Vayechi

By Jackie Honig, December 30, 2023

This week I’ve been catching up on Doctor Who, which included the return of a familiar face – David Tennant. For those of you who don’t watch, the premise of the show is that there’s a time traveling alien who periodically regenerates into a new form – known as “The Doctor.” The show just celebrated its 60^th anniversary and it can do so because every iteration of the character is played by a different actor. Each regeneration marks the departure of a beloved actor and plays out in an emotional scene on the show – they have a beautiful speech, a quippy last line, and then they sort of explode with a beautiful blast of energy to be immediately replaced by the next incarnation. The minute The Doctor is back on the scene, the fun and adventures ensue. There is truly never a dull moment with The Doctor.

One of the most famous last lines is delivered by David Tennant – five simple words that carry a lifetime’s worth of emotions – “I don’t want to go.” His character knows he’ll be back for new adventures with new friends, off to the furthest reaches of time and space and yet he’s just not ready. We see this sort of emotion in our parsha today, and I feel it deeply in my life right now.

While this parsha is named Vayechi and it opens with telling us the years of Yaakov’s life, we actually find ourselves mostly reading about Yaakov’s death. On his deathbed, Yaakov addresses each of his children. You might have expected that he would bless each of his children, especially as he does so with Yosef’s children. Instead, we find ourselves witnessing an unexpected, but incredibly human scene – a father holding onto things that are clearly unresolved. Here, in his final moments, he insists on telling his children what he thinks. This isn’t a beautiful, peaceful scene where everyone moves on and its all hunky dory. This is a moment of ending, but more of a moment of conflict than closure.

Yaakov’s death also marks the end of the patriarchs. The story is no longer about 3 men and 4 women and the people surrounding them, it is now about B’nai Yisrael, in the literal and figurative sense. Another ending, another transition, another opportunity for something new. But what do we do with that?

This moment in our story and in our lives feel strange – certain milestones generally have a particular feeling attached to them. Not all endings are the same, they often come with mixed emotions. But generally endings that are immediately followed by something new, like a new sefer of Torah or a new year, are filled with excitement, with hope and expectations of something new that could be.

Today that feels dishonest for me. To say that I feel hope or excitement for 2024 would be to lie to you all. I know that January 2024 is coming soon. I had to write the date in an e-mail this week. It was the first time I had to specify that I meant 2024 – and I felt absolutely nothing about it. I literally almost left it out because I am very unprepared to face everything that comes with a new year.

I don’t feel ready for Sefer Shemot yet either. I’m not usually one with strong feelings about books of the torah, but somehow today’s chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek just didn’t sit with me the way it usually does. The reading of Sefer Bereshit this year has been deeply connected to the war in Israel for me. We began the reading just as war was breaking out in Israel – these two things have become intertwined for me.

These last 84 days have passed as one chunk of time. Israel has been at war, hostages are not in their homes where they belong, rockets are raining down, soldiers are being sent to war. People are dying. So many things that I just wish and pray and hope would end. And yet, here we are. Expected to take not one but TWO containers that have held this war, the sefer and the secular year, and we are supposed to close the door on them at once. That means, as I am coming to realize, that we have to carry these things into what comes next. And it isn’t fair, and it is hard, and we have no choice. Time moves forward and pulls us with her.

We look to Torah to teach us lessons for our lives. Thankfully we have begun to see the flaws in our ancestors and understand the space that gives us to live our perfectly human and never-actually-perfect lives. There could have been a story in which every death of our ancestors was tied up with a nice bow – where every ending was perfect and everyone was ready to bless their children and exit the scene peacefully. But instead, we see Yaakov facing an ending and doing the unexpected. He takes his final moments not to bring closure and comfort, not to say good-bye, but to offer a final rebuke, to keep living his life all the way until the end – maybe in denial, maybe because he’s simply not ready – he doesn’t want to go.

Our new sefer and our new year should be full of hope, but maybe this year, this time, they’re not – and that’s okay. When we finish reading a book of torah, we don’t ask for peace, we ask for strength – and today that feels more fitting than ever. As we carry the hard things with us into the new sefer and the new year may we have strength to live our imperfect human lives, find strength in Torah and its lessons for our modern lives, and be strengthened in community as we face what lies in front of us together. Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek.

Shabbat shalom.

The Holiness of the Jewish People

By Rabbi Joel Rembaum, Sukklot First Day 5784

(THIS READING TEXT OF MY SERMON IS LONGER THAN THE TEXT FOR SPEAKING THAT WAS PRESENTED ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2023. IT CONTAINS MATERIAL NOT INCLUDED IN THE SERMON. THE SPEAKING TEXT WAS WRITTEN IN “ALL CAPS” FORMAT BECAUSE IT IS EASIER TO READ. GIVEN THAT THE SPEAKING TEXT COMPRISES THE BULK OF THE READING TEXT, THE “ALL CAPS” FORMAT IS CARRIED OVER.)

SUKKOT IS CALLED ZMAN SIMHATEINU — THE TIME OF OUR REJOICING. AFTER A SERIOUS EFFORT AT TESHUVAH LASTING A MONTH AND TEN DAYS (ELUL THROUGH YOM KIPPUR), A BURDEN OF GUILT HAS BEEN LIFTED, AND WE CELEBRATE WITH JOY AS WE APPRECIATE GOD’S GIFTS TO US.

THE AUTHORITIES OF THE 2ND TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM MADE SUKKOT INTO HAG HA-URIM, THE ORIGINAL “FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS.” TORCHES WERE LIT IN TEMPLE’S COURTYARDS, AND THE PEOPLE REJOICED IN ALL NIGHT CELEBRATIONS.

THE PHARISEES INTRODUCED THE SIMHAT BEIT HA-SHO’EVAH, A WATER LIBATION CEREMONY IN THE TEMPLE ACCOMPANYING A PRAYER FOR RAIN IN THE COMING FALL AND WINTER. THIS HOPEFULLY LOOKED FORWARD TO ABUNDANT RAIN AND CROPS IN THE SPRING, SUMMER, AND FALL. THIS WAS THE PRECURSOR OF OUR GESHEM AND TAL BLESSINGS.

THE KIDDUSH OVER WINE THAT WE RECITE, THE SUKKAH IN WHICH WE EAT AND SLEEP, AND THE ARBA’AH MINIM WE WAVE, ALL ARE SYMBOLS OF GOD’S BLESSINGS FOR WHICH WE ARE SO GRATEFUL.

AND WE CANNOT FORGET THE SPIN-OFF CELEBRATION FROM SUKKOT, HANUKKAH, CALLED IN THE BOOK OF SECOND MACCABEES “THE FESTIVAL OF SUKKOT OF THE MONTH OF KISLEV,” WHICH WE ALSO CALL HAG HA-URIM.

AT THE SAME TIME, SUKKOT HAS A SERIOUS SIDE:

WE ARE TOLD THAT WE HAVE UNTIL HOSHANAH RABBAH, THE LAST DAY OF THE FESTIVAL, TO CONFRONT THE WRONGS WE WERE AFRAID OR UNABLE TO ADDRESS BEFORE THE HAGGIM AND DURING ASERET Y’MEI TESHUVAH. ONGOING DEEP INTROSPECTION, STEELING OURSELVES FOR THE TASK OF SEEKING FORGIVENESS, AND THEN CHANGING OUR BEHAVIOR DURNG THE WEEK OF SUKKOT ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. THIS TO BE DONE INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY.

WE JEWS TAKE PRIDE IN THE FACT THAT OUR TRADITION HAS GIVEN TO THE WORLD A MYRIAD OF POSITIVE VALUES THAT SHAPE OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH BOTH GOD AND GOD’S CREATURES. AT THE SAME TIME, IT WOULD BE DISHONEST TO SUGGEST THAT IN OUR 3000 YEAR OLD RELIGION THERE ARE NO PRINCIPLES THAT WE WHO LIVE IN THE 21ST CENTURY FIND TO BE HIGHLY PROBLEMATIC. INDEED, ALL IS NOT PERFECT IN OUR ANCIENT SYSTEM. I WILL NOTE A FEW SUCH IMPERFECTIONS:

1. PATRIARCHY, THE PRINCIPLE OF THE RULE OF THE ALPHA MALE, AND ALL LAWS IN OUR JEWISH LEGAL SYSTEM BASED ON THAT PRINCIPLE, SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AN ANATHEMA AND SHOULD BE CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM HAS MADE GREAT STRIDES IN ADDRESSING THIS ISSUE, BUT WITH THE RISE OF A MILITANT ULTRA-ORTHODOXY, THIS PROBLEM REMAINS ON THE TABLE AND THE EFFORT TO EXCISE PATRIARCHY MUST NOT STOP.
2. SLAVERY — THERE ARE UPWARDS OF 35 MILLION SLAVES IN THE WORLD. WHILE I AM AWARE THAT, IN HIS ARUKH HASHULHAN, RABBI YEHIEL EPSTEIN (1829-1908) WROTE, “THE LAWS OF SLAVERY WERE FOLLOWED IN ANCIENT TIMES, BUT NOW THE LAWS OF SLAVERY ARE NOT IN FORCE AT ALL, FOR THERE ARE NO SLAVES IN OUR COMMUNITIES” (YOREH DEAH, AVADIM, 267). HOWEVER, WERE THERE SLAVES, WHAT WOULD EPSTEIN HAVE RULED? ALSO, THE

DEFINITION OF SLAVERY HAS BEEN BROADENED OVER THE PAST HALF-CENTURY. I AM UNAWARE OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SERIOUS, SCHOLARLY, IN-DEPTH TESHUVAH FROM AN AUTHORIZED RABBINIC LEGAL BODY THAT CATEGORICALLY STATES THAT SLAVERY, IN ALL ITS EXPRESSIONS — THEORY, LAW, AND ACTIONS — MUST BE REMOVED FROM JUDAISM AND, INDEED, FROM THE THE FACE OF THE EARTH.

AND, TO THAT END, ITEMS PRODUCED BY SLAVE LABOR — UN-PAID OR HORRIBLY UNDERPAID — ARE NOT TO BE BOUGHT OR SOLD.

3. WE DO, INDEED, TAKE PRIDE IN OUR JEWISH UNIVERSALISTIC PRINCIPLES. A PRINCIPLE OF THE SUPERIORITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE, HOWEVER, HAS BEEN EMBEDDED IN OUR TRADITIONAL SOURCES FROM BIBLICAL TIMES UNTIL OUR OWN AS AN OPERATING PRINCIPLE THIS MUST BE EXPUNGED, AND ANY TEACHING OR ACTIONS TAKEN BASED ON THIS PRINCIPLE MUST BE CONSIDERED AN AVEIRAH — TRANSGRESSION — OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.

THIS LAST COLLECTIVE SIN HAS CAUSED ME GRIEF OVER PAST FEW MONTHS, AS I HAVE READ A NUMBER OF REPORTS THAT MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THS BELIEF AMONG JEWS IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE 21ST CENTURY. FIRST, BACKGROUND:

THE ROOTS OF JEWISH SUPERIORITY ARE BIBLICAL. IN THE TORAH WE FIND TWO EXPRESSIONS OF THE NOTION OF THE HOLINESS OF AM YISRAEL: ONE IS ASPIRATIONAL, AND ONE IS EXISTENTIAL. THE ISRAELITE ASPIRATIONAL HOLINESS TAKES THE FORM OF A GOAL TOWARD WHICH THE PEOPLE MUST STRIVE, AND IT IS CONTINGENT UPON THEIR BEING DILIGENT IN FOLLOWING GOD’S LAWS:

EXODUS 19:5-6

NOW THEN, IF YOU WILL OBEY ME FAITHFULLY AND KEEP MY COVENANT, YOU SHALL BE MY TREASURED POSSESSION AMONG ALL THE PEOPLES. INDEED, ALL THE EARTH IS MINE, BUT YOU SHALL BE TO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS AND A HOLY NATION. THESE ARE THE WORDS THAT YOU SHALL SPEAK TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.

LEVITICUS 19:2, 37

SPEAK TO THE WHOLE ISRAELITE COMMUNITY AND SAY TO THEM: YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I, YOUR GOD YHVH, AM HOLY.

YOU SHALL FAITHFULLY OBSERVE ALL MY LAWS AND ALL MY RULES: I AM YHVH.

LEVITICUS 20:26

YOU SHALL BE HOLY TO ME, FOR I YHVH AM HOLY, AND I HAVE SET YOU APART FROM OTHER PEOPLES TO BE MINE.

