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The Day That the News of the First Churban Reached Bavel | Rabbi Anthony Manning
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good morning everybody and
welcome um as you can hear unfortunately
I have a little bit of a bad
throat um it's getting over a cold I
feel barash a lot better but my voice is
still uh suffering a little bit my
experience of these things is either
it'll get a lot better over the next
half hour or it'll get a lot worse but
uh if necessary we'll have a slightly
shorter Shear but hopefully we'll we'll
still get our uh we still get our
money's worth as it were um I'd like to
just uh thank our sponsors three
sponsors today first of all the sherim
through the 2025 Academic Year are
sponsored U nishas bras brandid and
zelik Bel Ben calman um and second of
all two very specific sponsorships for
today um the sherim this morning all the
morning shearim is sponsored by Ellie
and Adel freed wild to commemorate the Y
side of adel's Father ra abah
yob thank you very much to the Freeds
always good to see you thank you for the
sponsor ship and also the shear
specifically today is sponsored by Phil
cinsky we the family cinsky over there
it's good to see you all um well not all
the grandchildren but
like a good number of
youm uh in loving memory Phil's wife AIG
ala basai Arin savinski um who is yite
is January the 8 8
tet and uh I was thinking of like
counseling today because of my throat
but I thought you know something there's
all these sponsorships it would be a
bigal to cancel um and uh I think we'll
we'll make it through so it should be an
Aliyah for all the nas that we've
mentioned but
eem okay now there might be a slight
overlap here with Rabbi Adler but I
don't think much because I'd like to
take a few different angles on
this as I'm sure you're all aware oh yes
another reminder please from Miriam to
please turn your phones off as I'm sure
you're all aware that we're coming up to
aarit or should I actually say more
specifically the fast of tavit because
the fast of tavit is not as we'll see
necessarily aarav our men get to fast on
aarav but really the idea is that
there's a fast in a there's a fast in
tamos there's a fast in tavid and
there's a fast in Tish and the actual
dates may vary but let's just remind
oursel exactly what is what is going on
here so I brought you some dates at the
very beginning when nebuchad netar
assumed the Throne of Babel conquered
Judea um
exiled as we read in the the beginning
of together with the leading Scholars
including Mor
and that was also in tavid on the first
of tavid that that Exile which now of
course is Kaneka so what was originally
a day of morning on the first of tavid
because of that Exile has now been over
overcome by kekah but for our purposes
the most important is neuch kadeta Lay
Siege to Jerusalem on the tth of Tav and
eventually reaches the walls on the 9th
of tamos on the ninth of tamos now the
walls of the second basa mikdash were
breached by the Romans on the 17th of
tamos so the question is why do we fast
on the 17th and not the 9th is it just
because it was more recent and in our
memory we're still 2,000 years ago but
we'll see exactly as we come later on
that the date is not necessarily the key
thing so let's remind ourselves of some
of the key SES now number
one again months are
key the key is the only way to get these
fasts of these different months to be
Feast to be days
of is
by it's only if we fix the problems of a
fairness of justice and of Shalom of
peace and of course there's the famous
question which was raised to zakari you
know when the people he actually records
there when the people said look we've
we've come back already from Babel now
we're rebuilding the B mikdash do we
still need to keep these fast do we
still need to have these fasts aren't we
part of the solution now and Zakaria
tells them no what are you talking about
unless you fix the specific societal
problem then you haven't fixed the issue
if you can tell me that we've returned
restored Society
then you can talk about um not having
the fast and in fact the rash deals with
this issue as
well number
two he calls them zakar calls them a
fast
day how can that
be there shom in the Jewish people
what's shom in the Jewish people so here
you see the rash says is Dre that the
Jews are securely living in their own
land securely whether you need a temple
or not is a good question but you need
the Jews living securely in their own
land maybe they two the two things are
the
same then their days
of if there's destruction complete
destruction then
there shom if we're living in a kind of
limbo where we can't say we live in a
time of shalom but we can't say we live
in the time of the two are too extreme
then so we get an option fast become
optional
fasts is that true as well says
the TSH is quite different because so
many bad things happened on Tish it
doesn't have the same status of uh it
could be an obligatory fast or a
voluntary fast TSH is always an oblig
fast and actually the rambam says and
I'm not your time to go into it today
that even during the second B mik they
still fasted on
TSH which actually sounds that way from
the mishna it says that they sent out
