Parshas Teruma 5775, February 2014, Ahava

In this week's parsha, the B'nai Yisroel are given the commands from G-d to collect materials for the construction of the Mishkan itself and the items which will be held within it. Each of the materials--gold, silver, copper, techailes, crimson silk, tola'as shani, fine white linen, goat's wool, dyed rams skin, Tachash skin, cedar wood, oil, spices, and fine stones--has a direct symbolism of atonement or exhortation for the people (Midrash haGadol).

Red-blue

Fine linen

But while the items individually represent G-d's forgiveness for various sins of the past, his promises for the future, and his protections for the present, the whole, the Mishkan itself, has an entirely different symbolism. It symbolizes not the parts, not the relationships within G-d's creation, but the very universal creation we experience itself (Bamidbar Rabbah, Tosafos).

The curtains above and below are the heaven and earth; the water is obviously the waters. The mizbeach haolah, the alter on which we sacrifice animals, represents those very animals, which G-d created so that they can serve their purpose. The mizbeach of the ketores represents the vegetation. The menorah is the lights of all the heavenly bodies, as well as the figurative light we can create ourselves in worship (Beraita de'Maasei).

Love across generations

In the whole Mishkan, all that was created was done exactly as G-d commanded, not as humans envisioned. Every part was geometric and exactly as it needed to be with one exception: the Keruvim of gold atop the aron. The Keruvim were in the form of an angelic boy and girl embracing each other. G-d told Moshe that from the time this was created and set atop the aron, his voice would emanate from the space between the two Keruvim. For this was the holiest spot of the whole Mishkan, indeed of the whole creation from that point on. Not because it was a solid piece of gold, not because the aron held a sefer Torah, not because the whole piece resembled heaven and earth and the angelic realm. Rather, the spot between the two figures can only represent absolute love of B'nai Yisroel one for another. Love, caring, support, all these platitudinous expressions we so easily throw around are truly G-d's greatest,  most important messages to us and what He most wants from us.

Parshas Mishpatim 5775, February 2015; Justice

Plato's Republic is an entire volume of ancient Greek thought dedicated to portraying Socrates' efforts to define justice, piety, and virtue.  In a remarkable parallel to Jewish thought, Socrates had himself succeeded in determining that the reason that many individuals do evil to others is because they do not have the knowledge and understanding of what good is; he also seemed to believe that ultimately good would come to the good and evil to the evil, even if not in this world. This is why he was able to show such equanimity when others mocked him, and ultimately even agreed calmly, even demanded, to suffer the death penalty for his crimes of impiety and corruption of thought.

Showing respect, appreciating effort, and generally treating  each other well after a fourth grade chess match.

How sad indeed that had he only consulted with a Torah scholar he could have had an answer, simply bound up in this parsha!  For the Jews were taught the mishpatim at the foot of Har Sinai (Shemos Rabbah).  When the Talmudists stated in Avos, "as a result of three things is the world sustained: truth, justice, and peace," they had no questions as to what constituted those three things. It was very clear in the law.

Not only is the law clear, it clearly applies to all. The first mishpatim G-d told Moshe to teach to the Jews were those regarding enslaved servants, as if to make clear that halacha does not differentiate between rich and poor; the law is identical for all, and human justice is absolute, not relative to one's station (Divine justice, of course, does differentiate among people's abilities and potentials, as G-d can truly know what an individual is capable of).

This week's haftarah, from Yirmiyahu, makes abundantly clear that Jewish justice must be maintained at all times, that virtue is found in following Jewish law and thought (particularly relating to interactions with one's fellows, above one's relations with G-d and individual commandments like prayer or study), and that piety has significant benefits while impiety in the form of breaking any commandment brings punishments. Almost all of the people of Yehudah had been taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and Jerusalem was on the verge of falling. King Tzidkiyahu exhorted the people to return carefully to the laws regarding Jewish enslaved servants, as he felt that it was the sin of illegally holding servants longer than the Torah's mishpatim allows that was bringing Divine punishment on Israel.

Not Jewish justice, just a funny 4 year old learning about
other historical conceptions of justice which have fallen by
the wayside. Jewish laws have been maintained for thousands
of years.

We must remember at all times that prayer, study, tehillim, and daily practices that reflect only on our relationship with G-d are indeed mandates. Yet it is the laws of our behavior with other people which truly determine whether we are just, pious, and virtuous.

