Translation
The rose of Jacob thrilled with joy and exulted when they beheld Mordechai garbed in royal blue.

You have always been their salvation, their hope in every generation, to make known that all who place hope in You shall not be put to shame, nor shall all those who trust in You be disgraced forever.

Cursed be Haman who sought to destroy me; blessed be Mordechai the Jew. Cursed be Zeresh the wife of [Haman] who terrified me; blessed be Esther who [interceded] on my behalf. Cursed be all the wicked; blessed be all the righteous; and may Charvonah also be remembered favorably.

Transliteration
Shoshanat Yaakov, tzahala v’samecha birotam yachad tchelet Mordechai.

T’shuatam hayita lanetzach vetikvatam b’chol dor vador, lehodia shekol kovecha lo yevoshu v’lo yikalmu lanetzach kol hachosim bach.

Arur Haman asher bikesh l’abdi, baruch Mordechai haYehudi. Arura Zeresh, eshet mafchidi, beruchah Eshter ba’adi. Arurim kol hareshaim, beruchim kol hatzadikim. Vegam Charvonah zachur latov.
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Shoshanas Yaakov

Background

In Song of Songs, the Jewish nation is compared to a rose. Shoshanah (rose) is a reference to Shushan, recalling the verse “the city of Shushan celebrated and rejoiced” (Esther 8:15).

The reference to a shoshana (rose) is because there are two ways a people can be constituted.

1. Separate individuals who together possess an added quality expressing nationhood. Ex. A forest made up of trees. Each can stand on its own but together adding up to more than a sum.

2. Individuals who are incomplete in and of themselves and whose essence is that of belonging and interlacing in a group. Ex. Petals of a rose

The piyut expresses the second understanding of our nationhood, also described by Yakov and not by Yisroel.

Haim Yossef David Azoulay, known as Hida (1724-1807)The Chida adds that Purim is Roshei Taeivot (acronym)

P P’esach

V (vov)veSukkos

R Rosh Hashanah

Y Yom Kippur

M ‘M’atan Torah..

On the one hand I cannot forget what happened in Europe. On the other I know that I have to help rebuild a new world.

What’s a holocaust memorial? Is the last will and testament of the six million to have a memorial? Their last will is that we yidden should be yidden. Unfortunately, many yidden give two million dollars to a holocaust memorial while their own kids don’t care about being Jewish.

Inconsistency in one’s emotions or thinking is a human quality and a very honest expression of one’s humanity. A deceitful person attempts to reconcile contradiction through conniving reasoning and by stretching the truth.

My goal is to turn people on to Yiddishkeit or whatever other religion or spiritual path they were born into. And to make frumm (religious) Jews conscious of our world mission. Orthodox Jews keep G-d’s commandments but have trouble accepting their responsibility to help make this a better world for all of humanity. On the other hand, the enlightened Jews who came out of the ghetto sought to achieve social responsibility but completely neglected the commandments.

Rav Kook taught that the so called secular Jews by settling in and building the Holy Land, were guarding the body of the Jewish people, while the religious Jews were watching its soul. Today the body of the Torah, the laws, are being guarded by the religious Jews, while the soul of the Torah, the fire of its teachings are being watched by the so-called secular Jews.

We orthodox Jews have to deliver G-d’s message to the entire world and that’s why I travel to a place where there aren’t that many Jewish people now. That’s why I came to Poland. It’s a place that has especially bad memories for our people. But that’s the very reason that it makes Poland a prime choice for change. In the Bible we find that Shechem is the city where Dina was raped. Years later it was the city where the brothers sold Joseph and the split of the twelve tribes began. But it’s also the headquarters for the tribe of Joseph who symbolizes the start of the redemption.

