| In the space of one parshah Avraham Avinu is promised a son by Sarah, celebrates the birth of Isaac, institutes brit milah and then… some time later… takes his son, his only son, the son that he loves, Yitzhak, to be sacrificed. As every reader knows, Yitzhak is saved by a messenger of YH-WH, and Avraham Avinu escapes the necessity of sliding the ma’achelet across the throat of his only remaining son. A mystery for the ages? Yes. It is.
According to Midrash, Avraham responds by attempting to negotiate with HaShem and avoid signing up for this terrible and terrifying journey. You can read Rashi’s version of the Midrash here. Can we trust Avraham when he says – in reference to Ishama’el and Isaac – “I love them both”? Did Avraham display love for Ishma’el when he banished him and his mother? We wonder, but that’s a different exploration. Midrash Tanhuma tells the story of the Devil himself trying to stop Avraham from carrying out this dreadful and terrifying mission. Satan puts up one obstacle after another, finally forming himself into a river that Avraham must cross, so deep that the water rises to his neck. Even Satan knows eating our young is a very bad idea. Yet Avraham perseveres until he reaches that mysterious mountain of which HaShem will tell him. In just five chapters Avraham is gifted with two sons. He manages to chase the first out of his household and almost completely out of the Torah. He almost kills the second. In each case he believes himself to be doing “what G-d wants”. How much do we believe it is safe, advisable or admirable for individuals to act based on our belief that we know what G-d wants? My Hebrew name is Avraham, but I am not Avraham Avinu. Neither is anyone else. How can any human say “I know what G-d wants” and I will kill and kill because I – and only I – have this unique knowledge. Some commentators have suggested that Avraham simply mis-understood HaShem’s command.
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The word “olah” comes to mean a “burnt-offering” when the sacrificial laws are given. Did it have this meaning in our story? Impossible to know. But judging from Avraham’s reaction, he knew this command was a bad idea. His instincts led him to immediately demur.
Avraham Avinu almost kills his son. It is impossible to read this parshah and not think about all the sons – and daughters – being sent to death because parents or commanders “know” they are right. What guidance can we take from Parshat Vayera on this matter?
Whether it is “send our sons and daughters to depose a dictator”, or to fight the terrorists, or to kill the innocents in the name of our cause, we must ask the simplest more powerful question of all… “Why?”. No more estrangement between father and son. No more walking on separate paths. No more killing. No more hatred. The intent of the Torah is the words we proclaim when we put the sacred scroll back in her holy container. etz chayim hi l’makhazikim ba…v’chol netivotehah shalom! She is a tree of life when we hold on to her…therefore all her paths are peaceful. There must be a better way. Our sacred mission is to find it. Shabbat Shalom.
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וַיֵּרָא – Parshat VaYera – Why do we Eat our Young?
Posted by rabbiart on November 4, 2009
Posted in Torah Commentary | 1 Comment »
Ha’azinu – How do we listen to each other?
Posted by rabbiart on September 25, 2009
| This year on Shabbat Shuvah we read one of the most dramatic and literary parshiot in the Torah – Ha’azinu. Living in the age of spin as we do, the text of the parshah, especially its opening call, is especially relevant and compelling.
Moshe, nearing the end of his life, has been embroiled in the politics of wandering for forty years. Although the Torah only describes the beginning and end of this journey, we can be sure that the behavior demonstrated by the stories we have is continuous throughout the journey. Our ancestors had nothing on the political complainers of the current time. Everything was questioned, everything was argued. Leaders were under constant challenge from those with their own agendas. What comes first? Speaking or listening? We cannot speak if no one will listen. Even the greatest teacher and prophet, the only one ever to speak with HaShem face-to-face, needs a listening ear and an open heart. Otherwise, the falling rain and the gentle showers might as well be falling on to parched ground that cannot hold it. Read the text carefully, especially the opening verse. Moshe asks for the heavens to listen, and then he will speak. He calls on the earth to hear, and then his speech will be more than just mere lips flapping. |
Is there a lesson in this beautiful poem and appropriately short parshah? Do the heavens and skies listen? Aren’t they nothing more than inanimate objects? Well… yes, maybe and maybe not. What we can learn is that when heaven and earth “listen”, they aren’t busy preparing a response that will underscore their own point of view. In that sense, they are better listeners than human beings.
What we could learn from this parshah is the value of really listening, of putting aside our own agendas and debate points. Of the five senses, listening/hearing is the most passive, but also the most active. To see you must look. To taste you must eat. To smell you must inhale. To touch you must…touch. To hear you need do nothing, but to listen you must really do a lot. Above all, you must turn off your arguing mind and open your listening heart. As one of our text says, “open our hearts, so that we might get wisdom.” This Shabbat Shuvah (repenting, returning, changing) – in the interim of the new year and the day of at-one-ment, let us learn to be like shamayim and aretz and listen to each other with perfect attention. Shabbat Shalom Hatimah Tovah |
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Between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur
Posted by rabbiart on September 18, 2009
| It begins with a story. Everything begins with a story. Parents long for a child, but are unable to conceive. The father in particular needs a son to take delivery on promises made to him earlier by G-d. A still-hoping-to-become-mother makes a selfless act – as mothers will always do. She appoints her handmaiden Hagar as a surrogate. A child is conceived. Yet even before the son is born, selflessness has spawned contempt and jealousy. Hagar’s pregnancy makes her triumphant, and she looks down on Sarai. Sarai responds by blaming her husband, who takes – perhaps – the easy way out, cedes control of the handmaiden back to her.
It appears from the text that Sarai does everything she can to make Hagar’s life miserable. To the point where Hagar flees and is found in the wilderness by a running stream. A new set of promises is made. Hagar’s son shall be her own and produce a multitude of descendants. Why? HaShem has listened and heard Hagar’s affliction. She must only return and submit to her mistress. This seems to go well for a time. The physical symbol of the covenant is cut into all the men of the extended family, including the son, Ishmael. In fact, as this chapter of our story ends, the Torah speaks of him as -referring to Abraham – Ishma’el his son. In the background is simply the reiterated promise that Sarah will have her own son. Amidst laughter and rejoicing the new son is born. He is called Yitzhak – whose name can mean many things; laughing, or playing, or rejoicing. When he has grown sufficiently, he goes out into the field to play with his brother. The text is deliberately ambiguous – we do not know what they were doing; only the reaction it causes. Sarah demands that Ishmael and Hagar be kicked out of the family. G-d agrees, and Abraham goes along. The story that began with love, sacrifice and selflessness has turned to love lost, estrangement and banishment. A story of a family torn apart, each fulfilling its own destiny. Yitzhak is followed by Yakov who produces twelve sons from four women; two wives and two handmaidens. There are good times and bad, and eventually worse. They have their own Great Recession, and preceded by Yosef, take refuge in Mitzrayim. In this story things are going very well, but then…
In the background, a jealous fearful king develops an attitude toward the not-yet-known-as-the-Jewish-people Israelites. There are too many of them to live here, they are a danger, but if there is a chance during war, they might leave. Soon mothers – the midwives – are commanded to kill but instead safely deliverf new-born Israelite sons. Asked to explain themselves, they claim that Hebrew women deliver babies to fast; before the midwives can come to help them. The midwives, and the people, prosper. But soon the story takes a turn for the worse. We descend into servitude, but we are rescued and set free. And we are commanded to tell the story of our escape, and to fulfill the purpose of our freedom. We take our own walk in the wilderness. Moshe climbs a mountain. We find out where we are going, and why we are going there. In the words of Devarim
And to bless HaShem we have, among other practices, the celebration of Shabbat, an echo of creation and apiece of the very design of the world. This is turning into a good story! We set up a nation, we struggle with building a just and righteous society. Kings and priest and prophets all try to set the course for the Israelite nation. We have our ups and downs. Battles with hostile forces. We are invaded, conquered and sent into exile. But in almost no time we are set free to return to what we now call aretz yisra’el. Not everyone goes back, but everyone adopts the story “Next year in Jerusalem”. Even before we are completely defeated and exiles, we already have a story of returning. The Great Defeat comes at the hands of Rome who view the Jewish nation as this strange people unlike any other. Worshiping an invisible g-d and giving over one day in seven to an unseen master. This is what our story looks like to people living outside of it, people living in a story mostly about power, triumph and mastery to a human ruler. Yokhanan ben Zakkai creates a new story, turning Temple Sacrifice into study and tefilah. Biblical Judaism turns into Rabbinic Judaism. Roman occupation is only a “small” problem in ben Zakkai’s story. Bar Kochba – last of the revolutionaries – wants a different story. In his story, a small insignificant people throws off the greatest military power in the world. But the story turns out to not have a Hollywood ending.We, the Jewish people, are sent wandering into the wilderness, not near Be’ar Sheva, but over almost the entire planet; all of G-d’s creation. We sometimes prosper, but too often suffer, at the hands of a King who knows not Joseph. |
The theme repeats itself for almost two thousand years, so often it seems that is has itself become the complete story. In a serious vein, the situation becomes labeled “The Jewish problem”. On a lighter note, is has become an oft-repeated and well-known holiday time joke. What’s the theme of the holiday? “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.”In 1875 a German journalist – Wilhem Marr – publishes a pamphlet and forms a society whose purpose is to combat the alleged threat to Germany posed by the Jews and their influence. The society is called “The League of antisemites.” Let’s not spend any time on their story, because we know it all to well and we know how they proposed to deal with “The Jewish Problem.”
At more or less the same time, Jews are deciding to change the story on our own. The heck with waiting for the Mashiach to bring us out of exile, let’s just get up and go – to Palestine. One such group pretty much adopts that as its name – Bet Ya’akov L’Chu V’Nelchu – the BILU movement. It means “House of Jacob, let’s get up and go”. Their solution, articulated by the early Zionists? That the Jewish problem would be best solved by creating a jewish country, a normal state like all others. How is a normal state defined? One well-known saying, ascribed to David Ben Gurion among others, is that there would be a Jewish country that was normal when a Jewish cop chased a Jewish criminal down a Jewish street. Well… that ship sailed a long time ago. There is street crime, and there are Jewish cops, in Israel. But that didn’t make Israel a normal country, judging by how Israel is looked at and treated around the world and most especially in certain world forums that don’t need to be named. So like economists in the past year looking for signs of “green shoots” in the economy, I went on a search for signs of Israel being “normal” and treated in a normal way on the world stage. Where Israeli public figures could go around and not be subject to protests, agitation and being singled out for “special treatment’. Living in the Bay Area we are accustomed to a high level of criticism directed at Israel, to the point where in a community not too many miles away the current Prime Minister of Israel could not even give a speech because of the threat of conflict. So I went looking for “non-controversial” Israeli figures. I eliminated politicians and religious figures right off the bat. The the SF Jewish Film Festival and the protests around the Toronto film festival celebrating Tel Aviv made me rule out the fine arts. Academics in the UK have been in the forefront of discriminating against Israelis, so I had to rule that out. Even an organization like Oxfam – on all its webpages describing its good works – has one page that is not like all the other pages, so I had to let them go. The search for normality was not going too well. Remembering Rabbi Bloom’s comment about watching MTV to stay in touch I decided to consult my favorite secular magazine – Sports Illustrated – and being a red-blooded male (praise HaShem and rabbinical authorities for having a healthy attitude toward sex) in particular the Swimsuit Issue. And who should be on the cover – last February – but none other than arguably the most well-known Israeli in the world, supermodel Bar Rafaeli (sorry guys, no links to pictures here Sports Illustrated (thank you Chris Mar) reported that in the three years that Israeli models have appeared in the swimsuit issue they have not received so much as one protest letter. The Sacramento Kings Director of Basketball Operations told me that they drafted Caspi and didn’t give a second thought to his being Israeli. They don’t expect to require extra security, and they don’t expect protests for having an Israeli on their roster. (Good thing they don’t play in an arena in Berkeley!) Finally! Two Israeli figures safe from protests. Well, only one, because Bar Rafaeli has been protested by Israelis (remember – two Jews, five opinions…minimum) for dodging military service. So that left one… Omri Caspi… as an example of a citizen of the one Jewish country in the world, who could answer my search for “normality” among the Jewish people. (Added after Yom Kippur – we were watching the TV show “NCIS” when it occurred to me that this show has an ongoing plot line involving not just an Israeli but a Mossad lisason agent as an ongoing character. but I’m not going to attempt to ascertain if they have received protests from the usual suspects because it is clear that “normality” is not something the Jewish people or the Jewish country should aspire to or ever will be.) The only problem left was… what’s so great about being normal? Is being normal what Moshe led us out of Mitzrayim for? Is being normal why we have the Torah? Do Jeremiah and Isaiah issue ringing prophetic calls for Israel “to be normal”? And… does anyone really think the Jewish people or Israel will be treated like any other people; like any other country? I don’t think so. “Normality” is not the story of the Jewish people; I don’t think it ever will be. We are special. Dare we say it, we are “chosen”. We are a light unto the nations. So if not normality how about hope? Hope for living in the world that is the blueprint of the Torah, and in the Torah