tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49718202363026901572024-02-18T23:35:17.161-05:00A Message from the Rosh HaYeshivaRabbi Dov Linzer, Rosh HaYeshiva and Dean of YCT Rabbinical School.Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.comBlogger516125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-18696068832732337492016-12-08T11:48:00.000-05:002016-12-08T11:48:20.147-05:00How a Baby Is Made<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How is a Baby Made? More specifically, what determines the future characteristics of the child? One answer emerges from the story of Yaakov’s breeding of the sheep, an answer that seems to be endorsed by the Talmud: a child’s character is <a href="http://library.yctorah.org/2016/08/joy-of-text-episode-one/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d79bf;" target="_blank">shaped by what the mother and father were thinking</a> and doing at the time of conception.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Gemara in Nedarim (20a-b) has an extended discussion about which, if any, acts of marital sex are discouraged or forbidden. Yochanan ben Dahavai states that the reason children are born lame, mute, deaf, or blind, is because husband and wife were engaged in improper sexual behavior with their bodies (certain sexual acts), their ears (what they were listening to), their mouths (where they were kissing), or their eyes (where they where looking). This statement parallels the belief, widespread in the ancient world, that the thoughts or actions of the parents can imprint themselves on the <a href="http://library.yctorah.org/2016/08/joy-of-text-episode-ten/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d79bf;" target="_blank">fetus being conceived</a>. In his book “Natural History,” Pliny the Elder (1<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> century CE) states:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">… [T]hat a great many accidental circumstances are influential (that is, exert an influence on the fetus)—recollections of sights and sounds and actual sense-impressions received at the time of conception. Also a thought suddenly flitting across the mind of either parent is supposed to produce likeness [in the fetus] (7:2).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This understanding of fetal development is implicit in the story of Yaakov and the rods (30:37-39). To ensure that Lavan’s flocks give birth to striped and spotted sheep, Yaakov peels white streaks in wooden rods and places them where the sheep will see them when they copulate. And, lo and behold, this works:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth sheep striped, speckled, and spotted (30:39).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bereishit Rabbah (VaYeitzei, 73:10, Vilna edition) illustrates the validity of this science in the case of humans with the following colorful story:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a story of a black man who was married to a black woman, and she bore him a son who was white. The father seized the son and came to Rebbe and said to him, “Perhaps this is not my son.” Rebbe replied, “Do you have portraits in your house?” He said, “Yes.” “Are they black or white?” [Rebbe asked.] “They are white,” [he replied.] “It is from this that you have a white son,” [Rebbe responded to him.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although this science has now been displaced by the science of genetics, its acceptance by Bereishit Rabbah and the Talmud need not bother us from a faith perspective. Regarding issues of science, Rambam writes that the Rabbis were no more advanced than the experts at their time, and did not always understand the science fully (Guide to the Perplexed, III:14). But what are we to make of the Torah’s story? Doesn’t the Torah implicitly recognize the validity of this false scientific belief? It does not. The Torah relates that Yaakov operated with this belief, but it does not tell us why, in fact, the flock gave birth to spotted and striped sheep. Indeed, the next statement in Bereishit Rabbah attributes these births to a different cause altogether:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Said Rav Huna of Beit Horon: Ministering Angels would carry sheep from Lavan’s flock and come and place them in Yaakov’s flock [at the time of copulation]. This is what is meant by the verse, “[And the angel said:] Lift up your eyes, and see – all the rams which leap upon the cattle are striped, speckled, and spotted.” (31:12)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to Rav Huna, while Yaakov might have thought that his success was due to the striped sticks, it was really all God’s doing, and it was done by using a good old-fashioned science: mating the ewes with the right type of rams. This seems to be the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pshat</em>. The Torah presents us with two contrasting explanations for Yaakov’s success: the sticks and the mating with the rams. The first represents Yaakov’s efforts, the second, the actual truth which the angel reveals to Yaakov (“lift up your eyes and see…”). The moral here is one which runs through many of the Yaakov narratives: while Yaakov exerts great effort to achieve his goals, often by engaging in subterfuge, his success is not a result of these efforts but rather of God’s promised protection. This lesson is finally learned by Yaakov in next week’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">parasha</em>, when, faced with Esav’s approaching army, he abandons his plans and strategies and turns to God for help and salvation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As far as the science of external influences is concerned, other rabbis, in addition to Rav Huna, rejected it as well. In Nedarim, Rabbi Yochanan (not to be confused with Yochanan ben Dahavai) dismisses the position of Yochanan ben Dahavai and his concerns regarding certain forms of marital sex. He states that no particular act of marital sex is forbidden or discouraged. In so doing, he rejects the notion that such acts impact fetal development and states that this belief, held by certain rabbis, is not actually true, nor is it relevant for matters of halakha.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite Rabbi Yochanan’s rejection of the position, the belief in this science does not fully disappear. A number of Rishonim state that a couple should still avoid some of the activities mentioned in the Talmud to “play it safe,” and protect against the possible impact that these activities might have on their child. In addition, in a different passage, the Gemara (Berakhot 20a) relates the following story about none other than Rabbi Yochanan himself:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rabbi Yochanan used to go and sit by the gates of the mikveh. He said: When the daughters of Israel come up from immersing themselves, they look at me and they have children as handsome as I am.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This passage is shocking for a number of reasons. First, Rabbi Yochanan was not concerned that he would have improper sexual thoughts. Second, it indicates that it would be acceptable for a woman to be thinking of another man (here, Rabbi Yochanan) while having sex with her husband. Finally, as it relates to our topic, it appears that Rabbi Yochanan believed that one’s thoughts during sex could, in fact, impact the formation of the fetus. It is thus all the more significant that he rejects the halakhic implications that this would have for restricting certain acts of marital sex.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Possibly, Rabbi Yochanan distinguished between actions and thought. One’s actions do not influence the development of the fetus; one’s mental state and thoughts do. This conclusion is implicit in the final statement in the passage from Nedarim. The Talmud states that while there are no sexual acts that are off-limits, there are times when sex is forbidden because of the emotional and mental state of the participants. Specifically, the Talmud states that the couple may not have sex if the act is devoid of any sense of intimacy or connection. They may not engage in sex when one of them is drunk or asleep, in the absence of full consent, or while imagining having sex with a different person.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here too, the Talmud connects this to the character of a child born from such a coupling: children conceived during such moments will turn out to be rebellious and sinful. Immoral acts during conception impact the moral character of the child. It is the moral character of the act which matters, not the particular physical activity engaged in. Through limiting this “science,” the Talmud moves from a focus on sexual acts to a focus on sexual ethics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story does not end there. Given that what really mattered was a person’s thoughts at the time of conception, a number of Rishonim, and in particular the Kabbalists, such as the author of Iggeret HaKodesh, directed the man to focus his thoughts on the Divine to ensure that the child would be wise and God-fearing. [The emphasis here and elsewhere on the man’s thoughts and role during sex in contrast to the woman’s is a topic for another time.] Some contemporary <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">poskim</em> push back on this and state that the purest thoughts that a person can have during sex is to be focused on his or her partner and the intimacy between them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yaakov’s attempt to breed sheep based on a belief in a particular science is a lesson in how human efforts can so often be misguided, and in the need to put one’s faith and trust in God. At the same time, The Talmud’s narrowing of the scope of this science, and the resultant conclusions for the marital life of a couple, demonstrate that our human efforts are best directed to partnering with God, to believing in the truth of God’s Torah and to interpreting and applying it so as to best shape our religious lives and values.</span></div>
<br />Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14217257887244483528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-86783628693360393832016-12-03T19:11:00.000-05:002016-12-03T19:11:21.550-05:00Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In many ways, Yitzchak’s life parallels that of Avraham. He travels to a foreign land to avoid a famine where he then claims that his wife is his sister to prevent her abduction and is subsequently blessed with great wealth. He renews the covenant that Avraham made with Avimelekh, affirming his role as Avraham’s heir. Most significantly, Yitzchak re-digs the wells that Avraham had dug, calling them by the same names that Avraham had given them. In this way, Yitzchak reclaims those wells and the water flows once more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The message is clear: Yitzchak is the continuation of Avraham. The opening verse of our <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">parasha</em> sums it up succinctly: “This is the story of Yitzchak son of Avraham: Avraham begat Yitzchak.” (25:19). Yitzchak’s story is that he is the son of Avraham. Avraham is the initiator, the founder of the faith; Yitzchak’s role is to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">not </em>initiate. His job is to reinforce and consolidate, to transform Avraham’s vision into a way of life that can be passed down to future generations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While Avraham journeys, Yitzchak stays put. Avraham’s mission is to travel: “Leave your land… and go to the land that I will show you” (12:1), “And Avraham travelled through the land until the place of Shechem… From there he moved on to the hill country… Avraham journeyed forward, heading southward” (12:6-9). This continues throughout Avraham’s life culminating with his final journey: “Take your son… Yitzchak and go to the land of Moriah…” (22:2). Yitzchak’s mission, in contrast, is to put down roots. God tells him straightaway that he cannot leave the land of Israel: “Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell you of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you…” (26:2-3). In the land itself, he travels only when circumstances compel he to do so, and even then, he never travels far: “And Yitzchak settled in Gerar… And he dwelled in the valley of Gerar… And he went from there to Be’er Sheva.” (26:17-23).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Kabbalistic terms, Avraham embodies <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">chesed</em>, unbounded loving-kindness; Yitzchak embodies <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">gevurah</em>, restraint and self-control. To say it another way, Avraham represents <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ahavah</em>, love, while Yitzchak represents <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">yirah</em>, fear. (There is even something of an alliteration here: Avraham-<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ahavah</em>, Yitzchak-<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">yirah</em>). How are we to understand the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">yirah</em> of Yitzchak? Some view it negatively: Yitzchak is timid, unadventurous, unwilling to take risks; he will only do what is safe, what others have done before him. I do not agree with this characterization, nor do I believe that it is fair. There is a fear that can be good, and love that can be bad. As Sefat Emet states:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For every Jewish person initially dedicates himself to serve God out of love and desires to cleave unto God. This is the trait of “Avraham who loves me.” But afterwards, this well, the source of love, becomes clogged through love of material things which intermingle [with the love of God]. The correction of this is through the trait of Yitzchak, and this is fear of Heaven; for <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">the sign of true love is that it gives birth to fear</em>. This is what is meant by the verse, “Avraham (love) begat Yitzchak (fear).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Excessive love and overflowing passion, says Sefat Emet, is not always good. It may start as pure love, but if one isn’t careful, it can attach itself to inappropriate things and can undermine true commitment. A man might fall madly in love with a woman, and commit to her and marry her, but then fall madly in love with the next woman who sparks his passion. One may fight fervently for a cause today, only to put it aside to fight for another cause tomorrow and yet a third cause the day after that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This happens in the religious realm as well. In his letter to the sages of Luniel, Rambam compares his relationship to Torah to that of young love:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even before I was formed in my mother’s womb, it was Torah that I knew; and prior to exiting the womb I was dedicated to its study… and it is my beloved doe and the wife of my youth in whose love I was ravished from my young age. Yet with all of this, foreign wives have become her competitors: Moabite women, Ammonites, Edomites, Tzidonites and Hittites. The Lord knows that these wives were only taken initially to be perfumers, butchers and bakers for her… Nevertheless, her conjugal rights have been diminished, for my heart has been divided into many parts regarding all types of intellectual pursuits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Too much undisciplined love can lead one astray and cause the wells to become contaminated and clogged up. The solution is to stay put and dig deeper, to put in the effort to get the water flowing once again. If a marriage has lost some of its zing, the answer is to invest more deeply, to treasure the emotional intimacy that a deep and lasting relationship brings even if it comes with occasional loss of novelty and excitement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How does this relate to Yitzchak’s trait of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">yirah</em>? Sefat Emet explains this in another passage:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The meaning of this fear is that a person should fear lest he become disconnected from his intimate love of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Yirah</em> is not timidity nor is it fear of doing something wrong. It is a fear born out of love. If one’s love is a profound one, one will protect it at all costs. It is the fear of losing that which is so precious that directs and focuses one’s love, allowing it to go deep rather than wide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This dynamic of love and fear, of journeying and staying put, also plays out in the context of liberalism and conservatism. Liberals have a vision of a more perfect, more just world which drives them to try to effect change as quickly as possible. Conservatives argue that change is disruptive; too much change too quickly threatens the foundations of our society or religious community. As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle, in the productive tension created by these two opposite poles. To be constantly moving, travelling, and seeking the Promised Land, is to be an Avraham without a Yitzchak. Lacking sufficient traction, the gains that one makes in one generation might slip away in the next. At the same time, to just stay put, to not do anything differently than the past even when the circumstances change and even in the face of injustice, is to be a Yitzchak without an Avraham. It is to point one’s vision only downward, never upward and outward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our mandate is to join the vision and passion of Avraham with the perseverance and rootedness of Yitzchak. Only then we will be able to travel to the Promised Land, to remain there and create a lasting heritage. In this way, we will re-dig the wells so that we too can say: “For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”</span></div>
Organ Donation Statementhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03895311802298900535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-77783829075446826762016-11-24T21:44:00.000-05:002016-11-24T21:44:05.368-05:00Speaking is Believing<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">After the climactic event of the <i>akeida</i>,
the Torah turns its attention to more quotidian matters: the death and
burial of Sarah and the finding of a son for Yitzchak. In this shift, a number
of the major characters move off the scene. Not only Sarah and Avraham,
but God as well. In our<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>parasha</i>,
God is neither seen nor heard; God is only spoken about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This shift in God's role is intimately
connected to the passing of the baton from Avraham to Yitzchak. Avraham is a
visionary, a charismatic leader to whom God has directly spoken. People are drawn
to his passion and his person, feeling that they can connect to God just by
being in proximity of Avraham. But not everyone can be nor should be an
Avraham. For the vision to live on and continue to the next generation, what is
needed is a successor who can sustain the vision without the immediacy of God's
presence. One must move from charisma to forms and rituals that can communicate
and embody the faith. If this can be achieved then the belief can survive and
be passed forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Avraham heard God's voice throughout his
life; but after the <i>akeida</i>, it is seeing that takes central stage:
"And Avraham called the name of that place, God Sees, as it is said to
this day, on the mount God will be seen" (Breishit 22:14). In future
generations, the Torah is telling us, God may not always be heard, but if we
try hard enough, then "even to this day" God can be seen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The theme of seeing God and seeing as God
goes back to the story of creation. God sees that the world is
good. Adam and Eve fail to see as God would; they see the tree as
"good for eating," and not as forbidden and off-limits. The later
generations continue to see the world through their lens of self-interest,
seeing, coveting and taking whatever they want. As a result, God sees that the
world that was good has become bad, and it must be destroyed so it can start
over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The message is clear - God sees what is
good and we must learn to see the world through God's eyes. Avraham is
chosen and given this task. He is told not to go to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">land</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Canaan</st1:placename></st1:place>,
but to go to the land which God will show him; he must learn to see the place
that God has chosen. Avraham's story ends with God telling him to take his son,
to perform the <i>akeida</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>on
"one of the mountains that I will show you," to again strive to see where
God is directing him. It is thus at the critical moment that he sees what it is
God truly wants from him; he sees the ram and offers it instead of his son.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">An essential part of seeing the world
through God's eyes is seeing God in the world. This is a choice that we make.
We choose how we interpret the events in our lives; are they chance events
brought about by an arbitrary cosmos, or are they acts of divine providence, in
which God's presence can be seen and felt? The culmination of Avraham's story is
his declaration, his hope, that God will always be seen, "that is should
be said until this day, on the mount God will be seen'."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">How is this accomplished? Most
essentially, by how we speak - "that it <i>should be said </i>until this
day". How we narrate and interpret the events of our life becomes the lens
through which we see the world. Avraham called out in the name of God
everywhere he went. By invoking God constantly, Avraham changed people's
perception of reality. People began to see a world in which God shapes all
events. The famous rabbinic story of Avraham drives home this point:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Reish Lakish said, "Read not, 'he
called' [in the name of God] but 'and he made to call'." This teaches that
our father Abraham caused the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, to be
uttered by the mouth of every passer-by. How was this? After [travelers] had
eaten and drunk, they stood up to bless him; but, said he to them, "Did
you eat of mine? You ate of that which belongs to the God of the
Universe.Thank, praise and bless Him who spoke and the world came into
being." (Sotah 10b)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It is not the intellectual belief - that
God provides - which was the most important, but the discourse that Avraham
created. By talking about thanking God for the fruit, by encouraging others to
"thank, praise, and bless," that is, to talk about this as well,
Avraham shaped the way others saw the world. Such talk becomes habitual, it
spreads and impacts others, whether they are aware of it or not. "God is
with you in all that you do," Avimelekh says to Avrahm (Breishit
21:22). By talking about God, Avraham has made Avimelekh see God; Avraham has
brought God into the world. As Rashi (24:7), puts it: "[Avraham says to
his servant:] 'God, Lord of the Heavens and the Earth.' [This is to say, while
in the past God was only Lord of the Heavens,] now God is also Lord of the
Earth, for I have made God's name commonplace in the mouth of all".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This talking about God which leads to
seeing God, is the blessing that Avraham passes on to his servant, to Yitzchak,
and to the next generation. The God who has taken me from my father's house,
says Avraham to his servant, will also be with you to ensure the success of
your mission. This will become a reality if you see it as such. The servant has
learned this lesson well; he prays and the right woman appears. A skeptic
might say that this is luck but the servant knows it is God answering his
prayers. When the servant acknowledges God's hand in the meeting of Rivka, he
makes it a reality: "And he said: 'Blessed is God the Lord of my master
Avraham... as for me, God has guided me to the house of my master's
brother" (24:27). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">These events could be understood in a
radically different way if seen through different eyes. The Gemara (Hullin 95b)
makes a shocking statement: "Rav... said: Any omen (<i>nachash</i>) which
is not like that of Eliezer, Abraham's servant... is not considered [the
Biblically prohibited act of] divination." Rishonim grapple to explain
why, if this were the case, it was acceptable for Avraham's servant to perform
his test; did he commit the sin of divination? (see, for example, Rambam, Avoda
Zara 11:4, and Ra'avad and Kesef Mishne <i>ad. loc.</i>; Radak on Shmuel
I, ch. 14; Gur Aryeh Breishit 24:14). The answer is that it all depends on the
framing. Were the servant to have interpreted the sign as magical, it would
have been<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>nichush</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>- something which happened
"merely by chance, and not through God's providence." (Sefer
HaHinukh, mitzvah 249). But by praying, the servant saw what transpired as an
answer to his prayers; he saw in the events not chance or magic, but God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In the servant's long retelling of his
encounter with Rivka, we hear how, through the eyes and in the words of the
servant, God is ever-present. "And God blessed my
master...", "God will...make your path successful",
"And I said, 'God...[she] will be the one that God has chosen for my
master's son", "And I blessed God... who led me down the true path to
take the daughter of my master's brother for his son." And it is
this discourse that is then consciously or unconsciously adopted by his
listeners: "And Lavan and Betuel said, "From God the matter has come,
we cannot speak to you bad or good" (24:50). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">We live in a world in which God does not
speak to us directly. Despite this, we can in fact choose whether or not to
see. Avraham's faith is sustained through learning to see, and how we see is
first and foremost shaped by how we talk. Speaking is seeing, and seeing is
believing. Indeed, "more beautiful is the conversation of the servants of
the fathers, than the Torah of the sons." (Breishit Rabbah 60). It is
through such conversation, such daily discourse, that our world is shaped and
