Reform Judaism: Torah Archives

Davar Acher: Finding Shleimut
February 8, 2010

by Adam B. Grossman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Life can be challenging! Daily, no matter our situation or our lifestyle, we deal with a lot of things. There are household duties we have to fulfill, office or school deadlines that have to be met, and, in addition, there are always various other concerns pulling us in countless directions. Even though we try to balance our schedules, something usually gets overlooked. In prioritizing our activities, many of us sacrifice our personal well-being for the sake of others. Sadly, this inattentiveness to our mental and physical needs limits our potential to achieve shleimut, "wholeness" in our lives. And ultimately, it stunts our ability to truly help those around us.

Working to secure shleimut can seem daunting considering how our everyday routines unfold. It requires setting time aside to harness and cultivate intellectual, spiritual, and physical pursuits, even when our schedules might deem it impossible. In commenting on the importance of internal balance, Maimonides, one of Judaism's greatest sages, stated, "A good, sound body, which does not disturb the equilibrium in man, is a divine gift. The well-being of the soul can be obtained only after that of the body has been secured" (see Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, part 3, chapters 8, 27).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Coming Down from the Mountain While Still Being There
February 8, 2010

by Laura Geller
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

In January I went on a spirituality retreat. It was an alumni retreat of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for a group of clergy from around the country who had been part of a two-year program designed to help us deepen our own spiritual commitments. Over the two years, there were four-week-long retreats interspersed with weekly chevrutah study of Chasidic texts. (Chevrutah study, from the root chet-bet-reish, is the intense one-on-one study of a text that one does with a partner.) My chaver ("friend," or in this case, "partner") was a rabbi in Boston. For two years we'd meet weekly on the phone and study a text for about an hour, sharing the insights of the texts as a window into our own lives.

The retreats themselves were intense. There was powerful davening, provocative study, yoga, meditation, and a lot of silence. We ate most of the meals in silence--an eye-opening experience. When you're not talking, you focus more on the food: how it looks on the plate; what it smells like; how it tastes. Whatever food issues you have come up, like: Will there be seconds? Will I get enough? If I'm already full why am I getting up to get more? You notice, and you pay attention.

Filed Under: Torah

The Torah in Haiku: Yitro
February 5, 2010

by Ed Nickow
Temple Chai, Long Grove, IL
(Originally published in The Torah in Haiku)

Andy Warhol's portrait of Louis Brandeis,
the first Jewish Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States

Jethro tells Moses
You can't be the only judge
It's too exhausting

Delegate the work
Appoint judges for thousands,
Hundreds, fifties, tens

And Moses did this.
The first time a Jewish man
Took in-laws' advice?

Filed Under: Torah

Davar Acher: You Will Not Covet: The Great Reward of Living a Sacred Life
February 1, 2010 (1 Comment)

by Mark. S. Glickman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Our commentary poses an interesting and important question: Numbers one through nine of the Ten Commandments deal with behaviors concerning Shabbat, honoring parents, theft, murder, adultery, and so on. But then we come to number ten, the prohibition against coveting. Unlike its predecessors, this commandment seems to prohibit a thought or a feeling rather than an action. When another person has something that we want, we're not supposed to, well, want it.

"God," we want to say, "You're not being reasonable here. Every day, our brains boil with all kinds of negative thoughts and feelings - the covetous ones, frankly, are far from the worst. And if You think we can control these raging neurons, then evidently, O Creator, You still have a thing or two to learn about us. Plus, isn't it what we do, rather than what we think, that really matters?"

How, we wonder, could it make sense for God to prohibit the unavoidable?

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Be Careful What You Want
February 1, 2010 (2 Comments)

by Laura Geller
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

I spend a lot of time with preteens, young people about to celebrate their becoming b'nei mitzvah. I marvel at their ability to spend hours looking through all kinds of catalogs, imagining some of the gifts they'd like to get: clothes, jewelry, computer games, and other technological innovations that I can't even imagine, much less use. They want this stuff, they wish they had it, and they hope they'll get it.

Grown-ups want stuff too. We visit the beautifully decorated home of a new friend and wish for a moment that we could live there. Or we sit in a new car and wish it were ours. It's so normal to want things we don't have. And yet, in this week's Torah portion, we return to Mount Sinai and hear again the Ten Utterances.

How powerful it must have been to witness the awesome presence of YHVH, to actually stand at Sinai and hear Aseret HaDib'rot. Our tradition tells us that these Ten Utterances (not commandments, because "I the Eternal am your God" is not exactly a commandment) are the foundation of the moral universe. If we don't uphold them, the world will begin to disintegrate.

Filed Under: Torah

Is God in Haiti?
January 29, 2010 (1 Comment)

by Rabbi Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner
Rabbi Kurtz-Lendner is the rabbi of Temple Solel of Hollywood, FL. During Hurricane Katrina he was the rabbi of Northshore Jewish Congregation in Mandeville, LA, just outside of New Orleans. In the following reflection, Rabbi Kurtz-Lendner beautifully weaves together his experience during Hurricane Katrina, the Torah reading from last week ("Bo") and the crisis in Haiti, capturing what so many are feeling in the wake of the devastation.

There are always natural disasters in the world. But sometimes there is such a disaster so devastating that it touches our souls. Our information laden world with instantaneous transmission of human events has immunized us so often to the tragedies that are part of the human condition. But there are events that are so devastating that our desensitization is penetrated and we feel the impact of these events.

And at these times we ask ourselves, Where is God?

The Asian Tsunami was one such event.

Hurricane Katrina affected us because of the devastation of one of our own American cities and so many of us knew people or knew of people who experienced it. And there were those of us who DID experience it.

Filed Under: Jewish Living | Social Action | Torah

Davar Acher: Structure versus Variety
January 24, 2010

by Elizabeth Dunsker
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only eat one kosher food for the rest of your life, what would it be? When I have posed that question to high school students, the most reasoned responses have included veggie pizza, and salmon or tuna sushi, as these meals would provide protein, vegetables, and carbohydrates in each bite. However, even once we consider kashrut, taste, and nutritional requirements, we are still stuck with the question of whether or not we would be content with same food for every meal every day.

As omnivores, we humans can create a healthy diet from all kinds of foods, and our systems work best when we do vary what we eat on a seasonal basis at the very least. But we also crave structure and we often perform better on many levels when there is a strong presence of dependability and predictability in our lives.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Manna from Heaven: What Could Be Better?
January 24, 2010 (1 Comment)

by Laura Geller
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

"Now when Pharaoh let the people go . . . " (Exodus 13:17) or b'shalach, "sent away" the people, there were no shortcuts. God didn't send the Israelites on the shorter coastal route, by way of the land of the Philistines, concerned that they might change their minds because of fear of war. They had what they needed for the journey: a pillar of cloud to guide them by day and a pillar of fire to give them light for their nighttime travels. Moses even took the bones of Joseph with them, fulfilling the promise their ancestors made. But the people were afraid, so when Pharaoh's armies closed in on them by the Sea of Reeds, they cried out: "Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness?" (14:11).

In one last extraordinary manifestation of God's power, the sea split, the people crossed through safely, and the armies of Pharaoh drowned as the waters covered over them. The Israelites celebrated their deliverance in song and dance, and then continued their journey--and their complaining.

First, the water was too bitter. Then, shortly after, there was grumbling about food: "If only we had died by the hand of the Eternal in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death" (16:3).

Filed Under: Torah

Israel in Haiti: Lending More than a Hand
January 22, 2010 (2 Comments)

by Rabbi David A. Lyon
Congregation Beth Israel, Houston, TX

The aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti is still coming into focus. The daily news reports the devastation on the ground. We see the desperate lives of people fending for themselves, rummaging for food and shelter, and seeking medical help. It tears at our hearts and souls. Americans have responded generously with extraordinary amounts of goods and money. Troops, ships and planes are arriving with capable personnel and mass quantities of food, water, and medical supplies. The world has grown accustomed to America's commitment to serve humanity in times of natural disasters. What the world has not always known in times of natural disasters is the remarkable response of the people of Israel.

Surely, you have seen on the news or read in the paper about Israel's unprecedented level of aid to the people of Haiti. As of January 20th, only days after the earthquake, Israel set up field hospitals to serve various levels of medical care. In the very short time they have been in Haiti, it is reported that 367 patients have been cared for in Israel's field hospitals; 104 life-saving operations have been performed; 44 patients are currently hospitalized; and 7 babies have been born in the hospital. The description of the level of sophistication and readiness in the Israeli field hospitals is simply extraordinary.

Filed Under: Israel | Social Action | Torah

Davar Acher: Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are
January 18, 2010

by Michele Lenke
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

I actually want to return to the image of the blood that Rabbi Geller has painted on both the inside and outside of each of our doorposts. She suggests that this blood serves as "a sign for ourselves about who we are meant to be." For me, this speaks to the desire and need for authenticity. When we present ourselves to be one thing to the outside world and another within our homes, we are in one way or another "closeted." When we are closeted, we are not free.

Our narrative in Exodus is crucial to us because it reminds us that we are survivors. We as a people have experienced the emergence from slavery to freedom. We retell this story each and every year. This message of freedom is so important to who we are that we hear its echoes each Shabbat in Kiddush L'Yom Shabbat as we sing "zeicher litziyat Mitzrayim," recalling the Exodus from Egypt, and not allowing us to forget.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: And Now a Word From Your Sponsers
January 18, 2010 (2 Comments)

by Laura Geller
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

This week's Torah portion, Bo, is the middle of the Exodus story. God has already sent Moses to demand of Pharaoh: "Let my people go" (Exodus 5:1, 7:16, 7:26, 8:16, 9:1, 9:13). Following Pharaoh's refusals, there have been seven plagues already. Early in our portion, God once again instructs Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to "Let my people go" (10:3). This time the plague is locusts, so devastating that nothing growing remains in Egypt (10:12-15). Even this is not enough, so God sends darkness, darkness so thick, that you couldn't see your neighbor (10:21-23).

Pharaoh is almost willing now, but again he changes his mind. So God tells Moses that there will be one more plague, this one so terrible that "there shall be a loud cry in all the land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again" (11:6).

Then suddenly, right at this climactic moment there is an interruption. Chapter 12 begins "The Eternal One said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 'This month shall mark for you the beginning of months.' " God proceeds to give instructions about the Passover offering: each Israelite shall keep watch over a lamb for the offering until the fourteenth day of the month, slaughter it at twilight, take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and the lintel of the houses, and eat the roasted sacrifice that same night. The text continues: "That night I will go through the land of Egypt . . . when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you . . . "(12:12-13). Some verses later we read: "You shall observe this as an institution for all time, for you and for your descendants. . . . And when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this rite?' you shall say, 'It is the passover sacrifice to the Eternal, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when smiting the Egyptians, but saved our houses' " (12:24-27).

Filed Under: Torah

The Torah in Haiku: Remembering Miep Gies
January 13, 2010

by Ed Nickow
Temple Chai, Long Grove, IL
(Originally published in The Torah in Haiku)

A Righteous Gentile
Miep Gies helped to hide Anne Frank
May she rest in peace

As reported by the Washington Post:

Miep Gies, the last survivor of those who risked death to hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis, died Jan. 11 in the Netherlands. Ms. Gies had suffered a fall on Christmas, and her Web site said she died after a brief illness. She was 100. ... Gies was born into a working-class family in Vienna in 1909. As a child, her name was Hermine Santruschitz. During the first World War, food was scarce, and it was later feared that she might die. At the age of 11, a Dutch workers' union helped bring her to the Netherlands to restore her health, and she made her home there.(See full article)

Gies was honored by Yad Vashem as one of the "Righteous Among The Nations". Although many consider her a hero, she said, "I am not a hero but did what seemed necessary at the time." You can learn more at the Miep Gies website.

