Bihalthosecha: direction

This is a parsha of famous stories.  It is the transition from the escape from Egypt to the wandering in the desert.  It is the wandering in the desert that taught generations of Jews how to survive - stateless, always foreign, alienated, with tenuous, long distance, hope. But a random walk ends anywhere,  nowhere, back where it started. This parsha is about direction. 

The questions begin with the instruction for the  first seder, the (partial) re-enactment of the Exodus to be celebrated by all  of the nation.  What to do with the disqualified?  Moshe does not make up a reasoned  answer... Moshe consults Gd.   He is told to offer a second chance. That second chance is an eternal edict.  Those who cannot do the ritual now are not forever excluded. Moshe does not have all the answers. 

This is an instance of Moshe showing the humility that is held up as one of his finest qualities

וְהָאִ֥ישׁ מֹשֶׁ֖ה עָנָ֣ו מְאֹ֑ד מִכֹּל֙ הָֽאָדָ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ {ס}         Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any other man on earth.

 The word  עָנָ֣ו  is related to the the idea of poverty ( which is actually a second meaning), perhaps most closely associated with the humiliation that comes with poverty. [Note also the reationship to Canaanite]The destitute, the enslaved, do little more than follow the instructions of their masters. The humble seek guidance. 

The wandering in the desert begins in the parsha.  How will they be guided through this hostile environment? Moshe offers the role to his father-in-law.  

וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אַל־נָ֖א תַּעֲזֹ֣ב אֹתָ֑נוּ כִּ֣י ׀ עַל־כֵּ֣ן יָדַ֗עְתָּ חֲנֹתֵ֙נוּ֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר וְהָיִ֥יתָ לָּ֖נוּ לְעֵינָֽיִם׃ He said, “Please do not leave us, inasmuch as you know where we should camp in the wilderness and can be our guide.

This is the man that provided for Moshe when he ran away from the Egyptian penal system.  It was while Moshe sojourned with his father in law that he discovered the burning bush that redirected him into his grand role.  Hobab was a fitting guide. 

But it was wrong.  The guidance in the wilderness would be miraculous manifestation: a cloud, the ark. This would be a guidance that inspired awe, a director that could not be fathomed

With the first solourn, there is a reassertion of human wants. 

וְהָֽאסַפְסֻף֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּקִרְבּ֔וֹ הִתְאַוּ֖וּ תַּאֲוָ֑ה וַיָּשֻׁ֣בוּ וַיִּבְכּ֗וּ גַּ֚ם בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ מִ֥י יַאֲכִלֵ֖נוּ בָּשָֽׂר׃ 

The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 

The translation as riffraff fails to capture the essence of the Hebrew word which clearly includes the idea of "collection", "group."  Assemblies "naturally", by the constraints of probability,  form clusters.  The clusters have the strength of numbers and can thus take on accidental leadership.  A desire born out of boredom or a confabulated nostalgia, can spread and become  a popular demand.  The appropriate and ironic solution to this kind of problem is to distribute the  leadership.  Thus is the council of 70 elders generated to share the leadership with Moshe

The parsha ends with a story of  deference. Moshe's sister and brother have the audacity to comment on his relationship with the Cushite ( Ethiopian) woman.  We are left to wonder who about the nature  of that  relationship, we are not quite sure  whom she is.. But we better not wonder too much!  Consider what happened to Miriam.  Are there still people and things that should not be questioned?

The parsha opens with the kindling of the menorah, the beaten gold candelabra, in the sanctuary.  There are  (at least) two issues that involve direction in this act. The obvious one is that it supplied light so that one could make the adjustments needed to avoid bumping into objects when walking toward an objective.  The other: the flame (on earth) always points upward.  Were it not for the atmosphere and gravity, the flame would not have direction.  Necessity is the mother of direction. 

