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Bereshit: Genesis 1.1-6.8
Creation and
Relationship
Beginnings are a
very powerful time in Judaism. I guess the best
place to learn about them is at THE
BEGINNING. When the Torah describes God creating
human beings God says something strange: "Let us
make humans". The classic Jewish commentaries ask:
"Why us?" Clearly the Torah sees God as only
One. Who is God talking to? Rash"i, Probably the
Torah's most famous commentator says that God wants
to use the humble "we". Though it is God making
humans, humans are such an incredible creation that
God teaches us humility by saying "Let us
make the human." I can't do it alone.
I think there may
be another answer also. For us humans, creation of
other human beings always requires relationship.
Sex is a manifestation of deep relationship and only
through it can we create as God did. Perhaps the
Torah is teaching us that new creations require
relationships to make them so.
We are all now on the brink of something very new,
and hopefully very creative. To make this not just
another year but a truly new creation, one that will
be profound, requires these 2 things, humility and
relationship. May you merit the humility to learn
from your teachers, and the ability to have deep
relationships with those in your community through
which you can learn so much and create something
big.
Bereshit 2
Science and
Creation
"In the beginning
G-d created the heavens and the land." Rashi (11
century) comments, "...The Torah is not attempting
to describe the order of the creation...for if it
was how could the Torah say, 'the spirit of G-d
hovered over the water,' before it has spoken of the
creation of the waters...thus it must be concluded
that the Torah is not trying to tell us about the
order of the creation at all." This Rash"i seems a
bit unconventional though it is a similar approach
to that of Maimonides in the Guide to the Perplexed
where he writes that if he had philosophically
agreed with Aristotle that the world had never been
created, he would have understood the story of
creation in the Torah metaphorically.
Today there are many arguments as to the need to
teach creationism or science. So many other
religious people and indeed some of our fellow
religious Jews may be apt to put their critical and
scientific thinking on a back burner when it comes
to studying Torah. But the Torah wants us to keep
our wits intact, not to shy from struggle when
things are difficult to understand. We believe the
Torah is G-d's word, and our best spiritual guide,
yet we do not compromise our G-d given minds and
abilities, and our intellectually honest desire to
make sense of both the text and our world. Indeed,
when we are willing to engage all parts of
ourselves, all that we know in the struggle to
understand Torah, only then is the world that was
created from the Torah nearer to completion.
Berashit 3
Adam and Eve: Two
Stories, Two Personalities
In this week's
Torah portion, Berashit, the first humans, Chava and
Adam are created. The story of their creation is
told twice in the Torah, the first in chapter 1 and
the second in chapter 2, with many differences. In
the first story Adam and Eve are created at the same
time in the image of G-d. They are commanded to
harness the world and rule over the creatures. End
of story. In the second telling, Adam is created
first from dirt. G-d then breathes into him the
'breath of life.” Adam is lonely. G-d tries to
find him a mate by creating all the animals but to
no avail. Finally G-d makes Eve from Adam's side
and Adam immediately realizes that she is right for
him. G-d puts them in the Garden of Eden to watch
over it and tend it. The snake comes, they sin and
are exiled. According to Rabbi Joseph Solovetchik
these two very different stories are metaphors for
different types of humans, different paradigmatic
personalities and approaches to life and the world.
This Shabbat give some thought to which story
resonates most with you and why. What can we learn
from each about how to live our lives and how to
achieve holiness and fulfillment? May it be a
Shabbat of great beginnings!
Noach: Genesis 6.9-11.32
The Power of
Prayer
This week's Torah
portion is Noah. Many of the commentaries on this
portion focus on Prayer. But what does prayer have
to do with Noah and the flood? The answer I think
lies in a question that is often asked about Noah:
Was he really a righteous man compared to Abraham,
or only righteous compared to the terrible people
surrounding him (see Rash”i Genesis 6:9)?
Indeed, Noah is
the man who never speaks and Abraham is the man
known for speaking up. When God tells Abraham that
He is going to destroy the cities of Sodom and
Amorah, Abraham speaks up in their defense. But
when God tells Noah that He is going to destroy the
world, Noah is silent. It is precisely here, in the
portion of Noah, that we must learn instruction for
how to speak up, how to pray, and the power of
words. Only in us speaking and praying with true
depth, not just seeing prayer as a reading of words,
but as an intense, meditative Godly process can we
create a tikun, a fixing, for the sin of Noah, the
sin of silent obedience.
Lech Lecha: Genesis
12.1-17.27
Becoming a Vessel
This week's Torah
portion is Lech Lecha in which God tells Abraham to
leave his land, his family and his birthplace, and
"go to a land which I will show you." Why, ask the
commentaries, doesn't God just tell him where he is
being led; to the Land of Israel? Why all the
mystery? The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter
of Ger (19c.), answers that there is something
valuable to be learned from following without full
knowledge. Abraham is forced to give up so much
with out retaining control over his destiny. There
is great value in making oneself a vessel for the
will of the Divine, letting go of our need for
control and dominance. At times, it is only through
this nullification of the self that we can become
fully open to spiritual experience. May we merit a
Shabbat of letting go of ourselves and our ties to
all the physical, to become vessels of reception for
the spiritual.
Vayera: Genesis
18.1-22.24
Abraham and
Sara’s Tent
In the beginning
of this week's Torah portion (Vayara) we find
Abraham talking to G-d. Suddenly he sees three
nomads coming toward him. Immediately Abraham runs
out to greet them, brings them into his open tent
and cooks them a meal. (It is this preoccupation
with over feeding people that deems him the first
Jew.) In contrast to Noah, whose place is a
hermetically sealed ark, Abraham's place is an open
tent encouraging hospitality. The commentaries
suggest that perhaps this is why the world was
destroyed in Noah's day and not in Abraham's, and
why Abraham was the first Jew and not Noah.
We live at a time
of great strife and we must live up to the challenge
of Abraham, keeping our Jewish mission to be open
and giving like Abraham and not sealed off and
indifferent like Noah. This attitude in Judaism is
called chesed or kindness and is the source of many
mitzvoth. This week choose one new mitzvah of
kindness to do toward another person. Just one
action. In the merit of our chesed may the world
merit peace and holiness.
Vayera 2
Outspokenness and
Obedience
In this week's
Torah portion, Vayerah, God tells Abraham that he is
going to destroy the city of Sodom. Abraham's
response is, "Will you destroy the righteous with
the wicked? Perhaps there are 50 righteous people
in the city...far be it from You, to kill the
righteous with the wicked...will the judge of the
entire world not do justly (Genesis 18:24)?" God
agrees with Abraham, though after bargaining God
down to 10 righteous people it turns out there
aren't that many. Latter in the portion God tells
Abraham "Take Isaac your son, whom you love, and
bring him as an offering on the mountain which I
will show you (Genesis 22:2).” Abraham does not
reply to God but gets up early the next morning to
do God's bidding. (In the end Isaac is not killed,
and so we are all here). The question we must ask
is: What is the Torah teaching us? Why in one
place does Abraham plead with God for the lives of
the Sodomites and yet say nothing when God tells him
to sacrifice his son Isaac (Isaac was 37 years old
at the time)?
Perhaps there is a time to stand up, even to take
God to task ("Will the judge of all the world not do
justly?"), and a time to be a humble servant.
Perhaps they are both sides of the same coin of who
Abraham was and what we must learn from him. When
do you think we should stand up (even to God) and
when do you think we should be obedient humble
servants?
Chayei Sarah:
Genesis 23.1-25.18
Rebecca and
Isaac’s Love
In this week's
Torah portion, Chayay Sarah, "The life of Sara",
Rebecca meets her intended mate Isaac for the first
time. When she sees him for the first time she
covers her face with a veil. The Rabbis tell us
that Rebecca wanted Isaac to love her for who she
really was and not for what she looked like. Indeed
Rebecca was known for her kindness and in fact its
her great actions that tell Isaac's matchmaker
earlier in the portion that Rebecca is the right
woman for Isaac. The Torah then says that they got
married and afterward that Isaac loved Rebecca. For
Isaac and Rebecca love was not the reason they got
married but rather their love emerged out of really
knowing and appreciating each other for who they
really were. What do you really love about people?
Chayei
Sara 2
Conversation’s of
our Ancestor’s Servants
In this week's
Torah portion, Chayeh Sara, Sara dies and then
Abraham wishes to find a wife for Isaac who is 37
years old at the time. (He signs Isaac up for
J-Date but since he is the only Jew alive at the
time no one else is registered on the web site.)
Abraham then appoints Eliezer his servant to find a
wife for Isaac and makes him swear that he will go
to Abraham and Sara's relatives to find a wife for
Yitzchak and not to the people of Cannan. The
Torah then describes in great detail the trip
Eliezer takes and how he finds Rebecca, namely by
making a deal with G-d that whom ever he meets at
the well and offers him water and water for his
camels, she will be the wife for Isaac. Rebecca
meets Eliezer at the well and offers just that, then
Eliezer gives her rings and goes to meet her family
where he retells the whole story and the Torah
records his words for us.
Rash"i is bothered by the long detailed depiction of
Eliezer's trip and then the almost verbatim
repetition of it in the Torah when Eliezer tells it
to Rebecca's family. Rash"i's explanation is that,
quoting the words of the Midrash, we see from here
that, “The everyday conversations of the servants of
our ancestors were more dear to G-d than the Torah
of their progeny,” for we see that latter in the
Torah, when the mitzvot are given, they are given in
much less detail than the story of Eliezer finding a
wife for Yitzchak.
How do you understand this notion that the everyday
conversation of our ancestors and even their
servants is dearer to G-d than the details of law
latter in the Torah? How do you see the function
of the first 2 books of the Torah which are mostly
narrative, as contrasted with the last 3 books which
contain a great deal of law? What does this say
about the purpose or purposes of the Torah in
general? Discuss amongst yourselves.....and have a
Shabbat Shalom.
Toldot: Genesis
25.19-28.9
You Dig?
In this weeks
Torah portion, Toldot, the Torah tells us that,
"Isaac re-dug the wells his father Abraham had dug,
for the Philisteins had stopped them up. Isaac
renamed the wells just as his father Abrahm had."
If the Torah carefully picks and chooses what it
tells us about our ancestors, why bother to tell us
that they dug wells? What are we meant to learn
from this?
The word for
"well" in Hebrew is "Ba'er" which can also mean "to
explain" or "to bring meaning to". The Sefat Emet
tells that our ancestors dug wells for water but
that the Torah also means to tell us that they "dug
into" the world to explain it to us in a unique way,
to illuminate its spirituality which is often
hidden. This is the legacy our ancestors started
and the gift they each gave to us in their own
particular way through their "digging". How do you
dig the world to uncover its depth and spiritual
meaning?
Toldot: Humility
In this weeks
parsha Rebecca feels the children in her womb
'running about'. The Torah says that she declares,
"If this is how it is, why should I exist." and goes
to seek ask G-d about it. From her existential
declaration and her trip to seek help from G-d
instead of a doctor we realize that she is aware
that the movement within her womb is perplexing in a
very big way. Indeed G-d's answer is, "There are 2
nations in your womb...they will struggle over power
and in the end the older one will serve the younger
one." Her children, Jacob and Esav it seems, are
destined from the womb to be enemies.
Yet as Jews we believe people have free choice and
the door for tishuvah, repentance, is always open.
In fact the Midrash tells us that Jacob and Esav
were really supposed to be partners in starting the
Jewish people, each being the progenitor of 6
tribes. Why didn't it work?
The Torah describes Jacob and Esav as opposites, in
look-one is hairy and one smooth, in place-one is a
person of the field and one of the tent, and in
personality-one is a trapper and one a simple man.
In theory they would have made great complementary
leaders. The power of a hunter with the depth of a
studious man of the tent. Why couldn't Esav be
Jacob's partner? Why in the end must Jacob do it
alone combining his own voice (the voice of Jacob)
with the hands and power of his brother (the hands
of Esav)?
The Shem MiShmuel a Chassidic commentary on the
Torah says that Esav, like all of us, was not bad in
and of himself. He had great potential. Very
different than Jacob's strengths and potential but
none the less his power could have been used in the
right way. The Shem Mishumel says that this is why
Isaac wanted to give the blessing to Esav. Though
Esav is dangerous he feels giving him the blessing
will impart a certain holiness to Esav and tweak him
to use his powers for good. What Isaac did not
realize though says the Shem Mishumel is that Esav
was also a baal gavah, a haughty person without
humility. Haughtiness he says is like a black
hole. Some things are so dark that no light, no
holiness, can exist in them, in haughtiness and ego
all holiness is absorbed and blotted out. Holiness
will not help one who is haughty because the
holiness gets used to generate more ego. The
holiness becomes self directed, a source of further
self aggrandizement. This is ultimately Esav's
Achilles heal.
This Shabbat let us the humble food of lentil soup
as Jacob did and work on our anavah, our humility.
VaYetze:
Genesis 28.10-32.3
Is Then G-d in
this Place and I did Not Know it?
