Dvar Torah Parsha Eikev 5783

Devarim 7:12 – 11:25

Gratitude and Humility

Parsha Eikev includes three speeches by Moshe. According to Torah, Women’s Commentary, all highlight the central position of the Promised Land in the relationship between G_d and Israel. It begins following a contentious 40 years in the desert a reminder that obedience brings blessings. Obedience, observance, and love are required as they move forward. Following the recitation of the ten commandments and a call to carry them out with care, Hashem will love, bless, and multiply Israel including the people, the fruit of your body, your soil, grain, wine, oil, and animals.

What follows is a reminder of the journey the people have taken when they have sinned. A cautionary note to kill those in the land who worship foreign gods, though later Biblical writing and archaeology suggest this did not happen and this telling was more rhetorical. The strongest warnings are against worshiping foreign gods. As they enter this land against nations larger and stronger than they are, remember Hashem will deliver their people to this new land.

What does G_d require of them? Only to fear G_d, to walk in all G_d’s ways, to love G_d and serve G_d with all your heart and with all your soul. Look with gratitude to all Hashem did for them in the wilderness. Then another warning against turning to other gods.

I want to focus on our parsha’s call for gratitude and humility. Here is what Devarim 8:12-18 says:

“When you have eaten and been satisfied, and have built fine houses and lived in them, when your herds and flocks have grown abundant, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have has multiplied, your heart may become proud, forgetting the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery... You might be tempted to say to yourself, ‘My power, the strength of my own hand, have brought me this great wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to do great things, upholding the covenant that He swore to your ancestors...”

History is replete with examples of leaders who become so enamored with their success that they become perfect examples of what the AA Big Book calls “Self-will run riot.” Another saying comes to mind from Ketuvim (Proverbs) 16:18-19, “Pride goes before ruin, Arrogance before failure. Better to be humble and among the lowly Than to share spoils with the proud.” The world around us today seems replete with the arrogance warned against in Proverbs. Greed and self-absorption lead billionaires to ignore the dangers of global climate change in favor of self-enrichment to the point that climate scientists say we may be at or even past the point of no return for humanity. Justice and caring for the least of us has given way to a belligerent greed leaning towards fascism, not just here, but around the world.

This commenter has never known great wealth, but I am grateful for the friends I’ve known along the way and for the love I’ve experienced in this lifetime. For all that is wrong in this world, I nevertheless feel blest. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory relates a story of a medical research in the early 1990’s called the Nun Study. It involved 700 American nuns, all members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. They agreed to allow their medical records to be accessed by a team studying the process of aging and Alzheimer’s. The women were aged 75-102. Now sixty years earlier, they had been asked by their Mother Superior to write a brief biography of their life and reasons for entering the convent. These documents were scored to register among other things, positive and negative emotions. By annually assessing the nuns’ state of health, they were able to test whether their emotional state in 1930 had affected their health some sixty years later. The results? The more positive emotions including contentment, gratitude, happiness, love, and hope expressed in the autobiographical notes, the more likely they were to be alive and well sixty years later. The difference was as much as seven additional years of life expectancy.

At the very heart of our parsha is a call to gratitude. And though for this writer, my sense of gratitude did not come later in a quest for self-truth, the point is well taken. Hashem reminds us to remember where we come from. Gratitude for all those incidents, all those events outside of myself that enabled me to come to this place in life.

I have observed over the years an interesting phenomenon. That is the charity one can find among the poorest of the poor. Let me share one such story. I lost my partner Skip back in August of 1997. He and I used to take walks in our Houston neighborhood and would stop sometimes to chat with our homeless neighbors. One such person lived at the bus stop just outside our apartments. Well Skip became ill and went into a coma. After a couple of weeks virtually living at the hospital, I came home to clean up. A friend came by, and we left on a walk. Our homeless friends came running out to us and asked about Skip. I told him what was going on. A look of sorrow crossed his face. Then he said, “I remember once when I was down on my luck.” Down on his luck? He lives at a bus stop! He goes on, “Anyway, this woman gave me something and I want you to have it. It meant so much to me.” Pulling out his empty pockets, there was a wadded tissue. Unwrapping it, he presented me with a silver cross. Now I’m not Christian, but I fully understood this to be a gift of the heart, his wealth from a place of poverty. I hugged him and went on. Later Skip passed and I offered to return the cross. “No, someday you can hand it on to someone else in need.” His was a gift of generosity, and one of gratitude to be passed on to another.

