Weekly PONDERABLE articles published in the Or Chadash Newsletter

+ occasional sidetracks

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PONDERABLE Sedrah   וירא/Vayera 

  בראשית/Genesis 18:1-22:24

  Haftarah  מלכים ב' /II Kings 4:1-4:37

WITH GREAT INTELLECT COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

Boldly declaring Truth to Power

            Our sedrah includes the remarkable tale of God’s admiration for the first Hebrew, Avraham. In a moving “aside” narrative, God queries Himself regarding disclosure to Avraham of pending annihilation actions against the sin-cities Sodom and Gomorrah. After all, He reasons, this remarkable human will be the progenitor of “a great and mighty nation”, and he has a right to know. Thus, He shares His plans with our Patriarch Avraham, almost as if asking for approval. I wonder if God “enjoyed” the exchange? – or was later, on reflection, proud of this extraordinary stiff-necked Jew?

ואברהם עודנו עמד לפני ה': ויגש אברהם ויאמר האף תספה צדיק עם רשע:

Avraham stood yet before the Lord. And Abraham drew near, and said: “Wilt thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” Genesis 18:22-23

     Then, having broken the ice, throwing caution to the wind, in a flurry of daring chutzpah Avraham held a mirror up to the Lord of the Universe:

...חללה לך השפט כל הארץ לא יעשה משפט:

“Shall not the judge of all the earth do justly?” Genesis 18:25

     Like shoppers and merchants in the shuk, they haggled over the minimum number of righteous among the population whose presence could provide safe cover for the towns. Avraham handled (haggled) God down from a starting “bid” of fifty down to ten. Then, in what seems like Divine frustration, God dropped out of the conversation and left (in a huff?), agreeing that if ten righteous people were found that the cities would be spared.

            We know the fate of those wicked cities by the Dead Sea, and the story of the rescue of the sole righteous people – Avraham’s nephew Lot, his wife, and his affectionate daughters. Now we must pause to ask ourselves: why was this story told to us? Yes, us!

            The Moral to the Story is straightforward for our time, specifically this past year. There is a proud evil in gaza and Israel’s neighborhood. Evidence is widely available, but deliberately, enthusiastically disbelieved.

For example, in addition to the NYT and other media whitewashing the genocidal zeal being waged against Israel both at home and abroad, in the US we’re not hearing much about the videos of hamas carrying out torture on their own citizens. This fundamental component of hamas’ governance strategy is accepted as acceptable. The global outcry against the war’s casualties in gaza – a faux civilization, with its veneer of culture scraped away by the reality of its brutality – represents the disintegrating language of humanity. The unmediated, conscience-free media imagery has re-excited a primitive and ancient cry to extinguish Jews. In not some, not just a few, but all gaza homes entered by the IDF, weapons of war were found; mothers proudly videoed themselves boasting of the hoped-for martyrdom of their children in the “holy” war to murder Israelis and Jews wherever they are; civilian 10/7 marauders of the peacenik kibbutzim, where they had been gainfully and happily employed, boastfully shared their horrific murders on smartphone videos uploaded to social media for all the world to see.

          Circling back to our forefather Abraham and his debate with the Almighty: how would that conversation resolve today if it were to focus on gaza?

See you in shul עם ישראל חי!

RCDJ

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Ponderable 

  Sedrah נחNoach, Rosh Chodesh

בראשית/Genesis 6:9-11:32, במדבר/Numbers 28:9-15

Haftarah ישעיהו/Isaiah 66:1-24

SENTINEL AT THE GATE

Israel: Civilization’s Flagship

     The hero of this week’s sedrah, described as “righteous for his generation”, became the unwitting ancestor to all of humanity. Noah. A name that indicates passivity, kindness; gentility. Some have opined that the world needs another cleansing on a scale of the Biblical flood, but where is this generation’s Noah? Who would qualify as “righteous for our generation”?

     A cultural virus has been allowed to spread in our world. Its name is Radical Islam. Its influence is now seen throughout the Western world, most notably on college campuses and in some districts in our country that elect antisemitic legislators. France, Germany, the UK, Scandinavian countries – all are grappling with the consequences of leniency towards immigrants who brazenly use the tools of their hosts’ democracies to upend them. This past month radical islamists gathered in Hamburg to call for establishment of a caliphate and adopt sharia law.

     For most of her existence our precious homeland Israel has been the lone sentinel at the gate, engaged in protective struggle on behalf of us all. While the western world was, at first, in solidarity with Israel in its response to the barbarism that was perpetrated last Simchat Torah, it seems doubtful that nations have calculated the risks to us all if Israel is allowed to fail in its struggle to eradicate, once and for all, the devil at their door. Israel is in mortal combat for the world, and must be supported by every American, Jew and non-Jew alike, by all means possible. We must speak out locally, rebutting slanders on social and print media; become involved in your community and support decent elected officials; provide targeted financial aid (for example, to ZAKA, United Hatzalah, and our own Jewish Federation). The profoundly disturbing lesson of worldwide volcanic eruptions of antisemitism is that it doesn't matter much what Israel does. It matters that Israel is: the nation state of the Jewish people.

     Without a doubt, our fate in the world is inextricably tied to Israel’s.

     So – is it time for a new flood? Or a Sodom and Gomorrah hellfire? Well, if I ruled the world ….

Alas, for better or worse, I do not. Therefore I ask you to continuously update your knowledge - read JewishPress.com, watch i24 television; receive updates from the Consulate General of Israel by requesting a subscription to their newsletter: jewishcommunity@atlanta.mfa.gov.il; recognize and refute the antisemitic undercurrent rife at the New York Times, BBC, Haaretz, Washington Post, NPR, CNN, and others who, with only terrorists’ claims, quickly spread falsehoods; recognize and accept with pride that Israel is a just nation, conducting itself with adherence to Jewish values, readily admitting errors, investigating itself! What other military alerts its enemy of pending strikes, or puts itself at risk to avoid collateral suffering? Are you shocked that no such standard was applied to recent US and UK bombings of Houthi sites in Yemen that resulted in dozens of civilian deaths?

