YOUR CHILDREN WILL ASK – Passover questions – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Baruch

Screen Shot 2013-11-05 at 11.26.08 AM

YOUR CHILDREN WILL ASK – Passover questions – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Questions and answers can lead to knowledge. On Passover, and particularly on Seder night and in the next morning’s Torah reading, they set the unique tone of our holiday of freedom.

Exodus 12:26, which we read on both occasions, predicts this pattern: “It will be, when your children will say to you ‘What does this service mean to you?’” The Torah does not identify the questioner. But the Hagadah does. It calls him rasha, the wicked son. He says lachem – “to you,” not to him. Therefore in the Hagadah we are told to “set his teeth on edge” by quoting a line from the next chapter of Exodus: “Because of what G-d did for me when I came out of Egypt” and stresses “for me and not for him, because if he was there he would not be redeemed.” Thus the father is expected to rebuke his rebellious son for excluding himself from the family observance. The original response in the Torah, however, is different. On Pesach morning we will read: “You will say ‘This is a Passover offering to G-d who passed over the Israelite houses when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our homes.’” Why the difference? Why two different answers to the same question?

In a discussion of this topic covering several pages, the great commentary called the K’li Yokor – the “Vessel of Value” – building on doubts raised by Abarbanel, offers three pathways to answer the Wicked Son. Pathway #1 defines the following Torah verse as a general statement, not directed at anyone in particular. It just identifies a Passover offering. Besides, it is phrased in the plural, and could be directed to a whole movement of denial, “many straying children who want to stop the people from serving G-d.” Today we don’t call them straying children; that would be politically incorrect. We call them humanists, atheists, secularists, Communists, etc. But the message is there.

Pathway #2 characterizes the answer as directed to misguided interpreters. They say this whole observance is not for G-d, it’s for you! You are the ones who are eating and drinking. Therefore the Hagadah stresses the answer with the words “set his teeth on edge.” A quiet answer is easily digested, but a harsh answer is like tough sinews in the meat and sets the teeth on edge. The verse “Say that this is G-d’s Passover offering” would mean to the wicked son that only because of the offering was Israel redeemed. The Egyptians who did not bring the offering were struck with the plague of the firstborn. Now the wicked son admits that if he was there he would not participate in the offering. So he gets the harsh answer, his teeth are on edge, and his father follows with the message “for me and not for him.”

Pathway #3 points out that the same answer is given to both the wicked son and the infant who does not know how to ask. Only the added words “for me and not for him” are reserved for the wicked son. Therefore it would be proper to give the wicked son both answers. The quiet quote: “This is G-d’s offering” in the attempt to draw him in to the observance, and the harsh “what G-d did for me – not for him” to set his teeth on edge.

Like the K’li Yokor, we look for pathways to answer the challenges of our generation. One prominent rabbi caused a furor some years ago when he proposed the view that the Exodus story as we know it is fiction. Many people left his congregation in anger. What they missed was his message that if you went through the whole Seder and shared a sacred joy with your family, then “it happened for you.” In other words, our children all deserve both answers to their Passover questions, the soft and the harsh. Think about it. If you were there, would you be redeemed?

Posted in Jewish Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

INAUGURATION DAY – “Tzav” – Lev. 6-8 by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Baruch

Screen Shot 2013-11-05 at 11.26.08 AM

INAUGURATION DAY – “Tzav” – Lev. 6-8 by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

No parade. No speeches. No wildly cheering crowd. This is not the coronation of a king or the inauguration of a president. This is a dedication of a high priest and his assistants.

This week we will read how Moses inaugurated his brother Aaron and sons as priests in the newly completed Tabernacle. First the necessary sacrifices are detailed. Then Moses assembles his brother and nephews, washes them, gives them their special clothes, and performs the ceremony. He assembles the people at the door of the Tent to witness this event. He applies holy oil to the furniture of the Tabernacle, sprinkles it seven times on the altar, and anoints the head of Aaron as High Priest. He then brings in Aaron’s sons and dresses them.

Then come the sacrifices. A bullock and two rams, each has special significance. The bullock is a sin offering. The first ram is “olah” – literally a burnt offering, but the word also means “rising,” directing human thoughts upward, rising to heaven with the smoke. And the second ram is “millu-im” – completion. During this whole ceremony, we might find it surprising that Aaron and his sons do not lead it. All they do is place their hands on the head of the sacrificial animal before it is slaughtered. Moses does all the work. Only when the rites are completed does he give his nephews instructions about cooking the meat and where to eat it. They will stay in the Tabernacle for a full week, and work into their duties.

This ceremony consecrated the hereditary priesthood – the cohanim –for all of Jewish history to come. So we will read the account of slaughtering animals, and which parts were burned, which parts eaten, and how the blood was used to sanctify the priests – a drop on the right ear-lobe, a drop on the right thumb, a drop on the right big toe. Quite graphic.

