Category Archives: Religious Leaders

Spiritual and Religious Greats of the Jewish People

Jew of the Week: King Solomon

History’s Wisest Man and Greatest King

Shlomo ben David (c. 983-931 BCE) was born in Jerusalem to King David and his wife Batsheva. He inherited the throne when he was just 12 years old. God famously appeared to him in a dream and asked what Shlomo wanted most, to which the young king replied that he wished for wisdom to rule his kingdom justly. God replied that since Shlomo did not ask for a long reign, riches, or power, He would grant Shlomo the wisdom he asked for, as well as longevity, riches, and power (I Kings 3:11). Shlomo went on to rule for a long four decades, equal to his father David, and merited to preside over an era of total peace (alluded to by his name “Shlomo”, from the root shalom). He forged many peace treaties (often through marriage, resulting in hundreds of wives), established strong trade relations with his neighbours, greatly expanded the Israelite military, and most importantly, built Jerusalem’s first Holy Temple, the Beit haMikdash. He was a wise judge, and prolific thinker and scholar, composing 3 of the 24 books of the Tanakh, including the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (Kohelet), and Song of Songs. He was also an astronomer, master of the dark arts, and a polyglot fluent in numerous languages—even able to communicate with wild life! Despite his immense wisdom, when he wrote in Proverbs 30:18 that there were four things he still did not quite understand, the Midrash states these are the mysteries of the four species waved on the holiday of Sukkot (lulav, hadassim, aravot, and etrog). In Jewish tradition, it is customary to read his book Kohelet during Sukkot. It is also believed that it was Shlomo who instituted the practice of netilat yadayim, the ritual washing of the hands before a meal. Interestingly, one of Shlomo’s direct ancestors was named Salmah (see Ruth 4:18-19), spelled the exact same way in Hebrew as Shlomo (שלמה), though vowelized differently. Salmah was also called Sal’mon (שלמון), which was likely confused in the non-Jewish world and may be the reason why Shlomo’s name was transliterated as “Salman” in Greek, “Suleiman” in Arabic, and “Solomon” in English! The Midrash (Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer) lists Shlomo as one of history’s ten most powerful kings.

Chag Sukkot Sameach!

14 Sukkot Facts Every Jew Should Know

Rare Photo of Sukkot During World War I

Who Really Wants Peace in the Middle East?

Words of the Week

Our way… is the way of peace. It is narrow, difficult and unpaved. There is no false heroism on it and no false pathos, but it rests, so I believe, on the historic tradition of the Jewish people.
– Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel 

Jew of the Week: Nathan Birnbaum

The First Zionist (and the First Modern Ba’al Teshuva)

Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937) was born in Vienna to a traditional Jewish family of Hungarian and Galician heritage. He studied law and philosophy at the University of Vienna, where he founded Kadimah, the first nationalist Jewish student association. He also started a new magazine called Selbstemanzipation! (“Self-Emancipation!) In fact, it was in an 1890 article for his magazine that Birnbaum coined the terms “Zionism” and “Zionist”. Two years later, he coined the term “political Zionism”, as distinct from the religious Zionism that has always existed in Judaism. Birnbaum’s writings were hugely popular and helped ignite the modern Zionist movement. They also played a role in inspiring Theodor Herzl. At the First Zionist Congress in 1897, Birnbaum was elected Secretary General. However, he soon had a change of heart when he saw how Zionism was becoming too secular and too political. Instead, he began to advocate for “Jewish cultural autonomy”, also called golus (or galut) nationalism. He hoped Jews would be recognized as a distinct and semi-autonomous people within the countries in which they dwelled. Birnbaum ran for Austrian parliament and while he did win the election, corruption and anti-Semitism prevented him from taking his seat. Birnbaum was a huge proponent of “Yiddishism”, and to make Jews proud of their culture and language. In 1908, he convened the first Conference for the Yiddish Language, and even traveled to America to promote the revival of Yiddish. During this trip, he had a meeting with US President Teddy Roosevelt. Birnbaum eventually realized that true salvation for the Jews can only come from adherence to Torah and Jewish law. In 1916, he became a ba’al teshuvah and began to live a strictly Orthodox life. Three years later, he became the General Secretary of Agudas Yisroel (originally an umbrella organization for Eastern European Orthodox Jews, and today also a political party in Israel). He wrote a popular text called Gottesvolk (“God’s People”), where he outlined his plan for reviving Judaism and laid out a vision of the ideal Jewish community. He argued passionately against “modern paganism” and warned about the dangers of godless secularism, quite accurately foreseeing how it could destroy society. He affirmed that settling and living in Israel was still important, of course, but for spiritual reasons, not political ones. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Birnbaum fled with his family to the Netherlands, where he lived out the last few years of his life. Today there is a street in Jerusalem named after him. He has been called a “prophetic personality” and the “first modern ba’al teshuvah”.

