*Be the Change You Want to See In the World

B'shalach 5772

וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת-עַצְמוֹת יוֹסֵף, עִמּוֹ: כִּי הַשְׁבֵּעַ הִשְׁבִּיעַ אֶת-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, לֵאמֹר, פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד אֱלֹהִים אֶתְכֶם, וְהַעֲלִיתֶם אֶת-עַצְמֹתַי מִזֶּה אִתְּכֶם. – And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for he (Joseph) had sworn the Children of Israel, saying: 'Gd will surely remember you; and you shall carry up my bones away from here with you.' (Exodus 13:19) As the Israelites are leaving Egypt in haste, of all people it is Moshe who ensures the fulfillment of Joseph's request that his bones be taken back to Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Natan Shapira of Krakow points out that the word for bones ( עצמות) has the same root as strength (עוצמה) and individuality (עצמיות) so that Moshe's taking Joseph's bones should be seen as his adoption of Joseph's greatest personal attribute – his strength to overcome the inclinations of vengeance. Just as Joseph does not take revenge on his brothers for selling him into slavery – on the contrary, he provides them with a wonderful life in Egypt – Moshe displays this same greatness by way of patience, tolerance and defense of the Children Israel despite their recalcitrance, irascibility, and rebellion against him.

Video-Vort Bo 5772

[See Videos for all weekly portions by choosing "Video-Torah" in the CATEGORIES section of this blog.]

 

Bo 5772

 

וְעָבַר ה' לִנְגֹּף אֶת-מִצְרַיִם, וְרָאָה אֶת-הַדָּם עַל-הַמַּשְׁקוֹף, וְעַל שְׁתֵּי הַמְּזוּזֹת; וּפָסַח ה' עַל-הַפֶּתַח, וְלֹא יִתֵּן הַמַּשְׁחִית, לָבֹא אֶל-בָּתֵּיכֶם לִנְגֹּף – And Gd will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when Gd sees the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, Gd will pass over the door, and will not allow the angel of death to come to your houses to smite you. [Exodus 12:23] This verse seems to introduce a contradiction into our understanding of the story because the Midrash attributes to Gd as saying “I passed over the Land of Egypt; Me and not an angel, and I smote every first born.” If this midrashic statement from Gd is accurate and the very hand of Gd enacted the smiting of the first born, how do we understand this Biblical verse telling us that Gd did not allow the angel of death to visit the Israelite houses – after all, Gd is the one delivering the death to the first born children? The Vilna Gaon reminds us that death is a part of everyday life and during the course of any given day people die of various causes – a death delivered by the assigned angel of such. On the night of the original 'Passover', Gd did not allow the death of any Israelite who marked his lintel with blood. Thus, Gd prevented the angel that accompanies natural death from visiting on that very same night and no natural death was known that night to any Israelite.

וְעָבַר ה' לִנְגֹּף אֶת-מִצְרַיִם, וְרָאָה אֶת-הַדָּם עַל-הַמַּשְׁקוֹף, וְעַל שְׁתֵּי הַמְּזוּזֹת; וּפָסַח ה' עַל-הַפֶּתַח, וְלֹא יִתֵּן הַמַּשְׁחִית, לָבֹא אֶל-בָּתֵּיכֶם לִנְגֹּף – And Gd will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when Gd sees the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, Gd will pass over the door, and will not allow the angel of death to come to your houses to smite you. [Exodus 12:23] This verse seems to introduce a contradiction into our understanding of the story because the Midrash attributes to Gd as saying “I passed over the Land of Egypt; Me and not an angel, and I smote every first born.” If this midrashic statement from Gd is accurate and the very hand of Gd enacted the smiting of the first born, how do we understand this Biblical verse telling us that Gd did not allow the angel of death to visit the Israelite houses – after all, Gd is the one delivering the death to the first born children? The Vilna Gaon reminds us that death is a part of everyday life and during the course of any given day people die of various causes – a death delivered by the assigned angel of such. On the night of the original 'Passover', Gd did not allow the death of any Israelite who marked his lintel with blood. Thus, Gd prevented the angel that accompanies natural death from visiting on that very same night and no natural death was known that night to any Israelite.

Video-Vort Va'era 5772

[See Videos for all weekly portions by choosing "Video-Torah" in the CATEGORIES section of this blog.]

 

Va'era 5772

 

וָאֵרָא, אֶל-אַבְרָהָם אֶל-יִצְחָק וְאֶל-יַעֲקֹב--בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי; וּשְׁמִי יְ-ה-וָ-ה, לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם. – And I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzhak, and to Yaakov as El Shaddai; my name יְ-ה-וָ-ה was not known to them. (Shmot 6:3)  Rashi’s comment on this listing of the patriarchs is  וָאֵרָא, אֶל האבות — that Gd appeared to the ‘fathers.’  What is Rashi telling us by way of this observation?  We know Avraham, Yitzkhak and Yaakov are our forefathers so does Rashi’s comment help us to better understand the meaning of the text?  The Chatam Sofer explains that the word אבות is the plural of the word אבה  which means desire or want; thus, the weight of Rashi’s teaching is that Gd is saying ‘I appear to those who desire me’…. Gd unites with those who long and yearn for Gd.  In a similar vein, the Ramban explains Gd’s saying, אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה – I will be that I will be as ‘as you are present with me, so I am present with you.’  The path to faith and to a relationship with Gd requires the courage to admit to and to act on the desire to believe in Gd.