In this week's
Torah portion, Va'yatzey, Jacob is running from his
home and from
his brother Esav
who wants to kill him. The Torah tells us regarding
the
beginning of his
journey: "And he came to the place, and slept there
with a
stone under his
head. He dreamed that there was a ladder stretching
from
earth to heaven
with spiritual messengers going up and down it. God
appeared to Jacob
and said, "I am the God of your fathers, the land
you are
laying on I will
give to you and your decedents. Your progeny will
be
like the sand of
the ground and will spread out and all the families
of the
world will be
blessed through you...Jacob woke up and said, is it
possible
that this is a
Godly place and I did not realize it? What a place,
this
must be the house
of God." The Talmud tells us that this place was
Mount
Moriyah the
future place of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
Have you ever
been in a holy place and not realized it or not felt
it? When have
you felt it? Why are holy places important? What
do you
think Jacob is
teaching us?
Vayetzey 2
Spiritual Wells
This week’s Torah
portion is Va'yetzey. In it Jacob runs away from
his brother Esav who is out to kill him on account
of Jacob's receiving the blessing of the first born
instead of Esav, who was the oldest of the two
twins. For the first time in Jacob's life he leaves
his land, his family and his parent's tent. The
portion says, "and Jacob left Be'er Shevah and went
to Charan." The question is asked, why did the
Torah waste words telling us that he left Be'er
Shevah, being that it is information we already
know?
Rash"I’s answers
that when a righteous person leaves a place there is
a certain blessing and holy aura that leaves also,
this is what the sentence is noting by calling
attention to Jacob's place of departure. The Sefat
Emet offers a more mystical explanation. Jacob is
leaving the Holy Land for the first time. Jacob
wonders how he will be able to take his spiritual
life with him even into a place of exile out side of
Israel. The answer given is that we all do this
each week. We have a day called Shabbat in which we
are in a spiritual atmosphere, more aware of the
Divine. Our Shabbat gives us the tools to go into
the 6 days of the week, the days of the physical
world in which God is hidden and yet find God even
there. Jacob too, leaves a place called Be'er
Shevah literally "The well of the seven". Just as
shabbat is the spiritual well that feeds the 7 days
of the week, so too Jacob achieved a high spiritual
level in Be'er Shevah, in the Holy Land, and could
then take that with him and use it to sanctify the
place of exile to which he journeyed.
Vayetzey 3
This week’s Torah
portion yayetzey begins, "And Jacob went out from
Be'er Shevah to go to Charon, and he bumped into the
place and laid there because the sun was setting and
he took from the stones of the place and placed them
under his head and slept in that place."
What is "The Place" that Jacob came suddenly upon?
According to the commentaries, it was indeed "the
place," Mount Morayah in Jerusalem, the place where
Yitchak is offered and the place that all the Jews
will ultimately gather. Indeed, after Jacob's
dream he says "This must be the house of G-d and the
gate of heaven."
Jacob then dreams of a ladder ascending from the
earth to the heavens with angels going down and then
up the ladder. Rash”i is perplexed by why the
angels descend and then ascend, when ostensibly
angels come from above first. He explains that as
Jacob leaves the land of Israel the angels from
Israel must ascend back to the heavens and new
angels, those of outside Israel must descend to
accompany him on his continued journey.
Jacob is at a transitional moment in his life, the
dweller of tents is leaving his house for the first
time and embarking on a journey that will lead him
to produce the Jewish people. When we read the text
describing his dream it seems like a very
significant holy dream. The dream itself indeed
seems so ripe with metaphor, such dramatic
potential: a ladder to Heaven, angles, the gate of
Heaven, G-d appearing at its end. Rashi's
explanation seems less than satisfying. Why does
Jacob even need to know that the angles are
switching their guard?
Perhaps precisely at this moment that Jacob leaves
Israel to embark on building the Jewish nation and
to enter exile, the uniqueness of the Land is a very
important message. Our generation knows well the
trials of exile and the dangers of forgetting our
true spiritual home, the Land of Israel. We live at
a time in which life in exile is quite good and life
in the holy land is rife with some trials. When
leaving the land, it is important that Jacob see its
glory and realize its holiness; that the angels from
Israel are not able to be outside Israel; that the
Land contains the house of G-d and the gate way to
heaven. On his way to exile he must feel the pangs
of loss in leaving the place and the land.
