Parashat Ki Teitzei - Our Season of Consolidation, Week 5 – Rebirth

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat Ki Teitzei

Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

     No, rebirth is not the same as being born again, it’s about rising up to our better selves.  The word, rebirth is תְקוּמָה (t’kumah), which comes from the root קוּם (kum), a word that means to wake up, to get up, to arise, to stand up, to be established, to be built, to come into being, to be realized or to persevere.  In Perkei Avot 1, Mishnah 18 we read, “on three things does the world endure (kayaym, קַיֵּם),” enduring suggests this is an ongoing process that is another form of the root for rebirth  Rebirth is about being what we were not in the past, which is why we read here is Ki Teitzei “But you will remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God rescues you; therefore I command you to do the same” (Dt. 24:18).  Here in this parsha there are 72 commandants, 72 acts of right behavior, all stemming from that one sentence, Moses saying to those he is instructing, you have been rebirthed as a free people, now embrace it.
     Change is a big thing, learning to undo band habits and redo better ones is not easy. Spiritually such change itself is based on a personal faith, Moses is always bringing his readers back to their encounter with God as the basis of such newness, remembering that freedom from slavery (and whatever else keeps them bound) came at a price.  Regarding faith, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “authentic faith is more than an echo of tradition, it is a creative situation, an event,” going on to say that “each of us has once in our life experienced the momentous reality of God,” something that for Heschel becomes a memory that we carry with us regardless of life’s changes. For 40 years this new generation has garnished their own memories and Moses is rekindling those flames as he continues to define the community that will enter the land.  So he writes, “for when you go out,” כִּי-תֵצֵא (Ki Teitzei), writing about deed after deed, situation after situation and outcome after outcome.  Whether proper treatment of prisoners of war, treatment of children, compassion for both people and animals, protection of neighbors from danger, feeding the less fortunate, empathy to mental weakness, social justice, relational decency, fair treatment of foreigners or sheltering the persecuted, Israel is being called to a different standard of being as opposed to those who persecuted them in their past that began in Egypt, being rebirthed from their wanderings in the wilderness.
     In Deuteronomy 22:8 we therefore read, “When you build a new house, then you will make a parapet for your roof  so that you do not bring blood upon your house if a person falls from there.”  For Sfrono he teaches, “if it were to happen that someone falls off that roof you could not have been the indirect cause, seeing you had put up a protective railing. Had you not done so; your family might bear part of the guilt for such a mishap.”  This is the direct opposite of what we read in Genesis about Cain and Able. When Cain kills his brother he takes no responsibility for what happened, yet in a Midrash we read, “Cain did not know that the secrets are revealed before the Holy One” (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 21:9), meaning that although the murder of his brother was not seen in the end he would be found out, even if his own internal life sentence was rooted in guilt and a life of regret.  In the Sefer HaChinuch, this is the 547 Commandment, “the Prohibition against a Hazard,” an obligation that applies in all places at all times for both men and women.  We learn that this is considered to be physical, hence we are “not to leave stumbling blocks and hazards in our lands and in our homes so that people should not die or be harmed from them.”  Interestingly Rabbi Raphael Samson Hirsch regarding the passage from Deuteronomy comments on where it says,  כִּי-יִפֹּל הַנֹּפֵל מִמֶּנּוּ (ki yifol hanopayl mimehnu), for “if any person fall from there” it is a matter of fate.  The one who falls, הַנֹּפֵל (hanopayl), literally “the falling one,” has their fate determined not only by their own actions but also by the one who caused it to happen.  What do we know about Abel that would suggest what happened was a matter of a dictated fate?  The Ohr HaChaim writes that “the Torah alluded to the lack of brotherliness with which Cain related to Abel,” meaning that they had an ongoing sibling rivalry that was not necessarily healthy, perhaps because in part as Sfrono suggests that Abel “chose this vocation as it required more intelligence and involved one’s mental activities more than farming,” something that Cain would have known.   We have nothing to suggest that Abel was a person who was rotten in anyway, one who lived a life of unworthiness or depravity.  There is nothing to suggest that Cain had any reason to take his brothers life even if they were at brotherly odds or that Cain felt that Abel lacked scruples deserving of punishment.  What can this teach us?
     While R’Hirsch says that there is a certain amount of providence involved, i.e. perhaps they got what was coming to them for both the bad and the good, I do not quite see it that way.  In other words, was it Cain’s right to be judge, jury and executioner of his brother just like does the owner of the house have the right to not build a parapet around his roof with the intent to cause harm,  to the deserving “falling one,” or simply was their neglect responsible for an undue death regardless of the persons preexisting lacks?  Judgment for wrong is spelled out in Torah, which is why we also read about the cities of refuge in this parsha, although that does not mean the guilty are not properly dealt with by the leaders.  Fact, we have the obligation to protect each other regardless of any proclivity to judge them or to cause harm, leaders and citizens alike.  If you watched this newest shooting online, was it necessary to shoot Jacob Blake 7 times in the back instead of using a taser or even tackling him as he walked away, bad guy or not?  Are not the judges and officers (שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים, shoftim v’shotrim) called to protect everyone?  Kabbalah teaches that Korach is a reincarnation of Cain, generational hate is passed on just as is loving others.  We say daily, “do not put a stumbling block before the blind,” and people can be blind for many reasons, it’s just not physical.  We have responsibility to take good care of one another, family or stranger, hence the reminder about Egypt.  We have to scream out for justice around us and not just turn our heads and say oh well, or they deserved that, or it’s not my problem. Moses was attempting to cement that type of humanity into the generation that was about to enter the land, he wanted to “rebirth” that within them as a community.  As we enter the High Holidays we too must seek what needs to be rebirthed and let it mature, with God’s help may we always endure to become our absolute best.  We deserve more than we are seeing.

