Parshath Hachodesh

The first Rashi, on the first verse in the Torah makes the argument that the Torah should have started with the special reading we do on Parshat Hachodesh: 

בראשית. אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק לֹֹֹֹֹא הָיָה צָרִיךְ לְהַתְחִיל אֶת הַתּוֹרָה אֶלָּא מֵהַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם, שֶׁהִיא מִצְוָה רִאשׁוֹנָה שֶׁנִּצְטַוּוּ בָּהּ יִשׂרָאֵל,

 Rabbi Isaac said: The Torah  should have commenced with the verse (Exodus 12:2) “This month shall be unto you the first of the months” which is the first commandment given to Israel.

This Rashi raises the significance of this reading. 

 A problem arises. Some mitzvoth are mentioned prior to the instructions for the first (special) Pesach. The Mizrachi deals with that question: 

שנצטוו בה ישראל. פי' מה שאין כן מילה וגיד הנשה, שאף על פי שהמילה נצטוה בה אברהם אבינו בעדו ובעד כל ישראל, וכן גיד הנשה נצטוה בו יעקב אבינו בעדו ובעד כל ישראל ,אליבא דרבי יהודה ,דפליג עלייהו דרבנן ,דאמר בסיני נאמרה אלא שנכתב שם להודיע טעם איסורו, כדאיתא בפרק גיד הנשה .מכל מקום כיון שלא היו צוויין אלא ליחיד, אינן נחשבות מכלל מצותיה כל זמן שלא נצטוו בם כל ישראל

That Israel was commanded: With the exception of  circumcision and the forbidden sinew. Although circumcision was  commanded to our father Abraham for himself and all Israel; Similarly the forbidden sinew was commanded to Jacob and for all Israel. We are interpreting the situation according to Rabbi Yehuda, with whom the Rabbis disagree, who says that  all the commandments ( including these) were said at Sinai.  The stories surrounding them are written  to inform us of the reason for the prohibition  as is stated in chapter Gid Hanashe. Regardless, since they were commanded to individuals are are not considered in the category of mitzvoth unless thay are commanded to all of Israel. 

The Mizrachi emphasizes the significance of a commandment to all Israel, and this would seem to be the first. 

הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה לָכֶ֖ם רֹ֣אשׁ חֳדָשִׁ֑ים רִאשׁ֥וֹן הוּא֙ לָכֶ֔ם לְחׇדְשֵׁ֖י הַשָּׁנָֽה׃ 

דַּבְּר֗וּ אֶֽל־כׇּל־עֲדַ֤ת יִשְׂרָאֵל֙

This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you. 

Speak to the  entire community  of Israel

Making Nisan the first month, setting the calendar, is the first move toward creating a unified nation that differentiated itself from its oppressors.  

The Mizrachi's comments emphasize the unifying aspect of the calendar. It is important for the community to have free and ritual time together. When the Soviets attempted to stagger days off so that the factories could run 7 days per week, it did not work.  It was too disheartening. People need free time together. 

This first mitzvah frees each individual. At the same time it gives the nation of Israel its own calendar, its own holidays, its identity.  The result of having a calendar of our own is that we spend free time together, strengthening the Lachem, the unity of the people. 

I imagine that long bondage estranged people. The first instruction, before Sinai, had to be one that unified the people and alienated them from their oppressors,  The ritual described was a protection against terrible plague and a celebration of victory over the oppressor.  The protection from the scourge came by the family  publicly, perhaps dangerously, identifying with the Israelites, not the Egyptians. 

 Soforno  emphasizes that time now belonged to the former slaves, to do as they wish: 

החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים. מכאן ואילך יהיו החדשים שלכם, לעשות בהם כרצונכם, אבל בימי השעבוד לא היו ימיכם שלכם, אבל היו לעבודת אחרים ורצונם, לפיכך ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה. כי בו התחיל מציאותכם הבחיריי:

, from now on these months will be yours, to do with as you like.  This is by way of contrast to the years when you were enslaved when you had no control over your time or timetable at all. While you were enslaved, your days, hours, minutes even, were always at the beck and call of your taskmasters.