IT IS INTERESTING THAT IN THE FIRST FOUR BOOKS OF THE TORAH THE ONLY MENTION OF ISRAEL AS ALREADY BEING A HOLY NATION IS FROM THE MOUTH OF THE DEMAGOGIC REBEL, KORAKH:

NUMBERS 16:3

THEY COMBINED AGAINST MOSES AND AARON AND SAID TO THEM, “YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR! FOR ALL THE COMMUNITY ARE HOLY, ALL OF THEM, AND YHVH IS IN THEIR MIDST. WHY THEN DO YOU RAISE YOURSELVES ABOVE YHVH’S CONGREGATION?”

FOUR TIMES IN DEUTERONOMY, HOWEVER, MOSES SAYS THAT ISRAEL IS, EXISTENTIALLY, A HOLY PEOPLE. AS OPPOSED TO THE PASSAGES CITED ABOVE, MOSES IS, IN EFFECT, SAYING: BECAUSE YOU ARE A HOLY PEOPLE, YOU MAY NOT VIOLATE THE LAW OF YHVH, AND IF YOU DO, GOD WILL HOLD YOU LIABLE FOR PUNISHMENT. THIS IS CLEAR IN DEUTERONOMY 11 AND IN THE CURSES FOUND TOWARD THE END OF BOOK. THIS SAME IDEA IS EXPRESSED IN DIFFERENT WORDS BY THE PROPHET AMOS (3:2): WITH YOU ALONE HAVE I BEEN INTIMATE OUT OF ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH—THAT IS WHY I WILL CALL YOU TO ACCOUNT FOR ALL YOUR INIQUITIES.

AND SO, MOSES SAYS:

DEUTERONOMY 7:6 [FOLLOWING A STRONG PROHIBITION OF ISRAELITE MARRIAGE WITH THE PAGAN WOMEN OF CANAAN…]

FOR YOU ARE A PEOPLE HOLY TO YOUR GOD YHVH: OF ALL THE PEOPLES ON EARTH YOUR GOD YHVH CHOSE YOU TO BE GOD’S TREASURED PEOPLE.

DEUTERONOMY 14:1-2

YOU ARE CHILDREN OF YOUR GOD YHVH. YOU SHALL NOT GASH YOURSELVES OR SHAVE THE FRONT OF YOUR HEADS BECAUSE OF THE DEAD.

FOR YOU ARE A PEOPLE HOLY TO YOUR GOD YHVH: YOUR GOD YHVH CHOSE YOU FROM AMONG ALL OTHER PEOPLES ON EARTH TO BE A TREASURED PEOPLE.

DEUTERONOMY14:21

YOU SHALL NOT EAT ANYTHING THAT HAS DIED A NATURAL DEATH; GIVE IT TO THE STRANGER IN YOUR COMMUNITY TO EAT, OR YOU MAY SELL IT TO A FOREIGNER. FOR YOU ARE A PEOPLE HOLY TO YOUR GOD YHVH. YOU SHALL NOT BOIL A KID IN ITS MOTHER’S MILK.

DEUTERONOMY 26:19

[THE COVENANT IS BEING AFFIRMED BY THE PEOPLE AND GOD AS A MUTUAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES, BASED ON LAWS GIVEN BY GOD AND RECEIVED BY THE PEOPLE. THEREFORE, FROM THIS DAY FORWARD…]

…[GOD] WILL SET YOU, IN FAME AND RENOWN AND GLORY, HIGH ABOVE ALL THE NATIONS THAT [GOD] HAS MADE; AND THAT YOU SHALL BE, AS PROMISED, A HOLY PEOPLE TO YOUR GOD YHVH.

ECHOING DEUTERONOMY, THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C.E. SPIRITUAL LEADER AND TEACHER OF THE PEOPLE IN JERUSALEM, EZRA THE SCRIBE, TELLS US:

EZRA 9:1-3

WHEN THIS WAS OVER, THE OFFICERS APPROACHED ME, SAYING, “THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AND THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES HAVE NOT SEPARATED THEMSELVES FROM THE PEOPLES OF THE LAND WHOSE ABHORRENT PRACTICES ARE LIKE THOSE OF THE CANAANITES, THE HITTITES, THE PERIZZITES, THE JEBUSITES, THE AMMONITES, THE MOABITES, THE EGYPTIANS, AND THE AMORITES. THEY HAVE TAKEN THEIR DAUGHTERS AS WIVES FOR THEMSELVES AND FOR THEIR SONS, SO THAT THE HOLY SEED HAS BECOME INTERMINGLED WITH THE PEOPLES OF THE LAND; AND IT IS THE OFFICERS AND PREFECTS WHO HAVE TAKEN THE LEAD IN THIS TRESPASS.” WHEN I HEARD THIS, I RENT MY GARMENT AND ROBE, I TORE HAIR OUT OF MY HEAD AND BEARD, AND I SAT DESOLATE.

EZRA THEN INSTRUCTS THE LEADERS OF THE COMMUNITY TO SEND AWAY THE WOMEN, AND THEY DO AS ORDERED. OTHERWISE, THE “HOLY SEED,” INNATE WITHIN THE JEWISH MEN, WOULD BE DEFILED.

THERE WAS NO PROCESS FOR CONVERSION AT THAT TIME

THE RABBINIC SOURCES FROM THE FIRST THROUGH THE EIGHTH CENTURIES C.E. ARE RICH WITH UNIVERSAL AND TOLERANT STATEMENTS REGARDING NON-JEWS. ONE CAN ALSO FIND VERY BLUNT ANTI-GENTILE EXPRESSIONS. RABBI REUVEN HAMMER, z”l, CITES NUMEROUS EXAMPLES OF EACH OF THESE PERSPECTIVES IN HIS PAPER, NOTED TOWARD THE END OF THIS DRASH.

YEHUDAH HA-LEVI (SPAIN, 12TH CENTURY), IN HIS BOOK, THE KOZARI, WRITTEN IN ARABIC BUT TRANSLATED AFTER HIS DEATH INTO HEBREW, USES A WIDELY ACCEPTED PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT TO DEFINE WHERE JEWS STAND VIS-A-VIS NON-JEWS. THE BOOK BEGINS WITH THE CONVERSION OF THE KING OF THE KHAZARS TO JUDAISM. HE INVITES A RABBI FOR A (PLATONIC STYLE) DIALOG REGARDING HIS NEW RELIGION. HE ASKS ABOUT THE SEEMING LOWLY STATUS OF THE JEWS IN THE WORLD. THE RABBI RESPONDS THAT THIS IS A RESULT OF THE JEWS MISMANAGEMENT OF THEIR OWN AFFAIRS. HE PROCEEDS TO EXPLAIN

THE ACTUAL REALITY OF THE STATUS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. HE LAYS OUT THE VARIOUS LEVELS OF THE CREATURES IN THE WORLD: THE LOWEST ARE THE ROCKS. ABOVE THEM ARE THE PLANTS. ABOVE THEM ARE THE ANIMALS. AND, ACCORDING TO THIS PHILOSOPHICAL NOTION, THE FOURTH LEVEL ARE HUMANS. HE THEN TAKES IT ONE STEP FURTHER AND EXPLAINS HOW THE JEWS ARE ACTUALLY THE FIFTH, AND HIGHEST, LEVEL OF CREATION. HE SHOWS THE KING HOW, ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE, THIS CAME ABOUT. THE JEWS ARE AT A SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL LEVEL EVEN HIGHER THAN THAT OF THE PHILOSOPHERS: JEWS ARE THE PEOPLE OF PROPHECY WHO HAVE SOULS THAT ALLOW GOD TO SPEAK TO THEM DIRECTLY. HE TELLS THE KING THAT, AS A CONVERT, HE IS ACCEPTED AS A MEMBER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE, WITH ALL ITS RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES, AND RESPONSIBILITIES; HE CANNOT, HOWEVER, RECEIVE PROPHECY BECAUSE HE DOES NOT HAVE A JEWISH SOUL. HA-LEVI WAS A PHYSICIAN, AND HE KNEW MEDIEVAL SCIENCE. HE USES A QUASI-GENETIC THEORY OF HOW DISTINCTLY JEWISH ATTRIBUTES SKIPPED GENERATIONS PRIOR TO THE ENSLAVEMENT IN EGYPT. IT WAS THERE THAT JEWISH IN-BREEDING ALLOWED THE ATTRIBUTES TO BE SPREAD WIDELY TO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. (PART 1, PARAGRAPHS 92-103.)

IN SUBSEQUENT GENERATIONS OF JEWS THIS NOTION BECAME WELL KNOWN. IT APPEARS TO HAVE INFLUENCED MYSTICS WHO SHAPED WHAT CAME TO BE KNOWN IN THE 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES AS KABBALAH.

THE FOUNDATIONAL TEXT FOR THE KABBALISTIC TRADITION IS THE ZOHAR, WRITTEN IN SPAIN, ca. 1290. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE ZOHAR UNDERSTANDS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A JEWISH SOUL AND GENTILE SOUL, BASED ON GENESIS 1:20, 24:

RABBI ABBA SAID: “‘NEFESH HAYYAH (GENESIS 1:20), SOUL OF THE LIVING BEING,’ NAMELY ISRAEL, FOR THEY ARE SCIONS OF THE BLESSED HOLY ONE, AND THEIR SOULS DERIVE FROM HIM. THE SOUL OF OTHER NATIONS

— WHENCE DOES IT COME?” RABBI ELEAZAR SAID, “FROM THOSE IMPURE

ASPECTS OF THE LEFT (DEMONIC POWERS FROM THE LEFT SIDE OF THE SEFIROT), DEFILING THEM AND ANYONE APPROACHING THEM.” GOD SAID, “LET THE EARTH BRING FORTH NEFESH HAYYAH [LIVING BEINGS], ACCORDING TO THEIR KIND (GENESIS 1:24).” RABBI ELEAZAR ADDED, “THIS SUPPORTS WHAT WE HAVE SAID, ‘NEFESH HAYYAH, SOULS OF THE LIVING BEING (GENESIS 1:20)’ — ISRAEL, WHO ARE THE ‘SOULS OF THE’ SUPERNAL, HOLY ‘LIVING BEING.’ ‘CATTLE, CRAWLING THINGS, AND LIVING CREATURES OF THE EARTH (1:24)’ — OTHER NATIONS, WHO ARE NOT ‘SOULS OF THE LIVING BEING,’ BUT RATHER ‘FORESKIN,’ AS WE HAVE SAID.” (FROM DANIEL MATT, ZOHAR (STANFORD, 2004), 1:252.)

NO COMMENT IS NECESSARY. THE ZOHAR FIRST CAME OFF THE PRINTING PRESSES IN ITALY IN THE 1550’S, AND THIS ALLOWED ITS INFLUENCE TO SPREAD. GIVEN THE IMPACT OF ZOHARIC IDEOLOGY ON SUBSEQUENT GENERATIONS OF JEWISH THINKERS, IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT THIS NOTION OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JEWS AND NON-JEWS SHAPED HOW JEWS IN MANY COMMUNITIES VIEWED THEIR GENTILE NEIGHBORS.

THE ARI, R. YITZHAK BEN SHLOMO LURIA ASHKENAZI (16TH CENTURY, TZEFAT), AS CITED BY R. HAYYIM VITAL, HIS DISCIPLE, PROVIDES THIS INTERPRETATION OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A JEWISH AND A GENTILE SOUL:

SO WE FIND THAT ISRAEL POSSESSES THE THREE LEVELS OF SOUL (NEFESH, RUACH, NESHAMAH) FROM HOLINESS¹….THE GENTILES, HOWEVER, POSSESS ONLY THE LEVEL OF NEFESH FROM THE FEMININE SIDE OF THE KLIPOT²…FOR THE SOULS OF THE NATIONS, WHICH COME FROM THE KLIPOT, ARE CALLED ‘EVIL’ AND NOT ‘GOOD,’ ARE CREATED WITHOUT THE DA’AT (KNOWLEDGE), AND THEREFORE THEY ALSO LACK

1 Ha-Kadosh Barukh Hu. This term, along with YHVH, Tiferet, and others, are some of the names of the central sefira of the Kabbalah’s sefirotic lower extension of God.

2 Kelipah, (pl. kelipot): (Lit. “shell” or “shard’) the outer covering which conceals the Godly light within all creation; hence, the unholy side of the universe. Lurianic Kabbalah teaches that when the universe was created, vessels containing this light shattered.

 

THE RUACH AND NESHAMAH.” (R. HAYYIM VITAL, EITZ ḤAYYIM, PORTAL 5, CH. 2.)

THE MAHARAL OF PRAGUE, MOREINU HA-RAV YEHUDAH LEVA BEN BETZALEL (16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURIES), WAS A TRUE POLYMATH WHO PEPPERED HIS STUDIES OF JEWISH SOURCES AND TRADITION WITH SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND KABBALAH. HE KNEW THE ZOHAR.

WHAT FOLLOWS, HOWEVER, WITH ITS FORM/MATTER PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTS MORE OF A PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCE:

…FOR EVEN IF ALL HUMAN BEINGS HAVE A COMMON SHAPE, THERE STILL IS A DISTINCTION…THERE ARE NATIONS WHO HAVE MORE OF A TENDENCY TOWARDS THE PHYSICAL AND THEIR ACTIONS TESTIFY TO THIS, FOR THEY ARE INCLINED TOWARDS LUST AND ABOMINABLE THINGS. THIS IS EVIDENCE OF THEIR MATERIALISTIC NATURE…AND AS WE FIND ANIMALS, WHICH ARE LIKE AN INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN MAN AND THE REST OF THE ANIMAL WORLD, SUCH AS THE MONKEY…LIKEWISE THERE EXIST MEN–WHO ARE NOT COMPLETELY MEN. THEREFORE HE [RABBI SHIMON BAR YOHAI] SPOKE OF THE COMPLETE MAN WHO DOESN’T GRAVITATE TOWARDS MATERIALISM TOO MUCH — THESE ARE THE JEWS, FOR THEY POSSESS THE COMPLETE FORM WITHOUT A TENDENCY TOWARDS MATERIALISM. HOWEVER, AS FOR THE OTHER NATIONS, THEIR FORM IS NULLIFIED BY THEIR MATERIAL ASPECT, UNTIL THEY, SO TO SPEAK, CEASE TO BE ‘MEN,’ BECAUSE THEIR MATERIAL ASPECT IS PRIMARY AND THEIR FORM IS SECONDARY — AND IN EVERYTHING WHICH HAS BOTH A PRIMARY AND A SECONDARY ASPECT, THE SECONDARY ASPECT IS ALWAYS NULLIFIED BY THE PRIMARY ASPECT. WITH THE JEWS, HOWEVER, THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE, FOR THEIR FORM IS PRIMARY AND THEIR MATERIAL ASPECT IS SECONDARY, AND IS THEREFORE NULLIFIED.” (GEVUROT HASHEM, CHAPTER 44.)

THE TANYA, WRITTEN BY RABBI SHNEUR ZALMAN OF LIADI, THE FOUNDER OF CHABAD HASIDISM, WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1796. IT IS A COMPENDIUM OF R. SHNEUR ZALMAN’S KABBALISTIC IDEOLOGY. IT CONTINUES TO BE WIDELY STUDIED IN OUR DAY. THIS IS FROM TANYA, LIKKUTEI AMARIM, END OF CH. 1. IN IT, R. SHNEUR ZALMAN CITES R. HAYYIM VITAL BY NAME:

RABBI CHAIM VITAL WROTE IN SHAAR HAKEDUSHAH THAT EVERY JEW, WHETHER RIGHTEOUS OR WICKED, POSSESSES TWO SOULS, AS IT IS WRITTEN, “AND NESHAMOT (SOULS) WHICH I HAVE MADE.” THESE ARE TWO NEFASHOT—TWO SOULS AND LIFE-FORCES. ONE SOUL ORIGINATES IN THE KELIPAH AND SITRA ACHARA³. IT IS THIS NEFESH [WHICH ORIGINATES IN THE KELIPAH AND SITRA ACHARA] THAT IS CLOTHED IN THE BLOOD OF A HUMAN BEING, GIVING LIFE TO THE BODY, AS IT IS WRITTEN, “FOR THE NEFESH OF THE FLESH (I.E., THE NEFESH THAT SUSTAINS PHYSICAL AND CORPOREAL LIFE) IS IN THE BLOOD.” FROM [THIS NEFESH] STEMS ALL THE EVIL CHARACTERISTICS, DERIVING FROM THE FOUR EVIL ELEMENTS WITHIN IT.… FROM THE SECOND SOUL STEMS THE GOOD TRAITS INHERENT IN EVERY JEW’S CHARACTER, SUCH AS COMPASSION AND BENEVOLENCE. FOR IN THE [CASE OF THE] JEW, THIS SOUL OF KELIPAH IS DERIVED FROM THE KELIPAH CALLED “NOGAH,” WHICH ALSO CONTAINS GOOD; AND THE GOOD WITHIN THIS NEFESH GIVES RISE TO THESE POSITIVE NATURAL TRAITS. [THIS KELIPAH] IS FROM THE ESOTERIC “TREE OF KNOWLEDGE [WHICH IS COMPRISED] OF GOOD AND EVIL. THE SOULS OF THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD, HOWEVER, EMANATING FROM THE OTHER, UNCLEAN KELIPOT, WHICH CONTAIN NO GOOD WHATSOEVER, AS IS WRITTEN IN ETZ CHAIM, PORTAL 49, CH. 3, THAT ALL THE GOOD THAT THE NATIONS DO IS DONE OUT OF SELFISH MOTIVES. SO THE GEMARA COMMENTS ON THE VERSE, “THE KINDNESS OF THE NATIONS IS SIN”—THAT ALL THE CHARITY AND KINDNESS DONE BY THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD IS ONLY FOR THEIR SELF-GLORIFICATION. (TRANSLATION FROM CHABAD.)

ONE OF THE GIANTS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF THE ERETZ YISRAEL YISHUV IN THE PRE-STATE PERIOD, R. AVRAHAM YITZḤAK HA-KOHEN

3 Sitra Akhara: “The Other Side,” the dark side of the universe from which evil forces emanate.

 

KOOK (1865–1935), WAS THE FIRST CHIEF RABBI OF PALESTINE. THIS IS WHAT RAV KOOK WROTE:

THE JEWISH PEOPLE ARE SUPERIOR TO ALL NATIONS OF THE EARTH. THIS IS NOT ONLY SO WITH REGARD TO THE [GENTILE] FOOLS WHO ARE ABOMINABLE IN THEIR WAYS THROUGH MURDER AND OTHER GREAT ABOMINATIONS. RATHER, THE JEWS’ SUPERIORITY IS DUE TO THEIR SANCTITY… WHICH IS SUPERIOR EVEN WITH REGARD TO THOSE WHO ARE THE WISEST AND MOST SAINTLY AMONG THE NATIONS. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE JEWISH SOUL, ITS SELF, ITS INNER DESIRES, ITS OVERFLOW, ITS CHARACTER, ITS STANDING, AND THAT OF ALL THE NATIONS, AT ALL THEIR LEVELS, [THAT DIFFERENCE] IS GREATER AND DEEPER THAN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE [GENTILE] HUMAN SOUL AND THE SOUL OF AN ANIMAL. BETWEEN THE LATTER, THERE IS MERELY A QUANTITATIVE DISTINCTION; BETWEEN THE FORMER, AN ESSENTIAL QUALITATIVE DISTINCTION PERTAINS. (MIDBAR SHUR (JERUSALEM, 1997), 300; OROT (JERUSALEM, 2005), 156.)

YET, RAV KOOK ALSO TEACHES THAT JEWS MUST LEARN TO —LOVE ALL CREATURES, ESPECIALLY HUMANS OF OTHER NATIONS: FOR ONLY UPON A SOUL RICH IN LOVE FOR CREATURES AND LOVE OF MAN [I.E. A JEWISH SOUL] CAN THE LOVE OF THE NATION RAISE ITSELF UP IN ITS FULL NOBILITY AND SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL GREATNESS. THE NARROWNESS THAT CAUSES ONE TO SEE WHATEVER IS OUTSIDE THE BORDER OF THE SPECIAL NATION, EVEN OUTSIDE THE BORDER OF ISRAEL, AS UGLY AND DEFILED, IS A TERRIBLE DARKNESS THAT BRINGS GENERAL DESTRUCTION UPON ALL BUILDING OF SPIRITUAL GOOD WITHIN JEWISH SOUL, FOR THE LIGHT OF WHICH EVERY REFINED SOUL HOPES. (MUSSAR AVIKHA (JERUSALEM, 1985), P. 58.)

THIS DOES NOT CONTRADICT THE PASSAGE I FIRST READ. IT IS A GENEROUS NOBLESSE OBLIGE STATEMENT. PLEASE NOTE, HOWEVER, THAT R. KOOK EMPHASIZES HOW LOVE OF ALL CREATURES BRINGS GREAT BENEFIT TO THE JEWISH SOUL.

DURING THE DECADES FOLLOWING RAV KOOK, THE CONCEPT OF JEWISH SUPERIORITY CONTINUED TO PERCOLATE. A NEW, NUANCED APPROACH EMERGED IN THE THOUGHT OF RAV KOOK’S SON, R. ZVI YEHUDA KOOK, WHO HAS HAD A PROFOUND INFLUENCE ON THE THE SETTLER MOVEMENT. AND, THE RACIST TEACHINGS OF R. MEIR KAHANE ENTERED INTO ULTRA-NATIONALIST RELIGIOUS CIRCLES AND CONTINUE TO BE OPERATIVE. AN EXCELLENT STUDY OF THESE AND OTHER TRENDS IN THE RELIGIO-POLITICAL CULTURE OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL IS AMI PEDAHZUR’S THE TRIUMPH OF ISRAEL’S RADICAL RIGHT (OXFORD, 2012).

THIS BRINGS US TO THE 2IST CENTURY. WHAT FOLLOWS WAS REPORTED IN THE TIMES OF ISRAEL, APRIL 2019 (BASED ON A SCREEN SHOT OF A VIDEO CAPTURED BY ISRAEL TV CHANNEL 13). RABBI ELIEZER KASHTIEL IS THE HEAD OF A MILITARY-PREP YESHIVAH IN THE WEST BANK SETTLEMENT OF ELI. THIS IS WHAT HE TOLD HIS STUDENTS:

“THE GENTILES WILL WANT TO BE OUR SLAVES. BEING A SLAVE TO A JEW IS THE BEST. THEY’RE GLAD TO BE SLAVES, THEY WANT TO BE SLAVES… INSTEAD OF JUST WALKING THE STREETS AND BEING STUPID AND VIOLENT AND HARMING EACH OTHER. ONCE THEY’RE SLAVES, THEIR LIVES CAN BEGIN TO TAKE SHAPE….ALL AROUND US, WE ARE SURROUNDED BY PEOPLES WITH GENETIC PROBLEMS. ASK A SIMPLE ARAB ‘WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE?’ HE WANTS TO BE UNDER THE OCCUPATION. WHY? BECAUSE THEY HAVE GENETIC PROBLEMS, THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO RUN A COUNTRY, THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING. LOOK AT THEM….YES, WE’RE RACISTS. WE BELIEVE IN RACISM…THERE ARE RACES IN THE WORLD, AND PEOPLES HAVE GENETIC TRAITS, AND THAT REQUIRES US TO TRY TO HELP THEM⁴.

THE LAST WORDS SOUND LIKE A MIDRASH ON R. KOOK.

SO, HOW ARE WE TO DEAL WITH THIS? IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THIS IS A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM. IT IS ALSO OBVIOUS THAT IT’S SOLUTION REQUIRES THOUGHTFUL STRATEGIZING.

4 Presumably by enslaving them, as R. Kashtiel explained above.

 

AS A FIRST STEP, A MUST READ IS “THE STATUS OF NON-JEWS IN JEWISH LAW AND LORE TODAY,” BY R. REUVEN HAMMER — A RESPONSUM APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JEWISH LAW AND STANDARDS ON APRIL 21, 2016. HERE IS THE LINK:

https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/ 2011-2020/HammerTeshuvah Final.pdf .

ALSO HELPFUL IS: “THE SOUL OF A JEW AND THE SOUL OF A NON-JEW; AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH AND THE SEARCH FOR AN ALTERNATIVE,” BY R. HANAN BALK. ḤAKIRAH, THE FLATBUSH JOURNAL OF JEWISH LAW AND THOUGHT. LINK: https://hakirah.org/Vol16 Balk.pdf .

I WILL CALL THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY AND ASK THAT THIS ISSUE BE ADDRESSED BEFORE IT GETS OUT OF HAND, AND I WILL SUGGEST WE USE R. HAMMER’S RESPONSUM AS OUR ROADMAP. A MEANINGFUL STRATEGY MUST BE FOUND.

