354 DAYS AT A TIME – Emor by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Baruch
Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Rabbi Baruch Cohon

354 DAYS AT A TIME – Emor – Lev.21-24

          You probably heard about the fellow who decided to become an atheist.  He left his family’s house of worship and turned his back on religion.  But then a few weeks later, he came back. 

          “You changed your mind?  How come?”

          “Atheists have no holidays.”

          This week’s Torah reading outlines the Jewish calendar, which provides our annual cycle of holidays both serious and upbeat, and all sanctified by faith.  Indeed, Judaism as a way of life is closely connected with the calendar.  That connection goes back to our origins.   Moses reminded us that we left Egypt in the spring month.  Count 49 days – 7 weeks from the Exodus, and we reach Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah and become a nation.  And here in Leviticus 23 we go on to detail the dates of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Succoth – New Year, Day of Atonement, and the Harvest festival, all in the fall.

          So why is New Years Day celebrated on the first day of the seventh month?  Precisely because Nisan, the month that includes Passover, is the month of freedom, and is specifically designated as the first month of the year in the very story of the Exodus.  The Talmud (in tractate Rosh Hashana) lists four “new years days” every year: one for kings, one for numbering years, one for planting trees and one for tithes.  In our urban culture, of course, we generally limit our ceremonial New Year to the 1stof Tishri.  That is the day we change the number of the year.

          As we all know, the Jewish calendar, like the Chinese, is based on the moon.  354 days on average, instead of the 365 of the solar calendar.  That causes considerable variety in how Jewish holidays compare with those of our neighbors.  In 2011, for example, Hanukkah coincided with Christmas.  This year it coincides with Thanksgiving.  And next year?  Halloween maybe?

          No way.  Because, 7 times in every 19 years, the Jewish calendar adds a month during the spring, forming a leap year that resolves the lunar-solar difference.  An ancient scholar named Shmuel who headed the academy in a Babylonian town called Nehardea was responsible for much of the development of the calendar used today.  The Talmud describes him as a man who knew the orbits of the planets as well as he knew the streets of Nehardea.  This self-taught astronomer laid the groundwork for a system that gives Jews the world over the opportunity to celebrate their holidays at the same time.  In the days of much slower communication, they had to add a day to the holiday if they lived outside of Israel, in order to make sure they were all observing the occasion together. Hence we still have the Second Day of many festivals in traditional Diaspora communities but not in Israel.   A notable exception to this rule is Rosh Hashana itself, the New Year, which is observed for two days in Israel too.  It is not considered an “exile holiday” (yomtov sheyni shel goluyos) but the two days are called “one long day” (yoma arikhta).  One more opportunity to hear the call of the Shofar!

          With all its complex history, the Jewish calendar constitutes a sacred schedule giving us colorful special days that add meaning to all the grey weekdays of our lives.

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WHO’S HOLY? – Ahrey Mot K’doshim by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Baruch

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WHO’S HOLY? – Ahrey Mot-K’doshim Lev. 16-20 by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          Just as they did last week, this week synagogue Torah readings cover two sections.  They get combined except during leap years.  In fact, they go together well.  Last week’s double bill concentrated on the issues of purity and contamination.  This week we read about laws and penalties.

          First, however, the Torah lays out the conduct of the Yom Kippur service in the ancient sanctuary, including the sacrificial offerings, the conduct and clothing of the High Priest, and of course the scapegoat ritual. 

Then come some detailed directions for slaughtering, preparing and eating meat.  One outstanding provision is not to eat the blood.  No “steak juice” cocktails allowed.  Consuming an animal’s lifeblood had idolatrous associations, and we are told to pour it on the ground like water.

The remainder of the first section details actions to be avoided, citing them as typical of the corruption of Egypt.  Included here are prohibited degrees of sexual contact, from incest to bestiality and, yes, homosexual relations.  Polluting the Promised Land with such conduct would cause the land to “vomit you out, as it did the nation who was there before you.”

Warnings and prohibitions are not enough. The second section, called K’doshim – “Holy ones” – sets out penalties for violating these laws.  We don’t find any prison time mentioned here.  No fines, either.  Minor infractions call for burnt offerings.  Major violations incur execution or ostracism. Torah law may not be politically correct.  Too bad.  But what does all this strict punishment have to do with holiness?

In its very special way, the Torah defines Holiness before even going into detail about punishment.  To be holy does not mean setting yourself apart from human society and its temptations.  No ivory tower.  Just the opposite, in fact.  Holiness requires that we deal justly and respectfully with each other.  Honor your parents.  Keep the Sabbath.  Pay a day-worker before nightfall.   Do not deceive your neighbor or lie, and never swear falsely because that is blasphemy. Do not curse the deaf, or place a stumbling block in the path of the blind. 

Judges may well note the ruling: “Do not favor the person of the poor and do not glorify the person of the mighty.  Judge your neighbor with justice.”  Principles like those apply to non-court situations too, as we read about relations with someone whose actions you disapprove: “Do not hate your brother in your heart.  Rebuke him, and do not bear sin because of him.”