Now, as I face the possibility of retirement, I am very afraid of the free time that is in store.  I am afraid of this real freedom. I understand a part of the reason  why people remain enslaved.

Pesach and the preparations that go into it re-unify the people  annually. It strengthens the family, the community and the Nation. And I derive strength from that. 

Pikudei:  the core meaning

I learned a new word this week: Polysemy.  It refers to a word with multiple related meanings. Such words are challenging. They must be interpreted in context. I want to explore the polysemic title of this week's parsha, pikudei. 

Pakad, פָּקַד, the root  of the the title word of this week's parsha can mean to attend to, number,  reckon,  visit,  punish,  appoint,  look after,  care for, etc.  Based upon this week's parsha it would seem to mean "accounting."

אֵ֣לֶּה פְקוּדֵ֤י הַמִּשְׁכָּן֙ מִשְׁכַּ֣ן הָעֵדֻ֔ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר פֻּקַּ֖ד עַל־פִּ֣י מֹשֶׁ֑ה ׃

These are the accountings of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were  accounted at Moses’ bidding

Rashi confirms this interpretation here. 

אלה פקודי. בְּפָרָשָׁה זוֹ נִמְנוּ כָל מִשְׁקְלֵי נִדְבַת הַמִּשְׁכָּן, לַכֶּסֶף וְלַזָּהָב וְלַנְּחֹשֶׁת, וְנִמְנוּ כָל כֵּלָיו לְכָל עֲבוֹדָתוֹ:

 In this section are enumerated all the weights of the metals given as a contribution for the Tabernacle, of silver, gold and copper, and also there are enumerated the vessels used for every kind of service in it.

The 117, 730 shekels of gold were worth  approximately $116 million dollars and the 301,775 shekels of silver  were worth  $3.3 million dollars. The product, the mishkan, the point of connection between Gd and Israel, was worth much more. 

On this same verse, Rashi quotes the Midrash: 

משכן העדת. עֵדוּת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁוִּתֵּר לָהֶם הַקָּבָּ"ה עַל מַעֲשֵׂה הָעֵגֶל, שֶׁהֲרֵי הִשְׁרָה שְׁכִינָתוֹ בֵּינֵיהֶם:

The Tabernacle was a testimony to Israel that God had shown Himself indulgent to them in respect to the incident of the golden calf, for through the Temple He made His Shechinah dwell amongst them (Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 6).

Although Rashi bases the connection between the mishkan (tabernacle)  and the Golden calf on the word ayduth, pakod, the accounting, also connects the mishkan to the Golden calf. 

Perhaps the most frightening usage of pokad occurs when Gd  announces forgiveness for the sin of the Golden calf. 

 וּבְי֣וֹם פָּקְדִ֔י וּפָקַדְתִּ֥י עֲלֵיהֶ֖ם חַטָּאתָֽם׃

when I make an accounting, I will bring them to account for their sins.” 

A cost had been calculated, a price had been exacted, for the sin of the Golden calf  and the day would come when it would be  exacted. 

This accounting is mentioned in today's daf Yomi  ( Sanhedrin 102a) 

 אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק: אֵין לָךְ כׇּל פּוּרְעָנוּת וּפוּרְעָנוּת שֶׁבָּאָה לְעוֹלָם שֶׁאֵין בָּהּ אֶחָד מֵעֶשְׂרִים וְאַרְבָּעָה בְּהֶכְרֵעַ לִיטְרָא שֶׁל עֵגֶל הָרִאשׁוֹן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וּבְיוֹם פׇּקְדִי וּפָקַדְתִּי עֲלֵהֶם חַטֹּאתָם״.

 Rabbi Yitzḥak says: You have no punishment that comes to the world in which there is not one twenty-fourth of the surplus of a litra of the first calf.

 as it is stated: “On the day when I punish (pokad, account for) , I will punish ( pokad)  their sin upon them” (Exodus 32:34)

On some level, the mishkan (Tabernacle) that  Moshe is  appraising   deflects the punishment that  was due. 

