Words From Rabbi White

Dear Chevra Shaas/Spanish

I trust that the Yamim Nora’im of RH and YK were meaningful and inspirational.

A SIMPLE YET PROFOUND OBSERVATION

We all know that on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and in the days in between, in the first and last two benedictions of the Amidah, we insert a special request for life.


( First two: zokhreinu le-hayyim and “zokher yetsurav le-hayyim.” Last two: ‘uketov lehayyim tovim” and “le-hayyim tovim uleshalom”)

There is an interesting observation that appears in a sefer by Rav Yisrael Meir Druck, a well-known rabbi and popular author in Israel: in the first 2 blessings, we do request life, but in the last 2, we request “hayyim tovim,” meaning a “good life. ” The change from “life” to “good life” might seem like an obvious observation, but I admit that I had never paid attention to that before. The explanation must be: first off, we pray for life. But as we continue standing before HaShem, we summon the courage to request that our lives be good lives: free from illness and from monetary stress.

There is also another difference that I have noticed: the request in the first berachot is rather general; in the later blessings, we call. up the courage to be more specific: to ask for ourselves, our families, and for all of Israel.

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The word “ha’azinu,” the first word of the parasha, means “listen,” and comes from the word “‘ozen,” which means an ear. Perhaps Shakespeare borrowed this literary device from here, when he has Marc Antony saying “friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

And here is a lovely observation, told to me by a friend many years ago, when I was a student at Yeshiva College. I doubt if it is scientifically correct, but it’s a lovely “vort”:

As we know, authors of piyyutim, Hebrew liturgical poems, often would hide their names in the poem. For example, in “lekha dodi,” the first 4 stanzas begin with the letters shin,lamed,mem,and he, spelling out in Hebrew the name Shlomo, as the author was Rav Shlomo Alkabets (16th century Tsefat.)

So…. the first 4 verses of parashat ha'azinu begin with the letters he,yod,kaf,he.  The numerical values of these letters are 5,10,20,5 respectively. Those numbers add up to 40. Now, the number 40 is the value of the letter mem. The next verse begins with a shin. The next verse begins with an extra-large letter “he”. Why extra-large? Perhaps to show us that we have, in order, the letters mem,shin,he, that spell Moshe. So, we see Moshe’s name as the writer of the Torah. QED! (Quod Erat Demonstratum)

By the way, the word “ha’azinu” is what is known as a denominative verb, that is, a verb that comes from a noun. Examples in English are verbs such as “to hammer” and to “chair” a meeting. In conemporary English, we say things such as “please text me,” or “was it you who emailed me?”

Have a wonderful Sukkot. Shabbat shalom, Chag sameah, shalom `al Yisrael.

Rabbi Menahem White, Chevra Shaas