That A Man Can Be As Poor As Me (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Black Peter"

          Our sixteen-year-old daughter has been in Israel for the past 5 weeks. She is scheduled to return early next week. Because of cell phones and WhatsApp, we have communicated with her quite frequently, she has spoken to us, video phoned us, and texted us. She has sent us pictures of nearly everywhere she has traveled throughout Israel. She has been to Israel on numerous occasions so she is rarely surprised by what she sees. She spent last Shabbat in Jerusalem. When we spoke to her, she commented that she is always overwhelmed by the poverty she sees, the number of beggars, and certainly the numerous women begging, pleading, and asking for money in order get their food for Shabbat. Our daughter is astute enough to notice the shopping bags full of change that the women outside the Kotel (Western Wall) have while they continue to ask for more. She appreciates the irony that when she gave a few shekels to a woman, the woman incredulously returned the shekels to our daughter. However, our daughter explained that she felt a tinge dismay; that something seemed so wrong. Here she was at the Judaism’s most holy site, and economic poverty surrounded this source of spiritual light and holiness. It seemed, to her, counterintuitive and she wondered how these two images co-existed.

This week's Parsha is Re'eh. Moshe continues his discourse. He has already explained the Mitzvot, and he continues to do that. Moshe has alluded to the blessings of life if B'nai Yisroel follows God's commandments. He has and continues to allude to the curses that will befall B'nai Yisroel if they violate the most important commandment-idolatry. "See I present before you today a blessing and a curse" (Deut.11:26). V'haklalah Im Lo Tishm'u el Mitzvot Adonai Eloheichem V'sartem Min Ha'Derech Asher Anochi M'taveh Etchem Ha'yom La'lechet Acharei Elohim Acheirim Asher Lo Y'Datem-"And the curse: if you do not hearken to the commandments of the Lord your God, and you stray from the path that I command you today, to follow gods of others, that you did know." (Deut. 11:28) Moshe presents B'nai Yisroel with two pictures, a world when B'nai Yisroel lives up to its covenant with God and one in which they don't.  He reminds Bnai Yisroel of the sanctity of Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel), the consumption of foods that are consecrated to the Kohanim and he warns Bnai Yisroel to avoid imitating the Rituals and Rites of the Egyptians and the Canaanites. Moshe reminds Bnai Yisroel to be careful of false prophets, avoiding non-kosher foods, not living in wayward cities, forgiving loans after seven years, caring for the less fortunate and celebrating the three pilgrimage festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot.

During the course of his warning Bnai Yisroel of the dangers of not following the Torah and exhorting them to observe the Torah, Moshe makes a simple if not stunning admission regarding the reality of our physical existence. Ki Lo Yechdal Evyon Mikerev Ha'Aretz -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). The Torah may be many things, but spiritually unrealistic is not one of them. Judaism recognizes human reality and weakness as well as the importance of empathy. Focusing upon the word “brother”, Rashi (the great 11^th Century French commentator) explains that if someone fails to empathize with his brother’s poverty; there may come a point when he joins his brother in poverty. For Rashi, there is little that separates the impoverished brother and the well-off brother, and as a result, the well-off brother must be able to see himself in the impoverished brother.

We know there will always be those less fortunate.  Whether "less fortunate" is a physical, emotional, spiritual, economic, or intellectual not everyone is as fortunate as the next person. We learn that tzuris is part of life and it transcends gender, age, and color and nationality. Moshe recognizes that in our zeal to make the world better, in our zeal to do Tikkun Olam (fix the world) we may grow dismayed and even beaten down because there is so much suffering.  Moshe reminds us that we are not obligated to do the impossible and eliminate the condition of poverty. Instead, our job is to contribute to the solution, by extending oneself to one who is less fortunate. Our sixteen year old understood the message.  The Kotel and what it symbolizes is an ideal, a utopia perhaps. The poverty that seemingly surrounds the Kotel manifest in all those beggars reminds the rest of us that we need to continually strive towards that ideal, towards that utopia. Rather than be overwhelmed our daughter realized that these two disparate images were empowered her to engage in acts of Chesed (Kindness) and Tzedaka (Charity) throughout her life.

