GOODBYE AND HELLO — by Rabbi Baruch Cohon – Vayeytzey

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Baruch
Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Rabbi Baruch Cohon                                              You can contact Rabbi Baruch Cohon for further discussion and/or comments at: baruch.c.2011@gmail.com

GOODBYE AND HELLO — by Rabbi Baruch Cohon – Vayeytzey Gen. 28:10 ff

          The very first word of this week’s Torah reading sparked a fascinating comment from Rashi.   That word is vayeytzey, “he went out.”  The Torah tells us that Jacob left Beer Sheba and went to Haran.  Since the Torah does not waste words, Rashi points out that what needed to be written here was only “Jacob went to Haran.”  To go to Haran he had to leave Beer Sheba, didn’t he?  So why do we read “Jacob went out of Beer Sheba?”

          Rashi’s answer teaches a lesson.  Namely,”when a righteous man lives in a city, he is its glory, he is its guiding light, he is its honor.  Once he departs, glory departs, light departs, honor departs.”

          Certainly a city will miss its most honored resident, male or female.  Rashi compares Jacob’s exit to that of Naomi and Ruth, mentioned in the book of Ruth 1:7.  To which the Midrash adds the comment of Rabbi Azariah: “The merit of one righteous person is incomparable to the merit of two righteous people.”   Depending on the individual, our decision to stay where we live, or to go somewhere else, can affect not only us but the place itself.  Moving has various results.

          An old Jimmy Durante comedy number went like this: “Did ya ever have the feelin’ that ya wanted to go, and still had the feelin’ that ya wanted to stay?”  I would guess that Jacob himself had both feelings.  And perhaps some people in Beer Sheba missed him and some did not.  But he had very little choice.  If he stayed in Beer Sheba he was in mortal danger from his violent brother Esau.  And while Haran was no bed of roses, given the machinations of his tricky prospective father-in-law Laban which we read about later, it did offer opportunities.

          So he went.  And starting from that trip, he succeeded in building the future of our people.  Later generations had equally momentous choices to make.  The Immigrant Generation – our parents and grandparents – had to leave places where they lived much longer than Jacob lived in Beer Sheba, and take a much longer trip than the few days to Haran.  They left countries where they lived for centuries and traveled by land and sea over half the world to America.  Whether it was Beer Sheba or Bialystok, maybe the places they left missed them; maybe they missed those places.  And maybe not.  And whether in Haran or Hartford, like our father Jacob, they built a brighter future.  For us.

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FIVE WORDS FOR HIM – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon – Toldos

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Baruch
Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Rabbi Baruch Cohon

You can contact Rabbi Baruch Cohon for further discussion and/or comments at: baruch.c.2011@gmail.com

FIVE WORDS FOR HIM – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon – Toldos (Gen.25:19-28:9)

          This week’s reading introduces an important character who will figure in Jewish history for generations, in fact centuries.  His name is Esau and we meet him even before he is born.  In the womb he and his twin brother Jacob are already fighting, causing their mother Rebecca some awful pain.  In fact they are still fighting during birth, as Esau manages to emerge first with Jacob plunging after him and grasping his heel.  Their relationship does not improve.  In fact they are described as opposites in  appearance, personality and behavior.   Esau is hairy, Jacob is smooth.  Esau spends his time in the hills, hunting and killing – both men and animals.  Jacob dwells in tents and spends his time learning and farming.

          Family relations get the effects of this contrast.  Isaac prefers his first-born, Esau, who brings him fresh-killed game.  Rebecca loves the quiet boy Jacob.  As Isaac ages, he loses his eyesight, which some rabbinic commentaries charge was the result of the effort to overlook Esau’s evil deeds.  Both he and Rebecca find bitter experience with the Canaanite women Esau marries.  And it is Rebecca who recruits her favorite Jacob to deceive the blind old Isaac into giving him the dying blessing he intended for Esau.

          Events following Isaac’s death find Esau and his sons and followers threatening and attacking Jacob and his family.  Esau’s nickname Edom (the Red One) became a name for Rome in later history, joining the violent tyranny of the Roman Empire to the memory of a primitive enemy.

          But perhaps the most telling description of Esau comes in five words we read when he sells his birthright to Jacob.  Bursting into Jacob’s tent all sweated up and famished– that’s famished=hungry, not farMisht (Yiddish for confused) — from a day chasing game in the hills, Esau finds his brother with a pot of porridge he just made from his crop of lentils.  Red lentils, apparently.

“Give me some of that red stuff!” says Esau.

“All right,” Jacob answers.  “Just trade me your birthright for it.”    We can imagine Esau’s reaction to that idea.  Like, HUH?

“Here I am dying of hunger.  What do I need with a birthright?”  So he makes the deal and sits down to the table.  Now here come those five words.  Says the Torah, “Esau ate, drank, stood, exited and despised the birthright.”

