Dvar Torah for Young Members Shabbat

Tonight I’m holding a Young Members Shabbat dinner at my Shul for members in their 20’s and 30’s. It’s the second one we’ve done. I’ll be delivering a Dvar Torah. It’s based on the one I gave (and wrote about) last year when I hosted a Shabbat Dinner at home for my friends. Here it is…

This week we read Parashat Toldot. The portion is book ended by two stories that, on the surface, seem to portray Jacob taking advantage of others, an activity that is unbecoming of our Forefathers. We will see that when we delve deeper, not only is he not taking advantage of anyone, he is actually acting in a way that ensures the future of his people.

In the first account, we read “Now Jacob cooked a pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, "Pour into [me] some of this red, red [pottage], for I am faint"; he was therefore named Edom. And Jacob said, "Sell me as of this day your birthright." Esau replied, "Behold, I am going to die; so why do I need this birthright?" And Jacob said, "Swear to me as of this day"; so he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and a pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank and arose and left, and Esau despised the birthright.”

The simple reading suggests that Esau was out hunting and came to Jacob “starving to death” and asked for some of the lentil soup that Jacob was making. Jacob sees an opportunity to get the birthright that usually goes to the firstborn, so he tells Esau that he will give him the soup in exchange for the birthright. Esau says “I’m starving to death here, what do I need a birthright for, give me the soup.” And the deal is made.

When studying a passage of Torah, there are always multiple levels of meaning to the text. The first level is to look at the straight reading of the text. At this level we have to ask a legal question; if Esau was starving to death, how can he enter into a contract? The key to understanding this is to remember the first fule of Torah study, the Torah is very stingy with words. Every word is there for a reason, and every word that is left out is left out for a reason. So here we have a deal to exchange a birthright for some soup, but then we read “And Jacob gave Esau bread and a pottage of lentils”, where did the bread come from? Surely the Torah doesn’t record every time someone eats bread with a meal, why record it here?

The bread is to resolve the legal dilemma. After agreeing to the deal, Jacob gives Esau some bread to satisfy his hunger. Then before giving the soup to seal the deal he asks Esau if he is sure, Esau agrees and the deal is done.

But on a deeper level, what’s really going on here?

Because of the division of the weekly readings, we loose some of the context of this episode. If we remember back to last week, the end of the parasha records the death of Abraham. This story immediately follows – this is all happening on the day of Abraham’s funeral. The lentil soup Jacob was making was the traditional food of mourning. Esau, with all his faults, was still a good person inside (story of his head), he was just confronted with the death of the greatest person he knew, when that happens, you often confront your own mortality. When he says “what do I need this birthright for, I’m going to die”, he wasn’t talking about an immediate death, he was talking generally. Esau’s live philosophy was “Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die” - a denial of the afterlife. The birthright is a spiritual blessing one that would not benefit him in his lifetime, but follow him for all eternity, what use does Esau have for that – he was interested in material goods. Going even deeper, Esau knew that the role of the first born was to be the family’s emissary in the Temple. The temple service required complete concentration – if your thoughts wavered for even a second, you would die on the spot. (That’s why there were so many High Priests in the Second Temple – they were never of good character and kept dieing on us.) Esau knew that if he (and his kin) was the family’s representative in the temple, he would not be able to do the job and would die. What does he need that tzuris for? What Esau was saying is that he has no use of the birthright; in fact he despises it and would happily sell it for even the smallest material gain (i.e. some pottage). Jacob knew that such a person could not carry on the mission of Abraham; such a person should not get the blessing of the firstborn.

Skip ahead to the end of the Parasha, and we come to the famous story of Jacob fooling Isaac into giving him the blessing meant for Esau. The simple reading is that Isaac wants to give a blessing to Esau, but Rebecca wants it to go to Jacob. Then Jacob and Rebecca conspire to take advantage of a blind, old Isaac and trick him into giving the blessing to Jacob. But this is Isaac we’re talking about, it’s hard to imagine being able to trick him.

The general understanding is that the blessing being fought over is the blessing of Abraham, to continue his mission. But let’s look at the blessing that are actually given. The text records two blessings; the first was intended for Esau (but went to Jacob), and the second was intended for (and went to) Jacob. The first blessing was: “And may the Lord give you of the dew of the heavens and [of] the fatness of the earth and an abundance of corn and wine. Nations shall serve you and kingdoms shall bow down to you; you shall be a master over your brothers, and your mother's sons shall bow down to you. Those who curse you shall be cursed, and those who bless you shall be blessed."

The second blessing was: “may the Almighty God bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and you shall become an assembly of peoples. And may He give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land of your sojourning, which God gave to Abraham."

So we see that Isaac wanted to give Esau the blessing of physical strength, and give Jacob the blessing of spiritual strength. Rebecca wanted both to go to Jacob.

Isaac knew all along that Jacob was the one to carry on the mission of Abraham, but that mission would take more than just spirit, it would take strength. Isaac was afraid that if he would give Jacob the physical blessing it would corrupt his pure spirit. So Isaac’s plan was to give Esau the physical blessing and Jacob the spiritual one; they would work together to change the world. Rebecca knew that as long as Jacob was dependant on Esau, the mission would never get completed.

When Jacob comes before Isaac pretending to be Esau, he doesn’t fool his father; Isaac knows what’s going on. Isaac says “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” These are not the words of a confused old man. Voice represents the soul, the intellect, this was Jacob’s forte. Hand represent physicality, this was Esau’s strength. By taking it upon himself and acting to get both blessings, Jacob showed Isaac that he had both the spirit and the physical will to carry out Abraham’s mission. He didn’t need Esau. So Isaac decided then that his wife was right all along and gave both blessing to Jacob. He would be blessed with both the spirit needed to change the world, and the physical assets to do it.

A mission that we all inherit and are responsible for carrying out.

Shabbat Shalom.

Does G-d change his mind?

At Shabbas Dinner last week, my brother posed a very good question. While reading Lech Lecha a few weeks ago, he read that G-d promised Abraham that Isaac would be made into a great nation; this promise was repeated in the next parashat when Sarah told Abraham to send Ishmael away. Why then, when G-d told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, did Abraham not know it was a bluff? Why would Abraham think that G-d would go back on his word to make Isaac a great nation?

So I did some research, and here’s the response I emailed him (and posted to his blog, where he first posed the question)…

This is one of those questions that jump out at you, which leads many people have tried to answer it. The most common answer is similar to the one given above; even if Abraham had sacrificed Isaac, continuing Abraham’s linage through Isaac anyway would hardly be the greatest miracle in the Torah.

Such an explanation seems to be counter to the Jewish practice of “not relying on miracles”. Torah commentators do not like to resolve apparent conflict by saying the G-d would perform a miracle to resolve things.

So I did some more looking, and I can across an interesting Dvar Torah from a few years ago by one of my favourate Rabbi’s, Rabbi Ari Kahn. The full article can be found here, but I’ll summarize the key points.

In typical Jewish fashion, we’ll answer a question with a question. Before we can address this issue, we need to understand what Abraham’s test was in this story. Abraham was known for his kindness and for his love of G-d. His credo was “I’m willing to live, and if necessary die, for the reality of G-d”. There was no doubt in anyones mind (including G-d’s) that he would do anything that G-d asked of him. If he could do it so willingly, what then was the test, what then was the challenge?

Rabbi Kahn postulates, “Perhaps Abraham's challenge lay in the fact that he had previously been told that Isaac would be his spiritual heir. If Isaac would die, he could not inherit Abraham's legacy, he could not lead. More importantly, Isaac's death would indicate that the word of God could not be trusted.”

Rabbi Kahn continues,

“What God was asking of Abraham was not merely to sacrifice his son Isaac, but to sacrifice his own life's meaning. We can clearly appreciate that had the test been to entertain 50, 100 or 200 guests for dinner, Abraham would have risen to the challenge heroically, with a smile on his face and gladness in his heart. That would not have been a challenge. That would have fit within Abraham's world view as an act of kindness. Instead, God asked Abraham to perform the act which is the very antithesis of kindness, to kill his son. This may be the most difficult aspect of the story of the binding of Isaac. With one blow of the sword Abraham would be conceding to all his pagan neighbors that his mission had come to an end, and that instead of inspiring them to embrace his world-view, he was throwing in the towel and accepting their twisted rites and rituals. His life's meaning would perish along with Isaac.

Only when we understand that the greatness of Abraham was his kindness, are we able to appreciate the significance of this test. The first step toward religious development is taking one's capabilities, one's natural gifts, and utilizing them for a divine mission. What God wanted Abraham to gain from this challenge was the appreciation that man can go beyond his natural tendencies and skills. Therefore God calls upon Abraham to perform an act which is antithetical ' the complete opposite ' of his natural instinct.”

So we see (as we often do when we really study a Torah portion) that the seeming conflict that Ian raised is actually the main point of the passage. It’s this very conflict that G-d was using as a lesson for Abraham and for all who follow.