     Read the sources that will equip you to counter lies with facts (e.g, they aren’t “freedom fighters”, “militants”, “combatants” – they are savage murderers, terrorists!)

    The sedrah relates the story of the Tower of Babel, whereby haughty self-righteous people were cut off from one another when God confounded their ability to converse, to plot, to scheme. Have we become ‘them’, gleefully enabled by the ability to spread falsehoods instantaneously via the miracle of social media?

     Noah had hundreds of years to build his ark. Israel is our ark on troubled spaceship earth; we’ve had a mere 76 years to build it, and it is absolutely our responsibility to cherish and protect it.

Truly, sadly, Israel is the lone sentinel at evil’s gate.

See you in shul עם ישראל חי Am Yisrael Chai!

RCDJ  

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 Sedrah: Ki Tetze כי תצא  5784  תשפ"ד

דברים   /Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19

   Haftarah ישעיהו/Isaiah 54:1-10  (Shortest Haftarah of them all!)

   Featured at the b’not mitzvah of Amanda Myers, Arlene Myers, the Krueger triplets, and Andi Dempsey

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 REPRINTED FROM 5783 

with updates, important clickables

because, strangely, it’s sill frighteningly relevant!

Ki tetze lamilchamah כי תצא למלחמה = 

When you go out to war.

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That’s an interesting sedrah launch, stated almost as nonchalantly as one would say, “when you go shopping…”. The phrases and paragraphs that follow are magnificent parables about life and the consequences of the choices we make. But there are two oft overlooked words in the opening sentence, squeezed between war and beautiful ladies. Consider the expanded opening phrase:

Ki tetze lamilchamah al oivecha 

כי תצא למלחמה על איביך

When you go out to war against your enemies

Do you find that strange? Of course, war is “against your enemies”, not your friends or allies! Why would the Torah, in which there are no superfluous letters or words, include unnecessary elaboration when describing violent confrontation implied by “war”?

Let’s consider the absurd notion that one would go to war against an ally, or friend. Unthinkable. Or imagine the scenario whereby war is waged against an innocuous “other”. Could it be that the Torah, by inserting those two words in stealth, is admonishing the people to be certain that those against whom we would inflict violence are truly enemies?

For example, the endless conflict between India and Pakistan, and – to a lesser degree – China over the Kashmir territory has its roots in ancient frictions, exacerbated by an unwise division of the land after the second World War that ignored cultural realities (Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and others). A history of warlords and raids established true – and, some would say, justifiable – enmity among them: skirmishes were “normal”, and never a surprise, long after the initial combatants were gone.

Germany invaded passive Poland – and enmity can only be described from the perspective of the Poles towards the Germans. Poland was not an enemy of Germany.

Today we are witness to the assault by the world’s Top Terrorist, Russia, against a non-aggressive Ukraine. Enmity – imagined or real? Did it precede the first bombardment?

When our ancestors trekked the wilderness Moshe, as a matter of course and decency, sent messages to tribes ahead, requesting permission to pass through their territories: requests that were sometimes granted, sometimes denied – the latter resulting in long detours. But occasionally the response by the residents was a military assault that led to the annihilation of the aggressor. At no time did our people initiate hostilities against the tribes they encountered.

In contrast, countless historic examples of conquest by brutal war (Genghis Kahn, Islam, the Crusades, European colonization of the New World, and American expansion by “manifest destiny”, etc.) against innocent populations proves how extraordinary our people have been.

Spontaneous enmity. “Instant jihad”.

The regular incitement by Arabs along Israel’s borders to hate and attack Israelis – and, frankly, Jews anywhere in the world – has been, since Israel’s founding, a one-sided war. Despite Israel’s superhuman efforts at peaceful co-equal-existence, the enmity towards Israel is enflamed by self-enriching* leadership. [two clickables] \It is absurd, considering the benefits of peace to all citizenry.

Despite endless provocations, including 10/7/23, Israel has not declared Arabs/Muslims to be our enemies; Hamas, Hezbollah, devil-incarnates arafat, the ayatollahs, and nasrallah – yes; but the general populations, no. We should be in absolute awe that our Jewish nation and its defense forces, in contrast with protocol by all others on planet Earth, alerts Gazans of an impending attack on the terror infrastructure in their midst (and in their homes, schools, hospitals, ambulances…), to avoid civilian casualties, often at great risk to themselves: air dropped leaflets, phone calls, the so-called “knock on the roof”. Common behavior by other nations is radically different, as we know.

Imagine the consequences if rockets were launched from Juarez, Mexico, into El Paso, or Tijuana into Chula Vista and San Diego. Israelis walking or driving in their own land have learned to always be alert, eyes in the back of their head, never knowing when an attack might happen; and despite it all, live life to the fullest without nurturing enmity towards their Arab neighbors. In contrast, no Arab has to fear for his or her safety in Jewish areas.

Our Divinely given manual for becoming the best possible civilized humans, in the image of the Almighty, often teaches with subtlety: When you go out to war – כי תצא למלחמה be certain that it is truly against an enemy.

How simple. How unusual.

But heed the haunting eternal warning that snaps you to attention in the sedrah’s final phrases:

“remember what Amalek did to you as you came out of Egypt…. Therefore you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heavens; you shall not forget!

• Net worth of Ismail Haniyeh - $4 billion

Net worth of Mahmoud Abbas - $100 million

Net worth of average Palestinian- $6,465

… but you absolutely must read THIS!

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עקב/Ekev

דברים/Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

Haftarah: ישעיהו/Isaiah 49:13-51:3 2nd Haftarah of Consolation

EKEV – עקב

“A-History”

What a great word. Ekev. It formed the root of our patriarch Yaakov’s name. Heel. Idiomatically, one who trips others. Cunning. But in this week’s sedrah Moshe is begging the people he’d led from rabble to responsibility, chaos to conquerors, whiners to winners – begging them to avoid being “tripped up” and undermined by history, by forgetting their own. Nearly all of Sefer D’varim – the Book of Deuteronomy – is Moshe’s review of the snares and pitfalls that were encountered over the previous forty years by the parents of the new generation gathered near Jericho, and how they were overcome. The recap was, Moshe hoped, going to protect them from falling prey to the same distractions and disasters that had nearly led to their destruction. George Santayana summarized the concept when he opined: Ekev.

How extraordinary: we’re living the message today!

We have been witness to the harsh and dangerous consequences of “a-history” – the condition of being unaware of one’s own history, one that is neither ancient nor unavailable. And this ignorance is playing out to a horrifying effect worldwide, disappointingly in the West, and embarrassingly in the United States.

In 1929 Jews were slaughtered in Hebron by their previously friendly Arab neighbors, among whom they had lived for generations. Why? Because a rumor had been created that Jews were killing Arabs on the Temple Mount and desecrating the Al Aqsa Mosque. There was no State of Israel, no “occupation”; just a volatile mix of unbridled hate and people easily aroused to violence.

In 1948 massive Arab armies invaded the newly independent State of Israel; Arab residents were begged by the new government of Israel to stay put. Haifa’s Jewish residents pleaded with their Arab neighbors to stay since they had lived and worked together in harmony for decades. But most left when promised by the invaders that they would be able to move into the homes of the vanquished Jews who would be driven into the sea.

Jordan seized and annexed the land west of the Jordan river and half of Jerusalem. But they were unsuccessful in their ultimate goal of destroying Israel. The disappointed Arabs who had left Israel were rounded up and kept in “refugee camps”, where their descendants languish to this day. Why? To perpetuate the blatant lie that Israel is to blame and to foment anti-Semitism.

In 1967, when massive Arab armies once again gathered to destroy Israel and failed miserably, Israel made the tactical errors of ceding control of the Temple Mount to the Jordanian waqf, and not taking over the educational systems of the conquered territories – where hate has been the unabashed focus to this day. And thus “Palestinians”, simply “Arabs” before Israel was established, were born; named thus by the vile Egyptian terrorist yasser arafat. None of the so-called Arab refugees were invited to “come home” to Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or any other Arab nation.

By contrast, when the hundreds of thousands of Jews were summarily expelled from Arab nations, they were enthusiastically welcomed home – to Israel. There are no Jewish refugee camps anywhere; nor is there a clamor by them to return to their former homes.

When delegations of U.S. legislators visit Israel and the territories, I keep hoping that their eyes and minds would be opened to reality, especially when former active terrorist abu mazen – renamed Abbas – declares to them that there will never be peace with Israel; that all of the land – “from the river to the sea” – must be made free of Jews; and that, Taylor Force Act notwithstanding, it is in their charter to pay terrorists who attack Jews anywhere in the world.

I naively hope that they witness and then testify to the reality of freedom for all inside Israel, where shoppers and shopkeepers, tourists and tour guides, doctors and nurses, cab drivers, business owners, university students and professors, members of the Knesset, and the IDF itself – are comprised of people from every ethnicity, with equal standing for all. If this is apartheid, Israel is failing miserably at its implementation.

The consequence of the current epidemic of a-history is the significant number of Jews who have been swayed by the avalanche of lies, rumors, and half-truths; and who readily side with those who strive to undermine Israel and the United States. “Death to America” is still chanted loudly here at home by the same people who seek Israel’s demise; people who believe that they will be better off without Jews and Israel. Biblical Korach tried the same approach with outright lies and innuendos spread through proxies: he sought to elevate himself by creating dissent and sedition among the people, taking advantage of fears and jealousies to destroy Moshe’s leadership. In the end he was defeated, but his campaign resulted in massive rifts among the people at a critical time when unity and common focus on building their own nationhood was so vital to their survival. Today the divisive effect of benevolently, cleverly titled groups (JStreet, Peace Now, etc.) on Jewish esprit de corps is all too evident.

Moshe prophesied that after a long exile God would remember His people and gather them back to The Land from the furthest corners of the world. It’s happening: Jews from France, former Soviet countries, Venezuela, and the Americas are leaving, most making Aliyah. Why? Could it be due to the ancient desire embedded in the Jewish psyche, “Next Year in Jerusalem”, coupled with rampant world-wide anti-Semitism? Even now, during war, the motivation for Aliyah is as strong as it ever has been.

Ekev. History. Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Bazeh כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה All Israel is responsible one for the other. Our tradition expresses this in a simple story. We read (Tanna De Bei Eliyahu Rabbah Chapter 11): “The people of Israel are similar to a ship. If there is a hole in the lower hold, one does not say, ‘Only the lower hold has a hole in it.’ Rather they must immediately recognize that the ship is liable to sink and that they must repair the hole down below.” It is our strength, it is our eternal burden. We share a common destiny.

Read our history. Study the bios of the people in the proposed government of the two candidates. Stay informed. Visit the news sites listed in this newsletter.

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Laughable  CLICK HERE!

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Ponderable

  Sedrah Mattot-Mas’ei  במדבר/Numbers 30:2 – 36:13   Haftarah ירמיהו/Jeremiah 2:4-2:28, 3:4

*MOLYBDENUM (Mo)*

freely adapted from a sermon by Rabbi Don Ross, Central Synagogue, 2023

… intentionally departing from the serious international events on everyone’s mind…

    On Shabbat we will have the pleasure of reading the double portion Mattot-Mas’ei, as we conclude the book of B’midbar and begin the countdown to the High Holidays. Mas’ei begins with a lengthy, detailed recap of our ancestors’ itinerary in the wilderness (במדבר) on their trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. ויסעו מרעמסס בחדש הראשון...ויחנו בסכת. ויסעו מסכת ויחנו באתם. “And the Children of Israel set out from Raamses in the first month… and camped in Sukkot. And they journeyed from Sukkot and they camped at Eitam.” This seemingly interminable travelogue drones on for 49 verses: the Israelites set out from here and camped there; they set out from there and camped here. The travel memoir, recording that we made 42 stops, averaging a bit more than one relocation per year during the 40 years of nation-building, is engraved into our eternal Biblical diary.