SO WE STILL HAVE TIME TO DO TESHUVAH. THERE IS GREAT KEDUSHAH — HOLINESS — IN TESHUVAH. IT IS A PROCESS THAT IS BUILT ON CONTROL OF ONE’S EGO — WHETHER THAT EGO IS INDIVIDUAL OR NATIONAL. IT RECOGNIZES THAT ONE CANNOT BE WHOLE IF ONE DISREGARDS THE OTHER “ONES” THAT ARE PART OF OUR LIFE: GOD — THE MOST SACRED ONE, AND THE SACRED ONES WHOSE LIVES ARE ENTWINED WITH OUR OWN, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY — FROM THE MEMBERS OF OUR HOUSEHOLDS TO ALL OF HUMANKIND, AND, INDEED, TO ALL CREATION. IT REQUIRES HUMILITY, A HALLMARK OF A TRUE SEEKER OF HOLINESS.

IN JEWISH TRADITION, WHO IS THE GREATEST HUMAN BEING WHO EVER LIVED? MOSES. IN THE COURSE OF CASTIGATING MIRIAM AND AARON FOR “BAD-MOUTHING” THEIR BROTHER, HERE IS WHAT GOD SAID ABOUT HIM. WE READ IN NUMBERS 12:

NOW MOSES HIMSELF WAS VERY HUMBLE, MORE SO THAN ANY OTHER HUMAN BEING ON EARTH….AND [GOD] SAID, “HEAR THESE MY WORDS: WHEN PROPHETS OF YHVH ARISE AMONG YOU, I MAKE MYSELF KNOWN TO THEM IN A VISION, I SPEAK WITH THEM IN A DREAM. NOT SO WITH MY SERVANT MOSES; HE IS TRUSTED THROUGHOUT MY HOUSEHOLD. WITH HIM I SPEAK MOUTH TO MOUTH, PLAINLY AND NOT IN RIDDLES, AND HE BEHOLDS THE LIKENESS OF YHVH. HOW THEN DID YOU NOT FEAR SPEAKING AGAINST MY SERVANT MOSES?!”

HUMILITY, NOT HUBRIS, IS A FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENT OF TRUE HUMAN GREATNESS.

AND WE READ IN MICAH 6:6-8:

WITH WHAT SHALL I APPROACH GOD, DO HOMAGE TO GOD ON HIGH? SHALL I APPROACH WITH BURNT OFFERINGS, WITH CALVES A YEAR OLD? WOULD GOD BE PLEASED WITH THOUSANDS OF RAMS, WITH MYRIADS OF STREAMS OF OIL? SHALL I GIVE MY FIRST-BORN FOR MY TRANSGRESSION, THE FRUIT OF MY BODY FOR MY SINS?

YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD, O MORTAL, WHAT IS GOOD, AND WHAT GOD REQUIRES OF YOU: ONLY TO DO JUSTICE AND TO LOVE KINDNESS, AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD.

HUMILITY, NOT HUBRIS, PAVES THE WALK-WAY TO GOD.

I CONCLUDE WITH MISHNAH SANHEDRIN 4:5:

THEREFORE, ADAM WAS CREATED ALONE, TO TEACH YOU THAT WITH REGARD TO ANYONE WHO DESTROYS ONE SOUL IT IS AS IF HE DESTROYED AN ENTIRE WORLD; AND ANYONE WHO SUSTAINS ONE SOUL THE WRITTEN WORD [TORAH] ASCRIBES HIM CREDIT AS IF HE SUSTAINED AN ENTIRE WORLD. AND, THIS [ADAM HAVING BEEN CREATED ALONE] WAS DONE TO MAINTAIN PEACE AMONG PEOPLE, SO THAT ONE PERSON WILL NOT SAY TO ANOTHER: MY FATHER IS GREATER THAN YOUR FATHER.

ALL OF HUMANKIND IS ONE GREAT FAMILY, AND ALL OF US ARE OBLIGATED TO HUMBLY CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER.

SHABBAT SHALOM AND HAG SAMEACH.

Succot 2023: Living With Joy

By Rabbi Susan Laemmle

I still remember, years ago, suddenly noticing the odd Hebrew construction that gets turned into a song: V’samachta b’chagecha, v’hayitah ach sameach. What is that odd ach doing, I asked myself? The answer to that question is both complicated and about complexity. As I’ve gotten more comfortable with life’s complexity, this turn of phrase has meant more and more to me.

Since my family built its first Succah back in the 1970s, following guidelines in the Jewish Catalogue, the Fall Harvest Festival has been my favorite among Jewish holidays. I’m grateful to have been able to have a home Succah nearly every place I lived so that it’s been possible to experience solitary breakfasts as well as festive lunches and intimate dinners right out the back door. It took me years to grasp how fast Succot comes after Yom Kippur so that it’s best to have the whole Fall Holiday sequence well in mind before it begins, and then I suggested that to Jewish newcomers.

In the midst of all our planning and shopping and cooking, all the davening and dressing up, inviting people and being invited, it’s easy to lose sight of the richly complicated joy that’s at the heart of the holiday. Like the other pilgrimage festivals, Succot has multiple layers: agricultural, historical/national, and spiritual/religious. Torah readings from Leviticus and Numbers, a Haftarah reading from Zecharia, and the megillah addition of Kohelet – this year on Shemini Atzaret rather than Succot’s opening day on Shabbat —all these help us tap into Succot’s layers of meaningful sweetness like maple syrup.

And yet, ours is certainly not the only family here that’s tasted sorrow in recent years as well as much joy. How can we tap into Succot and life’s positive bounty when our lives and families and feelings are so multitudinous, so tumultuous? This year for the first time I’ve asked myself that question and looked to see what answers the tradition could help me come up with.

The Hebrew adverb ach has biblical occurrences that confirm and others than restrict; it can mean something like “surely” and also something like “in contrast to.” The biblical dictionary by Brown, Driver and Briggs notes that “in some passages the affirmative and the restrictive senses agree equally with the context, and authorities read the Hebrew differently.” So it is that Ibn Ezra covers both bases, writing: “It is in fact a commandment to have joy on the Feast of Booths. But some suggest that the verb is simply a future tense, marking another result of the Lord’s blessing – that you will always have nothing but joy.” For Rashi too “in a straightforward reading of the text, this is not a commandment but a promise.” Whereas Sforno enjoins: “Let no grief be mixed in with your joy,” which sounds more like a commandment to me.

In a way, the ambivalent, Janus-faced quality of Succot joy is built into its place in the holiday sequence. Coming so fast after Yom Kippur — the most serious day on our calendar — Succot marks a new beginning, starting things off with a clean slate. And yet, no sooner do we breath in and out and move around, even if we’ve managed to improve ourselves, we are likely to fall into new, if not the old, errors. And so it is that Succot joy must surmount obstacles and root itself deeply if it’s to be full-hearted and real. As Yitz Greenberg puts this, “The joy of Succot reflects maturity. It is the happiness of the free person who chooses to live this way, who prefers this mission to all other alternatives. There is an inner joy even in the struggle against obstacles, the joy of choice and of anticipation of the goal” on what he calls “the Exodus Journey.”

Let’s consider Maimonides’ list of the 613 mitzvot and look specifically at what Sefer Ha-Hinnuch (a 13^th century Spanish work) labels as “being happy on the pilgrimage festivals,” which comes as number 488. It’s anonymous author elaborates in a way I find most helpful: “At the root of the precept lies this reason: man was constructed in such a manner that his nature needs to rejoice at times, just as he needs food under all circumstances, and rest, and sleep. . . . God set certain times of the year as holy seasons for us to remember the miracles and kindnesses that God did for us. Then at those times God commanded us to provide the physical self with the materials for rejoicing that it needs, and the result would be a great healing medicine for us.”

Succot encourages — indeed requires — us to “play house” like children, to rhythmically move our bodies in all directions, to take up various plants as extensions of ourselves, to hang paper chains and other bits of decoration in our temporary quarters, and to create human circles that everyone gets drawn into. It urges us to eat and drink with the plenty and variety than our means allow; to sing and celebrate not alone or even just in our family, but while welcoming guests both symbolic and human, both alive and remembered.

From the rich Jewish tradition that is our inheritance, comes a promise: Succot will reciprocate all we do to make it ours. It will give us a joy that’s more than transient. In a beautiful gloss in his Trumat Tzvi Pentateuch, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch presents a vision of such enduring joy: “The behest v’hayitah sameach” turns your rejoicing into a permanent trait of your personality, and the words ach sameach mean that this joyfulness in your character will persist even under circumstances that would otherwise tend to cast a cloud over it. You will remain joyful nevertheless; that is, still joyful. Rejoicing is the most sublime flower and fruit to ripen on the tree of life planted by the Law of God. . . . It will extend beyond the festive season, accompany us back into everyday life. . . and remain with us through all its vicissitudes.”

Before concluding, I pause finally to ask myself – as you may have wondered — why we keep talking about joy rather than happiness since simcha also, maybe mostly, gets translated as with a variant of happy. If I asked you now if you are happy — if I asked myself — what reply would come? Many of us have our struggles, aspects of ourselves and our lives that make things difficult, sometimes near impossible for us to go forward physically, financially, emotionally or spiritually. We try to meet our obligations and do the right thing, we take satisfaction where we can and endeavor to make things better for ourselves and those we care about. But it’s rather like Tevya’s wife Golde being asked if she loves her husband. Do I love you? Am I happy?

It seems to me that Hirsch and much of Jewish tradition doesn’t care nearly as much about happiness as it does about joy. Happiness will, if we are fortunate, come at some point in our lives as an indirect benefit of our having been both lucky and worthy. Joy is something we can pursue directly by following Torah teaching as well as prudential wisdom. We need to make provision for it, plan toward it, reach out for it, and dig deeply into it. And then — hold onto it with all our might through the counter-indications, the suffering, the losses, and even the horror.

And we need to help one another, in our families and in our community, to enable everyone to experience the joy that is a “healing medicine” for our fragmented selves and world. Let’s try to do that, all together, in 5784.

Chag Sameach!

Shanah Tovah ooh’metukah.

 

 

Haazinu

By Talia Rotter

This week’s parsha, Ha’azinu, starts off by recounting the good things that G-d has done for B’nai Yisrael. G-d chose us as his people, cared for us in the wilderness, protected us, and defeated mighty nations on our behalf. It criticizes B’nai Yisrael for following other gods. G-d says that if they continue to practice idolatry, he will deliver famine and plague to the people, and promises them death. The same day G-d speaks to Moses and instructs him to climb Mount Nebo in the land of moab facing Jericho, and look out at the land of israel. G-d tells Moses that he will die on mount nebo because he didn’t follow G-d’s instructions in the Wilderness of Zin. There, Moshe hit the rock instead of raising his staff to make water appear, and G-d says not listening to his instructions broke the holiness of bnei yisrael. Then Moshe dies on Mount Nebo, looking at the land he worked so hard to get to, not allowed to enter.

Moshe wanted so badly to see Eretz Yisrael, but his sin of hitting the rock was somehow unforgivable. Even after all Moshe had done, being a leader for bnei yisrael, helping them out of egypt, and being merciful to them, even when they practiced idolatry, still, G-d didn’t let him go into the promised land, and he had to die looking at it from afar. Why was simply hitting a rock such a bad, consequential thing to do?

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks suggests that this is about leadership. Each era has its new leaders, and they were all different from one another, not just by personality, but by their type of leadership. Each generation needs a type of leadership that is appropriate to the current times. Although there are some things that a leader needs throughout time and in every generation, such as integrity, open mindedness, and courage, there are other things that change about a leader from generation to generation, because a leader should be able to relate to every individual of their time.

Moshe comes from the generation of those who were slaves in Egypt, and when G-d commanded Moshe to hit a rock to make water the first time, almost forty years prior, it was because in the generation of slaves, the way leaders got things done was by physical force and harsh words. Because Moshe was from a different era of leadership, he didn’t understand that the leadership of the next generation. The next generation, born in the wilderness, was different. The type of leadership they needed was persuasion, not force and power. Talking to the rock, and teaching Bnei Israel how to get water, would have been a better fit, for them.

It is possible that Moshe not being allowed to enter Israel wasn’t meant to be a punishment, he just wasn’t the right leader for the new generation, and the rock incident is an example of why.