Shabbat Shalom!

Parashat Softom - Our Season of Consolidation, Week 4 – Reunion

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat Shoftim

Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

     

     This week as we walk toward Rosh Hashanah we reflect on the idea of echud (אִחוּד), or reunion.  As we journey to the Holidays we are supposed to self-prepare and reevaluate, recognizing that our inner spiritual being is often broken from our outer humanity so we seek refuah, a healing of self, our connection to God and of course our relationships with others.  As such, in the Haftorah for this week’s parsha we read, אָנֹכִי אָנֹכִי הוּא, מְנַחֶמְכֶם; , “I, even I, am God that comforts you."  The Jewish commentator Ibn Ezra writes of this verse, “It is generally believed that Israel is here addressed; but I think, that the prophet speaks to his own soul, in a prophetical spirit; That is, the prophet is addressed by God.”  The prophetic words the prophet takes unto himself that come from God “will be made as grass,” words that are like “a consuming fire” according to Ibn Ezra.  Along those lines Rabbi Simon Jacobson writes, “A new Divine power enters into your life, this power is not a mortal one; it is Divine, and it gives you the ability to experience a deep calm – being at peace with your center.”  The grass that was like “a consuming fire” is like the Divine that speaks to the inner being, bringing echud.  Entering Canaan for Israel asked that they seek echud with their better selves for the sake of their unity in new land, just like the High Holiday season asks us to listen to and consider what we might what normally not hear.
     Our spiritual self is connected to the fourth chakra, called Tiferet, which means splendor and has divine attributes with corresponding emotional attributes in the human soul.  That attribute is tied into how we conduct ourselves, which is why in the morning we pray,הרינ מקבל עלי מצות הברא והאבת לרעך כמוך, “I hereby accept upon myself the command of my Creator, love your neighbor as yourself,” speaking to our intent to be and do.  Off all the commands that a person is to adhere to it is how to treat others. When looking at this week’s parsha Moses clearly envisioned a community that would hold to certain spiritual foundational truths going into the land that in particular would dictate how they would act toward each other.  We see this right form the get go about the judges and officers (שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים, shoftim v’shotrim), leaders who were to be for the people.  This is followed by the words,  צֶדֶק צֶדֶק, תִּרְדֹּף (Tezdek, Tezdek, tirdof), “Justice, justice you will follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.” Outward behavior must seek echud with the inner person, the action of Israel’s leaders were held to a higher standard.  While Rashi teaches that these leaders are to reflect “a reliable court” that is made up of “honest judges” who would be for “sufficient merit to keep Israel in life and to settle them in security in their land,” Ibn Ezra seems more concerned about the men themselves.  In this case justice is mentioned twice because “whether it be to one’s gain, or to one’s loss,” it’s about how a person relates to justice “time after time” throughout their entire life, it’s about character.
     Regarding the King who would be chosen from his own people to rule, it says about him, “write for himself two copies of this Torah (אֶת-מִשְׁנֵה הַתּוֹרָה, lit. a “repeating of Torah”), which is before the priests who are Levites.”  Talk about the mixing of church and state, not in America.  I guess when you are a Theocracy with one religious belief as opposed to a Democracy with many views you can get away with that!  But for Torah, it was about the Kings inner convictions and outer behavior, so we learn from Rashi “that one (scroll) is placed in his (i.e. the King) treasury and the other (scroll) goes out and comes in with him (i.e. a small scroll which he carries everywhere with him).”  But this is supposed to be from the start, so when it says in Deuteronomy 17:18, “and when he sits upon his throne,” Ibn Ezra comments by saying that is “at the beginning of his reign.”  For Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch this was exactly the case with the king, so by writing his own scrolls from the beginning he proclaimed that he was not above the law, the law being “the unalterable rule of conduct for his life.”
     As Israel was about to enter the land Moses wanted to remind them that their future king would need to balance the relationship of freedom and authority, but not a freedom to do what is wished because of some misplaced sense of authority, but an authority to make sure people lived in the freedom from Egypt that was also theirs.  In fact, for Moses, the way the people were treated by their leaders, by the King, Prophets, and Priests, had everything to do with their freedom to be and give their very best.  When Moses taught in Deuteronomy 18:1, “The Priests, the Levites, even all the tribe of Levi, will have no portion nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire …” he must have known the nature of people in general.  In the same way that the people were to be led by Priests and Levites of the highest ethical standards the Priests and Levites were dependent on the good will of the people in order to eat. So let’s entertain this question; if the Priests and Levites were not good to the people were the people absolved from needing to bring their sacrifices so those same Priests and Levites could eat?  Well no, because their sacrifices were much more than food for their leaders, but it illuminates the human condition that Moses met more than once as he traveled with the wilderness generation, that condition that speaks to the problem of a broken community.
     I just cannot see not saying the following although I really seek to avoid being political when I write. Still, as I have watched the current climate of our country I am grieved over the fact that our government repeatedly calls the opposing partly a problem who seeks to undermine our way of life, a real us and them mentality  In my view, and I believe this is also based on the values of Torah, the government has the express responsibility to unite (echud) the people despite our diversity instead of having the intent to conquer.  I am not going to comment on this policy or that one, you decide that for yourself, but our leaders have failed to unite our diversity regardless of big or small differences, and that is not good for any of us.  But that also does not give us as people license to sacrifice our better-selves either on the altar of anger or revenge.  It is important that we symbolically each carry  two Torah scrolls, one that we keep at home (hearts and minds) and the other that we take on the road each day to guide us.  Echud is an ongoing and purposely sought after reunion of body and spirit that is part of our ascent toward Rosh Hashanah, even more so as we enter the month of Elul.  

Shabbat Shalom    

Parashat R'eih - Our Season of Consolidation, Week 3 – Recognition

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat R'eih

Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

     

     As our journey to Rosh Hashanah continues, this week is about recognition, or hac’carah.  Rabbi Elie Munk taught that “to clearly understand the problem of free will, one must be able to see into their own conscience,” meaning that one must have recognition and not just awareness, which we spoke about last week.  Awareness is a conscious knowing whereas recognition is an acquaintance with, or relationship to.  It is kind of like the difference betweenלָדַעַת  (la’daat) andלְהַכִּיר  (l’hacir), two variations of “to know,” withלָדַעַת  meaning to be conscious of something andלְהַכִּיר  meaning to personally encounter it.  The word this parsha gets its name from, R’eih (רְאֵה), meaning “to see,” is also connected with the third Chakra, hod (הוֹד), which means beauty.  Hod may also be related to the word hodayah (הוֹדָיָה), which means thanksgiving, meaning that we give thanks to the beauty we see, or hac’carah, or r’eih.  Without hac’carah it is hard to move forward.
     Parashat R’eih represents a change from recalling the past to foretelling the future. Moses has been recounting the wanderings of the wilderness generation in order to remind the people who are about to enter the land that their success, just as it was with their ancestors, is also rooted in their faithfulness to God.  Here, Moses taught, “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse,” not yesterday, but today going forward (see Dt. 11:26).  Israel often brought curses upon themselves by reaping what they sowed.  It goes on to say, יְבִיאֲךָ כִּי וְהָיָה, (v’hayah ki y’viacha) “it will be that [when God] brings you into the land,”  Moses teaching them that how they conduct themselves upon their arrival will have a great deal to do with what they will also experience, both for the good and the bad.  Therefore in the context of Torah Israel is taught to not follow other gods, keep the kosher laws, proper employee-employer relationships, do not forget the value of offerings and do not be led astray even by a voice from your own people if against the values of Torah.  Israel was being asked to recognize various things when they enter the land to prosper in the future.
     Jews today are also asked to recognize the value of Torah, but how we resonate with that often depends on a person’s view of God.  Rabbi Ruth Shon makes that point about moderns and the kosher laws since in Torah the keeping of kosher laws are really about community and personal devotion.  R’Shon also notes that this could have not been strictly for health reasons, or why would food banned for Jews be okay for gentiles (See Dt. 14:21).  In the Talmud (BT Avodah Zarah 20a) the Rabbi’s ask about sacrifices that can be sold to or given to gentiles but not eaten by a Jew, the reason being “for you are a sacred people to the Lord your God.”  Here kosher laws are primarily about the values of the people more so than the healthiness of the meal, although there is that too (another conversation).  For R’Shon that has not changed, meaning that for those who have hac’carah regarding kosher laws often times they will be approached as ethical, speaking to the environment and conditions of the place of preparation, living wages for the workers and the treatment of animals.  Do the values of Torah speak to the deepest human convictions of right and more right?  That is the question that is being asked, that is what is getting the recognition to keep or not keep Torah, but also that is what Torah has always been, a book about human ethics on a profound spiritual and/or spiritual level.
     On such a profound level we further read in this parsha, וְאָכַלְתָּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר-יִבְחַר לְשַׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ שָׁם, “And you will eat before the LORD your God in the place which God will dwell ” (see Dt. 14:23).  In context, as noted by Rashi, this place is where the sacrifice was to be consumed, the Sfrono adding that this chosen place in the Temple also “houses the Supreme Court, Sanhedrin, from where knowledge and understanding is dispensed.”  But the Jewish mystics believed that what made that place chosen was the Wonder behind the place, not the place itself (see Zohar 2:168a), perhaps reflecting an early midrash that teaches the place is where “God will choose to make the Shekinah to dwell” (Targum Yonatan on Dt. 14:23).  An early Mussar commentary teaches; “‘You shall eat it in front of the Lord your God;’ this is a reference to the ‘Table’, i.e. a reference to the sacred element of the act of eating” (Shenei Luchot HaBerit).  In Jewish thought the table is sacred just like an altar, which is the reason why our Shabbat tables are set to be different than the rest of the week, or why we say the kiddush as opposed to just a prayer over wine.  The place where God has chosen is just not a physical location, but it is also a place we choose ourselves, because we recognize the holiness of it.
     16 times just in this parsha we read “which has chosen,” יִבְחַר  (yivchar), referring to a place that God has chosen, teaching us that the location where we experience our sense of God means something.  Calling on the words of Zohar this is not just the place itself more than it is the presence of God that exists in each and every place.  Rabbi Harold Kushner teaches that Jewish prayer is about entering into the words to connect with God as opposed to the words connect God to us.  In the same way, recognizing the holiness of the moment connects us with the spiritual more so than the moments create the spiritual.  This has been and continues to be a difficult time, but are there spiritual moments that surround it?   Yes, we are waiting for a vaccine so life can go back to normal, missing the gathering of family and friends, feeling the pain of not seeing grandchildren, not being able to attend the funeral of family because of restrictions, or not being at another one for a friend who’s mom was like your own.  We are angry with those who will not follow the rules so we suffered another shutdown, can’t get our hair cut or our nails done once again, having to stay put in our homes until who knows when.  It has been 6 months of this and you know, it’s hard, it can weigh heavy on a person.  But we have also found other ways to connect and get out, maybe not the best way that is most ideal to our liking, but we can and should be grateful for what we have.  We make it what it is because we have hac’carah, a recognition that although things are not the way we want them we still have the opportunity to give thanks for what they are, just like hod and hodayah from above.
     In five weeks we will enter a new place, a New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and our hac’carah of the past year will shape our hopes for the new one.  Our response to how we want to handle life will be based on our deepest values, which we chose to act upon, because as the words of R’Munk said, people will “be able to see into their own conscience” in order to recognize the best way to respond.  As we enter this new year let our hac’carah, our recognition be more mindful of the world around us, the needs of others both known and stranger, and of course ourselves, recognizing that we are able to aspire for more out of next year than the one we are about to leave.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Eikev - Our Season of Consolidation, Week 2 – Awareness