that God is seen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14217257887244483528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-57145995796813541792016-11-17T20:46:00.000-05:002016-11-17T20:50:29.294-05:00Why Did God Test Avraham?<div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why did God test Avraham with the command to offer Yitzchak as a sacrifice? This is really two questions. First, what purpose was the <i>akeidah</i> meant to serve? And second, how could God have commanded such a reprehensible act, implicitly condoning murder, even if the plan was to retract the command all along? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Midrash Tanhuma addresses both of these questions. Let's start with the first one. The midrash asks why God tests only the righteous:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Said Rabbi Yonah - flax, the more you pound it, the more it improves. When is this true? When it is of good quality but when it is of inferior quality, if you pound it, it bursts. Similarly, God tests none but the righteous.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Said Rabbi Yehudah bar Shalom -a potter does not tap on a weak vessel or jar, lest it break. On what does he tap? On a strong vessel...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Said Rabbi Elazar - this can be compared to a farmer who has two cows, one strong and one weak. On which one does he place the yoke? Is it not on the one that is strong?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to Rabbi Yonah, when God tests a person, it is like the pounding of the flax - it is not pleasant for the flax, but the flax comes out stronger as a result. Similarly, our ability to withstand adversity, to persevere, to keep the faith even in the most difficult of times, transforms us and makes us stronger than we were. This approach is adopted by Ramban: "The purpose of a test is for the one being tested. God commanded this act in order to actualize Avraham's potential, that he should receive reward for his good acts and not just his good intention." (Commentary to Torah, Breishit 22:1).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rabbi Yehudah offers an explanation more in line with the <i>pshat</i>. A test allows one to know the quality of that which is being tested, just as a potter taps a pot to know that it is good. God tested Avraham to know how God-fearing he was, as the angel says, "Now I know that you are God fearing." The problem here is obvious: God is all-knowing, so any such test would be superfluous. Perhaps the point of the midrash is that a potter taps his pot to <i>demonstrate</i> its quality, not to determine it. The test allows others - Avraham himself and all future generations - to know the quality of Avraham's faith and character. Thus, Breishit Rabbah states that the word <i>nissa</i> (to test) indicates that this test was like the raising of a flag (<i>neis</i>) announcing Avraham's greatness to the world.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rabbi Elazar provides the third metaphor: placing a yoke on a cow. Here, the farmer is not interested in the cow. He wishes to plow his field and he chooses the animal that is best suited for the task. God has a lesson to teach humanity. The nature of the lesson has been debated through the centuries but according to the p<i>shat</i> of the text it is clear: one must be prepared to give up everything that is dear to him for his love and fear of God. Avraham was commanded in the <i>akeidah</i> not to test him, but because he could be trusted to carry it out. Rambam echoes this position when he states, "Know that the aim and meaning of all the trials mentioned in the Torah is to let people know what they ought to do or what they must believe... The purpose not being the accomplishment of that particular act, but the latter's being a model to be imitated and followed." (Guide, III:24) </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Any one of these three explanations is satisfactory provided that we could find a satisfactory answer to our second quest</span>ion. How could God ask Avraham to take the life of another in God's name?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tanhuma seems to have this question in mind when it tells the back-story of the <i>akeidah</i>. According to this midrash, Yishmael had taunted Yitzchak that while he, Yishmael, submitted to circumcision at the age of 13, Yitzchak was circumcised as an infant and was not prepared to suffer for God as much as he did. Yitzchak responded: "Were God to say to my father, 'Slaughter Yitzchak your son,' I would not resist." The midrash continues:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Immediately the matter pounced upon him, as it says, "It was after these</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>devarim</i>, these words (of Yitzchak), and God tested Avraham."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If Yitzchak was prepared to give his life to God, God is now - in the eyes of the Midrash -off the hook. This point is illustrated in the Talmudic discussion of the need for <i>hatra'a</i>, forewarning, for a person who is about to commit a cardinal sin. Only if the person states that he knows that this sin is punishable by death and is choosing to sin nonetheless, do we execute him, because then he "accepted this death upon himself." (Sanhedrin 40b) A human court can only use violence against another person if that person has given them license to do so. Similarly, according to the midrash, God had license to ask Avraham to do violence against Yitzchak because Yitzchak had given God permission to do so.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The midrash also defends God by positing that God was not the initiator; God is merely following Yitzchak's lead. There is also a subtext that Yitzchak's boast was inappropriate, that would should not be seeking to suffer or give our lives for God needlessly. The command to Avraham was a punishment for Yitzchak, laying the responsibility for the <i>akeidah</i> even more fully at Yitzchak's feet: "Immediately, the matter pounced upon him." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But, with all this, shouldn't God have refused? This is taking innocent life; nothing should have compelled God to command it! The next passage in the midrash provides an answer to this question:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is as the verse states, "Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, this is what you should do? He who keeps the commandment shall fear no evil thing (Kohelet 8:4-5). Whatever God wants to do, He is the ruler, and no one can stay his hand. But who can tell him, "Here is what you should do"? "The one who keeps the commandments" - these are the <i>tzadikkim</i>, the righteous ones who keep God's <i>mitzvot</i>, and God fulfills their edicts....</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This audacious passage reads the juxtaposition of two verses in Kohelet to teach that a righteous person can tell God what God must do. This idea that God fulfills the decrees of a righteous person is found in the Talmud (e.g., Sotah 12a) where the Gemara tells us that God fulfills the wishes or pronuncements of<i> tzadikkim</i>. In our case, the meaning is more shocking: a righteous person can tell God how to act even to the point of countermanding God's own wishes. The midrash gives an example: God wanted to destroy the people when they made the Golden Calf but Moshe grabbed God - as it were - by the collar and would not let this happen; Moshe told God what to do! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once we have established that God's hand can be forced by the demands of the righteous, God is now totally off the hook for commanding the <i>akeidah</i>. Yitzchak wanted this test and God had no choice but to acquiesce.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Implicit in this need to defend God is the recognition by the midrash that God's command to Avraham presents deep moral challenges. This grappling with the command of the <i>akeidah</i> also seems present in the Rabbis' citation of the verse "Who can tell the king how to act?". In this citation, we can hear the Rabbi's desire to challenge God for commanding the <i>akeidah</i>, and at the same time their acknowledgement of their inability to do so, for who are they to say that God acted incorrectly? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Breishit Rabbah uses this verse in just this way: "Who can tell the king how to act?... [In the Torah it states,] 'You shall not test God,' [and yet,] 'The Lord tested Avraham'." By testing Avraham, the midrash is saying, God is acting against God's own rule. We can call attention to this, raise questions and struggle with this, but in the end we must accept it and submit to God's authority. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The irony in the Tanchuma is that alongside their reticence in voicing a critique, the Rabbis have also asserted that a <i>tzaddik</i> can challenge or countermand God. They are willing to state that Yitzchak did this - by asking God to command the <i>akeidah</i> - but they are not prepared to do this themselves and directly challenge God for giving this command. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In these short passages of Tanhuma, we see the Rabbis offering multiple ways of understanding the purpose of the <i>akeidah</i>, and the moral challenges that it presents. The grappling is subtle and it is expressed through the tradition, not in opposition to it. As we face struggles in our own lives and feel that we are being tested by God, let us pray that we will have the strength to endure, to deal with our challenges constructively and emerge stronger from the process.</span></div>
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Organ Donation Statementhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03895311802298900535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-36923509679997175822016-11-10T17:48:00.001-05:002016-11-17T20:51:08.137-05:00Avraham the Weaver<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> I have recently begun learning Midrash Tanchuma weekly with Rabbi Avi Weiss, and this week, I share some reflections on the two opening passages of Midrash Tanhuma to </em>parashat Lekh Lekha<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">.</em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the middle of the first passage, the Midrash portrays a classic rabbinic image of Avraham as a devout Jew who kept every detail of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">halakha</em>:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We find with Avraham, that he was punctilious in observing the mitzvot and therefore he was called the beloved of God, as it is written, “The seed of Avraham my beloved.”… Even <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">eruv tavshilin</em> was observed in the household of Avraham our father… God said to him, “You are punctilious regarding my mitzvot and you are sitting among the idolaters?! Get out from their midst, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lekh lekha mei’artzekha</em>…,” Go out from your land…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In this telling, Avraham kept not only the laws but did what was necessary to safeguard them, even adopting the practice of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">eruv tavshilin</em> to protect the honor of Shabbat and Yom Tov. Avraham must leave his place of birth not to bring God’s message to the world, but to extract himself from the corrosive influence of his surroundings so that he can fully observe the mitzvot.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Midrash Tanchuma</em> precedes this description of Avraham with the following halakhic discussion:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let our Master teach us: May a person accept the yoke of the kingdom of heaven (i.e. recite the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Shema</em>) when he is walking? … It is forbidden for a person to accept upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven when he is walking. Rather, he must stand in one place… with fear, dread, trembling and sweating…and recite “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One,” … and when he begins “And you shall love [the Lord your God…], if he wishes he may stand, or walk or sit…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first verse of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Shema </em>expresses recognition of God as king and is rooted in fear of God – submission to God’s will, awe and trembling of being in God’s presence, and fear of transgressing God’s commands. It is an act of standing still. Fear paralyzes; it roots you to your spot terrified of doing something wrong. When submission to God’s will requires action, you take meticulous care to get everything exactly right.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This, says the Midrash, must be the starting point. Only after reaching this state may a person move on to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">vi’ahavta.</em>Loving God propels movement; it drives a person to seek God at every moment, to find God in every mundane action, whether standing, sitting, walking, or driving a car. This is the love of God that Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev chose to see demonstrated by the wagon driver who <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">davened mincha</em> while changing the wheel of his wagon. “Master of the Universe,” he said, “See how much your children love you! Even when their hands are filled with grease, they are thinking of you!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These two components – awe of God and love of God – complement each other. Love of God is nurturing, inspiring, and motivating. Love leads to grand gestures but not to a punctilious care of details. Fear of God brings about <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">dikduk bi’mitzvot</em> but it can freeze a person in place.</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Avraham is the figure we identify most often with love of God, with movement – <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">lekh lekha</em> – with finding God everywhere and calling out in the name of God – <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">va’yikra bi’shem HaShem </em>(12:8, 13:4, 21:33, 22:14). This midrash reminds us of Avraham’s other essential quality; it was fear of God, not love, that compelled Avraham to bind his son to the altar, “For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you did not withhold your son, your only son, from Me.” (22:12).</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The greatness of Avraham was found in the combination of these two traits. Love of God gave Avraham the confidence to argue with God in defense of the people of Sodom; fear of God made it acceptable for him to do so: “Behold I have begun to speak to God, and I am yet dust and ashes” (18:27). Fear of God brought about scrupulous observance of mitzvot; love of God names this scrupulousness an act of love, not slavish obedience. “You find that Avraham was a punctilious in observing the mitzvot and therefore he was called the beloved of God…” While Avraham exemplifies both traits, for this midrash it is fear of God that comprises his core characteristic and identity.</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The second passage in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tanchuma</em> draws a different picture:</span></div>
<blockquote style="border-bottom: none; border-left: 10px solid rgb(0, 43, 75); border-right: none; border-top: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rav Berakhya opened, “We have a little sister…” (Shir HaShirim 8:8). To whom is the verse referring? To Avraham. For when Nimrod cast him into the furnace, he was little; God had not yet performed miracles on his behalf. And why is he called a sister (<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">achot</em>)? Because he stitched / united (<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">eecha</em>) the world before God, like a person who rends a garment and then stitches it…</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You find that Terach, Avraham’s father, fashioned idols and would worship them. God said to Avraham, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lekh lekha mei’artzekha,” </em>Get out of your land [and your birthplace and your father’s house].”</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In this passage, Avraham is one who is driven by love of God and seeks to spread the word of God throughout the world. As Rambam writes: The mitzvah to love God includes the directive to call to all people to serve God and to believe in God. For when someone loves another, he will sing the other person’s praises and call others to love him as well… as we find by Avraham… as it says, ‘The souls that they made (the people that they converted) in Haran’ (Book of Mitzvot, Positive Mitzvah 3).</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here Avraham is called <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">achot</em>, a sister, midrashically, a weaver. This echoes what we find in the Torah, where Avraham is described and describes himself frequently as an <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ach</em>, a brother: “Behold we are brothers” (13:8), “And they separated one man from his brother” (13:11), “Avraham heard that his brother was taken captive” (14:14) and, of course, “Please say that you are my sister” (12:13).</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Avraham is not out to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">conquer</em> the world with the belief in a single God. In this midrash, he is not Avraham <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ha’Ivri</em>, standing on one side with the rest of the world on the other. To see those who act or think differently as enemies to be vanquished is to be driven by fear. Rather, he is portrayed as Avraham <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ha’Ach</em>, a person who sees everyone as members of his family, as potential partners, as people with whom to share his passion and whom to inspire. Avraham the brother dreams to unite people, to stitch them together with his love of God.</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was this love of God that drove Avraham to preach in the land of Nimrod and to be prepared to martyr himself for the God he believed in. But this love could not succeed in the land of his father. He could not form a new family built on love of God, when his own father rejected all that he stood for, when his message was undercut from within his own house. Hence, God instructs, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">lekh lekha</em>, go to a new place where your message can be heard and you can truly transform the world.</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These two portraits of Avraham present two different aspects of a Jew’s mission in this world: the first Avraham is the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">frum</em> Jew, committed to his own practices and way of life; the second Avraham is the visionary seeking to create a universal Godly community. Both models are essential. In the aftermath of this election, we all need Avraham the weaver to unite us during these divisive days. If we continue to invoke an “us/them” narrative, to see those with whom we disagree as evil, we will only deepen the divide. At the same time, we cannot pretend and act as if we all are, or should be, the same. We need to also be the first Avraham, to value and deepen our own particularistic commitments and identity. And we need to respect this in others, even when those others have identities, commitments and values that differ significantly from our own. Our own rootedness, and that of others, will give us all the confidence and the strength to build a more global, universal community, seeking not to conquer one another, but to cherish our differences and to find the common ground that weaves us together, brothers and sisters before God.</span></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14217257887244483528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-53742612686922684862016-11-06T14:36:00.004-05:002016-11-06T19:44:29.194-05:00Noah, Superman and Global Warming<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God creates a perfect, self-sustaining
planet, teaming with life. God places human beings in it and gives them seemingly
divine powers: rule over all living things, and the ability to build, create,
transform, and take mastery over the entire planet (Breishit 1:28-29). God
demands from them only that they accept some limits and understand that their
mastery and control cannot be complete; with every six days of creating comes
one day of surrendering control; with the mandate to work the land comes the
obligation to protect it as its custodians (2:15). But human beings are not
able to live by these restrictions. Appetite and greed drive their actions
(3:6). They become mighty and powerful; they believe everything is theirs for
the taking: the property of others (6:11), women whom they covet (6:2), and even
human life itself (4:8). Even those who do not perpetrate these evils are
complicit (Rashi, 6;13). Their own shortsightedness and self-centeredness—or
simply their cowardice or apathy—allow them to ignore what is happening, to
convince themselves that it is not their business and that trying to do
something about it would be pointless. They become passive enablers, the evil
continues to flourish, and the entire land becomes morally corrupt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">God realizes that there is no choice but to
start again, to bring a flood, recreate the world, and hope that this time,
with more guidance, humanity will get it right. Noah works on the ark for 120
years. Maybe he could have done a better job trying to warn people, but his
tireless efforts make it clear to anyone listening that he is announcing the
end of the world. But this is a message no one is interested in hearing. Even
when the rains begin, when the evidence is before their eyes and the water is
up to their ankles and knees, they refuse to believe that God will allow the
world to be destroyed (Rashi, 7:12). When the flooding starts, when the storms
are out of control and their fate is sealed, they finally want to repent; they
will do anything to be saved. But by then it is too late.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We tend to react with an air of superiority
and incredulity when we hear this story: How wicked must these people have been
to act as they did! How stupid to be so willingly blind to their fate! I
remember having a similar reaction as a kid, many years ago when I was an avid
reader of Superman comics. In the origin story, Jor-El, </span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14YbJUNrD1G2nA_ZSm6djOibQzbI9hZfzVYR_8O_SbHwL1CFdpiePyPWq-9PkdTaXT4IG5MptqGXs0B4VLayq-i4ozjJyLeqbB-biN1nNwA3CPJitAM_75IxVreOEy-S6TSLTCFBbysw/s1600/supe1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14YbJUNrD1G2nA_ZSm6djOibQzbI9hZfzVYR_8O_SbHwL1CFdpiePyPWq-9PkdTaXT4IG5MptqGXs0B4VLayq-i4ozjJyLeqbB-biN1nNwA3CPJitAM_75IxVreOEy-S6TSLTCFBbysw/s640/supe1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Superman’s father, investigates the frequent volcanic explosions on Krypton, his home planet. Realizing that its core will soon explode and destroy the entire planet, he urges the leaders to build spaceships to save their civilization, but the council refuses to believe him. Who is willing to seriously face the possibility that their planet </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA7PHj_Pelbn5o8pRI-O7ehSPQSjfTttt9St5Y1xyIr2znlXMiv5BzvxsCDzM2rFYyhBlL9JfaUAt6OjfZyHqdjKyQGYwgU6JO97nxS2X886hW4jNpwG1xLADk21v-cdLQzxLGGQQ76o/s1600/supe2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA7PHj_Pelbn5o8pRI-O7ehSPQSjfTttt9St5Y1xyIr2znlXMiv5BzvxsCDzM2rFYyhBlL9JfaUAt6OjfZyHqdjKyQGYwgU6JO97nxS2X886hW4jNpwG1xLADk21v-cdLQzxLGGQQ76o/s640/supe2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Kke1EzyLEs4CDtm4eIPfZnV8qCwKRCu4h2D8ao9plfbsAmXIBRLd96QhyphenhyphenedPYTU8szMiG8sbyIlLgVXQrINsIIe17SGXmDANeEH46dDSj7vyAdFRpbi1F0wqTxUF48ci0E65JmUZbpA/s1600/supe3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Kke1EzyLEs4CDtm4eIPfZnV8qCwKRCu4h2D8ao9plfbsAmXIBRLd96QhyphenhyphenedPYTU8szMiG8sbyIlLgVXQrINsIIe17SGXmDANeEH46dDSj7vyAdFRpbi1F0wqTxUF48ci0E65JmUZbpA/s640/supe3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">is on a path to destruction? As he tells his wife, “Because of their
stupidity, a world will die!” In the end, he is only able to build one small
spaceship. He puts his baby son, Kal-El, on it and sends him to Earth, where
the boy will grow up to become Superman, just as entire planet is exploding from its core.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is a Noah story, even if I didn’t recognize
it at the time. What I do remember thinking was how incredibly stupid and
short-sighted the planet’s leaders were. How could anyone not take such
warnings seriously? With the fate of their planet hanging in the balance, even
if they did not care about anyone else, wouldn’t their concern for their own safety
and that of their families compel them to heed the warnings?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But now, sadly, the lack of response and willing
blindness fail to shock me, for I see them every day in how we, particularly we
Americans, are responding to our own flooding and impending planetary disaster.
I am referring, </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XDMS4aKLdiQnWbOolJCh9zGFEreZYVVABKXfqsTQL0PMOMo_H_TM49scjncSUtLTiLdmt9B6WaI5KifVKDYVXUh1xeZD145XeuWyH-z0CV55udZlYHCh8_8JwoMBHhhlHIMBvtvdCy4/s1600/noah+earth+image+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XDMS4aKLdiQnWbOolJCh9zGFEreZYVVABKXfqsTQL0PMOMo_H_TM49scjncSUtLTiLdmt9B6WaI5KifVKDYVXUh1xeZD145XeuWyH-z0CV55udZlYHCh8_8JwoMBHhhlHIMBvtvdCy4/s400/noah+earth+image+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">of course, to global warming and climate change. The evidence is before our eyes: It can be seen in
pictures of polar bears stranded on tiny ice floes. It can be seen in thinning,
receding glaciers, like those I saw in the Canadian Rockies last year. It can
be seen in the weather, the unprecedented heat waves and hottest years on
record, in the droughts, hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes. And it can be
seen in flooding, which has caused hundreds of deaths, billions of dollars of
damage, and impacted millions of lives. People will go to extreme lengths to ignore the evidence or to explain it away; such is the power of self-deception. But the facts are the facts. Every day the ice caps are melting,
rain is falling, storms and floods are increasing, and the water is rising ever
higher, and we, like the generation of Noah, go about as if nothing is
happening.</span><br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Some carry more blame than others. The energy
companies have devoted tremendous resources to disputing the evidence and
spreading misinformation and to quashing U.S. efforts to reduce carbon
emissions. Politicians support and further these efforts by publicly denying
climate change, even while many of them acknowledge the reality in private.
They are driven by power, greed, or simply cowardice, knowing that they would
be attacked or even ousted by their own party if they were to act differently. But
we are all complicit: every one of us who uses goods produced by industries
that emit high levels of carbon dioxide; every one of us who eats beef on a
regular basis; every one of us who decides that there is nothing to be done and
throws up our hands in resignation to the fact that our planet is on a path of
self-destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFod417UbaAKKdah8iEvgsshRz5SJrycdVA_wT-UKuYUwfkY0R3ErVolS8li-_UJlXyX9gQdrGalvITOMsW9XoBbNKh-ru3ezyLMplSPacWoWbbzfora2SYpzDq4SBzG9gDUXPG-YvxE/s1600/noah+earth+image+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFod417UbaAKKdah8iEvgsshRz5SJrycdVA_wT-UKuYUwfkY0R3ErVolS8li-_UJlXyX9gQdrGalvITOMsW9XoBbNKh-ru3ezyLMplSPacWoWbbzfora2SYpzDq4SBzG9gDUXPG-YvxE/s320/noah+earth+image+3.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">One deeply depressing fact—among so many
others—from this election season is that climate change was barely addressed in
the debates. What does it mean that we as a country can spend hours challenging
our candidates on the core issues for our future and treat climate change—the
one issue on which the future of the planet depends—as an afterthought?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As this election season draws to a close, let
us take some serious time to reflect on how we can elect representatives and
leaders who embrace the divine mandate to protect the world, who will work
tirelessly to ensure that the world remains good and life-sustaining, that we
will have a planet to pass down to our children and grandchildren, leaders who
are willing to take courageous stands, telling people what they don’t want to
hear, forcing people to change their habits and practices before it is too
late, before the doors of the ark close and it floats away forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">God has taken an oath that God would no
longer bring another flood to destroy the world. God will not send another
flood, and God will not send another Noah. It is all in our hands now. We will
either bring the next flood, or we will save ourselves from it. But the water
is rising, and we must act before it is too late. We must be the custodians of
the world that God has charged us to be.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14217257887244483528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-53943250690690232772016-11-06T14:36:00.003-05:002016-11-06T14:48:26.095-05:00No More Will there Be a Flood to Destroy the Earth?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God creates a perfect, self-sustaining
planet, teaming with life. God places human beings in it and gives them seemingly
divine powers: rule over all living things, and the ability to build, create,
transform, and take mastery over the entire planet (Breishit 1:28-29). God
demands from them only that they accept some limits and understand that their
mastery and control cannot be complete; with every six days of creating comes
one day of surrendering control; with the mandate to work the land comes the
obligation to protect it as its custodians (2:15). But human beings are not
able to live by these restrictions. Appetite and greed drive their actions
(3:6). They become mighty and powerful; they believe everything is theirs for
the taking: the property of others (6:11), women whom they covet (6:2), and even
human life itself (4:8). Even those who do not perpetrate these evils are
complicit (Rashi, 6;13). Their own shortsightedness and self-centeredness—or
simply their cowardice or apathy—allow them to ignore what is happening, to
convince themselves that it is not their business and that trying to do
something about it would be pointless. They become passive enablers, the evil
continues to flourish, and the entire land becomes morally corrupt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">God realizes that there is no choice but to
start again, to bring a flood, recreate the world, and hope that this time,
with more guidance, humanity will get it right. Noah works on the ark for 120
years. Maybe he could have done a better job trying to warn people, but his
tireless efforts make it clear to anyone listening that he is announcing the
end of the world. But this is a message no one is interested in hearing. Even
when the rains begin, when the evidence is before their eyes and the water is
up to their ankles and knees, they refuse to believe that God will allow the
world to be destroyed (Rashi, 7:12). When the flooding starts, when the storms
are out of control and their fate is sealed, they finally want to repent; they
will do anything to be saved. But by then it is too late.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We tend to react with an air of superiority
and incredulity when we hear this story: How wicked must these people have been
to act as they did! How stupid to be so willingly blind to their fate! I
remember having a similar reaction as a kid, many years ago when I was an avid
reader of Superman comics. In the origin story, Jor-El, </span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14YbJUNrD1G2nA_ZSm6djOibQzbI9hZfzVYR_8O_SbHwL1CFdpiePyPWq-9PkdTaXT4IG5MptqGXs0B4VLayq-i4ozjJyLeqbB-biN1nNwA3CPJitAM_75IxVreOEy-S6TSLTCFBbysw/s1600/supe1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14YbJUNrD1G2nA_ZSm6djOibQzbI9hZfzVYR_8O_SbHwL1CFdpiePyPWq-9PkdTaXT4IG5MptqGXs0B4VLayq-i4ozjJyLeqbB-biN1nNwA3CPJitAM_75IxVreOEy-S6TSLTCFBbysw/s640/supe1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Superman’s father, investigates the frequent volcanic explosions on Krypton, his home planet. Realizing that its core will soon explode and destroy the entire planet, he urges the leaders to build spaceships to save their civilization, but the council refuses to believe him. Who is willing to seriously face the possibility that their planet </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA7PHj_Pelbn5o8pRI-O7ehSPQSjfTttt9St5Y1xyIr2znlXMiv5BzvxsCDzM2rFYyhBlL9JfaUAt6OjfZyHqdjKyQGYwgU6JO97nxS2X886hW4jNpwG1xLADk21v-cdLQzxLGGQQ76o/s1600/supe2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA7PHj_Pelbn5o8pRI-O7ehSPQSjfTttt9St5Y1xyIr2znlXMiv5BzvxsCDzM2rFYyhBlL9JfaUAt6OjfZyHqdjKyQGYwgU6JO97nxS2X886hW4jNpwG1xLADk21v-cdLQzxLGGQQ76o/s640/supe2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Kke1EzyLEs4CDtm4eIPfZnV8qCwKRCu4h2D8ao9plfbsAmXIBRLd96QhyphenhyphenedPYTU8szMiG8sbyIlLgVXQrINsIIe17SGXmDANeEH46dDSj7vyAdFRpbi1F0wqTxUF48ci0E65JmUZbpA/s1600/supe3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Kke1EzyLEs4CDtm4eIPfZnV8qCwKRCu4h2D8ao9plfbsAmXIBRLd96QhyphenhyphenedPYTU8szMiG8sbyIlLgVXQrINsIIe17SGXmDANeEH46dDSj7vyAdFRpbi1F0wqTxUF48ci0E65JmUZbpA/s640/supe3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">is on a path to destruction? As he tells his wife, “Because of their
stupidity, a world will die!” In the end, he is only able to build one small
spaceship. He puts his baby son, Kal-El, on it and sends him to Earth, where
the boy will grow up to become Superman, just as entire planet is exploding from its core.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is a Noah story, even if I didn’t recognize
it at the time. What I do remember thinking was how incredibly stupid and
short-sighted the planet’s leaders were. How could anyone not take such
warnings seriously? With the fate of their planet hanging in the balance, even
if they did not care about anyone else, wouldn’t their concern for their own safety
and that of their families compel them to heed the warnings?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But now, sadly, the lack of response and willing
blindness fail to shock me, for I see them every day in how we, particularly we
Americans, are responding to our own flooding and impending planetary disaster.
I am referring, </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XDMS4aKLdiQnWbOolJCh9zGFEreZYVVABKXfqsTQL0PMOMo_H_TM49scjncSUtLTiLdmt9B6WaI5KifVKDYVXUh1xeZD145XeuWyH-z0CV55udZlYHCh8_8JwoMBHhhlHIMBvtvdCy4/s1600/noah+earth+image+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XDMS4aKLdiQnWbOolJCh9zGFEreZYVVABKXfqsTQL0PMOMo_H_TM49scjncSUtLTiLdmt9B6WaI5KifVKDYVXUh1xeZD145XeuWyH-z0CV55udZlYHCh8_8JwoMBHhhlHIMBvtvdCy4/s400/noah+earth+image+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">of course, to global warming and climate change. The evidence is before our eyes: It can be seen in
pictures of polar bears stranded on tiny ice floes. It can be seen in thinning,
receding glaciers, like those I saw in the Canadian Rockies last year. It can
be seen in the weather, the unprecedented heat waves and hottest years on
record, in the droughts, hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes. And it can be
seen in flooding, which has caused hundreds of deaths, billions of dollars of
damage, and impacted millions of lives. People will go to extreme lengths to ignore the evidence or to explain it away; such is the power of self-deception. But the facts are the facts. Every day the ice caps are melting,
rain is falling, storms and floods are increasing, and the water is rising ever
higher, and we, like the generation of Noah, go about as if nothing is
happening.</span><br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Some carry more blame than others. The energy
companies have devoted tremendous resources to disputing the evidence and
spreading misinformation and to quashing U.S. efforts to reduce carbon
emissions. Politicians support and further these efforts by publicly denying
climate change, even while many of them acknowledge the reality in private.
They are driven by power, greed, or simply cowardice, knowing that they would
be attacked or even ousted by their own party if they were to act differently. But
we are all complicit: every one of us who uses goods produced by industries
that emit high levels of carbon dioxide; every one of us who eats beef on a
regular basis; every one of us who decides that there is nothing to be done and
throws up our hands in resignation to the fact that our planet is on a path of
self-destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFod417UbaAKKdah8iEvgsshRz5SJrycdVA_wT-UKuYUwfkY0R3ErVolS8li-_UJlXyX9gQdrGalvITOMsW9XoBbNKh-ru3ezyLMplSPacWoWbbzfora2SYpzDq4SBzG9gDUXPG-YvxE/s1600/noah+earth+image+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFod417UbaAKKdah8iEvgsshRz5SJrycdVA_wT-UKuYUwfkY0R3ErVolS8li-_UJlXyX9gQdrGalvITOMsW9XoBbNKh-ru3ezyLMplSPacWoWbbzfora2SYpzDq4SBzG9gDUXPG-YvxE/s320/noah+earth+image+3.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">One deeply depressing fact—among so many
others—from this election season is that climate change was barely addressed in
the debates. What does it mean that we as a country can spend hours challenging
our candidates on the core issues for our future and treat climate change—the
one issue on which the future of the planet depends—as an afterthought?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As this election season draws to a close, let
us take some serious time to reflect on how we can elect representatives and
leaders who embrace the divine mandate to protect the world, who will work
tirelessly to ensure that the world remains good and life-sustaining, that we
will have a planet to pass down to our children and grandchildren, leaders who
are willing to take courageous stands, telling people what they don’t want to
hear, forcing people to change their habits and practices before it is too
late, before the doors of the ark close and it floats away forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">God has taken an oath that God would no
longer bring another flood to destroy the world. God will not send another
flood, and God will not send another Noah. It is all in our hands now. We will
either bring the next flood, or we will save ourselves from it. But the water
is rising, and we must act before it is too late. We must be the custodians of
the world that God has charged us to be.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14217257887244483528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-24592195788092522172016-11-06T14:36:00.002-05:002016-11-06T14:41:27.075-05:00No More Will there Be a Flood to Destroy the Earth?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God creates a perfect, self-sustaining
planet, teaming with life. God places human beings in it and gives them seemingly
divine powers: rule over all living things, and the ability to build, create,
transform, and take mastery over the entire planet (Breishit 1:28-29). God
demands from them only that they accept some limits and understand that their
mastery and control cannot be complete; with every six days of creating comes
one day of surrendering control; with the mandate to work the land comes the
obligation to protect it as its custodians (2:15). But human beings are not
able to live by these restrictions. Appetite and greed drive their actions
(3:6). They become mighty and powerful; they believe everything is theirs for
the taking: the property of others (6:11), women whom they covet (6:2), and even
human life itself (4:8). Even those who do not perpetrate these evils are
complicit (Rashi, 6;13). Their own shortsightedness and self-centeredness—or
simply their cowardice or apathy—allow them to ignore what is happening, to
convince themselves that it is not their business and that trying to do
something about it would be pointless. They become passive enablers, the evil
continues to flourish, and the entire land becomes morally corrupt.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">God realizes that there is no choice but to
start again, to bring a flood, recreate the world, and hope that this time,
with more guidance, humanity will get it right. Noah works on the ark for 120
years. Maybe he could have done a better job trying to warn people, but his
tireless efforts make it clear to anyone listening that he is announcing the
end of the world. But this is a message no one is interested in hearing. Even
when the rains begin, when the evidence is before their eyes and the water is
up to their ankles and knees, they refuse to believe that God will allow the
world to be destroyed (Rashi, 7:12). When the flooding starts, when the storms
are out of control and their fate is sealed, they finally want to repent; they
will do anything to be saved. But by then it is too late.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We tend to react with an air of superiority
and incredulity when we hear this story: How wicked must these people have been
to act as they did! How stupid to be so willingly blind to their fate! I
remember having a similar reaction as a kid, many years ago when I was an avid
reader of Superman comics. In the origin story, Jor-El, </span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14YbJUNrD1G2nA_ZSm6djOibQzbI9hZfzVYR_8O_SbHwL1CFdpiePyPWq-9PkdTaXT4IG5MptqGXs0B4VLayq-i4ozjJyLeqbB-biN1nNwA3CPJitAM_75IxVreOEy-S6TSLTCFBbysw/s1600/supe1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg14YbJUNrD1G2nA_ZSm6djOibQzbI9hZfzVYR_8O_SbHwL1CFdpiePyPWq-9PkdTaXT4IG5MptqGXs0B4VLayq-i4ozjJyLeqbB-biN1nNwA3CPJitAM_75IxVreOEy-S6TSLTCFBbysw/s640/supe1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Superman’s father, investigates the frequent volcanic explosions on Krypton, his home planet. Realizing that its core will soon explode and destroy the entire planet, he urges the leaders to build spaceships to save their civilization, but the council refuses to believe him. Who is willing to seriously face the possibility that their planet </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA7PHj_Pelbn5o8pRI-O7ehSPQSjfTttt9St5Y1xyIr2znlXMiv5BzvxsCDzM2rFYyhBlL9JfaUAt6OjfZyHqdjKyQGYwgU6JO97nxS2X886hW4jNpwG1xLADk21v-cdLQzxLGGQQ76o/s1600/supe2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRA7PHj_Pelbn5o8pRI-O7ehSPQSjfTttt9St5Y1xyIr2znlXMiv5BzvxsCDzM2rFYyhBlL9JfaUAt6OjfZyHqdjKyQGYwgU6JO97nxS2X886hW4jNpwG1xLADk21v-cdLQzxLGGQQ76o/s640/supe2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Kke1EzyLEs4CDtm4eIPfZnV8qCwKRCu4h2D8ao9plfbsAmXIBRLd96QhyphenhyphenedPYTU8szMiG8sbyIlLgVXQrINsIIe17SGXmDANeEH46dDSj7vyAdFRpbi1F0wqTxUF48ci0E65JmUZbpA/s1600/supe3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Kke1EzyLEs4CDtm4eIPfZnV8qCwKRCu4h2D8ao9plfbsAmXIBRLd96QhyphenhyphenedPYTU8szMiG8sbyIlLgVXQrINsIIe17SGXmDANeEH46dDSj7vyAdFRpbi1F0wqTxUF48ci0E65JmUZbpA/s640/supe3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">is on a path to destruction? As he tells his wife, “Because of their
stupidity, a world will die!” In the end, he is only able to build one small
spaceship. He puts his baby son, Kal-El, on it and sends him to Earth, where
the boy will grow up to become Superman.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is a Noah story, even if I didn’t recognize
it at the time. What I do remember thinking was how incredibly stupid and
short-sighted the planet’s leaders were. How could anyone not take such
warnings seriously? With the fate of their planet hanging in the balance, even
if they did not care about anyone else, wouldn’t their concern for their own safety
and that of their families compel them to heed the warnings?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But now, sadly, the lack of response and willing
blindness fail to shock me, for I see them every day in how we, particularly we
Americans, are responding to our own flooding and impending planetary disaster.
I am referring, </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XDMS4aKLdiQnWbOolJCh9zGFEreZYVVABKXfqsTQL0PMOMo_H_TM49scjncSUtLTiLdmt9B6WaI5KifVKDYVXUh1xeZD145XeuWyH-z0CV55udZlYHCh8_8JwoMBHhhlHIMBvtvdCy4/s1600/noah+earth+image+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XDMS4aKLdiQnWbOolJCh9zGFEreZYVVABKXfqsTQL0PMOMo_H_TM49scjncSUtLTiLdmt9B6WaI5KifVKDYVXUh1xeZD145XeuWyH-z0CV55udZlYHCh8_8JwoMBHhhlHIMBvtvdCy4/s400/noah+earth+image+1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">of course, to global warming and climate change. These things
are incontrovertible facts, and it does not require trust in scientists to
accept them as such. The evidence is before our eyes: It can be seen in
pictures of polar bears stranded on tiny ice floes. It can be seen in thinning,
receding glaciers, like those I saw in the Canadian Rockies last year. It can
be seen in the weather, the unprecedented heat waves and hottest years on
record, in the droughts, hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes. And it can be
seen in flooding, which has caused hundreds of deaths, billions of dollars of
damage, and impacted millions of lives. Every day the ice caps are melting,
rain is falling, storms and floods are increasing, and the water is rising ever
higher, and we, like the generation of Noah, go about as if nothing is
happening.</span><br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Some carry more blame than others. The energy
companies have devoted tremendous resources to disputing the evidence and
spreading misinformation and to quashing U.S. efforts to reduce carbon
emissions. Politicians support and further these efforts by publicly denying
climate change, even while many of them acknowledge the reality in private.
They are driven by power, greed, or simply cowardice, knowing that they would
be attacked or even ousted by their own party if they were to act differently. But
we are all complicit: every one of us who uses goods produced by industries
that emit high levels of carbon dioxide; every one of us who eats beef on a
regular basis; every one of us who decides that there is nothing to be done and
throws up our hands in resignation to the fact that our planet is on a path of
self-destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFod417UbaAKKdah8iEvgsshRz5SJrycdVA_wT-UKuYUwfkY0R3ErVolS8li-_UJlXyX9gQdrGalvITOMsW9XoBbNKh-ru3ezyLMplSPacWoWbbzfora2SYpzDq4SBzG9gDUXPG-YvxE/s1600/noah+earth+image+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFod417UbaAKKdah8iEvgsshRz5SJrycdVA_wT-UKuYUwfkY0R3ErVolS8li-_UJlXyX9gQdrGalvITOMsW9XoBbNKh-ru3ezyLMplSPacWoWbbzfora2SYpzDq4SBzG9gDUXPG-YvxE/s320/noah+earth+image+3.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">One deeply depressing fact—among so many
others—from this election season is that climate change was barely addressed in
the debates. What does it mean that we as a country can spend hours challenging
our candidates on the core issues for our future and treat climate change—the
one issue on which the future of the planet depends—as an afterthought?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As this election season draws to a close, let
us take some serious time to reflect on how we can elect representatives and
leaders who embrace the divine mandate to protect the world, who will work
tirelessly to ensure that the world remains good and life-sustaining, that we
will have a planet to pass down to our children and grandchildren, leaders who
are willing to take courageous stands, telling people what they don’t want to
hear, forcing people to change their habits and practices before it is too
late, before the doors of the ark close and it floats away forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">God has taken an oath that God would no
longer bring another flood to destroy the world. God will not send another
flood, and God will not send another Noah. It is all in our hands now. We will
either bring the next flood, or we will save ourselves from it. But the water
is rising, and we must act before it is too late. We must be the custodians of
the world that God has charged us to be.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14217257887244483528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-68457862720347117312016-10-30T15:05:00.003-04:002016-10-30T15:07:28.377-04:00Who Wants to Hear a Story?<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">"Why," asks Rashi, in his first comment on the Torah, "did the Torah not start with the verse, 'This month is for you the first of months,' (Shemot 12:2), the first I in the Torah given to the children of Israel?" If the purpose of the Torah is to tell us the I and nothing more, then who needs the narrative sections of the Torah, and in particular, who needs</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><em style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">Sefer Bereishit</em><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">? </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">
<div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;">
<div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The asking of this question immediately suggests its answer. As Ramban writes, "There is a great need to begin the Torah from 'In the beginning God created...' because it is the source of our faith, and one who does not believe in this and thinks that the world has always existed is a denier of the essence (of belief), and his Torah has no meaning." There is more to the Torah than just <em>mitzvot</em>, says Ramban. Our life of <em>mitzvot</em> must be a religious life. We must do the <em>mitzvot</em> not because they are our tradition or because they give structure and rhythm to our lives, but because God commanded them. Without our core underpinning beliefs, our practices would constitute a lifestyle but not a religion. For this we need the narratives of Shemot - we need to know that God redeemed us from Egypt and gave us the Torah at Mt. Sinai. This turns our practices into <em>mitzvot</em> and places them in the context of a<em> brit</em>, a covenant, with God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The narrative of Breishit, of God's creating the world, serves a different purpose - it is the lens through which we see the world. If we believe that the world was not always there, then when we look at it we will not see just matter, and we will not take its existence for granted. If we truly believe that the world is God's creation, we will learn to see God's handiwork in every blade of grass and we will look at the world with awe, gratitude, and a sense of wonder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The stories of our foremothers and forefathers, the primary narratives of the book of Breishit, play yet a different role. These stories, by and large, are not devoted to laying down principles of faith. Rather, they show us what it means to strive to live a proper life when such a life is not defined by the <em>mitzvot</em> of the Torah. Although our Rabbis tell us the <em>avot</em> kept the entire Torah before it was commanded, this is certainly not the <span style="font-size: 12pt;">simple sense of the verses. These narratives tell a different story - one of men and women, parents and children, who are at times in personal conversation with God, who seek and struggle to listen to and intuit God's will, to live up to a moral sense of right and wrong, and to build a family and a life based on these principles. It is a religious and moral life, but not a life of<em> halakha</em>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">For us who have the benefit of <em>halakha</em> and <em>mitzvot</em> to give us more precise guidance and structure, the stories of the <em>avot</em> and<em> imahot</em> teach us to not limit our sense of our obligations or of what it means to be a good person to that of halakhic observance. As Natziv (Rav Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin, 1816-1893, Lithuania) states in his introduction to his commentary on Bereishit, the Torah is referred to as the <em>Sefer HaYashar</em>, the Book of the Upright, because:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The generation of the Second Temple consisted of righteous and pious people who devoted themselves to the study of Torah, but who were not upright in their ways of interacting with the world. Therefore, because of the baseless hatred that they had in their hearts, they suspected that anyone who practiced differently than they in their serving of God was a Sadducee and a heretic. This brought about bloodshed, in its extreme manifestations, and led to all the evils in the world, until the Temple had to be destroyed...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">For God who is upright does not tolerate "righteous people" such as these, but only those who walk in the upright path in matters of the world as well, and not who go in a twisted path although it be for the sake of heaven, for this leads to the destruction of the creation and society. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This was what was praiseworthy about the forefathers. Not only were they righteous and pious and loved God as much as possible, they <span style="font-size: 12pt;">also were upright, that is, they interacted with the nations of the world, even the idolaters, with love and were concerned for their welfare <em>for this is what sustains creation</em>(emphasis in original).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">A person can live of life of <em>mitzvot</em> - can be "righteous" in the religious sense - and be a bad person. There is a particular danger, says Natziv, when he allows his religious beliefs to identify other people as sinners or heretics; this will give him religious license - in his mind - to act in morally heinous ways. But this is a perversion of what God wants. There is a basic morality, one rooted in creation itself, which dictates how we must interact with all people. This is what the book of Breishit is about: teaching us to follow the path of our foremothers and forefathers, a path that is independent of and complementary to that of the <em>mitzvot</em> of the Torah, a path that is embedded in the world that God created and that must be followed if we hope to sustain that world and to enable it to flourish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">A similar idea can be found in Sefat Emet. Commenting on Rashi's opening question, he writes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Torah was given primarily for its <em>mitzvot</em>; this Torah is the Written Torah. God nevertheless wanted to make clear that even this physical world and all of creation were also created through the power of the Torah. As the Rabbis say, "God looked into the Torah and created the world." This is the Oral Torah which is dependent on the actions of people. All of the stories of the forefathers are to demonstrate that from their acts, a Torah is created. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">There are not just two Torahs, says Sefat Emet, not just the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. There is a third Torah, the Torah of how we live our lives. It is a Torah which emerges from how our foremothers and forefathers lived their lives. It is a Torah which teaches us how to act even were there no <em>mitzvot</em> to give us specific instructions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Another way to say this is that there are two Torahs from God, each with its own oral Torah. There is a Torah whose primary text the word of God and a Torah whose primary text is the world that God created; there is a Torah of God's revelation and a Torah of God's creation. The Oral Torah of the revealed written text is the entirety of Rabbinic literature: the Talmud, <em>halakha</em>, and all their commentaries; it is how the rabbis interpret God's words and translate them into to the laws and intellectual discourse which govern our lives. The oral Torah of God's created world is how the forefathers lived <span style="font-size: 12pt;">their lives without the structure of <em>halakha</em>; it is how they interpreted their moral, ethical and religious duties by looking out into the world, into their souls, and into the minds and hearts of others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;">There is a rabbinic component to this oral Torah as well. Rashi asks why we need the stories of Breishit. We may ask why we need the stories of the Talmud. What is the function of the <em>aggadah</em>, of rabbinic stories and why are these stories embedded in the analytic and legal sections of the Talmud? These stories are there to teach us how to live our lives in ways that go beyond <em>halakha</em>, which exist in ongoing discourse and dialogue with <em>halakha</em>. If the halakhic sections are the oral Torah of Shemot through Devarim, then the <em>aggadaic</em> sections are the oral Torah of Breishit, they are the oral Torah of creation itself.</span></span></div>
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My friend and colleague Rabbi David Kalb shared with me that this idea can be taken to its logical conclusion. Just as the oral Torah of the written text did not stop with the rabbis of the Talmud but continues on today in every <em>beit midrash</em> and in every person who learns Torah, so the oral Torah of how we live our lives did not stop with the <em>avot</em> or even with the Rabbis of the Talmud. It continues in every person today, in every individual's exercise of her moral and ethical judgment. It is interwoven in her every decision of how to best weigh competing demands and best apply abstract principles in her interactions with a co-worker, a storekeeper, her children and her parents. </div>
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This is why the Torah tells us these stories. A story of how a good life is lived allows us to better live our lives, to write our own stories of how a life should be lived, and to pass these stories down to our children and they to theirs. Let us always strive to learn from the Torah of creation and of Breishit, and to be partners with God, continuing to interpret and apply it each and every day in our own lives.</div>
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Organ Donation Statementhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03895311802298900535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-28055408948894031782016-10-13T23:44:00.001-04:002016-10-13T23:48:12.578-04:00Time to Build the Sukkah!<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; font-weight: bold;">Time to Build the Sukkah!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is a practice to build the </span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">sukkah</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> immediately following Yom Kippur, to begin involving ourselves with </span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">mitzvot</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> as soon as possible so as to turn our </span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">teshuvah</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">process into action. But building a sukkah is not just one mitzvah of many mitzvot; it can be seen as a model of how we can live our lives better in the year to come.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We dwell in the sukkah to remember that God "caused the children of Israel to dwell in huts (sukkot)" when they left Egypt (Vayirka 23:43). But how is this true? First, why is the dwelling in huts something worth commemorating? Second, the Torah consistently describes the people as dwelling in tents, not huts (e.g., Shemot 16:16; 18:7; 33:7; 33:10-11, and many more). It is probably for this reason that Rabbi Akiva states that the verse does not refer to huts, but rather to the <i>ananei ha'kavod</i>, the Clouds of Glory, that God surrounded the people with to protect them as they travelled through the wilderness. (Mechilta on Shemot 12:37, and see Sukkot 11a, where the view is ascribed to R. Eliezer). </span></span></span></div>
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There is a verse in the <i>Ha'azinu</i> song of this week's parasha which likely alludes to these Clouds of Glory. In the opening of the song, Moshe describes all the goodness that God has done for the children of Israel: "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste-howling wilderness; He surrounded them, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye." (Devarim 32:10). Many commentators and midrashim explain that the phrase, "He surrounded them," refers to God surrounding the people with the Clouds of Glory (see Ibn Ezra 32:10, Bamidbar Rabbah 2:6). God protected us "as the apple of His eye," and every year at this time we commemorate this and demonstrate our desire to always live under God's protective wings, always able to feel God's presence in our lives.<br />
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The experience of Yom Kippur that translates into Sukkot is, from this perspective, that of closeness to God. On Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol would atone for his sins and the sins of the people and enter into the Holy of Holies, experiencing intimacy with the Divine. We, too, after a day of fasting and prayer, experience a closeness with God, and we strive to bring this into the holiday of Sukkot and into the rest of the year. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "segoe ui" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But there is another way that the building of a sukkah links Yom Kippur with Sukkot. It relates less to the Kohen Gadol's entering the Holy of Holies, and more to his cleansing of the Mikdash. The verses tell us not only that the Kohen Gadol would atone for the people's sins but, repeatedly, that the service of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur was to cleanse the Sanctuary from its impurities. There is a message here for us today, a message that when we want to think about starting fresh, we have to think not only about changing ourselves but about changing our environment as well.</span></span></span><br />
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Breishit Rabbah (ch. 34) states that among the things that can reverse the evil decree are: <i>shinuy ha'shem</i>, <i>shinuy ma'aseh</i>, and <i>shinuy ma'kom</i>, change of name, change of deeds, and change of place. This nicely captures three ways we try to do teshuvah. To change one's name is to attempt to change who one is; it is teshuvah as complete transformation of self. While we believe that this is possible, it is almost always beyond our reach. As Rav Yisrael Salanter said, "It is easier to go through all of Shas than to change one character trait." More achievable is change of deeds, to commit to doing things differently. I have often stressed this approach, and recommended that people commit to just one or two concrete, doable things, such as devoting five minutes a day to learn Torah with one's child, or to go to <i>minyan</i> more regularly, or to devote uninterrupted time to spend with one's spouse or one's children, or to go the gym once a week. While this approach is sometimes successful, it is fair to say that these commitments rarely last more than a few weeks at most. But if we cannot always change our actions, we can change our environment.<br />
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Last year, I resolved to not check my phone while driving. I am well aware of how dangerous this behavior is and how even a few seconds' distraction can lead to an <span style="font-size: 12pt;">accident and terrible injury or loss of life. And yet, after two or three weeks, my natural inclinations and my boredom got the better of me, and I found myself once again checking my phone while driving. Force of will was not going to do it. What I could do, however, is remove the temptation. I could turn off the phone before I got in the car. A small change in the environment allowed me to live up to my better self.</span><div>
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Rambam describes the person who has done "complete teshuvah" by giving the example of a man who has sinned with a particular woman. This man, says Rambam, will have done complete teshuvah if he changes so thoroughly that even were he to be with the same woman in the same place and under the same circumstances, he would not repeat his sin, and that even God would testify to this (Laws of Teshuvah 2:1). But I am less interested in the person who has done complete teshuvah than I am in the person who knows what his weaknesses are and who makes sure never to be in the same room with the same woman!<br />
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The halakhic definition of complete teshuvah is actually different than the religious one. Halakha needs to know that a person's actions have changed so that he can be trusted again by others. For example, if a person were a gambler, he could not be trusted to testify honestly because his testimony might be bought off. "When are they (gamblers) considered to have repented? When they break up their gaming paraphernalia and undergo a complete reformation, so much so, that they will not play even as a pastime." (Sanhedrin 25b). Halakha doesn't care about what God can testify to; it cares about what we can see. And it doesn't care about whether the person still has the same weaknesses as before. Halakha is realistic. What it cares about is what choices the person is making to protect himself against his weaknesses. If a person is addicted to gambling and he wants to change, he might not be able to resist gambling once he is in a casino, but he can make sure to never go into the casino in the first place.<br />
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This is a type of teshuvah that allows us to be honest with ourselves, to know that there are things about us that will never change, and yet, by owning our weaknesses, we can make intelligent choices ahead of time. By making a <i>shinuy ma'kom</i>, we allow ourselves to make a <i>shinuy ma'aseh</i>, to change how we act, and if these changes in action take place long enough and consistently enough, we may even succeed in a true <i>shinuy ha'shem</i>, a true transformation.<br />
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In small matters as well, these changes matter. Many studies have shown how our actions are guided by environmental cues. The presence of applesauce and fruit cocktails on cafeteria lines is correlated to students purchasing more sugary snacks, including cookies and ice cream. In contrast, the presence of bananas and green beans correlates to students making healthier snack choices all around.<br />
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I am certain that each one of us can think of a number of small changes to our environment that will allow us to make wiser choices. Maybe it means turning off our phones when talking to our spouse or children, or maybe it means keeping electronics out of the bedroom altogether. Maybe it means having a Pirkei Avot near our dining room table, or having the trainer come to the house rather than having to go to the gym. Maybe it is about having our bookcases filled with Jewish books. Let's start to acknowledge that our will power is often not sufficient, and let's tweak our surroundings so that they can do some of the work for us.<br />