So the greatest tribute we can offer to the Six Million is to return to the place of their eternal rest and swear to them that we shall dedicate ourselves to spreading their values and their dreams to the entire world. Holocaust memorials have been turned into a business by people who haven’t the slightest idea of who the pre-holocaust Jews were and what they stood for. We cannot allow assimilated Jews who speak in an alien tongue be our spokespeople to the world. We must address the world in our own Divine language. If I let out tztzis and payus everywhere, then when I return to Germany, I let them out even longer. I was in Hamburg once and a Jewish lady told me that I wasn’t in Jerusalem where I could let my religion hang out this way. I told her that in all the times I’ve been back to Germany, no German ever made such remarks to me. Her comments are, cholila, Nazi-like. The Nazis wanted to wipe out our people and she wants to wipe out our religion. Another time, in Hamburg, I walked into a restaurant with a German TV reporter. He saw me eat some fruit and told me, thank G-d you eat kosher, that he had interviewed a famous Israeli pianist the week before, who ordered ham and cheese. I felt a sigh of relief, he told me. Thank G-d, the Fuehrer didn’t succeed and there are still Jews who are proud to be Jews.

We frummer Yidden can make such a Kiddush haShem with our behavior, that we can inspire the whole world. But first we have to clean up our own act. A little Israeli boy once told me that the reason he doesn’t go to a Jewish school is that he lives near a yeshiva and he hears the children crying whenever they get beaten by the teachers.

Any parent or teacher who hits children is, G-d forbid, keeping Der Fuehrer’s way alive! G-d’s words can be taught to our children and spread throughout the world only in a loving way that is completely free of all anger and hatred.Majdaneck, Poland 5749

Originally transcribed for Connections Magazine by Rabbi Sam Intrator

The holy Shabbos, the most longed for day, is the day which gives us the strength to begin again. Three things are called chemda, which means longing and wanting in an absolute, crazy way (holy craziness): Shabbos, the Torah, and Israel. A true Jew is possessed by this holy, incurable craziness.

A Shabbos Test. If you want to know how much you like a person, see if you can sit with the person without doing anything. Shabbos is therefore given to you. Do nothing and show your love for Hashem.

The Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos: When Shabbos comes I am yearning to serve G-d in the most infinite way. During the week, my finite and infinite self are apart. On Shabbos my finite and infinite self are brought together by Shabbos — the Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos itself. The Yid HaKodesh said: “Some people eat fish on Shabbos and some eat Shabbos on Shabbos”.

The Preciousness of Shabbos: The Socheshever Rebbe, the son-in-law of the Kotzker Rebbe, said: “Imagine if I stop keeping Shabbos; I stop not because I don’t like the value Shabbos has, but because it is no longer precious to me. So, when I do tshuvah I am to learn the preciousness of Judaism.” Anything that is given to you by G-d you don’t receive, unless you know how precious it is. I can be married, but if I don’t know how precious it is, it will be nothing.

“You can keep every Shabbos to the letter of the law, but unless Shabbos reaches the deepest and highest place in your heart. you haven’t kept Shabbos.”

Shabbos Shalom: There are some moments when I have to feel perfect, complete (shaleim). Six days a week I work like a dog and can’t have that feeling. On Shabbos I receive a divinely inspired feeling of serenity, peacefulness, completeness — Shabbos Shalom — because of its holiness one feels perfection. This day will give you the strength to ‘fix’ yourself during the week. You will know what to ‘fix’ because you will have just experienced a period of time when you had a complete soul.

Shabbos is back in Paradise. Paradise is a place where everything is good, everything is holy, everything is beautiful. Paradise is a place where suddenly it’s clear to me that I can fix all my mistakes. And even more so, everything I thought was a mistake, every street I thought was the wrong street was the only way to get there.

When G-d drove Adam from Paradise, he retained part of his soul to remain there. On Shabbos, G-d releases that part and gives it back to man. This is our extra soul of Shabbos. On this day we are given the opportunity to return to Paradise. The question is asked, where would Adam have gone on Shabbos if he had not been driven out of Paradise? G-d would have taken him to Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of High, which has not yet been revealed to us. Paradise is a place I know from before; Jerusalem above, I have never experienced. Now, I must be satisfied with Paradise on Shabbos; in the future we hope to be brought to Jerusalem of High.

According to our holy tradition, on the Sabbath you have to be in a higher place than during the week. Everybody knows that G-d created Adam and Eve on Friday, before the Sabbath, on the sixth day of creation. And according to our tradition, on that very same day they ate of the forbidden fruit. and in just one second before sunset they were driven out from Paradise.