Filed Under: Jewish History | Torah

Galilee Diary: Torah for the masses
January 12, 2010 (3 Comments)

by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)

Ben Bag-Bag says: Turn [the Torah] over and turn it over, for everything is in it. -Mishnah, Avot 5:22

I just returned from Limmud Galil, where I had the misfortune to be teaching a class in the first period of the morning (8:00) on the second day of the event, after the participants had all stayed up singing until 2:00 am. And my class was in the same slot as several big name speakers - and a Pilates workshop. So it was intimate.

Limmud ("learning") got its start in England 25 years ago, and has since spread all over the world. The idea is to make Torah study accessible to the masses by creating a sort of festival that brings together learners and teachers of every background and interest for a brief, intensive experience of learning and socializing and crossing ideological and institutional boundaries. The idea is that everyone volunteers - to teach, to organize, so it really becomes a learning community. The "costs" are that there is a certain amount of chaos (my class was small; a few years ago a friend had no learners at all at her session; it's nice to let people learn what they want when they want, but to volunteer to teach, spend time preparing and end up not teaching is rather annoying); and that the quality of instruction can be uneven. And by definition, just about anything goes (a woman stuck her head in the door of my class on halachic controversies, to ask where the class on spirit communication was taking place).

Filed Under: Israel | Torah

Davar Acher: What's in a Name?
January 11, 2010

by Aliza Gazek
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

As I walked up to my freshman dorm this September, carrying a metal-frame backpack and sap-infested clothes from my wilderness orientation program, I heard people shout, "ALIZA!" The welcome cheer that followed my name is but a blur, overshadowed by my amazement that these people--whom I later learned are my resident advisors--knew my name and pronounced it correctly even though we had yet to meet.

"I'm a-LEE-za, like an alligator," I say as I press my palms together in front of me and make snaking motions as I expect an alligator would. I then rehearse in my head the names of all the others--and their animals--who've been introduced so far, while also trying to pay attention to the person after me. How many names will I remember? Who will remember my name at the song session tonight or at breakfast tomorrow morning?

Name games are prevalent at North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) events, and remembering someone's name is a sure way to score points toward a potential friendship. When teens arrive, they're each handed a name tag and expected to keep it plastered to their body for the duration of the weekend. Sometimes, there are even consequences for forgetting to wear the name tag, like having to sing and act out "I'm a Little Teapot" for everyone's viewing pleasure.

Filed Under: College Life | Torah | Youth and Family Life

D'var Torah: How Does God Appear to You?
January 11, 2010 (5 Comments)

by Laura Geller
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

It happened again this week--this time at the gym. Just as I was finishing my workout, someone called to me:
"You're Rabbi Geller, right?"
"Right."
"You know what, rabbi? I don't believe in God."

It is hard to know how to respond when that happens. Usually I mumble about giving me a call to discuss it. Other times, when I have more time, I ask the person to describe the "god" he or she doesn't believe in.

Nine times out of ten it is the god that the person first met as a child, the one who looks like an old man with a beard who lives somewhere in the sky and knows if you've been bad or good. The person is usually surprised when I say: "You know, I don't believe in that 'god' either."

Filed Under: Torah

The Torah in Haiku: Shemot
January 8, 2010

Shifra-Puah by Ed Nickow
Temple Chai, Long Grove, IL
(Originally published in The Torah in Haiku)

Now a new Pharaoh
Who did not know of Joseph
Came to rule Egypt

He told the midwives
"There are too many Jews here,
Kill their newborn boys"

Shifra and Puah
Feared G-d and defied Pharaoh
So the Jews survived

Filed Under: Torah

Davar Acher: Earning Your Real Name
January 4, 2010 (1 Comment)

by Richard J. Birnholz
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Geller writes that each of us has three names: a name given at birth, one by which we are called, and one that we discover when we connect God's name to our lives.

I would suggest a fourth name, our Hebrew name. More than a label and a mark of religious identity, a Hebrew name has the power to challenge and transform us. Jewish parents can give their children Hebrew names. But adult Jews must decide if their Hebrew names are to be a blessing or a burden.

American poet, singer, and songwriter Shel Silverstein wrote about a burdensome name in a song made famous by Johnny Cash called, "A Boy Named Sue."* In it, a boy does not blame his father for abandoning the family, but hates him for naming him "Sue." After a lifetime of fighting to prove his manhood, the boy searches for his dad, intent on killing him for the pain he has caused. When they finally meet and each turns to fire his gun, the father hesitates and explains the method behind his madness:

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Discovering Your Real Name
January 4, 2010

by Laura Geller
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Our tradition teaches that each of us has three names: the one we are given at birth, the one we are called, and our real name. The task of each person, according to the tradition, is to discover our real name.

This week we begin a new book of the Hebrew Bible, Sh'mot (Exodus). It takes its name from the important word in the first sentence. The Rabbis tell us that the name of the parashah--and in this case, the whole book--is not just an accident of the first sentence. Instead, the name captures the essence of the book.

"These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob . . . Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah . . . " (Exodus 1:1)--the list goes on. "The total number of persons that were of Jacob's issue came to seventy . . . Joseph died, and all his brothers and that generation . . ." (1:5-6).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: A Story of Hope
December 28, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Without giving anything away, I can say publicly that Dan Brown's long-awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code, which is called The Lost Symbol (New York, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2009), ends with a nechamta, a "note of comfort." Despite the trials and betrayals it depicts, the book gives the reader a sense of hope and possibility upon completion. A similar feeling awaits us at the end of the Book of Genesis.

In Genesis, we witness a powerful drama. Among its key points of tension is sibling rivalry. Beginning with Cain and Abel, brothers in Genesis do not have outstanding relationships. Cain murders Abel. Ishmael is banished soon after Isaac is born. Jacob flees Esau, who seeks to murder him for tricking their father into giving Jacob his heartfelt blessing. Jacob's sons sell their brother Joseph to a caravan of Ishmaelites. A note of contention is heard throughout the book.

Filed Under: Torah

Davar Acher: We Are What We Remember . . . A Daily Practice of Mindfulness
December 20, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Andrew Klein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

I've been privileged to hear Rabbi Michael Marmur, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, speak on a number of occasions. Marmur offers a powerful tool to help us practice mindful thinking: he suggests that we can approach each moment of our lives with either an attitude of "Oy!" or of "Wow!"

Oy! I have to go to the gym today!

or. . .

Wow! I get to go the gym today and take care of this healthy body that God has given me.

Marmur suggests that we look at the world through the eyes of Abraham Joshua Heschel--with a sense of radical amazement, with a feeling of Wow!, and with an appreciation for the miracles around us all the time (see Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man [New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997]).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: We Are What We Remember
December 20, 2009

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

One of our Reform liturgy's (and Rabbi Jack Riemer's) most beautiful poems begins with the words, "In the rising of the sun and in its going down, we remember them. In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember them." Continuing, we read "When we have joys we yearn to share, we remember them. When we have decisions that our difficult to make, we remember them" (Gates of Repentence: The New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe, Chaim Stern, ed. [New York: Central Conference of America Rabbis, 1978, rev. 1996], pp. 490-491). Part of the power of this poem comes, I think, from its evoking of memory. Whenever a loved one dies, our hearts and minds fill with memories.

Yet, relationships with those to whom we are close are often complicated and shaped by a variety of experiences. When I meet with children whose parents have died, they often tell me of periods of time when they were not in close contact with their mom or dad. "We had our issues for a few years," they say. In most cases, there was some form of reconciliation and understanding, and the children are grateful for it. Yet, while we do not forget those years of difficulty, when a loved one dies, we try to remember what we loved about them. We try to see their lives from what Spinoza called subspecies aeterni, from the perspective of eternity. We try to remember the beautiful moments that imbued a relationship with empathy and love. Riemer's poem helps us do so. It guides and affirms our power to choose what we remember, and it frames those memories in a positive and affirming way.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Resolving to Stop Rationalizing
December 14, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

As we approach the secular New Year, we may be contemplating resolutions and ways of acting differently in the coming year. Judging from anecdotes from family and friends, I would say that gym memberships climb rapidly in January and February, only to diminish over the following months. Part of the reason for this phenomenon, I think, is that we human beings have an extraordinary capacity to rationalize what we do: We decide not to support a charitable campaign because other, wealthier people will do so. We choose not to study Torah because we have so many other pressing obligations. We neglect going to the gym because we are too busy. We want to make amends with a sibling, yet we justify not doing so by pointing out that he or she should have called and apologized. A grain of truth can often be found in our rationalizations. Yet, when we look closely at ourselves, we know we can do better.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Deception Yet Again
December 6, 2009

by Amy Schwartzman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

In his commentary, Rabbi Moffic uncovers the multilayer message found in the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. What appears to be a simple story about a woman's desire for a man turns out to be a lesson in deception, sex, and power.

Of course, this is not the first time we are presented with these themes. Our ancestors seem to be regularly engaged in events that include the use of trickery, the crossing of intimate boundaries, and the desire for authority and control.

Just moments before Joseph's encounter with these themes, we read about his brother Judah engaging in a similar affair. After the death of his first two sons, both of whom had been married to Tamar, Judah is reluctant to allow his third son to marry Tamar. Tamar senses that Judah will never follow through with the betrothal (a Levirate obligation), despite the fact that she is entitled to a family by Judah's lineage.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Hidden in Plain Sight
December 6, 2009 (3 Comments)

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Several of our commentaries have focused on the power of words. In the Torah, words are a means of creation and revelation; of producing the world, as in Genesis 1-3; and of revealing truths about humanity. Occasionally, a word that recurs in a narrative can hint at an underlying lesson that does not seem obvious in the story itself. We have a beautiful example in this week's Torah reading.

It is found in the incident between Joseph and the wife of his master Potiphar. A courtier to Pharaoh, Potiphar made Joseph his chief steward. Potiphar's wife--whom the text does not name--was attracted to Joseph and tried to seduce him. When he refused, she succeeded in grabbing an article of his clothing that she presented to her husband as proof that Joseph sought to seduce her. Joseph was thrown in prison (39:11-20).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Who Was that Masked Man?
November 29, 2009

by Ari J. Goldstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

If you think that old episodes of The Lone Ranger were dramatic, they were nothing compared with the evening leading up to Jacob's meeting with Esau after twenty years of hiding in exile. The confrontation with Esau was inevitable; the outcome, however, was still in question. Until now, Jacob had been seen by his brother as weak and devious. He had taken advantage of a famished brother to acquire the birthright and deceived a disabled father to receive the family blessing. In neither of these two episodes were his actions courageous, strong, or admirable.

And while Jacob changed in profound ways as he entered adulthood--from the weakling of his youth to the resilient and tough man who would amass wealth and family--one thing eluded him. In order to take his place in our patriarchal lineage, he would need to change the mind of the one man who still saw him as scrawny and pathetic--Esau.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Brandeis and Jacob: Struggle and Change
November 29, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

In the 1940s, when a group of philanthropists sought to find a name for the American Jewish university they were opening outside of Boston, several ideas were debated. Some wanted to name the school after Albert Einstein. Others sought to honor a figure who had a recently passed away and was widely considered the most accomplished American Jew of the first half of the twentieth century. That figure was Louis Brandeis.

Brandeis was not a conventional American Jew. He was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, in an assimilated family that had roots in the mystical Frankist movement of nineteenth-century Prague. Scholars speculate on the influence of his Frankist heritage on his later adoption of Zionism. Yet Brandeis had very little exposure to Judaism for the first half of his life. He married a cousin in a ceremony presided over by another relative, Felix Adler, the leader of the Ethical Culture movement. (For a comprehensive look at Brandeis's life, see the recently published book by Melvin Urofsky, Louis Brandeis: A Life [New York: Pantheon, 2009.)

Filed Under: Jewish History | Torah

D'var Acher: Which Jacob Will We Be?
November 23, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Robert H. Lowey
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

I appreciate Rabbi Moffic's conclusion but the midrash he cites bothers me.

The angels' ascending and descending Jacob's ladder is rich for positive interpretation: Rashi speaks of angels who accompany us within Israel and others beyond its borders, offering protection wherever we go (Rashi on Genesis 28:12). Joseph Hertz mentions "every spot on earth may be for man the gate of heaven,"1 indicating God's omnipresence. Nahum Sarna suggests "angelic activity may symbolize Jacob's prayers for protection, which rise to heaven and receive a response"2, teaching us of the power of prayer.