    What are we to make of this number 42? It’s not one of the classics with which we are accustomed: 40 years of wandering, 7 days of creation, 10 commandments, 10 for a minyan, 13 attributes of God. Rashi was irritated by the number and went to great lengths to re-think it for us. He believed that 42 stops over 40 years makes God seem cruel – tear down, rebuild, tear down, rebuild! So in his wisdom he subtracted 14 because they happened in the first year before the debacle of the spies, and then another 8 because they happened in the last year, on final approach to Jericho. Only 20 stops over 38 years seemed much better to Rashi, paying little mind to the grueling labor-intensive efforts of those first and last years; or that he thereby foisted another number, 22, upon future deep thinkers. RAMBAM, on the other hand, points to this section as a classic illustrative example of narratives in the Torah that seem entirely superfluous and unnecessary.

    We actually have much experience with the number 42: it’s the MLB’s permanently retired number on Jackie Robinson’s jersey; the number of kilometers in a marathon (actually, 42.195 km); it’s the number of lines per page in the Gutenberg Bible; it was the last of the three cubes mathematical problem to be solved; and for those of us who are fans of Douglas Adams’ 1979 classic science fiction novel, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, it also happens to be the answer to the “ultimate question of life, the universe and everything”! As the Hitchhiker’s Guide tells it, a group of hyper-intelligent super beings disguised as ordinary mice built a super computer called “Deep Thought” to answer the ultimate question. 7½ million years later Deep Thought spit out 42. For years readers speculated about the significance of 42, and proposed explanations that included everything from Egyptian gods (in ancient Egyptian mythology, during the judgment of souls, the dead had to declare before 42 judges that they had not committed any of 42 sins), to Tibetan monks (Ancient Tibet had 42 rulers: the first in 127 BCE, and the last who ruled from 836 to 842 CE), and more.

    Mattot-Mas’ei did not make their list. Adams finally put the question to rest in 1993 in an online discussion group for fans: he wrote, “It was a joke! It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number and I chose that one. I sat at my desk, stared out into the garden, and thought ‘42’ will do. I typed it out, end of story.”*

    We would likely agree that the 42nd anniversary of anything is rarely, if ever, celebrated.

    But not so. In 2020 fans of the novel celebrated the 42nd anniversary of its release. References to 42 abound in popular culture and, if you query Google, Bing, and ChatGPT some variation of the question, “what is the answer to everything”, the answer you will get is 42! It’s the revenge of the nerds.

    So what does all this have to do with Torah? Simply this: the meaning of a text doesn’t have to be intentional to be significant. One could simply stare into the garden and pick a number. Meaning is something we can make for ourselves; when we care so deeply about a story, when we believe in its power to transform us, and when we find others with whom to share it, we can make every word of a story contain whole worlds. The intellectual and spiritual hunt is the end goal and benefit in and of itself: ask any student of Talmud!

    Here is the “obvious” link to Mattot-Mas’ei. The number 42 is Jewishly significant: the number of lines in a column of a typical Torah scroll: 42. The number of words in ואהבת V’ahavta: 42. And, according to the Talmud, the secret ineffable name of God that was spoken once a year in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur has, of course, 42 letters.

What worlds these words contain! What amazing symbolism can be derived from “42”! There is a teaching by the Baal Shem Tov that the collective experiences of our ancestors, along each of those 42 stops are re-lived in the unique lives of every Jewish person. Consciously or not, we spiritually follow in our ancestors’ footsteps. Building on this teaching it could be that the Baal Shem Tov’s fundamental view of our life’s journey calls upon us to pay attention to each stage of our life as it unfolds, finding growing spiritual elevation in each transition.

    “42 Steps to God” is not a great name for a self-help book, but it is the truth: we mustn’t take shortcuts. We don’t get to skip seemingly superfluous passages in the Torah or occurrences in life. We must read every word in each of those columns of 42 lines. We cannot delegate our search for meaning and wisdom to the calculations of a super computer. We will find it as we derive meaning from the stories that provoke us, that inspire us, that cause us to ask questions, and bring us together.

… and that is why we gather in our בית כנסת Beit K’nesset – House of Meeting and discussion where we learn and grow together. May it ever be so, iy”h.

Shabbat Shalom – Am Yisrael Chai, RCDJ

*Here are two clickables you may find interesting: Molybdenum , *

Sleuths may find the number of times 42 appears above to be mildly interesting.

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Sedrah: Nasso    במדבר/Numbers 4:21- 7:89

  Haftarah: שופטים/Judges 13:2-25 the Birth of שמשון/Samson

DON’T BLINK …

you might miss 5:5-5:8

Have you ever missed or glossed over the fine print in a document you signed? We, the Jewish People past, present, and future have “signed” and accepted as binding the laws and teachings of Torah. Yet many of us might have missed several small but essential concepts and mandates. For example, in the Torah portion Ki Tetze [which we’ll encounter on September 14 this year] the opening sentence, seemingly in stealth, states the following: “When you go forth to battle against your enemies…”. Obviously one would not go to war against a friend, right? … or against a passive neighbor? Unfortunately history is littered with assaults launched for reasons far afield from enmity. Our Torah states what should be a priori, but tragically is not. Embedded by this pair of words is a seed planted in the collective consciousness of our people; a concept that guides Jewish, and obviously, Israeli behavior to this day.

This week’s sedrah has a four-sentence nugget embedded between the headlight topics of tribal duties, leprosy (mis)management, and the shocking rules governing the fate of a woman whose husband suspects her of adultery. Let’s take a look: “… God spoke to Moses saying when a person commits any wrong toward someone else, thereby breaking faith with God; and that person realizes his guilt, he must confess and make restitution in the principal amount plus 20%, giving it to the person who was wronged [the victim].” Unpacking this we find that while harming another person is an afront to God, recompense is obligatory to the victim. There is no absolution by solely seeking God’s forgiveness.