Perhaps the most down-to-earth expression of holiness is this: “Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge against one of your people.”  The classic examples of this disapproved conduct goes this way: Vengeance is when you ask to borrow your neighbor’s axe and he refuses; then next week he asks to borrow your ladder and you refuse, saying “You wouldn’t lend to me, so I’m not lending to you.”  A grudge is when he refuses to lend you his axe, but when he comes to borrow your ladder you say: “Sure, here it is.  You see?  I’m not like you!”

Most famous of all the holiness teachings is the line “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  To me, this means that first you need some self-love.  If I have no respect for myself , what value is my love for my neighbor?  Of course, the process goes both ways.  By building a habit of treating other people right, we can also take some pride in our own lives.

Who is holy?  Potentially, you and I.

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

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CONTAMINATED -Tazria-Metzora by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Baruch

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CONTAMINATED! – Lev. 12-15 Tazria-Metzora – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          Some tribal societies have medicine men who treat physical ailments with mystery cures. Ancient Israel left that function to the cohanim, the priests, Aaron and his descendants.   The Book of Leviticus prescribes the treatments in three of the less pleasant chapters in the Torah.  Most of these treatments involve declaring the patient to be taMEY – contaminated.  That condition could last for a day, or could go on for months.  Sometimes that condition just meant that the patient could not enter the sanctuary and was prevented from eating sacrificial meat.   The most dreaded of diseases was leprosy, and its treatment is the most extreme.  One device used is familiar to us today as quarantine.  The leper had to pitch his tent outside the main camp, must wear torn clothes, let his hair hang loose, cover his upper lip and cry out taMEY taMEY – “Contaminated, contaminated!” — thus warning people to stay away from him.

          Surprisingly enough, this entire section starts with a law that is not about disease, but about childbirth.  When a woman conceives and bears a son, we are told, she is considered to be contaminated by the blood she has shed.  This condition lasts one week, the same length as her menstruation.  Then she takes a ritual bath, and by most rabbinical opinions she can and should resume relations with her husband.  But she is not to enter the sanctuary for another 33 days, after which she brings an offering to the sanctuary and the cohen declares her pure.  When the baby is a girl, the length of her contamination is doubled – 14 days before the bath and 66 days thereafter. Theories about this difference are varied, but it would seem to place special importance on the birth of a female who will grow up to experience the monthly cycle, and some day may also bear a new life.  

          So how do we move from the joy of new life to the plague of leprosy?  Contamination – tum’ah — is the key word.  It can affect the healthy mother, or the suffering patient.  It can even afflict the house we live in and the clothes we wear.  While the Torah’s remedies have no obvious connection to modern science, we get the definite message that sometimes we cause our own contamination.  In fact, the rabbis note, the word for a leper – metzora – is a contraction of the words motzi shem ra,which means “bringing out a bad name,” that is, slander. 

          Whether it starts as thoughtless gossip or as deliberate character assassination, loshon hora –the evil tongue – contaminates our lives.  No cohen and no medicine man can cure it.  It was the great Maimonides who wrote that the evil tongue destroys three people: the one who spreads the bad report, the one who is the subject of it, and the one who listens to it.  The only antidote is prevention.  If we fail to prevent it, if we participate, we might do well to cover our upper lip and cry “Contaminated!”

          Throughout this week’s reading we learn how the cohen must examine the patient, or the clothing or the house, and if he finds the plague cleaned up, he pronounces the verdict tahor –“pure.”  So let it be said of us.

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THE POWER OF EIGHT Sedrah Shmini by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Baruch

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THE POWER OF EIGHT – Sedrah Shmini, Lev.9 – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

          It happened on the eighth day.  Following the seven days of consecration for Aaron and his sons the priests, they had to bring an offering into the newly dedicated Tabernacle in the desert.  What’s so special about the eighth day?

We tend to think of 7 as a sacred number.  Seven Biblical days of creation, seven days of the week, seven heavens, etc.  But 8 has its own power. Remember the one-day jar of sacred oil that miraculously burned for eight days for the Maccabees, giving us the 8 days of Hanukkah.  Of course Succoth is a seven-day holiday, but the 8th day is an occasion of its own called Shmini Atzeret – the Eighth Day Assembly, when we observe the change of seasons and pray for rain and mark our memories of loved ones.  And it is on the eighth day of a Jewish boy’s life that he enters the Covenant of Abraham.  In fact, the Kli Yokorcommentary points out that if that boy’s 8th day happens to coincide with a Sabbath (each week’s number 7), the Bris takes precedence.