My problem with the message discussed by Nehama Leibowitz3 from Midrash Tanchuma is its triumphalism as if: other nations rise and fall, but the Jewish "Energizer Bunny" keeps on going. We do not need to minimize other nations, cultures, and peoples in order to build ourselves up. It is not as though the Persians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans have disappeared. Their history did not cease when empires fell any more than Jewish history ends with the destruction of the Temple.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Not by Might, Not by Power
November 23, 2009

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

The widely-heralded book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, by Paul Kennedy, ([New York, Random House, Inc.) was published in 1987. Kennedy's thesis is that a superpower emerges, grows, plateaus, and eventually declines, replaced by a new nation. He cites the rise and fall of Great Britain, envisions the relative plateauing of the United States, and predicts the eventual rise of China. Kennedy is a historian, and while his book focuses on the modern period, he does look back at ancient China and the Near East. He argues that the rise and fall of great nations is part of the pattern of human history.

Almost 2000 years before Kennedy, our Sages made the same observation. They based their thoughts on a reading of a verse from this week's Torah portion that describes Jacob's vision of a ladder stretching between heaven and earth. As we read in Genesis 28:12, "He dreamed, and lo--a stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching to heaven, and lo--angels of God going up and coming down on it."

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: What We Want to Hear
November 16, 2009

by Eric Polokoff
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Two girls from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania were nervously riding a New York City subway. They relaxed when seeing a familiar sight. Upon spotting a Chasid one whispered to the other, "'Look! A Lincoln impersonator!'" (The New York Times, "Metropolitan Diary," October 12, 2009).

It's easy to make mistakes. Sometimes we see what we want to see--or hear what we want to hear.

His eyesight failing, Isaac was unsure whether the son he was about to bless was his beloved Esau or Jacob. Isaac lamented: "'The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau!'" (Genesis 27:22). He dismissed what he actually heard and misled himself. Rebekah, Isaac's wife, likewise misconstrued things. Previously God had informed her "'the elder [Esau] shall serve the younger [Jacob].'" (25:23). Having overheard Isaac readying to offer Esau his innermost blessing (27:4), Rebekah wrongly feared that God's prophecy would be subverted. Enlisting Jacob's support in a scheme to present him as Esau, Rebekah tellingly mischaracterized Isaac's proposed blessing to his brother as God's (27:7).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Hearing is Believing
November 16, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

The Torah has a way of conveying great drama in concise language. As a work of literature, it also incorporates some of the most sophisticated techniques of foreshadowing and thematic coherence. We see a masterful illustration of this literary virtuosity in the opening section of this week's Torah portion.

Genesis 25:19 opens by telling us that we will learn of the descendants of Isaac―namely, Jacob and Esau, his twin sons. The first instance of foreshadowing appears in the very next verse. Rebecca, we read, is "the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-Aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean" (25:20). This web of relationships becomes important a few chapters later when Rebecca urges Jacob to flee to her brother Laban to escape Esau (27:42-45).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Sarah's Legacy
November 9, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Boaz D. Heilman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

"Sarah lived to be 127 years old--such was the span of Sarah's life. Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan . . . " (Genesis 23:1-2).

On one of our family visits to my father's grave in Israel, my mother remarked on how she always gets so worked up before coming to the cemetery. "And then, once I get there, all I find is a stone."

Sarah lived, Sarah died. End of story. No last words, no blessings, no eternal message. Or so it seems.

All Sarah's previous words (aside from one tent-side laugh) were of denial and of impassioned anger and righteousness--against Abraham, against Hagar, against Yishmael. Of course she was right in all these cases. But is that enough for a matriarch?

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Keeping Our Cool: What Sarah Can Teach Us
November 9, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

President Obama is known for his even temperament. Whether in speeches, interviews, or press conferences, he has a calmness and deliberateness in speaking and acting. In Hebrew we might call this temperament hishtavut hanefesh, "equanimity, inner calmness, maintenance of an even keel." The origins of this quality remain elusive. One could point to genes, faith, life experience, and so on. Yet for our Sages, it was a desirable quality, and one that they equated with faith. We see an example of this way of thinking in a beautiful commentary on the opening verse of Parashah Chayei Sarah.

Filed Under: Torah

Honoring an Inspirational Scholar and Educator: Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
November 6, 2009

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, noted Torah scholar, author, and speaker, was awarded a Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award -- the highest honor bestowed by the Reform Movement.

For the past 25 years, Dr. Zornberg has taught Torah in Jerusalem at Matan, Pardes and the Jerusalem College for Adults and travels widely, lecturing in Jewish, academic and psychoanalytic settings. The author of multiple publications and three books, her most recent is The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious.

Watch this video of the award presentation, and heartfelt the testimonies of Reform rabbis who have been influenced and inspired by her work.

Filed Under: Torah

The Jewish Teenage Online Universe
November 4, 2009 (6 Comments)

Rabbi Laura Novak WIner is a Youth Specialist with the Union for Reform Judaism.

What do the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Yellow Pages have in common? They are both resources that young people today have probably rarely seen or rarely if ever utilize. Print resources like this, as those of us of older generations know, are obsolete almost immediately after going to print. Wikipedia, Google and Craigslist have taken their place.

Thankfully, Torah is not like the Yellow Pages! Torah is eternal. Its messages and lessons are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. As Reform Jews, we keep those lessons relevant through our ongoing process of study, interpretation, and midrash-making.

During the Symposium on Jewish Identity's program on technology today, Dr. David Bryfman enlightened us to this dynamic in the Jewish teenage online universe. If one digs deep into the web, one can find teens actively engaged in creating their own texts, their own interpretations of the weekly parshiot (Torah portions). Their creativity, their desire to find complexity and nuance in Judaism, their ongoing questioning, as well as their deep care and concern about being Jewish are all translated into online Jewish engagement in study and interpretation of Torah.

Great news, right!? Of course it is. Teens studying Torah - what can be bad about that? Bryfman poses challenging questions for us. What are the implications of this for the way in which we engage youth in our synagogues, our institutions, our movement? How might we need to think differently about Jewish teens? How must we think differently about how we engage those teens? How can we do all that and still be authentic?

I continued to ponder these questions as we concluded a full day of learning. I look forward to tomorrow's continuation of the conversation.

Filed Under: Community | Torah | Youth and Family Life

D'var Acher: Bringing Heaven Down to Earth
November 2, 2009

by Deborah Niederman, R.J.E.
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Moffic suggests that our human actions, as exemplified by Abraham and Sarah's modeling of "welcoming guests," hachnasat orchim, can "bring heaven down to earth." He suggests that the ethical way Abraham and Sarah approach this mitzvah imbues it with special meaning, and quoting Rabbi Soloveitchik, reminds us that God does not have separate standards for our ritual and ethical acts.

Many of the rich stories that follow in this very same parashah challenge the ethical nature of humanity and God's hopes for God's Chosen People. "For I have selected him [Abraham], so that he may teach his children and those who come after him to keep the way of the Eternal, doing what is right and just. . . ," (Genesis18:19). And what does it mean to keep the way of the Eternal? It means to act in an ethical manner to do what is right and just. And so, in pleading with God to save Sodom and Gomorrah in the very next story in this parashah, Abraham takes an ethical stance and questions God's own justice: "Must not the Judge of all the earth do justly?" (Genesis 18:25). Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut tells us Abraham's pleading fails, "not because his moral stance is faulty but because his premise is wrong: There are not enough righteous people in the cities who could make a difference" (The Torah: A Modern Commentary, rev. ed. [New York: URJ Press, 2005] p. 121). We are reminded that it takes the impact of a courageous band to bring about change and that if there are not enough righteous people, they will perish with their neighbors as do all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Ethics versus Ritual
November 2, 2009

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

One of the great modern teachers of Judaism, Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, zichrono livrachah, urged Reform Jews to ritualize the ethical and ethicize the ritual. Rabbi Wolf's point was that Jewish tradition does not differentiate between ethical and ritual law. (See essay "Back to the Future: On Rediscovering the Commandments," in Duties of the Soul, eds. Knobel and Goldstein [New York: UAHC Press], 1999, p. 20). They are deeply intertwined and mutually reinforcing. This argument has its detractors, and it surely does not characterize the views of the founders of Reform Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany and America, who saw ritual practices as the husk surrounding the Jewish kernel of ethical monotheism. Yet, for Reform Jews exploring traditional practices and developing new ones, the notion of creating rituals that convey an ethical message is an appealing one. We see this trend, for example, in the blessing for pursuing justice produced by the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism (see www.rac.org/pubs/saresources/cards) and the creation of new liturgies that address issues of discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.

Filed Under: Torah

Lech Lecha - Ur-Text for Zionism
November 1, 2009

by Larry Kaufman

The first time I spoke on Zionism from a synagogue bimah happened to be on Shabbat Lech Lecha, and I had been taught to relate any talk from the bimah on Shabbat to parashat hashavuah. In finding my connection, I also had what I naively thought was an original insight - Shabbat Lech Lecha should be observed everywhere as Zionist Shabbat. Here "the land that I shall show thee" is first promised as the home of what is to become a great nation. I later learned that the American Zionist Movement was ahead of me on that concept (and in fact, AZM now promotes November, when Lech Lecha is generally read, as Zionist Month).

After fifty years in Jewish organizational life, I am cynical enough to wonder whether Lech Lecha was chosen for Zionist Shabbat because of its content, or because it came at just the right time to focus attention on Israel and Zionism, right after the holidays and early in the organizational year. And are the Zionist messages that I now extract from the text actually there, or am I just stretching to read them in?

Filed Under: Israel | Torah

D'var Acher: As We Walk on the Way
October 26, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Peter W Stein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Moffic presents a beautiful characterization of our people, noting that we are "restless people, eternal walkers on a journey to the Promised Land." Later in his essay, he describes our life within the covenant but says: "It is not simply following halachah,the Jewish legal code."

I believe that the halachah is the greatest evidence of our restlessness. The very word itself tells us that our legal teachings are not cut and dry, never-changing precepts. Halachah derives from the Hebrew root hei-lamed-chaf, meaning "walking" or "moving," and it has changed with each generation and each place where our people has lived.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Promises to Keep
October 26, 2009

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Robert Frost ends his magnificent poem, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening," with the words, "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep." Frost's poem speaks to inherent sense of restlessness. We are always looking around the next corner. Our lives reflect the motto of the Canadian Bureau of Tourism: "keep exploring."

Our ancestor Abraham may have felt the same way. His life began in Mesopotamia and included sojourns across the ancient Near East. In fact, the first words God says to Abraham call upon him to begin a journey. " 'Get you from your land, your birthplace, your father's house, to the land that I will show you,' " (Genesis 12:1). Numerous interpretations of these words fill our commentaries. One extraordinary one is offered by the S'fat Emet. " 'Get you from your land,' " he says, is an eternal command, instructing each of us to "always keep walking." "'To the land that I will show you' " is, according to the S'fat Emet, not only a particular destination, but also "always some new attainment." We are constantly moving toward something new. That's why, he says, "the human being is called a walker. Whoever stands still is not renewed, for nature holds him fast. The angels are above nature . . . but the person has to keep walking" (see Arthur Green, ed., The Language of Truth: Torah Commentary of the Sefat Emet, [Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1998] pp. 22-23).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Even a Common Language and the Same Words Can Be a Barrier
October 19, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Aaron M. Petuchowski
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

How distressing it must have been when God confused the speech of those engaged in building the Tower of Babel! The common language of our early biblical generation, as Rabbi Evan Moffic eloquently points out, was a threat not to God, per se, but to the self-perception of those who wanted to build. The dispersion of humanity all over the earth eliminated the immediate concern.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: The Many Languages of Religion
October 19, 2009

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Parashat Noach is filled with intense drama. We witness the flood, the survival of Noah and his family, and God's promise to never again destroy humanity. Tucked into the end of the parashah is another seminal event: the attempted construction of the Tower of Babel. "All the earth had the same language and the same words," (Genesis 11:1) we are told, and they gathered in the land of Shinar and said, "Come, let us build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over all the earth!" (11:4). This building project is made possible by the discovery of the process for making bricks by drying clay. It also piques God's interest and concern. To disrupt their plans, God decides to confound their language. As we read, "'Let us go down there and confuse their speech, so that no one understands what the other is saying.' So it came about that the Eternal scattered them over all the earth, and they stopped building the city" (11:7-9).

