A GREAT SABBATH – Shabat hagadol – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Baruch

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A GREAT SABBATH – Shabat hagadol – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          The Sabbath just before Passover is traditionally called shabat hagadol – the Great Sabbath.  Why is this Sabbath greater than any other?  Same length, same rituals.  What’s different?

          Historically, of course, we could look back to Biblical times and observe that this was the last Sabbath our ancestors spent in slavery.  By next week they would be out of Egypt.  Free.  Likewise for us this Sabbath could be a day to anticipate the future freedom, when the Messiah will arrive to make the whole human race free.  So, appropriately, in the special Haftorah scheduled for this week, the last prophet, Malachi, speaks of the great prophet Elijah who will come to announce the Messianic age when the hearts of parents will turn to their children and the hearts of children to their parents.  Only a few thousand years we are waiting for Elijah to arrive and lead us to that future.  No wonder we open the door for him every Seder night.

          Very possibly this year we could learn something more from Malachi.   Reading his message on Shabat hagadol, think of the times he lived in.  Judging from his other preachings, we gather that many of his contemporaries rejected his message.  In fact they increasingly rejected G-d and the whole religious approach to life.  If they had a Pew report, it would probably show a majority of non-practicing Jews.  As Malachi quotes them, “it is vain to serve G-d!”  True, the Second Temple was standing and would stand for some five more centuries, but things happened slowly back then.  The people of Israel were losing interest in what it meant to be the people of Israel.    Malachi saw this and tried to wake their spirits.

          Gathering with our families this Seder night, can we fulfill his dream?  Can we turn generations to each other and to G-d, for family unity and Divine inspiration?  It’s worth a try.  Hag Sameach!

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BY A POWER OF FOUR – a Pesach power – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Baruch

BY A POWER OF FOUR – a Pesach power – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          It’s getting close to time for the Freedom Festival.   Pesach – Passover – is a favorite family gathering time for many Jews.  Statistically, we are told that more people observe Passover than any other Jewish holiday.  How thoroughly?  That’s a different question.  Do you clean the house, get rid of all khometz, change the dishes and pots, burn the leavened leftovers, and “sell” your khometz through a rabbi to a Gentile?  Do you invite respected guests to your Seder and read the entire Haggadah together, with its history of slavery and redemption, its songs and games and rituals as developed over 3,000+ years?   Do you give a prize for finding the Afikoman?   Do you open your door for Elijah the Prophet?

          Or do you just have a family meal?

          Whatever you choose from the full supply of traditional practices for this evening, chances are your choice will include some numbers.   One Seder song, saved till after dinner to keep the kids awake, starts with the question “Who knows One?”—Ehad mee yodeya?  Each number has a special significance.  One G-d, two tablets of the Covenant, three Patriarchs, etc.  But on Seder night, one number seems to dominate.  Four.  Throughout the evening, we express our celebration in fours:  4 Questions, 4 Cups of wine symbolizing the 4 promises of freedom, 4 Sons representing 4 varieties of Jewish characters, and 4 Mothers of Israel mentioned in the song.  The number itself acquires a special power.  Indeed Seder would seem to be the night of 4’s.

          Other numbers associate themselves with other occasions.   When we think of Hanukkah, the number 8 comes to mind—8 candles, 8 nights.  And of course every Bris takes place on the 8th day of a boy’s life.  Every week has 7 days.  And so do holidays like Passover and Succoth – although an 8th day is added to Passover outside of Israel, and the Succoth seven lead into Shmini Atzeret, the 8th day of Assembly.  13 is the age of majority for Jewish boys, but many families observe the age of 12 for their daughters.  Even at Seder we have other numbers: 15 steps in the ceremony; 10 plagues; 7 edible symbols on the Seder plate; Rabban Gamaliel’s 3 requirements – Pesach, Matzoh and Moror.  But all these numbers get mentioned just once.  That special number 4 comes up how many times?  That’s right, 4.   All things considered, the relation between Seder and the number 4 stands out as unique.

