Everlasting Sacrifices: Mystery and Purpose
Written by me SIMSHALOM on Torah portion of VAYIKRA.

(Hi, hope your preparations for Passover are going well. Related to the Torah portion for this week, starting Leviticus, chapter 1, verse 1 – chapter 5, verse 26, read in synagogue March 27th `04. See English text and commentary of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan at http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=3&CHAPTER=1
This Tuesday started the Hebrew month of Nisan closely tied to Passover, see http://www.ou.org/chagim/roshchodesh/nisan/default.htm Dedicated to my parents.)

Everlasting Sacrifices: Mystery and Purpose

This week the Torah commences with what is probably the toughest book for modern Western people to comprehend, let alone accept: The book of Leviticus with its myriad laws and instructions concerning the sacrificial rituals and commands that needed to be performed in the Tabernacle – “MISHKAN” that God had commanded Moses and the Israelites to build in the wilderness after they escaped from ancient Egypt during the Exodus over 3,300 years ago. The sacrifices were continued when they reached the Promised Land and in the Two Jewish Temples, during a total time frame of about 1,300 years.

Most people do not give the subject a moment’s intelligent thought. In some people’s imagination, the animal sacrifices of the ancient Israelites is as archaic and irrelevant as the mystifying habits of the Aztecs and Incas or the obscure rituals of some primitive tribes in far away places. Yet smack-dab in the middle of the Torah is its third book, called LEVITICUS because it deals with the duties of the Tribe of LEVI in the Tabernacle and Temples, entailing many sorts of sacrificial laws of varieties of animals, foods, incense, for all sorts of reasons ranging from the daily and holiday offerings, sin offerings, purification laws and offerings, as well as many related commandments.

Amazingly close to 250 of the Torah 613 permanent commandments – ‘MITZVOT” are enumerated and described in the book of Leviticus. This means that in some sense ALMOST half of classical Judaism’s core commandments are to be found in a very strange primary source.

Now some have been tempted to just “chuck” the whole notion of animal and other related sacrificial offerings “overboard” and prefer, if at all, to look for Judaism’s eternal moral and spiritual teachings un-attached from any cumbersome and hard to explain ancient rituals. After all, the argument goes, for two thousand years the Jews have been in exile and have not had any temple to practice what the Torah preaches in Leviticus, so what counts are the humanistic and moralistic and even spiritual lessons of Judaism. This view is very shortsighted because it suffers from “historical myopia”. Anyone who would care to take a very close look at classical Judaism throughout time, will find that the Jewish People, as a self-described Torah Nation, NEVER DISCONNECTED or ABANDONED THEIR ATTACHMENT TO THE RITUALS OF THE SACRIFICIAL OFFERINGS.

The great mystic, philosopher, and Talmudic genius, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (Latvia, England, Israel, 1864 – 1935) the first official Chief Rabbi of then British Palestine now Israel, wrote about this subject in great depth.

For your enjoyment and enlightenment, here are some brief passages as translated and quoted by Chanan Morrison:

“The Purpose of Sacrifices”http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/AHAREI63.htm

“Why did God command Israel to serve Him through sacrifices?”

“ Maimonides [Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, (Spain, North Africa, Egypt, 1135 –1204)] known as The ‘RAMBAM’ (with an ‘M’ at the end) gave a controversial explanation in his ‘Guide to the Perplexed’ (III: 32,46). He wrote that the purpose of sacrifices was to wean the Israelites away from idolatry. Having grown accustomed to this form of worship in Egypt, it was impossible to draw them away from idolatry without a service of sacrifices to God.”

“Other [rabbinical] authorities such as Nachmanides [Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Spain, North Africa, Israel, 1194 – 1270) known as The ‘RAMBAN’ (with an ‘N’ at the end)], and Rabbeinu Behayei [(Rabbi Bachya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda (Spain, c.1050 – c.1120)] categorically rejected this idea. Yet there appears to be a supporting source for Maimonides in the Midrash. After describing the unique Temple service of Yom Kippur, the Torah states, ‘Then the Israelites will stop sacrificing to the demons’ [Leviticus, chapter 17, verse 7). The Sages explained this unusual verse via the following parable: ‘This is like the case of an unrefined prince who would eat un-slaughtered meat. The king said: let him always eat at my table, and automatically he will become accustomed to avoid from such foods. So too, the people of Israel were enthralled with Egyptian idolatry. Therefore God said: let them always bring their offerings before Me.’ [Vayikra Rabba 22:8]”

“The Midrash indicates that God commanded the Jewish people to offer sacrifices in order to wean them from Egyptian idolatry - just like Maimonides! Yet if we examine this Midrash carefully, we will see that it does not truly correlate to Maimonides' explanation for sacrifices.”

“The king requested his son join in the royal meals in order to correct his unruly habits. Yet eating at the king's table is not just a method of discipline. Simply being present at the royal table is in itself a wonderful thing. The true thrust of the parable is this: the prince, due to his inappropriate behavior, did not deserve to eat at his father's table at all meals. The king requested his presence at all times in order to refine his eating habits. Above and beyond its educational value, however, participation in a royal meal is a great privilege.”

“Similarly, the service of God through sacrifices is a truly wonderful matter. Through this form of divine service one merits experiencing sublime holiness. It is like ‘eating at the table of the king’, where one benefits the illuminating favor of the King of life. This Midrash does not refer to the Temple service in general, but rather to a specific situation immediately following the Exodus from Egypt. During their 40-year sojourn in the desert, the Israelites were not allowed to eat meat unless it came from a sacrifice offered in the Tabernacle (see Deuteronomy, chapter 12, verse 20 allowing them to eat meat when they get to the Land of Israel). This was a temporary measure for that generation alone.”

“Why was non-sacrificial meat forbidden to them?”

“Having just left Egypt and its idolatrous culture, it was necessary to stop the Israelites from worshipping foreign gods. Therefore God commanded that generation to eat only meat from sacrifices offered in the Tabernacle, insuring that none would privately continue the idolatrous practices of Egypt. This is precisely the point of the Midrash. The requirement to eat only sacrificial meat was a special decree for the generation leaving Egypt, weaning them from idolatry. Yet the fundamental concept of offering sacrifices in the prescribed times and situations as set down by the Torah - this has its own sublime goal.”

“Perhaps this was also the intention of the prophet Jeremiah, who tried to discourage the people from offering unwanted sacrifices: ‘So said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, [it would be better that] you eat the meat. For I did not speak nor command your fathers concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices when I took them out of Egypt. This is the thing I commanded them: Listen to My voice, and I will be your God and you will be My people.’ (Jeremiah, chapter 7, vs. 21-23)”

“How could the prophet say that God did not command sacrifices?”

“The people of Jeremiah’s day wanted to emulate the holy practices of the Israelites in the desert, only eating sacrificial meat. The prophet therefore explained to them that the special decree at that time was not for reasons of spiritual elevation, but in order that the newly freed Israelites would abandon idolatry and listen to God's voice. [(Translated from Rabbi Kook’s) ‘Midbar Shur’ pp. 158-9]. [1]

So what is “The Goal of Sacrifices?”
http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/VAYIK62.htm

“Sacrifices are not an innovation of the Jewish people.”

“Noah also offered sacrifices to God. Yet not all offerings are of the same quality. As the Midrash illustrates: ‘There was once a king who had two cooks. The first cooked a meal that the king ate and enjoyed; and the second also cooked a meal that the king ate and enjoyed. How do we know which meal the king enjoyed more? When the king subsequently commanded the second cook, ‘Make for me again the dish you prepared’, we know the second was the king’s preferred dish.’ According to the Midrash, the very fact that the Torah commands the people of Israel to offer sacrifices indicates that God prefers their offerings to those which Noah initiated on his own accord.”

“How do we evaluate the relative worth of different sacrifices? What distinguishes the service of Israel from that of Noah?”

“We can assess offerings according to their ultimate goal. The more elevated the goal, the more acceptable the offering. Noah’s objective differed greatly from that of the people of Israel. Noah sought to preserve the physical world. He wanted to protect it from Divine retribution. ‘God smelled the sweet fragrance and said in His heart, ‘I will no longer curse the land because of man’. (Genesis, chapter 8, verse 21).”

“The offerings of Israel had a far more sublime goal. They sought to establish divine providence amongst mankind. Their goal was to uplift the individual to levels of divine inspiration and prophecy. ‘Make for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in their midst.’ (Exodus, chapter 25, verse 8). This distinction between the objective of Noah’s offerings and those of Israel is reflected in the unique phrases the Torah uses to describe them. Noah’s offerings had a ‘sweet fragrance’, while those of Israel are referred as ‘My bread’ (Numbers, chapter 28, verse 2).”

“What is the difference between a fragrance and bread?”

“When an animal eats vegetation, the plant life is absorbed and transformed into part of the animal. In this way the plant has achieved a higher state of being. When an animal is consumed by a human, the animal is similarly elevated as it becomes part of that human being. This transformation to a higher state through consumption corresponds to an offering which strives towards a higher state of existence. The offerings of Israel are appropriately called ‘My bread’, as the change to which they aspire - perfection as prophetic beings - is similar in magnitude to the transformations of plant to animal and animal to man.”

“The offerings of Noah, on the other hand, had only a ‘sweet fragrance'’. They gave off a wonderful smell and appealed to the natural senses, but did not attempt to effect a change in nature. Their purpose was to maintain the natural world, to perfect man within the framework of his normal intellectual capabilities. In fact, the offerings of the Jewish people encompass both of these goals. Therefore they are described both as ‘sweet fragrance’ and ‘My bread’, as we aspire to perfection in two areas: natural wisdom and divine prophecy. [(Translated from Rabbi Kook’s) ‘Midbar Shur’ pp. 155-158] [2]

WILL THERE BE ANIMAL SACRIFICES IN THE THIRD TEMPLE?
http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/VAYIKRA58.htm

Here is Rabbbi Kook’s fascinating, partial, reply: “[(Chanan Morrison says that) ‘Rabbi Kook’s views on the Temple service are sometimes misunderstood. A superficial reading of a passage in (Rabbi Kook’s work) ‘Olat Ri'iah’ (I, p. 292) indicates that only grain offerings (‘menachot’) will be found in the reinstated Temple service. To properly understand Rabbi Kook’s opinion on the matter, it is necessary to examine his essay on the sacrificial order in ‘Otzarot Hari'iah’, pp. 754-6.’]”

