TRIP TO MOROCCO AND SPAIN

I have very recently returned from a memorable, uplifting and inspiring trip to Morocco and Spain, together with a group that was led by Rabbi Paysach Krohn.

The tour commenced in Casablanca on Monday 10th August and we visited Rabat, Marrakesh, Meknez, Fez and Quazzane, finally arriving in Tangier on Thursday evening 13th August.

We then transferred from Africa to Spain by ferry and spent Shabbos in Gibraltar. On Sunday 16th August, we travelled onto Granada followed by Cordoba, Madrid and finally Toledo. The tour came to an end on Wednesday 19th August.

There were around 170 people on the trip between the ages of 16 and 80 years of age including numerous organisers and helpers. We stayed at first class hotels every night and were ferried around on air conditioned luxury coaches.

The group represented a mosaic of frum Jewish people worldwide. The trip had been arranged in the United States and people came from the USA from, at least, ten cities and towns. In addition, there were 30 to 40 people from Antwerp. Others came from Toronto in Canada, Melbourne, Australia as well as Eretz Yisroel. There was also an English contingent of 15 people or so, from Stamford Hill, Golders Green, Finchley, Edgware and Manchester.

It was really a very cosmopolitan crowd, there were Sephardim, Ashkenazim, Chassidim, Litvaks and Yehudei Amcho. It included a Rosh Yeshiva from Denver and his wife as well as a Rabbi from Flatbush and his wife. In the main, however, the participants were baalebatim together with their wives who wanted to be on a Yiddish tour, were followers of Rabbi Krohn or had family ancestry in Morocco.

Despite the variety in age outlook and background, it turned out to be like one big family and the achdus was impressive.

We toured on four buses which were named Paysach Rishon, Paysach Sheni, Acharon shel Paysach and Paysach leyosid levoi (which was later changed to Paysach shlishi). Everybody stuck to the buses that they were allotted to for the whole trip.

The tour organisers had years of experience and the herculean efforts put in by them, especially in respect of catering arrangements, were impressive. Most of the food was brought from the United States in crates and there was a varied and plentiful supply.

I think the heat is worth a mention. The temperature often reached 40ºC, 104ºF and that is in the shade. We often walked around in the sun. It actually reached 43º in Marrakesh which is equivalent to virtually 110ºF. Nevertheless, people determinedly toured around and listened to the amazing stories and divrei Torah of Rabbi Paysach Krohn. Rabbi Krohn is not only an accomplished speaker but he is a Baal Mussar with an American twist and has a very emotional personality and lots of Ahavas Yisroel. This makes him into a very powerful and interesting speaker with lots and lots of stories.

We assembled in Casablanca at lunchtime on 10th August and after lunch and an introductory speech by Rabbi Krohn boarded the buses that were going to be our companions for the next few days and headed for Rabat. This is the capital of Morocco and the seat of government and the king resides there. We went to the mausoleum of King Mohamed V who was the monarch during the Second World War and died about 40 years ago. He was considered a great friend of the Jews.

Morocco was a French Protectorate during the Second World War. The King refused to cooperate with the Vichy government during the Second World War who requested Morocco to deport all the Jews. When told by the French authorities who were then in charge in Morocco that they had produced 100,000 yellow stars for Jews to wear, he told them that they had better produce another 50,000 for himself, members of family and entourage etc. He stopped it all in its tracks and, as a tribute, therefore, we visited his mausoleum. It is impressive. He lies there in state together with the King who succeeded him, Hassan II and another son. The King of Morocco is an absolute monarch.

We then proceeded to a Shul which is still used although there may only be around 100 Jewish people living in Rabat nowadays. Rabbi Kohn spoke there and this was the pattern repeated every time. As well as davenning Mincha in the Shul, he spoke about different aspects of Gedolei Yisroel who lived in particular places or had been born or died there. In this particular place, to my surprise I learned that Sale (or Sali) which is just on the other side of the river from Rabat was the birthplace of the famous R’ Chaim ben Attar, the Or Hachaim HaKodosh who lived there for many years. My wife Esther was born in Rabat.

We were told that after King Mohamed V obtained complete independence around 1955, he used to send a message each Yom Kippur to every Shul in the country via the governors wishing the Jews a “Happy Yom Kippur”. One year he indicated that he would like to visit the Shul in Rabat on Yom Kippur and a special chair was prepared for him next to the presiding rabbi. When he turned up to Neilah, he refused to sit there and stood among the congregation for the whole of Neilah with his eyes closed and his hands raised.

We were fortunate to have a Jewish tour guide Rafael ibn Malach who gave us a lot of extra background as a born Moroccan which complemented the historical and other information which Rabbi Krohn had compiled.

Rafi told us that there had been a Jewish presence in Morocco since the churban Bayis Sheni almost 2,000 years ago and maybe earlier.

Rafi confirmed that the current King Mohamed VI grandson of Mohamed V was well disposed to the Jewish community. Morocco had approximately 360,000 Jews in 1948 but the community has now dwindled to under 5,000, with the vast majority in Casablanca. Rafi has made it his life’s work to go round to all the large and small communities where our Jewish brethren lived in order to take photos of the old Shuls etc. and collect artefacts.

He was so successful that he decided that a museum would be the right place to show this all.

