The Hebrew Scriptures are not readily or easily understood by native English speakers, we post a weekly addition to regular Torah commentary. "Cutting to the Root" is intended to promote an understanding of the complexity of the Hebrew language and thereby gain a richer and deeper understanding of the Scriptures. It is our goal that these notes will teach tolerance and understanding.Please visit our web site at www.shefaisrael.com

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Parashat Vayikra - the Haftara

Parashat Vayikra – the Haftara
Isaiah 43:21 – 44:23
Reading date: 28th March 2009 – 3rd Nisan 5769


Our highlighted Haftara text
But you have not worshipped Me, O Jacob,That you should not be weary of Me, O Israel.You have not brought Me your sheep for burnt offerings,Nor honored Me with your sacrifices.I have not burdened you with grain offerings,Nor wearied you about frankincense.You have not brought Me fragrant reed with money,Nor sated Me with the fat of your sacrifices.... Isaiah 43: 22-24

Can we infuse our worship today with the passion and drama of the sacrifices?

We begin the third book of the Torah with Leviticus, or Vayikra. This book deals largely with the details of the Levitical order: sacrifices and laws of impurity. It is often noted that these texts are challenging for the modern reader. Some conservatives comment that: "Leviticus is a difficult book for a modern person to read with reverence and appreciation. Its main subject matter -- animal offerings and ritual impurity seems remote from contemporary concerns." (Etz Hayyim, USCJ). Because our focus this year is on the prophets, many who lived after the destruction of the first Temple (586 BCE), we can already begin to see a new relationship to sacrifice and worship. Furthermore, the haftara portions themselves were chosen by the Rabbis, who lived after the destruction of the second Temple (70 CE), and although they may have imagined (or even hoped for) the restoration of the Temple and the sacrifices, were dealing with a new reality: the worship of YHVH without the sacrificial order. The haftara taken from Isaiah reminds the Israelites of their past transgressions, but ends with the promise that YHVH will remember them and redeem them.

Scholars identify this 'deutero-Isaiah' (from chapters 40 on) as a different author from the Isaiah ben Amotz identified in Isaiah 1:1. The 'Second Isaiah' preached in Babylonia in the sixth century BCE and brought a message of consolation to Israelites who had been captured and exiled. Here, Isaiah reminds the Israelites that YHVH still remembers them and will redeem them. The exiles in Babylonia were allowed to return under Cyrus (around 538 BCE) but many remained in Babylonia.

Following the last several weeks of architectural detail and the construction of the portable sanctuary of the Mishkan, we now turn to the service of the priests. When the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the sacrificial order ended and was replaced with prayer. Today, prayer is mostly seen as a higher form of worship, (although the restoration of sacrifices is still included in the Orthodox liturgy. There is a small extremist group in Jerusalem who are actively working on rebuilding the Third Temple, although many understand the Third Temple largely in messianic (read mythic) terms). There are some opinions that suggest that when the Messiah comes, the sacrificial system will not be reinstituted (see below). Still, we must ask what the purpose of the sacrifices was. The Torah rejects the pagan notion of sacrifices 'feeding' a god even though vestiges of idiomatic expressions such as 'My food' and 'My table' can be found. And even in the ancient world, sacrifices may have served many different purposes: communion, gift, bargain, homage, purification and others.

While YHVH doesn't need sacrifices, people do: Yalkut Me'am Lo'az suggests five different reasons for sacrifices:
1. to arouse repentance 2. to support the priests 3. to serve as a 'redemption' for sinning 4. to 'shock' the viewer by witnessing the slaughter/burning 5. to examine their life/actions to prevent the worship of these animals as idols.

Many are put off by the description of burnt offerings and the laws of purity, so how are we to deal with Leviticus today? Uncomfortable with the notion of animal sacrifices, some either treat the opening chapters of Leviticus as 'historical memory': 'This is what we used to believe" or try to read the whole text as a metaphor for what 'sacrifices' we need to make in our lives. Earlier commentators, too, were uncomfortable with the Torah's emphasis on animal sacrifices, and some re-interpret the entire book of Leviticus allegorically.