“In the future, the Cabalists teach, the entire world will be elevated. Even the animals in that future era will be different; they will be similar to people nowadays. [In the work: ‘Shaar Hamitzvot’ of the Ari, Rabbi Isaac Luria (Yitzhak ben Solomon Ashkenazi), (Egypt, Israel, 1534 – 1572)]. Obviously, no sacrifice could be offered from such a humanlike animal. It is about this period that the Midrash states, "All sacrifices will be annulled in the future" [Tanchuma Emor 19, Vayikra Rabbah (9:7)].”

“The prophet Malachi similarly predicted a lofty world in which the Temple service will only consist of grain offerings, replacing the animal sacrifices of old: ‘Then the grain-offering (‘MINCHAH’) of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to God as in the days of old, and as in ancient years’. (Malachi, chapter 3, verse 4).”

“In the current state of the world, however, when man is both physically and ethically weak, the time for dealing with animal rights has not yet arrived. We still need to slaughter animals for our physical needs. In addition, man needs moral boundaries to distinguish between the distinct sanctity of human and animal life. At this point, to advocate protection for animals in God’s service would be both wrong and dishonest. What sort of morality would permit man to be cruel to animals for his own physical needs, yet forbid their use for his spiritual service, in his sincere recognition and gratitude for God's kindnesses?”

“If, on the other hand, one’s moral stance against the slaughter of animals stems not from weakness of the spirit and cowardice of the heart, but rather from recognition of the issue’s fundamental divine justice - then the first step towards its fulfillment should be to stop animal slaughter for food. If we feel an emotional discomfort with the slaughter of animals, it is not because the time for full animal rights has already arrived. Rather, it comes from our anticipation of the future, already ingrained in our souls, like many other spiritual aspirations.” [3]

Finally, HOW ARE “SACRIFICES” ACHIEVED TODAY WITHOUT A TEMPLE?

“Sacrifices vs. Fasting”
http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/VAYIKRA59.htm

“When the Talmudic scholar Rav Sheshet fasted, he would add the following request to his Amida (Standing) prayer: ‘Master of the Universe! You know that when the Temple stood, a person who sinned would bring a sacrifice. The fat and blood would be offered on the altar, and the person would be forgiven. Now I have fasted, and my fat and my blood have shrunk. May it be Your Will that the lessening of my fat and my blood should be considered as if I offered them on the altar, and my sacrifice was accepted.’ [(Talmud, Tractate) Berachot, 17].”

“Rav Sheshet's prayer is inspiring, but it raises a few questions:”

“Why bother bringing sacrifices if we can achieve the same atonement through fasting?”

“Why were the fat and blood of the sacrifices the only parts offered on the altar (for sin and guilt offerings)?”

“Rabbi Kook writes that there are two major categories of transgressions. The first type are sins which are the result of excessive involvement in sensual pleasures, luxuries, etc. These sins are atoned via the fats of the offering. The second category of transgressions are motivated by actual need: hunger, poverty. Such physical or financial pressures can persuade one to lie, steal, even murder. The atonement for such sins is through the blood of the offering.”

“By fasting, we can imitate the sacrifice of fat and blood in the Temple. However, there is an important difference. An actual sacrifice served to humble the negative traits and desires. Fasting, on the other hand, weakens the entire body. Just as chemotherapy poisons other parts of the body as it fights the cancer, so too the fast serves to sap both positive and negative emotional energies. The desire to help others, to do ‘mitzvot’ – commandments, to study Torah, etc, are also reduced by the fast. Therefore Rav Sheshet used to pray that his fasting would achieve the redemptive value of an offering in the Temple, without the negative side-effect of sapping positive energies and desires. (Translated from Rabbi Kook’s) Ayn Aya I: 82].” [4]

The magnificent teachings of the great Rabbi Isaac Abraham Kook cover some of the most important dimensions of the relevance of the subject of Sacrifices for our times!
May we merit to internalize and rejoice with his holy words!

Have a great Shabbat, and please let me know what you think!

[1] Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, as quoted and translated by Chanan Morrison, http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/AHAREI63.htm
[2] Ibid., http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/VAYIK62.htm
[3] Ibid., http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/VAYIKRA58.htm
[4] ibid., http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/VAYIKRA59.htm
- posted by Izak @ 11:42 PM (0) comments

 
Seeing Double: Perfect Ideal - Imperfect Reality
ESSAY ON THE WEEKLY TORAH PORTION/S: VAYAKHEL-PEKUDEI.

Written by ME Simshalom

(Related to this week’s DOUBLE Torah portions of Vayakhel-Pekudei (“Assembled”-“Instructions”), Exodus, chapter 35, verse 1 – chapter 40, verse 38, read in synagogue 20th March `04. English text and commentary at
http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=35 English-Hebrew texts at http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0235.htm#1 and http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0238.htm#21 We conclude the Book of Exodus.
This Shabbat is the 4th of the four special Sabbaths, coming before Passover, called “Shabbat HaChodesh” – “Sabbath of the [First] Month [of Nisan]”, see http://www.ou.org/chagim/fourshabbatot/hachodesh.htm Dedicated to my parents.)

Seeing Double: Perfect Ideal - Imperfect Reality

“What’s in a number?” is a famous colloquial question with pretty much very wide usage! I tried doing a Google search on the origins and usage of this trite English expression, and so far, from what I can tell, it can be used any time anyone has a question to do with numbers of any sort, see http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=What%27s+in+a+number%3F+&btnG=Google+Search

It’s taken humanity thousands of years to reach the point today, when only relatively recently, has the significance of “numbers” come forth as a force in the D I G I T A L AGE we live in now. Of course, from the dawn of human creation there has been the existence of “bean counters”, wall scratchings, and abacus usage. But we are talking about a more powerful and potent sublime essence that lies within the whole construct of the concept of a “number”, when WE ask “What’s in a number?”

Why do I mention “numbers” and how is it related to this week’s Torah readings?

Firstly it is fascinating to note that the first time the usage of a “DOUBLE TORAH PORTION OF THE WEEK” appears, is with this week’s two portions of “Vayakhel – Pekudei”. Perhaps there is a “signal” here that sometimes it is VITAL to be prepared to “SEE DOUBLE”! A single telescope is great for a “telescopic” view! Yet BINOCULARS are far more fascinating because you use BOTH eyes and instead of “SEEING DOUBLE” you paradoxically get ONE UNIFIED VIEW, AS THE TWO LENSES MERGE THEIR IMAGES INTO A SINGLE BROADER VIEW THAN THE TELESCOPE’S ONE LENSE COULD EVER CAPTURE! It may well be that it is NO co-incidence that there are times when the Torah calls out to us to see things “WITH WIDE RANGING BINOCULARS” and leave aside the limitations of a “narrow view” of things.

There are several points in the Torah when it becomes necessary to “double up” the Torah portions on an individual Shabbat. One reason is that the Torah-Five Books of Moses-Chumash-Pentateuch is traditionally divided into 54 portions, two more than the available weeks. Another reason is that whenever a major festival coincides with a Shabbat, then the regular weekly Torah portions are not read and instead passages dealing with the festival are read. The Jewish calendar also has “leap years” when basically an extra month is added every three years, and then the “extra” portions are all used individually.

In addition, and most significantly, there is something seemingly REDUNDANT and extremely unusual that is described in this week’s Torah portion/s concerning the “MISHKAN” – TABERNACLE, the portable Sanctuary, when God instructed the Israelites to build it. The Torah seems to “repeat itself” when first, in earlier portions, it gives copious commands and details for everything that is to go into the making of the Tabernacle and the attire and functions of its Priests, the “KOHANIM”, and now it doubles up and repeats all the details again as to how everything was finally built and put together:

WHY DOES THE TORAH “REPEAT” THE SUBJECT OF THE TABERNACLE IN GREAT DETAIL TWICE?!
THIS IS A GREAT PUZZLE BECAUSE THE TORAH IS VERY ECONOMICAL AND MEASURED WHEN USING ANY LETTERS OR WORDS!
SO WHAT IS THE MEANING AND POSSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR ALL THE “TALK IN DUPLICATE”?
IN A NUTSHELL: WHY IS THE TORAH “SEEING DOUBLE” AT THIS POINT? DOES IT FIT IN WITH TORAH TOPICS THAT ARE SIMILAR?

Judaism believes that everything is ultimately derived from the Torah.

(For example, the great Sage of Vilna in Lithuania, the VILNA GAON [“GENIUS”], Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer (Lithuania, 1720 – 1797) is reputed to have mentioned that each and every Jew that has ever lived has letters or words that allude to him ONLY in the Torah. When asked where he, the GAON, was alluded to in a verse, he is reported to have cited Deuteronomy, chapter 25, verse 15: (in Hebrew) “Even Sh`leimah [Vatzedek Yiheyeh Lach…]” – “STONE OF ‘COMPLETION’ [of Honest Weight] AND RIGHTEOUSNESS YOU MUST HAVE…”. The Hebrew word “EVEN” means “stone”, but its letters equal: “E” for “Eliyahu”, “VEN” means “son of”, and “Sh`leimah” has the exact same letters as “SHLOMOH” – Solomon.)

So what is the significance of the two great descriptions about the Tabernacle?

There are a number of directions to go in answering these questions. I will mention more later, but here are what are probably vital avenues of understanding:

In Genesis, there are actually TWO seemingly separate narratives about the Creation of Adam and Eve and what happened to them. The famous Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik (Poland, Germany, USA, 1903 - 1993), the greatest head of Yeshiva University, called it the “ADAM ONE” and “ADAM TWO” dichotomy. From Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1 till chapter 2, verse 3, all of Creation proceeds smoothly culminating with the creation of ADAM described as being BOTH MALE AND FEMALE: “God [thus] created ADAM with His image. In the image of God, He created him, MALE AND FEMALE He created them” (Genesis, chapter 1, verse 27), and then concludes with a climax of the Sabbath which is Sanctified. That is “ADAM ONE” before his downfall. The Torah then mystifyingly seems to “backtrack” and “ruminate” with another scenario seemingly dealing with the same period, from Genesis, chapter 2, verse 4 going into details of why and how Adam needed Eve and how the two of them botched up their positions and got themselves expelled from Eden ending with Genesis, chapter 3, verse 24. This is the saga of “ADAM TWO” after the sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and bringing suffering and death into the world, thus ruining the ideal Utopia that God had in mind.

As far as Adam and Eve are concerned, in some ways they are the SAME and in some ways they are different. There is an IDEALISTIC beginning of the way things “should have been, and then there is the way things turned out in “REALITY”.

But, the “IDEAL” is not “dead’, and “REALITY” need not be accommodated! The whole thrust of the Torah will be to point to the ways in which somehow or other people can clamber over the world of their shattered dreams, and a world broken by all sorts of “downfalls” and inch back to the highest peeks of bygone ideals! This is probably the essence of Judaism, that this imperfect world of ours can and will be overcome and humanity will yet return to a state of “PERFECTION”. Thus Judaism’s approach is to REJECT an acceptance and compromise with an abominable “REALITY” and declare that it is the so-called previously desired “fairy tale ending” of “living happily ever after” that is the ideal that must be accepted and lived as “REALITY”!