Filed Under: Torah

In the Beginning...
October 12, 2009

by Larry Kaufman

As an inveterate - my wife would say obsessive - participant in on-line discussions, list-servs, Facebook, and blogs, I was interested to learn in a recent thread on iWorship that not all Reform congregations follow the Torah reading protocol for Rosh Hashanah set forth in Gates of Repentance (Chapter 22 of Genesis, the binding of Isaac, in Service 1, and Chapter 1, the creation story, in Service 2). Some congregations that observe only one day choose the creation story for that day, and some that observe two days go along with their Orthodox and Conservative neighbors, and read Genesis Chapter 21, dealing with the birth of Isaac and the expulsion of Ishmael, on the first day, reserving Chapter 22, the Akedah, for the second day.

My frequent admonition on the URJ list-servs is that it's not enough for contributors to tell us what their congregations do, we need to know why. One diligent list member explained that his congregation reads Chapters 21 and 22 on the two days, because, were they to read Genesis Chapter 1 on the second day , they would soon suffer B'reishit fatigue, from reading it so soon again on Simchat Torah, and then a week later on Shabbat B'reishit.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Ideas of Creation
October 12, 2009 (3 Comments)

by Lawrence A. Hoffman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Moffic discusses the power of words in creation. Did the biblical author who wrote this account of creation think he was telling a truth? Was this how he thought it really happened? Or was he writing an idea? They are not the same.

The universe is made however it is made. It just "is." We do our best trying to say things about it. "Roses are red and violets are blue," for example. So far, so good. That is a simple proposition. It is either true or it is false. If true, it is a fact, but except for some very imaginative artists, it is probably not an idea that takes us anywhere.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: The Creative Power of Words
October 11, 2009

by Evan Moffic
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

"Sticks and stones," the nursery rhyme says, "may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." The intent of this pithy statement is probably to help children solve disputes with words rather than physical violence. Its message does, however, raise serious doubts. Words can and do hurt us. Words can trivialize, words can insult, words can stereotype. Words can, even when we do not intend them to do so, convey dangerous messages. A pertinent Jewish example is the use of the phrase "Old Testament" in reference to the Hebrew Bible. When we use that phrase, we (perhaps unwittingly) support the view that our Torah and other sacred texts are at best incomplete, having been superseded by a "New Testament."

Words can hurt us because they contain enormous power. For the same reason, they can also inspire, uplift, and enlighten us. They can even create something out of nothing. We see this idea illustrated strikingly in the opening chapters of Torah. How does God create the universe? Through words. "God said, 'Let there be light'--and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). This pattern of God speaking and creation coming into being continues. The sky, the waters, the earth literally come into being through God's words.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: It's Not Just about You
October 4, 2009

by Michele Brand Medwin
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

As we come to the end of Deuteronomy, we are once again confronted with an event in the Torah that is so hard to accept. God speaks to Moses as he overlooks the Land of Israel and reminds him, "I have let you see it [the land] with your own eyes, but you shall not cross there" (Deuteronomy 34:4). Moses, who did so much for the Israelite people, who led them out of Egypt, who brought them the Ten Commandments, who put up with their incessant complaining in the wilderness, who the Torah says no other prophet is like, is prohibited from going into the Promised Land.

Sometimes the most difficult Torah verses are the ones that can give us the greatest insight. I teach classes on spirituality trying to help people find a way to connect to God. When I talk about ways to enrich one's life and become a better person through a connection to God, there is always someone who reminds me that they can do all of this without having to believe in God. To me, believing in God, no matter how you envision God, is important because it reminds you that there is something greater than you, that life is not just about you. There is something beyond what you think is right or wrong. It helps to put your life in context as being part of a greater whole.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Moses's Death, God's Breath
October 4, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses," Poems, vol. 2, 1842)

* * *

Before the birth of virtually every significant male character in the Bible, extraordinary tales are told about how he was brought into being. But in Moses's case, the miracle stories are told not about his birth but about his death. The biblical scene recounting Moses's death is remarkable not only in its dramatic potency, but also because it delivers comfort and blessing along with its cargo of sorrow.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: The Sukkah Still Stands
September 28, 2009

by James H. Perman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

The Festival of Sukkot is underrated. It suffers from its placement in the calendar. It feels burdensome to have such an important festival so soon after the High Holy Days. It is so beautiful, yet it seems redundant, anticlimactic.

Some believe that it was the Festival of Sukkot that inspired the Puritans of Massachusetts to celebrate their Thanksgiving Day. While giving thanks is a fitting conclusion to a succession of sacred days, Sukkot is more than just a biblical "Thanksgiving."

Rabbi Hayon reminds us of the seasoned wisdom of Ecclesiastes. The book tells us about the changing nature of life. We are reminded that our condition is always precarious. We see the link between our insecurity and the sukkah.

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

D'var Torah: Making Homelessness Our Home
September 28, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Like a giant tent spread atop three tall pillars that support it and give it shape, the Jewish year is held up by the Shalosh R'galim, the "three pilgrimage festivals." Pesach commemorates the joy of liberation and freedom, Shavuot acknowledges the power of God's word revealed in Torah, and Sukkot reminds Israel of nights spent in fragile huts during its wilderness sojourn.

Pesach and Shavuot celebrate spiritual fulfillment, times when God anticipated Israel's needs and acted bountifully and graciously to fulfill them. We were granted political and national fulfillment on Pesach, when we were led out of the painful grip of slavery. Atop Sinai, we were given the wisdom of Torah, and we celebrate its spiritual and intellectual fulfillment on Shavuot. But Sukkot, in contrast, does not celebrate substantive fulfillment at all. Instead, it acknowledges the insecurity and uncertainty of desert nights spent in frail temporary shelters.

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

D'var Acher: Living and Learning in Relationship to God and Others
September 21, 2009

by Steven L. Mills
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Hayon observes in his d'var Torah, "Our parashah reminds us that all redemption stems from relationship." I remember a time nearly twelve years ago when my son was five; he made a poor behavioral decision and I chose to engage him in a role-play scenario to see if he could comprehend what he had done wrong. I really did not know if he understood the lessons in behavior that I was sharing with him, but the next day he wanted to talk some more about our role play.

This time he took on the role of the parent and I became the son. It amazed me how much he had absorbed from our earlier discussion. At one point he said, "Okay, now let's pretend that I am a daddy chicken and you are the son chicken." I said, "Fine." So he gave me his best "stern daddy chicken look" and said quite innocently, "I didn't like how you acted, boy chick." I managed not to laugh at that moment and I never forgot the lesson I learned from my "boychik."

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: There Are No Good Old Days
September 21, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally publised in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

We have arrived finally at Parashat Haazinu, the last speech Moses will make to his people and the penultimate installment of his conversation with us from miles and centuries away. When we resume the plot of Deuteronomy on Simchat Torah (after next week's special festival reading for Sukkot), Moses's poetry will be little more than a thin wisp of air, propelling us backward to Genesis 1 and the beginnings of the cosmos.

We are preparing, then, to experience firsthand the strange paradox of Jewish time; moving forward from this parashah, the flow of time splits in two. After the end of Deuteronomy, the Israelites enter their Promised Land--but we, the readers, return home to Genesis.

Filed Under: Torah

On Abraham and Isaac
September 15, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Steven Evans

The story of Abraham and Isaac is said by rabbis to present to them one of their greatest challenges, particularly for Rosh Hashanah. No doubt this is true. However it need not be so. There are a number of important principles which help explain the story and its import.

First it is useful to recall that just before Abraham is to be "tested" by God, Abraham is told by God, "...it is through Isaac that offspring shall be continued for you ..." [Genesis 21:12]. Clearly God has made it plain to Abraham that Isaac will bring forth the future progeny of Abraham. It should be clear then that Abraham knows at the deepest level directly from God [not even an Angel of God] that Isaac will not perish, for God has stated it clearly to him, just before his fateful trip with Isaac to Mt. Moriah.

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

D'var Acher: The Akeidah: Can We Really Sacrifice What is Not Ours?
September 14, 2009 (7 Comments)

by Mark Covitz
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Hayon gives us the insightful interpretation that Abraham is willing to sacrifice his future as a means of turning to God and of continuing his own personal growth. And while Abraham does grow from this experience, in truth, it is not his future he is willing to sacrifice but that of his son Isaac. It is instructive that Abraham argues for the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah but not for his own son, just as we have the occasional tendency to treat complete strangers better than our own loved ones. In the passages we read, it is God who stops the action before it becomes a slaughter; and it is God, not Abraham, who points out that Isaac is Abraham's "beloved one."

The Akeidah is a statement not only on what we may be willing to do with our own lives for a higher purpose, but also on what we are not authorized to do with someone else's life. Perhaps child sacrifice was a cultural norm, even playing a role in early Israelite society; but we can see this episode as a mandate on the Deity's part that such action is unacceptable. And we can relate this to Rosh HaShanah by letting it serve as a reminder that all we can control is our own behavior and our own lives; and even those are not entirely within our control. If during these Days of Awe we recognize our struggle to control ourselves, how can we possibly control others? We must accept the limited extent of our abilities to determine the future for those we love.

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

D'var Torah: Father of Multitudes
September 14, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Do I contradict myself?
Very well, then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
-Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

One principle that remains reliably true throughout the Bible is that the fruitful production of children is evidence of God's love and providence for favored and faithful humans. The birth of healthy children--especially to mothers and fathers who had despaired of their fertility or potency--is proof positive of God's attention and care. The child's arrival shows his parents that God desires to grant them a future, lengthening their legacy and their name long into the future.

Certainly, the conception and birth of our forefather Isaac is a prime example of this phenomenon; the annunciation of his birth to his withered and barren parents Abraham and Sarah is so preposterous that it evokes more laughter than gratitude. Nevertheless, the miracle baby is born, weaned, and raised, and we share his parents' delight that through Isaac the line of Abraham and Sarah will be perpetuated, giving life to the entire future of the Jewish people.

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

D'var Acher: The Journey Continues
September 8, 2009

by Lisa J. Grushcow
(Originally published in Reform Voices of Torah and Ten Minutes of Torah)

Rabbi Hayon writes compellingly about the responsibility that goes alongside inclusion in a community. Another perspective comes to us from the second of the two combined parashiyot, Vayeilech. Vayeilech begins with Moses's acknowledgment that he is not going to accompany the Israelites into the Promised Land. Instead, he will die on the far side of the Jordan, and Joshua will lead the people forward.

This is a difficult, even heart-rending part of the story. How is it that Moses, who led the Israelites to freedom, cannot lead them to the Promised Land? Whatever Moses did wrong with the rock (Numbers 20:9-13), the punishment seems disproportionate to the crime. Certainly, being part of a community involves responsibility, and leading a community even more so; but Moses's death seems fundamentally unfair.

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

D'var Torah: Standing Together, Standing Apart
September 8, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

This Hebrew month of Elul invites us into a period of preparatory self-reflection and contemplation, calling us to center our thoughts on our own t'shuvah. Elul culminates in the observance of S'lichot, a time of penitential prayer and meditation when we ready ourselves for the spiritual labor of the Days of Awe. This observance (which will occur on this Shabbat) guides us toward an examination of our inner selves and, in turn, provides a foretaste of the High Holy Days themselves.

