This past week, my family and I had the
opportunity to get in touch with our American heritage. I had the opportunity
to pass the tradition and history of college basketball to my children.
However, I had an eye opening experience that indicates that perhaps we have
been living in Canada for a long time. This past Shabbat, one of the final four
teams playing was the University of Connecticut. They won their semifinal game
and eventually were crowned National Champions on Monday night with their
victory over the University of Kentucky. Among the people who live in New
England and New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania: the University of
Connecticut is also known as UConn. When my children kept hearing UConn, the
dominant cultural context of our lives: Jewish Culture and Canadian culture
became quite apparent. Until the championship game began, my children couldn’t’
understand why we weren’t cheering for the University of Kentucky when after
all, they knew that Kentucky was one of the 50 States. When I asked them why
they would cheer for Kentucky, a team that I grew up cheering against, my three
children looked up at me and said in great patriotic fervor, “How can we root
for UCONN that is one of the provinces in Canada!” I looked my children blankly
and responded UConn is in Connecticut not the Yukon, but UConn - University of
Connecticut!”
This Shabbat is Shabbat HaGadol; the Shabbat
that immediately precedes Pesach. The Parsha is Acharei Mot. After two
Parshiot, Tazria and Metzorah, which essentially interrupted the narrative and
the laws that had been focused upon the Kohanim, we now return to the Kohen as
the central focus in the Parsha. Now that he has become spiritually pure, the
Torah is now ready to teach the laws for the spiritual purity of the nation. We
have focused upon the impurities of individuals, now we focus upon the
community. The Kohen acts on behalf of the nation just like he acts on behalf
of the individual. The Torah teaches us the laws for the offerings of Yom
Kippur, national atonement, and Azazel otherwise known as the Scapegoat. The
Scapegoat is not offered as a sacrifice to God, but rather is sent out from the
camp and left to wander in the wilderness eventually succumbing to the
elements.
The second half of the Parsha focuses upon
the holy and holy relationships within the family. However the list of
inappropriate behaviors between family members is taught within the context of
the other nations. What is particularly troubling is the fact that our
interaction with the two nations was a direct function of God’s plan. God
invokes Egypt and God invokes Canaan. We went down to Egypt and now we were
being brought to Canaan. K’Maasei Eretz Mitzrayim Asher Y’shavtem
Bah Lo Ta’Asu UchMa’Asei Eretz Canaan Asher Ani Meivi Etchem Shamah Lo Ta’Asu
UvChukoteihem Lo Teileichu – Do not
practice of the land of Egypt in which you dwelled; and do not perform the
practices of the land of Canaan to which I bring you, and do not follow their
traditions. (Lev. 18:3) For the past two centuries Bnai Yisroel dwelled in
Egypt, a morally decadent community. Now B’nai Yisroel is about to head into
Eretz Canaan, which was also a morally decadent land inhabited by the Moabites,
the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jebusites and the Edomites to name a few. I
can justify using Egypt as the example. First our descent into slavery both
physical and spiritual was hardly overnight but rather a gradual process.
Second, our experience in Egypt serves as the origins of our becoming a nation.
Invoking that experience is at the core of our national memory. We remind
ourselves of Yetziat Mitzrayim three times a day when we say the Shmah. We are
reminded of Yetziat Mitzrayim when we make Kiddush on Shabbat and all
festivals. We reminded ourselves of Yetziat Mitzrayim and pass down that
collective memory to our children at the Pesach Seder. But Canaan? Canaan is
God’s covenant with us, originating with Avraham Avinu. So why would God
promise us a land that is as morally bankrupt as Egypt? Why would God bring us
to a place that is the equivalent to a place where God brought us out?
The Be’er Yitzchak, the 19th
Russian Rabbi offers a comment that is relevant to today’s Jewish experience. “The reason for mentioning Egypt and Canaan
is simple: if you imitate the Egyptians – then why did I take you out of Egypt?
And if you behave like the Canaanites- why should I expel them before you; it
was on condition that you will not do so that I took you out of Egypt and that
I shall expel the Canaanites… do not
imitate even their innocuous practices, for these lead to total assimilation.”
The experience in Egypt was an incubation period to prepare for Torah at Sinai.
Our experience in Egypt would constantly serve as a reminder that we ultimately
rejected physical slavery and that we ultimately rejected the institutions and
behaviors of that master. It is certainly easy to reject all things Egyptian
while we are reminded of how damaging the experience was. It is quite another
thing to reject the behavior, and culture of a society when one is free, when
one is not scarred by such a damaging experience. Yet, the success of our
people, the future viability of our relationship with God through Torah could
only occur if we are able to reject a dominant culture’s behavior as a free
nation and not as an enslaved nation. Bnai Yisroel’s survival ultimately
depends upon remaining separate and apart from the cultural majority. Bnai Yisroel’s
survival depends upon remaining spiritually distinct from the majority. Bnai
Yisroel’s survival depends upon the spiritual strength needed to reject the
behaviors of any dominant culture, to refrain from behavior because “everyone
else does it”.
It is always nice to feel part of something.
It is always nice to feel included. It is always nice to be culturally
recognized. From an individual perspective, going along with the crowd means
never feeling left out. For our children, there is always the tension of
fitting in to Canadian culture and still retaining a sense of individuality and
their American cultural heritage and history. For the Jewish people, historically it has been
a similar issue. How much of the dominant culture to we integrate into Judaism,
how much Judaism to we give up into order to fit into the dominant culture? Our
national sin, our national mistake is our individual yearning, our desire to be
like everybody else, to assimilate.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
No comments:
Post a Comment