Another related concept is that the song in Haazinu never mentions the escape from Egypt: It starts off by talking about how G-d found the people in the wilderness. An explanation for this follows the same theme that rabbi sacks introduced, of different needs in every generation. In my bat mitzvah parsha, Beshalach, Shirat Hayam dramatically narrates the escape from Egypt. Shirat Hayam was the song of the generation who were slaves, because it is resonates for those who left Mitzrayim, and it relates to that generation. In this parsha, Haazinu, the song doesn’t mention the escape from Egypt, because the current generation was born in the wilderness, so the escape from Egypt doesn’t resonate with them as directly.. Because this is a song from G-d talking to the people, it starts off narrating what they know, which is that G-d helped them in the wilderness. This concept of every generation needing to be addressed in a way that they can relate to still applies today. Just like I might enjoy different types of music than my parents, and use different slang from them, the generation born in the wilderness and the generation born in Mitzrayim need to be spoken to and ruled differently.

The story of Moshe and the rock, along with the different themes in Shirat Hayam and the song in Haazinu, are trying to teach us that every generation is unique, so leadership and understanding has to be appropriate and applicable to the current time.

G’mar chatima tova, and shabbat shalom

Yom Kippur Day 2023/5784 — Stayin’ Aligned

By Rabbi Jim Rogozen

If you go north on La Cienega you’ll find chiropractors who can re-align your spine and joints. If you go south you can find places that will re-align your cars’ tires. All of these places provide an important, but often, temporary fix to your body or car.

As humans, it’s inevitable that, we too, will get off track in ways small and large. Getting off track often causes us to drift away from God, and our true selves. When we find ourselves saying, “This is not who I really am!” we know that we are out of alignment.

Our Tradition acknowledges this in the weekday Amida – slach lanu aveenu kee hatanu – forgive us, God, for we have sinned. But it also reminds us that God is rotzeh b’tshuva – God welcomes our repentance, our T’shuva.

This idea of drift has a history – both good and bad. Scholars have said that we, the Jews, were first called עברים “ivrim” (Hebrews) based on the Akkadian word Hapiru, which meant those who crossed borders. The ivrim, our ancestors, עברוּ avru, – they crossed over rivers and borders to leave Egypt and eventually go to Eretz Yisrael. When they entered the Land their mission was to be an Am Kadosh, to turn away from a history of slavery and become a faith-aligned community. It was a brave move forward, crossing physical and psychological borders, into something new.

But then reality stepped in. The Israelites faced challenges to their faith, and they often fell out of alignment with God and with one another. These challenges continue in our time as well. So, in a way, it’s not surprising that each year, as we rise for Kol Nidrei, the liturgy declares that we are all עבריינים “Avaryanim” – sinners, or more literally, people who have crossed a line. We come to shul on Yom Kippur as people who have drifted, fallen out of alignment with our own beliefs and actions. This description has been in the Mahzor for centuries; it wasn’t just recently penciled in. So every year, it seems, we need to get re-aligned.

This, I believe, is what Yom Kippur is all about. And that’s what this place on La Cienega is for – spiritual and personal realignment.

So how do we keep from getting so out of alignment each year?

On the one hand, Rabbi Israel Salanter, the founder of the Musar Movement, used to teach, “You shouldn’t say ‘I can’t help myself.’ Of course you can!” In other words, you did this, take ownership!

On the other hand, Rabbi Abraham Twersky, a Chassidic Rabbi and Psychiatrist said, “People have three basic needs: food, shelter, and someone else to blame.”

Maybe they’re both right.

As much as we should take ownership for our individual actions, to be fair, there are times when some of our aveirot – our sins, our drift – are influenced by context.

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations, or with people, who don’t have the same priorities or values that we do. Sometimes, especially in the last few years, we’ve just been overwhelmed.

I think we’ve all come to realize that the storyline or plot of our lives, is neither linear nor clear. It’s interesting that the word for “plot” in Spanish is desenlace, which means to come unraveled. It’s all too easy for us to unravel, and “drift” away from our true selves.

I believe that living in alignment – with ourselves, each other, and God – is not a solo event; it demands more than our own effort. It also requires a scaffolding, an infrastructure – not just inside of us – but a mission-aligned community around us as well.

So how do we make this happen?

First, we start with ourselves. Every one of us – as individuals (young and old), as a couple, or a family – should create a Mission Statement that clearly expresses who we are, what we’re trying to achieve, and how we’re going to get there.

סוֹף מעשה במחשבה תחילה Sof ma’aseh b’mach’shava t’chila– start with the end in mind.

Next, we need to connect -at least some of the time – with people who are like us, who share our goals and values. If we want to be more Shabbat observant or do more Tikkun Olam, or study Jewish texts – we need to find others to make this happen. לא טוֹב היוֹת האדם לבדוֹ lo tov heiyot ha’adam l’vado – we need other people to make us more human.

Rabbi Nehorai raised the bar on this notion in Pirkei Avot: הֱוֵי גוֹלֶה לִמְקוֹם תּוֹרָה

Hevay goleh lim’kom Torah – “Exile yourself to a place of Torah.” In this MIshna, exiling oneself meant actually moving to another city where there were yeshivot. For us, I think “exile” means that we have to make changes in our daily lives in order to more fully become ourselves. It takes courage. Leadership guru Ron Heifetz at Harvard wrote that “people don’t resist change…they resist loss.” But changing some of our behaviors, how and with whom we spend our time, allows us to better pursue our mission, and our way of being in the world.

The third element is something people don’t always think about. Community and organizations.

Arthur Brooks and others have recently addressed people’s sense of drift by explaining “how to build a life.” To do that, says Brooks, you need faith, family, friends, and work. Sounds like good advice.

But while Brooks suggests building a life, he makes no mention of actual buildings, organizations, or intentional communities.

Jewish practice has always stressed the need for structures and organizations: a cemetery, a mikvah, a synagogue, a bet din, a hevra kadisha, a school, and more.

These buildings and organizations have existed for centuries in order to strengthen us and help us live our values. They help us successfully build our lives. To paraphrase the old Club Med commercial: they are an antidote to civilization.

But sometimes organizations, and even communal rituals, aren’t as strong as they should be. Their effectiveness, and sense of purpose, weaken.

We can find an example of how a communal ritual, originally intended to strengthen marriage, needed to be changed because of moral drift. This is the case of the סוֹטה Sotah, the suspected adulteress (adultery being one of the prohibitions listed in today’s Minha Torah reading). Bemidbar chapter five describes two situations: an actual case of adultery, and then a case in which a husband, without proof, suspects that his wife has strayed.

In both cases the woman would drink a special liquid, administered by the Kohen, which would prove her guilt or innocence.

In the first case of actual adultery, it is believed that the harsh ritual (which could cause infertility or even death) was adopted to prevent the woman from being severely punished by her husband, or even publically lynched.

In the second situation, the husband has what Seforno called רוח שטות – ruach shetut – a foolish fit of jealousy. In this case, the woman was the only one who actually knew the truth. She could choose to remain silent and refuse the ritual, but then the man could divorce her.

But, she could, instead, choose to go through with it. Why would she do that? Some scholars believe that this version of an ancient ritual was actually intended to be a bit of theater. The wife would go through with the ritual because she knew it would “divinely” prove to her husband that she was innocent, so he could calm down. Nice for the husband, right?

Whatever its intention, though, in both cases a ritual that was meant to re-align a husband and wife, transformed a private matter into a public event, and traumatized everyone involved. Even worse, it was aimed only at women, and because of this, the Mishna states that adultery among men actually increased. The word סוֹטה Sotah comes from the verb סטה sata which means to go astray. If anything went astray here, it was the moral drift involved in this communal ritual.

Which is why it was one of several rituals mentioned by the Mishna that were discontinued by the Rabbis. It’s interesting to note, by the way, that the office of the priesthood – the Kohanim– (the first Jewish nonprofit that relied on donations) experienced their own set of scandals in the time of Ezekiel and then in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. So it’s not unreasonable to worry about how our current organizations are functioning.

So let’s get back to the institutions we need now to nurture our personal missions. Before I go on I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not commenting on any specific institution, in L.A., or elsewhere.

So why do many Jewish institutions, especially member-based ones, suffer from drift? Why do Jewish organizations sometimes need to ask themselves, “Is this who we really are?”

It’s because they are caught between three very real tensions:

1. They want to deliver on their mission.
2. They want to be welcoming to a large portion of the Jewish community (in other words, they want to have an open tent)….and
3. אין קמח אין תוֹרה Ein Kemach, Ein Torah – they need members and money to keep their doors open, and maintain large buildings.

The result? תפסת מרוּבה, לא תפסת Tafasta merubah, lo tafasta – if you try to grab too much, you end up grabbing nothing. Many organizations find themselves trying to do too many things for too many people, which can leave people feeling less connected or aligned. Which then leads to attrition. Which then leads to changing policies, and spending more money to add staff, and creating more programs in order to retain current members and attract new ones. It’s a vicious cycle.

Ironically, the fear of losing people, leads to actually losing people.

Many Jewish organizations are facing some tough challenges these days, including losing members. Author Tom Robbins, and then singer Dan Fogelberg, asked a great question: “How do we make love stay?” In other words, how can we help our beloved organizations keep us and others connected?

First, we need to encourage their leadership to define their mission in ways that are measurable. Measuring the number of members is illusive – it doesn’t tell the whole story and it drags people into the vicious cycle. What should be measured is what these places do for people and how they impact their lives.

Here are some paraphrased excerpts from a few mission statements that are pretty clear:

We give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible. Nordstrom

We help people own their financial futures. Charles Schwab

We focus on strength and performance; helping you become the strongest version of yourself. Gold’s Gym.

The first provides an experience, the second a service, the third a product.

When you go to these places you know what you’re going to get because they live their mission.

Second, insist that there is transparency about how the organization accomplishes its mission. Are staff qualified to do excellent work? Are they living the mission? Are there clear lines of authority between board members and the lead professional? Do board members make decisions based on domain knowledge and organizational values, or personal preferences? Is the lead professional evaluated regularly, based on agreed upon, mission-related, measurable goals?

Third, encourage organizations to say “yes” to mission aligned things, and “no” to everything else. In Hebrew, the word להגדיר (lahagdir) means to define. It’s root is גדר (geder) or fence. Some things are in and some are out. It takes courage – and knowing who you are – to say no.

I encourage you to pick one place to look into. You may find that everything is great! You may find that your questions are already being addressed there. Or you may find that your questions give them a little zetz and wake them up a bit. That’s good too!

Here’s a real-life history lesson about how all of this can make a real difference, about how mission and vision profoundly impacted two Jewish organizations and, eventually, two synagogue movements.

Back in 1926 there were behind-the-scenes merger discussions between the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary and the Orthodox Yeshiva University. At the time, these two New York schools were quite similar religiously.

The one hurdle that couldn’t be overcome was one of mission. YU noted that JTS was enrolling students for the purpose of making them scholars or Jewish professionals. YU did some of that, too, but it was equally committed to creating generations of Jews in the pews, people who would have deep Torah knowledge and a commitment to halakha. YU’s program and, later on, K-12 day schools, helped them accomplish that goal.

One result is that, almost 100 years later, the percentage of observant, textually literate Jews in the Orthodox world is much, much larger than in the Conservative world.

This observation isn’t about who is right or better, but the importance of an organization having a clear mission and sticking to it.

But this comparison does raise a question. (Again, I am not referring to any specific organization here): What is the Mission or Vision of the Conservative Movement?

You may have seen a recent Facebook Rosh HaShana ad sponsored by 20 Conservative Movement organizations. They each have goals for their own organization and target audience. What they don’t have is a common mission or vision.

In fact, while they may have some common experiences and services, there is no common identified product, no specific, aspirational goals, no mention of any commitment in their mission statements. How do we perpetuate Conservative Judaism, when we don’t define it and we don’t program for its fullest expression? How do we even know if we’ve succeeded? This is worse than mission drift; it’s mission avoidance.

How did we get here? Rather than starting out with a bedrock mission and pushing it out, many Conservative institutions, beginning with synagogues, chose to invite people in, people who had a wide range of beliefs and practices. It was a very welcoming, American, klal yisrael, approach.

So while JTS and many pulpit Rabbis had a more traditional orientation, it was clear that congregants and board members had their own ideas and priorities. Furthermore, Rabbis and lay leaders (in Conservative shuls, camps, schools, and youth groups) worried that too narrow a focus would drive people away.