Parshas Yisro 5775, February 2015, Ahava l'Chaveiroh (love for your neighbor)

This morning an upsetting event occurred locally; a bomb threat was called in to a local private school that serves students from elementary through post-high school age who have autism or related cognitive learning disabilities. This school has been a long standing fixture in a very wealthy, rather Jewish neighborhood for decades. It is sited in fact across the street from a Chabad shul, next door to a Young Israel shul, and half a mile from another Orthodox shul.  (note: I am deliberately not naming the school or the neighborhood for security reasons; second note is that I realize I am expressing a certain amount of disappointment and anger, and so these words may later be edited)

Several of the Special Olympics athletes here shown attend the school in question;
the child in yellow is my own son who attends another school

When the main road to the front of the street was closed off by police, I began to see Facebook posts from several Jewish women friends who live in the neighborhood.  I saw many. Not one initially expressed dismay that children and youth with communication disabilities and a need for continuity and routine were threatened, disrupted, and in fact thrown out in the cold in weather that was approximately 25F (school buses were brought in as warming stations for those students who had left their own buses, but it took time). Rather, people complained about the traffic disruption. Even more upsetting to me as a Jew, people expressed joy and relief that it was the school for children with disabilities that had been threatened rather than one of the synagogues.

In this week's parsha, we read of Yisro's arrival among the b'nai Yisroel and their complete acceptance of him and Moshe's wife and children despite Yisro and Tzipporah's origins in Midyan. We read explicitly that G-d instructed Moshe to first instruct the women of b'nai Yisroel to prepare for matan Torah, and to do so gently; and then to sternly direct the men of the community (Shemos Rabbah, Tiferet Tzion). Why? Because women are wiser at a younger age; the women would teach the children; Chava was not taught directly first and led Adam to sin but had she been taught first she might have not only avoided but even prevented sin; and because the b'nai Yisroel were redeemed in the honor of the righteousness of the women (Rokeach).

The very first of the aseres hadibros is "Anochi…" I am the L-rd your G-d who brought you out of the land of Egypt. G-d had rachamim, mercy, and ahava, love, for us, and chose to redeem us. Moreover, he expressed love for every nation on earth and gave each the opportunity to accept the Torah, as well as allowing them all to experience the sensory facts of the splitting of the Yam Suf to ensure they know full well that this was in fact communication from G-d H-mself.

G-d tells Moshe directly in the parsha (Shemot 18:20): "And you will warn them regarding the statutes and the teachings, and you will make known to them the path on which they shall walk and the deeds they should do."

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky cites this pasuk and Bava Kama that this refers to three areas of chessed: acts of general kindness, bikkur cholim, and chessed shel emes.  True chessed for the other he gives examples for, including the mother of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi who once saved a Jewish girl on a train from a Nazi by placing her own (very pregnant) body between the two and threatening to that every other passenger on the train would follow her own lead in refusing to comply with allowing the Nazi to take the girl. True chessed, says R' Pruzansky, is not a teaching of the Torah or a part of a mitzvah; rather it is the very foundation of Torah and goodness, that which G-d expects of every Jew and in fact of every human being, Jewish or not.

Had the bomb threat this morning been at any of the Jewish schools my acquaintances' own children attend, I am absolutely sure they would not have first complained of inconvenience in commuting, or relief that it was others and not their own synagogue threatened. They would have thought of their children, frightened, cold, confused, endangered. They would have been thinking only whether they themselves should run to their cars to go to their children, whether the children were with their own familiar teachers or bus drivers, whether the children were safe. At all times, though, that is how we as Jews are expected to feel. We must feel for others as we feel for ourselves. Not only "what is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor," but "love your neighbor as you love yourself," and "he who saved a single life it is as if he had saved a whole universe." Take note; not one of these specifies only your Jewish neighbor and his life.

These children and those below (the boy in blue at the right above is my son and
the very short girl who is the one of the oldest shown in the photo below are my own
children) are at a Jewish day school and a JCC. Had either of those sites been threatened,
I expect their would have been a very different initial reaction in the Jewish community
than "this is inconvenient," of "thank goodness it's not our synagogue threatened, all
is well, then.

Beshalach 5775, January 2015, Miracles

This week's parsha brings us great miracles. But while the splitting of the sea and the appearance of clouds of G-d's glory and the falling of spiritual food are each unique occurrences, we need to focus on the real miracles of which we are reminded.

