B'Simana Tava: Creation and the Power of Prayer

In the Sephardic tradition, this first Shabbat after Simhat Torah - Shabbat Bereshit - is an especially celebratory Shabbat. Many special piyutim (religious poems) in praise of the Torah are recited, and the Torah scrolls are adorned with white. On this Shabbat, we celebrate the new beginning of the annual cycle of weekly Torah readings. It is customary for the Torah reader to precede the reading of the Torah's first verse by saying B'Simana Tava (the Aramaic version of "B'Siman Tov) - which means "May it be for a good sign" -- a good beginning.

In that same spirit, as I begin this new cycle of Sephardic Torah Weekly, I also say B'Simana Tava, and I pray that God shall give me the strength to write commentaries on every single parasha in the Torah in this coming year.

Speaking of prayer, I would like to devote my comments to Parashat Bereshit by exploring the special relationship in our tradition between God creating the world and our daily prayers. 

Every morning in our prayers, we are reminded about God having created the world, and we affirm that on a daily basis, God creates the world anew:

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who forms light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates all. In compassion, God gives light to the earth and its inhabitants, and in goodness, God continually renews the work of creation, day after day.

This daily affirmation in our prayers of God as the Creator of the world lays the foundation for a deep relationship between God's act of creation and our offering of prayers. We who are praying begin the morning service with an acknowledgement that we are here by the grace of God. But at the same time, our prayers - especially the Amidah (which is considered the prayer par excellence) - help sustain the world that God created.

From where do we learn that our prayers help sustain God's work of creation?

In the Sephardic Yom Kippur Mahzor, the section of the Seder Avodah service (the service that recounts the Yom Kippur sacrificial rituals in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem) begins with a beautiful poem composed by the paytan Yose ben Yose, a 5th Century poet whose religious poems were adopted by Sephardic communities for their prayerbooks.

Yose ben Yose's poem - Atah Konanta -  mysteriously opens the Seder Avodah sacrificial services with a description of God creating the world:

Atah Konanta Olam Me'Rosh  

You, God, established the world from the beginning, and You laid the foundation of the earth.

Why would a description of the Yom Kippur sacrifices begin with a poem describing the creation of the world? Is there a connection between the sacrifices (the ancient form of prayer) and creation?

Atah Konanta continues with a poetic description of the highlights of the Book of Genesis, including the creation of light, the creation of human beings in God's image, the Tree of Life episode and humanity's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Noah and the flood, and the Tower of Babel. 

This is followed by the election of Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob and the "twelve tribes" that came from him. Only one of the tribes is mentioned by name, and specific attention is placed on that tribe - Levi. The journey from the creation of the world ultimately leads to the Tribe of Levi, from whom came the first Kohen - Aaron, along with his descendants - who were charged with the responsibility of offering daily sacrifices in the Temple, and of performing the unique Yom Kippur Seder Avodah.

The idea behind Yose ben Yose's poem dates back to our belief that the altar upon which the sacrifices were offered in the Temple was built above the "foundation stone" from which God created the world. The source of all creation, according to the Talmud, started on Mount Moriah (aka The Temple Mount). It was from this spot that God created the world, it was from this mountain that God took "dust from the earth" and shaped it into a human being, it was here that Abraham went to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice on an altar, and it was ultimately here where we would offer sacrifices every day, sacrifices that we believed helped sustain the world that God created -- all from this sacred spot.

The daily sacrifices in the Temple and the Seder Avodah on Yom Kippur were all meant as "prayers" for the continuity of the world and the sustenance of humanity. From the very spot where God created the world, the High Priest stood and offered sacrifices, accompanied by prayers on behalf of all of humanity's continued existence and wellbeing.

When the Temple was destroyed, our tradition replaced sacrifices with "Worship from the Heart" - prayers - but we continued the tradition to pray for the sustenance of all of humanity.

Indeed, in our prayer service, just a few minutes after we are reminded of God's daily renewal of creation, we then recite the silent Amidah - our most powerful prayer - which includes prayers for healing and health, rain or dew (depending on the season), justice and our conluding prayer for peace (Sim Shalom). These prayers are not limited to the Jewish people, but are recited on behalf of all of humanity.

My great Sephardic mentor Rabbi Abraham Shalem, of blessed memory, once taught me that the reason why Maimonides demands of us to have full Kavana (spiritual concentration) on every word of prayer, is because every one of our words has the power to help sustain the universe. 

"Look at how God created the world - with words," Rabbi Shalem said to me. "In turn, our words, especially our words of prayer, have the potential of maintaining kiyum ha'olam - the existence of the world."

Every morning upon waking up, take a few moments to recite prayers - those in the prayerbook, or those from your heart. Doing so is our spiritual way to help sustain the world that God created for us. 

From the foundation stone through the Temple sacrifices and throughout our long history, we continue to believe in the power of prayer, not only as a remedy for our own personal problems, but also for the larger purpose of keeping God's creation alive.

