Mother American Night, Here Comes The Light (John Barlow & Bob Weir - "Black Throated Wind")

Both Canada and the United States celebrated this week. On Monday, Canada celebrated The Articles Confederation and its 152^nd birthday. On Thursday, the United States celebrated the ratification of the Declaration of Independence and its 243^rd birthday. Both the days were marked by people enjoying beautiful summer weather, barbeque, baseball, and fireworks. Both countries are a testament to the sanctity of democracy, a free press, and safeguards to prevent tyranny.  Regarding democracy, Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice of the United States commented: “The freedom to criticize Judges and other public officials is necessary for a vibrant democracy.” In parliamentary governments such as England and Canada, we are able to routinely watch the Prime Minister walk into Parliament and be routinely criticized.  In the United States, political satire and the press that assumes the mantle of criticism. The criticism, is of course, a means by which the executive branch is held accountable, apologizes if necessary, and improves.

This week we read from Parsha Korach. This week's Parsha is Korach. Korach was a relative of Moshe's. They both came from the tribe of Levi. Korach questioned Moshe's authority. He did not do this during a private meeting between individuals. Rather, Korach gathered 250 supporters, and then publicly challenged Moshe. Moshe tried to keep peace within the community but to no avail. A divine test is administered, and Korach and his supporters fail. The earth swallows them up. However, God is angry and a plague falls upon the people. They are communally punished for Korach's actions, their passive support, and their failure to bond together against Korach. Yet the people are still not convinced that Moshe and Aharon should remain in charge, only that Korach was unworthy. So a second divine test is administered this time with 12 rods stuck in the ground and almond branches resulting in Aaron’s staff, thus symbolizing that God has chosen Aharon to be the Kohen Gadol.  The Parsha concludes with God speaking to Aharon and re-iterating his obligations in terms of the Mishkan, the Altar, and the Tent of the Meeting.

Clearly, the most poignant moment in the narrative is the confrontation between Korach, Datan and Aviram, and all their followers with Moshe and Aaron. After witnessing Miriam becoming a leper for speaking against Moshe (Parsha B’Halotcha), after witnessing God’s anger and Moshe’s defense of the people in Parsha B’Halotcha and Shlach Lecha, the rebellion is very troubling. Moshe is shocked by it. He is hurt by it. The fact that he didn’t want the job in the first place, the fact that he went to bat for his flock time after time, leaves Moshe questioning his purpose.  Vayishmah Moshe Vayipol Al Panav – Moshe heard [the complaints] and fell on his face (Num 16:4).  Why did Moshe fall on his face? The Medieval commentators offer a variety of explanations.  Chizkuni, the 13th-century French commentator explains “Moshe fell to the ground in humiliation [at Korach accusation]. Rashi, the 11th-century French commentator explains that “Moshe fell in despair, he felt powerless to appeal to God for the fourth time. He defended the people after the Golden Calf, when they complained for no good reason, and when they heeded the spies. There is an enormous difference between falling due to humiliation or public embarrassment and falling down upon the ground due to despair and the knowledge that one his helpless to fix a bad situation. Soon after he falls to the ground, he figures out, along with God’s help, how to solve the problem and consolidate his authority. Just as important, the people learn the lesson about following the emptiness of cynical self-centered leadership.

However, in the context of Canada Day, Independence Day and the celebration of the success of liberal democracy, Parsha Korach teaches us something about leadership. Perhaps it is a lesson or an indication that democracy is vibrant and successful. Not only is a democracy’s vibrancy based upon the peoples’ ability to criticize the various branches of government, but the target of criticism, when necessary must be able to apologize. When leaders fail to apologize or avoid apologizing, they may think that doing so diminishes their power or that they are not answerable to governed. Let those leaders take a less from Moshe Rabeinu.  Not only did he apologize in a heartfelt manner that was full of remorse and integrity, but he consolidated his power and demonstrated greater humanity and approachability. Both qualities are necessary for successful leadership.

