Words From Rabbi White

DER MOYLAD VET ZAYN

Dear friends,

When I first arrived to become the Rabbi at Chevra Shaas, I sensed (and it was confirmed by the executive of CS) that I should always include several lines of Yiddish in my derashot. As the years passed, hardly any Yiddish speakers remained. So, vestigially, the only Yiddish I used was the announcement of the molad.

“Molad,” which literally means birth, is the time when a sliver of the new moon will first be seen in Jerusalem. The time is calculated precisely, according to the day, the hour, the minute, and the amount of “halaqim.” [A “heleq” is 1/1,800th of an hour.]  And so, according to my trusty Ezras Torah luach, Rosh Hodesh of Kislev will be Sunday and Monday; but “der moylad vet zayn zuntog fartogs, nayn un fertsig minut mit fuftsen chalokim nokh fihr,” i.e., the molad will be Sunday morning, 9:40 and 15 halaqim (=about 27 seconds).  We read the special haftarah for the day before the new month.

Whenever I would announce “der moylad vet zayn” I would think of the beautiful song of that name as sung by my colleague ob”m Rabbi Cantor Seymour Rockoff z”l.  (The title song on his album “There’ll be a New Moon.”) The song expresses the hope that despite the difficulties we have experienced, we are confident that things will get better. How appropriate that sentiment is for this week, when we heard of the murder of Rabbi Kogan HY”D in UAR, besides all the threats and attacks from Iran and Hamas and Houthis and Hezbolah!  And while PM Trudeau was enjoying himself at the TS concert, Montreal was burning, and the manager of Second Cup at the Jewish General was giving the Nazi salute! And all those authors who boycotted the Giller awards, who couldn’t realize that it is not Israel, but the “Palestinians” who are attempting genocide!!

And so, we pray that this new month that contains Hanukkah should usher in peace and security, with the hostages returning home.

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Good news from Erets Yisrael: Mazal tov to the Foxmans on the birth of their sabra great grandson. (The oldest daughter of Simcha’s oldest daughter gave birth to his first great grandchild. Mazal tov)

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On Thursday, 4 Kislev, our Hazzanim Yaakov and Dr. Yehoshua observe yahrzeit for their father Leon Haimovici, Nahman Leib ben Avraham ve-Rachel.

On Friday, 5 Kislev, Michael Rubin observes for his mother Sarah. The neshamot should have aliya.

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I suppose that everyone who learns this parasha wonders why Yitschak wanted to bless the tough guy Esav, rather than mild mannered Yaakov. This question seems especially poignant, as the story of Yitschak’s calling Esav for a blessing comes immediately after the verses that described the great anguish that Esav had caused his parents by marrying 2 Hittite wives. [And the fact that one of his wives was named Yehudit didn’t placate his parents LOL!]

To put the question in sharper focus: The story of Yitschak calling Esav to bring him food and then to be blessed begins a new chapter: chapter 27. HOWEVER, division into chapters is not really a Jewish innovation. To the contrary, in our tradition, Yitchak’s calling of Esav comes immediately after our being informed of the anguish that Isaac and Rivkah felt due to Esav’s marriages, with both stories included in the fifth aliya (chamishi.) So, there must be a connection!

Perhaps the answer is that Yitschak wanted to teach Esav the mitzvah of honouring a parent, or perhaps just the importance of doing something nice for someone else. Perhaps Yitschak was saying to himself, “my son Esav didn’t care about me and Rivkah when he married those two Hittite girls, at least let him perform the universal mitsvah of honouring a parent by bringing me dinner!” Perhaps Yitschak was feeling bad that in all his years, he had not succeeded in teaching that lesson to Esav, so he wanted to give it one last try. And this explains that when Yitschak will realize later on that he had been duped by Yaakov, he didn’t become angry and curse Yaakov, but said rather to Esav “he (Yaakov) is also to be blessed.”

Shabbat shalom. Have a good, healthy month of Kislev. May we all, descendants of Yaakov, be blessed. Rabbi Menahem White