Rabbi's Blog

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Dear Shaare Family,

Thank you to all of you for coming to hear Yossi Landau speak on behalf of Zaka, sharing his experiences on October 7 and beyond with our community. Yossie spoke for close to 40 minutes but I’m certain that he could have spoken for longer and no one would have noticed, as he held us in rapt attention with his emotional account of the sacred work he and his organization did and does. It was infuriating to read an article published last week alleging that Zaka staged photo opportunities and used its experiences as fundraising tools (I will not link the article, of course). Certainly, Zaka deserves any of the support it can get and of which it is in serious need, and if their experiences motivate people to provide it, there is nothing wrong with that. Besides, the kind of presentation that we heard from a clearly righteous- and obviously deeply traumatized- person like Yossi cannot be fabricated. A special thanks to Rabbi Yerachmiel Fried for being the shadchan between ourselves and Zaka. Mazal Tov and thank you to Shuey Mann whose Bar Mitzvah was celebrated last week at Ohr HaTorah, which is why Yossi spoke on Shabbos morning at Shaare.

A special shout-out to Eli Raphael, and Lili and Simon Raphael, on the occasion of completing Masechet Tamid. He is pictured here, conducting the Siyum on the site of the former Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, from where the Daf Yomi program originated. 

Finally, a thank you to  Randy Pulitzer for a most unusual and fragrant gift. On Sukkot, I delivered a shiur titled “An Etrog Named Buddha and a Rabbi Named Abdullah,” about the debate surrounding the permissibility of the use of the Buddha’s Finger Citron as an etrog for Sukkot. The question originated from the Jewish community in Hong Kong (who were primarily of Iraqi descent) where this fruit was readily available, and was asked of Rabbi Abullah Somekh, the Rosh Yeshiva in Baghdad. Rabbi Elli Fischer  termed it “Kreken fruit” and addressed the controversy in this episode of his podcast, “Down The Rabbi Hole.” On Friday night, greeting me on my seat was an actual Buddha’s Hand citron, purchased at Central Market for me by  Randy! It   took my back to Sukkot (the part before October 7th, certainly) and smelled terrific! 

Rabbi’s Recommendations

1. Two former Shaare scholars in residence published books in the same week, on the same subject, with slightly different approaches. Dr. Elana Stein Hain of the Shalom Hartman Institute published a book called Circumventing The Law , about legal loopholes in Jewish Law. This book grew from her doctoral thesis, a subject about which she lectures widely, including in our community. My teacher Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman, a Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University and Rabbi of Congregation Ohr Saadya of Teaneck, published a book titled Letter And Spirit: Evasion, Avoidance and Workarounds in the Halachic System This week, the two of them will be speaking at a special panel event at Lincoln Square Synagogue about the commonalities and differences in their approaches to this material. I recommend reading either or both of these works!

2. From this week’s Nach Yomi- Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho, sung by the legendary Mahalia Jackson. 

Last Week’s MSOTW

Kudos to Perrin White and Shelley Weiss who correctly identified this shul as Shomrei Shabbos in Boro Park, Brooklyn- a shul that never sleeps. The shul is so active that it employs two salaried gabbaim to serve the needs of the many hundreds of people who daven there daily. See here and here for articles about their legendary daytime Gabbai, Moshe Metzger, and recently retired nighttime gabbai, Hillel Moses. 

This Week’s MSOTW

This week’s beautiful MSOTW is a major shul in an extremely strong community. The picture was submitted by a Shaare member and taken on a recent trip. I love when people share these photos with me! Name the shul, the community and, for extra points, the Shaare member who submitted it (it is a good test of how well you know your fellow members!)

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky