Parashat Eikev

In our parasha Moshe reminds the Israelites that they are partners in a brit, a covenant with G-d that grants rights and privileges, but also bestows considerable obligations among the covenantees. What are these obligations?
Moshe asks the tough question:
“And now, Jewish People, just what is  Ad-noy your G-d asking of you?….” (Deut. 10:12)

That is an essential Jewish question, one that we would all do well to ask ourselves each and every day. Just what should we be doing? And is it ever enough?

Moshe immediately gives us an answer:

“Merely to fear Ad-noy your G-d, and to follow all his ways, and to love him, and serve Ad-noy your G-d wholeheartedly and with total spiritual commitment.” (Deut. 10:12)

Yirat Hashem, an awesome respect for G-d, an utter amazement and trepidation that informs our being, and colors every action. We explored this idea briefly previously, and concluded that a fear-only based relationship, without a love component, was detrimental.  Here Moshe is reminding us that yirah is essential, as the building block to a relationship, the first step in a sequential process leading to an active love of G-d.

By the way, in Hebrew, the word for physical fear that the Torah did not use here is pachad. The Torah is not telling us that the goal is to be physically afraid of G-d, of the cliche of lightning striking us down, or the giant hand coming from the heavens to knock us senseless, although this base fear needs to be acknowledged. Yirah is the epitome of reverent respect, an awesome awareness of the chasm separating our puny human intellect and divine truth.

Our tradition explains that Yirat Shamayim, an awesome respect for Heaven, is the only tool that we must obtain on our own. The Talmud, in masechet Megillah (25a) quotes Rabbi Chanina: “Everything is in the hands of Shamayim (Heaven) except Yirat Shamayim.” The Talmud then quotes our opening verse, …” Just what is G-d asking of you?  Merely to fear Ad-noy your G-d….”

Seems pretty easy….

The Talmud asks, ” Does the Torah think this is such a small matter?“, and then answers, “Yes, for Moshe, this was a small matter! Like someone who is asked for a large item, and he has it, it seems small. But to one who does not have it it seems large indeed.”

Because of the massive challenge of obtaining spiritual sensitivity and refinement of practice we often choose to abdicate our responsibility in the arena of developing yirat shamayim. In our busy modern lives we are often unavailable spiritually, and lose our perspective of the awesome power of our Creator.

The Israelites had the same challenges. In our parasha Moshe had the following to say to the generation about to enter the land: Remember the entire path along which Ad-noy your G-d has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order that you live in want, to test you, so that you may know what is in your heart, whether you will keep His commandments or not. (Deut. 8:2)

Realizing that we are constantly being challenged is a key factor in developing yirat shamayim.

Moshe continues: He had you live in want; He let you go hungry, and then fed you manna which you did not know and your fathers did not know…..(Deut. 8:3)

Both the ease and the difficulty we find in living our lives is from above, a daily test. Yes, even our success is a test. When our needs are provided, we have the tendency to give ourselves the credit. and downplay the role of  G-d in our lives.
 …in order to teach you that man can not live on bread alone, rather, man can live on anything that comes from the mouth of G-d. (Deut. 8:3)

Rav Hirsch writes that bread is a symbol of man’s control of technology, in partnership with G-d.  The Creator gives us the seeds, water and light to produce sheaves, but humans provide the process to turn wheat into bread. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our efforts alone are responsible for our achievements.
He points out that the Hebrew word for bread, lechem, is also the root of the word milchama, meaning battle or war.  If we see our successful efforts at earning our daily bread as purely our own means than we will be in a losing battle with our spiritual selves. Our existence is not predicated on the natural and human resources represented by bread, only on the care of G-d to sustain us.

The parsha closes with the second paragraph of the Shema, detailing the concept of reward and punishment. And it will be, if you really listen to My commandments that I command you this day to love the Lord, your G-d, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,. I will give the rain of your land at its time, the early rain and the latter rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil.  I will give the rain of your land at its time, the early rain and the latter rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil. Beware, lest your heart be misled, and you turn away and worship strange gods and prostrate yourselves before them. And the wrath of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will close off the heavens, and there will be no rain, and the ground will not give its produce, and you will perish quickly from upon the good land that the Lord gives you. (Deut. 11:13-17)

…. Mah Ad-noy Elokekha sho’ail may’imach……Just what does G-d want from us?
To engage, to nurture the relationship. Anything less on our part will result in distancing us from G-d, and prolonging our spiritual and physical exile.

We are living in an age of unprecedented affluence. Yes, there are those that are struggling, but for the most part the Jewish people are free from the pangs of hunger.
Yet, we still live in exile, an exile spanning the rise and fall of  the great empires of the world, without having achieved the ultimate goal of our covenantal relationship, world peace, and the Jewish people living in their ancestral homeland with the Shechina, the physical manifestation of  G-d in the world, resting between the k’ruvim (the cherubs) in the inner sanctum of the Temple in Jerusalem, the holiest place on earth. Do we know what we are missing?

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Greg

The High Holidays often leave people feeling physically and mentally overwhelmed. Why aren’t we getting the satisfaction we deserve from our efforts? After all, we sat through the whole thing…

No one in their right mind would run the NYC Marathon without training, stretching and warming up. This year, take the time to get in shape BEFORE the time comes, and we promise you will emerge feeling strong, confident and most of all, more connected.
Join us for our pre Rosh HaShana marathon warm up sessions led by our rabbinic intern Avi Rosenfeld. 8-9:15PM. No charge, bring a friend!

Monday September 6th (for Rosh haShana) and Monday September 13th (for Yom Kippur)
8pm

“The melody lingers on”…

One of the best ways to immerse ourselves in the spiritual process of Rosh Hashana is by raising our voices in song.. But, what is the tune? Join Rabbi Wall, rabbinic intern Avi Rosenfeld, and our cantorial team as we explore the melodies used to sing the most important verses and songs of the high holidays. Monday, Sep 6 at 8PM (for Rosh Hashana) and Monday, Sep 15 (for Yom Kippur) Bring your heart, your voice (and your musical instrument?…optional…)

Wednesday, September 15th
8pm

Pre Yom Kippur marathon training!

Yom Kippur, the sabbath of sabbaths, is often called the holiest day of the year. Let’s get it right this year, and replace the empty feeling in our stomachs with a fullness of heart and spirit.

Join us for our pre Yom Kippur marathon warm up session Wednesday, Sep 15, led by our rabbinic intern Avi Rosenfeld.

Jewish Art for the New Millennium: 3 Alicias 3

Evening of Music and Poetry with Alicia Svigals, Alicia Ostriker, and Alicia Jo Rabins
Curated by Jake Marmer and Dan Friedman

Tuesday Aug 24th @ 7.00pm
325 East Sixth Street (b/n 1st and 2nd avenue)
$8 cover

The evening will feature these acclaimed artists who represent eclectic genres, mediums and generations. Each will perform a set, then all three will come together in a collaborative work, and finally, a panel discussion will follow.

Alicia Svigals, violinist/composer, a founder of the Klezmatics and of the all-women band Mikveh, is considered by many to be the world’s foremost klezmer fiddler. During the past decade, she almost singlehandedly revived klezmer fiddle playing, which came close to extinction in this century; traditional klezmer violin style is now being played again by hundreds of her students, including most of today’s best professional players. She taught and toured with violinist Itzhak Perlman, who recorded her compositions as duets with Ms. Svigals accompanied by the Klezmatics. She is a past winner of the first prize at the Safed Klezmer Festival. “She is without question the greatest living exponent of the klezmer fiddle…” - Seth Rogovoy, author of The Essential Klezmer. See http://www.aliciasvigals.com/.

Alicia Ostriker is a major American poet and critic. Twice nominated for a National Book Award, she is author of twelve volumes of poetry, most recently “The Book of Seventy” (2009), which won the Jewish Book Award for Poetry. As a critic Ostriker is the author of two path-breaking volumes on women’s poetry, “Writing Like a Woman and Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America.” Ostriker has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Society of America, the San Francisco State Poetry Center, the Judah Magnes Museum, the New Jersey Arts Council, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She is Professor Emerita of Rutgers University and is a faculty member of the New England College Low-Residency Poetry MFA Program. Ostriker has taught in the Princeton University Creative Writing Program and in Toni Morrison’s Atelier Program. She has taught midrash writing workshops in the USA, Israel, England and Australia. See http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~ostriker/home.htm

Alicia Jo Rabins is a fiddler, singer, songwriter, and poet living in Brooklyn, NY. She has toured Central America as a cultural ambassador for the United States. A regular fiddler with Golem, her own band, Girls in Trouble, plays art-pop songs about women in the Torah. “An entrancing one-woman string quartet” — The Forward. Check out Alicia’s Girls in Trouble Project here: http://www2.myspace.com/girlsintroublemusic.

There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy.
There’s nothing you can make that can’t be made.
No one you can save that can’t be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you
in time - It’s easy.
- The Liverpooler Rebbes

The revelation at Sinai was the defining moment in the transformation of the Jewish people from a nation of slaves to a spiritual community, united by their covenant with their creator. The experience was so intensely awesome and breathtaking that the Israelites couldn’t handle it. They asked Moshe to serve as their go between:
They said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear, but let G-d not speak with us lest we die.” (Ex. 20:16)

Afterwards, still reeling from the experience, the people had an opportunity to hear all the specifics: And he (Moshe) took the Book of the Covenant and read it within earshot of the people, and they said, “All that G-d spoke, Naaseh v’nishma, we will do and we will listen.” (Ex. 24:7)

Naaseh v’nishma, we will jump right in, and learn the details later….

The Talmud in Masechet Shabbat (88a) praises this response:

R. Eleazar said: When the Israelites gave precedence to ‘we will do’ over ‘we will listen,’ a Heavenly Voice went forth and exclaimed to them, Who revealed to My children this secret, which is employed by the Ministering Angels ? As it is written: Bless G-d, his angels, those mighty in strength, that fulfill his word, that listen to the voice of his word. First they do and then they listen? (Psalms 103:20)

Moshe returns to the mountain to get the rest of the Torah:
And G-d said to Moses, “Come up to Me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the Torah and  HaMitzvah, the commandment, which I have written to teach them.” (Ex. 24:12)

The tablets and the Torah seem self explanatory, but what is HaMitzvah, The Commandment?

Unfortunately, the Israelites could not wait long enough to find out. Before Moshe could return from the mountain they built the Golden Calf, and stumbled their way from one unfortunate event to the next. The inspiration was short lived, indeed, and they seemed to live in constant fear of G-d. What happened to naaseh v’nishma? Evidently they were not angels after all, merely human.

In this week’s parasha, always read on the shabbat after Tisha B’Av, Moshe is addressing the next generation, who had come of age during the 40 years of desert wanderings, and were to inherit the land denied their parents after the infamous episode of the scouts. That episode was the event that set the stage for all the calamities to befall the Jewish people in the future on that fated calendar day of the 9th of Av.

Moshe is recounting the history of the revelation at Sinai, which many remembered from their childhood and adolescence. He recounts that moment of initial inspiration: Moshe called all the Jewish People and said,  ‘Shema Yisrael, listen carefully Israel, to the statutes and laws that I am relating in your presence today, for you are to study them, and be careful to fulfill them.” (Deut. 5:1)

Moshe is telling the people that they need to listen, to comprehend before they take action.  Moshe reviews the ‘Ten Commandments” spoken by G-d at Sinai. He then recalls the response of the previous generation 40 years earlier, after they begged Moshe to intercede for them:

You approach, and hear all that the Lord, our God, will say, and you speak to us all that the Lord, our God, will speak to you, V’shama’inu Vi’asinu, and we will listen and we will do. (Deut 5:24)

But wait…we will listen and we will do….. The order here is reversed! Why is Moshe presenting a revisionist history?

Moshe retells G-d’s response to the original declaration, Naaseh v’nishma, we will do and we will listen, reported in Exodus 24:7 : “…. I have heard the sound of this people’s words, that they spoke to you, everything they said is excellent!” (Deut. 5:25)

G-d does not say, ” I heard their words”, but rather, I heard  et kol devarim, the sound, the intent of their words.
The sentiment and the passion were there, but their procedure was out of order. Moshe takes the liberty of correcting their error, V’shama’inu Vi’asinu, and we will listen and we will do.

Moshe continues reporting G-d’s response to him forty years earlier:
Would that their hearts be like this, to fear Me and to keep all My commandments for all time, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever! Go say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ But as for you, stand here with Me, and I will tell you the entirety of HaMitzvah, the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances which you will teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess. (Deut 5:26-28)

HaMitzvah, THE COMMANDMENT, is back on the table…

And now, in chapter 6, we will find out just what that means. This is HaMitzvah, the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances that the Lord, your God, commanded to teach you, to perform in the land into which you are about to pass, to possess it. And you shall, therefore, listen, O Israel, and be sure to do, so that it will be good for you, and so that you may increase exceedingly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, spoke to you, a land flowing with milk and honey. (Deut. 6:1-3)

Now that we have our priorities straight we can proceed:
Shema Yisrael, Ad-noy El-haynu Ad-Noy Echad!
Listen, Israel! Ad-noy our G-d, Ad-noy is the One (Deut. 6:4)

First, Listen…
Then, Do…

V’ahavta et Ad-noy El-hecha, b’chol l’vavcha, uv’chol nafshecha, u’vchol mi’odecha.
You are to love Ad-noy your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your resources” (Deut. 6:5)

Loving G-d…. that was the element that was missing from the previous generation!
By placing the procedure for acquiring the Torah in the correct order we will be able to relate to G-d out of love, instead of solely by fear.
Perhaps this teaching of Moshe in our parasha, perhaps the Shema itself, is a tikkun, a repair, of the missteps of the generation that left Egypt. They did not know that naaseh v’nishma must eventually lead to n’shma v’naaseh, and instead lived their days in constant fear of G-d.
This is the essence of the first paragraph of our twice daily recitation of the Shema. All you need is love…a purely human emotion, angels need not apply.
By carefully listening to the words of the Torah, by studying the teachings of Moshe and the sages we can come to take action, and strive to fulfill all the mitzvot motivated by love and understanding, not merely by fear.

Wishing you a lovely shabbat,
Rabbi Greg

Thanks to my friend and teacher R’ Menachem Leibtag for his insights on the meaning of  HaMitzvah.

All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.
It’s easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

Parashat Devarim

Our hero had led his people for a generation. Early in his career he buoyed their spirits when they were drowning in a sea of doubt. He gave them steadfast encouragement, and inspired them to fearlessly fight on, and brought them from the brink of disaster to the pinnacle of achievement. Suddenly, at the apex of their ascent, he received a message from above, that he would not accompany his people in their pursuit to recover the mantle of greatness. Their hero would die in the desert. He gathered his troops, and made an impassioned speech that would go down in history as one of the most inspirational moments of all time. He began,

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth….”

On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig, legendary first baseman and captain of the New York Yankees, after receiving his death sentence of ALS, a debilitating neurological disease, addressed his people and expressed his unwavering appreciation for the good fortune of his life, family, associates, and fans. His words were echoed on the silver screen by Gary Cooper in “Pride of the Yankees.”

Instead of an angry defiant backlash against G-d,  Gehrig took the opportunity to inspire us to see the good that is present in our lives, even when clouded by our day to day challenges.

In Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy), Moshe, after receiving a message from above that he would not accompany his people on their pending conquest of the Promised Land, stood before the Israelites and began to deliver one of the most poignant goodbye speeches in the history of civilization.

On that side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses commenced [and] explained this Torah, saying,”The Lord our G-d spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. Turn and journey, and come to the mountain of the Amorites and to all its neighboring places, in the plain, on the mountain, and in the lowland, and in the south and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites, and the Lebanon, until the great river, the Euphrates River. See, I have set the land before you; come and possess the land which the Lord swore to your forefathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them and their descendants after them.” (Deut. 1:6-8)

But Moshe was not content to list his personal achievements, or stroke the egos of his flock. Rather, in the ultimate  act of love, he takes the opportunity to point out their shortcomings, and inspire them to surpass their own expectations.

Our sages teach that at first his words of rebuke were subtle, and couched in geographical and chronological references. As he proceeded he strengthened his approach, hinting at some major impediments to the ultimate destiny of the Jewish people:
Eicha esa l’vadi tarchakhem u’masa’akhem v’rivkhem. How can I bear your trouble, your burden, and your strife all by myself?( Deut. 1:12)
It is no coincidence that the word ‘Eicha‘ is the very same Hebrew word that begins and names the Book of Lamentations we chant in our sorrow, on Tisha B’Av, the ninth of the month Av, which occurs each year in the week following Parashat Devarim.

Moshe gets even more specific, until he openly mentions the single most catastrophic incident to befall the Israelites in the wilderness:

And all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us so that they will search out the land for us and bring us back word by which route we shall go up, and to which cities we shall come.” (Deut. 1:22)
We first learned about this incident in Parashat Shelach.The incident of the scouts is brought up again here, and we are all urged to consider it well. Our inability to appreciate the gifts of G-d, no matter how small, will prevent us from receiving our spiritual and physical inheritance. Moshe continues:
And the matter pleased me; so I took twelve men from you, one man for each tribe.. And they turned and went up to the mountain, and they came to the valley of Eshkol and spied it out.
And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us, brought us back word, and said, “The land the Lord, our G-d, is giving us is good.”
But you did not want to go up, and you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, your God.
You murmured in your tents and said, ‘”Because the Lord hates us, He took us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to exterminate us.” (Deut 1:23-27)

Here is the story as it unfolded back in Parashat Shelach, in the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar):

They spread an [evil] report about the land which they had scouted, telling the children of Israel, “The land we passed through to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of stature.  There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, descended from the giants. In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.
The entire community raised their voices and shouted, and the people wept on that night. All the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the entire congregation said, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this desert.  Why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword; our wives and children will be as spoils. Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?” They said to each other, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt!” (Num. 13:32-14:4).

The Torah tells us of G-d’s response, that the entire generation would wander in the desert for 40 years, and only the next generation would be able to enter the Promised Land.

The Talmud ( Taanit 29a and Sotah 35a) tells us that it was the eve of the Tishah b’Av. G-d said “they cried for no reason. I will fix the day to be a day of crying for generations.”

Tisha b’Av would be the day that both Temples were destroyed, and prove to be a most unfortunate date on the calendar through the centuries:Moses related all these words to the children of Israel, and the people mourned greatly. (Num. 14:39)

In this week’s parsha of Devarim, Moshe now  implores his people not to repeat the mistakes of the previous generation, to be open to recognizing the inherent good in all that G-d bestows.

Lou Gehrig’s speech inspired his team to go on without their fearless leader, and they won the 1939 World Series.

Moshe did not live to see his people win the conquest of the Land of Israel. Ultimately, the failure to appreciate G-d’s gifts resulted in a break down in the moral and spiritual fabric of the nation, and Israel went into an exile that continues to this day, two thousand years later.

Gehrig concluded his address, “When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know. So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”
May our prayers this Tisha b’Av, expressing our sorrow at a life without  the  Holy Temple in Jerusalem, without prophecy, without the physical presence of G-d dwelling between the cherubs, penetrate the depths of centuries of anguish and exile.  May our mourning arise not out of self pity, but as part of a process inspiring us to return to our true spiritual lives, with gratitude for all of G-d’s gifts, no matter how small. We too have an awful lot to live for.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Greg

Full text of Lou Gehrig’s speech here

What is ALS?
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ( also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord resulting in muscle weakness and atrophy.

The show runs 50 minutes

David Mandelbaum as Yosl Rakover
Directed by Amy Coleman

In the ruins of the ghetto of Warsaw, among heaps of charred rubbish, there was found, packed tightly into a small bottle, the following testament, written during the ghetto’s last hours by a Jew named Yosl Rakover.

Warsaw April 28th, 1943
“Is G-d dead or just keeping quiet for a while?”

For twenty years the story of Yosl Rakover was believed to be an eyewitness account of the ghetto’s last hours, and the true story of a pious Jew whose fate it was to die fighting the beasts that destroyed his world. In the hours before his death he reconsiders his relationship with G-d and concludes that although his relationship with G-d has changed, his faith in Him remains, and his love for Him burns as strongly as ever.

The story was actually written in 1946, by Tzvi Kolitz, a young Palestinian who as a delegate to the World Zionist Congress traveled extensively to speak on behalf of the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine. His clandestine purpose was to recruit fighters for the Irgun, of which he was a member. While in Argentina, he was asked to write an article for a Yiddish paper in Buenas Aires for their special Yom kippur edition. The result was Yosl Rakover Speaks to G-d. Through a set of bizzare circumstances the story was republished in an Israeli Yiddish journal without his name on it, and was assumed to be real. It has since been recognized as one of the classics of Holocaust literature, been translated into many languages, and been the subject of essays by theologians and philosophers. Adapted for the stage and performed by David Mandelbaum, it makes for powerful and compelling theater. In Yiddish with English Supertitles.

Donations will be accepted after the show.

Reservations: 917 670-1631 or reserve online at newyiddishrep.org.

The day before erev Tisha B’Av is an especially appropriate time to confront the issues dealt with in this classic of holocaust
literature.

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.
~Abraham Lincoln

Parshiot Mattot/Masai

It is a well know Jewish concept that we are created b’tzalem elokim, in the image of G-d. One of the traits we share is that of speech.  The Torah starts with G-d’s ten spoken sayings that bring creation itself, and G-d is revealed to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai with the Asseret HaDibrot, the ten sayings (famously mistranslated as the ten commandments). Although there are many mystical levels to understanding exactly what constitutes divine speech, we reference this idea every day in our liturgy:
Baruch Sh’emar  V’Haya HaOlam, Blessed is (G-d) who spoke and the world came into being.
It is speech, not thought, that we use to come close to our creator, and our speech fuels our songs of praise, composed using the sacred language with which the world was created.

Because of the sacred aspects of speech, our tradition teaches us to develop a special sensitivity to our words. We have already learned back in Parashat Beha’alotcha that lashon hara, evil speech, could be used to significantly harm ourselves and others.

In this week’s first parasha, Mattot (we read Parasha Masai this week as well) we are introduced to an incredible concept, the power of our speech to create torah law.

אִישׁ כִּי יִדֹּר נֶדֶר לַי־הֹוָ־ה אוֹ הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה לֶאְסֹר אִסָּר עַל נַפְשׁוֹ לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ כְּכָל הַיֹּצֵא מִפִּיו יַעֲשֶׂה:
If a man makes a vow to the Lord or makes an oath to prohibit himself, he shall not violate his word; according to whatever came out of his mouth, he shall do. (Numbers 30:3).

Our sages teach that there are two kinds of declarations that effect law. The first, called a neder, is a pronouncement about something and it’s relationship to the pronouncer. If I say that cake is forbidden to me , than cake becomes like pork, or a mixture of milk and meat, and eating it would be a violation of Torah law. Although this can be an effective form of self discipline it is all too often uttered in the heat of the emotionally charged moment, and we may regret creating this fabric of law. An accomplished Torah scholar, or an ordinary beit din ( an impromptu Jewish court consisting of three observant Jews) can reverse an erstwhile neder by the process of hatarat nedarim, annulment of vows.

Not so with the second type of oath we learn about in the parasha, called a shevuah. This is a pronouncement on an action we vow to undertake or abstain from, and is not reversible. The covenantal promises made to us from G-d are as binding as the shevuot we take upon ourselves. Many commentators believe that a shevua is only binding when we use G-d’s name in the formula of the oath.

Since this is a potential source of some serious spiritual stumbling, it is no surprise that we are urged not to make oaths like this.

The Torah says:
When you make a vow to the Lord, your G-d, you shall not delay in paying it, for the Lord, your G-d, will demand it of you, and it will be [counted as] a sin for you. But if you shall refrain from making vows, you will have no sin. Observe and do what is emitted from your lips just as you have pledged to the Lord, your G-d, as a donation, which you have spoken with your mouth. (Deut. 23:22-24)

The Talmud, in the beginning of Mesechet Chullin (2a), teaches:  Better you should not vow, than  vow and not pay.  And it has been taught: Better than both is he who does not vow at all;  this is the opinion of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yehudah says, Better than both is he who vows and pays.

It is no surprise, due to the emotional aspect of these oaths and vows that we begin Yom Kippur by collectively annulling any vows we may make during the coming year with the Kol Nidre prayer. (Any broken vows during the previous year must be atoned for on Yom Kippur).

The flip side, of course, is that when we use our words sincerely, for the right reason, we are  capable of transforming the world. If only we could utter our prayers to our creator with the same intention, the same kavana, that would obligate ourselves in the case of a vow or oath!

May all our prayers be answered, for good.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Greg

A few days ago I had the pleasure of participating in a Simchat Hachnasat Sefer Torah- a community celebration welcoming a newly completed Sefer Torah, a beautiful Torah scroll.  A crowd of people gathered round as the sofer (scribe) finished filling in the last few letters, and I was honored with the filling in of the letter “yud“, the first letter of my Hebrew name, Yosef.

The letter  “yud” is part of G-d’s name, is the symbol for the number 10 (and all that number’s considerable mystical implications), and is reminiscent of the word “yid”, a Jew. Every letter in the Torah is sacred, and one damaged or incomplete letter will “pasul” (invalidate) the entire scroll!

Last week’s reading, Parashat Balak concluded with a disturbing story of  errant sexuality and weak morals.

As a result of the idolatrous and licentious behavior of the Israelite men with the Moabite women, and the public display of lewdness by an Israelite leader and a Midianite princess in front of the Ohel Moed (the Tent of Meeting) G-d sends a plague upon the Israelites. Pinchas, the son of Elazar the high priest, rises up and kills the offending couple, and the plague stops.

In this week’s sidra, Parasha Pinchas,  G-d tells Moshe that Pinchas is a hero:

Pinchas the son of Elazar the son of Aaron the kohen has turned My anger away from the children of Israel by his zealously avenging Me among them, so that I did not destroy the children of Israel because of My zeal. (Num. 25:11)

At first glance, this is a disturbing statement. If G-d found the deviant couple’s behavior so abhorrent, why couldn’t G-d kill them along with the 24,000 people that lose their lives in the plague?

The name Pinchas, spelled “pay,yud, nun,chet.mem“  is written in a torah scroll with a small “yud“, much smaller than other “yuds” used all over.

It is if the “yid“, our inherent Jewishness is diminished by this violent act. So why is he being praised?

And his reward is great:

” Therefore proclaim it: Lo! I give him my covenant of shalom (peace). And to him and his descendants after him will be this covenant of eternal  kehuna (priesthood), because he brought to bear the rights of his G-d and effected atonement for the children of  Israel” (Num. 25:12).

Pinchas is rewarded with the priesthood!

Is vigilantism the kind of response to evil that the Torah is teaching us?

If we look closely at the word “shalom” as written in the Torah scroll we find that the third letter, a “vav“, is defective!

The top part of the letter is severed from the rest, leaving a “yud” floating above a line. Obviously this peace is defective as well, and the “yud“, representing the “yid“, the Jewish spark in all of us, is recoiling from this violent act.

The Talmud in Sanhedrin teaches that one does not have the right to be a zealot, and this was a one time exception!

We should be upset by this story, the Torah does not condone vigilantism.

If we disregard the broken vav we get the word shalem (whole or complete). This is a hint towards our true goal: a  consummate peace, uncompromised, pure. A peace that comes about only through violence is not a lasting peace, not a complete peace.

Ultimately, we will have to lead by our actions and not by our weapons.

May we, through our efforts of striving to live our lives according the mitzvoth of the Torah, be able to mend the broken vav, and bring about our ultimate redemption. Only then can we truly know a complete peace,  a shalom shalem.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Greg