Naso: unique

Naso: unique

Lets look at the parsha from the end.   The last verse is

וּבְבֹ֨א מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶל־אֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵד֮ לְדַבֵּ֣ר אִתּוֹ֒ וַיִּשְׁמַ֨ע אֶת־הַקּ֜וֹל מִדַּבֵּ֣ר אֵלָ֗יו מֵעַ֤ל הַכַּפֹּ֙רֶת֙ אֲשֶׁר֙ עַל־אֲרֹ֣ן הָעֵדֻ֔ת מִבֵּ֖ין שְׁנֵ֣י הַכְּרֻבִ֑ים וַיְדַבֵּ֖ר אֵלָֽיו׃ {פ}
When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Him, he would hear the Voice addressing him from above the cover that was on top of the Ark of the Pact between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him.

Gd talks to Moshe from between the Cherubim.     Gd never spoke to anyone else from this position.  Moshe is quite unique, it is a Maimonidean article of faith.  Gd ( the most unique, singular being of them all [by definition]) speaks from the between the Cherubim.  Were the cherubim identical? Were they complementary, male and female? Being artifices, they could not be identical, but they could be very similar. 

Prior to this last sentence, there is a repeated refrain of the gifts brought to the newly assembled and  anointed  Tabernacle by the 12  ( Non Levite) tribal leaders. Each silver bowl (130 shekel) and basin (70 shekel) and golden spoon ( 10 shekel) ;every bull, ram, lamb  and goat is individually enumerated under the prince who brought it.  This is followed by an accounting of their net value in shekels of silver and gold and numbers of animals for particular sacrifices.  All twelve times the identical sounding individual gifts.  But they were not identical.  Certainly, the animals were not identical. The bowls and spoons may also have been decorated and constructed in unique manners.  This is not specified in the text.  We superimpose our experience of the (nearly) identical mass produced objects that seem to differ only in their serial numbers.  But in the ancient  hand made world, the differences were present.  Were they exaggerated by decoration? Maybe.

The Nazir  precedes the parade of gifts to the Tabernacle. The Nazir , a word related to zar, alien, was a person who followed a formula to separate herself from the community. He could not drink wine, cut his hair, or come in contact with the dead.  Violations of these rules were treated differently.  Drinking wine was penalized by lashes, but the Nazir state was not compromised. Taking a haircut necessitated a 30 day period of following all the rules, regardless of the duration of the original pledge. Contact with the dead forced an animal sacrifice of expiation and the total restart.  If it occured on the last day of a multiyear pledge, all the stated years had to be repeated. Dealing with death,  the fate of all people, including the most alienated,  cancelled everything that came before it. In the dead state, everyone is the same. 

The assertion of individuality that is embedded in the Sotah, the wayward spouse, is dangerous territory. The tension between a commitment, with a future that cannot be predicted with accuracy, and the desire for self assertion through adventure was a subject for great 19th century literature ( Madam Bovary,  Anna Karenina).  Perhaps effective birth control has modified the perception of the seriousness of these violations of the prescribed norm, but violations remain a very serious offense and often end the relationship and have additional consequences. 

We live in a world of interchangeable parts. Be careful  about its extrapolation to life. There is a place for the unique  There is utility in the sum. 

Yizkor 2021 

In our sidurim,  a prayer precedes Yizkor.  It is a set of verses from Tehilim  terminating in a verse form the end of end of Koheleth. I think that  the reading of these verses is part of the basis of the custom for sending those that do not have people to mourn , leave the synagogue.  

There are several  reasons that non-moruners leave the synagogue at Yizkor. We do not wantthem to  disturb the mourners,  we do not want  the mourners  embaressed when they are overcome with grief , we want them to experience  their grief without the burden of someone trying to comfort them.  We also want to spare the non-mourners the pains: of watching the mourners grieve and also the pain of confronting the inevitability of grief.

The verses from Tehilim and Koheleth that precede Yizkor are very confrontational. 