That’s why we’re left with this classic definition of Conservative: “We don’t know what we are but we’re definitely not Reform or Orthodox.” I’d like to suggest two new tag lines: “Conservative Judaism: Confusion and Complaining For Over a Century.” And, “We’re just a movement that can’t say no.”

Unfortunately, the murky middle position doesn’t always lead to passion, growth, or commitment. Instead, it often leads to some people feeling less connected, or choosing to drop out, which then encourages the vicious cycle of “we can’t lose people, we need more members, let’s do more programs, let’s change our policies, and on and on and on…”

At a time when affiliation is going down, when people are finding ways to “do Jewish” outside of legacy institutions, this is the perfect time to think about how to align programs and resources based on a clear Mission and Vision.

So my questions for the larger Conservative Movement this year are: Who and what are we? Do we have a product? An aspirational goal? A focus? A request or demand for commitment?

And, to each of the Conservative organizations throughout the country, I would ask: Do you have staff who are living the mission? Do you have the resources to adequately support and respect all of the individual journeys taking place within your institutions? And if not, what are your priorities?

In the Avodah Service later today we will recall how the Kohen Gadol asked God for forgiveness for three groups of people: first, for himself and his family, then for the Kohanim (the Jewish organization of its time), and finally for the people of Israel.

On Yom Kippur, it has been our practice to seek alignment in two of our relationships: our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with one another.

I think that on Yom Kippur we should also give some thought to our third relationship: our communal and organizational ecosystem.

This diagonal direction, much like the steps and ramps in the Bet HaMikdash, has the potential to elevate us, as well as keep us aligned. Which is why we need to do a yearly חשבוֹן הנפש (Heshbon HaNefesh) on the communities and organizations with whom we interact. We need to check our own Tzitzit, as well as the Tallit surrounding us.

’B’chochma yibaneh bayit – בחכמה ייבנה בית

Our homes, our personal lives, and our institutions, must be built with wisdom and skill.

Which is why our goal and our theme for this time of the year – my apologies to the Bee Gees – should be Stayin’ Aligned.

May this be a year of עוֹשר Osher (with an Ayin), אוֹשר Osher (with an Aleph), and יישוּר Yishur – financial security, happiness, and personal and communal alignment.

Gmar Hatima Tova

 

Parshat Shofetim

By Russell Cohen, August 19, 2023

Shabbat shalom! I want to thank Rabbi Susan Laemmle and Rachel Berwald for their invaluable help in preparation for this drash. Here we are, Parshat Shofetim, with the end of the journey in sight. In these chapters, Moses transmits as much wisdom as he can before he must let the people go on their own, presenting forty-two commandments, by Rambam’s count. Early on, we encounter the parsha’s most famous line, D’varim 16:20, “Tzedek, Tzedek tirdof” – “Justice, justice shall you pursue,” which perhaps serves as a thesis for the many societal instructions that follow and the source of countless drashes. “Justice, justice” – the word is repeated for emphasis, reminding us of the importance of pursuing justice through just methods. But reading the laws in Shofetim, another pair of justices appears, as they do throughout the Torah, that stand in stark contrast. Chapter to chapter, paragraph to paragraph, even within the same paragraph, we see the tension between two moral frameworks: one that can be called more primal, more instinctive, the other that feels more progressive, more deliberate.

To try to define things more clearly, when I refer to a primal framework of justice, I mean an instinctive, straightforward idea of right and wrong: show no mercy on this wrongdoer, avenge this loss, wipe out this enemy people. In contrast, by a more progressive framework, I mean an approach to justice that is intentional, considers nuance and ambiguity, and demonstrates real deliberation. Think Inspector Javert vs. Lieutenant Colombo. Again, these dual impulses can be felt throughout the Torah, but here in Shofetim, with its laws for creating a just society, we can really see them in action. There are multiple spots in the parsha I could parse to demonstrate them, and I recommend examining chapter 20 sometime for the juxtapositions within its instructions of how to wage war, but the laws regarding witnesses provide a great example.

In D’varim 19:15-19, paraphrasing for brevity, we read, “A single witness may not validate against an [accused] party any guilt or blame for any offense that may be committed; a case can be valid only on the testimony of two witnesses or more. If someone appears against another party to testify maliciously and gives incriminating yet false testimony… you shall do to the one as they schemed to do to the other.” We see here a sophisticated series of safeguards in place meant to protect the innocent and minimize the possibility of false witnesses. A single person’s testimony cannot be enough to incriminate his or her fellow, multiple witnesses are required. Interestingly, the literal translation of the passage does not read “two witnesses or more” but “shnayim eidim o shlosha eidim”, “two witnesses or three witnesses”, which various commentators argue means that a court must call in as many witnesses as possible, whether it be two, three or a hundred or that if any witness in a group provides false testimony, all the rest are automatically disqualified, however many there are. Furthermore, if someone does testify falsely and is caught, they are punished the way the victim of their false testimony would have been punished, a strong deterrent. Through these commandments, we see a system that is deliberate, that is meant to avoid writing off accused criminals too quickly and to maximize the odds of catching any inconsistencies before they are punished, and that treats testimony as sacred speech. It demonstrates progressive values that continue to guide justice systems today.

One interesting note on these verses, though: many commentators gravitate towards the phrase “you shall do to the one as they schemed to do to the other” in verse 19 regarding false witnesses, with Rashi, among others, pointing out that this law only applies if the punishment has not yet been carried out. As Nachmanides justifies it, writing in 13^th century Spain, G-d would not permit judges to spill innocent blood by executing someone who was not guilty. Perhaps this interpretation would have been harder to make in Spain a couple hundred years later when Jews were suffering under the Inquisition; it certainly doesn’t land quite as smoothly upon our 21^st century ears.

Indeed, just after offering us this progressive, intentional system of justice, Shofetim presents us with a more primal approach to justice that proves troubling even to the rabbis, let alone contemporary sensibilities. D’varim 19:21 provides one of the Torah’s three commandments that, in this case for false witnesses, “Nor must you show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” Rabbis and commentators galore, from Rashi to the JPS, argue that this commandment is meant to be taken figuratively, advocating for simply proportional punishment, not a literal law of retaliation. The editors of the 1960 Soncino translation of the Torah even state in their commentary that “there is no instance in Jewish history of its literal application ever having been carried out”. Even if that is the case, it seems to all be the result of general discomfort with how harsh the law is, the brutal instinctiveness with which it operates. But here in Shofetim, the mandate comes in tandem with the requirement that false witnesses should be punished as the intended victim of their slander would have been, and the law’s appearance in Sh’mot stands in direct contrast to a different case when only a fine is imposed. There is something clean and satisfying about an eye for eye approach to justice. It feels even, it doesn’t require a lot of thought, it appeals to an instinct for a straightforward solution. And it sure makes for a deterrent for those false witnesses. Our bothered progressive sensibilities may try to soften this law, but it’s part of the Torah as much as the rules about requiring multiple witnesses, so we continue to grapple with it century after century.

The Torah demonstrates an awareness of the tension between its two approaches to justice and often tries to bridge the gap between them. One clear example of this effort is the idea of cities of refuge. Commandments about these cities appear in several places in the Torah, including Sh’mot 21, B’midbar 35, and finally here in Shofetim, D’varim 19. G-d commands that the people demarcate three cities spread out across the land of Israel to which an accidental manslayer may flee to avoid a blood avenger’s wrath. If the killing was indeed accidental, no one may go into the city to harm them in revenge. The Torah knows basic human nature, it understands that the instinct of a victim’s relative is to take justice into their own hands and seek retribution for the life lost, regardless of the details of the circumstances. So instead of requiring the elimination of this instinct, the Torah offers protection for the accidental killer, a place where they cannot be touched. It creates a boundary against the primal desire for revenge, even while allowing that desire to endure. And, as Nehama Leibowitz points out in her Studies in Devarim, perhaps the Torah even managed to achieve the goal of reducing the instinct towards vengeance in the long run. While all three references to the cities of refuge in the Torah describe the manslayer as “fleeing”, references in Mishnah instead refer to “they who are exiled”, implying that by that time the law had become such a natural part of society that the idea of personal vendetta had been eliminated. The Torah acknowledges people’s primal instincts and, at least in some cases, presents laws that offer a more creative, progressive solution.

So what can we take away from the radically different elements of justice found in Shofetim, the ones that remind us of the importance of deliberate, fair trials and the ones that call for strict retribution and methodical bloodshed? Perhaps it can remind us that such underlying tensions live within all traditions and all people. We live in a country that was dedicated to the ideas of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” even as it was built on the backs of slave labor and over the graves of the land’s native inhabitants. Many of us struggle with how to respond to ongoing events in Israel, where the dream of a Jewish, democratic state is facing the challenging realities of reconciling those two core identities. We all want to pursue justice, but what instincts must we control to achieve it? Must we mandate brutal punishments to deter false witnesses? Must we annihilate Canaanites to reach our promised land? How do we avoid becoming those very Canaanites we seek to destroy? The Torah tries to strike a balance, often restraining primal instincts, sometimes finding ways to acknowledge them while still containing them, and sometimes urging actions that have shocked Jews for centuries. But if we can always remember that such a side lives in all of us, in our history, perhaps even our biology, we can find inspiration from the Torah to control it, to channel it, to gain empathy and self-awareness from it. Justice, justice we shall pursue. Justice that feels natural and straightforward, and justice that feels hard, contrary to our instincts. But that’s part of the responsibility we take on as Jews. As we approach the new year, and it’s now Elul, so I can really say that, may we all have the humility to think hard about ourselves, our instincts, and our assumptions, and may we renew our efforts towards justice for all.

Shabbat shalom.

Parshat Re’eh

By Moe Scott, August 11, 2023

There is a lot to talk about in this parsha. We have the centralization of worship in the site of the future Temple and all of the laws of sacrifice attendant on it; the protocol for responding to idolatrous instigations by false prophets, relatives, and friends, including the subversion of an entire town (in short: all of them are to be put death); a reprisal of the laws of kashrut (in case you didn’t get the memo the first two times), of shmittah (the remission of debts in the sabbatical year), and of indentured servitude; and a summary of the three pilgrimage festivals: Ḥag HaMatzot, Shavuot, and Sukkot. And in case you haven’t yet caught on, this is my way of telling you that I’m going to talk about none of it.

Instead, I’m going to focus on just the first two and a half verses—which we heard Rabbi Dr. Berenbaum leyn for us so nicely:

“See,” Moses proclaims, “this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God …”[1]

That’s how the English reads in our Etz Hayim, the specifics of the “blessing” and “curse” coming three weeks from now in parshat Ki Tavo (I won’t spoil them). But it’s not what the Hebrew says, at least not on its face. I’ll read it to you:

רְאֵה אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה׃ אֶת־הַבְּרָכָה אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׁמְעוּ אֶל־מִצְוֺת יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם הַיּוֹם׃

See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: the blessing that you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day …

In other words, the blessing is not on condition that you, Israel, listen to the commandments of God; the blessing is itself that you listen, that you are able to hear God’s voice at all. The Sefat Emet—Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter of Ger, the preeminent Hasidic commentator living in Poland in the latter 1800s—picks up on this phrasing in his commentary on this verse. He writes (quoting from Rabbi Art Green’s translation):

In everything there is a living point (nekudah ḥiyyut) from the Life of Life. … When you attach yourself to the point within each thing, you will come to see that it is the blessing. Then, indeed, “See” (re’eh)—by negating yourself before the point.[2]

This “point,” this source of divinity the Sefat Emet identifies, is not external; it’s embedded deep within ourselves and the other. This is what we are called to listen to—not with our ears, but our souls. I’m reminded of a reflection I once read by Simone Weil, a French (and, perhaps not incidentally, Jewish) philosopher and mystic, on what it means to truly love our neighbor:

It’s a “way of looking,” she says—of seeing, re’eh—“[that] is first of all attentive. The soul empties itself of all its own contents in order to receive into itself the being it is looking at, just as he (or she) is, in all his (or her) truth. Only [one] who is capable of attention can do this.”[3]

Thankfully, since Weil’s time almost a century ago, we’ve become increasingly capable of giving undivided attention to one other. (That was a joke.) I’m not sure even she could have anticipated just how scarce a resource attention would become in a world that treats it like a commodity to be bought and sold. Between social media and streaming services and twenty-four hour news cycles, phones and smartwatches and Apple Vision Pro, everything is vying for our attention except for the person in front of us. We spend arguably more time looking at pictures of friends on screens than we do looking them in the eyes. It’s not long before those screens begin to impair our eyesight and impede our insight, so that we can no longer see the living point, the nekudah ḥiyyut, the innate blessing in all that is. That’s the real curse.