When Rafi wanted to open a museum he asked to see the minister in charge of those matters who, at first, refused to countenance a Jewish museum in an Muslim country but Rafi then spoke to the Jewish adviser to the King and was later told that he could open the museum although the government would not contribute any funds.

The Jewish community in Casablanca contributed all the funds to the museum which is very nice indeed. Rafi, understandably, is very proud of his achievement and it is the only Jewish museum in any Arab country.

We returned to Casablanca on Monday evening, visited the museum and then went to the Jewish cultural centre where we enjoyed a good meal. We also heard from Rabbi Sabbag who is the personal secretary to the Chief Rabbi of Morocco and spoke to us in good English. He explained the background of the community which is run on strictly orthodox lines and mentioned that he, himself, had survived an attack with an axe some six years earlier.

In this context, Rafi was very insistent that whenever we left our tour bus, we should not walk around with just cupples on but have some other headgear above it. He was worried that we should not attract undue attention. He kept on mentioning that Israelis and Israel generally were a very sensitive subject and there were people in Morocco who are very unhappy about the state of Israel. This did not apply to Jewish people, but, nevertheless, if somebody turned up with a kippa on his head, they assumed that they were from Israel and, therefore, he strongly advised us not to walk around anywhere without having some other headgear on and we tried to oblige.

Neither I (nor anybody else that I know of, of the 150 plus people who made the trip with Rabbi Paysach Krohn) encountered any anti-Semitism, comments or felt threatened at any time during the 12 day trip.

Tuesday morning, we davenned around 7.40 am and this was proceeded by Daf Hayomi, optional, which was well attended, and then a lavish breakfast was served. Rations were on hand for us to take our own lunches and drinks for each day trip. This was the pattern for each day and generous helpings were available to all.

We travelled to Marrakesh, approximately 150 miles south of Casablanca. This is a walled city as were most of the places visited by us. We arrived at there at around 1.30 pm but did not stop in the town. We went on straight through it to the Atlas mountains which are about 30 miles southeast of Marrakesh and visited the tomb of R’ Shlomo ben Hence. This R’ Shlomo was a great Tzaddik but the ruler of the district was very anti the Jews. R’ Shlomo told him that he should not persecute the Jews and he retorted “You can’t tell me what to do but I am getting test you.” He put R’ Shlomo in a dry pit for three days. He was then taken out of this pit alive after having been found there with lots of snakes around him who apparently gave him to eat and drink during those three days. In Arabic Hence means a snake. This therefore alludes to the great miracle which took place. Fervent tehillim and prayers were made by all our group.

We then met the last Jew in the Atlas Mountains and he remained even though his family, including his wife, had emigrated to Israel. He said that R’ Shlomo had appeared to him in a dream and told him that he was not supposed to go yet. At one point, he even went down to Marrakesh after pleadings by his wife and family with a view to him emigrating to Israel but fell in a coma for three days. When he came out of the coma he reiterated that R’ Shlomo had told him that he may not go. People got brochos from this old Yid who must be in his middle 80’s.

We then went to visit a Berber village and went into a house on a steep hill which had been owned by Yidden. It was extremely interesting to see how there was “rooms” on the lower ground floor level, one for the donkey, another for the cow and a third one for the chickens. When you went upstairs people lived there and there was even a Succah which was kosher but with all the various kulus outlined in the first perek of mishniyas Succah. It really was an eye opener.

We then travelled back to Marrakesh arriving around, I think, 5.00 p.m. It was still very hot around 43ºC equals 108ºF. We went to the Shul, which we were told was over 500 years old. I sensed a special kedusha there. It appeared to have been founded at the time of the expulsion of the Yidden from Spain. A member of the community (only about 140 are left, I believe, in Marrakesh) told us that they had a tradition that the Bais Yosef, Rabbi Yosef Caro, who fled from Spain after the expulsion, came to visit the Rav who founded the Shul over 500 years ago. Once again Rabbi Krohn was in good form speaking about the particular community etc. We davenned Mincha and then, later on, proceeded to the large town square where we saw snake charmers, acrobats etc. and then had a surprise ride on horses with buggies to a beautiful hotel where we had another sumptuous meal all under the השגחה of the Casablanca Beis Din. The road in which this hotel is situated was a dream and the hotel itself was something special, I haven’t seen anything in London, or in Europe, quite as impressive.

The houses etc. are generally in a reddish pink which reflects the mountains from which the stones and the earth are quarried. Breathtaking, boiling hot, but very enjoyable.

We returned to Casablanca at about 2.00 am. We were up early the next morning Wednesday at about 7.00am for davenning and packed up. Our main cases were taken immediately onto Tangier where we were going to get the ferry on Thursday evening and we took just enough hand luggage for the one night’s stay in Fez.

We proceeded to Meknez from Casablanca leaving around 10.30 am arriving at Meknez at about 1.00 pm. The countryside is very pretty. We went to a beautiful Talmud Torah overlooking the Beis Olam and once again were greeted by one old Yid who gave us brochos and mishabereichs etc. Rabbi Krohn spoke as usual, this time about Rabbi Boruch Toledano (who is the grandfather of Mrs C Hertz of Stamford Hill). He was the Chief Rabbi there. He had such authority that if any Yid kept his shop open on Shabbos, he reported them to the police and the police closed the shop and fined the person concerned.