But then, on the Sabbath, G-d took them back into Paradise. So even if the world is driven out from Paradise during the other six days of the week, on Shabbos the whole world has a chance to go back to Paradise.

Shabbos has two faces. There is keeping the Shabbos holy, the thirty-nine laws of Shabbos, the withdrawing from the world, a non-power kind of like. But then there is the bliss of Shabbos, the inside of Shabbos, which is a gift from Heaven. The bliss of Shabbos is even deeper than Paradise. It’s a secret between G-d and me, between me and the people I love so much. Shabbos is peace because peace is secrets, secrets of the depths, of the deepest depths. Secrets are the deepest G-d revelation. A true Shabbos person is someone who walks the streets of the world and every human being he sees, he shares a secret with. But with those he loves it’s the secret of all secrets.

On Shabbos we say, “Shabbos hi milzok, refuah krovah livoh.” Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or hand; they cannot replace it with a new one. But Shabbos, on a spiritual level, gives us back our hands and feet. Not only this, Shabbos gives us new minds, new eyes and new ears, gevalt!

Shabbos is the strongest vitamin because its nutrients are those which can heal the soul. On Shabbos, new energy is coming down from Heaven. But the energy and its spiritual nutrients refuses to be received in dirty vessels. There are many ways we can do the cleansing and purification on our own. But for those of us who can’t do even that, so for one second before Shabbos purity and holiness also descend into the world. Happy are those who can receive it and fill their heart with it.

Shabbos is the highest energy center in the world. It’s not a day when you’re not doing anything. Shabbos is the day when your soul is at the most, most high. What’s the most precious possession of a human being? According to Rebbe Nachman, it’s our thoughts, what we can imagine with our minds and hearts.

On Shabbos our thoughts have to be so high, so heavenly that we can talk to G-d. And not only to G-d, but people, too! Because if you can’t feel close to someone standing next to you, to someone you can see with your eyes, then how can you feel close to someone you can’t see? And the more you look at people with great love, the more you can see G-d in everyone. But whether we look at people with great love or not, whether our thoughts are heavenly or not, on Shabbos something happens to the world — the world becomes infinite again.

Shabbos is different from all other holidays. The Gemara explains that if there were no Jews in the world, there would be no Jewish holidays. But Shabbos will always exist, even if there be no Jew to observe it, because on Shabbos something happens to the world, G-d opens the gates, and something so holy comes from heaven down to us, and all we have to do is pick it up.

The Zohar HaQodesh asks, how did Noah have the strength to resist a world that was rotten to the core? When everyone around him seemed perverted and crazy, Noah and his family held out alone, right? Where did he get the strength from?

Well, the name “Noah” is the same as the Hebrew word for “rest”. The Zohar HaQodesh says that Noah wanted to serve G- d, Noah wanted to keep Shabbos. Since nobody else picked up the power that came down from heaven, Noah and his family could take it all! And that’s how he had the strength to resist the world. He had the power of the world in his bones.

So, every Shabbos, imagine if you would pick up from the world the power of heaven. Imagine how much strength you would get, how much holiness you could put in your bones.

According to the great Kabbalists, water was never created; it always was just there. In the Book of Genesis it never says that G-d created water. Water has the power of “Beyond Creation”, the power to wash you clean and make everything grow. Our rabbis teach us that in order to really feel the blessing of Shabbos you have first to immerse in the mikveh.

The Lights of Shabbos: The lights that our Mother Sarah lit were burning from Friday to Friday. When I kindle a light in the week, anyone can blow it out. However, Friday night, the lighting of the candles is performed with such spiritual strength, that their glow lasts from Friday to Friday. According to our logic, the light of Shabbos, G-d’s light, is so infinitely powerful what can the candle add? But this is one of the fixings of Eve’s eating of the tree of Knowledge. Because it isn’t true that the candle is insignificant. According to the Tree of Life every candle makes the light more infinite and more deep. G-d’s light is like a Picasso, it is so beyond beautiful that it can’t reach inside my soul. But a painting of my own sweetest Dari has the light of the little candle of Shabbos that mamash tears my heart apart.

Shabbos comes and Shabbos is everywhere. You can’t walk out on Shabbos. But this is only on the Outside. Kabbalos Shabbos, we are making ourselves into vessels to receive Shabbos into the deepest most Inside depths of our soul.

