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| Moses Isserles (or Moshe Isserlis) (1530 - 1572) - a Rabbi and Talmudist, renowned for his fundamental work of Halakha (Jewish law), titled the Mapah (HaMapah), a component of the Shulkhan Arukh. He is also well known for Darkhei Moshe, a commentary on the Tur. Isserles is also "the ReMA" (or "the RAMA") רמ״א, the Hebrew acronym for Rabbi Moses Isserles. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Rabbi Eliezer Silver who visited a displaced persons camp after the war, encountered a Jew who told him he no longer wanted anything to do with Judaism.
He explained that there was a Jew in the camps with a siddur that he would share only with those who were willing to give up their daily slice of bread.
“If that’s what Judaism is all about, I want nothing more to do with it.”Rabbi Silver asked him gently:
“And what did most people do?”
“They gave up their bread and took the siddur. They starved!”Rabbi Silver asked
“Why,” “do you look at the one Jew who could behave so dastardly? Why not reflect on the many more Jews who were willing to starve in exchange for a few minutes of precious prayer?”Rabbi Yaniv says the same to an Ashkenazi whose wife is Sephardi
Why are you looking at one disparity in the difference of custom between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews rather than the astounding number of similarities they share?
The differences are so negligible that they just prove the rule – we are one people with one Torah. Jews are forbidden by the Torah to eat or even own leavened products on Passover.We should remember that God took His People out of Egypt to make them one nation, united by the Torah. The Jews should take this at heart and should know their common history and their common goal.
Some eat rice, some don’t, and it matters not. We are one family, the children of Israel.explains Yaniv.
Also the Christians living all over the earth should know that there are differences depending on where they live and what season it is. Most important is that they do not take part in pagan traditions, like the Easter bunnies a.o..
Please do read the interesting exhortation of rabbi Yaniv:
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