Stories Of Greatness

In the holy city of Jerusalem, one of the pillars of the Sephardic Torah community is the famous Porat Yosef Yeshivah, which was founded close to 100 years ago (1914) to preserve Sephardic Jewry and produce outstanding Torah scholars who would perpetuate Sephardic teachings and tradition. A philanthropist from Calcutta, India, Yosef Avraham Shalom, played a major role in the founding of the yeshivah. This Jew from India had a big heart and, after learning of the diseases that were rampant in Jerusalem and its environs, he wished to build a hospital in the Holy Land to see to the people’s physical needs. He wrote a letter to the Gadol HaDor, Chacham Yosef Chayim zt”l of Baghdad, the Ben Ish Chai, and informed him of his plans. The Ben Ish Chai wrote back with the following response: “Open a yeshivah, not a hospital. Although it is important to build a hospital in Yerushalayim, many people will be eager to grab that mitzvah, while very few appreciate the value of Torah study, which is sorely needed.” Avraham Shalom heeded the Ben Ish Chai’s advice and contributed a vast sum of money for the founding of Porat Yosef in the Old City of Jerusalem.

In the mystical city of Tz’fas, close to 500 years ago, lived a righteous man who was known for his kindness, his many good deeds, and his immense wealth, which he used to support the indigent. For the first few years of his marriage, he was not blessed with children, and this allowed him and his wife to pour out their hearts in prayer. In time, the couple was blessed with a son, and their joy knew no bounds. The birth of their child and the upcoming bris milah was the talk of town, and the man wasted no time in requesting the honor of the holy Arizal, Rabbeinu Yitzchak Luria zt”l to serve as sandek.

The Kohen Gadol wore a meil, a robe that was adorned with golden bells, which rang with a musical tinkle whenever he walked. The Gemara in Erchin discusses how each of the Kohen Gadol’s vestments atoned for a particular sin; the meil atoned for the sin of lashon harah. As Chazal say, the meil, which made a loud kol (sound) should atone for lashon harah, which makes a loud kol. Additionally, the bells were made from pure gold and the word zahav (gold) has threee letters in Hebrew, which hints at the three people who are literally destroyed by evil slander: the speaker, the listener, and the one it is about.

Shloime Kaufman’s eyes moved rapidly across the familiar faces of the men packed into shul on this sunny Shabbos morning. As gabbai, he had been going through this routine for the past 20 years, looking out over the congregation and choosing a few each week for aliyos. He always recalled the famous words of the Yerushalmi (Megillah 4) that k’rias haTorah is likened to the Maamad of Kabalas HaTorah and a gabbai is akin to HaKadosh Baruch Hu on Har Sinai, as he gives out the aliyos.

Following the wonders of Kabalas HaTorah on Har Sinai, HaKadosh Baruch Hu instructed Moshe Rabbeinu to build a sanctuary that will embody, on a highly condensed and intensified scale, the Divine vision of a dwelling for Himself in the physical world. Thus, the portable Mishkan was built in the desert to accompany B’nei Yisrael in their journeys, later achieving a more permanent form in the Beis HaMikdash.

The words “az yashir,” which Moshe and klal Yisrael sang at the Yam Suf, seem to be questionable, and Chazal wonder about it. The word “yashir” (will sing) is future tense, while the Torah is narrating for us an event that took place in the past. This prompted the Gemara (Sanhedrin 91b) to cite this pasuk as one of the Biblical sources for the concept of T’chiyas HaMeisim (Resurrection of the Dead). The Gemara says that, in fact, the words “az yashir” allude to a future event, after the time of T’chiyas HaMeisim, when Moshe and the Children of Israel will sing a beautiful song of thanks.