Parshat Emor May 7, 2011 3 Iyyar, 5771

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on Parshat Emor

The festival of Shavuot is a could have no fixed date. In the forty years in the wilderness. As
Torah mystery wrapped in an enigma. Jewish calendar a month can be long our sedra says: “Live in booths for
Artscroll, 672 Here is how this week’s sedra (30 days) or short (29). If Nisan and seven days: All native-born
Hertz, 513 describes and defines it: Iyar were both long months, Shavuot Israelites are to live in booths so
would fall on 5 Sivan. If both were your descendants will know that I
Haftorah From the day after the Sabbath,
short, it would fall on 7 Sivan. And if had the Israelites live in booths
Artscroll, 1176 the day you brought the sheaf of
one were long and the other short, it when I brought them out of Egypt.
Hertz, 528 the wave offering, count off
would fall on 6 Sivan. Unlike other I am the Lord your God.”
seven full weeks. Count off fifty
festivals, Shavuot is (or was) a
days up to the day after the In the case of Shavuot, all the
moveable feast.
seventh Sabbath, and then Torah says is that it is the “Feast
present an offering of new grain Thirdly, the point at which the of the Harvest”, and the “Day of
Times to the Lord . . . On that same day counting of days and weeks begins is Firstfruits”. These are agricultural
you are to proclaim a sacred signaled in a profoundly ambiguous descriptions, not historical ones.
Candle Lighting 7:38 pm assembly and do no regular phrase: “From the day after the Pesach and Sukkot have both: an
Friday Mincha 7:00 pm work. This is to be a lasting Sabbath”. But which Sabbath? And agricultural aspect (spring/autumn)
ordinance for the generations to what is the reference to a Sabbath and a historical one (exodus/
Hashkama 8:00 am
come, wherever you live. doing here at all? The previous wilderness). This is not a marginal
Youth 8:30 am (Leviticus 23: 15-21) passage has talked about Pesach, not phenomenon, but of the essence.
Main Minyan 9:00 am the Sabbath. This led to one of the Other religions of the ancient
great controversies in Second Temple world celebrated seasons. They
Beit Midrash 9:15 am These are the difficulties. In the
first place, Shavuot, “the feast of Judaism. The Pharisees, who believed recognized cyclical time. Only
Intermediate 9:15 am weeks”, is given no calendrical in the Oral Law as well as the Written Israel observed historical time –
Minyan one understood “the Sabbath” to time as a journey, a story, an
date: all the other festivals are.
Gemorah Shiur 6:30 pm Pesach, for example is “on the mean, here, the first day of Pesach (15 evolving narrative. The historical
Nisan). The Sadducees, who believed dimension of the Jewish festivals
Mincha 7:30 pm fifteenth day” of the “first
month”. Shavuot has no such in the Written Law only, took the text was unique. All the more, then, is
Shabbat Ends 8:47 pm literally. The day after the Sabbath is it strange that Shavuot is not
date. It is calculated on the basis
Sunday of counting “seven full weeks” Sunday. Thus the count always begins biblically linked to a historical
May 8 7:30/8:30 am from a particular starting time, on a Sunday, and Shavuot, fifty days event.
later, also always falls on a Sunday.
Mon., Thurs. 6:35/7:45 am not by noting a date in the year. Jewish tradition identified Shavuot
Tues. Wed., Fri. 6:45/7:45 am Secondly, as long as the New The fourth mystery, though, is the as “the time of the giving of the
Moon was determined on the deepest: what is Shavuot about? What Torah”, the anniversary of the
Mincha 7:40 pm does it commemorate? About Pesach Divine revelation at Sinai when
Sun/Thurs. basis of eyewitness testimony
(i.e. until the fourth century of and Sukkot, we have no doubt. the Israelites heard the voice of G-
Latest times for the Common Era), Shavuot Pesach is a commemoration of the d and made a covenant with Him.
