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SHAVUOS 5769

TAKING A STAND ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Do we stand or sit in shul for the Ten Commandments?

“IN THE DAYS WHEN THE JUDGES JUDGED”

When did the story of Boaz and Ruth take place?

THE HISTORY OF LASHON HAKODESH

The origins of the language and what makes it holy

THE

TAKANOS

OF SHUM

Speyer, Worms, and MainzFamous for the

takanos

they wrote

NOTE: THIS MAGAZINE REQUIRES

GENIZAH

The Pillar around Which The FaiTh revolves

"... And thus, too, the remembrance of the Revelation at Mount Sinai. For the Holy One, Blessed beHe, commanded us to remember constantly, and also warned us not to forget, and commanded us toteach it to our children so that they will grow up with knowledge of it. This is what it says (

Devarim

4:9–10): 'Only remember for yourself and greatly beware for your soul, lest you forget the things thatyour eyes have beheld, and lest you remove them from your heart, all the days of your life. And makethem known to your children, and to your children's children — the day that you stood before Hashem,your G-d, at Choreiv ... '"And it is fitting for you, our brothers, that you raise up your children on this great event, andthat you tell over, among the congregation and the community, its greatness and its glory. Be-cause this is the pillar around which the Faith revolves, and the proposition that proves its truth.And the greatness of this event is beyond all greatness, as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, extolledit, saying (

Devarim

4:32–36):"'For ask now of the days past, which were before you, since the day that G-d created man uponthe earth, and from one end of Heaven to the other: Has there ever been anything like this great thing,or has its like been heard? Did a People hear the Voice of G-d speaking out of the midst of the fire, asyou have heard, and live? … From heaven, He caused you to hear His Voice, in order to teach you. Andon earth, He caused you to see His great fire. And you heard His words from the midst of the fire ... 'And know, our brothers in this Covenant and in this presumption, that this great thing that was seen inreality, is attested to by the best of evidence. For there has been nothing like it before and there will benothing like it after: that one People should hear, collectively, the Word of the Holy One, Blessed Be He,and should behold His Glory, eye to Eye. And this matter was so that the Faith be strengthened withsuch a strength that it not be changed in any way, that we attain such certainty that we can withstandtimes such as these, that no wrath or destruction come anew upon the Jews, Heaven forbid, when thehand of force has been empowered. For so it is written (

Shemos

20:17): ' ... For in order to test you hasG-d come, and in order that the fear of Him shall be on your faces, so that you shall not sin.'"That is to say, this Revelation was to give you strength to withstand every test that you encounterat the end of days, that your hearts not budge and that you not sin."— Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon,

Epistle to Yemen

Publisher:

Eliyahu Paley

Managing Editor:

Rabbi Moshe Grylak

Editor:

Dov Ben Nun

Production:

Faigy Karnovsky, Hila Paley

Graphics:

Nomi Kruskal, Sara Hoch, Leah Lapidot, Chaya Cohen

E-mail

: kulmus@mishpacha.com

Chassidic shul in Satmar

C o v e r P h o t o : M e i r H a l t o v s k y

TO STAND OR NOT TO STAND? THAT IS THE QUESTION

Eliyahu Paley

A battle against

minim

brought Chazal to abolish the daily recitation of the Ten Command-ments. What is the connection between that and between standing during the reading ofthe Ten Commandments?

WHEN THE JUDGES JUDGED

Rabbi Yechiel Moses

Everyone is familiar with the

midrashim

about Boaz and Ruth. Are the

midrashim

inagreement with one another and with Chazal?

THE

TAKANOS

OF SHUM

Rabbi Raphael Hirschman

Almost wiped out in the First Crusade, the communities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainzwere famous for enacting

takanos

. Who signed them, and by what authority? And whatremains of them today?

IN KEEPING WITH CUSTOM

Rabbi Yitzchak Yehudah Rosen

When the Ten Commandments are read from the Torah on Shavuos, some people stand,and some don’t. What’s behind the various customs?

LASHON HAKODESH

Rabbi Dovid Rosman

The language that a person speaks reflective of the

kedushah

which lies within. There-fore, the Jewish Nation, which is

kadosh

, is the one that speaks this holy language.

pesach 5769

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A battle against

minim

,heretics, brought Chazal toabolish the daily recitationof the Ten Commandments.What is the connectionbetween that and standingduring the reading of theTen Commandments? Dowe still need to be sensitiveto this today? This, and more, in the following essay

Old Mikveh in Speyer

P h o t o : O f e r Y o m T o v , c o u r t e s y o f C . B r o s h

Aseres HAdibros

— T stan  Nt t stan?

community, who corrected and changed anumber of the customs that they’d been usedto, that hadn’t been in accordance withhalachah.Among other changes, he instructedthem not to stand during the reading of theAseres HaDibros, and instructed them thatthey should rebuke anyone who wanted tostand — because this custom is among theways of the

minim

, the heretics, who believethat the Aseres HaDibros have a higherstanding than the rest of the Torah. As be-comes apparent from the continuation of thestory, the intention was regarding Chazal’s

takanah

, their ordinance, which abolishedthe recital of the Aseres HaDibros, in the faceof “the insinuations of the

minim

.”The members of the community ac-cepted his decision, changed their custom,and stopped standing during the reading of the Aseres HaDibros. And so they conduct-ed themselves for many years, even afterthat scholar’s passing. The problem arosewhen a new scholar came to lead the com-munity, from another country, where thecustom was to stand during this reading —in opposition to local custom. The resultwas that part of the congregation began tostand. This opened a debate between thescholar and the congregants, and theyturned to the Rambam for counsel. Thecongregants were opposed to standing; theyargued that this was now a custom of theirfathers, begun in the light of the

takanos

that many communities had followed forgenerations, and that this should not bechanged — especially when this particular

takanah

dealt with a topic so halachicallyweighty that Chazal had even uprooted therecital of the Aseres HaDibros from KriyasShema because of it. That demonstrateshow concerned Chazal were about theinfluence of those

minim

’s opinions.The congregants also raised another con-cern: The Karaites, in their time, had beenaccustomed to standing during the Torahreading. Would standing now during thereading of the Aseres HaDibros be interpret-ed as support for Karaitic customs?The new leaders argued, on their part,that it was appropriate to stand, for that iswhat it says at Matan Torah (

Shemos

19:17):“And they stood at the bottom of the moun-tain.” From here, we see that at the time of receiving the Torah, all the people werestanding.The scholar also brought support for hiswords from the custom of the highly re-spected Baghdad community, whose mem-bers also were accustomed to stand. Thecongregants’ response to this last argumentwas that, in their opinion, the reason that theBaghdad community stood during the read-ing of the Aseres HaDibros was in order tohonor the community heads given an

aliyah

,and not because of the reading of the AseresHaDibros. From their response, we learnthat the custom in their time was to give

ali- yos

to the most respected and prominentmembers of the community for the readingof the Aseres HaDibros.The questions that needed to be ad-dressed are delineated in the letter in a clearfashion:“... And what are the ‘insinuations’ thatour Teachers were concerned about? And arethe

minim

Karaites or Cuthim — for a few of them hold to the outer parts of Scripture in itsentirety and a few of them hold to it in part.And what is the ascendancy of the AseresHaDibros over the rest of the Torah … ?”In order to understand the question of standing during the reading of the AseresHaDibros, we need to go back to a debate

By Eliyahu Paley

t is a custom of the Jewish People, inmost shuls, to stand up during the read-ing of the Aseres HaDibros, the Ten Ut-terances (or Ten Commandments, as they aregenerally called in English), during the To-rah reading on Shavuos morning. Everyyear, in certain places, some voices are raisedin protest against this generally acceptedcustom, arguing that actually everyone oughtto be seated during the reading of the AseresHaDibros. Which of these groups is right? Isthere a source for this debate? Or perhapseach person should do whatever is comfort-able for him?We’re talking about a subject with rootsreaching back to the Second Temple era.With the help of a story about one of thecommunities in the time of the Rambam, welearn of the struggle that existed in his time,for and against standing during the readingof the Aseres HaDibros.The story of the vicissitudes that themembers of one of the communities wentthrough — apparently, the Yemenites — inconnection with the custom of standing orsitting during the reading of the Aseres HaD-ibros is clearly reflected in the question withwhich they turned to the Rambam. In thelight of their question, the Rambam wrotehis responsum (#263) on the subject.The main points of the story, as reflectedin the question, are: We’re speaking of acommunity of simple people, “modest inwisdom,” as the letter writers themselves de-scribe. After some years, a brilliant Torahscholar was appointed as the head of their

Th ult wa that pat f thcnggatn gant tan. Th pn a attwn th chla an th cnggant,an thy tun t th ramam f cunl

shavuos 5769

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