This pattern is repeated at the time of the Tabernacle. There is the significance of the Tabernacle BEFORE the SIN OF (WORSHIPING) THE GOLDEN CALF and the purpose of the Tabernacle AFTER the SIN OF (WORSHIPING) THE GOLDEN CALF.

Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum at http://www.azamra.org/Universal/TERUMAH.htm introduces this subject as follows:
“ABOVE SHALL BE BELOW, BELOW ABOVE:
From the portion of TERUMAH onwards
http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=25
until the end of the book of Exodus – five portions, -- the central theme is the Sanctuary – ‘MISHKAN’ built by the Children of Israel in the Wilderness. The Sanctuary is the prototype of the Holy Temple destined to stand eternally in Jerusalem.
In TERUMAH it explains the design of the Sanctuary and its vessels, while the portion of TETZAVEH explains
http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=28
the garments that were to be worn by those who were to minister in that Sanctuary -- Aaron and his sons. TETZAVEH also explains the sacrificial rituals that were to inaugurate the Sanctuary and its priests.
After TETZAVEH comes KI TISA,
http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=30
which continues the explanation of the form of the Sanctuary vessels and the sacrifices. When this explanation is complete, KI TISA goes on to narrate the sin of the Golden Calf and how Moses secured atonement for the people through the 13 Attributes of Mercy.”

“Then come the last two ‘parshahs’ of Exodus, VAYAKHEL
http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=35
and PEKUDEY
http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=38 which explain how Bezalel and the other craftsmen actually constructed the Sanctuary and made the priestly clothes. VAYAKHEL and PEKUDAY repeat practically word for word some of the corresponding passages in TERUMAH and TETZAVEH.
PEKUDEY then concludes the book of Exodus with the account of the inauguration of the Sanctuary and the priests on the New Moon of the first Nissan after the Exodus. This was exactly one year to the day since Moses received the first commandments while still in Egypt: the law of the New Moon and the Pesach sacrifice, prototype of Temple sacrifice.”

“At the close of TETZAVEH and Exodus, we read how God's Cloud of Glory dwelled constantly over the Sanctuary. Leviticus opens immediately with the Voice of God emanating to Moses from between the mouths of the Cherubs in the Holy of Holies, giving him the detailed laws of the Temple sacrifices.
From this overview of the remaining five ‘parshahs’ of Exodus, we see that the subject of the Sanctuary -- central to the Torah and to the whole world -- is introduced in ‘sandwich’ form. TERUMAH and TETZAVEH explain the intended form of the Sanctuary and priestly garments BEFORE they were executed, when they were in the ‘mind’ and will of God. In the middle of the ‘sandwich’ is the account of the sin of the Golden Calf and it's atonement through the 13 Attributes of Mercy. Then on the other side of the ‘sandwich’ come VAYAKHEL and PEKUDEY, which tell how the Sanctuary IDEA was brought from POTENTIAL TO ACTUAL through the thirty-nine labors of the craftsmen who made it.”

“At the very center of this ‘sandwich’ structure is the account of the sin of the Golden Calf -- which changed everything for the Children of Israel. In the heady days of the Exodus and the Giving of the Torah, the Children of Israel were elevated to the greatest heights. Then suddenly, forty days after hearing the Voice of God at Sinai, in one single orgy they sank to the lowest depths of degradation. From then on they had to learn the terrible pain of retribution, suffering and contrition. This was a loss of innocence parallel to the eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

“But God had already prepared the remedy before the illness. Indeed, we might even say that the illness was sent with the very purpose of revealing the great power of the remedy. The remedy for sin is repentance, which saves man from himself and brings him back to the One God, bringing him atonement -- AT-ONE-MENT. The penitential ‘system’ of the Torah is contained within the Sanctuary and its sacrificial rituals, which are a teaching to mankind about how man draws close (‘KaRoV’) to God through his KORBAN (‘sacrifice’) -- literally, his ‘coming close’. As the way of repentance for having elevated wealth to the status of a god, man is commanded to take gold, silver, copper and the richest fabrics in order to glorify and magnify the One True God. Man is taught how to configure the materials of this world so that instead of separating him from God through idolatrous uses and configurations, they will serve to draw him ever closer, until God Himself ‘dwells’ with man.”

“TERUMAH and TETZAVEH present us the Sanctuary and sacrificial IDEA before we have even learned about sin. The lesson of the Golden Calf in KI TISA is harsh. But it is sweetened, because immediately after Moses secured atonement for Israel through the 13 Attributes of Mercy, the very next day he assembled the people and told them to bring gifts of materials and to get busy making the ACTUAL sanctuary, as told in VAYAKHEL and PEKUDEY. Thus the bitterness of sin in KI TISA is ‘sandwiched’ between the sweetness of TERUMAH & TETZAVEH (the Teshuvah IDEA [‘Return’ to God, i.e. REPENTANCE] in all its innocent purity) and VAYAKHEL and PEKUDEY (the ACTUALIZATION of Teshuvah in the Sanctuary in this world.) [This ‘sandwich’ is reminiscent of how in Temple times, Hillel would eat his Pesach sacrifice with the bitter herbs in a ‘sandwich’ with his Matza.]”

“The Torah never wastes a word or a single letter. It is therefore a great wonder that many of the passages about the Sanctuary, its vessels and the priestly garments that we read this week and next in TERUMAH and TEZTAVEH are, as mentioned, repeated almost word for word in VAYAKHEL and PEKUDEY. The ‘mirroring’ of the explanation of the IDEA in the account of its ACTUALIZATION comes to communicate something that is at the very core of the Temple-Sanctuary idea. The Temple or Sanctuary are a ‘replica’ and ‘mirror’ of the Heavenly Sanctuary, which is in the ‘mind’ or will of God. They are a ‘replica’ in which the materials of this world -- metals, wood, fabrics, etc. -- are used to bring a ‘reflection’ of heaven into the minds and consciousness of ordinary people.”

“In this way, what is ‘above’ – ‘in heaven’ -- actually dwells and exists in material form in this world ‘below’. And through this, ‘below’ becomes ‘above’. ‘And they will take for Me an offering… And they will make Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell WITHIN THEM’ (Exodus, chapter 25 vs. 2, 8).” [1]

Continuing at http://www.azamra.org/Universal/VAYAKHEL.htm Rabbi Greenbaum says:
“PRAXIS:
The greater part of our ‘parshah’ – portion, of VAYAKHEL is devoted to a detailed description of how Bezalel and his fellow craftsmen made the sanctuary vessels and its structural components in accordance with the plan whose details are studied three ‘parshahs’ earlier in TERUMAH. While TERUMAH taught how they were to be made when they were still on the level of thought, ‘BE-KOACH’, in POTENTIALITY -- our ‘parshah’ of VAYAKHEL teaches how they came to made BE-PHO'AL, in ACTUALITY, on the level of ‘ASIYAH’, action.” [2]

And at http://www.azamra.org/Universal/PEKUDEY.htm Rabbi Greenbaum concludes :

“THE CENTRAL IMPORTANCE OF THE TZADDIK:
The ‘accounts’ of the Sanctuary project include blue, purple and scarlet dyes, one of the most important uses of which was in the garments of the High Priest. This leads us into the detailed account contained in our ‘parshah’ of how these garments were actually made by Bezalel and his fellow craftsmen. This description of the making of the priestly garments in ACTUALITY, on the level of ‘ASIYAH’, parallels the description in ‘parsha’s’ TETZAVEH of the form of the garments when they were in POTENTIAL, in the Divine Will. [Similarly, the description of the actual making of the Sanctuary and its vessels in ‘parshas’ VAYAKHEL, parallels the description of their form in TERUMAH.] The world of ASIYAH [‘ACTION’] attains its perfection when we take its best materials -- gold, precious stones, rich, colorful fabrics -- and use them to make the Sanctuary and priestly garments, which give expression to eternal truths about God's relationship to the Creation, and how man draws close to God. The description of the making of the priestly garments puts the spotlight on Aaron. It is the Cohen-priest, the archetypal ‘Tzaddik’ – ‘RIGHTEOUS PERSON’, who secures atonement through the Sanctuary services and through his very garments.” [3]

Perhaps the fact that the Torah has TWO descriptions of the Tabernacle is a major historical allusion (NOT illusion :-} ) to the TWO HOLY TEMPLES that eventually stood in Jerusalem for a little over 400 years each later in time. There would be an IDEAL beautiful “PERFECT” FIRST TEMPLE - “BAYIT RISHON” built of the most beautiful materials by King Solomon and untarnished by sin. It contained all the contents of the original ark plus more things that King Solomon added to it. However, after a period of 400 years the Children of Israel would succumb to the same ills that befell the Children of Israel at the time of the Golden Calf: Idol Worship; Sexual Immorality; and Shedding of Innocent Blood (Murder). The destruction of the First Temple is also analogous to the destruction of the FIRST SET OF TEN COMMANDMENTS. Then began the upward climb of rehabilitation. Just as the Children of Israel are forgiven and are granted a SECOND SET OF TEN COMMANDMENTS, this is analogous to the rise of a SECOND TEMPLE – “BAYIT SHENI”, that was not as holy as the first but was instead an embodiment of the forgiveness that had been granted.

The goal of the Torah and Judaism is to ultimately combine the BEST OF BOTH Temples, and merge them into ONE PERFECT, THIRD TEMPLE – “BAYIT SH`LISHI” that will be built by the Jewish Messiah at the end of time.

Something else also came to mind when I was trying to arrive at a deeper source for “numbers” in Judaism. Let’s dive in on the “deep end” of Jewish teachings: Taking a glance at the mysterious and enigmatic “Sefer Yetzirah” – “The BOOK of CREATION”, see http://www.sephardicsages.org/SEFER-YETZIRAH.html#a classical Judaism’s oldest mystical text traditionally attributed to the Jewish forefather Abraham. It is obviously impossible for us to even begin to imagine, let alone understand, what this book really teaches at its core, but for our purposes it’s worth noting that the concept of NUMBERS, represented by the HEBREW LETTERS is at its CENTER. It teaches that “reality” and the “world” as we know it, be it the tangible “physical world” or the abstract idealistic “theoretical world” are all indeed derived from “Divine Words” that are ABSTRACT NUMBERS. In the Torah this is all wrapped up in the actual words and narratives that are used in the text, all based on the original Hebrew alphabet. From why the Torah starts with the second letter “BET”, for “BRESHIS” – “IN THE BEGINNING” till why it ends with the last letter “LAMED” of “YISRAEL”, every iota is loaded with powerful lessons, and even more importantly, foundations of the world itself.