The Yam Suf split to create 12 passages for shevatim; the Shechina itself appeared to the sea and the waters spoke directly to Moshe, "I withdraw only for the Master of the world H-mself!" (Yalkut Shmoneh)  The waters in every body of water in the world, whether in a lake, a river, or a jar or pot likewise split (Shemos Rabbah) and the sound of the splitting could be heard throughout the world.  Yet people continue to give natural reasons as to the splitting of the sea; perhaps a strong wind, a strange current, an earthquake. And each of these could be an explanation.

Clouds of fire and glory led the Jews through the desert and wilderness, protecting them by night and day. Yet there are those who would explain this away with talk of fiery brands, smoke from torches, and bronze shields. And all these do exist and do function in this way.

Mann fell and fed the Jews. It fell 6 days a week like clockwork, and stayed fresh exactly as long as Moshe explained to the Jews it would (Yoma). It never fell on Shabbos, and a double portion could always be collected on Fridays. Exactly one omer per person per day was needed and that was exactly what each person would find they had collected, whether they tried to gather more or less (Rashi). Yet there are places where resins, insect debris, dried berries, and other foods fall to the ground and feed the local people.

But the Jews were becoming spiritually aware in their distancing themselves from the Egyptians and their idol worship. Rav Dessler asks, "Which is the greater miracle, Bread from Heaven or Bread from the earth?" (Michtav Me'Eliyahu) And this is the core of our parsha, for the B'nai Yisroel and we their descendants must see these miracles every day. A tiny dry seed is poked into the ground and we are able to bake a birthday cake. Water, a substance covering the earth, is what essentially enables our whole bodies to function. The sun feeds plants and begins entire food chains so that we may eat plants, animals, fish, birds, to our hearts' delights.  We have and have had shelter whether a cave, a sukkah, a tent, or a house; but each of these comes from materials provided by the world around us through G-d's miracle of making the world work according to predictable rules and allowing us to find the resources we need.

In fact, it is when the B'nai Yisroel attack Moshe by claiming that the miracles "he" had performed in Egypt were only destructive, and demanded more fresh water at Har Chorev so that G-d gave them a water-giving stone (Mechilta, Rashi) that Amalek was allowed to attack them. They denied the basic nature of miracles, that they are around us at all times, that they come directly from G-d, and that they are intrinsically good; they had no appreciation for the protection, food, water, and shelter G-d gave them and their ancestors, and they brought the nation of Amalek down upon the Jews for all time until the coming of Moshiach.

Every time we stop and think and appreciate the miracles of our lives, our gifts, and our world, we bring Moshiach closer.

Parshas Bo 5775, January 2015, Rebuke

Shemot Rabbah speaks of three non-Jews who all have the temerity or audacity to rebuke Moshe Rabbeinu or his heirs relative to this weeks parsha. Yet two of them are considered completely righteous.

This little toy lamb has been named "Korban Pesach" for years by my children. Fortunately none of them has ever actually tried to eat it. (later…my teenagers read this and corrected me; the toy lamb has been nibbled on)

The first brought down in the midrash (Midrash haGadol) is an elderly Egyptian woman who accosted Moshe and Aharon as they left Pharaoh's palace when they had warned Pharaoh and his ministers about the coming plague of the death of the firstborn. She laughed at the Jewish leaders and told them their threat was nonsensical to her and those like her, who had no living relatives and cared nothing for officials.  Accused of false prophecy, Moshe warned her she would be the first to suffer from the coming plague.

The second is the princess Basya, daughter of the Pharaoh himself, and adoptive mother to Moshe. She reproached Moshe without mocking him, questioning gently how he could bring such pain on the household that had provided for his youth. Moshe calmly pointed out that she herself (who was righteous) had not been directly touched in any way by any of the plagues (a first born daughter, she herself was liable to death at that time had she not been G-d fearing). Moshe explained carefully that the punishments were coming directly from G-d himself, and that he himself was only a human messenger trying to avert the crises, not the cause of any pain Pharaoh and his household suffered.