Fascinating in this glimpse into our ethical responsibility for one another is that there is no mention of either forgiveness (by the victim) or atonement/apology (by the perpetrator). The burden is on the wrongdoer, regardless of whether forgiveness by the victim is given or not. Note also that penance is only alluded to by “he must confess and make restitution…”. In a society where such behavior is normative it is highly likely that the misdeed will not be repeated, and penance will be achieved.

Golda Meir admonished the Arab enemies of her day: “When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”

When the violent struggles that were launched by the horrors and tragedies of Simchat Torah 5784 are finally over, and the Land of Israel is once again safe, how will the victims of Arab barbarism be compensated, recompensed, restored to vigor? Who will fund the rebuilding of homes and farms, and reforesting of Israel’s north? In this upside-down world where Israel, desperate for peaceful coexistence and generous to all who accept her outstretched hand, is cast as the oppressor after being brutalized, how will that come to pass? With antisemitism blossoming, spreading like a vile fungus, and erstwhile allies betraying us, is it likely that the deluded world will suddenly “realize his guilt, confess and make restitution”?

Perhaps. Allevai. But here are some sobering prophetic words from our Prophets:

Ezekiel: it becomes painfully clear that no nation comes to Israel’s defense when the “War of Gog and Magog” begins in the “last days” (Ezekiel 38:16) When such an invasion comes, Israel will be all alone, utterly abandoned even by its closest friends and allies.

Zecheriah: “Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, ‘Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.” [God makes it clear that all the nations that turn against Israel will themselves face Divine Judgment and be “severely injured.]

As I’ve declared previously – I am a devout optimist for Am Yisrael. We must remember always Who is in charge.

Shabbat shalom, עם ישראל חי

RCDJ

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PONDERABLE Sedrah Sh’mini / HaChodesh
ויקרא /Leviticus 9:1–11:47; maftir שמות /Exodus 12:1-20
Haftarah יחזקאל /Ezekiel 45:16-46:18

GIVING SENSIBLY:
What we can learn from Nadav and Avihu
by ADINA GERVER
--and how it applies to Humanitarian Aid /rcdj

    Parashat Shmini juxtaposes two sacrifices, both offered to God by Israelites in the desert and both summoning Divine fire, but with tragically different consequences. The first series of sacrifices was offered by Aaron and his sons and was rewarded: “the Presence of the Lord appeared to all the people” and “[f]ire came forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar” (Leviticus 9:8-24). The second, incense offered by Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu, elicited God’s wrath and swift punishment: “fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them; thus they died” (Leviticus 10:2).
    The contrast between these two parts of Parashat Shmini–one capped off by a holy revelation and a sacrifice-consuming fire and the other by sudden, fiery death–is striking. Why did Nadav and Avihu die? Were they not serving God by offering sacrifices, just as they and their father and brothers had previously?
Serving Spontaneously
    Ibn Ezra, a medieval commentator, uses the phrase immediately following the description of the brothers’ sacrifice to explain the problem with their offering. Commenting on the words, “which [God] had not enjoined upon them,” he explains that their grave sin lay in doing something that God had not commanded them to do, in contrast to the earlier part of the Torah portion, in which the priests do “as Moses had commanded” (Leviticus 10:1). It was not so much what Nadav and Avihu brought as why they brought it – because of their own autonomous desire to worship God, not in response to God’s command (Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 10:1. Leviticus 9:21).
    We can certainly understand this impulse. In our own modern, incense-less version of service, sometimes we respond to an explicit request for aid, while at other times we serve others spontaneously out of a desire to give or effect change in the world. Intuitively, we may feel that service offered out of our own heroic motivation should be more highly regarded than service offered in response to a call for help. After all, there is something a bit coercive about responding when someone asks–it can be difficult to say “no” in the face of suffering–while there is something unboundedly generous about offering help simply because one feels like it.
    Perhaps spontaneous human outpourings of help should be placed on a level above responses to solicitations. Perhaps, we might think as Nadav and Avihu did, that taking matters into our own hands and proactively offering of ourselves to God or to other people is the highest form of service.
Thoughtful Offerings
    Yet, we may also reason that the best kind of help is the kind that most closely aligns with people’s needs. We see in humanitarian crises, again and again, that help without a directive can do more harm than good. One powerful example of this was the spontaneous outpouring of individual donations after the tragic tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands and left many more displaced, diseased, and destitute in southeast Asia in December 2004. Some of the unprecedented donations that flowed in after the disaster included things that were clearly of no use to the displaced and homeless in the hot, humid climate of southeast Asia, such as four-inch stilettos and wool blankets.
    Other contributions seemed useful to well-meaning donors, but were out of touch with progress already made on the ground. Knowing that clean drinking water was urgently needed in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, donors kept sending heavy bottled water long after water purification systems had been set up by aid agencies.
The tragedy of Nadav and Avihu as refracted through Ibn Ezra’s focus on commandedness versus volition can teach us something about our service to other people. It tells us, in a horrifyingly stark way, that we must not let generous motives get disconnected from the reality on the ground; that our modern “offerings” are best given thoughtfully in response to explicit needs.
    As alien as the story of Nadav and Avihu may seem to us, the impulses that it addresses are human ones, familiar to each of us: the urge to quickly offer the help that we want to offer, regardless of what is needed. The harsh punishment meted out to Aaron’s sons is not one that I would condone, but the seriousness with which Nadav and Avihu’s very human impulses were checked should give us pause. It should compel us to make the effort to find out, from the people we seek to help, exactly what they need before we rush to give. ////
 

    In our day, foolish donor nations have circumvented common sense and sent humanitarian aid to the so-called “innocent civilians” of gaza. Jordan and the US air dropped large crates of presumed needed items of food and supplies, ignoring the capricious nature of winds that tragically misdirected the parachuted gifts – crushing people and houses, and resulting in drowning of people swimming out to sea to grab what they could from crates that landed offshore. Egyptian drivers of aid trucks are justifiably skittish about driving in to gaza and having to face hamas thieves attacking them and stealing their trucks and loads, to sell it to their beloved needy. Al Jazeera posted videos of the starving gazans cursing the United States for sending food that now lies in heaps because, as the famished civilians proclaim, holding up sealed packages of prepared meals, “we can’t eat this”. If my advice were to be sought – I’m waiting for the call – the best humanitarian aid that should be provided is nothing at all. A total embargo of all aid, including electricity, just might force hamas to surrender: either on their own or at the hands of their constituency. Delivery of provisions is, sadly, enabling the evil in the tunnels to survive and thrive. The best long-term, durable aid to gazans would be canceled hamas.