Parashat V’Zot Ha’Bracha

This week we read the final parashat of the Torah. The Torah ends with the following:

So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor; but no man knows his grave till this day. And Moses was 120 years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; and the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the people of Israel listened to him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there has not arisen since in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. In all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land. And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great and awesome deeds which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. (Deut. 34:5 to 34:12)

At the start of the book of Deuteronomy, I wrote about the divine authourship of the book – G-d dictated and Moses wrote. These last eight verses seem to pose a problem. They seem to be written after Moses’ death, so how could Moses have been the scribe?

The Talmud seems to give conflicting explanations about this. In one place it says that these last eight verses were actually dictated by G-d and written by Joshua (in a sense passing the torch) [Baba Bathra 15a]. In essence, the Talmud says the book of Joshua actually begins with these last eight verses. But that’s a problem, since these eight verses are part of the Five Books and thus are on a higher level of holiness.

In another place, the Talmud makes the difficult to understand statement that up until this point G-d dictated and Moses repeated and wrote, but for the se last eight verses, G-d dictated and Moses wrote with his tears [Baba Bathra 15a].

The Ritva resolves this issue beautifully. Moses had completed writing the Torah, expect the last eight verses when he was sent my G-d up the mountain to his death. Knowing that he had acted as G-d’s conduit for the last time he wept; his tears falling on the Torah scroll. G-d caused the tears to write the last eight verses (in invisible ink). Joshua was then called upon to go over the tear marks with ink, thus completing the Torah.

And with that, we conclude the annual cycle of reading the Torah, and along with it, we conclude my first round of Torah commentary. Writing these have vastly improved my understanding of Torah, on every level. G-d willing, my writings of the next year will be as fulfilling.

CHAZAK CHAZAK V'NITCHAZEK!

Shabbat Shalom.

Sukkot – Praying for what?

his is a busy time of year. We just finished the High Holydays and now we’re right into Sukkot. Since nothing in the Torah is there by chance, there must be some reason that Rosh HaShanna, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot fall so close together.

The relationship between Rosh Ha’Shanna and Yom Kippur is clear. On Rosh Ha’Shanna we’re judged based on how well we used our lot in the past year and on how we plan to use our lot next year. Then we have a chance to perform teshuva so that some of our transgressions can be undone on Yom Kippur. But how does Sukkot relate into this?

On the High Holidays, what we’re really praying for is life. Being inscribed in the Book of Life rather than the Book of Death. Who shall live and who shall die… Once that has been determined (and we’re hopefully in the book of life), we can start praying for other things; physical things. But it seems anti-Jewish to associate praying for physical wealth to be associated with a major holiday.

The holiday of Sukkot has always been associated with rain. It falls at the start of Israel’s rainy season, during Sukkot we start to add the line to the Amida “mashiv ha’ruach u’moriv ha’gashem” - “Who makes the wind blow and the rain descend”. What does it mean to pray for rain? In ancient Israel, having rain meant you would have plentiful crops, which means you would eat and be wealthy for the year. If it didn’t rain, you would be poor (and worst case – you would die from starvation). So praying for rain is really praying for wealth.

The Hebrew work for rain is gashem, which comes from the same root as gashmias, which means physical. Today, when we pray for rain, we’re really asking for quality of life.

Of course, at the same time as we’re asking for quality of life, we’re told to leave our luxurious homes and live in a temporary hut for the week. This puts everything into perspective, the only thing we really have, the only think that will really comfort and protect us is G-d. Once we have that correct mindset, there is no harm in being given a good quality of life on top of that.

So tonight, when we eat our first meal of the year in the Sukkah, lets appreciate the quality we have in our lives, and know where that really comes from.

Chag Sameach

Ready for Yom Kippur

Rosh Ha'Shanah is about generalities. We pray for favourable judgements for the entire Jewish people, all of humanity, and all creatures in the universe, because we all stand before G-d in Judgement that day. our actions of the past year, and plan for the new year are taken as a whole and we're judged based on that.

Yom Kippur is different. It's about specifics.

The central prayer on Yom Kippur is the Al Chet, where we bang on our hearts and ask for forgives for a variety of sins. We list out 44 different types of sins; sins committed through harsh speech, sins committed in business, sins committed with haughty eyes. Such a prayer forces us to think about the specific things we have done in the past year that we seek forgiveness for.

I decided that my Yom Kippur preparation for this year would be to study the Al Chet prayer. Through this study, I have made up a sheet that lists each line of the prayer, and under each line lists a specific items that I am asking forgiveness for. Sometimes it is a bad habit, or a character flaw I want to work on, other times it refers to a specific incident.

This sheet will be folded up and kept in my machzor, so every time we say Al Chet over Yom Kippur, I can take it our and read it along with the prayer. Every time I bang my chest I'll be asking G-d for forgiveness for a very specific sin.

This process has forced me to really examine myself. Some of the 44 sins were very hard to come up with an example for, but by forcing myself to find something about that type of sin that I need to work on, I have laid the groundwork for self improvement for the coming year.

May the gates of heaven be open to the teshuva of you all and all of your loved ones, so that you may be sealed in the Good Book of Life for the coming year.

Gmar chasima tova. Wishing you all an easy fast.

My theme for the new year – Selichah

Each year, I try to choose one character trait to improve on. Last year it was charity; the year before it was prayer. This year it will be selichah, forgiveness.

Usually when we think about forgiveness, we think about forgiving others when they have wronged you; not carrying a grudge. This is actually not something I generally have a problem with. I don’t tend to carry grudges; I forgive people when they ask for it; of course there is always room for improvement. There are three other aspects of forgiveness, which I feel I need to focus on.

First, I need to work on asking others for forgiveness. This is one of the hardest things to do. It entails saying you’re sorry and asking the injured party to forgive you. Saying you’re sorry is when you’re wrong (as apposed to when you accidentally did something) is very difficult, for everyone, including me. The problem lies in the fact that it means admitting you were wrong, and we all like to think of ourselves as perfect creatures living in an imperfect world. And there in lies the problem. Humans are not perfect; only G-d is perfect. Being able to admit our imperfections by seeking forgiveness is a way of sanctifying G-d’s name through the acknowledgement that G-d is the only perfect being in this universe.

Second is being able to ask myself for forgiveness. As hard as it is to ask others for forgiveness, it’s even harder (and more important) to ask yourself.

Finally, just as I grant forgiveness when others seek it of me, I need to be able to grant it to myself when I seek it. If I err, I need to acknowledge it, by asking myself for forgiveness, and then forgive myself so that I don’t tear myself up over it. Finally, I need to use that mistake as a stepping stone to improve whatever character flaw lead to the mistake.

I am going to try to use some the techniques of Mussar to improve this character trait. I’ll write about that later.

Parashat Ha’azinu – The greatness of Moses

This week, we read the second last parashat in the Torah. As we read the Torah’s closing chapters, we see Moses take a different course. Until now, Moses has either taught or re-taught G-d’s commandments, or rebuked the people for their misdeeds. In this week’s portion, Moses breaks into song.

This is not the first time that Moses sings; the most famous being Shir Ha’Yam, Song by the Sea, which Moses lead the people in singing after crossing the Sea of Reads. That song was in response to seeing a miracle of unparalleled greatness; it was a song of religious ecstasy. But the generation that sang with Moses at the Sea is now dead, and Moses knows he will soon follow. In that light, it seems like a strange time to sing. But there in lies the greatness of Moses.

Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Because I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are justice; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. (Deut 32:1-4)

Here, Moses refers to G-d as “the Rock”, while not uncommon, if we remember that Moses’ downfall came when he tried to get water from the rock, it seems all the more surprising that Moses would choose to use this term to describe G-d.

In his song, which is sung immediately preceding his death Moses completely accepts Divine justice: He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are justice; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Instead of avoiding this painful topic, Moses addresses it head-on, displaying absolute acceptance of God and His will. This is yet another indication of the spiritual level which Moses achieves.

When a Jew hears good news, they praise G-d with a blessing ending with Ha’Tov vHa’Metiv – who is good and does good. When we hear bad news we say the blessing ending with daan v’emet – the True Judge. The sages teach us that we are suppose to pronounce each of these blessings with equal enthusiasm, because in both cases we recognize G-d as the source of all and completely accept Divine judgment. Most of us find it very hard to do this – it takes a man of Moses’ level to be able to do it.

Shabbat Shalom

How did I do?

As we’re about to enter another Rosh Ha’Shanah, I though I should try to look back on the past year, and see how I did.

Last Rosh HaShanah, I proposed a theme for the new year. The theme was focused on improving myself through the performance of just one mitzvoh. The mitzvoh I choose was the very important mitzvah of tzdukah, charity. I wanted to give more and give better.