None of us stand alone. We share a common humanity. Love and humility, gratitude and hope are the key to happiness. Baruch Hashem!

Dvar Torah Parsha Va-Etchanan 5783

D’varim 3:23 -7:11

Few in Number

Parsha Va-Etchanan (“And I pleaded) begins with Moshe relating to the people how he pleaded with Hashem to allow him to enter the Holy Land, but he was denied. Moshe here says it was on account of the people, I guess conveniently forgetting that in Numbers we learn it was because he brought water from the stone following Miriam’s death in anger and forgetting to give credit to Hashem. Instead, he tells him to climb Mt. Pisgah and see the land from there. He is then to give Joshua instructions for it will be him who enters the new land as leader of the people. We then get a review of the miracles along the way. He cautions against any sort of graven image, including no sculpted images of male, female, or beast for worship. Also, not to worship the stars. Others may do so, but G_d’s people have been set aside and must worship only Adonai.

There is a warning that if they make idols, they will be banished from the land. Again, this suggests these words may have been written following the defeat and banishment of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE or even following the Babylonian exile.

We find in Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:35 a clear statement of monotheism while other parts of Devarim suggests gods for other peoples. But the cautionary note is given, obey G_d alone and all will be well.

Then Moshe sets aside three cities east of the Jordan as refuge cities, those being Bezar, Ramoth, and Golan. He then relates the decalogue, following a short restating of their journey in the desert. He, unlike the original telling where he was alone with Adonai, he claims all the people were privy to his conversation with Hashem. Of course, it has been mentioned before that there are signs these words were written much later. But even if these words were spoken by Moshe, it occurs to me that my own memory is not the best at 76 years of age. How much more so at 120!

In Devarim 6:4 we find the Shema and V’ahavta prayers, the very foundational text of our Jewish faith. Shema reminds the people of Hashem’s essence while the V’ahavta prayer is how the people internalize the teachings and impart them to the next generation. It follows in fact with an admonishment not to worship other gods and to pass the teachings on to the next generation.6:20 has in fact been incorporated into our Pesach seder.

In chapters 7:1 – 5, Hashem tells them to destroy the people in the land they are to occupy. It’s a terrible thing to command, and writings later, not to mention archaeological evidence fortunately say this did not in reality happen.

Devarim 7:7then goes on to relate what I want to talk about at this writing. “It is not because you are the most numerous of peoples that Hashem grew attached to you and chose you--, indeed you are the smallest of peoples, but it was because Hashem favored you…”

What do the Rabbis have to say about this? Rashi says midrashically it means it is because we did not make ourselves great that we were chosen by G_d. Indeed, it is because we are small, that we were chosen to carry out G_d’s work. Rashbam says it is to remind us that it is Hashem who has allowed us to do what we have done. In Israel, Hashem would lead the Israelites to victory despite being outnumbered.

Of course much time has passed since those days when Joshua led the people into Canaan and created the Israel of the Bible. Still today, our numbers are small compared to the world around us. In the US, we are second only to Israel in the number of Jews living here. Yet we are only 2.4% of the population here. Worldwide, we number two tenths of one percent. There are some solid reasons for that. First, over the centuries following exile, we suffered ongoing persecution and pogroms, attacks during the crusades, and the rise of antisemitism over those centuries culminating in the Holocaust. A second reason is that we do not seek to convert others.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offers this question. Could it be that through the Jewish people, Adonai is telling humanity that it is not necessary to be numerous to be great? Humanity is not judged by size, rather its contribution to human heritage. We have made contributions to this world disproportionate to our size. We may be .2% of the world’s population, yet 20% of the Nobel laureates are Jewish. Look at our contributions to art, science, medicine, literature, poets, writers, artists, doctors, lawyers, the list goes on.

