Parashat HaShavua – Acherei Mot-Kedoshim

          

            Kedoshim contains many important often quoted verses. You’ve probably heard Jews and non-Jews alike reference “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor” (19:16), “You shall not hate your brother in your heart” (19:17), and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18). According to the Midrash Rabbah, Rabbi Chiyya taught that the parasha opens with G-d telling Moses to “speak to the whole Israelite community,” because this parasha contains the most important parts of the whole Torah and needs to be presented to the whole community at once. This parasha is essentially a reiteration and expansive explanation of the Ten Commandments, a list of commandments for how to conduct ourselves, mostly to do with treating other people nicely. As Hillel says, the whole of the Torah can be summed up as, “That which is hateful to you, do not do unto others.” Hillel must have loved Parashat Kedoshim as much as I do.

            As Reform Jews, we stress these verses even more than all the other Jews and non-Jews who you’ve heard quote them. Reform Judaism places a special focus on Tikkun Olam – repairing the world – and the concept of B’Tzelem Elohim – we are all made in the image of G-d. The best way to repair to world is step by step, throwing one starfish back into the ocean at a time [I assume by now everyone knows the story of the starfish], being fair in business, treating people with kindness, pursuing justice whenever and wherever needed. Not some grandiose fix to all the world’s problems, but with each individual interaction, as proscribed by Kedoshim.

            Now, I love Tikkun Olam, and could easily talk about what it means to not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor until the cows come home. But you can also hear that message from about a million other sources. There’s another message in Kedoshim that often gets overlooked. Another message that is a little deeper into the text, that we forget needs to be addressed. And that is, in order to love your neighbor as yourself, you have to love yourself.

            I remember one time in high school, I was talking to another student about Amnesty or some such high school club devoted to repairing the world. This student was also religious, which is not terribly common among 16-year-olds. Being Christian, he didn’t talk explicitly about Parashat Kedoshim, but he did say something about the Old Testament telling us not to stand idly by the blood of our neighbors, and how it’s our jobs to stand up for what’s right. Feeling excited to be talking to someone who actually understood my love for Tikkun Olam and serving HaShem, I said, “Yea! ‘You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your G-d, am holy’!” And he stared at me blankly. I didn’t know how to best communicate to him then what that really meant to me, but at this point in my life, I actually think it’s the most important lesson, because it precedes our abilities to fulfill the other lessons of Kedoshim.

             Rabbi Alshich of 16^th century Safed said, “The easiest thing is to hide from the world and its follies, seclude oneself in a room, and be a holy hermit. What the Torah desires, however, is that a person should be part and parcel of "all the congregation of the children of Israel"--and be holy.” That you must go out into the world, and learn to love yourself before you can learn to love others, and only by actively loving others are you fulfilling G-d’s commandments. It’s not enough to not do the bad things the Torah tells us not to do. You have to go out and actually do the good things too. And that’s not always easy.

 In fact, it’s rarely easy. Sometimes, there are bullies actively trying to drag you down. Sometimes, it’s just hard, from here. We all just feel bad sometimes. Unholy. Sometimes, life is just plain hard, and you don’t feel like going out of your way to help someone else because you feel crummy and who’s going out of their way to help you?! You have to go out of your own way to help yourself. You have to find the holiness within yourself, given you by G-d. We are all made b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of G-d, and so if G-d is holy, so are we. Lev 19:2, the very beginning of Kedoshim explicitly says, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your G-d am Holy!” Let that lift you up. Remember, that which is hateful, do not subject yourself to! How can you love your neighbor as yourself if you don’t love yourself?

Things I need for Rabbinical School, but were not "required texts" for class so I don't know how to budget for them

Just saying.

Books:

Introduction to the Talmud – Moses Mielziner

The Practical Talmud Dictionary - Yitzhak Frank

The Talmud: A Reference Guide – Adin Steinsaltz (not to be confused with Essential Talmud by Adin Steinsaltz, which I have)

Encyclopedia Judaica (2007)

JPS Torah Commentary:  Leviticus (JPS, 2003) (or any other volume) - Baruch Levine

Me'am Loez -- 18th c., Yitzhak Magriso; originally written in Ladino; English translation by Aryeh Kaplan, published as "Torah Anthology"

Maimonides

Anything in English by Nechama Leibowitz

Anything by Joseph Telushkin other that Jewish Literacy (which I already have)

The Torah: A Women's Commentary - Edited by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea Weiss

The New JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh

New American Haggadah - Jonathan Safran Foer (Author), Nathan Englander (Translator)

Software:

Davka-Writer Hebrew-English word processor 

Tazria-Metzora

This is the second of my 5-minute divrei Torah, for next week's parasha. It is written for a pretend fundrasier for a real women's organization.

