Think This Through With Me, Let Me Know Your Mind, What I Want To Know Is, Are You Kind? (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Uncle John's Band")

          An elderly gentleman told his friend about a magnificent restaurant. “The food is great, the prices are reasonable, and the ambiance is really elegant.” His friend asked for the name of the restaurant, and the elderly man struggled to remember the name of the restaurant. Finally, he asked his friend, “There is a flower with beautiful petals… it has a long stem with thorns on it- what do you call it?” The friend replied, “A rose?” “Yeah, that’s it!” said the gentleman. So he turned toward the kitchen and yelled, “Hey, Rose! What was the name of that restaurant we ate in last night?” Sometimes we all need a reminder. We even need a reminder for those things that we really know.

          Besides Shabbat, it is also Shavuot. This is essentially the yearly reminder of two important concepts of Judaism: Mitzvot and Chesed (Commandments and Kindness). Shavout has numerous alternative names, but perhaps the most well known is Chag Matan Torah, the Holiday of the Giving of the Torah. On Friday, the first day of Shavuot, we read about B’nai Yisroel’s revelation at Sinai (Ex. 19:1-20:23). We read of their three days of preparation, Moshe’s ascending and descending from the mountain, and finally, we read the Aseret Dibrot (The Ten Commandments). Needless to say, the Torah reading for the first day of Shavuot is replete with laws. Explicitly, we read the Ten Commandments, ten universal rules that were all punishable by death. We also read and understand that our ancestors purified themselves in preparation for meeting God. They washed their clothes, they bathed, and they refrained from conjugal relations. We are reminded that Torah possesses a ritual/legal aspect that enriches the relationship between the individual and God, and the community and God. Both of these relationships require that we approach the sanctity of these relationships in a state of purity.

          The second day of Shavuot coincides with this Shabbat, therefore instead of the weekly Parsha, we read the passage in Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17. If the first day Torah reading for Shavuot focused upon the Commandments, the receiving of Torah at Sinai, The second day Torah reading focuses upon Chesed, Kindness. On three different occasions, the Torah reading either implicitly or explicitly reminds us and challenges us to engage in Gemilut Chasidim and Act of Kindness. First, we read about laws concerning tithing. Explicitly, we are again discussing law, however, this is not ritual law or law concerning Man’s relationship to God. Implicitly, we are reading about those laws that govern our behavior towards our fellow man, ethical law. We are commanded to care for those who are less fortunate. “At the end of the three years you shall take out every tithe of your crop…then the Levite can come-for he has no portion or inheritance with you – and the proselyte, the orphan and the widow who are in your cities so they may be satisfied….(Deut. 14:28-29). The second topic discusses the laws concerning Shmittah, the seventh year when debts are canceled, fields lie fallow, slaves are set free, and any firstborn male born during this year is considered Hekdesh (sanctified and therefore belonging to God.) Even here, the Torah’s focus is upon what we consider to be ethical concerns. “For destitute people will not cease to exist within the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘you shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your poor, and to your destitute in your Land’” (Deut.15:11). We are commanded, and obligated to always take care of those who are less fortunate. The third topic discusses the Mitzvot related to each of the three Pilgrimage Festivals (Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot). On Pesach, we are commanded to eat only unleavened bread and the Pesach offering. On Sukkot, we are commanded to dwell in the Sukkah. On Shavuot, having already counted seven weeks since Pesach, we are now commanded to bring an offering commensurate to total production. Everyone is commanded to rejoice before God, “You, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maidservant, the Levite in your city, the proselyte, the orphan, the widow who are among you” (Deut.16:11). Again, implicit in the Torah reading is the notion of caring for those less fortunate. The ethical concerning, mankind’s relationship to mankind is the second concept of Torah.

          Unique to the holiday of Shavuot is the reading of the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth contains no laws regarding impurity and purity, nor laws of what is prohibited and what is permitted. It is however a beautiful story of a young woman willing to remain with her mother-in-law, return to the mother-in-law’s (Naomi’s) homeland of Eretz Canaan, and convert to Judaism. Implicit in the Book of Ruth is Gemilut Hasidim, Acts of Loving Kindness. Boaz, a wealthy landowner and distant relative of Naomi’s late husband, leaves the prescribed part of his field to be harvested by those who are less fortunate. He cares for the destitute, the proselyte, the widowed, and the orphan. He doesn’t abandon his communal nor familial responsibilities. Ruth, under no obligation, did not abandon her mother-in-law. As a non-Jew, she chose to accept those obligations and converted. The two are married. They embody Torah, the symbiotic relationship between the ethical and the ritual. As a result, they have the z’chut (the merit) to be King David’s great grandparents.

         Like the old man who needed to be reminded of his wife’s name as well as the restaurant’s name, every once in a while we need to be reminded that Torah and Judaism have as much to do with God and ritual as with Mankind and ethics. The Ethical and Ritual are inseparable. Our attempt to separate the two diminishes Torah, Judaism, our community, ourselves, and our relationship to God.

