Tzav Shabbath Hagadol

I read the parsha each week for perspective. I recognize that this moment comes in the context of the past. The parsha comes from a barely accessible, ancient point of view. The parsha has been preserved over millennia and continues to influence the world view of millions of people, myself included.  When the parsha deals with instructions to the priests on the details of the sacrificial rite  and the initiation ritual for the high priest, I wonder why this section is preserved . What does it mean for me, living in an era when there is no temple, when animal sacrifice is disdained, when the entire temple ritual is foreign. Am I wasting my time reading and thinking about these things?

The haftarah from Malachi deals with this issue. Malachi, the last of the prophets, offers a bridge between the people of the Exodus from Egypt and the remnant of Jews who emerged from Persia and built a replacement Temple in Jerusalem. The Haftarah starts (translation: Revised JPS, 2023 in Sefaria) :

Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to GD as in the days of yore and in the years of old.

This verse is quoted as the last line of the last meditation that follows the Amidah, the core prayer for all services. It links the prayer service to the temple service (which it replaces) 

 

The next verse in the haftarah is more modern: 

 

But [first] I will step forward to contend against you, and I will act as a relentless accuser against those who have no fear of Me: Who practice sorcery, who commit adultery, who swear falsely, who cheat laborers of their hire, and who subvert [the cause of] the widow, orphan, and stranger, said GOD of Hosts.

 

This verse invokes a GD that is independent of the Temple service. It is the Gd that protects the laborer, the widow, the orphan, the stranger. It is the Gd that fits with ambient culture; the Gd that Gentiles can understand and (claim to) accept. 

 

The mission of reconciliation between the old ways and the successive generations is stated in the last verse of the haftarah ( the last verse in the books of the prophets). 

 

וְהֵשִׁ֤יב לֵב־אָבוֹת֙ עַל־בָּנִ֔ים וְלֵ֥ב בָּנִ֖ים עַל־אֲבוֹתָ֑ם פֶּן־אָב֕וֹא וְהִכֵּיתִ֥י אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ חֵֽרֶם׃ 

He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction.

 

I am moved by the mutuality of the verse. First, the parents will return their hearts to the children; after that the hearts of the children (will return) to their parents.  The prophet is demanding that parents understand the children's perception that the world has fundamentally changed.  Questioning the old ways and the old rules is a valid enterprise.  The claims of youth cannot be dismissed as purely immature prattle; they deserve consideration.  

 

Once the youthful claims are stated, the parents can see how they devolve from the past and, from the parent's perspective, may lead to destruction. By definition, revolution will tear down the old ways that some hold precious. The generation that sees its own passing must ask what is worth keeping, what can actually be preserved. 

 

Malachi, the prophet, is a defender of the old. Malachi has the humility to recognize the  danger of change. No one understands the world well enough to identify rituals that are superfluous. We do not know what supports the world. It is a game of Jenga. 

 

Tzav, the title word of this week's parsha means "command." It is an order and requires no reason or justification. The ritual must be performed. The nation and the world depend upon it. Its meaning may be revealed later, much later.  That revelation is implied in the penultimate verse of Malachi, which we repeat to end the haftarah. 

Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of GD.

 

This brings to mind the end of the Shabbath zemer (song) Mah Yediduth: 

 

מֵחֶבְלֵי מָשִֽׁיחַ. יֻצָּֽלוּ לִרְוָחָה.

 

They (the celebrants of Shabbath) will be rescued  from the pangs of the (coming of the) Messiah. 

 

In times like these, when missiles streak across the sky and bombs destroy homes and lives, I wonder if we are experiencing these pangs of the Messiah. The tradition tells me it will be worth it. The youth that is left in me, as a modern person, questions it. Time will unify my two hearts.  

 

 

 Vayikra: Evolution

Vayikra describes the sacrificial rite.  This English expression has a misleading nuance. Sacrificial has evolved to mean a (painful)  loss for a significant cause. Sacrifice is used to describe the soldiers who die  for the cause of their country. Money  or  labor or time dedicated to an unselfish endeavor is called a sacrifice. The etymology of the word is revealed by its clear relationship to sacred. The original, Latin, meaning was to make (facere) something sacred (sacer). I am not sure what the Romans understood as sacred.  The word took on the trappings of Christianity implying human sacrifice (Christ-like holiness) and then became secularized, losing all relationship to sanctity, as the  concept of holiness  became increasingly distant  and obscure. Now, the reader needs to work to restore that sacred part of sacrifice - not every reader will do it. 

