With The Commentary of the RABAM
(Behar = On the mountain.)
In this week's parsha we learn of various laws regarding Shmita and Yovel, the Sabbatical and Jubillee years. At the root is the issue of property ownership. All property ownership is temporary -- land in Eretz HaKoidesh may only be sold temporarily; it can never be truly owned. As well, slaves are never truly owned -- they go free at Yovel. You cannot charge interest when lending money. Etc.
Shmita = a sabbatical year, during which agricultural activity is in abeyance: Vayikra 25:3 “Shesh shanim tizra sadecha ve shesh shanim tizmor karmecha ve asafta et tevuata” (Six years you shall sow your field and six years you shall trim your vineyard, and gather their yields), 25:4 “Uvashana ha sheviyit shabat shabaton yihye la arets, shabat la Adonai sad'cha lo tizra ve karmecha lo tizmor.” (But in the seventh year it is a sabbath of sabbaths, the land shall rest for the Lord, you shall not sow nor trim your vineyard).
Forgiving debts and freeing slaves = a disaster for the Bourgeoisie, reducing many to the level of trailerpark, while raising others to that very level. Next they'll demand that we open our shuls and our country clubs.
Yovel = The Jubilee year, being every fiftieth year. The start of the Junilee is signaled by a long trumpet blast: Vayikra 25:9 “Ve ha'avarta shofar terua, ba chodesh ha sheviyi, beasor la chodesh, be yom ha kipurim ta'aviru shofar be chol a'aretz'chem” (And proclaim with a blast of the shofar on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the day of atonement, trumpet it in all your land), 25:10 “Ve kidashtem et shenat hachamishim shana u-keratem deror ba arets le cholyoshveiha yovel hivtiye lachem ve shavtem ish el-achutzato ve ish el-mishpachto tashuvu” (that you sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants - it is jubilee to you - and (then) return his possessions to each man, and each man to his family).
Observing sabbatical years and the jubilee years are mitvos d’oraisa (commandments stated in the Torah). Additionally, there is a concern with justice and restoring balance. The Torah makes allowance for man’s failures to his fellow man, but insists on eventual rectification, in a process which is ongoing, but new in each generation.
Eretz HaKoidesh = The Holy Land.
RASHI asks: Is this really Toras Moishe? What's pshat you can't charge interest? Next thing you know, we won't be able to use fresh gentile baby's blood in our matzoh!
Rashi = Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (1040 – 1105), a wine seller in Troyes with a keen mind, who wrote commentary on Tanach and Talmud. Several other mediaeval scholars were either related to him or were his students. His work is the fundament on which much later commentary is based.
Toiras Moishe = the Law of Moses. Pshat = the simple straightforward meaning.
“Can’t charge interest” = It is written (Devarim 23:20) “Lo tashich le achicha, neshech kesef, neshech ochel, neshech kol davar asher yishach!” (Don’t lend with interest to your brother; a biting of money, a biting of food, a biting of anything that is lent with interest.). Exactly this possook is the first verse cited in Bava Metzia (The Middle Gate) chapter five, in the discussion of usury. And note that usury is defined as receiving more (nesech - a biting) in return than was lent, not only in money or foods, but also in goods, favourable trading or rental conditions, or consideration, or favourable treatment of any kind, including a favourable price in advance of the crop or goods actually being available (which also means that one cannot lend on the basis of future harvest, nor can a price be set on something that does not yet exist).
The main reason usury is forbidden is that it exploits the misfortune of the poor, and further impoverishes them (being considered worse than robbery and violence), whereas it is both d’oraisa and d’rabbanan to alleviate their condition, if possible, though at least to refrain from oppressing them.
Rabbi Samuel Ben Nachmani, in the name of Rabbi Jonathan, cites Mishlei (Proverbs) 22:22 and 23 “al-tigzal dal ki dalhu ve al-tedake ani ba sha'ar” (Rob not the weak because he is weak, nor crush the poor in the gate), “Ki Adonai yariv rivam ve kava et koveihem nefesh” (For the LORD will plead their cause, and destroy the lives of those who ruin them). Talmud.