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat Eikev

Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

     Last Shabbat was Shabbat Nachamu, the first of 7 weeks of consolation that connect the lowest day of the Jewish calendar – Tisha B’Av – to the beginning of the New Year – Rosh Hashanah.  The first week was about comfort, Nachamu, the Shabbat immediately after the mourning of Tisha B’av. The second week of consolation is about moo’da’oot (מוּדָעוּת) or awareness.  In this parsha, as with the others in Deuteronomy, Moses is recounting the history of Israel’s wilderness journey to those who are about to enter the land so they will be aware of the past in order to secure their future.  But these two weeks of consolation also correspond with the sefirot connected to the seven chakras.  The foundational chakra is Malchut, meaning kingship, representing the lower world of Israel’s wanderings.  The second chakra is Yesod, or foundation.  Yesod is the place of spiritual emotions according to the Jewish mystics, so while yes we are a part of the physical world, our awareness is tied into spiritual realms.  Moses throughout has been imploring Israel to see the “hand of God” in their wonderings, encouraging them to be aware of the relationship between heaven and earth (cf. Dt. 7:8).
     This idea of moo’da’oot runs rampant is the writing of Moses.  Here in Parashat Eikev, Moses is reminding the children of the wilderness generation that although their ancestors saw the defeat of Pharaoh they also engaged in acts of idolatry, which led to the destruction of the Torah made of stone from Sinai.  Moses used the word “you,” although many who stood there were babies or not yet even born, saying “You shall cut away (וּמַלְתֶּם, oo’mal’tem) the barrier from your heart and no longer stiffen your neck” (cf. Dt. 10;16).   Yes, they were not there, but they had the potential to commit the same offences as their parents and grandparents. Moses therefore instructs them in Deuteronomy 8:2-3; “And you will remember all the ways which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that God might afflict you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would or would not keep the commandments. And God afflicted you, and you suffered hunger although you were fed manna, which you did not know, neither did your ancestors; that God might make you know that people do not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”  What can this teach us about moo’da’oot, or awareness?
     The Sforno taught that what was remembered, the manna, itself was supernatural, and that Israel was afflicted in order to test their willingness to follow the mitzvot in union with that manna they freely received in the wilderness.  Israel received the food of angels (the manna; see Psalm 78:24-25) for 40 years that was freely given and happily taken (well kind of), and the test was about their willingness to follow Torah, which took more effort.  Viewing this as a God who dishes out reward and punishment to the faithful and unfaithful misses the subtlety of this moment.  Testing comes when you hold yourself to a higher value that becomes a bar of personal ethics, which can lead to affliction if missed and/or perceived as out of reach.  Rabbi Raphael Samson Hirsch writes that affliction was not just physical but psychological (see Hirsch on Dt. 7:15).  The affection came from God insofar as the standard the people sought to obtain was the higher value of Torah that represented the ways of God, and today it is not different.
     The middah of Mussar attributed to this parsha is n’divut (נְדִיבוּת) or generosity.  There is another word that generosity is related to that is harakat tovah (הַכָּרַת טוֹבָה), which means gratitude, and is the flip side of n’divut.  Also from Eikev we read words that are apart of the Birkat Hamazon, וְאָכַלְתָּ, וְשָׂבָעְתָּ--וּבֵרַכְתָּ אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, עַל-הָאָרֶץ הַטֹּבָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַן-לָךְ; “And you shall eat and be satisfied, and bless the LORD your God for the good land which [God] has given you” (cf. Dt. 8:10).  Israel received manna in the wilderness and is about to enter a good land and Moses is reminding them to be aware of their blessings then, now, and tomorrow, but also that their awareness include Yesod, a foundation that makes room for God.  The Aramaic Targum sums it up by saying, “Be mindful, therefore, in the time when you will have eaten and are satisfied, that you render thanksgiving and blessing before the Lord your God for all the fruit of the goodly land which God has given you.”  In response to the provision of nourishment, which was the manna,  the peoples harakat tovah was made manifest by their n’divut.  Rabbi Yair Robinson notes that our harakat tovah comes from our gratitude that we attribute to God’s generosity (recognizing the source of the food we eat) whereas n’divut is the generosity that we show to others, and reveal by our own practices (giving thanks for the food we eat), because we cannot repay God directly.  For Moses, the generosity of God to feed the people with manna for 40 years was repaid by the gratitude of the people when they followed Torah.  Moses taught the new generation that by not doing the same they would also experience what their ancestors failed to achieve. 
     In Perkei Avot we read that the world stands and endures on the pillars of peace, truth, and justice, three pillars that stem from Torah, service of heart, and loving kindness (Cf. Avot 1:2 and 18).  The Yesod that Moses attempted to impart was so the people would have future success in the land, but their moo'da'oot was more than just about their history, it was also about the spiritual awareness of God in the community.  We all know that saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” and remembering the past is not about canceling it out or ignoring it.  The last thing that Moses wanted for the children of the wilderness generation was for them to forget the failings of their parents and grandparents, but also to forget the good, the provision and the many blessings.  Even with a new canvas, we cannot erase human history and/or short fallings, but we can create new ones that are improved.  We are 6 weeks away from Rosh Hashanah and as we ascend to that day we are to be aware that a new year means we can do it again, better than last year, renewed and restored.  This has been a tough year, and I am sure we all seek a sense of newness right now, but that must begin with moo’da’oot, awareness, not only of what is around us but also with ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Va'etchanan - Tisha B’Av Reflections and the Shema