The word rite has come to have a somewhat negative overtone. Rite implies a ceremony without clear purpose or meaning, usually done by some "other" cult or religion. The secularization of the English speaking culture does not leave  any alternative words that are significantly less negative (that I can think of or find in the thesaurus). There is a deep cultural barrier that spills over into language that makes it more than difficult to appreciate or understand what the activities described in Vayikra meant to the ancient participant. 

The rituals described in the parsha have not been done for thousands of years. They are preserved in the words of description. To the devout, the rituals described in the parsha should continue, they are (somehow) the basis for continued existence; in their absence the world would return to chaos. The recitation of the words serves to maintain enough of the power of this ceremony to keep the world going... until the actual performance can be re-established with the rebuilding of the Temple (on the land currently used for Moslem devotion). 

 Offerings to Gd have a checkered past. The sacrifices of Noah and the patriarchs are positive. Noah's post-flood sacrifice elicited a Divine promise of no more universal, genocidal floods. 

The first sacrificial story involves the (apparent) motive for the first murder. Cain brought an offering from the "fruit of the soil" and his younger brother, Abel, brought "the firstlings of his flock." Cain's rejection in the face of Abel's acceptance seems to have led to the murder. 

As a narrative, the book of Vayikra that we start this week, builds to the climax of Nadav and Abihu, the elder sons of Aaron, dying because of an error in their sacrificial activities. Aaron and his remaining two sons'  continued adherence to the rite seems to be part of their qualification for the priestly status. 

The current war between Israel/US and Iran could be viewed as a continuation of the battle among rituals (Moslem, Jewish, Christian, etc.). It is hard for me to know the motivations of a theocratic state, but I certainly hope that the preserved ritual is not the basis for additional homicide.  Looking for other, more "rational" motivations of economics, power and pride leaves me in no better position to justify the killing and destruction.  

The spectrum of Jewish sentiment about the war is more familiar to me. The overriding consideration in Israel is the  threat of (nuclear) annihilation. Such threats have been expressed verbally by the Iranian religious leadership  and threatening acts ( through proxies) have caused death and destruction in Israel.  The theocratic  nature of the Iranian state leads to the suspicion of implacability: nothing can be done to change the beliefs and behaviors of such an avowed enemy. 

On the Jewish side, there is a contingent with religious motivations who are willing to kill or be killed for the re-establishment of the Temple and its sacrificial rite, but it so tiny, it may not exist outside the realm of fantasy. The overwhelming majority  of those who say they want the Temple will wait for Divine intervention and do not want war for that.  Maybe it is the same in Iran, maybe not.  Gd tells us Cain's motives , in every other case: motive is a guess. 

   Vayakheil-Pikudei: Religious Architecture

Karen and I have just arrived in A New York. We were greeted at the gate, outside customs, by Steve and Naomi.  It  was a refugee scene. We had just arrived after escaping closed Israeli airspace by going to Amman, Jordan. The US state department suggested Egypt as a better route, but, after our plane from Sharm el Sheikh was cancelled, Amman made the most sense. 

The first siren, signifying incoming Iranian missiles, was on Saturday morning Feb. 28. I was walking to the Jerusalem Central Synagogue along Derech Hevron. Although the English street sign calls this Hebron Street, the Hebrew implies that it is a road to the city of Hebron. The word Hebron is rooted in Chaver, friend. Hevron is not a friendly city for Israelis.  It had a very large Palestinian population and a settler foothold. It is the scene of the Hebron massacre in 1929, a pogrom against Jews, in British Palestine. Hebron is part of the territory occupied after the 1967 war  It is a very tense place. Hebron is the site of the burial of Abraham, patriarch of Hebrews and Muslim. Agreeing on a common patriarch does not lead to enough family kinship to prevent war. 

David ruled in Hebron, but the tabernacle was never stationed there. In the time of David, the Tabernacle and its associated animal sacrificial rite was in Givon. David  had the ark, the Cherub guarded  gold plated, box that contained the tablets from Sinai, moved to Jerusalem. David's son, Shlomo, replaced the tabernacle with the Temple in Jerusalem, unifying the sacrificial rite with the Revelation at Sinai. The sanctity of Jerusalem was established for all time forward. A battle ground was identified. 