that is a blueprint for the world. Or in the words of the Alenu prayer (in translation of course). “On that day the Lord shall be one and His Name One”. (even to secularists and atheists). I found hope on a bicycle ride in the Negev, at a place in the Negev desert, at a place where Jewish Israelis, Palestinian Israelis (a new term, see the September/October edition of Moment magazine, Palestinians and Jordanians all study together and form lasting friendships without giving up their own stories. I’m going back for another Israel bike ride in October 2010. I hope some of you will join me. You know who you are, but maybe I don’t know who you are, so contact me and help me form an East Bay or even a California team. May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life for a healthy, peaceful and holy year. Hatimah Tova |
Posted in Israel Bike Ride, Torah Commentary | 1 Comment »
The Siddur and Health Care
Posted by rabbiart on September 5, 2009
I was sitting in shul this morning thinking about the Torah and healthcare. Thinking about the Torah portion’s repeated admonitions to be mindful and take care of the most power-less classes in society, I was lamenting that there was not a verse that spoke directly about taking care of the sick. The siddur addresses this mandate in a number of places.At our shul we daven from what is now the “old” Siddur Sim Shalom. Like many siddurim it includes the traditional mishna and gemorah passages to be read in the very early part of birchot hashachar. In our version of the passage found in Talmud Brachot 127a, we read about the deeds that yield immediate fruit and continue to yield fruit in time to come – הקרן קימת לעולם. Sure enough, right in between attending the house of study and helping the needy bride is visiting the sick. (Here’s a great article about this mitzvah, including that there is a dispute – of course  – whether it is one of the official 613 mitzvot.)
I suppose one could argue that the existence of a mitzvah of bikur holim even if officially one of the 613 mitzvot, doesn’t mean that rabbinic Judaism, or the Torah for that matter, mandates a particular healthcare system, or any kind of “right to healthcare.” The mitzvah is based – as Rabbi Tranin’s article points out – on HaShem’s visit to Avraham Avinu on the third day after his (Avraham’s) circumcision. The other Torah source for this mitzvah is Vayikra 19:18’s commandment – v’ahavta l’re-echa kamocha - you shall love your fellow human person as you love yourself. |
Therefore we visit the sick because HaShem visited the sick, and because we would want to be visited when we are sick.So what about healthcare for all? (BTW – Does this mean that its advocates want to turn the U.S. into a socialist country. State ownership of all means of production, state ownership of all capital? It’s a great boogeyman, for people who check under their beds and in their closets each night looking for same.) In the second paragraph of the amidah, daily, festival and shabbat, we read that HaShem heals the sick – rofei holim – along with lifting up the fallen, clothing the naked, and freeing the bound. What does the tradition say? We should strive to be like – in a human way – HaShem. As HaShem heals the sick, we should heal the sick.
Again, how can one take the Siddur seriously, take וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ seriously, and have an attitude of “you don’t have health care?” too bad for you? In a country where so, so many people take pride in saying that it they are “religious”, or where people take pride in claiming the Unites States is a “christian country”, then how can these same people turn a blind eye to all the failures of our health care system? Yes, it is from 2000, and the World Health Organization has stopped doing these rankings, but in 2000 the richest, most well-off country in the world ranked all of 37th, two spots ahead of Cuba. |
Posted in Social Justice, Torah Commentary | 1 Comment »
כִּי-תָבוֹא – We have a Place
Posted by rabbiart on September 3, 2009
| After the amazing catalog of Mitzvot from Ki Tetze, the Torah comes down to earth with only six mitzvot in this week’s parshah. The are:
The parshah opens by commanding us to perform an action and to tell a story. The act is an act of gratitude, the story is a recounting of history. We take the first fruits to come out of the ground, convey them to the place (hamakom where we find HaShem dwelling, give our basket of fruits to the kohen, and make a declaration about the place from which we came.