Our mission is a simple one. Live Jewish values, and work to repair the world. Through gemilut chesed, through repairing wrong by others or ourselves, by remaining true to our personal and communal lives. I might add to this, our emphasis on study, questioning, wrestling with Hashem all the way to where we are today. Yes, we are surrounded by nations larger and stronger than us. But this culture, this tribe has survived all the world’s great empires, offering hope. Our hope comes from a power higher than ourselves.

I would finish with two quotes. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead. “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” Gandhi. Baruch Hashem!!!

D'var Torah Parsha D'varim 5783

D’varim 1:1 -3:22

Contradiction or Purpose?

So here we are now, beginning the final book of Torah, Deuteronomy (D’varim) and as is always the case, the first Parsha is also named D’varim or “words”. The people are gathered at the Plains of Moab, preparing to enter Canaan. It begins a month’s worth of speeches by Moshe and our Parsha has the beginnings of his farewell address to the people. He reminds the people of their history from Mt. Horeb (Sinai), the scouts’ debacle, and their encounters with other nations. His words are not neutral per Torah: A Women’s commentary, rather support theological and ideological arguments found throughout Deuteronomy.

That same commentary points out that the words are directed at two audiences. First are the people within the text. They can obey G_d’s command or make the mistakes of the past. But the second audience would be those reading this after it was written. Experts believe this parsha and beyond to 4:43 was actually written during the Babylonian exile as an introduction to the laws that form the core of D’varim. For them, there were three goals: a. Emphasize G_d’s role in Israel’s history. b. Justify Israel’s territory in theological terms. c. Underscore obedience to Hashem as the key to Israel’s political and military success. The core of D’varim dates to the 7th Century BCE though some of it may be earlier.

Our parsha begins with a contradiction. He starts by saying his words delivered throughout their journey, but in vs. 3-5, he says they are delivered at the end of their journey in the desert. There’s some confusion around what the borders of the land really are, one saying Canaan while the other suggests all the way to the Euphrates, also suggesting this was written during the exile.

Moshe complains about the burdens of leadership, then given a solution reminiscent of a past resolution of the same problem visited way back in Parsha Yitro. Then he recounts the events of Kadesh-barnea. In Bamidbar (Numbers) he asks to send scouts. Here in D’varim, the land is promised but the people request scouts. This was symptomatic of their lack of faith according to Moshe. As a result, only Caleb and Joshua of the original generation may enter the Holy Land. In Bamidbar, it was Moshe’s fault, but here, he blames the people.

Hashem commands the people not to provoke war with Edom, Moab, and Ammon because they are kin. (Edom are descendants of Esau, Moab and Ammon are descended from Lot.) Their land was divinely granted just as Canaan has been granted to the Israelites. The Ammonites and Moabites are later excluded from membership in Israel because they did not greet them with food and water after they left Egypt. This later led to their exclusion for foreign wives, well maybe for all but Ruth. We see in the use of the past tense in 2:12, a clue that this was written later post conquest. The parsha goes on to outline other battles and the allotment of land east of the Jordan. He tells Joshua, son of Nun that G_d will be with the people as they enter the new land and to not fear.

Two other notes: One is that Moshe interprets events reported previously through his eyes. It provides an understanding of studying the Written Torah considering our current circumstances and interpreting it in the time in which we are living, the basis for Oral Torah and what I’m doing right now in my own dvar. The second thing is this. His words are accusatory, chastising the second generation for the actions of the first. What’s up with that? I think I would like to explore that further.

