Active Repair

This week’s Torah portion is Vayishlach, which means and he sent. Jacob, with his wives and children is very relieved to have left his father-in-Law Laban, and is on his way back to Canaan, only to have to confront his twin brother Esau. Jacob sent malachim, angels or messengers, ahead of him to try to gauge what kind of reception he might encounter from the brother who wanted to kill him 20 years before. Jacob finds out that Esau is on his way to meet him with 400 men. It does not sound good. This is one of my very favorite Torah portions, containing so many vital teachings. Tonight I’d like to focus on the beginning of this portion, which reads, “Then Jacob sent angels ahead of him to Esau his brother.” After finding out about the 400 men, Jacob takes several further actions. He divided his family and possessions into two camps, for safety. He prayed to God, reminding God of the promise that Jacob would be protected. He prepared a large gift of tribute from his flock and herds and sent it to Esau, perhaps in admission of guilt over his actions of so many years before. He instructed his servants to be very polite and gracious to Esau, and he also, when the opportunity was given to him, engaged himself, wrestling, perhaps with an angel, or also with his own integrity, his fears, and his past actions. This is what I’d like to call active repair. The Apter Rebbe, Abraham Joshua Heschl of Apt, wrote, “His actions, he knew, would leave an impression on the physical world.”
When I see someone who is otherwise healthy, but has hurt their arm and it’s in a sling, or broken their foot and it’s in a soft cast, I say to myself, being very careful not to judge anyone, “just because we are human.” The Torah portion, Noah, teaches us that our sins have to be expiated and mopped up, so to speak, in the course of our lives; or the world would get worse and worse, not better and better. Just because we are human, we make mistakes. We do the wrong thing. Or we are unkind, doing the right thing but not with enough love and patience. We let opportunities slip past us. Sometimes we are tired or hungry, and we are just not up to the task. So our sins, omissions, and mistakes pile up for a time. But then the slate has to be wiped clean and we have to pay for our mistakes and be cleansed. So perhaps we have a small accident or other tiny, we hope, misfortune. But Jacob shows us another possibility: Active Repair. It’s not as good as not making mistakes in the first place, but it helps. Rabbi Elimelech wrote that “Our prayers and holy words ascend upward and these are called Angels.” Martin Buber has also written about the Chassidic tradition, which teaches that our actions produce energies or angels. As Rabbi Nachman of Breslov also taught, If we can damage, we can also repair. We can atone for an offense and try to do as much good as we can, to make it better. And it does, as the Apter Rebbe teaches, make a difference in the physical world. We can apologize. We can find a way to give. And since we are all connected to each other and God, and all existence is One, giving to anyone helps. We can give love, we can help another person, we can make a donation; we can be there for someone. We can also pray: admit to God that we know we did something wrong, and then make a decision to do better next time. We can face ourselves and wrestle down our less than worthy impulses; and by falling down emerge better than we were before the mistakes. As the Chassidic masters and our teacher Rabbi Gelberman taught, we are God’s partners. We are meant to be co-creators of a peaceful world and God wants us to continue to improve creation. This goes as well for our own lives. By our free will we are given the ability to fix what we have broken. We don’t have to passively wait for the next difficulty to arise, for the next small disaster. We can make changes in the Universe, just like the Tzaddikim, the holy, righteous teachers of old. We ourselves have great power to create wonderful angels: angels of beauty and goodness, energies of healing and repair for ourselves and those who we touch. Not only can we fall down, but we can rise up, and take a small part of the world with us.

Being Ready to Receive

This week’s Torah portion, Vayetze, means and he left. Jacob leaves his parents and brother Esau, to escape Esau’s rage after Jacob tricked his Father and stole the blessing from Esau. He travels to find a wife from his mother’s family in Haran. On his journey, he dreams of a ladder with angels going up and down on it. God speaks to him in his dream and promises to be with him, to guard him, and to return him to Canaan where he will have many offspring and inherit the land. On his arrival he falls in love with Rachel, the younger daughter of his Uncle Laban, and works for Laban 7 years, for Rachel. Laban makes a wedding feast and tricks him, by giving him Leah instead of Rachel. Jacob is outraged and Laban promises Rachel to him after one week of marriage to Leah, on condition that he work another 7 years. Over 20 years he has 12 children, and at the end of the portion, he leaves with them to return to Canaan.
Right after Jacob’s dream about the ladder, the text says, “And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and he said, Surely God is in this place; and I did not know. And he became frightened and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other but the abode of God, and this is the gate of heavens.” (Gen. 28:16-17) We might ask why Jacob was afraid. He had just had this wonderful dream about angels; and God’s reassurance that he would be protected. God has just repeated the promises made to Abraham and Isaac: that Jacob’s offspring would be as numerous as the dust of the earth, that they would be a great blessing, and that he would inherit the land. We never hear about Abraham or Isaac being afraid when they received reassurance or prophecy from God. So why is Jacob afraid? It could be that he had a guilty conscience from tricking his Father and stealing the blessing from his brother, for forcibly taking what did not belong to him. His actions showed that he was not ready for such communications from God. He was not spiritually prepared for such blessings. This is borne out by what God caused him to experience over the next 20 years. First, what he did to others, was done to him: the trickster was tricked. Since he had not learned enough about inner goodness from living with his parents, from mostly good models, he was put into a household where he had to learn from Laban: to do the opposite of what he saw. He, like Moses who came later, was afforded the opportunity to learn patience, and integrity, and compassion by long days alone, pasturing sheep and goats. Then he experienced another six years in the school of life, before God felt Jacob was ready to take possession of the gifts he had been promised.
This same situation can be seen in the different lives of Leah and Rachel. Leah, the compassionate one, whose eyes were tender, was the unloved sister. She was ready to receive the blessings of having many children (she had six); and to appreciate and enjoy those blessings properly. But Rachel, the beautiful sister, was barren. She needed to experience deprivation in order to grow in kindness. She could not be trusted to use great blessings the way God expected her to use them. She was just not yet ready. The Zohar speaks bout this: “ if one wishes to set in motion the powers above, whether through action or words, a person produces no effect if that action or word is not as it should be. All people go to synagogue to influence the powers above, but few know how to do it. God is near to all who know how to call upon The Eternal and to set powers in motion in the proper manner, but if they do not know how to call, God is not near… those who do know draw forth blessings from the place which is called Thought until upper and lower beings are blessed and the Holy Name is blessed through them. Happy are they in that God is near them and ready to answer them when they call..”(ZoharIII, 183b-184a).
The issue of preparation and readiness applies to our lives as well. Being ready was a quality that was well known among the ancient kabbalists. Rabbi Gelberman also wrote about it in his book, Nine lessons in Kabbalah: that one must be ready in body, mind, and soul, to receive: kabel, the word on which kabbalah is based. We can purify our bodies. The ancients did it by going to a mikveh. We can eat pure food, get exercise, turn away from negative influences and bad habits. Then to purify the mind, he suggests, just like the psychologist Carl Jung, that we must harmonize and accept our total selves, the yetzer hatov, the good impulse, and the yetzer hara, the negative impulse. We can speak words of kindness, patience and peace. We can perform acts of loving kindness. And for the soul we can sing, meditate, and open our hearts to live in joy, love, and goodness.
We desire so many things: most of us desire good health, some desire wealth or achievement, power, or fame. But God teaches us patience. What we wish for may not be good for us. God waits until we are capable of being a blessing. And then the things we have waited for just may appear. We can participate in our growth by intentionally engaging in the process of perfecting our inner natures: of setting about becoming more compassionate and caring, more deliberate and less automatic in our human interactions; less irritable, and less likely to be selfish and abrupt. It is a process of preparing ourselves to be ready for the blessings that we would be happy to receive. This preparation can be compared to any spiritual practice: of meditating for years, of studying an art form, like the Japanese Tea Ceremony, or like singing; or the discipline of regular Torah study or study of the Talmud. Any practice which opens us up to our own inner goodness and our connection with God and others makes a huge difference in our readiness to receive the goodness that is being sent to us. May we dedicate ourselves to participating in our spiritual growth, so that we, like Leah, may be ready to receive every blessing that God would like to send to us.

The New Understanding

On both days of Rosh Hashana our Torah readings center on Abraham. Perhaps one reason Abraham spends every Rosh Hashana with us, or we with him, is hinted at in an observation by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak, the Seer of Lublin, quoting the spiritual Book, Duties of the Heart. It says: Abraham understood the Torah before it was given. Not that Abraham was perfect, although we know he was generous, compassionate, caring, smart, and selfless. But that Abraham was able to understand and live by concepts that his contemporaries didn’t yet comprehend. Physically, we are much like the Israelites who lived 3,000 years ago; or even the humans who lived 10,000 years ago. We are probably not very much smarter, either. But there has been a huge shift in our consciousness: We now understand and take for granted ideas like: There is one God; there is only one earth so we had better take care of it; or: freedom is a right; women and men deserve the same opportunities, rights, and pay for the same work. Education is a basic right for all. We strive to include minorities, people with disabilities, people of different races and sexual orientations into our tent of acceptance. Have things really changed? Well let’s see: 1,000 years ago human being were sold with the land they inhabited. 400 years ago there was no freedom of religion in most of the world. 250 years ago someone even so spiritually evolved as the Baal Shem Tov thought he could force the coming of the Messiah. 150 years ago there was legal slavery in this country. 100 years ago, women did not have the vote. 75 years ago there were so many quotas and restrictions for Jews in this country, including education and employment, that it was not always comfortable or convenient to be Jewish. Three months ago Gay and Lesbian citizens could not marry in New York, barring them from the same legal rights as heterosexuals. And there is still much work to be done. However, there is beginning to be a consciousness that all life is connected and that our society must reflect that truth. Religion is being greatly affected by changing attitudes in society as well. The differences between religions are not so important as they once were. Rabbi Zalman Schacter Shelomi quotes Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach quoting another sage, Rabbi Zadok Ha Kohen of Lublin, who said: “People say, the world is becoming less and less religious, but I say, on the contrary, the souls of people are becoming more and more refined. Perhaps on the outside it looks as if they are breaking away from God, but on the inside they are getting closer and closer.” In other words, it might not be obvious what is happening, but our consciousness is shifting yet again. We are moving into a new way of understanding the world and our place in it. My teacher, Rabbi Gelberman used to tell the story that “when he was eleven he knew the whole Torah by heart. He went to yeshiva where his teachers tested him on the portion each Thurs. Then at home each Sat. before the service his father, a chasid himself, would test him. Early one Sabbath morning his Father said to him, let’s see what you learned this week. Being young and cocky Rabbi Gelberman said to his Father I don’t know why you insist on doing this, it’s the same text I studied last year. You know I learn my lessons by heart. His father could have given him a slap, instead he said, you’re right, Chaim, it‘s the same text you studied last year, but are you the same person you were then?” We could ask the same question: Are we the same as we were last year? We know that we are changing and we hope that we are acquiring wisdom and understanding. Last year I spoke about Oneness, the idea that we are all connected to God and each other, as the Shema tells us. This has been known for 2,500 years. The truth of our lives is that we understand much more than our Israelite forebears who wandered in the wilderness, and not enough to be able to end war, create a just society or even make peace in our families. We are all in a manner of speaking, Not Yet. There are things that we might understand intellectually, like God is existence and being; and all being is One, so we are a part of God and each other. But on a day to day level, we are not yet spiritually evolved to the point that we can live out of that reality. So though we are moving in that direction we know that we, in our own lives, will never arrive there. We are all in the process of becoming. We are all Not Yet. And what makes things difficult is that my Not Yet may not mesh with your Not Yet. It’s as if we each of us may have a small piece of the puzzle at times, in terms of our understanding, but that my piece may not fit easily into your piece and there may be friction and conflict because of our incomplete world views and our incomplete understandings. What can we do about it? First, we can give up judging each other. We each start from such different places and our circumstances and experience can widen the gaps between us. We can only judge how far we ourselves have come, not anyone else. We can have compassion for ourselves and others while we are all still learning, and not try to punish each other for not understanding more. The Chassidic masters taught a marvelous lesson, as quoted in Martin Buber’s The Ten Rungs: “How can I love my neighbor as myself if my neighbor has wronged me? Love your neighbor as something which you yourself are. For all souls are one. Each is a spark from the original soul and this soul is inherent in all souls, just as your soul is inherent in all the parts of your body. It may come to pass that your hand will make a mistake and strike you. But would you then take a stick and chastise your hand because it lacked understanding, and so increase your pain? It is the same if your neighbor, who is of one soul with you, wrongs you, because of a lack of understanding. If you punish your neighbor, you only hurt yourself. And will you have no mercy on a person when you see that one of the Divine, holy sparks has been lost in a maze and is almost stifled?”
We can take our baby steps in the direction of love, giving up hatred and anger, vengeance and grudges. But most of all, we can deepen our commitment to keep growing: in goodness, caring, compassion, and holiness. And this is so important because we are here, alive on this earth, to continue the work of the evolution of human consciousness. We are human links in a chain stretching back over 10,000 years and forward over many more millennia than that. It is our task to bridge the gap between what was, forming a link from the old understanding, a time of greater brutality and cruelty, to what we can only now dimly imagine: a time when we will be so spiritually advanced. that we will know that we: all people; are one soul, one body, one being, and be able to live on that high plane. Perhaps this is one meaning of the verse from Genesis” And God placed the earthling in the Garden of Eden to work it and to guard it.” Perhaps this verse describes the work we are meant to do: that of spiritual evolution. Working the Garden. As the sage R. Tarphon said in Pirkei Avot, Chapters of the Fathers, it is not up to us to complete the work, but it is not up to us to desist from it either. No one can do this work of spiritual evolution for us. It has been given to us to struggle with ourselves so that we continue to purify the soul matter within us and make spiritual progress in our lives. The Garden of Eden in the verse from Genesis is the same spiritual Garden of simple Oneness & elevation that the four sages entered, as described in the Talmud (Chagigah 14b) As the legend goes, Four [Sages] entered the Garden. Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Elisha ben Avuya, called Acher - the other one - because of what happened to him after he entered the Garden, and Rabbi Akiva. Ben Azzai gazed [at the Divine Presence] and died. Ben Zoma gazed and lost his sanity. Acher became a heretic. Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left in peace.” We are meant to do certain spiritual work while we are alive, but likewise, most of us cannot go too far beyond our spiritual understanding, or try to force the time of peace and harmony before we are ready. We know it will not be realized in our lifetime, yet we will experience it because we are part of the great soul that is One. And we will always be a part of that One. We cannot demand the coming of the Messiah, or, as I prefer to think of it, the messianic age, until all people alive, not just the Jewish people, have evolved spiritually to the point that we don’t leave anyone out: until everyone is ready and able to live in peace and harmony. When we stop and consider the past and the future, we can actually see that we are at a midpoint between the brutal and cruel time of constant death and struggle in our human past, and the place we know we have to arrive at to realize our highest aspirations as human beings. May each of us take a step into spiritual growth this year: developing an attitude of acceptance of each other’s Not Yets, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, forgiving each other, and striving to behold & respect the pure, Divine soul in every person. May we nurture our vision of how holy we could be. May we extend our innate love, the Divine love in our souls, to others, bringing healing to the world, and helping each other to overcome our lesser tendencies. This year may we choose for love, for harmony, for compassion, for forgiveness, for kindness, and for peace. Then we will surely be of those, like Abraham, whose labor and understanding will help to bring about the time of wholeness that we and God have dreamed of together.

It's Not About Sin: Jewish Week Article Unabridged 10/21/2011

The story of Adam and Eve is laden by centuries of commentary. But what is it really about? We are told that Adam and Eve first acquire language (Genesis 2:20) and then form the first marriage (2:24). But they lacked one thing more for the establishment of civilization: consciousness. The allegory of the Tree of Good and Evil relates how Adam and Eve become fully conscious. God has forbidden them to eat the fruit of the tree. The serpent then speaks to Eve, telling her that if she eats the fruit, “You will not surely die, for God knows that on the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad (3:4).” Eve then evaluates this piece of information. She looks at the tree and its fruit, using her senses and intelligence to decide whether this information is correct. And then she decides that this alternative source of information can be trusted. She acts, eating the fruit, and giving the man some too. They then become fully conscious, making aprons to cover their nakedness. God, of course, has been watching; and for their disobedience, the man, the woman, and the serpent receive “punishments.” But are they really punishments?
Eve will bear children in pain. This is because, being conscious, humans can imagine what the future may bring. Fear has now come into the world. Animals have no smart phones or calendars. They can’t plan for or imagine what might happen if they give birth, go for surgery, or take a flight to Hawaii. Because of Eve’s decision, women due to have babies know that it will hurt and anticipate their pain. But wait! Before Eve receives her “punishment,” fear has already come into the world, just from having left the Animal State. Adam has already said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I am naked, so I hid (3:10). From this we see that consciousness can’t exist without fear. It’s an either-or proposition.
Adam’s “punishment” is that he has to work for a living, unlike the animals, whose food is provided by God. We might think that we’d prefer a world in which we don’t have to get up each morning and go to work. But we know it would be perfectly boring. And would we ever exchange the great gifts of being fully human: the ability to grow intellectually, spiritually, and morally, to be all that we can be? Would we ever give up Art, Science, Philosophy, Music, learning, beauty, and human achievement to return to the Animal State? Surely not.
The serpent’s “punishment” is to be despised. Who or what might the snake represent? The serpent is an alternative source of knowledge. Perhaps it is that non-intellectual, deeper knowing that some call “women’s intuition.” In our scientific society, non-intellectual sources of information are generally disparaged. In the story, the serpent’s information is, in fact, correct. The Chassidic Masters teach: everything is God. If so, the serpent is God too! Why would God ask Eve to go against a direct command? Perhaps God wants Adam and Eve to take responsibility for their decision. God has clearly planned for humanity to become conscious, but only if we agree to take responsibility for our choice. In effect, God is saying, don’t kvetch if you have to work for a living. Don’t complain that there is fear in the world. You chose it. And here is a detail that is often overlooked: God commanded us not to eat the fruit before we became fully conscious: before we knew right from wrong. In a certain sense, we can’t be held fully culpable for eating the fruit. However, God made sure that we could take responsibility for our choice.
Thank God that Eve ate the fruit! We owe her a great debt. We couldn’t be simultaneously in Gan Eden - the Animal State – and be fully, gloriously human. As soon as we became conscious, we had already left the Garden. But far from being angry, God gives the humans the gift of a suit of clothes and bars the way back into the Garden, sending us the important message that the way to experience re-union with God is never to go back to an imagined, idyllic past, but always forward, stepping eagerly into life, taking responsibility for our choices, traveling on that wondrous human path that leads back to God. Barring the way back into the garden describes the “hole” all of us human beings experience in our hearts: that feeling that we used to be smarter, happier, and more whole. The feeling that something is missing within us is a precious gift from God. It propels us into life to seek that union with God that we feel we have lost; before we received the blessing of the dance of choice that we engage in with God. The Eternal has dignified us, expressing unbounded love for us, and great confidence, that we are worthy of the tremendous power of choice and the ability to be responsible for our choices. May we express our love and gratitude to God by living up to the faith God has in us, and choosing to walk that path of spiritual and moral growth that surely leads back to reunion with God.
(Note: This article was abridged for inclusion in The Jewish Week, by editors.)