Concern for the poor is mentioned in Torah in several places, quotably so in Vayikra (Leviticus) 25:35 “Vechi-yamuch achicha umata yado imach ve hechezakta bo ger ve toshav vachai imach” (If your brother has become poor you shall assist him and aid him - as a stranger AND as a settler shall he live with you) and Devarim (Deuteronomy) 15:11 “Ki lo yechdal evyon mikerev ha arets al-ken anochi metzavcha l'mor patoach tiftach et yadcha le achicha la ani yecha u le evyoncha be artzecha” (For the poor shall never cease from the land, therefore I command you, saying 'you shall surely open your hand to your poor and your needy in your land’). So why not give that shnorrer some Tzedakah? A dollar will kill you?
In Tehilim (Psalms) 12 we are warned that there are consequences for oppressing the poor: “Mi-shod aniyim me ankat evyonim ata akum yomar Adonai ashit be yesha yafiach lo” (‘Because of the oppression of the poor, because the sighing of the needy, now I will rise’, said the Lord). This again from Rabbi Samuel Ben Nachman in the Talmud. It really is a wonderful document, you should buy a copy.
Fresh gentile baby’s blood = A term rife with Christian anti-Semitic imagery from the dark ages, xenophobia, and paranoia, combining both the suggestion of pollution by blood and a rejection of kosher for Peysach. The concept is clearly a blood brother of the transubstantiation claimed for bread and wine in Christian ritual. Several different elements are conflated into one horrific sequence: the blood of ancient human sacrifice, the paschal lamb and its blood on the lintel, the plague of the first-born, the bread of affliction, the last supper of the Notzri (wonderful painting by Da Vinci, you really should see it sometime), and sheer heaps of gentile avodah zara (idolatry, witchcraft, superstition) from mediaeval Europe. Conceptually it is the absolute antithesis of kashrus and tohoros, and therefore a contradictory concept. French. Russian. Greek.
Why is the blood mentioned in the same passage as usury? Because usury is likened to the taking of blood and several other abominations, as it is written “Ba neshech natan ve tarbit lakach va chai? Lo yich’ye et kol hatoevot haele asa mot-yumat damav bo yihye” (Ezekiel 18:13 (He) that has lent with for interest (‘tarbit’, derived from ‘ribit’) and has taken that increase, shall he live? He shall not live! He has done all these nasty things; he will die and his blood will be upon him!).
This is in contrast with ‘he that has not eaten the sacramental meals of the pagans, has not committed adultery, has not yadda yadda blood blood yadda yadda, has not taken a biting (lent for interest), and so forth – he is just, and he shall indeed live!’ (Ezekiel 18:5 through 18:9. Ezekiel, in mittn drinnen, was a monumental noodzh).
[In the jaundiced eye of the unread, who tend to conflate several images and ideas (you WERE paying attention to the presidential campaigns last year, weren’t you?), much gets illogically lumped together, and mixed up in retelling.]
Why does Rashi the wine merchant ask whether this is really Toiras Moishe? To indicate, rhetorically and by gross exaggeration, the hardship of living a good Jewish life while surrounded by unlettered goyim, many of whom are (were) alcoholic besides. Liquor is one of the few things that at all times has been sold on credit; in pre-literate times it was traditional for the buyer to subsequently claim that the record of the transaction was false or inflated. That has hardly changed since then. Liratecy is a blixed messing.)
Regarding fresh gentile etcetera, you should see what Rashi thought Girl Scout cookies were made from. Later chachmei-torah often accused Rashi of a near-goyische literalism. Deservedly. And what does a Frenchman know from food?)
According to the RAMBAN, all these laws prove that the Reboinoishelolum is really a Communist. To illustrate his point, he interprets Yetzias Mitzrayim as the first instance in the history of the world where the proletariat masses overthrow the bourgeois minority ruling class in legitimate political struggle of class vs. class.
Ramban = Rabbi Moishe Ben Nachman, aka Nachmanides (1194 – 1270), a famous Spanish Rabbi and exegete who was heavily involved in the Maimonidean controversies of his time, hence his absurd accusation that the Rebboinosheloilum (He Who Is Master Of The World) was a communist – everyone KNOWS that the Aybishteh is an anarcho-syndicalist!
The RAMBAM is not the author of Animal Farm.
Yetzias Mitzrayim = Liberation (redemption) from Egypt – dos pshat iz, mir sein nicht mehr oyf Egypten, mir hobn di koyp farfloogn. Man ken kler azoy: goot-bai Egypt, hallo human dignity, fress a bisl matza.