You might say other numbers have their own power.  They do.  Seated around the Seder table we sang “Who Knows One – Echad Mee Yodeya?” –singling out each number for its own significance.   This week let’s acknowledge number 8.  The commentary stresses that only on the 8th day of dedication of the Tabernacle were our ancestors expecting to witness the glory of G-d.   Why on this particular day?  Because the 8th day has special sanctity.  Quoting the Midrash, the Kli Yokor commentator points out that the Torah repeatedly praises Moses with the word “az – then.”  Az is spelled with the letter Aleph (numerical value of 1) and Zayin (numerically 7), referring to verses like “Then I came to speak in Your name,” or “Then Moses sang,” etc.  So he continues: “The 1 habitually rides on the other 7, and confirms Divine sovereignty over the 7 traveling stars (a classic name for the 7 luminaries that were presumed to orbit the earth) and over all that existed after the 7 days of creation.  Therefore G-d’s presence appeared to them exactly on this day because it was the 8th.  That is why the offering would be accepted only from this day on.  This number is His alone.”     

          If you happen to be the 8th child in your family , as my father was, or if this week you celebrate your 8th wedding anniversary, an extra Mazel Tov to you for Sedrah Shmini!   Appreciate number 8.

Comments can also be sent to Rabbi Baruch Cohon at: baruch.c.2011@gmail.com.

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SENTENCE YOURSELF TO LIGHT Guest Blog by Jonathan Cohon

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Baruch
Rabbi Baruch Cohon with his son Jonathan Cohon on a film location.

Rabbi Baruch Cohon with his son Jonathan Cohon working behind the camera on a film.

This week I have a guest.  My son Jonathan left his film and photo studio in Chicago and travelled 2000 miles to join his parents in celebrating Passover.  You have a guest too.  Here is a guest blog by Jonathan Cohon.  Comments can go to either jhcohon@netscape.net  or baruch.c.2011@gmail.com.

SENTENCE YOURSELF TO LIGHT by Jonathan Cohon

The simplicity of the statement: “there is one G-d and God is one”, is a beautiful, empowering, and definitive concept that can be the vehicle to a more manageable life, if one just lets it.

We are now celebrating the holiday of Pesach, the story of G-d delivering the people Israel from Egyptian slavery.  We have all heard, or read the story, even seen the film!  What new message can we gain from it now?

First we will make it contemporary by redefining Egypt not as a place or a time but as a condition.  A condition that celebrates one human being as the source of all things and all powers; in the past this human was called Pharaoh.  Today it is called by many names: ego, self, greed, fear, etc.   We redefine the people Israel as you, the reader.  We shall keep G-d as the one element of continuity between the original and the contemporary, we know G-d worked then and we shall see how G-d can work now.

The story is not hard to contemporize: the plagues that damage ‘Egypt’, the world of the ego, are the result of frailties that are all too human: stubbornness, arrogance, denial, etc.  As each plague hits we see the momentary willingness to recognize G-d expressed as ‘foxhole prayers’.  We’ve all said them: G-d get me a good grade, G-d get me that girl, G-d just get me home without a ticket.  Then if we get the grade, the girl, or escape the ticket the prayers end and ego is again in control denying the spiritual action that saved us from our self-imposed darkness.

But what happens when we are faced with an implacable cost?  In the classic story the cost is the death of all first born sons.  For each of us that cost is different.  But when faced with it, the ultimate surrender is offered from an intellectual source.  Then, when the threat of that cost is apparently avoided and the ego returns to control, it is angry and engages in truly self-destructive action may destroy more than the original implacable cost.  The excuse “our heart wasn’t in it” applies.  A misquote of a famous phrase “I know therefore I doubt” best describes the condition of a life lived solely by knowledge, where doubt is a form darkness that is incompatible with the oneness of G-d; a darkness that is most often dispelled by the synthesis of knowledge and passion.

So, where is the silver lining?  Where is the positive?  Return to the original message: there is one G-d and G-d is one.  In our own way we can break the cycle by first taking this simple statement as fact, like gravity.  Then applying that fact as we encounter every event in our lives be they celebratory, mundane, or challenging.

But how do we apply this?  Start with a simple prayer: G-d, relieve me of the resistance to knowing your presence.  And what can happen next?  The principle of this prayer, when applied to circumstances that can be described as darkness can bring light, and help create that crucial connection of thought to passion.  Try saying this before an important business meeting, a first date, or driving home in rush hour traffic.  Each of these are daily living challenges that can only be helped by a connection to the oneness of G-d.

How and when is this accomplished? The connecting of the logical mind with the total force of the heart at a moment when neither alone can sustain you will yield that synthesis. When this happens, a first and fantastic step on the journey to faith has been taken and the light that comes from this synthesis will dispel the darkness of doubt.  The courage to be willing to do this, when drawn from the oneness of G-d, is in it self an act of faith.

Can this simple ten word sentence: G-d, relieve me of the resistance to knowing your presence, do that much?  Only if you use it.  Use it to defeat your personal Pharaoh and free yourself from the slavery of what holds you in darkness and move into G-d’s light and be part of the oneness of G-d.

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