from the mikdash when they were M even
for Tish for the fast of Tish so it
sounds like they kept Tish but it seems
like the other fasts like AAR Tavis in a
time like we live in today which I think
we clearly we don't live in a time of
shom but we don't live in a time of
schmad schmad is too extreme so should
be optional one way or the other so if
you look in the the three in mag
Mish so the rambam who ruled that we
have to keep these fasts
explains now the is the is that we keep
all of these four
fasts I
call says for all intents of purpose
these fasts are compulsory until we get
to the ban B okay fine in terms of the
actual origin of this particular fast
there are two different that we need to
look at we one is inim and one is in so
have a look at number four
in in the ninth year it's good to remind
ourselves of exactly how this happened
in the ninth year of the reign of
King in the month of the 10th
month on the 10th of the month
and his army came
against and he Camp camped
against and he built a Siege Tower
around the
city the city was under
siege for two years until the 11th year
of and on the nth of the month this is
the month
of the the famine was so uh intense in
the
town they didn't have any bread
eventually The Siege
succeeded the walls were
breached and the forces of escaped run
away Through The Secret Gate which was
in the King's
Garden and the Babylonians were
surrounding the city but the S escaped
down towards the ARA into the Jordan
Valley
beautiful so the Persians the
Babylonians I should say chased the M
down into the valley
you they CAU up with him
in and all his forces basically all
melted
away and they captured the king They
seized the
king they brought him up to
NE and they they put him on on
trial in particularly grueling
end's Sons were slaughtered in front of
his
eyes and then his eyes were gouged
[Music]
out and they brought him in in irons in
chained up if you like into B and that
that's where the 10th of tavid if you
like figures but there's another Point
here which I think is the key issue as
to why we have this unusual
situation that the tenth of tavid has a
stricture that no other fast has which
is certainly know the reic fast which is
we fast even on
chabas this year um Asar bavis falls on
a Friday and we will be fasting into
shabas now this happens every few years
it happens every seven or eight years
that this falls on a Friday when was the
last time this
happened last
year it's extremely unusual that a sar
bavius falls on a Friday two years in a
row it last happened back in the 1970s
when Nixon was in
office it'll next happen in the 2070s
when who knows whether it'll even be an
office oh Trump you reckon be
115 so it it hasn't happened for quite
some
time but the reason this happens meaning
every other fast which Falls could
potentially fall on a Friday or shabas
it's always pushed off it's a Sunday so
you look what it say number five at the
same time as we read these that we've
just read that neet besieged the town on
the 10th of TI 10th of T excuse me look
at number
five says God's word came to
me on this ninth year of's re the same
the same
time on the 10th of the month of Tav
lay it said the
following write down make a note this
very
day this this very
day the king of B has approached and
again he
repeats and the Rak explains how this
works if you look here in number six
he gets this he's in B already he was
taken away to B
with he gets this on the 10th
of the same day that the attacks
beses and he tells
him write this
down and show it to all the people in
Exile
and when they later
find and the the criers come
from that's indeed the day that it
happened this will give a
stle that he wrote this down at the
other side of Asia as it were over in
Babel the ex day when this
happened he won't listen anymore to and
this this uh this the importance of this
day that it was set it was recorded if
you like in two different places in the
same way on the same day the that's why
it has this special status if you look
in the BET number seven the BET says an
interesting thing he says
G the rambam says no we push off any
fast that comes on shabas we push it off
the
Sunday the ab
says is different from every
other even if it fell on shabas which by
the way it can't fall on chabas in our
fixed calendar but it can fall on
Friday you don't push it off you don't
push it off because it says on it
like it doesn't come on Shabbat but even
if it did you would fast on chabas
like and he writes also does sometimes
fall on
Friday we fast on
Friday and other fast never fall on a
Friday um what is the unique power here
which is very interesting interesting
the idea is that the 10th of Taves has a
special status almost like that of Tish
itself the Jewish people were meant to
be exiled on The Temper of tabus but in
fact there was a special given there was
a chance they were given an extra chance
look here at the uh the um sourcer
number
eight look at the midash number eight
see how it
works sorry the great great good was
done together with the Jewish people to
the Jewish people by God Kate said how
does that
work on on the 10th of Tavis they were
meant to be exiled
from has a special
status what did God do he
said if they have to go out now in in
January but
s they'll die from the cold m
what did he
do it was was a it was
a that God did to us that he took us out
in the summer so we could walk out of
the city in the summer we didn't have to
walk out of the city in the middle of
the winter but actually the B rebi says
an interesting thing that it
says that nebuchad came close
but is also says the the
idea that he he only came close he was
is also to
support as well um and therefore he
says the idea that The Siege of
Jerusalem had the potential to actually
be it saving but if the people had only
done shua but they didn't and they had
this kind of in between period from the
tenth of tavid for two more years okay
fine um let's uh let's just pop over the
page my voice is not getting much better
but we'll see we'll see we'll see we'll
see we'll try and keep it going
now I can't suck and speak at the same
time no it could it could end it could
end in a very
uh have I
tried it might be my last share oh there
is I I thank you should I
try I don't know how this is going to
work I don't you might need a doctor in
the
house actually no something think I'm
going to have this afterward I don't
trust myself thank you for the what's
that I've got two cups of hot water
here I'm drinking I'm drinking I've got
lots of people looking after me my
mother will be very
pleased
okay the idea of the tenth of tavid
being almost like Tish itself a day uh
and and some says it's the day on which
mashiah could have been born just like
tab itself that's why it has this
special
St the the the idea of turning these
these fast days into
a is as I said at the beginning
dependent entirely on the idea
of have a look in number 12 and we'll
see what we need to do what maybe our
our task is in order to achieve this at
number
12 this was again famous from from
chapter n of
says to G
the put a t on the foreheads of
the of
ink God is going to let loose their
forces of Destruction in the in
the and Gabriel has to put a Tav now
what is a
Tav a Tav is a marker but actually
inav in the original script not the
script we use today A T is like an X
that's how it looks it doesn't look like
a t now so an x marks the spot put put
them on the
forehead and put a red mark on the on
the foreheads of the
R so that they so that the forces of
Destruction the of Destruction we
know who they are and we'll destroy them
so it's very interesting Source here
the forces of accusation went
to they
said why are you saving this group and
you're not saving that group what's the
difference what are you talking
about the people with the with the black
Mar the they don't deserve to die and
the other guys
are so
so the the the accusing Angel
says yeah but
these could have done something about it
they could have done Outreach they could
have they could have made an effort they
could have tried to influence the other
people and they didn't
try so so God says to
him God says yeah but I know that even
if they tried it wouldn't have helped
and then the last line the last the word
goes to the category of so he said the
accusing angel
said even if you
know they didn't know they didn't have
an excuse they didn't get involved in
Outreach and social justice in trying to
influence
others they ignore them they just get
separated from the rash and they they
should have tried they could have tried
this idea of AR of AR
and there a maybe a slight difference
between these two ideas the idea that
the the tior the famous you know ACM of
the ti being
sad they have to be together and in fact
in number 13 the mid
says when Esther says to you have to
gather together all the Jews all the
Jews
and you see from here the most important
thing about fast day is the Jews coming
together that's the key that's what we
should be doing on a fast
day make a fast says
in call stop to everything gather
everybody everything together and that's
why
the said the word s is from is connected
with the word suit the word suit is a
junction why is this the word suit a
junction because the word s is a braid
where two things become entwined one
with the other that's why we call a
tomit at tomit because it's all these
sort of Road spaghetti of Roads coming
all together so say the same thing
applies for the Tom the purpose of the
psalm is to bring everybody together to
connect everybody to knit everybody
together and therefore whatever we can
do on the psalm to to be the Jewish
people is definitely the the Mitzvah of
the day okay so I can a little bit on
the sares but actually there are two
other fasts like I mentioned last week
which I wanted on a little bit more uh
today as well so have a look with me
about the eighth of Tavis last week we
spoke about the ninth of Tavis but let's
talk about the eighth of tavus and this
I think you'll find is very
interesting so um I read for you last
week that there is this list of uh
what's called sikim the the extra fasts
that certain sikim used to keep and it
wasn't just the 10th of Tav it was the
eighth and the 9th and the 10th so you
look at number 15 so the B
writes these are the days you have to
fast on the eighth is the is the story
of toi the king what was the story of
Tomi the king so the records it number
16av on the eth of
