A NOBODY? by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Baruch

This week we read a section called Toldos Yitzhok – literally, the history of Isaac.  Very quickly we see that Isaac, the second of our patriarchs, is described in terms of other people.  He is the son of Abraham, the husband of Rebecca, the father of Jacob and Esau.  And who is he?

To quote my uncle of blessed memory, Rabbi Beryl D. Cohon of Boston, this history could be called the portrait of a Nobody.   

Let’s see.  Does Isaac really have no importance?  Certainly he carries forward a spark of Abraham’s inspiration.  Just as certainly he finds love and fulfillment in his union with Rebecca. Like his father before him, he has two sons who are quite different from each other, and he will have a crisis over which one to call his real heir.

Unlike his father, he gets a direct message from G-d only twice.  Once, he is told to stay in Canaan despite hard times, and not to go to Egypt, because this land of Canaan will belong to him and his descendants as G-d promised Abraham.  The second Divine vision comes in a dream and gives him a blessing, and when he gets up he builds an altar and has his men dig a well.   By contrast, Abraham had many one-on-ones with the Almighty.  Is Isaac less holy?

Morris Adler, a rabbinical scholar of the last century, asks “What did Isaac do?  He preserved a tradition; he held onto it; he received it and he was loyal to it.  In a world of constant change, in a world where new fashions are sought and new habits constantly arise, in a world that never stops for a moment in its fluctuations, Isaac is not simply a negative character.  He is the son of Abraham and the father of Jacob.  He kept the chain that was handed to him… In all of his actions a tradition was preserved.”

Without Isaac the Jewish people would not exist.  All through the centuries, individual Jews proudly bear his name.  You and I and many others can identify with him if we link generations.  To tend the flame of continuity is our mission.  Family traditions, religious traditions, national traditions all bring pride and meaning to our lives.  We who bear those traditions and add to them and pass them on are carrying on Isaac’s work.

Read his biography again.  It’s in Genesis, chapter 25:19 through 28:9.  Isaac’s story is the portrait of a Somebody.

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AT THE GOING RATE by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Baruch

          The 23rd chapter of Genesis finds Abraham negotiating with the Hittites among whom he is living.   Sarah just died, and Abraham needs a place to bury his wife.   He asks the Hittite elders seated at the gate of Hebron to assign him a gravesite.   Evidently he commands great respect there, because they offer him his choice of locations.  He selects the Cave of Machpelah, which is on the property of a man named Ephron ben Tzohar, and requests the opportunity to buy it.

          At this point Ephron speaks up.  He was sitting among the Hittite elders all the time and carries on their elaborate expression of hospitality:  “Listen to me, my lord.  I give you the field and the cave that is in it.  Bury your dead.”  Does Abraham just say thank you and ask for the deed? Not a chance.  He knows negative negotiations when he hears them.  So he insists: “If only you would hear me out, just accept the price of the land from me, and I will bury my dead there.”  Now Ephron piles on the con.  “No, my lord, hear me out.  Land worth 400 silver shekels – what is that between me and you?”  In other words, this is such a trifle!   And just incidentally, here is the price.

          Abraham proceeds to weigh out 400 shekels of silver to Ephron at a rate that the Torah describes as oveir lasokheir – literally “passing to the merchant”.   In other words, the going rate. No discount.  Nothing off for inflation.  Just the going rate.

          Did he overpay?  Clearly he did not survey neighborhood property values, and he did not make a counter offer.  He heard a figure and he paid it.  Not what Abraham usually does; in fact didn’t he engage in a determined bargaining session with G-d Himself on behalf of the few righteous people in Sodom?  And here he just accepts Ephron’s price?

Consider what Jeremiah paid for a comparable field a few centuries later: “So I bought the field from Hanamel…for 17 shekalim.”  17, not 400.  Of course that field was already in his family so he had the first right to redeem it.  Also, Jeremiah and his generation were coping with defeat and what we would call recession.  Still, quite a difference.          

