Why The Sages Wept
Your Timeline for Monday, July 27th - 13 Av, 5786
Good morning and happy Monday!
Things are feeling up. The skies are clear, the smoke of the Canadian wildfires that clogged the skies of New York and most of the Northeast the other week having finally dissipated. There are still another few weeks of summer.
Spiritually it is feeling brighter as well. We’ve left the sadness of Tisha B’Av, the day of Jewish mourning commemorated last week, behind us, and now build towards the rejoicing of the 15th of Av (also known as Tu B’Av) .
One of the enduring lessons of Tisha B’Av, however, is the corrosive power of baseless hatred and the need to view every Jew positively. It’s something that we need to strive to take to heart the whole year.
Today’s Rambam continues this theme.
The Daily Thought:
“Since in the Second Temple era, the Sages suspected that the High Priests would tend towards such heresy, they would have him take an oath on the day preceding Yom Kippur… The High Priest would turn away and cry because they suspected him of heresy and they would turn away and cry, because they placed suspicion on a person whose conduct was unknown…”
— Rambam, Avodat Yom haKippurim, 1:7.
During the Second Temple era, the status of the High Priest, the spiritual head of the Jewish people, had lost its once-mighty stature. By the end of the Second Temple period, the position was auctioned off, often to boors and heretics rather than the righteous and worthy.
So dire was the situation that on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, as the High Priest prepared to enter the Holy of Holies and take part in one of the holiest rituals in Judaism, the Sages had to ensure that he was not, frankly, a fake. And so, as the Rambam tells us, the Sages made the High Priest swear that he would faithfully carry out his responsibilities, leaving both parties in tears.
That the High Priest aroused suspicion was clear—otherwise, they would not have made him swear. Yet, so great was their love for a fellow Jew, that despite the gravity of their mission and the power and vital importance of the precise execution of the mitzvahs of the day, the Sages wept for having thought poorly of another.
If this was true of the Sages whose suspicion was well-founded, then how much more so for us! How often do we judge others harshly without a second thought? Now is the time to rededicate ourselves to viewing others with love and respect.
Today’s Timeline is based, in part, on Torat Menachem 5745, Vol. 1, pp. 447-449.
Asides:
Just like the Sages cared for another, despite their lofty mission, the same applies to us as well. A powerful Chassidic story: The Cry of a Child.
It may still feel like the middle of the summer, but Yom Kippur is less than two months away, and Rosh Hashanah is even sooner! Find High Holiday Services at a Chabad center near you!
The Talmud tells us that the unworthy High Priests would die after they entered the Holy of Holies. If these men knew they would not survive the year, why did they so desperately crave the position?
One Big Read:
Billboard Campaign Answers Antisemitism With Jewish Joy
Powerful new billboards in New York continue a 40-year-old advertising tradition. The cure to fight anti-Jewish hate is to outshine it with Jewish pride. This summer, if you drive over the Third Avenue Bridge or catch the ferry from Staten Island, as hundreds of thousands of people do every day, you’ll pass something you might not have expected: A giant billboard featuring two children wearing tzitzit, laughing, with the words “Born to Be a Yid” emblazoned below. Another ad depicts a Jewish couple at their chuppah. Not fear-based messaging, or negativity, just a picture of Jewish joy.
The billboards are part of a new ad campaign now running across New York. After years of increased security and combative rhetoric, what Jews actually need is reinforcement to feel proud of who they are. As the late chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ formulated it, “Non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism.”
The threads of this campaign trace back decades, to the Rebbe’s own advertising campaigns in the 1980s and ‘90s: Billboards broadcasting “Don’t Pass Over Passover” to promote Seder participation and “Claim Your Inheritance” to alert passers-by of Shavuot, when the Jewish people received the Torah at Sinai, attracted countless Jews. The impact of these ads, as well as this new campaign, continue to inspire.
Read about it here.
Today’s Features:
Fire Guts Synagogue and Visitors Center Near Gravesite of Alter Rebbe, Founder of Chabad. A fire tore through the main visitors center and synagogue near the gravesite of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad-Lubavitch, in Haditch, Ukraine, reducing one of Eastern Europe's most visited Jewish sites to a burned-out shell just weeks before thousands were expected for the 281st anniversary of the Alter Rebbe's birth.
Heels Over Head: All mitzvahs can be distributed over a wide spectrum between two poles: There are mitzvahs that we judge to be of practical utility. And then there are mitzvahs whose reasoning is entirely beyond us, even contradictory to our understanding.
Is Everyone Really Marriage Material? They say there’s someone for everyone. But is that true? The upcoming celebration of the 15th of Av has something to say about it.
14 Simple and Surprising Things Jews Do With Fire. Fire enhances life in a great many ways, while simultaneously being one of the most dangerous substances on earth. Jews use fire in an assortment of ways throughout the year, from lighting candles to burning to cooking and more.
Will There One Day be a Chess Chabad House? The Opening of Hope
Cook It Kosher:
Arayes, Middle-Eastern Meat-Stuffed Pita Pockets
We can eat meat again! During the “Nine Days”—the time of mourning for the destruction of our two Holy Temples that culminated on Tisha B’Av— we abstain from eating meat or chicken aside from on Shabbat. The delicious Arayes, Middle-Eastern Meat-Stuffed Pita Pockets, are a delicious way to enjoy a flavorful meaty meal!
Today In Judaism:
Passing of R. Nassan Nata Schapiro in 1633
R. Nassan Nata Schapiro was a saintly scholar who was proficient in both Talmud and Kabbalah. He served as rabbi of Cracow, and authored Megaleh Amukos, a Kabbalistic Torah commentary.
📖 Today’s Complete Daily Study:
Psalms: Chapters 69-71
Rambam: 3 Chapters, 1 Chapter, Sefer Hamitzvot
Hayom Yom: 13 Av
Do you have questions or comments? Please leave a comment or reply to this email—I’d love to hear from you!