Parashat Naso – Numbers 4:21−7:89 May 21, 2021

Summary: A census of the Gershonites, Merarites, and Koathites between the ages of thirty and fifty is conducted and their duties in the Tabernacle are detailed. God speaks to Moses concerning what to do with ritually unclean people, repentant individuals, and those who are suspected of adultery. The obligations of a nazirite vow are explained. They include abstaining from alcohol and not cutting one's hair. God tells Moses how to teach Aaron and his sons the Priestly Blessing. Finally, Moses consecrates the Sanctuary, and the tribal chieftains bring offerings. Moses then speaks with God inside the Tent of Meeting.

Lesson: "It's not my fault!”  We've all said it. It's not easy to accept responsibility when we make mistakes we make.

I have a favorite children’s story that reinforces how difficult it is to say “I’m sorry.”  The story is called “The Hardest Word.”  While searching for the hardest word a giant bird discovers a child who won’t say “Goodnight” because she doesn’t like going to bed.  Later the giant bird discovers a child who can’t say “Spaghetti”. It's just too difficult. After many more unsuccessful attempts, the bird looks into its own heart and realizes that the hardest word to say is “Sorry”!

This story rings true as much for us as it does for children.  And yet, our ability to say “sorry” is at the heart of what makes for a just society.

In our parasha this week we read: When men or women individually commit any wrong toward a fellow human being, thus breaking faith with the Eternal, and they realize their guilt, they shall confess the wrong they have done.

Our commentators recognized that this injunction was very similar to one we read several chapters earlier, in the Book of Leviticus. What distinguishes the statement in our parashah from what preceded it?

According to Rashi, one differentiating feature can be found in the words "they shall confess the wrong they have done," which do not appear in Leviticus. Rashi points out that according to our parashah, we cannot repent without a proper confession of wrongdoing.  In his Talmud commentary, Rashi writes that a person cannot achieve true repentance without admitting guilt.

Thus, in cases of wrongdoing, Rashi and our parashah teach that justice can only be achieved, and amends can only be made when a guilty party publicly admits guilt.

In our world we see individuals, politicians and even corporations, accused of breaking the law.  None of them seem able to say the hardest word: “I’m sorry.”  Confession, admitting guilt, saying sorry, are sacred acts. They may be difficult, but they make it possible to live with others in society. 

At the end of The Hardest Word, the giant bird reflects on recent events and remembers when he, accidentally, fell from the sky and destroyed a vegetable garden beside a synagogue. He determines that he will return to the scene of the crime bearing a basket of fruits and vegetables from his own garden because, "It was time to say the hardest word."

It's time for all of us, along with politicians and corporations, to learn how to say the hardest word too.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Donald Goor

Parashat B'har - B'chukotai- Leviticus 25:1-27:34 May 7, 2021

Summary: In our portion the Eternal One speaks to Moses on Mount Sinai: "Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of the Eternal."  We also learn that if we behave properly, we will be rewarded.  “If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit.”

Lesson: There’s a great book by Dr. Yosef Guri entitled, Let’s Hear Only Good News: Yiddish Blessings and Curses. Maybe it’s not surprising, but in the book we find there are 200 Yiddish blessings. There are, however, 450 curses. Amazing!

Let me share only a few:

-         May you grow like an onion, with your head in the ground.

-         May your bones be broken as often as the Ten Commandments.

-         May the souls of all of king Solomon's mothers in law inhabit you.

-         May God mistake you for your worst enemy and give you all the curses you wished on him.

Ouch! So many more curses than blessings. What does this tell us about ourselves as a Jewish People?

We have reached the end of the Book of Leviticus.  Most rabbis breathe a sigh of relief as this book Leviticus closes, since it’s primarily focused on burnt offerings and bodily discharges and other icky stuff…and to top it all off, this week’s Torah portion explores the multitude of terrible things that may happen to us if we don’t listen to God.

Our Torah portion this Shabbat, Behukotai, spells out in no uncertain terms what God wants from us. Like the book of Yiddish curses, there are many more curses than blessings in our Torah portion.

Here are the curses:  I will wreak misery on you – consumption and fever, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish.  I will set my face against you: you shall be routed by your enemies and your foes shall dominate you.  I will make your skies like iron and your earth like copper so that your strength shall be spent to no purpose.  Your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees yield their fruit. 

The list goes on. It’s pretty disturbing what will happen to us if we don’t walk in God’s ways and follow God’s commandments.

This Shabbat’s Torah portion is about Divine Retribution. And it is so contrary to what we believe as modern Jews. Namely, the Torah text is essentially suggesting that punishment is the result of some sin that a person or a people does. Or put in terms we can understand, bad things happen to bad people. Good things happen to good people. When bad things happen to an individual, there must be some character flaw that the individual is being punished for. But we know many awful people who are lucky and many wonderful people who are not lucky.

There is another way to understand this Torah portion.  In trying to understand Leviticus’ verses from our portion this week:

If you do not hearken to me

And do not do all these mitzvot,

If you spurn My laws

And repel My statutes

Not doing all My mitzvot

You thus violate My covenant (26:14-15)

I believe the key word here is covenant.  Violating the covenant is the issue. When the 10 commandments are broken, that is the deal breaker for God. And so, what happens if the 10 commandments were routinely violated? 

Rabbi Uzi Weingarten writes: “When the Torah says that people will behave in a way that “violates My covenant,” it is describing a collapse of ethical and spiritual behavior that is so severe that “the covenant,” that is, the Ten Commandments, are not being observed. Let us now imagine what that might look like. Murder, adultery, theft and perjury are rampant. People scheme and connive in order to take what belongs to others, either by force, by deceit or by false testimony. The weekly day of rest, with its blessings of relaxation and connection to family and friends, has been abandoned in favor of yet more shopping and more work. Parents (and other teachers of values) are not respected. The name of God is used to support falsehood. It is a society in which ethical and spiritual values have been entirely crowded out. “

Weingarten continues: “If I were asked what I thought would happen to such a society over time, I would predict that it was headed to ruin. The breakdown of justice would result in a loss of trust and safety. The pursuit of wealth as the highest value would lead, among other things, to the failure of human relationships and the destruction of the environment. Loss of the day of rest and spiritual renewal would greatly increase the level of stress. Taken together, these factors would make people more susceptible to emotional and physical illness.

This is precisely how the Torah begins its description of the consequences of "violation of God’s covenant." It speaks about "shock, along with consumption and fever, wearing out the eyes and exhausting the spirit" (Leviticus 26:16). How very true!

The next thing that I imagine would happen is that such a society, weakened from within, would be easy prey to external threats. This, in fact, is how many great powers of the past have collapsed. And so the Torah continues: "You will sow your seeds for naught, your enemies will eat it".

So, it is how we choose to live that is paramount. We make the choice to walk in God’s ways. The curses in our portion are best understood as consequences of our actions. They aren’t punishments that God brings upon us, but rather they are reminders that how we live really makes a difference. These horrible things will happen if we live in a lawless, unjust society.

In the end, God’s covenant with us stands firm. At the end of the passage, we read:

Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I have not spurned them or despised them, to [the point of] destroying them, thus violating My covenant with them, for I am the Enteral their God.

It’s an unconditional promise, if not a blessing. Even as many throughout history have tried to destroy us, no one has ever succeeded. We are an eternal people protected by God, loved by God, no matter what. And given that even when we do remove ourselves from God’s path, individually or communally, it is never too late to do Teshuvah, return to God’s path. It is never too late to return.

And so, despite the plethora of curses we face, we can feel reassured, because this is truly a blessing.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Donald Goor

Parashat Emor: Leviticus 21:1−24:23, April 30, 2021

Summary: Our parasha this week repeats laws we have previously read regulating the lives and sacrifices of the priests.  Then we turn to the set times of the Jewish calendar: Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. God then once again commands the Israelites to bring clear olive oil for lighting the sanctuary menorah. The ingredients and placement of the displayed loaves of sanctuary bread are also explained. Finally, we read about laws dealing with profanity, murder, and the maiming of others.

Lesson: The rabbis of our tradition often felt the need to reinterpret laws that are found in the Torah.  From this we learn that Jewish law changes and grows over the centuries. 

In our Torah portion this week we find a formula for responding to the case of physical harm inflicted by one person upon another.  Three times in the Torah, and again in our portion this week, we learn that “If a person kills any human being, he should be put to death…life for life…fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.  The injury he inflicted on another shall be inflicted on him.”

Interpreters over the generations have sought to explain what the Torah meant by these laws.  Some see the punishment as the “law of the desert” practiced even after our people settled in the Promised Land. For some traditional commentators “life for life” can be seen as an absolute form of blood revenge. 

However, most commentators disagree with this understanding of the law.  A simple reading of the text understands that the “law of retaliation” is based upon the principle that “the punishment must fit the crime”.  Our commentators introduce a new principle as they read these verses:  the principle of “a law of equivalence.”  This theory allows the injured party to be paid for damages instead of inflicting revenge. If one loses an eye, one is paid the worth of the eye; if one is injured and loses a tooth, one is then paid the equivalent value of the tooth. 

How did this adaptation of the original law come to be?  Our commentators ask the question, “What if a person only loses part of his sight, or partial use of a limb? How would it be possible to enforce the law, to punish with exactly the same injury?”  Thus, the commentators understand the original text from our portion this week to refer to money compensation rather than inflicting physical harm.  This interpretation of the original Torah text becomes the common understanding by the time of the Talmud.  Ibn Ezra and Maimonides both agree with this interpretation of the text. 

Nehama Leibowitz, a modern commentator, goes even further when she suggests that we do not treat the body as we would parts of a machine, something to be used and discarded.  She reminds us that the body is a sacred gift from God, and that we cannot dispose of limbs, since our entire body is under God’s authority.  Thus, no person has the right to inflict harm on another person’s body.  When justice demands compensation for damages to another’s body, financial compensation is the only proper path.  She writes that “honoring the body is honoring God.” 

Maimonides adds one other important piece to the puzzle when he warns that “no compensation is complete, no wrong is forgiven until the person who has inflicted the injury requests the victim’s forgiveness and has been forgiven.” He goes even further and says, “It is forbidden for the injured party to be cruel and unforgiving.  As soon as the guilty party has sought forgiveness…then he must be forgiven.” 

Our commentators over the generations were brave.  They were willing to take the original text of the Torah and understand it in new and often revolutionary ways. This ability to interpret and change the understanding of ancient texts is one of the paths that has allowed Judaism to remain a thriving belief system and an ongoing way of life.Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Donald Goor

Parashat Acherei Mot – Kedoshim: Leviticus 16:1-20:27, Aprile 23, 2021

Summary: This week we again have a double Torah portion, one that is wide ranging and includes within it some of the great verses of Torah. We learn about the duties that the high priest must perform on Yom Kippur and the ceremony of the scapegoat is outlined. Moses then instructs Aaron about the Yom Kippur laws for fasting and atonement. Moses continues and condemns the sexual practices of some neighboring peoples and certain forms of sexual relations are prohibited. God issues a variety of ethical commandments, instructing the Israelites on how to be a holy people. And finally, various sex offenses are discussed and punishments for them are presented.

Lesson: One of the most famous aphorisms of the Torah, and a text that is quoted very often in modern days, is “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  It stands as the central ethical commandment which guides us in our daily lives.  However, can “love” (an emotion) actually be commanded?  Is it truly possible to love others, outside our own families, with the same depth which we have for ourselves?

Our commentators focus their attention on this verse and struggle with the same questions. Maimonides realizes the difficulty of the challenge of loving others as we love ourselves.   His interpretation of the verse teaches that “you should love your neighbor with all the qualities and modes of love with which you love yourself.”  “The quality and nature of our love must be of the highest category – parallel to that which we employ in promoting our own welfare.”  He understands that it may not always be possible for human beings to provide an equal quantity of concern for the welfare of others.  His solution is to clarify that the extent of our love may be limited while the spirit of our love may not. 

Nachmanides is quite honest when he speaks of the difficulty of loving others as we love ourselves.  “Human beings cannot be expected to love their neighbors as they love their own souls.”  He broadens the definition arguing that we should wish our neighbors well in all things just as we wish success for ourselves. 

Malbim, a 19th century commentator from Eastern Europe, disagreed with both Maimonides and Nachmanides.  He argues that one cannot command another to “love”.  He sees this commandment not as directing us in terms of how we should feel about others, but rather in terms of how we behave toward others.  For him this mitzvah is all about actions, not about thoughts.  Human beings need to do more than wish good things for others. We must endeavor to act in every way possible to help our neighbor. 

When writing about this mitzvah, Ibn Ezra explains that we are responsible to love other human beings because God has created us all.

Modern psychologist, Eric Fromm, when teaching about self-love, wrote, “The love for my own self is inseparably connected with the love for any other being.”  If we love and care for ourselves then we must love and care for others.  For Fromm “love is an activity…it is primarily giving, not receiving.” 

The struggle of our commentators to understand this verse is our struggle as well. What is clear from our tradition is that we must love ourselves and then transform that love into a generous love for others.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Donald Goor

Parsahat Tazria – Metzora: Leviticus 12:1-15:33 - April 9, 2021 16

Summary : Our parasha this week is a double parasha and is quite unusual and to be honest, is not at all pleasant. Our text focuses on bodily impurities. In our portion God describes the rituals of purification for a woman after childbirth. God then sets forth the methods for diagnosing and treating a variety of skin diseases, including tzara’at (a leprous affection), as well as those for purifying clothing. We then learn about Priestly rituals to cure tzara’at when it afflicts humans are described, continuing with rituals to rid dwelling places of the same disease.  The parasha then describes male impurities resulting from a penile discharge or seminal emission. The parasha concludes with accounts of female impurities caused by a discharge of blood.

Lesson: While our portion is about all sorts of strange diseases, primarily skin diseases like leprosy, or mold in homes, our commentators, maybe to avoid the real topic of the parasha, find an interesting lesson in the midst of the descriptions of disease and healing rituals.  Our commentators view leprosy as an external sign of internal decay.  Illness becomes a symbol for corruption, immorality and callousness. 

What’s the name of our parasha?  Tazria-Metzora.  And our commentators play with the name – they take Metzora and come up with Motzi-Shem-Ra – changing the focus of our parasha from Metzora - skin disease and leprosy to Motzi-Shem-Ra – slanderous speech.  In the Talmud we read: “Said Resh Lakish: What is the implication of the phrase “This shall be the law of the leper” (Metzora)?  “[We should understand it to read] this shall be the law of he who spreads evil talk” (motzi-shem-ra). 

From skin disease to slanderous speech.  How brilliant are our commentators?!!  How important is their lesson for us today?!

Our rabbinic commentators, in the Midrash, emphasize the power of slander and evil words when they teach: “Their tongue is a sharpened arrow…Why is the tongue compared to an arrow? If a man draws a sword to kill his fellow, the latter begs for mercy and the would-be slayer changes his mind and sheaths his sword. Whereas an arrow cannot be called back once it has been shot, even if the marksman wishes to do so.”

They continue: “Likewise this wicked man slays other men with his tongue in the same way as an arrow. Just as the victim does not know about it until it actually reaches him, so the effects of evil talk are not felt by the victim until the arrows of a wicked man pierce him.

Motzi-Shem-Ra – slanderous speech – a clear problem evident throughout our society, from our top politicians to our neighbors and friends.   Society is suffering from Metzora – not the skin disease, but rather the disease of corruption, immorality, callousness and slander.

Let me share with you a favorite story.  A wandering merchant comes into the town square selling an elixir that will provide eternal life!  He entices a large crowd who are eager to purchase his wares.  When enough people laid out their money, the merchant finally revealed where the secret of the elixir is hidden…in the book of Psalms: “Who desires life?  Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from guile.”

In a Torah portion filled with uncomfortable descriptions of disease, our commentators creatively discover an important lesson.  How does the Torah teach us to fight the spiritual disease rampant in our society and in our lives?  How does the Torah teach us to fight the disease of corruption, immorality, callousness and slander?  “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from guile.”

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Donald Goor

Parashat Shemini - Leviticus 9:1-11:47 - April 9, 2021

Summary : In our portion this week, Aaron and his sons follow Moses' instructions and offer sacrifices so that God will forgive the people. Two of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, offer "alien fire" to God. God punishes these two priests by killing them immediately. God forbids Moses, Aaron, and his surviving sons from mourning but commands the rest of the people to do so. Then the Priests are told not to drink alcohol before entering the sacred Tabernacle and are further instructed about making sacrifices. Finally, many laws of Kashrut are given which distinguish between pure and impure animals, birds, fish, and insects.

Lesson : Aaron’s two sons were put to death as a result of bringing “alien fire” as an offering into the sanctuary.  The text of our Torah portion is very unclear.  Commentators over the generations have attempted to better understand and explain what Nadab and Abihu did wrong.

Some commentators write that the two brothers were not punished for the act of bringing the wrong kind of fire into the sanctuary. Instead, they were condemned for the evil intent that motivated them.  According to our rabbis the two brothers had outsized ambition and planned to usurp Moses and Aaron’s power.  They appeared in the sanctuary with their own offerings hoping that the people would be impressed thus leading to a demand from the people for new leadership.  Rather than coming to the sanctuary with pure and holy intent, they came with envy and impatience and in the end were punished for their arrogance, their lust for position and power. The sin for which they were punished was the fire of ambition that burned within them. 

Rashbam, a French commentator from the 12th century, writes about another possible reason for the punishment and finds the brothers’ error in plain sight within the text of the Torah.  “Each took his firepan, put fire in it…and offered before God alien fire, which God had not commanded them.”  The sin of the brothers is that they brought fire that went beyond what was commanded them.  Instead of following the law, they took the law into their own hands.  They were clearly deeply moved by the ritual that Moses and Aaron performed.  Quite possibly in their enthusiasm and joy, they entered the Holy of Holies to burn incense, something they had not been commanded to do. 

The Torah isn’t clear what “alien fire” truly means, and thus we don’t know exactly why the two brothers must die.  Was it their ruthless ambition and arrogance that led to their being punished, or was it youthful zeal and enthusiasm?  In either case what we do know is the pain that Aaron must have felt to watch his two sons die.  We sense the depth of his despair in the text itself when we read:  And Aaron was silent.  

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Donald Goor