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This, then, is a way to understand why Sukkot follows Yom Kippur. It is taking the cleansing of the Mikdash, of the place of God's dwelling, and translating it into the cleansing and constructing of our homes, of the place of our dwelling. On Yom Kippur we got in touch with what our ideal self would look like. If we now want to begin to make that a reality, we must now go out and build a sukkah. We must take responsibility for our surroundings and construct them in a way which help us to be our ideal selves. It is through this that we will merit to dwell under the Clouds of Glory, surrounded by God's protection and God's presence.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>Shabbat Shalom!</b></span></span></div>
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Organ Donation Statementhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03895311802298900535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-33000425915555032212016-10-06T17:20:00.000-04:002016-10-06T17:23:20.441-04:00Standing Again at Sinai<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Feel free to download and print the <a alt="http://files.constantcontact.com/49c02d16001/e84a3dbf-52db-40d1-900e-0003d10cfb26.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t%3Dapnpfxyab.0.0.uede6qbab.0%26id%3Dpreview%26r%3D3%26p%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Ffiles.constantcontact.com%252F49c02d16001%252Fe84a3dbf-52db-40d1-900e-0003d10cfb26.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1475875037725000&usg=AFQjCNFcCP8MNPVVdThL8nB2j6_yD5IL_Q" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=apnpfxyab.0.0.uede6qbab.0&id=preview&r=3&p=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.constantcontact.com%2F49c02d16001%2Fe84a3dbf-52db-40d1-900e-0003d10cfb26.pdf" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">Parashat Vayelech sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In one of his last instructions to the children of Israel, Moshe commands the people in the mitzvah of <em>hakhel</em>, a public reading of the Torah to take place once every seven years. All the people are to be present: "Gather the nation: the men, the women, and the children, and the stranger who is in your gates" (31:12). This list echoes the list in last week's parasha of those who stood to enter into the covenant with God in the plains of Moad. The implication is clear: this public reading is reenactment and reaffirmation of the covenant. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Imagine if every town and city in the United States would gather each year on the <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_48046730" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">4th of July</span></span> for a public reading of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Regardless of what people heard or understood, everyone would leave the experience with a sense of patriotism and connection to the founding documents and principles of the country. Similarly, when everyone gathered to hear the Torah being read, it was an act of connecting to God's Torah and of affirming that it was this text that directed each individual's life and defined the character of the people and the nation. The learning is experiential, not intellectual, and the goal was one of religious orientation and commitment: "That they may hear and so learn to revere the Lord your God and to observe faithfully every word of this Torah." </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">If this sounds familiar, it should. A public declaration of God's word so that the people come to fear and obey God is how the Torah describes the revelation at Mt. Sinai: "Behold I come to you in the thickness of the cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you, and so that they will also believe in you forever." (Shemot 19:9). Two key words in this passage are "people" (<em>am</em>) and "hear" (<em>yishmah</em>), which find exact parallel in our parasha, "Gather the people (ha'am)... that they may hear (<em>yishmau</em>)". The parallel goes further, for in Devarim the day of standing at Mt. Sinai is described three times as <em>yom ha'kahal</em>, the day of gathering (<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_48046731" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">9:10</span></span>, 10:4, <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_48046732" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(204, 204, 204); position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">18:16</span></span>). In fact, the <em>mitzvah</em> of <em>hakhel</em> directly echoes the words that Moshe used when he recounted the events of Mt. Sinai:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">(Devarim 31:12-13)</span></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Gather (<em>hakhel</em>) the people (<em>ha'am</em>) together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates...</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">that they may hear (<em>yishmeu</em>), and...</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">that they may learn (<em>yilmedu</em>) to fear (<em>li'yirah</em>) the Lord your God... And that their children (<em>bi'neichem</em>)... may hear, and learn to fear (<em>li'yirah</em>) the Lord your God...</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">all the days (<em>kol ha'yamim</em>) as you live (<em>chayim</em>) in the land (<em>ha'adamah</em>) which you go over Jordan to possess it...<br /> </li>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"> Gather (<em>hakhel</em>) Me the people (<em>ha'am</em>) together, and...</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">I will make them hear (<em>a'shmiem</em>) my words...</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">that they may learn (<em>yilmadum</em>) to fear (<em>li'yirah</em>) Me...</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">all the days (<em>kol ha'yamim</em>) that they shall live (<em>chayim</em>) upon the earth (<em>ha'adama</em>), and that they may teach their children (<em>bi'neichem</em>).<br /> </li>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>Hakhel</em> is not only a reaffirmation of the covenant; it is a reliving of the<em> yom ha'kahal</em>, the day of receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Rambam makes this point: "Even converts who do not comprehend (the language) must direct their hearts and give their ear to hear (the<em> hakhel</em> recitation) with fear and awe and to rejoice in trembling as on the day that the Torah was given at Sinai... and one should see himself as if he was now commanded in the Torah and as if he heard it directly from God." (Laws of Chagigah 3:6). To be present at the <em>hakhel</em> ceremony was to stand again at Sinai. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Twenty-five years ago, Judith Plaskow coined the phrase "standing again at Sinai" in her groundbreaking book by that name. In "Standing Again at Sinai," Plaskow points out that Moshe tells the people at the foot of Mt. Sinai to "be prepared for three days, do not draw close to a woman." (Shemot 19:15). This verse demonstrates - writes Plaskow - that the Torah was being given to the men and that the women were not part of the covenant, at least not directly so. She then goes on to call for a standing again at Sinai, a reclaiming and reshaping of the covenant by Jewish women today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">While Plaskow's read is the <em>pshat</em> of those verses, the rabbis of the Talmud go out of their way to include women in the Sinai narrative. They stated that God's directive to Moshe at Sinai to speak to "the house of Jacob" (<em>beit Yaakov</em>) refers specifically to the women, and that the demand that there be no sexual contact for the three days prior was to enable the women - not the men - to be ritually pure for the event.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">However one reads the standing at Sinai in Shemot, there can be no question that in Devarim the Sinai event is understood to have involved the entire nation. The<em>mitzvah</em> of <em>hakhel</em> is to relive the <em>yom ha'kahal</em>, the day when everyone - men, women, and children - stood at Mt. Sinai. And it is to reaffirm the covenant with God made before they entered the land, a covenant that was made with "your children, your women, and the stranger in your camp" (29:9-10).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">While the <em>hakhel</em> event occurred only once every seven years, there is a way in which we perform a mini-<em>hakhel</em> multiple times each week: through our communal reading of the Torah in the synagogue. The Torah is read on Shabbat, Mondays, and Thursdays, times when as many people as possible can be present for the reading. The Talmud (Bava Kama 82a) relates that while aspects of this practice began at the time of Moshe, it took on its current form only in the time of Ezra, when Ezra delivered a public reading of the Torah to the people (Nehemia, ch. 8). Significantly, the verses there state that Ezra read it "before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding." (8:2).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The trice-weekly reading of Torah lacks the drama and power of the <em>hakhel</em> reading and it may not be functioning as a full reenactment of the Sinaitic event with all its pyrotechnics. But it is nevertheless a regular connecting to the Torah and to the divine word. Because it is a quieter, smaller, and more modest event, it allows for a different type of connection, not just experiential, but also educational. Ezra read the Torah to "all that could hear with understanding," and it was read "distinctly, and they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." (v. 8). It was this need for the people to understand that led to the institution of the<em> meturgaman</em>, the translator who would give a running rendition of the verses in the vernacular. The reading in the synagogue is thus a form of <em>talmud Torah</em> as much as it is a form of hearing and receiving the Torah.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The fact that Ezra included women in his public reading of the Torah demonstrates that it was critical to connect women not only to the experience of God's word, but also to the meaning of those words, in other words, to the learning of Torah. This is consistent with the status and sanctity of Torah, which is in principle universalist and non-hierarchical in nature. Priesthood is limited to the sons of Aharon, kingship is limited to the descendants of David, but the Torah is available to all (Rambam, Talmud Torah 3:1). And the hierarchy of Kohen, Levi, and Yisrael, of man and woman, is trumped by the meritocracy of Torah study (Mishna Horiyot 3:8). I believe that this is the reason why according to the <em>braita</em> (Megilah 23a), women and children can in principle receive an aliyah to the Torah, although they are normally assumed to be excluded from synagogue ritual. Why of all synagogue rituals are they included here? It is because the reading of the Torah is a standing again at Sinai, an event which includes all of Israel. And it is an act of a communal learning of Torah, and <em>talmud Torah</em> is open to all. While the Kohen, Levi, Yisrael hierarchy winds up reasserting itself in this context as well, the principle that all people are fundamentally included remains unchanged.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As we start to look towards Sukkot and Simchat Torah, when we will once again as a community celebrate our communal reading and completion of the Torah over the past year, let us commit that whenever we relive the receiving of the Torah, and whenever we connect to the learning and study of Torah, we do so as an entire community, men, women, and children, so that we may all be a part of the covenant and all have a part in God's Torah.</span></div>
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<b>Shabbat Shalom!</b></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-59197519687899913972016-09-29T12:06:00.001-04:002016-09-29T12:07:27.503-04:00To Lead, Perchance to Dream<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , " sans-serif";">To Lead, Perchance to Dream</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , " sans-serif";"><em>In memory of Shimon Peres </em></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , " sans-serif";">z"l<i>, 1923-2016</i></span><b> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The people about to enter the Land of Israel are different than those who left Egypt a generation earlier. These people were born free from slavery and can face the future without fear. They have forged a deep and lasting relationship with God over forty years in the wilderness. And they have become an am, individuals whose shared travels and travails, their shared past and future, have forged them into a single people. As Moshe tells them time and again, "It is <em>this day</em> that you have become a people to the Lord your God" (27:9, and see 26:18, 29:12). They are a people who are about to enter the land and become a nation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Appreciating this transformation is key to understanding why the covenant forged at Mount Sinai must be repeated before they enter the land. As Parashat Nitzavim opens, we are told that the people have all been gathered "to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God." Earlier, the Torah tells us that this covenant is additional to the one made at Mount Sinai (28:69). Why make the same covenant a second time? Because the first was made with a loose collection of individuals; the second would be made with a people and a soon-to-be nation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">A single people has a corporate, abstract identity which transcends the identities of the individuals who comprise it. Moshe thus declares that the covenant is being made "not with you alone ... but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the Lord our God and with those who are not with us here this day" (29:14). While Tanhuma explains this to mean that the souls of all future generations were present at that moment, the simple meaning of the verse is more straightforward: Just as a nation is bound by the treaties it makes after all those who signed them have passed away, so too, Moshe is saying, you are entering into this covenant not as individuals but as the Jewish people, and it will be binding on you as a people at all times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is why the Torah introduces the concept of <em>areivut</em>, the idea that we are responsible for the actions of others. One aspect of <em>areivut</em> is reflected in the well-known phrase "<em>kol Yisrael areivim </em><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>zeh ba'zeh</em></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">," "all of Israel are guarantors for one another" (Shavuot 39a). This indicates a personal obligation, that each person is responsible for every other person. A different dimension emerges from the opening section of our <em>parasha</em>, that of communal responsibility. Here we are told that if a person practices idolatry, thinking himself not bound by the covenant, the entire land will be devastated and the people sent into exile because "<em>they</em> have abandoned the covenant of God" (29:23). The nation is to be punished for the actions of individuals. If they had created a better society, if they had done more to ensure that everyone received proper religious and moral education, to create a fair and just legal system, to have religious and political leaders who were examples for the people, then no one would be writing themselves out of the covenant. The community as a whole is held responsible for falling short.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The second covenant differs from the first in other ways as well. At the sealing of the Sinaitic covenant in Parashat Bechukotai, the Torah spells out all the tragedies that will befall the people if they abandon God's laws. At the end of the long litany of curses, the Torah concludes with a note of hope and reassurance: God will not abandon or reject us; he will remember the Exodus and the covenant with the forefathers and save us for their sake (Vayikra 26:45). In stark contrast, after the long descriptions of curses in last week's <em>parasha</em>, there is no similar concluding verse; we are left with a bleak picture devoid of hope: "And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way which I spoke to you that you shall see it no more. There you shall sell yourselves unto your enemies for slave men and women, but none will buy" (28:68). Our forefathers are not mentioned here, and the Exodus from Egypt is now to be reversed: we will be taken from the Land of Israel and brought back to Egypt so despised that we will be worse than slaves, abandoned and forgotten. There will be no hope and nowhere to go. It will be-in all appearances-the end of our story as a people.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The difference between these endings is rooted in the different identities of the people. In the first covenant, the people are a loose collective. Indeed, in contrast to the later curses, those here refer to the people in the plural, indicating that they are not a single nation. As individuals, there is no collective history to reverse, just punishment and suffering for all. Their culpability is less, and so are the expectations for them. They are not yet a mature, empowered nation. The people have just reached the stage of being responsible for their individual actions; they certainly cannot be entrusted to protect the future of the nation. It is God, as a parent, who must step in and save them. This is what we do for our children. They will stumble and fall, and at times we will punish them, perhaps even harshly, but in the end, we will always be there for them. As Robert Frost put it, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there / They have to take you in." God, and our relationship with God, is our home. It is a home founded by our forefathers and imbued with the warm nostalgic memories of the Exodus. When we have to go there, when our lives are at stake and we need refuge and protection, God will always take us in.</span></span></div>
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The second covenant tells a different story. In it, as a people and a nation, we are the custodians of our history, so if we fail, the covenant can be reversed and effectively wiped out. But we are also custodians of our future. We are not given safety nets and comforting reassurances; after tragedy upon tragedy, a time may come that looks like the end. At such a time, God will not save us by swooping in from above. Rather, we must take matters into our own hands.</div>
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This is the story told in our <em>parasha</em>: "And it will be when all these things befall you....and you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice" (30:1-2). More than the simple acknowledgement of sin necessary for God to take us back in Bechukotai, here we must have a true reversal of direction. It is an active returning to God, turning our lives around, returning to the land, and restoring our history. After we have changed course, God will follow suit: "And the Lord your God will return your captivity, and return and gather you from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you there" (30:3). We direct the course of events; our actions cause God to act.</div>
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Our future may have looked bleak when we were first left to ourselves, but when we are able to take charge of our future, we can grow to heights not previously imagined. Here, we are not saved on account of our forefathers. Rather, we are told that God "will do good to you and make you <em>greater than your </em><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><em>fathers</em></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">" (30:5). The Yerushalmi (Shvi'it 6:1) states that this means the second sanctification of the Land of Israel in the time of Ezra was more powerful and enduring than the first, in the time of Joshua. This is what true growing up is about: knowing that you can be as good your parents and, in some ways, even better. This can only happen on the national level once we have taken responsibility for ourselves as a people.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As Rosh HaShanah approaches, we derive comfort from knowing that no matter how far we stray, God will always take us back in. At the same time, we know that if we want to protect our personal past and shape our future, we must take charge of our own lives; we must not just confess our sins, but truly change our actions. If we want to chart our future as a people, we must own our communal responsibility, know that all of <em>Klal Yisrael</em> is part of the covenant, and know that it is up to us to create the type of society, and the type of future, that we want as a people.</span></span></div>
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This was the type of leadership exhibited by Shimon Peres in his seven decades of public service to the people and state of Israel. He believed that it was necessary to dream, stating that to accept the status quo was to give up on Israel's future. Peres was that rare breed of leader, a statesman, not a politician, a man who thought about history, not the next election. He knew what it meant to be a custodian of the people's history and their future, and that one must always do what is right, not what is expedient. In his words, "It's better to be controversial for the right reasons, than to be popular for the wrong reasons."May his memory be for a blessing.<br />
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<b>Shabbat Shalom!</b></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-54499051268872420202016-09-22T17:23:00.000-04:002016-09-22T17:23:06.241-04:00 One Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for All<div _mce_style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><b>One Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for All</b></span></div>
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The issue of who can be seen as a full member of the community arises at the beginning of this week’s <em>parasha</em> and is revisited at the outset of the next. In the opening of Ki Tavo, we read of two <em>mitzvot</em> that apply when a person harvests the produce of the land: the <em>mitzvah</em> of <em>bikkurim</em>, or first fruits, and the <em>mitzvah</em> of <em>viduy ma’aser</em>, the declaration made when a person distributes what remains of his tithes at the end of three years. In both, the farmer gives thanks to God for the harvest and knows that he must share this divinely-granted bounty with those who are less fortunate: the Levite, the <em>ger</em> (the stranger), the orphan, and the widow (26:11-2).</div>
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As a landowner, the farmer’s privileged position in society is implicit in these <em>mitzvot</em>. The Levite and the stranger do not own land, a serious economic disadvantage in an agricultural society, and the widow and orphan do not have an adult male to protect and provide for them. This privilege extends beyond wealth to status. In the society that the Torah imagines, one’s land is primarily inherited, not purchased (see Vayikra 25). To own land, then, is to be a fully entitled citizen, a descendant of those who originally entered the land, exactly as the person bringing the first fruits narrates: “I declare today that I have come to the land that the Lord swore to our fathers <em>to give to us</em>” (26:3). He recites the story of the Exodus and declares that he is part of the sacred history, that his life as a part of the people is a culmination of God’s promise to the forefathers. The stranger and the widow are unable to make such a declaration. As outsiders, minors, or women, they have not inherited land; they do not figure as primary actors in the nation’s history; and they are not seen by society as having the same rights of belonging as others. It is the mandate of the landowner to protect and support them, but they remain at a distinctly lower social stratum.</div>
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The opening of next week’s <em>parasha</em> presents a different picture: “You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God ... all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, and the stranger within your camp ... to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God” (29:9-11). Here, the Torah implicitly recognizes that children, women, and strangers are not seen the same way as the men. It is for this reason that they must be identified explicitly, but it challenges such social stratification at the same time. The Torah is saying, while society may place you at different levels, today you all stand on equal footing to enter into the covenant with God. Although you have not inherited land and are not a recipient of <em>that</em> divine promise, you are part of the sacred history reaching back to the forefathers, “So that God may establish you this day as his people, and He shall be your God, as He spoke to you and as He swore to your forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov” (29:12).</div>
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We are presented with two competing models: one of social stratification and one of religious and covenantal equality. How are these two models to co-exist? One answer is that each one inhabits its own distinct sphere. In the public and political spheres, the societal hierarchies remain, but in the private and religious spheres, all are equal members of the covenant. This solution will only go so far; in the end, the two spheres will necessarily intersect. To take one example, if a <em>ger</em> is unable to make the <em>bikkurim</em> declaration because he does not have a portion in the land, he is then placed in a lower position socially and religiously.</div>
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Another possibility exists: We can read the equality of the covenant as a critique of social hierarchies and a mandate to not only protect the <em>ger</em>, the widow, and the orphan, but ultimately, to remove the social inequities that place them at the margins. This point can particularly be seen in the case of the <em>ger</em>, for the Torah commands us multiple times, “one law you shall have for you, for the stranger, and for the citizen alike, for I am the Lord your God” (Vayirka 24:22). The ultimate goal is to achieve true equality of status.</div>
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This dynamic actually played out in <em>halakha</em>, in the case of whether and how a<em> ger</em>-understood by the Rabbis as “convert”-may bring the first fruits. The Mishna Bikkurim (1:3) declares that “A <em>ger</em> brings <em>bikkurim</em> but does not recite [the Biblical passage], because he cannot say, ‘that You, God, swore to our forefathers to give to us.’” While allowing the <em>ger</em> to participate in the ritual and give thanks to God, this ruling excludes him from connecting with the history of the people. The problem here is not limited to the issue of inheriting the land; it extends to one’s very relationship with God. The Mishna continues: “When he prays by himself he declares [in place of ‘our God and the God of our fathers’], ‘[our God and] the God of the fathers of Israel,’ and when he prays in the synagogue he declares, ‘the God of your fathers.’” To recite his prayers in such a way must result in an acute degree of felt exclusion. Having joined the faith and identified with the people, the <em>ger</em> must now, on a daily basis, pray to a God with whom he has a personal relationship (“our God”), but a God who remains the God of another people. The <em>ger</em> remains forever an outsider. The move in this Mishna from recitation of <em>bikkurim </em>to prayer between the <em>ger</em> and God is the trumping of the social hierarchy over the covenantal equality, even in purely religious matters.</div>
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The story, thankfully, does not end there. The Yerushalmi quotes an opposing position of Rabbi Yehudah, who states that a ger does recite the bikkurim declaration and also recites “God of our fathers” when he prays, just like everyone else. Rambam explains this movingly in a letter to a convert by the name of Obadiah (responsum 293, translation by Isadore Twersky):</div>
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You ask me if you, too, are allowed to say in the blessings and prayers you offer alone or in the congregation: “<em>Our</em> God” and “God of <em>our </em>fathers”....In the same way as every Jew by birth says his blessing and prayer, you, too, shall bless and pray alike....The reason for this is that Abraham our Father taught the people, opened their minds, and revealed to them the true faith and the unity of God....Ever since then whoever adopts Judaism and confesses the unity of the Divine Name, as it is prescribed in the Torah, is counted among the disciples of Abraham our Father, peace be with him... </div>
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Therefore you shall pray, “Our God” and “God of our fathers,” because Abraham, peace be with him, is <em>your </em>father. And you shall pray, “The land that You have bequeathed to our fathers,” for the land has been given to Abraham....Since you have come under the wings of the Divine Presence and confessed the Lord, no difference exists between you and us, and all miracles done to us have been done as it were to us and to you. </div>
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Here we have the reverse of what we saw in the Mishna. The <em>ger</em> refers to God as the God of his fathers in his prayers, and the miracles of Exodus were wrought to his fathers as well. He is now one of the people and their forbearers are his own. It goes further: The <em>ger</em> may even declare that the land has been bequeathed to his fathers, and-following the Yerushalmi-he may make the <em>bikkurim</em> declaration, proclaiming that God has taken him from Egypt and given him the land of Israel, although he in fact never truly owns the land as part of the original inheritance. Covenantal equality has trumped the societal hierarchies.</div>
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This is emphasized in other <em>mitzvot</em> as well. The Torah commands the<em> ger </em>to bring the Pesach sacrifice to share and affirm his participation in the foundational history of the people, and he has the <em>mitzvah</em> to recite the story of the Exodus on the Seder night-which takes the text of the <em>bikkurim</em> declaration as its point of departure-and to make himself part of that story. And when it comes to his ability to stake a claim to the land, the <em>ger</em> has the <em>mitzvah</em> of <em>birkat ha’mazon</em>, thanking God for the food after one eats and for the land-the land of Israel-that God has given us.</div>
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The Torah presents us with two competing models of belonging for the <em>ger</em>, the orphan, and the widow. One places them as a protected, disadvantaged class, and the other represents the rejection of class distinctions and the embracing of covenantal equality. Hazal have shown us that it is our responsibility to embrace the latter, to ensure that everyone is an equal member of the covenant and an equal member of society.</div>
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<b>Shabbat Shalom!</b></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-32252319930416903312016-09-15T16:41:00.000-04:002016-09-16T08:48:06.446-04:00A Rabbi and a Scientist Walk into a Room...<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Feel free to download and print
the <a alt="http://files.constantcontact.com/49c02d16001/bf789462-884a-4e6b-8922-ad66635b42d9.pdf" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=p75ljryab.0.0.uede6qbab.0&id=preview&r=3&p=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.constantcontact.com%2F49c02d16001%2Fbf789462-884a-4e6b-8922-ad66635b42d9.pdf" shape="rect" target="_blank" title="undefined">Parashat
Ki Teitzei sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A Rabbi and a Scientist Walk into a Room...<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Can new
discoveries in science and advances in technology bring about changes in <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>? The question is
not whether <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
can address phenomena that did not exist in the time of the Talmud, such as
electricity, surrogate motherhood, and organ transplants; that is the regular
work of <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>.