Volunteer Guest Bloggers from 9/11 Package Delivery in conjunction with Dorot

Marilyn and I visited R___ G___ .She was amazing. Smart, coherent, interesting, cultured, etc. She is 92 and has family in NY, children, etc. Nevertheless, she (to use her words) gets lonely at times and enjoyed the one hour visit. Marilyn and I both enjoyed meeting her and were pleased to participate in this wonderful outreach. --Jill Altman with Marilyn Scher

Unfortunately, B__ (our person) was not able to receive visitors. His wife answered the phone and said that he was very confused today and that we should not visit. We went back to Dorot for another name, then they let us know that there were no more visits. Good in a way that they had so many volunteers. -- Barbara Bova with Ruth Samberg

Betty, Bob and I visited a very sweet lady in Schwab House (West End Ave &
73rd St) and she was so pleasant and so lonely that we stayed about 2 hours.
She kept offering us Coca Cola and wanted to be a good hostess. She's about
85 and does get out a little but she fell last week and it's a little harder
for her now. But I think she will heal and Betty offered to come to her
house and take her to JASA on Fridays where they serve lunch and have
entertainment. I gave her the address of the Actors Temple and she may call
Access-A-Ride to bring her on a Friday night. She was exceedingly happy
with our visit.

We were also given another gentlemen to visit in the same building. Bob tried to contact
him but he had gone out for a walk with his aide. Bob left the package for him. --Florence Cohen with Betty Steiner and Bob Reicher

It went very well. Carlos and I got along very well and A__was very happy to see us. We were there about an hour an a half chatting about her and ourselves because she was interested and pleased with our visit. She's alert, articulate, goes to a synagogue nearby. We met her home care person but she did not join us; we learned about her family. She would like to see the Actors’ Temple but doesn't go out at night; she needs a walker. I suggested that maybe the day event (a tour of the synagogue) which started with the United Federation of Teachers (group visiting) would come up again and if it did I'd let her know; but the problem for her would be the stairs. She said she was going to request Dorot to have us both be sent there again; and as we left she said she couldn't wait to see what was sent in the bag. We told her about the Actors’ Temple, Rabbi Jill, and her music quest. She told us about her children and grandchildren. Carlos and I found it to be a gratifying experience --Estelle Levy with Carlos Ramirez

Our visit went well! Michael and I met a 95 year old holocaust survivor from Poland. Her daughter and son-in-law were also there. I played my violin for them all and fortunately they thoroughly enjoyed it. The daughter, who used to play violin herself, enjoyed it especially. Unfortunately, our visit wasn't long, as the daughter and her husband were due to go out and celebrate their anniversary. Still, we had a good time, however brief it was. I look forward to doing this again!--Daniel Constant with Michael Verdel

Guest Bloggers: Volunteers Who Delivered Packages on 9/11 in conjunction with Dorot

Marilyn and I visited R___ G___ .She was amazing. Smart, coherent, interesting, cultured, etc. She is 92 and has family in NY, children, etc. Nevertheless, she (to use her words) gets lonely at times and enjoyed the one hour visit. Marilyn and I both enjoyed meeting her and were pleased to participate in this wonderful outreach. --Jill Altman with Marilyn Scher

Unfortunately, B__ (our person) was not able to receive visitors. His wife answered the phone and said that he was very confused today and that we should not visit. We went back to Dorot for another name, then they let us know that there were no more visits. Good in a way that they had so many volunteers. -- Barbara Bova with Ruth
Betty, Bob and I visited a very sweet lady in Schwab House (West End Ave &
73rd St) and she was so pleasant and so lonely that we stayed about 2 hours.
She kept offering us Coca Cola and wanted to be a good hostess. She's about
85 and does get out a little but she fell last week and it's a little harder
for her now. But I think she will heal and Betty offered to come to her
house and take her to JASA on Fridays where they serve lunch and have
entertainment. I gave her the address of the Actors Temple and she may call
Access-A-Ride to bring her on a Friday night. She was exceedingly happy
with our visit.

We were also given another gentlemen to visit in the same building. Bob tried to contact
him but he had gone out for a walk with his aide. Bob left the package for him. --Florence Cohen with Betty Steiner and Bob Reicher

It is very encouraging. Unfortunately, Bert (our person) was not able to receive visitors. His wife answered the phone and said that he was very confused today and that we should not visit. We went back to Dorot for another name, then they let us know that there were no more visits. Good in a way that they had so many volunteers. --Barbara Bova with Ruth Sandberg

It went very well. Carlos and I got along very well and A__was very happy to see us. We were there about an hour an a half chatting about her and ourselves because she was interested and pleased with our visit. She's alert, articulate, goes to a synagogue nearby. We met her home care person but she did not join us; we learned about her family. She would like to see the Actors’ Temple but doesn't go out at night; she needs a walker. I suggested that maybe the day event (a tour of the synagogue) which started with the United Federation of Teachers (group visiting) would come up again and if it did I'd let her know; but the problem for her would be the stairs. She said she was going to request Dorot to have us both be sent there again; and as we left she said she couldn't wait to see what was sent in the bag. We told her about the Actors’ Temple, Rabbi Jill, and her music quest. She told us about her children and grandchildren. Carlos and I found it to be a gratifying experience --Estelle Levy with Carlos Ramirez

Our visit went well! Michael and I met a 95 year old holocaust survivor from Poland. Her daughter and son-in-law were also there. I played my violin for them all and fortunately they thoroughly enjoyed it. The daughter, who used to play violin herself, enjoyed it especially. Unfortunately, our visit wasn't long, as the daughter and her husband were due to go out and celebrate their anniversary. Still, we had a good time, however brief it was. I look forward to doing this again!--Daniel Constant with Michael Verdel

Taking and Giving

This week’s Torah portion is Korach, the name of a cousin of Moses, who sought to wrest power away from Moses and Aaron with three of his neighbors from the tribe of Reuben and 250 other leaders. Korach and two of those neighbors, die in an earthquake; and the 250 other rebels also perish. Moses and Aaron, with God’s help and support, survive the insurrection. The portion (Num. 16:1) begins, “Now Korah, son of Izhar, son of Kohat, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On, son of Pelet, sons of Reuben, took.”
The Zohar (III 176a) asks, “What did he take? “ And the answer given is: “He took an evil counsel for himself.” The Zohar goes on to explain, “If one runs after that which is not his, it flies from him, and what is more, he loses his own as well. So Korah pursued that which was not his, and he lost his own without obtaining the other. Korach quarreled with peace, and the one who quarrels with peace quarrels with the Holy Name, because the Holy Name is called peace. Korah tried to upset peace on high and below. The words, “Korach took,” are telling in this portion, because they say it all. When we were young many of us thought we were given life to become the best we could be in order to be able to learn how to take all that might be available to us. Korach too, misunderstood his mission on earth. He thought he was placed here, at that location and time, to make a name for himself, to win respect and power, to take what he could, and to enjoy all the fruits of life.
It is somewhat fitting that this week’s Torah portion is about leadership.
It is a great blessing for me to be here with all of you. I want to express to you my profound gratitude and thanks that you have allowed me to be here for the last five years to give and not to take. I have enjoyed many, many fruits of life at The Actors’ Temple, but they have all been secondary to the great privilege of being able to serve and to give in and to all of you and this wonderful synagogue. It is a place where we each can give, according to our talents and inclinations, to build up this spiritual community for each other; where we can learn and grow together: sometimes making mistakes, sometimes needing to apologize to one another and making peace, but with open, loving hearts, and the intention to strive to be more and more of a blessing: to support each other and this synagogue, and to be the kind of community we can be proud of. We are on each other’s spiritual paths, and as such we can take steps together to continue to innovate, to continue to grow, to continue to pray, laugh, learn, and help each other. As we enter the journey toward the next five years, please let me know your ideas for the future. Please suggest ways that you want to contribute to this synagogue and to those friends you have made here. Please let me know how I can give to you and support you. I am so grateful to all of you for being here tonight and for allowing me the privilege of serving you at The Actors’ Temple. Thank you with all my heart.

Peace Not Only in Heaven

This week’s Torah portion is Shelach Lecha, which means, send forth for yourself. It tells the famous story of the scouts or spies, sent to have a first glimpse of the Promised Land. God gave permission for 12 leaders, one from each tribe, to be sent by Moses to bring back a report on the land, the people in it, and its produce. The scouts return, bringing with them the fruit of the land and they give a public report in which they affirm that the land is good, “But,” and this is a fatal but; 10 out of 12 of them said, in effect, we will never be able to conquer it. We are far too weak. The land is fully settled, fortified, and the people are too strong. The scouts demoralized the Israelites, who became afraid and wanted to return to Egypt. Because of the people’s fear and lack of faith, in spite of God leading them around with a pillar of cloud and feeding them manna each day, God concluded that only their children who had not been enslaved, would inherit the land and that they must wander for 38 more years. The ten scouts died in a plague.
Many Torah sages have asked, what was the scouts’ great sin? They were sent to reconnoiter the territory and come back and give their opinion, which they did. They were telling the truth as they saw it. So why, if this was their honest opinion, did they suffer for what they said? We know that we all make mistakes: we make them frequently. Mistakes are part of being human and seem to be the way we learn. But there is a higher standard when a leader causes others to go astray than when that leader does something wrong that only affects him or her personally. Making a public declaration instead of reporting privately to Moses was the beginning of the scouts’ wrongdoing. And it has to do with self aggrandizement, or an excess of ego. Perhaps they wanted to feel important, and seem important to the others. Perhaps they enjoyed their moment in the spotlight and their momentary opportunity for leadership. But this was not their only transgression. Perhaps their major sin was that the spies sowed divisiveness. It doesn’t sound like such a terrible sin. But seen in the larger context of the nature of reality, it takes on much wider proportions.
The people had been wandering for two years and were all ready to conquer the land, until the spies’ report. The spies divided the people from Moses and Aaron, and also from Joshua and Caleb. Tragically, the spies also divided the people from God. The portion says, “The entire assembly raised up and issued its voice; the people wept that night.” Not only was there division: there was fear and grief: unhappiness and suffering. This is what division causes. Division: separating ourselves from each other and the Divine Oneness of the Universe, causes unhappiness and suffering. I also think separating causes illness, as it says, “ …the people who spread the evil report about the land died in a plague before God (14:37).”
The Chassidic sage, Abraham Joshua Heschl of Apt, quotes a midrash: “It is written, The one who makes peace in the heaven, should make peace among us. The sages ask, what sort of peace needs to be made in the heavens? It is because the angel Mi’chael is the prince of water and the angel Gavriel is the prince of fire. And although water extinguishes fire, still there is peace among them And even more so, there are angels who are half water and half fire and even in them there is peace.”
The nature of God and the Universe is harmony and oneness. And this includes us. Any time we separate, by separating ourselves, or by trying to separate others, by our speech or actions, we create a disharmony that goes against the harmony and oneness of God and life. It creates little bits of death, as Moses said in Deuteronomy (30:19), “I have placed before you life and death, blessing and curse; and you shall choose life, so that you will live, you and your offspring, to love God your God, to listen to God’s voice, and to cleave to God, for The Eternal is your life and the length of your days.” Moses was trying to tell us that cleaving to the Divine; that is, not creating the little separations that we all create, will promote life in our lives. It promotes happiness. It allows us to move through life in sync with the true structure of God and the Universe. God’s very nature is peace. When we sow discord, we go against God, and life, and our own happiness. Why did the Israelites have to wander for another 38 years? To reestablish their connection with God and each other. Call it team building. Or call it the development of a more fearless attachment to the Divine Presence. When we find the harmony of living with each other in peace, we will have found the true nature of life, God, and ourselves. May we realize that creating divisions is not only counter-productive but counter to ultimate reality. May we choose to let unity, harmony, and peace flow through us, that we may extend life for ourselves and those around us.

