Parasha Toldot

Who Started It?

Did Israel start it when it assassinated the chief of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmad Jabari?

Did Hamas start it when it fired on an Israeli jeep patrolling the border?

Did Israel start it when 13 year old Hamid Younis Abu Daqqa was killed during a clash with militants in Gaza?

Did Hamas start it when it began to take credit for the increasing rocket fire from Gaza into Israel these past few weeks?

Did Israel start it when it allegedly attacked a weapons factory in Sudan on October 23, a factory suspected of manufacturing long range Fajr-5 rockets?

Or did Hamas start it when it began to smuggle in Fajr-5 rockets to Gaza for eventual use against major Israeli population centers?

You get the idea. As any parent knows, as any teacher knows, "Who started it" is impossible to determine usually.  The parties, who are fighting, whether they are small children or great nations, want others to feel that they are justified in their retaliation and justified in their violence. 

I don't know who started it.  And, as I have said as a parent, and as a teacher, and as every couple knows who has ever had a disagreement: It doesn't matter who started it.

These things, however, I do know:

I know that in 2012 alone, over 700 rockets have been fired from Gaza, aimed at civilian population centers in Israel.  Although few people have been killed, thankfully, the rocket fire serves to terrorize people and prevent them from living a normal life.  Without deterrence, it would be worse.

 I know Israel has a right to defend herself to protect her population.

I know that while Hamas' very goal is to inflict death and injury on Israeli civilians, Israel will make every effort to minimize civilian casualties of Palestinians. I know that despite this, there are those in the world who will excuse Hamas' targeting of civilians and accuse Israel of war crimes.  Nothing anyone says could change their minds. I know their minds were made up long, long ago.

I know that Israel pulled its troops and all civilian population from Gaza in 2005.  The hope was that without Israel as an occupying force, Gaza could serve as a model of self government of Palestinians.  Israelis would see that there was no danger in giving Palestinians the right to govern themselves.  I know that instead of a responsible government in Gaza, we got Hamas and Islamic Jihad and terror --Not exactly a confidence boosting measure.

I know that Hamas and all of the Islamic parties are ideologically opposed to the recognition of Jewish sovereignty over even one inch of land in the Middle East.  That is a non-negotiable religious tenet for them.  They refuse to talk to Israel, lest it imply recognition of Israel's existence.

In this week's Torah portion we are told that there is a famine in the land of Canaan. Isaac takes refuge with Abimelekh, the King of the Philistines, in Gerar.  There Isaac prospers – but the native people become envious and stop up the wells that his father Abraham had dug when he lived in this area.  The King feels he cannot prevent the people from attacking Isaac, and therefore expels Isaac from Gerar. Isaac settles in the outskirts of the town.  He digs a well and finds water, but the herdsmen of Gerar claim it as their own.  He digs another well, but the local herdsmen claim that one also.  He leaves the outskirts of Gerar and settles some distance away. There he digs a well, and is able to keep it as his own.

In commenting on this story, the Hofetz Khayim notes that Isaac never gave up or despaired. He continued to dig for water until he dug a well that was not in dispute.  At times like this, we need to have a great deal of Isaac in us.  In times of war we must not despair or give up on peace. Our foes are implacable.  They envy us, argue with us, war against us, and would surely expel us if they could.  We may resign ourselves to the way things are, the way things have been, and think that there is nothing we can do to change the cycle of violence.

When we are ready to give up hope, we must remember – a Jew is forbidden to give up hope.  It is our religious obligation to hope.  We have two religious obligations connected to this. The first religious obligation is to remain strong, so we cannot be defeated.  The second religious obligation is to work toward peace, even when it appears that peace is unattainable.  This past Monday my wife, son and I were invited by one of our congregants, David Edelman, to join him and his family at an awards luncheon for Americans for Peace Now.  This is an the sister organization of Shalom Achshav, Israeli's for Peace Now, established in 1978, when 348 Israeli senior reserve army officers and combat soldiers came together to urge their government to sign a peace treaty with Egypt.  Peace Now and Shalom Achshav advocate for an end to Israeli settlement activity and the establishment of a Palestinian State that can live side by side in peace with Israel. Believe me when I say they are not naïve idealists. Rather, they are hard headed realists who understand that the continued occupation of the West Bank in untenable and harmful to Israel's security, its democracy and its standing in the world. Even though peace may not come soon, we can still build bridges to peace that others may walk over in the future. 

I also urge you to support the Israel Terror Relief Fund. www.juf.org/help_israel/donate This Fund will help support the more than one million residents of Israel's South; provide aid to those who are victims of terror and the most vulnerable Israelis during this time of conflict. Such services include trauma counseling, financial assistance, portable bomb shelters, bringing children in the strike zones out of harm's way, assisting the elderly and disabled, and more such needed relief services.  JUF is also working with local media, churches, civic groups, our elected officials and, of course, campuses, to ensure that Israel's desire for peace and security is heard and understood.

Be strong. Support Israel and do not waver. Pursue peace along whatever avenues that are open.  I close with the words of Rabbi Tarfon in Pirke Avot :  "It is not your obligation to complete the task, but you are not free to abstain from it, either."

Shabbat Shalom

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parasha Chayei Sarah

Love Makes the World Go Round

What song comes to your mind when you hear the words, "Love Makes the World Go Round?"

Perhaps it is this contemplation of the power of physical love by Rhythm and Blues singer Deon Jackson, recorded in 1965

You know Love Makes The World Go Round

Love makes the see - saw go up and down;

Love Makes trees grow tall

Makes a boy and girl say they feel so fine now.

Without Love Flowers wouldn't bloom in spring

Without spring the birdies just couldn't sing

Everybody needs love. . .

 

….Or this bitter reflection on love by singer Ashley Simpson in 2004 --

I just wanna talk to you

And my broken heart just has no use

And I, I guess promises are better

Left unsaid,

Every time you try to tell me

You say the words that I'm the only

But I'm the one who's crawling on the ground

When you say love makes the world go 'round

 

Then there's the longing paean to love from the 1961 Broadway musical "Carnival"

Love makes the world go 'round

Love makes the world go 'round

 

Somebody soon will love you

If no-one loves you now

 

High in some silent sky

Love sings a silver song

Making the earth whirl softly

Love makes the world go 'round

 

There is this take on love from Madonna in a 1986 album –

There's hunger everywhere

We've got to take a stand

Reach out for someone's hand

Love makes the world go round

It's easy to forget

If you don't hear the sound

Of pain and prejudice

Love makes the world go round.

 

The idea that "love makes the world go round" is found in our Parasha this week. We are told that Abraham is "zaken, bah baYamim" – that Abraham is old, advanced in years.  Rabbi Sholom Noach Berezovsky,  z'l', also known as the Slonimer Rebbe, asks the following question – why does the Torah add these words – "bah –bayamim" – "advanced in age"—to the statement "Abraham was old". Words in the Torah are never superfluous. They are there to teach us something.  Now, the words "bah-bayamim" literally mean, "his days came".  The Slonimer Rebbe teaches that Abraham's days came to number so many because he never let a day pass without performing an act of "chesed". 

Chesed is an important word in Jewish life.  It means love, but a particular kind of love –generosity of spirit, kindness, compassion and open heartedness".  Every day that Abraham lived, he did acts of Chesed. The Slonimer Rebbe takes this further. He says that it is up to each one of us to follow in Abraham's footsteps and do acts of chesed every day.  Chesed is the most important mitzvah we can do.  How do we know this? Because, it says in the Psalms, "The world is built through 'Chesed'".  In other words, King David, who wrote the Psalms, was the first one to come up with the thought that Love Makes the World Go Round.

How does Love Make the World Go Round?  Every day we human beings benefit from the kindness, the generosity, the compassion, the Chesed, of G-d.  Through the falling of the rain and the growing of the grasses, in our breathing of the air, we human beings are able to eat and drink and are sustained in this world.  Just as we benefit from G-d's chesed, we must pass that chesed on to our fellow human beings.  We have to pay it forward. Thus, the entire world is sustained on a daily basis by G-d's goodness flowing through us.  In fact, the Slonimer Rebbe teaches that if we fail to perform an act of chesed on a particular day, it is not even considered "a day" in our lives. 

At the conclusion of our Parasha this week, the Torah tells us that Abraham dies with these words: "These are the days if the years of the life of Abraham, which he lived – a hundred and seventy five."  Again, there are some extra words which beg interpretation. Why does the Torah add "which he lived"?  Because Abraham had lived his life fully – not one day was wasted.  Each day he performed acts of kindness, of generosity, of love, of caring, and each day was accounted a "day" in his life.  It is not how long one lives, it is how one lives, that determines the "days" of your life.

Shabbat Shalom

 

 

 

 

Parasha VaYerah

To See and Do

The Torah is a remarkably terse document that uses surprisingly few words.  For example, if you want to know what Abraham looked like, the Bible does not tell us.  The Bible describes King Saul as "tall and good looking" and describes King David as "handsome", but that that about does it for descriptions of men.  When it wants to describe women it uses the word "yafah" or "yefat-toar", meaning beautiful, but we never know what color hair a woman has or what color are her eyes.  The Torah, much like poetry, utilizes few words and contains multiple layers of meaning. 

The root of the word "ra-ah" -- to see – appears prominently throughout the story of Abraham.  This week's parasha, Va-Ye-rah, means "to appear" , and the parasha begins, "G-d appeared/va-ye-rah to Abraham".  Abraham "sees" – va-yar – three men approaching his tent.  When two angels approach Lot, sitting at the gates of Sodom, the Torah tells us that Lot "sees" them – again, the word "va-yar".  G-d opens Hagar's eyes and she "sees" a well, and the Torah tells us "va-taireh be-air mayim" – she saw the well.  Abraham "sees"—va-yaar – the place where he is to sacrifice Isaac from afar, and later "sees" a ram caught in the thicket and sacrifices it in place of Isaac. He calls the place where this happened "Adonai Yireh" – another form of "ra-ah", to see, which the Torah connects to a saying, "On the mountain G-d will appear".  Thus this parasha begins and ends with reference to the sense of sight.

So it becomes interesting when the Torah COULD use a form of the word, "va-yaar" but chooses not to. This occurs in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  As you know, G-d destroys the city because of its sinfulness.  Not even ten righteous people live there.  The Torah tells us that Abraham rises early in the morning of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, "va-yash-kef" – and he sees.  Forms of the verb "ra-ah" to see, are used exactly 1,299 times in the Bible. Forms of the word "va-yash-kef" are used only 22 times in the Bible.  The question is, why is it used in this instance when the more common word could have been used?[1]

The way to answer that question is to look up the other 21 places where a form of the word "va-yash-kef" is used and look at its meaning in context.  When we do that, we find something interesting. It is almost always near the word for "window".  For example, in the story of Deborah, Sisera, a Canaanite general, goes to war against the Israelites. He is eventually killed.  His mother looks out a window, expecting his arrival home.  Jezebel, the evil queen of Northern Israel, looks out a window before she is thrown out of it by the vengeful Jehu.  The Book of Proverbs describes a wise man ruefully  looking out a window at a youth who is about to be ensnared by a harlot.  In all of these instances, the word for "to see" is not "ra-ah" but the far lesser used "va-yash-kef". 

We can now understand that when the Bible uses the root "ra-ah" for seeing, it is usually followed by some action by the one who sees.  A person sees, and does. When the Bible uses "va-yash-kef",  the one who sees is usually passive.  They are looking on, perhaps waiting, but are not taking any action.  The Torah is telling us that Abraham, usually an active protagonist in his stories, watches the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah from afar.  He will not be riding to the rescue, as he did when his nephew Lot was captured in war. Abraham is an onlooker, a bystander, a most uncharacteristic role for this most active of men.

Perhaps we can understand Abraham's passivity. After all, he has been informed by G-d that the cities are being destroyed because of the evil within them.  He has already tried to intervene to spare them.  Abraham does not descend to the valley to help the survivors. The story that follows has a desperate Lot and his daughters taking refuge in the mountains. They are the sole survivors of the city of Sodom. There is nobody to help them.  They feel alone in the world.  How sad.

We cannot afford to be so passive when we see devastation and destruction.  We cannot allow people to feel alone when disaster strikes. When Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans several years ago, there were some  rabbis and ministers, fundamentalists all,  who understood this as the "hand of G-d" punishing the people of New Orleans for their sinful ways, much like G-d punished Sodom and Gomorrah in this week's parasha.  We emphatically reject that theology.  Now there may be some human responsibility for some of the destruction.  Our failure to take global warming seriously may be contributing to the severity of the storms we have experienced in the last decade.  When we build in low lying and vulnerable areas we may be opening ourselves up to loss of life and property. When we do not evacuate areas we are warned to leave we should not be surprised when there is loss of life.  This is not really the time to debate this.  This isn't the time to cast blame and assign responsibility.  This isn't the time to be a passive onlooker.  This is the time to offer support in whatever way we can. This is a time to reach into our pockets and help out.

I know many of you have already, and many of you will.  Did you know that according to a study published in 2010 by a Purdue University economist in The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, American Jews are, on average, significantly more generous in giving to others for basic needs than are American Protestants or Catholics?  When you do give, I hope you will consider giving through the Jewish United Fund. In this week's announcements we have sent a link to their website which will make it easy for you to contribute.  Of course, your contribution through any organization is valuable and praiseworthy.  But when you give through the Jewish United Fund, you will be contributing both as an American and as a Jew.  Frankly, it is good PR for our people, and it says something to the world about Jewish values.  Moreover, one-hundred percent of your contribution will go to those in need.

Let us not be mere onlookers. Let us not stand from afar and observe. Whether it be in response to a natural catastrophe or to the daily struggles of our fellows, let us see and do, not merely gaze on, and observe.

Shabbat Shalom

 

 

 

 

---

[1] My thanks to Dr. Ora Horn Prouser, President of the Academy for Jewish Religion, for pointing this out in a recent communication.