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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.
Shmot: Exo. 1.1-6.1
In this week's Parsha, Shemot, the Jewish
people go down to Egypt and though they are
successful and have land there, they are
soon enslaved by Pharaoh. 210 years go by
and Moses, a Jewish boy adopted by the
daughter of Pharaoh emerges from the
palace. He sees an Egyptian beating a
Jewish slave, knows instinctively that the
Jewish slaves are his brothers and kills the
Egyptian task master. He then sees two
Jewish people arguing and trys to break up
their fight. The ask him if he is going to
kill them as he did the Egyptian, and Moshe
realizes that what he did has become known
and runs away to Midyon. There he meets his
wife, sees the burning bush and is asked by
G-d to save the Jewish people.
In general the Torah does not tell us much
about people. It is not a book of history
but rather a book of instruction. The Torah
carefully chooses what to tell us. We know
a few hours of Abraham's life and indeed,
though Moshe will be such an important
figure in Jewish history we know only two
stories about him before he becomes the
Jewish leader at 80 years old. Why are
these two stories the ones the Torah chooses
to tell us? What insight do they give us
about Moshe?
The answer is obvious i think. The Torah
wants to teach us something about Jewish
leadership. Moshe is not someone motivated
by honor or position, indeed he is most
humble and does not want to be the leader.
What does motivate him? Justice and
empathy. All we know about Moshe until he
is 80 is that when he sees an Egyptian
taskmaster beating a slave, even though
Moshe is the prince of Egypt he immediately
steps in. Not only that but among his own
people too, when there is a fight he jumps
in to make peace. The torah wants us to
know that these are the qualities of a good
leader.
May we merit to learn from Moshe this
Shabbat and to surly pursue justice and
peace!
Shemot 2
This week we will begin a new book of the
Torah, Shemot (Names), the book of
Exodus. Jacob and his children and
grandchildren have been living in Egypt for
quite a few years when a new Pharaoh becomes
king of Egypt. He fears that the Jewish
people, who have become numerous, will join
with a potential enemy of Egypt and wage war
against Egypt. The Jews are apparently of
Egypt but clearly not “Egyptian” and are
suspected of being a potential fifth
column.
But why does the torah need to list the
names of the people who go down to Egypt?
We already know all the names of Jacob’s
children. Aviva Zornberg points out that
the Torah describes the Jewish people here
as being so fruitful and multiplying so much
they we were like a “swarm,” “va’yishritzu”.
The upside of a ‘swarm’ she says is that
there is a great many; the downside though
is a kind of insect like ubiquity, a
namelessness. Things that swarm are many
in number but few in individual identities
and names.
The Midrash says that the Jewish people were
almost completely assimilated in Egypt. To
be redeemed the Jewish people must find
their uniquely Jewish voice. This happens
when they realize they are individuals, not
just a swarm of people. They then cry out
to G-d and G-d hears their voice, and thus
the process of redemption, the redemption of
individuals that will form a nation, the
redemption of a collective and potentially
holy Jewish voice, begins.
This Shabbat of the beginning of the
redemption of Jewish voice and language may
we merit to find our own uniquely Jewish and
holy voices.
Va'era: Exo. 6.2-9.35
This weeks Torah portion, Vayerah, contains
the first 7 of the plagues brought upon the
Egyptians. In the Torah's introduction to
the seventh plague ,hail, G-d tells Moses,
stretch you hand out on top of the heavens
and bring hail. Rash”i is bothered by this
strange phrase and quotes the Midrash which
says that in order to bring the plague of
hail God lifted Moshe up above the
heavens. This Midrash though, while making
sense of the words in the verse itself, does
not clarify the reasons for Moses' being
raised above the heavens or what this really
means. Furthermore why is the Midrash
inclined to say this regarding the plague of
hail and no other plague, and what does it
teach us?