On year later, looking back on things, I can honestly say that the “year of tzdukah” was successful. I am giving more charity, I am actively looking for places where my charity will be best used and I am giving it out of joy, not obligation.

I am also giving in the form of my time, by volunteering for the Board of Governors and various committees at my Shul.

My theme also seemed to rub off on those around me. Mandy has always been very charitable, but now we are both paying attention to al the mass mailings we get asking for money, where as before they would have gone right in the trash. We both try to never turn away a request (as long as the charity is reasonable).

Of course, there is still much room to improve. My donation levels still fall well short of the 10% required by Jewish law, and I’m giving through agencies, rather than trying to help the needy directly. These are obviously things that I will continue to work on this coming year.

Shanah Tova

Rosh Hashanah

The concept that people generally relate to Rosh Hashana is that of reward and punishment. The idea being, that your relative levels of reward and punishment for the upcoming year, will be based on the mitzvoth and sins your committed in the past year.

The Talmud is quite clear, that this is not the correct way to look at things. The Talmud says that mitzvoth cannot be rewarded in this world; the commentators explain that there is not enough pleasure in this world to compensate you for the performance of even a single mitzvah.

The Book of Life and Book of Death don’t relate 1:1 to good and evil. Many good people die every year, and many evil ones live. Good people who have not yet earned the merit for entrance into the world to come are written into the Book of Life to compensate them for past good deeds, and to give them a chance to do more good deeds so that they can merit entrance into the World to Come in the future.

So then just what is the judgment being don e in Rosh Hashana? The best way to look at it is as an investment model. On Rosh Hashana it is decided how much Divine energy will be invested in you this year. Just like the amount of grant money that will be granted to a researcher is based on how well he used the money last year and how good a plan he has for the coming year; on Rosh HaShana, we all stand before G-d and are Judged on how well we used the opportunities of the past year, then present our plan to G-d on how we will use what is given to us this year.

Remember that the ultimate goal is to earn as much pleasure as possible in the world to come, and the way to do that is by performing mitzvoth in this world. So question is, will G-d hand us these opportunities, or will we have to work harder to find them?

This year, when we all stand before G-d may we receive a judgment that will afford us many opportunities to earn a favorable place in the world to come.

Regret vs. Guilt

On of the key steps in true teshuva is that we have to regret the mistakes we have made. Amongst Jews, the concept of regret is often confused with the concept of guilt. However, there is a fundamental difference between the two.

Regret and guilt are not the same thing. Guilt creates paralysis. Regret creates redefinition. Guilt is passive - e.g. I can't deal with this right now. I think I'll eat chocolate and go to sleep. Regret is active - e.g. I really feel terrible about what I did, what can I do to make things right. Regret leads to release from the prison of self-limiting behavior. Guilt goes nowhere, and is so unpleasant that we tend to blame anyone available -- just to liberate ourselves from its violent grip on our souls.

On Rosh HaShana, we should not feel guilt about the mistakes we have made in the past year, but we do need to regret then, because regret helps prevent you from making the same mistakes again.

Time Travel through Teshuva

The theme of the High Holidays is Teshuva (usually translated as “repentance”, but more accurately as “return”). According to tradition, before G-d created the world, he crated teshuva. The usual interpretation of this is that when G-d created the world, he knew that man was fallible, he would make mistakes, he would sin. So before G-d created the world, he put in place a process in which man can return to G-d after sinning.

This is a deep and meaningful interpretation, but there is another very interesting one, a metaphysical one, that I wanted to look at. If teshuva was created before the universe, then it is not bound by the limitations of the universe. Time, on the other hand, was created by G-d as part of this universe. So time is a restriction of the universe, and anything that is not bound by the universe is not bound by time.

This is why we say that G-d can see the future. G-d exists outside the limitations of the universe, so is not bound by time. It’s not that G-d can see the future; it’s that to G-d, there is no such thing as time. It’s a difficult metaphysical concept to understand, but fundamental to Jewish belief.

In the same way, teshuva exists outside of the bounds of the universe, so it is not restricted by the law that time only flows in one direction. While we’re not able to undo our past actions, through true teshuva, we are actually able to travel back in time and undo the negative effects of those actions. Through teshuva, we are not only forgiven for our sins; when we do teshuva honestly, God reverses time and opens doors that we may have locked years ago, erasing the negative impact of our choices.

In this way, we’re Rosh Ha’Shana is actually an opportunity to engage in time travel, but only if we do teshuva properly. Now if that doesn’t encourage people to come to Shul, I don’t know what will.

The Month of Elul – Why do we need to prepare?

The month leading up to Rosh HaShana is a time of soul searching and preparation. Ideally, I would have liked the month to have been filled with posts here at Pintele Yid, but my little Jonah has made regular posting difficult. But in the final few days on the month, I wanted to try to get some reflections committed in writing.

Rosh HaShana is the Day of Judgment, the day when we stand before G-d and he the actions of the past year are judged and a verdict rendered that will decide what our fate will be in the next year. Surely if you were on trial in a human court, you would spend some time preparing, and not just show up on the court date and wing it. The same reasoning should apply here, if we are to successfully plead our case before G-d, we need to be prepared.

So why don’t people prepare? My guess is that people view Rosh HaShana as the start of the case, not the end of it. They view Yom Kippur as the end. Whatever verdict is rendered on Rosh HaShana can be appealed on Yom Kippur. People rely on that. Of course, this technique would never be applied in a human court. “I’ll take my chances at trial, and if I don’t like the verdict, there’s always the appeal.”

By spending the month of Elul preparing for the Day of Judgment, we can obtain a favorable verdict, and then user Yom Kippur to further improve our lot for the coming year.

I challenge everyone to take these last few days to prepare. Examine your past year and see where you have made mistakes, understand what your are asking G-d to forgive. Then when you pray, pray for forgiveness of specific acts, not generalities.

This is the path towards being inscribes in the Good Book of Life.

Parashat Nitzavim – Vayelech

The week we read a double Torah portion, which marks the final section of the book of Deuteronomy, and the Torah. We have reached the last day of Moses’ life, and we read his final address to the people. It is here that the reigns of leadership are passed from Moses to Joshua.

While Joshua was a worthy leader, how can anyone compare to Moses? In comparing the two, the Talmud (and Rashi) describe Moses as being like the sun, and Joshua like the moon. The common interpretation is about the relative luminance of the two; the moon is the brightest item in the night sky, but it pales in comparison to the brightness of the sun. This is not what the intended interpretation. The Talmud was refereeing to the source of the brightness. The sun’s brightness comes from within, but the moon reflects the brightness around it.

The light of Moses -- the greatness of Moses -- was his status as representative of God. With his death that light would be spread out among the people. The only way to get the light to shine forth was when the people gather and form a whole. The light had now become the domain of the entire nation. This is represented by the mutual responsibility, and the spiritual reciprocity which it implies. All future leaders (including Joshua) would reflect that light. You could say that upon Moses’ death, the Jews went from being the people of Moses, to the nation of Israel.

This week’s portion is also significant because it contains the final of the 613 commandments of the Torah; that every Jew should write a Torah for himself. After giving 612 commandments on how to live, and how to bring G-d into the world, we are told that we must each write them down and bring them into our personal lives. The Rabbi’s teach that this commandment can be fulfilled by writing one letter of a Torah scroll, since if one letter in the scroll is incorrect, the entire scroll is invalid. Writing a Torah is a difficult process, one that not every one is trained in, so this mitzvoh can be fulfilled in a different way. By hiring a trained scribe to write the Torah on your behalf (or even one letter on your behalf), you have fulfilled the mitzvoh.

Earlier this year, I sponsored the writing of an aliya in the new Torah scroll that my Shul is commissioning. In such, I have fulfilled this final commandment of the Torah. In contrast, the first commandment in the Torah is to “be fruitful and multiply”, to have children with your wife. This commandment I also fulfilled this year.

As we approach Rosh Hashana, and we reflect on your actions of the past year, I can take pride in the fact that I have fulfilled the first and the last mitzvot in the Torah. With these book ends in place, I anxiously await the opportunity to fill in the intermediate mitzvoth in the coming year

Shabbat Shalom

Parahat Ki Tavo

This week’s Torah portion starts with an interesting commandment. Upon entering the promise land, the Jews are to take the first of the fruits and bring them as an offering to G-d.

Durring the 40 years in the desert, the Israeli people had a very clear world view; everything comes from G-d. This was clear because they saw it, the food came down from the heavens, a well of water followed them around, and their clothes did not wear out. In that type of environment, it is easy to understand that everything comes from G-d. But when they enter the land of Israel, things will change. No longer will their food come directly from G-d. They will now have to work the land to get grain and fruits; G-d, of course, still guides things to ensure that the land “flows with milk and honey”.

When the children of Israel entered the land, so close to fulfilling their destiny, the most crucial of questions emerged: Would they see the fruits of their labor independent of God? Or would they bring the fruits to Jerusalem part and parcel of their religious experience?