Tavis the Torah was translated into
Greek there was Darkness on the world
for three days we talked a little bit
about that in the previous shum also
there's a hint there to the idea of a
three day fast as the eth the n9th and
the 10th but also darkness comes in in
3day in 3day units as we see in
sh so this story of the Torah being
translated into Greek is actually very
uh is much uh broader than I think
people
realize we see it appears in the gamorra
it appears in the gamarra in in Milla we
see in the gar M Sim in number 17 s is
probably a slightly later Source than
the gar Milla
but we originally also see it in two
much earlier
sources Pho Pho who was a a hellenized
Greek sort of influenced Jew a
religiously observant Jew living in
Alexandria the uh in the first century
CE he also writes the story of uh the uh
translation of the Torah into Greek this
is hundreds and hundreds of years before
the gamar records it h and he includes
the ideas that we're going to see in a
minute that they put people in different
rooms and they all came to the same
answers but he he painted as a very
positive outcome he says because the
Greeks really admired the laws of the
Jews they forget Pho a lot more learning
has gone into Pho recently I don't know
if you've ever studied any phos it's got
a very interesting very different take
ones Etc but Pho understood that the
Mitzvah were Universal and that if
non-jews understood the Mitzvah they
would be a universal law For All Mankind
they're all rational and you can
understand what they are and therefore
the idea of translating tan to Greek
foro was a was a great Sim and he talks
about it being a a great occasion not
like the gamor in a minute which we'll
see gives it a very negative spin or at
least one part of it he even says and I
brought you in the appendix you don't
need to look at it for now I brought you
a long uh excerpt from Pho of Alexandria
he says every year on the island of
feros which don't forget back in those
days there was the I think the
lighthouse was on faros right the Seven
Wonders of the World it was the library
of Alexander Andrew which was one of the
wonders of the world and the liest on
Farris says every year he said on Farris
there was a national camping holiday
where people would go and have picnics
to celebrate the translation of the
Torah into Greek all those years before
Jews would go non-jews would go he said
it was a very uh a very uh very exciting
holiday he had but I even brought you an
earlier Source still than that that this
story of the translation of the Torah
into Greek is actually recorded in the
second century second late third early
2nd Century BCE is something called the
letter of aristas aristas excuse me
which I brought you at the back as well
aristas sorry I the first time the
letter of arist to philocrates you can
see that in there as well you can read
that how they translated it Etc but they
have a different spin on it as then the
gor we're going to see number 17 have a
look in number
17 there's a story of Five
Elders that they translated the Torah
into Greek
for and that day was was was difficult
for the Jewish people like the day that
they created the
agle this is the key here because you
can't translate the Torah
properly why why can't you translate the
Torah on the contrary Greek a Torah
written in Greek
is a kosher sa Torah we talked about
this a couple of weeks ago it's the
whole torist written Nation Greek it's
kosher is a scroll so why can't you
translate the T into Greek what's it not
what's not possible seems to have been
an impossible task and it shouldn't have
been done but then people don't realize
this there's a second story of not the
first
one they brought in these 72 elders
and they put them in 72 different rooms
but
like and he didn't tell them what he
brought them in
for okay and then he went into each room
afterwards and told them this is what
you're here to
do write down the Torah of your of your
master into
Greek and each one of them had it's very
interesting this this account is not
described negative terms in the same way
as the first one each of them
had they all made the same
alterations okay and they wrote each one
wrote
a were 13 specific things that they
changed and if you're interested in
looking at the 13 I'm not going to do
them now but uh I wrote down uh in uh
number six all 13 changes that they made
and you can see for
yourself all changes that they made so
that people wouldn't be mistaken and uh
and understand certain suum in a way
which could have been heretical now
what's interesting as far as I'm
concerned is the Septuagint which is the
Greek translation of the Torah does not
have these 13 changes in it which is
very interesting so when we talk about
the tagum shim the translation of the T
into Greek there was clearly more than
one translation going on even in this
sourcer number 17 we've seen two
different stories of translation one was
with five Elders one was with 72 elders
and the Septuagint which we later see is
the Greek translation of the Torah that
everybody was using there's a debate as
to whether Pho was even even had access
to Hebrew maybe he only learned the
Torah in Greek and commented on the Tor