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat Va'etchanan

Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

     Jonathan Haidt in his book “The Righteous Mind” writes about what he calls the “Rider” and the “Elephant,” two aspects of moral psychology that I feel can be supported from the words of Torah. In short, morality prior to the 1960s operated on a Darwinian model that was about superior intellect, the strongest ruled, whereas after the 1960’s the emotive part of mankind should also be held in equality (heart and head).  Through his own study Haidt would come to recognize that contrasting the categories of cognitive intellect and emotions was pointless, although he continued to see morality as a matter of cognitive judgment.  In this case Haidt would come to hold that cognitive judgement is about the partnership of reason and intuition as opposed to the intellect and emotion being just related.  The cognitive that is “moral” operates as reason and intuition, the former speaking to processes while the latter is reactionary based on innate values.
     These two, reason and intuition, also represent for Haidt the “Rider” and the “Elephant” that are two separate cognitive pieces that must work concurrently.  Here the elephant functions in reaction to its animal intuition whereas the reason of the rider functions to guide the elephant for the best outcome.  Regarding Torah we read, נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע (na’aseh v’nishma), “we will do and hear,” and בְּצַלְמוֹ (b’tzal’mo), mankind is created in “God’s image.”  נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע has to do with “reason,”  we hear and therefore think before we act, whereas בְּצַלְמו is tied into “intuition,” or mankind’s sense of existence and inner convictions on a profound level that must also be guided.  In the end the rider and the elephant according to Haidt are two separate cognitive pieces that must work in tandem, just as “we will do and hear” and being created in “God’s image” must also work in tandem.  What we will learn from the relationship of reason and intuition is that they are foundationally operative in the words of the shema from this parsha in Deuteronomy 6:4; “Hear (שְׁמַע, shema), O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one (אֶחָד, echad).”
     Expanding on the connection to reason and intuition, while the shema is understood to be the Jewish declaration of faith, it is also about social bonding for a healthy community.  We will return to that in just a moment but first let’s look at the shema itself.  The word Shema (שְׁמַע) is an imperative, or command, which is why some will interpret “shema” to mean “obey” as opposed to just “hear,” or as my Rabbi says “listen up Jews” given that the passage in context is speaking to Israel.  In the Aramaic Targum, like in the Hebrew, the word used is also שְׁמַע (shema) with the added meaning “to understand.”  Certainly as an imperative that would seem obvious, but later on we find the word לְהַקְשִׁיב as well (l’hak’sheev, cf. Proverbs 2:2), which conveys the idea of needing to pay attention.  This is a causative form of a word that means to “incline” or “attend,” perhaps suggesting that the word shema alone was not enough in certain situations so l’hak’sheev was used to reinforce that active listening went beyond just hearing.  The Zohar teaches that when we say the shema we unite the upper and lower worlds, meaning that when we accept what we hear we have indeed listened; or per Haidt, it is when our reason (saying the shema is an act of  intellect) works together with our [spiritual; my addition] intuition (or higher values).  Then there is the word “one” (אֶחָד, echad) that is often translated as “alone,” more than likely as a way to affirm there is only one God in Judaism.  The word “alone” is not in the Hebrew while in the Aramaic the word is חָד, chad, aside from meaning “one,” can also mean “particular,” which tells us that early on “one” in this context was understood to mean “alone.”  But it has to be more than just a theological statement about the nature of God, therefore it should also be read as a statement about community.  Dr. Carol Ochs (Dir. of  Graduate Studies at HUC) draws that conclusion by looking at the relationship between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5:6-18 from this parsha.  As such, in Exodus 20 we read the “ten words,” the basis of all laws, which is then restated here in Va’et’chanan and has an intrinsic communal purpose.  Ochs speaks to the relationship between the parents and grandparents who stood at Mt Sinai and their children and grandchildren who are about the enter the land, forever linking them together via those “ten words,” or L’dor vador (from generation to generation).  This would then make sense why Moses, also from this parsha, recounts the Exodus and Mt. Sinai  (see Dt. 5:1-6), thus the shema is saying that you are one with those who went before you, one with those who come after you, and one with those whom you stand here with today, notwithstanding differences.