But the Bais Yoiseph scoffs at the suggestion. He says that, farkhert, the Aimishteh's business model requires that property keeps on reverting to its original owner in order to encourage turnover of real estate and a constant cash flow stream from brokers fees. And He discourages interest simply because He favors equity over debt instruments.
(Beis Yosef = The other famous work by Yoisef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch (1488 - 1575). Beis Yosef is a digest of laws (hilchois), often printed alongside the text of the Arba Turim (the Four Rows: a compilation in four sections of Halacha containing specifically those rules which are still applicable in golus, so named in reference to the four rows of precious stones on the high priests’ breastplate, by Rabbi Jacob Ben Asher (1270 - 1340).).
Rabbi Jacob Ben Asher = The Baal HaTurim (1270 – 1340), son of Asher Ben Jehiel (the Rosh, also known as Rabbeinu Asher, b.1250 or 1259 d.1328, a student of Rabbi Meir Ben Baruch of Rothenburg , b.1215 d.1293). His codification of Halacha (the Arba Turim) was long the standard, and his division of Halacha into four categories (see below) is still normative.
The four Halacha categories he set out were Orach Chayim (the Path of Life – worship and ritual), Yorah Dayah (Instruction of Knowledge – ritual prohibitions, purity and impurity), Ehven Ha Ezer (Rock Of The Helper – family law, including divorce), and Khoshen Mishpat (the Breastplate of Judgement – administration and adjudication).
Jacob Ben Asher, his father, and his brother Judah, left Germany in 1303 because of government persecution - Emperor Rudolf I of Habsburg (born 1218, excommunicated by Innocent IV in 1254, crowned emperor in 1273, died 1291, not a moment too soon) had decreed that all Jews in his domains were Servi Camerae (serfs of the treasury), which made them subject to exploitation and extortion.
Asher and his sons Jacob and Judah settled in Spain, and are considered intermediates between the Franco-German Tosafists (supplementarian commentators of Torah and Talmud, descendants of the above-mentioned Rashi) and the Sephardic Talmud-Torah scholars.
Note that Asher Ben Jehiel’s teacher, Meir of Rothenburg, also tried to escape from the greedy clutches of the Habsburgs, but was seized in Lombardy and imprisoned in Alsace, where he died in 1293. The authorities released his body, in return for an enormous ransom, fourteen (!) years after his death. Gentile authorities were nothing if not creative when it came to developing new sources of revenue.
Equity over debt instruments = rather than engaging in usury, we hold that money advanced be halachically considered an investment, which entitles the investor to a specified share of the profits, and imposes at least part of the risk upon him. This is what is referred to as heter iska (from Aramaic; ‘heter’, meaning allowance for, clause permitting, and ‘iska’ meaning enterprise), which converts a loan into a partnership (shutfus; assigning partners) or agented investment, which grants the one who lends the funds a part in the profits, and implies a stake in the enterprise as a silent partner (the ‘borrower’ is technically the employee or aqent of the ‘partnership’, and must be recompensed – usually this is done with a nominal sum).
Now note that such an arrangement can amount to a fully realized lien on at least part of the corporate assets, which Rabbeinu Asher (the Rosh) holds will guarantee payment of debt. The Talmud states that collateral in lieu of a lien under certain circumstances invalidates any claim to a share of proceeds, whereas the Rema (Rav Moishe Isserless) avers that the non-Jewish laws and financial practices of the country are in principle valid and legitimate, even if not expressly supported by Halacha; all of this strongly suggests that you consult a competent lawyer to fully protect your investment. Unless you’re a gentile.
The Beis Yosef is not the name of a reliable investment firm or broker, nor is a recommendation or endorsement of any brokerage firm or financial advisor either stated or implied. Shop around and compare (word of advice: do not give them your e-mail address unless you have spam-blocker).
Ironically, as the Toirah discusses Shmita, it uses the term "Shabbos Shabbosoin" -- a term used elsewhere in the Toirah only in reference to Yoim Kippur. According to the Zohar, in the realm of the Ayn Sof, the Kabbalistic term for the unknowable aspects of the Aimishteh, one year in the human realm culminating in Aseres Yemai Teshuvah equals the seven year cycle of the earth ending in Shmita.
Shabbos Shabbosoin = of Sabbaths the Sabbath; seven times the seventh; as Shavuos is (coincidentally) to Peysach.