Remember that one of the many names by which we refer to HaShem is with the name HaMakom. Perhaps it is unintended by the Torah, perhaps not, but we are told to find the place within the place. As the English of the verse has it, we take our fruits in their basket to the place where HaShem causes HaShem’s name to dwell. On the pshat level, this simply means the place where the priests conduct ritual; the temple. At a deeper level, we are to find the Place within the Place. We are to seek the HaShem where HaShem dwells. |
How do we find our way to the Place? How do we find our way back Home? By knowing and remembering our history. So we declare our history in the place that is in front of the Place that is within the Place.
What happens in this Place? HaShem hears us when we cry out loud, and gives us signs, and does wonders for us, and brings us out of a bad place into a better place so that we can encounter the one true Place. Just as we begin with action and declaration, we end with declaration about action. Our tithes (yes, it is first a Jewish term before being borrowed by other faith practices) are kodesh, also a reason and source for rejoicing – and receiving blessing from HaShem. But only if we share! Three verses in a row we mention the ger, the stranger in our midst. We rejoice in the good that is given not only to us but to the stranger. We give our tithes to the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow. We give our kodesh to the stranger, the orphan and the widow. And then, in a beautifully poetic verse (in the Hebrew at least) הַשְׁקִיפָה מִמְּעוֹן קָדְשְׁךָ מִן-הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבָרֵךְ אֶת-עַמְּךָ אֶת-יִשְׂרָאֵל HaShem looks down from HaShems Place of Holiness, from the heavens, and bestows blessings upon us. Finally – in this opening chapter of the Parshah – we become an am kadosh – a holy people in relation to HaShem; a people who have found our place, just as HaShem has promised. Shabbat Shalom u’Mvorach |
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More Mitzvahs, More Mitzvahs
Posted by rabbiart on August 26, 2009
| We left off our study of Ki Tetzei’s mitzvot with #556 – not to punish anyone compelled to commit a transgression, or in the Hebrew שלא לענוש האנוס. The Torah’s verse on point deals with the case of a man who forces himself on a woman without her consent, and states clearly that guilt is not ascribed to the woman, and she is not punished in any way וְלַנַּעֲרָ לֹא-תַעֲשֶׂה דָבָר . We can pause here for two thoughts; the first is to notice the alarmingly large number of societies where – to this day – the blame and punishment falls not on the man but the woman, and the disturbing tendency of even women’s rights organizations and their advocates to gloss over these terrible injustices in favor of continually hounding you know which country I mean where – in the main – women have equal rights and protections. We can only lament the fact that some of the more traditional segments of klal yisrael are a bit less progressive in this regard.
The Torah anticipates “more modern” systems of jurisprudence which also operate to avoid punishing individuals who commit offenses under compulsion, against their will, and without intent. This includes the three cardinal transgressions which one is not supposed to commit even under the threat of death. For a system often described (some might say accused) of being patriarchal or male oriented, the Halachah makes an interesting exception to this rule. A male who has – under duress – forbidden sexual congress is still subject to penalty, because, as Raba says in Talmud Yebamoth 53B (Soncino translation) “there is no compulsion in sexual intercourse since erection depends entirely on the will! |
The specific case is made into a general rule that applies in every place and time – that we are duty-bound to to punish a compelled person with any penalty.