Obviously this is not how we practice our religion today. After the Temple was destroyed, the rabbis set a principle: Prayer replaces sacrifice –t’filah bim’kom korban. They included descriptions of the ancient sacrifices in the prayerbook, and taught that repeating those descriptions qualifies us as if we performed the sacrifices. Some Jews still anticipate building the Third Temple and restoring the sacrificial cult. Others deny that plan, consider it barbaric. And many realistic traditionalists, even though continuing to read about the sacrifices in the prayers, will simply wait for the Messiah and let him decide what rites to perform in the Third Temple.

Certainly we are now asked to sacrifice for many good causes. Our sacrifices are not slaughtered animals, but some of them can truly qualify as a korban. Because the Hebrew word for sacrifice, korban, comes from the same 3-letter root as the word karov – “near.” Through the ages, our sages stress that point. In Hasidus, to be m’korev someone is not to sacrifice them but to bring them near, to involve them in Jewish life. A selfless act of devotion can bring us near to G-d and to each other. Sharing our food with the hungry, helping those who have no help, teaching those who need to learn, and joining in prayer with any 9 Jews who need a Minyan – are just a few ways we can fulfill the Mitzvah of sacrifice today.

We don’t even need holy oil.

Posted in Jewish Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on INAUGURATION DAY – “Tzav” – Lev. 6-8 by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

NISAN, MONTH OF FREEDOM – “Shabat Hachodesh” — by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Baruch

Screen Shot 2013-11-05 at 11.26.08 AM

NISAN, MONTH OF FREEDOM – “Shabat Hachodesh” — by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

This week we will begin reading the Book of Leviticus, with all its detailed descriptions of sacrificial worship. We will also be observing the “Sabbath of THE Month” – Shabat haChodesh—and reading the special section added for this occasion, Exodus 12:1-20, a particularly significant passage for a few reasons.

First, this section sets up the order of the Jewish calendar which we still follow. “This month for you is the head of the months, the first of the months of the year.” This month’s name is Nisan and we will announce its arrival, to take place in just a week. Even though we count our years as beginning in the fall, we start naming our months in spring, from Nisan on.

Second, this section alerts us to prepare for Passover, the holiday of freedom. It recalls the physical and spiritual drama that our ancestors experienced when leaving Egyptian slavery.

Third, this section instructs us in the process of perpetuating the Exodus celebration in the present and the future.

Personally, I also find special significance in this section that a son of mine chanted at his Bar Mitzvah.

Initially this section concerns the special sacrifice – the Paschal lamb. “Take one lamb for each household. And if the household is too small to consume the lamb [in one evening], join with your neighbor [and share a lamb]…each according to what that person can eat.” We might note that the Torah sets no minimum or maximum on individual appetites. It’s neither “hold back!” nor “ess, ess, mine kind.” Rashi quotes the Mechilta explaining that the ill, the infants and the aged family members who cannot eat even as much as an olive (the minimum size portion) cannot be counted when dividing the lamb’s meat.

When slaughtering the lamb, they were commanded to take some of its blood and put it on the lintel and the doorposts of their house, to alert the destroying angel that this was the home of Israelites. Not an Egyptian house that was to be visited with the fearful Tenth Plague – the death of the firstborn. Some commentators develop a teaching about that blood. Later in the chapter comes the commandment: “No uncircumcised male may eat of it.” Since many Israelite slaves were not circumcised, that meant they would have to have a quick Bris in order to partake of the Paschal Lamb. And their blood could be combined with the lamb’s blood to form the signal on the doorpost. Human and animal blood join to herald freedom.

We continue to read the detailed rules of how to cook the lamb (or goat, by the way, either was acceptable): roast it whole, don’t boil it or eat any of it raw, and combine it with Matzoh and bitter herbs. (All processes we still follow at our Seder meals.) Also what to wear at that feast: travelling clothes – tie your belt, put your shoes on, and keep your walking stick in your hand – because you must be ready to go!

Indeed our people found themselves in that double situation many times throughout history – celebrating the heritage, and ready to go. Indeed many of us still do. What will empower Pesach for endangered Jews this year – in France or Ukraine or Iran – should be the hope that their imminent travel will take them to freedom.

Keyn y’hi ratzon – may this be G-d’s will.