The Shem Mishmuel, the Sochetchover Rebbe
points out that the plague of hail is
unique. All of the other plagues were
things that were part of the natural world.
Though water does not turn into blood, blood
is something that we often see and are
familiar with in the physical world. The
torah says that the hail (frozen water) had
fire burning within it, a physical
contradiction that can not survive in the
world we know. Fire and water usually
annihilate each other, and are often seen as
symbolic opposites. This plague, for its
existence, had to draw on things higher than
the world we know.
Indeed the miracles of Egypt wrought by
Moshe bring up the question of how we as
rationale Jews see miracles in general.
Maimonides has an interesting take on
miracles and those of Egypt in particular.
in the Guide to the Perplexed, his book on
philosophy, he approaches the tension
between belief in miracles and believing the
laws of science to be immutable as follows,
“Although the rod was turned into a serpent
and water into blood with out the existence
of any natural cause that could effect these
changes, the changes were not permanent and
did not become a physical property. Our
sages have said strange things in the
Midrash regarding miracles, that they are to
some extent also natural, that when G-d
created the universe with its physical
properties, G-d made it part of these
properties that they should produce certain
miracles at certain times, the Prophets only
said when they would take place, but the
thing itself was effected according to the
fixed laws of nature..."
May we merit much more time to study
together such deep questions as these in our
tradition.
Bo: Exo. 10.1-13.16
In this weeks Torah portion, Bo, the Jewish
people are commanded their first mitzvah as
a nation. In order to leave Egypt in the
morning, the previous night all the Jews had
to bring a Passover offering. According to
the Medrash the Jews were almost completely
assimilated into Egyptian culture, and so
God wanted the Jews to slaughter and eat a
lamb, one of the main Egyptian gods to show
their willingness to separate from Egypt.
It specifically had to be barbecued, so that
their oppressors could smell what they were
doing, forcing the Jewish people to be
public about their rebellion. But, If God is
trying to separate the Jews from their
Egyptian idol worship, isnt telling them to
take the god they have been worshiping for
250 years into their houses for a religious
ceremony a dangerous proposition? Why not
just take them out quickly instead of giving
them one last night eating their favorite
god?
Perhaps part of the point of this mitzvah is
to teach the Jewish people not to reject
their past but to learn how to use it in a
holy way. Had God just taken them out, torn
them from their enslavement and culture, the
process would have been simpler but we would
have missed one of Judaisms main messages,
that we reject nothing in this world, but
have guidelines on how to utilize such
things for holiness.
Slaves probably never eat in an organized
communal fashion; they eat on the go when
they have food (much like 21st
century Americans). Now the Jews had to
create pre-set communities in which to eat
the lamb. It had to all be eaten; none
saved for a future time in which there might
be no food, complete trust in Hashem was
required. They could not break the bones.
This is a meal of transition, eaten in hasty
leaving, yet respect for it matters. To a
slave this is a new notion. This lamb is
for free people, not just a food, but
conscious respectful communal ritual.
Bo 2
Bo: Lambasting the Egyptian God
In this week’s Torah portion the Jewish
people are commanded their first mitzvah as
a nation. In order to leave Egypt in the
morning, the previous night all the Jews had
to bring a Passover offering. According to
the Medrash the Jews were almost completely
assimilated into Egyptian culture, and so
God wanted the Jews to slaughter and eat a
lamb, one of the main Egyptian gods to show
their willingness to separate from Egypt.
It specifically had to be barbequed, so that
their oppressors could smell what they were
doing, forcing the Jewish people to be
public about their rebellion.
Exodus Chapter 12
3. Speak to all the congregation of Israel,
saying, In the tenth day of this month they
shall take every man a lamb, according to
the house of their fathers, a lamb for a
house;
4. And if the household is too little for
the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to
his house take it according to the number of
the souls; according to every person’s
eating shall you make your count for the
lamb.
5. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a
male of the first year; you shall take it
out from the sheep, or from the goats;
6. And you shall keep it up until the
fourteenth day of the same month; and the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it in the evening.