This week’s double parasha, while mainly focusing on a great many gross sounding molds and ailments and how to best purify oneself of them, opens with the laws regarding purity after giving birth, generally portraying birthing process as something dirty and vaguely sinful. The Jewish people were told to be fruitful and multiply. Women’s lack of obligation to time-bound mitzvoth is due to the wombs and constant connection to the movement of time and the universe. If it is our wombs, our femaleness, that makes us holy enough to not need time-bound mitzvoth to keep us connected to G-d, than it seems strange that giving birth – the most singularly female act I can think of – requires a sin offering. The purification process makes sense because clearly our ancestors generally had a great discomfort with any sort of blood, discharge, or just bodies in general.

But the sin offering? Niddah 31a of the Talmud says, “Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was asked by his disciples: Why did the Torah ordain that a woman after childbirth should bring a sin offering? He replied: When she kneels in labor she swears impetuously that she will have no intercourse with her husband. The Torah, therefore, ordained that she should bring a sin offering [to atone for her false oath].” The JPS Study bible suggests that maybe “sin-offering” was a mistranslation, and the second sacrifice (with the burnt offering) being brought to the Temple after her days of blood purification should really be referred to as the “purification offering”. I think these are both cop outs. The text says:

6. And when the days of her purification have been completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a sheep in its first year as a burnt offering, and a young dove or a turtle dove as a sin offering, to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, to the kohen.		ו. וּבִמְלֹאת יְמֵי טָהֳרָהּ לְבֵן אוֹ לְבַת תָּבִיא כֶּבֶשׂ בֶּן שְׁנָתוֹ לְעֹלָה וּבֶן יוֹנָה אוֹ תֹר לְחַטָּאת אֶל פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד אֶל הַכֹּהֵן:
7. And he shall offer it up before the Lord and effect atonement for her, and thus, she will be purified from the source of her blood. This is the law of a woman who gives birth to a male or to a female.		ז. וְהִקְרִיבוֹ לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה וְכִפֶּר עָלֶיהָ וְטָהֲרָה מִמְּקֹר דָּמֶיהָ זֹאת תּוֹרַת הַיֹּלֶדֶת לַזָּכָר אוֹ לַנְּקֵבָה:

Everywhere else, in our Torah, in our liturgy, any place I’ve ever seen the root chet-tet-aleph we translate it as some derivative of “sin”. We have sinned, sinful, sin offering. JPS cannot simply change the meaning when it is convenient. And I cannot find any justification in any of this wording for the presumption of what women say during labor. Furthermore, it is impossible to assume that all women say the same thing during labor. Because women are not interchangeable.

Which is why we are here today raising money and support for The National Council of Women’s Organizations. The NCWO is an umbrella organization for more than 200 non-profit groups, representing over 11 million members, working for gender equality around the world, in any capacity needed. There are groups such as Women for Women International which focus on financial aid for the female survivors of ethnic cleansing, allowing the widows of war to become self-sufficient (Maimonides highest level of giving). There are groups such as HealthyWomen providing, that’s right, women’s health, including prenatal and postnatal care, which is the same regardless of the baby’s gender. And is not treated as sinful. The importance of a large body organizing several smaller, more specified bodies, is that women – contrary to ancient belief – are not all the same. By supporting the NCWO, we are lending our voices and our checkbooks to a great number of issues plaguing women today, much like tza’arat plagued the gossips of the this week’s parasha. Interestingly, while the Torah used masculine pronouns when discussing the leprous lesions and the processes of purification, the G-dcast cartoon for this parasha depicted females. This may have been completely coincidental, but I’m inclined to feel that at least on some subconscious level, the authors or illustrators were making comment about women as the chronic gossipers, as the video primarily focuses on the assumption that the lesions were a punishment for lashon hara.

I digress, but for the purpose of pointing out the ongoing antifeminist themes of this week’s parasha. Even in a modern day commentary, written by a woman, women are being depicted as gossipers. Women are liars who swear falsely when giving birth. Women all give birth. Women are impure, such that even the most necessary act of nature, indeed a mitzvah to reproduce, is still seen as dirty, unclean, sinful. Just as we no longer have a Temple, Kohanim, or sin offerings of any kind, let us also work toward moving our society past the need for misogyny and fear of the female body. Amen.