This week brings a preview of another sort as well. Our scheduled Torah portion, Parashat Nitzavim/Vayeilech, offers a bit of textual foreshadowing: its words contain the Torah reading we will hear in our synagogues on Yom Kippur morning. The words of the portion are already familiar to many of us:

You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God--you tribal heads, you elders, and you officials, all the men of Israel, you children, you women, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water drawer--to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your God, which the Eternal your God is concluding with you this day . . . not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the Eternal our God and with those who are not with us here this day.
(Deuteronomy 29:9-14)

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

Stories We Tell Ourselves
September 1, 2009

by Marge Eiseman

I've been thinking about the difference between blessing and curse. This started a few weeks ago when I was preparing a Storahtelling Maven show for Parashat Re'eh. Now, it's almost Parashat Nitzavim, and the same language shows up again - either blessing or curse. In Re'eh, the blessing was going to be placed on one mountain and the curse on another - like physical objects. In Nitzavim, they are linked to "life and good, or death and evil; the blessing and the curse".

When I saw the play "Distracted" by Lisa Loomer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, OR, two years ago, I remember turning in awe to the stranger sitting next to me at the intermission, and saying, "I'm so blessed!" The play was a fast-paced, multi-media romp through the world of ADD and ADHD (attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity), and I was able to watch it and thank God that none of my children had this diagnosis.

Filed Under: Jewish Living | Torah

D'var Torah: Strange Fruit
August 31, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

After seeing the infamous 1930 photograph by Lawrence Beitler1, which depicts the mob lynching of two young black men, a Jewish high school teacher named Abel Meeropol wrote a haunting poem titled "Strange Fruit."2 The poem was first published in 1936 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine. Later, Meeropol set his poem to music and in 1939 it was recorded by jazz legend Billie Holiday. Her recording of "Strange Fruit"3 remains the authoritative rendition of this striking piece of music and its searing yet lyrical indictment of racism, intolerance, and violence. It includes these words:

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Celebrating Humility to Reconnect with Values, Faith, and History
August 31, 2009

by Lewis H. Kamrass
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Hayon discusses the discrepancies between the covenant ritual described in Deuteronomy 27 compared with the account described with Joshua after the battle at Ai. What was supposed to be a harvest of thanksgiving and a recollection of history and God's presence becomes a celebration of the people's military victory. A look at both the prescribed ceremony and the actual one becomes an illustration of celebrating our connection to God, to values, to history and to destiny, compared to a self-aggrandizement of glory and might. And that contrast explains a great deal about the spiritual tensions in our own lives.

The military victory celebration described in Joshua 8:30-35 shows what occurs when we become so caught up in our achievements and strength that we come to glorify ourselves as the source of our success and as the masters of our destiny. When we lose our hold on humility and our connection to something larger than ourselves, we are left only with ourselves. And in the end, even with our great achievements, this can leave us feeling empty. By contrast, in Deuteronomy 27, when Moses described the offering of the people, with the writing of the commandments upon stones for an alter, he may have imagined a ceremony in which people recalled what they valued, summarized what they understood of God's expectations of them, and drew themselves in covenant toward a deeper and more relevant connection with their God, their history, and their future. That is a lasting lesson for us all.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Transgressions Transformed
August 23, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

In the Bible, much of the legislation transmitted by God to Israel is reassuringly unambiguous. When he seeks to establish God's rules, Moses frequently defines distinct categories into which things are sorted; some are permitted and others are forbidden. The law arrives with laser-sharp precision. There is no room for debate or dispute over what God has determined to be abhorrent or abominable, and the boundaries of the "thou shalts" and the "thou shalt nots" are inviolable. Witchcraft is always forbidden, leprosy always confers ritual impurity, and swine is always unkosher.

Religiously observant individuals understand that the clarity of these categories can be deeply comforting. Knowing with confidence what God expects one to do--or to avoid--can be soothing in times of moral uncertainty and ambiguity. In this week's Torah portion, Ki Teitzei, however, we encounter a string of legal pronouncements from God that seem to create a new sort of Israelite legislation. In each of these cases, the parashah veers from the established model of religious law and creates a surprising new principle: it now becomes clear that some people and practices that were previously taboo can be transformed and redeemed.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Ki Teitzei - An Invitation to Authenticity and Truth Telling
August 23, 2009

by Yoel Kahn
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

A basic premise of the Jewish interpretative tradition is that everything in--and of--Torah has significance. In the Mishnah, Rabbi Ben Bag Bag teaches, "Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it" (Pirkei Avot 5:22). Often, we read the Torah's text as a narrative, verse by verse; but we also can look using other units of measurement and meaning, from individual words or phrases to the sequence of portions or even just the cantillation marks--and each of these ways of reading can prove fruitful. Premodern commentators did not hesitate in taking a word or phrase and, while overlooking the original context, uncovering new teachings and ancient truths in the Torah's language.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Sefer Torah and Simulacrum
August 17, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

The English (originally Greek) names of each of the first four books of Torah relate to the content of their stories. Genesis is about beginnings, Exodus is about the exit from Egypt, Leviticus is about the Levitical laws of priesthood and purity, and Numbers begins with a count of Israel's population. Deuteronomy, however, takes its name from the Greek meaning "second telling." Thus, the name of the book refers not to Deuteronomy's content but to its form: this book is presented as Moses's retelling of the Israelite national epic.

In this way, the Book of Deuteronomy reminds us of the practical truth that all Scripture is more powerful in its repetition than in its revelation. This message is encapsulated in Parashat Shof'tim's commandment (Deuteronomy 17:18) that Israel's kings must carry with them a scroll on which is written a "copy of this Teaching [Torah]," mishneh haTorah hazot. Note, then, that the mitzvah to produce copies of the Torah has been embedded within Deuteronomy, itself a small-scale replica of the rest of Torah. It's a delightful image to contemplate: sacred copies of sacred copies, spiraling like the parchment of a Sefer Torah, winding in upon themselves in ever-tightening coils of holy text.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: A Torah in My Pocket
August 17, 2009

by Martin P. Beifield Jr.
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

What do CNN personality Nancy Grace, U.S. representatives Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, U.S. senators Carl Levin and Robert Byrd, former U.S. senator Trent Lott, and the late ABC news anchor Peter Jennings all have in common? They all carried (or said they carried) a copy of the U.S. Constitution in their pocket. What is this about? It neither makes them a constitutional expert nor grants them any authority. The real purpose is symbolic. Perhaps they are intending to say, "I cherish this document," or "I cherish the entire system of government represented by this document." In the above cases, they might also be saying, "Vote for me," or "Watch my show."

In this week's Torah portion, the Jewish people are given a series of requirements regarding a king, if they chose to have one. The king must be a member of the Jewish people not a foreigner. He can't have too many horses or wives or be too wealthy. The ancient rabbis discuss at some length the actual limits of how many wives and horses and much wealth he is permitted.

Filed Under: Torah

Sonnet: Torah Study the PaRDeS Way
August 10, 2009

by Larry Kaufman

There are four phases when we study text:

P'shat, then Remez, Drash, and lastly Sod.

It takes all four to thoroughly decode

The passages that often have us vexed.

P'shat, the straight translation; remez next,

The hint or background whence the message flowed,

Then drash, the lesson sages once bestowed

And sod, the secret that the Rabbis flexed

Their mental muscles on. Insights emerge,

Based on rabbinic methods of PaRDeS:

Translate, look deep, add meaning, find the kernel,

The mystery. That's what propels our urge,

Unbound from limits formed by time or place,

To keep limmud Torah alive, eternal.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Blessings on the Hills
August 10, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Deuteronomy 11:29 foreshadows an elaborate ritual in which blessings and curses are recited at the hills of Ebal and Gerizim, just across the Jordan River in the Promised Land. "V'natata et ha-brachah al-Har G'rizim v'et ha-k'lalah al-Har Eival," it says. "You shall pronounce the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal" (translation mine).

The ceremony is described in greater detail in chapters 27 and 28, and later in Joshua, chapter 8: the tribes of Israel divide in two and stand on the appointed hills, and Israel's leaders stand in the valley between them to proclaim God's words to each side.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: The Land of Israel is Holy
August 10, 2009

by Joel R. Schwartzman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Certainly, it was with deep consideration that the compilers of Mishkan T'fillah selected the Genesis passage, 28:10-22, to be part of the preparatory readings for Kabbalat Shabbat (ed. Elyse Frishman [New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 2007] p. 143). Jacob, escaping from his vengeful brother, spends a night dreaming of angels on a ladder that reached into the heavens. Rashi explains, those angels who accompanied Jacob in Eretz Yisrael were not permitted to leave the Land. They depart and a new set now joins him (see Rashi on Genesis 28:12). This midrash asserts the intrinsic holiness of the land. Jacob then acknowledges what so many of us throughout our lives have come to realize: as we experience the sacred in life, the venues in which these events occur often make mundane places special, even holy, to us. They may be the hospital rooms wherein our children are born. They may be mountain tops with their majestic vistas, or in valleys flush with wild flowers. They may be our Temple sanctuaries where we became a bar or bat mitzvah and were especially attuned to God's Presence.

Filed Under: Torah

Torah in Haiku: Eikev
August 5, 2009

by Ed Nickow
Temple Chai, Long Grove, IL
(Originally published in The Torah in Haiku)

Moses announces
We'll enter the land despite
Being so stubborn

It's partly because
G-d promised our ancestors
That we'd have the land

Another reason?
Wickedness of the nations
We'll be driving out

Filed Under: Torah

V'Etchanan - Moses Speaks a Sonnet
August 3, 2009

by Larry Kaufman
(Also posted on Larrykaufman's Weblog )

Beseeching God, I asked him to relent.
I've come this far, now let me cross the river,
Unto the land to which we have been sent.
I've got a fractious people to deliver.
But God said no, I'm weary of your pleas.
You've had a lot, and now you'll have no more.
Give Joshua the job, and he shall seize
The land I promised those who came before.
Remind the people of those words I spoke -
Ten utterances by which they shall live,
First rendered on the tablets that you broke,
Repeated as a sign that I forgive.
And as you fade off like a setting sun,
Remind the people that their God is One.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: The Empty Ark
August 3, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
Originally published in (Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

In our parashah this week, Moses instructs the Israelites that they must not interpret their inheritance of the Promised Land as a sign of divine acknowledgement of their spiritual worth (Deuteronomy 9:4-6). Rather, he insists, God will usher Israel into its new home for two other reasons: in order to reward the "merit of the patriarchs," z'chut avot, and to punish the wickedness of the land's native inhabitants. Having barely emerged from the wilderness, these Israelites find themselves pinioned between the great deeds of their ancestors and the depravity of the Canaanites; if they aspire to spiritual greatness of their own, they must first attain an appropriate level of reverent modesty.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Was the Ark Really Empty?
August 3, 2009

by Scott Shpeen
Originally published in (Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

I stood in my grandmother's empty apartment. In the silence of that space a flood of memories filled my mind. The precious contents of the home in which she lived for thirty years had been packed up and carefully removed. The home in which so many wonderful occasions and joyous celebrations took place, the environment that helped to shape the incredibly close relationship we shared was now empty. Yet the sadness of that emptiness was tempered by the memories of all that once filled those walls. At that moment, I understood that even in emptiness great things can still be found.

Filed Under: Torah

Taking Comfort in Our Plenty
July 30, 2009

by Larry Kaufman

This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of comfort. On the first Shabbat after Tisha B'Av, we begin our reading of the Seven Haftarot of Consolation. Were our haftarah read from the King James translation of the Bible, or even its near-clone, old JPS, we would have heard Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. And all the music lovers in our midst would have mentally transposed the words into the trope made familiar by Georg Friedrich Handel. Much of the text of Handel's Messiah is drawn from Chapter 40 and onwards in the Book of Isaiah, which as you probably know was not written by Isaiah at all, but by his cousin Deutero.

