[Avodah] yom she-kulo torah

[Eli Turkel]

We held our semi-annual yom she-kulo torah in Raanana with many of the top
rabbis from around Israel. As it lasted close to 12 hours I will mention
only a very selected few thoughts. As usual all mis-quotes are my error.

R. Avraham Yosef talked about the need to accept all people in a friendly
manner. We don't insist that everyone think like we do for them to be
acceptable. He described how his parents (ROY)
who hug and cry together every year before YK.  He told a story of some
girl in the family that went to university in Haifa and met an Arab
policeman and fell in love and decided to get married. The father came to
ROY to ask if he should sit shiva for his daughter. ROY told that on the
contrary he should shower this family with more love than the other
children and everything will work out. The end was that the arab converted
(!) and today their children are top talmidim in yeshiva.
RAY said he learned from his children that if you get angry at them they
end up doing the opposite of what you want. Working with positive stimulus
works much better.

R. Rimon talked about chumrot during aseret yemei hateshuva. He pointed out
that if someone tries a long term chumra it becomes a neder and hard to get
rid of. Instead we automatically assume that any chumra is meant only for
these 10 days. For one who is lenient with pat akum there is no problem
with refraining until after YK and making the meal after YK with pat akum.
During these 10 days we are closer to G-d and do actions to increase this
closeness. It is not  hypocrisy to do things in the king's palace that one
would not do at home.
BTW Rav Rimon just issued a machzor which is color coded - which prayers
are essential, which are ver important and which can only be said in a
minyan.

Rav Stav discussed the problem of RH in the days of the Temple. Most Jews
had no idea what day would be RH and which prayers (or sacrifices) to say.
Even in Jerusalem the witnesses could come late in the afternoon. Even
after the takanah to only accept witnesses in the morning it only partially
answered the problem. There is a machloket rishonim what they actually did.
Rashi says that they relied on the fact that in most years Elul had 29
days. Others disagreed. All this is intrinsic to RH and not just caused by
a later difficulty. Rav Stav answered (bringing sources) that in fact this
is the essence of RH that that life is not known in advance. We cant shop
knowing exactly when RH will fall out next year. Part of RH is renewal
which many times is spontaneous. One cant plan that one will do teshuva in
the future on a certain date.

Rav Neriah Gutal discussed the history of "Hashem Ori Ve-Yishi". Also
pointed out that the first half talks about a person's confidence while the
second half talks about Man's fears. Some claim that in fact this was
originally 2 separate chapters. In addition if it is indeed one chapter the
order should be reversed with first describing man's fears and then going
on to "victory" overcoming one's fears by reliance on G-d. He brought
literary paralleles between the 2 halves to demonstrate that it is indeed
one chapter. As to the order in fact the perek teaches us that there are up
and downs in a person's life and not just constant improvement.


R. Meidan stressed that zichronot means judgement and not remembering. He
brought many proofs from Tanakh. The essence of the bracha of Zichronot is
that we take responsibility for the world and stake an activist position.
Malchiot on the contrary stresses that G-d is in charge and we rely on him.
R. Meidan ventured that this is a key difference between charedim who
stress reliance on G-d and dati-leumi who stress the need for people to
take the initiative. In prayer the synthesis is found in shofarot that
combines the two approaches. He also claimed that this is the difference
between the first 2 chapter of Breshit. In the first perek G-d creates a
world and leaves it. He created trees and animals that can reproduce
without further intervention from above. Man rules over the world. In the
second chapter the emphasis is on G-d's involvement in the world and his
complete control.

------------------------------------
A question
1. Why is RH before YK?
(a) before declaring G-d king one should be cleaned from ones sins
(b) on YK G-ds make the major decisions of the future of each person and
only later on RH take care of the few exceptions

-- 
Eli Turkel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20120914/88dbc766/attachment.htm>