This is, of course, the fundamental question of Judaism. What is G-d’s place in the world? Does G-d exist in the spiritual realm, with the physical world being independent? Or does G-d permeate all aspects of the world? The Jewish position is the latter, but to many of us seem to live as if the former were the truth.

After the miraculous victory of the 6 Day War in 1967, the popular slogan heard amongst Jews was “By our hand and our might”. This was a complete denial of G-d role in the physical world. The near destruction of Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War was G-d way of sending a wake up call; “See how close to destruction you come by your hand.” It wasn’t until G-d intervened, that the war turned into another miraculous victory for Israel.

As the children of Israel prepared for their entrance into Land of Israel, they were given a strategy which will allow the stay to be enduring and meaningful. God provided the tools needed to create a society with a God consciousness -- a society which will have tents of study and fields of labor.

But no schism could exist between the two. God must be found in the fields, marketplaces and study-halls. Every day revelation would be experienced. Holiness would permeate the streets and fields. This is the goal of the commandment of the first fruits.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Ki Tetzei

This week’s Torah portion is made up of many different topics. But what I wanted to talk about today is the first part of the first sentence of the parashat; “When you go out to war against your enemies”. It then continues to talk about morality in times of war, specifically; it talks about how to deal with “beautiful women” among the captives taken during war.

There are many questions we can ask about these few words. First, G-d desires peace in the world, so why is he telling us how to act in war? Shouldn’t G-d be telling us how to prevent war? The main answer here is that the Torah is a set of instructions for living in this world, not some fictional ideal world. G-d recognizes that there is evil in this world, and sometimes war is required to deal with this evil.

Secondly, why does G-d tell us what we can do with females among the captives of war? Wouldn’t the moral thing to do be to free the female captives? Here, again, G-d recognizes the truths about the world and about human nature. “Raping and pillaging” in the aftermath of war seems to be human nature. We’ve seen it throughout history, and we see it today. While this is certainly not admirable behavior, G-d knew that if the Torah were to forbid it outright, the law would be ignored. So instead the law was written that you may take female captives, but you must treat them as a wife, with all the same rights and privileges as any other wife. Rather than outlawing human nature, the Torah controls it.

The concept of morality in war seems to be one that is very topical today. Much of the world criticizes the IDF for its actions against the Arabs, but the irony is that the IDF is the most moral army in the world.

When NATO was operating in the Balkans, it would routinely carpet bomb civilian centers in an effort to destroy military targets within. Five years later, the same generals who ordered those bombing runs, criticize the IDF for targeted killings of terrorist masterminds. When the IDF was faced with a similar situation to NATO, it decided to send in the infantry to Jennin, at great risk to Israeli solders, rather than carpet bomb from a safe height. This decision was made because the IDF wanted to spare civilian casualties.

We often talk about the corruption of power. Israel suffers from the opposite problem, the corruption of powerlessness. Jews had been powerless for so long, their survival dependant on the good will of their neighbours and host countries. When Israel was formed, and the Jews had an army, for the first time in 2000 years, they didn’t suffer from the normal desires of conquest, the suffered from the desire for acceptance. The IDF’s decisions are not based on military considerations, but rather on how the UN, White House and the rest of the world will react. This leads to behaviours that could be considered immorally moral. They are so concerned with morality, that they immorally risk the lives of Israeli soldiers.

Finally, with Rosh Hashana coming up, I wanted to touch on a different dimension of this first verse. A literal translation of the verse is “When you go out to THE war…”. There are two grammatically strange items here. First it’s talking in the singular, not about when the nation goes out to war, but when an individual goes out to war. Secondly, it doesn’t seem to be talking about war in general, it’s talking about a specific war, THE war. The mystical commentaries tell us that this is referring to the spiritual war that each of us must fight within ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom.

Parashat Shoftim – Bribery

As we near the end of the final book of the Torah, the Jews are getting closer and closer to entering into the land of Israel. This week’s Torah portion talks about some of the things the people will have to do once they enter.

The Parashat tells the people that once they enter the land, they must set up judges and police in all of their cities. It then instructs these judges to not pervert justice, not to play favorites, and not to take bribes; because brings can “blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the richeous”.

It’s interesting to note the importance of this commandment to form courts, not only is it one of the 613 commandments that the Jews have to follow, it is one of the 7 Noahide laws that are binding on all people. The seven Laws of Noah are: no idol worship, no cursing G-d’s name, no murder, no theft, no sexual immorality, no eating the limb torn off a live animal, and setting up courts. G-d is saying that one of the seven basics of a moral society is the presence of a just legal system.

The prohibition against taking bribes is an interesting one, because it extends far beyond the realm of the legal system. Doctors being taken out to lunches by drug company reps, businessmen being taken out for a round of golf, these could all be viewed as judges. People say that these things are no problem, because they’re common practice, noting is expected in return, and that the “free gift” won’t sway their decision in any way.

Jewish teachings disagree. The story is told of a wise Judge who sends his assistant out to buy him some fresh tobacco for his pipe. Unknowingly, the assistant goes to buy the tobacco from a tobacconist who has a case being herd by the Judge the next day. The tobacconist assumes that the reason the assistant is buying the tobacco from him, is that the Judge is looking for a bribe (which he wasn’t), so the tobacconist gives the assistant a bag of tobacco and slips a bribe into the bottom of the bag.

The next day the Judge is sitting on a 3-judge panel and hears the tobacconist’s case. The other two judges convict, but our Judge acquits. Our judge has great respect of the other two judges on the panel, so he assumes that he must have misheard some of the evidence. He goes over and over the evidence, but every time he arrives at the same verdict, in favour of the tobacconist. After a few days of this, our judge finally reaches the bottom of his bag of tobacco and sees the bribe. He then realizes what has happened, and knows why he wasn’t able to see the fact straight. Even if you don’t know about it, a bribe will “blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the richeous”.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Re-ei – Why Idolatry

In this week’s Torah portion, Moses asks the people to choose between two paths, the path of G-d and the path of idolatry. “I place before you on this day a blessing and a curse.” The blessing is if they follow G-d, and the curse if they do not.

It’s interesting to note, that it’s only in modern times that Jews fully choose the curse. We know from the writings of the prophets that even when Jews strayed from G-d, they did so by practicing idolatry in addition to worshiping G-d, not in place of. They ate Glat Kosher, fasted on Yom Kippur, kept the Shabbas, and then worshiped the idol Baal the rest of the week. Isaiah says “How long will you sit on the fence.”

The question is, if you have a blessing and a curse in front of you, why would someone choose the curse. The question can be paralleled by asking why would someone choose to take drugs when they know that they can cause serious physical and mental harm. The answer is instant gratification.

Everyone wants the good that comes with the blessing. We all want spirituality, meaning and happiness. But if I were to offer you a plan that would guarantee you get those things, and all you have to do is spend 10 years studying Torah, then 20 learning Talmud, then 20 more learning Kaballah, how many people would sign up of my 50 year plan. Even if you know it would work, most people choose not to take that path. People choose the path of instant gratification, even if there is no long-term gain (and potentially long term loss).

Idolatry is instant gratification. When the Jews entered Israel, idolatry was everywhere, on every mountain and under every tree; they were selling it on every street corner. It was a quick high. The Jews that partook weren’t ones who rejected G-d, they just needed a quick fix. They were looking for shortcuts to combine with their worship of G-d.

This choice is easier for Jews today. Because Judaism is not an integral part of so many Jew’s lives, when they want some meaning in life, when they need spirituality, it seems too hard to embrace their traditions, and they look for the quick fix.

Why do we need to pray everyday? Why do we need to follow all the commandments all of the time? What if things are going well and we don’t need G-d’s help. Can we put Juaism on hold and bring it back when we need it (since G-d accepts repentance)? The trick is, that if we let our relationship with G-d get stale, then when we need him, it’s going to be too chard to reconnect, and we’ll look for the quick fix. If we maintain that relationship, then when we need G-d, he’s right there for us.

Shabbat Shalom.

Jonah's Bris

Jonah's Bris was this morning, here is the speech Mandy and I made to our 150 guests.
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Mandy and I would like to thank everyone for being here today to join us in this simchah. The fact that so many people came out to participate in our fulfilling the mitzvah of Brit Milah, is an indication of the amount of love and warmth that will be with Jonah his entire life.

We’d like to thank out parents, for being such great role models. You’ve set the bar for parenting, and we’ll do our best to live up to it… and when we miss the mark, I’m sure one of you will be there to set us straight. We love you all very much, and it’s with great pleasure that we were able to make grand parents out of you. To the four of you, and all the uncles, aunts, cousins and friends, thank you in advance for the many hours of free baby-sitting that we’ll be taking advantage of as soon as possible.