Shemini Long

And here is the latter. For the 5-minute d'varim, we have to do three over the course of the semester: one for a life cycle event (wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, etc), one for a community event (fundraiser, board meeting, etc), and one for a regular Shabbat morning congregational service. So this one is for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and would be given after I am ordained and actually know what I'm doing as a rabbi.

Lizz Goldstein

Parashat HaShavua – Shemini – For a Bar/Bat Mitzvah (assume years in the future)

4/2/12

As an educator, I would rather see students overzealous to learn and contribute to class, even if they are rowdy and loud and don’t wait to be called on, than quiet students who try to skate by without ever having to really do anything. Apparently, G-d and I have different teaching styles.

Rashi suggests that in Lev 9:7, Moses has to directly order Aaron to “Approach the altar and perform your sin offering and your burnt offering, atoning for yourself and for the people, and perform the people's sacrifice, atoning for them, as the Lord has commanded,” despite having already explained all this to Aaron, because Aaron was suddenly feeling shy and unsure of himself. I can empathize. I am not the student I prefer. By my seventh month as a rabbinic intern, I had learned my role in the order of service on Saturday mornings. Still, when we would turn to the page that I knew I would read, and when it came time to give the d’var Torah, I would look to the head rabbi to get my nod before I would speak. Moses said to Aaron: “Why are you ashamed? For this [function] you have been chosen!” - [Torath Kohanim 9:7]. I know now that I, too, have been chosen for this rabbinic work, but in the beginning, I had my moments of feeling inadequate for the job.

And if I hadn’t been chosen for this work, if I had been inadequate – woe to me! The JPS study bible summarizes this week’s parsha saying, “Aaron’s sons commit a blatant act of sacrilege, overstepping the strictly prescribed bounds of acceptable worship. The scripture says,

And Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his pan, put fire in them, and placed incense upon it, and they brought before the Lord foreign fire, which He had not commanded them.		א. וַיִּקְחוּ בְנֵי אַהֲרֹן נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא אִישׁ מַחְתָּתוֹ וַיִּתְּנוּ בָהֵן אֵשׁ וַיָּשִׂימוּ עָלֶיהָ קְטֹרֶת וַיַּקְרִבוּ לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֵשׁ זָרָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא צִוָּה אֹתָם:
2. And fire went forth from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.		ב. וַתֵּצֵא אֵשׁ מִלִּפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה וַתֹּאכַל אוֹתָם וַיָּמֻתוּ לִפְנֵי יְ־הֹוָ־ה:

It seems they were trying to go above and beyond and were senselessly punished. Where is this blatant act of sacrilege? Such strong words! The rabbis were rightfully uncomfortable with this, deciding that Nadav and Avihu were clearly drunk. Because:

8. And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying,		ח. וַיְדַבֵּר יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֶל אַהֲרֹן לֵאמֹר:
9. Do not drink wine that will lead to intoxication, neither you nor your sons with you, when you go into the Tent of Meeting, so that you shall not die. [This is] an eternal statute for your generations,		ט. יַיִן וְשֵׁכָר אַל תֵּשְׁתְּ אַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ אִתָּךְ בְּבֹאֲכֶם אֶל אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וְלֹא תָמֻתוּ חֻקַּת עוֹלָם לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶם

This warning is the back shadowing to tell us that the reason Nadav and Avihu had been killed was that they drank wine and then went to the Tent of Meeting. Although as usual, I am inclined to dismiss drashic interpretations of the text, I do prefer this to the peshat understanding that G-d was as overzealous in killing these boys were killed as they were in trying to honor him, however incorrectly.

Let us hope this is true, because you [B’nai Mitzvah] are precisely the student I wasn’t. You have the fervor of Nadav and Avihu, but the discipline of Aaron. You come at your studies with vigor and excitement, but were never afraid to ask questions. Even if Nadav and Avihu were sober, and their deaths that much more tragic, perhaps their sin was in their arrogance. Perhaps if they had asked for permission, they would have been granted. I know I have been so pleased with your studious questions in this journey, that I cannot imagine turning you away, putting out that fiery love for Judaism. Now that you are formally receiving the Torah and joining our holy community as a contributing adult, I hope you continue in this way, excitedly but with proper caution. And if you ever forget your caution, may you not be burned alive. Amen.

