Hagar and the Wells

Rosh Hashana: The codas

The readings for Rosh Hashanna are selected, dramatic stories of desperation and Divine rescue.  They are each followed by a section that is far less dramatic.  The difference is enough to make one wonder about the juxtaposition. 

On the first day, we read about the eviction of Hagar and Ishmael.  I remember seeing the Corot painting  at the Metropolitan Museum and thinking that it was antisemitic, portraying the consequence of the cruelty of father Abraham  and his ill treatment of brother Ishmael and his mother.  I also think about Ishmael,the narrator of Moby Dick - at sea because he was cast off from the homestead in deference to the favored son.  How could Abraham send them off into the wilderness with inadequate water? 

Look at the coda.  וַֽיְהִי֙ בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֔וא וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲבִימֶ֗לֶךְ וּפִיכֹל֙ שַׂר־צְבָא֔וֹ אֶל־אַבְרָהָ֖ם  At that time Abimelech and Phicol, chief of his troops, said to Abraham The simultaneity  is important. At the time of the banishment of Hagar and son, these neighboring potentates come to make a treaty with Abraham.    But Abraham has a criticism: Then Abraham reproached Abimelech for the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had seized.   That was the well Avraham  expected Hagar would reach and where  she would replenish.  But the well was not reachable.  It was stolen, unavailable.  Only Gd's intervention could save the mother and child.  Hagar and Ishmael were saved...so a treaty could be made.  Things would have been far more difficult if they had died because of the stolen well.  Thus, through miracles of salvation Gd brings peace to the world. 

Ha'azinu: the Nation

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זְכֹר֙ יְמ֣וֹת עוֹלָ֔ם בִּ֖ינוּ שְׁנ֣וֹת דּוֹר־וָד֑וֹר שְׁאַ֤ל אָבִ֙יךָ֙ וְיַגֵּ֔דְךָ זְקֵנֶ֖יךָ וְיֹ֥אמְרוּ לָֽךְ׃

Remember the days of old, Consider the years of ages past; Ask your father, he will inform you, Your elders, they will tell you:

בְּהַנְחֵ֤ל עֶלְיוֹן֙ גּוֹיִ֔ם בְּהַפְרִיד֖וֹ בְּנֵ֣י אָדָ֑ם יַצֵּב֙ גְּבֻלֹ֣ת עַמִּ֔ים לְמִסְפַּ֖ר בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

When the Most High gave nations their homes And set the divisions of man, He fixed the boundaries of peoples In relation to Israel’s numbers.

The parsha assumes the centrality of the nation, sovereignty as the basis for policy The perspective comes from the past. How could you expect any other point of view.   The our-nation-centric  view is a natural consequence of whom you ask.  If you came  from another nation, presumably you would get the same answer, but the central nation would be different.  This is the view of an American, someone who grew up in the Empire of Diversity, the land of those free enough of their ties to the past to emigrate , the home of those brave enough to leave the lands of their birth.

History moves too fast to trust the opinion of my pre-internet parents.  What is the scope of valid advice from parents and elders? What are the consequences of failing to ask their perspective?  In the absence of their point of view, where do my opinions come from? 

We live in error and distort our view of reality to justify ourselves.  And we are the children of error and distortion, going back to the Tree of Knowledge. 

Ask your parents...but think hard about what they tell you...and consider the sources of your questions. 

Nitzavim- Vayelech: Bloody Secrets

The parsha deals with secrets.  It contains the climactic  sentence: The secrets are (the domain of)  the Lrd our Gd, and the revealed are for us and our children ...

My first memories of my father include seeing him in the bloody butcher's apron.  Much later, I understand some of  the secret of its symbolism. 

This is the Shabbath before the yahrzeit, the anniversary of the death, of my father (z"l).  I chant  the haftorah.  The haftorah comes from Isiah, never easy to grasp. It includes a section from  chapter 63 that  deals with bloody garments.  A hero emerges , but his clothes are sullied. He has survived alone,  relying on himself.  This is my father. 

When my father was in Treblinka, in  the deepest aloneness, he washed  clothes.  Each group was separate.  The clothes of the Germans had no visible stains, but the blood stains, the chimutz, in them could never be removed.  The Ukrainian henchmen's uniforms showed the blood of their cruelty.  The victim's  gore clung to these raiments , the barbarity was evident. The clothes of the Jews, whose blood was spilled like sewage, had to be washed separately, to be recycled for the beneficiaries of the death machine.  My father survived through these bloody clothes.  The blood on the butchers apron was a symbol. 

These stories that my father told covered  more secrets than they revealed - day to day choices, questions of will and honor and survival. These secrets are for Gd , I have enough with the revealed. 

Ki Thavo: the contract

The parsha is titled: "when you arrive [in the land]" The parsha is the agreement concerning the obligations to The Granter and the consequences of not fulfilling the obligation.  The reward, living in The Promised Land of Milk and Honey, comes at a price...if the conditions are not met. 

The litany of punishments is hard to read.  Were it not that they actually happened in the lifetime of my parents, they would be unbelievable.  But the worst of these punishments was imposed on millions of the descendants of the people addressed by Moshe.  These consequences of the evil exile all came to pass prior to the renewal of the agreement with the First Flowering of our Redemption, the establishment of the State of Israel. 

The curse is the natural consequence of the blessing of  accepting the reward.  Once the people accept a relationship to The Land,   a dimension of longing for the return is added to the exile.  This is a significant block to integration into the new place.   A curse and a blessing.

After the presentation of the evils that will befall the wayward people, Moshe reminds us that Gd is capable of miracles.  The great miracles seen in Egypt and the the smaller miracles of  clothing and shoes that last for forty years, life in the absence of bread wine and spirits.

The choices: Egypt, bread (presumably leavened) wine and spirits  are reminders of the gifts of technology.  Egypt had been the technological capital of the world.  They had harnessed the fermentation process to produce products that were so good , they seemed to become necessities of life; it became miraculous to live without them.  These wondrous products  were the yield of human ingenuity, a human contribution to the world.

 Benefiting from technology is also an implicit contract.  It calls on Gd to maintain the conditions for the technology to work ... and someone has to clean up the mess left behind. 

Ki Theze: victim

The parsha opens with  the conquering soldier, taking the desirable maiden home as a spoil of war.  The captive of the victor  is the victim. The Torah gives her rights. She should mourn her parents, she cannot be sold and  treated as a slave. Giving victims rights seems like a novelty, a new level of  compassion for the humbled, עִנִּיתָֽהּ. 

The two subsequent vignettes: the firstborn son of the hated wife  and the doomed, wayward  child are often taught as the result of this passion fueled marriage to the captive.  These problem children are the products of the captor's lust, he is now the victim of his own desires. 

The poor, victims of income inequality, are also given rights.  The poor are called ani עָנִי֙, related to the word used  to describe the interaction with the captive woman. The poor are the  humiliated, and deserve consideration for their plight.  The poor are related to the humble, and humility can lead to poverty in an overly competitive world.  

The parsha ends with the exhortation to remember the deeds of Amalek and to destroy that nation which humiliated the Israelites.  Revenge is the last, worst  refuge  of the victim