Sh’elot U’Teshuvot: Questions and Answers which have appeared in previous editions of Shofar (our monthly magazine). The answers were provided by our former rabbi Mark Goldsmith, whose successor at FPS is Rabbi Neil Janes
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I have recently read a novel, "Mrs Garnet's Angel", by Simon Winchester. Alongside the contemporary story he gives an account of Tobias and the angel Raphael and draws parallels. I would like to read the biblical account, but don't know how or where to find it. Can you help please? Also: Is there any significance for Jews in the named angels, some of whom have been adopted by Christians as saints?
First of all, let me explain why you are having trouble finding the story of Tobias and Raphael in the Bible. This is
because the story is part of the Book of Tobit, which is not found in the Jewish Bible (the "Tanach"). The story was
written by Jews but only appears in the Bible used by the older churches such as Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox.
As such it is one of the thirteen books of the Apocrypha (lit. "hidden books", which include, incidentally the Books of
the Maccabees, the foundation of our Chanukkah story). If you want to read the story, which concerns a pious and upright
Jew living in the Assyrian exile whose blindness is cured by the angel Raphael (lit. God is my healer) and whose son Tobias
marries within his tribe, you will need to consult a Christian bible or a separate edition of the Apocrypha.
Let's now turn to angels. Beings which are not people nor God appear in many places in the Bible. One speaks to
Abraham after he has bound his son Isaac, one speaks to Moses from out of the burning bush. In Hebrew they are often
called Malach, which means messenger. It is in this role as the deliverer of a particular message that they most often
appear, as if the authors of the Torah were concerned to avoid presenting God relating too directly to particular people
and so created an intermediary character. An angel also saves Daniel and his companions from the King's furnace. In the
Book of Daniel the angels are, for the only time in the Bible, given names. Michael (lit. God is my helper) is portrayed
in that Book as arguing the case for Israel assisted by Gabriel (lit. God is my strength) in a heavenly council of nations,
each represented by an angel. Choirs of angels called Seraphim, a word related to "fire", appear in the vision of the prophet
Isaiah (Chapter 6) praising God with the words that we use in our morning service "Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh" which we introduce
with the words - "We sanctify Your name on earth as, in the prophet's vision, the hosts of heaven sing Your praise above"
(Siddur Lev Chadash p141)
Many more angels appear in the books of the Apocrypha and in many of the extra-biblical books found in Qumran.
They also figure prominently in Jewish legend (aggadah) as recorded in the Talmud and collections of Midrash. Some
scholars suggest that they exist as a literary device to enable the Jewish culture of that time to adapt the stories
of other peoples' gods into an style acceptable to monotheistic Judaism.
Should women be obliged to wear a Cippah (head covering) and/or Tallit (prayer shawl) when participating in services at a Liberal synagogue?
Let us begin with the minhag (custom and practice) at our synagogue. At Finchley Progressive Synagogue the wearing of c
and t is optional for every worshipper except in one circumstances where we have effectively deemed it to be obligatory.
This circumstance is where a man is performing a mitzvah such as opening the Ark or reading the Haftarah portion. He is
asked in the letter inviting him to perform the mitzvah to wear a c and t. Women are advised in the same letter that such
a practice remains optional for them. As the community's Rabbi, I am delighted to see that there are a number of women in
our community who regularly wear c and t for prayer. Our community affirms complete equality for men and women in all
aspects of Jewish life and so I can see no reason to discourage women from wearing the same prayer-wear as men and hope
that as the years go by more and more women will do so.
Indeed in the Talmud (Menachot 43a), it is suggested that women are obligated to wear tallit in the same way as men are
by the words of Numbers 15:37-41. The reason why this is not the case in Orthodox synagogues is because there women are
exempted from all time-bound commandments due to the different role in life that Orthodoxy ascribes to them in respect to
men. The t is only worn at certain times of the day so a woman is thus exempted. She is not banned from doing so although
this seems to have become the custom for most Orthodox Jews. Women are not treated differently to men in a Liberal synagogue
because we do not require them to have different roles in life, so it would be entirely appropriate for a woman to wear a
tallit in our synagogue if she wished to.
