Rabbi Shaanan Gelman

As the world contemplates who should receive the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines, an expression which has been bandied about for the past nine months now has new importance - “essential workers.”   Of course, the term refers to those whose responsibilities and professions are most critical during a pandemic, people who presumably perform tasks that are indispensable and central to our survival.   What is more complicated though, and the subject of much dispute, is who gets to define the term “essential”?   Does it extend to mental health professionals, social services, and what about religious services?   Isn't it true that to everyone, earning a living is “essential”?     The label of “essential” has generated a secondary problem - many individuals will now have to bear the emotional toll and the financial and social implications of being deemed a “nonessential.”   While the vaccine problem needs to be addressed decisively, I believe that ...

  On Yom Kippur of 1981, Rabbi Morton Yolkut z”l, Rabbi of Congregation Bnai David in Detroit, wistfully related his wish or fantasy- that shul should be as full on a regular Shabbos morning as it was that day. A woman named   Tilly Brandwine was listening, and decided to act. Reaching out to the entire membership, and unbeknownst to the Rabbi, she picked a Shabbos when no simcha was happening and encouraged everyone to attend.   “This must be kept a secret from only one person - Rabbi Yolkut,”   she declared.   The article in the Jewish Post and Opinion acknowledged this small yet significant event, reporting that on Saturday, December 19th, 800 people packed the sanctuary.   Those 800 people understood something that is alluded to in this week’s Torah reading.   The Talmud tells us that our forefather Yaakov established the prayer of Maariv. As darkness fell over the road on which Yaakov was traveling, he felt an overpowering sense of holine...

  Having traveled through hundreds of miles of desert, and having buried loved ones along the way, enduring impossible heat and ravaging disease almost 15,000 Ethiopian Jews arrived in Sudan to await a transport to Israel in Operation Solomon, the third and final rescue operation to transport Ethiopian Jews to the Holy Land. Over the course of 36 hours, non-stop flights of Israeli aircrafts, both military and civilian vessels, whisked them to safety to join their brethren in the Eternal Jewish homeland. In order to accommodate all the passengers, the seats in all these aircraft were removed; one flight, an El Al 747, transported 1,088 people, a figure that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. On the same flight, two babies were born. Consider for a moment that many of these Jews lived previously in rural districts, and had never laid eyes on an airplane before. Daniel Gordis cites an interview with one of these passengers, who was asked how he had the courage to step...

Parshat Lech Lecha Agency and Influence   Pirkei D’Rebi Eliezer [1] , the 8 th Century aggadic work, lists off several biblical figures who at one point in their lives were considered to be the rulers over the world, conferred with supreme authority and uncompromised influence, among them we find a figure briefly mentioned in last week’s   parsha [2] and who is featured prominently in the midrashei Chazal on Parshat Lech Lecha – a despot and tyrant by the name of Nimrod.   Nimrod, we are told “ruled over the entire world, from one end to the other” starting from the moment the great flood ended.   This is based on a verse in last week’s sidra : בראשית פרק י ( ח) וְכ֖וּשׁ יָלַ֣ד אֶת־נִמְרֹ֑ד ה֣וּא הֵחֵ֔ל לִֽהְי֖וֹת גִּבֹּ֖ר בָּאָֽרֶץ: Cush also begot Nimrod, who was the first man of might on earth. ( ט) הוּא־הָיָ֥ה גִבֹּֽר־צַ֖יִד לִפְנֵ֣י יְקֹוָ֑ק עַל־כֵּן֙ יֵֽאָמַ֔ר כְּנִמְרֹ֛ד גִּבּ֥וֹר צַ֖יִד לִפְנֵ֥י יְקֹוָֽק : He was a mighty hunter by the gr...