I found a Kitzur Shulchan Oruch written by him and he was obviously a great Talmud Chacham as well. Rabbi Paysach Krohn mentioned that he had heard this Rabbi Boruch Toledano speaking at the Knessei Gedola in Yerushalayim about 40 years ago. He was a very tall distinguished gentleman with a long white beard and he was crying because he was talking about the state of the youngsters from Morocco who had lost a lot of their Yiddishkeit because of the Alliance and when they went to the state of Israel further inroads were, unfortunately, made.

From my Yeshiva days I knew a number of the Toledano family, learning in Gateshead with two of them. One has unfortunately passed on but the other is a Rosh Yeshiva in Beer Yaakov. I believe, his name is Rabbi Nissim Toledano. Rabbi Pinchas Toledano of the London Sephardi community is another scion of this family of Rabbis who fled from Toledo in Spain 500 years ago.

Meknez was known as the Yerushalayim of Morocco and we were in the Talmud Torah where reputedly thousands of children had been learning.. It was an impressive building.

We then proceeded later in the day to Fez. We visited the Jewish Quarter, the Mellah. The Rambam lived there after he had fled from Spain. We had with us on the trip a friend of mine, Mr Danan of Stamford Hill, who I did not realise had a grandfather and great grandfather who were the Rabbis in Fez and the next morning, in fact, we went to visit their kevorim as well as that of Sulika, a girl of 18 who refused to marry a sultan’s son. She was actually killed al Kiddush Hashem, because of it, about 200 years ago, I understand. The ladies in particular davenned hard and with great emotion at this juncture. We prayed at another kever of R’ Yaakov ben Attar apparently a relative of the Ohr Hachaim Hakodesh and there are numerous other tzaddikim there and in various other parts of Morocco. This was all in the blazing sun in the middle of the day. (40ºC equals 104ºF in the shade)

One of the places we went to was a Shul built by a private family in Fez. When we came into this relatively small building, I looked around and was struck by the fact that there were stairs going down at the side of the Aron Hakodesh. I went down to investigate and came across a kosher Mikvah with water in it.

When I came up and questioned Rafi about the matter, he explained that this building had become disused. When he was on his travels investigating numerous such disused Shuls etc. he came into this building and was struck by the fact that between the Aron Hakodesh and the Bimah towards the front of the Shul, there was a pipe which was hanging down from the ceiling going straight to the floor. Eventually he discovered that this was, in fact, the source of the Mikvah, being fed by rainwater which was allowed to flow straight down the pipe into the Mikvah below the floor of the Shul. Very ingenious. It does rain in Fez for quite a few months in the winter.

On Thursday morning, Shacharis was at 7.00 am after the Daf Hayomi. It was early as we were going to tour around Fez properly. We went round the souk (market consisting of small alleys etc.) in groups with, we were told, protection and led by various people including Rafi and other guides. We had to be careful as we walked along where the donkeys and other vendors would decide to come the other way. We were just squashed into the sides and were warned by shouts of Balak which apparently meant beware oncoming traffic!! It was very interesting but we did not have time to buy things. We were, however, pretty tired after two hours going round in the various alleys in the heat.

The Jewish Quarter was adjacent to a Royal Palace affording some protection to the residents by the authorities.

At around 11.00 am we got into our air conditioned buses and proceeded to the highlight of the trip for those who were looking for yeshous. We went to visit the kever of R’ Amram ibn Diwan which is much further north lying in the Rif Mountains north of a small town called Quezzane.

I can only describe the reputation of this Tzaddik as being similar to that of R’ Elimelech of Lizhensk. In the same way as there is a pilgrimage to R’ Elimelech on his yahrzeit, there is a pilgrimage each year to R’ Amram, I believe on Lag B’Omer. In this context, I heard an interesting story, namely that, one year on Lag B’Omer an Arab couple were spotted offering sheep to be schechted by the Jewish people who had gathered at the kever. On enquiry it was learned that they had been married for many years and had had no children. Somebody had suggested that they should pray at the kever of R’ Amram ibn Diwan and the very next year they had a child. Since the, they stated, they came each year to contribute lambs in honour of R’ Amram.

We finally reached Quezzane around 2.00 pm and listened to an emotional speech by Rabbi Krohn, davenned Mincha, and spent some considerable time, saying tehillim and lighting candles as well as leaving kvitllach on the kever.

May all our tefillos be answered.

We then proceeded to Tangier which is at the northern most tip of Morocco where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean.

We were supposed to go on a fast ferry at 10.00 pm but this finally took off at 11.20 arrived at 12 midnight Moroccan time. This, however, was 1.00 am Spanish time and we arrived at Algericas and then had to transfer over again to Gibraltar.

After delays with customs etc. we finally arrived at our hotel in Gibraltar around 3.30 am.

The organisers worked hard to ensure that our passage through three countries, namely Morocco, Spain, and into Gibraltar went without any major problems.

Friday was a comparatively quiet day, although people who had not visited Gibraltar before went up the rock to see the sights and the monkeys.

I think that everybody felt exhausted by that Friday and we needed a day or two to recover.

Davenning took place on Erev Shabbos around 8.10 pm and the shkiah was around 9.00 pm. The Gibraltar community is frum, they have a Rabbi Chasid there who has been the rabbi for 20 years and is a Talmid Chochum and very likeable personality. They also have a kollel and a Jewish school as well as kosher shops and a restaurant. There are numerous baalebatim who are leading lights in the general Gibraltarian community. We were addressed on Friday night by Mr Solomon Levy (brother of Rabbi Abraham Levy of the Sephardi community in London) who had just retired as Mayor of Gibraltar.

After davenning on Friday night, we went off to the Catholic!! Centre where we ate all the meals on Shabbos. The atmosphere was very enjoyable, zemiros being sung, divrei Torah being said, especially by Rabbi Krohn of course, and we finally got to bed at around 11.30, I believe.

The next morning, Shacharis was at 9.00 am and the davenning was at a leisurely speed, Shacharis ended at about 10.45 and the whole davenning at around 12 noon. Rabbi Krohn then made a powerful speech regarding the importance of tefillah and mentioned how beautiful the davenning was that morning where pesukei dezimra was said or perhaps better chanted in unison by the members of the congregation, together word for word. His whole drosha was a gem.

One story he told was about a gentleman who travelled from the USA to Eretz Yisroel. He arrived in Jerusalem at 2.30am in the morning having not yet davenned Maariv. He was always careful to daven every tefilla b’tzibbur.

He went to Zichron Moshe looking for a minyan but only found one other person who had not davenned.

After waiting to 3.00am or so, he decided that he had better do something drastic.

He telephoned a minicab service and asked for eight Jewish drivers to come to Zichron Moshe. He was told that they only had five available and asked them to send those. He then telephoned a second firm and asked for three Jewish cab drivers.

By 3.30 am eight taxis rolled up expecting to have to take people home from a simcha. He met them and told each one to put his meter on and he would pay for the time until they finished Maariv, of course, by now, he had ten Yidden together, although in a couple of cases he had to search for a head covering for the mini cab drivers.

Maariv was davenned with fervour. When it finished he went to the first can driver and asked him how much he owed, the answer came “Nothing!! I have never davenned a Maariv like this in my life.”

He then turned to another can driver not religious and asked him how much he owed. “I haven’t been in a Shul since Yom Kippur” was the answer. “If anything, I owe you money and I have determined that I will, in future, remember to daven.”

In short none of the drivers wished to take any money in the circumstances. He, of course, had achieved his object of tefilla b’tzibbur.

After our communal meal, complete with zemiros and divrie Torah, not only by Rabbi Krohn but also one of the participants, Rabbi Krohn stood up again and announced that two participants who had been in Yeshiva together over 50 years earlier had now been reunited (and had not seen each over the 50 years) due to the fact that one of them had been the gentleman who spoke. The other one, happened to be sitting next to me, and suddenly said “I know him, I went to Yeshiva with him.” They had a long conversation together. It then turned out that there were two ladies who had not seen each other for over 40 years and met on the trip.

Sometime later, I was talking to a gentleman from Passaic, New Jersey, and when I spotted that he had an English accent, it turned out that he was born in Leadale Road, London N16. He was one of the first six pupils at the Yesodey Hatorah school in 1943. It’s a small world!!

After Shabbos afternoon shloff, there was a talk on behalf of the Chofetz Chaim Institute in New York which disseminates Yiddishkeit. This was followed by Rabbi Krohn once again and subsequently our group davenned Mincha in one of the four Shuls followed by Shalosh Seudos and then to Maariv at around 10.00 pm.

I actually attended Shaarei Shomayim a very sweet and smaller Shul where, together with a Rabbi Winter of New York (a Talmid of Rabbi J B Soleveichik) we shared divrei Torah with the baalabatim there.

It was interesting to see the main tefillos of the Sephardim are virtually the same as ours, but that additional tefillos and bakoshos are said by them which we do not say and vice-versa.

Nevertheless, the davenning was very uplifting and the atmosphere was one of Kedushas Shabbos. We were all made very welcome by the local community.

On Sunday morning, once again, we had to get up early as davenning was 7.00am. We were trying to leave by 9.00am. However, I must state that the timetable was in keeping with Stamford Hill, being Jewish Mean Time, one or two hours later than the official time for leaving any town was the norm in the whole journey. Two or three hours later than scheduled was the time when we finally arrived at our destination in the evening. This is not surprising due to the logistics of keeping everybody happy on four buses including frequents stops for use of the conveniences etc.

We finally left Gibraltar at around 10.30am and travelled for many hours through the Costa del Sol, past Malaga and this looked very beautiful from the motorway which itself passed through scenic country with many tunnels. It was very mountainous in parts.

We arrived at Granada in the early afternoon. We immediately made for the Alhambra Palace which is on a mountain overlooking the city of Granada.

We were informed that there had been a Palace there some 1200 years ago which had fallen into ruin but that when R’ Shmuel Hanaggid became the advisor to the Arab King around 1000 years ago, he rebuilt the palace which is beautiful and has extraordinary beautiful gardens as well. There are many fountains, pools and running water which add to the beauty.

We were told that R’ Shmuel Hanaggid was a man of such influence with the king that he actually lived in the palace enclaves with his family and from the time that he became so influential, the Jewish community, especially in Granada entered into a golden age. At the time the Arabs from Morocco rules southern Spain of which Granada is part being in Andalucía. The situation continued for many hundreds of years until Granada was finally retaken by the Catholic, Christian north who swept the Arabs out of Spain and Granada was the last fortress that they had. This, in turn, led to 1492 and the Spanish expulsion. Ironically, that decree was signed in the throne room of the Alhambra Palace which had been built by R’ Shmuel Hanaggid for the king some 500 years earlier.