What’s the corrective? How do we cultivate our capacity for sustained attention? Simone Weil suggests struggling with Latin prose or hard geometry problems. (As a former math teacher myself, I can vouch for that.) The Sefat Emet offers something more in line with what we’re doing here: Shabbat. “Shabbat,” he writes, “is a self-negation and inclusion within the point … where the blessing dwells.” By “self-negation” he doesn’t mean depriving ourselves of our devices, but that is what we need to do if we want to be present enough that the boundaries between us dissolve, that our souls empty themselves enough to receive each other and be enveloped together in the blessing of this day.

That’s what a “Shabbat shalom,” a sabbath of peace, would truly be. The sages in the Mishnah speak of peace as a “vessel that holds blessing.” “It brings all things to be,” adds the Sefat Emet, “and is called ‘peace’ (shalom) because it is the shlemut, the fullness of all things, the blessing.”[4] May we all see it for and experience it as the blessing that it is.

Shabbat shalom.

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[1] Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, senior ed. David L. Lieber (New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, 2001), p. 1061.

[2] The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of the Sefat Emet, translated and interpreted by Arthur Green (Philadelphia: JPS, 1998), p. 301–2.

[3] Simone Weil, “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God,” in Waiting for God, trans. Emma Craufurd (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1951), p. 115.

[4] Green, The Language of Truth, p. 302.

Shavuot Second Day 

By Batya Ordin, May 27, 2023

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach. I’d like to speak about yesterday’s Haftorah, Ezekiel’s vision of the divine Glory, which has intrigued me for a long time.

Those of you who know me, know that I am a pretty down-to-Earth person. I like to think of myself as someone involved more in the “pots and pans” of Judaism rather than the esoteric. But to quote my favorite television show, today I would like to “boldly go where no one has gone before”. I’m going to speak about the afterlife.

My interest in this topic began several years ago when sadly, my Orthodox friend and neighbor lost her grown daughter after a long bout with cancer. She loaned me a book by Dr. Brian Weiss, head of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. His book, Many Lives, Many Masters, is a study on the subject of reincarnation. For two or three years, she and I passed dozens of books on related topics back and forth across the street. These books were written by respected professionals: physicians, scientists, psychiatrists, academics, physicists, and Rabbis and I found this subject matter very compelling.

Let me share with you a story of two elderly friends: Moishie and Chaim. They made a pact that whoever passes away first would come back and tell the other what it’s like. Eventually, Moishie passes away. Sometime later, to his surprise, Chaim hears his name being called.

“Chaim, Chaim”.

“Moishele, is that you?”

“Yes, it’s really me.”

“So, nu,” asks Chaim. “What’s it like?”

“Oy…It’s beautiful. There are birds chirping. The sky is blue with light fluffy clouds floating by. There is a lake with crystal clear water, rolling hills, green grass.”

“And Moishele, what do you do all day?”

“Well, I get up, I eat a piece of fruit from the tree, I go for a walk, I have sex, I take a nap.”

“Wow, so that’s Heaven”.

“Heaven? What Heaven? I’m a moose in Idaho!”

Ezekiel’s vision begins with a description of four celestial creatures holding up the throne of God. These creatures defy the imagination with four animal faces each, wings, human hands, spinning wheels below them, the rims of which are covered with eyes.

Though these images are astonishing, the idea of celestial creatures is not unfamiliar to us. Every Shabbat morning during Shacharit we recite “El Adon”, the last line of which states “Tiferet U’Gedulah, Serafim Ve’ofanim Ve’chayot Hakodesh”. “The Serafim, Ofanim, and [other] Holy Creatures declare God’s wonder and greatness.” These images of holy creatures that Ezekiel describes are followed by his description of the Presence of God.

Was Ezekiel hallucinating? Dreaming? Too much THC?

Or…could this have been an actual glimpse into the spiritual realm?

In today’s world with medical advances such as CPR and defibrillators, we have brought people back from death. In a time where data is shared globally, we have many thousands of accounts of what happens to people between the time they are pronounced clinically dead and the time they are resuscitated. This can be just a few minutes or much, much longer. From a strict medical standpoint, these people should have seen or felt nothing. Surprisingly, they did not experience a black nothingness, but to the contrary, a very rich, vivid procession of sensations which they believe is a visit to the spiritual realm. There are consistent key components to near-death experiences, and amazingly, they seem to corroborate much of Ezekiel’s account.

Let’s explore the “near-death experience” further. The term was coined in 1975 by Dr. Raymond Moody, a physician at the University of Virginia, in his groundbreaking book, “Life After Life”. The near-death experience crosses all geographic, socio-economic, religious, gender, age and cultural boundaries. Dr. Melvin Morse, a Seattle pediatrician, published a study he conducted of young children between ages 3 and 16 who had technically died and had been resuscitated. The children reported remarkably similar experiences to the adults. Research estimates that 400 million people worldwide have had a Near Death Experience. That’s 5% of 8 billion people.

Though there are variations, a near-death experience may contain many or all of these features:

A person, say, has a heart attack… The chest pain is excruciating, and he passes out. What seems like moments later, he awakens to find himself floating above his body, where he watches the medical team administering CPR. He tries to communicate with them, but it becomes obvious that they can’t hear him. Suddenly, a dark tunnel appears…and he finds himself zooming up the tunnel with the whooshing sound of speed.

His trip ends in a garden…glowing with unearthly light. He looks at his own hands and realizes that he too is composed of light. Relatives and friends who had died earlier approach him. They are glowing too. All of them are happy to see him. They express their feelings nonverbally with their warmth. A master Being of Light appears. He is so bright and loving that the visitor feels drawn to him. With more unconditional love, caring, feelings of peace and joy than this visitor had ever felt from anyone on Earth, the master Being of Light engulfs him with his Presence.

He is then taken on a three-dimensional review of his life. In addition to experiencing the way he felt during each event shown, the visitor feels every emotion he caused others to feel by his or her actions. The Being of Light compassionately communicates to the person what he did right and wrong and indicates things he might do better in the future.

The person wants this heavenly experience to go on forever. He doesn’t want to leave the bosom of the Being of Light, but he is told he must return to his body. That it isn’t his time yet. Suddenly, he feels himself sucked back into his own body. The pain of his injuries returns. His near-death experience significantly transforms him into a changed person. The type-A behavior that made him edgy, angry, or a workaholic is now gone. Replacing these traits is a greater concern for others, lack of fear of death, a thirst for knowledge, less concern for material goods, and an enhanced appreciation for life.

How do we explain all of this? Could they be hallucinations? A lack of oxygen in a dying brain? The brain simply shutting itself down? Medications? The research disproves all of these alternative theories.

If a person is looking down onto their own body, seeing, hearing, thinking, yet the brain is in a state of clinical death, where are these perceptual and cognitive activities taking place? This is clear evidence for the existence of a transcendental part of the human being. It points to the existence of a soul.

When people who are blind from birth have a near-death experience, they report “seeing” both this world and the next. Dr. Kenneth Ring, Professor of Psychology at the University of Connecticut, has done research on near-death experiences of the blind. Those who died in surgery, for example, were asked to describe the surgery room, the hospital and other environmental factors, which a blind person would not be able to do. They were blind before their death and they are blind after resuscitation, yet during the interim period some can describe what only a sighted person can perceive. Vision can be impaired in the physical body, but when the soul is separated from the body, this impediment is removed because the soul does not depend on the physical body for vision. The soul is perfect even if the body is impaired.

From his book, “Does the Soul Survive?” by Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz and Ya’akov Astor’s book “Soul Searching”, I learned that throughout Jewish history, many opinions emerged on the nature of the world to come, with no one theory becoming dogma. Jewish ideas about the afterlife have never been static. The intergenerational debate between sages, while varying in time and place, shared a consensus that the soul survives this Earthly plane of existence. From Ecclesiastes, “And the dust returns to the ground as it was and the spirit, or ruach, returns to God who bestowed it”.

Nearly every aspect of the near-death experience has parallels in Jewish tradition. Let’s look at a few of the correlations:

Immediately after death, a person finds him or herself floating above their body. Our tradition teaches that “for three days, the soul hovers over the body”. The Talmud also states “the dead one knows all that is said in its presence until the grave is filled in.” Our entire mourning and burial rituals are based on the assumption that the soul is present. This is why, for example, the body is watched over before burial and never left alone. The soul departs and returns at various stages which coincide with the stages of mourning…7 days of Shiva, 30 days of Shloshim, and a year.

What about being greeted warmly by our departed family members? The death of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ishmael, Aaron, and Moses are described with the conspicuous phrase “and he was gathered to his people.” Abraham was the first of the patriarchs to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah. Who, then, was he gathered to? Obviously, the phrase “gathered to his people” cannot be talking about the physical burial location. Similarly, Aaron and Moses were buried alone, and still it says that each was “gathered to his people.” The Midrash states explicitly: “All souls go forth and are gathered each one’s soul to the generation of his fathers and to his people…when the soul goes forth from the body, then the righteous come to meet them and say ‘Come unto Peace’.”

Now, the life review: Jewish tradition speaks of the “sefer hachaim”, the Book of Life, where all deeds are recorded. This is a primary focus of our High Holiday liturgy. The Talmud states that a person’s own soul testifies at one’s judgment after death. According to the near-death accounts, it’s not a literal book of life, but more like a 3D sensa-round movie that is played where each event in a person’s life is re-experienced in the fullest detail. It is lovingly presented and experienced as a learning opportunity.

Most importantly, it is seeing the Being of Light that connects the near-death experience with Ezekiel’s vision. In a Midrash commenting on Shemot, when Moses asked God to show him His glory, he was told that “Man cannot see me and live; however, when he ceases to live here [i.e., when he dies], he will see Me.”

Let’s look at Ezekiel’s description of the presence of God in v. 22:

“Above the heads of the [celestial] creatures was a form: an expanse with an awe-inspiring gleam as of crystal was spread out above their heads.”

He continues:

“Above the expanse over their heads was the semblance of a throne, in appearance like sapphire, and on top, upon this semblance of a throne, there was the semblance of a human form. From what appeared as his loins up, I saw a gleam as of amber – what looked like a fire encased in a frame; and from what appeared as his loins down, I saw what looked like fire. There was a radiance all about Him. Like the appearance of the rainbow which shines in the clouds on a day of rain, such was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. That was the appearance of the semblance of the Presence of the Lord.”

In his description of the presence of God, Ezekiel seems to be searching for words to describe the intensity of the light. People who have returned from clinical death have also expressed the inadequacy of words to describe the light they encountered. In the following two near-death accounts, listen for the same kind of struggle for words that Ezekiel seemed to have:

“At first, I became aware of beautiful colors which were all the colors of the rainbow. They were magnified in crystallized light and beamed with a brilliance in every direction. It was as if all this light was coming at me through a prism made by a most beautiful and purified diamond, and yet at the same time it was as if I were in its center…even now when I try to describe something so beautiful, I am mute with awe. There are no words in any language to describe such grandeur.”

And in a second account, “In the middle of one circle was a most beautiful being…I was filled with an intense feeling of joy and love. I had the overpowering feeling that I was in the presence of the source of my life and perhaps even my creator. In spite of the tremendous awe it inspired, I felt I knew this being extremely well. With all my heart I wanted to embrace and melt into it as if we were one….”

Before we say Yizkor in a few moments, let us consider both Ezekiel’s description of the Presence of the Divine, along with accounts of near-death experiences. When someone dies, we often say they have gone “to their eternal rest”. If we accept the idea that we merge with the Divine light of unconditional love, then we can take comfort that our loved ones are experiencing that indescribable love and peace after leaving this world.

As Jews, we do not long to expedite our reunion with the Divine Light. We are here now to experience all that God has given us in this Earthly world. But when it is time for me to go, I hope that I will merge with Ezekiel’s brilliant light of God’s presence and unconditional love and not discover myself as a moose in Idaho.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach.

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 Partial Bibliography

Jewish sources:

Astor, Yaakov, Soul Searching

Sonsino, Rifat and Syme, Daniel B, What Happens After I Die? Jewish Views of Life After Death

Spitz, Rabbi Elie Kaplan, Does the Soul Survive?