Rabbi Plaut, in his Haftarah Commentary, tells us that during the seven weeks of Haftarot of Consolation, and the three weeks preceding them when we read the Haftarot of Admonition, there is no connection between the parasha and the haftarah. But I believe Rabbi Plaut missed a very strong connection -- the seven haftarot from Deutero Isaiah are paired with seven parshiyot from Deutero Nomy.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Seeing and Believing
July 27, 2009

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Any Jew who leads a life of active religious practice will undoubtedly be more familiar with the Sh'ma than with any other piece of Jewish liturgy. Its six short Hebrew words have come to represent a sort of Jewish catechism, a one-line summation of normative Jewish belief, accessible even to the least Hebrew-literate among us: "Hear, O Israel! The Eternal is our God, the Eternal alone" (Deuteronomy 6:4). Its central place in Jewish worship seems to indicate that the primary purpose of the Sh'ma is its concise proclamation about Jewish monotheism. If we had to choose, most of us likely would say that its most important word is echad, "one" or "alone", reminding us of the singularity of Israel's God.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Are You Paying Attention, Israel?
July 27, 2009

by Faith Joy Dantowitz
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Sh'ma is often translated as "hear.' There is a difference between "hearing" and "paying attention", and I think we the people Israel are called upon by God to pay attention, to notice God in our lives, and to cultivate awareness.

The Sh'ma reminds us to arouse our thoughts of God in our lives. We can cultivate our awareness simply by reciting this prayer with kavanah, "focused attention" or "meaning". In some synagogues this means being seated and chanting the prayer slowly. In other worship experiences, it may mean chanting the line slowly, word by word, to allow more time to focus our attention. Another option may be repeating the line as a call and response in order to hear the words so that we may truly pay attention. The Sh'ma as a prayer is also a gift in that it is a daily reminder to notice God in our lives.

Filed Under: Israel | Torah

D'var Torah: Frighted with False Fire
July 20, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Oren J. Hayon
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

At the end of the second act of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Hamlet designs a clever trap, a custom-written play-within-a-play, in the hope that its actors will lead Denmark's treacherous King Claudius to indict himself in the plot that killed Hamlet's father. Hamlet stands alone on stage and delivers one of Shakespeare's best-known monologues:

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
(The Tragedy of Hamlet, 2.2.575-583)

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Words and Visions
July 20, 2009

by Lisa Edwards
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

From the d'var Torah: "Reading Deuteronomy is a very different experience from reading the rest of Torah. Here, the omniscient narrator of the earlier books has vanished, replaced abruptly by Moses's subjective voice. Deuteronomy, as its Greek name indicates, is a second telling: Moses's own reiteration of earlier events. In this book, we experience the Jewish past only through Moses's narrow perspective, which frustrates and disorients us at times. And yet it is this particular characteristic of Deuteronomy that makes it deeply relevant and meaningful for the formation of spirituality in a postbiblical diaspora."

Rabbi Hayon reminds us that Moses narrates the Book of Deuteronomy. Here at the end of the forty years in the wilderness, just before his own death, Moses gives his "own reiteration of earlier events." Also important is that in Deuteronomy, Moses speaks not to the generation that came with him out of Egypt but to the children of those people (and to us). If you've ever eagerly (or sleepily) listened to your grandparents reminisce about their lives, you get the picture.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: From Rebellion to Realization: Becoming a People at Last
July 13, 2009

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

In the hills and valleys of the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts, there's a particular trail up to the peak of Lenox Mountain. Arriving, it's disappointing, even ugly, with a damaged fire tower partially surrounded by rusty barbed wire fencing, and the ground littered with broken glass. The view itself is obscured by wild growth. The hiker must continue a half mile further to the north to experience the magnificence of Mount Greylock and Pontoosuc Lake, the Hoosac Range blending into Vermont's Green Mountains. Who would know to travel further without a guide book or advice from previous hikers?

In Parashat Sh'lach L'cha, the Israelites absorbed the dismal news from the scouts; amassed at Kadesh-barnea, overlooking the Promised Land, that report obscured their vision. A communal mutiny occurred: "'Why is the Eternal taking us to that land to fall by the sword?' 'Our wives and children will be carried off! It would be better for us to go back to Egypt!' And they said to one another, 'Let us appoint a captain and turn back,' " (Numbers 14:3-4). Joshua and Caleb exhorted them to trust God, to no avail. The ten other scouts were stricken with fatal plague and God punished the entire people with forty years of wandering. Some Israelites insisted on entering the Promised Land despite being warned that without God's support, they were doomed; indeed, they were massacred. It's really quite amazing that the Israelites didn't quit then and there (Numbers 14:40-45).

Filed Under: Israel | Torah

D'var Acher: The Land of Israel: Possession, Residence, or Inheritance
July 13, 2009

by Jonathan A. Biatch
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

The words of Mas'ei probably resound in the minds of those who have chosen to strive to retain land seized by Israel during the Six-Day War:

"When you have passed over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you will drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured pavements . . . and you will be caused to [take possession of, inherit] the land, and live in it, for I have given you the land [to possess, to inherit]." (Numbers 33:51-53)

Part of the response to these words lies in the way we translate v'horashtem ,(take possession of, inherit) and lareshet (to possess, to inherit), from the Hebrew root yod-reish-shin, in these verses, which is why I have provided a few alternative translations above.

Filed Under: Israel | Torah

Healthcare Activists Look at Pinchas
July 13, 2009

by Larry Kaufman
On behalf of the Just Congregations Healthcare Team
at Beth Emet - The Free Synagogue, Evanston, IL

When I'm called upon to prepare divrei Torah, my usual procedure is to look at the parasha and try to extract a message that will establish its relevance to my hearers or readers. But for this foray into Biblical explication, the procedure had to be recalibrated. I was invited to the bimah this past Shabbat to talk about the work of my congregation's Just Congregations Healthcare Team, and had to work backwards from its message to the sedrah.

Fortunately, the parasha was Pinchas, so the quandary dissipated. Pinchas not only deals directly with healthcare, beginning as it does with the end of a plague that has killed 24,000 Israelites, but it also stands out as a manifesto for taking action and standing up for one's rights, along with other parallels to our work as a Just Congregation. Now, since other Reform congregations and other faith communities share our concern, I invite others to latch onto our cause on its merits, if not on its connection to Pinchas.

Filed Under: Social Action | Torah

Notes from Camp: Building a Kehilah Kedoshah at URJ Eisner Camp
July 6, 2009

Anyone who has ever gone to a sleep away camp is familiar with the tradition of the "opening day ceremony" at the beginning of the summer. It usually entails the director getting up and shouting into a microphone, skits by the staff members demonstrating their work area for the summer and some antics to get the campers excited about the weeks ahead. Well, URJ camps are not usual and have a higher aspiration. The mission of the camps is to instill a love of Judaism in a safe, fun environment where children are transformed by their experience.

Several years ago, we revitalized the notion of the opening day ceremony and created a new tradition that is rooted in Torah and creates the foundation for the Kehilah Kedoshah that is formed in camp. Camp is a holy place, but it does not become holy until the campers arrive. To set the atmosphere, the entire camp community gathers to return the Torah to our arc re-declaring that camp has once again begun and we have returned to a holy place. The following video provides a glimpse of how a URJ summer begins and creates the launch pad for our campers to build life long friends and memories in a Jewish context.

Filed Under: Torah | Youth and Family Life

D'var Torah: Pinchas URJ: Thwarting Evil, Saving Lives
July 5, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

The narrative of Parashat Pinchas is disturbing: the grandson of the High Priest Aaron slew two people, and was rewarded. Was he a zealot or not? He took lives. Did he save lives?

From last week's Parashat Balak, we read: "While Israel was staying at Shittim, the menfolk profaned themselves by whoring with the Moabite women, who invited the menfolk to the sacrifices for their god. Thus Israel attached itself to Baal-peor, and the Eternal was incensed with Israel. The Eternal One said to Moses, 'Take all the ringleaders and have them publicly impaled before the Eternal, so that the Eternal's wrath may be turned away from Israel.' So Moses said to Israel's officials, 'Each of you slay those of his men who attached themselves to Baal-peor.' Just then one of the Israelite men came and brought a Midianite woman over to his companions, in the sight of Moses and the whole community who were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. When Phinehas [Pinchas], son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the assembly and, taking a spear in his hand, he followed the Israelite into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite and the woman, through the belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked. Those who died in the plague numbered twenty-four thousand," (Numbers 25:1-9).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Standing Up against Injustice and Transforming Tradition
July 5, 2009

by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Five sisters in Parashat Pinchas--Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah (also known as Zelophehad's daughters)--challenge the tradition that bestows their deceased father's land to male relatives (Numbers 27:1-11). Boldly approaching the leaders of the community they issue a demand: "Give us a holding among our father's kinsmen!" (27:4). When Moses brings "their case" (mishpatan, literally, "their judgment") to God, God supports their claim and extends it as a law for all similar cases (27:8-11).

The story is important for several reasons: First, it establishes inheritance rights for daughters when there are no sons, thus securing their social and economic welfare. Second, it shows that a biblical law can emerge not only from the top (from God to humankind), but also when persons identify a human need and initiate a process to address it. God is responsive to human initiative. Third, in so far as this law was initiated by five women, it establishes their teaching or law as "Torah from Sinai," a teaching that was created first and foremost by daughters.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Paradox and Faith: The Art of Holiness
June 28, 2009

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally posted in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

"In the beginning, God created . . . B'reishit bara Elohim et . . ." (Genesis 1:1). Et is the fourth word of Torah and it has no meaning. It's a grammatical Hebrew term marking the direct object hashamayim, "the heavens."The purpose of et appears to be to draw attention to exactly what God is creating.

Yet, how could the fourth word of Torah have as little significance as to serve only as a marker . . . to mean nothing? As humans, when we imagine we form a picture--and that isn't "nothing." It's impossible to see nothing.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Seeing Our Blessings
June 28, 2009

by Kim S. Ettlinger
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Numbers 22:12, "But God said to Balaam, 'Do not go with them. You must not curse that people, for they are blessed.' "

When God says these words to Balaam, God tells him that the Israelite people are blessed and that no matter the curse that Balaam utters, it is in vain. This begins another paradox like those Rabbi Frishman discussed: can an eternally blessed people truly be cursed? For another interpretation of these words, we might consider who has asked for the curse and who is meant to be the recipient of the curse? We know Balak asked that the Israelites be cursed and so we ask, why? There are two reasons: first, because of fear and second, because of jealously. Balak was scared of the Israelites as they were numerous, strong, and victorious. He was jealous for the same reason: they were so numerous, the earth could not be seen (Number 22:5), and they were strong and victorious. Things were going well for the Israelites and this scared Balak.

Filed Under: Torah

You Can't Always Get What You Want*
June 22, 2009

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

"Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, betook himself, along with Dathan and Abiram . . . descendants of Reuben--to rise up against Moses, together with two hundred and fifty Israelites, chieftains of the community, chosen in the assembly, men of repute. They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Eternal is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Eternal's congregation?' "(Numbers 16:1-3).

Who were Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? All had status of import: Korah was a Levite, and Dathan and Abiram were from the tribe of Reuben, the firstborn.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Challenging God
June 22, 2009

by David N. Young
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Throughout the Bible, God is challenged. Abraham challenges God. Pharaoh challenges God. Jezebel challenges God. The Israelites constantly challenge God.

What is it that distinguishes these challenges and God's responses to them? Parashat Korach gives us a little insight. We read of four different challenges this week, and four levels of response. Korah bands with Dathan and Abiram against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites gather against Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron beseech God not to destroy the entire community. The chieftains of Israel accept the challenge God puts forth for the right to be in the Divine Presence.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Using Our Spiritual Compass
June 14, 2009

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Sh'lach L'cha is about faithlessness. It's hard to comprehend the treachery of the scouts and the response of the Israelites. Throughout their wanderings, the people doubted God, yet God protected and moved them toward the Land. What caused their betrayal? The portion begins:

The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, "Send notables to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one man from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them." So Moses, by the Eternal's command, sent them out from the wilderness of Paran, all of them being notables, leaders of the Israelites . (Numbers 13:1-2)

The twelve men scouted the land for forty days. Upon return, ten of them spread lies among the masses, paralyzing them with fear. The people cried that it would be better to appoint new leaders and return to Egypt. The people wanted to replace Moses and Aaron!