Shemini Short

This coming Shabbat, I do not have to deliver a sermon, but tomorrow for Parashat HaShavua class, I have to deliver a two minute sermon, and hand in a 5 minute sermon. Here's the former:

Lizz Goldstein

Parashat HaShavua – Shemini

4/2/12

As an educator, I would rather see students overzealous to learn and contribute to class, even if they are rowdy and loud, than quiet students who try to skate by without ever having to really do anything. Apparently, G-d and I have different teaching styles.

Rashi suggests that in Lev 9:7, Moses has to directly order Aaron to “Approach the altar and perform your sin offering and your burnt offering,” despite having already explained all this to Aaron, because Aaron was suddenly feeling shy and unsure of himself. I can empathize. I am not the student I prefer. By my seventh month as a rabbinic intern, I have now learned my role in the order of service on Saturday mornings. Still, when we turn to the page that I know I will read, and when it comes time to give the d’var Torah, I look to the head rabbi to get my nod before I speak. Moses said to Aaron: “Why are you ashamed? For this [function] you have been chosen!” - [Torath Kohanim 9:7]. I hope that I, too, have been chosen for this rabbinic work, but I still have my moments of feeling inadequate for the job.

And if I haven’t been chosen for this work, if I am inadequate – woe to me! The JPS study bible summarizes this week’s parsha saying, “Aaron’s sons commit a blatant act of sacrilege, overstepping the strictly prescribed bounds of acceptable worship. The scripture says,

And Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu … brought before the Lord foreign fire, which He had not commanded them.
2. And fire went forth from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

It seems they were trying to go above and beyond and were senselessly punished. Where is this blatant act of sacrilege? Such strong words! The rabbis were rightfully uncomfortable with this, deciding that Nadav and Avihu were clearly drunk. Because:

8. And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying,
9. Do not drink wine that will lead to intoxication, neither you nor your sons with you, when you go into the Tent of Meeting, so that you shall not die.

This warning is the back shadowing to tell us that the reason Nadav and Avihu had been killed was that they drank wine and then went to the Tent of Meeting.

Let us hope this is true, because I strive to have the fervor of Nadav and Avihu, but the discipline of Aaron. I would like to come at my studies with vigor and excitement, but to never be afraid to ask questions. Even if Nadav and Avihu were sober, and their deaths that much more tragic, perhaps their sin was in their arrogance. Perhaps if they had asked for permission, they would have been granted. Perhaps I can have just enough of their bravery to show my love for G-d, but with just enough of Aaron’s shyness to keep me safe. I hope to continue in this way, excitedly but with proper caution. And if I ever forget your caution, may I not be burned alive (Sorry Mom – Ashers to Ashes). Amen.

None can be Holier than Thou - Tzav

One day, a man came into his synagogue and said to his rabbi, “Rabbi, I want you to make me a Kohain.” The Rabbi said, “I’m sorry, no.” The man insisted, even pulling out his checkbook, “Look, Rabbi, you know, you know I’ve got money and I like to spend it on the synagogue, tell me what it takes to become a Kohain.” The rabbi said, “No, really I can’t do that. That’s just not how it works. Why do you even want to be a Kohain?” And the man said, “Well, my father was Kohain, and his father, and his father before him…”

For those that don’t get the joke, don’t worry, it took me a while the first time I heard it too (being a Kohain is dynastic, so if the man’s father was a Kohain, he was already one too). However, the joke (in fact, especially if you didn’t get it) does point to how prevalent Kohanim or priests are in our modern Jewish society. That is to say, most Jews have no concept anymore of what they were really about. In this week’s Torah portion, the rituals of sacrifice are again detailed, but this time with more discussion of the priests’ involvement. It is the priests’ obligation to expiate the sins of the people bringing sacrifice, and so they are to eat parts of the sacrificial offerings (G-d’s leftovers), they are quite literally “holier than thou,” or at least are given a holier role in the society, being direct conduits for Divinity.

Reform Judaism emphasizes the concept from Genesis 1:27 that every human being is created “b’tzelem Elohim” – in the image of G-d, all of us, equally. Because of this, I have no modern day analogy for the priests or their role in the rituals of sacrifice. None can be more holy than any other; none can excuse us but ourselves. It is up to each of us individually to use the timeless spirits of self-sacrifice and atonement (which I talked about last week), to make our own peace with each other, with ourselves, and with G-d. We cannot look to our spiritual leaders or anyone else to do that for us, although obviously they are there to help guide us through that process if we need it. But it is still up to each of you individually to make your own sacrifices, your own apologies, your own excuses and explanations, to be forgiven by other individuals, to have your own arguments with G-d, and above all to find your own peace within yourself. And may you do so with comfort, ease, and speed. Amen.