Friday night is the fixing of jealousy. Jealousy comes from thinking that someone can take your place or your portion. And in the deepest depths it’s my own emptiness, my own incapability to retain what G-d is giving me. But Friday night, when my heart becomes so full, so overflowing full, like the wine from the Kiddush, jealousy is wiped out from my heart, and hopefully, eventually, from the heart of mankind.

The feast of Friday night is the ultimate fixing of the Tree of Knowledge. We are mamash transforming it into the Tree of Life. The Holy Ba’al Shem says that whoever is up Friday night celebrating Shabbos will not leave this world without completing the fixing which he came down in this for.

Shabbos morning is the fixing of grabbing. Because what G-d gives me I don’t have to steal and I don’t even have to take; it’s given to me. A slave takes, a king receives.

The third meal of Shabbos is the fixing of self-esteem, of honor, of giving up hope. The third meal is like the World to Come, when the world will be filled with G-d’s glory, with the glory of every human being, when the honor of a child is enough to fill the whole universe with the deepest of G-d’s honor.

Shalos Seudos, the Third Meal before you say goodbye to Shabbos, is the deepest of all. It’s when you say goodbye to the One you love that it’s clear to you how much He means to you, Our holy rabbis teach us that all day Shabbos is just Shabbos. The Third Meal is Shabbos and Yom Kippur. It’s a must for everyone to spend the last hour of Shabbos in the deepest emotion.

After saying goodbye to Shabbos, we make ourselves a little concert and partake in the Feast of King David who lives forever. The Feast of King David gives us the strength to keep Shabbos alive until the next Shabbos comes.

Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or a hand; he cannot give you a new one. But Shabbos, on the spiritual level, gives you back your hands and your feet. It gives you new brains, new eyes, new ears — what a gevalt, Shabbos.

Friday night is the time of seeing, of discovering the unbelievable beauty and sweetness of the world of the Torah, of people, and above all, those I love the most. Shabbos morning is a time of tasting. It’s even deeper than seeing. Most people love each other. But tasting each other’s soul, each other’s depths — that is Shabbos morning. The third meal, and, finally, Havdalah, is smelling, inhaling the fragrance, the beauty which is beyond seeing and tasting, the kind of depth which only my soul can fathom. Happy are those who walk the streets of the world with the fragrance of Shabbos.

G-d created the world in six days and on Shabbos He rested. What a sad translation! On Shabbos G-d gave the world a soul. On Shabbos G-d created a world of souls, of depth, of tasting that which is most real.

Shabbos invites all those who need new energy, all those who have been broken by the world of the six days, who need the world of Shabbos to make their brokenness whole again.

Shabbos invites all those who have so far only felt the pain of life and are crying for the joy, the bliss, the unbelievable heavenliness of being alive in a world created by G-d.

Shabbos invites all those who are tired of walking slowly, who only cover a spiritual inch per lifetime on their journeys. Shabbos invites all those who have traveled through the valleys of sadness, of waiting and waiting all the time. Shabbos is to get to the top of the mountain in one second, and there discover even higher mountains that we may have never ever seen before.

Shabbos invites all those who know, who experienced so much sweetness, so much holiness in life, but it’s clear to them this cannot be all G-d wants to give them. Isn’t G-d infinite? Isn’t life infinite? Shabbos is the name of G-d.

Will you accept the invitation of Shabbos?

Selections prepared for Connections in 5749 and for Congregation Kehillat Jacob, in 5751.

Not for commercial redistribution without consent of copyright holder and the Estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach

Machshava means what I’m thinking with my head.

Hirur the Gemara always says, is what king in my heart.

In my head, my thoughts change every split second, and even if I think the same thing, I don’t think of it the same way. Then there’s “hirhur be libo” – you know I can walk around with one thought in my heart my whole life, and the more real I am, the less it changes. And this is so deep, like the Gemara says; my heart is only telling my heart.

