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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Parsha of the Week- A Book of Thanks

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Rabbi Bibi writes: “I am deeply grateful to Artscroll for putting out this past week a new book titled Nouri. The book details the life of my “uncle” Nouri Dayan. Nouri was my dad’s first cousin, but after his mother, my great aunt Shefiha, was murdered in Damascus in 1919, Nouri came with my great-grandmother Farha to America and was eventually raised in my Grandmother Esther’s house as a sibling of my father.”

Last week, we began the book of Vayikra which we call Torat Kohanim as Vayikra or Leviticus details the sacrifices brought in the Tabernacle and later on in the Bet HaMikdash in Jerusalem. Last week, the opening portion listed all the sacrifices that an individual might bring with one exception.  The exception is added in this weeks portion of Sav. It is the Korban Todah or the [Thanksgiving offering.  Rashi commenting on the verse explains that a thanksgiving offering is brought by “someone who experienced a personal miracle”. The examples brought by Rashi are later codified as the four individuals obligated to thank Hashem through a Korban Todah. These are people who recovered from illness; were freed from prison; crossed the ocean; or traversed the desert.

The Vilna Gaon points out that when the children of Israel came out of Egypt they were saved from these same four dangers. Hashem took us out of Egypt which is compared to a prison. We were then brought through the desert and crossed through the sea.  And as the midrash explains when we arrived at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, those were sick among us were healed.  Perhaps these four types of redemptions play a role in the repetition of the number four during the Seder on Passover.

Today we obviously have no Bet HaMikdash and we cannot fulfill our obligation of thanking Hashem for saving us from these dangers by bringing a Korban Todah. Instead the rabbis instituted the blessing of Gomel. Typically we go up to the Torah in the presence of a minyan and we recite the blessing, “ Ha’gomel lechayavim tovot shegemalani kol tuv. Blessed are You Hashem, King of the Universe, who  bestows  good  things  upon  the  “guilty”,  who  has  bestowed  every  goodness  upon  me”.  The translation of Chayavim as guilty follows the understanding that we  are  alluding  to  the  fact  that Hashem bestows kindness upon us even though we are not worthy of it.

Rabbi Abittan would remind us that the Korban Todah was unique in many ways. We were required to eat it on the same day on which it was offered. In this short span of time, a large amount of food had to be consumed. For in addition to the actual animal offering (which was either a bull, a calf, a ram, a sheep or a goat), 30 loaves of unleavened bread and 10 loaves of leavened bread were offered and consumed.

How in the world could the person bringing the offering eat all that food before the night faded away? That’s when friends, family and kohanim come in handy. The rabbi would explain that the thanksgiving offering was to be celebrated by sharing one’s appreciation and joy with others. He might invite people he met on the road or those who came across in Jerusalem. They would ask what the occasion was and he would go into detail recounting the miracle he experienced and how happy he felt in being saved by G-d.

The rabbi would suggest that any time someone had an obligation to say Gomel, he also make a seudah being it lunch on Shabbat, seuda shelishi or even breakfast and recount his story and his appreciation. I know that for some of us who regularly travel by plane, Gomel can become a twice weekly blessing at times. Still though, it must be a moment that we stop and reflect and appreciate and share that appreciation with others.

Rabbi Abittan would suggest that the person truly grateful for Hashem’s deliverance, the necessity to share with others the exhilarating feelings of thankfulness, appreciation and closeness to Hashem and awe at His greatness is instinctive and spontaneous. The Korban Todah allowed us express our gratitude in the company of friends and family and the fact that we are without the Mikdash should not diminish this aspect.

Depending upon when you read this, you will either be looking forward to your Purim Seudah, you may be eating the Purim meal or Purim may be a memory in the rear view window and you are looking forward to the Passover Seders.  I believe that this idea as articulated by the Rabbi should be expressed at each meal and gathering. Not only in enumerating the endless list of coincidences which hid the miracles of Purim or recounting the on Passover the exodus from Egypt. We must retell our own stories, our own Exodus and our miracles and those of our fathers and grandfathers before us. As that generation which links us to a world we never knew wanes, we must redouble our efforts.

In closing, I am deeply grateful to Artscroll for putting out this past week a new book titled Nouri. The book details the life of my “uncle” Nouri Dayan. Nouri was my dad’s first cousin, but after his mother, my great aunt Shefiha, was murdered in Damascus in 1919, Nouri came with my great-grandmother Farha to America and was eventually raised in my Grandmother Esther’s house as a sibling of my father. The book begins by recounting – much of which is in my dad’s words, my great grandfather Joseph’s journeys from Baghdad to Bombay, from Damascus to Algeria, from Lyon to San Francisco and eventually settling in New York.

One joins my grandfather Reuben in American University and his escape through Beirut’s Harbor. We sit with the two of them at the World’s Fair and hear the rat tat tat of the silver they are chasing. We come to Brooklyn and experience the beginnings of the community, the building of Ahi Ezer and the foundations which support us to this day. The book is a source of the stories we must tell over and the histories we need to be thankful for. It gives reason to invite others to join for a meal and to tell them how appreciative we are; for the passage of our ancestors across the sea, across the desert and being saved from impossible situations. A written Psalm of Thanks.

Rabbi David Bibi

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