Friday July 3, Parashat Balak

In this week’s torah portion, Balak, King Balak and the people of Moab, fear the Children of Israel. Balak requests that the prophet Balaam to curse the Children of Israel so that their military forces will be weakened, and they will not be able to defeat the Moabite army.

King Balak requests that the prophet appear twice—but Balaam does not respond. The third time Balaam opens his mouth and instead of cursing the Israelites he speaks the words that begin our morning worship: Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov- mishkinotecha Yisrael…”How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, o Israel…” It is an amazingly fascinating story of poor leadership, bad judgement, or just desperation that causes the king to attempt the same solution and to fail again and again and again.

We are often caught in the “Balak trap.” Trying to do the same thing again and again and expecting different results. What are examples of this syndrome? Well—weight loss plans. Every January 1- the beginning of the secular New Year- we are bombarded by advertisements on television, radio, and the internet telling us that THIS is the diet to help you lose those 5, 10, 15 kilos. And of course when you lose those kilos, you will be happier, friendlier, and more successful—just like the smiling models in the commercials who I am sure have never dieted a day in their lives.

So you try the diet: Paleo, Keto, Intermittent Fasting, the No White Foods Diet, Hi Carb, Low Fat, Vegan, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Low-Carb, Atkins…and what happens? You start the diet and withing a few weeks your back to eating ice cream sitting on the couch. And you feel terrible. It is the “Balak Effect”- trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result (Some claim that Einstein called this the definition of insanity- but there is no evidence he actually said it).

When we drive in Tel Aviv, we are victims of the “Balak Effect.” We are driving looking for parking spots and we go around the block just “one more time” because this is the time that the Car Space Genii is going to magically clear a space for us. And around and around in circles we go searching for that elusive parking spot.

The “Balak Effect” extends beyond the personal and into the arena of public policy and international affairs. Here in Israel and much of the Middle East we are mired in a “Balak Effect” of violence triggering violence that only triggers more violence. A “Balak Effect” far more deadly than a weight loss program---but the basic theorem is the same

How do we extricate ourselves from this circle seemingly without end? How do end bad decision making or the inability to make decisions at all and instead feel like we are running incircles with one foot stapled to the floor?

I cannot prescribe a precise way for you to exit the “Balak Effect” -as all of us are different. But I can share with you how I have escaped from this. When we are driving and looking for that non-existent parking spot—we make a turn. It sounds simple—but it totally reorients you and puts you (and the car) in a different place.

What about the elusive quest for peace here in the Middle East? Why has this never succeeded? In my estimation, it is because the lead players have hardly changed, and no new thinking has ever taken place. Our politicians and diplomats have never made that turn. They have never stopped the usual way of thinking and exited the circle.

And changes do not happen overnight. They occur little by little. Slowly you realize to turn down the other street. Gradually you might understand how a different way of approaching food and nutrition is more advantageous than a new fad diet.In the bestselling book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear the author explains how it is this little steps- one at a time- that add up to big change. We can stop the “Balak Effect”—we just have to start one step and one day at a time.

This Shabbat take a moment to reflect on what changes can you undertake? And what can you do step by step moment by moment.

Shabbat Shalom

Cantor Evan Kent

Beth Shalom

Shabbat Chol Ha’moed Sukkot October 18, 2019

Over the years, I have had a love-hate relationship with Sukkot. When I worked in Boston, it was my favorite Jewish holiday. In New England, Sukkot is a full on fall holiday – the air is cool, the apples are crisp and the sunlight is dappled and delicious. You can spend hours “dwelling in your booth” and it’s not goofing off. You are fulfilling a religious obligation. In Houston where I also worked for a number of years, I dreaded Sukkot. In Texas, the summer lingers on well past October. When the holiday rolls around, the temperatures are still stifling, the humidity is off the charts and the mosquitoes are ravenous. In Houston, spending ten minutes in the sukkah is a punishment.

Regardless of your GPS coordinates, the Torah still identifies the festival as he-chag, THE holiday, the festival par excellence; and the prayer book refers to it as zeman simchatynu, the season of our rejoicing. So if Rosh Hashanah is about judgment and Yom Kippur is about atonement then Sukkot is surely all about joy. After the heavy work of self-evaluation and re-assessment that launches us into a new year, it’s a relief to focus on elation and delight.

In ancient Israel, Sukkot was the last of the harvest festivals. The produce had been gathered in and for an agricultural people there was relief from work and worry. In Leviticus, the Torah commands “Take the branches of a palm tree, the leaves of the myrtle and willow trees, and the fruit of a goodly tree (the lulav and etrog) and rejoice before the Lord seven days.” Why these four species specifically and why they should prompt an outpouring of joy is beyond me. Maybe the four species - as they are called - are just an annual prompt to consider the questions: ‘What is joy?’ and ‘What are the things that bring true pleasure to life and the living of our days?’

Happiness and joy are not identical. Both are worthy and positive emotions. Happiness derives from persons and things external to the self. Happiness is most often triggered by other people, places, thoughts and things. As such, it tends to be momentary and springs from short term contentment. Happiness is fleeting. It is situational. Joy on the other hand is independent of current circumstance. It grows out the inner-self itself. Joy comes when you make peace with who you are, why you are and how you are.

Interestingly, the Hebrew language has ten words for what we refer to with the one English word joy. I take this to be an indication that Judaism expects that we will have joy in such abundance that we will need all ten words to describe the variations, subtleties and nuanced differences in the emotion. To be sure, joy is a hard concept to get your head around. And come to think of it, how can you command someone to be joyous. Wouldn’t that make it a counterfeit emotion?

In the oft-repeated second section of the Shema, the v’ahavtah, we are told, “You shall love the Lord your God.” When asked how anyone could be commanded to love someone or something, Martin Buber explained that the only reasonable and totally predictable outcome of a true understanding of God would be the experience of loving adoration. Not so other human beings. The injunction ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ is better translated as “Act lovingly towards your neighbor” even if your neighbor is a jerk.

So how can the Torah command rejoicing? Joy is like love. In the sukkah - surrounded by the bounty of the harvest, newly forgiven and reconciled to your Maker, surrounded by family and invited guests, resting up from the exertion and stress of your work – the reasonable and totally predictable outcome should be the experience of joy. But it’s more than just these blessings. Peering up through the open roofing of your booth into the vast and infinite reaches of the heaven, can you not help but be overjoyed that the Master and Maker of Heaven and Earth has regard for you? And not only regard but loving and dedicated regard at that. What a relief to know that I am not totally dependent on what others say or write on my Facebook page for my sense of self. Rather, as we read in the Book of Nehemiah: “The delight of the Lord is your strength.”

Who, why and what am I? Sukkot provides an answer. But little lower than the angels, endowed and endorsed with inalienable dignity and worth. And if you can hold on to that, knowing that the very Source of the Universe delights in your being you, you are better able to emerge from the refuge of the sukkah joyously or at least strengthened to meet the challenges of life.

Chag Saeach. Happy or better yet Realize a Joyous Sukkot.

Rabbi Whiman