317) SHEMIRA: WHY PROTECT THE DEAD?

 

A GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON:

As Rabbi Michal notes on his Kotzk Blog, many of the customs currently associated with death in Judaism were formalized only in the last few centuries. Reading that article got me thinking about some specific practises and their origins.

The first of those that came to mind was the protection (shemira) we insist in providing bodies before they reach burial. Besides the obvious fact that it’s perverse and cruel to just abandon a human body – especially that of a loved one – to its fate, is there any reason to continue watching it even once it’s safely reached, say, a hospital or funeral home morgue?

312) WHAT DOES MODEH ANI MEAN?

Modeh Ani mentioned in Seder haYom by R. Moshe ben Machir. Published in Venice 1599.

 GUEST POST BY RABBI BORUCH CLINTON:  (See  Boruch Clinton's Finding Tradition project)

What Does Modeh Ani Mean? 

                         מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקים שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה רבה אמונתך 

Those 12 words mark the start of each day for many Jews. It's a beautiful prayer and an expression of the many debts we owe to God. But three of those words might, on reflection, represent a significant theological innovation. 

Here's the whole thing translated: 

"I acknowledge before you, the living, eternal God, that you returned to me my soul, with grace and good faith." 

The three words in question are: שהחזרת בי נשמתי  - "that you returned to me my soul." Where's the innovation in that? 

Well for God to have returned our souls first thing each morning, He would have had to have first taken them. And, while relevant but ambiguous language can be found in a few midrashim (see עיון תפילה לספר  אוצר התפילות) I'm not sure we should be so quick to assume that death and rebirth is what literally happens each night. 

308) THE TURKISH JEWS STILL WAVE:

 

A 17th-century manuscript of Me'orot Natan by R. Natan Nata Shapira in Italian script. (Bodleian Library) 

INTRODUCTION

Turkish and Syrian Jews have the unusual custom of gesturing with their hands to other members of the congregation just prior to reciting the Amidah.  What are the origins of this little-known custom where the hand and fingers are held upwards, the palm inclined inwards and then moved back and forth three or four times, while making eye contact with fellow congregants in the synagogue?

In this article, based extensively on the research of Rabbi Dr Levi Cooper[1], we will explore the origins of this unusual custom which appear to be at least four centuries old.