ONE on One – “Yitro” – Ex. 18-20 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Baruch

ONE on One – “Yitro” – Ex. 18-20 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          Just 50 days after crossing the Red Sea, our ancestors receive the Torah at Mount Sinai.  One event gave them physical freedom.  The second made them a nation.  The Torah is sometimes described as our Constitution – not a document debated and decided by a select group of leaders and then presented to the people, but a Divinely dictated Code revealed to the entire nation, some 2 million strong, all at the same time. 

           Our sages always insisted that the entire Torah was revealed at Sinai, all 613 commandments.  But it’s the Big Ten – the headliners — that appear in this week’s reading, and Sabbath congregations all over the world will stand once again to hear them read, just as we learn our ancestors stood to receive them at the foot of the mountain.  They prepared for this experience for three days, washing their bodies and their clothes and refraining from sex.  Maybe we don’t take such measures, but we might well consider some mental preparations.

          Certainly we have no lack of commentary about the Ten Commandments.  Enough has been written about them to fill many libraries.   Let’s take note of just a few points regarding these famous words.

          When Moses takes his preliminary climb up the mountain, he brings down the challenge: Will you, the Israelite people, accept G-d’s will?  And the Torah tells us that the people answer “as one” saying “all that G-d tells us we will do.”  So all those 2 million ex-slaves are ready to unite.  The Jewish nation is one, and its G-d is One.  Receiving the commandments is a One-on-one experience.

          So the commandments are spoken to all the people.  Yet they are phrased in the singular.  Because they apply to each of us individually.  In the classic translation, it is not “Ye shall not murder.”  It is “Thou shalt not murder.”  And a special note on that one: the word is tirtzakh – murder.  It is not taharog – kill.  From the very beginning, Jewish law recognized that killing is not always murder.   Self-defense, capital punishment and war all involve violent death, in fact we have the principle “he who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.”  Historic methods of execution were far harsher than some modern ones, but the principle did not change.

          By the same token we can well ask whether any of the principles of Sinai ever changed.  True, in recent years the Ten Commandments became Politically Incorrect to some people.  Those who would like to banish G-d from our lives like to quote the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  They cite church-state separation as a reason to remove the Big Ten from public buildings.  This despite the fact that these commandments mention no “establishment of religion,” but constitute an eternal statement of right and wrong.    Even the first commandment says simply “I am the L-rd your G-d.” It does not say “the L-rd your Jewish G-d….  or your Catholic G-d… .   or your Hindu G-d..  etc.”  And of course a plaque on a wall, or a monument outside a courthouse, does not involve an act of Congress.  Chances are, we can still expect to see the great text in many American places reminding us of the principles we share with our fellow citizens.  

          These principles form the entry to a life strengthened by Torah and Mitzvos, a character marked with what my father z”l called “ethical consciousness.”   One particularly telling comment in this connection appears in the Mishna Kidushin: “One who is at home with Scripture, and Mishna, and honest dealings with fellow creatures, will not readily sin.  As it is written (Eccl.4:12): ‘the triple cord will not soon be broken.’”

Indeed, those who live by our ancestral teachings, and use them to treat other human beings fairly, have the best chance to achieve a good life.  Our noble Commandments give us our basic guide.   As Moses’ generation said, “We will do and we will listen.”

Let’s remember.

 

 

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BECOMING DISTINCT – “Bo” – Ex.10-13:16 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Baruch

BECOMING DISTINCT – “Bo” – Ex.10-13:16 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          One Torah reading – this week’s — brings us our transition into our distinct nationhood, our distinctive calendar, and the very trademark of our homes.  Warning the people that a destroying angel will descend on Egypt and kill the firstborn human and animal in every household, Moses delivers the Divine commandment to take a lamb for every Israelite household, and slaughter the lamb for a sacrifice to celebrate what will become the first Jewish festival – Passover.  And why is it called Passover?  Because before eating that lamb the Israelite must put some of its blood on the doorpost to signal that this is an Israelite home, so the destroyer will pass over it.   That doorpost signal would later become the Mezuzah that decorates and identifies our homes today. 