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: A Different Spirit
June 14, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Barry L. Schwartz
(Orignally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Sh'lach L'cha was my bar mitzvah Torah portion nearly four decades ago. I liked the portion then, and I like it now. Several features appealed to me as an adolescent, and still do as an adult.

First, unlike much of the Book of Numbers, it's a good read. How many kids get a cool spy story with plenty of drama? Somehow, as a youngster I overlooked the tragic ending. When ten of the twelve spies return from their scouting of the Promised Land with an overtly pessimistic report, a near riot ensues. God's wrath is kindled, and with few exceptions the generation of the desert will not reach their goal.

Filed Under: Torah

New Light on B'haalotcha
June 8, 2009 (4 Comments)

by Larry Kaufman

The story goes that, back in the day, the rabbi of a large Classical Reform congregation would call the professional staff together on the day after Rosh Hashanah, for a debriefing on the services. This was likely to include a scolding for the soloist for picking up his cue 23 seconds late. The service was expected to start on time, stay on time, and end on time; and 9:00 A.M. did not mean 9:02, since the last echoes of All the World Shall Come to Serve You had to dissipate by 10:45, not 10:47. After all, the second shift would be arriving, and their service had to start at 11:15, not 11:17.

Whether to accommodate the second shift, or to accommodate the congregation's limited zitsfleish (attention span, to use a Gates of Prayer-type translation), Reform liturgy is still heavily tied to the clock, which is why most congregations read only an arbitrary selection of perhaps a dozen verses out of the weekly parasha.

Filed Under: Defining Reform | Torah

D'var Torah: Nothing Is Merely Ordinary!
June 8, 2009

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally posted in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Judaism teaches us to distinguish the holy. This doesn't mean that holy things are separate from ordinary ones; rather, the ordinary can become holy. For example, when we enter a crowded room, we notice people superficially: what they're wearing, their hairstyles. We have an ordinary perception. But standing with a person and talking together while looking into one another's eyes, our perception shifts; we see that person differently, more deeply. This is a holier perception. Noticing the beauty of nature is an ordinary behavior. By acting to preserve that beauty, our behavior becomes holy.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Finding Holiness in Ritual
June 8, 2009

by Sarah E. Mack
(Originally posted in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Our parashah begins with the command to Aaron to light the lamps of the menorah in the Tabernacle (Numbers 8:1-3). Building of the menorah and lighting of the lamp involves far more than simply striking a match. Here, the Torah doesn't use the Hebrew root dalet-lamed-kuf , "light" (as in l'hadlik neir, "to light a candle"). Instead, it uses the phrase B'haalot'cha, "When you mount the lamps," with the Hebrew root ayin-lamed-hei, which means "to elevate" or "to lift up." Why does the Torah use this term? Our Sages explain that Aaron was to hold the flame in place until the flame ascended (see Rashi on Numbers 8:2).

Filed Under: Torah

Reading Rites and Reading Right
June 3, 2009 (3 Comments)

by Larry Kaufman

I was interested to see that Rabbi Frishman's d'var Torah for the coming Shabbat, June 6th, deals with the parasha Naso. On Shabbat Naso, I will be privileged to lead the Torah discussion at my home congregation, but I will be talking about B'haalotcha. A week later, I will be honored to read Torah at the URJ Board meeting, and I will be reading from B'haalotcha. So what gives?

At my congregation, our Shabbat morning Kahal (worship community) is lay-administered, and when the volunteer scheduler for divrei Torah assigned me June 6th, he told me to discuss Naso II. Although I knew there are weeks when there are double parshiyot, I didn't remember ever before encountering a split parasha. When I asked the rabbi about it, he responded, "standing on one leg," that it had to do with the second day of Shavuot coming on Shabbat.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: A Bag of Bones, Beauty, and Blessing
May 31, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

On the day that the Mishkan was fully erected, the princely chieftains were instructed to bring identical tribal offerings to the Mishkan (Numbers 7:10). It is striking that God's instruction to bless the people (Numbers 6:22-27) preceded these gift offerings--as if to make clear that the priestly blessing was completely unconditional. God loved us.

So no gifts were necessary. Yet they were brought. Why? Perhaps because knowing we were loved drew us to return that love. We were blessed as a people; as a people, we would return that blessing with our own offerings, tribe by tribe. The gifts would benefit everyone; without them, there would have been no sacrificial rites. These last two actions in Naso were reciprocal: a gift of blessing for the people, a gift of offering for God.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Pursuing the Common Good after the Collapse
May 31, 2009

by Jonah Dov Pesner
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Frishman makes a profoundly important argument at a critical moment of crisis in America and across the world. As we face the worst economic collapse since the Depression, she reminds us of a key principle of Jewish tradition: in a k'hilah k'doshah, "a sacred community," the individual understands that the sum is greater than the parts . Judaism has always argued that our obligations, "mitzvot," do not serve the limited end of individual happiness alone; rather, they are the acts upon which we depend for the sake of the common good.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Awakened as a People, Raised Up as Jews
May 25, 2009 (3 Comments)

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

If you swim off the beaches of Australia, you need to be on the lookout for "blue bottles," an Aussie nickname for the Portuguese man of war. A blue bottle is not a jellyfish nor is it a single creature. It's a siphonophore composed of four different animals: a transparent blue bladder that floats on the surface of the sea; stinging tentacles that hang from this bladder; feeding polyps; and separate male and female reproductive polyps. None of these organs are on the same creature; each is on a distinct creature. Not one of these animals could live apart from the others. The siphonophore is like a community, able to exist only through the coordinated and collective efforts of each member (see The Paradigm of the Beast, John N. Bleibtreu [New York: Macmillan Company, 1968], pp. 252-53).

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Oy Vey! The Ordeal of the Ordeal
May 25, 2009

by Marci Bellows
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

As Rabbi Frishman mentions above, Parashat Naso includes a section that discusses the alleged adulteress--a woman who "has gone astray and broken faith with her husband, in that a man has had carnal relations with her unbeknown to her husband, and she keeps secret the fact that she has defiled herself without being forced, and there is no witness against her" (Numbers 5:12-13). The text vividly describes an ancient ritual that seems to help the priest determine whether or not the wife is indeed guilty of adultery: she drinks a mixture of sacral water and earth from the floor of the Tabernacle, and her reaction to the drink allows for the deduction of her guilt or innocence.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Parashat B'midbar - Surviving an Economic Wilderness
May 18, 2009

by Elyse Frishman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

I have experienced many difficulties and hardships in my life and yet despair is a state in which I rarely remain for long. This is largely because despair cannot share the same place as wonder. . ."
(Alice Walker, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness [New York: The New Press, 2006], p. 36)

With Shavuot coming, we begin a new book of Torah, the Book of Numbers, B'midbar . Contrasting Vayikra and B'midbar , the former focuses on how to live in holy ways, whereas B'midbar is filled with confrontation. Vayikra describes what would take place within the Mishkan , providing opportunities for spiritual cleansing and elevation including the most personal details of life. B'midbar addresses the people from outside of the Mishkan-- outside where doubt and ego assail them. There are many struggles. Time and again the Israelites challenge Moses's authority and God's power. What with food rebellions (Numbers 11:1-34, 21:4-9), fear of entering the Promised Land (13:31-14:4), Korach's uprising (16:1-17:15, the sexual idolatry of the Midianites and Israelites (25:1-9), and so on, it is remarkable that we survived our despair.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: The Torah that Enriches Us All
May 18, 2009 (1 Comment)

by James A. Gibson
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

I began my rabbinate in small congregations, as a student rabbi for four years in Seminole, Oklahoma, and for five years as the rabbi at Mount Sinai Congregation in Wausau, Wisconsin (situated about three hours north of Madison, Wisconsin). It was in small towns and cities that I learned first hand of the incredible daily efforts that our people make to ensure that synagogues survive and thrive.

When Rabbi Frishman asks us to keep Torah at the center, in light of the present economic crisis, I think of so many congregations who confront this issue every day, regardless of whether the stock market is up or down.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Jubilee and the Ethics of Balance
May 11, 2009

by Rachel Adler
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

"Proclaim release throughout the land . . .," says Leviticus 25:10. This is not exactly the translation engraved on the Liberty Bell. There, the word d'ror is translated as "liberty." D'ror is probably traceable to an ancient Akkadian verb darāru, like the Hebrew, dalet-reish-reish, meaning "'to move about freely,' referring in this instance to the freedom granted those bound by servitude" (see Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus JPS Torah Commentary Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989, p. 171). Relief from unendurable financial burdens is one of the features of the jubilee year, the fiftieth year following a cycle of seven times seven years.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: B'har/B'chukotai - Balance Begins with Intention
May 11, 2009

by Michael Adam Latz
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

We strive for a balanced life, to achieve the elusive "work-life" balance: to eat a well-balanced diet (there are even "Balance" bars if you're in a hurry, pardon the oxymoron), to exercise and study and spend time with loved ones all in equal, balanced measure. Given how harried and hectic our contemporary lives are, I wonder the extent to which this notion of balance, described so elegantly by Dr. Adler in her explication of the yovel, "jubilee," is a fanciful myth or an enduring religious ideal.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: Parashat Emor - Tearing a Hole in Being
May 4, 2009 (3 Comments)

by Rachel Adler
(Originally published in Reform Voices of Torah and Ten Minutes of Torah)

At the end of Parashat Emor, a disturbing incident is related. In the heat of a fight, a man curses God and is stoned to death for blasphemy (Leviticus 24:10-23). It is understandable that readers may be repulsed by this narrative, and shocked and angry to find it in the Torah. I want to examine the incident more closely, however, to understand the meaning of what occurred in terms of the world of the story.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Just a Little Time
May 4, 2009

by David A. Lipper
(Originally published in Reform Voices of Torah and Ten Minutes of Torah)

This week's parashah opens with detailed guidelines regarding the holiness of priests and sacrifices. The text places the emphasis on avoiding the desecration of sacred space by insuring the sacredness of the people and offerings entering that space (Leviticus 21:1-22:23). Later, the discussion shifts from the sacredness of space to the sacredness of time (Leviticus 23:1-44).

It is this shift from space to time that separated the Jewish community of the Bible from the other communities in which they communed. It is easy to place a fence around sacred spaces and wall them off from the infectious impurity of the outside world. It is much more challenging to wall off time and set it aside as sacred. This, I believe, is the greatest gift that Judaism brings to the world of religion.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: K'doshim: Right Relationship and the Pursuit of Holiness
April 27, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Rachel Adler
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

The making of boundaries is an overarching theme in Leviticus: there is the sacred place and there are secular places, priests and non-priests, permitted foods and forbidden foods, permitted sex and forbidden sex. In Leviticus 19, the Torah offers boundaries in other areas: a compendium of ways to be in relationship rightly and justly with our neighbors and with God. You might call it an ethics of right relationship. And this ethics provides everyday ways to pursue holiness.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Acharei Mot/K'doshim: Lessons in Ethics and Ritual
April 27, 2009 (6 Comments)

by Peter S. Knobel
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

The opening words of,Acharei Mot/K'doshim, set the frame for its interpretation. Acharei mot means"after the death" (Leviticus 16:1). Nadab and Abihu die because of the significant sin of bringing alien fire to the altar (Leviticus 10:1-3). Aaron and the priests are then warned about the danger of a misstep in their role as officiants at the altar (Leviticus 10:8-11; 16:2) and only then are taught about the crucial ritual of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:3-28). The rites of atonement are among the priests' most important functions. To reconcile God and the people they must first make atonement for themselves. The role of leadership is crucial and Torah demands much of leadership. When their assigned tasks can effect not only their own fate but also the fate of the people, leaders must approach them with care and a sense of awe. Both they and the people are in danger and what they do matters. Today, the synagogue is the substitute for the Temple and rabbis and cantors often serve similar roles to the priests, but all who lead sacred institutions-- professionals and volunteers--are responsible for respecting the k'dushah,"holiness," of their tasks.