     This is why the shema is also about social bonding for a healthy community, which is furthermore why the shema means that hearing and listening must also work in tandem. We also are a community, one people together from diverse backgrounds, Jews and gentiles, black and white, liberals and conservatives, and so forth.  Over this past couple of months in particular I have come to realize even more so than before that only hearing is not good enough.  The social rage that is inescapable right now (violence and/or verbal, political and/our social) has forced me to become better educated about ideals that may differ from how I see the world.  Reading Martin Luther King’s work from 1963, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” it is quite obvious that he burned with rage over what was happening to the black community of his time.  It could even be easily read that he advocated for violence to further the cause of civil rights, but that would not make any sense given the larger corpus of his writings and spoken words that always sought peaceful means for change.  MLK understood why, but he did not advocate for violence more so than he asked others to listen as opposed to merely hearing.  Do not get me wrong, I am not condoning of, nor turning by back, on the hate and/or violence, chas v’chalilah, God forbid, but with the help of others I am seeking to a better listener beyond just hearing even if my initial reaction does not fully comprehend and/or agree.
     Per the words of Bob Dylan, I am not trying to sound the battle charge or remake the world at large, yet I am advocating for just not hearing the convictions of intuition but with reason also listening carefully to the words and concerns of others, dismissing the cacophony of noise that may interfere with truly needed change.  On Wednesday night into Thursday of this week we observe Tisha B’av, where according to Jewish tradition the second Temple was destroyed because of “sinat chinam, senseless hatred of one Jew for another" (BT Yoma 9a), which is why this is also Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of comfort.  Both in the Jewish community and in the larger community If we do not listen we may have to remember that hate spoke louder than love, and it is love that seeks and accomplishes tikkun (repair) as opposed to hate that just wants to dominate.  May we always aspire for our hearing (intuitive) and listening (reason) to work together as one.

Shabbat Shalom                     

Parashat Devarim - Handle with Care

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat Devarim

Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

Handle with Care 

    Deuteronomy is a book about Moses’s own final words to Israel before they entered the land.  It differs from Numbers because of its instructions for Israel’s success instead of primarily recounting their flawed humanity.  In the very beginning we read “These are the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel” who spoke “according to all that the LORD had given him to command them” (Dt. 1:1-3).  In the Aramaic Midrash, Targum Yonatan, it reads, “these are the words of admonition (אוכחותא),” or words of “reproof, a word that is not in the original Hebrew Torah.  Rashbam (grandson of Rashi) taught that the words of Moses were an elaboration of what had gone before, with Ibn Ezra teaching that the words of Moses reflected the correct understanding of the commandments.  But I think Moses should be understood as speaking words like a parent attempting to instruct a child.  Moses just spent 40 years in the wilderness, watching what seemed bad more than good, such as with betrayal, rebellion, murder, death, revenge, deceit, unfaithfulness, and slander, not to mention watching their fear, broken trust, panic, impatience, aimlessness, and dissatisfaction.  It wasn’t all bad of course, that would be unfair, but it was like Moses said, “Listen (shema), I have seen what people can be like so you need to hear my words so that you’ll have success in the land!” Is says in Sefer Mishlei (Book of Proverbs) that there is wisdom and safety in listening to others; well you know, people have always struggled to do that.  Anyway, when I hear “these are the words of admonition,” I hear words to succeed as opposed to words of punishment for past wrongs, although past wrongs have consequences.

     In the parsha itself you would think the words of Moses would reflect on the Exodus, the defeat of Pharaoh, the manna that fed the people while in the wilderness, or the cloud by day and the fire by night that led them, not to mention that incident of the Golden Calf.  Instead Moses begins by speaking about their immediate battles and a reminder to Israel that God promised their ancestors the land which they were to enter.  Moses painfully reminds them about the complaining and quarrels he experienced with the generation that died in the wilderness and ultimately brings up the appointed leaders, and in particular, the failure of the spies who went into the land.  If you want to reread that account just look in Numbers 13 and 14, but here he simply says, “So I spoke to you, and you did not listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and were presumptuous …” (Dt. 1:43).  The word presumptuous in Hebrew is va’ta’zidu (ותזדו), which can also be translated as “willful,” although the Aramaic translation of the Torah called Onkelos uses the word va’ar’sha’toon (וארשעחון) that carries a like meaning but also has a root that means evil or sin (rasha, רשע).  So while the Hebrew further says v’lo sh’ma’tem, “they did not listen,” we read in the Aramaic, v’la ka’bel’toon, “they did not receive,” meaning that it was not just merely hearing words but receiving them.  In the Aramaic, the result of just hearing potentially could be evil if the hearer does not truly listen.
     Every day we say and listen to a prayer that is a meditation on words called the “Baruch Shemar,” the opening of the P’sukei D’zimrah in Jewish morning prayers. The prayer speaks of God who spoke the world into being, creating the world and its occupants with a mere word simply at the command to do so.  The mystical nature of this prayer aside, it’s about the power of words and therefore the power of our words, both received and spoken.   In this prayer we also read, Baruch gozayr oom’kai’yaym, “Blessed is God whose decree endures,” a decree of course is a word.  Commentary on this prayer found in My Peoples Prayer Book suggests that this enduring decree is more so for the worshiper as opposed to just an instruction by God.  Referring to Rabbi Abraham Jacob Freidman, the decree is to endure for a person’s stay in the world rather than to evoke fear because its purpose is punitive.  Rav Cook refers to the words chai, “lives,” and kayyam, “exists,” also from the Baruch Shemar, something that can teach us about the relationship between a decree and its benefit.  The word “exists” (kayyam) is the same root-word as “endures” (kai’yaym) although a different verb form.  In this case Rav Cook says “one who exists rather than lives, has been stripped of their humanity, to which I will add, to live means to endure.  Per those words I will further add, one who hears but does not listen fails to grasp the power of words, and therefore struggles to endure.  Going back to the spies, the power of their words lead the people to endure wrongly with an unfortunate result.  Next week is Tisha B’Av, a fast day where we remember many Jewish disasters, most notably the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, but also the crusades, Jewish massacres, and the Holocaust.  But the first such tragedy of Tisha B’Av is the misfortune of Israel’s wandering through the wilderness for an additional 38 years, which resulted from the people hearing the inflammatory words of the spies, instead of listening to the words of instruction from Moses. In this case Israel chose to hear and act upon words that did not benefit them.
     It is said that the Torah is made up of black fire and white fire, the black fire being the words on the page and the white fire being the space between the words, or how people interact with its teachings and stories.  Often the problem comes with the white fire since it is the place of interpretation.  In general all words are like black fire, they are merely words, but the white fire is how they are interpreted, communicated, and heard, but also how they are explained and listened to.  Words that are only heard (and spoken without thoughtfulness) can lead to immediate actions that are not always the best, whereas when listened to or thought out, there is a better opportunity to weigh meanings and therefore actions.  Think about the words of the spies and what it cost the people who heard them.  Words that are not thoughtful and balanced can be harmful, thus we read in Perkei Avot “be careful with your words, lest from them they learn to lie,” ultimately reminding us how the power of words can lead others (and ourselves) wrongly.  After walking with Israel for 40 years in the wilderness Moses wanted his words to simultaneously warn and better them.  Words are powerful, they can destroy and give life, therefore given the amount of words we hear daily and the need to process them ... handle with care.

