Hag Sameach
My friends and colleagues call Shavuot the forgotten holiday. Even with the Yizkor service we don't get as many in synagogue as we do for Pesach or Shemini Atzeret, not to mention Yom Kippur. If you were to go home and ask your Jewish friends why they were not in shul today they probably have no idea that today is one of the three major holidays on the Jewish calendar.
We live in a free country. There is all kinds of talk today about how people are opposed to government interfering with their personal lives. We don't like our government getting involved in ALL of our private affairs. Whole movements in this country have revolved around telling Washington to leave us alone. From the beginning of this country, with the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania, to the Civil War to our Modern Tea Party Movement, citizens of this country protest or fight when they feel the federal government has become too intrusive in their private lives.
Judaism, has no trouble at all intruding into our private lives. After all, one of the four great freedoms in this country is Freedom of Religion, and Judaism tells us Jews just how we are supposed to be Jewish. It tells us what we can and can't eat. It tells us when we can and can't work. It tells us what is right and what is wrong and does not give us any vote in the matter, and it even tells us when we can and when we can't have sexual relations with our spouse. I don' t think you can find anything on this planet that is more intrusive in our private lives than our religion.
Maybe the reason that so many people are NOT here today is because they have chosen to forget the responsibilities that Judaism puts upon them. Just like the secular government, they don't want Rabbis, Torah or even God to tell them what to do. They want to be completely in control of their own lives, or at least they want to have what seems to be control of their own lives. But when their lives spin out of control, they look to government and to their religion to help them get back on their feet. It would be easy to call this kind of behavior hypocritical, but I am afraid that it is just human nature. From the time of the biblical prophets, human beings have taken all the credit for the the good things in life and blamed God and authorities for all that has gone wrong.
What makes this intrusion in our lives by Judaism even more interesting goes back to the very beginnings of our religion. We were once slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. The despotic ruler of the land alongside the Nile River made sure that we knew our place in society, a place he made for us on the lowest rung of the social ladder. He told us where and when we were to work, he told us when and what we could eat. We had no control over what was right and what was wrong; we were told that we must do what the taskmasters said we were to do and we were to do it quickly without complaint. They told us when we were allowed to have sexual relations with our spouses and if we did not give birth to the right gender of child, then the unwanted boys would be thrown into the river. Anyone unhappy with this arrangement would feel the sting of the taskmaster's whip.
God heard our cry of pain and rescued us from Egyptian slavery. God told us that nobody should have to be a slave like that. God redeemed us with a mighty hand, sending plagues so that the people of Egypt would know the kind of suffering we were enduring and be moved to let us go, and then at the Red Sea, the entire army that backed up Pharaoh's iron hand, was destroyed in the blink of an eye. Why? Why did God do this for us? That was the reason we came to Mt. Sinai at this time of year 4000 years ago. God did not want us to serve Pharaoh in Egypt. God wanted us to serve only God. No government was to have the power to tell us what to do. We were to follow the laws and commandments of God, and that would be all we needed to live better lives.
In my class in Pirke Avot, that I teach each morning before Minyan, we find the saying of Rabbi N'hunya ben HaKanah, who teaches, “Whoever accepts the yoke of Torah will be spared the burdens of the government and the burden of earning a livelihood. But whoever throws off the yoke of Torah will have to bear the yoke of Government and the yoke of earning a livelihood.” What is Rabbi Nehunya saying? That if we want to stop paying taxes and no longer need to earn a living we should just study Torah and God will provide for us? Is this what he means? I don't think so. The Sages in his day studied a great deal of Torah and they still had day jobs that provided food for their families and they certainly paid their taxes. What does he mean when he teaches that the yoke of Torah spares us the yoke of taxes and the yoke of earning a living?
I think Rabbi N'hunya is trying to teach us that serving God is not at all like serving a government nor is it related to earning a living. Our relationship with God is based on a covenant, a contract between God and the People of Israel. We agree to faithfully follow God's rules and God is there, in good times and bad, to help give us strength, support and understanding about all aspects of our lives. God is very much like a large safety net, so that when disaster seems to be crashing down upon us, we do not fall, but we are supported and encouraged by our faith in God. Without God, life is a yoke we must carry. When we accept the yoke of God, however, we no longer feel that the rest of life is a burden at all.
Today we recite the prayers of Yizkor. It is a time when we remember those members of our family who may have died, but who are not forgotten. There are many Sages who point to our relationships with our family when explaining how to comprehend our relationship with God.
Family relationships come with responsibilities. The love and support we get from a brother or a sister, the love and protection that we receive from our parents do come with obligations. We look out for each other. We take care of each other when we are sick or in a time of trouble. Those of us who are married happily understand that joy in life is never complete until we share that joy with our spouse. The unconditional love that can come from children make their loss one of terrible tragedy. If we cry when we recite Yizkor for our family, it is not because the memories are terrible, it is exactly the opposite, we cry because the memories were so good. I remember a story about a man who cried bitterly over the death of his spouse. “Why do you cry?” asked a well meaning friend, “Your tears will not change anything, your crying will not help.” The man cried harder and responded, “That is why I cry, because my tears will not help.