The  collection of the silver for the construction of the mishkan  is tied to Pokad.   In this week's parsha we are told that the half shekel silver poll tax, collected from every male over the age of 20, was used to make the pedestals for the sanctuary.  

When the collection is described:

 כִּ֣י תִשָּׂ֞א אֶת־רֹ֥אשׁ בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֮ לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם֒ וְנָ֨תְנ֜וּ אִ֣ישׁ כֹּ֧פֶר נַפְשׁ֛וֹ לַי

בִּפְקֹ֣ד אֹתָ֑ם וְלֹא־יִהְיֶ֥ה בָהֶ֛ם נֶ֖גֶף בִּפְקֹ֥ד אֹתָֽם׃

When you take the sum of the children of Yisra᾽el after their number (pikudayhem), then they shall give, every man a ransom for his soul to the Lrd, when you number (pakod)  them;  so that there be no plague among them, when you number them.

 

 Pakod is mentioned in every sentence that involves this 301,775  shekels of silver. The accounting is important. The half shekel is  a partial payment of the debt. Pokad ties the mishkan to forgiveness. 

The polysemy of pakod allows it to take on another meaning in this sentence: assignment.  I could read this sentence as meaning: when you count the children of Israel, as individuals, and  you are thus reminded of their assignments, פְקֻדֵיהֶם֒, a ransom will be required.  An accounting is required for failing to live up to one's potential; and the contribution to the mishkan can deflect some of that cost. 

 

The usage of Pakod to mean assignment is seen when the imprisoned Joseph is assigned to supervise the high profile fellow prisoners: Pharaoh's demoted wine steward and baker .

וַ֠יִּפְקֹד שַׂ֣ר הַטַּבָּחִ֧ים אֶת־יוֹסֵ֛ף אִתָּ֖ם וַיְשָׁ֣רֶת אֹתָ֑ם

The prefect assigned Joseph to them, and he attended them. 

I can see the mathematical relationship between the assignment and accounting. Accounting is the assignment of valuation. An assignment subjects the designee to account for her actions. 

The first use of pakod in the Torah refers to Gd  considering  Sarah. פָּקַ֥ד אֶת־שָׂרָ֖ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר אָמָ֑ר 

The LRD took note of Sarah as promised,

Sarah had accompanied Abraham on the dangerous journeys and had cooperated with him in misleading their hosts about their relationship.  She had sacrificed her pride by giving her maidservant to Abraham so that  he could have a son.  Now it was time for Sarah's compensation, she had acquired enough of the capital of the downtrodden to rate Divine consideration which meant the fulfillment of her dream. 

The promise of redemption from Egypt is announced with a similar usage pf Pokad. When Gd reveals the plan for the redemption of the Israelites to  Moses at the burning bush, Moses is  instructed to say: 

פָּקֹ֤ד פָּקַ֨דְתִּי֙ אֶתְכֶ֔ם [poked pokaditi]

Gd had taken notice, taken account., considered, remembered...

 the Israelites in their plight. There was an accounting of the centuries of bondage, compensation would be given.

The first book of the Torah, Bereshith,  ends with two verses (before announcing the death of Joseph) that repeat

פָּקֹ֧ד יִפְקֹ֣ד [pokad yifkod]

[Gd will] …take notice of you (JPS), take account of you (Evertte Fox), visit you (Koren), consider you (Metzudah), remember you (S.Silverstein).

These are Joseph’s final words of encouragement, and they are charged with hidden meaning. Remembering can only take place in that which is forgotten. Only the overlooked can be reconsidered.

When Gd takes account both the good and the bad are considered. Joseph is telling the brother who was sold him into slavery that an accounting will occur. And he implies that despite all of the guilt, they will be redeemed.

Pakod is simultaneously a very frightening word and a very comforting word. It conveys the strict justice  of the audit and the mercy  of empathy. 

