TAKING THE CONSEQUENCES — B’chukosai – end of Leviticus, and Jeremiah 16-17 — Torah blog by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Baruch

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TAKING THE CONSEQUENCES — B’chukosai – end of Leviticus, and Jeremiah 16-17 — Torah blog by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

This week we read the dire warning called the Tochacha. Our section begins with the blessings to be earned by following Divine teachings, then details the consequences of violating those teachings. Significantly, the blessings occupy just 11 verses. The curses, 30. And this is not the only such warning in the Torah, not even the most complete one. That occurs in Deuteronomy where it covers 53 verses. So let’s leave discussion of those curses for next fall, and look at the Haftorah of this week.

The prophet whom my philosopher-daughter once called “my friend Jeremiah” is noted in Jewish history as the man who witnessed the defeat of his nation and the destruction of the Temple, yet could still sing of hope. It is Jeremiah who envisions a time when all nations will accept G-d and acknowledge Truth.

He charges the kingdom of Judah with the sins of idolatry, corruption and the vanity of confidence in mere humans. “Cursed is the man who trusts in man,” he says. “He shall be like a tamarisk in the desert, and shall not see when good comes. He will inhabit…a salt land not fit to dwell in.” And then the reverse: “Blessed is the man who trusts in G-d… He shall be like a tree planted by the river, he will not see when heat comes but his foliage is luxuriant; he will not worry even in a year of drought, but will not cease bearing fruit.” He goes on to urge his people to earn their wealth honestly, and he warns them that violating their G-d-given principles will bring them to a fool’s end. As their folly brought on their defeat, so their nobility can bring blessing. And he leaves us with the prayer that we now repeat daily: “Heal me, G-d, and I shall be healed. Save me and I shall be saved, for You are my glory.”

After all the defeats, we can still hope with Jeremiah for a fulfilled future.

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PROCLAIM LIBERTY – B’har – Lev.25:1—26:2 by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Baruch

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PROCLAIM LIBERTY – B’har – Lev.25:1—26:2, by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

By far the most famous words in this week’s Torah reading are the ones engraved on the Liberty Bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.” Certainly an inspiring message for a newly independent nation! Actually, in their original context, they do not mandate anything political at all.

As we read this section, we see a society that is first of all agricultural and secondly hereditary. Ever since Joshua conquered the country, each family’s property was established, and was intended to remain that way permanently. No family farm could be legally pulled away from its ancestral owners. If one owner fell into debt for any reason, he could sell his crop to a wealthier tribesman, who would then operate his farm – but only until the next Jubilee year. And the Jubilee comes every 50 years, so if the farm is “sold” in year 30, the sale is only good for 20 years. So it is mandated in this reading.

Similarly, if a poor Jew in ancient Israel sold himself into indentured servitude, his master had to release him when the Jubilee year rolled around.

The Hertz commentary points out that these laws helped prevent the land and the people from becoming subservient to a privileged class. Less debt means more equality. The Torah does not state that, but it is worth considering.

Last week, we were instructed to count days. 7 days times 7 weeks for the time between Passover and Shavuot, which occurs on the 50th day. Now we get a parallel instruction to count years. Every 7th year is a Sabbatical, a year off for the land – too bad the land cannot spend that year in Hawaii – but after 7 Sabbatical years comes the Jubilee, which means no planting and no reaping for two full years, the 49th and the 50th. In this connection, the Torah promises a blessing on the 6th year of that cycle – effectively year #48 – that will see the land producing enough to feed its owners for 3 years. During the Jubilee year, says the Torah, you don’t need to work the land or bring in a harvest. Just “eat from the field.” Any field, whether it is legally yours or not. Questions about this custom abound. Did our ancestors really observe it? After all, the limitation on transfer of property only applied to agricultural property. A house in a walled city could be sold permanently. In Israel today, shmitah produce – what grows during the Sabbatical years – is banned for religious people, and you see labels that declare “not made with Shmitah ingredients.” Jubilee years present an even greater problem.

And now back to the Liberty Bell. We are instructed to announce the Jubilee year on Yom Kippur by sounding the Shofar. Why then? After all, the year started on Rosh Hashanah, 10 days earlier. And what kind of liberty are we proclaiming?

The sage Rabbi Isaac Abarbanel compared the Day of Atonement to the day Israel received the Torah. Just as accepting the Torah could free the people from the Evil Urge and its punishments, so Yom Kippur is the day of freedom from that old foolish vengeful enemy king called Satan, who is the Evil Urge, and all this is to remind each of us to keep the Day of Freedom always before our eyes.