Posted in Jewish Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

CALL HIM INDISPENSABLE – “Vayak-hel Pikudey” – Ex. 35-40 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Baruch

Screen Shot 2013-11-05 at 11.26.08 AM

CALL HIM INDISPENSABLE – “Vayak-hel Pikudey” – Ex. 35-40 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Constructing the first Jewish house of worship called for special attention, special materials and special skills. Also, special design. Remember, this has to a portable sanctuary, carried on the priests’ shoulders all the way to the Promised Land. This week, we will read first an impressive list of the materials, all to be brought as freewill offerings – gold, silver, brass; blue, purple and scarlet dyes; lambskins and goat’s hair and specific precious stones; oil for the lamps and spices for the incense. Then come the skilled workers volunteering their labor to take these materials and create everything from the Ark and its cover to the pillars and sockets and screens for the exterior. Goldsmiths and silversmiths go to work alongside the ancient carpenters and masons. Women spin the wool and linen, and the specialists among them spin the goat’s hair. Tailors and seamstresses sew the priestly clothing. Who did all this? “Every man and woman whose heart made them willing to [do] all the work.” Truly an outpouring of popular devotion.

But there still was no Tabernacle. Not until one man enters. His name is Betzalel. We first met him back in chapter 31, where he is described as someone Divinely favored with khokhma, binah, v’daas – wisdom, understanding and knowledge. These are the same three qualities we seek daily in our prayers, and their initials spell Chabad, the name of the well-known worldwide Chassidic movement. Yet Betzalel does not function as a religious leader. He has the talent to “think thoughts” – not philosophy, but construction. He understands all about woodworking, metalworking and weaving. And it will be his job to put them all together. He and his helper, one Oholiab, are also gifted with the ability to teach all those skilled workers what to do. And so in the concluding chapters of Exodus we find Betzalel in charge. He builds it – not one detail, but all the parts of the Tabernacle – getting credit for everything constructed by the entire crew.

Today we’d call him an architect. He designed the Tabernacle by Divine inspiration, and he supervised its construction through his own knowledge.

As Betzalel’s design proved vitally necessary to build the Tabernacle, so each of us needs to call on our own life-design. Our Torah and tradition can provide that. Each of us can supplement it with special training – classes, parental example, personal experience. But the overall design – the architect that is our heritage – that is what we all need.

Like Betzalel, call it indispensable.

Posted in Jewish Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

AMALEK RETURNS — a Purim Blog by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Baruch

Screen Shot 2013-11-05 at 11.26.08 AM

AMALEK RETURNS — a Purim Blog by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Before we take that first Purim drink, let’s read the Torah. What passage do we read on Purim? Vayavo Amalek – the story of a battle our ancestors fought in the desert on the way out of Egypt, a battle against a hateful and cowardly enemy tribe called Amalek. Time and again they attacked from the rear, killing the stragglers, the weakest of the trekking Israelites. Finally at a place called Rephidim they got punished. Of course they did not quit harassing Israel. After our ancestors settled in the Land and Saul became king, there was more warfare with Amalek.

So what does all this have to do with Purim? The battles with Amalek predated the Purim story by a few centuries. But the connection is there. Haman, the Purim villain, is identified in the Megillah as the son of Hamdassa the Agagite. Agag was the king of Amalek, the defeated chieftain whom the prophet Samuel kills in last week’s special Haftorah for Shabat Zachor, the Sabbath of Memory which always precedes Purim. So the rabbis logically taught that Haman was descended from Amalek.

Indeed he was. Likewise Amalek’s spiritual descendants. Titus, Torquemada, Chmelnitzky, Hitler, Arafat – to name just a few. Destroying Israel was Amalek’s goal, a goal not limited to one locality or one kind of weapon. Haman brought it to Persia. And built a 75-foot gallows to hang Mordecai.

Now Amalek returns to Persia. The current descendants don’t use gallows – or crucifixes or gas chambers or UN committees. They plan to use atom bombs.

Could Queen Esther help her people now? Recently someone compared Bibi Netanyahu’s speech to Congress to Esther’s plea to King Ahasuerus, pointing out that both were technically violations of protocol. Esther’s maneuver, reluctant though she was to try it, worked. Will Bibi’s?

Check the Megillah. Even after condemning Haman to die on the gallows he built, Ahasuerus refuses to cancel his edict setting a date for mass murder of Jews. What he does, however, is arm the Jews and give them a chance to defend themselves. This they do with great success, once again defeating Amalek. Essentially, isn’t that what Bibi seeks?

No, Bibi is no Queen Esther. And the authority he faces, although historically an ally, is no King Ahasuerus. After all, the king loved Esther. He listened to her, protocol notwithstanding. Bibi deals with a chief executive who will not face him, let alone listen to him. All the protocol talk smacks of a political excuse to mask personal hatred. Amalek returns. And once again our people is in serious danger. But we will survive. No enemy can finally prevail. We believe in miracles.

More than ever, we should celebrate this Purim. Drown out Haman’s name with those groggers. Drown your worries with another L’hayyim – could be non-alcoholic if you prefer! And let our Purim performances show Amalek that nobody can destroy our sense of humor. That is definitely a Purim miracle.

As the old song goes, Haynt is Purim, brider, es is a yomtov grois! Today is Purim, brothers, a great big holiday! Enjoy it.

Posted in Jewish Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment