As Well As To Count The Angel Dancing On A Pin (John Barlow & Bob Weir - "Let It Grow")

          Several weeks ago, Israel commemorated Yom HaZikaron, a day in which Israel takes a moment to remember its fallen soldiers. This past Monday, the United States commemorated Memorial Day. Originally known as Decoration Day, it commemorated all those soldiers who had died fighting in the Civil War – for both the North and the South.  By the early Twentieth century, Memorial Day replaced Decoration Day as a day to commemorate all soldiers who had died in all of the United States' wars.  As a kid, I always remember that each town would have a Memorial Day Parade. There would always be an elderly veteran lighting a candle at the town’s  War Memorial.  This past Memorial Day was the first Memorial Day in 20 years that the United States was not engaged in a “hot” war.  Yet, the last of the victims from the Buffalo mass shooting were buried during that American holiday weekend, and the first funerals of the 19 children murdered in Uvalde Texas began this week.  Indeed, these funerals in Buffalo and Uvalde, suggest that Americans are indeed at war. These funerals remind us of who exactly is on the front lines of this war. These soldiers are school-age children and everyday regular people who happen to be African American, Jewish, Asian, women, LGTBQ, Muslim,  immigrant, or any other minority that is perceived to be a threat to a certain type of “white” America.  These “soldiers” tend to be of any and all ages. Ironically, these “soldiers” never seem to have the formal training required to actually fire an assault rifle and end life; rather their training is in living life, going to school, going to the supermarket, attending a concert, worshipping in churches and synagogues, or trying to make a better life for themselves and their children. These "soldiers" are the target of an enemy that is generally male, 18-24, troubled, alienated, and vulnerable to all gun manufacturers marketing their product, as well as vulnerable to some of the vilest and poisonous misinformation on the internet. 

        This Shabbat we begin the fourth book of the Torah, Sefer Bemidbar, by reading the first Parsha, Bemidbar. Literally meaning “In the Wilderness”, this fourth book of the Torah resumes the narrative format with B'nai Yisroel preparing to leave the foot of Mount Sinai. For the past year, B'nai Yisroel has essentially camped out at Har Sinai and listened to Moshe and Aharon teach all the laws concerning Tamei/Tahor –Purity and Impurity, Kodesh/Chol – the Holy and the Mundane, as well as the laws for Korbonot, sacrificial offerings. Prior to B'nai Yisroel’s embarking on the remainder of its journey a census is required. In fact, Parsha Bemidbar consists of three types of the census. The first census counts all men over the age of twenty that come from all the tribes except for the Levites, essentially a census of all males eligible to fight. The second census focuses only on the Levites. Since this tribe’s sole function is to operate and manage the Mishkan, ascertaining the number of workers in the Mishkan suggests the importance of the Mishkan to the everyday life of the B'nai Yisroel. The third census focuses on the organizational placement of each tribe around the Mishkan while traveling.

          The Census that God commands Moshe at the beginning of this fourth book of the Torah is very different than the last census taken. Until now there had been one Census taken while Bnai Yisroel was at Sinai, engaged in the construction of the Mishkan. All the way back in Parsha Ki Tissa, in Sefer Shmot (the Book of Exodus) God had commanded Moshe to count everyone by levying a half shekel tax. In fact, we are commanded not to count by pointing and counting but rather we would count the number of ½ Shekalim collected and that number would then tell us the total number of men twenty years and older. (Ex 30:11-14) Now God commands Moshe S’u Et Rosh Kol Adat Bnai Yisroel L’Mishpechotam L’Veit Avotam Mispar Sheimot  Kol Zachar L’Gulgulotam; Miben Esrim Shana Va’Malah Kol Yotzei Tzavah B’Yisroel Tifkedu Otam….- Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel according to their families, according to their father’s household, by the number of the names and every male according to their head count; from twenty years of age an up everyone who goes out to the legion in Israel, you shall count them (Num. 1:2-3)…. Abravanel, the 15th-century Portuguese commentator points out the apparent contradiction in the two types of censuses:  the first being found in the Sefer Shmot, and the second in Parsha Bemidbar. “Surely this (Bemidbar) is just the opposite of what the Torah had commanded on an earlier occasion (Sefer Shmot Parsha Ki Tissa).” There, in Ki Tissah, the poll (a tax) was taken.  “How could the Almighty have commanded them here to number them by their polls?” Abravanel notes the word “Tifekedu Otam” – you shall “account for them” (according to Rashi and “accounting” is a Poll or a levied tax).  Ramban, the 12th-century Spanish commentator/philosopher, points out that Tifkedu is an expression of visitation, remembrance, and providence.  

          The Census in Parsha Bemidbar was a census to determine those who were eligible to fight, who will be asked to perhaps give their lives for the welfare of the nation.  If and when the time came and they did have to lay down their lives who would have remembered them? Who would have mourned them? Who would tell stories about them and carry on their name?  L’Mishpechotam L’Veit Avotam Mispar Sheimot to their families, according to their father’s household by the number of the names. With each of the funerals that have occurred in Buffalo and started in Uvalde, we are reminded that each of these victims of war touched lives. They had children and grandchildren, and they were involved in their communities. They had parents, grandparents, and siblings. Each was so much more than just a number. Each individual had been created B’Tzelem Elokim in the image of God, and as  Ramban explained,  is worthy of remembrance. 

Peace,
Rav Yitz

I Hear The Cries Of Children; And Other Songs Of War (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Standing On The Moon")

          This should be a time of year when parents take stock of their child's academic accomplishments. School is drawing to its inevitable conclusion and numerous elementary school, middle school, high school, and university students have "step-up" ceremonies as they move from one grade to the next, or graduate. As my family and millions of other families prepared to celebrate this type of transition, we all experienced deja vu all over again. Sandy Hook, Parkland, and now this week the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas was the sight of another mass school shooting where 19 children, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders were killed. Nineteen families, who like millions of others, were preparing for their children to "step up" to celebrate a transition of learning, tragically must now mourn the ultimate transition. Of course, this could have been avoided, of course, society can do things that minimize the possibility of this kind of tragedy. As the days and weeks go by, and the discussion of Uvalde occurs, it will be fascinating to listen and watch, once again, the handwringing, the call to "pray for the victims and their families", the insistence that nothing would have stopped the shooter from the heinous act he perpetrated, or "guns don't kill people - people kill people" or "the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to make sure that a good guy has a gun". Some people might believe the boiler plate statements. Many will not. Some won't believe it at all, but they will say it over and over again. These are cynical people who want the status quo. These are cynical people who treat the lives of children cavalierly, they treat the law and the Constitution that they were sworn to uphold and protect cavalierly. They tread their elected position as legislators cavalierly. 

          This Shabbat we read from Parsha Bechukotai. It is the final Parsha of the Book of Leviticus. For the past ten Parshiot, Sefer Vayikra, the Book of Leviticus, has taught us how to act in a holy manner. We have learned how to behave towards God in a holy manner. We have been taught how to treat members of our family in a holy manner. We have been taught how to treat people outside of our family, friends, acquaintances, employees, and the needy in a holy manner as well. We have been given tools by which we are able to approach God in a sanctified way. We have been given tools to sanctify the seasons and the land of Israel. Finally, here in the last Parsha, we are told the reward as well as the punishment if we fail to learn and observe these commandments. The reward is quite simple and straightforward.  Im B’Chukotai Teileichu v’Et Mitzvotai Tishmeru Va’Asitem Otam V’Natati Gishmeichem B’Itam V’Natna Ha’Aretz Y’Vulah V’Eitz Ha’Sadeh Yiten Piryo – If you follow my decrees and observe my commandments and perform them; then I will provide you with rains in their time, and the land will give its produce and the tree of the field will give its fruit. (Lev. 26:3-4). Ultimately our reward is predicated upon fulfilling the commandments.

          The punishment is neither simple nor straightforward. Normally one would think that merely our failure to observe and fulfill the commandment would be reason enough for punishment. However, this is not the case. Our punishment is a result of something worse than our failure to observe and fulfill these commandments.  V’Im Lo Tishme’u Li, V’Lo Ta’asu Eit Kol HaMitzvot Ha’Eila – If you will not listen to me (obey) and will not perform all of these commandments; V’Im B’Chukotai Timasu V’Im Et Mishpatai Tigal Nafshechem – if you consider my Decrees loathsome, and if your being rejects My ordinances (Lev. 26: 14-15) then we receive punishment. There are a series of seven sets of punishments and after each set; we are given an opportunity for Tshuvah, for Repentance. If, after each set of punishments, we continue to ignore God, then we receive another set of punishments. The Torah keeps repeating a phrase that seems far more powerful than “ignoring” God. V’Halachtem Imi B’Keri and if you behave towards Me cavalierly. The result of continued cavalier behaviour will bring the next series of punishments. It could be argued that our divine punishment results from our lack of passion, our lack of care and concern for our role and responsibility in our relationship with God.

          Torah is teaching us a valuable lesson about life. Life is sacred. The relationships that we make can and should be sacred: not only with our husbands and wives and our children but with God as well. Life is not something to be treated cavalierly and with disdain. Yet as my children and I continue watching the heartbreaking news that comes out of Uvalde, Texas, and that came out of Buffalo, NY the two weeks before, as we look back at other school shootings, church shootings, synagogue shootings, the words that are spoken afterward seem empty, vapid, cynical and cavalier. My children find it difficult to see those elected officials as anything but empty suits with no soul. For if they had a soul, they could not continue to remain cynical and cavalier about another school shooting, another mass shooting at a supermarket, church, or synagogue. Perhaps it is the sin of treating the electorate cavalierly and disdainfully that allows this tragedy to happen again and again. It's time to stop permitting these people from treating human life cavalierly and disdainfully. 

Peace,
Rav Yitz

Ooh Freedom, Ooh Liberty, Ohh Leave Me Alone To Find My Way Back Home (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia -"Liberty")

          Another week passed by, and another horrific shooting occurred in the United States. Like Pittsburgh, and Charlottesville before, this time it was Buffalo. The perpetrator is an avowed racist who included a 180-page manifesto “justifying” his actions with a mix of “Replacement Theory” conspiracy and white paranoia (otherwise known as “white supremacy”) he acquired from Tucker Carleson, QAnon, and assorted hate forums like 4Chan. Over the course of ingesting “Replacement Theory”, white paranoia, and racism for these past several years, a young man’s idea of citizenship, community, democracy, and sacred words of a liberal democracy found in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution became twisted and perverted. Instead of viewing liberal democracy as aspirational affording all people with opportunities for “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”  he now saw liberal democracy as a dystopian place where a Jewish Kabal has organized and manipulated people of color to replace Christian white men and their traditional hierarchy. 

          This week we read from Parsha of Behar. For most of  Vayikra (Leviticus), we learned how the Kohen Gadol, the individual, and a community attains holiness both in terms of interpersonal relationships and with God.   B’nai Israel had been instructed to create “Holy” Time in terms of the seasons, and “Holy” spaces in terms of their proximity to the Mishkan.  Now we read about the laws in which we acknowledge the holiness of Eretz Canaan Israel. We learn that the Jubilee is similar to  Shemitta except on a grander scale, leaving the land to lie fallow for a year while it rests. We learn about the Yovel, the Jubilee year, and all that it entails in terms of our behavior. 

          During the discussion of the Sabbatical year, we read: V’Kidashtem Eit Shat HaChamishim Shana Ukratem Dror Ba’Aretz L’chol Yoshveha Yovel Hi Tiheyeh Lachem V’Shavtem Ish El Achuzato V’Ish el Mishpachto Tashuvu – You shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants; it shall be the Jubilee Year for you, each of you shall return to his ancestral heritage and each of you shall return to his family  Lev 25:10. The context of this verse is clear. During the 50-year cycle, whether the indentured servant has served the usual minimum of six years or not, all indentured servants are to be freed. Everyone returns to their tribal land of origin and everything is then, according to modern parlance, “rebooted”.  The Hebrew word for “freedom” that appears in the verse is Dror. The more common Hebrew word for  “freedom” is “ChoFeSh.” In  Ex. 21:2 Ki Tikneh Eved Ivri Shesh Shanim Ya’avod U’Vashviit Yeitzei LaChofshi Chinam If you buy a Jewish servant, he shall work for six years; and in the seventh, he shall go free (LaChofshi), for no charge. The word Dror, in the context of “freedom,”   appears once in the entire Torah in this context, “Proclaim Liberty throughout the land…” The word Dror appears in one other place in an apparently unrelated context.  In Ex. 30:23 Dror appears as a term for  “pure myrrh”. Why would the Torah use a less common word Dror that has another seemingly unrelated meaning as opposed to the more common word Chofshi (Free/freedom) to describe the declaration of Jubilee? 

          Certainly, the word “Freedom” is more commonly used than “Liberty”.  However, when Patrick Henry made his famous statement, he used the word “Liberty”. “Give me Liberty or give me death”. The Declaration of Independence speaks of “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  The political theorist Hanna Fenichel Pitkin observed that liberty implies ”a network of restraint and order”, hence its use by America’s Founding Fathers in its founding documents and the Liberty Bell.“Proclaim Liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants thereof". Lev 25:10”.    R’ Avraham Bedersi, a late 13th century French Rabbi, explained that both terms Chofesh (Freedom) and Dror (Liberty) are the opposite of bondage.  However, Dror (Liberty) denotes clarity and purity, without any contaminates like "pure Myrrh".  It is not accidental that the Torah uses a word that is the opposite of bondage but connotes “pure” freedom. Throughout the book of Leviticus, the overarching themes have been purity and holiness.  

          So it would make sense that Dror would connote the holiest or purest sense of the concept of Freedom.  R’Avraham Bedersi suggests that Chofesh (freedom) implies the mitigation of slavery, or “freedom from”. Whereas Dror (Liberty) suggests the purest form of freedom, a holy sense of freedom that only exists within the laws and restraints presented in Torah, in other words, a “freedom for” a more sacred purpose. Indeed, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, et al, understood Rabbi Bedarsi’s comments.  Liberty” is a Godly concept.  Liberty invokes holiness and therefore something to which those that live in a democracy ought to aspire. “Declaring Liberty throughout the land”, is an aspirational call for all the inhabitants of the land to live lives of holiness. Declaring a Jewish Cabal that plans and organizes people of color to replace white Christian men perverts and twists the very words that appear on the Liberty Bell. 

Peace,

Rav Yitz

And There's Nothing Left To Do But Count The Years (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Black Muddy River"

  This past Mother’s Day seemed bittersweet. When our four children were younger, they would wake up early and help me make coffee and breakfast for mommy. Carrying breakfast, cards, and presents, we would walk into mommy’s bedroom, wake her up,  serve her breakfast in bed, and give her Mother’s Day cards and gifts. Well, we are down to one child in the house, our grade 12 son who turns 18 in August and will be studying in Israel for the 2022/23 academic year. So this past Mother’s Day, our son brought in a hard drive and showed mommy, family “movies” of when he and his sibling were much younger. Instead of breakfast in bed, at mommy’s request, we went out for breakfast. As we sat outside in the Toronto spring sunshine and my wife looked at our son and commented that this was the last Mother’s Day with any of her children home to share the day. She verbalize what we both have known the day we became parents. Our kids grow up and then eventually leave home. Instead of viewing that as an accomplishment, that we raised four kids who have turned out to be pretty decent young adults, she lamented that she felt old. I am five years older than my wife, so I chuckled and reminded her that she neither looked old and suggested that instead of looking at our respective ages through the lens of “old” or “young”, we look at our age in terms of quality, what we have achieved in terms of raising our children. If we do that, then our jobs as parents have not concluded but rather entered a new stage and a different type of parent/child relationship. 

           This Shabbat we read from Parsha Emor. In the four chapters that comprise Emor, the first deals with the Kohanim and their very different way of striving for holiness as compared to the rest of the B’nei Israel. For example, because of the Kohen’s function within society, he must remain in a perpetual state of purity. He is restricted in terms of who he can marry. He is restricted in terms of whom he mourns. He cannot go to a cemetery. He cannot make sacrificial offerings if he has physical abnormalities. The second chapter reminds B’nai Israel that all animal offerings must be blemish-free. These offerings must come directly from the individual making them and not from “the hand of a stranger” (Lev. 22:25). Both chapters deal with the holiness of certain people, the Kohen and his family, and certain animals, those designated for sacrificial offerings. The third chapter of the Parsha deals with the designation of Holiness in regards to seasons and the calendar including Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. Then the fourth chapter offers a narrative in which the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man gets into a fight with another Israelite. During the fight, the son pronounces the forbidden name of God and is charged with blasphemy.

          Since the second night of Pesach, the Jewish people have been counting the Omer. The commandment to bring the Omer and count the days in which the Omer is brought occurs in Lev.23:9-16. The first five of the seven total verses explain what an Omer is, how it is prepared, and how the offering is made. The final two verses, 23:15-16 actually discuss the Mitzvah of counting the Omer.  וּסְפַרְתֶּ֤ם לָכֶם֙ מִמָּחֳרַ֣ת הַשַּׁבָּ֔ת מִיּוֹם֙ הֲבִ֣יאֲכֶ֔ם אֶת־עֹ֖מֶר הַתְּנוּפָ֑ה שֶׁ֥בַע שַׁבָּת֖וֹת תְּמִימֹ֥ת  תִּהְיֶֽינָה׃ And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks.עַ֣ד מִֽמָּחֳרַ֤ת הַשַּׁבָּת֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔ת תִּסְפְּר֖וּ חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים י֑וֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּ֛ם מִנְחָ֥ה חֲדָשָׁ֖ה לַיהוָֽה׃ you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the LORD.  The counting occurs in terms of days, fifty days “from the day in which you bring the sheaf offering”. That counting is represented by an absolute number: “Today is 3 days”, “Today is 12 days”, or  “Today is 30 days”. We also count in terms of weeks, “you shall count off seven weeks” reflected in “2 weeks and 3 days” or “4 weeks and 2 days”.  The first counting method reflects a number reflecting the number of days. However, the second method suggests that the number of days appears within the context of a week. 

          Sefirat HaOmer (Counting The Omer) focuses on two aspects of counting. First, we are always interested in numbers, in data, in the idea of the linear.  There is a starting point and there is an endpoint. , We began counting four weeks ago and we will conclude in approximately three weeks hence. We count in terms of days as well as weeks. In doing so, we acknowledge that the result of counting is twofold. First, we are reminded that counting yields a piece of data, a number. Second, we are reminded that the data, the number indicates how far we have come and how far we still have to go. From that perspective, we can evaluate how far we have come how far we have to go, and the quality of the journey. As my wife and I both realize that this was the last Mother’s day with any of our children living with us, we both understood how far we have come. We can only hope that Mother’s Day in the future, while different, will still remain meaningful and purposeful just like those Mother’s Days when our kids would help me make breakfast, and serve mommy breakfast in bed.

Peace,
Rav Yitz

I Made A Choice That Soon Became A Stand (John Barlow & Bob Weir - "My Brother Esau")

            When the lead story in a Canadian evening news telecast is the same as an American evening news telecast, it is safe to say that the lead story must be important. When the lead story in a Canadian evening news telecast is about a leaked Supreme Court Draft Opinion that the majority of Justices (5-4) have agreed to, then I am intrigued. After all, a U.S. Supreme Court Decision regarding individual rights and criminalization of abortion in the United States does not affect Canada except for the fact that there might be American women who come to Canada from those states that restrict abortion (Peter Zimonjic, CBC News. “American Women Can Obtain Abortions In Canada If Roe v. Wade Falls, Minister Says” Posted: May 3, 2022.) As troubling as the leaked draft opinion for those who believe in a women’s right to choose, perhaps just as troubling is the implicit relationship between the nature of democracy and women’s rights. In an April 2021 article by Susan Markham and Stephanie Foster entitled: “Gender Equality is Fundamental to Promoting Democracy”, the authors explain that a democracy’s vitality and health are directly related to the rights of women, minorities, their ability to participate in democratic institutions, and affect policy. Indeed, the health of democracy and the health of a civilized society is directly related to its ability to empathize with those who are underrepresented, whose rights are ignored or diminished after 50 years of legal precedent. Sadly, those who feel most threatened by their loss of power might be better served to remind themselves of the “Golden Rule” that they were taught as children.

          This Shabbat we read from Parsha Kedoshim. Kedoshim is the plural form of the adjective Kodesh, which means holy.  In this particular case, the antecedent for Kedoshim is Kol Adat B’nai Yisroel – the Entire Assembly of the Children of Israel. All of Israel is Holy, why? As we will read over and over again in a mantra-like fashion, Ki Kadosh Ani Adonai Eloheichem – Because Holy am I the Lord your God. We are holy because of our sacred relationship with God. Interestingly, the rest of the Parsha does NOT concentrate on the relationship between God and humanity. Instead, the Parsha outlines the moral and ethical behavior that we are commanded to display towards our fellow human beings. Keeping in mind that we are all created B’Tzelem Elokim – the Image of God; we are urged to “be like God”.  We are reminded to treat others as we would treat God.

          The plethora of ethical behaviors outlined includes “do not place a stumbling block before the blind”, or “a worker's wage shall not remain with you overnight until morning”. Even the Golden Rule, urging us to treat others as we hope to be treated is part of Kedoshim. The great Talmudic Sage Rabbi Hillel explained to an individual who wanted to learn Torah while standing on one leg that this one rule embodies the essence of Torah “the rest are the detail” (Shabbat 31a). V’Ahavta L’Rei’echa K’Mocha – You shall love your fellow human being as yourself (Lev 19:18).  Rabbi Akiva, another Talmudic Sage, explains that this is the fundamental rule of the Torah (Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:4). Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heschel explained that this commandment does not mean to love saintly and righteous people – it is impossible NOT to love such people. Rather God commands us to love even people whom it is hard to love.  After each of these ethical reminders, God provides the mantra Ki Kadosh Ani Adonai Eloheichem – Because Holy am I the Lord your God. Did Bnai Yisroel suddenly forget who they were? Did Bnai Yisroel suddenly forget who God was? So soon after standing at Sinai, receiving the Aseret Dibrot, making the regrettable decision to worship the Egel Zahav, engaging in national Teshuva, and constructing a Mishkan, did Bnai Yisroel really forget that they are part of a sacred relationship? Perhaps these ethical statements and the re-iteration of many of the commandments are put into the context of human relationships because it is much easier to see the immediacy and relevance of these commandments in human terms. At the same time, we need to be reminded that we follow these commandments for two reasons: 1) because God said so and 2) because we have it in us to be holy, to be Godly.  

          At its core, the Golden Rule of “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” is about empathy. Increasing our empathy for each other might help diminish the vitriol, the mistrust, and the “zero sum game” that some equate with rights and power in demographically evolving democracies.  Perhaps striving to embody  God’s qualities begins with a very small and simple step V’Ahavta L’Rei’echa K’Mocha - You shall love your fellow human being as yourself.         

Peace,
Rav Yitz