Will YOU 10Q? : Shabbat Shofetim

We are fast approaching the Yamim Noraim, the High Holidays. Only three more weeks to go.As we all know  people the world over celebrate their  respective s New Years with drinks, with specific foods  and with parties. Fireworks have long been a staple of New Year  celebrations in many parts of the world along with spending time with loved  ones and friends. It is a time to temporarily escape our day to day lives and forget our daily struggles and challenges. For Jews it is just the opposite. Instead of forgetting ourselves for a few hours, we try to remember. We look over the past year, identify our sins, ask for forgiveness, and resolve to do better. We engage in a process we call TeSHUVAH – a turning in to ourselves, a turning out to others, and a return to our spiritual lives and to G-d.

There are of course traditional ways that Jews have always approached this. We hope that somehow our religious services for the High Holidays will help people to do Teshuvah. But there are certain challenges for rabbis and cantors in helping people accomplish the task. Rabbis hope that their brilliant sermons will inspire people to reflect upon their lives. But that doesn’t usually work.  We hope we can help people to connect their own experiences to the liturgy of the High Holidays. But that rarely works.  Cantors hope that their beautiful music will touch something in the soul that will bring about true repentance. But at times it is unclear whether that works.  In fact there is only one way that we can do TESHUVAH – we, each one of us, has to work!

Tonight I want to share with you a unique way of doing the work of Teshuvah. It is through a website called “Do You 10Q?” You go to the website www.doyou10Q.com and sign up. Then, starting on September 29, the first day of Rosh Hashannah, a 10Q question will arrive in your inbox along with a link. When you click on the link, you are taken to a private and personal space where you can answer the question in writing. Then you save your answer. Then, each day of the Ten Days of Repentance, you will receive another email with another question. You click on the link and answer the new question. At the end of ten days, you can click on the magic button and deposit all your answers to “the vault”. Your answers will be held securely in the vault until sometime before next Rosh Hashanah, when, one day, they will show up in your inbox for you to read.

With each question, you can choose to share your answer with the public, either anonymously or with attribution. Or, you can keep your answers private. It is up to you.

To give you an idea , here are three questions, along with some answers, from last year:

Question 1:  “Describe a significant experience that has happened in the past year. How did it affect you? Are you grateful? Relieved? Resentful? Inspired?”

 Answer: “Lots of small things and nothing that big. I did realize that if I stay in one place longer, rather than traveling weekly on work, it does help my health! I'm relieved to know that things like my BP can be bought under control if I can manage to curtail travel and ensure exercise and most importantly sleep,” writes one anonymous respondent.

Question 5:  Have you had any particularly spiritual experiences this past year? How has this experience affected you? "Spiritual" can be broadly defined to include secular spiritual experiences: artistic, cultural, and so forth.

 Answer “I feel a lot more connected to God since I've gotten pregnant and had a baby. It is truly a miracle.”

Another person wrote: “I lowered my guard. I was met with kindness and connection.”

“G-d this is going to sound so dumb -- but watching "Coco." I found the film profoundly, unexpectedly, moving. I am thinking more and more of my loved ones who have passed on as a result, seeing their guidance and wisdom in some of my daily decisions. Sometimes that makes it feel like they haven't left at all.”

Question 9: “What is a fear that you have and how has it limited you? How do you plan on letting it go or overcoming it in the coming year?”

One person answered: Fear of losing my independence. I don't have the first clue how to let it go or overcome it. I will learn.”

Another wrote:  My biggest fear that has held me back would he my fear of not being good enough for my goals/dreams …….I don't feel worthy enough………I will conquer my fear one day at a time.

A third wrote: “I am afraid of diabetes and breast cancer. I need to take back control of my health in order to prevent the terrible diseases which are my heritage.”

These questions aim to guide us in doing the difficult work of Teshuvah. The Rabbi can’t do it for us. The Cantor can’t do it for us. The Choir can’t do it for us. Our beautiful building can’t do it for us. We must do the work ourselves. I think this website can be helpful. I have decided to use it this year and see how it works for me. I’ll post the website address on our Facebook page. Would you join me?

