September 29, 2012

Haazinu, Deuteronomy 32:1–52

A World of Words 
Yael Splansky

Back at the Burning Bush, God commands Moses to return to Egypt, to go before Pharaoh and deliver God’s message: “Let us go...to sacrifice to the Eternal our God” (Exodus 3:18). Moses tries to dodge the command, saying: “Please, O my lord, I have never been a man of words (Lo ish d’varim anochi), either in times past or now that You have spoken to Your servant: I am slow of speech (k’vad peh), and slow of tongue (u'ch'vad lashon)” (Exodus 4:10).

Well, Moses has come a long way since then! Some forty years later, Moses delivers the longest monologue in all of Jewish history–the Book of D’varim, the "Book of Words." He has certainly found his tongue, found his voice. The self-doubting man who once said, “I have never been a man of  words,” now launches the Book of D’varim, the Book of Words and it seems he can’t stop talking. According to our Sages, the day Moses performs this prophetic poem of Haazinu is the day of his death (Targum Yonatan on Song of Songs 1:1; Tanchuma,B’shalach 12). It is his last attempt to move them with words, to shape them into the people they are becoming.

“Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; 
Let the earth hear the words I utter!
May my discourse come down as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew, 
Like showers on young growth,
Like droplets on the grass.
For the name of the Eternal I proclaim; 
Give glory to our God!" (Deuteronomy 32:1–3)

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September 22, 2012

Vayeilech, Deuteronomy 31:1–30

Shabbat Shuvah 

Jewish Guilt
Yael Splansky

As he prepares for death, Moses lays a major guilt trip on the people.

 “Well I know how defiant and stiff-necked you are: even now, while I am still alive in your midst, you have been defiant toward the Eternal; how much more, then, when I am dead! ... For I know that, when I am dead, you will act wickedly and turn away from the path that I enjoined upon you, and that in time to come misfortune will befall you for having done evil in the sight of the Eternal whom you vexed by your deeds” (Deuteronomy 31:27, 29).

Jewish guilt: It’s the punch line of so many Jewish jokes, usually involving Jewish mothers. “Don’t worry about me...I’ll sit in the dark...” But guilt is a powerful tool for honing an individual soul, for shaping a whole society. Guilt is one of the most useful tools we carry during this season, when we take cheshbon hanefesh, an accounting of the soul, and make our way to true repentance.     

    

For example, every year at the High Holy Day services I look out across the faces of the congregation. I think, “I could have done more for her...I should have done more for him...Did I do right by that family when they were in their hour of need?” I admit the guilt weighs heavily on me. Such guilt must be the origin of the Hin’ni prayer, found in Gates of Repentance (pp. 18–19). Before the service begins, the rabbi stands before the open ark and silently cries out, “Hin’ni he-ani mima-as! (Behold me, of little merit, ...) Who is fit for such a task? Dear God, let my congregation not falter on my account, nor I on theirs.” In a rare moment the rabbi stands apart from the congregation. It is a flashback to a time when on Yom Kippur, the Kohein Gadolwould enter the Holy of Holies to seek forgiveness on behalf of the people. But rabbis are not priests. There is no Holy of Holies. And these days are not those days.

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September 15, 2012

Nitzavim, Deuteronomy 29:9–30:20 

Receiving in Order to Give

Yael Splansky 

“You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God ... to enter into the covenant of the Eternal your God ...” (Deuteronomy 29:9–11). Parashat Nitzavim is a retelling of the exchange of giving and receiving that took place at Mount Sinai.

Kabbalah is the art and discipline of “receiving.” The modern kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlagtaught that there are four ways of giving and receiving:

The first way is “to receive in order to receive.” This is what a baby or a very young child does. This is what an egotist of any age does. Like the baby birds with desperately open mouths larger than their bodies, there are times when we are so needy, nothing and no one else matters. The immediate- and end-goal are one and the same—to get.

The second way is “to give in order to receive.” This is conventional morality. Most interactions between ordinary good people fall into this category. For example, I give my neighbor a Christmas present each year. Why? So he’ll continue to keep an eye on my house when I’m out of town? So he won’t complain when I let the weeds grow too tall? So he’ll speak well of me in the neighborhood? “Giving in order to receive” makes the world livable.

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 Last Edited by judy@jvillagenetwork.com at 9/10/2012 1:01 PM

September 8, 2012

 

Ki Tavo, Deuteronomy 26:1–29:8

To Influence and To Be Shaped by Another’s Influence 

Yael Splansky 

Tolstoy begins Anna Karenina with the following two assertions: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Perhaps this explains why for every one blessing listed in this week's parashah, there are five frightful curses. People who are blessed, are blessed in just a few ways. “Blessed shall be the issue of your womb” (Deuteronomy 28:4). "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl” (Deuteronomy 28:5). “Blessed shall you be in your comings and blessed shall you be in your goings" (Deuteronomy 28:6). But people who suffer, suffer in a myriad of ways. Cursed shall you be with “fever  . . . and drought” (Deuteronomy 28:22). Cursed shall you be with copper skies and iron earth and dust for rain (Deuteronomy 28:23–24). Cursed shall you be by terror, with no assurance of survival, no peace (Deuteronomy 28:25–26). On and on go the lists of hardship, heartbreak, and tragedy.
 

This section of the Torah is referred to as toch’chah, “rebuke.” It is hard to take. It’s uncomfortable to hear these words aloud in the sacred setting of our sanctuaries, certainly not befitting Shabbat, so it became customary to read these verses of curses and calamityb’lachash, “in just a whisper.” In the days when superstitions ran high, it became customary for the president of the congregation, or someone of confidence and stature, to volunteer for the aliyah when these verses were read. God forbid, someone vulnerable to poverty or sickness would put himself at further risk by standing in such close proximity to these terrifying words.

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 Last Edited by judy@jvillagenetwork.com at 9/4/2012 1:13 PM