Barukh Atah Hashem, Shomea Tefillah - Blessed are You, God, who listens to prayer.

Shabbat Shalom

A Moroccan Rabbi, Shabbat Zakhor & The Holocaust: Rabbi Moshe Malka

Zakhor. It means "remember." In the Jewish tradition, memory and remembrance are sacred obligations. It is a "mitzvah" - a commandment - to remember our past. This week's Shabbat bears the special name "Shabbat Zakhor" - the "Sabbath of Remembrance." Along with bearing that name, it also bears the weight of our collective responsibility to remember. What are we "remembering" on Shabbat Zakhor?

On this Shabbat, in addition to the weekly Torah portion, we read three verses from a second Torah scroll. These three verses - Deuteronomy 25:17-19 - begin with the word Zakhor - Remember:

"Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt."

Just as the Jewish people left Egypt, the Amalekites caught us off guard, attacked us and sought to destroy us. Subsequently, the Amalekites became an arch enemy of the Jewish people, their most famous descendant being Haman, the evil perpetrator who sought the first total genocide against the Jewish nation. As an annual prelude to reading the story of Purim in the Book of Esther, we dedicate this special Shabbat of remembrance to contemplating the persistence of Amalek over the generations - from Haman to the Holocaust, from ancient anti-Semitism to the current resurgence of anti-Semitism all over the world.

Rabbi Moshe Malka was born in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco in 1911. In 1929, at the young age of 18, he moved to Rabat, Morocco, where he began his path as a brilliant Hakham. He was a teacher in the Talmud Torah, and eventually became a famous Dayan (rabbinical judge), posek (halakhic decisor) and darshan (public speaker in matters of Torah). He taught in the Rabbinical Beit Midrash (Rabbinical School) in Rabat and was a member of the Bet Din (Rabbinical Court) in Casablanca.

In the wake of the Six Day War in 1967, Rabbi Malka made Aliyah to the State of Israel. He was a deep lover of Israel, believed in modern-day Zionsim, and supported the halakhic position of reciting Hallel (the Psalms of Praise) on Yom Ha'atsmaut (Israel's Independence Day). After living for a while in Jerusalem, Rabbi Malka moved to Petah Tikvah, where he eventually became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of the city.

Rabbi Malka died on Shabbat Zakhor, March 22, 1997. There is a deep significance to Rabbi Malka's date of passing, for in his teachings throughout his life, he believed very strongly in the mitzvah of "Zakhor" - to remember our past, especially as it relates to when we were persecuted.

Rabbi Malka had no direct family who experienced, died in or survived the Holocaust. But in the spirit of the collective mitzvah of "Zakhor" for all Jews, here is what he said about the Holocaust (this is my direct translation of his words from his book "Pnei Moshe:)":

"There is no precedent in our history for a tragedy like the Holocaust that took place in Europe in our days. No precedent in scope, in size or in magnitude. Its destructive strength wiped entire communities of people, destroyed cities and institutions, glorious communities completely disappeared - men, women, children, all burnt, buried alive, sheer and complete destruction like we have never seen or known.

What's worse is that this awful and tragic episode in our history is disappearing from the world's memory. The plague of forgetting is attacking the younger generations around the world, and life seems to just be resuming 'as if nothing was.' We have reduced the memory of six million Jewish brothers and sisters to one memorial prayer once a year on Yom Hashoah. That's enough to remember this tragedy, and to learn its lessons of history?

True, there have been pogroms in the past, and 'in every generation there are those who seek to destroy us,' but nothing ever like the Holocaust.  Nothing as systematic and thought out - laws against us, ghettos, concentration camps, killing fields, and the systematic murder of our people in such large numbers.

It is prohibited for any and every Jew to ever forget what the Nazis - this generation's descendants of Amalek - did to our people. We must never forget, and it must be part of our awareness and consciousness - not only on Yom Hashoah or Shabbat Zakhor - but everyday. Otherwise, we risk handing over the memory of our past into the hands of those in the world who seek to erase our past and our memory of it by denying the Holocaust. It is our sacred duty to remember and never forget the Holocaust."

Rabbi Malka's stirring words serve as one of the best and most potent commentaries to the three verses about "remembering Amalek" that we read this Shabbat Zakhor. His words also remind us that the Holocaust is neither "Ashkenazi" or "Sephardi," rather a collective tragedy that affects all Jews. No matter where we are from in the world, we all share the collective responsibility to remember. On Shabbat Zakhor, the Torah commands us to put aside ethnic differences and remember that we are one people, and that anti-Semitism - including during the Holocaust - does not distinguish between "Sephardi and Ashkenazi." On Shabbat Zakhor, we are all survivors who fulfill the collective mitzvah to remember.

How appropriate that we observe the anio/yahrzeit of Hakham Rabbi Moshe Malka z"l on Shabbat Zakhor. On the Shabbat of Remembrance, the memory of his passing helps us to remember him and his powerful, timeless and unifying message to "remember."

Zakhor - remember.

Shabbat Shalom