We come next to a seemingly strange and cruel mitzvah – #557 the duty of a rapist to take his victim for a wife. Having just absolved – of any court imposed punishment – a woman who is the victim of a rape, does the Torah now intend to sentence her to a life of living with the rapist? Not only this, but the next mitzvah – #558 – is that the rapist is never to divorce the victim. How can this be? How can the Torah be so cruel as to command these mandates?! The answer is clear. The Torah does not intend for these consequences of rape to occur. The Torah (yes, I’m anthropomorphizing for convenience) designs – and is designed for – a world in which people carefully consider the consequences of their contemplated actions. The Torah firmly believes – as it were – in the power of deterrence. To quote from Sefer HaHinuch “when he [the rapist] is aware [of the consequences of his actions] he will overcome his passion and refrain from committing this villany, in view of this penalty. Rabbinic tradition quickly learned that deterrence is not a fail-safe mechanism. Rapes do occur. Men are not dissuaded by potential consequences. Gradually, the Halachah created a set of exceptions and conditions so that a raped woman would not be sentenced to marriage and life alongside a person who had committed a horrible crime upon her. |
Posted in Torah Commentary | Tagged: justice, mitzvot, rape | Leave a Comment »
Ki Tetzei – We’ve got Mitzvahs
Posted by rabbiart on August 25, 2009
| This parshah has a special significance to me because it is the Bat Mitzvah portion of our older daughter. You try helping a 12 year girl embrace a parshah that begins with describing the treatment of women captured in war. And you thought bridge requires many a finesse! Hah! If that weren’t enough, the parshah has the most mitzvot of any parshah in the Torah. There are 27 positively phrased and 47 negatively phrased mitzvot. (No mitzvah should ever be described as “negative”) According to Sefer HaHinuch, these are the first 25 mitzvot in Ki Tetze. Even this subset of the Ki Tetzei mitzbot shows us how the Torah encompasses every aspect of life.
532 the law of a beautiful woman - אֵשֶׁת, יְפַת-תֹּאַר - captured in war 533 not to sell a beautiful woman captured in war 534 not to make a beautiful woman captured in war work after a slave after conjugal intimacy 535 the law of hanging someone after his execution 536 not to leave someone hung overnight on the gallows 537 to bury someone executed by court order 538 to return a lost object to its owner 539 not to ignore a lost object 540 not to leave someone else’s beast lying under its burden 541 to lift up a load for an Israelite 542 a woman should not wear men’s clothing 543 a man should not wear women’s clothing 544 not to take the mother-bird with the young in the nest 545 to send the mother-bird away from the nest 546 the duty to build a parapet 547 not to leave a stumbling-block around 548 not to sow mixed kinds of seeds in a vineyard in Israel 549 not to eat the produce of mixed seeds in a vineyard in Israel 550 not to do work with two kinds of animals together 551 not to wear cloth of wool and linen 552 that a man should marry (a woman) 553 that a wife who is motzi shem ra should stay with her husband forever 554 that a man who is motzi shem ra is never to divorce his wife 555 the duty of a court to enforce a proper sentence of stoning 556 not to punish anyone compelled to commit a transgression. Of course there are some mitzvot in just this list alone that we might feel called upon to reinterpret. But no worries there, because reinterpreting the mitzvot to fit in with the just and proper needs of our time is a tradition that dates back at least to the great sage Rabbi Hillel. |
Each of these mitzvot cry out for further study and serious contemplation, either to understand why they are given and what they mean, or to ponder how we might go about designing a society in which they can be carried. And how we might motivate ourselves to observe them.
To borrow from The Sound of Music, let’s start at the beginning, its a very good place to start. We don’t need a Jewish Israeli on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition to understand the lure – to men – of a beautiful woman. (By the way, does this mean that the Jewish people have finally become “normal”?) Unfortunately, the bad conduct of soldiers seems to be as endemic as war itself. Passing over the distressing subject of capital execution – but remembering the statement that a court which executed one person in 70 years has blood on its hands – we arrive we arrive at the subject of basic human courtesy; the duty to help other’s keep their possessions. We press onward through the list and find ourselves commanded with not one but two mitzvot to be kind to birds. While that subject is in the air we learn that it is our duty to keep people from falling off our roof. After mixing in some prohibited mixtures we find ourselves with one easy (or… maybe not) and two mysterious mitzvot having to do with marriage. The Torah – and rabbinic judaism – did not find itself compelled as we are in our day to wrestle with the issue of two people wanting to construct a loving, life-long relationship, who happen through the mystery of HaShem’s creative powers to be of the same sex. Our mitzvah here (#552 in the list) is not concerned with either permitting or prohibiting same-sex union; it lives in a world where man-woman marriage is taken for granted. This mitzvah details the three ways in which a marriage may be effected; by money, by a document, or by magic of loving union that ought to take place in the privacy of two people (Hollywood sex videos on Youtube notwithstanding). The Jewish wedding today – marriage by