Peace,

Rav Yitz 

And I'll Call Down Thunder And Speak The Same; And My Words Fills The Sky With Flame (John Barlow & Bob Weir - "Estimated Prophet')

                My kids and my wife know that if I am driving, they will be listening to thirty years’ worth of soundboard quality concerts of the Grateful Dead.  It may be a concert from 1967; it may be a concert from 1995 or the recent shows this past summer or something in between. Every so often I will even chime in and tell them that I was at a particular show.  Yes, I am a Dead Head.  If anyone has ever attended a Grateful Dead Show (the original band played over 2300 concerts from 1965-1995), or had the opportunity to experience the more than 200 shows after the death of Jerry Garcia in August of 1995 (surviving members of the original band performed as Further, The Other Ones, The Dead, and most recently Dead and Company); then understanding the notion of public revelation isn’t so unique nor too difficult to comprehend. Statistically, many more people have not experienced this type of concert. Many more people have seen The Rolling Stones. However whether one has seen one Grateful Dead show or 1000 shows, whether one saw the original band in 1965 or saw the latest rendition of the band during the summer or fall of 2015; make no mistake, those who have experienced a show share a common language, saw similar sights, maybe even heard the similar songs, and were part of a community that is happy to be routinely considered outside the mainstream society. Everyone knows that no two shows are ever the same. Therefore the experience at a show is both communal and individual.  In today’s day and age, the concept of a Revelation is tends to be more individual in nature. Of the three Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Islam are based upon the revelation of the individual. However Judaism, the oldest of the three Abrahamic religions and with the smallest number of adherents is completely based upon a public revelation. Certainly each individual experienced something slightly different, but they experienced some type of revelation while standing at Mt. Sinai.  When learning about another’s revelation, “awe” and “fear” becoming obstacles for those learning about an individual’s revelation. If the person is unapproachable, then it becomes all but impossible to be spiritually close enough to that person in order to learn all that there is to learn from that revelatory experience. However, after three and half hours of a Grateful Dead Show, the experience is so powerful that it any longer would become overwhelming. That’s not to say one might not show up for consecutive shows or even tour with the band, but eventually individual shows, a three night runs in a particular city, and typical six week tour will eventually come to an end. Nobody can experience a constant first hand revelation and be expected to live.

This Shabbat we read from Parsha Yitro. This week's Parsha is Yitro. Named after Moshe father in-law, who happens to be a Midianite priest, the Parsha begins with Moshe leading B'nai Yisroel toward the wilderness of Midian where he meets up with his father in-law, his wife and his two sons. Yitro suggests that Moshe should create a bureaucracy whereby others administer the small everyday rulings required of a judge. Difficult legal issues would be administered by Moshe. Moshe is then commanded by God to bring B'nai Yisroel to Mt. Sinai. For three days they will purify themselves, clean their clothes, not have marital relations, and purify their souls for a revelation. There with the mountain smoking and thunder billowing from the heavens, God begins to speak. B'nai Yisroel is absolutely petrified and fearing death, they beg Moshe to go up the mountain as their Shaliach (appointed messenger). Moshe ascends the mountain and receives the Aseret HaDibrot (the Ten Commandments), then descends. Upon his descent he tells B'nai Yisroel the Aseret HaDibrot.

However the Parsha concludes in a very peculiar way. B’nai Yisroel just shared an absolutely surreal experience; they prepared for three days, they approached the mountain, the mountain looked like it was smoking and full of fire and then they heard the voice of God. Despite this incredibly surreal moment, despite this awesome experience, they were only spiritually capable enough to handle hearing the first commandment. They relied upon Moshe to tell them the remaining nine commandments. Indeed this was an awe inspiring moment, yet simultaneously it was a spiritually overwhelming moment. V’Chol Ha’Am Ro’im et HaKolot V’Et Halapidim V’Eit Kol HaShofar V’Et HaHar Ashein VaYar Ha’Am  VaYanu’U VaYamdu Meirachok The entire nation saw the thunder and the flames, the sound of the shofar and the smoking mountain; the people saw and trembled from afar. VaYomru El Moshe Daber Atah Imanu V’Nishma’ah B’Al Yidabeir Imanu Elohim Pen Namut. They said to Moshe, “You speak to us and we shall hear; let God not speak to us lest we die. (Ex. 20:15-16)  So Moshe goes back up into the darkness of the mountain and God tells Moshe to say to B’nai Yisroel Atem Riitem Ki Min HaSHamayim Dibarti Imachem You (B’nai Yisroel) have seen that I spoke to from heaven. (Ex. 20:19) Normally one hears what is spoken; however because the experience is so surreal, apparently one “sees” what is spoken from heaven. Rashi, the great 11^th century French commentator, explains the phrase “see what was spoken” as opposed to hear what was spoken. Yeish Hafreish Bein Mah Sh’Adam Roeh L’Mah Sheh’Acheirim MSichin Lo Sh’Mah She’ Acheirim M’Sichin Lo Pa’Amim Sh’Libo Chaluck MilHaAmin There is a difference between that which a man sees and that about which others tell him, for about that which others tell him, at times his heart (mind) is doubtful about believing. When one experiences revelation first hand, then there is a minimal chance of “sin”, of having some other God before Hashem. However when one hears about revelation, there is more risk for individual to have another god before Hashem.  

                Revelation is fraught with boundaries and limitations.  Too much revelation can lead to fear, spiritual paralysis and even fear of death -Pen Namut perhaps We Die.  Not enough revelation, that is to say, experiencing it second hand creates a possibility that followers of the individual who had the revelatory experience may elevate that individual to a status of more than just a person, more than just a prophet.   The Revelation at Sinai had one profound purpose. B’nai Yisroel had to see, hear, and acknowledge that there can be no other god before Hashem. That acknowledgement, that communal and national acknowledgement of each person having a first-hand Revelation on that day, at that time, and at that place is what makes Judaism completely unique from the other Abrahamic religions. Always with the fewest followers compared to Christianity and Islam, always considered outside the dominant culture, that moment at Sinai connected a group of people through space and time. From a secular perspective, those who have experienced a Grateful Dead Show understand what it’s like to “See the thunder” and hear the “sound of the smoking mountain.”  Like the bumper sticker says: “There’s nothing like a Grateful Dead concert”.

Peace,

Rav Yitz