To suggest that his final speech to the people was anything but a rebuke would be dishonest. Now I can only imagine how Moshe must have felt. He has led the people for almost 40 years in the desert. At times they could be a real pain. But here he is, and he knows he is about to die and not cross over with his people. How hard that must have been. In a real sense, he was grieving for his own death. Yet here he is still, preparing the Israelites for what is to come.

But also it bears mentioning that this Parsha is read just before Tisha B Av, the day we recall the destruction of both temples during a time when we are engaged in soul searching for our own sins and making teshuvah as we approach the High Holy Days. I mentioned earlier how this parsha was likely written during the Babylonian exile. So, Moshe would be speaking to our sinful nature, saying as Rabbi Aviva Richman of Hadar suggests, the rebuke was meant to motivate the people to be more careful of their actions. She goes on to suggest that in Sifrei, he offers words of rebuke in the same way other prophets do.

But, I wondered, why is that important. If we are anything, as Jews we are a people with a long memory. We know our history and talk openly about our mistakes both recent and long ago. I’m 76 years old now, and the Shoah ended just a few years before I was born. Yet here we are in the here and now, experiencing a rise in antisemitism and fascist ideologies. It is ours to recall our shortcomings, not ignore what is going on in our world today, but rather to respond with strength grounded in memory.

Memory of course is faulty. We see that in Moshe’s retelling, often transferring guilt from himself, an entirely human thing to do. I believe his remarks were born out intense grief, but also to prepare the people for their new reality. I also believe the words were in great part tailored to those who wrote it down some centuries later.

But one other thought, born of a concept offered by a primary teacher of mine, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory. Moshe had difficulties sharing responsibility with others. We saw that in his repeated issues in handling leadership alone. In our parsha he had to learn once again to share leadership. Who does he appoint to lead the people after him? We see Joshua, son of Nun. Joshua for the entire journey had been a follower. Perhaps the leader needed for this new journey was a good follower. This was the lesson the people needed to learn. Leaders and followers working together can accomplish great things. Yes, we can argue and debate as part of the relationship. Shabbat Shalom!

Dvar Torah Parshat Matot-Masei

Bamidbar 30:2 – 36:13

With this double parshat of Matot and Masei, we draw to a close the book of Numbers, Bamidbar. We begin with Matot, Hebrew for “tribes” where Torah discusses the final preparations for entering the Holy Land. It begins with a discussion of the earlier laws regarding vows, quickly covering the rules for men, but a more extensive conversation about the laws governing vows for women. These rules delineate rights for women who make vows. It says when a husband can overrule a woman’s vows. For instance, a husband can disavow an oath by his wife on the day he learns of it, but if he waits until the next day, he bears any guilt incurred if he orders her after then to disavow. If she makes a vow while in the father’s household and he has no objection, it will stand.

In this parsha we have the war against the Midianites. They are encouraged to take revenge for Baal Peor. They are successful and kill every male including the five kings of Midian as well as Balaam of Peor. The women were taken prisoner and Moshe is furious. He orders them to slay every male dependent lest they grow up to take revenge, as well as all women known to sleep with an Israelite man, sparing only women who had not slept with anyone. He orders them to stay outside the camp for seven days for purification, boil all metals, then dip them in waters of lustration, and wash their clothes before re-entering the camp. This writer wonders how Zipporah, Moshe’s wife, and a Midianite, felt about all of this. These after all were her people being put to death. The officers gave generous sums to Adonai, and the troops kept their booty for themselves.

Matot concludes with the tribes of Reuben and Gad seeing the land east of the Jordan River was good for grazing. They ask Moshe if they can remain there. Moshe is furious. But they explain they will go with the other tribes to help conquer the land, fighting alongside the rest of Israel. But if when the land is conquered and divided, they want to return. They will leave their families behind to hold the land as it was good land for grazing cattle, sheep, and goats. Moshe agrees with this arrangement.

