Shabbat Shira 5768

Shabbat Shirah and (pre-Tu Bishvat), January 19, 2008
By Rabbi Joseph Lukinsky, Jewish Theological Seminary

Former Rabbi and Educator, KI



This Shabbat, Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song, we read Parashat Ha-Shavua, the Torah Portion, of Beshallah, which contains the Az Yashir Mosheh..., the Song that Moses and the Children of Israel sang at the Red Sea. In modern times, it has been the occasion for the celebration of Jewish music, even the start of "Jewish Music Week."



When we come to that section of the Torah reading, we stand, to give testimony to the miracle, as if to affirm that it happened then and also, somehow, that it is happening now. It's a great moment in the year's reading! We demonstrate, by standing, that no matter how we feel endangered in our lives, backed against the wall, we do not give up hope. There is always a chance that the "sea will split" for us, [and for the Jewish people!] and that we will pass through safely on dry land, a powerful metaphor. In our own lives we take part in Israel's challenge at the Sea.



It may not always happen, perhaps most of the time, but it could. And sometimes, as in the example of Nahshon ben Aminadav, who in the tradition, jumped into the sea to show his faith before the Sea split, it is a statement that we too can persevere in times of difficulty, to make something happen. A beautiful and glorious Parashat Ha-Shavua!



But wait! Shabbat Shirah? The very name "Shabbat Shirah" is somewhat of a misnomer, Yes, the "Song" is a highlight, but the Parashah as a whole is disturbing in almost everything else, for it is mainly about the complaints and backslidings of Israel. How was this possible after they had experienced the wonder of the crossing of the Red Sea?



You would think that after an awesome miracle such as the splitting of the sea, they would have been willing to follow God and Moses anywhere.



But, shortly after, they complain to Moses about the lack of water!!

They get tired of eating manna, and they want meat.

They are told not to leave the manna over until the next morning, but many do save some; maybe there won't be anymore the next day and they'll starve! They are told not to gather it on the Shabbat, but they do.



We would have thought that, after witnessing the miracle at the sea, they would have trusted that they would have water, and manna, and in general be safe from harm's way! It's a compelling statement about human nature, very human. "What have you done for me recently?" "That [the crossing at the Sea] was then, but this is now!"



It is interesting that when we stand for the aliyah containing the song, we stand through the end of the aliyah where the people's complaints and misgivings begin. It seems to be an intentional construction of the aliyah which ought to have ended after the song. By standing to the end of the aliyah, we juxtapose the Song at the Sea and all the complaints, and we see this linkage as existentially meaningful, an expression of that human nature which we all share.



Shabbat Shirah indeed!



In Parashat Beshallah, Mosheh Rabbenu learns what it means to be a leader. He learns how to deal with the difficulty of leading the Jewish people. He doesn't get discouraged. He learns from that experience that nothing achieved is necessarily permanent. Songs are followed by complaints. You have to renew the inspiration. Which reminds me of what a colleague once told me: "Education is the only field where re-inventing the wheel is good." You can never rest on assumptions based upon what happened before.



Sing the Song that Moses sang, but, at the same time, remember that it is hard to maintain exaltation! The real world and human nature are ever present, and we tend to forget. This is one of the tasks that Jews face, and the remembrance of Shabbat Shirah and the mitzvot ofJudaismhelpustodoso.



This week, on Tuesday, we will also celebrate Tu BiSh'vat (the 15th day of the month of Sh'vat). It became a holiday when some creative Jews decided to turn a "cutoff date" for certain agricultural laws into a holiday. In the Diaspora it became a day of longing for Eretz Yisrael. I remember as a little boy in Chicago, seeing the snow fall through the windows of our basement Hebrew School room and being told by our teacher, as she passed out raisins and nuts and bokser [St. John's bread], that it was Tu Bishvat, the New Year of the trees and the beginning of spring in Eretz Yisrael. Our bodies were cold, but in our hearts it was spring.



Happy Shabbat Shirah. Happy Tu Bishvat!