ceremony – is nowhere mentioned in the Torah, nor is it described in this mitzvah, although we see marriage by document as part of the “modern” Jewish wedding. It was a great simchah and honor to watch over the Ketubah signing at our younger daughter’s wedding, much less than to actually stand under the Chuppah and assist the bride and groom to marry each other. Mitzvot 553 and 554 seem at first reading to make no sense whatsoever. At the heart of these mitzvot is a great question that is with us to this day. How do we discourage individuals from bad or unacceptable actions that cause harm, without causing harm by the methods we employ to prevent the bad action? These two mitzvot apply to the specific case of a husband publicly accusing his wife of not being a virgin on the day of the wedding, and claiming that she became “not a virgin” after the couple were betrothed to each other. We could take refuge in the easy way out by mentioning that Jewish weddings now combine betrothal and marriage into a single ceremony. As long as bride and groom stay under the chuppah, it is exceedingly unlikely that the bride will change from virgin to non-virgin after the couple has been officially betrothed. Provided, of course, that the officiating clergy are not too long winded to the point of distraction and inattention The specific interpretation of how husband and wife are too live forever in enmity, as well as how we might do anything other than chuck these two mitzvot overboard entirely leave me with no choice but to take refuge in “that’s beyond the scope of this particular post”. Better yet would be to simply say that – in my time as a Rabbi – no husband and wife have ever come to me with a dispute on this issue; it should always remain so. |
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One Brachah from the #Torah – It’s in #Ekev
Posted by rabbiart on August 7, 2009
Readers may know that – in Halachic thought – there is a great divide between mitzvot on the Torah level – d’oraita – and mitzvot that are ordained by the rabbis – d’rabbanan. We also have the teaching to say a minimum of 100 brachot a day. Most of this threshold can be reached by davening three times a day, or even twice a day. Obviously, the saying of brachot cannot be commanded from the Torah, cannot be d’oraita because that form of worship did not exist at the time of the Torah, regardless of one’s point of view on when and how the Torah came into being.The one exception to the rule stated above is Bircat HaMazon the brachah of sustenance (aka Grace after Meals). The commandment to say Bircat HaMazon is understood to derive from a passuk in our parsha this week.
Rambam (and Sefer HaHinuch) articulate the brachah as being specifically Bircat HaMazon, but the commandment is also understood to encompass a variety of brachot that we say, depending on the type of food we are about to eat, or have just finished eating. The definition of what it means to be “satisfied” by food is compelling, and also demonstrates why our sages and those who follow them should never need to diet, or go to the club to work off calories, or follow any kind of weight maintenance program. “Satisfaction” (which by the way, we know, Mick Jagger was never able to achieve, but that’s another song for another time) is achieved by eating the equivalent of the amount of an egg (liquid) or the amount of an olive (solid food). (See Sefer HaHinuch in English Translation Volume 4, page 318 (Feldheim Publishers) for references to commentary on Rambam’s Hilchot Brachot. |
Because the verse mentions the land HaShem has given us, we might be moved to ponder whether this set of obligations only pertains to people living in the Biblically described land of Israel at a time when the land of Israel is occupied according to the mandate of the Torah. (And not a political state founded by mostly agnostic refugees from Eastern Europe and whose perhaps most well-known citizen appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but that is yet another discussion for another time).
Ponder as we might, the accepted interpretation is that this commandment is in force everywhere for all times without regard to the existence of a Jewish homeland for Jewish people. For those of us who practice equality of women (count me in, please!), the commandment applies equally to women as well as to men. From the halachic point of view, there is also no question that – d’rabbanan – the commandment applies to women as well as men. For men, the commandment is considered to be d’oraita – from the Torah. For women, there is a dispute among the Talmudic sages whether the obligation stems from the Torah or is only a rabbinic enactment, but either way, women and men are both obligated to say Bircat HaMazon and other food-related blessings. Moving on, we might wonder also about the purpose of this bracha. Why not start by quoting that great moral authority Bill Cosby, who said, “Man does not live by bread alone…. he must have peanut butter!” But seriously, this set of brachah practices serves to remind us that, no matter how successful we are (or think we are), no matter how self-sufficent we are (or think we are), food does not arrive on our table only through our own efforts. Many, many people (and in our community, people who are most likely much less fortunate than we are) work to grow, produce and deliver food to our tables, just as many, many people are involved in the work that produces our financial ability (may it always be so) to have food on our table. Why say these brachot? In one word – gratitude! Shabbat Shalom |
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Still Studying Breshit (#Torah)
Posted by rabbiart on November 6, 2009
How does HaShem create the world?