Liberals tend to agree with the many rabbis (including Maimonides) who understood the sacrificial system as merely a stop gap measure to wean the Israelites from idolatry (learned in Egypt) and of the need for physical forms of worship. "It is impossible to go suddenly from one extreme to the other; the nature of people will not allow them suddenly to discontinue everything to which they have been accustomed." (As a physician, Maimonides understood that it is difficult to go 'cold turkey.' One has to make gradual changes.) Abravanel even suggests that sacrifices were only instituted as a response to the Israelites' sin of the Golden Calf. Ramban (Nachmanides) strongly disagrees with such attempts that render the korbanot (sacrifices) the realm of a temporary exigency born out of a regrettable situation. The implication that korbanot do not belong to the realm of the ideal is rejected by those who still pray for the restoration of the Temple and the sacrificial service.

Certainly the prophets can be cited (and were used by the early Reformers, in fact) to argue that YHVH doesn't want sacrifices altogether (I Sam. 15:22; Hosea 6:6, Amos 5:21, Isaiah 1:11, Jer. 7:20 and others). However, none of these texts was chosen by the Rabbis for the Haftara. In fact, Isaiah reports YHVH's complaint that the Israelites have not brought sacrifices or offered incense. Instead, they fashioned idols out of metal and wood in vain. Do they not see the folly of their actions? They take some wood to build a fire to warm themselves and to bake bread, while simultaneously making an idol out of the same wood, and worshipping it.

Even with all our technology and sophistication, it seems that we still require tangible symbols and concrete rituals. People want their relationship with YHVH to have a physical component; something that they can see and touch. Hence there has been a return to traditional prayer garments (tallit and kippah) that originally were either too abstract and too intellectual. But today's worship remains relatively reserved and detached compared to what the Temple sacrificial service must have felt like. Like Isaiah's listeners, we too no longer have access to the Temple's service, and must bring the offerings of our hearts. If YHVH doesn't need our sacrifices, our Torah portion regarding sacrifices is about what we really want, while the haftara from Isaiah details what YHVH truly wants: our sincere return to YHVH's service. But can we infuse our worship today with the passion and drama that our ancestors felt bringing their bleating (and bleeding) animals to the golden altar?

Shabbat Shalom

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Parashat Vayahel - Pekudei - the Haftara

Parashat Vaya’hel - Pekudei – the Haftara
1Kings 7:51 – 8:21
Reading date: 21st March 2009 – 25th Adar 5769


Our highlighted Haftara text
“The priest shall take some of the blood of the purification offering and apply it to the doorposts of the Temple, to the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and to the doorposts of the gate of the inner court....On the fourteenth day of the first month you shall have the Passover sacrifice; and during the festival of seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten.”Ezekiel 45:19, 21

Is there a way in the Diaspora to reconnect to natural time and to the land of Israel?

The final two parashiyot of Exodus describe the completion of the Mishkan (which not surprisingly repeats in large measure the instructions found in Terumah and Tetzaveh). The regular Haftara from the first book of Kings and describes the construction of Solomon's Temple.
Ezekiel was exiled to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem (597 BCE), and Ezekiel preached to the exiles in Babylon that YHVH would return Israel to its land, and restore the Temple and its service (that was destroyed in 586 BCE). Ezekiel used vivid imagery and metaphors (the famous passage: the valley of the dry bones, for example, is read on Passover) and often describes complex mystical visions of chariots and cherubs.

The weekly (double) portion of VaYakhel-Pekudei and the regularly assigned haftara (from the book of Kings) is about the creation of sacred space. This week, however, the maftir (additional reading) from the book of Exodus is about sacred time. The juxtaposition of the reading about sacred space and the calendar invite us to think about the tension between these two. Heschel's insights about Jewish attitudes about sacred time from his volume, The Sabbath, are often quoted and I include a portion below.