עם ישראל חי      ביחד ננצח
Shabbat shalom,
RCDJ

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TABERNACLES OF PRIDE

and shame

            This week’s sedrah, P'kudei, concludes the Book of Exodus, finalizing the implementation of the Mishkan that had been built by the people exclusively with materials and labor provided by the people themselves. There had been no foreign labor, nor were there construction grants from other nations. It was, indeed, truly the Jewish People’s “invitation to God” to dwell among them. A tabernacle of enormous pride in which everyone had invested “sweat equity”. It was theirs. It is ours.

            Today the Mishkan of world Jewry is beleaguered Eretz Yisrael. Built by the toil and struggle of our people who were inspired by the mantra we have been reciting every Pesach for thousands of years: לשנה הבאה בירושלים L’shanah habaah birushalayim.

            But many in our generation are gasping in disbelief at the inversion of the definitions of Good and Evil. In the grips of wokeism “successful” = “oppressor”, “impoverished, minority, etc.” = “oppressed”. In 1967 Israel was the underdog against the massive Arab armies arrayed against her and, after a stunning survival, was briefly cheered. Since that time, however, as Israel prospered through intellect, innovation, and generosity; and the Arabs in gaza and much of Judea and Samaria fell into poverty as a result of wanton, blatant corrupt leadership of their own, Israel was cast in the image of oppressor, and the antisemitic terrorizing Arabs became “oppressed”.

            Perhaps the greatest disappointment during the months since the atrocities of October 7 is the eruption of antisemitism as if an expression of disappointment that the invasion was not more successful. Those stiff-necked Jews, trembling helpless in foreign lands for two millennia, now dared to unite and defend themselves with unanticipated fury. As the war has taken longer than it might have had the IDF simply flattened gaza (recall Dresden? napalm of villages in VietNam? Hiroshima and Nagasaki? – no warning leaflets to the innocents, no humanitarian corridors, no humanitarian aid convoys…), ostensive allies are now clamoring for Israel to stop short of a lasting victory. The ultimate insult is the upcoming Humanitarian Wharf. I offer the following two parables:

            PARABLE 1

The wise men of Chelm had decided to build a new shul, and immediately set about the task of collecting money from all “wise hearted men and women” in the community. As the sum began to grow, they worried about where to store the cash. In someone’s home? No, thieves could steal it. The wise men finally concluded it would be best to keep it in the holy Synagogue itself. Some nay-sayers pointed out that thieves, who were not yirat shamayim, could break in the sacred building as well. After considerable headscratching and a few sips of schnapps, their collective wisdom paid off: they would place a strongbox with the money high up on the highest of high ceiling rafters out of the reach of all. When the applause and back-slapping died down, the usual and customary whiner (doesn’t every committee have at least one?) said that they, the righteous wise men, too, would be unable to get to the strongbox. They concluded that a ladder would be suspended from that highest of high ceiling beams with a sign at the bottom declaring: “thieves are not allowed to use this ladder”. Fully satisfied with themselves, so it was written, and so it was done.

            PARABLE 2

The wise men at the Helm, heartsick over the plight of innocent gazans (ig’s) mercilessly besieged by those Israelis (tI’s), decided to provide sustenance for the poor huddled downtrodden masses who so sincerely yearned to breathe free. But how to deliver sustenance so that those tI’s couldn’t cruelly interfere? They would send trucks laden with lifesaving nourishment; but tI’s insisted on inspecting the convoys of mercy. So the wise men at the Helm devised a brilliant work-around scheme: they would send crates laden with lifesaving nourishment on the wings of eagles, dropping them carefully onto the starving huddled masses, secondarily providing precious parachute silk for crafting shelters. Some of the silken chutes would arrive unopened, in pristine condition marred only by the splinters of the crushed crates and a few stains from crushed ig’s.  What to do, what to do!

TI’s slow the trucks, air drops have nasty PR repercussions, hamas thieves abound and steal trucks with lifesaving nourishment and oh my they are so wicked.

Then, out of the fog of narishkeit a brilliant solution materialized: like a golem fashioned from mud, the wharf solution emerged from the collective minds of the wise men at the Helm!  No more trucks, no more random-landing parachutes. We’ll construct a billions-of-dollars platform off the coast of gaza to drop off humanitarian aid! And best of all - no “boots on the ground”!

Huzzah and cheers, backslapping and high fives in the joyous realm of the Helm.

Until the inevitable naysayer asks, “Who will ferry the lifesaving nourishment off the wharf and deliver it to the ig’s and keep wicked hamas from stealing it?”

The obvious answer to that irritating skeptical naysayer: “We’ll put up a sign ….”

            See you in shul – עם ישראל חי,   Shabbat shalom,               RCDJ

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PONDERABLE Sedrah Yitro

  שמות/Exodus 18:1 – 20:23

  Haftarah ישעיהו/Isaiah 6:1-7:6,  9:5-6

MENTSCH ON A BENCH

Ellie Wiesel repackaged our thoughts regarding LOVE when he stated, simply,

• “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.

• The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.

• The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.

• And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”

     In a moment I’ll offer an embellishment on this concept. To begin, consider this week’s sedrah, Yitro, which contains the Ten Commandments/Statements (עשרת הדברות). If there is one overarching theme to which they all seem to point, it would be an obsession with respect – for one another and, almost secondarily, for God. We could extrapolate from here that we show respect for God when we follow the lead given to us for relating to one another. In sum: it distills down to a single Mitzvah: be a mentsch.