Jonah arrived in a month full of simhahs. We just celebrated our 5^th anniversary. Mandy’s parents are about to celebrate their 40^th, my parents, their 35^th, and my sister is absent this morning, because she is preparing for her wedding, taking place this evening. Mazal Tov to everyone, and may we share many more together.

Naming a child is one of the most important decisions new parents make. The Talmud (Berachot 7b) teaches that a Hebrew name has an influence on its bearer. Hence, it was extremely important to name our baby after individuals with positive character traits who have led fortunate lives and have helped bring goodness to the world. Mandy and I had many such people to choose from. All of our grand parents would have been worthy choices. We all miss them dearly, and we know that while they are no longer with us in body, they are with us today in spirit, and their memory will now be passed on to a new generation.

It is said that parents are actually blessed with prophesy when naming their newborn babies so that they will choose names which aptly describe their children's personas and their destinies in life.

We named our baby Yosheph Aharon. Yoseph, after my Zada Joe (Z”L”), my father’s father, and Aharon, after Mandy’s Zada Harry (Z”L”), her father’s father. The tallis that my father wore while the Brit was performed, belonged to my Zada Joe, and has now been passed on to Jonah.

When a child is named after the deceased, the latter's soul is elevated to a higher realm in heaven and a spiritual affinity is created between the soul of the departed and the soul of the newborn child.

Master of the universe, may your spirit and the souls of Zada Joe, Zada Harry, and all of our loved ones watch over Yoseph Aharon ben Yerachiel Mayer and guide Mandy and I with strength and wisdom so that we may raise our son according to your will… Amen.

L’chaim!

Parashat Ekev – G-d’s Threats

In this week’s portion, Moses continues his farewell address to the Jewish people. This portion contains the second verse of the Shema, where G-d tells of all the good that will come if they follow G-d’s commandments, and the bad that will happen if they don’t

A friend was talking to me about the Shema. He told me that he has a lot of trouble with the second verse, and often he can’t bring himself to say it. His problem was that he didn’t like being threatened. In the verse G-d tells that if we follow his commandments, then we’ll have rain in the proper time, we’ll have cattle, crops, and everything will be good. But if we don’t, then we’ll get no rain, no crops, and we’ll be banished from the land. My friends feeling was that we should be serving G-d out of love, not fear. He said he doesn’t respond well to threats.

At first I didn’t know how to respond, I tried various things, showed him various commentaries on the passage, but nothing helped. He said “I don’t think that anyone can change my mid on this”. That’s when I knew what the problem was. When you hears a phrase like that, you know the person is stuck in a mindset, and to get them to see the other side will require them to look at the issue from a totally different angle. After thinking about it for a few days, here is my response to them.

Don’t look at this passage as a threat, think of it as a warning. The difference is subtle, but important. Consider this situation. A blind man is walking near the edge of a cliff. As he approaches the edge, you calls out and tells him to stop. You tells the blind man that if he walks towards your voice, you’ll grab his hand and take him to safety, but if he steps away from your voice, he’ll fall off the cliff and plummet to his death.

Are you threatening him, or warning him?

This is what’s going on in the verse. Israel is the blind man, and your voice was the voice of G-d in the second verse of the Shema. We are walking around the world oblivious to what is good and bad for our souls. G-d is telling us the facts of the world. Just as neglecting our body will cause us pain, so will neglecting our soul. G-d gives us his commandments, which are instructions from what is good for the soul. If we follow them, we’ll obtain pleasure, if we neglect them, we’ll experience the pain. It’s not a threat it’s a warning. Just as the blind man can’t sense the danger he was in if we would have walked away from you, we can not sense the spiritual danger we’re in if we walk away from G-d.

With this new outlook, hopefully my friend will be able to recite the entire Shema twice daily and continue to serve G-d out of love, not fear.

Shabbat Shalom.

Praying as a Father

This morning I davened Shacharit for the first time as a father.

I read the same words that I have read (just about) every day for more than 2 years, I find many passages take on a totally new meaning. There are two passages in particular that I’ve always felt have spoken to me, suddenly took on an entirely new meaning.

The first one is part of “Birkot Ha’Shachar”, the series of 15 blessings we say to start the service. The 10^th blessing is “Blessed are You, Hashem, Our G-d, King of the universe, Who provided me my every need.” I have always related to this in its corollary; “everything G-d has given me, I need.” I used this to keep in mind that everything comes from G-d, the good and the bad. This phrase helped me through the difficult time following our miscarriages. That too came from G-d, and for some reason I needed it.

But this morning, I related to that verse in a totally new way. G-d had just provided me with my son. My son is my every need. This verse now tells me how I have to prioritize my life. Work can be put on hold; other commitments can be put off. My priorities now lie with my son (and, of course, with G-d).

The second passage is towards the end of the service, it is “Blessed is my Lord for every single day he burdens us with his blessings.” I have always felt a connection to this verse, but was never able to put my finger on it. But now, with G-d giving me a son, and experiencing the “burden” of my new priorities, I understand the verse. My son is the greatest blessing G-d can bestow on me, and I thank G-d every minute for “burdening” me with this blessing.

Praying every day

More than two years ago I made the commitment to dawn tefillin and daven Shacharit every day. Before today, I have only missed one day. That was the day we went to Israel. We had to leave our house well before dawn, so I couldn’t daven before we left, and although I really wanted to, I was not yet comfortable davening in the middle of the terminal, or on the flight (especially since the flight would arrive in Israel just as Shabbos was about to start, I didn’t want to answer questions about why someone who is davening on the plane, would travel on the Shabbos).

But today I missed Shacharit for the second time. The reason this time is even better than a trip to Israel. Today, I missed davening because my son was just born. While I may have missed formal prayer, I spent the entire day (and most of the preceding night) in informal prayer for my wife and new son. As spiritually uplifting it is to dawn tefillin, holding my baby in my arms for the first (or second, or hundredth) time brings me just as close to my Creator.

Welcome Jonah Aaron

Early this morning, Mandy and I welcomed our first child, Jonah Aaron into the world. This was, without doubt, the most moving religious experience of my life.

You’ve seen it on TV hundreds of times (or thousands if you, like Mandy, are addicted to Life Network and TLC), but when I heard Jonah’s cry and the doctor announced “it’s a boy”, my eyes filled with tears, and a feeling came over me that I’ve never felt before and that can not be described in words. It was as if G-d himself was standing beside me and giving me the greatest gift imaginable.

Once the nurses cleaned him off and I was able to get close to him, I bent over, and whispered in his ear the Shema. Amid all the confusion he must have been experiencing at that moment, I wanted him to start his life by hearing the words that have sustained the Jewish people for thousands of years. It’s a good thing I was whispering, because anything louder would have come out as a cry.

The nurse then put Jonah beside Mandy (it was a c-section, so Mandy didn’t get to hold him) and the look and Mandy’s face told me she was experiencing the same feelings as I was.

I then got to carry Jonah to the nursery, and on the way a tear filled father introduced Jonah Aaron to the anxious grand parents, uncles and aunts.

This was an experience I’ll never forget, and one that, G-d willing, I’ll get to experience many more times.

May the almighty grant Jonah a long life willed with joy, happiness and thr service of G-d.

Parashat Va’Etchanan – The Dynamics of Prayer

This week’s Torah portion is, spiritually, on of the richest in the Torah. The 10 commandments are here, the Shema is here, and a lot of instructions from Moses. Put them all together and you have a very impressive collection of teachings.

The portion begins with a very strange episode. G-d has told Moses that he will not enter into the land of Israel. Moses prays and prays and prays. Eventually G-d has enough and tells Moses to go up on the Mountain and look onto the land but that he will never enter it. Not only does G-d not accept Moses’ prayer, G-d tells Moses that he doesn’t want him to pray anymore.

There seem to be two issues here. Number 1, Moses is surely a great man, so why doesn’t G-d accept his prayer? Second, if G-d hasn’t accepted his prayer until now, why tell him to stop praying? Basically, these boil down to the question of “How does prayer work?”

The Talmud addresses this issue with the following. Say you have two people, seemingly identical from the outside, with the same illness. They both pray for health, but one lives and one dies. The Talmud gives two explanations as to why one person’s prayers were answered, and the other’s wasn’t.

The first explanation says that one of the people prayed with all their heart, and the other didn’t. So according to this approach, the difference between a prayer being answered or not, is the intensity of the prayer, and the devotion of the person praying.

The second explanation says the first person prayed before his final sentence was announced in heaven, and the second person after it was pronounced. So this approach says it’s all about timing. Praying only helps until G-d has made his decision. Once he’s passed his judgment, there is nothing praying can do.

There are sources that hold by the second position, but it seems that the first position is the more commonly accepted in Jewish thought. So that raises the question; why then did G-d tell Moses to stop praying? We’ll need to look into prayer a bit deeper to understand.