What is our kind of liberty? No longer a year just to eat what we find because we must not grow crops. It is, this year and every year, individually and collectively, the vision of freedom from evil. And Yom Kippur will be the perfect day to proclaim it. Let that T’kiah g’dolah at the end of next Yom Kippur remind us: every year can be our spiritual Jubilee.

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IT’S A MITZVAH – Lev. 21-24 – Emor – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Baruch

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IT’S A MITZVAH – Lev. 21-24 – Emor – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Some three-quarters of a century ago, I read this week’s Torah section at my Bar Mitzvah, and this year for the first time one of the youngest members of our extended family will share it with me. It is one of those sections that seem highly appropriate for an occasion when one reaches the age to fulfill Mitzvos.

Here we learn about the ancient procedures in the Sanctuary, and how the cohanim – the priestly tribe – got their orders to offer the sacrifices. We also learn rules about how to treat ourselves, how to treat each other, and what constitutes honoring or desecrating the Name of G-d. We learn about the holidays, when they come and how to observe them. And we learn about relations with strangers (call them foreigners, aliens — or maybe illegal immigrants?) We also read penalties to be exacted for different violations of the law. For example: “One who kills an animal must pay for it. One who kills a man must die.” And a caution: “You shall have one law for the stranger and the native.” No distinction, even though the alien was held responsible only for the Seven Mitzvos of Noah – not the 613 of Israel.

So what’s a Mitzvah anyway? What did I acquire when I read this section and got congratulated?

If I did it well, I could be told that I “earned a Mitzvah.” Of course, if I helped an old lady to cross the street I could be told the same thing. So, is a Mitzvah a Good Deed?

It’s that and much more. Just one sentence in this week’s reading, Chapter 22 verse 31, says it clearly: “Keep my Mitzvos and do them; I am G-d.” Our Mitzvos are our responsibilities. Not just a voluntary good deed, but a sacred responsibility. We hold them sacred because they come from G-d. Sometimes they are easy, and sometimes not. But they are worth doing. Earning credit for a Mitzvah indicates that you accomplished two things: carried out a responsibility that might benefit someone else, and also built your own character a little higher, a little stronger. Mitzvos give meaning to our lives. Let’s do them and enjoy them.

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BE HOLY BECAUSE G-D IS HOLY? — D’var Torah on K’doshim — by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Baruch

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BE HOLY BECAUSE G-D IS HOLY? — D’var Torah on K’doshim — by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Coming right after Passover, this Torah portion challenges us.  We just celebrated our freedom from ancient slavery, and welcomed Elijah’s promised heralding of a great time to come.  Now we resume the narrative of Israel’s trek toward the Promised Land.  Moses continues teaching the people all the laws based on the revelation at Sinai.  And here comes something really basic.  “Be holy.”  What is holiness?

The Hebrew word “kadosh” signifies something reserved, set aside, special.  If it is set aside for a sacred purpose, it is accurately translated “holy.”  So how are we to become holy?  The first sentence of this week’s reading says “be holy because G-d is holy.”  So we should follow the Divine example.  “Imitatio Dei” is the Latin term for the same idea.  But now comes a problem.  The second sentence goes Into detail: “Each of you, revere your mother and your father.”  How’s that again?  Does G-d have parents?

Next, “Keep the Sabbath.”  And a number of negative commandments, starting with “Do not practice idolatry,” and later, significantly, “Do not completely harvest  your field, but leave a corner for the poor and the stranger.”  The qualities of holiness begin to add up.  “Don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t deceive each other. And don’t swear falsely, profaning G-d’s name.”  Prime clues to our character concern how we treat each other. “Don’t curse the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind.”  Consideration of this kind, say our rabbis, also applies beyond physical misdeeds, and includes economic or intellectual “tripping” someone who is less savvy.

How we dispense justice is a measure of holiness, says the Torah.  “Don’t favor the poor, and don’t honor the ‘gadol’ — the Big Shot, the aristocrat, but judge your fellow ‘b’tzedek’– fairly.”  Notice that the description of fair judgment uses “tzedek” the word for “righteousness.”  The same Hebrew root-word “tz’dakah” also means “charity.”  Tying concepts like these together helps to approach holiness.