Shabbat Shalom

Knocking on Heaven's Door

This evening marks the beginning of the month of Elul. The month of Elul is a time of preparation for the New Year. In a few weeks we will gather in this sanctuary to celebrate RoshHashanah. Although we can repent and return to G-d every day of our lives, the sages emphasize that the month of Elul is an especially propitious time to do Teshuvah.   According to our tradition, it was on the first day of Elul that Moses ascended for the second time to Mount Sinai after our people sinned through worship of the Golden Calf. The Blesses Holy One said to Moses, “Come up to me upon the Mount,” and, accompanied by the blast of the shofar Moses returned to Mount Sinai to receive the second set of tablets. In commemoration of this event it is customary for us to sound the shofar at the end of our morning prayers from  this first day of Elul until the eve of Rosh Hashanah – with the exception of Shabbat! It is also the time of year when we make a sincere effort to examine the mistakes of our past and commit ourselves to not return to our errors in the future.

The story of the Golden Calf teaches us that G-d is forgiving. Once the people of Israel reflected on their mistakes and resolved not to repeat them, G-d was willing to take them back in love. They get a second chance to receive the Ten Commandments.  As you might remember, the result of sin was the shattering of the first set of tablets. This represents the breach in the relationship between G-d and the Jewish people. When Moses returns with the second set of tablets, it symbolizes the complete healing of the relationship. Repentance has created wholeness once again and an opportunity for a fresh start.

The Rabbis say that the letters of the month of Elul – Aleph, Lamed, Vav, Lamed – are an acronym for the verse from the Song of Songs – Ani Le-Dodi ve-Dodi Li – “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is Mine”. Thus contained in the very word “ELUL” is an invitation to draw closer to G-d during the month. It is through this closeness with G-d that we can overcome our fears and our apprehensions   about looking into our shortcomings. We are assured of G-d’s love for us no matter what we may find when we examine ourselves. But how do we go about this self-examination and teshuvah? Rabbi Aaron Gaber of Newtown, Pennsylvania engaged his congregation in the process of repentance by instituting what he called the “Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh Project” last year. Over a period of ten days in the month of Elul he sent out a series of questions via email to which his congregants were invited to respond in writing. What brought you the most joy over the course of the year?  What caused the most pain?  What was the Jewish high point and Jewish low point? What do you love most about being Jewish and what do you struggle with the most?  What goals did you set for yourself?  How did you achieve them?  What were the obstacles to accomplishing those goals?  What do you most regret over the past year?  Who did you hurt and how can you make up for what you have done?  If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?  How might you go about doing this?

In his anthology for the High Holidays the Israeli writer and Nobel Laureate S.Y. Agnon tells the following cautionary tale attributed to the 19^th century Rabbi Hayyim of Zans.

There was once a poor countrywoman who had many children. They were always begging for food, but she had none to give them. One day she found an egg. She called her children. “Children, we have nothing to worry about,” she said. I found an egg. But I am a prudent woman. We shall not eat the egg. I will ask our neighbor if we can set it under her hen until a chick is hatched. But I am a wise woman – we shall not eat the chick. We will raise her and she in turn will lay many eggs, and we will have many chickens. But I am a far-sighted woman. We will not eat the chickens. We will sell them and buy a cow. But we will not eat the cow either, for I am a shrewd woman. We will let the cow have calves. We will not eat the cow or the calves but sell them and and buy ourselves a field. Then we will have a field, and we can grow our own crops, and we will never be hungry again!

As the countrywoman was speaking in this way and playing with the egg, it fell out of her hands and broke!

Rabbi Hayyim concludes with the moral of the story. “This is how we are. When the Holy Days arrive, every person resolves to do Teshuvah, thinking in his or her heart, “I will do this, or I will do that.” But the days slip by in mere deliberation, and the thoughts never lead to any action, and what is worse, the person who is merely thinking these thoughts may fall even lower.”

It was the custom in Eastern Europe at one time that the person in charge of prayers would make the rounds of the village, knocking three times on each door and saying, “Israel, holy people, awake, arouse yourselves and rise for repentance.” It is 30 days until Rosh Hashanah. We hear the knocking on the door. Don’t sleep in. Answer the call. Turn in, turn to others, and turn to G-d.

Shabbat Shalom

Accepting the Torah Parasha Eikev 5779

The Rabbis tell two stories about how Israel accepted the Torah. The first is a modern retelling of an ancient midrash by Rabbis Rick and Ellissa Sherwin:

God had gone to the nations of the earth and asked them to accept a gift, the Torah. One nation asked, “What does it say?” God answered, “You shall not murder.” The nation responded, “We understand that we must not wantonly take life, but what about murdering one’s hopes, murdering one’s reputation, murdering one’s chances? After all God, business is business, and sometimes business is murder".We cannot accept the Torah.

Another nation asked, “What does it say?” God responded, “You shall not steal.” The nation paused, then responded, “We understand we cannot take things that belong to other people, but what about stealing ideas, stealing emotions, not being open with the I.R.S.?” This nation, too, rejected the Torah.

A third nation asked, “What is in it?” God responded, “You shall have no other Gods before you.” The nation laughed. We understand that you are the God to be worshipped, but we cannot promise that You will always be our highest priority. We might need to set everything aside for money, for physical appearance, for sports prowess, for entertainment, for work. We cannot promise that we will keep you in mind.”

After all the nations of the world said “no” to the gift of Torah, God approached the Israelites. They said to G-d, “What is in it?” G-d responded, “Six Hundred and Thirteen commandments.” Israel immediately accepted the Torah with the words, “All that G-d has spoken we will do and be obedient.”

This is not in the Torah, but it is a nice story. I always wonder what issues a rabbinic story is addressing. Perhaps this story  is in response to the idea that Israel is the “Chosen People”. People – both Jews and non-Jews -- might misunderstand the concept of “chosen-ness” as conferring a claim of superiority on behalf of the Jewish people. The story teaches us that many other nations of the world had an opportunity to be “Chosen” by G-d, but they passed it up for one reason or another. In this story, it is Israel that does the choosing, not G-d. We are, in effect, the “Choosing People” not the “Chosen People”.

As I said, the Rabbis tell TWO stories about Israel accepting the Torah. The second story is quite different. As the Jewish people gather around Mount Sinai, G-d lifts the mountain and holds it over the heads of Israel. G-d says, “If you accept the Torah, then, well and good – otherwise you will find your grave under this mountain!”

Given that choice, what would YOU do? If you accept the Torah, you will live. If you reject it, you will die. Not too much of a choice here. You would probably do what the Israelites did in THIS version of the story, say, “All that G-d has spoken we will do and will be obedient”.

The answer is the same in the second story as in the first, but the motivation is very different. In the first story, Israel accepts the Torah out of a love for the Creator. In the second story, Israel accepts the Torah out of fear for its life.

When we read our parasha for this week, we might be inclined to believe the second story about G-d coercing the Jewish people into accepting the Torah. For in this parasha, Moses berates the Jewish people for being rebellious and stubborn. They sound just like a people who have had a mountain held over their heads and forced to accept the Torah. They then resent it, rebel against it, and try to undermine it at each turn along the way. Moses calls them a “stiff-necked” people. He tells them that they did nothing to deserve inheriting the Promised Land. They are only inheriting the Land by virtue of the promise that G-d made to their ancestors, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah. They have yet to prove themselves as worthy. If they mess up when they are in the land, the land will spew them out. Their right to the land is not based upon a claim of moral superiority. It is based on a pledge that was made to their forefathers and contingent upon their following G-d’s laws.

Moses does not white-wash things. He holds up Israel’s deficiencies to the light of day. He enumerates the moral failings that they will have to overcome if they are to stay and prosper in the land. He reminds them of the long road in the wilderness that they have traveled these forty years that brought them to this point in time, to the border of the Land of Canaan. He urges them to make their lives in the Land conform to the laws and teaching that he has transmitted to them in the wilderness.

That remains our task to this very day. The individuals who stood at the Jordan River and heard the words of Moses are long gone, but we, Israel, live on. We are the inheritors of the dream. We are the carriers of the tradition. It is now our responsibility to live our lives according to the teachings of G-d and Moses and to transmit Judaism to the next generation.

The tasks entrusted to the patriarchs and matriarchs, to the prophets and to the priests, are now our tasks. No one can do this for us. It cannot be delegated to others. The Torah, it is said, is “a tree of life to those who hold fast to it.” Like our ancestors of old, we must choose Torah – and choose life.