Shema/Shmoneh Esrei exodus. Sukkot is a reminder of the But that connection is not made in
May 7 9:19/10:29 am
May 14 9:15/10:27 am Seudah Shlishit
Kiddush is is sponsored by
Next Shabbat
Behar sponsored by Ellen & Mitchell Siegel
Candle lighting 7:46 pm Great Neck in memory of her father
Morris Givner, z”l.
Synagogue.
Mincha 7:00 pm
26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 (516) 487-6100 Shabbat Announcements Parshat Emor 5771
promised land? When, in fact, did it take place? The Book of Joshua
the Torah itself. To be sure, the Torah says that “In the third month after
(5: 10-12) states:
the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day,
they entered the wilderness of Sinai” (Ex. 19: 1), and Shavuot is the only On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at
festival in the third month. So the connection is implicit; but it is not Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the
explicit. For this, as for the festival’s date, we need the Oral tradition. Passover. The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of
the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The
What then was the view of the Sadducees? It is unlikely that they linked
manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was
Shavuot with the giving of the Torah. For that event had a date, and for
no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the
the Sadducees Shavuot did not have a date. They kept it on a Sunday –
produce of Canaan.
they observed it on a specific day of the week, not on a specific date in
the year. How did the Sadducees view Shavuot? It is this text that Maimonides takes as proof that “the day after the
Sabbath” in fact means, as the text states here, “the day after the
There is a fascinating episode recorded in the rabbinic literature
Passover”. Seen through Sadducean eyes, however, this text might have
(Menachot 65a) in which a Sadducee explains to R. Yochanan ben Zakkai
held a quite different significance. The Omer recalls the day the
why, according to them, Shavuot is always on a Sunday: “Moses our
Israelites first ate the produce of the promised land. It was the end of
teacher was a great lover of Israel. Knowing that Shavuot lasted only one
the wilderness years – the day they stopped eating manna (“bread from
day, he therefore fixed it on the day after the Sabbath so that Israel might
heaven” – Exodus 16: 4) and started eating bread from the land to
enjoy themselves for two successive days.” Shavuot gave the Israelites a
which they had been traveling for forty years.
long weekend!
The reason Shavuot is given only agricultural, not historical, content in
From this starting point we can begin to speculate what Shavuot might
the Torah is that in this case agriculture was history. The fifty day count
have meant for the Sadducees. The late Louis Finkelstein argued that they
from the first time they ate food grown in Israel to the end of the grain
were landowners and farmers. In general, they were wealthier than the
harvest represents the end of the journey of which Pesach was the
Pharisees, and more closely attached to the State and its institutions: the
beginning and Sukkot the middle. Shavuot is a festival of the land and
Temple and the political elite. They were as near as Judaism came to a
its produce because it commemorates the entry into the land in the days
governing class.
of Joshua. So the Sadducees may have argued. It was Israel’s first Yom
For farmers the agricultural significance of Shavuot would have been ha-Atzma’ut, Independence Day. It was the festival of entry into the
clear and primary. It was “the festival of the harvest, of the firstfruits of promised land.
your work, of what you sow in the field” (Ex. 23: 16). It came at the end
It is, perhaps, not surprising that after the destruction of the Second
of a seven-week process that began with the bringing of the Omer – “a
Temple, the Sadducees rapidly disappeared. How do you celebrate a
sheaf of the first grain of your harvest” (Lev. 23: 10), i.e. the first of the
festival of the land when you have lost the land? How do you predicate
barley crop. This was the busy time of gathering in the grain (this is the
your religious identity on the State and its institutions (Temple, priests,
setting of the Book of Ruth, and one of the reasons why we read it on
kings) when you have lost those institutions? Only a movement (the
Shavuot). Farmers would have a specific reason to give thanks to G-d
Pharisees) and a festival (Shavuot) based on the giving of the Torah,
who “brings forth bread from the ground”. They would also, by the end of
could survive. For the Torah was not completely dependent on the land.
harvesting, be exhausted. Hence the Sadducee’s remark about needing a
It had been given “in the wilderness”. It applied anywhere and
long weekend.
everywhere.
We can now see the outline of a possible Sadducean argument. Pesach
To be sure, the Pharisees, no less than the Sadducees, loved the land.
represents the beginning of the Israelites’ journey to freedom. Sukkot
They knew the Torah in its entirety could only be kept there. They
recalls the forty years of wandering in the desert. But where in the Jewish
longed for it, prayed for it, lived there whenever they could. But even in
year do we recall and celebrate the end of the journey: the entry into the
exile, they still had the Torah and the promise it contained that one day
Jews would return, and recover their sovereignty, and rebuild what they
had lost.
Great Neck Synagogue
Shabbat Activities Program The argument about Shavuot turned out to be fateful for Jewish history.
Great Neck Synagogue
Shabbat Activities Program Those who celebrated it as “the time of the giving of the Torah”
ensured Jewish survival through nearly 20 centuries of exile and
Dale Polakoff, Rabbi dispersion. And we, who live in the era of the return, can rejoice in a
Ian Lichter, Assistant Rabbi double celebration: of the Torah and of the land.
Dr. Ephraim Wolf ,z”l, Rabbi Emeritus
Michael Bleicher, Daniel Schwechter, Rabbinic Interns
Zeev Kron, Cantor
Eleazer Schulman, z”l, Cantor Emeritus
Mark Twersky, Executive Director
Joseph Hecht, President
Harold Domnitch, Chairman of the Board
 Join us at Great Neck Synagogue    
on Monday evening, May 9, 2011   Great Neck Synagogue Annual Family Luncheon 
to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day.   Established In Memory of Sharon Sokol Heisler z”l 
  Saturday, May 14, 2011 
Join us for special program for Yom Hazikaron  
Guest Speaker:  
and t’fillot for the day, starting with Mincha at 7:40 pm. 
 Show your support for Israel. 
Dr. Lawrence Schiffman 
To be a sponsor of this event  please call   Topic: 
the Synagogue Office 487‐6100.  “Israels’s Fault Line 
  A Historian’s Perspective of Israel’s Future in a  
Sponsorship levels:  Shifting Arab World” 
 
$50 Friend 
Special Musical appearance by The Maccabeats 
$100 Patron 
$250 Supporter 
 
$360 Benefactor   
 
 
$55 per person 
Come Join The Great Neck Synagogue  $20 per child (under 12) 
on a Family Trip & Tour of Israel!  (No charge for children under 3) 
Tuesday, May 10 — Yom Ha’atzmaut 
For reservations please call or e‐mail 
Pre‐Flight Israeli Food: 5‐5:30pm 
in the Airport (Braun Youth Center)  Mark Twersky  
ELAL Flight 613 will take off at 5:30pm SHARP!  (516) 487‐6100  
Arrival & Tour of the Land (Gym): 5:45‐7pm  Email : mtwersky@gns.org 
TICKETS & PASSPORTS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED                       
Some of the attractions include: 
Davening & picture taking at the Kotel 
NAME________________________ 
Sand Art  in Eilat   
Picking & Tasting the Shivat Ha’Minim (7 Species)  No. of adults_________  
Candle Making in Tzefat  No. of children under 12_______ 
This exciting program is geared towards children 
No. of children under 3_____________ 
In nursery to 5th grade & their parents 
and is for Great Neck Synagogue members only   
RSVP TO ILICHTER@GNS.ORG  Seating request________________________ 
TO MAKE YOUR RESERVATION   
Amount enclosed_________________________ 
For more information please call:  
Debbie Hollander (516) 829‐2013 
Beautiful Catered Lunch by Prestige Caterers 

 
Women’s Rosh Chodesh Night Out    Come Hear the Maccabeats! 
 Every month in honor of Rosh Chodesh,    
women from our community  Friday night davenning on May 13th promises to be very special as 
gather together to learn and hear a   the Maccabeats will be davenning Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv. 
Torah presentation  You can also hear them Shabbat morning in the Beit Midrash,  
that brings insight to our daily lives.  where they will be davenning both shacharit and musaf. 
 For this month of Iyar,    
the Women's Rosh Chodesh Program   This accapella group of young men from Yeshiva University has  
will be hosting    performed throughout the country and has inspired crowds with 
Challah Baking with Mindy Leventhal  their beautiful harmonies. They are a wonderful addition to our 
 Please reserve Thursday night, May 5th, at 8:00 p.m.   annual family shabbaton in memory of Sharon Sokol Heisler, z"l.  
in the Braun Youth Center   We hope that you will join us for the luncheon,  
Please RSVP to Katie Lichter   where you will also hear the Maccabeats.  
at KatieLichter@gmail.com.   Following the luncheon the community is invited  
Space is limited.  to hear a talk from Professor Lawrence Schiffman. 
 This months Women's Rosh Chodesh program  
is being sponsored by Mindy Leventhal. 
 ANNOUNCEMENTS
MENS’ CLUB UPCOMING EVENTS
Sun. May 22: Israel Bond breakfast honoring Howard & Florin
Silberstein.– 10 am.
Sun, June 12: The semi-annual Blood Drive.
Tues & Wed, June 28 & 29: The Annual Defensive Driving
Course.
Sun. July 17: Trip to NYC Jewish Heritage Museum.
INTERMEDIATE MINYAN WITH RABBI SKYDELL
This Shabbat May 7th, will be the last minyan this season.
The Minyan meets on the second floor in the NSHA Wing.
SAVE THE NEW DATE
Great Neck Synagogue Family Luncheon established in
memory of Sharon Sokol-Heisler will take place on Shabbat,
May 14. Prof. Lawrence Schiffman will be our featured guest
speaker at the luncheon. Special musical appearance by the
Maccabeats. See page 3 for reservation form.
SISTERHOOD FREE ZUMBA CLASS
Back by popular demand, the Sisterhood is offering another free
Zumba class on Wednesday evening, May 11th, at 8:00pm in the
GNS gym presented by instructor Michelly from Zumbrazil. Please
bring your own water and towel and wear sneakers. Women only.
To make a reservation, please contact Kimberly Mayer at
kjgreen01@hotmail.com.
SAVE THE DATE
The Combined Sisterhoods of Great Neck is launching the first
program of the "Great Neck Sister’s Project", a hands-on charity
event to bring together Great Neck Jewish women. We will be
collecting products to donate to the Nassau County Coalition
against Domestic Violence which helps women and children who
are victims of violence and/or sexual abuse. We will collect
products from their wish list and work together to make packages
for these victims. Please join us on Thursday, May 12th from
10:00am-12:00pm at Temple Israel of Great Neck. Please come
dressed comfortably and be prepared to work. A light breakfast
will be served. Please drop off donated items in the box outside
the synagogue office, thank you very much! See page 3.
DOS YIDDISH VORT
DYV welcomes back snowbirds on Wednesday, May 18 at 1:30 pm.
Our favorite Pearl Ginsburg returns to read from Sholem
Aleichem's "Motl Pacey, Dem Chasn's. All are welcome.
For information call Roz Wagner at 487-9795.
WOMEN’S ROSH CHODESH NIGHT OUT
For this month of Iyyar, the Women's Rosh Chodesh Program will
be hosting Challah Baking with Mindy Leventhal. Please reserve
Thursday night, May 5th, at 8:00 p.m. in the Braun Youth Center.
Please RSVP to Katie Lichter at KatieLichter@gmail.com. Space is
limited. This months Women's Rosh Chodesh program is being
sponsored by Mindy Leventhal.
CHESED EVENT BENEFITING OHEL ON LAG BA OMER
As part of our 60th Anniversary Celebration, we are planning
a family outing on May 22nd beginning at 11:30 pm at Kings Point
Park with games, food and activities for children of all ages.