On this, the first Shabbat of Kislev the month of
rededication to the temple and the holy space, and
on the parsha in which Jacob leaves the land for a
life in exile, we must ask ourselves (and I also):
What is our relationship to the land? What does it
mean to be in exile at a time in which we have a
land to go to? What does it mean to have holy
space? How can it -Jerusalem and Israel and Mount
Morayah- help us connect to the infinite and how are
we affected by not being in proximity to it.
Vayetzey 4
Finding the
Divine in the Dark
This week’s torah
portion, Vayetezey, describes the formative
experiences of Jacob, the third of the patriarchs.
He runs from his brother Esav and when the sun sets
he bumps into, 'the holy place', Mount Moriah.
There he has a dream of a ladder with angles going
up and down and he prays, and names the place 'The
House of G-d'. The Talmud tells us that Jacob is
the first person to pray at night, it is he we
credit with the night time Arvit prayer. Indeed it
is appropriate that all the life changing events in
Jacob’s life, the ladder dream, the exchange of his
wives with out his knowledge, and his wrestling
match with a man/angel, happen in the dark.
Jacob we are told
is the father of exile. He spends his life on the
run, in the dark, but it is he that is truly the
father of our people. His name becomes Israel,
meaning to struggle with G-d and people. Though we
as Jews pray for redemption, most of our history has
been spent in exile. It is in exile that Jacob
dreams and latter struggles, and then names these
places. He names them, Beit El-'The House of G-d',
and Pineel-'The Face of G-d'. Perhaps it is from
Jacob that we learn not to feel that exile in our
national life and darkness in our personal lives is
a place of losing hope, but a place of finding the
Divine house and encountering the Divine face.
VaYishlach:
Genesis 32.4-36.43
Wrestling
In this week's
Torah portion, "Va'yishlach", Jacob is traveling
with his family away from his father-in-law's house
where he has worked as a shepherd for 14 years. He
then does a strange thing. After sending his family
ahead Jacob wanders alone. As he does, the Torah
tells us that, "a man wrestles with him until the
dawn". Jacob's leg is hurt and the man (an angel)
tells him he will have a new name-"Israel"-because
he has "Struggled with man and with God and made it
through." The experience is so spiritually profound
for Jacob that he names the place where it happened
"Piney El" which means "The Face of God." What do
you think it means that Jacob, the father of our
people, finds God in the midst of a struggle in the
middle of the night? Where do you find God, is it
also where you might not expect to? For humans, is
struggle a necessary part of being in touch with the
Divine?
VaYeshev: Genesis
37.1-40.23
Seeing the Good
This week’s Torah
portion, Va'yeshev, begins by describing the
relationship between Joseph and his brothers when
Joseph was 17 years old. The Torah tells us that
when Joseph was tending sheep with his brothers
"...Joseph brought slander about them to his
father. Israel loved Joseph more of all the
brothers....and they (his brothers) were unable to
speak with Joseph peacefully..." Certainly
everyone, no matter how righteous, sins at times.
But why does the Torah specifically tell us this sin
of Joseph’s, that he spoke badly of his brothers to
his father? In addition, how could he, Joseph the
Tzadik, the righteous one, be guilty of such a
crime?
Some commentaries justify Joseph's actions,
proposing that perhaps he saw evil in his brothers
and meant to tell their father in order that Jacob
would discipline them. Some also judge the brothers
favorably explaining that what Joseph saw was not
what was actually happening. Still others (the
Seforno) blame Jacob for his bad parenting in
favoring Joseph over his other children and thereby
causing hated among them.
The Sefat Emet does not apologize for Joseph's, his
brother's, or his father's actions. He says that
indeed Joseph was guilty of the sin of slander and
that this is the reason he must descend to Egypt.
Latter he will become Joseph the Tzazadik, Joseph
the Righteous. The job of the tzadik, the righteous
Jewish leader, says the Sefat Emet, is to take the
good deeds of the Jewish people and bring them
before G-d, ignoring the people's evil deeds.
Joseph needed to learn this in order to create unity
among his people. This is the lesson he learns in
Egypt through the trials and travails, the tests and
time in prison he is subject to. Only after the
experience of Egypt is he complete and ready to be
Joseph the Tzadik.
Miketz: Genesis
41.1-44.17
VaYigash:
Genesis 44.18-47.27
Self Sacrifice
In the end of
last week's Torah portion Joseph's princely goblet
was placed by Joseph in Benjamin's grain sack. Then
Joseph asked his officers to capture the brothers
and look for the cup. Finding it in Benjamin's sack
Joseph says to his brothers (who do not know his
true identity) that they must leave Benjamin in
Egypt as Joseph's servant. Knowing this will kill
their father Yehudah offers himself in Benjamin's
stead. Then suddenly, after a 2 parsha long
charade, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers.