Zohar = a Kabbalistic novel ascribed to Shimon Bar Yochai during the Talmudic era but likely authored by Moses DeLeon during the high middle ages.
I know I shouldn’t spread such lashon horo, but I hear that Mel Gibson is negotiating the movie rights; word is that Madonna is bucking to play the Shechina. Unique it certainly will be, I cannot wait oh boy.
Ayn Sof = the endless, that which has no end. The Kabbalistic term for the unknowable aspect of the Creator.
Aseres Yemai Teshuvah = The ten days of repentance and introspection that begin with Rosh HaShanah and end with Yom Kippur (the day of atonement and waving chickens – don’t ask). Algebraically 10YT. )
This was erroneously interpreted by the false messiah Shabtai Zvi as equating earth years and dog years, and the reason he insisted that his followers eat Alpo immediately following Kol Nidrei. However, the true accepted interpretation was offered by the MAHARAL, who suggested that just as we walk around starving on Yoim Kippur and pray for a good year, during Shmita we should walk around starving and pray for reasonable prices on imported produce.
Shabbatai Zvi = A Jewish mystic and kabbalist born in 1626 in Smyrna (modern day Izmir in Turkey), who, starting in 1648, persuaded himself and many among the desperate Jews of Europe that he was the long awaited Messiah. After several years of gaining adherents and propagating esoteric mystical ‘teachings’, he went to Istanbul in 1666 (that being the year he had proclaimed the end of time) and was promptly imprisoned by the Sultan, who was not overly fond of heretics. To save his skin, he converted to Islam and retired from preaching, dying peacefully in 1676. To those who had believed him, his apostasy was a shattering experience; to most of the Jews in European exile, it was a disaster. May his name only be remembered as a warning.
Some Sabbataian teachings survive among the Donmeh, a sect of crypto-Jewish Muslims in Turkey (mostly in Istanbul).
‘Earth years and dog years’ = If you're a flea, they can be compared; if you're Zvi, farkert.
Kol Nidrei = All Vows; a renunciation of all oaths and promises made by an individual for himself, and between himself and HaShem, not involving reciprocal obligations to other people (who are the only ones who can negate those vows), nor abrogating his contractual duties with others. It is also a rejection of forced oaths, promises, and obligations, entered into knowingly or accidentally. Customarily it is recited and sung several times (at least three times) on the eve of the Day of Atonement.
The main purpose of Kol Nidre was to negate self-imposed burdens, both from sworn obligations that would otherwise continue in perpetuity, and from promises that could not or should not be fulfilled. This was especially important in regions where Jews were oppressed, and subject to forced conversion.
Why recited three times? Because a statement made three times is considered binding; stating something thrice has the force of emphasis and, in many cases, legal reality, based on three iterations being the minimum needed to establish a pattern; Rabbeinu Tam justifies this as being in the same vein as other thrice recited formulae, such as ‘muttar-lach’ (you are permitted) in the absolution of another’s vow.
Now note that many anti-Semites take the Kol Nidre as proof of Jewish perfidy, thinking that it gives license to avoid obligations and lie. Nothing could be further from the truth! No vow which concerns another person, entity (individual or corporate), or community, is meant or implied. Partly in response to such accusations, many Rabbis have argued against the recital of Kol Nidre, saying that it gave the goyim grounds to distrust us, that it was misleading and subject to misinterpretation by the unscrupulous and the ignorant, that it cast doubts on any undertaking or commitment involving those who had recited it, and that it was naught but a superstitious, antiquated, and unclear Aramaic counter-oath, incorrectly explained and translated. Yet the melody that the cantor gives it is probably one of the most lovely and evocative tunes that any people have ever had; that alone should argue for retention of the prayer, and accurate understanding of its meanings.
Recall also, at this point, Yeftah the Gileadite and his tserdraite promise to sacrifice whatever came first out of his house to greet him, if only HaShem should deliver the Bnei Amon (Ammonites) to him – predictably, it was his only child that came rushing forth. (Judges 11:30 through 31 “Va yidar yiftach neder la Adonai va yomer im naton titen et Bnei Amon be yadi” (And Yeftah swore an oath to the Lord, saying that if the sons of Ammon be delivered to his hand…), “Vehaya hayotse asher yetse midaltei beiti likrati be shuvi ve shalom mibnei amon ve haya la Adonai veha'aliti hu ola!” (Then it would be that whatever came from his house to greet his return in peace from the sons of Ammon would then, to the Lord, be offered as a burnt offering!). Goyishe kopf!