Video-Vort Shemot 5772

 

Shemot 5772

The second chapter of this week’s parasha, Shemot, mentions the birth of a nameless child to nameless parents. The child is quite significant, of course, as he is soon thereafter to be known as Moses and still later to be recognized as the agent of Gd’s redemption for the Israelite people. Chapter 6 in the book of Exodus identifies the biological parents of Moses explicitly as Amram and Yocheved of the tribe of Levi. If the Torah eventually tells us the names of Moses’ parents, why does Chapter 2 keep their identities a mystery as follows: “A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son…?” An early Chassidic master teaches that the anonymity of these ‘players’ is intentional in order to communicate that each and every one of us has the capacity for greatness. It was not Moses’ ancestry that made him a person of recognition; it was his courage to act and to lead. Similarly, it will not be our parents or our pedigree that determines our stature in society but our personal decisions, actions, and contributions.

 

Chosen to be Uncomfortable

[Recently posted by CIF WATCH]

Though born and raised in a proudly Jewish and Zionist home, I was not exposed to the term Pintele Yid until reaching adulthood.

Literally, the words mean 'the little point of a Jew,' though colloquially it refers to the idea of the Jewish spark inside each member of our community. Pintele Yid is a term that has been used to refer to some element of the essence in each Jew that refuses to be extinguished. Some give labels to pintele yid such as chutzpah or determination or stubbornness or soul. Unarguably, for those who accept and embrace the concept of pintele yid, it does serve to distinguish a Jew from others.

Recently, I engaged in a thoughtful conversation with a Jewish friend for whom the idea of 'Chosen People' is an anathema. Simply put, she does not believe that Jews are different from the other peoples of the world. While I certainly understand the discomfort that one may feel over the Torah's reference to our nation as 'chosen,' I believe wholeheartedly in the Jewish people's unique and unambiguous relationship with Gd and, accordingly, with the rest of the humanity. Still, does the People Israel being 'chosen' pertain to each individual or is it a collective label?

For guidance, I look to our tradition's teachings and belief that stems from the Torah's verses, You all stand here today before Adonai your Gd....that you enter into a covenant that Gd makes with you this day that you are His people... not only with you standing here today but also with those who are with us but [physically] not here this day. (Deuteronomy 29:9-14)

Begrudgingly or willfully, our people is defined as involved in an ongoing, unbreakable covenant with the universe's one and only Gd. Each one of us stood before Gd that day and committed to a relationship of great privilege and even greater responsibility. Begrudgingly or willfully, consciously or involuntarily, each member of the Jewish nation is among the chosen of Gd's people.

The existence of each individual Jew in the world is neither random nor happenstance; and each Jew's existence is the result of calculated and uncompromising decisions of the chain of generations that came before us. Through all of the persecution, all of the oppression, all of the pograms, crusades, libels and massacres – the existence of each and every Jew alive today is deliberate and purposeful; and, our survival has no doubt been assisted by our belief that we are unique, different, and essential.

Pintele Yid is the fiber in each Jew that resists the darkness of the complacent and the ordinary. Like the menorah in the time of the Maccabees, the spark of each Jewish soul refuses to be extinguished.

Video-Vort Vayechi 5772

 

Vayechi 5772

A look inside the Torah scroll shows that this week’s portion, Vayechi, begins embedded in an existing paragraph.  That is, there is no paragraph or even sentence break that precedes the opening verse of the parasha.  On the first verse of the portion Rashi asks and answers the question:  'why is this parasha blocked [as described above]?...because upon the death of Yaakov our father the eyes and hearts of Israel became blocked from the distress of this beginning of their enslavement.'  However, in his commentary in the Book of Exodus Rashi says:  '[the enslavement only began after the death of Levi, the last of Yaakov’s sons to die] for as long as one of the patriarchs of the tribes was alive the enslavement was delayed.'  There seems to be a contradiction in Rashi’s own commentary.  The Sefat Emet answers this problem by explaining that there are two types of exile-enslavement – that of the body and that of the soul.  Exile of the body includes transience, oppression and uncertainty, wanderings and rootless-ness.   Exile of the soul is immersion in foreign culture, alien education, unfamiliar traditions and spiritual assimilation.  Continues the Sefat Emet, that though the physical enslavement of Israel began only after Yoseph and his brothers died, the soul, the integrity, the character of Israel began its enslavement upon Yaakov’s death – an enslavement due to Israel’s very ‘freedom.’  Similarly, the future holds two redemptions:  the physical redemption of bringing Israel out of its physical exile, and the much more difficult redemption of removing the spiritual exile from the People Israel.