          However, regardless of the price Abraham paid, he established ownership of the Cave of Machpelah long before the country ever became Eretz Yisrael.  This piece of land he would always own – not a mere grazing ground for his livestock, but property to include in his children’s inheritance.   He bought it fair and square, for the going rate.

 The cave is still there, in Hebron.   As far as we know, all our patriarchs and matriarchs are buried there, except for Rachel.   Rachel’s tomb, near Bethlehem, became a target for Israel’s enemies in our time, as did Joseph’s tomb.  And Hebron itself witnesses conflict now.  Visiting the Tombs of the Patriarchs is a risky experience these days.   Those who would drive all Jews from the Jewish state make it their policy to attack our most ancient sacred places, from Hebron to the Temple Mount. 

          Very likely, Abraham could not buy the Cave of Machpelah for 400 NIS (new Israeli shekels) today.  But he set a precedent.  No squatters rights.  None of this “The Ottoman rulers put us here” – or “The British protectorate put us here – so it’s our land!”  No way.  You want to establish ownership?  Just pay the going rate.

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WHAT IS A MIRACLE? by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Baruch

When Abraham and Sarah learn that Sarah will bear a child, we read in Genesis 17-18, they both laugh. Abraham wipes the smile off his face, and asks Divine consideration for Ishmael, his son with Hagar.  But Sarah considers the whole idea impossible: “Can a woman of 90 bear a child?  My husband is old too.”  But she finds out soon enough that, as the Torah reminds us, nothing is impossible for G-d, and she bears a normal son at the normal time.  They name him Isaac – Yitzkhak in Hebrew, from the root word tza-khak: laugh!  They celebrate each occasion in their only son‘s growth, even the day he is weaned.   As many parents can observe, every normal birth is a kind of miracle.

So what is a miracle?  One definition describes a miracle as “something that happens that we could not expect to happen.”  Questionable definition, that.  Could easily include a surprise disaster.  So let’s limit our definition to positive results that looked impossible, or even improbable. 

Did you ever experience a miracle?  I did.  I don’t usually tell sea stories in these blogs but as long as we are exploring miracles, I’ll tell mine.  In World War II, I served on a Navy minesweeper, the smallest class of sweepers, a 136-foot wooden ship powered by a diesel engine with twin propellers (“screws” we called them) under the fantail.  We were crossing the Gulf of Alaska one night in 1945 when we sailed into a typhoon.  60-foot swells hoisted us to the top, with both screws out of the water and generating vibrations that felt as if every nail would pop out of that hull.  Then a minute later, down we would plunge to the bottom of the wave, with angry water breaking over the flying bridge.  The helmsmen fought those savage waves desperately.   I don’t know how many hours high winds and heavy currents buffeted that little ship, but I know one thing: there were no atheists on board that night.  We were all praying for a miracle.  And our prayers were answered.  We weathered the storm.  We all lived to tell the tale.

A narrow escape is one kind of miracle.  Finding your bashert – your one-and-only – is another kind. And becoming the parents of a normal healthy baby is a third.  That is why our daily prayers include an expression of thanks to G-d for nisekho sheb’khol yom imanu – “Your miracles that are with us every day.”

Enjoy yours – and appreciate it!

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THE COVENANTAL CUT by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Baruch

This week it makes sense to consider circumcision.  Some governments are banning it.  Some liberal movements are opposing it.  Some families are demanding it.  And some doctors are unsure about it.  But why this week?  Because this week we will read the Torah commandment:  “This is My covenant that you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants…  At eight days old, let every male be circumcised throughout your generations…  My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.”  In Judaism the process is thus called Brit Milah – the covenant of circumcision.  Far more than a medical operation.

