Parashat HaShuvah - Torah Reading for Shabbat Passover - "Passover Musings - the Messy Middle." Exodus 33:12-34:26, Haftarah, Ezekiel 37:1-14

 I hope everyone had meaningful Seders this year!  This week for the Shabbat of Passover we have a special Torah reading that reminds the listener that God made a covenant with the Jewish people rooted in the Torah to include our holidays.  In that reading we find a well known passage (we read it during the High Holidays) about the characteristics of God who is "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.” During the week of Passover (and Sukkot) when we reflect on God’s characteristics we are asked to reflect on our own. The freedom that we recall during Passover is a characteristic of God, and therefore us as well.

Rabbi Abraham Cook, who was the founder of the modern Chief Rabbinate of Israel, teaches that each of us during Passover is to recall, or rediscover, our own freedom within. Thus Rav Cook writes, “What makes us truly free? When we are able to be faithful to our inner self, to the truth of our Divine image - then we can live a fulfilled life focused on the soul's inner goal.” Passover is just not a time to remember the freedom of the slaves of old and Jewish history, although it tells us about our past, but it speaks to our today also.  On the Seder plate we have two places for bitter herbs, Maror (מרור) and Chazeret (חזרת). Both tell the story that “the experience of the Jewish people’s slavery in Egypt, which was not initiated all at once, but rather conducted gradually and so grew progressively more bitter.” But the ongoing bitterness of slavery is generational, meaning that while most people today have not been physical slaves in Egypt (or the Shoah), we all suffer because of the effects of racism and antisemitism, lack of rights for minorities, women and the LGBTQ+ community.  There is fallout from the political polarization in this country that continues to divide people, the bitterness of disinformation and balanced reporting, pain and suffering from illness and disease, abuse of power and position and the list can go on.  Bitterness is not a one time thing but lingers. We can also become captive to the bitterness that has the power to engulf, and therefore, enslave us. That is part of the story too. 
 
Today we are suffering the bitterness of the evil of Hamas and its aftermath. I began my Seders this year by saying (as I am sure many of you did as well) that this is no ordinary year, we have families and friends who are being held captive right now in Gaza, although we continue to say l’olam lo shuv, never again. I recently read words by Rabbi Marc Katz of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, New Jersey who has called the situation for us Jews (and Jewish communities) in Gaza a “messy middle.” It's a “messy middle” because this is not black and white as Rabbi Katz further wrote that as people we “can hold a lot of things at once, and you can feel for the Palestinian people, you can feel for the Israeli people. Compassion is not a zero-sum game.”  The Rabbi is saying that the “messy middle” reflects that many Jews in Israel and around the world do not want to fight, do not want to see innocent people on either side suffer or die, and want to see both Jew and Arab raise their children and families freely without threat. Yet they also see the need to fight the evil of Hamas that must be destroyed while knowing the world criticizes Israel and more innocent people will have to die in order to secure Jewish and Arab freedom so two people can live side by side. The Jews in Goshen were the same; they just wanted to live in peace, yet innocent people (Jews and innocent Egyptians) had to die in the process.  Today we have a new battle that rages, the battle for our Jewish and Israel supporting young people who are entering the university system. This battle is fighting for the right to walk on campus in safety, to learn and voice opinion without fear, to stand up to antisemitism, but also islamophobia.  Seeking a win-win is truly hard for all, hence a "zero-sum game," but evil must be eradicated and people freed.

Last week I mentioned the words of the Abarbanel, who wrote, “By spilling a drop of wine from the Pesach cup for each plague, we acknowledge that our own joy is lessened and incomplete, for our redemption had to come by means of the punishment of other human beings. Even though these are just punishments for evil acts, it says, “Do not rejoice at the fall of your enemy” (Proverbs 24:17).”  Our sense of compassion can be compromised by the chametz (leaven) of anger, or even hate, one sided justice, fear and grave disappointment.  What does chametz have to do with this?  Again calling on Rav Cook he teaches that the “leavening agent” (chametz)  that makes “dough rise” is added to change the doughs “natural shape and characteristics.”  As humans we must seek out what is natural shape in order “to be faithful to our Divine image.”  The chametz of anger and fear (etc.) can also change our “natural shape and characteristics” of love and compassion both for friend and foe.  When we recall the plagues we recall those who died for Israel's freedom from slavery, yet we are never to rejoice that their freedom came and the expense of an Egyptian life, no matter how evil.  The "messy middle" says be angry at evil but do not rejoice at the death of a life, even of an enemy. 

