Tag Archives: Talmud

Jew of the Week: Léon Blum

Prime Minister of France

Leon Blum, Three-Time Prime Minister of France

Few can claim having lived a rollercoaster life like that of Andre Léon Blum (1872-1950). In his youth, he was inspired to join France’s socialist community while studying at the Sarbonne and living through the infamous Dreyfus affair. Writing for a popular journal and rising through the ranks, he became a well-known champion for the little guy. It eventually won him the role of prime minister of France – no less than three times! This, in an era of open Jew-hatred. In fact, before becoming PM he was dragged out of his car and nearly beaten to death by a royalist anti-Semite band known as the Camelots du Roi. When Blum was elected, an opposition leader had this to say: “Your coming to power is undoubtedly a historic event. For the first time this old Gallo-Roman country will be governed by a Jew. I dare say out loud what the country is thinking, deep inside: it is preferable for this country to be led by a man whose origins belong to his soil… than by a cunning Talmudist.” With the start of World War II, Blum chose bravely not to flee and stayed in his country. He was arrested and imprisoned, first in Vichy, then in Germany. At his trial in 1942, he argued so eloquently that it embarrassed the entire Nazi regime and the Germans called off the trial! Unfortunately it did not save him from the concentration camps. Blum suffered first in Buchenwald, then in Dachau. He only survived thanks to local authorities who disobeyed orders to kill him. Incredibly, after surviving all of these ordeals, he became prime minister of France yet again after the war. A wonderful writer, Blum penned many gems about life: “When a woman is twenty, a child deforms her; when she is thirty, he preserves her; and when forty, he makes her young again.”

 

Words of the Week

Light attracts. Where a lantern is placed, those who seek light gather around.
– Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch (1880-1950)

Jews of the Week: Sarah & Serah

Don’t Confuse These Two!

Having entered the month of Adar, famous for the holiday of Purim and the heroics of Queen Esther, it is fitting to speak of the very first Jewish heroine: Sarah (c. 1803-1677 BCE). According to the Talmud, Sarah was among the four most beautiful women that ever lived (as was Esther). She was the first matriarch of Israel, and in many ways the first Jewish woman; a wise teacher and a great prophetess who “made souls” (see Genesis 12). A woman of great strength, she survived two abductions over the course of her travels across the Middle East, from present-day Iraq, to Syria, Israel and Egypt. Miraculously, she became pregnant at age 90. Sarah reached such a level of holiness that her tent shone with the Divine Presence. Sarah (שרה) is not to be confused with a lesser-known Biblical character: Serah (שרח). With her expert musical skills, Serah (also spelled Serach, or Serakh) soothed and saved her grandfather Jacob from devastation. Legend has it that for this she was blessed with immortality, living to the times of the Exodus and helping Moses in some of his endeavours. In fact, many believe she was the very person who identified Moses as the redeemer of Israel! Having never died, it is said Serah owns a palace in the afterlife where she teaches the Word of God to the masses.

Words of the Week

We, all of Israel, are emissaries of God, each of us has Divine Providence decreed for us. None of us is free from this sacred task placed on our shoulders…
– Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch (1880-1950)

Jew of the Week: the Vilna Gaon

Genius Is His Middle Name

the Vilna Gaon

Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer (1720-1797) was born in a small village in what is now Belarus. Known popularly as the Vilna Gaon – the Genius from Vilnius – it is said he committed the entire Torah to memory by age 5, and by age 11 the entire Talmud. It wasn’t long before he was one of European Jewry’s greatest legal authorities. A prolific writer, he penned commentaries on the Tanakh, Talmud, Mishnah and many other works (a large number of them Kabbalistic). Dedicating every moment of his life to Torah learning, he generally studied secular subjects only while in the bathroom (where study of Torah is forbidden). It was there that he became an expert in astronomy and Euclidean geometry, later instructing his disciples to write a mathematical treatise called Ayil Meshulash. The Vilna Gaon led a simple, saintly, ascetic lifestyle, sleeping just 2 hours a day, usually in 4 half-hour segments. For much of his life he was a travelling nomad, though his aim was always to settle in Israel. Himself unable to accomplish this goal, at least three groups of his students and their families did succeed in making Aliyah, bringing over 500 people to Tzfat and Jerusalem long before the Zionist movement. The Vilna Gaon passed away on Tishrei 19, the 5th day of Sukkot.

Psalm of the Day on the day of Gilad Schalit’s release from captivity. Incredibly, the psalm explicitly mentions Gilad’s name, as well as freedom from captivity, the holiday of Sukkot, and Tuesday. Schalit was freed on Tuesday, during the holiday of Sukkot!

Words of the Week

“On Simchat Torah the Torah scrolls wish to dance, so we become their feet.”
– Chassidic saying