A large Religious Zionist congregation in North America slightly amends the standard text of the blessing for the State of Israel authored by Rav Yitzchak Herzog and Rav Ben Zion Hai Uzziel, the chief rabbis of Medinat Yisrael at the time of its founding in 1948. Instead of describing Medinat Yisrael as “reishit tzemichat geulateinu” (the beginning of the flowering of our redemption), it adds the word “shetehei” (that it should become) reishit tzemichat geulateinu.
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Parshat Naso
During my days in yeshiva, or perhaps sometime after that, there was a joke that made its rounds within the yeshiva world and beyond.
“Do you know who Shimshon’s father was?”
“Of course! His was the husband of Eshet Mano’ach (Mano’ach’s wife)!”
The joke is not repeated because of its humor but because of the underlying difficulty that it reflects, a difficulty that puzzles the serious students of Tanach. When analyzing the story of Shimshon’s birth in Sefer Shoftim (perek 13), the haftarah that we read this week, it is clear that the central character of the story is Mrs. Manoach, the soon-to-be mother of Shimshon HaGibor. The angel of Hashem appears to her and not her husband. She, not her husband, receives the list of all the strictures that her future son would have to observe. She is given specific laws that she would have to observe, while none are given to Mano’ach. And when Mano’ach asks God to send back the “man of God” who appeared