The Maharal = Moreinu Ha Rav Loew (our teacher the Rabbi Loew), Judah Ben Bezalel Loew of Prague (1525 – 1609), a Mishnaic commentator, scholar, and leader of Central European Jewry, who while not a kabalist persé nevertheless seems to have studied the Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation – A masterpiece which is very short, but takes years to understand) so thoroughly, that he could create a golem (from Hebrew, meaning an incomplete mass or a thing, and by extension that which serves, hence a servant or slave, which mirrors its meaning in Arabic and Urdu, in which it is pronounced Ghulam). Emes.
“Reasonable prices on imported produce = They’re asking what for an Esrog?!?! Gottenyu, extortionate!!! Appalling! I should write a letter!
Do not even speak of Lulav.
On a simpler level, we practice our own form of Shmita every week with our celebrating Shabbos Koidesh on the seventh day. The common theme, of course, is the commandment to refrain from any sort of commerce. Once a week we commit not to participate in commercial activity, or even activity which APPEARS to be commerce, such as giving gifts. And, as is well known, when all of Klal Yisroel celebrates one Shabbos completely, Moshiach will come.
(Shabbos Koidesh = The Holy Sabbath.
Refraining even from activity which appears to be commerce = Because such appearance, if misinterpreted, could mislead or cause another person to sin (lifnei iver) or would, by creating a wrong impression (of Jewish Sabbath observance), be chillul hashem.
This also means avoiding the country club (for which just one word: ‘Old Goy Network’). Country clubs, being at times non-orthodox replacements for shuls, reek of Avoidah Zora, nor should you mistake a bais medresh for a ‘bais business’.
Moshiach = The Messiah; the anointed one of the house of David, who will rebuild the temple, ingather the Jews from exile, and judge among the nations - Isaiah 2:4 “Ve shafat bein ha goyim, ve hochiach le amim rabim, ve chitto charvotam le itim va chanitoteihem le matzmerot; lo yisa goi el goi cherev ve lo yilmedu od milchama” (And he shall adjudicate between the nations, and shall decide for a multitude of peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their pikes into pruning hooks; nation shall not raise sword against nation and neither shall they learn war besides.).
The Moshiach has not come yet; he still tarries - be patient during the delay.
Yet according to the Ari Zahl, the Moshiach has not yet come for one reason and one reason alone: The violation of commerce on Shabbos is transgressed in every shul in the world by one person who is single-handedly responsible for keeping us all in the golus -- the shul candy man.
Arizal = Rabbi Yitzhak Luria (1534 – 1572), a Kabbalist who lived in Tzafed, a student of the Merkavah mysteries (The Lore Of The Chariot), author, and a teacher of among others Rabbi Chayim Vital Calabrese (1543 – 1620), who authored Likutai Torah (Gleanings From The Torah) and Etz Chayim (meaning both ‘Tree of Life’, and, punningly, ‘Chayim’s Tradition’). The Arizal wrote among other things about reincarnation (gilgulim – the revolving of souls through different lives), a concept which intrigued Kabbalists.
Golus = Exile, dispersion. Which will decisively end when the Moshiach comes. Be patient.
Note the sins and temptations he brings on all Klal Yisroel:
- He insults the very authority of the Reboinoisheloilum. What child wouldn't rather have a sucking candy than listen to a crackly-voiced bar-mitvah bochur or self-absorbed amateur Chazzan? And when did you ever see one of those rotten kids make a bracha?
Bar mitzvah bochur = Does the phrase ‘today I am a man’ mean anything?
Contrary to what my aunt thinks, his leyning of the Toirah is not 'eppes brilliant' and ‘dahlink’. There is nothing 'dahlink' about him, he has pimples. Today he is a man? Him?
Chazzan = a cantor; the officiant who leads in prayer. This can be any man of good character, though for obvious reasons one should be careful choosing a cantor, as there is much singing required. Best case scenario: an artist and a profound scholar. Worst case scenario: a bitchy drama-queen who brays like an ass.
Bracha = Situation-appropriate blessing.
- He entices children to worship idols. Indeed, lollipops become their own form of Avoidah Zarah, especially when they bear the pictures of Disney characters. And Gummi Bears? The are the modern equivalent of the Eigel!
Avodah zarah = Idol worship.
“Bearing pictures of Disney characters” = Animals which are not kosher. What message does this send? It's alright to suck on their faces, it’s better than eating their flesh? Representations are okay if they're edible? Paintings you should eat?
You wonder why they spend thousands of dollars on psychoanalysis once they move out?
Gummi Bears = Usually made with gelatin, which is derived from hides and bones, wherefore kashrus comes seriously into play. You do not want to know all the treifah that goes into the processing plant. It is disgusting.
Gelatin = a stiffening substance used in glue and foods, rendered from, among other things, pigskin. Shoyn.
Eigel = Calf; the golden calf (Eigel Ha Zahav, Shemos 32:1 through 32:6) which the Israelites made at the foot of Sinai while they were waiting for Moses to come back already. Part of the sin of the calf is in each generation, just as part of the Kidushah of receiving the Torah (matan Torah) is in each generation.)
- He entices children to participate in multiple violations on Shabbos: He engages them in commerce-like activity on Shabbos. He causes children to separate good candy from bad, an issur Diyoraisa of borer. He causes children to tear candy wrappers. Etc.
Issur d’oraisa = A prohibition that is in the Torah, rather than one determined by the Talmud.
Borer = to separate, select. For instance, choosing a cigar from your humidor on Shabbes is an issur of borer - do not smoke, avoid temptation by staying away from the country club (probably irrelevant after yovel, and with the scandalous taxes on tobacco products in California, it is a commercial activity prohibited on the Sabbath in any case).
Issur d’oraisa of borer = A prohibited process of selection, sorting, or separating on the Sabbath, because it is work, and, additionally, suggestive of commerce, as indeed the kinderlach’s sticky fingers rooting through the selection abundantly demonstrates.
Tearing candy wrappers etc. = And thus working, harvesting, preparing food for consumption; this is a multiple breaking of the Sabbath. Very borer.)
- He causes children to disrespect their parents, since they never observe the candy consumption limits put before them.
- Children often steal to get more candy. They lie. They covet ("I don't want my blue lollipop, I want her red lollipop")
They steal… They lie… They covet… They run for office.
In short -- with his devious, seemingly benign presence, the candyman causes children to violate five of the Ten Commandments every Shabbos.
What is the source of this evil incarnate? First of all, in 96% of all shuls, the candyman is older than the Aimishteh himself. On a visit to the Shtetl in Detroit, I once met a shul candyman named Junior -- he was 72 years old. Second of all, what does he want from these little boys and girls anyway? He is likely a pervert. Or even worse, a fundraiser.
Junior = Formerly the owner of Red’s Place (on Jackson Street, just down from Grant). Junior z.l. was older than Methuselah, a drinker himself, and had to shut down at nine every evening because he was stiffer than Lot. Cheapest whiskey in town. Things have not been the same since he was niftar. Alav ha shalom.
Fundraiser = Investment broker, politician, failure, club bore, girl scout (only if she has cookies, which are treif just so you know – she is (mostly) harmless the rest of the year).
The Ari proved through Kabbalistic sources that the candyman is actually the agent of the Sutun. This is implied by the other principle sin he causes the children to commit: eating traifus. Ask yourself: Is the candy really kosher? How do you know? According to a medrish in Bubba Basra, Acher, before completely abandoning the faith, started out by handing out Skittles.
Traifus = Food that isn’t kosher.
Kosher = The opposite of Traif.
Bava Basra = The Final Gate, a Talmud tractate in the order of Nezikin (damages; the common basis for the order lies in the commandments against theft, perjury, and coveting the belongings of another). There are three gates: Bava Kama (first gate: damages), Bava Metzia (second gate: losses, loans, labour), and Bava Basra (last gate: property and inheritance); these three are the civil law tracts of the Talmud
And just like Acher, the candy man sees his actions as the opportunity to plant the seeds of evil in the neshamas of unsuspecting children. He knows that thirty years in the future, those children, all grown up, won't remember the Rabbi's speech or the Chazzan's davening. They'll fondly recall that Charms lollipop they once ate in shul, as they drive up on Friday night to the takeout window at the drive-through McDonalds to pick up Shabbos dinner.
Acher = The Other, Elisha Ben Abuya, one of four sages from the Tannaitic period who entered Pardes (Paradise, The Garden). He is called ‘the other’ because of his apikorsus (heresy).