Peace

Rav Yitz

As Well To Count The Angels Dancing On A Pin ( John Barlow & Bob Weir - "Weather Report Suite Part II: Let It Grow")

This week, the President of the United States had visited Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Vatican. His trip will conclude by attending a meeting with NATO and the G7 in Brussels. His visit to Israel was marked by a historical first. It was the first time that a sitting President ever went to the Kotel (The Western Wall). Yes, President Trump wore a Kippah, slipped a note into one of the many crevices in the Kotel, and he met with the Kotel Rabbi. Actually it was quite a powerful image. At a later point during his time in Israel, he visited the Holocaust Museum known as Yad VaShem.  Yad Vashem not only is Holocaust Museum. It not only offers an explanation of how the systematic destruction of six million Jews and occurred, not only does the museum display artifacts from what the Nazis collected, shoes, glasses etc.; the museum also bears witness. Yad Vashem has managed to make an accounting of 4.5 million of the 6 million. In a sense, Yad Vashem has gone through the painstaking process, and continues to go through the painstaking process of taking a census.

This Shabbat we begin the fourth book of the Torah, Sefer Bemidbar, by reading the first Parsha, Bemidbar. Literally meaning “In the Wilderness”, this fourth book of the Torah resumes the narrative format with B'nai Yisroel preparing to leave the foot of Mount Sinai. For the past year, B'nai Yisroel has essentially camped out at Har Sinai and listened to Moshe and Aharon teach all the laws concerning Tamei/Tahor –Purity and Impurity, Kodesh and Chol – the Holy and the Mundane, as well as the laws for Korbonot, sacrificial offerings. Prior to B'nai Yisroel’s embarking on the remainder of its journey a census is required. In fact, Parsha Bemidbar consists of three types of census. The first census counts all men over the age of twenty that come from all the tribes except for the Levites. The second census focuses only upon the Levites. Since this tribes’ sole function is to operate and manage the Mishkan, ascertaining the number of workers in the Mishkan suggests the importance of the Mishkan to the everyday life of the B'nai Yisroel. The third census focuses upon the organizational placement of each tribe around the Mishkan while traveling.

The Census that God commands Moshe at the beginning of this fourth book of the Torah is very different than the last census taken. Until now there had been one Census taken while B’nai Yisroel was at Sinai, engaged in the construction of the Mishkan. All the way back in Parsha Ki Tissa, in Sefer Shmot (the Book of Exodus) God had commanded Moshe to count everyone by levying a half shekel tax. In fact we are commanded not to count by pointing and counting but rather we would count the number of ½ Shekel collected and that number would then tell us the total number of men twenty years and older. (Ex 30:11-14) Now God commands Moshe S’u Et Rosh Kol Adat Bnai Yisroel L’Mishpechotam L’Veit Avotam Mispar Sheimot  Kol Zachar L’Gulgulotam; Miben Esrim Shana Va’Malah Kol Yotzei Tzavah B’Yisroel Tifkedu Otam….- Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel according to  their families, according to their father’s household, by number of the names and every male according to their head count; from  twenty years of age an up everyone who goes out to the legion in Israel, you shall count them (Num. 1:2-3)…. Abravanel, the 15^th century Portuguese commentator points out the apparent contradiction in the two types of census:  the first being found in the Sefer Shmot, and the second in Parsha Bemidbar. “Surely this (Bemidbar) is just the opposite of what the Torah had commanded on an earlier occasion (Sefer Shmot Parsha Ki Tissa).” There in Ki Tissah, they poll (a tax) was taken.  “How could the Almighty have commanded them here to number them by their polls?” Abravanel notes the word “Tifekedu Otam” – you shall “account for them” (according to Rashi and “accounting” is a Poll or a levied tax).  Ramban, the 12^th century Spanish commentator and philosopher points out that Tifkedu is an expression of visitation, remembrance and providence. 

              So when the President went through the museum he not only saw a memorial to a vast number of people, he not only saw the how and why such an evil was perpetrated, but he also had a chance to see individuals, names,  with their own lives, their own path and their own destiny cut short by the Shoah. He had an opportunity to express a sense of visitation. He had an opportunity to express remembrance. He had an opportunity to express providence.   Indeed Yad Vashem embodies Ramban’s understanding of PaKaD - accounting. The institution visits the victims and it allows us to visit. The institution serves as a national memory and allows us to remember. The institution is a testament to providence, that is to say, that despite such evil, the holiest, most divine aspects of the human spirit are expressed in the fact that such a museum and other museums like it have been created. Such an accounting, such an experience is more than “amazing”. Hopefully, such an accounting, such an experience is awe inspiring, emotionally powerful and reminds us not only of the evil that has been and can be perpetrated but what is required to eliminate evil and allow goodness to flourish.

Peace,

Rav Yitz