Why eight days?  We find various reasons, from mystical to medical.  Considering the number 7 to be a basic time unit in our lives, the next day begins something new.  A new week.  A new chapter of life.  Also quoted is the opinion that 8 days is when the surgery will cause the least pain.  (How to determine that is something of a mystery in itself.)   And in a following Torah passage we read that Abraham’s son Isaac was the first baby boy to be circumcised at the age of 8 days.   We also read that Abraham circumcised himself at the age of 99 years.  Talk about courage!  And his older son Ishmael, ancestor of the Arabs, had it done at 13 years of age.  Many of his descendants still observe that age.  (Could that custom influence an Arab tendency to violence?)

This year, courts and governments in places as far removed as Germany and Tasmania are considering bans on circumcision of minors.  In the U.S., both California and New York are dealing with the question: does this operation constitute a violation of a child’s rights?  Extreme opinions sound out from both sides.  One blogger called the practice “creepy.”  Another commentator charged the judge who approved the ban with “reviving German hate.”  “Worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust!”  Etc. etc.  Definitely, in countries like Germany, Austria, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium and Denmark, this is one issue where Jews and Muslims can agree.  We don’t want it banned.

To his credit, California governor Jerry Brown struck down such a ban.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg found himself dealing with the question of how the operation is performed, specifically the problem of metzitzah b’peh – using the mouth to remove blood from the wound – a custom which is primarily widespread among Haredim, the so-called Ultra-Orthodox.  Just for the record, a majority of mohalim – ritual circumcisers – use a glass tube which is sterile and poses no danger of infection.    

My friend Dr. Stephen Dickstein, who practiced urology and also functioned as a traditional mohelfor many years, says: “As a physician and urologist, I consider male circumcision to be an important and valid public health procedure.  As a mohel, I consider it to be a fundamental part of Judaism.  Even the most disaffiliated and assimilated Jews chose Brit Milah as their one Jewish act.”

His opinion speaks for many of those directly concerned with circumcision.  A Dr. Perlstein even posts figures on line about the number of illnesses reduced or prevented by this procedure. Reportedly, the king of the Zulus requested that Israel send mohalim to circumcise his 10,000 royal guardsmen, and establish some 70-80 circumcision clinics in his South African territory.  All this as part of the war on AIDS.

The Hertz Commentary on the Torah compares it to the rainbow.  G-d gave Noah a visible sign of the covenant that no future deluge would destroy the world.   Abraham and his descendants give G-d and the world a visible sign of the covenant that defines “the consecration of the Children of Abraham to the G-d of Abraham.”

No wonder a Bris is a time for family celebration.   L’chaim – To Life!  Even the baby gets a sip of wine!

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GLOBAL FLOODING by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Baruch

So there was this old man named Noah and he had an obsession.  He kept telling people the climate was changing and they might get drowned.  He even built a huge boat in his backyard.  He had to have a giant backyard, of course, because that “ark” was 450 feet long with a 75-foot beam and 45 feet high.  No small craft. When his neighbors laughed at him – because there was no river or lake around there – he just said “if you’re smart you’ll build one too.” 

Well, the flood happened.  The Book of Genesis describes it quite graphically.  And Noah was able to save his family, and many animals and birds too.  No one else survived. 

Question: if more people built arks like Noah’s, would the flood still happen? 

Of course it would.  No matter how many arks they would build.  But more creatures would live.

Climate change happens every few eons.  Human activity might speed it or slow it, but it won’t prevent it.  Even if we consider Noah’s flood a synonym for the ice age, it represents a cycle in natural history.  Like the account in Genesis, we can blame each other for climate change but we cannot stop it.  In Noah’s time it was forty days of rain.  Today it might be drought and tornadoes.   Like Noah’s contemporaries, modern humans are aggravating the damage of climate change.  Maybe future generations of humans and animals will gradually adapt to higher temperatures on land and sea.  Meanwhile, our “ark” could be cleaner energy sources.  Can we learn enough from the story of Noah to slow down the climatic cycle – and survive?

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