The Shabbath and Holiday shachrith service have a hidden pakod. 

Shochen  Ad contains 

בְּפִי יְשָׁרִים תִּתְהַלָּל. 

 וּבְדִבְרֵי צַדִּיקִים תִּתְבָּרַךְ. 

 וּבִלְשׁון חֲסִידִים תִּתְרומָם. 

 וּבְקֶרֶב קְדושִׁים תִּתְקַדָּשׁ:

Gd will be...

praised in the mouths of the upright

and blessed in the words of the righeous

and exalted in the tongues of the pious

ans sanctified in the midst of the holy ones

The acrostic of the middle words is Yitzchok, Isaac. 

On the High Holidays, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur , Ashekenazim rearrange the the words that mean praise, the last word of each verse, so that the acrostic is Isaac's wife, Rivka.  (Sefardim use that arrangement every Shabbath) .  The rearrangement made me wonder if the first words of each line could also be rearranged as an acrostic. Yes, it spells Lifkod, to account for. 

Perhaps it is best not to be reminded that we are subject to audit and must account for ourselves every Shabbath. Perhaps that is best hidden. But I think it is there. 

There is nothing like a Jewish accountant.

 

Vayakheil: What is inside

 

The book of Exodus( Shemoth) ends with 5 chapters. The fourth chapter, Vayakheil, which we read this week,  and the fifth (Pikudei) repeat the material in the first and second ( Terumah,Titzaveh).  Between them, Ki Thisa, the parsha we read last week, describes the drama that surrounded the Sinai experience. The Israelites gather at Mount Sinai, they witness the awesome voice of Gd, when they tire of waiting for the return of Moses, they ask that  a formed  symbol be made. The golden calf is constructed. The violation incurs the wrath of Moses. He shatters the tablets.  Gd is prepared to abandon the nation. Moses mollifies the anger.  The text returns to the details of building the sanctuary.

This embedding of the golden calf within the description of the sanctuary is eerie. The sanctuary, Gd's guest house, surrounds the golden calf, the symbol of misplaced faith. The millenia that have passed in the absence of a Temple and the rites performed therein, make the sandwich stranger. The Temple and its ceremonies, have become foreign to Jews. The sculptured cherubim and the  representational  tapestries seem idolatrous to the modern Jew. The animal sacrifices seem pre-Jewish.

This week's parsha opens with וַיַּקְהֵ֣ל, and Moses congregated, assembled. Moses gathered the people. The golden calf had demonstrated the risk of  the assembled people. The golden calf experience had shown that there is a populist spirit. The assembled poeple have hidden needs and they do not know how to direct them. Let to their own devices, they will probably make a mistake. Moses is here to provide direction; but he cannot clarify the ineffable core issues.

The golden calf was the product of a desire that emerged from the situation at Sinai. A  large population was expecting revelation. It was not coming from the promised source, so they created a substitute.  They satisfied the desire for an object. The distortion was the crime more heinous than denial. 

The sanctuary serves some of the same needs. It is a central point for the populace to focus upon.  It is the site of the ritual and the mystery. Its deepest secrets are inaccessible. They are the depths of the heart. 

Moses assembled the people to tell them Gd's commandments. He conveys the prohibition of  melacha, "work" on the Sabbath. Rabbi Hanina bar Hama, in the Talmud, relates the specific activities forbidden on the Sabbath  to those that were done in the sanctuary. The prohibited actions are exactly those that are done in the construction of the sanctuary. Despite the enthusiasm, construction of the mishkan was limited to six days  and was not continued on the Sabbath. 

Once the rites of the sanctuary were established, they were continued, even on the Sabbath. The prohibitions of slaughtering an animal, of using fire, etc were all set aside for the service. The lambs were slaughtered, their flesh was burned. The forbidden is commanded; worship is mixed with prohibition. 

There is an elusive, inaccessible depth  that is the source of good and evil. The feelings and motives that necessitate the Temple are those that created the golden calf. There is  internal uncertainty about which actions are positive and which are prohibited and a drive to do something. Is this  the source of battling for a cause, knowing that the goals and the methods are flawed?

I like the word confused. It comes to mean lost, bewildered, disoriented.  But at core it means  mingled together. It is the core  that can never be untangled. A path must be chosen. The second law of thermodynamics predicts that most roads lead to dead ends (or worse). The tradition has much to offer. 

 

 Ki Thisa and Purim: the Beloved Petitioner

This year, in most of the world, Purim is celebrated the day before parshath Ki Thisa is read. On the day before Purim, the  Fast of Esther , we read the a special Torah portion for public fact days: a selection from KiThisa. Purim and Ki Thisa are tied together. 

Purim is the celebration of rescue from annihilations.  Its text, the Megillah of Esther, does not mention Gd, The evil advisor, Haman, presents a plan to the foolish Emperor to destroy the Jews. ( The Megillah identifies the Jews, יהודים , as opposed to Hebrews or Israelites).  Mordechai, a Jewish minister to the Emperor gets wind of the plot. Esther, Mordechai's former ward (or wife) is now the Emperor's favorite in his harem. Mordechai convinces Esther to use her erotic wiles to  convey the  information that will upend Haman's evil plot.  

Ki Thisa  contains the story of the golden calf. Moses is on Mount Sinai, receiving the Divine Law. His absence allows the emergence of ritual by popular demand - which is a deep offence to Gd. The breach of the covenant  is great enough to raise the possibility that  Gd  will abandon this people, destroy them ( or let them be destroyed)  and create a replacement nation. Moses pleads for the people. Moses uses his intimacy with Gd as a fulcrum to plead with the Master of the Universe, the King of Kings. The plea of Moses, like the plea of Esther, is successful and the nation is spared... albeit with a debt to be repaid .  The call and response of forgiveness to the prodigal nation  is a paradigm.  We repeat it as a mantra in Yom Kippur. These words, which encompass the thirteen faces of Divine mercy, are a source of hope. The golden calf experience proves that Gd can forgive.  And we hope that the recitation will induce amnesty. 

Both stories are difficult. The golden calf is a rejection of Gd and the principles that underlie the faith. Ignoring Gd is  less of a problem than creating an idol. The idol implies that Gd's functions can be replaced by a fantasy. Once the uniqueness of the Universal creator has been deeply denied, it is very hard to return. The Israelites had moved into a realm that would make acceptance of the yoke of the law very difficult and unlikely. Forgiveness for this offense was a big ask. But it was granted. 

Gd seems absent from the Megilla.  The community that read Ki Thisa the day before, and will read it again tomorrow, considers a godless world that hates the Jews. Doesn't this harsh persecution require a crime? The humans, who are planning to carry out the destruction, have almost certainly identified the requisite capital offenses: usury, poisoning wells, replacing natives, excessive wealth, etc.

The Talmud (Megilla 12a) says that the reason was that the Jews:  partook of the feast of that wicked one, Ahasuerus, 

מִפְּנֵי שֶׁנֶּהֱנוּ מִסְּעוּדָתוֹ שֶׁל אוֹתוֹ רָשָׁע 

and Steinsalz  adds: ואכלו בה דברים אסורים 

they ate forbidden things.

I do not want to believe that the a single indulgence of the Shushan Jews in  food and wine that was questionably kosher brought the wrath of Gd through Haman.  Rather, I think that there was a general attempt at assimilation. The Megillah hints at that as well. Mordechai is connected to the Royal government.  Esther is able to hide her nationality. The planned destruction of the Jews is more ironic if  it occurs through the hands of the people they want to assimilate into. If assimilation was the sin, it also brings the story closer to the golden calf. The Jews want to be like everyone else

But how do the Jews justify Gd's silence?  This is not a problem with Purim - the destruction was averted. It is a big problem later. 

The Megillah and Ki Thisa are disaster aversion stories and the the close relationship between the pleader and the power is crucial.  This system seems to works...up to a point. 