We, of course, 520 years later, were a Jewish religious tour group in the very same place.

It highlighted the ups and downs of Jewish history, the trials and tribulations in an unforgettable manner. Rabbi Nissel (our extra tour guide for Spain) told us there that people who wished to make petitions to the king were often kept waiting two or three days and then were allowed in only late in the afternoon. The way the throne was situated with sunlight coming in behind from the windows meant that the petitioner could not really see the king but the king could see everybody as they came in. All this was to add to the atmosphere of reverence and awe that was demanded of all the petitioners and subjects of that particular king.

We wandered around the palace for perhaps three or four hours and by this time, our legs were quite used to walking around for hours on end and we knew that we had to drink large quantities to ensure that we did not become dehydrated. We then had a bonus in that we got back into the coaches and drove down the hill and lo and behold our hotel for the night was the Macia Real de la Alhambra within about a mile of the actual Palace. We then ate in the hotel and managed to retire to our beds early for a change, perhaps 11.00 pm.

On Monday morning, once again we had to be up early as we were heading for Cordoba, this was birthplace of the Rambam and we had heard much about him as he had fled from the city when he was a boy, wandered around Spain with his father R’ Maimon and family for about ten years and finally ending up in Fez for about 5 years and he wrote his Peirush Hamishnays whilst on the way, finishing it, I believe, either in Eretz Yisroel where he stayed for 2 years after fleeing again from Fez or possibly when he arrived in Egypt, where he lived the rest of the life for about 37 years, where he wrote the famous Mishneh Torah, Yad Hachazokeh

When we finally reached Cordoba (and it is a long drive from Granada, especially with four coaches who can only go at a certain speed) we were pleased be able to descend from the coaches. Meanwhile, the countryside was breath-taking, there were lots of hills and valleys, a tremendous amount of olive plantations. Altogether very pretty. The temperature was around 40ºC equals 104ºF.

We proceeded to the house which is alleged to be where the Rambam lived and afterwards went round the narrow streets with a tour guide, finally reaching a Shul (this was unfortunately was locked we were told it was never open on a Monday). We could not get in. We were, however, informed that this Shul was, in fact, many, many hundreds years old but was really only like a Shteible about 15 m² say 16 foot by 10 foot, not really a large room.

We have to always remember that the Catholic Church when taking over the country in 1492 obliterated most of the Shuls or converted them to churches. This one, because it was hidden behind the house only came to light recently when a wall became weak and the Shul itself was revealed.

We then got back in our coaches and proceeded from Cordoba to Madrid, which took, I think, about 5 hours arriving quite late, maybe 9.30 at night.

North of Cordoba the terrain became even more mountainous and all of a sudden we were going along almost like Swiss roads, and hairpin bends. We went through three successive tunnels and suddenly we were out on the other side of the mountain range and it was much flatter. We had reached Castile which is a large district in the middle of Spain.

I can now understand how it was that the southern part of Spain from which we had come, from Gibraltar all the way through Granada to Cordoba was under Arab control for many centuries even though the north part of Spain was Christian, Catholic. Those mountains in the middle must have been very difficult to scale and easy to defend.

The countryside from then onwards was much flatter although there were hills and mountains from time to time. The scenery was pretty but scorched by the blazing sun.

We finally reached Madrid late in the evening and were taken to the Westin Palace hotel. Whereas the other hotels we had stayed in were 5 star this was 5star plus plus, magnificent opulent, luxurious, the adjectives roll off the tongue and actually do apply.

We stayed there for our final two nights before returning on Wednesday to our respective destinations.

All the while, at every convenient spot, Rabbi Paysach Krohn spoke, both in Shuls, Palaces, etc. as well as usually speaking every evening at our supper which took place anytime between 9.00 pm and 12 midnight. He really is an excellent speaker with lots of knowledge and depth. He researched the historic angle and other matters thoroughly and he speaks with wit enthusiasm, is full of emotion and peppers his dvirei Torah (which are either incredible, amazing or beautiful depending on the phrase he chooses to use) with stories. Furthermore, he developed personal relationships and started new ones with numerous people on the trip. Because there were 4 coaches, we did not always have the privilege of hearing him whilst the coach was travelling. We did see some videos of him as well from time to time. I do wonder whether that if there would have just been one or two coaches that was travelling, it would not have been too much. It was perhaps a blessing in disguise, that we were given time to assimilate numerous facts and stories whilst admiring the countryside and also getting to know other people on our coach.

On Tuesday morning there was a tour arranged for Madrid including the Royal Palace there, we opted out, very simply because we woke up very late, not surprising as we went to bed at about 1.00 in the morning.

As in other places, the management, that is Eli Slomovits and Miriam Schreiber, in particular had arranged for us to have a separate dining room where we could also daven and, therefore our group was catered for separately each day when we stayed at the various hotels.

The centre of Spain is virtually as hot as Marrakesh in southern Morocco.

I don’t know exactly how hot it was in Madrid but I think that it must have been around 40º.

On Tuesday afternoon at around 4.00 pm we once again got into our coaches and I began to understand what the 42 journeys, when the Yidden went round the midbar after the Mattan Torah must have been like!!

We reached Toledo which is a small town approximately 70 miles southwest of Madrid around 5.00 pm.

After our coaches managed to find somewhere to park, we then started on an extraordinary tour. Firstly, in order to reach the old walled city, we went up a series of six escalators which meant that we did not have to walk up the very steep mountain.

We then came out towards the old town and each group was allotted a tour guide. They told us all about the history of the city and we heard a lot about the convents and the churches there as well unfortunately. Basically the city now lives on tourism but they did know a little about the Jewish history. This was amplified to us by Rabbi Krohn and also Rabbi Nissel who were both very informative.

Although it was late in the afternoon the temperature was still 41º approximately 107ºF I believe. That is, of course, in the shade, and we were walking around quite a lot in the sun. We eventually were taken to a large building which had been turned into a museum of Sephardi Jewish interest. Basically, we were told that this was a Shul built around 750 years ago and that the Rosh, the Rabbenu Osher who had fled from Germany was welcomed with open arms by the Rashba in Barcelona. The Rosh then journeyed on to Toledo where he became the official Rabbi and it was believed that this was the Shul that he davenned in. I believe his son, the Tur, followed him.

The Shul apparently only functioned as such for about 30 to 40 years towards the end of the 1300’s and then it was taken over by the Catholics. We also learned another fact that although the inquisition started officially in the whole of Spain in 1492, for a hundred years prior to that, in many parts of Spain, including Toledo, the Jews had been very much oppressed and there had been forced conversions etc. This Shul had been taken over by the Catholic Church and used as a church and it was only, I believe, about 20 years ago that it was taken over by the government who wanted to increase tourism and pointed out that there were many other churches in town and there was no need to keep them all. When the whole place was renovated it was discovered that various pesukim which had been engraved on the walls high up were still in existence under the plaster or whatever had been used to cover them. We managed to read round the whole four walls right at the top of the ceiling פ''ד chapter 84 of tehillim and further down there was again a whole series of less easily read pesukim round the four walls followed by a third layer. All of these much higher than anybody could reach.

We are talking here about a Shul with dimensions approximately 30 metres long, say 100 foot by 20 metres wide, say 70 foot. The height was at least 35 metres, say 120 foot. An amazing creation going back over 750 years.

As it had been restored the place leading to the Aron Hakodesh was clearly visible and very beautiful and at the sides once again there were pesukim of Ashrei going up the wall from the bottom and coming down the other side on both sides of the Aron Hakodesh. There was also a large plaque which blessing for the king Pedro and this really gives the date of the building of the Shul. We were told that he was called Pedro the cruel, nevertheless, there was a beautiful blessing in his honour. (I was reminded of a machzor I have which goes back to the blessing of the King after Shacharis on Shabbos in honour of the Tsar of Russia, Nikolai Nikolevitch.)

There was also a ladies gallery high up and were told that when the Catholic Church took it over, the bishops used it as their living quarters.

Before going in, I noticed that the windows were high up and this was obviously to ensure that no mob could break in through windows. The door was on the side. There was also at ground floor level a little arch of stones and I surmised that that was originally an entrance to a mikvah which would have been below the building.

We recited chapter 84 of tehillim with Rabbi Krohn and it was really very moving. Please read through the words the psalm and you will, I believe, understand why it was engraved on the walls. When one comes across this type of preserved writing, one wonders what might have been completely obliterated and, therefore, we cannot have the privilege of understanding much of the depth and beauty and thought that went into building these beautiful Shuls of which the Sephardim, in particular, are famous.

Further down the road, we went past another building which, unfortunately is still used as a Catholic church although it has on it SYNAGOGA because it was also originally a Shul. I ventured into the courtyard and walked around a little but did not actually enter into the building. Ironically, at the side of the word synagogue it states that it is Santa Maria something or other and I was reminded of the fact that Satmar Chassidus also is based on the words Saint Mary.

We kept on coming across people who said that they had Jewish blood in them. For instance, on the plane coming back, we sat together with a young man, who stated that his grandfather was Jewish and this seemed to be a pattern repeated often in Spain.

In this context, one of the people in our group told her story.

She was born in Brazil into a Catholic family. As a teenager she expressed a desire to study religion. Her grandfather then called her in to his private room and took her into a secret room, took out Jewish artefacts and told her that she should know that the family was Jewish and Marrano.

She became a religious Jew but had to undergo Geirus in case somewhere in the 500 years there might have been a break in the Jewish family life. We heard a number of stories of how the Marrano women ensured that they should always continue the Jewish traditions and this was passed on generation after generation.

She is now married with five children and works in Aish Hatorah as well as voluntarily working for the Bostoner Rebbe’s Ezer U’Refuah organisation in Boston which has a worldwide reputation.

The old town of Toledo is as originally built, perhaps 800 or 900 years ago and there is a flowing river just under the Jewish quarter adjacent to those synagogues I mentioned and the views are breath-taking and one can see the old walls and imagine how our Jewish Brethren lived 700 or 800 years ago in this very place.

Once we had crossed over a bridge, and met our busses Mincha was davenned. I wonder when the last time there was a minyan of about 60 people in Toledo davenning together. We then proceeded back to Madrid arriving at around 9.00 pm. We had a grand finale meal with Rabbi Krohn, of course, talking, thanking all the staff and we eventually retired to bed. We all said our farewells to our newly found friends as well as old acquaintances and wished each other a כתיבה וחתימה טובה.

