Month: April 2013

D’var Torah – Parshat Emor – May The Cohen Gadol (High Priest) Rise Above His Emotions?!

The Torah doesn’t make it easy to be a Cohen. Cohanim are required to reign in their emotions more than the Levites and Israelites. The Cohen is restricted in his ability to mourn: the Torah permits him to mourn only for his seven closest relatives: his wife, mother, father, son, daughter, brother and unmarried sister. And the Cohen Gadol, the High Priest, is forbidden to come near any dead person – even his closest relatives.

And not only during his mourning period, but even in the happiness of matrimony the Torah limits the Cohen: he may not marry a divorcee, and in the case of the High Priest, he may not even marry a widow.

How are we to understand these restrictions? Are the Cohanim in general, and the High Priest in particular, really meant to totally devoid themselves of their emotions, of all their attachments to their near and dear ones?

When the Torah states that an ordinary Cohen buries his close relatives, does this mean that a Cohen is merely permitted to bury these relatives, or is he actually obligated to do so? The Gemara answers that a Cohen is obligated to bury his relatives. And the Gemara brings an incident to prove this, from Yosef HaCohen, whose wife died on the day before Pesach, and he did not want to become impure, which would mean he would not be able to eat the Pesach sacrifice that evening! However, his fellow Cohanim took a vote and decided to compel him to personally bury his wife on the day before Pesach.

The Gemara teaches us that even though the Cohanim are generally forbidden to contract impurity from a human corpse – this does not apply to close relatives. Because if, God forbid, a person’s wife dies, he must mourn for her, and not be engrossed in other worlds – even those involving the performance of a mitzvah!

But what about the Cohen Gadol? He is forbidden to become impure for anyone – even his closest relatives! Perhaps we can conclude from this that at least a person who is on a very high spiritual level is required to rise above his emotions? This is not the case, my Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yehuda Amital z”l, argued, who explained that we learn out the laws of mourning specifically from Aharon the High Priest!

Aharon, it is true, refused to eat of the sin offering after the death of his two oldest sons. However, he still offered up the he-goat of the sin-offering, even though he was in the most intense stage of mourning for his sons.

We see from here that Aharon mourned the loss of his two sons – even while continuing to perform the Temple service!

In contrast to a regular Cohen, the Cohen Gadol does not need the external expressions of mourning. It is sufficient for him to mourn his losses inwardly. However, even he is not exempt from mourning! He is still required to have emotions and be kind and empathetic to others!

The Kotzker Rebbe put it best on the verse in the book of Shemot: “People of holiness you shall be to Me.” The Kotzker Rebbe interprets this to mean that Hashem is saying, as it were: “I have enough Angels, I need people, to be a holy nation here on earth!” People who find favor in the eyes of God and mankind, who sanctify the mundane and who do good deeds in this world, thus making the world a better place to live in, and for the Shechina to reside amongst us.

Tip 6 of 10 of “Tips and Tricks on Making a Will in Israel”: Is it advisable for me to appoint an executor in my Will?

Unlike in other jurisdictions, the appointment of an executor is not required under Israeli law. Indeed, if the estate is small or straightforward, it is probably not necessary, albeit that an executor can assist in the efficient distribution of the estate. The appointment of an executor can add considerably to the costs of winding up an estate, as the executor is required to file with the Administrator General’s Office (האפוטרופוס הכללי) an inventory of all the estate’s assets and an annual report of his dealings with those assets, as well as various applications to the court.

When ought an executor to be appointed?

One or more executors ought to be appointed under your Will, in cases where complications can be foreseen, e.g. in cases of potential disputes between beneficiaries, such as where the testator has children from a previous marriage. Even such cases may not require the appointment of an executor – I once had the good fortune to be inspired by an elderly couple (his second marriage with children from his first wife, her first marriage with no children), where it was clear that the new wife got on so well with the children of her husband’s first marriage that she wanted to leave 90% of their assets to them!

An application to appoint an executor would need to be made, for example, when one of the beneficiaries cannot be traced.

For further advice and assistance in making an Israeli or UK Will, feel free to contact Simon: 0737-40-60-40 / 0545-742-374 / [email protected]

One of my favorite Divrei Torah on this week’s double-Torah reading comes from my Yeshiva days in Yeshivat Har Etzion.

“If a person has on the skin of his flesh a rising or a scab or a bright spot… a plague on the head or upon the beard… and when the plague of leprosy is in a garment… and I put a plague of leprosy upon a house in the land of your possession…” (Vayikra 13:2, 13:29, 13:47, 14: 34).