 Titzaveh: the Origin of Science

 

This week’s parsha adds the human aspect to the sanctuary.  The Israelites are commanded to bring clear olive oil.   Aaron and his sons are to arrange it, to burn through the night.  Presumably, this was to illuminate the area so that humans could see. The lighting of the menorah begins the interaction between the priests, the specially designated humans, and the sanctuary, the access point to the never seen Gd.

The chapter goes on to describe the very special clothing of the high priest and his assistants, his sons,  and the ceremony of induction into the priesthood.  The daily sacrifice of a lamb in the morning and a lamb in the afternoon are described. This sacrificial rite, performed by the properly dressed priest, is a prerequisite to having Gd remain in the sanctuary. Finally, the incense offering on the golden, internal altar is described.  This is a description of the preparations needed for the confrontation with Gd.

This week, after President Trump’s harsh rejection of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president was criticized for his clothing.  He wore his t-shirt with the Ukrainian trident.  He did not wear a collared shirt, rayon tie and suit. He appeared before the king in the wrong garb. His sartorial choice became part of the basis for his rejection.

Many of the premises for his rejection involved errors in the formalism of approaching a greater power. He did not say thank you enough. He was not sufficiently appreciative of the largess the great power had shown him.  Would the priest enter the temple in a t- shirt and neglect to offer the lambs?

After all the priest did to prevent rejection: the seven garments, the diadem, the lambs and the incense…  what was the priest going to experience? What was the point?

I cannot imagine the world view of the ancients. There are too many quantum leaps of understanding between us.  I cannot imagine a world before DNA was understood to contain the instructions of heredity, with all its wonders of molecular literacy and manufacture. I cannot put my mind into a world before Newton’s laws and the mathematics it spawned.  I certainly cannot approach the pre-numeric world, the world of Roman numerals and impossible multiplication.  The gaps in viewpoint blind me to the experience of the priest and the people in the sanctuary. The Torah says that they experienced communication with Gd. My conception of that idea is probably far from theirs.

Nevertheless, there is a connection.  The foundational idea of the sacred experience is that the reality we experience in everyday life is not all there is -  it is not enough. There is something beyond the way we now see the world.  For us, there is something beyond DNA, physics and arithmetic; for them,there is something beyond spirits and sprites and the phases of the moon. Concepts outside of experienced reality are significant, perhaps guiding.

I believe that I live on a nearly spherical, rocky planet with a malleable, hot, central core, that orbits a sun that is a star contained within a galaxy. That  galaxy, with its millions of stars and planets, rotates around a black hole. And that galaxy is one of millions of galaxies. And they all originated from a very ancient explosion that continues to propel the galaxies away from each other.  That is a lot of beliefs, and it is only a small part of the huge belief system I accept. This is the Scientific Faith, which, I am told, is based on organizing observations with mathematical precision. It is all predicated on the belief that ordinary life is a convenient illusion that may preserve some fundamentals but is often misleading and wrong. They are certainly less valid than the spectrophotometer!

The entry of the priest into the sanctuary was also a search for the deeper, truer meaning.  That experience seems to have evolved. Moses had immediate contact with the source of all. By the time of Samuel, the pre-Davidic prophet, the oracular breast plate was subject to misinterpretation: the high priest read the vowel-less letters of proper (kosher) as drunken (shikur). Later, the ark of the second temple was empty. The sacrificial rite was all that was left, a relic of the previous encounters. The spectacle of the search unified the nation even if the source was now an empty box.  (The space program?). Now all we have are words that recall the rite.

The contents of the ark had never been the source of truth. The contents, the tablets, were always inaccessible. It was the knowledge of what was in the box, and then the knowledge of what had once been in the box, that was, and remains, the source.

The priest suited up for the sanctuary.  It was a clean room. No dust of ritual impurity could be tolerated. The priest wore a space suit. He was entering a rarified place.  I do not understand what wisdom came from the inner sanctum, I do not deny  its validity.