Read More......

נדרים

The sedra of מטות commences with a set of laws concerning נדרים, vows or promises made. Some of these are straight forward, namely that should a man make a promise to Hashem or swears to obligate something on himself, he should not profane his words and must keep to the נדר or שבוע.

The same goes for a woman over the age of 12 and unmarried, or alternatively who is a widow or divorced.

Those laws can be understood logically and appear to be straightforward.

The interesting laws in the rest of the parsha concern the other cases, namely where a girl between the ages of 11 and 12 makes a נדר. Where an engaged girl makes a נדר and finally, where a married woman makes a נדר.

There are detailed laws whereby basically the father or the husband, or in the case of an engaged girl, both together, have the opportunity to annul the נדר in certain cases and with a certain time limit as enumerated in the parsha. The final verse reads as follows אלה החקים אשר צוה ה' את משה בין איש לאשתי בין אב לבתו בנעריה בית אביה.

The Torah clearly considers that these laws are chukim, statutes, things that we would not have understood from our own logical processes.

In order to understand the parsha properly, one should study it carefully at least with Rashi but the purpose of this article is to highlight certain phrases or laws which may seem, at least, strange, but which I believe have a connection with a previous event and therefore, can be better understood and appreciated.

In order to deal with this, I will try to enumerate and highlight certain wordings and laws.

I mentioned that the parsha is called מטות. In fact, this is the only time in Torah that there is a phrase stating that Moshe spoke אל ראשי המטות, to the heads of the tribes. Why was this particular phrase used and why were these laws given to the heads of the tribes?

From the wording in the whole parsha, there appears to be no hint that in addition to a father or husband being able to annul a vow, there is also what is known as a התרת חכם namely that a great scholar can also annul a vow. Furthermore, he can make it annulled retrospectively, that is from the time it was uttered and not like a father or husband from the time they find out, onwards. They cannot cause it to be annulled retrospectively.

Although the Torah states the case of a girl between the ages of 11 and 12, firstly, it then continues regarding an engaged woman and only then turns to the case of a husband and wife. Right at the end of the parsha, the emphasis in on בין איש לאשתו between a husband and wife as if this it the most important case.

The Torah uses an expression as follows:-
ואם ביום שמע אישה יניא אותה והפר את נדרה
And if on the day that the husband hears he, יניא, restrains her, והפר and he annuls her vow.

Rashi asks what does the word יניא mean and then says it means annulling. If that is so, why are both expressions יניא and והפר necessary?

There is another verse which reads as follows:-
כל נדר וכל שבעת אסר לענת נפש אישה יקימנו ואישה יפרנו
Every promise and every oath which, לענת נפש, her husband can confirm and her husband can annul. I have seen the expression, לענת נפש, translated as personal affliction or alternatively, vitiating ones life. Rabbi Shimson Rafoel Hirsch explains that vows which would entail neglect of care for one’s health, curtailment of one’s joy in life, would embitter one’s existence or stunt one’s feelings are all included. So are vows which affect the conjugal relations between husband and wife. All this the husband has the power to annul, but not any other vows. Why is this?

Finally, the expression מיום אל יום, from a day to the next day, is used by the Torah. We have a tradition, הלכה למשה מסיני, from Moshe Rabbenu that this means that the husband, only has the right to annul any such נדר or שבוע during the actual day that he hears it. For example, if he hears on a Monday evening after night falls, he will have up to Tuesday evening before nightfall to annul the נדר. (Subject to a proviso that if, however, during that period, he has already indicated that he agrees with it, he cannot then annul it).

If he hears about a נדר shortly before sunset, on the Tuesday, he still only has until nightfall on the same Tuesday evening, possibly only a half an hour, to annul it. He does not have 24 hours from the time that he hears it, but just during the actual day, which for Jewish purposes, is from nightfall until the next evening at nightfall.

Furthermore, as you may have realised, he does not have to annul it on the day that the נדר was made, but the first day that he hears about it is the relevant day for these laws.

I think one can see that there are some very unusual points I have made and, in fact, there are more in the parsha.

Let me make a suggestion as to what the underlying rationale might be, based on what happened during the first day that man was created.

We all know the story of אדם and חוה being placed in Gan Eden and being told that they could eat every fruit except one tree עץ הדעת טוב ורע, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They were further told that on the day they ate from this tree they would die.

Nevertheless, the נחש, the snake, spoke to חוה regarding the matter and Rashi tells us that she told him that she and her husband were not allowed to eat or touch the tree. The snake pushed חוה into the tree and nothing happened. She did not die. She then ate and compounded the sin by persuading her husband אדם to eat.

Because of that the whole perfection of creation was spoiled. The words spoken by חוה without due consideration led to the chain of events for which we are still paying. It is also in our hands to try to rectify, to some extent, the damage caused.

It would also have helped considerably if she had not persuaded her husband and he would have not eaten from the fruit.

אדם הראשון compounded the sin by, when being questioned by Hashem said,
האשה אשר נתת עמדי הוא נתנה לי מן העץ ואכל,
The woman you gave to me gave me the fruit and I ate it. He blamed his wife for the problem instead of accepting that the problem was his.

The ספרים הקדושים state that we should attempt, by our actions, to try to rectify the problems caused by the fact that אדם and חוה ate from the עץ הדעת.