Shabbat Shalom

Parashat Matot/Massei - This Land is Our Land

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat Matot/Massei

Numbers 30:2-36:13
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky

This Land is Our Land 

     Matot/Massei is a double parshiyot that concludes the book of B’midbar, or Numbers.  Numbers has been a book about human flaws and choice, and this parsha is no different.  In Numbers we have seen betrayal, broken trust, subversion, murder, attempted political coups, divisions and so on, human acts that we continue to see in our day. But we have also met Joshua who would be Israel’s leader in the future as well as the daughters of Zelophehad who’s peaceful but determined protest yielded positive results.  Now the 40 year journey is about to end, and Israel is standing just outside of the land of Canaan about to cross the Jordan river.  Perhaps providential, or maybe just mere coincidence, but the social upheavals that Israel encountered on their journey that we have been reading about have been in backdrop to our own social issues.  As such, last week we encountered a new dynamic where the Israelites now have to contend with neighbors who are not like them, which we see in the illicit relationship between the Israelite man and a Midianite woman.  In this case it was the Midianite woman who lured the Israelite man into an idolatrous web that ended with the loss of life.
     Regarding the Midianites in general the Zohar teaches “come and see that everything stemmed from Midian,” meaning that the Israelites attacks on the Midianites were just not arbitrary or malicious.  After being hired by Balak the King of Midian Balaam’s prophecy failed to curse Israel, only to be followed by the Midianite women capitalizing on the weaknesses of Israel’s men with acts of cultic sex, a plan to destroy Israel’s existence before they entered the land.  In the Haftarah we read in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you; I have appointed you a prophet unto the nations,” the a bigger picture being that Israel was God’s first (not only) born nation who was given the job to be a priest for the entire world (see Ex. 4:22 and 19:6).  Even with its human flaws Israel was a nation that sought to bring redemption to the world as opposed to forcing others by coercion to be like them or extermination if the former failed.  Just like the Egyptians before them, the Midianites wanted to wipe Israel off the face of the planet so Israel opted for self-preservation.  Rashi wrote of  “God’s vengeance” on the people of Midian who were like “one who stands against Israel (the Jewish people) is if they are standing against the Holy One, Blessed be God” (see. Rashi Num. 31:3).  The Israelites had the right to protect themselves against enemies who wanted to destroy them and that was their reality as they entered Canaan.
     Rabbi Jonathan Sacks asks, “Can they build a society that is both free and ordered?”  How can Israel undo the systemic hate that they continue to encounter in order to be a people who are free to build their lives, have homes, and raise their families?  Well in part it had to do with communal unity as opposed to the constant divisions that we have been reading about.  In Numbers 32 we read that the tribes of Gad and Rueben make a request of Moses to settle in the plains east of the Jordan instead of crossing into Canaan.  In response Moses said, “Shall your brothers go out to battle while you settle here?” (Num. 32:6).  Moses wants to know why the rest of the people should put their lives in jeopardy for the new land while the tribes of Gad and Ruben seemingly separate from the greater cause?  Rashi writes of the community reaction, “for they (Israel) will be under the impression that you (Gad and Ruben) were afraid to cross because of the war and the strength of the towns and the people.”  In the end, Gad and Ruben settled east of the Jordan, but their fighting men (no women fought back then) crossed with the rest and did not return home until Israel settled the land for everyone else.  In the teachings of Mussar this is the middah of אחריות, acharayut, or responsibility.  This word can be broken down into a verb and an adjective, the verb being achar meaning to “remain behind” to the adjective achayr that means “another,” or standing behind another person.  Israel needed unity to settle down and be free from the litany of enemies that wanted to destroy them.
     This parsha clearly reminds us that the battles we are facing right now require a joint effort in order to defeat them.  For us Jews and the Jewish community here in America  just look at the recent murders in a Pittsburgh synagogue, the Kosher market in New Jersey or the synagogue in San Diego as a reminder, never mind the Holocaust. We need to also recall that it was not too long ago that Jews were called termites or that (yet again) we control the banks implying that we therefore control the money.  The feelings that were provoked in me are sadness because it still happens, Jews are slandered and killed simply because we are Jewish, as well as abandonment because too often the voices of outrage and protest are short lived or silent.  As Jews we have to be like the tribes of Gad and Ruben, going into battle for the sake of others regarding the hate that they encounter.  You see since we know of hate and racism personally, morally and ethnically we have to be in unity with those who also fight against racism, which is why black lives have to matter.  This is not about an organizational movement but about the dignity of people.
     In this parsha the Midianites who wanted to destroy Israel represent the hate and racism that wants to destroy humanity.  As Jews our history of being denied human rights, not allowed to own land, vote, go to universities, shunned from society until emancipation should make us both aware and outraged, even more so because we still pay the price of anti-Semitism.  But in America we do not suffer the ills of the past, yet we watch the black community that has gone from slavery to segregation to overwhelming incarceration fight for their rights before our own eyes.  We can’t deny that those from the same community have become doctors, lawyers, business owners, professors, supreme court judges, and even the President of the United Sates, but we can’t also deny that their emancipation is ongoing.  Just like with us Jews it does not stop the systemic hate that is embedded in mankind, but it is about being able to build their lives, have homes, and raise their families in the freedom they deserve.  We can't keep watching unnecessary killing or persecution without stepping in. 
     I know there will be people out there who will not like what I am about to say,  yet it would also be a mistake to think that this reflects a lack of support for the cause, but black lives matter only because all lives matter or in the end no lives can matter.  At the end of the day, hate, discrimination, and murder are equal opportunity sicknesses, meaning that we all have acharayut, or responsibility to be like Gad and Ruben by standing up for each other and/or to fight for another’s freedom, which is the Jewish way!  You and I fight the way we must for human rights, properly but with persistence, or we rob each other of our God given right to be fully human.  This is not simply my land or your land, but this land is supposed to be our land.

Shabbat Shalom!