          Passover is not just the first Jewish festival – the festival of freedom – but also marks the beginning of the Jewish calendar.  This week’s reading tells us: “This month for you is the head of the months, first of all the months of the year.” 

          Now wait a minute.  Are we talking about Passover or Rosh Hashanah? 

In a way, both.  The Talmud reminds us that our calendar contains no less than four New Years days including one in Nisan for kings and festivals and one in Tishri for numbering the years.  The other two are for ancient tithes.  Any Hebrew school student who can repeat the names of the months will start this way: Nisan Iyyar Sivan Tamuz – always starting with Nisan, the month of Passover. 

          Of course Passover does not begin the month of Nisan.  It starts in the middle of the month, on the 15th.   Our ancestors had two weeks to prepare for the first Seder, and we all know it takes at least two weeks to prepare for that event even now – finding the “khometz” (leaven) and getting rid of it, shopping for the Pesach food, inviting the guests, polishing the cup for Elijah (the Prophet whom we will welcome symbolically) – and we don’t even have to smear blood on the doorpost.  Still, Passover remains a favorite family festival, the first Jewish holiday.

          An interesting sidelight to this week’s reading would be to compare Passover with Shabat.  Since the seventh day is mentioned as a day of rest in the story of Creation, we must consider it the first Jewish sacred day.  Yet we find no reference to it in the lives of the Patriarchs.   We don’t find Abraham making Kiddush.   Not until the Israelites leave Egypt does the Sabbath appear in the Torah narrative.  The manna that sustains the people in their trek through the desert comes to them six days a week, and they are warned to collect double manna on Friday.  When they do that, it does not spoil and they can eat at leisure on Saturday.  Slaves have no Sabbath, but free people do.  Or they should.   Maybe the Patriarchs kept the Sabbath without a special ceremony, since those Mitzvos came later.  And in fact, no ceremony is mentioned for the Israelites in the desert either.  But the Passover ceremony is defined quite practically: “If the household is too small to use a lamb, let them share one with their neighbor… Each according to what he eats, so shall you count for the lamb.”  This mitzvah should not prove prohibitive.  As Rashi points out, the standard “each according to what he eats” is understood to exclude the old and infirm who cannot eat a full morsel.   Thus two neighbor families can celebrate with the same meal.  And both will mark their homes.  And both will taste freedom. 

          Can we do less?   Today it’s not lamb, since animal sacrifice ceased with the destruction of the Temple.  So maybe we share chicken.  But the principle remains.  Celebrate our freedom.  Revel in our tradition.  Sing “Dy dy yeynu.”  Welcome Eliyahu – and feel that you, too, were redeemed. 

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BURY ME NOT– Va-y’khi – Gen.47:28-50:26 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Baruch

BURY ME NOT– Va-y’khi – Gen.47:28-50:26 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Remember this one? 

Oh bury me not on the lone prairie,                                                                                 

These words come low and mournfully                                                                                

From the pallid lips of a youth who lay                                                                      

On his dyin’ bed at the close of day….

By my father’s grave oh let me be                                                                                        

And bury me not on the lone prairie.

That sad young cowboy had good company.  None other than the patriarch Jacob.  In this week’s Torah reading, he calls in his favorite son Joseph and makes him swear not to bury his father in Egypt.  His last request is to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah where his parents and his wife Leah lie.  Like so many other mortals facing the end of life, he wants to go home.

