Esau Gave Me Sleeplessness And A Piece Of Moral Land (John Barlow & Bob Weir - "My Brother Esau")

This past week, my family and I had the opportunity to get in touch with our American heritage. I had the opportunity to pass the tradition and history of college basketball to my children. However, I had an eye opening experience that indicates that perhaps we have been living in Canada for a long time. This past Shabbat, one of the final four teams playing was the University of Connecticut. They won their semifinal game and eventually were crowned National Champions on Monday night with their victory over the University of Kentucky. Among the people who live in New England and New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania: the University of Connecticut is also known as UConn. When my children kept hearing UConn, the dominant cultural context of our lives: Jewish Culture and Canadian culture became quite apparent. Until the championship game began, my children couldn’t’ understand why we weren’t cheering for the University of Kentucky when after all, they knew that Kentucky was one of the 50 States. When I asked them why they would cheer for Kentucky, a team that I grew up cheering against, my three children looked up at me and said in great patriotic fervor, “How can we root for UCONN that is one of the provinces in Canada!” I looked my children blankly and responded UConn is in Connecticut not the Yukon, but UConn - University of Connecticut!”

This Shabbat is Shabbat HaGadol; the Shabbat that immediately precedes Pesach. The Parsha is Acharei Mot. After two Parshiot, Tazria and Metzorah, which essentially interrupted the narrative and the laws that had been focused upon the Kohanim, we now return to the Kohen as the central focus in the Parsha. Now that he has become spiritually pure, the Torah is now ready to teach the laws for the spiritual purity of the nation. We have focused upon the impurities of individuals, now we focus upon the community. The Kohen acts on behalf of the nation just like he acts on behalf of the individual. The Torah teaches us the laws for the offerings of Yom Kippur, national atonement, and Azazel otherwise known as the Scapegoat. The Scapegoat is not offered as a sacrifice to God, but rather is sent out from the camp and left to wander in the wilderness eventually succumbing to the elements.

The second half of the Parsha focuses upon the holy and holy relationships within the family. However the list of inappropriate behaviors between family members is taught within the context of the other nations. What is particularly troubling is the fact that our interaction with the two nations was a direct function of God’s plan. God invokes Egypt and God invokes Canaan. We went down to Egypt and now we were being brought to Canaan.  K’Maasei Eretz Mitzrayim Asher Y’shavtem Bah Lo Ta’Asu UchMa’Asei Eretz Canaan Asher Ani Meivi Etchem Shamah Lo Ta’Asu UvChukoteihem Lo Teileichu – Do not practice of the land of Egypt in which you dwelled; and do not perform the practices of the land of Canaan to which I bring you, and do not follow their traditions. (Lev. 18:3) For the past two centuries Bnai Yisroel dwelled in Egypt, a morally decadent community. Now B’nai Yisroel is about to head into Eretz Canaan, which was also a morally decadent land inhabited by the Moabites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jebusites and the Edomites to name a few. I can justify using Egypt as the example. First our descent into slavery both physical and spiritual was hardly overnight but rather a gradual process. Second, our experience in Egypt serves as the origins of our becoming a nation. Invoking that experience is at the core of our national memory. We remind ourselves of Yetziat Mitzrayim three times a day when we say the Shmah. We are reminded of Yetziat Mitzrayim when we make Kiddush on Shabbat and all festivals. We reminded ourselves of Yetziat Mitzrayim and pass down that collective memory to our children at the Pesach Seder. But Canaan? Canaan is God’s covenant with us, originating with Avraham Avinu. So why would God promise us a land that is as morally bankrupt as Egypt? Why would God bring us to a place that is the equivalent to a place where God brought us out?

The Be’er Yitzchak, the 19^th Russian Rabbi offers a comment that is relevant to today’s Jewish experience. “The reason for mentioning Egypt and Canaan is simple: if you imitate the Egyptians – then why did I take you out of Egypt? And if you behave like the Canaanites- why should I expel them before you; it was on condition that you will not do so that I took you out of Egypt and that I shall expel the Canaanites… do not imitate even their innocuous practices, for these lead to total assimilation.” The experience in Egypt was an incubation period to prepare for Torah at Sinai. Our experience in Egypt would constantly serve as a reminder that we ultimately rejected physical slavery and that we ultimately rejected the institutions and behaviors of that master. It is certainly easy to reject all things Egyptian while we are reminded of how damaging the experience was. It is quite another thing to reject the behavior, and culture of a society when one is free, when one is not scarred by such a damaging experience. Yet, the success of our people, the future viability of our relationship with God through Torah could only occur if we are able to reject a dominant culture’s behavior as a free nation and not as an enslaved nation. Bnai Yisroel’s survival ultimately depends upon remaining separate and apart from the cultural majority. Bnai Yisroel’s survival depends upon remaining spiritually distinct from the majority. Bnai Yisroel’s survival depends upon the spiritual strength needed to reject the behaviors of any dominant culture, to refrain from behavior because “everyone else does it”.