Heschel convincingly argues that Judaism emphasizes the sanctification of time over the sanctification of space. But in Heschel's portrayal of Shabbat as a day of 'truce' between humans/technology and nature/world of creation, we often overlook that the concept of Shabbat and the seven day week is itself an arbitrary measure of time. The year is a natural solar cycle, the month is a natural lunar cycle. But there is no 'week' in nature. It is an artificial construct, and today, Jews are more connected (if they are connected to Jewish time at all) to the weekly cycle of Shabbat than they are to the monthly cycle of the moon. Most of us know what day of the week it is, but most of the time we don't know what phase of the moon we are in. The Gregorian calendar, of course is no help at all, as it has lost its connection to the moon altogether, even though the very word 'month' comes from 'moon'. The connection is more apparent in Hebrew: the Mishnaic word for month yerach is the same as yarei'ach (moon). The root of the more common word chodesh (month) is chadash (meaning new), since every new moon inaugurates a new month.Unlike Shabbat, the biblical festivals were originally rooted in agricultural and natural cycles of harvest, but their focus has shifted to remembering and celebrating historical events. Pesach is no longer the Festival of Spring, it becomes a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. Shabbat is almost abstract time. As Heschel writes:
While the festivals celebrate events that happened in time, the date of the month assigned for each festival in the calendar is determined by the life in nature ... In contrast, the Sabbath is entirely independent of the month and unrelated to the moon. Its date is not determined by any event in nature, such as the new moon, but by the act of creation. Thus the essence of the Sabbath is completely detached from the world of space.The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time.

Thus, we find ourselves with two contradictory claims concerning the character of the Sabbath. On the one hand is the claim that the Sabbath is a time of peace and harmony between humans and nature. On the other hand, "The physical world became divested of any inherent sanctity," because the Sabbath's strictly calculated rhythm liberated sacred time from the natural cycle of the lunation. Therefore the endless seven-day rhythm of the Sabbath, ostensibly established by divine decree but only marked in the world by human counting, hardly seems like a moment of peace between "man and nature" or "complete harmony between man and nature." While it may be a time of "peace" due to practices that restrain human activity, the rhythm is not natural and has nothing to do with the needs of nature.

Although the Shabbat Kiddush contains reminders of both the Exodus from Egypt (zecher leyitziat mitzrayim) and Creation (zikaron lema'aseh breishit), and Shabbat practice may encourage us to live in peace with nature, it is intrinsically not natural. In contrast, the new moon, this new month of Nisan is connected to the lunar cycle. Israel is an incredible country; the recently excavated Ir David may have uncovered King David's palace. Imagine-- we are walking in the footsteps of King David! But most tourists only visit important Biblical historical and archaeological sites and don't see how the Bible is also full of references to Israel's natural world. As most are disconnected from both nature in general and Israel's natural world in particular, this means we have lost an appreciation of the imagery, symbolism and the reality of our biblical ancestors that can only be recaptured by being in the land of Israel. If you tour with Shefa Israel we will give you “a better appreciation of how our ancestors were connected to the 'land' of Israel."

"This month/moon will be for you the head of months." Is there a way in the diaspora to reconnect to natural time and to the land of Israel?

Shabbat Shalom

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Parashat Ki Tisa - the Haftara

Parashat Ki Tisa – the Haftara
Ezekiel 36:16 – 36:38
Reading date: 14th March 2009 – 18th Adar 5769

Our highlighted Haftara text
“I will sprinkle cleansing waters upon you, and you shall be cleansed of all your impurities; and I will cleanse you of all your idols.” Ezekiel 36: 25

We can undo our failings by using the same strengths for good.
Parashat Ki Tisa interrupts the description of the Mishkan's construction with the episode of the Golden (or Molten) Calf and the breaking of the first tablets. Although this year a special Haftara is read (see below), the regular Haftara is taken from the first book of Kings (18:1-39; Sephardim begin on verse 20). In both texts, the Israelites betray YHVH, and the leader (Moses/Elijah) must intercede to restore true worship and mend the breached covenant between YHVH and the community.

Again this week, the special additional reading describing the ritual of the Red Heifer (Numbers 19:1-22) gives this Shabbat its special name: ‘Shabbat Parah’. The special Haftara from Ezekiel (36:16-38; Sephardim conclude with verse 36), like the Maftir (concluding) portion deal with the theme of purification. Shabbat Parah reminded the community of Israel that the Pesach sacrifice should be performed in a state of ritual purity.