Lets look back at the sick people from the Talmud. The illness is not the problem; it’s the symptom. The problem is a distancing from G-d, which could sometimes have severe consequences. The person got a message from G-d (the illness) alerting his to the problem and tries to correct the problem by bringing himself closer top G-d through prayer. If that prayer is intense enough, according to the first position in the Talmud, the distancing from F-d will be healed, and there will no longer be a need for the illness, so it will go away.

So let’s look at Moses’ case. G-d tells Moses not to pray anymore, because there was no problem with their relationship. As we said, prayer can raise your relationship with G-d to a higher level, but there was no higher level for Moses’ relationship with G-d, it was perfect. So why couldn’t Moses enter the land? Does it have anything to do with Moses? No, it has to do with the people. Once you understand that, you see why G-d told Moses not to pray anymore. G-d was saying ‘It’s not about you, its about the people.” It’s not that Moses’ prayers will not be answered, it’s that they cannot be answered because the people had distanced themselves from G-d.

This gives us some insight into why so much of Jewish teaching has to do with community. Perfecting our own personal relationship with G-d will only take us so far; the pinnacle can only be reached when the entire Jewish people mend their relationships with G-d.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat D'Varim

I have recently started a committee at our Shul (along with our Cantor) to attract young members (25-35 years old) and encourage their active involvement in the Shul, and in Jewish life. Tonight we hold our first event, a Shabbos Dinner. This was supposed to take place in the Cantor's home, but the response was so great, that we needed to move to a larger space!

I will be delivering the Dvar Torah. What follows is my planned speech.

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Public speaking is often listed among the activities people fear most. While I regularly engage in public speaking at work, I’m still not completely comfortable with it.

However, this small discomfort is magnified when I’m preparing a Dvar Torah. During the preceding week, I’m truly anxious. But the anxiousness is not in anticipation of the speaking, but because of the desire to convey a meaningful message in the time I have.

Winston Churchill is considered to be one of the great orators of modern time. He once said; “Ask me to speak for an hour, and I’ll start right away. Ask me to speak for 5 minutes, and I’ll need time to prepare.” A speaker can ramble for an hour on any topic, but when you only have 5 minutes, you need to make sure you use them well.

And since I’m sure you’d all prefer that I talk for 5 minutes as opposed to rambling for an hour, I’ve chosen my topic carefully.<>

This week we start the book of D’varim (Deuteronomy), the fifth and final book of the Chumash. The book is Moses’ farewell address to the people in the days before his death, and just before the people enters the Promise Land. The book is written in the first person, Moses speaking directly to the people. The other four books are written in the third person; “G-d spoke unto Moses saying, ‘speak to the people and tell them…’.”

This change in style has been noticed by ancient and modern readers. While modern scholars are quite comfortable using this information to suggest a different “source” or author for this book, traditional Jewish opinion, both ancient and modern, insists that the entire Torah is the word of God. So strong is that insistence that the Talmud teaches (Sanhedrin 99a) that if a person claims the entire Torah is written by G-d, except for one word which was written by Moses, that person has denied the entire Torah.

But the Talmud itself says that the first four books came from G-d through Moses, but the words of D’varim came directly from Moses. How does traditional Judaism resolve this issue?

Before we get to that, we need to ask “why do we care?” What would be the big deal if the first four books were written by G-d and the fifth by Moses? It’s a matter of authority. Judaism is Torah. If all or part of the Torah is man made (even if that man is Moses), then it has less authority that if it were written by G-d. Less authority for the Torah means less authority for Judaism. Judaism is Torah. Even if we say that the ideas come from G-d but the words come from man, that has less authority and if the words were to come from G-d.

But the Torah is full of places where the words don’t come from G-d. “And Pharaoh spoke to Moses…” These words clearly come from Pharaoh. Yet we still say that those words are just as divine as the ones describing the giving of the 10 commandments.

What gives those words their authority is that G-d told Moses to write them down. Even if the words come from man, they become divine when G-d decides they need to be included in the Torah and tells his scribe, Moses, to write them.

That’s what happens in D’varim. Moses writes his own speech and delivers it to the people. At the end of the speech, G-d tells Moses “I couldn’t have said it better myself. Now right it all down”, and then proceeds to dictate back to Moses everything that was just said. When the speech was given it did not have divine authority, it got that authority when G-d told Moses to write it down.

This is captured (cryptically) in the Zhoar when it writes that the entire Torah are the words of G-d, but the book of D’varim are also the words of Moses.<>

The book of D’varim is always started on the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av. One reason for this is that a major theme of the first parashat of D’varim is the retelling of the story of the spies. That tragedy occurred on the 9^th of Av. On that day G-d told Israel that because they cried for no reason, that G-d would give Israel many valid reasons to cry on that day in the future. In addition, Parshat Devarim is a record of Moses' speech of chastisement to the Jewish people, an especially appropriate prelude to the historic day of Divine chastisement. This connection is too powerful to ignore. Parshat Devarim and the 9^th of Av clearly belong together.

The story is told that Napoleon was walking through the streets of Paris one Tisha B'Av. As his entourage passed a synagogue he heard wailing and crying coming from within; he sent an aide to inquire as to what had happened. The aide returned and told Napoleon that the Jews were in mourning over the loss of their Temple. Napoleon was indignant! "How come I wasn't informed? When did this happen? Which Temple?" The aide responded, "They lost their Temple in Jerusalem on this date 1,700 years ago." Napoleon stood in silence and then said, "Certainly a people which has mourned the loss of their Temple for so long will survive to see it rebuilt!"

When we loose a loved one, we cover the mirrors, we sit on the floor and we mourn for 7 days. Then every year we light a candle, say Kaddish and drink a L’Chaim, but we don’t reenact the mourning. So why do we continue to mourn a loss that occurred 2000 years ago?

When the Temple was destroyed, we lost more than a building; we lost the ability to practice normative Judaism. Normative Judaism requires a Temple, High Priest, alter and sacrifices. We will not be able to return to that until the Temple is rebuilt. The Jerusalem Talmud makes an astounding statement: "The generation in which the Temple is not rebuilt is to be regarded as though the Temple was destroyed in that generation." The explanation is simple. When we mourn for the Temple, we are not mourning for a building that was destroyed 2,000 years ago. Our mourning must be directed to the realization that each generation is obligated to rebuild the Temple and that our failure to do so has little to do with politics, the debate over who has control over the Temple Mount, or the threat of the Arab nations to go to war if we disturb the mosques that sit atop the Temple Mount. The Temple will be rebuilt when a sufficient number of Jews make a commitment to Judaism. When will the Messiah come? As the Torah says, "Today, if you hearken to My voice."

That’s why we’re here today. The trends suggest that commitment to Judaism is declining with each generation. These problems are in no way unique to Judaism, but they are uniquely important to us. The continuity of Shaar Shalom and the Conservative movement is in jeopardy. Cantor Ben and I started the Young Members Committee in order to address this problem, because the solution lies with our generation. We need to stem by tides of assimilation and secularization. We need to foster our love for Judaism, keep Jewish homes and pass our traditions on to the next generation. That is what has sustained us through 2000 years of exile, and that what is needed to sustain us in the future. We’re starting with a Shabbat program, because there in lies the key to continuity.

More than the Jews kept the Shabbas, the Shabbas kept the Jews.

B’H’, May we all live to see the day when continuity is no longer an issue; a day when the entire Jewish world turns its attention away from internal politics and towards the Almighty.

Shabbat Shalom

What’s in a name?

I’ve always wondered where the English names for the books of the Torah come from. For the most part they seems quite unrelated to the Hebrew names.

The first book makes sense; the Hebrew name “Bereishit”, which means “in the beginning”, clearly relates to the English name “Genesis”. But what about the other 4 books? How does “Shmos”, which means “the names” relate to “Exodus”? How does “Vayikra”, which means “And He called”, relate to Leviticus? How does “Bamidbar”, which means “In the wilderness”, relate to “Numbers”? And finally, how does “Devarim”, which means “the words”, realte to Deuteronomy?

The answer is that the English names (which are actually Latin) are based not on the traditional Hebrew names, but on the names given to each of the books in the Talmud. The traditional names are based on the opening sentence of the book. The Talmud gives each book an alternate, more descriptive name.

The Talmud calls Shmos “Sefer Ha’Gaula”, which means “the book of the redemption”, we can clearly see how that relates to the English names of Exodus.

Vayikra is called “Toraht Kohamin” which means “Laws of the Priests”. The Priests, remember, come from the tribe of Levi. The English name Leviticus, is Latin for “tribe of Levi”.

Bamidbar is called “Sefer Ha’Pekudim” which means “the book of the counting”, hense the English name “Numbers”.

And finally, “Devarim” is called “Mishnai Torah”, which means “The repetition of the Torah”. The Latin Deuteronomy means “repetition of the law”.