Shabbat Shalom

BDS and Israel's Barring of US Congresswomen

“Israel Bars Two US Congresswomen” blared the headline from the front page of the Chicago Tribune. I thought that you might want to hear my thoughts on this. By now we all have heard the story. Following a tweet  by the President suggesting that Israel block the planned visit of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to Israel, the Netanyahu government did just that. The reason given by Israel for barring the two Congresswomen is that they are supporters of BDS – The Boycott Divestment and Sanction Movement, led by Palestinians, that vilifies Israel as an apartheid and colonial-settler state. The movement was co- founded by Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian who was born in Qatar, raised in Egypt, and educated in the United States. He currently lives in the Israeli city Acco, and is studying for a PHD in Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. Barghouti is on record as opposing the two-state solution. He advocates a one-state solution encompassing all of the population from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, and a right of return for the descendants of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from Israel in the War of 1948. The ultimate goal of the BDS movement is to destroy Israel as a Jewish State and replace it with a state which will be majority Arab and Muslim. We are supposed to believe that  the Arabs who for the last    hundred years have attempted to drive the Jews into the sea will  now safeguard the rights of the Jewish citizens of this new secular, democratic state --at least the Jews who the majority deem worthy of remaining in the new state as citizens.

It is no wonder that Israel has a law the bars supporters of the BDS movement from entering Israel. Supporters of BDS seek to abolish the State of Israel and replace it with another state. The United States also has a law that bars visitors from outside the country who advocate overthrow of our government. Nevertheless, Israeli law also gives the government some discretion in applying the law. That is one reason why Tlaib and Omar were initially welcome to come to Israel in their roles as members of the US Congress. .

I personally think that the decision to deny them the planned visit was a mistake. First of all, these are not any American citizens, these are elected members of Congress. In their role as legislators, they ought to be able to visit any country, especially an ally like Israel that receives billions in American tax dollars. These visits are invaluable for legislators to better educate themselves about the particulars of the country  and the people living there. I heard it said that their itinerary was going to be one-sided, that they would only be seeing those things that confirmed their pre-conceptions of Israel. Now, I haven’t reviewed their travel plans, but even were that true, it would not change my opinion. They are duly elected representatives of the United States and as such should be granted entrance into Israel. Period.

The second reason I think it was a mistake to bar entry to them is that it makes it look like Israel has something to hide. It makes it appear as though there something Israel does not want them to find out about. It also gives the BDS movement publicity. Sure enough, hours after the decision was made, BDS supporters began appearing on news shows lambasting Israel’s decision and slandering Israel.

I want to conclude by giving you a snapshot that reflects the real Israel, not the Israel portrayed by the BDS movement. This glimpse comes by way of Rabbi Vernon Kurtz, who retired last year after 30 years from North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park. He and his wife made Aliya to Israel in June of this year. As part of a rabbinic seminar, he and his wife made a half day trip to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem. There they saw Jew and Arab, black hats and kafiyehs, Arab and Jewish women with scarves covering their heads. They spoke to an Arab nurse, an Arab woman who works as a family psychologist, and a Jewish nurse who is trying to bring nurses of all backgrounds together for the betterment of their profession and patient care.

A few weeks after that visit, Rabbi Kurtz got a more up close and personal view of Hadassah hospital. He was rushed to that very hospital by ambulance after suffering a heart attack. He writes that he had Jewish doctors and Arab doctors, Jewish nurses and Arab nurses taking care of him. They all showed great care and concern for his health and well-being. He heard both Hebrew and Arabic conversations in the nurses and doctor’s areas. They worked together as a team all trained properly. On his floor were Arab and Jewish patients. He writes, “It made no difference to any of the patients who treated us and to the doctors and nurses who they were treating, all that was important was the welfare of the patient.”

This is the Israel that is not highlighted or communicated enough. The fact is that Israel is a democracy thriving in the midst of an area of the world whose states are governed by dictators, where countries have no freedom of press, countries where dissident voices are suppressed and  countries where those who advocate for change are jailed or killed, countries where women have no rights, where gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people are persecuted. Israel is a country where Omar Barghouti can live in Acco, study at Tel Aviv University, and yet lead a world-wide movement that threatens the existence of Israel as we know it. Israel is a country where T-shirts saying “Free Palestine” are openly sold in the Arab market in Jerusalem!

Maybe some of us want Israel to be a perfect country.  But this is unrealistic.  No country is the world is without its problems, internal contradictions and difficult challenges. But we should be proud of what we, the Jewish people, have built on that tiny strip of land that is our ancestral home. And we should oppose all efforts to delegitimize Israel, to slander her, or to replace her with something else.

Shabbat Shalom

A Message About Poway

My Dear Congregants,

Sadly, I once again write following a tragic and needless atrocity, this time against Jews celebrating the final day of Passover in their synagogue. Clearly, we Jews are not alone in being gunned down in our places of worship. The shooting at the Chabad synagogue in Poway comes on the heels of the killing of Christians at prayer in Sri Lanka and Muslims at prayer in New Zealand and Sabbath worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. In recent memory Jews have been murdered at a supermarket in Paris, bombed in a bus in Bulgaria, and attacked at a Holocaust Museum in Brussels. We have heard neo-Nazis and white nationalists brazenly chanting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia and anti-Semitic taunts of Yellow Vest protesters in France.

Today we mourn the loss of Laurie Gilbert Kaye, killed as she was preparing to say Yahrzeit for her mother.  We pray for the swift and complete recovery of 8 year old Noya Dahan and 34 year old Almog Peretz, who was seriously wounded while he led children to safety to another room.

Of course, all hatred is deplorable, and all violence against innocents needs to be condemned. We must fight against bigotry wherever it may appear. But anti-Semitism’s long virulent history, its world-wide reach, and its multiple ideological roots make it unique among the many hatreds of the world. Although we may know and understand this intellectually, when it strikes close to home it puts fear in our hearts.

For one member of our Congregation this attack literally strikes closer to home than for others. Our congregant Jen Weiner grew up in Poway. Her parents were among the founders of the Reform Synagogue in that community. Jennifer’s sister lives across the street from the Chabad synagogue. Jen’s ten year old nephew was unable to sleep the night following the attack.

Jennifer writes, “Poway is on the outskirts of the large Jewish community in San Diego, much like our community here in Naperville.  It’s a diverse community, where folks wear cowboy hats and ride around in golf carts.  My parents founded Temple Adat Shalom in the 1970s.  I celebrated my bat mitzvah and confirmation there.  Chabad came a little while after that, but it was an amazing presence in our area to have a reform synagogue alongside an orthodox community.  The Jewish community of San Diego’s north county inland was thriving.  Much like Naperville, it wasn’t always easy to be the minority.  I knew the handful of Jewish kids at Poway High.  But as kids, we didn’t know we were small.  I was active in BBYO, the Jewish youth group.  Dad was president of the synagogue.  Mom spent her time at sisterhood events.  Being Jewish was an everyday thing, because my parents made it so……..

“Our children,” Jen concludes, “shouldn’t have to live in a world where they are afraid to go to sleep at night.  As parents, we must teach our kids not to hide… to stand up to evil.  We must be proud and hold on to each other, our community.  To embrace the support.  We must reconnect with our Jewish identity.  We must support Jewish causes.  It’s what our ancestors did.  Now it’s our turn.”

I urge every single member of our CBS community to come to our synagogue sometime this weekend as an act of solidarity and as a demonstration that we will not be intimidated, nor will we allow our freedom to worship to be taken from us.           

L’Shalom,  Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

There's No Place Like Home

The journal Science recently published an intriguing study of the health effects of long-term space flight. Astronaut Scott Kelley spent almost a year aboard the International Space Station between March 2, 2015 and March 27, 2016. His identical twin brother, Mark Kelley, remained here on earth. At the conclusion of the space flight, Scott and Mark’s health was evaluated and compared. Since they are identical twins and a near perfect physical and identical match, they were the ideal subjects to compare and contrast human responses to extended space travel.

Scientists discovered the telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of our chromosomes, were elongated in Scott Kelly, who went into space, compared to those of his brother, Mark, who remained on earth. A change in this genetic material is a biological sign of aging and potential health risks, such as cancer and heart disease. Scientists also found changes in Scotts chromosomes and some damage to his DNA. Beyond these genetic effects, Scott’s retina and carotid artery thickened. Researchers also noted a reduction in Scott’s cognitive skills. Scott noted that he did not return to normal for eight months.