Elijah, the most famous of the early prophets, lived during the reign of northern Israel's King Ahab (9th century B.C.E). Ahab's wife from Tyre, Jezebel, supported Baal worship and Elijah battled this foreign influence. According to II Kings (2:11), Elijah did not die, but was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire. Jewish folklore depicts Elijah as a beggar or a poor wanderer, appearing (and disappearing) mysteriously and helping the poor.

At Havdalah, the ceremony marking the conclusion of Shabbat we sing, 'Eliyahu Hanavi, Eliyahu hatishbi...' According to tradition, Elijah will come to resolve Talmudic disputes (at the Passover Seder- to tell us whether to drink the fifth 'Elijah's Cup' or not), and will herald the Messianic Age. He is thought to be present at every ‘brit’, since each newborn may be the one to help bring the Messiah.

The regular Haftara for Ki Tisa is the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mount Carmel. Their worship of Baal parallels the Israelites' worship of the Golden Calf. But this year, the special Shabbat of the Red Heifer – ‘Shabbat Parah’, (literally the Shabbat of the Cow) falls on the week we read ‘Egel Hazahav’ (The Golden Calf) and instead of the passage from the book of II Kings, we read from the prophet Ezekiel.

The ‘Parah Adumah’ (Red Heifer) and ‘Egel Hazahav’! Two cows on one Shabbat! How are these two cows connected? It seems that the cows are complete opposites. The Golden Calf is about idolatry; the Red Heifer is about purification. The Golden Calf represents completely abandoning YHVH (immediately after hearing the Ten Commandments and being freed from Egypt and witnessing the destruction of the Egyptians at the Sea of Reeds). The Red Heifer, by contrast, represents full obedience to YHVH, since this mitzvah is identified as a 'chok' that is, those laws that can't be explained rationally or logically. Performance of the mitzvah of the Red Heifer shows complete submission and allegiance to YHVH.

Maimonides suggests that most of the ‘chukkim’, the reasons of which are unknown to us, serve as a fence against idolatry (Guide 3:49). So does the Red Heifer come to correct the sin of the Golden Calf? The use of the red heifer in the mysterious ceremony of purification atoning for the sin of idolatry is supported by the Haftara. The special Haftara from Ezekiel describes sprinkling water (like in the ceremony of the ashes of the Red Heifer) to "cleanse you of all your idols." The Midrash, in fact, makes the connection explicit: A maid's child once dirtied the royal palace. Said the king: "Let his mother come and clean up her child's filth." By the same token, YHVH says: "Let the Heifer atone for the deed of the Calf" (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 8). It is precisely because the two incidents are opposites that one can 'fix' the other.

How can one event 'atone' for another? Can one event 'undo' another? In our Parasha, cow undoes cow. In Jewish tradition, the ‘get’ (Jewish divorce document) annuls the ‘Ketubah’ (marriage contract). ‘Teshuvah’ (repentance) undoes ‘chet’ (sin). This is a sound principle familiar from child rearing. Better than a punishment- the consequence should repair the wrongdoing. When such a 'punishment' fits the crime, the 'sentence' for littering, for example, should be cleaning up the litter in the area.

There are two approaches to atonement. One is the 'jail' model: we regret our actions, and we pay our debt to society. Then we emerge from jail a 'new person,' often blotting out the memory of our incarceration. We try and distance ourselves from our inclinations to do wrong. But the second model uses the 'judo' approach, where the strength or speed of the opponent is used to our advantage! The bigger they are, the harder they fall! The Rabbis find it curious that the Israelites were indiscriminate; they contributed as eagerly to build the Golden Calf as they did to build the Mishkan. To sin, they gave their gold; to build the sanctuary, they gave their gold. In other words, their generosity could be channeled for holiness just as it had been used for turning away from YHVH.

Similarly, the example of the ‘Parah Adumah’ (Red Heifer) suggests that we can undo our failings by using the very same strengths for good. This would be like a dishonest stockbroker who does ‘teshuvah’ by using his talents to raise money to support charities instead of for illicit financial dealings. Like the ‘Parah Adumah’, let us channel our inclination and/or 'talents' for misdeeds for a higher purpose.