The third person who Kehillat Rabbah discusses the third non-Jew rebuker related to this parsha: The Roman emperor Antonius, close friend and student of R' Yehuda haNassi. He is said to have asked whether in Olam Haba he would receive a share, and a portion of the levyasan. R' Yehuda assured him he would. Antonius then demanded to know why he could not in that case participate in Olam Ha-Zeh in the korban Pesach as it pained him emotionally to be separated from G-d in this way; R' Yehuda explained that this was completely out of his own hands, for only those who have accepted bris milah can possibly share in korban Pesach, as explicitly stated in this parsha.

For her mockery, the old woman did indeed suffer first among the Egyptians. Above all else she valued a ceramic statue of her oldest son reserved after his death for ceremonial use. As the deaths of the first borns approached, dogs attacked the relic and destroyed it utterly; it had been the only thing she valued at all in life.

For her kindness and attempt to understand the nature of divine judgment, Basya was accepted as a geyores, a convert, and departed Egypt with the Jews.

For his devotion and willingness to submit to R' Yehuda haNassi, Antonius was led by his heart to accept bris milah for himself, and became a true ger. We are told he will stand at the head of the table of converts, those who have voluntarily accepted all the pain, responsibility, and travail of Judaism voluntarily, in the symbolic great feasting hall of Olam Haba.

And so this is the greatness of questioning or arguing. If done properly, it confers great rewards on the questioner. Doing it properly involves showing understanding, caring, respect, and openness to new perspectives, as well as to the possibility that one's beliefs may be completely wrong. Done incorrectly, it can be a great danger and bring serious punishment on one who wishes to argue for argument's sake or to belittle others.

Va'aira 5775, January 2015, Mercy

Last week I started by discussing Socrates and his inquiries, how they led to Plato and Aristotle's philosophical work which parallels much of what they could have learned simply from Avraham, what Avraham was able to discover on his own by thought exercises which led him to G-d, while the same inquiries led the Greeks far astray.

One of the greatest questions the Greeks simply could not answer was how and why bad things should happen, and particularly why they should seem to happen indiscriminately rather than falling on the shoulders of the evil as it seemed should logically happen if there were justice on Earth, whether through natural intrinsic causes or those from a greater outside power. Socrates could not make sense of this.  It's fair to allow that this is a common problem, though, this misunderstanding of eternal justice, for we see at the beginning of this week's parsha that the problem befalls Moshe Rabbeinu himself.

Once Moshe returned to Egypt and with Aharon approached Pharaoh to demand the B'nai Yisroel's release, Pharaoh responded by increasing the slaves' workload. Shmos Rabba says Moshe accused G-d of deceiving him or dealing unfairly with the people. G-d responded by pointing out that Moshe, while he would prove to be the gentlest and greatest leader the people could have, complained in a way that the forefathers never had done; moreover, H- declared explicitly, according to the same source, that while it might seem unjust, nevertheless it was done out of divine mercy, no matter that even a man such as Moshe could not understand how this was merciful.

Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch, commonly known as the Maggid of Mezeritch, lived at the time of the harshest conscription of Jewish boys into the czarist army. Most of the boys died of hunger and cold during their service; those who did not die were lost forever to the Jewish people after 10 or more years of being forced to forego all Jewish practice from tzitzis to kashrus to Shabbos. When R' Dov Ber was dying, he promised Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk to plead directly before G-d's throne if needed to implore for heavenly mercy from this horrid decree afflicting all the Jewish families and communities within czarist Russia. Not long after, R' Dov Ber did pass away; time passed though, and no change occurred to protect the boys or prevent their conscription. At last R' Dov Ber appeared to R' Elimelech in a dream, and he explained.  Now that he was in Olam Haba, said the Maggid, he could see how merciful and beneficial was the decree for all of the Jews of the land. He had no way he could explain this to R' Elimelech, for it was simply beyond human temporal understanding in this world; all the same, he could not pray to have the decree lifted for it is forbidden to pray for bad, and the Heavenly decree that Jewish boys be kidnapped into the czar's army was truly good when seen from Above.

Moshe learned this lesson directly from G-d's words as I said above. This is in fact why he was ultimately the most perfectly suited man to confront Pharaoh about the impending plagues; he was the only man on Earth to most truly come close to understanding the nature of Divine mercy. He was the man who could most convey to Pharaoh G-d's love and desire that the king and all of his people perform teshuva and return to H-m, for Moshe understood the depth of G-d's love and how much even the decrees that seem punitive are in truth performed out of that love and mercy. In addition, it gave him the ability to plead with Pharaoh as no one else could, having himself performed teshuva. Pharaoh never would have the right to complain that the options before him were not clearly presented or fully discussed; not one other man could have made things any plainer to him than Moshe Rabbeinu.