What is it about Yehudah's willingness to sacrifice
himself for Benjamin that now lets Joseph stop
hiding himself and finally exclaim, "I am Joseph
your brother"?
Yehudah, the natural leader of his brothers and
future leader of the Jewish nation, indeed the
progenitor of King David, changes the most of any
person in the story of Joseph and his brothers.
When Joseph is thrown in a pit and left to die by
his brothers Yehudah stands up and says, no, lets
not kill him, lets sell him instead. But at that
point, Yehudah, though willing to take a stand for
what is right, is yet not yet willing to sacrifice
himself for Joseph. He is not fully able to stand
up to his brothers and risk personal injury and
alienation, by completely protesting the wrong. Now
though, at the end of the story, he is willing to
sacrifice himself for Joseph's brother Benjamin.
Only then is Joseph willing to stop pretending. Now
his job is done.
It is very interesting to look back over the last
two Torah portions and explore the things that
happen to Yehudah, with an eye to seeing how they
effect change in him, and what we can learn about
becoming people of holy action and leadership in our
own lives.
Vayigash 2
In these last few
Torah portions, coming to a climax in this week’s
portion of Va'yigash, the Torah tells us of Joseph's
brothers coming to Egypt to buy food and Joseph's
difficult treatment of them. Putting Shimon in
jail, telling them to bring Benjamin and then hiding
his cup in Benjamin's sack and threatening to keep
him in Egypt, eventually bringing them to their
knees.
Why does Joseph do this? For revenge? But Joseph
is described several times during the episode as
being on the verge of emotional tears, not hardened
vindication. To make the dreams of his brothers and
parents bowing down to him come true? But Joseph
better than most knows that G-d is in charge ("G-d
will interpret Pharaoh's dreams, not I"). Yet, the
Torah does say that when Joseph first saw his
brothers he remembered the dreams he had dreamt.
What does this remembering of the dreams mean if not
to now make them come true?
I would like to suggest that the answer lies in the
first verse of our Torah portion. Joseph has said
that Benjamin must stay. The brothers are dumb
struck, all is lost, they have promised their father
they would be responsible for Benjamin and bring him
back safely since their father Jacob expressed his
trauma in letting Benjamin his only other child from
Rachel go after Joseph his other child has been lost
and is gone. Now Judah comes forward and stands up
for Benjamin. With self sacrifice he takes
responsibly. Perhaps this is what the Torah means
when it says Joseph remembered the dreams. Not to
make them come true and to make his brothers bow
down, but the opposite, to make his brothers stand
up for Benjamin, what they did not do for him and
instead in reaction to his dreams, sold him away.
They must make up now for not standing up against
the brothers when they wanted to throw him in the
pit. Indeed Reuven the first born (would be leader)
says not to kill Joseph, but he does not stand up
fully for him with self sacrifice. He does not
stand out against the crowd. Now one of the
brothers finally does, Judah. Not the first born,
but, and perhaps resulting from this episode, he
will become the first. The Kingship of the Jewish
people will come from him.
Veyechi: Genesis
47.28-50.26
Closed/Open
In this week's
torah portion, Vayichi, we are told of the death of
Jacob. Strangely, instead of starting after the
normal open line break in the Torah scroll that is
typically found between portions this portion begins
closed, with no space between its beginning and the
end of the portion before it. The Midrash tells us
that the closed nature of the written text in the
beginning of this portion reflects the closing that
is happening in the text's narrative. Jacob is
dying and the hearts of the Jewish people begin to
close as the enslavement comes.
In contrast there is a part of the Torah that when
written in the scroll, is formed in the exact
opposite manor with lines written so open that they
are more space than text. The Shirah, the song that
the Jewish people sing after crossing the Red Sea is
written all open, with numerous line breaks in each
line of scribal writing.
The Torah is thus to be read on many different
levels. Its punctuation itself reflects the nature
and feeling within. Perhaps part of the lesson is
that Torah must be not only be read but felt. One
must enter into the Torah as it is read. It is
meant as a book of instruction and transformation
rather than one of history. May we merit this
Shabbat to enter into the Torah as it enters into
us, to become one with its opposites. To embody and
learn from both the closedness of exile and openness
of redemption that the Torah depicts. |