Shabbat Shalom

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Parashat Tetzaveh - the Hafatra

Parashat Tetzaveh – the Haftara
1Samuel 15:2 – 15:34
Reading date: 7th March 2009 – 11th Adar 5769


Our highlighted Haftara text
Thus said the Lord of Hosts: 'I am exacting the penalty for what Amalek did to Israel, for the assault he made upon them on the road on their way up from Egypt. I Samuel 15:2

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That's why it's called the 'present.'
Parashat Tetzaveh continues with the description of the furnishings of the Tabernacle (Mishkan): the olive oil for the eternal lamp, the garments for Aaron, the High Priest, and the consecration ceremony for the priests. The portion concludes with a description of the incense altar. The regularly scheduled Haftara, taken from Ezekiel, (40: 10-27), describes the Temple and the details of its consecration.

Instead of Ezekiel, the Haftara for this specially named Shabbat Zachor is taken from the book of Samuel (15:1-34). (Ashkenazim begin on verse 2.) This haftara does not connect to the weekly Torah reading, but to the calendar instead. This is the Shabbat before Purim, and a special Maftir (concluding) portion read from a second scroll describes the Amalekite's attack on the Israelites (Deut. 25:17-19). The Haftara describes Saul's battle with Agag, king of the Amalekites, retaliation for their cowardly attack on the Israelites (also related in Exodus 17:8ff). Both Maftir and Haftara connect to Purim because the villain of the Purim story, Haman, is descended from Agag. The command to 'blot out the memory of Amalek' is in fact the origin of the custom of 'drowning out Haman's name' with graggers (noisemakers). Just as Haman is seen as a descendant of Agag, so too is Mordechai's lineage traced back to the line of Saul's father (son of Kish).

Saul, the first king of Israel, appointed by the prophet Samuel engages in battle with the Amalekites. YHVH commands Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, but he spares the king and the best sheep and oxen. When confronted by Samuel, Saul tries to rationalize his actions, but because he has not obeyed YHVH, YHVH rejects Saul as king.

Shabbat Zachor: The Shabbat of Memory. The Jewish people have a prodigious memory. The Psalmist vows to remember Jerusalem, "If I forget you O Jerusalem..." and we promise to keep alive the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust. Jews sustain the memory of loved ones through the traditions of Yizkor (literally: he will remember) and Yahrzeit. The Torah is always telling us to remember that we were slaves in Egypt. But what should we remember? Is it healthy to always have such a good memory?

A few months ago, we learned about the curious mitzvah of ‘Shikh'khah’ (the forgotten sheaf) that we cannot do with ‘kavannah’ (intent). Indeed, we can only fulfill it when we forget to perform it! Here, we encounter a similar scenario: a command to wipe out the memory of Amalek. Here we are being commanded to forget! But the Torah begins the command with the word: Remember! How is that possible?

Memory is generally a good thing, and any of us with aging parents (and even ourselves- where did I put those keys?) can identify with the hardships of impaired memory. We are made of our memories. When a loved one has serious memory loss, we worry that they will even lose their sense of 'self.' In the movie Fifty First Dates, we meet '10 second Tom.' Like goldfish, imagine being trapped in a world of 10 second durations (Say, I don't remember seeing that castle there before). It's no joke.

On the other hand, memory can be a burden. We cannot remember (re-feel) the actual pain, although we can remember that we experienced it. Holocaust survivors who still wake up in the middle of the night screaming suffer from such memories. After a negative experience, we can become trapped in memory and pain. There is a gift in being able to wake up each day as if it were our first. No baggage. No leftover hurt from the previous day's fight. We need to learn from the past, but not be stuck in it. We say, 'Forgive and forget,' because a person cannot forget until they forgive. But the other way around might be true as well. We can't truly and completely forgive until we're ready or able to forget. If you still remember the incident and the hurt, how can you forgive? Maybe there are times and things we need to forget.

This week's command to remember to forget teaches that we must find a balance between memory and moving forward. Judaism has found a way to celebrate history and has turned memory into an art form. Yes, we remember the tyrannical Haman with parody, drink and masquerade. We retell the story and celebrate our survival with a festive meal, (even a little too much) drinking , and gifts to friends and neighbors and tzedakah to the poor.

What are we to remember? What are we to forget? The tension between memory and forgetting teaches an important lesson. The other day I heard someone say: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That's why it's called the 'present.' "

Shabbat Shalom and Purim Sameach!