in Greek but it seems to be a slightly
different translation and also it was
only thees it wasn't the whole thing so
you can you can uh you can look into
that in your own time as to exactly what
translations with which and how that
works but the idea of translating the
Torah as being such a negative thing
requires a little bit of thought on our
part because if you look back and ra yon
iitz makes this point if you look at
number 18 originally when MOS wrot down
the Torah it says you write it down on
the stones they wrote These Stones like
like the of Rosetta Stone at the
beginning when they went into the uh the
land of Israel they put these Stones
up you write down all the words of the
Torah artive what does it mean artive
Rashi says artive
in 70 different languages so the Torah
from the very beginning was meant to be
translated it was translated into the 70
languag or at least kazal understood
that this would be a positive thing to
do to translate the Torah into 70
different languages so why are we so
upset about the Torah being translated
into Greek so it's interesting some of
the MIM say that it wasn't in itself a
bad thing it was it it was the potential
to be a bad thing says also Lai says
this it was like the day that they made
the agle not the day that they worshiped
the agle he says the day that they made
the agel nothing had happened yet they
just made it it was the next day M like
Aon says we're going to worship agel so
just translating the Torah into Greek in
and of itself is not necessarily a
problem it's question is what are people
going to do with it and one of the main
problems and this is true of of anyone
who's ever you know done any in-depth
skills learning when somebody translates
the words of the booking for for you
they take away all the Contours of the
uh of the text all the things that you
would like ah why is it written in this
way why is it written in this way
intertextual ideas between one area of
and another area of or whatever um they
they they've all been flattened out
because someone's already done the work
for you and in that sense the
translation um is uh misleading I heard
there was an expression in in Italian
now I'm going to get it wrong now it's
something like like trut
TR that all translations are
traitors okay um and therefore we have
to understand that the translation
itself is taking away a very significant
part of what was the original kak of the
Torah itself and I brought you on number
19 just go to page five a source that I
don't always bring I don't often
bring of
elov in the
sa so he writes a beautiful Marshall
here number 19
what is this
like like a lion that you capture from
the wild and you put in a
zoo before the lion was
captured Everybody's scared of the lion
everybody's running from The
Lion
now who made seats in everyone comes and
looks at the lion you know the lion neb
is in a glass cage and all the kids put
that put their hands on the cage and
bang on the cage to be to the lion you
know it's a terrible thing people
say I thought lines were scary lines are
not scary look it's right
here when it's in the hands of the
Jewish
people and the the people who interpret
the Torah can come to it and and reveal
the multi layered reality the
Torah in original
language everybody is in awe of the
Torah and and there's a great
nervousness at misinterpreting it
because you see you have to prove it
from the
text and even a
nonew who wants to learn
Tor they have to come to they have to
learn it
there and they have to speak
Hebrew but once you lock the Torah up if
you like Torah you lock it this
beautiful idea of you you you you trap
it in a Greek
language you've taken all of the out of
the
Torah anyone who wants to can come and
peer in an inappropriate
way and anyone who wants to misinterpret
Torah B can come and miss and separate
the Torah and I brought you a couple of
very important uh I think
ideas underneath here which is which
goes even deeper according to the
Greeks the truth was in the idea it was
in the form okay the idea is true the
words are just a means of transmitting
the idea from my head into your head
which is actually a very clever thing I
can be thinking of tree right now and I
want you to be thinking of a tree so I
say the word tree and now magically this
image which is in my mind is magically
in your mind it's an unbelievable thing
if you think about it just by wobbling
my vocal cords and your and your bones
inside your ears you know vibrating I
have now transmitted the idea from my
mind to your mind but the truth is the
idea the word tree was just nominal you
could have used anyone if we all agreed
that the the word for this thing that we
call a tree was a box or a cat or a dog
then we could have used any of those
words it makes no difference which words
we use the key is the idea and whichever
word communicates the idea is the key
have a look at number
20 Greek philosophy more or less begins
with the Insight that a word is only a
name I.E it doesn't represent the true
being the word is only a name in Hebrew
the word for a word is a davar which is
the thing itself the word and this is
key for us the word itself the text
itself has a life of its own it's not
just a means of communicating an idea