Now let’s talk about the tribe of Issachar – they know what to do in the moment. This is very important. A lot of people know what they have to do always – but what do you have to do in this moment? We were learning it at Purim – why is the megillah called a book and a letter? If I love someone very much, do I send them my book? A book is for the whole world … but a letter – this is from my heart. Remember what Amalek said to us just after we left Egypt. His vibrations made us so cold; only 40 days since the miracles of Egypt and we were so cut off that we made the golden calf. Amalek says to you, “Yeah, religions beautiful, G-ds beautiful, the ‘always’ you have, but the moment…” I know what G-d is telling to all the Jews, to the whole world, but what is He saying to me?

The truth is the Ribbono Shel Olam is sending each of us a letter every moment but you’ve got to know how to read it. And this is Issachar. Somebody says, “I don’t know what to do.” Watch the signs. How do you know how you are to somebody? It’s how well they read your signs.

The Izbitzer asks,” What’s the letter Vav?” Most of the letters need other letters to pronounce it – aleph is aleph lamed pe, gimmel is gimmel mem lamed. Vav is the one letter that I only need the same word to pronounce it. This means that nothing foreign gets to the inside of my heart. The two Vavs represent Emet and Tiferet. The Vav starts up in heaven and comes straight down, non- stop because the truth is non-stop. We have to know the truth in our heart and know the beauty in our hearts. But did you ever see anything uglier than someone talking about their own beauty? How do you make somebody else beautiful, by giving them honor, right? Kavod knows no words, it comes from the heart. When the students of Rabbi Akiva couldn’t make each other beautiful, so to speak, the month itself couldn’t bear it. This month, Nature is mamish us how beautiful the world can be.

We have to work our whole life on this one letter – the Vav – truth and beauty. When Moshe Rabbenu came down from Mt. Sinai he knew Am Yisroel’s neshamahs were very high, but their heads were in the wrong place, so he had to break the tablets. But what did the Golden Calf teach us? It was the end, and Moshe Rabbenu went right back up the Mount, back to the beginning. Gevalt, Hashem, I don’t want to learn from the Golden Calf this year; teach me how to learn right from the beginning.

Pesach and the redemption from Mitzrayim is G-d’s revelation. Sefiras ha- Omer means, what am I doing with it? Everybody has to count in order to fix his own neshamah. In one ways waiting for G-d’s , His revelation, and in another I have to search and trust my own heart in the deepest way. lyar is the fixing of the heart. Nissan is the fixing of the head – a slave is listening only to his head. What does it mean to be in exile? It’s being so petty. Every year we are fixing again leaving Egypt until we receive the Torah. But this year I want to receive the Torah without making a golden calf.

Originally published in Kehilat Jacob News New York, Iyar 5746.

The world knows that Nero⁴ the meshugganer Roman emperor set fire to the city of Rome and then fiddled as the city burned. The story goes that he then commited suicide. Our Jewish version of the story has a different ending. He went to Jerusalem, converted to Judaism and was the grandfather of Rabbi Meir the Mishanic Tanna, whose Yahrziet is on Pesach Sheni the Yom Tov of the second chance.

Men came to Moshe Rabbeinu in the wilderness in the second year after our leaving Egypt, they were members of the Chevra Kadisha⁵ carrying the bones of Joseph, which as you remember, Joseph had made the Jewish people swear they would carry out of Egypt with them when they left. They said ” Why should we be left out of the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb?” You see! said Sholmo, they were hurt by the lost opportunity. Even though they were not at fault and they would be credited with the mitzvah for their desire to perform it, still they felt that they would be left with the scar. The fact that a wound heals does not mean that there will be no scar. They said, ” We don’t care that we are not culpable, that our Pesach is and was a part and parcel of that celebrated by the whole Jewish people. We want to do our own”
Do you know my friends what Amalek is always saying to us? He is saying, “Your contribution counts for nothing” Who needs your Seder night? who needs your Hallel? So he attacks on Pesach Sheni.

