Friday, April 27, 2018

Kedoshim - Mental Health Awareness


Shabbat Shalom. Tonight we count the 28th day, that is four weeks, of the Omer. The mystical realm of this day of the Omer is Malkhut sh’b’Netzach, or Majesty in Endurance. The Omer Calendar for Biblical Women attributes this day to Ritzpeh, a concubine of King Saul whose sons are killed off by King David in the transition of power. They are impaled, and Ritzpeh stays with their bodies day and night, refusing to allow birds of prey to land on them and further their destruction and humiliation. When David hears about this, he has the bodies removed from their posts and buried properly in Saul’s ancestral tomb. Ritzpeh embodies the strength of spirit, the grace and majesty on endurance, of one who refuses to be treated as less than human, overcoming great odds and forcing people in power to recognize her suffering.
 
Earlier this week, I wrote a d'var Torah about the ethical business laws given in this week's parasha and the fact that tomorrow is Clara Lemlich's birthday (a leader in the early Labor Movement) and Tuesday is May Day/International Worker's Day. The summary is, the Torah gives us laws to work fairly by, and it seems they inspired the many Jewish women you can thank for having a weekend. You can find the rest of it on the previous post on this blog.  

But some other things have happened in my orbit this week that cause me to turn back to a teaching I hold near and dear to my heart. This week's Torah portion, Parashat Acherei-Kedoshim gives us the oft-quoted, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Ten verses later, it tells us, "You shall not make marks in your flesh." A very difficult piece of Torah for some of us is to recognize that in order to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must learn to love ourselves. It is possible to learn to do this through our love for others. To think of those who would do anything to protect us from harm, who would defend us from others, can be a strong reminder to not inflict self-harm and to hear their voices in our heads as they might say to a third party to leave their friend/sibling/child/etc. alone. While many may struggle with self-harm, maladaptive coping mechanisms, or may not have really anything to help shield them from themselves, those same people would still never dream of harming someone else. 

I don’t know of any other rabbis with this commentary, but to me it seems clear that if we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must treat ourselves as we would our neighbors and not inflict harm on ourselves we would not do to others. This is of course easier said than done, as the urge to self-harm is already not a healthy one for so many other reasons and is compulsive and complicated and deeply ingrained. Overcoming the depths of depression and learning to manage mental illness in healthy ways takes so much more than two verses of Torah. It is a lot of just gritting teeth and waiting for the therapy and the meds to kick in, it takes waiting for the initial hurt that catalyzed the episode to fade, it takes so much that is out of anyone’s control. 

But gritting teeth and gripping tightly this Torah teaching, and allowing time for the interventions to work, can bring on such freedom and knowledge of strength. Please know, it is so worth pushing through and holding on to see the next day. Getting out of rock bottom means you can do literally anything, because you already beat your own brain, and you will overcome each new episode after that with increasing strength. I know this piece of Torah can't save everyone who struggles with self-harm or suicidal ideation. But I know how important it has been to me in the past I hope by spreading it, we can all inspire one more faithful person in pain to stay with us at least a little longer. When we are honest about these difficult topics, we can share Ritzpeh’s grace and majesty of endurance, and we create space for healthy processing of suffering. 

May these verses inspire those in their depths to share with themselves the love and restraint they would share with others, and may all with a cloudy outlook look forward to the day the clouds part and they can feel the sun on their faces again, and when that happens, I know that they will see how amazing and strong and whole they are for overcoming this episode, and every hard moment to come.


Parashat Kedoshim - Labor Rights


Shabbat Shalom! Together we count the omer, the blessing for which can be found on page 570.

BA-RUCH A-TAH ADO-NAI E-LO-HE-NU ME-LECH HA-OLAM ASHER KID-E-SHA-NU BE-MITZ-VO-TAV VETZI-VA-NU AL SEFI-RAT HA-OMER.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.

Hayom shmonah v’esrim yim, sheheim arba’ah shavuot la’omer.
Today is the 28th day, that is four weeks, of the Omer. The mystical realm of this day of the Omer is Malkhut sh’b’Netzach, or Majesty in Endurance. The Omer Calendar for Biblical Women attributes this day to Ritzpeh, a concubine of King Saul whose sons are killed off by King David in the transition of power. They are impaled, and Ritzpeh stays with their bodies day and night, refusing to allow birds of prey to land on them and further their destruction and humiliation. When David hears about this, he has the bodies removed from their posts and buried properly in Saul’s ancestral tomb. Ritzpeh embodies the strength of spirit, the grace and majesty on endurance, of one who refuses to be treated as less than human, overcoming great odds and forcing people in power to recognize her suffering.

This week we have a double Torah portion, Parashat Acherei Mot and Kedoshim. It is a full portion, with many rules dealing with both ritual matters and ethical matters. Kedoshim especially was considered by many ancient rabbis to be the essence of the whole Torah, as it repeats the 10 Commandments and gives us the commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Among the many pithy verses that fall under this category of ethical commandments in this parasha, there are a few that point to honesty in business. Leviticus 19:13 says, “You shall not oppress your fellow. You shall not rob. The hired worker's wage shall not remain with you overnight until morning,” and the Sifrei Midrash on the Levitical laws clarifies that the reason “You shall not oppress your fellow,” and “You shall not rob” and put in the same verse as “the wages should not remain with you overnight,” is to let us know that an employer who withholds his workers’ wages oppresses and robs his worker.