What Truth Is Proof Against All Lies When Sacred Fails Before Profane (Gerrit Graham & Bob Weir -"Victim Or The Crime")

Prior to Israel and Jews throughout the world observed Yom HaZikaron (Remembrance Day), and Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day) Israelis had to endure rocket fire from Gaza. This wasn’t just a couple of rockets that were shot down by the Iron Dome. This was over two hundred rockets fired over the course of about 36 hours. Schools in Ashkelon and along Israel’s southern border near Gaza were closed. With our daughter in Israel, my wife felt compelled to remind me that our daughter was in the North parts of Israel with her program so I shouldn’t be overly worried. Yet, I did worry. Maybe not so much for my daughter but for YouTube videos that showed Israeli children listening to sirens, running to bomb shelters, and clutching to their parents. I also saw YouTube videos and numerous Palestinian teenage boys standing near the border with Israel hurling slingshots, and trying to float incendiary balloons across the wall. Can I empathize with their frustration? Yes. Can I empathize with their anger? Yes. However as my children point out, and I agree, those angry frustrated Palestinians were aiming their slingshots, and rockets and directing their frustration and hopelessness the wrong way. How do we know this? It was self- evident from all those YouTube videos filmed by the Gazans and Hamas who clearly support and instigate the unrest and the rocket fire. The videos indicate that Hamas rockets were launched from schools, hospitals, apartment buildings and houses of worship.  Videos indicate that the mothers and the daughters, dressed in traditional observant Muslim clothing, remain behind their sons and their brothers, encouraging and supporting their sons and brothers slingshot stones and float incendiary balloons over the wall. When I saw that, any empathy I may have had dried up. I couldn’t imagine my wife and my daughters running behind her son and their brother all the while encouraging and supporting him as he endangered his life and the lives of those around him.  Rather, I could imagine my son’s mother and his three older sisters walking up to him and dragging him out of harms’ way.  I thought about Golda Meir’s words: “Peace will come when the Arabs start to love their children more than they hate us.”  

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, Hashem your God. We are holy because of our sacred relationship to 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 being. Keeping in mind that we are all created B’Tzelem Elokim – the Image of God; we are urged to imitate 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 workers 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 details” (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. However we do not “love” to our detriment. These ethical statements and the re-iteration of many of the commandments are put into the context of human relationship because it is much easier to see the immediacy and relevance of these commandments in human terms while aspiring to and appealing to the Godliness in each soul.

How different would Gaza, its inhabitants, and Israel be if Gazans sought Kedushah, holiness here on earth rather than in death? How different would Gaza, its inhabitants, and Israel be if Gazan sought Kedushah and understood the words Loving your neighbor as Heschel understood it: even if he is difficult to love? How much poison, how much hate can an organization have that uses its own people for fodder in order to promote despair and death?  How many Gazans need to be enslaved by Hamas to build tunnels? How much money and supplies does Hamas need to for tunnels rather than hospitals, schools, and community centers? How many children need to be poisoned with hate in order to convince them to fight? How many mothers need to be rewarded/bribed with funds in order to allow their children to be “martyred”?  The tragedy is that Hamas and every organization like Hamas have placed a stumbling block in front of the blind. The tragedy for Palestinians in Gaza is not Israel. Rather, the tragedy is that they allowed themselves to be fooled when they voted for Hamas all those years ago. They chose to unholy poison offered by Hamas rather than the nectar of Kedushah and peace with Israel. As tragic as all that is; I find Golda Meir’s words even more tragic: We can forgive [them] for killing our children. We cannot forgive them from forcing us to kill their children.

Peace,

Rav Yitz

Who'll Go Right Through The Book And Break Each And Every Law (John Barlow & Bob Weir - "I Need A Miracle")

This week, Canada celebrated Canada Day (formerly known as Dominion Day) and the United State celebrated Independence Day. Both countries are the embodiment of the “New World”, a world built upon laws, democracy and based upon a dream that the future is genuinely brighter and more hopeful than the “Old World’s” paralyzing history and restrictive social mores. Both countries offer a possibility, an opportunity and that one ought to be judged by the “content of character”, not by skin colour, country of origin, wealth, or family connections. Both countries have always made it clear that no person is above the law: Not the poorest, not the wealthiest, not the meekest, not the most powerful.  So as my children celebrate both Canada Day and Independence Day; I feel compelled to remind them that what they should keep in mind when they celebrate is that more than any form of government more than any form of a society’s basic principle of organization; Democracy is the holiest form of government and, besides Torah, Democracy is one of the holiest organizing principles of a society. Like Torah, in Democracy the Law is sacred, the law is Holy, and no king no leader is above the Law. Like Torah, Democracy and Law work best when it avoids fundamentalism/extremism of the left and right; but rather sticks to the middle (Deut. 28:14).