Guest Blogger: Steve Greenstein

Many times I have gone to the Actors Temple and I say I live in
Newark...I am usually greeted with a face of why? Followed by
distorted views about the city, and many negative comments. If you
watch the powerful media, there is no wonder why, a killing gets lots
of press.
The fear factor sets in, and a whole city is labeled one big inner city
violent ghetto. You have to look past the headlines, and see we live
in many different America's. On July 5th I attended the New Jersey
Symphony concert right here in Branch Brook Park, followed by fire
works. All for free in a beautiful park designed by the Olmsteads of Central Park fame..
Later in the week I attended a free concert here in Essex county, the
Great Harlold Melvin and the Blue Notes. The awesome black soul group of the
70's which great hits like "The love I lost.." and the classic " If
you don't know me by now"..The park was filled with Blacks, whites, hispanics all
grooving to the geat tunes..Middle age folks breaking out in dance
steps on a hot summer night under a bright moon.

I have taught school in Newark for ten years as a parallel career to
being an actor. I have taught at Arts High and just about every
elementary school in the Ironbound section of Newark. I know the city, and that is why this latest killing on the news has gotten to me so deeply. On Friday a
young black woman, a graduate of Arts High and now a teacher was
gunned down outside a restaurant. Twenty seven years old, a life
infront of her. A gifted musician as well and a stellar person. Wrong
place, wrong time. A Black cop, off duty gunned down outside a pizza
joint a month ago.. random senseless...I could go on and on..but why
break our hearts. I have a beautiful vegetable garden here in Newark.
Every year awards are given out to residents from all over the city.
Its a great ceremony attended by so many people of different faiths and
races.

Newark is a diverse city. FIve colleges, Portugese, Brazillian, and
Hispanics communities are here form all over latin America. The
National Hockey league, the best Jewish deli..Hobbies serves awesome
cornbeef to hungry Devils fans on cold winter nights. A great museum,
minor league basball and five star restaurants.

Yet, and as politically incorrect as this may sound the victims
of most of the crimes are black, killed by other blacks. However, this
is rarely mentioned. The violence tends to be in a certain
neighborhood.The entire city is seen by outsiders as a living hell and
they have never stepped one foot here.

Where is Al Sharpton? Jesse Jackson, and yes the first Black President
Mr. Obama. Why does he not visit these areas and call attention to this
horrible situation. It goes on and on..and yet I have not seen any
civil rights leaders visit Newark, make a march or form a
demonstration.
On August 2nd it will be national night out on Crime. I hope the
problems in the Black community are brought to a forefront, and people
can really confront this issue. The president has been invisible on this.
With unemployment twice the average in black neighborhoods, what is the
future? I have taught so many kids in some of the most toughest
schools. That woman that was killed on Friday was a success story,
yet she lays in a morgue. It is all too senseless. We need to speak
out.

What is the Gift of Speech For?

This week we read Behaalotecha, from the Book of Numbers. It means, when you lift up, referring to the lighting of the Menorah. This portion contains the famous passage about Miriam and Aaron, siblings of Moses, who were speaking to each other about Moses’ family matters – speech that amounted to gossip. God reprimands them; and Miriam, who apparently instigated the discussion, was given a skin disease. Aaron begged Moses to pray for her. Moses immediately prayed on her behalf and Miriam was healed. By using her speech to separate, she herself was separated from those she loved; and she had to stay outside the camp for seven days. Earlier in the portion, there are several instances where speech is also used negatively: the Israelites complaining and carrying on about many things, including the food, and a demand by servants of Moses for two prophets to be imprisoned. There are also a few instances in this portion, where speech is used positively: for blessing. Some people who had not been able to celebrate Pesach, because of a burial, approached Moses to ask how and if they could serve God and celebrate Passover. They were allowed to observe it in the following month. A commandment was given to make and use two silver trumpets to ask God to help them when they went to battle, among other occasions. And Aaron’s using speech to ask Moses to pray for Miriam as well as Moses’ prayer itself, were holy uses of speech. Finally, Moses’ asking God for help, was an appropriate use of speech, resulting in the creation of our high court, the Sanhedrin.
So this portion has examples of how to use our speech positively and negatively. The sages have said, “A human being is treated according to how he or she treats others;” and there is a teaching quoted in the Mussar literature, based on a work called Ways of the Righteous, by Orchos Tzaddikim, that tells this story: “A rabbi made a banquet and asked his servants to prepare meat, some of it cooked until soft, while the rest of it was left still tough. The rabbi placed the meat before his students, who selected the tender meat. He said to them: ‘Look what you are doing. Just as you selected the tender and left the hard, so, too, let your tongues be tender to each other.’” The Israelites of the Torah were attempting to create a holy community. In this synagogue, too, we attempt to be there for each other as a spiritual community. What purpose can we serve for each other? Certainly friendship and acceptance. A place to ask questions and sometimes to ask for help. A place to pray for ourselves and others. A place where we are all teaching each other and learning from each other. But not only that. My teacher, Rabbi Gelberman wrote that our speech is an outward expression of an inner feeling. This tells us that intention is vital. We can ask ourselves, what do we mean to accomplish with our speech? Is it drawing people together and not separating them? If our intention is to help, and love, and support each other, then we will accomplish the goal of inspiring each other. We will create a place where we can model holy behavior for each other and learn and grow together. We can be a family in the best sense of the word, where we build each other up and not tear each other down. This is what the great gift of speech is for and what a holy community can be for: to inspire and motivate ourselves and each other so that we can be lifted up, as in the title of this Torah portion, and together kindle our and each other’s great inner light.

Finding Out Who You Really Are

This week’s Torah portion is Bemidbar, the first portion in the book of Numbers. Bemidbar means, “in the wilderness,” but Numbers gets its name from the commandment to number, or take a census of, the Israelites. In this portion, a plan of encampments is also given, with the ark containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments in the center, the Levites camping around the tablets, and the other tribes camping around the Levites. The Levites are designated to replace the firstborn, and are assigned tasks for transporting the tabernacle, being given temple service as their occupation. One verse begins: (3:6) “Bring near the tribes of Levi and have them stand before Aaron the Kohen and they shall serve him; and they shall safeguard his charge, or his guarding, and the charge of the entire assembly before the Tent of Meeting, before the service of the Tabernacle.” Rashi comments on this verse, quoting from the Talmud, (Megilla 13b) “But my assignment and your assignment are not the same.” It seems like an obvious statement, and yet a deeper subject is being introduced here, involving our uniqueness and our destiny. Rabbi Gelberman used to say that the Eleventh Commandment is, “Thou shall have a purpose.” But what is our purpose? How do we find and identify it? One of the Chassidic masters, Rabbi Pinchas of Korzek (as quoted by the S’fat Emet) said, “Each of us becomes excited by a different quality or aspect of life and possibly of religious life; and this is reflected in the may ways of understanding God,” as we say in the Amidah, God of Abraham, God of Sarah, God of Isaac, God of Rebecca, etc. Because we are alive, each of us is fulfilling a very special and holy purpose, because if we didn’t have a purpose, there would be no reason for us to have been created; but we aren’t told what that purpose is. It is up to us to embark on a process of discovery, because only we can fulfill the unique task that we’ve been given. We all contribute differently. Some of you may know the teaching that when we humans make many of the same thing: coins, or cars, or can openers, we make them all alike, but when God makes many of the same, each one is different.
In this portion that begins with a commandment to take a census and count the Israelites, the word, count: pakod, as noted by Rabbi Elimelech, also means raise. We are asked to raise ourselves, leading ourselves to be in tune with our inner yearning for giving and wholeness. Rabbi Arthur Green puts it beautifully: “the soul is holy and Torah is a holy teaching, a mirror held up to allow the soul to uncover the great depth that lies within.” The triumph of living life as a human being is that we can safeguard those qualities which are unique within us, our special talents, our inner appetites for certain kinds of learning and achievement, and our potential for spiritual and moral growth. Rabbi Elimelech quotes a teaching based on the Prophet Zechariah (3:7) which says that angels are called omdim, standing, because they don’t grow or learn from their tasks; they can’t change; they can only do what they have been sent to carry out; whereas humans are called me’haleich, from the word, lech, going or walking. We are not permitted to stand still. It is our destiny to move forward, as in Norman Mailer’s famous quotation, "For there was that law of life, so cruel and so just, which demanded that one must change or pay more for staying the same."
Bemidbar beckons us to the great wilderness of our own minds and hearts. It whispers to us, “find out who you really are – not who you are at this moment, but who you are capable of becoming and what is your own special service in the world. Don’t stand in one place like an angel, go forward like a human being, full of promise and dignity; and you will be counted among the holy and blessed who have fulfilled their unique purpose, being of great value to others and to God. Our capacity for learning, developing, and rising to great heights is unlimited. Take a step into the unknown: the world of the soul; the terrain of unconditional service and love, and there you will discover yourself.