Portrait of a boor, in just five verbs.  Some enemies are smart, and some are like Esau.   Both can be dangerous.  Defeating them takes more than a birthright.

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MAKING A MATCH – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon – Hayyey Sarah

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Baruch
Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Rabbi Baruch Cohon

You can contact Rabbi Baruch Cohon for further discussion and/or comments at: baruch.c.2011@gmail.com

MAKING A MATCH – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon – Hayyey Sarah, Gen.23-25:18

          This week brings us the story of Eliezer the matchmaker.   Abraham’s major domo, Eliezer of Damascus, gets the problematic honor of travelling to his master’s birthplace to find a wife for Isaac.  Aided by prayer and miracle, he arrives at a watering hole.  And here comes a girl to draw water for the family’s evening meal.  He asks her for a drink from her pitcher.    “Drink, my lord,” she says, and even offers to draw water for his camels.  All 10 of them.  Eliezer is so impressed with this girl that he takes out a gold ring and two bracelets and puts them on her hands.  All this before he even asks her who she is.  Then when he learns she is in fact the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother he gives thanks to Abraham’s G-d.

          So who is this girl?  The Torah identifies her as Rivkah – Rebecca – daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah by Nahor the brother of Abraham, a “damsel very fair to look upon, whom no man had known.”

Rebecca finds the gifts pretty exciting and runs home to show her mother.  She also has a brother named Lavan, a fellow with as much greed as he has chutzpah.  He sees the jewelry and runs to the well.

Lavan shows up at the well and invites Eliezer to their home.  “Come to us,” he urges.  “I already cleaned the house and made room for the camels.”  So Eliezer accepts the invitation.  Once in their house, he asks them to send Rebecca back with him to marry Isaac.  Answering ahead of his parents, Lavan asserts that this event came from the Almighty and they cannot refuse.  So Eliezer gives him and his mother more gifts.  A sizeable bride-price, in fact.  Bethuel, the father, says nothing.  For him this is a deal.  A party follows, and a night’s lodging for Eliezer and his camels.

The next morning when Eliezer wants to take Rebecca and go, Lavan again speaks first.  “How about leaving her with us for a year – 10 months anyway—and then she can go.”  Our commentators point out that ancient custom called for a prospective bride to spend a year collecting jewelry to wear at her wedding.  But Eliezer objects.  “Don’t delay me.  I must return to my master.”

What can Lavan do?  Maybe he can sense his father looking at him, silently warning him not to blow the deal.

“We will call the girl in and ask her.”  And they do.

Rebecca agrees to go.  It is her decision.  So her family, including her brother, must take leave of her with a blessing: “Our sister, may you become thousands of myriads (10,000s)!”  In this scene, Rebecca sets a precedent for Jewish life to this day.  Two precedents, in fact.

First is the principle of permission.  “Call the girl in and ask her.”  No Jewish woman is to be given in marriage without her permission.  In times when women in other cultures were property to be bought and sold, Jewish women had rights.  Marital permission is certainly a basic right.

Second precedent concerns the veil, and hope for a fruitful future.  We read here that when Rebecca first sees Isaac, she jumps down off the camel and asks Eliezer who that man is.  Learning that it is her husband to be, she covers herself with a veil.  Ever since then, a Jewish bride wears a veil.  Today when she dons the veil before the wedding, it is done in a little ceremony called badek’n, and we bless her with the very words Rebecca’s family spoke:Akhoseynu aht ha-yee l’alfey r’vovoh – “Our sister, may you become thousands of myriads!”

Thousands?  Myriads?  How about millions?  Well, Rebecca did, didn’t she?

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WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon – Vayeyra

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Baruch
Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Rabbi Baruch Cohon

You can contact Rabbi Baruch Cohon for further discussion and/or comments at: baruch.c.2011@gmail.com

WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon – Vayeyra (Gen.18-22)

          This week’s Torah reading ends with the famous story of the Akeyda, the Sacrifice of Isaac, which of course never took place, but condemned the heathen practice of slaughtering children as offerings.  We had ample opportunity to discuss this story on Rosh Hashanah.

          Two other themes get exposed in the very first sentence of this week’s reading.   Easy enough to overlook, so let’s concentrate on those today.  Abraham is seated in front of his tent “in the heat of the day,” and gets a visit from G-d.   Our commentators learn some important lessons from this one sentence.

First of all, why this unannounced visit?  It was a Divine example of doing the right thing: carrying out the responsibility to visit the sick.   And why was Abraham sick?  Rashi quotes the Talmudic sage Rabbi Hama bar Hanina: “It was the third day after his Bris (his ritual circumcision, the first in history) and he was still in pain, so the Holy One came to express concern about his health.”  Bikkur kholim – visiting the sick – is indeed a sacred responsibility, a mitzvah, in Jewish life to this day.  In fact we have whole societies and institutions by that name.  When someone is ailing, the least we can do is show our concern.

Secondly, why was Abraham sitting outside his tent in the hot sun?  Because he was on the lookout for weary travelers, to offer them shelter.  Hospitality ranks with care for the sick as amitzvah.  The Mishna Peah tells us that these actions – hospitality to wayfarers and visiting the sick — are two of the ten things we can do that bear fruit in this world, while their principal extends to the next world as well.  Not just two of the 613 commandments received on Mount Sinai, but long before that, home hospitality and visiting the sick formed part of Abraham’s personality.  Qualities like those, personal help for other people, set an example for all of us to follow.

 Thank you, father Abraham.

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LOTS OF “LOT”S – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Baruch
Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Rabbi Baruch Cohon

You can contact Rabbi Baruch Cohon for further discussion and/or comments at: baruch.c.2011@gmail.com

LOTS OF “LOT”S – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          This week’s Torah reading includes parts of a story that is spread out over several chapters of the Book of Genesis.  It is the story of Abraham’s relationship with his nephew Lot.  Lot tagged along with Abraham and Sarah in their early travels to Canaan and Egypt and back.  Along the way he shared in Abraham’s success, acquiring herds and flocks, to the point where a fight broke out between their shepherds because “the land could not support them to dwell together (Gen.13:6)”.  So Abraham gives Lot a choice: “If you go to the left, I will go to the right, and if right I will go left.  We are brothers.”

 So Lot picks the fertile Jordan valley and settles in Sodom.  Yes, the famous Sodom, the city that gave its name to one form of sexual perversion.  That is not all.  Next week we will read about other evils that condemned Sodom.  But for now, Lot sees a chance for more prosperity and moves to it.

Then comes a war between nine of the ancient city-states – four local kings against five.  One of those five was the king of Sodom.  His side was losing.  The Big Four captured his people – including Lot.

When Abraham hears the news, he assembles his forces and goes after the conquering tribesmen, vanquishes them and rescues Lot and all the captured prisoners and their possessions.  At the victory party, the king of Sodom offers Abraham an unusual deal: “Give me the people and you take the spoils.”  In other words, I’ll take Lot – you take the loot.  Unexpected generosity, particularly in the Middle East, right?  Well, Abraham turns him down.  “I swore to the Creator of Heaven and Earth, that nothing from a thread to a shoe-string will I take from you.  You will never be able to say ‘I made Abram rich.’”  In fact he had already returned Lot and his people to their homes.  That was his only objective.

          What about Lot?  Was he some kind of tzadik, some great character that inspired Abraham to risk life and fortune for his sake?  Not hardly.  Our commentators indicate that he never stopped his shepherds from stealing pastureland and property from farmers in their neighborhood; that’s why they got into trouble with Abraham’s men who were behaving honestly.  And coming next week is the great episode of Lot’s adventures during and after the destruction of Sodom where he was living with his wife and two daughters.  Remember that one?

          The Divine messengers arrive in Sodom to warn Lot of impending calamity.   He invites them to spend the night at his house.  That night a gang of Sodomites threatens to break down his door to get at the visitors, and Lot offers the gang his daughters instead.   True, with Sodomites that probably wouldn’t appease them.  But the Divine messengers step in and blind the gang members nearest the door, discouraging the attack.  Then they spirit Lot and his family out of town.  As they climb the nearest hill, Sodom is destroyed by what reads like a volcanic eruption – definitely a supernatural event since the Jordan valley is very short of volcanoes – and Lot’s wife disobeys orders and looks back to watch the fireworks.   We never learn her name, but we do read her tragedy: she is turned into a pillar of salt!  So far as we know, Lot does nothing to try to save her.

          Afraid to stay in the nearby town of Zoar, Lot takes his daughters to the mountain and hides there.  Their husbands never made it out of Sodom because, as we read, they didn’t believe destruction would come.  So these two young women have no prospect of becoming mothers.  What they do have is wine.  So they feed their father enough wine to get him blotto, and proceed to engage in incest.

          No, Lot was no great man.  What he was, was Abraham’s nephew.  As such, he merited Abraham’s concern and action – to care for him, to fight for him and rescue him, to pray for Divine help for him.  In later Jewish history we have the principle of pidyon sh’vuyim – redeeming prisoners – as a great mitzvah.  We don’t judge them.  They are our people.  They could be in European DP camps, or Ethiopian villages, or Iranian jails.  They could be Talmud scholars or illiterate peasants.  They could be observant Jews or godless Communists.  We have a responsibility to help them.

          If we don’t, who will?

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