          Our commentators cite a few other reasons not to bury Jacob in Egypt, not even in a pyramid.  After his years in Egypt, Jacob evidently became well respected, and might rate a distinguished tomb.  But he does not want one, not there.   Rashi and the Klee Yokor detail three factors behind this oath that Jacob requires of Joseph.  One concerns lice, which inhabit Egyptian soil and would attack the body.  Worms are bad enough, but lice??  (Actually tradition states that there were seven people whose bodies the worms could not devour, and Jacob was one of them.  No word about lice.)  A second one concerns the Egyptian custom of gathering at the tomb of an honored man and conducting pagan worship.  Jacob’s grave should not prompt idolatry.  And the third consideration is the tradition that when the Messiah comes, those buried outside the Land of Israel will have to roll underground all the way there to be revived.  All things considered, Jacob says “take me out of Egypt, let me lie with my fathers, and bury me in their burying-place.”

          Jacob then proceeds to give his last message to his sons.  Not really a blessing, this message is more of a judgment on their characters, based on their behavior.  Some show promise, some are plodders, others get specific charges from their father.  Reuben loses the privilege of the firstborn because he once bedded his father’s wife.  Judah, by contrast, proved himself a leader and gets acknowledged as such.  No mention of his little intrigue with Tamar.  The commentators link this praise of Judah to the future, for he will be the ancestor of King David.  But of course it is Joseph who gets Jacob’s greatest love and favor.  And Joseph’s two sons got blessed as equal to Reuben and Simeon, effectively giving Joseph the double portion of the firstborn which Reuben is denied.   As Jacob completes his message, he puts his legs back in bed and breathes his last.  It is Joseph who weeps over him, kisses him, and then orders his body embalmed. 

          Commentators point out that the embalming process will take 40 days, to prepare for the journey to Hebron.  Joseph leads that trek.  And the rest of Jacob’s family goes with him – the entire people.  When they stop in Atad, east of the Jordan en route to Machpelah, they observe seven days of deep mourning, the same week of shiv’a that Jewish families still sit, although now we do so after the burial.  When Jacob’s family does it, the local population sees them and concludes that this must be a very sad day for Egypt.  Actually we read here that Egypt mourned Jacob for 70 days.   Almost the same importance as the Pharaohs, since royalty received just 72 days.  Flags at half-staff. 

And maybe something more.

Jacob the foreigner earned Egypt’s respect.  Now he has every right to go home.

 

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WORDS FROM THE HEART – “Vayigash”—Gen. 44:18-47:27 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Baruch

WORDS FROM THE HEART – “Vayigash”—Gen. 44:18-47:27 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          It is told of the sage called the Chofetz Chaim (“Desirer of Life”) that he once had to go to a Czarist official and plead for relief from a particularly harsh decree against the Jewish people.  Since the Chofetz Chaim spoke no Russian and the aristocratic official spoke no Yiddish, an interpreter stood waiting.  Once permitted to speak, the Chofetz Chaim delivered his message with all the feeling and sincerity that emanated from a heart as pure as his.  When he finished, a pregnant silence filled the room.  Then the interpreter started to speak: “Your honor, the Jew claims…”   Whereupon the Russian official raised his hand and said: “No translation will be necessary.  I understood.”  As a result of this meeting, the decree was revoked.

          Words from the heart, we are taught, enter the heart.  A classic example of such an effort colors this week’s Torah reading.   Joseph’s brothers stand before him, still unaware of who he is, while he knows them very well.  This is the second of three trips these men make from Canaan to Egypt.  One of the brothers, Simeon, was in custody as Joseph’s prisoner taken to make sure they came back.  Now he is free.  But Joseph could not resist using his power and his anonymity to them and played a cat–and-mouse game, ordering his servants to place his goblet in Benjamin’s bag and create an excuse to hold onto his little brother – the only full brother he has.  Last week’s reading ended with Joseph demanding that they leave Benjamin in his custody and they go back to their father.  