I have said many times, that our tears are the price we pay for loving somebody. We cry over the death of one with whom we shared so many happy times because those happy times are over. I once came to a hospice room where a 97 year old lady was sitting in bed, and her 70 year old daughter was with her. The older woman looked at me and said, “I have lived my life for 97 years with no regrets. I have accomplished everything I set out to do and have had wonderful experiences throughout my life. I am facing death now with the serenity that comes from being at peace with myself. The only problem is my daughter here. Rabbi, please tell her that she does not have to cry after I am gone, because I am not sad at all about how I have lived my life.
I looked at this gracious lady and told her, “I think you need to mind your own business.” She looked at me shocked but I went on. “You may be content with your life but your daughter is going to miss you when you are gone, and every time she misses you she is going to cry and there is nothing you or I can or should do to stop her. If you would have been a mean and nasty mother your whole life, then I doubt your daughter would care. But you had to go be a kind loving and gentle parent and your daughter is going to miss you when you are gone.”
We make a mistake when we think that Kaddish or Yizkor is about the person who died. Our prayers for the dead don't change their life or the fact that we still miss them. All these prayers can do is help ease the burden of our sorrow and help us be comforted for our loss. That God commands us to be here on the second day of Shavuot is not about God's need to tells us what we should be doing every minute of our day, but God is helping us to understand that the same memories that cause us so much pain, can also be the source of great strength, courage and joy in our life. It is God's way of embracing us in the dark moments in our life, to let us know that light and joy are never really far away. The burden of death is no longer a yoke we must bear because of the teachings God sends to us through the Sages and through the Torah. Our Judaism is not about law and ritual, our Judaism is about kindness and love.
Just as our parents tried to help us live better lives by sharing with us the lessons they learned the hard way in life, so too Judaism tries to share with us the combined wisdom of thousands of years of experience in dealing with the trials and tribulations in life. We like to think that our modern world is vastly different from the world of our parents, our grandparents and all of our ancestors. And it may be true. The ancient Rabbis did not know from computers, the internet, YouTube or hybrid automobiles. The ball point pen was not invented until after WWII. The Torah and Talmud may not know much about modern inventions, but it does know a whole lot about human beings; their emotions, their drives and all of our weaknesses. Our Sages put together a way of living that could help us be strong when we are weak, grateful when we are happy and united when we fall alone. No matter how sure we are that we are doing the right thing, if Judaism says that it is wrong, if the Torah teaches us that this is not the correct way to act in life, we better pay close attention.
Judaism does need to change from time to time. Living in an urban world was different from living on the farm. Living in exile was different from living in our own state. Women have taken their rightful place on the world stage and that is different from the patriarchal societies of the past. Judaism did have to adapt to accommodate these changes.
But we human beings still get up every morning and worry about how we will feed our family. We go to work each day and we watch the rise and fall of our investments. We still try to teach our children to be Menchen, We try to be a good child to our parents and a good partner to our spouse. We still want to be known as honest and dependable. We still are hurt when someone abuses our trust and blames their mistakes on us. We still want to do what is right especially when it is not at all clear what the right thing to do really is. We still want to know that our lives have meaning and that the works of our hands will make a difference. And we want to live the kind of life that others will remember even after we have gone.
We could be like all the others who are not here and pretend that it all doesn't matter to us. That we are doing fine all by ourselves and we don't need Judaism, Rabbis or even God to interfere in the way we live our lives. But we who are here for Yizkor today understand that the memories that we recall today, will also be the memories that our children will recall when we are gone. Our faith, our religion, our Judaism does not interfere in our life, it IS our life. And the yoke of everyday living is easier and lighter because we have chosen to take the yoke of Torah upon our shoulders. We have chosen to remember Shavuot. We have chosen to be here in honor of those we loved in life. And we have chosen to love God with all our heart and soul and might.
May we always be blessed with memories filled with love and may we be blessed with a life filled with faith in God, faith in Torah and faith in our fellow human beings as we say..... Amen and Hag Sameach
Friday, May 21, 2010
First Day of Shavuot 2010
Hag Sameach
Today is the Birthday of the Torah. Every time I say that I kind of cringe inside. Judaism does not really celebrate birthdays. Beginnings are important, but there really is not ritual in Judaism to celebrate a birthday. I guess our first clue should be that the Hebrew birthday song is just a poor translation of the English birthday song. Even the idea of having a cake on a birthday is considered in some Jewish circles, a pagan act. No, we Jews are not big on birthdays.
We don't know the day that any famous Jews were born because we just don't care what day they were born. We commemorate the day that they died. We honor them for the books they wrote and the ideas they shared. But on the day of their birth, they were like all the other people of the world, full of potential but short on impressive deeds. It will be years before a person's true nature will develop and be revealed. So what is the sense in celebrating the day of birth?
This applies all the more so when it comes to Torah. Torah was not “born” on this day. This is only the day that we human beings received the Torah from God. God had the Torah before the beginning of time. Before there was a world, God had Torah and Torah was used as a blueprint when God set out to create the universe. Before there was day and night, before there was earth and sea, before there was a sun or moon, before there was any concept of time at all, there was Torah. So how can Torah have a birthday? Today is just the day, after thousands of years, perhaps millions of years (remember there really is no way to know how “old” Torah is) that human beings received the Torah and from that moment on, the history of Western Civilization was born. So “Happy Birthday Israelite people, Judaism and Western Civilization.