Yom Kippur Begins Tuesday Evening – Gmar Chatima Tova!

9 Yom Kippur Myths and Misconceptions

The Kabbalah of Yom Kippur

Words of the Week

When one stands in prayer, he should place his feet together side by side. He should set his eyes downwards as if he is looking at the ground, and his heart upwards as if he is standing in Heaven.
– Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (“Maimonides”, 1138-1204), Mishneh Torah

Jew of the Week: Rabbi Yosef Karo

Code of Jewish Law

19th Century Illustration of Rabbi Yosef Karo

Yosef ben Ephraim Karo (1488-1575) was born in Toledo, then in the Spanish kingdom of Castile. The infamous 1492 Spanish Expulsion of the Jews took place when he was just four years old. The family first fled to Portugal, and were then expelled from there as well in 1497. They eventually settled in Nikopolis, in the Ottoman Empire, which had opened its doors to Sephardic Jewish refugees. (The Ottoman Sultan at the time, Bayezid II, reportedly said: “They tell me that Ferdinand of Spain is a wise man, but he is a fool, for he takes his treasure and sends it all to me.”) Karo was tutored by his rabbi father and soon became a rabbi himself. He also studied under the great Rabbi Yosef Taitazak in Salonica. For a couple of years, he served as a rabbi in Adrianople, and eventually resettled in Tzfat. At the time, Tzfat was experiencing a resurgence of Jewish life and a renaissance in Jewish scholarship, thanks mainly to an influx of Sephardic Jewish refugees. It soon became the “capital” of Jewish mysticism, and Rabbi Karo was one of its most famous mystics and scholars. It was in Tzfat that he composed the Shulchan Arukh, to this day the standard code of Jewish law worldwide. (Tzfat boasted one of the first printing presses in the Middle East, helping to spread the Shulchan Arukh far and wide and making it extremely popular and accessible.) The Shulchan Arukh was itself only a summary of the far broader and more complex Beit Yosef, which was Rabbi Karo’s true magnum opus that he worked on for over twenty years. Rabbi Karo opened his own yeshiva, with 200 students including the renowned “Ramak”, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero. Karo also served as the chief rabbi on the Tzfat beit din. In fact, he was one of the main leaders in a rabbinic attempt to re-establish the ancient Sanhedrin. Rabbi Karo was recognized as the preeminent authority for all Sephardic Jewry worldwide, and was deeply respected by Ashkenazi Jews as well who, on several occasions, asked him to intervene in local European disputes. Among his other noted publications are Kesef Mishneh, a commentary on the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, along with a textbook for Talmudic study. One of his most intriguing works is Maggid Meisharim, a personal journal which records his prophetic experiences and the teachings he received from an angel over a period of fifty years. Rabbi Karo is often referred to simply as Maran, “Our Master”.

Words of the Week

Today, what is demanded of the Jewish people is mesirut nefesh, self-sacrifice, and this is particularly true with regard to chinuch, education. The resources for which we have labored must be dedicated to the education of children – both our own, and the children of others.
– Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe