Rabboh 15:19). R. Bachya also suggests their failure to obey Moshe’s order to present themselves at the Tent provides another basis for Yehoshua’s request to punish them.
Alshich (1508-1600) says that Moshe Rabbeinu, in our verse 29, points out that Yehoshua is personally involved in the Eldod/Meydod prophecy, and therefore, he, of all people, is legally prohibited from taking a position on it. Or haChaim (1696-1742) says that Yehoshua’s request to punish Eldod and Meydod may itself be an instance of a student rendering a halachic opinion in the presence of his teacher. The penalty for this, according to Gemara Eruvin 63 is the offender not leaving any children in the world when he dies, which appears, according to Divrei haYomim I 7:27 to have been the case for Yehoshua. Another offense may be that Yehoshua called his teacher by his name, Moshe (Shulchan Orach, Yorah Dei’ah 242:15, Shach quoted by R. Moshe Bogomilsky (contemporary)).
R. Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel (1595-1663) in Chanukas haTorah asks, “How did Rashi know that the prophecy was “Moshe mes, Yehoshua machnis,” which is not stated in the Torah?” He answers that the baby Moshe was rescued from the Nile by Basya, daughter of Paroh, who named him Moshe, saying “Ki min ha’mayim mishisihu (for I drew him from the water) (Shmos 2:10).” Since the Torah appreciates brevity, she should have more succinctly said, “mi’mayim mishisihu,” eliminating the letters nun and heh. She chose not to do this, because mi’mayim, spelled mem-mem-yud-mem is an acronym for “Moshe mes, Yehoshua machnis.” Our verse 26 begins by saying that two men remained in the camp (ba’machaneh) and ends by stating they became prophets, unnecessarily adding “ba’machaneh.” The word machaneh can be divided into “mach,” meaning mechikoh/erase, and the letters nun and heh. So, in this extra word “ba’machaneh,” the Torah tells us that Eldod and Meydod were testifying that the nun and heh added by Basya would be erased. This explanation is also provided by Maharil Diskin (1818-1898).
R. Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) saw Eldod and Meydod as advocates for democracy as opposed to rule by an oligarchy. They preferred to remain among the people. In the prophecy about Gog, who appears to be a dictator, they herald the triumph over him by the hamonoh/City of the Masses (Yechezkel 39:16). In the eyes of Eldod and Meydod, no man, not even Moshe, is irreplaceable.
The Netziv (1816-1893) looks at our verse 25, at the last words “v’lo yosofu (which could mean ‘they didn’t add’),” and derives a special understanding. Ordinarily, each prophet tells his story in his own unique style (Gemara Sanhedrin 89a). But all of the elders who received a portion of Moshe’s spirit prophesied in exactly the same words that Moshe would have used, adding nothing. Eldod and Meydod were independent, and spoke in their own styles. Yehoshua’s task was to perpetuate Moshe’s administration, so, to mix metaphors, he was comfortable with carbon copies, but troubled by “loose cannons.”
Meshech Chochmoh (1843-1926) says that the prophecy that Moshe would die and Yehoshua would lead, a prophecy that went without rebuke by Moshe, terrified the people. They tried to deify Moshe, and couldn’t imagine entering Eretz Yisroel without him. This form of idolatry fed into the sin of the spies.
R. Zalman Sorotzkin (1881-1966) says that the prophecy that Yehoshua, a member of the tribe of Efrayim, would rule after Moshe, was granted to Eldod and Meydod because they represented the tribes of Binyomin and Efrayim, descendants of Rochel Imeinu, thereby consoling those tribes for the loss of two seats on the Sanhedrin that they would have occupied, had they not been so modest.
R. Moshe Bogomilsky quotes the seven-volume Torah commentary Iturei Torah by R. Aharon Ya’akov Greenberg (1900-1963), who in turn quotes the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797): A saying in Gemara Megillah 18a informs us, “mila b’sela, mishtoka b’trein (a word is worth a sela, silence is worth two).” The Gaon puns on the word “sela,” which can refer to a unit of Talmudic-era currency, but can also mean a rock. In this light, if Moshe had spoken one word, “mayim/water,” to the rock, he would have been spared the prophecy of the two, Eldod and Meydod. Or, as Iturei Torah says, if Moshe had spoken the one word to the rock, he would have been spared striking two blows.
Within Our Family: May 18, 2013
May 13, 2013
Mazal Tov to Rebbetzin Elaine Wolf on the birth of a great-granddaughter born to her grandchildren Tamar & Tzvi Mostovicz of Beersheva, Israel.Mazal Tov also to grandparents Dr. David & Leah Wolf.
Mazal Tov to Bonnie & Elliot Diamond on the Bar Mitzvah of their grandson Alec, son of Janet & Louis Diamond in Chappaqua, NY.
Mazal Tov to Harriet & David Schimel on the marriage of their daughter Tamar to Shirel Safra.
Mazal Tov to Susan & Bruce Decter on the engagement of her daughter Daniella Forman to Jeffrey Kirshner, son of Marla & Mark Kirshner of Chicago. Mazal Tov also to grandparents Anita & Hal Beretz and Annette & Irving Forman.
Sponsorships: May 18, 2013
May 13, 2013
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