“Don’t oppress the stranger…treat him like one of your own…for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  “Keep honest weights and measures.”  And one climactic sequence: “Do not be a talebearer among your people, and don’t stand idly by your neighbor’s blood.  I am the L-rd.  Don’t hate your brother in your heart; reprove your neighbor, but don’t bear sin because of him…  Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The last of these principles gets quoted most often, and raises a question of its own.  It seems to mandate equality.  It assumes that you love yourself.  Therefore if you lack self-respect, what value does your regard have for  your neighbor?

Of course, the reading does not stop  here.  It goes on to define proper and invalid religious ceremonies.  It also mandates penalties for violating Torah laws on family relations, dietary standards and sexual contacts.

We must conclude that this is not “imitatio Dei.”  Whatever we may individually believe about G-d, we cannot imagine that He has any of these problems.  So when the Torah says “be holy because G-d is holy,” what can we learn from it?  Try this idea: G-d is described as “holy” in our tradition.  G-d is beyond human understanding, but has revealed a way of life to Moses and our other teachers.  To the extent that we can follow that way of life, we can attain some degree of that holiness.  Not the kind of personality popularly derided as a “holy Joe,” (too often a synonym for hypocrite) but the upright, honest, fair, considerate and positive human being that we truly respect.  We might not altogether reach that goal, but hey — isn’t it worth a try?

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PASSOVER PORTIONS – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Baruch

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PASSOVER PORTIONS – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          Biblical portions we read during the week of Pesach are every bit as tasty as the edible portions on our Seder plates.  And they offer real variety.

The first day, of course, we review the story of the original Exodus – starting with the plague of the first-born, during which the Egyptian public saw that no Hebrew children died.  In fact, here we see the origin of this holiday’s very name.  By putting blood on the doorpost – the mezuzah – our ancestors signaled the Destroyer (call him an Angel of Death) that this was a Jewish house, and he would pass over – pasach – that house and hit the Egyptians.  So they were ready to give the slaves all kinds of things to encourage them to leave the country, and a whole crowd of Egyptians even followed the Hebrews out. 

On the Intermediate Sabbath, Shabat Khol haMo-ed, we read Moses’ prayer and G-d’s answer.  Key words here dramatize conditions and attitudes that mark our history.  What Moses asks for his people is v’nifleenu – “let us be distinguished from all the other nations.”  In return, he gets the message: “you have found favor in My eyes… I will show you my goodness, and will call the Divine name before you; and I will favor those whom I will favor, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.”   But somehow politics enters even such a lofty scene, as the Divine voice warns Moses: “Watch yourself, lest you make a treaty with those who inhabit the land I am giving you, for [the treaty] can become a trap in your midst.”

In the Haftorah, the prophetic reading for that day, Ezekiel proclaims his vision of the dry bones, brought back to life by Divine power and destined to be returned to “the soil of your land.”  Reading this vision today, we cannot help thinking of Holocaust survivors rebuilding modern Israel.

The Seventh Day finds us singing the Song of the Sea, Shirat haYam, celebrating our ancestors crossing the Red Sea “on dry land” and turning to see the pursuing Egyptian chariots sink in the churning waves.  Is that miracle hard to believe?  Consider that just a few years ago some archeologists found a raised sandbar under the Red Sea, and what did they discover there but the gold covers of Pharaoh’s chariot wheels.   The wooden wheels themselves were long since decomposed, but the gold “hubcaps” survived! 

Perhaps the most beautiful of all these famous and dramatic readings is in neither the Torah nor the Prophets.  Each festival has a megillah – a scroll – from the third part of the Bible called K’tuvim – the writings.  Most familiar of these scrolls, of course, is Megillat Esther that we read just a few weeks ago for Purim.  But the one chosen for Pesach, traditionally read in most congregations on the Intermediate Sabbath, is Shir haShirim – the Song of Songs, credited to King Solomon.  Most emotional of all love songs, with female lines and male lines, romantic and graphic and idyllic, the verses of this Megillah truly belong in the spring, the season of Pesach, when “the rains are over and done, flowers appear on the earth and the time of singing has come.”  After all, the Torah calls this month not Nisan, the name we use, but Aviv – Spring.  So our rabbis adjusted our lunar calendar to make sure Pesach always occurs in the spring.  Some commentators interpret the love expressed in Shir haShirim as representing both the passion of man and woman, and the devotion of G-d and Israel.  Certainly this song, its ancient poetry and gentle melody, should be a major highlight of the Pesach week.  In the spring the synagogue, like a young man’s fancy, turns to thoughts of love.

So you have a few days to recover from Seder.  Enjoy King Solomon’s love song this Shabat!

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