Parashat Va'era (yes, it is out of order w/Bo)

Moses and Aaron’s first meeting with Pharaoh to demand freedom for the Israelites does not go well: Pharaoh refuses to acknowledge God and punishes their temerity, increasing the Israelites’ suffering. The result is a general deflation: God convinces Moses to persevere but, as we read in Shemot 6:9, “But when Moses told [of God’s intentions] to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage” (JPS translation). This failure of leadership spooks Moses, who reverts to complaining about his difficulties in speaking:

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Go and tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites depart from his land.” But Moses appealed to the Lord, saying “The Israelites would not listen to me; how then should Pharaoh heed me, a man of impeded speech! (lit. uncircumcised of tongue)” So the Lord spoke to both Moses and Aaron and commanded them in regard to the Israelites and in regard to Pharaoh king of Egypt, instructing them to deliver the Israelites from the land of Egypt (6: 10-13; JPS translation, modified).

What is this command that God presents to Moses and Aaron? Has God not told them to take the Israelites out of Egypt already? And for that matter, why, after an extended conversation with Moses alone, does God now address Aaron along with Moses?

Rashi offers a midrashic answer to both questions:

…Because Moses had said, “I am of uncircumcised lips,” the Holy One of Blessing associated Aaron with him to be his mouth and spokesman… “And commanded them regarding the Israelites,” that is, to deal with them in a gentle manner and to be patient with them “and with regard to Pharaoh, king of Egypt,” that they should show respect to him in all that they spoke (See Exodus 7:3 and Tanchuma, Vayera 2; Silberman translation, modified).

For Rashi Moses’ modesty is admirable and rewarded with a spokesman. Ramban would agree, pointing to Moses’ second complaint about his uncircumcised lips (6:30), to which God replies “See I place you in the role of God (elokim) to Pharaoh, with your brother Aaron as your prophet” (7:1). For other voices in the tradition (see Exodus Rabbah, 7:1-2), however, the turn to Aaron is “a rebuke to Moses, [and] he no longer is the singular vehicle of revelation” (Burton L. Vizotsky, The Road to Redemption, 89). Vizotsky, however, also suggests that the Torah is presenting a case for sharing the burdens of leadership: “[It] is a shift that enables Moses to return and confront Pharaoh yet again. Leadership cannot always be carried along. Failure can be a cause for despair, but it can also lead to shared responsibility.”

In sharing this responsibility, Moses and Aaron need to fear not only Pharaoh, who is likely to ignore them, but also those they lead, the Israelites, who as the rest of the Torah demonstrates, do not follow them blindly or peacefully. In Sifrei Bamidbar, God explicitly warns Moses and Aaron of this danger:

God said to them: I want you to know that the Israelites are a stubborn and troublesome lot; but you accept this mission on the understanding that they will curse you and stone you (Piska 91; translation from Nehama Leibowitz’s Studies in Shemot, 144, modified; also see Exodus Rabbah, 7:3).

The Rambam draws on this reading to make a larger point about leadership:

It is forbidden for a person to lord it over the community in a domineering manner but he must exercise authority with humility and reverence; it is likewise forbidden to treat the people with disrespect even if they are ignorant; and a leader should not ride over the heads of the holy people. Though they be ordinary people, common folk, they are the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the host of Hashem who brought them out of Egypt with great might and a strong hand. The leader should rather bear patiently the cumbrance of the community and their burden, as Moses our teacher, as it is said: “as a nursing father carries the sucking child” (Numbers 11:12). Look at Moses, Master of all the prophets. We are told that no sooner did the Holy One of Blessing send Moses to Egypt that “He commanded them regarding the children of Israel” which our tradition takes to mean that God made Moses and Aaron accept the leadership of the people “on the understanding that they will curse you and stone you” (Hilkhot Sanhedrin, 25:1-2; translation from Nehama Leibowitz’s Studies in Shemot, 144, modified).

The Rambam’s lessons about leadership still apply today. As any management guru will tell you, putting yourself forward as a leader often means opening yourself up for criticism and hostility. For this reason, leadership is too difficult for one person alone: every leader needs collaborators, whether they be partners (as one midrashic tradition would see Aaron) or as lieutenants (another midrashic tradition). Despite (or perhaps because of) the potential hostility, it is the leader’s responsibility to treat his or her community with the utmost respect.

Parashat Bo 5768

Prepared by Chaim Koritzinsky, KI Rabbinic Resident

How many mitzvoth do you think there are in this week's Torah Portion? Come on, take a guess!

According to the Sefer ha'Chinuch (the Book of Education) there are 20. Does this seem like a little or a lot? Consider the fact that in the entire book of Bereshit (Genesis) there are only three mitzvot. (By the way, can you guess which those three are? See the end to check yourself)

What struck me about the list of mitzvoth in the Sefer ha'Chinuch is that 8 of the 20 are mitzvoth that we still perform today. For example: sanctifying the new month, removing hametz from our homes during Passover, eating matzah, telling the Passover story (v'higaditah l'vincha, and you shall tell your son) and wearing tefillin.

But 12 out of the 20 are mitzvoth that we don't do today. For example:

• The mitzvah of ritually slaying the Passover offering (with the exception of the Samaritans who still do this today in Israel)
• The mitzvah not to leave any flesh of the Passover offering
• The mitzvah of redeeming the firstborn donkey

We can add to this list many of the mitzvoth that are listed in Va'Yikra (Leviticus) that have to do with the sacrifices we used to bring to the Temple in Jerusalem. Without the Temple standing, we cannot bring the sacrifices.

The sefer ha'chinuch counts the number of mitzvoth that are "in force at the present time" at 369 (the alleged author of the Book, Aaron Ha'Levi of Barcelona, actually hand marked them in his manuscript dated 1345 CE).

Ha'Levi also adds to this list of 369 mitzvot "which a man is never required to do, unless some special circumstance comes to hand. Thus we say that giving a hired man his pay at its proper time is one precept [of the 613]; but certainly a person is not duty-bound to hire workers in order to fulfill this precept." (Sefer Ha'Chinuch, Preface, p. 77)

So, my question is: How do we relate to these mitzvoth that are not "in force at the present time" or that do not relate to us? Are we supposed to simply disregard them? Do we simply wait until the moment we can do them? Do we reinterpret them?

It may help to look at the example of Temple sacrifices to gain insight. Maimonides viewed animal sacrifice as a compromise and a response to the idolatrous practices of pagan culture. He writes:

It is with the act [of killing these animals,] considered by pagans to be the ultimate sin, that we approach G-d With this act wrongheaded beliefs are remedied, for [pagan beliefs] are diseases of the soul and they are cured by doing the exact opposite [of what they dictate].

Guide for the Perplexed 3:46

Ramban on the other hand viewed sacrifices as a perfectly legitimate response to human moral failure. He writes:

It would be appropriate for one who has sinned before G-d with his body and soul to have his blood spilt and his body burnt. But the Creator, in His kindness, accepts a stand-in. By the blood of a sacrifice coming in place of the [sinner's] blood and its soul coming in place of the [sinner's] soul, atonement is achieved

Ramban, Commentary to Vayikra 1:9

In Sefer Ha'Chinuch, Ha'Levi offers another response, one that we still continue today in the morning service-through learning.

One of the mitzvoth, which is a main principle and foundation on which all the precepts rest, is the mitzvah of learning Torah (mitzvah #419). For by study, a man will know the precepts and will fulfill them. For this reason our Sages of blessed memory made it a rule for us to read one portion of the Torah scroll in a place where the people gather, i.e. the synagogue, to awaken a man's heart over the Torah's words and the precepts. (Sefer Ha'Chinuch,Preface, p. 77)

One writer on the web summarized it thus:

To solidify my vicarious participation in those Commandments, I study them. It is true that I cannot personally fulfill the Commandment of building a fence around my roof, since I have no accessible roof in my home, but when I study the Laws of this Commandment, and I have a strong desire to fulfill the Commandment, Hashem counts it as if I have fulfilled the Commandment. For the Talmud teaches, "A good intention that a person honestly tries to fulfill but is prevented or unable to fulfill Hashem counts as if it has been performed." Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 39b

Ha'Levi concludes his preface by highlighting his reasoning for writing the book in the first place:

Perhaps the reader will not give his attention to see how many precepts he has read in that week, and may not bestir his heart to become alert and zealous about them. Therefore have I seen fit to write the precepts according to the sidrot (the weekly portions) and in their sequence as they are written in the Torah, consecutively, in order to arouse the heart of my young son and the youngest who are his friends- every single week. (Sefer Ha'Chinuch, Preface, p. 79)

When you hear these mitzvoth read today from the Torah, think about whether you feel this is a way of fulfilling these commandments no longer "in force". And think about whether, in Ha'Levi's words, the mitzvoth in this week's parasha have become more "alert" or "zealous" in your heart.

ANSWER: The Three Mitzvot of Bereshit

1. Mitzvat Priya u'reviya (Be fruitful and multiply)
2. Mitzvat Mila (Circumcision)
3. Shelo le'echol gid ha'nasheh (Not to eat the sinew of the thigh vein)

Parashat VaYichi 5768/2007

Torah Gems - December 21

Friday evening services begin at 4:02 pm, 5 minutes following a 3:57 pm candle lighting (the latest appropriate time to light Shabbat candles - beginning 5 minutes following such a time, theoretically allows people 5 minutes to walk from home to shul for services) in our Rabb Chapel.

Saturday morning services will begin at 8:45 am.

Following a noontime Kiddush, Landers Playspace will be open. Talmud will convene at 4:00 pm. Mincha will be in our Rabb Chapel at 3:42 pm. My Mincha and Metaphysics topic will be "Entering Exodus." Havdallah takes place no earlier than 4:57 pm.

--Rabbi Hamilton

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From the Torah Commentary of Richard Elliot Friedman

Commandments can be promises and blessings.

Chapter 48:4 I'm making you fruitful and multiplying you, and I'll make you..But God did not say "I'll make you fruitful.." God said, "Be fruitful.."(35:11). Why does Jacob tell Joseph that God promised to do it when God actually told him to do it? Perhaps it is because Jacob has only one more son (Benjamin) after God tells him this, and so the becoming fruitful must refer to the births of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Jacob would not see this as in his power but rather as God's doing, and so he understands God's words not as a command but as a promise and a blessing.

Judah's Preeminence

Chapter 49:8 Judah. Reuben is demoted from firstborn preeminence (49:4); Simeon and Levi are condemned to be scattered (49:7). The fourth-born Judah is the one to receive praise, success, and dominion. The fulfillment will come when Judah becomes the largest of the tribes, and its royal family, the kings descended from David, rule for centuries and hold the messianic promise, Judah was the brother who saved Joseph's life, who promised to be the protector of Benjamin, whose relationship with Tamar resulted in the birth of the clan of the future kings of Israel. The patriarchs will all be buried in Hebron, the capital city of the tribe of Judah. Here at the end of Genesis we find the denounement of the stories of the brothers, and we are made aware of their significance for the future.

Mourning and healing

50:16 Your father had commanded before his death. We never find out whether Joseph - or his brothers - ever told Jacob what his brothers did to him. The brothers claim that Jacob commanded that Joseph should forgive them, but we do not know if they are making it up or not. Either way, it is the right message: after a parent's death, the children should try to heal any old wounds and draw close.

Why is Joseph (eventually) buried in Shchem?

Chapter 50:15 When Joseph's brothers saw. According to a Midrash, (Tanhuma 17) when Jacob's body was brought to Hebron for burial, the brothers saw Joseph make a side trip to the pit into which he had been thrown as a child. Joseph went there to reflect on the wondrous deliverance he had experienced since that day, but the brothers feared that he was harboring thoughts of revenge. Where was that pit located? Shchem. I prefer to imagine that Joseph was offering a nod to his brothers that, in the future, their descendants will bury him in this place as a form of repair (Tikkun), as the Talmud states "from that place he was removed from the Land, and to that place he shall be returned to the Land."

From The Beginning of Wisdom (Leon Kass)

The last chapter of Genesis begins with the burial of Jacob at Machpelah and ends with the mummification of Joseph in Egypt. The contrast between burial and embalming/mummification reveals a crucial difference between Israel and Egypt: the difference between acceptance and denial or defiance of death. Embalming the body is an attempt at human control over death. The putative beneficiary of this treatment is the deceased: embalming resists time and change, prevents decay, beautifies the body, and prepares for reanimation and continued life - not to say immortality. Burial accepts that we are "dust to dust." It manifests a different attitude toward the body and its fragile beauty, toward time and finitude and memory...The way of Israel is the way of memory, keeping alive not the bodies of the dead but their ever-living legacy in relation to the ever-living God, who in the beginning created heaven and earth and made man alone in His own image, and who later summoned Father Abraham and his descendants to "walk before Me and be wholehearted."

In honor of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's yahrzeit, this coming Wednesday evening, I offer a couple of passages which I find particularly resonant.

"Mindfulness of God rises slowly, a thought at a time. Suddenly we are there. Or He is here, at the margin of our soul? When we begin to feel a qualm of diffidence lest we hurt what is holy, lest we break what is whole, then we discover that He is not austere. He answers with love our trembling awe. Repentant or forgetting Him even for a while, we become sharers of gentle joy; we would like to dedicate ourselves forever to the unfolding of His final order."