Afterlife and Lessons Learned

Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth and David Kessler, Life Lessons

Chopra, Deepak, Life After Death

Near-Death Research: (www.IANDS.org is a good resource)

Atwater, P.M.H., The New Children and Near-Death Experiences

Atwater, P.M.H., Beyond the Light: What Isn’t Being Said About Near- Death Experience: from Visions of Heaven to Glimpses of Hell

Atwater, P.M.H., Coming Back To Life: The After-Effects of the Near-Death Experience

Moody, Raymond A., M.D., Life After Life

Morse, Melvin, M.D., Closer to the Light, Learning from Children’s Near-Death Experiences

Morse, Melvin, M.D., Transformed By the Light

Ring, Kenneth, Ph.D., Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-death Experience

Ring, Kenneth, Ph.D., Life at Death, A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience

Ring, Kenneth, Ph.D., Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind

Ring, Kenneth, Ph.D., Heading Toward Omega, In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience

Ring, Kenneth, Ph.D., A Near-Death Researcher’s Notebook

Personal Near-Death Accounts

Alexander, Eben, M.D., Proof of Heaven, A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife

Atwater, P.M.H., We Live Forever, The Real Truth about Death

Besteman, Marvin J., My Journey to Heaven, What I Saw and How It Changed my Life

Brinkley, Dannion, Saved by the Light

Eadie, Betty J., Embraced by the Light

McVea, Crystal, Waking Up in Heaven

Neal, Mary C., M.D. To Heaven and Back, A Doctor’s Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again

Piper, Don, 90 Minutes in Heaven

Reincarnation and Past Life Regression

Weiss, Brian L., Many Lives, Many Masters

Weiss, Brian L., Messages from the Masters, Tapping into the Power of Love

Weiss, Brian L., Only Love is Real

Weiss, Brian L., Same Soul, Many Bodies, Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives Through Progression Therapy

Related Topics:

Kessler, David, Visions, Trips and Crowded Rooms, Who and What You See Before You Die

Moody, Raymond, Jr., M.D., Life After Loss, Conquering Grief and Finding Hope

Morse, Melvin, M.D., Parting Visions, Uses and Meanings of Pre-Death, Psychic, and Spiritual Experiences

Morse, Melvin, M.D., Where God Lives, The Science of the Paranormal and How Our Brains are Linked to the Universe

Schroeder, Gerald L., The Hidden Face of God, Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth

Schroeder, Gerald L., The Science of God, The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom

Siegel, Bernie S., M.D., Love, Medicine and Miracles, Lessons Learned About Self-Healing from a Surgeon’s Experience with Exceptional Patients

 

 

Behar-B’chukotai

By Henry Morgen, May 13

Shabbat shalom. Fifty-five solar years, and a few days ago, I became a bar mitzvah. That year, my torah portion was Acharei Mot-Kiddoshim. Based on the solar adjusted lunar calendar we Jews live by, however, this week’s parshah should technically have been my bar mitzvah portion. Looking back on the d’rashot I’ve documented, it appears that this is my first attempt to tackle it, so I was looking forward to digging in. There are a huge number of things we could talk about in this double portion, but before I do, I wanted to lay a bit of ground work based on my current theology and understanding of what Judaism is about.

I don’t try to define G!d. G!d, by G!d’s very nature is beyond description and unknowable. That said, I hold the point of view that G!d is never ending. G!d exists independent of space and time. G!d was here before the “big bang” and will be here after the universe as we know it fades into emptiness again. As Adon Olam says: Hu Hayah, v’hu hoveh, v’hu yihiyeh b’tifarah (He was, He is, He will be eternally glorious).

To the extent we try to relate to G!d, we refer to G!d as a parent and a monarch. We are expected to emulate G!d in our actions. What kind of parent or monarch would you like to emulate? I suspect the parent we would most like to be is one with well-defined expectations and boundaries, that teaches us how to live ethically, and that is loving, understanding, and forgiving. Similarly, for a monarch I would anticipate we’d want to make laws that are just and equitable, holding all subjects to high ethical standards. Furthermore, we would want to lead by example, by living a life of high ethical integrity ourselves, judging with compassion and generosity where possible, and applying punishment only severe enough to fit the crime.

One more important point: our relationship with G!d is evolving over time. G!d even makes that point by declaring to Moshe: “E’hiyeh asher e’hiyeh” loosely translated as “I will become what I will become.”

Judaism got its start, so our origin story goes, when a fellow named Avram realized that there could only be one G!d in the world. The natural world seemed to behave in accordance with the rules established by that G!d. There was something special about how Avram understood this fact and how he chose to live his life. While he was less than perfect, G!d wanted him and his successors to share this truth with the rest of the world. At its core, this is what chosenness is about in our context today: to share the unbelievable awe we have that we human beings are able to even have a conversation about our very existence, on this tiny sphere, orbiting a star, on one of the arms of a spiral galaxy, in a galaxy cluster, in the vastness of space that has existed for 13.5 billion years or so thus far. And,  by realizing this, live our lives in a way that demonstrates our appreciation for this moment in space and time.

And there’s one other aspect of G!d that I also believe is key to understanding our torah. G!d “created” the universe in six days and ceased from creating on the seventh day. Without focusing on the word “day”, the message is that from that point on, G!d does nothing in the universe (from the torah’s perspective) without interacting with his final creation on earth: mankind. We human beings are unlike anything else G!d has created. We are partners in finishing, or at least continuing, the creation of the world. Everything after the first six days is an evolving experiment that G!d is working out based on how humans behave. I find this totally remarkable. Now we’re ready to look at a few lines of text from today’s parsha and see how that works.

Our opening few paragraphs describe the way we should treat the land during the sh’mittah or seventh, and yovel or jubilee years. The land must be allowed to rest, just as we need to rest periodically, to yield the best produce. We are to trust that G!d will ensure that the sixth year will produce sufficiently to get us through the uncultivated seventh year and the 48^th year will even get us through the 49^th and 50^th year! Look at Leviticus 25:18-24

¹⁸You shall observe My laws and faithfully keep My rules, that you may live upon the land in security; ¹⁹the land shall yield its fruit and you shall eat your fill, and you shall live upon it in security. ²⁰And should you ask, “What are we to eat in the seventh year, if we may neither sow nor gather in our crops?” ²¹I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it shall yield a crop sufficient for three years. ²²When you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating old grain of that crop; you will be eating the old until the ninth year, until its crops come in. ²³But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. ²⁴Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

Two really important things can be learned from this paragraph: First, the land is a living organism just like the animals. For it to yield its produce, it must also have time to rest. We moderns have attempted to coax more produce from our land with chemical fertilizers and insecticides to improve the yield. For quite some time, this appeared to be an effective way to produce more from the land. In recent years we’ve learned that this really isn’t resulting in the best produce and the healthiest land. I’m not saying that we should go back to biblical farming techniques. I am saying that targeted irrigation, with crop rotation, and much less dependence on toxic chemicals, appears to result in better quality produce, and a more sustainable way to farm, healthier soil, and far less pollution of our air and water. It’s also healthier for the farmers working the land.

The second point zeros in on the simple line “… the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me.” We truly don’t “own” the land we live on. Everything belongs to G!d in reality. Our very existence is a miracle as I pointed out earlier. We need to find a way to live in harmony with the natural world G!d has created for our benefit. We are seeing the results of human hubris, as our climate is rapidly changing. Perhaps in our personal lifetimes the change will be tolerable; however, without a concerted, proactive change in how we treat the land and use its resources, it will be a radically more inhospitable environment for those living a few generations in the future. I’m not planning to dwell on this today, but it is clear from the text that we’re not really following G!d’s plan, and we’re not being good partners with G!d as stewards of this little planet he provided for us to live on. In fact, we are the first of G!d’s creatures that could bring about our own extinction from many of our so called brilliant inventions.

During the second Temple period, the Rabbis decided that these economic models really weren’t workable in the long run, so they made some revisions to enable a more modern social structure to function and thrive. In other words, they acknowledged that our relationship with G!d needed to evolve with the times. Put another way, the experiment of continuing the creation needed to be tweaked.

Let me sum up what I’ve been trying to say in these past few minutes this morning with five points:

1. Our very existence in the universe is miraculous.
2. As Jews we should share this appreciation of the universe by living our lives as we would want a loving parent to live.
3. We need to be better stewards of the planet that we are living
4. We need to understand that different social or political structures may need to exist in the day-to-day laws that govern people at a local level and across time while still conforming to the universal laws that would allow all people to live in harmony.
5. We exist for merely a moment in time in the vast experiment of creation. We have abundant insight from our sacred texts, that can be made current and fresh, to guide us in making wise choices in our daily lives. Let us reflect on how to best use this guidance to influence better outcomes in the creation experiment that is underway. That is what we have been chosen to do, and that is what we should choose to do in return.

Hazak, hazak, v’nithazek, and shabbat shalom.

Re’eh

By Norman Green, August 27, 2022

Our Festival Calendar

It is now Elul, and the Tishrei holidays are looming. So, of course, we’re going to look at the most important holiday of all, Passover.

Chapter 16 of Deuteronomy starts with a 15-verse listing of our Festivals and the principal laws and customs associated with them. This is followed by a two-verse recap that closely parallels the first comprehensive calendar-listing of Jewish holidays in the Torah, which is found in Mishpatim (Exodus Chapter 23):

“Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me:

You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread—eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you—at the set time in the month of Abib, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed; and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field.

Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, יהוה.”

The two-verse summary in today’s reading opens with almost the same words as the last verse in Exodus:

“Three times a year—on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths—all your males shall appear before your God יהוה in the place that [God] will choose. They shall not appear before יהוה empty-handed, but each with his own gift, according to the blessing that your God יהוה has bestowed upon you.”

An obvious principal difference is that in Exodus God is called HaAdon Adonoy, while in Deuteronomy He is called Adonoy Eloheichoh, which is normal for Deuteronomy.

More important, Deuteronomy adds that the appearance before the Holy One, Boruch Hu, is to be “in the place that He will choose,” in other words, at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

Both of them refer to the first holiday as Chag HaMatsos.

But the holiday called Chag Hakatzir, Harvest Festival, in Exodus, is called Shavuos in Deuteronomy. And what Exodus calls Chag Ha Asif, is called Sukkos in Deuteronomy; this reflects that the one in Deuteronomy is more recent. Both versions require that the participants not appear empty-handed. And while both versions call the first holiday Chag HaMatsos, only Exodus specifies that we are required to eat Matzos for all seven days. However, that rule is repeated twice in the earlier parts of Deuteronomy Chapter 16.

While this two-verse summary continues the Exodus name, Chag HaMatzos, the preceding portion of the chapter does spend eight verses on Pesach. You can find them on page 1081-1083 of your Chumash.

Hebrew University Professor Emeritus Shimon Gesundheit asserts that the interweaving of rules about the Pesach sacrifice with rules requiring the eating of Matzos and banning of Chametz shows that they were combined rather artificially:

Verses 1 and 2 deal with the month of Aviv and the Pesach sacrifice;

Verses 3, and 4 command us to eat matzoh and abandon chametz;

Verses 5, 6, and 7 tell us where  and  where not to sacrifice and to eat the Pesach sacrifice;

and Verse 8 repeats the command to eat matzoh throughout the week and adds the full festival day at the end of it, which can be observed at home.

The five verses about the Pesach sacrifice mention Adonoy Elohechoh no less than five times; the middle two do not mention Him at all. Adonoy Eloheichoh is named at the very end of Verse 8 in connection with the closing Festival day.

Documentary theorists believe that the Pesach offering was originally tied closely to the required sacrifices of first-borns, and that the relatively lengthy calendar of holidays in the first part of Chapter 16 was added long after the two-verse summary at its end.

Part of the reason for combining the Pesach and Matsos holidays may be that the descriptions of when they come are identical. It also may be related to the term used to describe their observance, Sh’mor, observe or keep. The first line of Chapter 16 starts, Es Chag HaMatzos tish’mor. And the Exodus listing also has that exact same language.

Der Herr Doctor Professor Minister Reinhard Kratz of the University of Gottingen suggests that the timing and explanation of the two festivals, Pesach and Matsos, may be because they were directed at two different populations. Springtime is when herdsmen have new, first-born lambs and other animals available to sacrifice. It is also when new grain becomes available and growers want to clear out the remainder of their old grain to make way and celebrate the new harvest. So, with simultaneous holidays, when the farmers and the ranchers converge on Jerusalem, all they need is a little Chreyn to make an important feast.

The Torah text, jumping back and forth between the two topics, Pesach Sacrifice and consumption of matzoh, symbolizes the combining of the two traditional holy days into the one complicated and intricate festival that we observe and keep every Spring.