          What we can take with us after Seder is the power of 4 in our daily lives.  The rabbis in Pirkey Avot use that number to classify different kinds of human behavior. 

#1: Someone who says “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours” they say typifies a beynuni – a neutral personality.   The beynuni compares to the character of residents of Sodom the evil city, in other words one who does not care about other people.

#2: One who says “What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine” they call a boor –am ha-aretz.  In modern terms, a Communist. 

#3:“What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is yours” they praise as pious — a  Hasid, because he is willing to give what he owns to help others. 

But #4: “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine” they condemn as wicked – a rasha. 

Yes, that special number is with us every day.  4 seasons of the year…4 points of the compass…4 equal sides to a square…4 years of college…and particularly on Seder night, 4 promises of freedom:   G-d said “I will rescue you, I will bring you out, I will redeem you, I will take you to be My people.”  Each in our own way, we live with the power of Four. Have a happy and kosher Pesach!

Posted in Baruch Cohon, Four, Jewish, Jewish Blogs, Jewish Festivals, Passover, Pesach, Seder, Torah, Torah Study | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

SOCIAL QUARANTINE – Tazria – Lev. 12-13 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Baruch

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SOCIAL QUARANTINE – Tazria – Lev. 12-13 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon 

          Torah readings this week and next week rank among the least attractive passages in all the Five Books.  Of course if your field is medical history, you might find them fascinating.  For most of us, however, details about how to identify symptoms of leprosy don’t inspire us.  Our rabbis, with blessed ingenuity, did manage to discover a significant symbolism here, even in an otherwise repugnant subject.

          An individual who suffers from leprosy is called in Hebrew metzora, a leper. And this week’s reading, in Lev.13:45, mandates a procedure the leper must go through.  He must tear his clothes, as if in mourning, let his hair go wild, cover his upper lip (which the Talmud in tractate Moed Katan explains as having his cloth hood hang down to his mouth) and call out the words ta-MEY ta-MEY (Contaminated, contaminated!) warning others to stay away.  As long as the infection continues, he must pitch his tent outside the camp.  The net effect of all these requirements constitutes an ancient form of quarantine.  Recognizing a possibility of contagion, the Torah mandates a method to minimize the plague.

          But what causes someone to become a metzora?  Rabbinical interpreters take the word apart, and find offensive behavior: metzo ra = motzi shem ra – literally, bringing out a bad name.  In other words, slander.  Gossip leads to slander.  The slanderer becomes a moral leper, whether or not he is a physical leper.   Maimonides, being both a physician and a commentator, points out that this quarantine not only places the leper outside the camp to protect healthy people, but mandates that he must live alone, thus separating him from other lepers – or other gossips.  With no one to talk to, he cannot spread slander.  Gossip dies.  Infection is cured.

          We don’t know how well that system worked in Torah times.  But couldn’t we use it now?

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ALCOHOL AND TORAH – Sh’mini – Lev. 10 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Baruch

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ALCOHOL AND TORAH – Sh’mini – Lev. 10 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          This week’s Torah reading includes the story of Aaron’s two oldest sons, Nadav and Avihu, and their tragic mistake.  The words of the Torah tell a strange and supernatural story.  On the eighth day (sh’mini) of the new Tabernacle, after a solid week of sanctifying Aaron and his sons as priests to conduct the sacrificial worship, the first two of those sons take their fire-pans, put fire and incense in them, and ”bring them before G-d.”  But the fire they delivered was “strange fire,” not the consecrated fire from the altar.  As a result, a punishing flame “came out from before G-d and consumed them, and they died.”

          A challenging narrative, to say the least.  Were Nadav and Avihu experimenting with explosives?   Did the fire in their pans come from some polluted fuel?  Indeed, taken literally, does this mean that changing any detail of the religious ritual is a capital offense?

          Commentators faced this challenge in several ways.  The most accepted interpretation is based on the very next message Aaron gets from On High.   “Drink no wine or strong drink when you are coming into the Sanctuary, you or your sons.” This timing would indicate that Nadav and Avihu made their fatal mistake because they were DUI – delivering under the influence.  Aaron and his remaining sons have to take this as a grim warning against drinking before officiating.

          Do we learn from this story that the Torah is anti-alcohol?  Should we only make Kiddush over grape juice?  Not true.  Wine and liquor are often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, sometimes positively and sometimes conscious of their danger.  In the Psalms, King David sings “wine makes a man’s heart glad.”  On the other hand, when a Biblical man wanted to rise on the scale of holiness he took the Nazirite vow – no wine, no strong drinks.  Being prized for its pleasure, alcohol is also plagued by its power.

          How appropriate this subject is for this week.  Just a few days ago we celebrated Purim, the one holiday when a famous Talmudic statement tells us to drink until we can’t tell the difference between “blessed is Mordecai” and “cursed is Haman!”  And the next day our Irish neighbors toasted St. Patrick.   Is it the season?

          Of course not.  The bottom line in using alcohol, like the bottom line in other human activity, is balance.  Know your limit.  Know your body’s strengths and weaknesses.  And use discretion.  It’s pretty safe to say that most people can bring in the Sabbath or a holiday safely with a blessing over a cup of wine.  One cup.  But if you have any problem stopping at one, grape juice is just fine.  Just don’t forget thebracha – the blessing of the day.   No strange fire for us!

Posted in Aaron, Book of Leviticus, Shmini Atzeret, Tabernacle, Torah, Torah Study | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

SANCTUARY OR SLAUGHTERHOUSE – Tzav – Lev. 6-8 by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Baruch

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SANCTUARY OR SLAUGHTERHOUSE – Tzav – Lev. 6-8 by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          This week’s reading, like the bulk of the book of Leviticus, is full of specific regulations about sacrifices to be offered on the altar in the Tabernacle.  Those same sacrifices would later be offered on the permanent altars in Solomon’s Temple. Reading these regulations today, we cannot avoid the reaction that Aaron and his sons – and their descendants the Cohanim down through the centuries – were not only prayer leaders, but  also had to be skilled butchers.  Animal sacrifice was how man approached G-d in the ancient world, and the Torah details the pattern for that process.

          Ever since the destruction of the Temple, of course, Jews do not offer animal sacrifices.   The rabbis set a policy of t’filah bimkom korban – prayer replacing sacrifice.  By reciting our prayers, including a review of the ancient sacrificial ritual, they decided that we can earn credit for the same Mitzvos as if we offered the sacrifices ourselves. 

          Even before the destruction, we know that a synagogue occupied a spot on the Temple Mount.  So the leadership recognized the growing importance of spoken prayer.  Yet they insisted, as many still do, that when the Messiah arrives we will return to the sacrificial cult as described in Leviticus.

          What about the prophets?  How did the religious leadership respond to a man like Isaiah when he cries out in G-d’s name: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?… I take no delight in the blood of bullocks or lambs or he-goats.  Who required this of you, to trample My courts?”  Or Jeremiah’s outburst: “Thus says the L-rd… What purpose is the frankincense from Sheba and the sweet cane from a far country?  Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to Me… When I brought your fathers out of Egypt I did not command them concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices, but this thing I commanded them: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your G-d and you will be My people.”  Hosea, too, chimes in: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of G-d rather than burnt-offerings.”

          Were these Biblical prophets denying Leviticus, or rebelling against it?  Were they perhaps telling us that G-d does not need us to feed Him?

          For now at least, we cannot predict with any certainty what the Messiah might do about korbanot – physical sacrificial worship.  What we can do is to continue sincerely the historic development of stating our relationship to our Creator: t’filah bimkom korban – prayer replacing sacrifice.  Our ancestors brought the best they had, to please G-d, and incidentally fed the Cohanim who did the sacrificial work. Today Cohanim find other ways to make a living, but we all still have the same method of affirming our Jewish identity and destiny.  Let’s use it.

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