"How often does justice lapse into cruelty and righteousness into hypocrisy. Prayer revives and keeps alive the rare greatness of some past experience in which things glowed with meaning and blessing. It remains important, even when we ignore it for a while, like a candlestick set aside for the day. Night will come, and we shall again gather round its tiny flame. Our affection for the trifles of living will be mixed with longing for the comfort of all men."

"We must learn how to study the inner life of the words that fill the world of the prayer book. Without intense study of their meaning, we feel, indeed, bewildered when we encounter the multitude of those strange, lofty beings that populate the inner cosmos of the Jewish spirit. It is not enough to know how to translate Hebrew into English; it is not enough to have met a word in the dictionary and to have experienced unpleasant adventures with it in the study of grammar. A word has a soul, and we must learn how to attain insight into its life."

SHABBAT SHALOM

Parashat Vayigash 5768/2007

Torah Gems - December 14

Friday evening services begin at 3:59 pm, 5 minutes following a 3:54 pm candle lighting (the latest appropriate time to light Shabbat candles - beginning 5 minutes following such a time, theoretically allows people 5 minutes to walk from home to shul for services) in our Rabb Chapel.

Saturday morning services will begin at 8:45 am.

Following a noontime Kiddush, Landers Playspace will be open. Talmud will convene at 4:00 pm. Mincha will be in our Rabb Chapel at 3:39 pm. My Mincha and Metaphysics topic will be "Jealousy's Test on the Tenth of Teveth." Havdallah takes place no earlier than 4:54 pm.

--Rabbi Hamilton

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Most of us love a good story. The Book of Genesis is filled with
elaborate stories with convoluted plots full of deception and
intrigue. Parshat Vayigash is no exception and begins with the
dramatic reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. The Torah
has provided much room for the development of this story culminating
in the emotionally charged reconciliation that we read at the
beginning of this parsha. The story does not end here, but continues
until the end of the Book of Genesis with the dramatic and tearful
scene in which Joseph grants his brethren forgiveness and promises to
sustain them and their children in Egypt after his death.

Why does the Torah devote so much space to narrative while employing
brevity when prescribing mitzvot? For example, we are told to do no
work on Shabbat but we are not told what exactly constitutes work. By
giving so much room to the development of stories, is the Torah
acknowledging the power of the narrative to transform our actions and
our lives?

Jewish literature is replete with Agadot, Chasidic tales, and
speculative ruminations by rabbis and scholars concerning our history
and its various characters. Reconciliation is a theme that appears
more than once in the Torah especially in the Book of Genesis.
Forgiveness and the ability to forgive is a recurrent theme in
Judaism. Each one of us can certainly think of at least one powerful
example in our own lives of a strained relationship that has never
been resolved. It is most painful when this occurs between family
members. The story of Joseph and his brothers spans many years and
goes into great detail to both describe and define the nature of the
resentment, the wrong-doing, the estrangement, the reconciliation,
and the final forgiveness.

Though Joseph has every right to punish his brothers for the crime
they committed against him, he demonstrates the ability, one we all
possess, to transcend his bitterness. Rather than focusing on
revenge, which may certainly have been his right, he chooses
reconciliation. The ability to transcend one's more basic instincts
represents the development of mature reason and action - in essence
the ability to rise to the occasion.
Here are a few rabbinic comments on forgiveness:

Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel taught: "Each night before going to sleep,
forgive whoever wronged you." (Hanhaga, c 1320)

Raba taught: "He (she) who forgives ..will himself (herself) be
forgiven." (Yoma 23a)

Within great literature (and the Torah is no exception) the reader
often discovers a theme or situation that relates to his or her life.
Identifying with a narrative and with the characters in a story adds
legitimacy to our own stories. This identification can be especially
powerful when the story with which we identify contains a difficult
or painful situation that is finally resolved. The power of the
narrative can then give us the push we may need to resolve
outstanding grievances in our lives.

SHABBAT SHALOM

Parashat MiKetz 5768/2007

Torah Gems - December 7

Friday evening services begin at 3:59 pm, 5 minutes following a 3:54 pm candle lighting (the latest appropriate time to light Shabbat candles - beginning 5 minutes following such a time, theoretically allows people 5 minutes to walk from home to shul for services) in our Rabb Chapel. Saturday morning services will begin at 8:45 am.

Following a noontime Kiddush, Landers Playspace will be open. Talmud will convene at 4:00 pm. Mincha will be in our Rabb Chapel at 3:39 pm. My Mincha and Metaphysics topic will be "Havdalah's Bond with Hanukkah and Purim." Havdallah takes place no earlier than 4:54 pm. --Rabbi Hamilton

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Earlier this week, a member of our KI family asked me a question of Jewish law: "Should a blind person recite the early-morning blessing (pokeach ivrim) which thanks God for opening ours eyes to a new day." In pondering the question Tuesday night after lighting Hanukkah's first lights, several present suggested that a blind person indeed should say this blessing - even if she/he may not be able to experience eyesight.

Rabbi David Wolpe offers the following reflection, which seems fitting for our Festival of Lights. "What does it mean to have vision? The prophets and sages of our tradition had vision; they did not see or act like those around them. At times, no doubt, they seemed strange to their contemporaries. We can imagine the prophets eliciting the kind of remark that the poet William Blake once prompted when someone said to a friend of his, "I believe Blake is cracked." The friend answered, "Yes, but it is the sort of crack that lets in the light."

Religious vision means seeing beyond what is apparent. There is a blessing we recite each morning, thanking God for the marvelous workings of the human body. The chatima, the end of the blessing, declares that God is mafli la'asot, that in fashioning the human body, God acts wondrously, that God has fashioned miracles.

The author of that ancient Talmudic blessing was Rav Sheshet, who was blind. Imagine the vision granted to that sage. He did not see what was visible, but he saw what was essential. In his life and ours, Rav Sheshet let in the light."

A couple of comments from Richard Elliot Friedman follow. In this week's Torah portion, Miketz, we read (Chapter 42:1) that "Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt..and he said, "I've heard there's grain in Egypt."" How could he have seen it? Rashi says that he had a vision. This rather reflects the metaphor of seeing as meaning to know, to learn, to find out, to comprehend. It shows the high value we place on sight over the other senses. The Torah will convey this in many ways, including a progression: Isaac cannot see on his deathbed, and so he is deceived. Jacob cannot see on his deathbed, but he has more insight than he did when he was young and could see. (He sees his grandsons' destinies, when earlier he could not see what was going on among his sons.) And then Moses' "eye was not dim" up to the time of his death at the age of 120.

"And he asked if they were well, and he said, "Is your old father whom you mentioned well? Is he still alive?"(Chapter 43:27). Recall that the brothers were described earlier as being unable to speak to Joseph of shalom, that is, to say "hello" or "how are you?" (37:4). Now they and Joseph finally speak of shalom. Even though it is unwitting, it is the beginning of their reconciliation with their brother. Is he still alive? Here is an exceptional example of the emotional power that looms in the background of the Torah's stories. From the point of view of the brothers and Egyptians who were present, Joseph is just making polite conversation, graciously asking about "your old father whom you mentioned." But, inside, Joseph is about to find out - with anticipation, dread, even guilt? - whether his own father, who loved him the most, is alive or dead.

Finally, in the spirit of pausing to 'let in the light' this Shabbat, consider the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel on the soul's attentiveness to the uniqueness of the present. "No other deficiency makes the soul more barren than the lack of a sense for the unique. The creative man is he who succeeds in capturing the exceptional and instantaneous before it becomes stagnant in his mind. In the language of creative thinking, whatever is alive is unique. And true insight is a moment of perceiving a situation before it freezes into similarity with something else..At night - in the soul - all moments look alike."

Heschel has said elsewhere "There is hardly a soul capable of radiating more light than it receives." May this Shabbat Hanukkah offer you unique (soul-dilating) moments that receive and radiate the light of insight and wonder. A bright, happy, and health Hanukkah to you, and Shabbat Shalom.

Parashat V'Yeshev 5768/2007

Torah Gems - November 30

Friday evening services begin at 4:00 pm, 5 minutes following a 3:55 pm candle lighting (the latest appropriate time to light Shabbat candles - beginning 5 minutes following such a time, theoretically allows people 5 minutes to walk from home to shul for services) in our Rabb Chapel. Saturday morning services will begin at 8:45 am.

We're excited to be continuing a tradition we began last year of inviting members of our community to compose and share Torah Gems (insights from that week's Torah portion).