This Shabbat we read from Parsha Pinchas. The first few Psukim of the Parsha are a direct continuation of the previous Shabbat Parsha: Balak. There is no elapse of time in the narrative. Balak concludes with a plague upon B’nai Yisroel for its worship of Moabite/Midianite god, Baal Peor. Aaron’s son Pinchas zealously acts by killing Zimri from the tribe of Shimon and Cozbi the Midianite woman. God tells Moshe to reward Pinchas for his behaviour by giving him the Brit Shalom, the Covenant of Peace. This covenant is only for Pinchas and his descendants. Keeping in mind that B’nai Yisroel has now concluded it 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and are poised upon the eastern bank of the Jordan River; a new census is taken. Just like we needed to know how many left Egypt, we now need to know how many will enter into Eretz Canaan. After the census is taken Moshe must judge a legal case concerning the laws of inheritance when a man has only daughters. This brief narrative is about the “Daughters of Tzelophchad”. Following this narrative, God commands Moshe to teach the new generation the laws for time-bound offerings including the Shabbat offering, the Rosh Chodesh offering, the offerings for the Shalosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimage Festivals etc).

Isn't it odd, or perhaps even disturbing, that Pinchas' zealousness, his subsequent spear throwing and impaling his targets appears rewarded with a Brit Shalom - a Covenant of Peace and Brit Kehunat Olam - a covenant of an everlasting Priesthood? (Num. 25:12). Through our modernist lens, many readers will perceive Pinchas’ act to be nothing more than fanaticism or vigilantism. It appears as if vigilantism is rewarded. To offer Pinchas Peace and the Priesthood becomes seems incomprehensible. The NeZiV (Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Berlin Poland 1817-1893; the Rosh Yeshiva of the Volozhin Yeshiva) offers a fascinating explanation that might be valuable in today's’ age of extremists recruiting young people. The NeZiV explains that the Brit Shalom is a guarantee of peace from an inner enemy from whatever lurked within Pinchas that caused him to kill another human being without due process. "The Holy One Blessed He blessed him [Pinchas] with the attribute of peace, that he should not be quick-tempered or angry. Since it was only natural that such a deed as Pinchas' should leave in his heart an intense emotional unrest afterward, the Divine blessing was designed to cope with this situation and promised peace and tranquility of the soul." We can now begin to make some sense of these covenants. Once Pinchas committed his first act of zealous defence of God's glory, perhaps it becomes easier and easier to commit the second, third or forty-eighth act of zealous defence of God's glory. At some point, from the NeZiV's perspective, the zealot's soul becomes damaged, the zealot's emotions are incapable of feelings, and the zealot's eyes become unseeing except through the lens of their zealousness. The zealot by definition is an extremist and we know that extremism in Judaism is frowned upon and halachically unacceptable (see the laws of the Nazarite).  Precisely because the zealot does not know peace when he/she commits such an act, in Pinchas' case the only gift God could give was that the tumult of his own soul should cease and he should be whole, complete and at peace.

Yes, Pinchas saved a community from further pain and suffering by hurling that spear at Zimri and Omri. Yes, Pinchas murdered that Prince of the tribe of Shimon and that Princess Midian. The Covenant isn’t so much a reward but rather it is a salve or a balm for the tumult within Pinchas’ soul. Now, Pinchas and his descendants could ill afford to ever act as vigilantes, Pinchas and his descendants could ill afford to take on a such a fundamentalist attitude because Pinchas has now been thrust into a position of leadership and rather than embracing the fundamentalist and tumultuous aspect of soul, he must rather embrace the calm, loving demeanor of his grandfather, Aaron, who chased after Justice and loved Amcha.  