look in Plato number 21 he who follows
names in the search after things and
analyzes that meaning is in great danger
of being deceived how real existence is
to be discovered is I suspect Beyond you
and me we must rest content with the
admission that the knowledge of things
is not to be derived from their names
you don't get any truth from the words
itself says the Greek so to Aristotle
number 22 spoken sounds are symbols of
affections in the soul and written marks
symbols of spoken sounds a name is
spoken sounds significant by convention
it's convention only it doesn't matter
what it is and for us that's very
different because the text is the one
thing which is alive for us the text is
the thing itself and what we're always
doing when we're trying to learn text is
to analyze what the text says I think
this is it sounds like an obvious point
but it's really not an obvious
point I'll give you an example from um
that my students often raise with me how
old was Yak the
arada how old was Yak at the
arada 37 you're all very confident about
that where do we get 37 from I mean does
he sound 37 from the text not really
okay and how old was Rifka when she's
doing all the water with the camels
three now this is all part of the same
system the reason he would be 37 and she
would be three is because you've read
Rashi and Rashi quotes from s Raba who
says look just do the math SAR was 90
years old when Yak was born Sarah died
when she was
127 so Sarah died when Yak was 37 okay
so far it's just straightforward mouth
yizak got married when he was 40 also in
the text and the birth of Y is recorded
just after the AA okay and the death of
SAR is recorded at the same time so the
aada the birth of Rifka and the AA all
happened and the sorry the the AA the
birth of Rifka and the death of SAR were
all basically the same and therefore the
same time and therefore Rifka was three
with the camels and Y was 37 of the AA
now the Ezra comes along and says that
doesn't sound like it sounds like r was
much older and it sounds like Yik was
much younger he said he can't have been
like three or four cuz he's carrying the
wood okay so he's probably nine or 10
it's probably nine or 10 and Rifka could
well be 17 18 19 20 because you're not
forced to say that the three events that
I just mentioned in the text all
happened at the same time you don't have
to understand that the aada happened and
immediately afterwards Rifka was born
and immediately afterwards SAR died we
used we conditions at so my students ask
me but I don't understand how old
was he can't have been 37 and 10 meaning
if you
debate you
say should be this and I think the
should be this okay I understand why
they're both true because you can look
at the in different ways you can analyze
it this way you can analyze it that way
but you can't be two ages at the same
time y cannot being 11 and
37 so which was
he well that's a good question what's
the na why do I even care how old y was
at the age of the AA so there's a tyus I
didn't bring it on the sheet but it's
really very ger this that says no you've
misunderstood when you see theim arguing
about how was at Thea they're not
arguing about how old Yak was at the AA
they're arguing about how to read the
text
because the text is all I really care
about Thea is history you'll never go
back there you'll never know how old was
theut has a whole play piece where he
says history is Gan it's it's it's you
know even if you got in the time machine
and you went back to a great historical
event and three of you stood there and
watched it you still have three
different views as to what exactly
happened here but we can't even do that
so we can never get access to history
history is dead what is
alive the text
the text is alive and the na in it is
this the story of Thea and the story of
RKA are there to teach me on a certain
level how to be a better Jew that's why
I'm learning them I'm not interested in
some sort of uh abstract historical
reality now of course there are real
historical things going on in the text
of course there are but that's not the
purpose of why I'm learning them I'm
learning them to draw a message out of
the araa and you get a very different
message from the AA if Yak is 37 and
allowing himself to be tied up then if y
was 11 years old and being held down by
his father screaming what's going on
what's going on let me go it's a very
very different message and therefore
this is why people I think one of the
problems that we have is that like it or
not we all read the Torah now like
Greeks which is the words don't really
matter what really matters is what
happened or the idea that he's trying to
teach and it's that's not true what
really matters is the words because the
words themselves the text itself is
absolutely key and uh this is one of the
reasons why the translation of the Torah
into Greek was so all pervasive because
it's made us all think like Greeks we
should be looking at the text as real
and the ideas as uh as coming straight
out of the text and not the text just
trying to communicate the ideas in
Hebrew the word and the word cev could
never be interchanged from each other
they have a meaning within themselves
it's not like dog and cat which we could
