So I Give You My Eyes, And All Of Their Lies Please Help Them To Learn As Well As To See ( John Barlow & Bob Weir - "Black Throated Wind")

Camp has started. Our 18 year old began her staff week late last week. My wife left for camp on Sunday and I dropped off our son this past Tuesday. A friend of mine, a self-identified Orthodox Jew and avid supporter of Israel, and I chatted for a few moments at the camp before I left. He mentioned that he has participated in the recent protests out the offices of the OU. I asked why he was protesting.  He explained that he felt that the OU had sold their soul to a corrupt administration in order to for support for Israel. He explained that the OU should be a little more judicious in their praise of leaders and that support and praise must be based upon something more than just support for Israel. He went on to say that in the long run, he worried that support from divisive leaders, is bad for Israel and bad for the Jews. He worried that Israel has become a partisan issue.  We spoke for a few more minutes and he explained that many in his community share a similar perspective. While support for Israel (the message) matters,  so does the messenger. 

This Shabbat we read from Parsha Balak. Balak was a King of Moab. He heard of Bnai Yisroel’s most recent victory against the Amorites and he understood that fighting Bnai Yisroel would mean certain defeat.  Balak decided that invoking God and cursing Bnai Yisroel would be a better way of defeating Bnai Yisroel. So Balak hired a prophet named Balaam to curse Bnai Yisroel. Balak paid a large sum for Balaam’s curse. However try as he might, Balaam was unable to curse Bnai Yisroel. Since Balaam's donkey wouldn't even move, Balaam could not even get close enough to issue a curse. Finally, when Balaam actually drew near enough, made the necessary offerings and then tried to curse Bnai Yisroel, only Brachot (blessings) came out of his mouth.  The Parsha concludes with Bnai Yisroel encamped on the Eastern side of the Jordan River on the plains of Moab and Balak thinking of another way to weaken Bnai Yisroel. He had the Moabite women to seduce the men of Bnai Yisroel. Once seduced, the men would start engaging in idolatry and the result was God grew angry with Bnai Yisroel and indeed, they were punished with a horrible plague. Only Pinchas’s (Aharon's grandson) vigilance stopped the plague.

Two questions we taught our children to ask are questions that the Jewish people have always asked. Is it good for the Jews? Is it good for Israel? The Talmudic Rabbis have great difficulty in answering these age-old question regarding Bilaam, the Prophet for hire that was supposed to curse Israel but blessed Israel instead. Some of the Midrashim (Rabbinic comments) compare Bilaam to Abraham Moses and Jacob as a non-Jewish alternative (Sifre, Zot HaBracha section 16). However in the Targum Yonatan in the Jerusalem Talmud and Rashi’s comment in Sanhedrin 105a refers to a tradition of comparing Bilaam to Laban. According to the Midrash in Breishit Rabbah God spoke to both Laban and Bilaam in the evening. Both Laban and Bilaam misuse their words.  Laban hoodwinked and tricked Jacob into working for him as an indentured servant form nearly two decades. The Passover Hagaddah tells us that Laban wanted to uproot everything simply by keeping Jacob near him rather than leaving and becoming independent. Had Jacob and the children (Laban’s grandchildren) remained with Laban, then Israel would have been subsumed by Laban’s tribe. Bilaam also wants to destroy Israel. He tries to curse B’nai Yisroel on numerous occasions only to utter an incredibly beautiful blessing: Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov (How Goodly Are Your Tents O’ Jacob…) However it is also Bilaam who noticing the morality and the purity of B’nai Yisroel’s camp (Rashi’s comment in Num.24:5); called on King Balak to send the Moabite and Midianite daughters to seduce the men of Israel both sexually and religiously: VaTikrena L’Am L’Zivchei Eloheihen VaYochal Ha’Am VaYishtachu L’Eloheihen - They (the daughters of Moab and Midian) invited the people (B’nai Yisroel) to the feasts of their gods; the people ate and prostrated themselves to their (the Moabite and Midianite Gods). Israel was threatened both physically and spiritually, first with food and drink, and then by worshipping Baal Peor. By creating and initiating this plan designed to get the Jews to assimilate, some Rabbinic Sages consider Bilaam to be even more evil and more dangerous than Laban.

I wished my friend a good summer hoping he enjoyed his work at the camp and looked forward to seeing him when I pick up our kids. I drove off wondering about the conversation with my Orthodox Jewish friend, I wondered about his community. I wondered if supporting Israel is enough or do I need to also worry about all those messengers, the type of people that support Israel. When I returned, I sent my friend an email asking him what message did the protesters want to convey.  My friend responded by telling me that those who protest outside the OU offices, those who participate in the Protest Mincha outside the OU offices are reminding Jewish Leadership that it in this complex, politicized era, we need to pay attention to the messenger as well as the message then evaluate whether the messenger is good for Israel and the Jews. I was re-assured that like the Sages, we need to continue asking the same questions.

Peace,

Rav Yitz

And At Last It's The Real Thing Or Close Enough To Pretend (John Barlow & Bob Weir - "Saint of Circumstance")

As we have watched the James Comey, the former Director of the FBI, testify before a Senate hearing, and then watched Attorney General Jeff Sessions testify before the same Senate hearing, we have been hearing more and more about Fake News. Yes, Fake News, it is just another thing to make me roll my eyes and teach my children critical reading and reasoning skills to recognize fake news, ignore fake news and prevent it from skewing attitudes. Now I have to remind my children that it’s not enough to listen, they must always be mindful of the source, who broadcast it, where did they get the information? When their friends repeat something far-fetched or ridiculous because they heard it or their parents heard it on some right wing or left wing news show; my kids have to learn to ignore their friends.  My kids will now have learn how to determine if a story true or is a very small percentage of it true and the rest merely an extrapolation based upon assumption and conjecture? Whose bias is satisfied, whose agenda is expressed by such a story? Fake news only works if people listen to it and think of as news as opposed to the trash that it really is.

This Shabbat we read from Parsha Shlach Lecha. Parsha Shlach Lecha includes the troubling narrative of the 12 spies and the ensuing report of Eretz Canaan made to Moshe and B’nai Yisroel. Until this point, the plan was that B’nai Yisroel was to head towards Eretz Canaan. Certainly, God and even Moshe had grown steadily angry at B’nai Yisroel as their complaints from the previous parsha, B’haalotcha, began to sound like a lack of faith. Despite the complaints, God had not yet prohibited this generation from entering into the Land. However following the negative report from ten of the twelve spies, the people follow the majority opinion, and God and Moshe realize that this generation is not yet ready to enter the land. This was the reason why B’nai Yisroel would now have to wait nearly 4 decades prior to entering Eretz Canaan. Yet towards the end of the Parsha, Torah makes it very clear, that despite this generation’s lack of faith, returning to the land is inevitable and a covenant that will be fulfilled. KI Tavo’u El Eretz Moshvoteichem Asher Ani Notein Lachem –God spoke to Moshe saying: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: When you will come to the Land of your dwelling places that I give you…. (Num. 15:2). Even at that point while punishment was meted out, the punishment did not remove hope, it did not remove inevitability, nor did it mitigate the covenant that God had made with Avraham, Yitzchak Yaakov or Moshe Rabeinu at Sinai. Rather this punishment delayed the inevitable and waited for another generation that was worthy enough to inherit the covenant.

After the ten gave their report, Caleb one of the two with a positive report (Joshua being the other) simply stated his opinion. Caleb did not disagree with the majority report that it is a land flowing with Milk and Honey, and the cities are fortified etc. Rather Caleb first silenced the other spies: VayHas Caliev et Ha’Am El Moshe Vayomer – Caleb hushed the people toward Moshe and said Aloh Na’Aleh V’Yarashnu Otah Ki Yachol Nuchal Lah – We shall surely ascend and conquer it, for we can surely do it (Num. 13:30). How did Caleb silence them? What does it mean that he silenced them towards Moshe? What possessed Caleb to be so optimistic and not the other ten spies? Beginning with Caleb’s faith in God while the others’ faith wavered; Caleb also had a deep respect for the current institutions of leadership and a profound faith in Moshe’s leadership. Rashi, the 11^th century French vintner, Rabbi, and commentator, offers his insight:  His belief in the inevitable was a result of his experience at Sinai. The spies were already biased against Moses Lishmoah Ma ShYidabeir B’Moshe Tzavach v’Amar, V’chi Zo Vilvad Asa Lanu Ben Amram –To listen to what he (Caleb) would say against Moses, and Caleb cried out and said, Is it this alone that the son of Amram has done to us. HaShomeiyah Haya Savur Sh’ba L’Sapeir Bignuto The one who heard this was under the impression that Caleb was about to speak in disparagement of Moses. For Rashi, the issue is not the ten spies’ negative report per se. Rather it is the fact that people listened to it rather than dismissed it. The people wanted to believe the spies, they were ripe for a negative report because their faith was already wavering. The report merely justified their perception and lack of faith. For Rashi, the people the people already had were predisposed to the spies’ negative report. So the spies pandered to the people.

We all struggle with our faith.  And while we intellectually understand the importance of maintaining an optimistic attitude in life, sometimes we can only see hardship difficulty and impossibility. Because of our own bias, and perhaps our desire for simplicity and simple answers, we can easily become susceptible to fake news, to misinformation, to a bad report that, on the surface is completely logical. However upon further examination, upon further thought we might learn something else. Fake news, or a negative report such as what the ten spies offered, teaches us that, ultimately, the choice to listen and accept fake news or the spies’ negative report is up to the listener. If the listener’s faith in social institutions, authority, society, is already diminished then that listener is vulnerable and the prime target of and consumer of fake news. For Caleb, for Joshua and ultimately for the generation that was born in the wilderness, the Generation that didn’t know slavery, they were immune to this fake news.

Peace,

Rav Yitz