ROSH CHODESH IYAR: We and the moon

Today is the 30th day of Nisan, 5771 ROSH CHODESH IYAR 15 days of Omer (2 weeks, 1 day)

The Jewish year and the Jewish day follow the sun. But the Jewish month follows the moon's cycle of 29 days and a half. This is why sometimes we have one day of Rosh Chodesh and sometimes two. Our rabbis mentioned a long time ago that there is a remarkable resemblance between the cycle of the moon and the cycle of renewal, furthermore, the cycle of renewal of the Jewish people.

"Whereas the sun is the symbol of unchanging nature, rising in the east, setting in the west, day in and day out every day of the year, the moon changes and it seems to be telling us something: You can be small and you can diminish until you almost disappear, but then, when things look their darkest, hope springs eternal. You can start looking up again. You can change a situation and yourself for the better, no matter how bad it seems. Nothing is static or set in stone. Human beings have free will and therein is their power of renewal -- an ever-present struggle against the steady, cyclical, repetitive and predictable march of time and nature.

The solar system determines the year, in Hebrew "shana," which comes from the same root as "to repeat, to go over," whereas the moon sets the months, "Chodesh" from the Hebrew root "chadash," -- new, change, different.

The Jewish people are compared to the moon. Though they are small, and suffering has been an integral part of their history among the nations, the Jew knows never to give up. As an individual and as a nation, he will rise up again and light up the night".

Adapted from "Rosh Chodesh", an article by Dina Coopersmith
To see the whole article click here: http://www.aish.com/jl/hol/o/48972041.html



Mazal Tov to Jacob Bitton and Rivka Souleimani!

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC | 130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024

SEFIRAT HAOMER: More on the Mitzva of Counting the Omer

Today is the 29th day of Nisan, 5771, 14 days of Omer (2 weeks)

The days of the Omer need to be counted at night. As you already probably know, for us the new day starts at night. Like Shabbat which starts Friday night.

At what precise time the new day starts is a controversial complicated technical Halakhic matter. But very briefly: there are two possible astronomic indicators for the new day:
1. Sunset. 2. The appearance of stars in the dark sky. All Rabbis agree that before sunset it is still considered day # 1 and after the stars are visible it is considered day #2. The time in between sunset and the stars (twilight zone or ben hashemashot) fluctuates between 15 min (13 ½ to be precise!) to 30 minutes or more depending on many variables (geographic location, year's season, etc.). Regarding Shabbat, for example, we take the stringiest stand: we receive Shabbat before sunset and we end Shabbat the next day, after the stars are visible.

Regarding the counting of the Omer, according to Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Hayim the starting time to count the Omer will be 13 ½ minutes after sunset. For a Minyan one could be more lenient but never before sunset.

Children, although formally exempt from the Mitzvah of counting the days of the Omer until Bar or Bat Mitzva, should be encouraged to count every night including the recitation of the berakha, because the rules of berakha lebatala (saying a formal blessing unnecessarily) does not apply for children.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC | 130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024

YOM HASHOAH: Of witnesses and memory

Today is the 28th day of Nisan, 5771, 13 days of Omer (1 week, 6 days)

My parents were not born in Europe. Neither were my grandparents. In our family, from my mother side (Syria) and from my father side (Morocco) no one was sent to a concentration camp. I was born in the peaceful Argentina.

Every year in Yom haShoah, in the Jewish school I attended in Buenos Aires (Bet-Sefer Talpiot) we watched with my classmates the horrific documentaries which showed the trains of death, the corpses, the crematoriums, the gas chambers... and I cried, we all cried, for our brothers and sisters, elders and infants, brutally murdered by the Nazis, yemach shemam.....

In 1977, when I was in High School, we had a different kind a Yom haShoah. Our principal invited a Holocaust survivor to speak to us, which at that time was not the standard way of commemorating Yom haShoa.

After telling us his personal shocking story, and how he survived Auschwitz, he told us:
"I know that you have not seen the Shoah for yourselves. I know that for you the Shoah is History. Well documented history. Modern Jewish history.But just history at the end of the day. But now, that you have heard my story, and you have seen me, now you bear on your young shoulders a tremendous new responsibility. Now you have become witnesses of the Shoah. How so? Because MY EYES saw the horrors of the Shoah, not in the aseptic black and white documentaries, where you don't see the red of blood. MY EYES saw it all, in the most intense and hideous colors. I want you now to look at MY EYES, so one day you will be able to tell your children: I haven't seen the Shoah myself, but I have seen THE EYES that saw the Shoah. I'm
a witness, my son".

This is when the Shoah ceased to be part of my History as a Jew. This is when the Shoah became part of my Memory. My personal memory as a witness.

Yom haShoah in Jerusalem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgFaxP0Xx7U

Rabbi Yosef Bitton. YMJC | 130 Steamboat Rd. | Great Neck | NY | 11024