Why Do You Cry To Me BETTER SING by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Baruch

WHY DO YOU CRY TO ME?   BETTER SING! – by Rabbi Baruch Cohon          

The 13th thru 17th chapters of Exodus tell some of the Bible’s most dramatic and significant episodes.  After unsuccessfully negotiating with Moses, Pharaoh and his people experienced the last three plagues, starting with Locusts, #8, then Darkness, #9, and finally #10, the most fearsome of all, Death of the Firstborn.  Again Pharaoh tries negotiating after 8 and 9, but fails.  When his own firstborn, the heir to the throne, is found dead – as well as every firstborn of humans and cattle in Egypt – he officially ejects the entire Hebrew nation, adults, children, livestock and all.  Off they go.

          But before they can reach the Red Sea, Pharaoh has another “change of heart.”   What was he thinking?  How could he send away all those slaves?  So he mobilizes 600 shock troops – chariots and horsemen – and gives chase.  Seeing the cloud of dust raised by the pursuing army, the Israelites turn on Moses: “Were there no graves in Egypt?  Did you have to bring us here to die in the desert?” Moses assures them that G-d will fight for them, and they are to be silent.  And indeed the Divine pillar of cloud moves from in front of the Israelites to behind them and hovers between them and the Egyptian army. 

          Now they arrive at the sea shore.  What can they do?  Like his people, Moses sees a grim alternative: get slaughtered by the enemy or drown in the sea.  But he hears G-d’s voice: “Why do you cry to Me?  Tell the Israelites to go forward!”  Here a famous midrash supplies the details. Nothing happened until one man, Nachshon by name, steps into the water.  He goes forward until the water reaches his neck, and then – the great miracle!  A powerful wind raises the water to a wall on his right and on his left, and the Israelites cross on dry land.  In his honor, the name Nachshon survives in modern Israel as the example of courageous action. 

The pursuing Egyptian chariots lose their wheels in the deep wet sand, and their riders die in the sea.  Those lost wheels of the royal chariots were overlaid in gold.  Just recently archeologists found the gold wheel-covers at the bottom of the Red Sea.  The wooden wheels and the chariots themselves were long since decomposed, but the metal survived!   Yes, it really happened.       

          None of these episodes, spectacular as they are, give their name to this reading, however.   This Sabbath in synagogues throughout the world is not called the Sabbath of escape, or the Sabbath of freedom or the Sabbath of broken wheels.  It is called Shabat Shira – the Sabbath of Song.  Arriving on the far side of the Red Sea and seeing their enemies sink behind them, Moses and his people sang an epic song of praise and triumph.  This Song of the Sea is still chanted with its special melody in Sabbath morning services.  And this Sabbath provides an occasion to perform Jewish music old and new for many audiences.

          Personally I am grateful to report that a special program of my own music will be performed at Temple Emanu-El of Tucson this week.  And I hope my readers will take this occasion to visit the Florida Atlantic University website, www.fau.edu which provides a huge selection of recorded Jewish music of all kinds for your listening pleasure.   I am happy to be included in their library. 

http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/spc/soundarchives.htm 

 

          For singers, instrumentalists and listeners – have a Good Shabat Shira!

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Posted in Baruch Cohon, Cantor, Egypt, Exodus, Florida Atlantic University Music Library, Israel, Jewish, Jewish Music, Jewish Traditions, Moses, Music, Nachshon, Plagues, Sabbath, Shabat, Shabat Shira - The Sabbath of Song, Talmud, Temple Emanu-El of Tucson, Torah, Torah Study | Comments Off on Why Do You Cry To Me BETTER SING by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

WHO ALL IS GOING Sedrah Bo By Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Baruch

  Seven plagues came and went over Egypt, sanctions that no human authority could impose. Blood in the river, frogs on land, gnats filling the air, beetles swarming through houses and fields, murrain decimating the livestock, boils afflicting the people, hail terrifying man and beast.  Up to here, Pharaoh sees that his magicians can duplicate some but not all of these plagues, and he persists in refusing to free the slaves.  He only pretends to negotiate.  If he lived today, he would be developing nuclear weapons. 

          Seven plagues, seven standoffs.  Once more Moses faces Pharaoh and his “hardened heart.” This time he threatens a plague of locusts to devour every leaf of every tree and fill every house and barn, unless his people are released.   Then he leaves.