I was walking to the Great synagogue because of the intense emotional experience I have when the choir sings and harmonizes the Shabbat liturgical highlights. Although the music is the final trigger, the entire experience: the marbled hall, the architecture, the diversity of the crowd ( devout and music lovers and tourists), the longing of the prayers, all contribute to the experience. The architecture has many components but there is a stated reference to the Temple of Solomon and the lineage of form that starts with the Tabernacle described in the parsha. The Great Synagogue is a distortion of the dream of rebuilding the great Temple of old in Jerusalem, at its previous site, now occupied by a Moslem religious complex. 

I did not make it to the synagogue. Instead, I looked for shelter from shrapnel from intercepted missiles and actual missile explosions. Derech Chevron is the site of light rail construction ( for the next several years). At some points, the street detours away from the apartment buildings that line the road in that neighborhood.  When the siren rang out, I was on a detour.  I hurried back to an apartment building and, although using electricity is forbidden on the Shabbath, I rang every doorbell.  Someone let me in.  I went to the garage (a good, but not the best, shelter) and looked for an official shelter, but could not find one.  I had some trouble finding my way out of the garage (locked for security) , but I got out and went home to our apartment that has an official shelter room (maamad) .  The Great Synagogue and the Gd of the great synagogue did not feel like enough shelter at that moment, 

We spent the next 10 days living between sirens. Our daughter Shoshana, he husband Micha and our granddaughter Alma stayed with us. There are far fewer attacks , hence alarms, in Jerusalem  than on Ramat Gan where they live. They do not have a convenient shelter, they run across the street  with 90 seconds notice to a stairway that is a mediocre shelter. In the Jerusalem apartment, the three of them could sleep in a shelter room. The tabernacle did no offer effective physical shelter. It sheltered the people from the wrath of Gd - a danger that never ends. 

We spent the next 10 days living between the sirens. Seeing people who have been important in our lives; Going to out to kosher restaurants, taking buses and light rail, shopping. The sirens in Jerusalem were not frequent. We would often walk on the promenade. This is a hilltop park built in the area that was no-man's land separating Jordanian administered East Jerusalem from Israel. From that high vantage point, there is a full view of the (byzantine) walled old city of Jerusalem sitting on a hill, crowned with the Golden dome of the mosque (built by the Umayyads in 692)that sits on the site of the  ancient Hebrew and Jewish temple (and prevents its reconstruction).  The valleys to the east have densely constructed Arab neighborhoods. In the distance, the wall that separates annexed Israeli Jerusalem  from the other occupied territories is visible.  It is an overwhelming site of beauty , hope, despair, sadness, all forms of pride, and hope.  The architectural structures in the center, built for rituals that praise and appease the One Gd (a belief shared by Jews, Muslims and Christians)  is a cause for battle and war among the believers. Does religious architecture emphasize nationalism over understanding others?

Every day, we look out at the Golden dome. It is said that Jerusalem is protected by the Golden dome. That mosque is among the holiest sites in Suni Islam. The rockets are coming from Shiite Iran.  to them that site, that mosque , is much less significant.  But damaging it would enrage the Suni peoples and risk their turning on Iran. Hence, Iran does not want to risk damaging the Golden Dome. If the Jewish temple were there, it would probably be a target for the missiles. Jerusalem is protected by the Golden dome (as well as the Iron Dome)

I have  a work commitment that motivates my return to the Northwest by Sunday. Our flight from Ben Gurion had been cancelled. The replacement flight, that would have required overland travel to Sharm el Sheikh was cancelled. We scrambled. The only available flights were from Jordan. We decided to cross the Allenby Bridge ( No one told us we needed a visa; I figured it out) Karen had hired a Jordanian tour company. They made it relatively easy. Waiting for our ride to Amman from the border crossing, a beggar boy ( estimate: 13 year old) got some (Israeli) change from me and a nonuniformed man starting beating him.  A uniformed policeman then came and chased the boy away, but said nothing to the man who was beating him. Welcome to Jordan. 

Murad, our diver and guide in Amman is a Palestinian. He lives in a refugee camp. He says the rents are cheaper. He could live in the city if he had the money. He is not a citizen of Jordan. His parents moved in 1968 ( presumably because of the 1967 war). He has never been to Jerusalem and he dreams of going to Mecca and Medina. He fasts during the day. It is Ramadan. 