The Sages of the Talmud taught us that the Torah begins with Creation because there are parallels between these two momentous events. The revelation of Torah at Sinai is a parallel event to the creation of the universe. The similarities are striking. Both Torah and Creation are the handiwork of God. Both are given to human beings to guide their lives and both are created with ten divine sayings. I talked about this last Shabbat when I noted that each of the ten commandments has a parallel passage from the Creation story. God spoke at Sinai and at Creation a total of ten times.
If we look at Revelation and Creation in a more mystical way, we see the similarities clearly. Creation starts with God, and immediately from the oneness of God comes the duality of our world; light and darkness, earth and sky, ocean and dry land, birds and fishes, animals and humans, female and male. We live in a dualistic world, everything seems to have its opposite. There is only one unity, one unbreakable unity, and that is God. Everything else has a right and a left, an up and a down, an open or a closed, or a front and a back.
Torah also begins with one God. The first commandment clearly teaches that there is only one God in the universe; no more and no less. While the creation story begins with the letter “bet” which represents the number two, revelation begins with the letter “aleph” which represents the number one. Only after the unity of God is revealed, do we begin to see the duality of the law. There are positive and negative commandments. There are distinctions between the holy and the secular. There are things which are Tahore/pure and things which are Tameh/impure from a ritual point of view. And most of all, the Torah makes a great distinction between God and humanity. God appears on Mt. Sinai and the people remain below, separated by duality that makes up human existence.
The lens of Creation is but one way of looking at the Revelation of the Torah. There is another way to look at Torah and it is found in our Haftara for today. The prophet Ezekiel has a vision while he is among the captive Jews in Babylonia. It is a vision so steeped in the mystical that it spawned its own mystical genre, Merkava mysticism, the mystic story of the “Chariot”. This is a very different revelation from the one at Mt. Sinai. God met the people of Israel at Sinai. In Babylonia, Ezekiel meets God as God departs the doomed city of Jerusalem. God traveled that day by chariot, a very strange chariot. First of all it had two wheels, each one set with another wheel inside of it. This wheel allowed the chariot to move in any direction. This chariot was pulled by four strange creatures that had four faces in its head, each face pointing in a different direction. There was a human head, a lion head, an eagle head and the face of an ox. Each creature had six wings and they could pull the chariot in any direction without strings; they obey instantly the thoughts and commands of God. This chariot could take God anywhere that God wanted to go, and that day, in that vision, God was seen leaving Jerusalem, dooming the city to conquest and exile.
We have two stories of Divine revelation. The first is when God arrives to meet the Israelites, the other when he leaves Jerusalem just before its fall. We read both of these today, on this first day of Shavuot. What is the connection? What is the deeper meaning of these stories of revelation?
The first thing we can learn is that Torah is not static. Torah is constantly moving. God is either arriving or departing, but either way, Torah remains with us. Take one example from our Humash, from the first five books of the Bible. Almost every chapter and every verse has something to teach us about how our ancestors moved from slavery to freedom. Every moment of triumph, every bump in the road is recounted with loving detail except for one item. We see our ancestors go down to Egypt as a family and grow there to become a great nation. We see the signs and wonders that forced the Egyptian Pharaoh and his army to capitulate before God. We see our ancestors leave the slave pits of Egypt and arrive at Sinai to meet God. We see them wander in the desert for forty years until it is time to enter the Promised Land. The only thing missing from the story is the arrival of our ancestors at their destination. Moses dies and is buried in the wilderness and the people mourn his death. But the Torah ends without the Israelites entering the land God promised them.
The lesson here is that Torah is not a destination, Torah is a journey. Torah is not about finding final answers, but in discovering God as we travel our path in life. The law that the Torah establishes from the first meeting at Sinai is called, “Halacha” “the Path”. Torah represents the signposts that we find along the way to help us navigate all the difficulties and tribulations of life.
There is no one path that the Torah offers us. There is not just one way. There are many ways and we travel them sometimes all at once. There is the way of translation, to read and study the words of Torah so we understand the stories it contains. This is a meaningful journey but it only scratches the surface of what the Torah can teach us. There is the path of Drash, the path of stories within the stories, the Midrashim the Sages used to fill in the gaps in the story of the Torah. Who are the people of the long genealogical lists of Genesis? Why did Joseph's brothers hate him? What did Moses do as a child? What happened on Mt. Sinai that delayed Moses' return to the people? Here we add a deeper meaning to the lessons of the text.
Then there are the things that the Torah only hints at. What kind of work is forbidden on Shabbat? There is a hint of this as our ancestors prepared to build the Mishkan in the wilderness. There are many married people in the Torah but there is not much to tell us what a marriage ceremony would look like, we only find hints of the ceremony in the Torah. Even some of the laws of Kashrut are only hinted about in the text.
Finally there are the secret meanings of the Torah. Those found in the Zohar and other mystical texts that uncover ideas about God, holiness and humanity. How can we aspire to dwell close to the divine? The answers are found in some of the deepest secrets of the Torah. In the end, it does not matter if one journeys on the path of plain meaning, Midrash, Hints or the secret meanings, all paths eventually lead us to God. It is not the results that are important, it is the journey we take to get there. We don't need to read the text fast or slow. We don't have to make sure that we have mastered every word. It is not about what we read nor about how long we ponder. Words and watches have no power here. It is not the results, but the experience of Torah where real Torah can be found.
Today we remember that all of creation came to be because of Torah. Today we remember that we began a journey on Mt. Sinai. We started what has turned out to be the longest classroom discussion in the history of humanity. A discussion that will never end because as long we have questions, Torah will be there to help us on our journey. Every moment of life has significance and holiness, if only we look to Torah, to our history, our literature and our Sages to help us recognize how God can be found all around us. Shavuot does not celebrate the beginning or the end of our studies, but it celebrates our journey through life, our journey through the world and our eternal search for God. From the beginning of time, it has been this search that has given our lives purpose and meaning.
Let us celebrate Torah today and every day. And may God always bless our studies with so that it brings us joy and fulfillment.
Amen and Hag Sameach
Today is the Birthday of the Torah. Every time I say that I kind of cringe inside. Judaism does not really celebrate birthdays. Beginnings are important, but there really is not ritual in Judaism to celebrate a birthday. I guess our first clue should be that the Hebrew birthday song is just a poor translation of the English birthday song. Even the idea of having a cake on a birthday is considered in some Jewish circles, a pagan act. No, we Jews are not big on birthdays.
We don't know the day that any famous Jews were born because we just don't care what day they were born. We commemorate the day that they died. We honor them for the books they wrote and the ideas they shared. But on the day of their birth, they were like all the other people of the world, full of potential but short on impressive deeds. It will be years before a person's true nature will develop and be revealed. So what is the sense in celebrating the day of birth?
This applies all the more so when it comes to Torah. Torah was not “born” on this day. This is only the day that we human beings received the Torah from God. God had the Torah before the beginning of time. Before there was a world, God had Torah and Torah was used as a blueprint when God set out to create the universe. Before there was day and night, before there was earth and sea, before there was a sun or moon, before there was any concept of time at all, there was Torah. So how can Torah have a birthday? Today is just the day, after thousands of years, perhaps millions of years (remember there really is no way to know how “old” Torah is) that human beings received the Torah and from that moment on, the history of Western Civilization was born. So “Happy Birthday Israelite people, Judaism and Western Civilization.
The Sages of the Talmud taught us that the Torah begins with Creation because there are parallels between these two momentous events. The revelation of Torah at Sinai is a parallel event to the creation of the universe. The similarities are striking. Both Torah and Creation are the handiwork of God. Both are given to human beings to guide their lives and both are created with ten divine sayings. I talked about this last Shabbat when I noted that each of the ten commandments has a parallel passage from the Creation story. God spoke at Sinai and at Creation a total of ten times.
If we look at Revelation and Creation in a more mystical way, we see the similarities clearly. Creation starts with God, and immediately from the oneness of God comes the duality of our world; light and darkness, earth and sky, ocean and dry land, birds and fishes, animals and humans, female and male. We live in a dualistic world, everything seems to have its opposite. There is only one unity, one unbreakable unity, and that is God. Everything else has a right and a left, an up and a down, an open or a closed, or a front and a back.
Torah also begins with one God. The first commandment clearly teaches that there is only one God in the universe; no more and no less. While the creation story begins with the letter “bet” which represents the number two, revelation begins with the letter “aleph” which represents the number one. Only after the unity of God is revealed, do we begin to see the duality of the law. There are positive and negative commandments. There are distinctions between the holy and the secular. There are things which are Tahore/pure and things which are Tameh/impure from a ritual point of view. And most of all, the Torah makes a great distinction between God and humanity. God appears on Mt. Sinai and the people remain below, separated by duality that makes up human existence.
The lens of Creation is but one way of looking at the Revelation of the Torah. There is another way to look at Torah and it is found in our Haftara for today. The prophet Ezekiel has a vision while he is among the captive Jews in Babylonia. It is a vision so steeped in the mystical that it spawned its own mystical genre, Merkava mysticism, the mystic story of the “Chariot”. This is a very different revelation from the one at Mt. Sinai. God met the people of Israel at Sinai. In Babylonia, Ezekiel meets God as God departs the doomed city of Jerusalem. God traveled that day by chariot, a very strange chariot. First of all it had two wheels, each one set with another wheel inside of it. This wheel allowed the chariot to move in any direction. This chariot was pulled by four strange creatures that had four faces in its head, each face pointing in a different direction. There was a human head, a lion head, an eagle head and the face of an ox. Each creature had six wings and they could pull the chariot in any direction without strings; they obey instantly the thoughts and commands of God. This chariot could take God anywhere that God wanted to go, and that day, in that vision, God was seen leaving Jerusalem, dooming the city to conquest and exile.
We have two stories of Divine revelation. The first is when God arrives to meet the Israelites, the other when he leaves Jerusalem just before its fall. We read both of these today, on this first day of Shavuot. What is the connection? What is the deeper meaning of these stories of revelation?
The first thing we can learn is that Torah is not static. Torah is constantly moving. God is either arriving or departing, but either way, Torah remains with us. Take one example from our Humash, from the first five books of the Bible. Almost every chapter and every verse has something to teach us about how our ancestors moved from slavery to freedom. Every moment of triumph, every bump in the road is recounted with loving detail except for one item. We see our ancestors go down to Egypt as a family and grow there to become a great nation. We see the signs and wonders that forced the Egyptian Pharaoh and his army to capitulate before God. We see our ancestors leave the slave pits of Egypt and arrive at Sinai to meet God. We see them wander in the desert for forty years until it is time to enter the Promised Land. The only thing missing from the story is the arrival of our ancestors at their destination. Moses dies and is buried in the wilderness and the people mourn his death. But the Torah ends without the Israelites entering the land God promised them.
The lesson here is that Torah is not a destination, Torah is a journey. Torah is not about finding final answers, but in discovering God as we travel our path in life. The law that the Torah establishes from the first meeting at Sinai is called, “Halacha” “the Path”. Torah represents the signposts that we find along the way to help us navigate all the difficulties and tribulations of life.
There is no one path that the Torah offers us. There is not just one way. There are many ways and we travel them sometimes all at once. There is the way of translation, to read and study the words of Torah so we understand the stories it contains. This is a meaningful journey but it only scratches the surface of what the Torah can teach us. There is the path of Drash, the path of stories within the stories, the Midrashim the Sages used to fill in the gaps in the story of the Torah. Who are the people of the long genealogical lists of Genesis? Why did Joseph's brothers hate him? What did Moses do as a child? What happened on Mt. Sinai that delayed Moses' return to the people? Here we add a deeper meaning to the lessons of the text.
Then there are the things that the Torah only hints at. What kind of work is forbidden on Shabbat? There is a hint of this as our ancestors prepared to build the Mishkan in the wilderness. There are many married people in the Torah but there is not much to tell us what a marriage ceremony would look like, we only find hints of the ceremony in the Torah. Even some of the laws of Kashrut are only hinted about in the text.
Finally there are the secret meanings of the Torah. Those found in the Zohar and other mystical texts that uncover ideas about God, holiness and humanity. How can we aspire to dwell close to the divine? The answers are found in some of the deepest secrets of the Torah. In the end, it does not matter if one journeys on the path of plain meaning, Midrash, Hints or the secret meanings, all paths eventually lead us to God. It is not the results that are important, it is the journey we take to get there. We don't need to read the text fast or slow. We don't have to make sure that we have mastered every word. It is not about what we read nor about how long we ponder. Words and watches have no power here. It is not the results, but the experience of Torah where real Torah can be found.
Today we remember that all of creation came to be because of Torah. Today we remember that we began a journey on Mt. Sinai. We started what has turned out to be the longest classroom discussion in the history of humanity. A discussion that will never end because as long we have questions, Torah will be there to help us on our journey. Every moment of life has significance and holiness, if only we look to Torah, to our history, our literature and our Sages to help us recognize how God can be found all around us. Shavuot does not celebrate the beginning or the end of our studies, but it celebrates our journey through life, our journey through the world and our eternal search for God. From the beginning of time, it has been this search that has given our lives purpose and meaning.
Let us celebrate Torah today and every day. And may God always bless our studies with so that it brings us joy and fulfillment.
Amen and Hag Sameach
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sermon - Parshat Emor
Stuck In The Middle With You
2010
Shabbat Shalom
Parshat Emor is about the rules that apply to the Kohen, the priests who would officiate in the Mishkan/Temple. All the Children of Israel are holy, but the Kohanim are set aside as being at a higher level then Israelites who are not of priestly descent. This meant that there were things a priest just could not do. He (and yes it was always he) could not attend funerals except for very close family members. There were restrictions of who he could marry, what he could eat, when he should bathe and when he was permitted to officiate.
While there are many controversial regulations for the Kohanim, the one that struck me this week was the rule that a Kohen who was physically blemished, from something as simple as a missing finger or a broken arm or if he were blind, lame or a hunchback, all of these would exempt him from service in the Mishkan. Today, we do not consider these blemishes as “handicaps” and we consider it a religious obligation not to deny the handicapped a chance to show what they are capable of doing.
But in ancient times, one did not bring something with a blemish before God. This meant that a priest could not appear if he had a disqualifying blemish. It was also forbidden to bring an animal that had a blemish before God to be sacrificed. Both the sacrificial animal and the one who was sacrificing had to be free of all disqualifying blemishes.
Sunday is Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer. It is a rather strange day and we are not really sure why it is set aside from all the other days of the Omer. Over the centuries, it has become attached to the stories of the rebellion against Rome by the Jews of Israel. How that rebellion began, has to do with what we have learned in this week's Parsha
It is said that the story of the destruction of Jerusalem began with a party. A certain man had a party and he wanted to invite his friend Kamtza, but not his enemy, Bar Kamtza. But the invitations were mixed up and Bar Kamtza came to the party. The man wanted to throw him out and to prevent embarrassment Bar Kamtza begged to be allowed to stay. He even offered to pay for the entire party. The man picked him up and threw him out. Nobody came to Bar Kamtza's defense and so he decided to inform against the Jews to Caesar. He told Caesar that the Jews were rebelling and he could prove it. He said that the Jews would not sacrifice an animal that came from Rome. To test this, the Emperor sent a beautiful animal to be sacrificed. On the way Bar Kamtza made a very minor blemish on the animal, one that would make it treif for the Jews but not for the Romans.
The Sages, when they saw the blemish, were going to allow the animal anyway since they wanted to have good relations with the Roman government but the super pious Rabbi Zacharia protested saying, “People will claim that we sacrifice blemished animals.” The animal was turned away, Ceasar assumed it was because they were rebelling and the army was sent to destroy Jerusalem.
Some days I have a hard time trying to decide who is the real villain in this story. Is it the informer, Bar Kamtza or is it Rabbi Zecharia who, in trying to be so pious, brought about the destruction of the Temple, the city and the nation? I keep thinking of this story as I listen to Jews today who try to make any sense out of the relationship between the United States and Israel. In a similar way, it is hard to tell who the villain is in this story. I don't think it is America nor do I blame Israel. But there are those who say they love Israel who are doing more to bring about the destruction of the Jewish state under the guise of piety patriotism.
Negotiations between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama are really not very different from the negotiations between Israel and the United States under any administration, Israeli or American. The United States would like to see peace in the Middle East. And I really believe that Israel desires peace with her neighbors. But there are some here in the USA and some Jews in Israel who would not like to see peace, so they spread lies and half truths, informing one side against the other and acting so pious that someone should suggest that America or Israel compromise for peace. Let me make one thing crystal clear. One does not make peace with enemies by standing on principles. If there is to be peace, it will come because both sides have compromised and both sides have made concessions.
That said, let me share some compromises that will eventually have to be made. If you look at a map of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the legal and the illegal ones, you will see that if the Palestinians hope to have a country some day, there will be settlements that will have to be dismantled. That is a fact. There will not be enough land to do anything in the West Bank unless some of the settlements are torn down. To continue to permit these settlements to grow, will not only sabotage any possibility of peace, but it will endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers who must be deployed to defend these Jews who are only interested in their own political statements and not the welfare of the entire state. Why should all of Israel suffer because there are fanatics who believe that the West Bank should never be traded for peace? What we will have to give up and what we will be able to keep will eventually be decided by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States wants to see those talks begin; America really has no interest at all in what is decided between them. America does care about what fanatics are doing to undermine the possibility of peace.
If someone were to break into your home and barricade himself in your spare bedroom and then want to negotiate so he can stay, that is absurd. For Jews to buy land in Jerusalem so that it will be impossible to share the city with the Palestinians is equally absurd. American money is being sent to Israel to buy up this land so it can be given to Jews and to push the Arabs out of areas of Jerusalem that they have lived in for centuries. The latest scam is to buy the land and say that Arabs will be living there and when the housing is improved, Jewish settlers move it. They then dare the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality to throw them out. These are not the actions of people who want peace. These are actions of people who don't care if Israel goes to war again.
To these people, if the United States, Europe or any other country want to bring about negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, then they must be discredited at all costs. Every disagreement between Israel and other nations is blown way out of proportion. I read this week that President Obama walked out on Prime Minister Netanyahu and left him “stewing” for two hours in the White House because Obama did not respect the Israeli Prime Minister.
I challenge anyone to find any record of such a snub in any mainstream press account. I make that challenge because I know it to be a lie. Any decent newspaper, American and Israeli, reported at the time that Obama and Netanyahu met long into the night over the issue of building in the Arab sections of Jerusalem. When it was clear that they were at an impasse, Obama ended the session for the evening. Netanyahu's staff asked if they could remain in the building while they considered the final proposal. Obama's staff permitted them to stay. Two hours later, they notified the White House staff that they had a new proposal that they wished to share with President Obama. Obama, who was getting ready for bed, came back and met further with Netanyahu. They still could not agree on a compromise and so they quit for the night. That is how the New York Times reported the encounter the next day. It was presented as evidence that both sides were ready to do all that was necessary to find a solution. It was not to be. That is how political compromises work.
It is no secret that Israel and the United States do not see eye to eye on what needs to be done to bring peace between Israel and her neighbors. Israel has political realities that Netanyahu cannot ignore. The United States must press Israel on these issues if there are to be any negotiations. But Obama has political realities he has to face. Israel has many strong supporters in Congress and in the American public. There are good and important strategic ties between Israel and the United States. The United States is not about to “sell out” Israel. If the United States can live with a corrupt Afghanistan government, then our country will not turn our backs on Israel which is the only really stable democracy in the Middle East. We certainly will never sell out Israel to a corrupt, unstable Palestinian government nor will they turn Israel over to Hamas terrorists. Diplomacy is not a game for the faint of heart.
The left also has it fanatics. Divestiture of Israel and university snubs also undermine peace efforts. Israel may not be a perfect state, but it is a long way from Apartheid. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is not responsible for the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The fact of peace in Israel has no impact at all on the fate of American troops serving overseas. Israel has de facto peace with almost all her neighbors and terrorists may try to disrupt those relationships, but the course of these negotiations will have little impact on worldwide terrorism nor will it stop the spread of radical Islam. Selling out Israel in fact, would make all of these problems more severe.
The Israeli government has some difficult decisions to make if it wishes to make peace and end this constant state of war. There is pressure from the left and the right to undermine any attempt at making a lasting peace. Should we sacrifice anything for peace? 2100 years ago a Sage embarrassed the Sages into turning away an animal that had a minor blemish for a sacrifice that could have saved the Temple and Jerusalem. There will be sacrifices this time for peace. For a real and lasting peace. Yitzhak Rabin understood this and these same Jewish elements cried out for his blood and celebrated his assassination. We can expect Israel not to give one inch of compromise for anything short of a real and lasting peace. And we can expect that the United States will do all it can to insure that Israel will have the peace that She deserves. That road may be rocky and there will be many bumps and bruises along the way. We need to be supportive of Israel as she has to make the difficult decisions about settlements, about Jerusalem and about what needs to be done to bring about peace.
President Obama is not our enemy. Secretary of State Clinton is not our enemy. Our enemy is anyone who acts with malice to prevent peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It certainly includes Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Al Qaeda. It may also include militant Israelis who place their own agenda over the needs of Israel's government and citizens. It may also include those who are trying to drive a wedge between Israel and the United States, who have a long history of close ties and common bonds. I warn all the Jews of America, let us not fall in line with the wrong side.
May God keep Israel Strong, Safe and Secure and may her government be free to do what it must to bring peace to all her cities speedily and soon. Amen
2010
Shabbat Shalom
Parshat Emor is about the rules that apply to the Kohen, the priests who would officiate in the Mishkan/Temple. All the Children of Israel are holy, but the Kohanim are set aside as being at a higher level then Israelites who are not of priestly descent. This meant that there were things a priest just could not do. He (and yes it was always he) could not attend funerals except for very close family members. There were restrictions of who he could marry, what he could eat, when he should bathe and when he was permitted to officiate.
While there are many controversial regulations for the Kohanim, the one that struck me this week was the rule that a Kohen who was physically blemished, from something as simple as a missing finger or a broken arm or if he were blind, lame or a hunchback, all of these would exempt him from service in the Mishkan. Today, we do not consider these blemishes as “handicaps” and we consider it a religious obligation not to deny the handicapped a chance to show what they are capable of doing.
But in ancient times, one did not bring something with a blemish before God. This meant that a priest could not appear if he had a disqualifying blemish. It was also forbidden to bring an animal that had a blemish before God to be sacrificed. Both the sacrificial animal and the one who was sacrificing had to be free of all disqualifying blemishes.
Sunday is Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer. It is a rather strange day and we are not really sure why it is set aside from all the other days of the Omer. Over the centuries, it has become attached to the stories of the rebellion against Rome by the Jews of Israel. How that rebellion began, has to do with what we have learned in this week's Parsha
It is said that the story of the destruction of Jerusalem began with a party. A certain man had a party and he wanted to invite his friend Kamtza, but not his enemy, Bar Kamtza. But the invitations were mixed up and Bar Kamtza came to the party. The man wanted to throw him out and to prevent embarrassment Bar Kamtza begged to be allowed to stay. He even offered to pay for the entire party. The man picked him up and threw him out. Nobody came to Bar Kamtza's defense and so he decided to inform against the Jews to Caesar. He told Caesar that the Jews were rebelling and he could prove it. He said that the Jews would not sacrifice an animal that came from Rome. To test this, the Emperor sent a beautiful animal to be sacrificed. On the way Bar Kamtza made a very minor blemish on the animal, one that would make it treif for the Jews but not for the Romans.
The Sages, when they saw the blemish, were going to allow the animal anyway since they wanted to have good relations with the Roman government but the super pious Rabbi Zacharia protested saying, “People will claim that we sacrifice blemished animals.” The animal was turned away, Ceasar assumed it was because they were rebelling and the army was sent to destroy Jerusalem.
Some days I have a hard time trying to decide who is the real villain in this story. Is it the informer, Bar Kamtza or is it Rabbi Zecharia who, in trying to be so pious, brought about the destruction of the Temple, the city and the nation? I keep thinking of this story as I listen to Jews today who try to make any sense out of the relationship between the United States and Israel. In a similar way, it is hard to tell who the villain is in this story. I don't think it is America nor do I blame Israel. But there are those who say they love Israel who are doing more to bring about the destruction of the Jewish state under the guise of piety patriotism.
Negotiations between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama are really not very different from the negotiations between Israel and the United States under any administration, Israeli or American. The United States would like to see peace in the Middle East. And I really believe that Israel desires peace with her neighbors. But there are some here in the USA and some Jews in Israel who would not like to see peace, so they spread lies and half truths, informing one side against the other and acting so pious that someone should suggest that America or Israel compromise for peace. Let me make one thing crystal clear. One does not make peace with enemies by standing on principles. If there is to be peace, it will come because both sides have compromised and both sides have made concessions.
That said, let me share some compromises that will eventually have to be made. If you look at a map of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the legal and the illegal ones, you will see that if the Palestinians hope to have a country some day, there will be settlements that will have to be dismantled. That is a fact. There will not be enough land to do anything in the West Bank unless some of the settlements are torn down. To continue to permit these settlements to grow, will not only sabotage any possibility of peace, but it will endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers who must be deployed to defend these Jews who are only interested in their own political statements and not the welfare of the entire state. Why should all of Israel suffer because there are fanatics who believe that the West Bank should never be traded for peace? What we will have to give up and what we will be able to keep will eventually be decided by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States wants to see those talks begin; America really has no interest at all in what is decided between them. America does care about what fanatics are doing to undermine the possibility of peace.
If someone were to break into your home and barricade himself in your spare bedroom and then want to negotiate so he can stay, that is absurd. For Jews to buy land in Jerusalem so that it will be impossible to share the city with the Palestinians is equally absurd. American money is being sent to Israel to buy up this land so it can be given to Jews and to push the Arabs out of areas of Jerusalem that they have lived in for centuries. The latest scam is to buy the land and say that Arabs will be living there and when the housing is improved, Jewish settlers move it. They then dare the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality to throw them out. These are not the actions of people who want peace. These are actions of people who don't care if Israel goes to war again.
To these people, if the United States, Europe or any other country want to bring about negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, then they must be discredited at all costs. Every disagreement between Israel and other nations is blown way out of proportion. I read this week that President Obama walked out on Prime Minister Netanyahu and left him “stewing” for two hours in the White House because Obama did not respect the Israeli Prime Minister.
I challenge anyone to find any record of such a snub in any mainstream press account. I make that challenge because I know it to be a lie. Any decent newspaper, American and Israeli, reported at the time that Obama and Netanyahu met long into the night over the issue of building in the Arab sections of Jerusalem. When it was clear that they were at an impasse, Obama ended the session for the evening. Netanyahu's staff asked if they could remain in the building while they considered the final proposal. Obama's staff permitted them to stay. Two hours later, they notified the White House staff that they had a new proposal that they wished to share with President Obama. Obama, who was getting ready for bed, came back and met further with Netanyahu. They still could not agree on a compromise and so they quit for the night. That is how the New York Times reported the encounter the next day. It was presented as evidence that both sides were ready to do all that was necessary to find a solution. It was not to be. That is how political compromises work.
It is no secret that Israel and the United States do not see eye to eye on what needs to be done to bring peace between Israel and her neighbors. Israel has political realities that Netanyahu cannot ignore. The United States must press Israel on these issues if there are to be any negotiations. But Obama has political realities he has to face. Israel has many strong supporters in Congress and in the American public. There are good and important strategic ties between Israel and the United States. The United States is not about to “sell out” Israel. If the United States can live with a corrupt Afghanistan government, then our country will not turn our backs on Israel which is the only really stable democracy in the Middle East. We certainly will never sell out Israel to a corrupt, unstable Palestinian government nor will they turn Israel over to Hamas terrorists. Diplomacy is not a game for the faint of heart.
The left also has it fanatics. Divestiture of Israel and university snubs also undermine peace efforts. Israel may not be a perfect state, but it is a long way from Apartheid. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is not responsible for the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The fact of peace in Israel has no impact at all on the fate of American troops serving overseas. Israel has de facto peace with almost all her neighbors and terrorists may try to disrupt those relationships, but the course of these negotiations will have little impact on worldwide terrorism nor will it stop the spread of radical Islam. Selling out Israel in fact, would make all of these problems more severe.
The Israeli government has some difficult decisions to make if it wishes to make peace and end this constant state of war. There is pressure from the left and the right to undermine any attempt at making a lasting peace. Should we sacrifice anything for peace? 2100 years ago a Sage embarrassed the Sages into turning away an animal that had a minor blemish for a sacrifice that could have saved the Temple and Jerusalem. There will be sacrifices this time for peace. For a real and lasting peace. Yitzhak Rabin understood this and these same Jewish elements cried out for his blood and celebrated his assassination. We can expect Israel not to give one inch of compromise for anything short of a real and lasting peace. And we can expect that the United States will do all it can to insure that Israel will have the peace that She deserves. That road may be rocky and there will be many bumps and bruises along the way. We need to be supportive of Israel as she has to make the difficult decisions about settlements, about Jerusalem and about what needs to be done to bring about peace.
President Obama is not our enemy. Secretary of State Clinton is not our enemy. Our enemy is anyone who acts with malice to prevent peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It certainly includes Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Al Qaeda. It may also include militant Israelis who place their own agenda over the needs of Israel's government and citizens. It may also include those who are trying to drive a wedge between Israel and the United States, who have a long history of close ties and common bonds. I warn all the Jews of America, let us not fall in line with the wrong side.
May God keep Israel Strong, Safe and Secure and may her government be free to do what it must to bring peace to all her cities speedily and soon. Amen
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