The International Space Station is in what is called “low earth orbit” and is still protected by earth’s magnetic shield. When astronauts leave low earth orbit to travel to the moon or the planets, they will be exposed to much higher levels of radiation. This is a big concern for scientists.

Back here on earth we remain for the most part oblivious to these scientific findings. Instead, we are focused on the arrival of Spring  and the blossoming of trees and all kinds of plants.  Indeed, one name we give to Passover is “Chag Ha-Aviv” – “The Festival of Spring”.  There is a blessing we recite upon seeing trees budding in the springtime. It goes like this: “Blessed are You, sovereign of the Universe, whose world lacks nothing. You created beautiful creatures and lovely trees for human-kind to enjoy.”

The blessing is saying that G-d created our world and gave us everything that we need to live. We, in turn, are perfectly fitted to life on earth. G-d has withheld nothing from us. When we leave earth’s environment, however, all that changes. We must make all kinds of adjustments to survive and adapt to life when we leave the earth. Even in low earth orbit, 1200 miles altitude, we find that our bodies undergo changes.

The British philosopher Alan Watts, who was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s, writes about the relationship between human beings and the earth where we live. He writes that we do not “come into” the world, as we say when we talk about someone’s birth. Rather, says Watts, we “grow out” of the world, like a leaf grows out of an oak or an apple grows out of an apple tree. To say that we “come into” the world posits a world that is something “other” than we are. It means that we are separate from the world and from nature. Thinking of our birth in that way leads to alienation. It makes us think of ourselves as strangers on our planet, temporary visitors, or, as Watts puts it so vividly, “a momentary flash of consciousness between two eternal blacknesses”.

Watts suggests that when we think of ourselves as “growing out of the world” instead of “coming into” it, we change our perspective toward our relationship to the earth. In speaking of “growing out” of the world, like a leaf grows out of a tree, we recognize our “oneness” with our world and all that dwells upon it. The problem is, according to Watts, that few people recognize this. Instead, we understand life as a competition and strive to subdue the world and master it. We are in constant contention with the world and with its creatures. Perhaps only on Shabbat, when we cease from our labors and stop for a day from wresting our livelihood from the earth, when we refrain from competition, do we catch a glimpse of the world as it truly could be. Only on Shabbat, our day of rest and contemplation, a day of peace and wholeness, could we see that there may be a better way to think about our relationship to the world.

Returning to the blessing upon seeing a leafing tree:  This blessing, which includes the words, “Your world lacks nothing”, implies that the world is perfect. Yet we know that nothing is further from the truth. As Rabbi Norman Lamm, former Chancellor of Yeshivah University once commented recently about this prayer, "ln a world of suicide bombers and rampant international anti-Semitism, of drug culture and AIDS, of racism and genocide…… [can the world be said to be “perfect]?” For Rabbi Lamm the idea of this being a “perfect world” is a “Sacred Fiction” – “a statement,” he writes, “that defies common sense but, ultimately leads to uncommon truths.”

What are those “uncommon truths?” Perhaps when we go outside in the spring and see the beauty and harmony of Nature, we can believe that in our own messy lives’ harmony is possible. We can believe that instead of exploitation and destruction of our environment we can find a way to live in peace, at one, with our home, the earth. When we see the miracles of G-d’s world unfolding before our eyes, we can believe in what may seem impossible. We can believe that G-d liberated a throng of slaves from Egypt in this spring month and tasked them with being a “Holy People” and a “Light Unto the Nations”. When we go out and see the perfection of G-d’s world, we can believe that we too, can make our world more perfect.     

Shabbat Shalom

Making the Slave Bible

Have you ever wanted to simply “cut out” a part of the Torah? There are many parts of the Torah we find very hard to read because we find them uncomfortable, because they clash with our modern day sensibilities, because we find them morally objectionable or simply because we find them irrelevant.  Surely many of us would like to eliminate some parts of the text.  For example, this week’s Torah portion is called “Metzorah”. Its subject matter is how the Kohen, the priest, is to deal with diseases of the skin, molds in the walls of a home, and discharges from the sexual organs, all of which cause ritual impurity. Woe to the bat mitzvah student who draws this as their parasha and must write about it for their D’var Torah!  You will see tomorrow that Alyssa does an excellent job!  There are other parts of the Torah that we might be equally tempted to eliminate if we could. Take the story about Jacob’s sons slaughtering all of the men of the city of Shechem because their prince abducted their sister Dina. That story puts the Jewish people in a bad light. That same group of siblings seems to have learned nothing when they plot to kill their own brother, Joseph, only to settle on selling him into slavery and misleading their father about what happened. It’s embarrassing to read about our ancestors acting this way. Moses himself kills an Egyptian when he sees him beating an Israelite. One has to ask – was that really necessary? And if it was, does it have to be in the Torah? The account of the building of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the desert, goes on seemingly interminably, with excruciating detail. It takes up the entire second half of the Book of Exodus! Can’t we cut that down to a few paragraphs? We no longer perform sacrifices, but a good deal of the Book of Leviticus describes the minutia of the sacrificial system. Too much talk about blood and kidneys and livers and entrails for modern sensibilities. Can’t we just have a summary or an excerpt? We struggle with the Bible’s apparent condemnation of homosexuality – what do we do with an outlook which is so at odds with our modern, scientific view of human sexuality? Can’t we just get rid of those passages? Can we at least skip over them when we come to them in our weekly Torah reading? The Book of Numbers describes what is called “The Ordeal of the Bitter Waters”. A jealous husband can demand that his wife goes through a demeaning ritual to determine if she has been unfaithful, as he suspects. Needless to say, there is no corresponding ordeal that a wife can put her husband through if she suspects he has been unfaithful. The Torah is relentlessly patriarchal – women play an important, but usually supportive and even subservient role as wife, mother, daughter or sister of the patriarch. The rabbis determined 2000 years ago that the Ordeal of the Bitter waters was inoperative. They forbid performing it. Yet we still have it in our Torah, and we still hear about it every year when that part of the Book of Numbers is read in our synagogues.

Yet, we don’t tamper with the Torah. We don’t remove texts we don’t like, because the Torah is considered sacred. Some believe that each word, each letter, even the “crowns of the letters” – the scribal decorations that adorn some of the text – were given to Moses by G-d at Mount Sinai. We therefore cannot remove or skip over what we do not like. We cannot edit out what does not conform to our sensibilities. Everything is the direct word of G-d, and G-d would not abide an editor. Others believe that the text is not divinely given but, rather, divinely inspired, and is therefore holy and not to be changed in any way.

To us, revising the text of the Bible would be unthinkable.  Yet there is historical evidence that some groups have tampered with the Bible. That evidence is on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC through September 1. The exhibit tells the story of how Christian Missionaries manipulated the text of the Bible to meet the economic needs of the British Empire.  These missionaries wanted to convert African slaves in British Caribbean colonies in the late 19^th century. So they edited the Bible to meet their needs. The so-called “Slave Bible”, printed in London in 1807 retains those parts of the Torah that teach about slaves’ obedience to their masters and what their duties toward their masters were. It eliminates those parts that teach about the responsibilities of a master toward their slaves. It conveniently removes parts of the Book of Exodus and Psalms that might have given the slaves hope for freedom and encouraged dreams of equality. Examples of passages that are eliminated:

“He who kidnaps a man — whether he has sold him or is still holding him — shall be put to death.” (Ex. 21:16)

“You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master. He shall live with you in any place he may choose among the settlements in your midst, wherever he pleases; you must not ill-treat him.” (Deut. 23:16-17)

"If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. "And if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth." (Exodus 21:26-27)

"He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death." (Exodus 21:12)

And from the Book of Leviticus -- On the fiftieth year you shall “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof.”

We Jews have an entire holiday dedicated to remembering our slavery and how we were freed. We will begin that celebration next Friday night when we sit down to our Seders. It seems unimaginable that anyone would remove this story from Scriptures deemed holy by both Christians and Jews. Yet this is exactly what happened. The text was doctored in order to manipulate and oppress. It was edited in order to maintain the status quo. This teaches that although we may struggle with the holy text that has come down to us, we are not free to eliminate those parts that do not understand, like, or agree with. We can challenge it and question it, but we dare not ignore it or suppress it. As Ben Bag Bag, a Jewish sage who lived around the time of the destruction of the Second Temple says referring to the Torah, “Turn it and turn it again, for all is in it; see through it; grow old and worn in it; do not budge from it, for there is nothing that works better than it.”

Shabbat Shalom