Just a few verses later we read as well, “You shall not commit a perversion of justice with measures, weights, or liquid measures. You shall have true scales, true weights, a true ephah, and a true hin. I am the Lord, your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:35-36). There is a volume of the Shulchan Aruch, the 16th century definitive code of Halakha, devoted almost entirely to the explanation and codification of Jewish labor laws based on these verses from Parashat Kedoshim

This Shabbat would be the birthday of Clara Lemlich, a Jewish woman who led the Uprising of the 20,000, a general strike of NYC’s garment workers a full year before the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire brought massive attention to the horrors of workplace abuse of the time. Without the help of today’s means of mass communication, without the help of the spotlight that the unfortunate fire would eventually cast on their working conditions, Clara was able to encourage tens of the thousands of workers to walk out on strike at a coordinated time on two days’ notice. Her efforts, and others like her, are largely to thank for our modern day labor rights - sensible hours, safe working conditions, bathroom breaks, freedom from harassment, and more. Although it would be some time before regulations reached the fully fleshed out versions we have today, by the end of the 2 month strike, Clara had earned the promises of her bosses that the workers would see improved hours and wages, and safer working conditions. Jewish women upheld the values taught in this week’s parasha and lived with the majesty of endurance shown by Ritzpeh. They stood up against kings of industry to ensure that their people - fellow Jews, fellow women, fellow immigrants, and fellow working class - and all their descendents would not be treated as subhuman as they were.

Let us carry on the Jewish values of this parasha and live up to the legacy of Ritzpeh and Clara. Let us conduct ourselves fairly and honestly in business, and demand that our bosses, our local businesses, and other Jewish-run businesses which represent our community to their workers do the same. Call out injustice and illegal labor practices when you see them, and stand by workers of all kinds. This is a Jewish legacy and a value from the Torah. On Tuesday, it will be May Day, International Workers’ Day, often a day for strikes and recognition for the labor movements that have fought to give us so much freedom in this country. If you go to work on Monday, and you work a decent 8 hours, with a lunch break, think about those who have fought for you to have those regulations, and those who are still fighting for a living wage. Be grateful for what a work week in this country looks like now, and let that gratitude open your eyes to the ways in which labor practices could still be better for a lot of companies and workers, especially those in manual labor positions. And may we have the majesty of endurance to ever further the efforts that came before us to truly make this world a continuously better place. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.


Friday, April 20, 2018

Family Shabbat: Parashat Tazria-Metzora


Shabbat Shalom! Together we count the omer:
BA-RUCH A-TAH ADO-NAI E-LO-HE-NU ME-LECH HA-OLAM ASHER KID-E-SHA-NU BE-MITZ-VO-TAV VETZI-VA-NU AL SEFI-RAT HA-OMER.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sanctified us with commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.
Hayom echad v’esrim shehem sh’losha shavuot la’omer.
Today is the 21st day, that is three weeks, of the Omer. Today’s realm is Malchut She’b’Tiferet, or Majesty within Compassion. In the Omer Calendar of Biblical Women, this day is attributed to the Witch of Endor, a woman of humble livings who is cast out by society for her divination. It is this divination that also leads King Saul to her door. She summons the spirit of his old mentor, the prophet Samuel, to give him guidance one last time as Saul himself is also seeing the end of his reign and his ultimate reunion with Samuel. The Witch, despite her lowly status in society shows the greatest majesty of compassion as she comforts the sick king in his final days.

In our Torah portion this week, Parashat Tazria-Metzora, we read about some terrible skin diseases and the way our ancient people interpreted them. In the second half of this double parasha, the Metzora part, the Torah explains that one of the diseases was a punishment for arrogance. In Leviticus 14:4, we are told that in order to cleanse someone afflicted with the skin disease of Metzora, the priest needed to gather ceder wood and hyssop grass. A Midrash asks, “Why these two plants? Because he has praised himself as a cedar tree... he should humble himself like a blade of grass.” The Chasidic masters add on this: “If the point is that he should show humility, why does he bring both a cedar and hyssop? But the true meaning of humility is not to be broken and bowed, but to be humble even as one stands straight and tall.” Just like the Witch of Endor, even one who is humble and humbled, can still do their job and do great things with a calm and majestic air, to carry with them the strength of the cedar and the soft flexibility of the hyssop.

This means that in school, you can be proud of the work you do, the Spelling Bees you win, the art you make that gets showcased, the role you got in the school play. But you don’t need to brag about it. And if you haven’t won a spelling bee or gotten the lead in the play yet, you can still be proud of being exactly who you are. You can carry yourself with the quiet air of self-satisfaction and just know that you are doing the best you can, and everyone around you is probably doing the best that they can too. It’s good to feel proud of yourself, and to show your friends and your family you’re happy for them when they do something to be proud of as well. And just like sometimes you might need reassurance that you’re on the right track and doing your best, you might want to reach out to a classmate you see struggling and reassure them in the same way.

And old Jewish saying goes, “A person should have two pockets in his coat. One should contain the Talmudic saying (Sanhedrin 37a), ‘A person is commanded to declare: For my sake the world was created.’ In his second pocket he should keep the verse (Genesis 18:17), ‘I am but dust and ashes.’” May we always remember that we are doing our best, and we can always strive to do better. May we always be humble yet self-assured. And most of all, may we always find majesty in our compassion.