     Some of you may have noticed that in the first quarter of this century there has been a progressing erosion of the national esprit de corps. National patriotism has not waned; rather, there has been a propensity to short-fused flailing anger when nice, decent folks deign to discuss what should be matter-of-fact issues. “People often characterize the current moment in America as being ‘angry’. If only this were true. Anger is an emotion that occurs when we want to change someone’s behavior and believe that we can do it.” [Arthur C. Brooks, commencement address BYU, April, 2019] While anger is often perceived as a negative emotion, it has social purpose. And it is not to drive others away. Rather, it is intended to remove problematic elements of a relationship and bring people back together.      The problem is not anger – it is contempt. In the words of Arthur Schopenhauer, contempt “is the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.” [A.S., “On Psychology”, 2004. P. 170] The destructive power of contempt is limitless. It can destroy a family, a marriage, a congregation; and it can tear a country apart. It hardly requires a social scientist to notice an ongoing degradation in public and interpersonal discourse. For instantaneous proof: mention certain political names.

     Have we truly become a culture of contempt – seeing those who disagree with us not as merely incorrect or misguided but as worthless? Many Americans have long ago stopped talking to close friends and family members about virtually any aspect of politics. Do you organize your social life and curate your news and information to avoid hearing viewpoints differing from your own? From my vantage point of someone who long ago received an AARP membership, ideological polarization is at higher levels than at any time since the American civil war. And we’ve even generated an addition to our social vocabulary: Cancel Culture. How sad.

     As Jews we have a mission; a holy mission, to be “a light unto the nations”. Our guidebook is over three millennia old and always new. This week’s sedrah and its commandments are far more than meets the casual eye. When we disregard its teachings of civility and fall into step with the culture of contempt all around us, we fail in our mission. We must be better than that. Since October seventh most Jews are staggering under the weight of the cognitive dissonance of a world gone mad, ignoring the suffering of our people, blaming the victims. But we shall not be deterred from the standard that has always defined us: בַּקֵּשׁ שָׁלוֹם וְרָדְפֵהוּ – seek peace and pursue it. [Psalms 34:15]

     Does that require an end to disagreement? Absolutely not, because competition in the arena of deep thought is healthy; it is the wellspring of creativity and innovative solutions to mutually shared challenges. We don’t need to disagree less; we need to disagree better.  We need something more than mere tolerance and civility; something that speaks to our hearts’ true desire. The word that comes to mind is love - to will the good of another person. It won’t be easy, but if America is to survive as a cohesive society, we must be willing to infiltrate the culture of contempt and cancellation, and model a better set of values. As Jews, that must be our mission. We can hope that others will follow our lead.

     We are the lonely Mentsch on the Bench of history, with a world view that seeks to uplift all humanity. Our prayers for the welfare of the government and its leaders are not limited to concern for the well-being of the Jewish people alone. Rabbi Chanina taught: “Pray for the welfare of the government….” [Pirke Avot 3:2] America has been the beacon of hope for the rest of the world. Over the past century, following world wars and calamities worldwide, we pulled billions of people out of starvation-level poverty. This is the country that attracted us or our ancestors with the promise of equal opportunity, religious freedom, and a good life for ourselves and our families: the freedom to discuss, argue vehemently, and then dine together. Our mission as Jews is to take the lead in restoring the bonds that have begun to fray, to rekindle that beacon. At this time in momentous history that responsibility is more important than at any time since the Shoah.

     Will the truth set us free? While my usual optimism has been shaken in the reaction of so many erstwhile intelligentsia to the pogrom of 116 days ago, despite the clear “truth” in front of their eyes, I persist in hope.

     Rabbi Tarfon taught (Pirke Avot): It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, but you are not free to desist from it either. Do not be arrogant; do not think that you alone can finish the job. Trust in your children and generations yet unborn to take up the task. Know that you are part of the living chain of people who have dreamed, worked for a better world and carried on this mission for thousands of years in an unbroken covenant.

            עם ישראל חי – יחד ננצח

Shabbat Shalom,

            RCDJ

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PONDERABLE Sedrah Va-era

  שמות/Exodus 6:2-9:35 

 Haftarah: יחזקאל/Ezekiel 28:25-29:21

STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF…

… with you. The 1961 musical by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley picked up on this catchy theme from earlier cultural jargon, but it could be easily applied to this frustrated upside-down world of ours – and this week’s sedrah – of course.

     Newspeak prevails: up is down, down is sideways. Terrorists with cameras are heralded as journalists. Note this: In an interview with MSNBC, [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken expressed condolences to the family of Al Dahdouh, "My heart goes out to the family of Al Dahdouh (Al Jazeera journalist), too many innocent people have been killed". Unbelievable.

     The truth? On January 7, 2024, IDF forces intercepted a hostile drone near Rafah, posing an immediate threat to nearby soldiers. Responding swiftly, an IAF aircraft targeted the drone's operators. Subsequent reports from palestinian media indicated the deaths of journalists Hamza al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria during this operation. …However both individuals were affiliated with Gaza-based terrorist organizations actively engaged in attacks against IDF forces. Prior to the strike, Al-Dahdouh and Thuria operated drones. Mustafa Thuria… served as the Squad Deputy Commander in hamas' Gaza City Brigade within the al-Qadisiyyah Battalion. Hamza Wael al-Dahdouh, on the other hand, was associated with the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization. He was involved in the Islamic Jihad's electronic engineering unit, along with his prior role as the deputy commander in the Zeitun Battalion's Rocket Array. A document listing operatives from the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization's electronic engineering unit, featuring al-Dahdouh's military number and his significant role within the organization, were found.

     Misplaced compassion is evil.

     Newspeak: Compassion for evil is deemed righteous.