call it cat a dog and a dog a cat and
who cares but in Hebrew he can't you
can't do that the word itself has a
reality and I think there's a very
there's a lot of depth to that there's a
lot of meaning to that you need to think
about that and how we read the text and
what we're reading it for and how we
relate to it okay that's just a little
thought on the translation of the text
into Greek and how we think like Greeks
Etc let's look at a few other points
before we before we wrap
up um so last week we talked a lot
about um this strange the strange event
of Shima cpon this Jewish uh double
agent that was in the uh in the Vatican
we're not going to talk about that this
week but I also want to mention to you
that the ninth of tavid is recorded as
the death of Ezra and this is one of the
things we talk about also in
the in the that we say on on on the 10th
of tavid where we talked about Ezra if
you look here at number 24 but by so the
gar says or the tah says I should say we
don't exactly know what happened on the
10th on the ninth rather the T says like
this we do know it's very
strange we see
of 10th of Tavis the bet that on the nth
of Tavis Ezra that Ezra s died so we
know it's we we're commemorating the
death of Ezra and Ezra was an incredibly
important figure the Ezra in many ways
was the one that reestablished our Torah
if you look at number
originally means when the Torah begin
the Paradigm of learning Torah broken
down Ezra reestablished the Torah that
all gor that Ezra would have been worthy
of receiving the Torah if mosha hadn't
received it before him so the death of
Ezra to us is a little bit like the
death of mosha renu and therefore says R
that's why it's hidden a little bit we
don't know exactly where R was buried we
don't know where Ezra is buried
Etc we do know the de of mh's death
actually the z z tradition so it's not
exactly the same but also it's
interesting the T yonis identifies Ezra
as Mali Mal the prophet and of course
Mali was the last of the
so the death of Ezra also becomes for us
the end of NAA and therefore that gives
it even more importance and relevance
and meaning this is the date on which n
was taken for the Jewish from the Jewish
people which has again shifted um the
way we you know connect with God in a
very very significant way other things
happened in tavid as well I brought here
the first of tavid was the was the Exile
with king of King y as we talked about
before the 23rd of tavid was the day on
which the Jews were forcibly converted
in Portugal there's a lot of say about
that as well but I also want to point
out an interesting uh uh go over to page
seven on the fifth of tavid so what's
with the look at this Source number
28 because the gamarra here has a debate
what is which day is the fast of tavid
which day number
28 there are four things that R used to
learn that an but I don't agree with him
I don't agree with how that works here's
one of
them the fast of the 10th
month that is says the
10th but
me I don't agree with
that the
F it should be the fifth
of because that's when the Jews in the
gut
heard nothing to do with the siege they
got news on the fifth of T that the city
had been destroyed later
on it was on the 12th year of on the
10th month on the fifth of the fifth of
the
month that's when they got news that the
the wall that the city had
fallen and therefore they the day that
they heard the disaster became the day
that they commemorated that's the fast
of the 10th month not the 10th of T the
fifth of T and actually the mishna says
the mid says number
29 in
the they fasted on the actual action
meaning on the 10th of
Tavis and
in they fasted on the fifth of Tavis
when they heard that the city been
destroyed and in the end it
says but the became the everybody fasts
on the 10th of Tavis so how how can
there be a debate as to when the date
which date in Tavis the the festival is
the feast the fast
is was it destroyed on the it just
surrounded on the no no it was
surrounded on the tenth it would
destroyed he was destroyed later on in a
but they only got news on the so which
are we going to do so the has a very
interesting idea which I think is very
important I'm not going to read the
whole thing inside he says that at the
end of the day there's often a debate
about which day in these months we have
to have the fast give you an example
when is TSH sounds like a stupid
question right when is TSH on the ninth
then we see RAB I think it is in the gor
says if it was up to me I would have
made it on the 10th because the 10th is
when everything really burned down okay
I mean is that an option you can just do
whichever day you like here we see which
day is AAR AAR the 10th but according to
Rish the faster Tav should have been on
the fifth what about Tas so the the
walls were breached on the 17th of tamas
but that's the second B mikdash in the
first basa mikdash they were breached on
the ninth so the suggests it doesn't
actually matter which day of the month
we fix the fast as long as the fast is
in that month there's a fast in Ted
there's a fast in Tam there's a fast in
a and there's a fast in Tish which day
it is is flexible which is very
interesting so if that's true you know