Looking at Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s well-known translation for example, in the second chapter of “The BOOK of CREATION”, when introducing the subject and origins of the Hebrew alpha-bet it states that there are:

“TWENTY TWO FOUNDATION LETTERS…

HE [GOD] ENGRAVED THEM, HE CARVED THEM, HE PERMUTED THEM, HE WEIGHED THEM, HE TRANSFORMED THEM, AND WITH THEM, HE DEPICTED ALL THAT WAS FORMED AND ALL THAT WOULD BE FORMED…

HE ENGRAVED THEM WITH VOICE, HE CARVED THEM WITH BREATH, HE SET THEM IN THE MOUTH…

HE PLACED THEM IN A CIRCLE LIKE A WALL WITH 231 GATES.
THE CIRCLE OSCILLATES BACK AND FORTH…

HOW? HE PERMUTED THEM, WEIGHED THEM, AND TRANSFORMED THEM,

‘ALEF’ [THE FIRST LETTER] WITH THEM ALL, AND ALL OF THEM WITH ‘ALEF’,

‘BET’ [THE SECOND LETTER] WITH THEM ALL, AND ALL OF THEM WITH ‘BET’.

THEY REPEAT IN A CYCLE AND EXIST IN 231 GATES.

IT COMES OUT THAT ALL THAT IS FORMED AND ALL THAT IS SPOKEN EMANATES FROM ONE NAME…

HE FORMED SUBSTANCE OUT OF CHAOS AND MADE NONEXISTENCE INTO EXISTENCE.

HE CARVED GREAT PILLARS FROM AIR THAT CANNOT BE GRASPED.

THIS IS THE SIGN, [‘ALEF’ WITH THEM ALL, AND ALL OF THEM WITH ‘ALEF’].

HE FORESEES, TRANSFORMS AND MAKES ALL THAT IS FORMED AND ALL THAT IS SPOKEN: ONE NAME.

A SIGN FOR THIS THING: TWENTY-TWO OBJECTS IN A SINGLE BODY. [4]

See some commentary (written 932 C.E.) of SA`ADYA GAON, Rabbi Sa`adya ben Joseph Fayyumi (Babylonia [Iraq], 882 – 942) http://www.sephardicsages.org/SEFER-YETZIRAH.html#a

The great rabbis teach that there are a small number of extremely extraordinary Torah sages endowed with the requisite credentials of being truly God fearing men and possessed of supreme Torah knowledge who are actually capable of utilizing this knowledge to CREATE their own “spiritual worlds” emanating and radiating greater Torah and spreading Holiness throughout God’s world (starting here on our own “little” planet Earth,) and that is why the work is called “The BOOK of CREATION”.

Yet what we can see even on a very superficial plane is the centrality of “ALEF” (the “A” and the source for the Greek and Latin “alpha”) that is ONE, and “BET” (the “B” and the source of “beta”) which is two. There is a “level” before “one” and “two” called “zero” the “0” of “nothingness” from which “sprang” the Act of Creation – “Ma`aseh Breishis” of the Universe by means of the LETTERS of the Torah, starting with the very first letter in it, the “BET” of “BREISHIS”.

Why did the Torah start with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet and not the first?

In his masterwork “The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet”, Rabbi M. L. Munk explains that the Hebrew letter “BET” with its numerical value of “TWO”: “Symbolizes our world, SINCE EVERYTHING EARTHLY IS EMBEDDED IN PLURALITY…All that was created for man’s use came in PAIRS: The Torah – WRITTEN and ORAL; The Commandments – ‘Mitzvot’ – POSITIVE and NEGATIVE precepts; The Intermediaries – MOSES and AARON; The World – HEAVEN and Earth; The Luminaries – SUN and MOON; Human – MALE/ADAM and FEMALE/EVE;…Two Tablets – BETWEEN MAN and GOD and BETWEEN MAN and his NEIGHBOR;…Two Drives and Two Hearts – The EVIL Inclination and the GOOD Inclination;…Two Worlds – THIS WORLD – ‘OLAM HAZEH’ and THE WORLD TO COME – ‘OLAM HABAH’ [5]

If you look at the way our own human bodies are constructed, on each side of the torso is an arm and leg. Two arms, and two hands, and two legs with two feet are attached to the central core. Even internally, most of the organs come on doubles: The lungs, kidneys, and the inner chambers of the heart and the brain spread on two sides. The head has two eyes, ears, and nostrils. Yet all are rooted in the one, which brings the focus back on the first letter, the “ALEF” which was the FIRST LETTER ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS when God sates “ANOCHI [HASHEM ELOKECHA]” – “I [AM THE LORD YOUR GOD]. (Exodus, Chapter 20, verse 2).

Rabbi Munk says that the “ ‘ALEF’, ‘A’, symbolizes the ONE and ONLY, the Eternal, the Omnipotent God. IT IS THE SYMBOL OF GOD as the Creator and Master of the universe. It numerical value is ONE…The Midrash teaches that God Himself addressed the ‘A’, saying that it stands at the head of the ‘ALEF-BET’ like a KING. ‘YOU ARE ONE, I AM ONE, AND THE TORAH IS ONE,’ God said, and He pledged to use it as the first letter of the Ten Commandments…As the initial of many of the Attributes and Names of God, ‘A’ also represents Divinity: ‘A’lokim – The Names that describe God’s Attribute of Judgment; k‘A’l – The Name that describes God’s attribute of Mercy; k‘A’heye – Represents God’s Timelessness…; ‘A’d`nai – Lord or Master; ‘A’don Olam Master of the Universe; ‘A’dir – Mighty One; and ‘A’chad – ONE!…GOD IS ONE…; GOD, TORAH, AND ISRAEL ARE ONE…; TORAH IS ONE…;ISRAEL IS UNIQUE…; ‘A’ is for ADAM…; ‘A’BRAHAM IS ONE…WHO DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO SPREADING KNOWLEDGE OF THE ALMIGHTY…” [6]

The subject, like numbers themselves, is seemingly infinite!

Best wishes for a wonderful and relaxed Shabbat and please let me know what you think!
[1] Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum at http://www.azamra.org/Universal/TERUMAH.htm
[2] Ibid., http://www.azamra.org/Universal/VAYAKHEL.htm
[3] Ibid. http://www.azamra.org/Universal/PEKUDEY.htm
[4] Sefer Yetzirah – The Book of Creation, English translation, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, pp. 95 – 136.
[5] The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet, Rabbi M. L. Munk, pp. 55 – 65.
[6] Ibid., pp. 43 – 49.
- posted by Izak @ 12:48 AM (0) comments

 
The big five losers from 'The Passion'
From the Online Edition of the Jerusalem Post Mar. 10, 2004

By Rabbi SHMULEY BOTEACH

The writer is a nationally syndicated talk radio host in the US and author of 14 books.

Rather than being a wild triumph for Christianity, The Passion of the Christ has created a long list of losers. Here are the top five:

1. Christian conservatives whose ability to protest violence in Hollywood films has now been severely compromised.

The Christian community in the US earned my abiding respect for serving as the foremost guardians of the morality of the American nation. There are literally hundreds of Christian organizations in the US devoted to enforcing standards of decency in Hollywood, strengthening marriage, and teaching young teens to abstain from sex rather than use a condom.

But the Christian community's enthusiasm for The Passion has dealt a catastrophic blow to its credibility in condemning violence in films and squalid video games such as Grand Theft Auto. Gibson's movie is one of the most brutal and bloody in the history of film and rivals The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for sheer gore.

No doubt my Christian brethren would argue that the violence in The Passion is warranted, given the fact that the subject matter is religiously inspiring. But I predict that Hollywood directors famous for gratuitous violence, such as Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone, will now find convincing arguments that violence in their films also serves an important social purpose.

2. Mel Gibson, who emerges as a talented fanatic at best and a full-blown loon at worst.

Yes, I know, every commentator has painted Mel as the big winner in this brouhaha since his Aramaic movie defied all expectations and so far earned him a cool $200 million. But money is not everything, and Mel must now contend with his new reputation as a violence-obsessed religious fanatic who said that all Protestants, including his own wife, are destined for hell, who claimed that the Holy Ghost helped him direct his film, and who has a Holocaust-denying anti-Semitic dad to boot.

Mel's violent streak has also been much in evidence. As New York Times columnist Frank Rich writes, "If he says that he wants you killed, he wants your intestines 'on a stick' and he wants to kill your dog – such was his fatwa against me in September – not only is there nothing personal about it but it's an act of love."

When the hoopla is over and Mel is searching for a new project, he'll be hard-pressed to find another controversial biblical story that guarantees controversy and profit. After all, you really can't much improve on the charge that the Jews killed God.

3. Jewish conservatives, many of whom now feel alienated from their Christian colleagues and are wondering who are their authentic allies.

The Passion has forced upon politically conservative Jews like myself a horrible choice: either betray Jewish interests by pretending that a movie making the charge of deicide is no big deal and playing sycophant to the much larger Christian market by praising the film – a choice all too many high-profile Jewish conservatives have made; or be told that you are endangering Israel by undermining Christian support for the Jewish state.

But I reject the choice between the interests of the Jewish people versus the interests of the Jewish state. Any Christian friend whose support can so quickly evaporate when we object to being falsely portrayed as god-killers in a movie is hardly an ally.

PASSIONATE ADMIRERS of the Christian community, like myself, now feel distant from and disillusioned by our Christian counterparts. Where is Christian sensitivity to an allegation that has led to the death of millions of Jews throughout the ages?

I have been attacked by Franklin Graham on US television for opposing this film. His father Billy, one of America's finest sons and its foremost evangelist, has – for all his greatness – labeled Jews "devilish" in a secretly taped conversation with Richard Nixon.

If such an educated man can develop a negative view of Jews based on the gospel's depiction of Jewish culpability for the death of Christ, what conclusions will the less educated draw as they are shocked by the bloody images of Jews demanding the crucifixion of Jesus?

4. Jews for Jesus.

I have thrice debated leading Jewish-Christian missionary Dr. Michael Brown on the messiahship and death of Jesus. People like my friend Mike must now defend a deeply anti-Semitic film that portrays his own people as devilish murderers who crucified the Creator, thus giving the lie to Jewish-Christian's central argument that believing in Jesus is not a betrayal of the Jewish people.

5. The Christian faith.

The biggest loser of all, tragically, is the Christian religion, which is now portrayed as a religion of blood, gore, and death rather than of blessing, love, and life.