According to our Divine Image we have the middah (characteristic) of rachmones, or mercy, compassion, forgiveness and empathy (reflecting God's character above).  The Passover story is challenging us to live in the “messy middle” in order to hold true to our truths and have compassion for those who do not. When we rid our lives of the chametz that gets in the way of such a lofty goal, then per the words of Rav Cook, we are truly free.

Shabbat Shalom and Moadim L'Simcha,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky 

Parashat HaShuvah - Metzoa - "Verbal Purity at Passover." Leviticus 14:1-15:33, Haftarah, Malachai 3:4-24

When we recount the plagues during our upcoming Seders we are not to be gleeful when recalling those who tried to keep the Jews captive and suffered even unto death.  Our posture is not to be: they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat, no. no no.  In fact the Abarbanel (a-bar-ba-nel, 15th century Rabbi) wrote, “By spilling a drop of wine from the Pesach cup for each plague, we acknowledge that our own joy is lessened and incomplete, for our redemption had to come by means of the punishment of other human beings. Even though these are just punishments for evil acts, it says, “Do not rejoice at the fall of your enemy” (Proverbs 24:17).”

When Israel sang after they crossed the sea the words of Shirat Hayam (the song of the sea from Exodus 15, where Michamocha comes from) their focus was to be on the freedom gained, not the destruction of enemies who drowned.  This is found in our Seder when we sing “Avadim Hayinu,” we were slaves, now we sing songs of praise, not for the death of enemies, but because we are free!  We read in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 39b) that God is said to have rebuked the angels for celebrating after the drowning of the Egyptians, a lesson that Judaism as long taught applies to us, hence the words of the Abarbanel above.

This week's parasha, Metzora, like last week’s Tazria, speaks of afflictions that have been connected to Lashon hara, or evil speech.  Speech obviously comes from our mouth, rooted in the intentions of our hearts and minds, thus out of our mouth comes words of compassion or words designed to hurt and even hate.  The book of Mishlei (Proverbs) captures both.  Words that are affirming and compassionate are “Pleasant words that are like a honeycomb, Sweet to the palate and a cure for the body” (Prov. 16:24). Yet regarding words designed to hurt others, words of anger and hate we also read in Mishlei, “More had fallen by the tongue than had fallen by the edge of the sword” (Prov. 27:18).

Last Shabbat I mentioned how almost everything we do is preceded by brachot (blessings), 91 in total between the three times of prayer per day alone, but also prayers over food, drink, study, be wonderment of creation (like with the eclipse), human uniqueness, healthy bodies and so on. The purpose of the brachot are to speak holiness and goodness into our daily activities, albeit the mundane and the sacred alike, activities that include the words that come from our mouth (verbal and by image both convey messages). Interestingly, regarding the brachot, there is none that we say before we speak.  I reached out to a colleague who shared his thoughts on the matter, suggesting words from the daily Amidah (I thought the same) that say, “You (God) favor humans with perception and teach understanding. Grant us knowledge, understanding and intellect from You.”  In other words, we have all the intellectual ingredients within us to direct our speech and choose to make it holy, or not, before the words even leave our mouth.

Today, it seems like people often use their words for harm. This will get me in trouble with someone I am sure,  but all the posted satire that we see online about political figures or what have you, for Judaism, falls into the category of Lashon hara, a true metzora (affliction) because they create a negative image to damage another.  According to teachings of Judaism it is not about whether it is true (lashon hara does not mean a lie), but it is about the intent to do harm.  Let's bring this back to Passover. There is a kabbalistic teaching that says that the word Pharaoh (פַּרְעֹ֑ה), can also spell “פה רע” (peh rah), which means  “evil mouth.”  Pharaoh according to Zohar (III, 205b) is the very illustration of the "the evil tongue", i.e. slander, a gross misuse of the power of speech and the like.  Pharaoh treated those who he felt were inferior to him in harmful ways, he did not have compassion on human life in general.  His words were meant only for harm and self affirmation. We learn from this that our words must be the opposite.

Therefore we too have the power of speech, speech that we are to use to verbalize our compassion on our enemies who wrong us, even if they don't deserve it (yes hard to do).  In fact the Chofetz Chaim, who writes extensively of proper speech, would teach that the lack of verbal compassion is a form of Lashon Hara.  We are being asked during our Seders to give thanks for our shared freedoms, and to celebrate our diversity and common humanity.  I heard it said that diversity is not about uniformity but harmony.  Living in harmony with others is about being okay and tolerant with others who we may not agree with, allowing our speech to be celebratory of our human journeys and not the differences that separate us.  Yet the Seder also asks us to have compassion on our enemies, those who seek to harm us, which is why we recite the plagues and the story of the sea out loud. May we never lose our compassion and words of mercy for those who seek to impose barriers on our freedoms.  The Pharaoh’s of this world will have their day of reckoning, we can bet on that, yet we must not lose our sense of goodness or compassion on account of them.

Shabbat Shalom and chag pesach sameach,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky 

Parashat HaShuvah - Tazria - "Measure by Measure." Leviticus 12:1-13:59, Haftarah, 2 Kinds 4:42-5:19

We live in a world of words.  Speaking words is a big deal in Judaism. I’d like to focus on two outstanding issues regarding words that we hear everyday. The first is our march toward the November elections.  While my intention here is not to pick sides, what I will say is that most of what I hear/read today is not a bipartisan approach to the important issues that we face as Americans. More often what I tend to read is about failed human characteristics and personal attacks.  Beneath such words there can be truth, absolutely, and that must guide us come November. But for Judaism the truth does not get to dictate how words are used if they produce hate inspired words that seek to assassinate another person. The second is the mainstream words of the anti-Israel rhetoric that permeates our news. Is it all lies? No, of course not, but a lot of it is not full-truths either, leaving many people with less than factual information both about the Israel-Gaza war and our own governmental policies toward the Jewish state. So while these points should be an important matter as Jews and Jewish communities, what does this have to do with this week's parasha, Tazria? 

In his book, Shemirat HaLashon, guarding of the tongue, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan - the Chofetz Chaim (pursuer of life) - writes about what he calls מִדָּה בְּמִדָּה (mida bimedia) or “measure for measure.”  Putting it another way he is talking about the karma of bad deeds that will impact the future which are tied into spoken words.  The Chofetz Chaim connects מִדָּה בְּמִדָּה (or karma) to what our tradition calls Lashon hara, or evil speech. The idea of lashon hara comes from this week's parasha, Tazria, where a skin affliction called a tzaraat is understood to be leprosy, which our tradition interprets as the affliction of the tongue. The Chofetz Chaim intends to show how lashon hara can have an impact not just at that moment but down the road, and he does that by looking at the story of Judah and Joseph.  In this case although Judah stood up for the life of his brother he opted to sell him into slavery instead. As such Judah’s hate was the basis for selling Joseph into slavery and lying to his father about Joseph dying at the hands of an animal.  For the Chofetz Chaim the long term impact of Judah's words were felt much later in the story of Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, who was a descendant of Judah. In this case Rehoboam was approached by the people who asked him to remove the heavy burden of taxation and other such concerns upon the nation.  Unfortunately, not only did Rehoboam refuse the request, but said that his rule would be harsher than his father King Solomon.  As a result of Rehoboam’s choices Israel was split into the Northern and Southern Kingdom that led to being exiled into Babylon and the destruction of the first temple.  The Chofetz Chaim teaches that the latter was based on Judah’s unwillingness to forgive, which began a chain of events that he calls מִדָּה בְּמִדָּה (measure for measure), in turn creating bad karma for the generations that followed. 

Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah (Human Dispositions 7) writes, “There is a much more serious sin than [gossip] … that is lashon hara.”  Gossip according to Judaism “causes unforeseen negative consequences.''  Although it is normally unintended to be harmful gossip  - hey did you hear about so and so they are having an affair - there is plenty of harm in that statement!  Lashon hara by design is intended to do harm, which is why it is more serious than gossip.  Maimonides therefore also teaches that refraining from lashon hara has a “prohibition relating to deprecating facts about a colleague, even if they are true.”  Lashon hara is just not about words designed to harm the target of those words, but by default, also those who embrace the words of the one who is attacked.  We read in the Talmud (Arachin 15b) a well known teaching about how lashon hara impacts the “one who speaks malicious speech, and the one who accepts the malicious speech when he hears it, and the one about whom the malicious speech is said.”  More than that we also learn in this Talmud that unless lashon hara is “destroyed” it will “kill” even if not a physical death. Lashon hara is never okay, never just a passive thought or a good suggestion to embrace. 

Again, how do the things we hear today impact us as a Jewish community in connection with this parasha?  Remember that the Book of Leviticus is asking a lot of us in terms of our character and behavior, it can be a hard book to digest because of that. Later on we read in Leviticus 19:2, “You shall be holy, for I, your God יהוה, am holy,” but what does that mean?  While I will save that for another time, you can be sure of this one thing: it has everything to do with how we conduct ourselves in life, which very much includes how we use our words. How many families have been torn apart by powerful words of hate and disagreement over today's climate of politics?  What about the misuse of words designed to hurt Israel that have been given the power to create problems, not just now, but for generations to follow who will no longer support Israel because of words that are not true?  Whether about America's attitude toward Israel or the election, I wonder if the Chofetz Chaim would give the same warning, מִדָּה בְּמִדָּה, the karma of our words could have a negative affect tomorrow.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky