Saturday, June 24, 2023
Friday, June 24, 2023
Shalom from Jerusalem! I’m lucky enough to be studying here at the Hartman Institute for two weeks. I’ll have more to say about this four-year Rabbinic Fellowship when I graduate next week, but today I want to call attention to Moreinu HaRav, our Rabbi and Teacher, Rabbi Dow Marmur, of blessed memory. Today, the 18th Day of Tammuz brings us full circle to complete a year since he was lovingly laid to rest in the hills of Jerusalem.
I visited with three generations of Marmurs yesterday in Fredzia’s apartment. She continues to be simultaneously strong and gentle, as she always has been. Tomorrow I’ll go for Shabbat Morning services at Kol HaNeshamah, where Rabbi-Professor Michael Marmur will give the sermon in his father’s memory and the Kiddush-lunch will be for congregants to remember Dow together.
Rabbi Marmur was a proud Reform Jew, who devoted himself to the entirety of the Jewish People. Rabbi Marmur was a proud Zionist, who could make a home for himself just about anywhere. (If you’d like a gift copy of his fascinating memoir, Six Lives, which reflects on his life in six countries, just call the Temple office.) He could teach a single verse of text in light of its greater context. He could observe a single event in light of all of Jewish history. He called our attention to the forest and the individual trees.
De-mo-crat-ia!
When I attended a spontaneous demonstration in Jerusalem this week, I couldn’t help but wonder what Rabbi Marmur would have to say about what I witnessed there. How would he interpret the array of t-shirt slogans and flags? Would he see the scene as glorious evidence of Israel’s strength? Or as worrisome evidence of Israel’s vulnerability?
Every Saturday evening for six months, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been demonstrating for Israel’s democracy. But this was Wednesday evening. Why? The Chief of Police of Tel Aviv was forced to resign because he was not being tough enough on the demonstrators.
That night began the 17th of Tammuz when we commemorate how the walls of Jerusalem were breached two thousand years ago. No one referenced it through the chants over the megaphones, but it was in the air. This day is a delicate day, as it has been throughout Jewish time. According to the Mishnah (Taanit 4:6), the 17th of Tammuz marks a series of calamities, of breakages, and ruptures in Jewish history — the burning of a Torah scroll in public by Apostemos, the placement of an idol in the Temple, the banning of the daily sacrifice by the Roman authorities, and the shattering of the two stone tablets by Moses.
Two Stones
With effort, stones can be broken. With effort, stones can also mend what has been broken.
I picked up these two stones from the new National Library of Israel, a place Rabbi Marmur would have loved, and asked one of my classmates, who is also a sofer (a scribe) to write “Pirchei Kodesh” on them. One of the stones will come home with me. One of them will be set at Rabbi Marmur’s grave by his family, so they can feel the presence of all of us, the congregation he served and led so well for so many years.
May Rabbi Marmur’s memory continue to be a blessing for all who learned from him and for all who were cared for by him. To revisit the extraordinary study and remembrances we enjoyed last Selichot in Rabbi Marmur’s honour, click here.
Shabbat Shalom from Yerushalayim, City of Peace.
Av is the 5th month of the year counting from the month of Nissan, the name means ‘Father’. During this month the Jewish people, G/d and Torah become ONE. It is during this month that the destruction of the two temples happened, and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain also took place during this month. The month conjures up a mixture of conflicting moods and the Mishna says: “As AV enters, we diminish joy”. During Av one sees the true love of a Father (G/d) and his unconditional love for his children in spite of his children not following his commandments.
The final Nine Days of Tisha B’AV and the Three Weeks are a time of intensified mourning. There are times when we’re told to be sad and this period is one of several during the year because without these times of sorrow and consolation, our joy would flow falsely and from sorrow, joy will permeate.
The Tribe of the month is Shimon, from the word Shema which attributes to hear, in the previous month of Tammuz Reuben sees. Hearing vs seeing, if you truly want to become ONE with G/d, one has to listen. Listening is greater than Seeing G/d. The limb of the month is the left kidney, signifying emotion.
The permutation of the month of Av: (ה.ו.י.ה) appears in the word הוֹיָ֗ה describes in Exodus 9:3 the plague of pestilence.
