Full Of Hope, Full Of Grace Is The Human Face (John Barlow & Bob Weir- "Throwing Stones")

           Earlier this week, the Jewish People celebrated Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, the celebration of the Giving of the Torah. A synagogue ritual that normally occurs on Shavuot, as well as on  Pesach and Sukkot, is the ceremony known as Duchening. The Kohanim of the congregation stand upon the bimah and with Talis covering them, and bestow a blessingknown as Birkat Kohanim upon the congregation. In Israel, the Duchening ceremony occurs every Shabbat. On Friday night, before sitting down to the Shabbat dinner, it is traditional for the father to give the Birkat Kohanim upon his children.  Many years ago, I attended  a wedding and  a baptism in a Catholic church.  During both ceremonies the Catholic Priest invoked the words of the Birkat Kohanim, both in Latin and English. When I made the Birkat Kohanim this past Friday, our dinner discussion included the recent events in Gaza and Hamas’ continued rocket fire targeting Israeli citizens. Even more disturbing than Hamas’ rocket fire has been the street violence that occurred in Lod, Haifa, and other Israeli towns where Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs live near each other.  Our son asked if there was an Islamic equivalent of Birkat Kohanim that a parent offers his/her child, or to the community for that matter. I explained that I did not know. I assumed that there is probably a blessing that a parent gives a child but I did not think that such a placing was also the same as a “Priestly Benediction” since Islam did not have “priests” like Judaism or Christianity. 

          This Shabbat we read from Parsha Naso. The Parsha’s 176 psukim make it among the longest single parshiot in the entire Torah.  Its length is also reflected in the wide variety of topics covered including the census for the tribe of Levi - the Priestly tribe, the responsibilities for the maintenance and operation of the Mishkan, the purification of the camp,  the treatment of the wayward wife (the Sotah), the vow of the Nazir (a vow that limits the behavior of the individual as a means of elevating oneself to a higher level of holiness for only a limited time),  the identical tribal offerings made by each leader in order on twelve successive days. This ritual offering celebrated the fact that the Mishkan was “open for business”. Inserted into these seemingly disparate rules and narratives are the priestly benedictions. A quick glance at the different components of Parsha Naso suggests that each blessing is connected to the other by focusing upon the image and the theme of Naso – “lift up” or "raise up". Indeed, each of the three blessings focuses upon the idea of  issues of spiritually uplifting our souls, spiritually uplifting  ourselves in holiness. We accomplish this either through our own actions or the actions of the other.

          The Priestly benediction is an example of a third party elevating us, or at least offering supplication to God on our behalf that we indeed are worthy of blessing.  From that perspective, I can’t imagine a more powerful ritual for parents to do with their children. Yevarechecha Adoshem VaYishmarecha, May Hashem bless you and keep you. Ya' eir Adoshem Panav Eilecha VaYichuneka, May Hashem make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you Yisa Adoshem Panav Eilecha VaYaSem Lecha Shalom May Hashem lift his countenance upon you and give you peace. ( Num 6:24-26). What does it mean that God should “keep" our children or “guard” our children? Naturally, as parents invoking Hashem to protect our children seems like a great idea given all the tsuris in the world. Yet Rashi, the great 11th-century French commentator explains that this first blessing is not an expression of  Hashem protecting our children. Rather the “blessing” expresses a blessing that had already been enumerated in the Torah, namely, that our children should be materially well off. Also we ask that Hashem (the loving and kind aspect of God) should “protect” our children and their material blessings from those who might usurp such a blessing. The second blessing which speaks of “shining Hashem’s face upon” our child expresses our desire for our children to become enlightened by Torah and experience a meaningful relationship with Hashem. The “gracious” is the subliminal understanding that we can only request that our children have an intellectual and spiritual ability to learn Torah and connect to Hashem. We hope Hashem was gracious in giving our children plenty of ability to be worthy enough to receive such “light”.  The third blessing is perhaps the most relevant for parents and children. Rashi explains that “lifting His countenance to you” means that Hashem should suppress His anger. One could also understand that the light or the enlightenment we seek is God's gift raising his face up towards us. With God's countenance before us, we sense God's love and we are able to cast aside or let go of our anger and hatred. Only after we, only after our children are capable of casting aside their anger and hatred will our souls be complete, whole and at peace in this world.  Both interpretations suggest that we hope and pray that our children are at spiritual peace, their souls will be  Shaleim, to be whole and complete. Anger and hatred prevent Shleimah – wholeness, harmony, peace.

          I thought about our son’s question, I thought about my own childhood dutifully walking towards my father and receiving this blessing. I thought about the blessing itself with its invocation of peace, of God’s shining his glory about the person receiving the blessing. I thought about God raising his face towards the person receiving the blessing.  I remain unfamiliar with any equivalent in Islam where a priest stands before the community and issues Birkat Kohanim - a “Priestly Benediction”  or an equivalent. To this day, I can’t imagine why parents in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or mixed Israeli Arab and Jewish neighborhoods (Haifa for example) would listen to Hamas and place their children in harm’s way. I can’t imagine hating so much that I am willing to harm my own children in order to feed that hatred. I thought about the words that Golda Meir purportedly said: ”Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”  When the Palestinian people stop listening to Hamas, when they stand up to Hamas rather than offer their own children to Hamas’ hatred, then Israel will know there is a partner for peace in Gaza.  

Peace,
Rav Yitz 

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