Judaism and its daughter religion, Christianity, were a radical departure from the pagan world's earlier cults of death. Both emphasized the idea of righteous action on this earth and both were based on the Hebrew scriptures' demand for moral excellence and the need to perfect the world in God's name. Even in the New Testament, the passion of Christ occupies at most a chapter or two in each of the gospels, while the life of Jesus is spelled out more than 10 times that number.

But Mel Gibson, in his wearisome, monotonous, and numbing depiction of endless blood and gore, utterly ignores things like Jesus's beautiful ethical teachings from the Sermon on the Mount, focusing entirely on the horrors of the crucifixion.

Gibson tells us that what made Jesus special was not that he lived righteously but that he died bloodily. Mel Gibson – who told interviewers that he contemplated suicide before making this film – is clearly obsessed with violence and death.

The Passion is an evangelical tool. Is that really Christianity's central message – not that Jesus lived an inspirational life by which the faithful should be roused but that he died a horrible death for which the sinners should feel responsible?
Indeed, the only winners emerging from The Passion are Islamic extremists who will no doubt take pleasure in seeing Jews and Christians squabbling at a time of considerable danger to both Israel and the United States.

But rather than blame the Jews for simply defending themselves against Mel Gibson's attack, let's place the blame squarely where it belongs – on Mel Gibson, who could easily have made an inspirational movie about the life and death of Christ without blaming the Jews for Jesus's death and without mixing in enough blood to fill the Jordan River. Instead, he decided to protect his investment by courting controversy and has made hundreds of millions of dollars.

Will he put some of that money toward educating Jews and Christians about their common heritage and kinship? Only time will tell. And in that telling, we will better be able to gauge Mel's motives and sincerity.
- posted by Izak @ 1:49 AM (0) comments

 
“Murphy’s Law” Downs the Israelites with a Golden Calf
Written by me SIMSHALOM

(Hi, hope this is helpful. Related to the Torah portion Ki Tisa (“When Counting”) read in synagogue Saturday 13th March `04. Exodus, Chapter 30, verse 11 – Chapter 34, verse 35. English translation with commentary of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan at http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=30
English-Hebrew at http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0230.htm#11
THIS SHABBAT IS THE 3rd OF THE 4 SPECIAL SABBATHS; IT’S KNOWN AS “SHABBAT PARAH” (RED COW), ALWAYS BEFORE PASSOVER. SEE http://www.ou.org/chagim/fourshabbatot/parah.htm Dedicated to my parents.)

“Murphy’s Law” Downs the Israelites with a Golden Calf

If you have ever had the opportunity to read and study some of William Shakespeare’s plays, you will know that they are categorized into three groups: Histories, tragedies, and comedies. Histories are dramatizations of famous people and events. Comedies are meant to be amusing and titillate. But what is a tragedy? It seems so open to interpretation. Yet scholars and critics agree that what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote a tragedy was, in a nutshell:

Someone who definitely had the potential to be very great was UNFORTUNATELY possessed of a TRAGIC FLAW OR FAULT, that “jinxed” them from fulfilling their true potential and instead it is TRAGICALLY wasted and destroyed with the result that the TRAGIC HERO eventually lands in a situation that is the opposite of greatness and famous, thereby becoming pathetic or infamous.

“In the plays of Shakespeare, the tragic hero is always a noble man who enjoys some status and prosperity in society but possesses some moral weakness or flaw which leads to his downfall. External circumstances such as fate also play a part in the hero's fall. Evil agents often act upon the hero and the forces of good, causing the hero to make wrong decisions. Innocent people always feel the fall in tragedies, as well. The four most famous Shakespeare tragedies are King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth. Hamlet (who senses correctly that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”) is an emotionally scarred young man trying to avenge the murder of his father, the king…Othello (who "loved not wisely, but too well") is a Moor serving as a general in the military of Venice, victimized as a result of his love for Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian statesman…Macbeth (with “an ambition that does over leap itself”) is a noble warrior who gets caught up in a struggle for power. Supernatural events and Macbeth's ruthless wife play a major role in his downfall…King Lear is a tragic story of an old man's descent into madness as his world crumbles around him (“a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse”). It is also a tale of Lear's pride and his blindness to the truth about his three daughters and others around him…Although the main characters of these tragedies possess different traits, they all can be described as tragic Shakespearean heroes: they are basically good and noble men whose tragic flaw leads to their destruction.” [1]

The events in this week’s Torah portion contain the GREATEST FOLLY EVER COMMITTED BY THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL-THE JEWISH PEOPLE: The worship of a “hand made” Golden Calf, after having heard God SPEAK the TEN COMMANDMENTS, known as THE DECALOGUE, and as they were waiting for Moses to come down with the TEN COMMANDMENTS inscribed on the Tablets of Sapphire Stone, they fall victim to an evil impulse and turn to worshipping an idol of all things! When Moses descends he smashes the Ten Commandments and gets rid of the troublemakers. During the commotion, Moses pleads on behalf of the Children of Israel begging God not to destroy them. Subsequently God grants Moses a SECOND SET OF TABLETS, and because Moses had begged to witness God’s Glory, while Revealing of Himself God teaches Moses the profoundest secrets of forgiveness, which in the Torah is embodied in the recitation and acceptance of THIRTEEN HOLY AND SPECIAL DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF MERCY.

On the surface there are definitely quite a number of chronological and factual events and personalities that co-join to create a very combustible combination of contributing factors to the culminating chaos and confusion of the cursed calf. But ask yourself: were the Children of Israel really that immature that they suffered from a bad case of national “impulse disorder” and couldn’t hold on a little while longer for Moses to appear? How could such a special nation that had witnessed awesome miracles and the very revelation of God at Mount Sinai not do a “reality check” on themselves and stop themselves going overboard with such foolishness? Surely there is more to the narrative, that can place events into a deeper and more spiritually comprehensive level so that we can reach the forces driving the upheaval and not just glance at the “exterior symptoms”?

When I was thinking about a title for this essay, I couldn’t resist thinking of the almost simplistic, yet somehow profoundly true “Murphy’s Law”: “If anything can go wrong, it will.” In fact there are a number of other such “Murphy’s Laws” that in their plebian way, force us to focus on “What went wrong?”: Here is a listing of those telling truisms, from
http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html
“Murphy's Laws:
1.) If anything can go wrong, it will.
Corollary: It can.
MacGillicuddy's Corollary: At the most inopportune time.
2.) If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
3.) If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
4.) If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
Corollary: It will be impossible to fix the fifth fault, without breaking the fix on one or more of the others.
5.) Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
6.) If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
7.) Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
Corollary: The hidden flaw never stays hidden for long.
8.) Mother nature is a (‘female dog’).
9.) Things get worse under pressure.
10.) Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.
11.) Everything goes wrong all at once.
12.) Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value” [2]

All of these “laws” seem so very true about the “CHET HA`EGEL” – THE SIN OF THE (GOLDEN) CALF.

SO WHAT WENT WRONG?!

Here is an outline derived from a variety of classical Jewish sources: Everything in the Torah comes back to the first narrative in Genesis when Adam and Eve are created by God and commanded not to eat from a mysterious and mystical Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve were meant to live eternally as they were the Apex of all Creation. They had wonderful minds and the power of human speech because God had breathed into Adam a Divine Soul, making Adam capable of mirroring in reality God’s presence on Earth. Once Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit they automatically brought Death and Suffering into this world. They gave Evil a home whereas it had previously not had a foothold, existing as an external abstract entity.

After many other generations of humankind fail to improve the world and in fact make things worse by driving the Divine Presence further away, it becomes the job of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then the Children of Israel-The Jewish People as a NATION after the Exodus to finally bring the world back to the level of Adam and Eve to where they were BEFORE they sinned. This was almost achieved at Mount Sinai. But as they say, “almost” doesn’t count. All those dastardly “MURPHY”S LAWS” kicked in and went into high gear and everything that could go wrong went wrong! Why is that? Simply put, THE FORCES OF EVIL AND DARKNESS WENT TO WORK OVER-TIME TO DO ALL THEY COULD TO PREVENT THE CONSUMMATION OF GOD’S UNION WITH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL THROUGH THEIR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TORAH FROM BECOMING PERMANENT.

IT IS THE TORAH THAT IS CALLED “THE TREE OF LIFE” which in fact was that “OTHER TREE” in the Garden of Eden that God feared Adam and Eve would eat from, and “live forever”, as God Lives Forever. In fact, the classical Jewish teachings say that the Children of Israel did attain a level of ETERNAL LIFE when they WITNESSED THE REVELATION OF GOD AT MOUNT SINAI and HEARD THE TEN COMMANDMENTS SPOKEN BY GOD. This indicates that they were in fact already on that level of eternal life, meaning that EVIL HAD BEEN BANISHED, and that DEATH WAS NO LONGER A FACTOR (IN LIFE), and that they must have then been very near to the Tree of LIFE, if only they could have just held on a little longer!

Note, each time the Torah is returned to the ark, be it weekdays, holidays, or Sabbaths, we actually try to “relive” those past glorious moments of fleeting “eternal life” when we say about the Torah that we hold up and then hold so tight in our right bosom and then carefully replace it in the ark: “LENGTH OF DAYS IS AT ITS RIGHT; AT ITS LEFT, WEALTH AND HONOR. ITS WAYS ARE PEACE. IT IS A TREE OF LIFE TO THOSE WHO GRASP IT, AND ITS SUPPORTERS ARE PRAISEWORTHY.” (Proverbs, Chapter 3, vs. 16 –18).

There are all sorts of descriptions of what went wrong on that horrible day. Some say it was a Divine Test by God to see if the Children of Israel could hold fast and abide by the teachings of the Ten Commandments and have faith until Moses arrived to “seal the deal”. Other say that the “Satan” (the arch-angel of all evil) projected an image of Moses’ body which was seemingly “life-less” at the top of Mount Sinai as his Soul had left its body and “transmigrated” to be with God in the Celestial Spheres of Heaven to receive the Torah. The Children of Israel thus thought that Moses had perhaps “died” and so they became hysterical with despair clutching even at an idol. There are those that say that the Golden Calf was patterned after images of God’s Throne which also has “animal-like” depictions which they thought was “kosher” to imitate. A great deal of blame is laid upon the “mixed multitude” – “eruv rav”, of people who had previously been idol worshipers and all sorts of gentiles in Egypt and when Moses strong hand of leadership was absent, they took a chance and tried a “coup d'etat” in a plot to take over and subvert the newly established Israelite Nation. Even in our own times, we find that when the newly established State of Israel came into being in 1947 – 8, it had to fight for its survival against Arabs (“eruv”? “rav”?…funny how both these words seem to sound like the Hebrew word for Arab: “aravi”) who wanted to throttle the first Jewish State in 2,000 years.

One of the best teachings that I have come across over the years explaining what it was that really “triggered” the rebellion and the establishment of the Golden Calf is by Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler (Lithuania, England, Israel, 1891 – 1954) in one of the Hebrew volumes of his work “Michtav Me`Eliyahu”, explains that the catastrophe of the Golden Calf is actually PHARAOH’S VICTORY. It is the point at which all the efforts of the Egyptian sorcerers and of the culture of the idol-worshipping slave empire of ancient Egypt FINALLY managed to strike out and score a home run against not just the Israelites but against God’s Will for the world, sad to say.

Rabbi Dessler proves his point when he points to specific words in this week’s portion that are the spelling of PHARAOH when describing Moses reactions when he saw what had happened when he finally returned:

Let’s say the verse in Hebrew first: “Vayar Mosheh Et Ha`Am Ki PHARUA Hu, Ki PHERAOH Aharon LeShimtzah Bekameihem” (Exodus, Chapter 32, verse 25): You clearly see that Moses is describing what he is seeing as something in terms of “PHARUA” and “PHERAOH” with the exact Hebrew spelling and pronunciation of the name Pharaoh in Hebrew. So what does it mean that here, at the site of the Israelites dancing around the abomination of the Golden Calf idol, Moses sees and identifies the tell-tale “FINGERPRINTS” and the “CALLING CARD” of none other than his own arch-rival, Pharaoh? The English translation for this verse reads: “Moses realized that the people had actually been ‘PHARUA’. Aaron had ‘PHERAOH’ them…” Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan cites different interpretations of this “PHARUA’ – “PHERAOH” word: “restrained” (by Aaron from doing worse); “exposed” [without cover]; “exposed to harm”; “undisciplined”; “unrestrained”; “going the wrong way”. [3]
Rabbi Dessler says that this is precisely the point, that the word PHARAOH is connected to the Hebrew word to “EXPOSE” and “EXPOSE TO HARM” to be “UNDISCIPLINED” and be “GOING THE WRONG WAY.” It is in Pharaoh’s “spirit” that all the damage is done. What this means in somewhat more esoteric terms is that, that same ancient Serpent that SEDUCED EVE away from the path of following God’s Will, now comes embodied as a cavorting wild mob of mixed multitude – “eruv rav” devotees whose natural instinct is only one of destruction of what should have been a climactic holy spiritual high, ends as VAST NATIONAL TRAGEDY as we see the Children of Israel cast as heroes who withstood so much anguish and suffering in their rise from Egypt only to see it TRAGICALLY washed away through their folly.

There is actually an interesting Oral Law Teaching Medrash that says that at the time the Golden Calf was being “designed”, among the mixed multitude there were:
“The two Egyptian sorcerers, Yanus and Yambrus (Bilam’s sons [Bilam was the ‘greatest’- most notorious, sorcerer of that time]), now put their power of magic to work. One of them seized two thirds of the gold, and the other, the remaining third. By means of the IMPURE ENERGY FORCES – ‘ruach hatumah’, they were able to draw the radiance of the image of the ox of the DIVINE CHARIOT – ‘merkava’ towards them. Another man, Micha (who as a child had been cemented into a wall in Egypt and was saved by Moses), assisted by casting into the fire a tablet containing the inscription EMERGE OX – ‘alay shor’. This was the same tablet Moses had cast into the Nile to bring up Joseph’s [hidden submerged] coffin. Subsequently, a live calf emerged from the fire, bleating and moving around. God had given Satan permission to entice the Children of Israel. God said to Aaron, ‘You stumbled because of the deeds of the two wicked ones, Yanus and Yambrus; therefore, your sons’ lives will be taken’…In addition to the original image which was pronounced the major one, the mixed multitude – ‘eruv rav’ fabricated another twelve calves, one for each Tribe. Pointing to them, the mixed multitude called out: ‘These are your gods [hence the use of the plural ‘gods’], Israel, that took you out of Egypt.” (Exodus, Chapter 32, verse 4). [4]

This was all on the dark side. There was however also a bright side. Firstly all the commentators agree that the WOMEN DID NOT PARTICIPATE. The men literally ripped off their gold jewelry. Secondly, the Tribe of Levi refused to partake and DID NOT JOIN IN the idol worshiping and general mayhem. Thirdly, there were even those who resisted with force of arms against the mob’s madness. The commentators say that Hur and the Seventy elders defied the demands of the mixed multitude and that they were actually killed by the mob and so are considered as having died as martyrs – “al kiddush Hashem” – Sanctifying the Name of Heaven by not following the dictates of an evil gathering of idol worshippers. And finally, there are quite a number of great benefits and “counter measures” that arose as a result of the great mistakes that were made.

One such example is the derivation of THE THIRTEEN HOLY AND SPECIAL DIVINE ATTRIBUTES OF MERCY:
http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=2&CHAPTER=34
“Moses carved out two stone tablets like the first. He then got up early in the morning and climbed Mount Sinai, as God had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets in his hand. God revealed Himself in a cloud, and it stood there with [Moses]. [Moses] called out in God's name. God passed by before [Moses] and proclaimed, ‘God, God, Omnipotent, merciful and kind, slow to anger, with tremendous [resources of] love and truth. He remembers deeds of love for thousands [of generations], forgiving sin, rebellion and error. He does not clear [those who do not repent], but keeps in mind the sins of the fathers to their children and grandchildren, to the third and fourth generation’.” (Exodus, Chapter 34, vs. 4 – 7). [5]

So something eternal and positive does come out of this complex episode that we practice to this very day, especially on the holiest days of the Jewish calendar, from the Jewish New Year – “Rosh Hashanah” and the Ten Days of Repentance till the Day of Atonement – “Yom Kippur”:

“At the time when Moses asked God to reveal to him His Glory, God taught him how the Jewish people should pray in order to achieve forgiveness for their sins. ‘Had you not mentioned the merit of their forefathers after the Sin of the Golden Calf, I would have consumed them. I will therefore teach you MY THIRTEEN ATTRIBUTES OF MERCY. WHENEVER THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL APPEAL TO ME BY THESE, THEIR PRAYERS SHALL FIND A RESPONSE.’ God, as it were, wrapped Himself in a PRAYER-SHAWL (‘TALIT’) functioning as a public emissary of prayer (the ‘Chazan’- ‘cantor’), and taught Moses His Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.” [6]

Rabbi Ezra Bick, a contemporary rabbi in Israel, [7] asks:
“It is still true that the ‘selichot’ (penitential prayers), and the ‘Thirteen Attributes of Mercy’ that lie at the heart of them, are central to the understanding of Yom Kippur. This is felt most clearly in the waning moments of the day, during ‘Ne'ila’, when they are repeated over and over again (seven times in most versions). The basis for reciting the thirteen attributes of mercy is found in (the Talmud, Tractate) Rosh Hashanah 17b.
‘God passed by him and called...’ (Exodus, 34,verse 6) Rabbi Yochanan said: ‘Were this not an explicit verse, we could not have said such a thing. It tells us that the Holy One, blessed be He, wrapped Himself (in a ‘talit’) like the prayer leader (‘chazzan’) and showed Moses the order of prayer. He said to him: ‘Whenever Israel sins, let them perform this order and I shall forgive them. ‘HaShem’ (God), ‘HaShem’ (God) - I am He before man sins; I am He after man sins and repents’ ... Rav Yehuda said: ‘A covenant is made over the Thirteen attributes, that they are never ineffectual, as is written, ‘Behold I am making a covenant’.’” (Exodus, Chapter 34, verse 10).

Rabbi Bick goes on to ask: “There are a number of perplexing points about this Gemara (Talmud). Why did God have to demonstrate to Moses how to recite the Thirteen Attributes? Why did he ‘dress up’ like a ‘chazzan’ and pretend to be one who prays? Why are the thirteen attributes guaranteed to succeed more than any other prayer, and what is the meaning of the ‘covenant’ which is the basis of that success? Finally, examining the Thirteen Attributes, we find that they are merely names and descriptions of God, not a prayer at all. Nothing is actually requested. What is the significance of reciting attributes of God? Surely a plea from the heart for forgiveness should be more effective!”

He answers: “How do the Sages know that the thirteen attributes, conveyed to Moses in a mysterious and powerful revelation after the sin of the golden calf (Exodus, Chapter 34, vs. 5-7), are a means of obtaining forgiveness? The answer to this question is found in a later incident in the Torah. When the Jewish people, after hearing the report of the spies concerning the Land of Israel, seek to return to Egypt, God tells Moses that He is planning to destroy them. Moses pleads and argues with God, finally saying, ‘And now, the strength of God shall increase, as You have spoken, saying: HaShem (God), long-tempered and great in mercy, who bears sin and iniquity, and shall cleanse but not cleanse....Forgive the sin of this people by the greatness of your mercy, as You have borne this people from Egypt unto here.’ And God said, ‘I have forgiven by your words’.”

“THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, IN JUDAISM, ARE NOT THEOLOGY. They are revelations, manifestations of God's presence in the world. But God does not impose His presence on the world. God is found where people, created in the image of God, call on His name. Every day, at every prayer, Jews declare: ‘Yitgadel ve-yitkadesh shemei raba’ – ‘His Great Name shall be Sanctified and Increased’! This is precisely the meaning of COVENANT – ‘A covenant is made over the Thirteen Attributes, that they are never ineffectual.’ A covenant is not a promise; it is a two-sided agreement. It creates something which exists only in partnership. The Thirteen Attributes exist in covenant, because God has agreed that His presence in the world will depend on the free-willed calling of humans, who shall be the bearers of His name, His presence, His glory.”

“This then is the meaning of the Gemara (Talmud) quoted above. God appeared to Moses wrapped in a ‘talit’ – ‘prayer shawl’, as the leader of the prayer, because the Thirteen Attributes are not a prayer TO God. He is not listening, receiving, considering. He is part of the prayer itself. The words are not TO Him, they are about Him. They, as it were, create the Presence of God Himself. God is changing Himself (‘rising from the throne of judgment and sitting on the throne of mercy’). He is as much part of the recitation as we are. Properly speaking, before the creation of the covenant, ONLY God could have ‘recited’ the Thirteen Attributes. God has to show Moses how this is to be done, for He is giving over to Moses and the Jewish people something which belongs to Him alone. He is making the Jewish people the bearers of God's Presence in this world.”

“The Gemara (Talmud) states that there are Thirteen Attributes of mercy found in Exodus, Chapter 34, verse 6, but does not actually enumerate them. There are various opinions found in the commentaries. The most widely accepted is that found in Tosafot (Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 17b):

1. ‘HaShem’ - God (before the sin)
2. ‘HaShem’ - God (after the sin)
3. ‘Kel’ -Lord (power)
4. ‘Rachum’ (merciful)
5. ‘Chanun’ (grace)
6. ‘Erech apayim’ (long-tempered)
7. ‘Rav-chesed’ (great in mercy)
8. ‘(Rav) emet’ (great in truth)
9. ‘Notzer chesed l'alafim’ (keeps mercy for a thousand generations)
10. ‘Nosei avon’ (bears iniquity)
11 ‘(Nosei) pesha’ (transgression)
12. ‘(Nosei) chata'a’ (sin)
13. ‘Nakei’ (cleanse).
The meaning of and difference between each attribute is a subject worthy of extended discussion, which will have to await a later date.” [8]

Best wishes, and have a wonderful Shabbat. Please let me know what you think!

[1] Shakespeare's Tragedies, http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/shaktragedies.html
[2] http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html
[3] The Living Torah, English translation, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, p. 452- 453.
[4] The Midrash Says, Book of Sh`mos – Exodus, English translation, pp. 319 –320.
[5] The Living Torah, Ibid. p. 459
[6] The Midrash Says, Ibid., pp.339 – 440.
[7] The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, Rabbi Ezra Bick,
http://www.vbm-torah.org/roshandyk/13-eb.htm
[8] Ibid.
- posted by Izak @ 10:02 AM (0) comments

 
How About "Converting" All the Non-Jews to Judaism? : An Outreach Rabbi Says It's a CRAZY "Idea" !
By Ephraim Buchwald (Summer 1999)

EPHRAIM Z. BUCHWALD is founder and director of the National Jewish Outreach Program and rabbi of the Beginner's Service at Lincoln Square Synagogue, New York City.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0411/3_48/64507446/p1/article.jhtml
Conversion and the American Jewish Agenda.

I'D LIKE TO STATE CLEARLY AT THE OUTSET, THAT I AM NOT opposed to conversion or to converts. To the contrary, the National Jewish outreach program, which I direct, has offered thousands of converts, potential converts, and intermarried couples classes in Hebrew reading and Basic Judaism.

I'm delighted to have been invited to the "Conference on Proactive Conversion: Opening The Gates for Non-Jews to Become Jews." Even more flattering than the invitation to this august forum, is the deep honor paid me by being quoted on the very first page of Gary Tobin's challenging new volume, Opening The Gates. Dr. Tobin cites me in the context of the hysteria that has gripped the Jewish community concerning Jews marrying non-Jews. He quotes me as saying, "There are no barking dogs, no Zyklon-B gas ... but make no mistake: This is a spiritual Holocaust."

First of all, for the record, that statement was said about general assimilation, not intermarriage. Besides, I am not so hysterical about Jews marrying non-Jews, whether it's 52% or 42% (By the way, had a zoo keeper been losing 40% of his sea lions, he would be hysterical too!) I'm much more agitated that I have not been able to mobilize or even sensitize the American Jewish leadership to do what needs to be done-to nurture the next generation of Jews in America. I'm far more exercised that we're spending billions of dollars on Holocaust memorials, rather than investing our resources in joyous, Jewish outreach for our young people. I'm worked up because there are millions of American Jews who desperately want to be a part of the Jewish community and they have nowhere to turn. We have failed them.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the reality: Our children are drowning. If I may continue the metaphor, while our children are drowning, the non-churched gentiles of America are floating on an air mattress in the water. It's true, they're not swimming with God. But they're not drowning. Gary Tobin suggests that we throw the life preserver to the gentiles.

Have we lost our minds?

What Gary Tobin is proposing, is another step in a long line of proposals that have been guiding the Jewish community of America in the wrong direction.

At a time when we should be embracing our sons and our daughters, Professor Tobin cries out in a well argued, cleverly delivered package that the nations of the world are waiting for our embrace.

At a time when we should be extending our hands to our brothers and our sisters, Dr. Tobin argues passionately that non-churched Americans should be our priority. With all due apologies, to my mind, this proposal for Proactive Conversion is just another false elixir of quickie, simplistic, and sexy solutions that we keep feeding the American Jewish public. Proactive Conversion merely continues the devastating trend (which is now deeply ingrained in the Jewish establishment's thinking) of neglecting our sons and daughters, our brothers and our sisters, simply because there may be some easier, more marketable, more palatable, but not necessarily more effective, way of addressing the devastating loses that the American Jewish community has experienced since the end of World war II.

Is this not the same path we've been following that's led us to such disaster? Is this not just another aspect of the absurd decisions of the past to build Jewish swimming pools when our Jewish children can't even walk Jewishly? We've reached the absurd point today where Jewish post-post doctorates can quote pages of Swahili poetry by heart, but aren't familiar with the basic nomenclature of the Bible, have no clue what Deuteronomy 5:6 might mean, and couldn't find it if their lives depended on it.

Judaism is the tradition that teaches l'fum tza'ara agra, according to the effort, is the reward. It was Pauline Christianity which announced that mitzvot were no longer needed, that Shabbat observance was no longer relevant, and kashrut extraneous in our efforts to get close to God. It was the Christian Apostle who said that mitzvot corrupt, that through faith in Jesus and Baptism alone, you can get close to God. Is that what we're looking for--a "quick fix"? When our community is hemorrhaging, is it not absurd to call on non-churched Christians and others to join us.

Let us announce: "Unchurched ladies and gentlemen, our ship is sinking, welcome aboard! Pay no attention to the fact that our young people are abandoning their Judaism by the myriads. Come gentiles, see the beauty of our system, embrace our Torah, behold the revolutionary ideas of monotheistic humanism in our tradition. Don't be afraid that the ship is leaking. Welcome aboard!"

We have failed our children. We have not exposed them to the positive joyous optimistic side of Judaism. We and our children know only too well what it's like to be holed up in an attic in Amsterdam, to be shot in the head or buried alive at Babi Yar, and to be tortured at Ravensbruck. But do our young people know what it means to fervently sing L'cha Dodi, to welcome the beautiful Sabbath Bride?

Do they know what it feels like to be embraced by a Jewish parent on Friday night, in the traditional blessing of children, to be in such high spirits on Purim that they don't know the difference between Mordechai and Haman? Our children know well the names of our oppressors, Pharoah, Titus, Hitler, and Eichmann, but have they ever heard of Akiva, Maimonides, Yehudah Halevi, or even Bialik for that matter? They know what it means to sweat blood over a Bar Mitzvah and still after many years find it hard to suppress the trauma of Hebrew school, but have they ever experienced an intellectual epiphany, while studying a n uance in Rashi's commentary? Are we going to starve our children religiously and culturally for 18 years, and then spend billions of dollars to send them for a quick two-week fix on an Israel Birthright program? Can a two-week intravenous feeding repair the metabolism of a child who has been abused and malnourished since birth?

Why are we so afraid? Why are we so terrified to do what needs to be done and to make quality Jewish education the number one priority of Jewish life in America? Why are we so incapable of inspiring our brilliant young people (those who become bankers, lawyers and doctors) to make their careers in Jewish youth work, Jewish education, Jewish outreach (kudos to the Steinhardt Fellows program)? At this critical juncture it is far more important to nurture the next generation of Jewish leaders, than it is to support or open a Jewish nursing home, or a Jewish hospital, or a Jewish swimming pool. How could that be you ask? Because-and this I learned from Rabbi Yitz Greenberg-by educating our young people about Hesed, Bikur Kholim, Hachnassat Orkhim, the next generation will be inspired to continue support of these vital institutions and to open up new Jewish hospitals, new Jewish nursing homes, and even new Jewish swimming pools. But if we don't nurture the next generation now, there will be nothing-no donors and no hospitals-it will be, as the Talmud says, keyreakh mi'kan v'keyreakh mi'kan, bald on this side and bald on that side, bereft and bereft.

Over the past decade the tide has dramatically turned in Jewish philanthropy. In the greatest bull market in American history most local Federation campaigns are flat or down. It's obvious that secular charities are far more attractive to the young generation of Jews than Jewish philanthropy. The sculpture garden at the Met has far more panache and is far more appealing to a Jew who's never been nurtured, whose Jewish heartstrings have never been tuned (let alone fine tuned), than replacing slums for poor people in Netivot, Israel.

A child who's never been nurtured to put a nickel, a dime, a quarter into a pushka on a regular basis is unlikely to feel anything special for the Jewish homeless in New York, Chicago, or Israel. A child who has never felt the Shabbat embrace of his parents on a weekly basis will be far more attracted to Pavarotti singing "Ave Maria" and Celine Dion singing Christmas carols. A child who has never been taught to sense the inner beauty of the Sabbath candles will be easily mesmerized by the sparkle and tinsel of the Christmas season. A child who's never felt the sense of adventure of making Kiddush in a Succah will be easily swept away by the drinking and ribaldry of New Year's Eve and the coming Millennium celebration scheduled for Friday night, December 31, 1999, which of course marks the 2000th year since that famous little Jewish boy, born under the star in Bethlehem, was circumcised.

The true tragedy is that we don't recognize that our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters are inches away from coming back, through joyous Jewish experiences. Jewish tradition teaches aniyeh irkha kodem, that when dispensing charity, the poor of our own cities, of our own families must be our first priority. Our resources are limited. Yes, it's true that there are heartthrob causes that can attract far greater resources. But those who are really familiar with the process of winning Jews back know that there's no easy road, there's no short cut.

Every few years the American Jewish community is confronted by a new study documenting the wasting away of American Jewish life. Inevitably, another group of leaders or scholars will challenge the alarmists, announcing that everything is fine, after all we're still here.

Well things are not fine, and it doesn't take a demographics wizard to realize that. Things are worse than we ever imagined. Consider the following: Since 1945, while the American population has more than doubled, growing from 133 million to about 270 million, the jewish population in America has remained the same at about 5.7 million. In effect, during the last 50 years 6 million Jews have disappeared in America. But even this is not the full picture! We've lost more than six million. After all, since 1945, over one million Jews have immigrated to America from Russia, Israel, and a host of other countries.

We've lost closer to 7 million jewish since 1945!

And even if every Jew in America would remain fervently and actively jewish, due to the critically low jewish birthrate alone, our American jewish community will shrink by 200/0 every 25 years.

Combine the impact of fertility and assimilation, even with a zero drop out rate, and it is clear that more than 1/3 of our numbers will disappear. In just two gene rations, two out of every three Jews will have vanished. Don't be hysterical, Buchwald, you will tell me, only six of your ten children will be missing.

Have we lost our minds?

How dare we debate over whether it's acceptable to have 420/0 or 520/0 intermarriage. Is 50/0 OK? Is 1% acceptable? These are our children. I say that as long as there is a single jewish child or adult who needs to be reached, it is immoral, I insist on the word, yes, immoral to expend jewish resources trying to convince a gentile to put on a Yarmulka.

I'd like to close with a quote from Gary Tobin, from p. 186, Opening the Gates: "There is no guarantee that welcoming converts will work in the long run. Indeed, we may invest hundreds of millions and then billions of dollars in a communal debacle." Those dollars could save our children. Let us choose life for them.
- posted by Izak @ 5:01 AM (0) comments

 
Jew versus Jew in South Africa: Rabbis give a Jewish communist a suprising "slap in the face"!
Jewish leaders balk at Kasrils's declaration

December 01 2001 at 06:19PM
The Sunday Independent

By Jeremy Gordin
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=123&click_id=13&art_id=ct20011201181914154K642227&set_id=1

On the eve of the release of the Jewish declaration of conscience organised by Ronnie Kasrils, the minister of water affairs and forestry, and Max Ozinsky, Western Cape MPL, the spiritual leaders of southern African Jewry have issued a statement "utterly repudiating" it.

Cyril Harris, the chief rabbi of South Africa, the Jewish ecclesiastical court (Beth Din) and the Southern African Rabbinical Association made no comment about Kasrils and Ozinsky's declaration other than to refute some of its content.

Kasrils and Ozinsky have asked Jewish South Africans to sign the declaration and "raise their voices in support of justice for Palestine".

Kasrils has said it was necessary for South African Jews to recognise the right of the Palestinian people to exist in safety and security just as they believed it was necessary for Israel to have the same right.

Kasrils plans to "launch" the declaration during the next two weeks in Johannesburg and Cape Town and says that a number of prominent Jews, including writer Nadine Gordimer, cartoonist Zapiro and Rivonia treason trialists Arthur Goldreich and Dennis Goldberg, have signed the declaration.

The rabbis and the ecclesiastical court say that "every fair-minded South African citizen should be aware that the Holy Land has been the Jewish homeland since Biblical times; that the Palestinian state should have come into being in May 1948, instead of which five neighbouring Arab countries waged war against the newborn Israel; and that the Palestinians have never admitted the possibility of coexistence with Israel and continue to incite their children with hatred towards the Jewish state".

They also state "that in July 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made the most far-reaching land-for-peace concessions but Yasser Arafat had rejected these and that the blatant anti-Jewish demonstrations at the recent UN Conference Against Racism in Durban cast serious doubt on the ability of South Africa to act as an honest broker in the Middle East conflict".

The statement is signed on behalf of the Beth Din by Rabbi Moshe Kurtstag and by Rabbi Yossi Goldman for the Southern African Rabbinical Association.

Kasrils said that he was "surprised that the ecclesiastical court had seen fit to make comments about issues outside its mandate".

"I don't believe that priests or rabbis should get involved in matters outside their purview - history has shown the folly of that.

"I'm reminded," said Kasrils, "of the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza's excommunication by the rabbis of Amsterdam three centuries ago, and that Israel's first prime minister had Spinoza reinstated. It's time for the Jews of South Africa to speak out in favour of justice for all."

At commemorations of the international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people at Unisa on Thursday night Salman El-Herfi, the Palestinian ambassador, gave a special welcome to Kasrils, whom he referred to as his brother.

El-Herfi urged all South Africans of Jewish descent to follow the example set by Kasrils.

On Thursday, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, said he wanted to see a million Jews emigrate to the Jewish state, principally from South Africa, Argentina and France.

"In the coming years, I want to see a million Jews come from Argentina, France, and especially from South Africa," said the right-wing leader during an address to the press in Tel Aviv.

"The first objective of the government is to bring another million Jews soon," he added, saying the mass immigration "may take 12 to 13 years but it is central, and in my eyes is the most important goal of the government".

Sharon said that there are 230 000 Jews under duress in Argentina who needed to be brought over to the Jewish state, and 80 000 in South Africa.

He alleged that the "750 000 Jews in France face antisemitism".
- posted by Izak @ 5:55 AM (0) comments

 
Reform and Conservative Judaism Fight it out as their flocks disappear...
(03/05/2004)
"Reform Leader Predicts Demise Of Conservatives
CCAR head gives ailing ‘bridge’ movement two decades.

Debra Nussbaum Cohen - Staff Writer
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=9154
In a rare public attack on a competing denomination, the head of the Reform movement’s rabbinical group has predicted the demise of the Conservative movement within two decades.

Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, wrote in the February issue of his organization’s newsletter that the only denominations soon left on the American Jewish scene will be Reform and Orthodox.

The Conservative and, for that matter, Reconstructionist movements’ congregational bodies will merge with the Union for Reform Judaism, he wrote, “or disappear,” as will the rabbinical organizations of those movements.

Conservative and even other Reform leaders are taking issue with both the style and the substance of Rabbi Menitoff’s critique. Conservative sources say it smacks of triumphalism and is simply incorrect, even though their movement is shrinking and the Reform movement is expanding.

“The future will make it clear that he’s off base,” said Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

“At the beginning of the 20th century, all the Jewish pundits predicted the demise of Orthodoxy, and they all proved dead wrong,” said Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary. “So Rabbi Menitoff has good company in bad predictions.

“The weaknesses of Reform are glaring. But I’ll leave predictions for the future of Reform to the pundits,” he said.

In an interview with The Jewish Week, Rabbi Menitoff said the Conservative movement is being rendered obsolete because “the role they played was integrating East European Jews into the American scene, and now they’re totally integrated.”

In his essay and an interview, Rabbi Menitoff pointed to several Conservative movement policies as being out of step with the reality embraced by its young adult members. They include the ban on rabbinic ordination of gays and lesbians, and stands against intermarriage and accepting as Jewish children whose father is Jewish but the mother is not. (The policy is known as patrilineal descent, which was adopted by the Reform movement in 1983 in a step that broke with Jewish law and tradition.)

Rabbi Menitoff said he felt moved to write the piece, which he also delivered as a speech in January to Reform rabbis on the West Coast, after talking to young Conservative Jews at a family lifecycle event.

“We had a poignant conversation that reinforced conversations I’ve had in other settings about this. They were saying it would be very hard for them not to look for another home, long term, if there weren’t a change in the [Conservative] movement because it just runs so much against the grain of their modernity,” said Rabbi Menitoff, whose group has some 1,700 members.

Conservative movement leaders say his analysis is faulty.

Rabbi Menitoff “is writing at a particular time of triumphalism in the Reform movement,” said Jack Wertheimer, provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

“It’s something the Conservative movement is very familiar with because its leaders wrote in the 1950s and ’60s in the same vein, convinced that the future belonged to the Conservative movement. That turned out not to be the case, and there is reason to believe that the predictions he makes will also not be the case, even though today the Reform movement is riding high.”

“As a Conservative Jew, I am used to people in the Orthodox and Reform worlds saying the middle is going to collapse because they’ve been saying it for decades,” said Wertheimer. “It hasn’t happened yet.”

Yet data from recent National Jewish Population Studies, conducted in 1990 and 2000-01, and a study of New York Jews in 2002 show the Conservative movement has been shrinking.

In the 1971 National Jewish Population Study, 42 percent of American Jews identified as Conservative. In 1990, that number was down to 36 percent; in 2000-01 it dropped further, to 26 percent.

In 1971 the Reform movement had 33 percent of American Jews claiming affiliation, and in 1990 it was up to 42 percent. In 2000-01, it was 35 percent.

A recent study of New York Jews showed that 26 percent identified as Conservative, down from 34 percent a decade earlier. But the Reform movement also became smaller in New York, in 2002 claiming 29 percent of Jews compared with 36 percent a decade before.

What grew in New York were the populations of Jews identifying as Orthodox, as “just Jewish” or as secular.

“We have a challenge in front of us, and I don’t deny the challenge,” Rabbi Epstein said of the fact that the Reform movement has inherited the position of being American Jewry’s “default” identification, long a Conservative movement role.

“There’s a likelihood that we will be a smaller movement for a period of time. If we’re going to be serious about our mission and vision, there may be people who have joined us for other reasons and are now more comfortable in Reform congregations.

“But we fulfill a very important need in the Jewish world,” he said, bridging tradition and modernity.

Wertheimer said that “on a positive note, this prognostication may serve as a goad to the Conservative leadership, which needs to address the challenges inherent in all of this.”

One national Reform leader, who spoke with The Jewish Week on the condition that he not be identified, said he spoke with other Reform leaders who “privately expressed concern that these sentiments were articulated in such a public way.”

“Any suggestion that the Conservative movement is going to disappear from the Jewish scene is mistaken,” he said. “And even if we believe it, what in heaven’s name is to be gained by a statement that can only alienate people with whom we want to work?”

One Reform leader was willing to speak on the record about the statement.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said his movement “wants a strong Conservative movement because there’s more that we share with them than what divides us. The American Jewish community is stronger by virtue of having a vibrant Conservative movement with congregations who will cooperate with us on a whole range of issues.”

And the denominations influence each other, he said.

“On some issues we have followed their lead, and I suspect on others they have followed ours,” said Rabbi Yoffie. “As we have moved towards more ritual, for example, Conservative congregations in some instances have been a factor, just as Conservative Jews joining Reform temples bring certain concerns in terms of ritual, and we listen to those concerns.

“With our emphasis on vigorous outreach, they’ve been influenced by us and are stronger as a result as well,” he said.

Rabbi Menitoff’s peer in the Conservative movement, Rabbi Joel Meyers, head of the 1,550-member Rabbinical Assembly, said he is “offended that my counterpart would have a view I find to be at rock bottom immature.”

“As a Conservative Jew I find it rather insulting to think that because there are individuals who may be more liberal or more observant, that it somehow means difficulty for the movement,” he said. “That’s normative for our movement. What I expected from Rabbi Menitoff is a greater appreciation of what it means to be a centrist movement.”

“The center is easy picking precisely because it represents a broad constituency and an ideology itself that is a broad base. I’m sorry that he fell into that trap.”

Rabbi Epstein said there is a clear need for Conservative Judaism that will far outlast any of Rabbi Menitoff’s predictions.

“The Reform congregation basically accepts people where they are and tries to make them comfortable with that,” said Rabbi Epstein. “The Orthodox congregation basically has people who are already committed.

“It’s the Conservative congregation that bridges the two because it accepts people where they are, with the goal to help guide them along the path to greater commitment. That’s the unique position of the Conservative congregation that neither the Reform nor the Orthodox can meet.”
- posted by Izak @ 10:02 PM (0) comments