Parsha Masei (marches) begins with a retelling of the journey from Egypt to the Plains of Moab in Chapter 33, with 34-36 describes how Israel will function as a nation in its own land. It delineates geographic and social boundaries and Moshe appoints leaders for each tribe to oversee the distribution of each tribal portion. The Levites have no portion of their own, but they will reside within 48 cities. Six cities are set aside as cities of refuge. There, any person who unintentionally kills someone can flee to one of these refuges and be protected against vengeance while their case is being resolved. After all, Moshe himself while in Egypt had to flee after killing a man, so this may have been personal for him. It goes on to define murder, discusses the need for witnesses in capital cases, and outlines other rules related to safety and equity.

We then return to the daughters of Zelophehad. The tribal leaders regarding the other understanding where the law was amended to allow them to keep the land if their father had no sons created another issue. If they married outside the tribe, then that land would come under control of another tribe. Moshe and Hashem agreed, and a stipulation was made that they should marry within the tribe and the land would always belong to the Manasseh tribe. One interesting point here made by Masha Turner in Torah: A Women’s Commentary. She offers that in the two entries in Torah regarding these five daughters, we see that new circumstances require a revisit by humans and Adonai to revise the laws within Torah. As new circumstances come up, laws are amended and redefined. In the telling of the daughters of Zelophehad, we see the underpinnings of the Oral Torah as these words are revisited time and again and updated to fit life in that time and circumstance.

In other words, to use her words, “As a result, this parsha constitutes the philosophical basis for the Oral Torah—that is the ongoing, authoritative interpretations of Scripture. The presupposition is that it’s legal kernel and principles are embedded within the Written Torah, and that through different sorts of exegesis of the Torah (that is, through its explanation and interpretation) the Oral Torah is fleshed out. By way of constant searching, responses revealed to never-ending questions.” I would add, all because five courageous women stepped forward and spoke truth to power.

I could carry on more about the daughters of Zelophehad, but today, I want to focus on the cities of refuge. Let’s look back to the culture in that era. Not unlike some groups in the Mideast even today, blood vengeance and blood feuds were a thing. So, the cities of refuge were essential to protect that person from being killed. In today’s terminology, we are essentially looking at manslaughter rather murder. Of the cities of refuge, we learn in Devarim that three of them are on the east side of the Jordan. After all, two tribes would be residing there. He himself had sought refuge. It is natural for a family to want revenge. But, in the case of an accidental homicide, there is a desire for justice.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory reminds us that the desire for vengeance exists in all societies. Imagine how that might play out. You killed my beloved, so I kill you. Then your family seeks revenge and on and on it goes. It can be divisive in any society. A refuge city allows time for passions to cool, but also for justice to happen. There would be a court of law where the case would be heard and justice served, on behalf of the victim and the society at large.

Life is precious, as is justice. Accidentally hurting or killing another demands a price be paid, but not the taking of their life. In a world where blood vengeance was the way, this was a revolutionary call for justice. I suspect many of us at one time or another have desired vengeance. I recall at the age of 20, my uncle was killed by a drunk driver, and family members scattered in hospitals around the area. We were so very angry. A group of us sitting around late one night entertained the idea of finding this guy and exacting revenge. Not an appropriate thing to do, and we never followed through. But in those moments around that kitchen table, a desire for vengeance was palpable. He went on and was tried and found guilty. Justice was served. We don’t have refuge cities today, but a system of laws to protect against that. Origins of justice are found in this system of laws in early Israel. Baruch Hashem!

Dvar Torah Parsha Pinchas 5783

Bamidbar 25:10 – 30:1

Five Sheroes for Our Times

Our Parsha Pinchas opens where our last parsha let off. Pinchas, Aaron’s grandson, had slain Zimri, an Israelite and Cozbi, daughter of a Midianite chieftain after they had cohabitated and encouraged Zimri to worship foreign gods. His zealotry prevented annihilation by Hashem of all Israel and earned for Pinchas the leadership of the priests in the land they would soon enter.