Ben Azzai died, Ben Zoma lost his mind, Ben Abuya started whacking at everything with pruning shears (which is taken to mean that he lost his faith), and Akiva “entered in peace, and left in peace”, allegedly going on to write what may be the oddest little book ever – the Sefer Yetzirah (the Book Of Creation). [Nu, an expert already!]
Now note that ‘other’, or ‘one other’, is also a way of referring to the evil one. It is no coincidence that the realm of impurity is also ‘other’ (sitra achra: the other side).
Neshamas = Souls; souls are considered to be Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama, each reflecting a different level of communion with G-d, with Nefesh originating at birth, Ruach joining in early teens (the beginning of adulthood or rational life), and then Neshama coming after great effort to become worthy and wise. But this is a Kabalistic approach which is not relevant here, though the discussion of which of these and other types of souls reincarnate, and how, is quite fascinating.
In conclusion, note that we have come to this: picking up shabbos dinner at MacDonalds! We started this text with the challenges of being a Jew in a gentile world, continued through the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the slanders and calumnies suffered in golus, until at last we were tempted, and end up forsaking observance of the Sabbath, which is the fundament that has sustained us these centuries.
Surely ‘happy meals’ are issurei? ‘Thou shalt remember the Sabbath, to make it holy’. Nowhere does it say ‘Thou shalt poison thy body with treif and make the Sabbath utterly stink of forbidden fats’! Nor does it say “Drivest thou thy big-ass station wagon to the MacTumah Palace, that thou mayest gorge upon their grease-drenched tsershnitte bulbes’.
And it certainly doesn’t say “go ahead, kill your parents, eat some more of that garbage”!
You probably also bought several boxes of girls scout cookies, which you’ll consume all at once when no one is watching!
Do you know what eating that traifus will do to you? It will plug you up, you’ll have to take supplements, it’ll give you a choleriya, a kramp in di kishkes, a vai in boych!!!
Have some fruit, have some vegetables. A nice chicken. Some soup. You want to kill yourself?
Just don’t say you weren’t told!
APPENDIX: SHTAR ISKA:
A shtar iska is a written and signed binding agreement whereby one party borrows under certain takanos or conditions (takanos = rules and regulations, hence also arrangements, conditions and essential definitions) a certain amount for a specified time, which will then be returned, with an agreed upon additional amount as profit from shared enterprise to the lender.
If there was no profit or insufficient profit (as sworn and attested to, should the lender require it), no profit will be paid. Any profits above the amount agreed upon belong to the borrower.
The element of risk is that if the business for which money was advanced was a failure, the lender can lose up to half of the principle (the borrower, as an equal partner loses the other half).
A shtar is essentially a binding arbitration agreement between two parties – unlike a contract, which implies mutual benefit, a shtar implies concord. The typical shtar iska has to contain several clauses to cover the necessary ground: receipt of goods or monies of a specified value as advanced by one party to another as partners in enterprise; purposes for which the advance of goods or funds are to be used; agreement that the profit generated be shared; allowance for verification of any losses claimed (oaths and qualified witnesses); specification of amounts to be paid and due date(s) at termination of the agreement; statement of amount rendered to or received by the borrower (active partner) as payment for labours on behalf of the partnership; and perhaps most importantly, agreement to arbitration by specified parties (a particular bais din, or generally speaking any bais din if none is specified) in case of non-performance, disagreements or uncertainties about the execution of the shtar iska.
If the funds are to be used for personal purposes, a shtar iska is not appropriate unless the borrower has other investments which could have covered the expense. In that case, the shtar iska specifies those investments according to the amount of the loan; a specified amount, as share of the profit from those investments, is assigned on the due date.
Under some circumstances the partnership is not equal, and a lesser proportion of the profit is assigned to the borrower, but provision is made allowing the borrower to buy out the investor – the conditions must be equitable, and the details noted in the shtar.
Final note: overdraft coverage for a percentage fee and similar credit card fees, unless framed in terms of a shtar iska (which is difficult, and usually not the case), must be considered usurious. Do not spend more than you have, and choose a credit card payment arrangement that cycles through your checking account – a debit card (without a percentage charge) is nevertheless preferable.
Consult a rabbi, and study Bava Metzia, chapter 5, before stumbling.