With pure speech – and note the symmetry of the language, which is difficult to capture in English translation.
3. Spoke Elohim: “Be Light”, therefore there is Light.
:וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי אוֹר; וַיְהִי-אוֹר.
These six words reveal the intention with which the world is created; that everything in it should be in accordance with the will of HaShem.
By thinking/speaking and making stuff. Or is verse 7 simply a commentary on verse 6? (compare also verses 21-22)
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי רָקִיעַ בְּתוֹךְ הַמָּיִם, וִיהִי מַבְדִּיל, בֵּין מַיִם לָמָיִםז וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הָרָקִיעַ, וַיַּבְדֵּל בֵּין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מִתַּחַת לָרָקִיעַ, וּבֵין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מֵעַל לָרָקִיעַ; וַיְהִי-כֵן.
6. Spoke Elohim: (let there) Be a rakiya in among the waters so it will divide between water and water. 7. Made Elohim: the rakiya {choose a meaning, either} “which divided” {or} “He divided” between the waters below the rakiya and the water above the rakiya.
By commanding action
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יִקָּווּ הַמַּיִם מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶל-מָקוֹם אֶחָד, וְתֵרָאֶה, הַיַּבָּשָׁה; וַיְהִי-כֵן.
9. Spoke Elohim: The water should gather from under the sky to a single place so the ground (dry land) can appear. It happened exactly like that.
By causing self-perpetuating actions
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, תַּדְשֵׁא הָאָרֶץ דֶּשֶׁא עֵשֶׂב מַזְרִיעַ זֶרַע, עֵץ פְּרִי עֹשֶׂה פְּרִי לְמִינוֹ, אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ-בוֹ עַל-הָאָרֶץ; וַיְהִי-כֵן. יב וַתּוֹצֵא הָאָרֶץ דֶּשֶׁא עֵשֶׂב מַזְרִיעַ זֶרַע, לְמִינֵהוּ, וְעֵץ עֹשֶׂה-פְּרִי אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ-בוֹ, לְמִינֵהוּ; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב. יג וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם שְׁלִישִׁי.
11. Spoke Elohim: The earth should grow perennial grasses and self-reproducing fruit trees organized in species, upon the earth. It happened exactly like that. 12. The earth produced perennial grasses organized in species and self-reproducing fruit trees that put their seeds back into the ground, organized in species, and Elohim judged that it good. (liked the results)
By granting blessings and giving commands
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים, לֵאמֹר: פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ, וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הַמַּיִם בַּיַּמִּים, וְהָעוֹף, יִרֶב בָּאָרֶץ.
22. Blessed them (did) Elohim, saying “multiply, mulitply” to fill the waters in the water, and with fowl fill the earth.
We learn from the creation of light how the world is designed to unfold and operate. HaShem wishes that there should be light in the world, so therefore there is light in the world.
HaShem desires that there should be dry land (for us to live on), and commands that the waters make way for dry land. Dry land appears.
HaShem organizes the world so that living things shall bring forth their own progeny. They do, and we see that they do.
HaShem reveals HaShem’s self to be the source of blessing. This is the great hidush of creation. From the beginning we find a blueprint and the build-0ut of it.
HaShem creates light. We live by the natural light and learn to make out own light. HaShem makes land in among the water; my neighbors live on landfill (fortunately, living in California, my house is on bedrock).
HaShem creates living things that sustain us; tonight we are eating fowl and (harvested) living produce. (Among our friends are familes with their own vegetable gardens, and one urban-dwelling family that has its own chickens; grow them, slaughter them, then eat them).
HaShem is a source of blessing. To quote Joe Pesci from one of my favorite movies (My cousin Vinnie). “I think I get it.” To state the obvious (then why state it, you ask). We should be a source of blessing.
Shabbat Shalom u’movorach.
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