After the plague had ended, Adonai tells Moshe and Eleazar to take a census of all Israelite men by clan ages 20 and up. They are listed in our parsha. Of the generation that left Mitzrayim (Egypt), only Caleb and Joshua have survived to enter the promised land.

What follows is the story of the five daughters of Zelphehad of the Manassite family. Malah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah step forward in front of the Tent of Meeting to confront Moshe and Aaron. This in itself was a courageous move. Not long before we saw what happened to others who did so. In a world where women had little or no status, where Miriam contracted a skin disorder for confronting her brother, where Korach, Dathan, and Abiram paid with their lives for doing so, they question the law where their father who had no sons, must lose his namesake for property that was his. Moshe takes this to Adonai, and surprise of surprises, the law is revised protecting these brave sisters.

A bit more about this. They appear in Bamidbar 27 and 36, as well as in Joshua 17. Even more unusual as women in a patriarchy hardly are mentioned, each one per Carol Meyers in Torah: A Women’s Commentary is named on each occasion. There apparently was a significant tradition around these women, as in Samaria where their land was assigned, 66 ostraca from broken pottery have been found bearing the names of Hoglah and Noah, Tirzah, Milcah, and Hoglah are town names in this same region of the land today. Here we see Adonai side with women in what could be a very unjust system. Even more so, their prominent mention, for we know that in the patriarchy, men did the writing.

Moshe is then instructed to climb where he may see the land, but he will not enter. Moshe asks Adonai to name a successor for the people before he dies. Adonai says Joshua, son of Nun will be named. Adonai says to stand with Eleazar before the people. Eleazar consults the Urim (lots) and Joshua is named. They then recite per Hashem the sacrificial obligations to the people. The parsha ends affirming Moshe has shared all that Hashem has commanded and that these were indeed the words of Adonai.

I want to focus more on the five daughters of Zelphehad. As I mentioned before, theirs was a courageous move in a patriarchal world. But the result was the rewriting of the law by Hashem. Within the context of the world in which they lived, why were they successful when others were not so fortunate? Indeed, you must wonder, when they made their request, did they think they would be successful? In the Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 119B, the reason they were successful was because they were wise because they spoke in the precise moment the decision was made, astute interpreters by saying that if their father had a son, they would not have spoken, and pious because they did not want to marry men who were unworthy.

An interesting question is brought by Rabbi Leah Berkowitz in a dvar for the URJ. If the plea by the sisters was just, why wasn’t the law of inheritance written to include them in the first place? Midrash Tanhuma Pinchas 9 (400-600CE) suggests this encounter was designed to humble Moshe, reminding him his knowledge of the law is limited so that “even the women” know something he does not. However, she and I prefer an interpretation made in Dirshuni, a midrash written by Israeli women. In Dirshuni, Rivka Lubitch:

“Tanot asked God: If Zelophechad’s daughters spoke the truth, why didn’t you write that in Your Torah in the first place, for, after all, You are truth and Your Torah is truth, and Your word endures forever?

“God answered …. There is truth that descends from on high, and there is truth that grows from below. Blessed is the generation in which truth from above meets truth from below. And this is what Scripture means when it says, Truth will grow from the ground, and justice look down from Heaven (Psalm 85:12)” (“Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash”).

Looking back over centuries, time and again we have seen examples of truth rising from below. In Torah we see laws regulating slavery, but today, slavery is seen for the evil it is. As someone who is gay and trans, in my lifetime I’ve seen civilization go from my early years when homosexual acts were punishable by felony conviction to the day when gay marriage would become the law of the land. We have seen women becoming bat mitzvah ever since Judith Eisenstein in 1922, then women becoming rabbis. In my lifetime, I remember when women could not get a credit card. How far we have come, and yet, in this reactionary time, voices of truth, the cry for justice, remains a much-needed commodity. But we stand on the shoulders of Malah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, five unlikely examples of speaking truth to power. Baruch Hashem!