everyone says says you know Tish is
going to be a you know a holiday one day
I don't know it just means we're going
to have a holiday in tavit a holiday in
tamuz a holiday in a and a holiday and
tishay so maybe it won't be on the exact
dates the exact dates don't M matter
that much but you see very interestingly
the flexibility and I just want to
finish I'm going to finish a few few
minutes
early and then I'll suck my recolor
Suite thank you for that um there was a
massive attempt not massive there was a
significant attempt in the early days of
the state to fix a sarav is the
Y and today still there are people I
think this has caught on a little bit
more again recently but originally in
1949 the raban decided the 10th of tavid
should be a National Memorial Day for
the Shah and a day to say cish for all
those people that they didn't know which
which day they' actually uh they'd
actually been killed and where did they
want to make as the Holocaust Memorial
center
Hardon there was a big debate in those
early days of the state where they
should make it on harion or they should
make it on har Herzel on or yadvashem
where yadvashem is now next to Har
Herzel so um the idea the attempt to
make the tenth of tavid as the national
Holocaust Memorial Day failed uh and in
fact they the Kess decided the Y will be
the 27th of Nissan which was very
controversial
because it's during the month of Nissan
which is not meant to be a month on
which you have uh negative uh Memorial
days although originally y was they
wanted to make it on AR
P which was the day that the the war so
getto was liquidated on AR of PES and
you can imagine what what a balagan that
would have been but harion of course was
the place the only place that you could
see into the old city in the 1950s the
old city was captured the jordanians
were in charge and therefore they felt
that that would be um that would be the
place on which to make this Holocaust
Memorial and brought you a uh a an early
response from that period which I just
wanted to end with and and because we
can associate the 10th of Tavis also
with
Y and he gives you a feel for the kind
of questions which were being asked
after the war after the Shah when people
were so
traumatized actually I I heard a podcast
about uh post-traumatic growth uh on the
Orthodox conundrum and 90% of people who
experience trauma
experienc post-traumatic growth
afterwards not post-traumatic stress 10%
experienc post-traumatic stress but
there was a real concern when the state
of Israel was founded that almost
everybody living in the state was post
trauma there were ashkanazi and some
sarum that had come out of the Holocaust
and there were hundreds of thousands of
sarum that had been thrown out of their
homes in Iraq in Egypt etc etc how are
you going to end up with a state of Jews
without the the whole state becoming one
big you know mental health
disaster okay exactly so look what look
at the kind of questions they were
asking number 31 but the the wonderful
thing about today is that we can expect
90% to experience post-romantic growth
just going to get through it look at
number 31 the
in it's a question about a rope which
was used to hang um victims in the
Holocaust hasat the
and
the on the T
of wants to use it as a GLE they wanted
to use a rope as a GLE on that day
because the Rope was used to hang Jews
during the war so look at what he
says so that the the the committee has
raised the question
people who' come up to live in Israel
they brought with
them rope that they pulled off one of
the
trees in one of the Polish
cities that many Jews had been hung
hanged on that
rope in and the the V had decided that
they were going to have a min
when they all come together
on that when they come to remember all
of those millions of Jews many of whom
we don't even know when they were
killed this is on this day the is going
to wear this
rope as a GLE in order to evoke those
memories
and then they ask is this okay so is it
okay or is it not okay look what he
says you have to stop this this is not
okay and it's
actually to do that and he
says that this rope which many Jews had
been killed
on this has the din of a cloth that had
been used to strangle somebody but that
actually needs to be buried as well the
Rope needs to be
buried it's not allowed to be
used and if if that's the
case is not allowed to wear it as a GLE
for who wrer and it is a Torah
prohibition he
says because we learned this from suim
that the Rope which was used to hang
somebody has to be buried together with
that person the only reason I brought
this CH is that like the strength of
feeling ofar Tavis um I know that my
wife in our community is planning on a
saris a whole uh conference on women
saying cish for example which is very
interesting the idea that uh you know
many women want to say Kish we had a
whole Shear on that if you remember
about a year or two ago a whole series
of shearim on that but Asar bavis is in
many ways the the sort of central date
on which we think of
that excuse me okay well that was a bit
painful probably more for you than for
me but uh but but but but next week uh
next week we'll be back to normal
service hasem and uh thank you again for
all your your uh care and attention yes
I