The question, rather, is whether a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
formulated on certain scientific or technological assumptions can change once those
assumptions are proven incorrect. The Gemara, for example, states that a baby
born in the eighth month of pregnancy is not viable and that her mother cannot
even nurse her on Shabbat because the baby is "like a stone" and will
definitely die. This is in contrast to a baby born during the seventh month,
which the Gemara considers to be viable. In another case, the Gemara makes it
forbidden to eat meat and fish cooked in the same oven because it poses a
health hazard. Since we now know it to be otherwise, should the <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em> change to reflect
our current knowledge?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A number of
people would object to the notion that the Rabbis of the Talmud could make
errors in science. Rambam was certainly not bothered by this; he wrote that the
Rabbis possessed scientific knowledge no more advanced than the scientists of
the time (Guide to the Perplexed, II:8 and III:14). Others not prepared to
concede this point but unable to deny that their direct experience of the world
ran contrary to statements in the Talmud argued that nature had changed since
the time of the Talmud: <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">nishtaneh
ha'tevah</span></em> (see, for example, Tosfot Avoda Zara 24b, s.v. <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">parah</span></em>). Either way, once
it was accepted that reality was not as the Talmud described, the question
arose: Will <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
change as a result? The answer has implications for many <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakhot</span></em> and <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mitzvot</span></em>, two of which
appear side by side in our <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">parasha</span></em>.
The Torah admonishes us regarding a number of people who cannot
enter into "the congregation of the Lord," that is, who cannot marry
another Jew. One of these is the <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">petzuah
dakah</span></em>, the man with crushed testicles; another is the <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mamzer</span></em>, the person born
from an illicit union (23:1-2).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In February
1963, Rav Moshe Feinstein was asked about the case of a man who had a
testicular biopsy so that the doctors might determine why he had been unable to
have children (Iggrot Moshe Even Ha'Ezer 2:3). If any part of the testicle was
removed, the man would be considered a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">petzuah
dakah</span></em> according to the Gemara, and he would be forbidden to continue
living with his wife. Rav Moshe noted that the procedure in question could
quite likely help-and it certainly would not hurt-the man's fertility. Thus, he
concluded, if it could be established, first, that the Gemara's determination
was not based on the physical condition of the organ alone but on the
assumption that such a condition made the man sterile and, second, that the
Gemara's ruling could be reassessed based on current scientific knowledge, we
could then conclude that the man would not be a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">petzuah dakah</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This led Rav
Moshe to analyze at length the question of whether <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em> can change with new scientific
knowledge. This had actually been discussed extensively through the centuries
with the issue of <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">treifot</span></em>,
animals with injuries considered to be fatal. Rambam ruled that the list of
injuries cannot be updated based on new medical knowledge, even to be more
strict (Laws of Shechita 10:12-13). This point was passionately reiterated by
Rashba in a responsum (1:98), as it has been by many <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">poskim</span></em> since. But Rav
Moshe argued that the case of <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">treifot</span></em>
was an exception to the rule, being that the <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">treifot</span></em>
were ultimately known and concretized through tradition and not science. For
other <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakhot</span></em>,
the matter was different:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">[F]or we
find in many other cases that the Torah relied on the Rabbis' assessment of
reality, regarding absorption and transfer of taste [of foods in vessels], and
when a planting takes root, and similar issues....[And when it comes to matters
other than <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">treifah</span></em>,]
the determination is based on the assessment of the doctors of any given
time....We thus see that unless we are compelled otherwise, we should assume
that matters that are dependent on nature should be based on the assessment of
the rabbis of every given time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">For Rav
Moshe, any <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
based on an assumption relating to science or the natural world can be
reassessed as our knowledge changes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Does this
mean every <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
should be reassessed on this basis? The answer is no. The process of changing <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em> based on science
can be threatening and disruptive; acknowledging error can serve to undermine
faith in the authority of the Rabbis or the divinely-binding nature of the
system. Allowing science to dictate <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakhic</span></em>
change also locates ultimate authority outside of the system, with science and
scientists and not with the Rabbis; this is why Rav Moshe spoke about the
determination of the Rabbis and not scientists. Beyond all of this, change is
disruptive. Any legal system must be fundamentally conservative: the law must
be stable so that it can support, guide, and direct behavior. No <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">posek</span></em> worth his salt is
interested in doing a wholesale audit of <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
to determine which <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakhot</span></em>
are out of sync with science to then change them accordingly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
opposite-that no <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
should ever be revisited-is equally not true. A good <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">posek</span></em> knows that sometimes
the law must be flexible; it must be able to respond to the human condition.
The ability to reassess a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
based on science can be an effective tool in finding <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakhic</span></em> solutions to
challenging cases. Thus, Rav Moshe used his principle to rule that the man is
not a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">petzuah dakah</span></em>,
but he did not use it to reassess the laws of <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">kashrut</span></em>, which he could have easily done, and
with good reason. Today's pots are made from stainless steel, and they don't
absorb the taste of non-kosher food. If we were to reassess the laws of
absorption of taste, we would wind up jettisoning half the laws of <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">kashrut</span></em>. Rav Moshe wisely
lets that possibility lie dormant. (Interestingly, just this week Rav Eliezer
Melamed of Yeshivat Har Bracha reawakened that possibility, arguing that after
the fact, food cooked in a clean stainless steel pot is always kosher,
regardless of what it was used for in the past!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The balance
between stability and responsiveness can also be seen in the cases mentioned at
the outset. In the case of a baby born in the eighth month, with a human life
at stake, almost all <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">poskim</span></em>
state that the ruling of the Gemara is no longer operative; the baby is
considered viable and Shabbat must be broken to protect his life. However,
there is no major need to reassess the prohibition of cooking meat and fish in
the same oven, so that <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
remains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This brings
us to the second <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mitzvah</span></em>,
the prohibition against a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mamzer</span></em>
marrying anyone who is not a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mamzer</span></em>.
In July 1977, Rav Waldenberg dealt with the question of child support: In a
case where the paternity of the child was in doubt, could a blood test be used
to demonstrate that a particular person could not be the father? Rav Waldenberg
argued that <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
could not recognize the results of such a test, inasmuch as the Talmud states
that the red matter in a person, including the blood, comes from the mother and
not the father. To argue this way seems nonsensical: the Talmud passage in
question isn't a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakhic</span></em>
ruling, and there is no question about the science behind a blood test. But Rav
Waldenberg knew what he was doing. To have allowed a blood test to be used in <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em> would mean that we
could determine that someone's father was not the man married to his mother, in
other words, that the person was a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mamzer</span></em>.
This would be highly disruptive to the system, which goes to great lengths to
minimize cases of <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mamzeirut</span></em>,
and disastrous in terms of the human cost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
introduction of change into the system brings about consequences, both seen and
unforeseen, and it is just as likely that it will make things worse rather than
better. The ability to reassess <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
based on science is a powerful tool in the hand of a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">posek</span></em>, and it must be
wielded responsibly. A good <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">posek</span></em>
is one who knows that <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">halakha</span></em>
must be as responsive as possible to human needs and that it must remain
stable, consistent, and true to our <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">mesorah</span></em>.
While different <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">poskim</span></em>
will strike this balance differently, it is on every <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">posek</span></em> to ensure that our
Torah remains both a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Torat
emet</span></em> and a <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Torat
chayim</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Shabbat Shalom!</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-26666450824877917262016-09-08T13:22:00.000-04:002016-09-08T13:23:38.351-04:00Says Who?<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Feel free to download and print the <a alt="http://files.constantcontact.com/49c02d16001/a0a137a3-9deb-4cc6-8d7f-a2bab5365bc7.pdf" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=65iympyab.0.0.uede6qbab.0&id=preview&r=3&p=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.constantcontact.com%2F49c02d16001%2Fa0a137a3-9deb-4cc6-8d7f-a2bab5365bc7.pdf" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1607" shape="rect" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat
Shoftim sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b>Says Who?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">What is the basis for Rabbinic authority? Why do we follow the Talmud? Why is the Rabbis' interpretation of Torah mitzvot binding on us? The Talmud tells us that the answer to some of these questions can be found in our parasha. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Much of Parashat Shoftim is devoted to institutions of authority: the court system, the king, the prophet, and the high court, the supreme legal authority of the land. The role prescribed for the high court is similar to that of the United States Supreme Court today: it has the right to interpret the legally binding meaning of our canonized text, here, the mitzvot of the Torah. The Torah states that if there is a matter "of dispute in your gates" and "the matter of law is hidden from you," then "You shall arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose." It continues:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And you shall come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days and enquire; and they shall tell you the sentence of judgment. And you shall do according to the sentence, which they shall tell you from that place which the Lord shall choose, and you shall observe to do according to all that they inform thee. According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not deviate from the sentence which they shall tell you to the right, nor to the left (Devarim 17:8-11).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Torah is investing this body with the power to interpret a law whose meaning is unclear. Anyone who deviates from their interpretation violates both the positive mitzvah to follow the law that they shall teach, and the mitzvah to not deviate from it, to the right or to the left. While the basis of the Rabbis' legislative power is best saved for another discussion, this would seem to serve as a basis for Rabbinic authority in matters of interpreting Biblical law. But the matter is far from clear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">First, in this case, the court is not analyzing the meaning of a law for its own sake. Rather, it is responding to a case brought before them. Just as the Supreme Court cannot rule on a law until a case is brought before it, there is nothing in the Torah giving this body any authority to initiate a ruling on their own accord. Moreover, the Torah does not describe an individual bringing a question to the court, say, on the scope of a melakha on Shabbat, but rather, a case of litigants, "a matter of dispute in your gates." The litigants might turn directly to the high court, or a lower court-the judges situated "in your gates"-could refer a case because the scope or application of the law was unclear. Because each side is demanding justice, the matter must be referred to a higher court for an authoritative decision. This is how a court that oversees the law of the land operates; it does not make proactive rulings or respond to inquiries of individuals. But this is not how the Talmud operates. The Talmud's ruling regarding Shabbat, kashrut, prayer, torts, and even murder all emerged from a group of rabbis discussing the issues among themselves-a far cry from "a matter of dispute in your gates." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Even if we were to assert that the court could initiate such rulings and decisions, we would still have a long way to go to connect the body described in these verses to the Rabbis of the Talmud. According to these verses, this body consists of a single judge and kohanim. The "judge" may refer to a sage or to someone knowledgeable in the law, but it may also refer to a political leader, typically referred to as judges in the book of Judges. Thus, the Talmud comments on the phrase, "the judge that you will have at that time": "Yiftach in his generation should be like [i.e., treated with the same respect as] Shmuel in his generation" (Rosh HaShannah 25b). While Shmuel did indeed judge the people (Shmuel 1, 7:15-16), Yiftach was only a political leader, and yet the Rabbis see this verse as referring to him as well. More significantly, the kohanim are not sages. Their role here seems to be that of God's representatives, hence the location of this body on Temple grounds. It is true that the kohanim are entrusted with the responsibility of teaching Torah to the people later in Devarim (33:10), but there is no indication that this is their function here, or that a sage who is not a kohen would be eligible to serve on this body.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Finally, as this body is the supreme judicial authority of the land, it is singular and centrally located. While there did exist a single, central Sanhedrin in the time of the Second Temple, only a tiny fraction of Talmudic rulings comes from that body. The vast majority come from the post-Temple, post-Sanhedrin period, when there was no single authoritative body. What, then, is the basis for the authority of the Rabbis of the Talmud?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Of course, it could be argued that none of these details matter, that after the Temple's destruction the Sages replaced the kohanim as the religious leaders of the people, and the verse applies to them as well. It could also be argued that these verses support the idea that a local body can have authority for those who turn to it in the absence of a central body. While it is possible to interpret the verses this way, it will not solve our problem, for what would make such a reading authoritative? The answer cannot be that the Talmud says it is so, for this is obviously circular: How do we know that the Rabbis have the right to interpret the Torah? Because they interpret the Torah to say that they have that right!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">While this is clearly begging the question, it is worth noting that we find a similar instance in the history of the Supreme Court. The right of the Court to determine if a law is constitutional is, in fact, not explicitly granted in the Constitution. It was only in Marbury v. Madison (1803) that the Supreme Court ruled that it has this authority, which they ruled was implicit in the Court's duty to uphold the Constitution. While a somewhat circular argument, there was at least never any question as to which body had the right to make the final legal decisions of the land. In contrast, there is nothing that obviously leads from the verses in the Torah to identifying the Talmudic Rabbis as such a body.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">So we are back where we started. What is the basis for Rabbinic authority to interpret Torah law? Ultimately, an explicit answer cannot be found in the Torah, as history makes clear. Going back to the time of the Second Temple, there were sects that rejected Rabbinic authority while fully accepting the authority of the Torah: the Essenes, the Sadducees, and later the Karaites. So much of what distinguished these groups from Rabbinic Jews lay in who they believed to hold the ultimate authority to interpret and apply Torah law. Their respective answers were not found in verses; they were found in the practitioners' beliefs. A Rabbinic Jew believed in Rabbinic authority. This was an a priori belief; it was his point of departure. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In a way, this is no different than belief in the Torah itself. Why does a person believe that the Torah is from God? The answer can't be that the Torah says so. That's circular! (An old yeshiva joke: "How do you know that God exists? Rambam says so, and Ra'avad doesn't argue." So much for yeshiva humor...) If one steps outside the system, there is no objective evidence which proves a person's beliefs. One is a Torah Jew because she believes that the Torah comes from God and is binding on us. And one is a Rabbinic Jew because she believes that the Rabbis were invested with the authority to interpret the Torah.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Our parasha is largely devoted to laying the foundations for a system of authority-the king, the courts, the judges, and the prophet-and to severely punishing those who would challenge it. Of all these, the one that remains today, the authority to interpret the Torah, that is, rabbinic authority, is the one that is ultimately rooted in those who believe in it and accept it upon themselves. This parallels our contemporary condition: We live in a world in which, for the majority, religious practice is not imposed by the state but is fully voluntary. We live in a world in which the only power that rabbis comes, in practice, from those who turn to them. Some may bemoan this state of affairs, but for many, it is the ideal. It helps prevent-to some degree and in many but not all cases-gross abuses of power. And it helps create a dynamic wherein rabbis must be attuned to the needs of the populace if they hope to have people turn to them for their rulings and leadership. Such is the nature of an authority that emerges from belief, acceptance, and choice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">So who says the Rabbis have this authority? I do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Shabbat Shalom!</b></span></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-487515931666380852016-09-01T13:56:00.001-04:002016-09-01T13:56:56.934-04:00Friends, Romans, Countrymen: Lend Me Your Money<div _mce_style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: left;">Feel free to download and print the </span><a _mce_href="http://files.constantcontact.com/49c02d16001/291df1c9-f081-4831-892b-9669470f3016.pdf" _mce_shape="rect" _mce_style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://files.constantcontact.com/49c02d16001/291df1c9-f081-4831-892b-9669470f3016.pdf" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1605" shape="rect" style="color: blue !important; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: left;" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat Re'eh sheet</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: left;"> and share it with your friends and family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Friends, Romans, Countrymen: Lend Me Your Money</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If asked which<i> mitzvah</i> obligates us to help the poor, we would immediately respond, "The <i>mitzvah</i> of <i>tzedakah</i>." There's only one problem: no such <i>mitzvah</i> exists in the Torah. Nowhere in the Torah does it say that if a poor person asks us for money, we must give it to him. But wait, you say, that can't be right. In this week's <i>parasha</i> it says explicitly, "For you shall surely open you hand to him and you shall surely give him sufficient for his need, in that which he lacks" (15:8)! But that's not really what the verse says. The Hebrew word (mis-)translated here as "give" is <i>ta'avitenu</i>. The root of the word is <i>avot</i>, collateral, and it doesn't mean to give money but to lend it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is true that by bracketing the key word "lend," the Talmud uses our verse to refer to a <i>mitzvah</i> to give <i>tzedakah</i>: "It is a positive <i>mitzvah</i> to give<i> tzedakah</i>... as the verse says, 'You shall surely open your hand to him'" (Rambam, Laws of Gifts to the Poor, 7:1). But in the simple sense of this verse, there is not a <i>mitzvah</i> to give a gift of money, only to loan it. The context makes this clear. After commanding us to release debts during the<i> shmitta</i> year, the Torah turns to the loans that are the source of that debt. It tells us that we must lend money to a poor person and that we cannot refuse the loan because we know that it will be annulled when the <i>shmitta</i> year arrives. The Torah is clearly dealing with loans, not the giving of alms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why would the Torah focus on loans and ignore<i> tzedakah</i>? Isn't it better for a poor person to receive a straight-out gift? He could use the money to feed his family and pay the rent without having to worry about how he will repay it. And lending money is problematic for another reason: the lender has power over the borrower. When the Torah states that a creditor cannot exact payment from a borrower during the <i>shmitta</i>, the word it uses is "<i>yigos</i>." This comes from the same root as the word used to describe the Egyptian taskmasters in Shemot (5:10,14). The reason is obvious: exacting payment from someone is exerting power over that person. Thus we are told, "You shall lend unto many nations, but you shalt not borrow; and you shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you." The parallel to lending money to someone is reigning over them. Perhaps Mishlei said it best: "The borrower is servant to the lender" (22:7).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why then the focus on lending? We can begin to answer our question by looking at the nature of lending in the Torah. First, no interest could be charged. This eliminated one of the biggest problems with borrowing: getting deeper and deeper into debt because of interest. This restriction makes no sense from an economic perspective. If I can charge rent when I lend out my car, why can't I charge rent when I lend out my money? While it may not make economic sense, it does make sense in terms of our moral obligations. In an agricultural society, people are not borrowing money to invest it; they are borrowing money because their crops failed and they can't feed their family or buy seed for the next year. Indeed, in our parasha the Torah assumes that the only people borrowing money are poor, and if there were no poor, then we would never have to lend money (15:4)! In that reality, charging interest would only drive desperate people deeper into debt. The Torah therefore tells us that one must give up the interest that could have been charged and the money that could have been made; this is our obligation to the poor among us. This type of lending is actually a form of <i>tzedakah</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other significant aspect of lending in the Torah is what we find in our <i>parasha</i>: the annulment of debts every seven years. In combination with no interest, this meant that a poor person could not lose money by taking a loan, and if he couldn't pay the money back, eventually the debt would be annulled. This would effectively convert the entire loan into a gift, that is, into <i>tzedakah</i> in the classical sense. But then why not just give a gift outright? There are two reasons, one moral and one financial.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The moral reason is that lending allows a person to keep his dignity. When a person is reduced to asking for alms, he is immediately seen-by himself and others-as someone living off the generosity of others, someone who can't pay his own way, a ward of society rather than a member. The Talmud recognized this and cautioned against it: "Better to treat your Sabbath like a weekday," that is, to go without any special food or special clothes for Shabbat, "than to be dependent on your fellow-beings" (Pesachim 113a). More to the point of prioritizing loans over alms-giving is the statement in Shabbat (63a): "R. Abba also said in the name of R. Simeon b. Lakish: He who lends [money] is greater than he who performs charity; and he who enters into a partnership is greater than all." Quoting Rashi, Beit Yosef (Yoreh Deah, 249) explains that loans are preferable to gifts because of the embarrassment that comes with accepting a gift. He then explains why entering into a partnership is ideal: "In such a case [of borrowing money], the borrower is embarrassed, for he benefits from his friend in a matter from which his friend does not benefit at all. But if one does business with him, in such a case he is not embarrassed at all, since both of them benefit."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is real irony here. The benefit of lending money is that it preserves the borrower's dignity. But the Torah's <i>mitzvot</i> regarding lending make loans more like<i> tzedakkah</i>, and this means that even loans will entail some compromise of dignity for the borrower. This dynamic was recognized by the founders of the Hebrew Free Loan Society, which was established at the turn of the century to help the immigrant Jewish population. Some local chapters decided to charge nominal interest as a way of making the loan a business transaction rather than an act of charity. While their practice was not consistent with <i>halakha</i>, the same result can be achieved <i>halakhically</i> through a <i>heter iska</i>, a device that frames a loan as a partnership and thus allows for the collection of interest. A <i>heter iska</i> is normally understood to serve the interests of the lender; here we see that, by making something a business transaction, the interests of the borrower may be served as well. It is clear, then, that a person's dignity and full membership in society is an immediate concern of the <i>mitzvah</i> to loan money.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The second reason to prefer loaning money is a financial one. There are multiple reasons why it makes good financial sense to emphasize loans over gifts. First, because of concerns over dignity, people will ask for a loan well before they will ask for straight out charity. A <i>mitzvah</i> to loan money will translate into help for people whose businesses are faltering by giving them the critical support they need before it is too late. Rashi (Vayikra 25:35) gives a colorful metaphor for this: "To what can this be compared? To a burden on a mule. While it is still on the mule, one person can hold on to it and allow the mule to stand, but once the mule has fallen, even five people will not be able to raise it up."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even when giving to the truly poor, there is also a difference between the economic impact of lending money and giving it. Gifts of money address an immediate need but not deeper systemic problems. The gift does not incentivize the person in any way. However, if a person takes a loan, even if it could eventually be annulled, she feels a legal and moral responsibility to pay it back, and this incentivizes her to find ways to invest it and generate new income. This is indeed what happened with Hebrew Free Loan Societies: the majority of loans were borrowed for entrepreneurial purposes, and this led to tremendous economic growth for the entire community. And there is one final benefit: if the money is paid back, the same money can be lent out again and again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have all internalized the Jewish value of giving <i>tzedakah</i>. We now need to internalize the value of lending money. There are many excellent <i>gemachs</i>, or free loan societies, that a person can give to, and if there isn't one in the immediate area, a new one can always be started. More broadly, a search of the web will reveal many ways to be involved in micro-lending, the practice of making small loans at low interest to allow individuals to invest the money and fund new businesses (<i>halakhic</i> issues would of course need to be addressed). The opportunities are there. It is for us to "open our hands and lend what is needed."</span></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-12670955766833260372016-08-25T15:43:00.002-04:002016-08-31T11:41:23.651-04:00 So, What's the Story With ... Christianity?<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Feel free to download and print the <a alt="http://files.constantcontact.com/49c02d16001/adaa86ae-ab6b-4551-9ddc-f13b5a2ab654.pdf" href="http://files.constantcontact.com/49c02d16001/adaa86ae-ab6b-4551-9ddc-f13b5a2ab654.pdf" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1603" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat Eikev sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.5pt;"><b>So,
What's the Story With ... Christianity?</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week we
explored how the Torah's prohibitions against idolatry fall into two
categories: 1) the belief in and worship of foreign gods and 2) the
representation or worship of God through an image or any physical
concretization. These recur throughout the book of Devarim in regular warnings
against the seductions of idolatry, and we find them again in Parashat Eikev:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The graven
images of their gods you shall burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver
or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein:
for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. Neither shalt thou
bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but
thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a
cursed thing (7:25-26).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
attraction here is not sexual; it is the desire for wealth. It does not begin
with the intent to worship idols, merely to take the gold and silver statues
because of their value. But doing so ignores the seductive power of such idols:
once they are in your house you will be drawn to them, and you will be led
astray. Thus the Torah prohibits any connection with these graven images, not
just the worship of foreign gods or the making of idols. In <i>halakhic</i>
terms, idols or things connected to them are <i>assur bi'hana'ah</i>, items
from which a person is forbidden to derive any benefit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These verses
also serve as the basis for the Rabbinic prohibition against renting a house to
an idolatrous Gentile. The Torah states that we shall not bring idols into our
homes. When we rent a house it still belongs to us, so if the Gentile brings
idols in with him, we will have allowed idols to be brought into our house,
thereby transgressing this Torah law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both of
these <i>halakhot</i> led to practical challenges in the Middle Ages. The
consensus of the Rishonim was that Christianity fell into the category of <i>avodah
zarah</i>. People might be shocked or offended by this categorization today,
but as we saw last week, <i>avodah zarah</i> is not limited to the worship of
foreign gods. Saying that Christianity is <i>avodah zarah</i> is not saying
that they worship a different God or that their belief in the Trinity is a form
of polytheism. Rather, it is a statement that their use of statues, icons, and
images is a "foreign worship," a worship prohibited by the Torah. The
<i>poskim</i> discuss the degree to which this continued to apply to
post-Reformation Protestants who rejected the use of such images and icons but
maintained their belief in incarnation, God in a physical form. Recently, there
have also been those who have pushed for an adoption of Meiri's position that
Christianity was never <i>avodah zarah</i>. For Meiri, the belief in a single,
transcendent God was enough to put Christianity outside the category of <i>avodah
zarah</i>, despite the use of forms and icons in worship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Be that as
it may, for the Rishonim Christianity was <i>avodah zarah</i>, and yet Jews
were engaged in buying and selling religious items, not only to lay Christians,
but even to the Church itself. Jews also rented houses to Christians even
though they would presumably bring in their icons and statues. The <i>halakhists</i>
of the time had either to declare that all of this activity was forbidden, or
to find a way to justify it within the <i>halakhic</i> system. They chose to do
the latter, leading to interesting reformulations of the status of Christianity
and Christians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the trade
of religious objects, the problem was not so much the status of <i>avodah zarah</i>
items as <i>assur bi'hana'ah</i>. This status applies only to items that have
been worshipped or used in worship. Thus, trade in used religious items would
be problematic, but there was no problem in deriving financial benefit from
trade in items that had yet to be used. There was, however, another problem.