     In reference to the plagues of this week’s sedrah, have you ever expressed compassion for the Egyptians who were punished for their cruel treatment of our ancestors? Pharaoh had enslaved and enacted evil decrees to destroy the Jews. With the exception of those unfortunate horses who will inevitably drown again in the sedrah B’shallach, are there any historic declarations of compassion, empathy, sorrow* for the Egyptian villains? Of course not. They were BAD! So, we must ask ourselves, how is it within any semblance of moral compassion that leaders of our Goldene Medina, the “Light on the hill”, “the last stand on earth” – give aid and comfort to the vilest corruption of humanity, the reincarnation of nazis, that populates gaza? After being presented with the incontrovertible truth that billions of our taxpayers’ dollars were transformed into massive infrastructure whose sole purpose is to destroy Israel and Jews everywhere, where is the demand that hamas cease its bombardment of Israeli civilians? Why are there no demands that “humanitarian aid” be given to the so-called “innocent” palestinian civilians, when it is clear that hamas steals it all and sells it to “their people” after skimming the bulk for themselves underground? Where is the humanitarian aid and support for the hundreds of thousands of Israelis displaced by the war, or the Israeli victims of the horrors of October 7?

     Yes, indeed. Pharaoh’s world was turned upside down. Today, the moral truth in the West seems to be awol.

     But I am in the grips of eternal optimism. We know Who’s in charge.

Shabbat shalom – עם ישראל חי - - - יחד ננצח   

RCDJ

* Talmud: Sanhedrin, 39b: ministering angels desired to recite a song when they witnessed the destruction of the entire Egyptian army… but God said to them: “My handiwork [the Egyptians] are drowning in the sea, and you are reciting a song before Me?” God is not glad to see the downfall even of the wicked. But He does choose sides appropriately, iy"h.

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PONDERABLE Sedrah  ויחי/Vay’chi 

  בראשית/Genesis 47:28-50:26    

  Haftarah מלכים א'/1 Kings 2:1-12

ALEVAI!

     À propos the sedrah and current wartime struggles in Israel, I recalled the euphoric sense of secure, stable, and successful Israel just a few years ago. Here is an excerpt from my newsletter article for this sedrah in 2014:  “As Claire and I enjoyed a Haifa sunset over a rippling Mediterran-ean shore this evening, with clear skies and short-sleeve weather, we couldn't help marveling at the steady flow of immense cargo ships moving in and out of port, with billowing flags of many nations. Laden with containers of goods arriving and departing they were beautiful evidence of Israel's remarkable stature as an important player in the world's economy. … Our El Al flight from Newark had brought 60 new olim of all ages from several countries. The normally scheduled charter flights are no longer sufficient for Nefesh b'Nefesh to meet the demand for aliyah. We have every rational reason to expect 2015 to be a very good year for our Land of Israel. Can you even imagine how thrilled beyond rational belief the Patriarchs, the generation of the Exodus, our ancestors of the past 2000 years, or even the founders of the modern State of Israel would be if they could see it now?”

     Imagine, indeed. WWYD? What would Yosef have done to solve today’s turmoil? For clues, let us refer to the text in Vay’chi. Spoiler alert: there is nothing to imply that Yosef could have ended armed conflict.

    The long range far off in the future dilemma that Israel – and in all likelihood diaspora Jews – will face is how to cope with an intractable enemy on her border, after the physical annihilation of hamas. In the “Yosef and His Brothers in Egypt Because of the Famine” story, Yosef tested them in order to learn whether they had transformed from the jealousy tainted young men who had abused him, to repentant, reformed adults. As we know, they passed the tests and Yosef forgave them in the first recorded act of forgiveness in literature. He did not forgive the act; he absolved his brothers in such a way that they could go on with their lives unburdened. Yes, they had acted criminally and lived in shame (“don’t tell dad!”) and transitioned to lifelong guilt: the “inner voice” that gave them no peace. Yosef lifted the weight from their souls. Given the temptation to repeat their self-serving behavior during the confrontation with Yosef regarding their brother Benjamin, they did not. Over decades, maturity and wisdom had replaced the hatred. It took time.

    A modern day Yosef would insist on tests of the Arabs who identify as “palestinians", to assure that they had transformed into humans with consciences. He would surely counsel that the current generation, age 3 and upwards [note the recent discovery in the tunnels of bomb vests for small children], are beyond redemption, having been irretrievably indoctrinated from toddlerhood to hate without reason, to harm without hesitation, to kill with joy and no conscience, to revel in martyrdom; all in the absolute knowledge that great rewards await them in the bosom of allah. The contemporary palestinians are akin to the gaunt ears of corn and emaciated cattle in Pharaoh’s dreams which consumed healthy, robust, fat ears and cattle but remained gaunt and emaciated. The avalanche of wealth that poured unabated into gaza from nations hypnotized into acting against their own best interest, was consumed by hamas, who destroyed the possibility of humanity and prosperity of their own people; with one purpose: to kill Jews and destroy the only nation on earth that saw them as people in need, worthy of compassion. After all, the Jewish people learned in Genesis 9:7, "כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹקים עָשָׂה אֶת־הָאָדָם:" “because in the image of God was mankind created”. But it will take time.

     Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is grown he will not depart from it. [Proverbs 22:6]

The inconvenient, now horrifically undeniable truth is that a people infected with rigid, concretized “belief” is immune to common sense. Similarly, a people in whom decency is embedded cannot fathom the evil in others.

     For today’s Israelis, it is impossible to plan for the war’s so-called “day after” that will surely come, while the rockets’ red glares still light up their sky. But that day is inevitable. Will our people, war-weary and grief-stricken over the tragedies they endured, have the fortitude to insist on a difficult course of action in their own best interests? Or will outside influencers who have never – even at their own peril – truly understood the devious mind of the enemy, demand that Israel acquiesce to the old reality of letting evil sprout anew?

     In our sedrah, the final portion of Genesis/B’resheet, the patriarch Yaacov and his family are finally at peace, the old dysfunctions resolved. But the years that could have been filled with joy were not to be retrieved. What a colossal waste. A sad commentary on their time; a lesson yet to be learned in ours.

    Let us pray that the new year 2024 will bring an end to the insanity that has gripped the world.  Alevai!

Shabbat shalom,

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RCDJ

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