The issue of head covering is a little more complicated! Jews prayed, studied and even read from the Torah without
covering their heads for many centuries. Though the custom of covering one's head for prayer began to grow up in Babylonia
from the sixth century onwards at the latest, it was not generally observed in the Land of Israel. This difference fed
through to Jews in later centuries with Sephardi Jews generally covering their heads for prayer and Ashkenazi Jews remaining
bare headed. By the time of the Sixteenth Century Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayyim 91:3) most Jews, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi
did cover their heads for prayer - but head covering for men remains a custom rather than something laid down by Jewish law.
Thus in our Synagogue it remains optional, though as I said above it is our custom to require that a man covers his head on
our bimah.
Strangely enough whilst head covering is strictly speaking optional for men in Orthodox Jewish law it is not
for women who, once married are obliged to keep their heads covered for reasons of "modesty" (Mishnah Ketubot 2:1
and Ketubot 72a). As, in a Liberal synagogue we do not feel that women should be restricted due to attitudes that men
are assumed to have, we do not keep up this tradition. Thus the wearing of a cippah by a woman in our synagogue is optional,
but in the same way that it is optional for a man as an element of prayer-wear. Our not requiring a woman to wear one on the
bimah is more down to sensitivity to that with which women feel comfortable than for any religious logic!
I read somewhere that a Jews should not wear any article of clothing which contains cotton and linen. Is this correct? Why?
Your question relates to one of the mitzvot (commandments derived from the Torah) which, on the surface defies rational
explanation, called in Hebrew a chok, as opposed to a mishpat - a mitzvah which can be explained rationally, such as the
commandment not to steal. Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11 prohibit the wearing of sha'atnez - fabrics made from a
mixture of wool and linen (from the flax plant) together. It is only this combination that is banned for those Jews who
observe this mitzvah. Cotton and linen mixed are permissible to all Jews.
However, if an item of clothing bears a label stating that it is a mix of either wool or linen and "mixed fabrics"
then an observant Jew would avoid wearing it in case there is a mixture of the wool and linen within it. Since linen is
often used a collar stiffener in men's woolen suits, observant Jews would be especially cautious in buying one and will
take it to a sha'atnez laboratory, such as the one off Brent Street in Hendon to have it inspected or buy from a tailor
whose suits bear the sha'atnez laboratory's label.
Strangely enough the Priests in the Jewish Temple wore garments made from wool and linen when they were officiating
(See Exodus Chapter 28). So Maimonides, when he tried to explain the mitzvah of not wearing sha'atnez, suggested that it
was to avoid wearing garments made from the same fabric as that which might later have been worn by heathen priests.
A Midrashic explanation based on the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis Chapter 4) suggests that plant and animal derived
fabrics should not be mixed since Cain, the murderer, brought plant products as his offering to God and Abel, the victim,
brought a woolly sheep. This mixture proved fatal to Abel!
f you would like to know more about this issue then have a look at the website of the "Shatnez (sic.) Testers of
America" (http://members.home.net/shatnez).
Why do we have Kiddush after we have prayed?
The Sabbath commandment in the Ten Commandments is "Remember / Observe the Sabbath Day to keep it holy". Commenting on
this verse in the Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 106a) the Rabbis said that a cup of wine would be the most appropriate way
of marking its holiness. The literal meaning of the word Kiddush is indeed "holiness". They insisted that it be wine as
that was considered to be the finest drink and rejected suggestions that beer would do just as well!
The Sabbath commandment in the Ten Commandments is "Remember / Observe the Sabbath Day to keep it holy". Commenting
on this verse in the Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 106a) the Rabbis said that a cup of wine would be the most appropriate
way of marking its holiness. The literal meaning of the word Kiddush is indeed "holiness". They insisted that it be wine
as that was considered to be the finest drink and rejected suggestions that beer would do just as well!