From my experience as an oncologist, telling people that they have bad prognoses, telling families that they will soon be mourners, I have come to believe that confronting the truth is often the greatest comfort. Most of Tehilim, the most comforting book of our Canon, manifests  this confrontational comfort. 

I will talk about the first few of these verses.  It is good to think about the words we say, even though we rely on the holiness of their source; even though there is  a danger of misinterpretation. 

The first two verses are consecutive  in Psalm 144.  This is the psalm that precedes the most familiar of psalms: Ashrei. In fact, the last verse  of Psalm 144 is included in the amalgamated Ashrei that we recite three times daily.  

The verses are self deprecating. O LORD, what is man that You should care about him, mortal man, that You should think of him?  Within this self effacement, there is an implication that Gd actually does think out our (puny) little lives.  Otherwise there is no question. 

So we come into this Yizkor experience believing that Gd considers human lives - both those that are ongoing, our own, and those who are freed of the material existence.  And we are humble, we consider what a small contribution even the greatest hero has made, and, perhaps, how important a contribution has been made by those less famous whom only we knew. 

אָ֭דָם לַהֶ֣בֶל דָּמָ֑ה יָ֝מָ֗יו כְּצֵ֣ל עוֹבֵֽר׃ Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

The next verse brings up the issue of mortality and the brevity of life.  This is an important aspect of human insignificance relative to an immortal Gd.  The translation doe not do the verse justice. 

The word hevel conveys much more than the insubstantial aspect of breath, mere wind ( until recently behind a mask)  In Eccleisates  the word is translated as futility or vanity.  It is the antithesis of real  achievement.

Hevel is also the name of the second son of Adam and Eve, the one murdered by Cain, the son that left no legacy, no children.   The next word, damah, which contains the word dam- blood- reminds us of Hevel the character.  ק֚וֹל דְּמֵ֣י אָחִ֔יךָ צֹעֲקִ֥ים אֵלַ֖י מִן־הָֽאֲדָמָֽה׃  your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground!

In these two verses, We have representatives of the first three generations.  Adam, Hevel ( a decendent of Adam) and Enosh ( Adam's grandchild).  We are reminded of all the generations of our forebearers and, to some extent, we say Yizkor for them all, we give them the honor of memory

In these two verses, We have representatives of the first three generations.  Adam, Hevel ( a decendent of Adam) and Enosh ( Adam's grandchild).  We are reminded of all the generations of our forebearers and, to some extent, we say Yizkor for them all, we give them the honor of memory,  despite their distance from us. 

When  I say yizkor , it is only when I come to the memorial   designated for martyrs that I break down and cry.  I remember the people that I never knew and who have no one to remember them. I remember Hevel

The next two verses are from Psalm 90.  This psalm is said in its entirety as part of the Shabbath and Yom Tov Morning Service.  Two, non-consecutive verses are chosen.  Both refer to the transience of life.

 בַּ֭בֹּקֶר יָצִ֣יץ וְחָלָ֑ף לָ֝עֶ֗רֶב יְמוֹלֵ֥ל וְיָבֵֽשׁ׃ at daybreak it flourishes anew; by dusk it withers and dries up.

 I do not want to take away from the simple meaning: Life is short and our powers wane. The ibn Ezra relates this  to the passage of generations replacing, chalaf, each other.  This process is something we commemorate with yizkor. Can we live up to the fortitude of the past generation? What will future generations do? 

Six verses later: 

לִמְנ֣וֹת יָ֭מֵינוּ כֵּ֣ן הוֹדַ֑ע וְ֝נָבִ֗א לְבַ֣ב חָכְמָֽה׃ Teach us to count our days rightly, that we may obtain a wise heart.

There is certainly wisdom in knowing that that our time is limited.  The word Navi appears . I think that is the origin of all prophecy, the  prediction that can be made with certainty.

  The Radak  relates  it to the usual understanding of prophecy taking the count of our days to mean the time until the arrival of the Messiah, the common subject of the Cannonized prophets

Certainly, these verses are addressed to us, saying the yizkor, as is the next verse from Psalm 97, a psalm said as part of kabbalath Shabbath, the introduction of the Sabbath: 

שְׁמָר־תָּ֭ם וּרְאֵ֣ה יָשָׁ֑ר כִּֽי־אַחֲרִ֖ית לְאִ֣ישׁ שָׁלֽוֹם׃ Mark the blameless, note the upright, for there is a future for the man of integrity.

Rashi says: Observe the innocent Scrutinize the ways of the innocent to learn from their deeds.

Our opportunity to do good is brief. Yizkor gives us the opportunity to do good by pledging   and honoring a pledge of charity.  We can use all that yizkor reminds us of to quickly do some good, To honor the departed and  bring credit to ourselves. 

Bamidbar: Diversity

This week, we start the fourth of the five books of the Torah. Vayikra, Levitucus, the book of Kohanim, the last book, closed with  "These are the commandments that the LORD gave Moses for the Israelite people on Mount Sinai."  It  completes the big revelation. But there are aspects of the law that can only be carried out in the Promised Land.  The next book will talk about the journey. 

This book opens with  " אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר סִינַ֖י    the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai,"  This is the next phase, the larval stage, of wandering.  This book will tell us about the travels and accompanying travails, in the desert.  This journey will become the paradigm for most of the history that follows it, a people in exile.  Now, after the establishment of the State of Israel on the territory set out in the Torah, I question whether the exile has ended and what that means.  Does the exile  continue until I am happy with the situation? 

As the nation enters the wilderness, there is an expectation of attrition.  The conditions are too adverse,  not everyone will survive  It is reasonable to count everyone, to see who makes it; and to have names; to remember  those who die. As it turns it, only two men who were in the count (Caleb and Joshua)  would survive.  The rest would die in the forty years sentenced in the desert. 

The census is divided by tribe and the tribes are partitioned into families. The princes of the tribes are named.  The names have meaning:  אֱלִיצ֖וּר:The Lrd is my rock,שְׁלֻמִיאֵ֖ל My completion is the Lrd, נַחְשׁ֖וֹן Serpentine...The names reflect parental hopes and incipient traditions.  

The people had developed variations.  There were small differences in the practices of groups.  The division into tribes and families validated and reinforced the variations.  It is Darwinian: the future world could reject any number of paths, but the many  options would increase the chance that some would survive. Jacob had expressed this idea when he feared the destructive anger of Esau and he divided his family into groups - so if one were  destroyed, the others would survive. 

Do we have an analogous situation in  the modern world?  Jews born after the Holocaust are in a jambalaya of the remnants of various traditions.  By the time the post war refugees arrived in the US, American Jews had already developed several lines of development, ranging from the amazingly successful  (Henry Morgenthau) to the tribes described by Phillip Roth ( New Jersey, second and third generation) and Saul Bellow ( Mid North American).  These ensconced clans welcomed the survivors who brought traces of their varied backgrounds to the melting pot. The remainder of the remnant who came from the DP camps brought their hybrid customs from the formal German to the evasive Soviet. These were  patterns of behavior that copied admired aspects of the surrounding culture, or reacted to the conditions that the surrounding culture imposed. 

In Israel, the challenges were greater. Customs and practices that had diverged over centuries in far flung places,  recognizably different people . They were fluent  in polyglot,  written in different characters.   Not only did they  have to learn to live together, they had to form a nation.  They have  a variety of visions, a plethora of missions. By a combination of dream and desperation, they created a  state that approaches the messianic. The visions, and their successes, and the conflicts among them, become a major problem. 

This parsha includes the transfer of the honor of aiding in the service from the first born to the Levites. As the book proceeds, the question of who is selected for leadership becomes prominent.  Sometimes the need for consistency outweighs the advantages of variation ( sometimes not). 

Diversity requires tolerance and acceptance which stretches the limits of what we previously considered acceptable. There should be limits to the permissible, but they deserve periodic examination. 

Behar- Bechukothai: Ownership

Behar- Bechukothai: Ownership

 שֵׁ֤שׁ שָׁנִים֙ תִּזְרַ֣ע שָׂדֶ֔ךָ וְשֵׁ֥שׁ שָׁנִ֖ים תִּזְמֹ֣ר כַּרְמֶ֑ךָ וְאָסַפְתָּ֖ אֶת־תְּבוּאָתָֽהּ׃ Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield.

וּבַשָּׁנָ֣ה הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗ת שַׁבַּ֤ת שַׁבָּתוֹן֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָאָ֔רֶץ שַׁבָּ֖ת לַ But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the LORD

The field is "your" field, but you may sow it  for only 6 of each seven year cycle. There is a limit to your ownership.  The penalty is not exacted immediately, but there is an expectation of violation.  After the curses of Bechukothai are expressed, you are told:

וְהָאָרֶץ֩ תֵּעָזֵ֨ב מֵהֶ֜ם וְתִ֣רֶץ אֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתֶ֗יהָ בָּהְשַׁמָּה֙ מֵהֶ֔ם 

For the land shall be forsaken of them, making up for its sabbath years by being desolate of them, 

The curses of drought, pestilence and exile were exacted for not letting the land rest, as directed by the One who brought you into the land, the Gd to whom the land is mortgaged. 

The sabbatical year (shmitah)  has an element of good advice. The history of the Hebrews starts with a story based upon the  knowledge that  the  fields need to be left  fallow occasionally, regardless of the economic condition - the story of the Egyptian famine.  It is after the seventh consecutive  year of plenty in Egypt that the  (predicted) famine (with some plagues resembling the curses in our parsha) strikes.  Had the Egyptians introduced a fallow year, perhaps the evil  part of the Joseph's  prophecy could have been averted. (Only a guess)

In modern times, the perceived need for unrelenting production ( not limited to agriculture) is the source of calamity.  Timothy Snyder posits that the Nazi perception  of the limited fertilizer ( organic nitrogen)  resource propagated their  plans for world domination. ( They ignored the implications of their own science [see Fritz Haber]). 

Gd and the state function by limiting the options associated with ownership.  They define things that cannot be done with property, material  that has been given the status of an extension of the individual.  The fascist state includes an extreme  interpretation of  ownership.  The "owners" are granted the ultimate right - the right to make the rules.  Other systems  (communism, socialism, etc) may look more benign, but looks can be deceiving. ( I do not justify or favor  fascism) 

Now, in the COVID  pandemic, we are faced with an ownership dilemma. In the modern world, the greatest source of wealth is the ownership of ideas ( mostly apps).  Methods necessary for the production of COVID vaccines are "protected"  by patents, preventing their use without the paid permission of their "owners." The entities holding these patents ( Pfizer, Moderna, Astra Zenica, J&J) could theoretically forgo payment, but these companies are ruled by boards that are obliged to maximize the profits of the shareholders.  Should the enforcer of possession, the governments of the world, make an exception for the vaccine technology that could save millions of lives? Was Jean Valjean justified in stealing bread  to feed the starving children ( Les Miserables)? 

All (man made) systems of ownership are imperfect.  They create a way for people to produce for one another.  They are given a veneer of fairness by  arbitrary rules  that are not sensitive to situation. 

This is all an answer to Rshi's question about the relationship between the Sabbatical year and Mount Sinai. 

מָה עִנְיַן שְׁמִטָּה אֵצֶל הַר סִינַי?

 What has the matter of the Sabbatical year to do with Mount Sinai 

When Gd enters the equation, the meaning of ownership changes. You realize that the situation dominates.  Your ownership is worthless without the cooperation many things  beyond your control ( weather, war, weevils). 

 The only  thing you can do with with your possessions. is make choices ... be generous.