Joining the Human Race

This week’s Torah portion is Behar, which means, on the Mountain. Behar gives us the laws for the Sabbath of the land, which occurs every seven years, and for the Jubilee, every 50th year. At the Jubilee, the land was to return to its original, ancestral owners, slaves were freed, loans were forgiven, and liberty was proclaimed for all inhabitants, the sentence inscribed on our Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. In this portion we are told that the land belongs to God and that we belong to God. Then there are laws to prevent poverty, such as the necessity to buy back land that was sold out of dire economic need, and the responsibility to help a relative who becomes impoverished.
Tonight I’d like to draw your attention to one verse in Behar which reads, “If your brother becomes impoverished and his hand falters with you, you shall hold onto him, stranger and resident, so that he can live with you.” This quotation features the word, Brother, achicha, which appears in the portion six times and also the words, with you, imach, which appears in this portion more than 10 times. The point being made here is the same as in the Shema – that God is one and that we are all brothers and sisters for each other – that we are all a part of each other and of God. This quotation actually answers the question posed by Cain about his brother Abel, Am I my brother’s keeper? The answer of course is yes, we are all our brother’s keepers. Each person is responsible fro every other person.
When my younger son was about five years old, I once said something about the human race. He asked me, Mommy, are they still racing? I laughed and then explained what human race meant, but since then I have thought about his question and I think there is a kind of wisdom in what he asked. There are different levels of joining the human race. Some people are like out of town members who would like to be aloof and live apart from others, not having a full fledged membership. Others are donating but inactive members who prefer to contribute financially but not participate personally. And then there are those who are fully engaged – full members of the human race with their sisters and brothers. This exemplifies that teaching in Leviticus which is a distant goal and which we are asked to struggle for all our lives: Love your neighbor as yourself. But how can we even begin to move in that direction? It seems like such a hopeless task. Moses is our great teacher in this area. The Torah says, “Now the man Moses was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” Moses loved his people He volunteered to sacrifice his life for them to win forgiveness on their behalf. Luckily God did not accept his offer, but forgave the people anyway. God gave Moses two opportunities to abandon the people and start a new nation, after they had sinned, but Moses never would walk away from them. He repeatedly threw his fate in with theirs. Moses was only able to do this because of his humility. One of the great Chassidic rabbis, Rabbi Elimelech, wrote about his quality of humility. He cites a story from the Talmud that all the mountains gathered together before God and asked that they be chosen to serve as the place for the giving of the Torah. God answered them, “you are all blemished compared with Mt. Sinai.” Rabbi Elimech, in the name of the Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria) asked, “what is Mt. Sinai’s great quality? It’s the lowest and most humble of all the mountains, teaching us that Torah can only be given to one who is humble and (who chooses to) lower himself… that is why Moses was able to receive the Torah directly from God.” The Torah makes clear in an earlier verse in Behar, that from God’s point of view, we are all alike. “The land is Mine; for you are sojourners and residents with me.” And also, “for the children of Israel are servants to me, they are my servants.” In other words, To God we are all alike. It is only the walls of our own egos that keep us from loving and accepting each other. The Karliner Rebbe taught it this way: “When someone falls in to mud, we must jump into the mud to save him. So it is when your brother stretches out his hand in need, put yourself in him place and save him.” These teachings are also echoed by Jesus, who taught the very same Torah concepts: (Mat 5:5) “ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Mat 5:3) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 19:24) “…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Mat 5:39) But I tell you not to resist an evildoer. On the contrary, whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well.” All these teachings tell us that we must actively strive to break down the walls of ego we have erected which keep us from connecting with each other. We can emulate our great teachers and sages and pursue humility. It is only by working to join the Human race so that we can stop racing to overtake and best each other that we can begin to walk toward loving each other. Then we will experience the true goodness and blessing of being fully human, a full member of the human race. Then will we be true brothers and sisters and the world will be so much better for it.

Israel: The Spiritual and the Temporal

As we celebrate 63 years of Israel’s existence, it’s important to ask ourselves about the meaning of Israel: why we are there: What it means to us; and also to think about what it might mean to God. We know that Israel is precious to us – to our sense of dignity as Jews in the world, that we have our own country back at last, after 2,000 years of exile. It is also a safe haven to those who are persecuted: all Jews, but also, many people of other cultures and nations who are at political risk – risk of death and torture in their countries. The U.N. notes that Israel is a safe haven for refugees. The film, Strangers No More, that won the Oscar for documentary short at the 83rd Academy Awards this February, is about an Israeli School that educates Christian, Muslim, Jewish children from 48 countries.
But for what purpose have we been returned to this very tiny spot on the earth? Is it to demonstrate that a modern, democratic society can flourish in the Mideast? Is it to make peace with our Arab Neighbors and begin to bring about the messianic era? Possibly both of these. The Torah, (Deut 7:7) adds this reason: “Not because you were more numerous than all the peoples did God desire you and choose you; for you are the fewest of all peoples; Rather because of God’s love for you, and because God keeps the oath sworn to your ancestors, has God brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. You must know that the Eternal your God, is God, the faithful God, who safeguards the covenant and kindness with those who love God and observe the commandments to a thousand generations;… You shall keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day, to do them.”
Perhaps one of the reasons we are there is linked the Aleinu prayer: that of giving us a unique mission – of bearing witness to the blessings that flow from the pursuit of holiness in the world. In this week’s Torah portion, Emor, we are given many commandments that, taken together, help us to develop an inner fineness of feeling for each other and for God. We must not be limited by the temporal politics of our time, although they are important. As Jews and as supporters of Israel, we must always keep our wits about us, and have one foot firmly planted on earth while we have the other foot in heaven. We will never be only a temporal society, for if we ever do, we will supersede the very important reason for our existence: to bear witness to the connection between the spiritual and the temporal, to bear witness to righteousness, to preserve Torah, and to be bearers of light, of caring, and of goodness in the world. As we worry about our Arab neighbors, may we pray for them and send them our love, that their peace and prosperity be our peace and prosperity: that their freedom will be turned to goodness and our freedom always be used for goodness and blessing.

Removing the Barriers

This week’s Torah portion is Acharei Mot, which means, after the deaths. Aaron’s two sons have died and he is told he can only enter the holiest place once a year, on Yom Kippur. This portion gives instructions for the Yom Kippur service, the ritual of the two goats, one an offering and one to carry the sins of the people away. There is a law here that all food animals should be presented as offerings before being cooked and eaten, and there is a concluding section about forbidden marriages.
I’d like to begin with a question; What separates us from God? The Torah’s answer in this portion is that our own impurity separates us. This is illustrated by a passage from the Zohar, “A river went forth from Eden (Gen. II:10).. in the book of Rab Hamnuna the Elder it is called Life, because life issues thence to the world. … the great and mighty Tree in which is food for all is called the Tree of Life, because its roots are in that Life…the river sends forth deep streams with the oil of plenitude to water the Garden and feed the trees and the shoots.…When The Shechinah and the time of righteousness are joined, all worlds have gladness and blessing, and there is peace among upper and lower beings. But when through the sins of this world there are no blessings from these streams, and the “time” sucks from the “other side”, then judgment impends over the world and there is no peace. (III 58a)This passage tells us that we would be fully joined to God but for our own thoughts, words, and deeds. The Zohar continues with Rabbi Simeon credited as saying: “I am amazed to see how little people pay heed to the will of their Master, and how they allow themselves to be wrapped in sleep until the day comes which will cover them with darkness, and when their Master will demand reckoning from them. The Torah calls aloud to them, but none inclines his ear. Mark now that in future generations the Torah will be forgotten… (III, 58a)” This passage indicates that our wrongs, transgressions, and sins are a kind of willful forgetting of what we should be doing. The Torah makes clear that the high priest, the holiest person in the nation, with the exception of Moses, must confess his sins and seek forgiveness numerous times: once for himself, once again for his entire household, and a third time for all the Israelites, in accordance with a selection from Talmud (Yoma 36b) which says that atonement can be with words and with actions, which for him was the sacrificial service.
If our imperfections separate us, us there a way to remove that barrier? The Torah does provide a way to begin to remove the separation. We can initially look at the priest and learn something from his situation. The priest presided over many people bringing sacrifices. He saw people confessing to their actions and errors of judgment. Perhaps this had a good effect on the priest, who may have learned from the people he was meant to teach and minister to. Perhaps he would feel that if those he helped were big enough and wise enough to confess, that he would be encouraged to confess. Also the priest might gradually become more aware of his own shortcomings, come to a fuller realization of his mistakes and want to confess.
We can be sure that if we are not aware of our many shortcomings, God will help us to recognize areas in which we should grow. Just as with the high priest, atonement and repentance provide a way to repair our behavior. They do this by reopening the channels of our love that we have closed off. By engaging in repentance, we signal that we are ready to be forgiven, that we are ready to receive love, because we are ready to give it again. Since our negative behavior prevents us from connecting with God and each other, admitting our less worthy actions is a ritual that begins the cleansing process. However, there is a further step we can take to remove the separation between us and God. One of my favorite teachings from Exodus is that any labor we perform that is not dedicated to a holy purpose goes to waste. We can work and work but it is wasted. This is taught by the offering of a food animal in substitution for a firstborn work animal, like a donkey, which cannot be eaten. Since all firstborn male animals belong to God, if we don’t offer a food animal in its place, the law is that it must be killed, that is, wasted. We never get to benefit from our labor. So dedication: dedicating our work and our efforts to helping: helping each other and helping God – helping the Universe – can bring us closer in our relationship with the Divine Presence. The Chassidic sages also offer some advice. Rabbi Schneur Zalman stresses service. The Baal Shem Tov and R. Dovid Talener say, come before God without arrogance, with humility. And another teaching was suggested as we were studying the prophet Haggai in our Wednesday night study session. We read that when the people returned to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon, Haggai urged them to rebuild the Temple. He said: “Is this a time for you yourselves to sit in your paneled houses? Set your heart to consider your ways. You have sown much but bring in little.” In other words, think about why you are here. This is also a teaching for us. Why are we here? Is it only to eat and drink and enjoy life and then to pass away? Being human means that we have been given a precious gift: that we are here to dedicate ourselves to a higher purpose. As human beings we can refine ourselves and be of help and of service. We are meant to engage in the work of removing the barriers between us and God, seeking forgiveness, purifying ourselves, so that we can improve ourselves and the world and become more of a blessing. We can wake up and remember that we are part of the refining process that will ultimately lead to the Messianic era. May this season of Pesach usher in a new resolve: a rebirth of our capacity to rededicate ourselves to a holy purpose for which we were created and redeemed.

Inside and Outside

This week’s Torah portion is Metzora, which means one who has Tzaraat, a contagious skin disease. This portion describes the ritual of purification for one who has had such a skin disease. It also speaks about ways that people can become ritually contaminated through discharges of body fluid, and it gives instructions for what to do about mold in houses. The imagery of the purification ritual is somewhat strange. Two birds were brought by the person seeking atonement. That person also brought a piece of cedar wood, a length of red wool, folded into a few strands, and a branch of hyssop, a spongy-leafed shrub. One bird was killed over a basin of water. Then the live bird, the wood, and the red wool were dipped in the blood of the bird that was killed. The blood was also sprinkled on the person seeking purification. Then the live bird was set free. Seven days later the person was to shave and immerse clothing and body. On the next day, the eighth day, the person brought a second offering: animals if they could afford it, flour for a meal offering, and oil. These were sin and guilt offerings. The blood of the offerings and some of the oil was put on the person’s big right toe, right thumb, and right ear.
What can this imagery possibly say to us? The two birds are reminiscent of the scapegoat ritual of Yom Kippur, in which two identical goats where brought before the priest. The priest laid hands on the goats to confess the sins of the community over them. One goat became a Yom Kippur offering of atonement and the other symbolically carried the people’s sins away. In the bird purification ritual, one bird flies away, taking the person’s sins and contamination away. But what does the imagery of the blood mean? Perhaps one thing that is being suggested is that our sins and impurities are far more serious than we think – literally matters of life and death.
In addition there is a second and equally valid suggestion. The Torah says about humans, at the end of B’reisheet, “every product of the thoughts of their heart was but evil always.” And in the next portion, in Noah, it says, “…since the imagery of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We know that blood is supposed to stay inside a person. Impurity: body fluids, bacteria, anything icky, are all supposed to be on the inside. These things that are meant to be inside of us perhaps correspond to our thoughts and feelings. When they come out and can be seen by other people, as deeds or hurtful words, they cause problems. In the Torah, skin diseases, like the one Miriam contracted through speech and gossip, are associated with arrogance, hurtful speech and unnecessary gossip. When skin diseases and other things that should be on the inside appear on the outside, then we are called to recognize that more is being expected of us and we need to confess, atone, and be forgiven. We know that the Torah’s negative statements about us are not, by any means, the whole picture. We are made in God’s image and we also yearn for love, goodness, wholeness, and a chance to serve and be of help. The purification ritual allows us to realize that we can bring ourselves closer to God and remove the barrier between us and the Divine Presence that we ourselves have put there. The means to do this has been given to us. Our desire to become cleansed cleanses us; and we can then bring forth into the open what we seldom let out from inside: what is finest in us: our desire and longing for holiness, reverence, goodness and Divinity. May we purify our thought, speech, and deeds, so that we can bring forth what is highest and finest.

The Messages of Illness and Healing

This week’s Torah portion is Tazria, which means, conceives. It speaks about how human beings can be contaminated for ritual purposes, that is, when wanting to bring sacrifices, and how they can be purified. Childbirth, which begins this portion, and the flow of bodily fluids such as blood and sexual emissions, and certain illnesses, such as skin diseases, confer impurity. For childbirth there is a period of days before a person can be purified by washing and bringing offerings, but for illnesses, especially those which might be contagious, the one who is ill is instructed to go to the priest. This tradition was a part of so many human cultures whose shamans: priests and healers combined, knew how to bring people to the gates of the spiritual world. In the Torah, the priest was the authority when it came to illness: and was to look at sores and skin conditions, even mold on houses and garments, to determine whether the person or articles should be quarantined, whether the condition might be worsening or abating, and when it was time for that person to be allowed once again to be reintegrated into the community. We might ask, why does the Torah insist that the priest be the one to make these decisions? Why not a person trained or gifted in diagnosing illnesses: a doctor or back then an herbalist or midwife? We know that in the past, the mind body connection was stronger that it is for us today. When someone had an illness it was presumed that the illness was not occurring as an isolated event, but was connected to the whole person, mind, body, soul, and spirit; and further, that every illness has a spiritual component.
This understanding is reinforced by a quotation from the book of Exodus (15:26): God says to Moses, “if you listen diligently to the voice of God your God and do what is just in God’s sight, listen to the commandments and observe God’s decrees, then any of the diseases I placed in Egypt I will not bring upon you, for I am God, your healer.” This brings us back to the teaching that the moral and physical universes are one, and that we are being guided to greater spiritual and moral attainment. While studying the book of Jeremiah, we also learned that the wound is the cure: that illness, war, and disaster can occur to remedy something that may be out of balance in a person or in the society. The Kotzker Rebbe, quoted in the Soul of the Torah, said, “Where purity is removed, impurity replaces it.”
Religion’s goal is to include and not isolate, as noted in the Etz Chayim commentary. It can help a person to develop another perspective on their illness. Perhaps, then, it is wise that a person with an illness goes to the priest. The priest had to evaluate the illness several times, encouraging a real relationship with the patient; maybe to allow and facilitate the patient confiding in the priest, who could then serve as a conduit to spiritual wisdom and healing. Not that we should ever blame the patient, but that a patient may welcome the support of a sympathetic caring person who would be there for counseling if the person wished it. Also, people may impart different information to a priest than to a doctor. The midrash quotes David’s Psalm 139:5: Backward and forward you have hedged me in, You laid your hand upon me. Perhaps this means that illness serves as a message: a teaching, just as does healing. It can serve as a sign that God expects more of us, or that we have been on one spiritual plateau long enough and are being urged forward. We are meant to pay attention to the dis – ease we feel and to ruminate on our inner condition, allowing us to attain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world. Perhaps a disease also serves, in our scientific time, as a pathway for circling back to our more primitive understanding and reconnecting ourselves to the spiritual mind-body connection our ancestors knew, but on a higher level, integrating our scientific knowledge with our spiritual knowledge. Our sages, like the Apter Rebbe, taught that humans were created last so that we could effect the repair of the entire universe. Tazria teaches that it will be more than enough to repair and improve ourselves, and perhaps, by so doing, bring ultimate repair about. By the pathway of self-improvement, we can reestablish the spiritual balance that results in harmony and good health. The priest, as a denizen of both the practical and spiritual worlds serves as an example to us. May we take the opportunity to look deeply within ourselves and allow the events we experience to speak to us, showing us a pathway of growth and blessing. May we know that we are being led to greater wholeness, kindness, and compassion, in illness as in healing, and may we strive to inhabit both the spiritual and the practical worlds every day of our lives.

Thinking For Ourselves

This week’s Torah portion is Shemini, which means, eighth. On the eighth day after Moses set up the Tabernacle, the sacrificial service was to begin. The priests – Aaron and his four sons - had been sanctifying themselves for seven days. It was the first time the people had gathered to see sacrifice performed on their behalf. Moses had told them that God’s Presence would appear to them and it was a joyous and solemn holiday, full of expectation and devotion. Every sacrifice was offered as commanded and God sent heavenly fire to consume the offerings, manifesting the Divine Presence. But just at that time of celebration, two of Aaron’s sons brought an incense offering that was not commanded and they died tragically, in the sight of everyone. Moses tells Aaron not to leave or to show signs of obvious mourning, lest another tragedy occur. Then there is a controversy about whether Aaron and his remaining sons should eat the sin offering. Moses becomes angry that the commandment to eat it was not followed, but Aaron said, “Now that such things befell me, were I to eat this day’s sin offering, would God approve?” The Torah continues, “Moses heard and he approved.” At the end of this section the dietary laws are given.
Shemini is perhaps the most contradictory portion in the Torah. It teaches a number of important things, so it is interesting to try to untangle its contradictions and draw some conclusions. The first message we get is that when we follow the commandments exactly, God is pleased. This idea is reinforced by the deaths of Aaron’s two sons. They brought “an alien fire that God had not commanded.” But just after that comes the two middle words of the Torah, “darosh darosh: Moses insistently inquired about the sin offering.” Our sages say that the Torah revolves around insistent in inquiry. This teaching is in turn reinforced by Aaron’s exchange with Moses. Aaron feels that he must have sinned, or his sons must have sinned, for his son’s lives to be taken, publicly, by God. He feels that he is not worthy to eat the people’s sin offering and he disobeys God’s direct commandment. When Moses hears Aaron’s reasoning, Moses agrees with him. This teaches the importance of motivation. It shows us that our intention is more important than obeying the letter of the Law. In effect, we are being told by this portion to think and not to think. In Buddhism, a koan is a statement that makes no logical sense, but is given to a student to meditate on, sometimes for years, until the inner meaning is revealed. This portion is a kind of Jewish koan: use your intelligence and emotions to make your own decisions while obeying the commandments exactly. What are we to do? A Catholic priest I know, Henry Fehrenbacher, who is a scholar and intellectual once said, “God gave us brains and God is insulted if we don’t use them.” In agreement with this, the Stone Chumash quotes Rabbi Tzaddok HaKohen who said, “This is the first place in the Torah of the exercise of Oral law, in which reasoning is used to define the parameters of the law.” I would go even further. Our sages taught that there were two categories of Torah: written and oral. But I have begun to teach a third category: Newly Created Torah that arises in our hearts and minds, moment by moment, through which God sends us suggestions, feelings, and convictions about what we should do. One Actors’ Temple congregant calls it “God Guts.” Now this can be dangerous, if we do whatever we want to do. The commandment to wear fringes tries to guard against that and reminds us to do what God asks us to do. We are very good at rationalizing our behavior to convince ourselves that we are doing the right thing when we are not. So perhaps we need some guidelines for the decision making process. Rabbi Gelberman used to ask: “Is it good today and will it be good tomorrow?” And I think we all would ask, “Would it hurt anyone?” I would also add: does it exclude anyone, which certainly comes up in the way we keep or don’t keep the dietary laws. Another guideline might be, “Is this in the spirit of what God asks of me? Shemini teaches that it is as detrimental to follow the commandments blindly and unthinkingly as it is not to follow them. Rabbi Eleazar said in the Talmud, A person should always be pliable as the reed and never unyielding or rigid as the cedar. For this reason the reed merited that of it should be made a pen for the writing of the Law (Taanit 20a). Judaism can only live, the Torah can only live when we make decisions using our intelligence and our ability to make fine distinctions and fuse these abilities with giving, loving, unselfish hearts. Maimonides said that all of the commandments only exist to lead us to holiness. They are a means to an end and not an end in themselves. I personally find life to be a moral quagmire, which is constantly presenting me with difficult and challenging decisions; and I am always trying to keep my mind and my heart open when I make them. Shemini clearly teaches that the written commandments do not cover all circumstances. It is up to us to decide how and when to apply them. It is also incumbent upon us to be totally honest and truthful with ourselves about our motivations, which may often be mixed.
May we use our intelligence, love of others, our compassion, and our sense of justice to decide the way we should go. May our desire to elevate ourselves, to join with and help others guide our decisions, and may we cleave to Goodness, using our intelligence, doing what is right, doing what is asked of us, with love and caring.

Setting Our Sights on Eternity

This week’s Torah portion is Tzav, which means, command. It continues the rules given to the priests concerning the five categories of sacrifices: elevation, grain or meal, feast-peace, sin, and guilt offering. The portion describes how the sacrifices should be offered and who may eat them; then the portion ends with a description of the priests seven day inauguration process.
This portion is really all about process, and it can be read on a metaphoric level as a kind of guide for self improvement and becoming closer to God. The Torah says, “This is the instruction of the elevation offering; It is the elevation offering, that stays on the flame upon the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar should remain aflame on it. The priest ….shall separate the ashes which the fire consumed of the elevation offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a pure place. The fire on the altar shall remain burning on it; it shall not be extinguished; and the priest shall kindle wood on it every morning, and prepare the elevation offering on it; and he cause the fat of the peace offerings to go up in smoke on it. The fire shall be burning always upon the altar; it shall not go out.” The elevation offering is olah in Hebrew. It’s the word for up, the same word as aliyah, to be called up. Our yearning is to become elevated, and this is what makes us most human. In his great work called, the Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman writes about the animal soul and the human soul. This is what B’reisheet, the first Torah portion, speaks about. Once Adam and Eve eat of the fruit and attain human consciousness, the human soul, they are afraid that God will find out what they have done, and they hide. Of course God already knows what they did and where they are, but God makes a big show about their actions, when God pretends to find out. Eve is given the punishment that her pain in childbearing will be increased. This simply happens through fear coming into the world. Fear is not a punishment, then, because just by having left the animal state, they already feel fear. This is evidenced by the fact that they hid after eating the fruit and before receiving the so-called punishment. Fear is about imagining the future, about having calendars and blackberry’s; and it is precisely our ability to think about the future that leads us to want to improve ourselves; living happier and more fulfilled lives. The great gift of fear is that we can set our sights on eternity and visualize what it would be like to be joyous and whole. The Torah speaks about the offering that stays on the flame all night until morning. If night is a metaphor that describes our suffering, then our desire for re-union with the Divine persists through our nights of difficulty, until the joy of the fulfillment comes in the morning. We are instructed to keep our desires burning through the nights, even to add fresh wood to the fire that burns in our souls, which the Talmud calls the service of the heart. The ashes that remain may be that part of ourselves that we know we need to purify. Rabbi Elimelech quotes the Talmud which says, “Great is repentance, since it transforms willful sins into merits” How is this portrayed in the portion? The ashes were taken to a pure place, meaning perhaps that even our less worthy parts can be put in service to holiness. This is reassuring, because it tells us that we don’t need to get rid of the less noble parts of ourselves; we only have to put them to a higher purpose. This is such an important distinction. Many of us in our upbringing were given the message that only some parts of ourselves were loved and accepted or even acceptable. But we are not manufactured in parts; we are whole beings. Carl Jung writes about personality integration; and that is our task: to use more and more of ourselves to serve what is highest and best in us. The Torah speaks about this also as raising the ashes. How can we raise the ashes? In the process of seeking improvement, the person bringing a sacrifice nourished others. The priests, the relatives and friends, the poor, as well as the person bringing the sacrifice: all ate from it; and when we improve ourselves we benefit ourselves as well as others. This portion repeatedly stresses that our fire: our burning desire to love and be loved must not be extinguished. We must nourish our soul’s impulse to perfect ourselves and in so doing to find the joy in life and the fulfillment of spiritual elevation. This is the pinnacle of being human: a quest to leave the animal state even further behind and rise, becoming truly, as the S’fat Emet says, (P. 157) “half above and half below,” half spiritual soul-beings and half matter. May we seize this commandment to continually elevate ourselves; and turn our thoughts, actions, and desires toward Heaven. May we purify ourselves and in so doing, bring nourishment and goodness to all those whose lives we touch.

Union with God, a Parable of Marriage

This week we begin the Book of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah. The first portion, Vayikra, by which the book is known in Hebrew, means: “and called.” God calls to Moses to instruct him about how the priests, the Kohanim, will offer sacrifice. Four categories of sacrifice are outlined: the elevation offering, or olah, the feast peace offering, or zevach shelamim, the sin offering, chatat, and the guilt offering, asham. All of these are voluntary offerings; and the sin and guilt offerings are for unintentional sins and guilt.
Since we don’t practice sacrifice any more, much of what we now discuss in the Book of Leviticus is of a metaphoric nature. But though our practice is so different from what our ancestors did, we, ourselves, are not so fundamentally different; and we can find meaning in the intent of these ancient rituals. Toward the beginning of the portion, the Torah says, “When a person among you will bring an offering to God, from the cattle and from the flocks, you shall bring your offering.” It is noteworthy that there is a word that appears four times in this short excerpt. The word, offering, and the word, bring, in the English, do not really supply the meaning of the Hebrew. The Hebrew words yakriv and karban are from the word karov, meaning: near, soon, close. The sentence could be translated, when you draw near to become close, or when you approach God to offer yourselves. And this puts us in touch with our own yearnings to re-experience the union with God that we lost in the Garden of Eden, when we left the animal state and became conscious.
The prophet, Hosea, makes this yearning for union explicit, describing God as the bridegroom and Israel as the bride, in these famous words that observant Jews recite when putting on tefillin: “I will betroth you unto me forever; I will betroth you unto me in righteousness and justice, in kindness and compassion; I will betroth you unto me in faithfulness; and you shall know God (2:21).” In a certain sense, sacrifice can be understood in light of this metaphor of the wedding between us and God. The Tabernacle is an enclosure like the chuppah, where we come to undergo a ceremony of uniting, and then partake in a wedding feast; and most of the sacrifices were indeed eaten, either by the person bringing herself or himself near, or by the priests, the poor, the relatives and friends of the one bringing the offering, or all of the above. In Hebrew, marriage is referred to as Kiddushin: holiness, and the sacrificial service was an awe inspiring and holy ritual uniting not only us and God but life and death. There are more similarities: just as God’s instructions to Moses in this portion spell out the details of sacrifice, the ketuba or marriage contract at a wedding specifies what each person shall contribute to the union. The Priest carried out the sacred rituals of sacrifice just as a modern rabbi provides a context of holiness for a wedding ceremony. And there is a Jewish custom which is observed by the Orthodox: that Bride and Groom confess and then fast before their wedding, which is analogous to the requirement that the person presenting a sacrifice lean his hands on the sacrifice and confess before the sacrifice is presented, and then cooked on the altar. We bring the best of ourselves to a marriage, as we are commanded to bring that which is unblemished, whole, complete, and the choicest parts as an offering. The act of consummation has its counterpart in sacrifice as well. Rabbi Dvorah Weisberg in The Women’s Torah Commentary, quotes Midrash Tanchuma, which says, “God chose to leave the high heavens and descend to the earth to the Tent of Meeting for the love of Israel.” She says, “God chose concealment over openness. This is a sign of Divine modesty, since what is private is seen by God as more precious.” It is the possibility of experiencing sacredness that unites our contemporary worship and ancient sacrifice. We speak to God in the intimacy of our hearts to attempt to feel the awe and bliss of being attached to our Creator. Our approach, offering, and drawing near is a rededication of ourselves to the best that is in us – the holiness that we can call forth in ourselves if we approach with open hearts, and willing minds. Our aim is to become worthy of what Abraham Joshua Heschl called being noticed by God. We can seek to unite what is separate through our own sincerity of worship, right action, and loving thoughts. We can recreate the awe of life and death that our ancestors experienced in sacrifice and that King Solomon described in The Song of Songs: (8:6, 7) “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is harsh as the grave; its flashes are flashes of fire, a Divine flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it…” The need to draw close to God still exists within us: the need to confess, make right, be cleansed, rejoice, apologize, repent, and elevate ourselves. Though our mechanisms may be different: meditation, ritual, synagogue worship, deeds of loving kindness, charity, and love, our intention to seek out contentment, and our need to feel whole are the same. May we approach our worship and service with the attitudes of awe and the intimacy of lovers, as did our ancient ancestors, and may our drawing near make us whole and be a source of great blessing.

God is Arranging It

This week’s Torah portion is Ki Tissa, which means.” when you take.” It begins with the taking of a census, goes on to appoint two people to oversee the work of the Tabernacle and holy vestments, and reiterates that Shabbat observance supersedes work on the tabernacle for God. Later in the portion, while Moses is gone, the people make and worship a golden calf. Moses wins forgiveness for them and has an intimate encounter with God, in which he hears a description of God’s attributes: that God is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger, forgiving, and great in kindness and truth.
Tonight I’d like to address a recurring theme in the Torah. While the people are worshipping the golden calf, it says, “God said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people, and now desist from me. Let my anger flare up against them and I shall annihilate them and I shall make you a great nation.” This is very similar to a section in the book of Numbers, in which the people have heard the report of the scouts, whose opinion it is that the land cannot be conquered. The people become demoralized and decide to return to Egypt. At that time, the Torah says, “God said to Moses, how long will this people provoke me and how long will they not have faith in me, despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst. I will smite them with the plague and annihilate them and I shall make you a greater and more powerful nation than they.” What are we supposed to think about these two passages? Is God vengeful and punitive or is there something else going on below the surface of the text? My understanding stems from a comment about another incomprehensible passage, the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. In reference to Abraham the sages say that no one is given a test that they cannot pass. These two episodes about Moses are truly just that: they are about Moses and not about the people. In both instances, Moses is given a choice: to continue as the leader of the Jewish people, with all the problems, frustrations, and difficulties that may arise, or to have the problems taken off his hands. In both cases, Moses argues with God and convinces God to save the people. But there is another way to look at this interaction. We say that God is omniscient: all knowing. We also say in Judaism that the past, present, and future are all One, as God and existence are One. So God already knows the outcome of Moses’ choice. God knows what Moses will choose. But – and this is a very important point – God allows Moses free choice. Our free will is never taken away. And by allowing Moses to choose freely, God arranges it so that Moses has to take responsibility for his choice and for signing onto the next leg of the trip, when the going will definitely get tough. Had Moses chosen to kill the Israelites, he would have had to live with the knowledge that he caused all their deaths. So the decision was somewhat of a foregone conclusion. By choosing to intercede for them, it became a win-win situation: Moses passed the tests and he also got to take credit for saving his people. And this helped him to become an even greater leader than he was before, but also helped him spiritually: to grow as a person. What God also caused was that Moses, having agreed to the next leg of the journey, could not complain about how hard the task was, or walk away from it. Taking responsibility means you can’t whine or complain about your choice. This theme of taking responsibility in the Torah, is actually stated for the first time, in B’reisheet, with the story of Adam and Eve. God arranges it so that the fruit was prominently displayed and told the humans not to eat it. But God also planted the suggestion in Eve’s mind, via the serpent, that eating the fruit would be a positive thing, and that it would not cause her death. Eve freely chose to eat the fruit, which made her a conscious human being, knowing right from wrong; but she did not have this knowledge of right and wrong before she ate it, before she chose. God so arranged it that she would grow spiritually and that she would take responsibility for her choice. After the humans became conscious, having exchanged the animal state for the conscious state, they have to work for a living; and fear, the knowledge of the possible future, comes into the world. Having chosen consciousness, they cannot complain or whine about their choice. This is how the world works. We get to choose and then take responsibility for our choices by not complaining about them or blaming anyone for what we have chosen. But we should also be aware of what this portion teaches us: that God is, through suggestion and circumstance, arranging for our spiritual growth. God is not a punitive or angry God. God is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger, forgiving, and great in kindness and truth. God is the One who leads us to tests, in which we can test ourselves against our own sense of rightness and goodness, and morality, which come from our Godly souls and God-given natures. God’s guidance and wisdom arranges win-win situations for us: a path for us along which our blessings lie. Our growth and our blessings are dependent on our willingness to partner with God in the planned forward motion. May we realize that our circumstances are helping us to grow, and choose with faith the positive direction that is being arranged for us.

Being Our Own Priest

This week’s Torah portion is Tetzaveh, which means, Command. It contains the instructions for the Eternal light, the New Tamid, to be continually kindled at night. God describes the design of the eight priestly garments and tells Moses to dress the priests, the Kohanim, in them and to inaugurate the priests during a seven day consecration ceremony. The specifications for an incense altar are given, as is the commandment not to offer any alien incense.
Early in the portion, the Torah says, “Now you, bring near to yourself Aaron your Brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel…to minister to me. (28:1)” This is the creation of the Priesthood in Judaism. Moses, Aaron his brother, and his sons, were of the Tribe of Levi. A very few of the Levites, just Aaron and his four sons and their male children were to become priests. At this time, the priests were to carry out the service of sacrifice. This necessitated coming into daily contact with the holy objects within the Tabernacle: the altar of sacrifice and the big bowl, called the laver, which was filled with water for washing; and in the Tent of Meeting: the ark, the menorah, the table for show bread, and the incense altar. Because these objects were in close proximity to God’s presence, manifested as a cloud shaped like a pillar, over the Tabernacle, It was important for the priests to purify themselves and to be as holy as possible; because it could be physically dangerous to them to be in an impure state while offering sacrifice or being near the holy objects. The priests protected the people from dangerous contact with a level of purity they could not match. The Priesthood was abolished during Roman times, at the time of the destruction of the second Temple in 70 CE. But this is not quite the end of the story.
Before the giving of the Ten Commandments, in Exodus, God says to Moses, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation,” This was to be a new system for human kind, which could only be fully realized after the abolition of a formal priesthood. Clearly, the original desire was that each of us be our own priest; and that is the system we have right now. It is the direction in which we are moving and being led. What does being a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, mean today? When we say in our prayers, Baruch atah Adonai, we address God as atah, YOU, before we address God as Melech haOlam, Ruler of the Universe. This YOU, is the God who is as close to us as breathing, as close as our own hearts and feelings. The commandment, “Bring near to yourself,” reinforces this desire for intimacy. The Lubavitcher Rebbe points out that the Hebrew word, Command, is related to the root for the word “connect.” And the Koznitzer Rebbe says that it’s also related to the root meaning “befriend.” So the intent of the priesthood was the creation of a group of people who were not supposed to be higher than everyone else, necessarily, but to be more connected to God, in more of an intimate, familiar relationship with the aspect of God we address as YOU: the loving God who is always our friend, always there for us. How did the priests achieve this? The priests prepared themselves for their office in a seven day inauguration ceremony that required them to be separated from the community, dwelling in the Tabernacle boundaries and not leaving them for any reason. They maintained their purity by drawing near to God through the elaborate and precisely defined rituals of sacrificial service; in short, through dedicating their actions to a holy purpose and being scrupulous in following directions exactly, a form of subjugating their will to God’s will. Anyone who could not follow directions was bound to come to grief.
We, as modern priests, have a slightly different path to the same end. In the book, Living Mussar Every Day, by Rabbi Zvi Miller, he quotes a teaching by the Alter Rebbe of Kelm who said: “The Divine service we are charged with is preparation to receive spiritual treasures. All that is required of us is to prepare and purify ourselves through Torah and Mitzvot. If we strengthen ourselves in this, God, in great love, will bless and help us in the most wondrous of ways.” Our task is to find that inner fineness and purity that will allow us to experience our connection to God and to be able to recognize and accept Divine friendship. Like the ancient priests, we do this through service. The Zohar says, “Blessed are the Israelites, who entered and came out and comprehended the mystery of the ways of the Torah, to walk in the way of truth. .. because only from there is unity possible, for the children of Israel stand here below as emissaries of the Most High, to open the gates, to shed light upon the ways, to kindle the radiance of the heavenly fire, to draw all things that are below near to them that are above, in order that all may become a unity Zohar II:181b.” The purpose of our service is healing and harmonizing in the world: kindling inner radiance and bringing truer values to our lives; helping to create a society that is more connected to its spiritual source. By identifying and aligning ourselves with that which is most God-like in us, and by service: being of use and of help in the universe, we bring ourselves near to the source of goodness, the source of love, friendship and intimacy that nurtures and supports us and our well being. The Zohar says, ‘The Place which You have made for Your dwelling place, God, for the Sanctuary, God, which You prepared.’ “This implies the necessity of building a sanctuary below, corresponding to the Sanctuary above, wherein the Holy One is daily served and worshipped. Zohar Raya Mehemna: 59b.” This describes our task as modern priests: to heal, to help, and to teach ourselves, others, and ultimately give back to the world by our commitment to purification and closeness to our Divine connection: to make a dwelling place in this world for the part of God that can be rooted here. May we take upon ourselves this sacred mission, and experience the harmonizing power of holiness in our lives.