WILD ANIMALS OF ALL SORTS!

Shmos 5775, January 2015; Causality

"I Love Learning Torah"

Socrates, the Greek philosopher, is known to have first concentrated on natural studies, trying to employ rationalism to discover the true forces and causes of all that happens in the world. He felt he disproved the existence of the Greek pantheon, but became stuck when he got to basis of real causality, why things must happen as they do, what forces cause and drive the basic injustices and unpredictabilities he saw each day. He therefore turned from biology to pure thought and philosophy and focused on ration and logic for the rest of his life. He simply could not come up with a reason why lightening should strike where it does, why the wicked sometimes seemed to prosper, why things must be as they are; yet he felt his cosmology was incomplete without that full understanding.

I mention Socrates because I am going to discuss a variety of opinions among commentators as to the question of why the Jews descended to Egypt and slavery. They were already G-d's chosen people, Am Yisroel. They were living in Canaan. What reasons and forces required that they all go down to Egypt, become enslaved, be redeemed, wander the desert, and go to war to retrieve their rightful homeland?  The necessity of this occurring has been discussed by many, it's not a trivial question at all.

Ramban says this occurred because Avraham went down to Egypt himself, without being so commanded by G-d; and moreover by doing so he endangered the tzaddekes Sarah even more than himself. Therefore Hash-m had decreed his descendants should endure Egyptian exile.

Abarbanel says rather that the 10 brothers who sold Yosaif brought the Egyptian slavery on the people. They sold him to slavery, they cast him into a pit, and his pain was at their hands morally. Therefore the people were punished middah-k'neged-middah.

In Nedarim is teaches three reasons related to Avraham again; that he drafted talmidai chachamim to war to free Lot, that he did not accept the promises of inheritance G-d gave him at the bris ben habesarim, and that after the war of the five kings and four kings, Avraham allowed to Sdomim to return home rather than keeping them near him and teaching them to give up idolatry.

Last week I heard Rabbi Jeffrey Fox give another answer in a shiur. He cited the Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Idolatry. Rambam states that simple reason and logic, as displayed by Avraham in his youth, reveal the obvious truth of G-d. All you need is the basic human ability to think (which Socrates, Plato, and then Aristotle extolled in Greece) to see that G-d must be. The people knew this, but were led astray over time to idolatry all the same. When Avraham was 40 years old, he came to fully understand the logical truth of G-d, and it was then that he condemned idolatry and began to fight against it; after this, he came in loving contact and direct communication with G-d.  While we frequently say that the Patriarchs followed the whole Torah, Avraham's religion, that which he taught, was not the specifics of how to wash pots to maintain kashrus nor exactly how an individual must put on tefillin. It was the uniqueness, perfection, and oneness of G-d.

Avraham wrote this down and transmitted it to his son Yitzchak, who of course gave instruction to his son Yaakov. Yaakov commanded that the descendants of Levi must continuously learn this so it would never be forgotten.

When the Jews descended to Egypt, though, eventually while surrounded by idolatry they turned to it (except the tribe of Levi). Quoting from the translation edited by Rabbi Isadore Twerski, "The children of Jacob returned to the mistakes of the nations, and to their straying from the true path. Out of love and out of keeping the covenant made with Abraham, G-d sent Moses our Teacher, chief of all the Prophets. Since Moses professed and G-d chose Israel as an inheritance, He crowned them with commandments, and made known to them the way to worship Him…."

Look at the above paragraph carefully. According to Rambam, if the Jews descended to Egypt because of some base mistake made by Avraham Avinu, all the same the result is astounding. The fact of their going to Egypt and descending into idol worship made possible, made inevitable, the giving of the actual Torah and its halacha.  Had the Jews not gone down to Egypt, Judaism would be a completely different faith in practice, based not on a G-d given Torah but rather on almost Socratic principles of reason.  The Torah is our minute-by-minute connection with G-d himself, it allows us to redeem ourselves spiritually at almost constant opportunities through the rewards of performing the mitzvahs.  If  Avraham Avinu erred and caused his descendants a few generations later to be sent into Egyptian slavery, out of that we received national redemption.