The letters begin reversed (ה.ו) but end in order (י.ה). This indicates that while the judgment over the first half of the month is harsh and strict, the month concludes with Divine mercy. In fact, the letters ‘yud’ and ‘heh’ are not only “in order” and connote mercy; their numerical equivalent is 15. This reveals that the second half of G-d’s name for this month literally correlates to the last 15 days of Av and corresponds to the teaching of the Talmud which states (Ta’anit 26b), “There are no greater days for the People of Israel like the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur”. The 15 of AV is known as one of the happiest days in Jewish history, Tu B’Av, signifies rebirth after destruction and is a day for new beginnings. The Talmud considers it the greatest festival of the year, followed by Yom Kippur, as its essence represents the future redemption.
The letter of the month is Tet, which appears first in the Torah on the word “Tov” (Good) mentioned during the creation G/d says: “it was good”. Tet has a numerical value of 9 for Tisha B’Av which is a day of mourning.
Where do we get the Tov? From the first two letters of Tov; Tet-Vav have a value of 15. The 15th of Av (as stated above) is a day of rejoicing. This demonstrates that one has the ability to transform, rebuild and arise from ashes.
An old Chassidic proverb goes, “Sadness is not a sin, but its effect on the person is worse than any sins.” The soul was sent to this world not to be, but to do; not to merely exist, but to achieve. To retreat into the self is to reverse the flow of life. Joy is revelation.
Ken YehiRatzon,
Teresa Quiroz – On behalf of Women of Holy Blossom
Rosh Chodesh Av: Shacharit Service, Wednesday, July 19, 7:30 am ET, in-person or via Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/93902401402?pwd=dGlOR2dEcGs1RVc0OVFwdkFtOVo5UT09
Password: 667580
For more dates and the connection to women see https://holyblossomdev.wpenginepowered.com/rosh-chodesh/
By Howard Roger
Our Archives Committee recently received a question from a librarian at the Bora Laskin Law Library at the University of Toronto. She had been contacted by an archivist in the US (from the NAACP) inquiring about Thurgood Marshall’s speech for the Holy Blossom Temple Brotherhood Forum on February 28, 1955. Did we have any information? We did indeed, and our search uncovered a fascinating coincidence.
Thurgood Marshall was a distinguished civil rights lawyer and legal counsel for the NAACP. In 1967 he became an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, the first Black to be appointed to that position. But he was, in 1955, already well-known for his successful argument before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. That case established the rule that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. It was a watershed moment in American legal history, overturning the separate-but-equal doctrine previously upheld by the Supreme Court in 1896.
Thurgood Marshall spoke at Holy Blossom Temple on the evening of Monday, February 28, 1955. The title of his speech was “Civil Rights and World Peace.” A page from the Holy Blossom Temple Bulletin of February 23, 1955 (see photo) describes not only his upcoming appearance at Holy Blossom, but also other events which he would be attending while in Toronto, including an appearance Sunday night on CBC television, a Civic Reception Monday morning with the Mayor (Nathan Phillips, a member of Holy Blossom) and the City Council, an address in the afternoon to the students of the University of Toronto Law School, and a reception at Hart House hosted by Holy Blossom Temple Brotherhood and the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews.
The article about Thurgood Marshall appears on the right-hand side of the Bulletin page. If you look at the bottom left-hand side of the same page you will see the name of Bora Laskin, who was, in 1955, a professor at the U of T law school and a member of the Board of Holy Blossom Temple. Bora Laskin had, in 1950, assisted the Canadian Jewish Congress in the case of Noble et al v. Wolf, a case before the Supreme Court of Canada which ruled that a restrictive covenant, prohibiting the ownership or occupancy of land “by any person of the Jewish, Hebrew, Semitic, Negro or coloured race or blood,” was void and unenforceable. In 1970 Bora Laskin was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, the first Jew to be appointed to that court, and he became Chief Justice in 1973.
We could not find any information on whether Bora Laskin was involved in making any of the arrangements for Thurgood Marshall’s visit to Toronto or attended any of the events. Still, our research has shown how two future Supreme Court justices came together (at least on paper), and reminded us how the history of Holy Blossom and the history of civil rights in Canada and the United States intersect.
You may wish to visit the Archives Committee displays at the far end of our atrium as well as the Living Museum display by the elevator.
If you have any items of archival interest to contribute to the Holy Blossom archives, we would love to hear from you. Please e-mail us at [email protected].
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Founded in 1856, Holy Blossom Temple is Toronto’s first synagogue with a rich history of tradition and modernity in our religious and spiritual expression.