On the way to the hotel, we have a tour of the nearby opulent, guarded mansions. These, and the amazing hotel buildings we see later, are structures built, in large part, to impress the viewer. That was also the nature of Tabernacle and its derivative temples. The impressive exterior announces the great status of the inhabitants. It alienates the outsiders. 

Murad takes us on a standard tour of Amman. We go to the citadel which is dominated by the ruins of a temple to Hercules built by Marcus Aurelius. There are also ruins of an Umayyad settlement and a Byzantine church. Impressive structures become ruins. That is the certain fate of that which is not rebuilt

The Amman citadel offers an excellent view of the Roman Amphitheater, built by Antoninus (presumably the friend of Rabbi Judah the Prince who is mentioned in the Talmud). We later went down and saw the marvelous acoustics, both public and private (the wall transmits quiet conversation to the other side of the theater), This structure is still used for public concerts. 

Murad drives us to the airport. He tells us that he cannot understand how people cannot believe in Gd. Did all the wonders of the human body occur without a creator? I do not burden him with my opinion that non-believers are invoking their own god, Chronos: the idea that infinite time allows the selection of infinite possibilities.  Rather I tell him that basis of non-belief is that Gd fails to appear when needed (in the opinion of the person). How can Gd allow the war to proceed?

I tell him that the belief in one Gd means that there is one justice for all people. The favoritism of the Bible stories are demonstrations of Gd's faithful fulfillment of rewards for exceptional good behavior. All people are the same before Gd. All people who believe in one Gd should not battle over the details of ritual.

Do the structures, like the tabernacle and temple (and the mansions) fuel the battle between the nations, the sects, the classes? There are many descriptions of the Temple. My favorite is in Selichot quoted from Isiah 56:7

 כִּי בֵיתִי בֵּית תְּפִלָּה יִקָּרֵא לְכָל הָעַמִּים:

for My House, will be called a House of Prayer for all peoples.” 

May these structures bring us to proper awe and mutual respect and the greatest blessing. Shalom, Peace.

Ki Thisah: follwership

Ki Thisa: followership

I am writing from Jerusalem in the midst of a war against Iran. Iran was formerly known as Persia (The Shah changed the name to a cognate of Aryan [ not a complete coincidence] in 1935.) The  Jews, who were dispersed through the Persian empire, were threatened with annihilation by the machinations of Haman, who had become the chief advisor of the foolish King Achashverosh.  Clever Mordechai and beguiling Esther, through a set of remarkable coincidences, rescue the Jews from destruction. That is a quick summary of the megillah that  we read this week, on Tuesday in most of the world and Wednesday in Jerusalem. This year we read that megillah with intermittent missile attacks forcing sheltering from bombs and shrapnel. Iran had been attacked by Israel  (and the US) because it had renewed Haman's threat. The leadership of Israel (and the president of US)  had determined that a pre-emptive strike  was wise. The retaliation was predictable. 

In the parsha and in the megillah, we hear a great deal about the leaders: Moses, Mordechai, Esther. Few people are in those positions. Most people are in  the mas of humanity for most things. Individuals do important things, but their accomplishments are hard won and recognized only by their peers or beneficiaries. Their names are not recorded in the book (like Moshe); their books are not read in an annual ritual of celebration (like Mordechai and Esther).

How would I have dealt with the golden calf?  Would I have participated? contributed? celebrated? watched from a distance? I do not know. But the guilt for the act was distributed to everyone. The participation of Aaron, Moshe's brother, who was left in charge, implies that it was dangerous to fail to support the great Golden calf project.  It was a situation in which the choice of faith in Gd was unrealistic, but Gd demanded it anyway.  This is a recurrent religious demand. 

Purim is the greatest example of , "They tried to kill us, they failed, lets eat"  This is the witticism that expresses a view of Judaism. It is the Judaism of deliverance from persecution, the Judaism that sees the world populated by irreconcilable antisemites. It is not my favorite view, but currently it is evoked by the ongoing rocket barrages. I need it to justify the actions of Israel and the US. It is a way to understand the acceptance of the statements of the Ayatollah

The beginning of the parsha, the poll tax in which everyone counts the same comes in contrast to the Golden Calf. Th e golden calf was  made from reclaimed jewelry (which probably alienated the original recipients) which implies wealth. Idolatry contains an element of the rich subjugating the poor. Shabbath, which is also prominently mentioned in the parsha, is the great concession to the worker: a day when there is no boss. Gd requires it. It is an antidote to the idolatry of work

Am I following the right path? I have the Shabbath to consider it