          Pharaoh’s advisers urge him to deal with Moses.  “How long shall this man threaten us?  Let these people go and worship their G-d.  Don’t you know Egypt is destroyed?”  

          Reluctantly Pharaoh calls Moses and Aaron back.  Now he asks the bottom-line question.  “Go and worship your G-d.  Just tell me – mee va-mee ha-holkhim? – who all is going?” 

          Moses answers in words that ring down through the centuries:  “With our young and with our old we will go, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we will go, for we have a festival for G-d.”  Don’t try to split us up.  Don’t figure on holding some of us hostage to make sure we return to your slave-pits.  When we go free, we ALL go free. 

          The great Kli Yokor commentary observes that when the Torah says “we have a festival for G-d – khag haShem lanu” we learn that while the festival and its ritual belong to the Divine, the celebration belongs to us – lanu!  So, though Pharaoh would be willing to send the adult men out into the desert to offer sacrifices while retaining their families in Egypt, that just won’t do.  The men cannot celebrate without their families.  Therefore Moses says “we will go” twice.  We men go for the service, and our families go with us for the celebration.

          That thought motivates Jewish life ever since.  Mitzvos, religious duties, involve the family. The wife blesses the Sabbath candles, the husband chants the Kiddush and blesses the children, and all join in the songs and blessings after the meal.  A memory that always makes me smile is the thought of when my children were little and sat on both sides of the dinner table; I would prepare to bless them and one of them would say “make long-arms, Daddy!” so I would stretch and reach both sides. 

          With our young and with our old we will go.

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I APPEARED Sedrah Va-eyra by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Baruch

         Chapter 6 of Exodus tells of Moses receiving a Divine message.  G-d tells him “I am   YHVH.” This sacred name, the unpronounced Tetragrammaton or four-letter name of G-d, identifies the source of Moses’ authority.  We cannot know how the name was or was not pronounced in Moses’ time but in Temple times it was enunciated just once a year, by the High Priest on Yom Kippur.  Traditional Jewish practice substitutes the word haShem (the Name) for the four sacred letters when not used in prayer, and the word Adonai (the Lord) in worship.  

            The message in Exodus goes on to contrast the Divine relationship with the Patriarchs and with Moses.  “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as Kel Shaddai — Almighty G-d, but by My name YHVH (haShem) I was not known to them.” 

          Does this mean that our Patriarchs did not know the Divine Name?  Hardly.  They all used the name freely.  Even Eliezer of Damascus, Abraham’s servant, not a member of the family, prayed to haShem.   The Hertz Commentary points out, as did Rashi, that in this message to Moses no new name is spoken.  G-d is certainly not changing His name.  The significance of this statement is Divine reliability.   In their day, says Hertz, the Patriarchs did not fully understand that this name identified “the everlasting G-d of faithfulness whose promises, even though they extend over centuries and millennia, are invariably fulfilled.”  Did haShem promise Abraham that his descendants would have Canaan as their homeland?  And was that promise kept?  Did his descendants become slaves in Egypt instead?  Never mind.  G-d does not forget.  Divine faithfulness guarantees that they will now go free, and return to conquer their ancestral home. 

          Did haShem promise a moshiach – a redeemer – to establish the Kingdom of G-d on earth? Was that promise kept?  Did the human race instead produce centuries of chaos, corruption, violence and evil?   Stick around.  G-d does not forget.

          Without doubt, the “I appeared” story is a message of hope.  Distant hope, perhaps, but still hope. 

          But maybe something else is going on here.  Maybe it was enough for the Patriarchs to recognize a mystical Almighty, and maybe Moses needs more.  Face it.  Right after receiving this message, Moses goes to his people in Egypt and assures them that they will indeed be liberated from the burdens of Egypt and brought to Canaan.  How do they receive this news?  

“They did not listen to Moses, because of impatience and hard labor.” – Ex. 6:9

Not the first of Moses’ disappointments, or the last, this one shows him what an uphill battle he faces.  He must convince both Pharaoh and his own people.  Indeed he needs supreme faith in the Faithful One. 

Just as Moses entered a different kind of epic than the Patriarchs did, so each of us must deal with our different challenges.  Each of us should, and most of us do, form a personal connection with whatever name we give our inspiration…our motivation…our faith…our G-d-concept or reasonable substitute.  The higher we aim, the harder we strive, the more confident we feel – that’s how close we come to cementing that sacred connection.  That’s our chance to reach our goal, our personal Promised Land, our Kingdom of G-d.  We need only be ready to hear “I appeared.”

Leaders we celebrate for doing great things for their people – from Judah Maccabee to George Washington, from Queen Esther to Mahatma Gandhi – somehow formed the sacred connection. They were ready to hear “I appeared.”   

So for each of us, keep listening.

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EXODUS AGAIN? By Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Baruch

          Two simple Hebrew words stand out in this week’s reading of the first chapter of the Book of Exodus.  One is am – Nation.  The other is mas – Tax.  Let’s see how they work.

First we review the identities of Jacob’s family when they arrived in Egypt, a total of 70 people.  That is besides Joseph who was already there.  Then we proceed with an update confirming that Joseph and his brothers and all that generation died.  Time passes.

          Then a new king takes power in Egypt, a man who “did not know Joseph.”  Not knowing, or anyway not acknowledging that the onetime Hebrew slave once saved the country and led it into prosperity, this new king only sees the current population of Hebrews as a menace.  Never mind “what did you do for me lately.”  Like some other anti-immigrants, he objects to the fact that these immigrants have a burgeoning birthrate.  As the JPS translation puts it, they “were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty.”  That last phrase in Hebrew isva-yaatz-mu bim’od m’od.  Our commentators point out that m’od m’od (very much) would be enough.  The added form bi-m’od indicates that not only did they produce many children but they also built themselves some economic success.  Not only are they very strong, says Pharaoh, they became strong to en excessive degree.  Dangerous!

          So the new tyrant attacks them.  First he slaps a heavy tax – mas — on them, both to impoverish them and to use their money to finance his idolatrous priesthood.  From a religious viewpoint, the act of supporting idolatry would also make them unworthy of redemption, but that is not in Pharaoh’s mind.  He just wants to drive them off the fiscal cliff.  Then he can enslave them.

          What he says to his people is: “Look how the nation of the descendants of Israel is becoming bigger and stronger than we are.  Let’s get wise to them…”  Note, he calls them a nation – am – not just Israel’s descendants.  The Torah too already identified the 70 members of Jacob’s family as “one soul,” observes the Kli Yokor commentary.  Indeed it is in Egypt that Jewish unity has its difficult beginning.  Gone for now are the brotherly plots, the jealousy, the sibling rivalry. 

A classic Midrash cites four reasons that the descendants of Jacob’s once quarrelsome family, after a couple of centuries in Egypt, and despite their checkered experiences, deserved to be redeemed.  Reason 1 – they did not change their names.  #2 – they did not change their language.  #3 – they protected their families from sexual violations.  #4 – they had no dilaturin – denouncers — among them.  No traitors.  They pulled together. 

That is a nation.  Maybe they did not all agree.  After all, they were all Jewish.  But they pulled together.  Would we have the same four merits?

Interestingly enough, Pharaoh’s idea of “getting wise” to the Hebrews – hava nit-khak-ma –does not involve expelling them.  No free trip across the border.  He warns his people that the Hebrews might just join with some foreign enemy and defeat Egypt, then take the spoils of war andv’ala min ha-aretz – leave the country.  The word ala – literally “climb” out of the country – indicates that they would go back to Canaan where they came from, as in the modern term aliyah for immigrating to today’s Canaan, Israel.  Definitely that is something Pharaoh wants to prevent.  He wants those immigrants for braceros.  Gotta build those store-cities.

Like other people facing similar challenges, our ancestors needed a leader.  They could not beat the tax rap.  Too late for that.  But could they really coalesce into a unified nation?  Where could they find a Chavez, a King, a Mandela, even a Chaim Weitzman?   Of course they found the one man that would set an example for all those others.  His name was Moses, and we meet him in this Sedrah as a baby floating on the Nile.  Do yourself a favor and re-read this beginning of the Jewish nation in Exodus 1:1 thru 6:1.  Ever since teaching it to a son of mine to read at his Bar Mitzvah I enjoy this review and recommend it.  Read it now or next Shabat morning.  You know Moses will not avoid the fiscal cliff, but watch him mold a mob of ex-slaves into a nation.  He will have doubters, opponents, disunity of all kinds to deal with.   Our ancestors were no more docile than we are.  He had a speech impediment too.  But he had Divine guidance.   And something more.  He had humility.       

Let’s pray for leaders who will learn from him. 

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WHEN LIFE ENDS by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Baruch

WHEN LIFE ENDS – Sedrah Va-y’khee  

 

The last reading in the Book of Genesis starts with Jacob’s farewell message to his sons, describes his death, and concludes with the death of one of those sons, Joseph who survived his brothers’ hostile treatment to become the deliverer of the family.  

Generally, the Torah recounts the end of life in proportion to the importance of the individual. Many of the early figures in Genesis are described at their end quite tersely: “He expired,” “He was gathered to his people,” or just plain “He died.”   As the last of the Patriarchs, Jacob can be expected to command ample treatment, and he gets it in this passage.  He first swears Joseph not to bury him in Egypt but to take his body to the Cave of Machpelah – the place Abraham bought to bury Sarah, the place where Isaac and Rebekah lie, the place where he buried Leah – the same cave in Hebron where Jews still visit to honor our ancient history, the same cave that our enemies try to steal in order to deny our connection to the Land of Israel.  Jacob continues by blessing Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Menasseh, even reversing their order over their father’s protest.  As they approach their dim-eyed grandfather seated on his bed, Joseph guides Menasseh to Jacob’s right, Ephraim to the left.  But Jacob can see well enough to recognize the boys, and he crosses his hands to place his right hand on Ephraim’s head.

 “No,” says Joseph, “this one (Menasseh) is the firstborn.  Place your right hand on his head.” 

“I know, my son, I know,” Jacob replies.  “He will also become a people and will grow.  But his younger brother will outgrow him, and will become m’lo hagoyim” – (literally “the fullness of nations”) which Rashi interprets as a prophecy that Ephraim’s descendants will include Joshua the conqueror of Canaan.

Then Jacob proceeds to give his last message to the rest of his sons.  Not really a blessing, this message is more of a judgment on their characters, based on their behavior.  Some show promise, some are plodders, others get specific charges.  Reuben loses the privilege of the firstborn because he once bedded his father’s wife.  Judah, by contrast, proved himself a leader and gets acknowledged as such.  No mention of his little intrigue with Tamar.  Again, the commentators link this praise of Judah to the future: he will be the ancestor of King David.       

So Jacob completes his message to all his sons before putting his legs back in bed and breathing his last.  It is Joseph who weeps over him, kisses him, and then orders his body embalmed.  Commentators point out that this process will take 40 days, to prepare for the journey to Hebron. And we are told that the Egyptians added another 30 days to the public mourning period for Jacob, whom they credited with bringing on the end of the famine.  That gave him almost the same importance, in death at least, as the Pharaohs – 70 days of mourning.  Royalty received just 72.

After the sad journey and the burial, Jacob’s sons again voice their concern about how Joseph will treat them now.  While their father lived, they enjoyed peaceful relations with their now-powerful brother.  Now will he at last take revenge for their cruelty to him when he was young?  They quote their father as sending a message to Joseph through them: “Forgive the sin of your brothers.” Joseph reassures them, telling them “You thought you were doing me wrong, but G-d intended it for good.”  And he continues to provide for them until he reaches the age of 110, witnessing the birth of his great-grandchildren.

Feeling the end coming, he charges his brothers and family: “G-d will remember you, and you must bring my bones out of here.”  And the last sentence in Genesis tells us simply: “Joseph died at 110 years of age, and they embalmed him and put him in a coffin in Egypt.”

Just one sentence.  Not two chapters like Jacob.  No extended messages.  Not even a spot in the Cave of Machpelah, just a roadside tomb that modern enemies virtually destroyed.  Was Joseph not important?

Quite the contrary.  While this obituary stands out as among the briefest in the Torah, its subject dominates the last 13 chapters of Genesis.  What Joseph experienced and accomplished in his life hardly needed review.  Like all others in the Hebrew Bible, Joseph gets no promises of a heavenly future, but neither we nor his surviving brothers need any reminder that he alone made the rest of Jewish history possible.  What more could be said?

The old “March of Time” radio show had a formula for reporting someone’s death: “This week, as it must to all men, death came to …..”  Indeed every life comes to an end.  And we know about death and taxes. We remember people for their lives, not for their deaths.   Perhaps that is why Torah sections that describe the death of important people have titles like Hayey Sarah – The Life of Sarah, and here Va-y’khee Yaakov – Jacob Lived. 

So may it be said of us all.

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