Cost is $36 per family, $50 to sponsor. Each family should bring an
unwrapped, new toy which will be donated to Ohel. Contact
sarafeldschreiber@gmail.com for sponsorship opportunities.
SAVE THE DATE:
The NSHA Annual Journal Dinner celebrating the 10th anniversary of
its High School and its 56 year tradition of excellence will take place
on Thursday, May 26th at Jazz at Lincoln Center, honoring the
visionaries who have made the HS a reality-Founders, Lisa & Ivan
Kaufman and Headmaster, Dr. Daniel Vitow. To place an ad or make
a reservation, please call Mr. Arnie Flatow Executive
Director at 487-8687ext 133.
Within Our Family
Mazal Tov to Dr. Lloyd & Helen Bayme on the engagement of
their daughter, Sara to Seth Wilson, son of Leonard & Judy
Wilson of Ryebrook, NY.
Mazal Tov to Hedva & Edmund Kessler on the birth of a grandson,
born to their children Gillian and Alan Kessler.
SAVE THE DATE
Yom Yerushalayim Family Outing will take place on Wednesday
evening, June 1. More details to follow.
Louise Kahn would like to thank her friends and
the entire community for their support and sympathy
following the death of her mother Sadie Tuch in
Israel.
SAVE THE DATE
A Parlor meeting for Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem will take place on
Tuesday, May 10th at the home of Davida & Marc Yehaskel,
9 Willow Lane in Great Neck (off Beach Road). Guest of Honors are:
Mr. Steven Blumner, Dr. Gary Chubak, Mr. Tom Furst ,
Mr. Isaac Greszes, Mr. Natan Hamerman and Mr. Joseph
Hyman. For more info contact Glenn Zuckerman.
60th ANNIVERSARY CHESED PROGRAM
Please do not throw out your unused Passover products. They can be
brought to the Synagogue office and will be distributed to families in
need. We would like to thank the Frumkin Family for organizing a
successful April collection of Passover food and Katie Lichter for
collecting chometz. The May collection for Hachnasat Kallah, where we
will be collecting small new appliances, household items and kitchen
items will take place on May 18th at the Synagogue. We thank
Pia & Michael Shlomo for their help this month.
HELP FOR TORNADO VICTIMS!
GNS is collecting the following new or gently used items for tornado
victims in Alabama: CAN OPENERS, BABY BOTTLES, PACIFIERS, A & D
OINTMENT, BABY/ CHILD THERMOMETERS, BABY RATTLES AND
TEETHERS, MATERNITY CLOTHING, BABY CLOTHES, TODDLER
CLOTHES. PLEASE LEAVE IN BIN AT SYNAGOGUE OFFICE OR DROP OFF
AT LISS-LEVINSON HOME, 13 CHURCH STREET.
Saturday, 3 Iyyar
Nettie Halitzer for Frances Radisch
Sonia Herman for Gloria Okun
Herman Kotler for Esther Kotler
Renee Krieger for Esther Kotler
Francine Mermelstein for Gitla Zimmerman
Ellen Siegel for Morris Givner
Marcia Toledano for Isidore Karten
Sunday, 4 Iyyar
Roslyn Dicker for Max Gottlieb
Monday, 5 Iyyar
Y Ronald Braun for Robert Braun
Aaron Eliach for Ruth Eliach
A Peter Epstein for Isidore Epstein
Ebrahim Gabbaizadeh for David Gabbaizadeh
H Michael Nevens for Sally Nevens
Aaron Seligson for Abraham Seligson
R Roselin Wagner for Reci Prebluda
Tuesday, 6 Iyyar
Z Sheila Bachman for Florence Gur
E Halina Greenwald for Pola Salpeter
Ephraim Slonim for Jacob Slonim
I Sam Yehaskel for Lucy Yehaskel
Wednesday, 7 Iyyar
T Reuel Shinnar for Betty Halpern
Thursday, 8 Iyyar
Joan Hope for Heymann Hoffman
Fay Smith for Lester Smith
Friday, 9 Iyyar
Tammy Jampel for Amnon Abramov