Peace,

Rav Yitz

It Will Require A Change That Hasn't Come Before (Robert Hunter, Jerrry Garcia,& Phil Lesh "St. Stephen")

I realize that we have just completed the first week of July. What does an American do on July 4^th while living in Toronto? I went to work. However I still managed to listen to a baseball game, and watch the fireworks later that evening. During the broadcast of the game, the announcers were already commenting upon the team’s success and whether they will be active at the end of July when Major League Baseball’s trade deadline occurs. The announcer commented upon whether certain players could use a change of scenery in order for them to improve their performance. For the ownership, some players have failed to reach expectations and they assume that a change of scenery will not only help the player but by trading that player, the ownership might get someone who can help the team.

This Shabbat is we read Parsha Balak. In the Parsha we read an interesting narrative that is filled with suspense, humor, intrigue, an apparent “midseason trade” and even a happy ending. It is interesting to note that throughout the Parsha, the focus is upon the outside world as it relates to the Bnai Yisroel. That is to say, Balak, the king of Moav and the tribe of Midian are the subjects of the Parsha. Bnai Yisroel hovers as the main reason for why the narrative is pertinent; however for once, Bnai Yisroel is not doing something wrong, they are not recipients of God’s anger. Instead they placidly and temporarily settled on the plains of Moav waiting to enter into Eretz Canaan. Not until the end of the Parsha and only after the narrative of Balak and Bilaam concluded, does the Torah return to a narrative style with Bnai Yisroel as the subject of poor behavior and God’s anger.

 Bilaam, a soothsayer is hired by Balak to curse Bnai Yisroel. By cursing Bnai Yisroel, Balak believed that this was the only way to defeat Bnai Yisroel since they had successfully waged war on all the indigenous tribes thus far. The donkey that Bilaam rides upon on his way to cursing Bnai Yisroel refuses to respond to Bilaam, Bilaam grows angrier and angrier. The donkey is able to see an Angel of God in the road and Bilaam the soothsayer cannot. So a humorous conversation between Donkey and Soothsayer occurs (this is the funny part). Bilaam eventually realizes that he is unable to curse Bnai Yisroel. Finally when he is looking from the hills down upon Bnai Yisroel and sees a peaceful, God-fearing community he utters praise instead of curses.  Imagine Balak’s anger and frustration? He hires Bilaam to curse B’nai Yisroel, and instead he blesses Bnai Yisroel! Vayomer Balak El Bilaam Meh Asita Li Lakov Oyvai L’Kachticha V’Hinei Beirachta Vareich – Balak said to Bilaam, “What have you done to me! To curse my enemy have I brought you – but behold, you have even blessed!” (Num. 23:11)

Balak’s frustration is something we can all understand. He believed that Bilaam, a powerful soothsayer/prophet was capable of communing with God and deriving the appropriate sign in order to curse Bnai Yisroel. Bilaam’s response is quite revealing: Halo Eit Asher Yasim HaShem B’Fi Oto Eshmor L’Daber! Is it not so that whatever Hashem puts in my mouth, that I must take heed to speak! Essentially Bilaam explains that he can only say what God would have said. Clearly With his plans stymied, Balak leaves Bilaam in great frustration. If Balak could have traded Bilaam for another soothsayer, he probably would have. As awful a person as Balak is, and as mercenary a person Bilaam is, we can learn a lot from the exchange of both men.  Balak hired the soothsayer to do a job for which Bilaam was renowned for doing. Bilaam did not live up to his reputation.  Had Balak issued a curse himself, even if it failed, at least he would have felt empowered. Remember, Balak is afraid. He knows of Bnai Yisroel’s reputation.  He doesn’t stand a chance in a conventional confrontation. If Balak had been educated and was knowledgeable in the arts of “curse issuing”, then Balak’s frustration would have been directed at God and himself.

While it may be easy to trade players who have not lived up to expectations; it is much harder for Balak to trade Bilaam. For that matter, it’s also really hard to trade ourselves. What do we do when we fail to live up to our own expectations? Do we blame others or do we engage in a bit of introspection and try to improve ourselves?  By turning inwards, by examining our souls, we derive the impetus to ask questions, to learn, and to make Judaism more meaningful. Sometimes, a team will decide not get rid of a player whom they think is underachieving. Rather than look for another player –looking outwards; teams decide to stick with the personnel that they have, to re-affirm their confidence in the player, and give the player more opportunity to play. The result is that both the ownership and the player look inward and renew the sense of commitment and purpose.

                Peace,                   

                Rav Yitz