Since the Noahide Laws prohibit idolatry, a Jew could not give or sell a
Gentile an object that would be used in worship. This would be a violation of <i>lifnei
eever</i>, the prohibition against putting a stumbling block before the blind,
that is, assisting someone in committing a sin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were
two ways to address this problem. The first was to limit the scope of <i>lifnei
eever</i>. Thus, some Rishonim stated that if the Gentile could readily
purchase the object from someone else, then selling it to him would not be the
cause of his "stumbling." Even if this were true, it would be
somewhat ironic to apply it in a situation where all the other sellers were
Jews. The act of an individual Jew would not be a transgression because other
Jews were doing the same thing!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other
approach, beginning to reassess the status of Christianity and Christians, was
of broader significance. Tosafot (Avoda Zara 2a) solved this and many similar
problems by distinguishing between the two: Christianity is <i>avodah zarah</i>,
he asserted, but Christians are not <i>ovdei avodah zarah</i>, worshippers of <i>avodah
zarah</i>! Tosafot separates the two by stating that Christians worship not out
of a deep knowledge of their faith, but because they follow practices passed
down through the generations and inherited from their parents. Many people will
find this assertion disquieting. First, its historical truth is doubtful. If
anything, Christians in the Middle Ages were very sincere, and if they were not
sincere Christians, it was often because they were backsliding into pagan
religions! Beyond that, there is something quite patronizing in saying that the
members of another faith are not sincere in their worship, let alone applying
this to all practitioners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nevertheless,
it got the job done. Through this distinction, Tosafot was able to avoid
compromising his definition of <i>avodah zarah</i>, leaving Christianity as
taboo while opening up a wide range of opportunities-primarily financial-to
interact with Christians. Following this, one could sell religious items to
Christians because their use was not considered real <i>avodah zarah </i>worship.
This still did not explain how people could sell items to the Church, for as a
rule, Tosafot did not claim that Christian priests were unknowledgeable or
insincere in their faith. Nevertheless, this argument went a long way toward
justifying the current practice of the people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
distinction between Christians and Christianity has had a long echo through
later <i>halakha</i>. It became an effective strategy for navigating real-world
situations in which <i>halakha</i> made it difficult for Jews to interact with
the Christian population. It did not solve all problems, however, and this gets
us back to renting houses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rema ruled
that a Jew could rent his house to a Christian, stating, "nowadays, they
do not bring their icons into the house" (YD 151:10). This sounds like
another legal fiction, and Shakh called him on it: "This is difficult,
because we see that they do bring their icons into the house, and they even
keep them there on a permanent basis. And it is difficult to claim that
nowadays, since Christians are not worshippers of <i>avodah zarah</i>, their
icons are also not considered to be <i>avodah zarah</i>" (YD 151:17).
Shakh is saying that we must draw a limit to this distinction. It is one thing
to allow a range of interactions with Christians because we do not consider
them worshippers of <i>avodah zarah</i>, but how can we find even the icons to
which they pray to be unproblematic?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course,
if one thinks about it logically, the two should go together. If Christians are
seen as insincere in their worship, then their praying to an icon should not be
an act of <i>avodah zarah</i>, the status that makes it forbidden. Although
this logically follows, I believe that Shakh is recognizing the same recoil
that we find expressed in the verses from our <i>parasha</i>. It is one thing,
he is saying, not to see Christians as taboo. They are people, after all, and
the laws that govern our interaction with them come by and large from the
Rabbis. But how could we not see the very object that was worshipped as taboo?!
Can we really live in a legal fiction and say that the very item the Torah
calls <i>cherem</i>, a cursed thing, and tells us to abhor utterly is not
problematic?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From a
religious perspective, Shakh's reaction makes a great deal of sense. And yet
there were <i>poskim</i> who did not hesitate to draw the logical conclusion
and argue that, if people are not true worshippers, icons are not true idols.
Despite the Torah's mandate to "utterly abhor" anything associated
with <i>avodah zarah</i>, ongoing interactions between Jews and Christians
provided the catalyst for rethinking <i>halakhic</i> categories related to <i>avodah
zarah</i> and the attendant prohibitions, a process which continues even today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shabbat Shalom!</span></b></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-30679677018106444902016-08-18T10:30:00.000-04:002016-08-25T15:39:57.160-04:00The Seductions of Idolatry<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Feel free to download and print
the <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9stznjyab.0.0.uede6qbab.0&id=preview&r=3&p=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.constantcontact.com%2F49c02d16001%2Ff8e04afe-27f9-4779-acd8-f23eb5b20457.pdf" target="_blank" title="undefined">Parashat VaEtchanan sheet</a> and share it
with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial black" , sans-serif;">The
Seduction of Idolatry</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Much of the
book of Devarim is devoted to warning the people against being seduced by
idolatry when they enter the land. It is often hard for us to appreciate why
idolatry was such a temptation in the past. To better understand the
attraction, we must look more closely at the metaphors and images the verses
use in the exhortations against it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This week's <i>parasha
</i>contains two very different prohibitions against idolatry. One occurs in
the repetition of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt have no other gods
before me....Do not bow down to them and do not worship them, for I, the
Lord thy God, am a jealous God (Devarim 5:7,9). This is a clear
prohibition against abandoning faith in the one true God for belief in foreign
gods. The Torah tells us not to "have" any other gods, not to believe
in them or accept them as gods over us. It also tells us that this applies to
action as well as belief; we cannot worship these gods or bow down to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The end of
the verse provides a powerful metaphor for this form of idolatry. God describes
Godself as an <i>E-l kanna</i>, a "jealous God." Elsewhere, the trait
of jealousy is associated with a husband who suspects his wife of committing
adultery: "If a man's wife strays and breaks faith with him....a fit of
jealousy (<i>ruach kinnah</i>) comes over him and he is jealous (<i>vi'keenei</i>)
for his wife who has become defiled" (Bamidbar 5:12,14). This jealousy
comes to the fore when a bond of fidelity has been broken, when one of the
parties gives loyalty, worship, or even a part of him- or herself to another.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Thus, the
act of idolatry is often compared to fornication: "And this people will
rise up, and go a whoring after the alien gods of the land ... and will forsake
me, and break my covenant which I have made with them" (31:16). In this
metaphor, God is the husband and the children of Israel are the wife, firstly,
because the husband is understood to hold the position of authority, and
secondly, because in a polygamous society marriage only demanded fidelity from
the wife. Our belief in and worship of God must be to the exclusion of all
others. God, on the other hand, is free to have relationships with the other
nations of the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Beyond
speaking to the aspect of betrayal, this framing also points to one of the
seductive aspects of idolatry. Many idolatrous cults incorporated sexual acts
in the worship of their gods, hence the <i>kedeishot</i> (cult prostitutes)
referred to in the Torah. Moreover, as we saw at the end of Parashat Balak,
women would call to people to have sex with them and to participate in the
worship of their gods. Sex and idolatry become intertwined; the worshipper
"fornicates" with other gods both literally and figuratively. We can
now understand why Pinchas was described as <i>kanno et kinnati</i>,
"jealous/zealous on my behalf," when he rose to slay Zimri. He
embodied God's double jealousy over the people's spiritual and literal
fornication and acted appropriately.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This double
sense of fornication appears earlier in the Torah, in the book of Shemot:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">For thou
shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God; Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land,
and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and
one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters
unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy
sons go a whoring after their gods (Shemot 34:14-16).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In these
verses, fidelity is transferred not just to a different god, but to a different
people; the breaking of the covenant with God finds its counterpart in the
making of a covenant with the people of the land. This whoring,
jealousy-provoking betrayal of God is reflected and reinforced through the
sexual pull of these pagan sons and daughters. It is an abandonment of God for
other gods and the sexual freedoms they provide. The Sages put it succinctly:
"Israel did not worship foreign gods except to give themselves permission
to do sexual transgressions out in the open" (Sanhedrin 63b).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It would be
misguided, however, to believe that greater sexual freedom was the only pull
that idolatry exerted on the people when they entered the land. There is
something in the words "fornication" or "to go whoring"
that communicates more than adultery and the breaking of trust. There is a
sense of indiscriminate activity, of sleeping with any passerby who will pay
the price. The attraction here is for the thrill, the excitement, the novelty
of the experience. After many years, people may become bored with worship that
is so familiar to them. They see and hear things which sound unusual,
unfamiliar, and hence, exciting. Over-familiarity can often erode eroticism and
passion. There is also a much greater variety of worship, and something
indiscriminate about the worship itself: "You shall utterly destroy all
the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon
the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree"
(12:2). The variety and opportunities afforded by this worship, especially when
contrasted to the single-Temple, highly-structured worship in the Torah, can be
powerfully seductive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But there is
another type of idolatry as well, one that has nothing to do with adultery,
jealousy, or betrayal. It appears earlier in the <i>parasha</i>, when Moshe is
describing the events surrounding the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And
the Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the
voice of the words, but saw no similitude; you heard only a voice....Take you
therefore good heed unto yourselves; for you saw no manner of similitude on the
day that the Lord spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the
fire: Lest you act corruptly, and make you a graven image, the similitude of
any figure, the likeness of male or female (4:12,15-16).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Moshe is
warning the people to not make idols and bow down to them, but this is clearly
not the worship of foreign gods. The people are told twice, "you 'saw no
similitude' on the day that you received the Torah." The point here is
obvious: having experienced this tremendous theophany, seen the thunder and
lightning, and heard God's voice, it is very possible that the people will
trick themselves into thinking that they actually saw some image of God.
Wanting to recapture that experience, they might then make some image to
represent what they think they saw. This would not be the worship of a foreign
god, but worship of the one true God <i>through an image</i>. The problem is
not betrayal, and the key word is not fornication. The problem here is
corruption: "Lest you act corruptly." To make an image of God is to
corrupt who God is. It is to bring God down, to make God part of this world:
concrete, imaginable, easily accessible. The radical theology of the Torah is
not simply in there being one God rather than many gods. It is also in God's
complete transcendence of the physical world, a God for whom any physical
representation is a corruption.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This word,
corrupt, <i>sh'ch't</i>,is also the key word used in describing the sin of the
golden calf. "Go down quickly, for your people have acted corruptly,"
"<i>ki sheecheit amekha</i>" (9:12, and Shemot 32:7). To me this is
clear evidence that the sin of the golden calf was not the worship of other
gods-something that would make no sense in the context of just having seen all
of God's miracles-but rather the need to create a concrete way of accessing God
in Moshe's absence. This is the other way in which idolatry can be so
seductive. It is exceedingly hard to worship an unseen God, to know that any
image that we have in our heads is fundamentally false. How much easier it
would be if we could direct our worship towards some representation of God, be
it an object or a person! The Torah, however, demands from us a purity of
belief and a purity of worship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We live in a
world where idolatry is not our chief concern. As one writer put it, the
problem today is not too many gods, but too few. But I would go further. The
chief problem is not the ability to believe in God. It is maintaining a system
of belief that demands we turn away from the seductions and freedoms of the
world, that we find a way to deepen our relationship rather than to go looking
for new thrills, and that we find the deep satisfaction that comes with
loyalty, consistency, and a relationship that is honest and true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Shabbat Shalom!</span></strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-49198882597689037532016-08-11T10:06:00.002-04:002016-08-11T10:06:29.312-04:00He Said, He Said<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Feel free to download and print
the <a alt="http://files.constantcontact.com/49c02d16001/3d801f98-3237-4844-9b48-a3d379e3f537.pdf" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=yp55xhyab.0.0.uede6qbab.0&id=preview&r=3&p=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.constantcontact.com%2F49c02d16001%2F3d801f98-3237-4844-9b48-a3d379e3f537.pdf" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1601" shape="rect" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat
Devarim sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There are many
differences between the stories that are retold in the book of Devarim and
their earlier appearances in the Torah. How are we to explain this? If we read
in Bamidbar that sending the spies was God's idea and in Devarim that it was
the people's, it would seem that one version has to be wrong. There can be only
one historical truth, so which one is it? I am not overly bothered by this
question. Reality is often more complex than we are prepared to admit. Maybe it
was the people's idea, Moshe agreed, and God gave it the okay; maybe God
commanded it just at the time that the people were approaching Moshe and
suggesting it; or maybe there was some other conflation of events. What's more,
I am willing to live without an answer. I believe that the Torah wanted us to
consider the implications of these competing narratives and the religious
truths that each has to teach us. I can live without knowing which one, or what
combination of the two, accurately describes what happened in history. The
question that I find more compelling is this: What is to be learned from the
way the stories are retold? Put another way, why did Moshe choose to frame
these stories differently in their second appearance? What message was he
trying to impart to the generation that was about to enter into the land? Let
us examine two of the narratives in this week's <i>parasha</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We already mentioned the
first: the story of the spies. In Bamidbar, God commands Moshe to send the
spies; here, the people bring the idea to Moshe. The second narrative is the
appointing of judges. In Parashat Yitro, we read that this was the title character's
idea. Here, we are told that it was Moshe's idea, and the people approved. How
are we to understand these re-framings? The answer lies in how we view Moshe's
goals for telling the people of these past events.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It is commonly assumed
that his goal was to castigate the people, letting them know how much they had
sinned and reminding them of the consequences in order to set them on the
straight and narrow so that they would obey God in the future. This would
explain why the story of the spies is framed as the people's idea. To emphasize
God's role would give the people an excuse, allowing them to blame it on God.
By bracketing God's role, Moshe was able to underscore that the blame lay fully
at the feet of the people. This approach, however, is too narrow. It doesn't
fully appreciate Moshe's goals for the speech or explain other differences,
such as the Yitro story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I believe that Moshe's
goal was not to castigate the people, but rather, to prepare them for a life of
making responsible choices and to teach them to own responsibility for their
future. This is a major theme in the book of Devarim: "Behold I have given
you today life and good, and death and evil. And you shall choose life"
(30:19). They were moving from a life of dependency on God and, frankly, Moshe
to one in which they would have to chart their own destiny; build a country,
its infrastructures, and its institutions; and set up a society guided by the
Torah. They were no longer the generation of slaves; they were free men and
women, and they would have to begin owning that freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This framing explains
the differences in the two versions of the story of appointing the judges. As a
suggestion from Yitro that was adopted by Moshe, this was a top-down decision
that the people had no part in. In contrast, it now appears as Moshe's idea; he
presents it to the people, and they agree: "And you answered me and said,
'The thing which thou has spoken is good for us to do'" (1:14). Here,
Moshe describes a non-authoritarian leadership that consults the people before
major decisions, at least those determining who would have power over them.
This is leadership that, while not democratic, is at least more collaborative,
and it is a populace that is more empowered. Thus, rather than Moshe selecting
the judges as described in Shemot, here Moshe tells the people to "pick
from each of you" leaders, people who are "known to your
tribes." The people select leaders who can act as real representatives of,
and good leaders for, their tribes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The differences go
beyond this. Earlier, Moshe saw himself as the only person able to shoulder the
responsibility, and he needed Yitro to point out that he was unable to bear the
burden alone. Here, Moshe himself says, "How can I handle myself the
trouble of you, your burden and your bickering!" (1:12). He recognizes his
own limitations as a leader and knows when he needs to reach out to others for
help. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The roles and the
qualities of the judges are different as well. In Shemot, Yitro told Moshe to
choose those who would judge the people, those who would apply the law that
Moshe would teach. The necessary personal qualities were that they be "men
of valor, who fear God, men of truth who spurn ill-gotten gain" (Shemot
19:21). In other words, they had to be men with the courage to withstand
influence and temptation, who would fear no one in truthfully applying the law.
In contrast, their role as judges is not highlighted here. Rather, Moshe states
that he needed people to help him share the burden of leading the people, of handling
their fights and bickering. This certainly entails adjudicating court cases,
but it refers more generally to a position of communal responsibility and
leadership, what the term "judges" comes to mean in the book of
Judges. Thus, Moshe tells the people to select "wise men, and
understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over
you" (1:13). Fortitude and truth are not key attributes here; wisdom and
understanding are. These are qualities needed in good rulers, and as mentioned,
the leaders here are also known to the tribes they serve. They can build on
these relationships to engage the people with a leadership that is both
collaborative and authoritative.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This brings us to the
differences in the stories of the spies. By framing the decision to send the
spies as the people's choice, Moshe was not trying to blame them. Quite the
opposite, his telling here depicts a fully proper request. Notice that the
people did not ask the spies to report whether the land was good or not, as Moshe
had in Bamidbar (13:19-20). Such a directive could have indicated a questioning
of the divine promise or the rightness of their mission. In contrast, the
people exhibit exactly correct behavior for a people taking responsibility for
their future: "let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land." They
wanted to prepare a plan of attack. In this telling, Moshe agrees to the idea,
once more showing himself to be a leader who listens to and works together with
his people. And it is not the spies who seduce the people here; the evil report
is not even directly mentioned. Rather, it is simply stated that "you did
not desire to go up" (1:26). Moshe is saying to the people, "You took
(proper) responsibility for the plan to send the spies; you must also take responsibility
for your decision not to go into the land. When you wailed that 'our brothers
have melted our hearts,' that was an excuse. In the end, it was your choice,
and you must own the consequences of your choices."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The retelling of these
past events drives home the message that the people must take responsibility
for their choices, and that one of these was to choose the leaders that fit
their needs, leaders who respect them as an empowered people. Perhaps this is what
Moshe means when he says, "God was incensed with me too because of you
[and told me that I could not enter the land]" (1:37). Rather than reading
this as a form of collective punishment, Moshe might be saying that God held
him accountable for the failings because, as the leader of the people, he did
not do enough to help them mature into a fully empowered society. He may even
be saying, "God was angry with me for your sake," that it was for
their benefit that God was angry with Moshe, for God knew that a different type
of leader was required. But for the people to merit that new type of leader,
they had to be a people who could take and own responsibility. Their mandate
now was to become the people ready to enter into the land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Shabbat
Shalom!</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-14089505462575500812016-08-04T10:00:00.000-04:002016-08-04T10:01:19.647-04:00Words that Create Worlds<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Feel free to download and print the <a alt="http://files.ctctcdn.com/49c02d16001/5aa7de1e-67cf-4786-b305-7a1ec2cbac56.pdf" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001isOjEAvpTQeVAPKH_vrCJU7yn8zrar1tX93XCCsxDqkc-95300ttlJSxRhIg94PfTfs9yGB6t6QtkvHAsOVt-4fPOagGmxQ2aZp3WdmHFakchWC6ddIB4xj1Z8Q0gF1QeHyz53LqhyxpuD07saZ0ICuMrZRQ6HSHWieXkjyuBpYD0tzteILxnH2tFPH8CcLakg1WUqLwya2qaaa7HpJTACWxb9vLbcqV4c1W8Z0ufrKcW654_myyJQ==&c=&ch=" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1599" shape="rect" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat
Matot-Masei sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Words that Create Worlds</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Words have
power. They can cut deep, creating lasting scars in one's psyche, or they can
comfort, console, encourage, and inspire. Words can also convince and persuade
when used in a cogent argument, as when the daughters of Tzelafchad approached
Moshe to voice their claim of inheritance over their father's land in last
week's <i>parasha</i>. God affirmed the justness and rightness of their words,
"Properly have the daughters of Tzelafchad spoken," and the law was
changed. In this week's <i>parasha</i>, the tribes of Reuven and Gad approach
Moshe and make a reasonable argument as to why they should inherit the land
east of the Jordan. Moshe initially resists, but through promises, conditions,
and stipulations, they come to an agreement, and the request is granted. This
is the power of words to influence someone's thinking, to bring about a meeting
of minds, and to affect another's actions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As great as
it is, this is a mundane power, but as evidenced in Parashat Balak, words also
contain metaphysical and spiritual power. The subtext of the entire narrative
is obvious: had Balak succeeded in cursing <i>Bnei Yisrael</i>, great tragedy
would have befallen them. God did us a great kindness by not allowing those
words to be spoken, "But the Lord thy God would not hearken unto
Balaam; but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee,
because the Lord thy God loved thee" (Devarim 23:6). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But words do
more than impart a blessing or a curse; words create our reality. It was with
words that God created the world. And as human beings created in the image of
God, we have the ability to create spiritual realities through our words, to
shape the world in which we live, and to bring sanctity into the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This theme
opens this week's <i>parasha</i>: "If a man vows a vow unto the Lord,
or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he
shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth" (Bamidbar 30:3).
The Torah mentions an oath and a vow. Making an oath is swearing about the past
or the future in God's name, calling on God to witness the veracity of your
statement, or that you will keep to your word. It is less about creating
something new than it is about using God's name falsely. A vow, on the other
hand, is understood by the Rabbis to be a way of using one's words to create a
new, metaphysical reality. Just as a person can sanctify an animal with his
words and make it holy and fit to be brought as a sacrifice, so too can he
imbue any object with holy-like status, making its use or any derived benefit
forbidden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It is not
obvious if or how vows can also bring holiness into the world. The Talmud makes
it clear, however, that many people expressed their religiosity in this way, as
a form of personal expression beyond conforming to the laws and rituals by
which we are all bound. Imposing fasts (also, according to the Rabbis, a type
of vow) and increasing the scope of forbidden foods and pleasures are ways to
expand and deepen one's religious reality, at least to the degree that one
experiences religiosity as a form of self-denial and separation from the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Rabbis
were not always happy with this form of religious expression. At times they
critiqued the very notion of self-denial as a religious goal, stating that, in
the end, we will be accountable for the ways in which we failed to derive
pleasure from the world that God has given us (Yerushalmi Kiddushin, ch. 4). A
story is told that Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch was criticized for going to
Switzerland on vacation. He was asked, "Why not stay at home and learn
more Torah?" Rav Hirsch replied, "After 120 years, I don't want to go
up to heaven and have God say to me: 'Shimshon, what about My Alps? Have you
seen My Alps?'" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">At other
times the Rabbis' critique was directed at the way in which this personal
expression of religiosity undercut the shared forms of religious expression:
"Whoever takes a vow is as if he has built a <i>bamah</i>, a private
altar. And whoever fulfils it is as if he has offered a sacrifice on the altar"
(Nedarim 22a). Worship at a private altar is acceptable if there is no Temple,
but once there is a Temple, such acts represent a breaking away from shared
worship and a diminishing of its importance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Words, then,
can create metaphysical realities, but that is not necessarily a good
thing. The goal is to use them to increase and reinforce the <i>kedusha</i>
in the world rather than compete with or undercut it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Consider
Shabbat. The sanctity of Shabbat comes from God and hearkens all the way back
to the first days of creation: "And God blessed the Sabbath day, and
sanctified it." Nevertheless, with our words we can add to and intensify
that sanctity. We make <i>kiddush</i>, verbally recognizing and pronouncing its
sanctity. This act, coming from us, makes the <i>kedusha </i>of Shabbat more
real; it connects us to Shabbat in a personal way. And when we share thoughts
on the <i>parasha</i> or sing <i>zemirot</i>, the <i>kedusha </i>of Shabbat is
deepened and intensified, giving us a form of individual religious expression
and a way to make that <i>kedusha </i>our own. We can even accept Shabbat
early, bringing the sanctity of Shabbat into the week with our words. But our
words can also do the opposite, creating a reality that competes with the
sanctity of Shabbat: "And you shall honor it from not doing your own ways
... or speaking your own mundane words" (Yesha'yahu 58:13). If we speak of
weekday matters like business, profession, and money, or even if we speak of
trivial matters rather than holy ones, we have-through our words-diminished the
sanctity of Shabbat. We have made it that much more like any other day of the
week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In so many
ways, our words create the world in which we live. This is certainly true for
ritual words like the <i>kiddush</i> of Shabbat, which, as we have seen, brings
greater sanctity to the day. We make blessings over a piece of fruit and change
it from a human product or something taken for granted into a gift from God. We
make a blessing over <i>mitzvot</i> and transform them from rote ritual into a
religious act imparting sanctity to the one who performs them ("Blessed
are You, God, who has sanctified us with Your <i>mitzvot</i> and commanded
us..."). We make blessings over lifecycle events: At a <i>bris</i> we make
a <i>kiddush-</i>like <i>brakha</i> over a cup of wine, making this into a
sanctified, covenantal act. And we do the same at a wedding, turning the
marriage into a <i>kiddushin</i>, a sanctified bond that brings holiness to the
entire Jewish people ("Who sanctifies His people Israel through <i>chuppah</i>
and <i>kiddushin</i>").<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But words
need not be ritualized to shape our reality. When we say our daily prayers with
sincerity, we bring God into our world. When we say <i>im yirtzeh Hashem</i>,
God willing, and we really mean it, we bring God into our world. When we pray
on account of someone who is sick or offer up a few brief, personal words to
God, words of thanks or supplication, we bring God into our world. And in the
home, when we speak to our children of a life of serving God and <i>Klal
Yisrael</i>, of learning Torah and of keeping <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">mitzvot</span></em>, we shape their reality and our own;
we create sources of holiness and meaning. But if we speak of a world in which
the wealthy are to be envied, in which getting ahead is what matters, then we
rob their world and ours of its <i>kedusha</i>. If we are not careful, our
vows, our speech acts, can be like the building of private altars, creating a
world populated by sources of meaning and value that compete with the sources
of true <i>kedusha</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Perhaps
Abraham Joshua Heschel said it best in <i>The Insecurity of Freedom</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">One of the major
symptoms of the general crisis existent in our world today is our lack of
sensitivity to words. We use words as tools. We forget that words are a
repository of the spirit. The tragedy of our times is that the vessels of the
spirit are broken. We cannot approach the spirit unless we repair the vessels.
Reverence for words-an awareness of the wonder of words, of the mystery of
words-is an essential prerequisite for prayer. By the word of God the world was
created.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Words create
the world in which we live. It is up to us to decide what that world will look
like.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Shabbat Shalom!</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-13992416199396926112016-07-28T13:10:00.000-04:002016-07-28T13:10:01.528-04:00Pinchas: Zealot-Prelate or Priest of Peace?<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">Feel free to download and print the </span><a alt="http://files.ctctcdn.com/49c02d16001/21f99414-31a7-4747-80b0-c4942dd2d142.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f%3D001bTKCoxk2xObxFAgEPrvDoPSeOXAiumBdZ4Lulxj156YBxJiPAHU3KQ4qnXp7yOrx4rpM9OncKF3ZZGimMVKBhKIMoMGvDDMFt305TfelF3KLpKdaUfw8tk3eqa6IJHieXjSliXAzOMxG4wKLdWD8AC60NexQ5OAW6RnWsDM_yA0xImmlaKvOcoNHcLFJVoyAnbzVwVQKaLOgTLM1-EGezIwhxgvSZfMhFQOJ5Fx3T9r0Rf8jYlugLg%3D%3D%26c%3Dq982fEF1VPj8zqyLyoZfYVlM5Oxi06BNqbbIPJAwW1BAAapOaimfmQ%3D%3D%26ch%3DVN3xoi_awKZ6a0oia6Xx-O9qryKfNW-ocbrTVnFpbFjNmWHQO9R2WA%3D%3D&source=gmail&ust=1469812155378000&usg=AFQjCNEnYHYOLL71kAHfzvw6uEBFtbyVjg" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001bTKCoxk2xObxFAgEPrvDoPSeOXAiumBdZ4Lulxj156YBxJiPAHU3KQ4qnXp7yOrx4rpM9OncKF3ZZGimMVKBhKIMoMGvDDMFt305TfelF3KLpKdaUfw8tk3eqa6IJHieXjSliXAzOMxG4wKLdWD8AC60NexQ5OAW6RnWsDM_yA0xImmlaKvOcoNHcLFJVoyAnbzVwVQKaLOgTLM1-EGezIwhxgvSZfMhFQOJ5Fx3T9r0Rf8jYlugLg==&c=q982fEF1VPj8zqyLyoZfYVlM5Oxi06BNqbbIPJAwW1BAAapOaimfmQ==&ch=VN3xoi_awKZ6a0oia6Xx-O9qryKfNW-ocbrTVnFpbFjNmWHQO9R2WA==" shape="rect" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: normal; text-align: left;" target="_blank" title="undefined">Parashat Pinchas sheet</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"> and share it with your friends and family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: windowtext;">Pinchas: Zealot-Prelate or Priest
of Peace?</span></b><b><span style="color: windowtext;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Parashat Pinchas has much to say about zealotry and peace,
and the messages certainly remain worthy of examination today. Consider the
following situation: A religious zealot witnesses a person flagrantly violating
religious standards of behavior. Acting in the name of God, she picks up the
nearest available weapon and violently slays the sinner. If this happened
today—and it does—we would be outraged and call for the act to be condemned.
The Torah, however, praises it:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pinchas … has turned My anger
away from the people of Israel, when he was zealous for My sake among them,
that I consumed not the people of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore, say, Behold
I give him My covenant of peace….a covenant for eternal priesthood, because he
was jealous for his God and made atonement for the Children of Israel
(Bamidbar, 25:11–13).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is religious zealotry, then, an ideal to be emulated? While
the Gemara recognizes that such actions were praised after the fact in the
Torah, it states that <i>halakha</i>, as a
normative system, would never give prior warrant to such violence. Rather, from
a <i>halakhic</i> point of view, Pinchas was
actually a “pursuer” who could have been killed to prevent him from taking Zimri’s
life (Sanhedrin 82a). License can never be given to violence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One can detect a similar concern in the blessing that God
gives to Pinchas: “Behold, I give him My covenant of peace.” While this act of
zealotry may have been praiseworthy after the fact and in this unique set of
circumstances, the blessing for eternity, the guiding principle for life, must
be one of peace, not violence. One must hold strong to zeal for truth and for
God, but to realize it in the real world—the world of human beings and
imperfection—one must work in ways of peace.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God’s seal is truth (Shabbat 55a), and truth is absolute and
unbending. But even God’s name is erased for the sake of peace (Shabbat 116b).
For the Torah of truth to be a Torah for life, one needs to be guided by the
principle of peace. When Torah and truth run up against error and sin, the
response need not be violence; the response can be understanding and
compromise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thus, we find that Pinchas goes on to become the embodiment
of peace. In Sefer Yehoshua, when the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half the tribe
of Menashe return to the Transjordan and build a large altar, the Israelites
make preparations to wage war against them, believing that they have abandoned
God. Pinchas, however, leads a delegation that brokers peace and averts war
(Yehoshua, 22). He has moved beyond his zealous, uncompromising youth to become
an elder statesman who pursues diplomacy, compromise, and peace. Significantly,
the Talmud records Rav Ashi’s opinion that Pinchas did not even become a <i>kohen</i> until he brokered this peace
(Zevachim 101b); his “covenant of priesthood” could only be realized when he
realized his “covenant of peace.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is instructive in this regard to contrast Pinchas and
Eliyahu. The Midrash states that “Pinchas is Eliyahu,” and indeed, both of them
were “zealous for God.” In response to rampant idolatry in the land of Israel,
Eliyahu decreed that there would be no rain, and after three years of famine,
in a great public demonstration, he slew the prophets of the pagan god Ba’al by
the edge of the sword. He ran to hide in a cave, and there, God appeared to
him:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">And he came there to a cave,
and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to
him, What are you doing here, Eliyahu? And he said, I have been very zealous
for the Lord God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken your
covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword; and
I am the only one left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And God said, </span><span style="color: windowtext;">Go out,
</span><span style="color: windowtext;">and
stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a
great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before
the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake;
but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but
the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice (Melakhim
I, 19: 9–12).</span><span style="color: windowtext;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eliyahu has indeed been “zealous for the Lord,” and as a
result, many have died by sword and famine. God, however, has a lesson to teach
him: God is not about violence but about the small still voice, the voice that
will speak to a person’s heart, the voice that will bring about peace. Eliyahu,
however, cannot comprehend this message:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, behold, there came a
voice to him, and said, What are you doing here, Eliyahu? And he said, I have
been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the people of Israel have
forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with
the sword; and I am the only one left; and they seek my life, to take it away.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the Lord said to him, Go,
return on your way….and Elisha … shall you anoint to be prophet in your place
(Melakhim I, 19: 13–16).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eliyahu is so committed to his absolute sense of truth that
he cannot understand that the time for zealotry has passed and that, for the
people to reconcile with God, a small voice, the voice of peace, is needed. If
he cannot understand this, then he can no longer lead the people, and Elisha
the prophet must take his place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pinchas is Eliyahu, but he develops and matures. Eliyahu, on
the other hand, is only the younger Pinchas. Eliyahu is taken heavenward in a
whirlwind; he is not a person of this world. His zealotry for truth and for God
could not be reconciled with the frailties of human beings. He is never to
become the older Pinchas, at least not in this world, but he will become the
ultimate emissary of peace in the future world: “Behold, I will send you
Eliyahu the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the
Lord; And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart
of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse”
(Malakhi, 3:23). He will be the one to bring about peace to save the world from
the harsh judgment that God, in God’s attribute of truth, would demand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, the Sages debate how much Eliyahu’s final mission
of peace will differ from his earlier mission of truth and zealotry. We find
the following discussion in the Mishnah regarding those whose personal status
prevented them from marrying within the Jewish people:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">R. Yehoshua said: I have
received a tradition from Rabban Yochanan b. Zakkai, who heard it from his
teacher, and his teacher [heard it] from his teacher, as a <i>halakha</i> [given] to Moshe from Sinai, that Eliyahu will not come to
pronounce unclean or to pronounce clean, to put away or to bring near, but to
push away those brought near by force and to bring near those pushed away by
force….<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">R. Yehudah says: To bring
near, but not to push away….<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Sages say neither to push
away nor to bring near, but to make peace in the world, for it is said, “Behold
I send to you Eliyahu the prophet, etc., and he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Mishna
Eduyot 8:7).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">R. Yehoshua is saying that, even in the future, Eliyahu will
not compromise truth one iota. Peace will be possible only as a byproduct of
truth. Eliyahu’s mission will be to rectify falsehood, to ensure that a
person’s status is true to reality. R. Yehudah believes that, in the end, truth
will serve the interests of peace, but it will be called upon only to bring
close those who have been distanced. The Sages, however, reject both of these
positions, holding that, for Eliyahu, these two principles will never be
reconciled. Eliyahu will only be able to devote himself to peace by allowing
the work of truth to be done by others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eliyahu was not of this world, but Pinchas was. He was given
God’s covenant of peace and was able to realize true religious leadership in
his own lifetime, leadership that brought unflinching devotion to God and truth
to serving the people, leadership that actualized this truth in ways of peace.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shabbat
Shalom!<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-1167451587390133482016-07-21T10:22:00.002-04:002016-07-21T10:23:18.006-04:00O, Say Can You See?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Feel free to download and print the <a alt="http://files.ctctcdn.com/49c02d16001/644b2e7e-bec6-4ee3-a8eb-e3b72949c312.pdf" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001uhQNGhi5E0aRx-6E4Nye98_rxW9y4QkzYIIezdj4dr91r05Tu0WnotTQgVQUFWvstR1CQuR_660zUiwVFh_ZiMDdlUtz82gzNf6DGwKlXp4lfagR7Wt3uSwSACvJbBoSQShmqePX3_vVFnfjUETxXU1CVoFyIEvlycc1agp3-gIbCMCPHjq-2T-bSMCnwwEoIVeE3ALlL0Q605xK6l8q2S8SVzfpd4IhqJa7nJL14u22otQRVSfhOA==&c=&ch=" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1597" shape="rect" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat
Balak sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">O, Say Can You See?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Speech is central in the story of Balak and Balaam, from
Balaam’s blessings to the talking donkey. But as much as this <i>parasha</i> is about talking, it is also
about seeing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“And Balak the son of Beor saw, <i>va’yar</i>, all that Israel had done to the Amorites.” (Bamidbar 22:2).
Balak not only saw what Israel had done to the Amorites, he saw it in a
particular way. He saw a threat, and he responded accordingly. Had he been
watching more carefully, he would have seen how the Israelites skirted the edge
of his territory to avoid engaging his people in battle (see Devarim 2:8–13,
already implicit in Bamidbar 21:11–13). This whole story, then, is the result
of his failure to see correctly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Balaam also fails to see clearly. What he sees is informed
not by fear, however, but by ego and ambition. Balaam is certainly prepared to
obey God. Although he wants to go with Balak’s messengers, he chooses not to,
saying, “God will not let me go with you” (22:13). And on their second visit,
he tells them, “I cannot do anything, big or little, contrary to the command of
the Lord my God” (22:18). But it is clear what he really wants to be doing. As
any parent of a teenager knows, there is big difference between reluctant compliance
and enthusiastic participation. How does a person move from submitting and
obeying to embracing his charge? By internalizing the values and priorities of
the other, by seeing as the other sees.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is instructive in this regard to compare Balaam’s response
to God’s command with that of Avraham. When God commands Avraham to leave his
faraway land, God does not simply tell him to go to Canaan. God says: “go to
the land <i>asher ar’ekha</i>, that I will
show you.” God was teaching Avraham that a person cannot simply obey God.
Rather, it is our duty to see what God is showing us; we must learn to see the
world as God sees it, particularly when the task is arduous and the challenge
is great. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In contrast, Balaam is told by God not to go, <i>lo teileikh</i> rather than <i>lekh lekha</i>. Here, mere passive
compliance would have sufficed, and yet Balaam resists and continues seeing
things his own way. Balaam need not embrace God’s way of seeing to drive him to
change the world as Avraham had before him, but he must at least embrace it
sufficiently so as to not contribute to the evil in the world. God not only
tells Balaam not to go, but why he should not go: “do not curse the people for
they are blessed” (22:12). Balaam has been shown the true, deeper reality, but
is determined to not see, to not internalize this vision as his own. As Rashi
comments, “He saw that it was evil in God’s eyes, and yet he desired to go”
(22:22).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But God isn’t done with Balaam’s education, for as Balaam
goes on his way, his donkey rebels against him. The point of this bizarre story
is clear: the donkey can see, but Balaam cannot. Three times the verse states,
“<i>va’teireh ha’aton</i>,” “and the donkey
saw.” A simple animal could see the deeper reality that Balaam could not.
Remarkably, the verse only mentions God giving the donkey the ability to speak,
indicating nothing miraculous about its ability to see the angel. Animals, as
we know, can sometimes sense things we humans cannot, like an impending
earthquake or even the impending death of an ill patient. Their interaction
with the world is guided less by thoughts and emotions and more by acute senses
able to perceive a more subtle, hidden reality. Animals are free of the
subjective lens through which we view our experiences, filtering and shaping
things for consistency with our worldview. The simple, unfiltered seeing of the
donkey is like the seeing of a child, free from the rationalizations and
self-deceptions of adults. This allows them to see what we so often cannot.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">God now miraculously opens the eyes of Balaam so that he can
see the angel, and the truth. God shows
him how his arrogance, self-importance, and greed blind him to the truth. But
does Balaam learn? Hardly. “Now, if it is evil in Your eyes, I will turn back,”
he responds (22:34). It is still not evil in my eyes, he is saying to God. I
understand that You think that it is evil, and if You tell me not to go, I am
prepared to listen. You can make me obey, but You can’t make me agree. I will
see it my way, not Your way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At this stage, God allows for compromise. If Balaam can’t be
taught to see rightly, God can at least make him say the right thing. God will force-feed him his lines, putting
the very words in his mouth. There is a
lesson to be learned here: even when we disagree with someone, we can
still say the right thing. Sometimes the most important thing is simply to stop
insisting that we are right. “Yes, dear” can be the two most important words in
a marriage, for words have a peculiar power. The desired words can be helpful
to the one hearing them, and they can also shape our own perception and change
the way in which we see.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is what eventually happens with Balaam. Knowing what it
means to see through one’s own lens, Balak tries to make Balaam see in a way
that is not accurate, but that serves his own ends. He takes Balaam to places
where he will see only the “edge of the people,” not their totality or their
blessedness, hoping that this partial, biased vision will allow Balaam to curse
them (22:41, 23:13).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Choosing to see selectively is a key strategy in reinforcing
the way we see the world. Consider how rarely we try to see the true complexity
and scope of a matter, to move beyond the black and white and to appreciate all
the nuances. It was initially thought that all the easily available information
on the Internet would lead people to develop more informed and sophisticated
views. The actual result was the opposite; what happened was a phenomenon known
as “confirmation bias.” People chose to see only their own truth, seizing on
information that reinforced their established position and filtering out the
rest. It is so much easier to see selectively, to see only the “edge of the
people.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was Balak’s plan. But the words Balaam utters, that God
puts in his mouth, begin to have their effect. In his first two poetic
prophecies, we hear him declaiming in words fed to him by God how the people
are truly to be seen: “For I see them from the tops of mountains, and from the
hills I behold them….He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has he seen
perverseness in Israel” (23:9,21). These words start to seep in to his
consciousness, so that by the third prophecy, he actually begins to believe
them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the turning point of the story. Balaam starts to see through the eyes of God:
“And Balaam saw that it was good in the eyes of God to bless Israel” (24:1).
Before, Balaam could only acknowledge that it was “bad in God’s eyes” to curse
the people, but he refused to adopt that perspective. Now he sees that it is
“good in God’s eyes” to bless the people, and rather than resist, he follows
this vision and lets himself be led accordingly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The words describing this pivotal moment are, “<i>vayar … ki tov</i>,” “and he saw … that it
was good”. These words echo the very
first act of seeing in the Torah: “<i>Va’yar
E-lohim ki tov</i>,” “And God saw that it was good.” From the beginning of
creation this is our mandate - to see as God does, to know what is truly good
and what is not.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Balaam can finally see. He can lift up his eyes and see the
people as they truly are (24:2). He declares that he can see “the vision of
God” with “eyes open,” self descriptions thus far absent (24:3). And it is only
now that he is filled with “the spirit of God.” He is not simply parroting
words that have been forced into his mouth. He is elevated and inspired by what
he sees, and when he speaks, he speaks from his heart. With this Balaam’s
education is complete.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sadly, the change proves to be short lived, as the remainder
of the <i>parasha</i> bears out, for
learning to see properly cannot be accomplished in an instant. Even when our
eyes are open, we often resist and choose to remain blind. It is a life-long
struggle to be the students of Avraham, to learn to see “the land that God will
show you.” The keys are given to us in Parashat Balak: to see fully, not
partially; to move beyond our biases and fears; to say what we know is right
even if we do not yet believe it, knowing that this can help shape our vision
and make us see as we know we should. In this way, we will not only resist the forces
of evil, but we will be driven by the right vision to do good and to bring
blessings into the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shabbat
Shalom!</span><span style="font-family: "perpetua" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-71201417823897208672016-07-14T14:59:00.000-04:002016-07-14T14:59:29.910-04:00Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Feel free to download and print
the <a alt="http://files.ctctcdn.com/49c02d16001/e064fca8-82f3-4581-88cb-dc8892d07d2f.pdf" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001JzmX4MtDmooZPTHjxOBivfw4w7kcXGsF0UKyInIevOEFrDY_G2Fle2rhQNQzMgwX5TRVJu_ryEKLByAMu0cHfTrf6A1GwUZuXaovKcz-FsXnp3UHaBCDnIdjPRYm3pv5KRxyzsCpaxne0j32gYZMAD6EV0gLkCG0-CTXtCYVSdgdn-xmqdL_OJIHYQki9C47cPq4t7ED23uFbp52CG6aG09KHR8YSxat-DC3WjLGU-Mg63R8w9RnYg==&c=5DPtG1aFsXuPuN63b2ZleV-IDNW-XrquDAR8ag0njt5wdKqgZa5GIQ==&ch=Y4xpsIYb-Eu-1T1EbuBzFVsX7sEydDqxyvyHm_wjxjzk2PTPgDmXSg==" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1591" shape="rect" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat
Chukat sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speak Softly and
Carry a Big Stick<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Much ink has been spilled by the
commentators—classical and contemporary—to explain Moshe and Aharon’s sin of
smiting the rock, but the matter remains quite opaque. Greater clarity can be
gained by comparing the story of the smiting of the rock in our <i>parasha</i>
with the hitting of the rock in Parashat Beshalach.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The first difference one notes is the
term used to refer to the people. In our <i>parasha</i> that term is “<i>kahal</i>,”
congregation. This term, in its noun and verb forms, appears seven times in the
story of the rock, indicating a particular significance. In contrast, the word
used in Beshalach<i> </i>is “<i>am</i>,” a people, and again, we find this term
seven times in that section. An <i>am</i> is a collection of people united in
some way; they are most likely related to one another. A <i>kahal </i>are
people with a corporate identity. The act of gathering, <i>hakhel,</i> refers
to bringing people together for a purpose, the <i>hakhel</i> gathering to hear
the Torah, for example, or the gathering of the people by blowing trumpets. A <i>kahal</i>,<i>
</i>then, is a people with a collective identity, with a shared past, way of
life, and sense of purpose.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">When the people left Egypt they were a
ragtag bunch. Having shed their identity as slaves, the people had yet to adopt
a new one. This is not only a new sense of purpose, but more fundamentally, a
sense of self as an autonomous and empowered agent. It is therefore no surprise
that, when faced with hardship, their immediate reaction was to return to
Egypt, to retreat to the one identity familiar to them. When they complained to
Moshe about the water in Beshalach, their complaint was simply, “Why did you
take us out of Egypt?”; you should have let us continue to live our lives as
slaves.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Now, however, forty years later, the
people have developed a sense of who they are. This is true collectively and
individually. On the collective level, they have entered into a covenant with
God and received the Torah and its <i>mitzvot</i>, giving structure and</span> <span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">meaning to their lives. They have also built the Mishkan and
placed it in the center of their camp. They identify as a people with a Divine
mission and with God in their midst. In fact, the phrase they use to refer to
themselves here is “<i>kehal Hashem</i>,” the community of God, a phrase we
have only heard once before, in the mouth of Korach: “Behold the whole nation
is holy, and God is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves over <i>kehal
HaShem</i>, the community of God?” This identity had been formed thirty-eight years
earlier, and it was still with them and defining them now, on the cusp of their
entry into the land.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">They also had a sense of identity on
the individual level. This was a new generation, one that had grown up free
from the bonds of slavery and with a life of <i>mitzvot</i>, the very core of
which emphasizes that we are free, that we live in a world of choices, and that
we must choose wisely and correctly. This is why the people do not simply say,
“Why did you take us out of Egypt?,” but rather, “Why did you bring the
congregation of God <i>to this wilderness</i>?” (20:4), and again, “Why did you
take us out of Egypt <i>to bring us to this evil place</i>?” (20:5). This
generation has no want to return to Egypt; their complaint is not why they
left, but why they hadn’t arrived. They want to be in a “place of seed, figs,
vines, and pomegranates” (20:5), which is none other than the land of Israel
(see Devarim 8:8).</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Significantly, the people do not
complain that they have not been brought to “a land flowing in milk and honey,”
the complaint we heard from Datan and Aviram (16:13–14). A land flowing in milk
and honey is a miraculous land, where God will provide everything without any
effort on the part of the people, the dream of a people who had just been
slaves. This generation, however, wanted to be in a land that must be worked, a
land where they will toil, seed and harvest, and chart their own destiny.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">We can now begin to understand the
differences in the two narratives, and the sin of Moshe and Aharon. Here, God
instructs Moshe to gather the people and speak to the rock in their presence
(20:8), while in Beshalach, he is told to pass before – in front of and away
from - the people, after which he performs the miracle in the presence of the
elders (Shemot 17:6). Here, the people can be engaged, and they become
participants in the miracle. In Beshalach, however, the people can only
receive, and they can only be the beneficiaries of a miracle performed from
afar.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Another key difference is the
staff. In the earlier event, God told Moshe to take “the staff with which
you smote the river,” that is, the staff that does miracles (Shemot 17:5).
Here, Moshe is told to take “the staff” (20:8). As the next verse makes clear,
and as Rashbam notes, this is none other than Aharon’s staff, which was placed
next to the ark. This is not a staff that does miracles, but one that
represents leadership, specifically religious leadership. The role of the first
staff is to produce miracles, to show God’s power. God thus tells Moshe, “I
will stand before you on the rock,” that is, I will demonstrate My presence and
power (Shemot 17:6). The role of the second is to lead, to engage the people
directly. In this leadership, God’s presence is less “front-and-center,” less
overwhelming, and thus there is no mention of God’s presence at the rock. God
will still be making it all happen, but from behind the scenes.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rock is also different. In
Beshalach, the rock was a “<i>tzur</i>,” a word indicating a hard, flinty rock
and suggestive of a holy place (see Shoftim 6:21, 13:19). A little later in
this narrative, <i>tzur</i> is also used to refer to the place where God
reveals Godself to Moshe (Shemot 33:21–22), and it is even occasionally used to
refer directly to God (see Devarim 32:4, 15, 18). The message is clear: this <i>tzur
</i>will be a place of God’s presence, where God reveals Godself. In contrast,
the rock here is a mere <i>sela</i>. This <i>sela </i>is a simple rock, one
that carries no religious weight, where no obvious miracle will occur.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Thus we arrive at the difference between
hitting and talking. Hitting represents force: forcing something on the people;
talking at them, not to them; forcing a miracle on the natural order of things.
Talking represents engagement: leading the people through discussion and
persuasion, and working within</span> <span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">the
natural order of things. Thus, in Beshalach we read that the<i> tzur</i>, the
hard rock, will “bring forth water,” a true miracle. Here, however, the <i>sela</i>,
the soft rock, will bring forth “its waters,” suggesting that the water was
already present in the rock and just had to be extracted. Similarly, in
Beshalach we are told that the waters will come out – on their own, through the
miracle - and the people will drink, while here we are told, “You [Moshe] will
take out the waters, you will make the people drink” (20:8). Moshe must now
demonstrate leadership and a way of living that does not depend on miracles but
that demands from us that we engage the world, work within the natural order,
and yet still continue to see the hidden miracles and God’s hidden presence.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">This was the type of leadership and the
relationship with God that was now required. The people were ready for this,
not just because they were about to enter the land, but because after forty
years living with God in their midst, this congregation of God had internalized
their reliance on God and God’s presence in the world. But Moshe was not able
to make this transition. Despite all the differences in God’s instruction,
Moshe was still hearing as he had thirty-eight years ago. He calls the people
rebels, perhaps because he hears in their behavior, in their demands for a land
of seeding and planting and harvesting, a rebellion against God, a desire to
break away from full reliance on God. Perhaps this is why he says, “Shall <i>we
</i>take the water out of the rock?”</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is exactly what God told him to
do, but for Moshe, only God could take the water out of the rock. It could only
be a miracle. The idea that it would be a human effort—even one with God
distantly behind it—was blasphemy for Moshe. But this blasphemy was now the
proper faith. The people were not rebels; it was Moshe and Aharon who “had
rebelled against My words at <i>Mei Merivah</i>.” (20:24). The new faith is one
of God’s hidden presence in the world, and the new leadership is one that shows
the people how to live as a free, empowered, and self-directed nation. This is
what it means truly to become the “congregation of God.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shabbat Shalom!</span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-15800832092057063442016-07-07T09:53:00.001-04:002016-07-07T09:53:54.145-04:00Being Holy or Becoming Holy?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Feel free to download and print
the <a alt="http://files.ctctcdn.com/49c02d16001/e453fd96-f8f3-482d-80aa-cc2ab0d140f7.pdf" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0018y5f1I5kkVWzVW_NrxvBzqdq745d7LNcC5HxZJWefhBSVzmPj1I8O8hj5u_GYQMuw3497tUTWTUpRO5NI0vTJWUJlWdQwRtaSVQ4tfwUwyGrUI2qOIKR5pgbe0Y6WaRnded_vT6fZ4XernV0PdowBcOUh1OocRa_gFDhN9Zs5BHvH9phGbRMe045yM9-tgBa6OLv_nmS0zmV4L2aGKprzBxN4irUlNZCbGh_wybBJzLW1znzVxhFDw==&c=Xkaps7bQR9EXMGxspVgk8LR3MxZs3GcAAMppPyFoGnCpoQWGiMG6Yw==&ch=FBuncUUnqBN6XacRMEGgJEw3kEiDBhhGrSd2BvQq-pY2lMT5Ff_oUQ==" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1590" shape="rect" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat
Korach sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;">As published in the </span></i><span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;">Jerusalem
Report<i>, July 11, 2016<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Being Holy or Becoming Holy<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
Torah commands us not to be holy, but to become holy<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is <i>kedusha,
</i>holiness, a good thing or a bad thing? Certainly, in its privileged and
particularist expressions it can lead to conflict, discord, war and violence. Fights
over who has rights to sacred ground, which religion is holy and whose
scripture is sacred have plagued us for centuries and have been the cause of
immeasurable loss of life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But
what about an egalitarian approach to holiness?
Why not believe<b> </b>that we are all equally holy? The first person to express this notion was
Korach. Challenging Moshe’s leadership, he declared, “The entire community,
they are all holy, and God is in their midst. So why do you lord it over the
community of the Lord?” (Num. 16:3). Now, Korach was making cynical use of this
universal concept of holiness. In order
to promote himself as leader, he was saying that we are all equal, that no one
had a right to be leader. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Putting
aside Korach’s obvious demagoguery, we can still ask if his approach to
holiness was in fact correct. What could be wrong with seeing everyone as holy?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
problem with this sentiment is not its egalitarian nature, but its fundamental
misunderstanding of what <i>kedusha</i> truly is. Korach saw <i>kedusha</i>
just as he saw leadership - as a lofty status, a rank, a privilege. This is why he wanted to be leader, not to
serve the people better, but to have all the honor that comes with being a
leader. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A
true leader, however, sees leadership as an obligation, a responsibility, and
as a sacred duty. Moshe’s only goal was
to serve God and to serve the people.
This humblest of all men, never wanted the honor: “God, send someone
else. Anyone but me.” Of course, too much humility is also a
failing. A leader who does not recognize his role and his status will
ultimately fall short of leading and serving the people properly. But one who
leads for the sake of the honor serves no one but himself. If leadership comes
with status it does so for a purpose: to serve and to lead others. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As
it is with leadership, so it is with <i>kedusha</i>.
For Korach, holiness was a status, a static state of <i>being</i>. It implied
privilege and entitlement. True <i>kedusha</i>,
however, does not reassure us that we are better. True <i>kedusha</i>
calls upon us to<i> become</i> better. The Torah commands us not to be holy,
but to become holy. “<i>Kedoshim ti’hiyu</i>, Holy you shall become, for I the
Lord your God am holy.” (Lev. 19:2). The command to become holy, to strive for
holiness, points us upwards and outwards. Each day, we must strive to become
more God-like, to transform ourselves and to transform the world. This <i>kedusha </i>is not about being, it is
about becoming.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shabbat
exemplifies this. Shabbat is a <i>kedusha</i> that is ultimately focused
outwards. It starts with our being distinct – the covenant between ourselves
and God. But its end is to bring holiness into the larger world – the universal
message of God as creator, of human dignity, of the right to rest and to be
free. The holiness of Shabbat spreads
into the week, making our work holy as well, pointing us towards a higher
purpose, towards <i>tikkun olam</i>, and finally towards a world that is a more
perfect world, a messianic world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <i>kedusha
</i>of the Kohanim is similar. The priestly caste was given special honor. But
this was to enable them to serve effectively as God’s representatives both
within the Temple and outside it. To honor that <i>kedusha, </i>a Kohen would
have to devote his life to spiritual growth and Godly acts. To make the <i>kedusha
</i>an ends in itself would be to defile it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The
same is true in regards to us as a people. The concept of chosenness is perhaps
one of the most challenging for a Jew to articulate and defend in today’s
egalitarian society. A close look at the
relevant verses, however, reveals that we are not told that we are chosen and
that we are holy; rather, we are commanded to become chosen, to become holy:
“If you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you <i>shall
become</i> a chosen treasure… And you <i>shall become</i> unto Me a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6).
It is a <i>kedusha</i> that does not
tell us that we are better than the rest of the world, but asks us what it is
that we can do to make the world a better place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kedusha
as a<b> </b>state of becoming is an elusive destination always to be reached
for, yet never to be grasped. It inspires us to grow, to become closer to
God. As soon as believe we are holy and
entitled we fall prey to the Korachs of the world. It is our task to reject Korach’s assertion
that we are all holy. To embrace the Torah’s mandate we all must become holy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shabbat
Shalom!</span><span style="font-family: "perpetua" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971820236302690157.post-45646551405495563462016-06-30T10:41:00.001-04:002016-06-30T10:41:37.891-04:00It's Good Because I Say So <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Feel free to download and print
the <a alt="http://files.ctctcdn.com/49c02d16001/624f3583-7529-4ad0-a3a6-ab0630075a36.pdf" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001__iJS9_tGyUOD0hQIUXwoUkahUCVjqywb5Qa1tStR-LIHy5rsyR3si5XY-58_GQ_4iSoLG4hByy_bGYvKs0HMJNhYjRT60UBH0UM9xuAi6xoadek9L2JPnnYoiV6OtpG5_flbfumplJDL5borIdXvYIQTITQK6d2gI7Bb1cBQ7QZb2CBIlSEKLLksE9ErGuCxxnHIvfeHvsxhJ1qweIqH-xQBWcx5pgGutsNyzupjEIp6GV1aitCuQ==&c=-5YmgOTVcNH4EEqY1rJE-UgjOXqL8qhojzq3nNou0_B7ek8DypHg6g==&ch=zE6ULgpOBgXgq3pDAWyJuSV5SRo_cjFeZXVGGo3VQRsHBY_Wb0b-XQ==" linktype="document" ref="ACCOUNT.DOCUMENT.1589" shape="rect" target="_blank" title="undefined" track="on">Parashat
Shelach sheet</a> and share it with your friends and family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.5pt;">
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<b><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s Good Because I Say So<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story of the spies returning with their evil report is
well known, but the reason they were punished is not commonly understood. What
did they do wrong? They reported what they saw accurately. Ramban suggests an
answer. The key, he says, is in their use of the word <i>efes</i>, “however”: “However, the people be strong that dwell in the
land, and the cities are walled, and very great” (Bamidbar 13:28). Ramban
says that <i>efes</i> means “nothing” here (it
later came to mean “zero”): “Their wickedness was in their use of the
word <i>efes</i>, which indicates that
the matter is completely impossible” (Ramban on verse 27). To say that it was
impossible demoralized the people and demonstrated, perhaps even propagated, a
lack of faith in God. I would like to suggest that the key is a different word,
one that they failed to use. That word is tova, “good,” a word introduced
by Moshe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before sending out the spies, Moshe instructed them to search
out the land, to assess the military strength of its inhabitants, and to
consider the best tactics for invading and conquering it. True, God had
promised to give them the land, but it was their responsibility to wage the war
for its possession as strategically and intelligently as possible. All this is
well and good, but then comes a troubling phrase in Moshe’s instructions: “And
what of the land that they dwell in, is it <i>good</i>
or bad?” (13:19). This is not a question of description or fact, rather,
it is a request for an evaluative assessment. The question also seems unrelated
to issues of military strategy. That Moshe would ask whether the land was good
or not is quite astonishing given that God explicitly told him that God would
bring them to “a good land, one flowing in milk and honey” (Shemot 3:8).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To resolve this problem, a number of commentators interpret
this question as one of military assessment, not one of judgment of the overall
quality of the land. Rashbam, for example, states that Moshe was asking if the
land was full of grain in trying to determine if the people could sustain
themselves through the invasion. Rashi and Ibn Ezra, however, understand that
Moshe was asking a general question about the quality of the land: Are there
plentiful sources of water? Are the air and water of good quality or bad?
Regardless of Moshe’s intent, the request for an overall assessment of the
land—is it good or bad—had been made.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How was this question answered? It was not. When the spies
came back, they accurately reported that the land was “flowing with milk and
honey” (13:27). What they failed to say was that the land was “good,” and this
amounted to a refusal to give the land their approval and to affirm God’s
promise. On the other hand, we have the crux of Calev and Yehoshua’s response:
“And they spoke unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, ‘The
land, which we passed through to search it, is good, very, very much so’”
(14:7). The spies understood their mission to be not just to report on facts or
to evaluate what they saw from a military perspective; but to determine whether
the entire endeavor was worthwhile in the first place. Was the land good? Was
it worth the battle? In contrast, Calev and Yehoshua came in committed to the
goodness of the land and the rightness of the enterprise. For them, it was
given that the land was good and that God would help them conquer it. They
did not need to spy out the land to determine this. Their mission—as they
properly understood it—was only to determine how best to go about waging the
war, how best to make God’s plan succeed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those who were not committed to the enterprise from the
outset, who did not believe that the land was good, every problem loomed large,
and every challenge became an obstacle. It was different for those who began
with a fundamental belief in God’s promise and the goodness of the land.
Whatever the problems or challenges, they would be met and dealt with: “We
shall surely ascend and conquer it, for we can surely do it!” (13:30).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Quite often, our expectations of worthwhileness or the likely
success of our endeavors become self-fulfilling prophecies. When we start
believing that something is impossible or that the effort is not worth it, then
it will be impossible, and we will fail. But if we believe that the cause is
good, that it is achievable, and that God is on our side, then we are likely to
make our imagined future a reality. To quote from the late Muhammad Ali,
“Impossible is just a small word that is thrown around by small men who find it
easier to live in a world they’ve been given than to explore the power they
have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It is an opinion. Impossible is
not a declaration. It is a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is
temporary. Impossible is nothing!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is also true of our relationships, as our assessments of
others so often become self-fulfilling prophecies. The Gemara (Berakhot 8a;
Yevamot 63b) tells us that when a man would get married in the land of Israel
his friends would ask him, “<i>matza</i> or <i>motzei</i>,” “found or find?” Is the
marriage a <i>matza</i>, as the verse
states, “<i>matza isha matza tov</i>,” “a
man who has found a woman has found goodness” (Mishlei 18:24)? Or is it a <i>motzei</i>, as the verse states, “<i>u’motzei ani mar mimavet et ha’isha</i>,” “I
find the woman more bitter than death” (Kohelet 7:26)? On the face of it, this
was a roundabout and clever way of asking the man if his wife was a good match
for him (although it needs to be acknowledged that the second verse seems to
communicate a strongly negative attitude about women in general).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is, however, another way to understand this, namely,
that the question is not so much about the bride as about the groom. What type
of person is he? Is he a <i>matza</i> or
a <i>motzei</i>? Is he “one who has
found,” or “one who is always finding”? No match will be perfect. There will
always be things one spouse will do that will annoy the other and ways in which
the two are not fully compatible. The question is, with what mindset does one
enter the relationship? If a person enters the relationship believing—like
Calev and Yeshoshua—that it is good, that they are fortunate to be marrying
this person, then they will most likely be happy in the marriage. Such a person
is a <i>matza</i>, one who stops looking
once they have found the thing they are looking for. And thus, <i>matza isha matza tov</i>; if he comes in
believing it is good, it will indeed be good.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, if a person—like the spies—enters the relationship
constantly asking, “Is this good or bad?,” “Did I make the right decision or
the wrong one?,” then he or she is bound to be dissatisfied and unhappy. Such a
person is a <i>motzei</i>, a person who,
even after finding what they are after, is constantly looking and never
satisfied. For such a man, any problem he finds in his wife or in the
relationship will be proof that the match is not a good one, and he will find
it or her to be “as bitter as death.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not to say that a person should sacrifice his or her
critical faculties. Some marriages are not meant to be, and some endeavors are
truly not worth the effort and should be abandoned. The question is with what
attitude we choose to undertake our tasks, enter into our relationships, and
think about our lot in life. If we start with the belief that “it is very
good,” then in most cases, it will remain good and beautiful, warts and all.
But if we hold onto the need to constantly assess whether it is good or bad,
then we will see the good but discount it. The land may be flowing with milk
and honey, but in our eyes, it will be a “land that eats its inhabitants.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we are able to embrace this attribute of <i>matza</i>, to see the land that God has
given us—the land of Israel and the State of Israel—as a blessing, and to see
our spouses, children, parents, and friends as gifts from God, then we will
find the wherewithal to face the problems and challenges, come what may. If we
believe that our endeavors are good and worthwhile, if we believe that they are
possible, then they will be. “We shall surely ascend, for surely we can do it!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Shabbat
Shalom!</span></span></b><b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Perpetua","serif"; font-size: 20.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Rabbi Dov Linzerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00878646277535654437noreply@blogger.com0