Filed Under: Torah

Welcoming the New Month of Iyar
April 24, 2009

By Rabbi Phyllis Sommer
(Originally posted on Ima on (and off) the Bima)

Iyar
not Nisan, not Sivan
not slaves and not yet fully free

the month of transition
of transit
not here and not there

wandering

where are we?
what are we doing here?

once we were slaves
now we are free.
so what do we do with ourselves?

Filed Under: Jewish Living | Torah

Living in Torah Time
April 20, 2009 (9 Comments)

By Marge Eiseman
I've always wondered why the Torah reading about the Exodus didn't occur at the time of year when we celebrate Passover. And shouldn't we be reading about receiving the Ten Commandments at Shavu'ot? Doesn't that make more sense? Why are we in the midst of all the rules for the Levites and how to properly offer sacrifices, when it's time for us to act "as if" we were there at the plagues and the preparation for crossing the sea?

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

Ten Minutes of Torah: Up Close and Personal
April 20, 2009 (7 Comments)

by JanetheWriter

Like many of you, I am a regular reader of Ten Minutes of Torah--Reform Voices of Torah on Mondays, Mishnah Day on Tuesdays, Israel Connections on Wednesday, Delving in Liturgy on Thursdays and the Jewish World and Social Action on Fridays...regular as clockwork. (I still miss Kevin Proffitt's Tuesday essays about the Jewish American experience, but that's a post for another time.)

Last Wednesday, the last day of Passover, I attended the festival shacharit and yizkor service in my home congregation, where I still daven from time to time. When it was time for the Torah service, Rabbi Bravo invited the congregation to the bema, where we passed the scroll one to the next before she opened it, we recited the blessing, and she prepared to read. As she did so, she told of rolling quickly to the right spot earlier in the week, as a few b'nai mitzvah students looked on.

"How can you find it so fast?" one asked. "It's easy," she said she told them. "You'll see."

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

D'var Torah: A Disease that Walls Get? Decoding Tzaraat and Facing Our Fears
April 19, 2009

by Rachel Adler
(Originally published in Reform Voices of Torah and Ten Minutes of Torah)

It's time for all Leviticus fans to haul out their decoder rings! In Leviticus 13 and 14, we encounter a strange disease called tzaraat, which can be contracted by human beings, walls, stones, or cloth. Tzaraat has been translated variously as " 'scale disease,' 'scaly disease,' 'eruption,' and (erroneously) 'leprosy' " (The Women's Torah Commentary, ed. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss [New York: URJ Press, 2008] p. 659). What in the world is tzaraat? Into this category, ancient Israelites put human skin diseases such as eczema, psoriasis, and vitiligo, plus forms of fungus and mildew that attack stone or cloth. What all these conditions have in common, as I have suggested elsewhere, "is that their wholeness is being compromised. They are being eaten into, decayed, caused to come apart" (Rachel Adler, "Those Who Turn Away Their Faces: Tzara'at and Stigma," in Healing and the Jewish Imagination: Spiritual and Practical Perspectives on Judaism and Health, ed. William Cutter [Woodstock, Vt.: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2007] p. 146). I would call tzaraat "disintegration disease."

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher: Judaism Is Also Rabbinic
April 19, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Benjamin Levy
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Judaism is not only biblical, but is also rabbinic. This may be evidenced by the fact that other faith communities hold our Hebrew Scriptures as sacred but interpret them in ways that lead to beliefs and practices beyond the realms of Judaism. Rabbinic interpretations of Torah not only reveal the many distinctions of our religion, but also strive to maintain the currency of the biblical text so that it will remain ever-relevant to our lives.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: The Boundary at the Table: Forbidden Foods and Us
April 11, 2009

by Rachel Adler
(Originally published in Reform Voices of Torah and Ten Minutes of Torah)

Just now, American society is reexamining the way it eats. Michael Pollan, in his best-selling book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manefesto, advises distinguishing between food and some of the poor imitations for food that we currently ingest (New York: Penguin Group, 2008). He suggests that we not eat too much and that we eat mostly plants. That's easier said than done. Barbara Kingsolver, in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, advocates eating only what is local to reduce our carbon imprint on this overburdened earth, to circumscribe the boundaries of our appetites and become locavores (Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp, and Camille Kingsolver [New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008]). It appears that boundaryless eating is not respectful either of our bodies or of animals or of the earth or its products. Parashat Sh'mini, in Leviticus 11:1-23, lays out dietary laws for the people of Israel. We are counseled to restrict ourselves, to practice, one might say, a kind of purity law about diet. Somewhere in eternity, Levitical priests are smiling. "What a novel idea!" they whisper to one another.

Filed Under: Defining Reform | Torah

D'var Acher: We Should All Keep Kosher
April 11, 2009 (6 Comments)

by Harley Karz-Wagman
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

In Parashat Sh'mini, Moses teaches us which animals we should eat. Reform Jews should consider ethical kashrut, including setting our own standards for consumption and for avoiding foods and other products whose production harms our health and environment, oppresses labor, or enables mistreatment of animals.

We Jews love to eat, hardly a cultural distinction. Every Jewish holiday teaches, "They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat." "They," our enemies, may be those internal forces we call yetzer hara, our evil inclinations--our greed, pride, appetite, and lust. Kashrut helps us direct those forces toward beneficial goals--justice, peace, beauty, and love. The discipline of kashrut empowers us to control all excesses, the same benefit we gain by refraining from chameitz on Passover.

Filed Under: Defining Reform | Torah

D'var Torah: The Extent of God's Compassion: Mosaic Chutzpah and Rabbinic Chutzpah
April 6, 2009 (1 Comment) by Rachel Adler
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Doctors say that scar tissue is much stronger than tissue that has never suffered trauma, and the same is true of covenants. After the sin of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32, God, Moses, and the people Israel are reconciled. The covenant that was broken through idolatry is mended and emerges even stronger in our holy day Torah portion. How does a betrayal of the covenant, about which God threatens to destroy the people, result in a new doctrine of divine mercy?

It begins with Moses's passionate advocacy on the part of his erring people. In the Talmudic tractate B'rachot 32a, Moses is portrayed as one of the heroes of prayer who "hurled words at heaven," using chutzpah to move God to mercy. God drops the hint that Moses needs in Exodus 32:10: "Now, let Me be, that My anger may blaze forth against them and that I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation." Moses hears, "Now, let me be," and thinks, "What if I don't let God be?" That is his cue to begin arguing. In the Talmudic passage, Rabbi Abahu comments on the outrageousness of Moses's behavior with an equally outrageous analogy: "Moses took hold of the Holy One like one who seizes his fellow by the garment and said, 'Ruler of the universe, I will not let You go until you pardon them and forgive them.'" Moses is, as it were, grabbing God by the suit lapels and demanding mercy.

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

D'var Acher: The Religious Experience
April 6, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Ammiel Hirsch
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Dr. Adler describes the interaction between God and Moses following the apostasy of the Golden Calf and perceptibly depicts Moses's demeanor as "passionate advocacy."

Passion appears to dominate in both God and Moses. Emotion, not logic, is the primary ingredient in their exchange. As Dr. Adler elucidates, their dialogue is replete with words like "anger," "pardon," "forgive," "faithfulness," "compassion," "mercy," and "kindness." Moses's plea, "Let not the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he [You] delivered them'" (Exodus 32:12), is hardly an appeal to logic.

Filed Under: Holidays | Torah

The Three Synagogues
March 31, 2009 (2 Comments)

by Larry Kaufman
As a relatively new member of my congregation, Beth Emet, the Free Synagogue, I was already well aware that, most of the time, one of the clergy presents a dvar Torah at kabbalat Shabbat, while, most of the time, a lay member of the Kahal (the Shabbat morning community) leads the Torah discussion.

Thus I felt particularly honored a few weeks back when the rabbi called to ask if I would be willing on such and such a Kabbalat Shabbat to give the dvar Torah. First I said yes, and only then did I inquire, "What's the parasha?" It was too late to back out when I learned he had saddled me with Vayikra. (My comments on Vayikra, Leviticus, appear in a separate post.)

But in for a penny, in for a pound - as long as I was going to prepare a drash on Vayikra, how could I say no when the Dvar Torah coordinator for the Shabbat morning Kahal asked me to do a repeat performance? We discussed the possibility of making people sit through the same material twice, but agreed that is that there is relatively little overlap between the Friday night kabbalat Shabbat congregation and the Kahal. Again, in my twenty months at Beth Emet, I have noticed during my various forays into adult education that there are a number of people who are regular students but infrequent worshippers. The UJA keeps reminding us that We Are One, but in most congregations, we seem to be at least three. Perhaps the sign outside our shul should read Beth Emet - the Free Synagogues, or even the Three Synagogues.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah - Smoke Signals: Sacrifices as a Ritual Vocabulary
March 30, 2009

by Rachel Adler
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)
Annie LaMott, who writes on Christian spirituality, says that the two best prayers she knows are "Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you" (Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith [New York: Random House, 2000], p. 82). The ancient Hebrews would add, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," while the psalmists would add, "Oh wow!" (or some more-nuanced expression of sheer wonder). Ancient sacrifices may appear mysterious to us -- these crude outpourings of blood and incinerations of fat and meat -- but they, too, constituted a vocabulary for communicating with God. That is why they are called korbanot, "coming-near offerings." You might say that sacrifices stood for certain kinds of prayers sent aloft with the rising smoke to come near to God. read MORE

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Acher - Impact and Intent: The Delicate Dance of Moral Evaluation
March 30, 2009 (1 Comment)

by Michael L. Feshbach
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)
Dr. Adler asks, "Are unintentional lapses that serious?" Inadvertent misconduct is a category understood by our ancestors. In the course of weighing our actions and working to make the world a better place, it is a question worth considering in our lives.

Most of us encounter the concept of accidental sin most clearly on Yom Kippur. In our machzor (High Holy Day prayer book) we read, Al cheit shechatanu l'fanecha, b'zadon uvishgagah , "The sin we have committed against You consciously or unconsciously" (Gates of Repentance, p. 271).

In moral evaluation, I believe we need to measure both intent and impact.

Filed Under: Torah

Fishing for Relevance in Leviticus
March 30, 2009 (3 Comments)

By Larry Kaufman
I once had a rabbi who was as close to a tzaddik as anyone I've ever known. Over our thirty-five year relationship, only once have I known Paul to do a mean thing - but he did it to me! At the oneg Shabbat, one November night, Paul beckoned me to join him in his conversation with Penina, a somewhat intense elderly congregant. "I think Larry can possibly answer your question better than I can," Paul said, as he beat a hasty retreat. So I asked Penina how I could help, wondering wherein my expertise might beat the rabbi's, and she posed her question: Is smoked fish kosher for Passover?

I thought about Paul saddling me with Penina when I got a phone call last month from my current rabbi, who asked if I would be available on such and such a Shabbat to give a dvar Torah. First I said Yes, and only then did I ask, What's the parasha? It was too late to back out when I learned he had saddled me with Vayikra.

Filed Under: Torah

D'var Torah: The Leviticus Monster and the Secret Decoder Ring
March 20, 2009 (1 Comment)

By Rachel Adler
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)
A popular belief is that Leviticus is the monster book of the Torah. It bores us to death with rules about sacrificial offerings. It grosses us out with details about skin eruptions and genital discharges. It annoys us by dictating whom we may and may not have sex with. It leaves us wondering why these strange topics need to be in the Torah and what this book is really about. In short, Leviticus scares us. And that is because, more than any other book of the Torah, Leviticus needs a secret decoder ring. Secret decoder rings--toys offered in cereal and snack boxes from the 1930s on--were used to decode radio show-delivered hidden messages aimed at children. The term is still current, meaning "a device that will make what is cryptic comprehensible." My secret decoder ring for Leviticus consists largely of two streams of research that I can focus on this mysterious book: (1) symbolic anthropology, such as that of Professor Mary Douglas (Leviticus as Literature [Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press], 1999), and (2) comparative data from other ancient Near Eastern societies. read MORE

Filed Under: Torah