Let us now proceed to deal with the points I raised and maybe we can appreciate better the unusual points and laws.

As a general rule, men tend to make decisions with logic whereas ladies tend to rely on their emotions more. In fact, the Torah tells us that חוה saw
כי טוב העץ למאכל וכי תאוה הוא לעינים ונחמד העץ להשכיל
She perceived that the tree was good for eating and that it was a delight to the eye and that the tree was desirable for understanding. She, therefore, ate the fruit and then gave it to her husband to eat as well.

חוה was swayed by her emotions rather than thinking logically that they had been commanded that they may not eat from the fruit.

In the same way one can suggest that ladies are more likely to make a נדר when faced with strong emotions or a crisis (in their eyes) at that moment.

When this concerns only themselves and is a matter of very little consequence, for example, to vow that she will never wear a dress colour blue again, this is acceptable. However, when she makes a vow which affects her relationship with her husband or can lead to major consequences in some other way, there has to be a mechanism whereby this can be stopped and annulled.

Similarly in respect of girls who are reaching the age of puberty where they are beginning to assert their own personality there is the danger of them making irrational נדרים ruled by their emotions.

At that stage, the father figure is the one to have the opportunity of step in with calmness and logic.

The other major period covered is when a girl becomes engaged, אירוסין, and makes a נדר. In that case, both her father and future husband have to intervene jointly in the matter. The engaged girl is likely to be in a more emotional state than at other times. Here, however, it is not sufficient for her father to step in but also the future husband as this may affect him during their life together.

Let us now proceed to try to deal with the wordings and laws that I highlighted. Bearing in mind my remarks above, we begin to understand why it is that a father or husband has the ability to annul נדרים made. In the same way as חוה let her emotions at that moment rule her head regarding a most important matter, with dire consequences, the Torah is trying to forestall a similar situation.

Therefore, the power of the husband or father only applies where a factor of לענת נפש which I went into in detail earlier on, and quoted Rabbi Shimson Rafoel Hirsch (please see above) applies. Furthermore, a husband must use logic and common sense. By using a double expression יניא, restraining and והפר annulling, the Torah is emphasising that he should act as a restraining influence altogether as well as annulling this particular נדר. In effect, by stopping it once, this will, hopefully lead to such situations not happening again. It is also, to a small degree, a rectification, תיקון, for the original sin of אדם and חוה.

One could even, perhaps, suggest that the words לענת נפש also include the fact that by אדם and חוה having eaten from the עץ הדעת, this caused affliction, לענת, for all the future souls, נפש, namely all their offspring.

The reason why it has to be annulled on the same actual day, even if it is only a short while before and not as one would otherwise understand as a 24 hour period (which is the maximum) is because of the sequence of events at the time of the sixth day of creation when אדם and חוה were actually created.

The Gemorra in Sanhedrin tells us that by 11.00am that day, אדם הראשון stood on his feet, by 1 o’clock in the afternoon, he was already presented with חוה as his wife. By 3 o’clock in the afternoon, they were commanded not to eat from the עץ הדעת. By 4 o’clock they had already eaten, by 5 o’clock Hashem had decided their fate and just before evening came they were sent out of Gan Eden.

We are also told that as it was beginning to get dark, אדם thought that it was the end as far as he was concerned because he had been told that on the day that he would eat from the fruit he would die. Indeed, it may have been so, but Shabbos, which was imminently coming in, pleaded with Hashem to accept אדם’s repentance, his תשובה and as Dovid Hamelech says in tehillim כי אלף שנה בעיניך כיום,
A thousand days in G-d’s eyes is like one day. Hashem commuted the sentence and allowed אדם and חוה to live up to 1,000 years.

However, all this took place during the same day and was decided by nightfall.

Therefore, in the same way, the rectification for אדם not having stopped חוה from eating or at least, not eaten himself and also putting the blame on חוה all took place in the period up to nightfall on that very same day.

Because of this the maximum time that can be allowed for annulling a נדר is up to nightfall on that same day.

Let us turn now to the hidden law, namely that there is התרת חכם, a great scholar can annul a vow and furthermore, he can annul it retrospectively unlike a father or a husband.

May I suggest that the חכם represents the Rebbonu Shel Olam, Hashem Himself, who is היה הוה ויהיה, was, is and will be, and He is above time. He, therefore, has the ultimate power to do things retrospectively unlike human beings who can only act from now onwards. That is the reason why a father or husband can only annul the vow from the moment that he says מופר, it is annulled. We now see why their annulment of the vow does not take retrospective effect.

Finally, returning to the first question that I posed, namely as to why does it say that Moshe spoke אל ראשי המטות to the heads of the tribes. Perhaps one could find a רמז here that the ראשי המטות are אדם and חוה who were the first two human beings and therefore the heads of all the tribes of the world for that matter.

Moshe was implying that by adhering to the laws, חוקים, of נדרים, we would assist in the rectification of the two original ראשי המטות.

The gemmatria of the three words אל ראשי המטות adds up to 1,002. Bearing in mind the remarks that I made about Hashem granting אדם a thousand years life and that אדם and חוה were the two human beings that this all concerned, we have 1,000 + 2 = 1,002 and that adds up to the words אל ראשי המטות as a רמז to the whole picture and a clue to the חוקים of נדרים having an affinity with אדם and חוה.

Read More......