7. And they shall take of the blood, and
strike it on the two side posts and on the
upper door post of the houses, in which they
shall eat it.
8. And they shall eat the meat in that
night, roast with fire, and unleavened
bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat
it.
9. Eat it not raw, nor boil with water, but
roast it with fire; its head with its legs,
and with its inner parts.
10. And you shall let nothing of it remain
until the morning; and that which remains of
it until the morning you shall burn with
fire.
11. And thus shall you eat it; with your
loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and
your staff in your hand; and you shall eat
it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.
Your Torah navigator:
1. If God is trying to separate the Jews
from their Egyptian idol worship, isn’t
telling them to take the god they have been
worshiping for 250 years into their houses
for a religious ceremony a dangerous
proposition? Why not just take them out
quickly instead of giving them one last
night eating their favorite god?
2. Why all the rules? What would be wrong
with eating it alone, leaving some over till
the next day (mmmm…cold lamb sandwiches), or
breaking one of the bones?
3. If you were choosing a mitzvah to give
the Jewish people to would prepare them for
their new freedom what would it be?
A word:
Perhaps part of the point of this mitzvah is
to teach the Jewish people not to reject
their past but to learn how to use it in a
holy way. Had God just taken them out, torn
them from their enslavement and culture, the
process would have been simpler but we would
have missed one of Judaism’s main messages,
that we reject nothing in this world, but
have guidelines on how to utilize such
things for holiness.
Slaves probably never eat in an organized
communal fashion; they eat on the go when
they have food (much like 21st
century Americans). Now the Jews had to
create pre-set communities in which to eat
the lamb. It had to all be eaten; none
saved for a future time in which there might
be no food, complete trust in Hashem was
required. They could not break the bones.
This is a meal of transition, eaten in hasty
leaving, yet respect for it matters. To a
slave this is a new notion. This lamb is
for free people, not just a food, but
conscious respectful communal ritual.
Beshalach: Exo. 13.17-17.16 -shirah
This Shabbat has a special name. Shabbat
Shirah, the Shabbat of song. In this week's
Torah portion we read of the first song the
Jewish people sing as a nation, the first
communal prayer of thanks to G-d. When the
Jews cross the sea to dry land and are saved
from the pursuing Egyptians they
spontaneously sing out to G-d in thanks.
Even though the Jewish people have been in
slavery for 210 years, almost completely
assimilated into Egyptian society and do not
know the G-d of their ancestors, they are
in the moment inspired to cry out to Hashem
in thanks. Rashi expresses it this way,
"Then Moshe sang: when he saw the miracles
it moved his heart to sing..." Moshe then
leads them in song and teaches them how to
channel this inspiration for spiritual
connection to the Holy One. Immediately
afterward Miriam his sister takes a
tambourine in her hands and the women go out
after her with instruments, and Miriam sings
a similar song.
Let's anyalize this first formal prayer by
our people to gain some insight into the
nature of praying. This first prayer by our
people is the most basic most visceral
prayer. It is spontaneous, sang in response
to G-d's presence and saving. It is not
structured but an eruption of song. Singing
is perhaps the most basic from of Jewish
prayer. The men and women pray separately.
It seems that instruments are particularly
the domain of the women. Indeed, after
hundreds of years in slavery the Jewish
women have musical instruments that they
bought on the road along with their matza.
The parsha moves us to ask ourselves what is
lacking from our own prayers. How we can
learn from our ancestors and lay claim to
moments of inspiration that have the
potential to move us close to Hashem, as
they did.
Indeed the Talmud in Berachot paints a
picture of prayer that occurs all day long.
When one enters a city that might be
dangerous says the Talmud pray that God
should protect you, on the way out pray in
thanks, if you saw a shooting star, a
mountain or an ocean there is a beracha to
say. Beyond the structured prayer services
3 times a day we have many blessings and
prayers, available all the time indeed
constantly required that help us to channel
the moments of inspiration in our lives
toward G-d.