As I said, the Kiddush is meant to be recited before Shabbat meals. Why then do we recite it at FPS after praying
in the Synagogue? It seems that this custom was introduced outside the Land of Israel many hundreds of years ago for the
benefit of itinerant Jews, travelling peddlers or those seeking refuge in the Synagogue. These people would join the
community for Shabbat and might stay in the Synagogue or elsewhere where they would not have the opportunity to make
Kiddush themselves. Thus they would have the opportunity to celebrate the holiness of Shabbat with their fellow Jews.
When better to do this than immediately after the service when the congregation was still around?
Located where we are in London, Finchley Progressive Synagogue receives visitors on most Shabbatot and so it is
most appropriate that we continue this custom. On a Saturday morning our Kiddushim also provide something nice to eat
for those in our community and of our visitors who cannot often afford luxuries and becomes a symbolic Shabbat meal.
Nevertheless we would encourage all of our members to also enjoy Kiddush at home so that the places where they live are
weekly endowed with the holiness of Shabbat.
Why was the first Synagogue built?
Judaism was originally a Temple based religion in which, as its primary form of worship, priests offered sacrifices
on behalf of the people to God. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70CE never since to be rebuilt. We
know for certain that, by that time, there were also Synagogues in operation pretty much wherever Jews lived, up to four
hundred of them in Jerusalem alone and as far from there as Spain and Gaul (France). The earliest archaeological evidence
for the existence of a Synagogue is, however from much earlier, possibly as early as 247 BCE in Shedia, a suburb of
Alexandria in Egypt. Thus Synagogue worship not only replaced Temple worship in Judaism but was also contemporaneous with it.
It is likely that the very first Synagogues, as opposed to alternative sites for sacrificial altars, were established
among the Jewish exiles in Babylonia from the year 586 BCE onwards. When the Prophet of the Exile, Ezekiel refers to God
as a "small sanctuary" (11:16) it is thought that he may have had such meeting places in mind. There is a strong tradition
that the famous Shaf Ve-Yativ Synagogue in Nehardea, Babylonia, was founded by the first exiles around 586BCE. Indeed the
Synagogue, a place for Jews to meet as equals and to pray together, seems to have first thrived in Diaspora communities.
So, the first answer to your question is that the Synagogue was founded as a place for dispersed Jews to meet, once they
could not make their regular pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem at the proper times.
But that is only a partial answer, as so many Synagogues were also founded in Israel by the First Century, when
the Temple was still standing. The sheer numbers of Synagogues makes it likely that they were also founded just as
they are today - to provide a place for a people to form a sense of community - something which the grand and impersonal
Temple could never do. Indeed there were Synagogues in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel in the first century CE just for
ex-patriate Alexandrian Jews from Egypt so that they could retain their sense of community. Where Synagogues were large,
such as the largest in Alexandria, the members of the various craft guilds would sit together, forming smaller communities.
Furthermore the Synagogue seems, from its earliest times, to have been a place for a quite different kind of worship
to that practised in the Temple in Jerusalem or at the Egyptian Jewish temples of Onias and at Elephantine. In Synagogues
prayer replaced sacrifice and offerings of animals or produce. In Synagogues regular bible readings and the preaching of
learned people enhanced the service. Our records of these differences can be found not only in Jewish sources from the
Mishnah onwards but also in the Christian New Testament, where Jesus and Paul are often to be found "taking mitzvot"
preaching and reading in Synagogues (see especially Acts Chapters 9,13-18).
Indeed the original raison d'être for the first Synagogues has changed little over two and a half millenia.
Our Synagogues are still the places where we find our Jewish identity in the lands of our dispersion, they are still
our community centres, and we still see prayer and the reading of the Torah and Haftarah as their core rituals.
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