This week, Rabbinic Resident Jim Morgan shares with us a few words of wisdom on the story of Joseph.

Following a noontime Kiddush, Landers Playspace will be open. Talmud will convene at 4:00 pm. Mincha will be in our Rabb Chapel at 3:40 pm. My Mincha and Metaphysics topic will be "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars." Havdallah takes place no earlier than 4:55 pm. --Rabbi Hamilton

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The story of Joseph, which begins in this week's parashah and continues through the end of Genesis, is very different from the preceding stories in that God withdraws from the scene. Unlike his forefathers, Joseph does not converse directly with God. There are no obvious theophanies, and no wrestling matches with angels. Our tradition, however, starting with the Torah itself, locates God just behind the scenes, like a director moving actors around the stage. Or, as Avivah Zornberg suggests in her discussion of Va-yeshev, like an author who manipulates the characters to fulfill the demands of the narrative, in this case, the "plot" that requires Israel to go down to Egypt (see her The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, p. 254-7).

All the seemingly free actions that characters perform, like the dreams that Joseph explains, all turn out to be "from God," a subtle way for God to communicate with people and effect God's will. As Joseph himself later tells his brothers "So, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt" (Gen. 45:8). On one hand, this assurance is comforting, as it absolves the brothers of culpability for the crime of casting Joseph into the pit and selling him into slavery. Joseph instead focuses on the positive aspects of the journey down to Egypt: his power and his use of that power to save Egypt and his family from the worst effects of famine. On the other hand, this affirmation of God's active manipulation of people and events is disturbing: is there truly no human freedom? Are the brothers really not responsible for their crimes because it "all turned out okay?" And what is more, can we really see the migration down to Egypt as a positive development when a new Pharaoh will rise and enslave Israel?

The Rabbis see both sides of this argument and, characteristically, present both: "And Joseph was brought down (hurad) to Egypt." [Gen. 39:1] This means, he subdued it, as in the verse, "May he have dominion (we-yard) also from sea to sea" (Ps. 72: 8); he ruled over them [the Egyptians], as in the verse, "For he had dominion (rodeh) over all the region, etc." (I Kings 5: 4) [Another interpretation]: He brought Jacob down (horid) to Egypt. R. Berekiah said in the name of R. Judah b. Simon: This may be compared to a cow which was resisting being dragged to the abattoir. What did they do? They drew her young one before her, whereupon she followed, albeit unwillingly. In the same way, Jacob should have gone down to Egypt in chains (since this was the beginning of Israel's servitude in Egypt), but that God declared: "He is My firstborn son; shall I then bring him down in disgrace! Now, if I inspire Pharaoh [with the intention to bring him down], I will not bring him down with befitting honour. Therefore I will draw his son before him, and so he will follow despite himself." (Genesis Rabbah 86:2; Soncino Translation)

In the first interpretation, the midrash suggests that the passive verb "hurad" (was brought down) points, paradoxically, to Joseph's ascension to power in Egypt, echoing Joseph's own interpretation of the events of his life. The second, by contrast, presents a horrific scenario, in which a cow, standing in for Jacob/Israel, is manipulated into entering the abattoir (slavery in Egypt) by a slaughterer who "kidnaps" her calf. The midrash presents God as a kind of puppet master, moving people from Israel to Egypt in order to fulfill the prophecy offered to Abraham: "Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years..." (Gen. 15:13). God is concerned about Jacob's honor--he doesn't want him to be led down in chains--but the fact of Israel's enslavement remains. And given what Jacob endures in contemplating Joseph's apparent death (the terror that the cow experiences in the apparent loss of her calf), I for one am not convinced that the chains might not have been preferable. The rabbis, by not choosing a single reading of this verse, point to the very impossibility of these questions: do the events of our lives, the decisions we make, all conform to a God-given plan, or are we all free agents? The impulse to make narrative, to assign a plot to what happens to us, and, like Joseph, to assign God the rights of authorship to that narrative is very powerful. But it also carries significant tension. In order to act in the world we need to see ourselves as more or less autonomous agents. Beyond that, we need to contend with question of interpretation: whose narrative is correct? The rabbis live with this tension, and so do we. As Rabbi Akiva says in Ethics of the Fathers, "all is foreseen, but free-will is given" (Avot 3:15).

SHABBAT SHALOM