Bishalach 2
In this week's Torah portion Be'shalach the
Jewish people cross the Red Sea and their
captors, the Egyptian army, is drowned in
it. The Jews then pray to G-d as a nation
for the first time. The Midrash tells of
4 groups when the Jewish People reach the
sea. One wanted to go back to Egypt, one
wanted to jump in the sea, one wanted to
make war with the Egyptians and one began to
pray. According to the Midrash Moses
addresses each group with different words in
the verse and reassures them that G-d will
help them through this. In the text though
G-d says to Moses, "Why are you crying out
to me, speak to the children of Israel and
tell them to move ahead..." G-d's message
is, don't pray now, don't rely on me to save
you, you need to move ahead. The Talmud
tells us that one man, Nachshon the son of
Aminadav jumped into the water as the people
were arguing about what to do. Only then
did the water split. He was from the tribe
of Judah, and for his act the Midrash says
the tribe of Judah became the line of
royalty. Moshe does not become the King,
his characteristic is to pray to G-d, to
reassure the people, he is the great
Shepard. The King though, the leader
par-excellence must act.
Yitro: Exo. 18.1-20.23
In this week's Torah Portion, the Jewish
people receive the Torah at Mount
Sinai. Strangely when they approach the
mountain God says to Moses, make a
boundary around the mountain and keep the
people behind it. The Medrash
comments that a boundary was needed because
in the people's spiritual
fervor they would just run headlong into the
mountain in a quest to see
God. But then at the end of the experience
we are told the people shook
with awe and ran away. So what is it, are
we runing headlong into the
Divine or are we scared by it into running
away? Perhaps this is deep
contradiction is part of the very nature of
powerful spiritual
experience. According to the commentaries
we humans are both drawn in
passion to God and yet at the same time fear
the annihilation of ourselves,
the loss of our previous identities. How
are you both drawn to God and
also recoil from it? May we all merit to
receive the Torah this week anew.
Yitro 2
In this week's Torah Portion, Yitro, the
Jewish people stand at Mount Sinai and
receive the Aseret Hadibrot, the 10
commandments. Though these 10 are no more
important than any other mitzvot in the
torah they are considered by many to be a
kind of headline or categorical index for
all the mitzvot. It is interesting that
exactly 5 are commandments between us and
G-d and 5 are mitzvot between people. There
is a great lesson to be learned from this.
Though Mount Siani is a moment of Divine
revelation and deep spiritual awakening, the
product of it is not a purely religious one
but also a civil one. Judaism is not a
religion, not only a system to help us
connect to G-d but one that is just as
concerned about civil laws and conduct
between people. In fact a quarter of the
Shulchan Aruch, the classic code of Jewish
law is bushiness law, and includes other
wide sections which deal with torts and
damages. Though these are not the usual
areas religion deals with , Judaism is
completely encompassing; not a typical
religion but a system for living a moral,
spiritual and joyous life.
Mishpatim: Exo. 21.1-24.18
This week's Torah portion follows
immediately after the giving of the Ten
commandments at Mount Sinai. Now God tells
Moses the rest of the Torah's laws the Jews
must know. The first of those related are
laws pertaining to servants. If one has a
servant they must be treated well and after
6 years they must be set free. If the
servant refuses to go free their ear is
pierced next to the door post of the house
(the mizuzah). The commentaries tell us
that the servant's ear is pierced because he
did not listed to the message of the Torah
which is, "the Jews are to be servants of
the Infinite One, and not servants of
people." I never understood why a servant
would not want their freedom until I spent a
year in India as the Rabbi of Bombay. There
almost everyone has servants. I knew a
Jewish family that had a servant, and the
servant and his family had been living with
the master's family for generations. The
servant's father had even been a servant in
the master's father's house a generation
before. The servant's family was so
integrated into masters family that though
the servant's family was Hindu and the
master's Jewish the servant's kids knew how
to sing all the Shabbat songs and prayers.
They were so close that if the master had
died or moved away the servant and his
family would have been lost.
Why do you think this mitzvah of the
necessity of freedom is the first one given
after the Ten Commandments?
Mishpatim 2
This week's parsha, Mishpatim, is the first
Torah portion after the Jews have stood at
Mount Sinai and consists of many laws,
almost all of them civil and societal laws.
The first of these are the time limitations
on servitude. If one has a Jewish servant
they must be freed after 6 years and if they
refuse to go free you must bring them to
your door post and pierce their ear. Rash"i
tells us that it is the ear that is pierced
because this servant did not listen to that
which G-d implied at Mount Sinai, that we
are His servants and not servants of human
beings, and this person wants to take a
human master. The process is done at the
door post because it was the door post that
the Jews put blood on when they left Egypt,
rebelling against their human captors to
enter into Divine service. The Jewish
people are only 50 days from slavery. The
first thing they must know is that to truly
serve G-d, though it may be scary, requires
an amount of personal freedom,
responsibility and independence. Only then
can they begin to build a society based on
Torah.
Trumah: Exo. 25.1-27.19
In this week's torah portion Terumah we are
told about the building of the first Temple
in the desert. God tells Moses to tell the
Jewish people, "make a sanctuary for me and
I with dwell among (in) them. The
commentaries ask, "shouldn't it say, make
for me a sanctuary and I will dwell in it?
What does 'I will dwell in them mean'? The
Torah here is trying to teach us a deep
concept. We do not build holy spaces for
God to dwell in, God in infinite. Holy
spaces act as an inspirational catalyst for
us to allow God to well within each of us,
not God forbid, to make believe God is
confined in a certain place. What holy
spaces help you to facilitate God's dwelling
within you? How can you make more of them?
Trumah 2
This week's Torah portion, Trumah, contains
the first words told to us after the
narrative describes Moses' ascension to
Mount Sinai. Most of the portion is a long
description of the building of the
tabernacle, a traveling temple that the Jews
had in the desert.
The portion begins as
follows: "And God said to Moshe saying,
'tell the children of Israel; take gifts to
me from each person according to their
desire...and this you will take: gold,
silver, bronze, purple wool...and oil for
the menorah...And you will make a sanctuary
for me and I will dwell among them. All I
have shown you of the look of the mishkan
(tabernacle) and its vessels shall you
make...'" (Exodus 25:1-9)
The rest of this week's portion and all of
next week's go on to describe in detail how
to construct the tabernacle.
Read the following questions and discuss
them. Then, read the texts below and discuss
the questions again:
1. Why do you think the laws of the
tabernacle are given to Moses first?
2. If we believe God is
everywhere, infinite, and non-physical, why
does the Torah ask us to build a physical
space for God's dwelling?
3. If God just brought the Jews out of Egypt
and split the Red Sea, then why does God
need the Jewish people to provide the
materials and labor to build the mishkan
(tabernacle)? Why wouldn't God do it
Himself?
Some Texts:
Rabbi Tarfon said, "How great is work, for
even God (who is everywhere) will not bring
the divine presence to rest on the Jewish
people until they have done work. As the
Torah says, '[They must] make for me a
tabernacle and [then] I will dwell among
them.'" -Avot D'rabbi Nason
"Change was very difficult for the Jewish
people. Therefore, God gave them animal
sacrifices because that is the type of
service they were used to, not because it
was the best type. God wanted to turn their
sacrificial service of idols to the service
of the One God." -Maimonides--Rabbi Moshe
ben Maimon of Fez (formerly of Cordoba),
11th century (Guide to the Perplexed
3:32)
The Talmud says that for us today prayer has
replaced the sacrifices. Doing the work of
approaching God, exercising the ability of
the human to reach beyond and encounter face
to face the brute existence of the Most
High, is what both sacrifice and prayer are
really all about. This is service for no
ulterior purpose than encountering the
Divine one on One, and standing in
relationship with God.
If we experience Being through relationship,
as Martin Buber said we do, then the primacy
of the experience of approaching, standing
before, and interacting with the Divine, may
be one of the most powerful and necessary
things we can do as humans and Jews.
A famous Chassidic Rabbi once asked, "why
does the Torah say, 'Build a sanctuary for
me and I will dwell in them (plural)?'
Wouldn't it be more correct to say, 'build a
sanctuary and I will dwell in it
(singular)'?
The answer teaches us that God really
desires a sanctuary in each one of us.
In the beginning of this week’s Torah
Portion, Terumah, Moses has just ascended
Mount Sinai after the saying of the
aseret hadibrot, Ten Commandments, and
G-d now commands Moses to tell the Jewish
People to collect funds for the building of
the Mishkan, (Tabernacle), a moving Temple
the Jewish people traveled with in the
desert. This Torah portion and several
subsequent to it then continue to describe
the details of the Mishkan’s construction.
Why do the commandments for building a
tabernacle follow so soon on the heels of
the revelation at Mount Sinai? Indeed, why
do the Jewish people, a nation that our
Rabbis say saw G-d face to face at the Red
Sea and at Mount Sinai, require a Tabernacle
at all for relating to the Divine?
Furthermore isn’t it a dangerous proposition
for a people so soon redeemed from a land of
idolaters, to have a concrete place and gold
vessels for worshiping an infinite G-d?
Rash”i, the great medieval French Torah
commentator was perplexed by the same
questions. He answers that the Torah here
is in the wrong chronological order. In
reality, says Rash”i, the Tabernacle was
only given to the Jews after they had
worshipped the golden calf and G-d realized
their need for a more concrete form of
worship. Maimonides in his book, The Guide
to the Perplexed, says a similar thing, that
prayer and personal interaction are a higher
form of connection with G-d than Temple
sacrifices and communal service, but that
the Jews, a nation 50 days from slavery,
could not relate to things so abstract.
The Midrash though, sees the Mishkan in a
more positive light. The Midrash says that
Moses was quite perplexed when G-d gave the
commandments for the building of the
Tabernacle and said, “Will You who even the
whole universe can not contain, constrict
Yourself in the Mishkan?”
The Midrash, Yalkut Shimoni, offers the
following parable as G-d’s answer to Moses.
There was a king who had a young daughter.
When she was a little girl she would run to
the king in the market place and he would
pick her up, he was always available to play
with her and talk to her. When she grew up
the king said, “It is not fitting for us to
talk in the market place; I will make a
special personal room for us to talk in.”
So it is with Israel, says G-d. When she
was young I interacted with her everywhere
face to face; at the Sea, in the Exodus and
at Mount Sinai. But now that she has grown
up, received the Torah and become a complete
nation, it is not polite (or profound
enough) for me to talk to her in public like
a child, rather let her make for me a
Sanctuary and I will dwell among them.
Do we have a Mishkan due to our lack of
ability to interact intimately and maturely
with G-d or because we have an even greater
ability to do so? Though growing up often
changes the parent-child relationship into
one that at first may seem less intimate,
the potential exists, if we can mature
enough, to have a relationship that is ever
so much more deep and complex. This Shabbat
may we each personally become spiritually
mature enough to have an even more intimate,
deep and complex relationship with our G-d.
Tetzaveh: Exo. 27.20-30.10
In the beginning of this weeks Torah portion
God tells Moses to command the Jewish People
to take pure olive oil for the menorah which
was to be lit each day in the Temple. This
is the first of the Temple services
described. The following Medrash (Tanchumah
5) gives some explanation for the menorahs
so central and precedent place in the daily
Temple service.
How beautiful are you my beloved, your eyes
are like doves (Song of Songs1:15). Why are
the Jewish People compared to a dove in this
verse? When Noah sent the raven out of the
Ark to check if the waters had receded the
raven flew away on its own, but afterward
when he sent the dove it came back with an
olive twig in its mouth showing that the
world was habitable again. Just as the dove
brought light to the world, so you, the
Jewish People who are compared to a dove,
shall bring pure oil and light a lamp before
God, as it says, command the people and tell
them to bring oilto bring up a constant
flame.
How did the dove bring light to the world?
Is lighting the menorah similar to the doves
light?
What kind of light should the menorah remind
us to bring to the world?
As a Jew how can you bring more of this
light in your life and world?
For the Jews in the desert after they
dedicate the Temple the lighting of the
menorah is the first service done (see
Numbers) and for the Macabies latter in
history when they rededicate the Temple the
menorah is first. Somehow the lighting of
the menorah sets the stage for all other
Temple services. The Talmud points out in
fact that the windows in the Temple were
smaller on the inside and larger on the
outside as if the spiritual light of the
Temple was meant to radiate to the outside
world. The dove comes from the Ark (a
special place) and returns to it and in the
process brings light to the outside world,
so to should we come from a holy place and
return back to holiness, but in the interim
bring light to a world that so needs that
light. This is what the menorah in the
Temple (and in our houses on Chanukah)
should remind us of. We are like doves
leaving the ark, bringing light to the
world.
Titzaveh 2
In this week's Torah portion, Tetzaveh,
Moses is told to command the Jewish
people to take pure olive oil to light the
menorah in the Temple. The
menorah was lit each day as one of the first
services in the temple in
Jerusalem. The description of the actual
fashioning of the gold menorah was
already described in last week's Torah
portion among descriptions of so many
of the Temple's vessels such as the Ark and
Table. Following those
descriptions we have this week's command to
light the menorah every day
followed by a lengthy description of the
vestments of the kohen (high
priest).
Why does the Torah spend a portion relating
the Temple's furniture and
vessels and another Torah portion describing
what the kohen wore but between
them a few lines about the lighting of the
menorah connecting the two
portions? Indeed, the other many Temple
services are not described here,
only the lighting of the menorah. How to
sacrifice animals and bring
incense is saved for latter books of the
Torah, so why the stress here,
between the section of the Temple's vessels
and the kohen's vestments, on
how to light the menorah? Furthermore, why
use the menorah's lighting as a
transition between the Temple's vessels and
the clothes of the High Priest?
Why not just put them together?
Perhaps the Torah does not want only to
describe the Temple's vessels and
the clothes worn to perform its services
without touching on the humanness
that must inhabit those vestments and use
those vessels. So we are told
about the menorah's lighting, something
which can not be done without the
person of the kohen. Fire can exist on its
own, oil can exist on its own,
but bringing the two together takes a kohen.
Why then use the menorah's lighting and not
another temple service as a
description of the kohen's presence and
necessity? I would like to suggest
that the lighting of the menorah is THE
Temple service par-excellence.
Indeed, in Numbers 8:1, after the Temple is
built and dedicated the first
thing done is the lighting of the menorah
before any daily sacrifices. We
know also that the Macabees, after
rededicating the temple, look first for
pure oil for the menorah's lighting.
Why is the menorah so central? Why is the
essential role of the kohen
expressed in terms of the menorah's
lighting? Perhaps the answer lies in
the following medrash. "The song of songs
(which according to the Talmud
describes the relationship of God to His
people) says: "behold how
beautiful, your eyes are like doves." Why
are the Jewish people compared to
a dove? Just as when Noah sent the Raven it
ran away but the dove returned
to the Ark with an olive branch in its mouth
to bring light to the world, so
too says God my people shall bring light to
the world when they light the
Menorah before Me with olive oil.
According to this Medrash the Menorah is the
symbolic expression of the
Jewish mandate to bring light to the world.
The goal of our spiritual
service is not to, God forbid, satiate God
with the death of animals, but to
bring light through our many services to a
dark world where the Almighty is
hidden. And so it is precisely the Menorah
which sets the tone for our
Temple service and our lives as Jews.
Tizaveh 3
In the beginning of this weeks Torah portion
God tells Moses to command the Jewish People
to take pure olive oil for the menorah which
was to be lit each day in the Temple. This
is the first of the Temple services
described. The following Medrash (Tanchumah
5) gives some explanation for the menorahs
so central and precedent place in the daily
Temple service. How beautiful are you my
beloved, your eyes are like doves (Song of
Songs1:15). Why are the Jewish People
compared to a dove in this verse? When Noah
sent the raven out of the Ark to check if
the waters had receded the raven flew away
on its own, but afterward when he sent the
dove it came back with an olive twig in its
mouth showing that the world was habitable
again. Just as the dove brought light to
the world, so you, the Jewish People who are
compared to a dove, shall bring pure oil and
light a lamp before God, as it says, command
the people and tell them to bring oilto
bring up a constant flame. What kind of
light should the menorah remind us to bring
to the world.
Ki Tisah: Exo. 30.11-34.35
In this week's Torah portion Moses is late
descending Mount Sinai and the Jewish
people, anxious without their new leader,
make a golden calf to take his place. Its
funny really, they are so attached to Moses
that they can't live with out him for even a
few hours. Yet they find it so easy to
replace him. Perhaps the experience of the
golden calf is not just about worshiping an
idol but about where the people are at, and
who they are right then. Maimonides says
that God did not really want animal
sacrifices in the Temple to be the way for
the Jews to serve him, but after they made
the golden calf and announced "this is your
G-d oh Israel who brought you out of Egypt,"
He realized that they were still like
children, who could not encounter God on the
mature level of prayer. They were still a
people with deeply ingrained slave
mentalities. Who, like infants, could not
go alone for more than a moment without
their leader. Ultimately, it takes 40 years
for the Jewish people to mature into their
personal spiritual relationship with God.
How are you spiritually immature? How would
you like to grow over the next 40 years?
Ki Tisah 2
In this week’s Torah portion, just 40 days
after receiving the Divine Revelation at
Mount Sinai, the Jewish people become
anxious that Moses their leader will not
return from on top of the mountain and they
make for themselves a golden calf. In the
midst of their sensual, noisy, Dionysian
worship of the calf they exclaim, “This is
your God of Israel who took you out of the
Land of Egypt.” How could a people who had
experienced the splitting of the sea and the
giving of the Ten Commandments by God at
Mount Sinai commit such a grave act of
treason against their benevolent redemptive
God?
According to Rabbi Shlomo Isaac (Rash”i) the
Jewish people are not so much rebelling
against God as reacting primarily to Moses’
absence, like children with out guidance
feeling forsaken by their parent.
According to Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (Ramb”n)
they were indeed rebelling against God, not
because they did not believe God had wroth
miracles for them but because spiritually
all they could relate to at this point was a
concrete God to guide them on their journey,
not an infinite One.
I would like to suggest an additional
approach. Though some commentaries argue
that these Torah portions are not in proper
chronological order, in the Torah as it is
written the story of the golden calf
proceeds directly after the laws of the
Tabernacle and the Shabbat. Both the
tabernacle and Shabbat are places of kidusha,
of holiness, in space and in time
respectively, and both the holiness of the
tabernacle and the holiness of the Sabbath
are achieved through limitation and
boundary.
This Jewish people, only 90 days redeemed
out of 200 years of slavery, do not know how
to see the depth, and indeed the freedom, in
limitation. The Jewish people at this
point are without focus and can not
understand, as the existentialists often
write, that only in limitation can their be
true freedom. Even their worship is
unbounded, they want a God they can put
their hands on and worship with abandon.
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