Ask The Rabbi

Ask The Rabbi

category:  Chassidut

Eating a fish head on Rosh HaShanah

The Rav Name: Rabbi Yitzchak Arad

Shalom to the Institute Rabbis,

I have a question about the custom to eat the head of a fish on Rosh HaShanah. Isn’t this an act of pride not in line with the spirit of Judaism? I will be happy to get an explanation.

Shalom and thank you for your question! Your question can be broadened to say ‘ Why are there bad things at all in the world, and why do bad things happen to good people?

And it’s really a good question…it’s a question that we should be busy with constantly… wanting to make the world a better place…as opposed to ‘stop the world I wanna get off’, which is totally understandable and the way we often feel when the challenges become overwhelming.

Firstly, the Chassidic approach is not one of focusing on punishments. Punishments are mentioned in the Torah primarily as a deterrent.  We are taught that a Sanhedrin (special Rabbinical court that we do not have in our times but will be reinstated in the era of the Moshiach,) which found a person deserving of the death penalty once in 70 years was considered a murderous Sanhedrin! They were expected to make every possible effort to exonerate the alleged criminal. Valid efforts of course. Ok great,  so we people are expected to be fair and compassionate,  what about G-d Almighty? Why does He do the things He does?

Moses also asked this question. When the people were suffering under Pharoah,  and G-d told Moses to speak with Pharoah, Pharaoh’s response was a catastrophe… he denied G-d completely and decreed that the Hebrew slaves should now have to work harder and gather their own straw to make bricks…(this was in addition to inhuman conditions they were already subject to.)

Moses turned to G-d and cried “Why have you done evil to this people?”

G-d then promised Moses that good things would still come – which they eventually did! Miraculously good in fact… we were taken out of Egypt and given the Torah,  protected in the desert and led to the Promised land…

Ok…so our faith is constantly being tested. The prophet Jeremiah said that no evil descends from above, and we are taught that everything G-d does is for the good, even if we don’t understand it. It is not about sinning and punishment,  it is about a purification process… and it is about G-d’s decrees that we don’t understand.

That doesn’t lessen the pain.

The famous Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Bardichev interpreted the above-mentioned cry of Moses to G-d as a rather different question.  Why did G-d equip US with an evil inclination,  that is, with an inbuilt difficulty in placing our complete trust and belief in G-d? Furthermore,  according to his interpretation,  Moses was asking why he had the task of dealing with this belief-challenged people?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe,  Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson, had another insight regarding Moses’ cry to G-d.

He said that after events like the Holocaust,  we all have the right to direct this same cry to G-d.

Nevertheless,  even though we don’t know the answer,  we must still believe,  still try to do G-d’s will,  and hasten the true and final Redemption,  when there will be no evil.

I also do not know why my parents and their righteous parents were murdered in the concentration camps,  along with most of the family – resulting in my growing up with few relatives, in an isolated fashion, or why my son-in-law succumbed to a bacteria which was resistant to antibiotics and had to have his leg amputated, or why many challenging situations occur…

It doesn’t mean we have to search our previous incarnations,  (although in a prayer we say before falling asleep we do extend forgiveness to anyone who may have wronged us in our lives or in a previous incarnation – because WE are the ones forgiving, we actually have that power!) because we have to go forward and meet our challenges as best we can.

I hear your pain and wish you healing from the bottom of my heart!

 Perhaps there will be more medical breakthroughs and thus,  ways that you can be helped! Perhaps you can already find people who can help you improve your situation or give you good doable tips on living with it…

I join you in turning to the Almighty and humbly demanding that there be an end to all suffering.

This will happen when the Moshiach is revealed,  may it happen speedily in our days, and may we all rise to the challenge of doing our best to hasten that time!

Sources

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