“The plague of leprosy comes a punishment for lashon ha’ra (slander), which is done by chattering, therefore birds are compulsory for the leper’s purification, because these chatter continuously with a twittering sound… The lofty cedar tree was used because plagues come as a punishment for haughtiness (Arachin 16b)” (Rashi, Vayikra, 14:4).

Lashon Ha’ra and haughtiness emanate from the same root – the trait of pride. One who feels he is better and deserves more than other people allows himself to speak disparagingly of others, to point out their faults and to comport himself with haughtiness towards those around him.

In order to uproot this trait, the Tzara’at affects everything belonging and connected to a person. First and foremost (according to the simple meaning of the text) – his body; then his hair (whose roots emerge from his head, but which do not actually constitute part of his body); later on, his clothing, which does not belong to the body at all, but which are placed on it; and, finally, a person’s home, which while belonging monetarily and sentimentally to him, the person does not come into direct contact with it.

When the arrogant person takes to heart the fact that he and everything that belongs to him is subject to change, that the Controller of him and everything connected to him is the real Home Owner, he will appreciate his true status, take a step back and ditch his pride.

(Source: Rav Yonatan Grosman and Motti Safrai in Daf Kesher, Yeshivat Har Etzion, Nissan 5752, No. 331; with my embellishments).

Tip 5 of 10 of “Tips and Tricks on Making a Will in Israel”:
What is the role of an executor?

An executor is a person or trust company whom you name in your Will to carry out (“execute”) your wishes and distribute your estate when you die. Your estate is what you own at the time of your death. It may include all kinds of property such as a car, a house, a cottage, land, furniture and jewelry. Other property may come into your estate after your death, such as interest on investments and income from rental property.

The executor’s responsibilities include obtaining the original copy of your Will; taking control of your estate and make a list of your property; applying to the court for probate, where appropriate; administering the estate and paying off all outstanding debts; and distributing your property according to your wishes as set out in your Will.

Next Tip: Is it advisable for me to appoint an executor in my Will under Israeli law – or not?

For further advice and assistance in making an Israeli or UK Will, feel free to contact Simon: 0737-40-60-40 / 0545-742-374 / [email protected]

Tip 5 of 10 of “Tips and Tricks on Making a Will in Israel”: What is the role of an executor?

An executor is a person or trust company whom you name in your Will to carry out (“execute”) your wishes and distribute your estate when you die. Your estate is what you own at the time of your death. It may include all kinds of property such as a car, a house, a cottage, land, furniture and jewelry. Other property may come into your estate after your death, such as interest on investments and income from rental property.

The executor’s responsibilities include obtaining the original copy of your Will; taking control of your estate and make a list of your property; applying to the court for probate, where appropriate; administering the estate and paying off all outstanding debts; and distributing your property according to your wishes as set out in your Will.

Next Tip: Is it advisable for me to appoint an executor in my Will under Israeli law – or not?

For further advice and assistance in making an Israeli or UK Will, feel free to contact Simon: 0737-40-60-40 / 0545-742-374 / [email protected]

Tip 4 of 10 of “Tips and Tricks on Making a Will in Israel”: What does probate mean?

‘Probate’ is a term commonly used when talking about applying for the right to deal with a deceased person’s affairs generally – and specifically to resolve all claims and to distribute the deceased person’s property under a valid Will. A “Grant of Probate” (Tzav Kiyum Tzava’ah) confirms the validity of a deceased person’s Will. Once a Will has been probated by the Israeli Succession Registrar (Ha’Rasham Le’Inyanei Yerusha), or by the Family Matters Court (Beit HaMishpat Le’Inyanei Mishpacha) in less straightforward cases, everyone can rely on its authenticity.

Probate thus protects the instructions of the deceased, confirms the executor as the person entitled to deal with the deceased’s estate in accordance with his Will, protects the interests of family members who may have claims against the estate, and protects the executor against claims and lawsuits.

For further advice and assistance in making an Israeli or UK Will, feel free to contact Simon: 0737-40-60-40 / 0545-742-374 / [email protected]


Tip 4 of 10 of “Tips and Tricks on Making a Will in Israel”: What does probate mean?