It is always nice to feel part of something. It is always nice to feel included. It is always nice to be culturally recognized. From an individual perspective, going along with the crowd means never feeling left out. For our children, there is always the tension of fitting in to Canadian culture and still retaining a sense of individuality and their American cultural heritage and history.  For the Jewish people, historically it has been a similar issue. How much of the dominant culture to we integrate into Judaism, how much Judaism to we give up into order to fit into the dominant culture? Our national sin, our national mistake is our individual yearning, our desire to be like everybody else, to assimilate.

Peace,

Rav Yitz

I'll Get A New Start, Live The Life I Should ( Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia "Wharf Rat")

This is the time of year known as March Madness, a cultural phenomenon based upon participating in and watching the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball tournament. Over the course of three weekends 68 university teams, their students, their boosters, and their respective alumni all begin the tournament with dreams of a national championship. For people who like watching basketball, it is a glorious time of year, a sacred time of year. It is a time of year that has sacred locations: the arenas in which these games are played culminating in Dallas where the Final Four and the Championship game will be played in a couple of weeks. It is a time of year marked by sacred time: from the opening tip of the first game to the final buzzer of the last game. In our home, our kids have learned about United States geography (learning the location of numerous universities) as well as team colors and mascots (guiding principles in determining our daughter’s tournament bracket picks). During the course of these basketball games there are usually several human interest stories at play which contribute to the drama of the game. Sometimes these human interest stories lead to incredibly touching moments that take on an aura of holiness and sanctity which transcend the game itself. One such moment occurred at the end of Creighton University vs. Baylor University basketball game. With Baylor leading by approximately 30 points and only a couple of minutes to play; Doug McDermott was taken out of the game. Dougie McDermott (aka Dougie McBuckets) is the best player in Creighton’s history, is one of a handful of university basketball players in the history of the game to finish his college career with more than 3000 points, and it so happens that his father is the Creighton head coach. So when his dad took Dougie out of the game, he wanted his son to receive the recognition due to one of the “best ever”. Sure the standing ovation was nice, even touching but not sacred. When Dougie walked off the court to the standing ovation, he walked over to his father with his head held high and tears in his eyes. Then father and son hugged the kind of hug that every father and son wish for themselves.  For all those who saw it, this was a special hug, this was a significant hug, and this was a hug that evoked sanctity and holiness. After the game, the son was asked about walking off the court and hugging his father, the head coach. The son offered a poignant response, alluding to the idea that this was the last time that he would ever walk off a basketball court with his father waiting for him on the sidelines. Clearly, both father and son were aware that this hug was going to occur at some point during March Madness. Despite this awareness; when the moment finally arrived, the hug was neither diminished in warmth, in emotion nor in its sanctity. Like anything that achieves holiness, even in the most physical of moments, such as a hug between a father and son at the conclusion of college basketball career, that sacred moment has the power to remind us of our own mortality, our own fragility and our desire for sanctity.

This week’s Torah portion is Parsha Tazria. Parsha Tazria concentrates upon how impurity, spiritual impurity is passed between people. The majority of the Parsha focuses upon Leprosy as it was considered to be a very physically contagious disease. Parsha Tazria puts the diagnosis, the treatment and the convalescence in spiritual terms rather than physical terms. We learn that the while this Tumah, this spiritual impurity is present, the stricken individual cannot reside within the camp. After all God dwells in the camp and we cannot tolerate any impurity near God.

However, prior to its discussion of Leprosy, Parsha Tazria outlines the somewhat troubling laws concerning impurity in childbirth. Fundamentally, the notion of impurity relates to coming into contact with that which is dead. In Parsha Shemini, Torah outlined impurities that come from dead animals. In this Parsha we are reminded that a Mother is touched by death during the miracle of childbirth.  Isha Ki Tazria V’Yalda Zachar V’Tamah Shivat Yamim Kimei Nitdat Dotah Titmah – When a woman conceives and gives birth to a male, she shall be contaminated for a seven day period as during the days of her separation infirmity shall she be contaminated. (Lev. 12:2). Imagine becoming spiritually impure after being blessed by the miracle of childbirth. Yet, this new mother lost blood; she lost some aspect her life force during the birth process. As a result, while simultaneously being touched by a new life, she is also touched by her own mortality.

Perhaps there is no more an intense moment than when a new mother, physically exhausted and spent, holds the newborn. The Rabbis of the Talmud teach that surviving childbirth is an equivalent to a near death experience and saying Birkat HaGomeil is therefore required.(Praised are You, Lord Our God, King of the universe who graciously bestows favor upon the undeserving, even as He has bestowed favor upon me.) Inherent to surviving a near death experience is the notion that the individual as come precipitously close to death. Even in miracle of life, we are reminded of its fragility.  Even in death, we are reminded that we are forever striving towards elevated levels of holiness. In the most physical moments, and certainly childbirth is quite a physical endeavor, we are reminded that it is our spiritual task to elevate that physical moment into a spiritually holy moment as well. As we bless our children on this Shabbat, may we be reminded that in every moment, we have the opportunity to strive towards spiritual purity, and spiritual holiness.

Peace

Rav Yitz