Parashat Matot-Massei

This week we conclude the book of Bamidbar (Numbers) with the reading of the double portion of Matot and Massei. Among the many themes discussed in this week’s portion, we read the story of the Tribes of Reuben and Gad asking Moses for permission to stay on the east side of the Jordan river so that they can raise their sheep. Moses agrees to their request, but it is decided that they must still cross the Jordan to participate in the conquest of the Promise Land, and then they may settle where they wish.

No one seems to bat an eye at the request to stay outside of the Promise Land. But wasn't the entire point of the Exodus to settle in the Promised Land? Would it have been just as acceptable if these two tribes had opted to return to Egypt after assisting in the conquest? What happened to the commandment of settling in Israel? How could people on the spiritual level of the desert generation decide to voluntarily trade spiritual potential for livestock? And how could Moses and the elders support such a plan outright, without making the slightest attempt to dissuade them from such apparent madness, or at the very least consult with God before reaching agreement? Why do we not find the slightest degree of criticism about this transaction in the Torah?

Judaism teaches that everything in the universe only exists by virtue of the fact that it can be used as a vehicle for sanctifying God's Name. It is the responsibility of every Jew to sanctify G-d’s name, but every Jewish soul was sent to this world having been assigned a particular way of sanctifying G-d’s name. Some souls do this through charitable work, others through leadership, some through military prowess, some through teaching, and other through the raising of livestock.

The tribes of Reuben and Gad made their request because they knew (and Moses understood) that their souls were intended to sanctify G-d’s name through raising sheep. (After all, many of the most important people in Jewish history were shepherds.) Not only were the lands of the east side of the Jordan ideal for shepherding, but the Torah forbids the raising of sheep inside the land of Israel.

Reuben and Gad did not choose to live outside of Israel in hopes of a better life, they chose to live there because they knew that that’s where they believed they could best sanctify G-d’s name.

In the world of today, the decision to remain in other countries rather than move to the land of Israel is a voluntary one. Whoever chooses to remain in the lands of exile because he feels that he can do a better job of collecting his holy sparks there is committing no fault.

But whoever chooses to voluntarily remain there because his standard of living would be higher, needs to question their priorities. If a correct system of priorities would place a person in Israel, where it is easier to form a more powerful connection with God, then that person is clearly losing out by staying put.

I count myself among those who may need to reexamine my priorities.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Pinchas –Women’s Rights

This week’s Torah portion is deals with many different issues. It starts with the conclusion of the story of Pinchas (which started at the end of last week’s portion), where he is made a Cohen, by Divine decree. We then read that G-d commands Moses to wage war on Midian in retribution for the licentious plot the Midianites perpetrated upon the Israelites. A census is then taken for two reasons; first, to count the number of men available for army duty, second, to divide up the land of Israel among the tribes. Moses then asks G-d to appoint a successor to him (G-d selects Joshua). We conclude with a description of the various offerings that are to br brought throughout the year.

What I wanted to talk about, is a small paragraph tucked away in the middle of the portion. G-d is instructing Moses how to divide up the land, by giving a portion to every male for their families. The daughters of Tzelafchad come forward and tell Moses that their father is dead and had no sons. They ask for their father’s portion to be given to them. Moses consults with G-d, and agrees to the request, thus establishing the Jewish laws for inheritance.

Many people accuse Judaism of being sexist; they claim that women are treated as second class citizens. This is, of course, a ludicrous claim. If one takes the time to understand Judaism, you will see that women’s roles, while different from men’s roles, are central. Some choose to view different as meaning inferior, but the reality is that different roles simply reflect the real differences between the sexes; not better or worse, just different.

We see from the section of this weeks parashah, that women’s rights in Judaism were actually 1000’s of years ahead of their time. This episode takes place in a time when women had no inheritance rights anywhere in the world. A father would pass his estate to his son(s), and if there were no sons, to the closest male relative. If there were none it would go to a male friend… but never to a daughter or other women. 3500 years ago, Judaism gave women standing in property issues. While inheritance would still go to a son first, if there were none it goes to a daughter before going to other relatives. While some would arguer that it’s still not totally equitable, it’s still an amazing ruling considering that it took most other religions and cultures 3500 years to catch up (and many still have not).

In many ways Judaism is one of the least sexist religions out there. And in those cases where there seems to be some sexist issues, the perception usually results from a poor understanding of the laws. When you take the time to learn about the issue, you see that the law is not sexist, it simply is designed to take advantage of the unique make ups of men and women.

This is a major issue for me, so I’m sure I’ll write about it further.

Shabbat Shalom.

Parashat Balak - Prophecy

This week we read a famous section. The Israelites are in a war with the Moabites, and the fighting is at a stalemate. The King of Moab, Balak seeks out a non Jewish prophet, Bilam, to curse the Jews and turn the war in Moab’s favour. But every time Bilam tries to curse the Jews, what comes out of his mouth is a blessing.

As usual there is lots here I could talk about, but what is most interesting to me is a section in the Talmud that says Bilam’s level of prophecy is equal to that of Moses. Think about that, Moses, being the most righteous person ever to live, is being compared to Bilam, who the Talmud says committed all sorts of heinous acts. In fact, the Talmud goes so far as to say that any accusation you can think of, you can accuse Bilam of. So what does the Talmud mean here?

To answer that, we first need to understand how prophecy works. Prophecy is not “seeing the future”, it’s setting the future. When a prophet sees a vision it is not a picture of things to come; it is a communication by G-d. When the prophet interprets the visions and puts words to it, that is what gives the vision power. The interpretation of the vision caused the prophecy to come true. That’s a difficult concept to understand, but an important one. So the power is in how the prophet interprets the vision, not in the vision itself.

So there is a problem with that, the vision comes from G-d, but the interpretation comes from man. And how man interprets the vision depends on that man’s perspective. For example, there are cases in the Bible where two prophets see the same vision, one describes it in a few lines, and the other takes a whole chapter. One vision, but two sets of words to go along with it (remember that it’s the words that have the power). This is not unreasonable. Take two people, one from New York and one from a small town in the deep south, and show them both a vision of mid town Manhattan at 10:00 on a Monday morning. The one from the small town will go on and on about what he saw. So many people moving every which way, the cars, the noise, people with green hair… The one from New York will probably sum it up in a few lines; typical Monday morning.

Now that we understand how prophecy works, how does this apply to Moses and Bilam? When Moses prophesied, he did not do it in the same way as the other prophets. He didn’t get a vision and give it words; G-d spoke directly to Moses. G-d supplied the words, and thus G-d gave the power to the prophecy. When the Talmud says that Bilam’s prophecy was on the same level as Moses’ it meant that Bilam also got the words from G-d, not just visions. Moses prophesized that way because he was on such a high level that he was able to “talk with G-d”. But Bilam was obviously not on such a high level, why did he get words directly from G-d?

Remember that Bilam was a horrible person, if he would be given a vision, he would interpret it based on his immoral perspective, and thus bring about disastrous results. G-d didn’t want that to happen, so he gave the words directly to Bilam in order to prevent any interpretation.
Moses received words because he was on such a high level, Bilam because he was on such a low level.

This also explains another important question about the portion. If Bilam wanted to turn the war in favour of the Moabites, why didn’t he just bless them, rather than trying to curse Israel? The answer should now be obvious. Bilam was such an immoral person, he was unable to bless, only curse.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Chukat - Moses, the Rock and the Land of Israel

Read this weeks Torah portion and ask yourself the question “How many people die in this weeks portion?”

You should easily come up with at least 2; the text clearly talks about the deaths of Miriam and Aaron. What’s less clear is that the answer is really in the hundreds of thousands. This portion is the transition from the generation that stood at Sinai to the one that will enter the Land of Israel. Keep that in mind, I’ll get back to it shortly.

The event that I wanted to talk about was the incident with Moses and the rock. The story goes like this. The people complain to Moses and Aaron that they have no water. Moses asks G-d what to do. G-d tells him to assemble the people before a rock, and instruct the rock to give forth water. Moses assembles the people, but when it comes time to speak to the rock, he gets angry at the people and hits the rock instead. Because of this incident, G-d decrees that neither Moses nor Aaron will get to lead the people into Israel.

This raises several obvious questions. Why such a major punishment for such a seemingly minor crime? There are many explanations available for this issue. But even if you accept those explanations, you still have to ask why Aaron got the same punishment; he didn’t seem to do anything.

The explanation I like says that the relationship between hitting the rock and not being allowed into Israel is not once of a punishment for a crime, but one of demonstrating a decision.

It takes a very different kind of leader to bring a group of slaves out of Egypt than it does to take a nation into a holy land. Moses was the right man for the former, but G-d decided he was not the right man for the latter. The incident with the rock didn’t condemn Moses, it proved G-d’s point.

Throughout the desert wanderings, whenever water was needed, Moses would always hit a rock to get it. Picture the scene, the nation is thirsty and demanding water. Moses strikes a rock and water flows out. The scene suggests that it’s through Moses’ power that the water flows. However, that’s not what the people think. The people watching that were the same ones who stood at Mount Sinai; they knew that the water comes from G-d, Moses is just the conduit.

In the incident in this week’s portion, the people observing the scene were not at Mount Sinai. They view Moses’ miracles as coming from his power. They knew about Sinai and G-d, but they sense something different.

G-d was setting up this event at rock to be the Mount Sinai for the next generation, where everyone would see the power of G-d. But after 40 years of acting in a particular way, Moses didn’t seize the opportunity. Through no fault of his own, Moses reinforced the people notion that the miracles come from Moses, not G-d.

This is why Moses (and similarly Aaron) could not go into the Land of Israel; G-d knew that if they did, the people would worship them like gods.

In chapter 4 of Deuteronomy, we get a retrospective of this event. Moses says to the people that he’s not going to enter the Land, but you are. And when you get there don’t make any idols. The relationship between those 2 statements might not be clear, but in the context of the above, the passage should be understood as follows. “If I were to enter the land you would worship me. So I’m not going to enter. But you are, and when you get there don’t worship anything else (other than G-d).”

Moses was the greatest of all leaders in human history, but he wasn’t the right man to lead the people into Israel. There’s an important lesson here, when selecting a leader, be sure to select the right one, not the best one.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Shlach L’Cha – The sin of the Spies

This week, we read one of the most tragic portions in the Torah. The Jews are standing at the border of Israel, about to enter and fulfill G-d’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but instead of entering, they decide to send in “spies” to scout out the land.

The spies return with a huge bunch of grapes and say, "You all see the size of these grapes? You should see the size of the people who eat them. They are giants! No way we can beat them. We may as well go back to Egypt." The people let out a great cry at their misfortune.

Moses is absolutely horrified and God is very angry. As punishment, G-d decrees that the Jews shall wander the desert for 40 years and all adult males will die off before they will be allowed to enter Israel. G-d tells the Jews that because they cried on this day for no good reason, they will cry on this day throughout history for some very good reasons.

The date that this happened was the 9th of Av, Tisha b’Av. This is a major fast day in the Jewish calendar. Virtually every major disaster in Jewish history is going to be connected to the Ninth of Av. The destruction of the first and second temples, the expulsion from Spain, the start of World War I (which led to the Holocaust) and many other tragic events all happened on that day.

The question is, if G-d knew the result of sending the spies would be so horrendous, why did he tell Moses to do it? The answer is that G-d didn’t tell Moses to send spies. If we read the passage carefully, and the passage in Deuteronomy that recounts this event, along with the commentary, we see that what actually happened is that G-d told Moses to go into the land, the people said to Moses, before we go into the land, we should send scouts, Moses asked G-d if he should do that, and G-d said “If you want to do it, the do it.” G-d knew it would turn out badly, but it’s a matter of free will, if Moses wanted to send scouts, then he should do it.

So the question now becomes, why did Moses want to send spies, didn’t he trust G-d? The answer, again, is that he didn’t send spies. The people he send ended up spying, but that was not Moses’ intention.

The Talmud tells us that a man is not allowed to marry a woman before he meets her. The idea being, you need to meet first to start the process of falling in love, which then seeds the relationship of marriage. This is what Moses wanted, for the scouts (not spies) to bring back stories of the beauty of the land so that the people would start to fall in love.

Moses’ view was that G-d was giving us the land, and we should start to fall in love. The people’s view was that the taking of the land was a military conquest and they needed to send spies to develop a military strategy.

I think there is a lesson to be learned here about marriage. A marriage is ordained by G-d, and if you both go into it with your trust in G-d, then the relationship will bloom like the land of Israel. If you go in looking at it as a conquest, you’re destined to wanted for 40 years.

Shabbat Shalom.

Slow posts for the next little while

I’m about to move from a city with a tiny Jewish population (Burlington) to one with one of the highest Jewish Populations in Canada (Richmond Hill).

Because of the move related activities, posting will be minimal over the next few weeks until I get settled in the new place.

Parashat Be'halot'cha

This week we read about the laws of the Temple Menorah, the Jews celebrate their first Passover since leaving Egypt, we rebel against G-d because of the poor taste of Mannah and the lack of meat in our diets (G-d responds by sending Quail and by killing off those who rebelled) and we finish with an interesting section about Miriam (Moses’ sister).

The text says that Miriam spoke badly about Moses and as punishment is inflicted with tzara'ath (similar to leprosy – I wrote about that a few weeks ago). We know that impure speech (lashon hara) is a sin and the punishment is tzara'ath, so this seems reasonable. However, this passage leads to a separate mitzvah regarding lashon hara; the Rambam writes that in order to remember not to speak lashon hara, we are to remember what Miriam did and how she was punished.

This seems strange to me, we have been given a mitzvah to remember not to speak lashon Hara, and this mitzvah entails an eternal lashon hara against Miriam - remembering and speaking about that which seems to be negative about Miriam. We’re told to speak negatively about Miriam in order to remember not to speak negatively about people. I’m sure you see why this is troubling.

The answer to this problem is that our speaking about Miriam is not lashon hara, since she didn’t intentionally do anything wrong. We are not trying to put Miriam down; we’re trying to learn from her mistakes. And since Miriam didn’t intestinally sin, there is no harm in talking about what she did. Miriam spoke out against her brother out of love for him, it harmed no one.

So if she didn’t intentionally do anything wrong – if there was no sin – then why the punishment? Because when you deal in lashon hara, the effects are devastating.

The story is told of a man who comes home after a hot day of gold and goes to the fridge to pour a glass of coke. He takes the bottle of what he thought was coke, but which his wife had filled with bleach. The wife did not do that intentionally, a bottle of bleach broke, and the only bottle around was from coke, so she saved as much bleach as she could in the coke bottle and left the bottle on the counter. Someone else saw the bottle out on the counter and put it in the fridge. As the bleach touched the man’s lips, he sensed something wasn’t right and didn’t drink it. It wouldn’t have mattered if the wife put the bleach in the bottle intentionally or unintentionally, if you drink bleach it has devastating effects.

The same is true for lashon hara. Unintentionally speaking lashon hara is just as devastating as speaking it intentionally.

A man came to his Rebbi feeling very bad about speaking lashon hara about a friend. He asked the Rebbi ho he could remedy the situation. The Rebbi told him to go get a feather pillow, the man did. The Rebbi then told him to cut it open and release the feathers into the wind, the man did. The Rebbi then told the man to go collect all the feathers, only when he had collected all of them would the lashon hara be remedied.

Our words are like the feathers of that pillow. Once they leave our lips we can try to clean up the mess, but we can never get them back. Just as the feathers can never be fully retrieved, lashon hara can never be fully remedied.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Naso

This weeks Torah portion is one of the longest ones of the year. Many items are covered, but the one I wanted to talk about was the instructions for the ‘Priestly Blessing”.

To this day, the Kohanim (who are the descendants of Aaron) say a special blessing over the people. The origins of this blessing are found in this Parashat.

We read that G-d tells Moses to tell Aaron to bless the people. The blessing that Aaron is to give the people is essentially “May G-d overlook your mistakes and be merciful.” This raises a basic question; if G-d wants to be merciful, why does he need to tell Aaron to bless the people, why can’t G-d just be merciful?

Now, I could write an entire thesis on this one question, but I’ll try to keep it short.

The basic issue is the relationship between our actions and G-d’s response. Kabbalah tells us of the strings between man and the fingers of G-d. The picture we get is of G-d controlling us like marionettes. But that pictures doesn’t mesh with the notion that we have free will. Kabbalah explains that the relationship is the other way, it’s our actions that control the hand of G-d. In other words how G-d treats us is directly related to how we act.

There is a passage in the Talmud, which states that if a man eats an apple without saying a blessing, it is as if he has stolen from G-d and the entire Jewish people. The Talmud then goes on to ask, what is it that you would be stealing? The obvious answer is that you would be stealing an apple, since we are not allowed to eat an apple without first thanking G-d. But the Talmud says that what we are stealing is the blessing. One lost apple will hardly affect G-d’s accounting; but by not making the blessing, we are limiting the amount of spirituality in the world, and that is something that can never e replaced.

Now let’s relate this back to our original issue. G-d wants to be merciful and show his love for us, but if limit the amount of spirituality in the world, it’s as if we are holding back G-d from showing us his love. G-d treats us in the same way we treat each other. If we all live spiritual lives, showing mercy to our fellow man, then G-d will have ample opportunity to show his mercy. If we instead treat each other by the strict letter of the law, then G-d will do the same to us.

So what the Priestly Blessing is really saying is “May you all live your lives in such a way that will allow god to overlook your mistakes and show mercy on you.”

So next time a friend or loved one makes a mistake, before you decide how to react think about how you would want G-d to react, according to the letter of the law, or with mercy.

Shabbat Shalom