What made these people carrying Joseph’s bones have the conviction that it was up to them to demand a second chance? that they could bring Pesach Sheni down into this world? Just who was Joseph whose bones they were carrrying? He was the son of our mother Rachel. You remember the story. She was engaged to be married to our Father Jacob. He, knowing what kind of a man was Laban his father in law, arranged a secret code and password with Rachel so that at the wedding he could make sure it was she he was marrying. Rachel, seeing that Leah was being prepared as the bride, gave over the secret password to her sister Leah so she would not be embarrased at the last moment. So what would have been so bad, if Leah had not been given the secret password? So she would have been hurt, so she would have been broken hearted. But would’nt she have gotten over it? Time would have passed she would have met someone else. But you see: the scar! she would have been scarred for life, The scar never goes away and Rachel did not want to see her sister scarred. So look at what she was ready to give up for her sister. Everything, this world and the next world. Everyone knows that the world said; Issac has two sons, Laban has two daughters, the older one goes for the older one and the younger one to the younger one. Rachel knew that she would now end up being married to Esau! What she didn’t know was that she was bringing down the “second chance” into the world. She too was married to Jacob and her son Joseph whose bones the Men were carried, was the child of the second chance. So they felt moved to ask for the second chance.

But Rebbe Akiva says these men were Mishael and Elzafon, the pallbearers of Nodov and Avihu. Nodov and Avihu who died in HaShems Name in order to add to the Torah. And Rebbe Akiva, master of the Torah she-bal-peh, the Torah of Adding-To, surrenders himself to die in HaShem’s Name and connected to the neshomos of Nodov and Avihu. To connect to the Torah of More, you must be ready to enter the Holy of Holies and die in HaShem’s name a million times.

Pesach Sheini is always during the fifth week of the Omer⁶. Everyone knows that the Sfira that is fixed this week is Hod (distinction). “Hod v’Hadar Livusho”, the priestly garments are connected with Hod. What is Tferes (beauty)? It balances the first two sfiros, Hesed (kindness) and Gvura (judgment). And what is Hod? “Hod v’Hadar Livusho”. Hod is the beauty of going back, of Tshuvah. Why did Aharon the High Priest make the golden calf? Because only a High Priest can connect to Hod v’Hadar. Only a High Priest could fix the sin of a golden calf by serving in a Mishkan⁷. Gevaldt, a second chance. Everyone knows that during this week the neshamos of Nodov and Avihu are being fixed.

1. According to the Book of Genesis and 1 Chronicles, Amalek was the son of Eliphaz and the grandson of Esau (Gen. 36:12; 1 Chr. 1:36); the chief of an Edomite tribe (Gen. 36:16). His mother was a Horite, a tribe whose territory the descendants of Esau had seized. According to the genealogy in Gen. 36:12; 1 Chr. 1:36. Amalek is a son of Esau’s son Eliphaz and of the concubine Timna, a Horite and sister of Lotan. Gen. 36:16 refers to him as the “chief of Amalek” thus his name can be understood to be a title derived from that of the clan or territory over which he ruled. Indeed an extra-Biblical tradition recorded by Nachmanides relates that the Amalekites were not descended from the grandson of Esau but from a man named Amalek after whom this grandson was later named.
2. Pesach Sheni (Second Passover), is a minor Jewish observance on the 14th of Iyar in the Hebrew Calendar. The holiday is mentioned in the Torah in Numbers 9. Moses announces that the Passover sacrifice (Korban Pesach, or Passover lamb) may only be eaten by people who are ritually pure. Men come to Moses, complaining that as people who have come into contact with the dead, and therefore ritually unclean, they are unable to fulfill the mitzvah of Passover. Moses consults God who responds by announcing that anyone who is unable to sacrifice the paschal lamb on the 14th of Nisan, either due to defilement or inability to journey to the place of sacrifice in time, is to perform the sacrifice on the 14th of Iyar, a full month later, and eat the paschal lamb along with matzah and maror. Today, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the absence of the red heifer (the only device, according to the Torah, which can purify those who came into contact with corpses, Jews are unable to perform the Passover sacrifice, neither on Passover nor on Pesach Sheni. It is customary to eat a piece of Matzah. Tachanun and other penitential prayers are also omitted due to the festive nature of the day.
3. Akiba ben Joseph (ca.50–ca.135 AD) or simply Rabbi Akiva was a Judean tanna of the latter part of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century (3rd tannaitic generation). He was a great authority in the matter of Jewish tradition, and one of the most central and essential contributors to the Mishnah and Midrash Halakha. He is referred to in the Talmud as “Rosh la-Chachomim” (Head of all the Sages). Although a full history of Akiba based upon authentic sources will probably never be written because of the absence of non-Jewish sources on his life, he is considered by many to be the godfather of rabbinical Judaism
4. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (December 15, 37 – June 9, 68), born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne. As Nero Claudius Caesar, he succeeded to the throne on October 13, 54, following Claudius’ death. Nero ruled from 54 to 68, focusing much of his attention on diplomacy, trade, and increasing the cultural capital of the empire. He ordered the building of theatres and promoted athletic games. His reign included a successful war and negotiated peace with the Parthian Empire (58–63), the suppression of the British revolt (60–61) and improving diplomatic ties with Greece. In 68 a military coup drove Nero into hiding. Facing execution, he reportedly committed forced suicide. Nero’s rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance. He is known for a number of executions, including his mother and adoptive brother, as the emperor who “fiddled while Rome burned” and an early persecutor of Christians. This view is based upon the main surviving sources for Nero’s reign—Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio. Few surviving sources paint Nero in a favorable light. Some sources, though, portray him as an emperor who was popular with the Roman people, especially in the East.
5. A chevra kadisha is a loosely structured but generally closed organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of Jews are prepared for burial according to Halacha (Jewish law) and are protected from desecration, willful or not, until burial. Two of the main requirements are the showing of proper respect for a corpse, and the ritual cleansing of the body and subsequent dressing for burial.