‘Probate’ is a term commonly used when talking about applying for the right to deal with a deceased person’s affairs generally – and specifically to resolve all claims and to distribute the deceased person’s property under a valid Will. A “Grant of Probate” (Tzav Kiyum Tzava’ah) confirms the validity of a deceased person’s Will. Once a Will has been probated by the Israeli Succession Registrar (Ha’Rasham Le’Inyanei Yerusha), or by the Family Matters Court (Beit HaMishpat Le’Inyanei Mishpacha) in less straightforward cases, everyone can rely on its authenticity. Probate thus protects the instructions of the deceased, confirms the executor as the person entitled to deal with the deceased’s estate in accordance with his Will, protects the interests of family members who may have claims against the estate, and protects the executor against claims and lawsuits.

For further advice and assistance in making an Israeli or UK Will, feel free to contact Simon: 0737-40-60-40 / 0545-742-374 / [email protected]


In the Aftermath of Pesach and as a Prelude to Parshat Shemini – The Magnificent Spiritual Quality of Eating as an Act of Communion With God

In an extremely well-written article, printed in the Yeshiva University publication “Torah To-Go” in honor of Pesach-Yom Haatzmaut 5773 (March 2013), Rabbi Netanel Wiederblank draws attention to a common dilemma at many family seders: “The scholarly but insensitive members protract maggid, and then insist on abbreviating shulchan orech in order to complete the afikomen by midnight. Other family members, hungry and bored, having endured the drawn-out divrai Torah, resent the rushed seudah (meal), especially after so much effort was expended to prepare a delectable meal.”

The author of the article notes that one might have expected Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l, whose 20^th Yahrtzeit the YU publication commemorates, to favor those who focus on maggid. After all, the Rav felt that the seder was a night of Torah study. However, in a fascinating essay printed in Festival of Freedom, containing Essays on Pesach and the Haggadah in the Rav’s thought, entitled “An Exalted Evening: The Seder Night,” quite the opposite approach is advocated – in Rabbi Wiederblank’s words: “not just because of their egregious insensitivity to the hard work and legitimate feelings of the others, but in their basic presumption that the meal is not a crucial part of the seder experience, as opposed to merely a concession to the spiritually insensitive.”

In the Rav’s own words in the aforesaid article: “In the eyes of the Halakhah, the meal is not something incidental, meaningless and completely mechanical, something that exhausts itself in the act of eating at fixed times of the day. The meal is more than this – it is a halakhic institution… I would say that the Halakhah has developed an etiquette as well as an ethic of se’udah.”

The Rav elaborates on four differences between human and animal eating as a means of describing how the human being can convert this animalistic act into a uniquely human and meaningful endeavor. First, the animal is not selective as to the means it employs in order to gratify its instinctive drive, whereas man may employ selectivity in choosing the means of gratification. Second, for the animal the entire process is of a mechanical character, without any understanding on the part of the eater of the enigma involved in such a performance. By contrast, man may stand awestruck before the miracle of an organism taking in and assimilating food. Third, the animal eats for itself, in seclusion, unaware of others, whereas man may combine eating with companionship. Fourth, for the animal eating exhausts itself in the physiological act of gratification, while man may place his natural activity in a new frame of reference.

The Rav proves the magnificent spiritual quality of eating from the numerous verses which describe “eating before God,” as in Devarim 12:7. The seder, the Rav argues, which celebrates our formation as a people, thus necessarily involves a seudah, because the seudah is the “means by which Judaism distinguishes between eating as a beastly-brutish function and as a human spontaneous performance… Judaism tries to convert the meal into a covenantal feast, a covenantal event.” Indeed, every meal in Judaism “is transposed into a covenantal feast at which the covenant is renewed and reconfirmed. The individual who ate and was engrossed in a very ordinary activity… relates himself at the conclusion of the meal to the charismatic community, to its glorious past, to its covenant, Torah, and great institutions, to its hopes and visions, to the great future…”

Judaism says that man must eat, not alone, but within the community. We share our material possessions with other members of the community who are less fortunate. We also give away the spiritual goods with which God has blessed us, letting other members of the community receive a glimpse of the beautiful treasures we have acquired through painstaking effort, diligence and complete devotion. This is the Torat hesed community…

“God did not need the paschal lamb – He had no interest in the sacrifice. He simply wanted the people – slaves who had just come out of the house of bondage – to emerge from their isolation and insane self-centeredness into the hesed community, where the little that man has is too much for himself…”

I highly commend both the Yeshiva University “Torah To-Go” Pesach-Yom Haatzmaut 5773 publication and the magnificent book “Festival of Freedom: Essays on Pesah and the Haggadah,” edited by Joel B. Wolowelsky and Reuven Ziegler (Jersey City: Ktav, 2006). Both are worth reading and studying, for their fresh and insightful thoughts, not only on Pesach, but the whole year round.