          Now we witness the development of Judah’s character, as he steps forward to plead with the man whom he knows only as the Viceroy of Egypt who of course speaks no Hebrew.   Emerging as family leader – even though he is not the firstborn – Judah describes his father’s dismay at losing the first son of his beloved Rachel, and now the dread of losing her other son.  “His soul is bound up with the lad’s soul,” says Judah.  He offers to stay in Benjamin’s place, and voices the awful thought that the old man will die when he sees his other sons return without Benjamin.  

          No interpreter gets a chance to speak.  Joseph cannot control himself.   He sends out the interpreters, the courtiers, all the attendants who surround him, and he faces his brothers in tears.  In fact he cries loud enough that he is heard throughout Pharaoh’s house.  But his message is for his brothers alone.  His Hebrew is heartfelt: “A-nee Yosef — I am Joseph.  Is my father still alive?”  Predictably, we learn that the brothers are nonplussed.  They cannot even answer him, even though now they are all speaking the same language.  So he asks them to come close to him, as he makes his true identity known to them.

          Why come close?  Commentators give interesting answers.  The Klee Yokor says he had to show them he was circumcised, as proof positive that he was one of them.  Speaking Hebrew was not enough.  After all, the Egyptian interpreter also spoke Hebrew. 

       The Or haHayyim says he needed them close enough to whisper to them, aware that his Egyptian advisors would be listening through the keyholes.  Certainly Joseph has plenty to tell his brothers, about how he is dealing with the famine, about the Land of Goshen where he plans to settle them, maybe even why he had to shave off his beard.  What he says here, however, concerns them directly: “Don’t think it was you who sent me here.  G-d sent me to prepare a refuge for our family.”

        Those words come from the heart.  How many discounted or ignored younger brothers in recent centuries crossed half a world to prepare a refuge for their families!  Courage like Joseph’s builds Jewish history.

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NOW WE KINDLE THE CANDLES – Hanukkah – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on December 12, 2017 by Baruch

NOW WE KINDLE THE CANDLES – Hanukkah – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          Haneyrot ha-lalu anakhnu madleekeen – My old Hanukkah record sings itself anew every year in Hebrew or in English or both.  The gifted Israeli bandleader and multimedia artist, David Yakobian, who made the original recording with me, remains my good friend.  Like other Jews the world over, we and our families look forward to celebrating these 8 days and the miraculous survival they recall.

Now we kindle the candles, remembering the days of old,
Lights full of myst’ry, lights full of history, 
Sparks from the battles brave and bold,
Blazing a story of ancient glory, 
Maccabees who fought to worship free, 
Still standing by us, old Mattathias
Calls “Ye faithful, come along with me.”
 
As each night we add one light, 
We add a prayer that freedom be for all,                          
So we know we keep them holy
Till the Eight are thrilling great and small.

          So we kindle the candles…  *

This year, as usual, we look for friends in other parts of the human race who can join in our celebration.   One historic event climaxed in Washington recently at the White House Hanukkah reception, as the U.S. Government officially acknowledged Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.  Thus a friendly administration agrees that Eer haKodesh – the Holy City – is central to Jewish life for some 3,000 years and to the modern Jewish State for at least 68.  How this decision will be implemented remains to be seen.  But all Jews can welcome the spirit of this policy, and join in lighting a candle.

          Remember the order of our candles.  We place them in the Menorah starting on the extreme right.  That’s the first night.  Every night after that, we add a candle, increasing by one each night and setting them in place from right to left.  Then we light them, from left to right.  Always light the new one first.  Every day is a new experience, hopefully a new miracle, a new prayer of gratitude for freedom. 

          Next Monday when eight flames send their combined message of joy to the world outside, let’s join in the faith that miracles from Heaven do not stop.  As our Maccabees found just enough oil to burn for one night – and it burned for eight – so let our world alliances and our religious and national strength live and increase. 

          She-hekhe-yonnu v’kee-y’monnu v’higiyonnu laz’man ha-zeh.  “Thank G-d for our life and our sustenance to reach this time.”

 

*Music for the song can be found in the book “Songs for my People” p.40  (available from this writer)

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