   The task of the chevra kadisha is considered a laudable one, as tending to the dead is a favour that the recipient cannot return, making it devoid of ulterior motives. Its work is therefore referred to as a chesed shel emet (a good deed of truth), paraphrased from Genesis 47:29 (where Jacob asks his son Joseph, “do me a ‘true’ favor” and Joseph promises his father to bury him in the Land of Israel).

   At the heart of the society’s function is the ritual of tahara, or purification. The body is first thoroughly cleansed of dirt, body fluids and solids, and anything else that may be on the skin, and then it is ritually purified by immersion in, or a continuous flow of, water from the head over the entire body. Tahara may refer to either the entire process, or to the ritual purification. Once the body is purified, the body is dressed in tachrichim, or shrouds, of white pure cotton garments made up of ten pieces for a male and twelve for a female, which are identical for each Jew and which symbolically recalls the garments worn by the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). Once the body is dressed, the casket is sealed. When being buried in Israel, however, a casket is not used.

   The society may also provide shomrim, or watchers, to guard the body from theft until burial (although in some communities this is done by people close to the departed). At one time, the danger of theft of the body was very real, now it has become a way of honoring the deceased.

   A specific task for the burial society is tending to the dead who have no immediate next-of-kin. These are termed a meit mitzvah (a mitzvah corpse), as tending to a meit mitzvah overrides virtually any other positive commandment (mitzvot aseh) of Torah law.

   Many burial societies hold one or two annual fast days and organise regular study sessions to remain up-to-date with the relevant articles of Jewish law. In addition, most burial societies also support families during the shiv’ah (traditional week of mourning) by arranging prayer services, meals and other facilities.

   While burial societies were, in Europe, generally a community function, in America it has become far more common for societies to be organized by each synagogue. However, not every synagogue has such a society.

6. Counting of the Omer is a verbal counting of each of the forty-nine days between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot. This mitzvah derives from the Torah commandment to count forty-nine days beginning from the day on which the Omer, a sacrifice containing an omer-measure of barley, was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, up until the day before an offering of wheat was brought to the Temple on Shavuot. The Counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover and ends the day before the holiday of Shavuot.

   The idea of counting each day represents spiritual preparation and anticipation for the giving of the Torah, which was given by God on Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day, Shavuot. The Sefer HaChinuch states that the Jewish people were only freed from Egypt at Passover in order to receive the Torah at Shavuot and to fulfill its laws. Thus the Counting of the Omer demonstrates how much a Jew desires to accept the Torah in his own life.

7. The Tabernacle is known in Hebrew as the Mishkan. It was a portable dwelling place for the divine presence from the time of the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt through the conquering of the land of Canaan. Its elements were made part of the final Temple in Jerusalem about the 10th century BC.