Parashat Re'eh: Differing Narratives

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Re’eh, which, among other things, foretells the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. The parasha tells the Israelites to destroy all the altars they encounter when they enter the land of Israel, meaning the idolatrous idols. Moses says, “You shall not do this to your Lord.” However, there are several generations between this and when Solomon builds the Temple, and in the meantime, priests build altars in each tribe’s land. Once the Temple is built, the Books of Kings would have us believe that there is no longer any need or desire for these lesser temples. There are passing references in the Prophets of these altars being destroyed, mostly blaming the Israelites for turning toward idolatry. The Haftarah for this parasha promotes the supremacy of the Temple in Jerusalem, and being a Haftarah of consolation, assures the Israelites in Exile that they will once again make sacrifices there.

I recently read The Secret Book of Kings, a book translated into English from Israeli author Yochi Brandes’s מלכים ג, meaning III Kings. It tells the story of much of the Books of Samuel and Kings from the perspective of Saul’s family. It posits that these books of the Bible were written by what amounts to David’s propagandists. From the point of view of The Secret Book of Kings, Solomon had his goons destroy the altars and temples in all the tribal lands when he was building his Temple to force the Israelites to come to Jerusalem any time they wanted to make a sacrifice to HaShem. To be sure, in The Secret Book of Kings, these local altars are unquestionably to the One God of Israel, and not to the Queen of Heaven as the prophets claim later in our Bible as if to comply with the prophecy in this week’s parasha, yet still they are destroyed.

This is just one of many possible examples of how there may be multiple narratives surrounding a singular event. Of course, The Secret Book of Kings is a self-described fiction book, whereas the Books of Samuel and Kings have at least some historical backing. Yet, the realities from our Bible which are verified by archeology do not necessarily contradict anything in the novel and we know historically that ancient archives were chronicled by those in the palace, often exaggerating for the sake of elevating the king’s doings or the military successes of the ancient civilization doing the chronicling. Even to this day, we talk about how history is written by the victors and there may be multiple narratives to every tale told.

This week marked the anniversaries of the two atomic bombs dropped on civilian cities in Japan. On Monday, a story came out that the last surviving member of the crew that flew over Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945 has no regrets about his participation in the deaths over approximately 160,000 people. To be sure, I do not want this 95-year-old who served our country bravely to be wallowing in regret. I understand that the Japanese bombed the U.S. first and that the crew that dropped the bomb didn’t know it was an atom bomb and that even the people who did know what they were sending really didn’t understand the long term effects of such a bomb. But if we heard the narrative of that day or of the ensuing years of radiation from someone who live in or around Hiroshima, what would that story look like? Would it cause a twinge of guilt or regret in those responsible? Would it shock those of us who grew up on a different telling of the tale?

Differing narratives doesn’t necessarily mean one is right and one is wrong. It just means there were multiple experiences of the same occurrence, and different fallouts for the people involved and often also the people surrounding or descending from the people involved. Realizing this does not have to cause regret, but it can be an opportunity for pause. For reflection. For teshuvah. Teshuvah does not just mean repentance or have to connote feeling sorry; the word also means returning and answering and could also be a means of taking ownership of difficult choices one had to make and stand by.

The spiritual realm for this day of Sefirat HaBinyan is Chesed she’b’Hod, Kindness in Majesty. Reb Zalman’s reflection for this day is, “Once upon a time we were children. If lucky we had loving parents to take care of and nurture us. They were the support posts to lean against as we stretched ourselves out into the world. How kind they must have been to put up with all our silliness. I am reminded of this as I spend the night in the house where I did most of my growing up. Each of us, mom and I, do things in our way in our respective worlds. Coming together now we must both be humble, be sensitive, and honor the other.” Just as children and parents often have different experiences of the same event, both real and valid, so too do most any two people or peoples. But we can come together in humility and sensitivity, honoring each other, and learn to see from the other’s point of view. In this way, we can become more balanced, holding up kindness and understanding as a crowning achievement.

Today there are 29 days left until erev Rosh HaShannah, which is 4 weeks, and 1 days. May we be vessels of majestic kindness, using this period of Sefirat HaBinyan for good, bringing peace and blessing to all those around us. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.

Parashat Eikev - Sefirat HaBinyan

            Shabbat Shalom! This week's Torah portion is Parashat Eikev. I like to think of all of Deuteronomy basically as Moses’s exit interview to the People of Israel. In this parasha, he reminds them that they have been annoying and whiny from day 1 and that God sent manna from Heaven for their sustenance, because "man does not live on bread alone".

The Haftarah from Isaiah 49 connects because it too reminds the Jewish people that they have been difficult but that God provides for them anyway. This Haftarah is also chosen for this point in the year, because it is one of the seven haftarot of consolation following Tisha B'Av. Isaiah is prophesying that the people exiled after the fall of Jerusalem (which happens on Tisha B'Av) will worry that God has abandoned them, but Isaiah them that God loves God’s people as a mother loves her children, even when they are in time-out.

*Read first five lines of Haftarah*

These seven weeks of consolation lead us right to Rosh HaShanah. This is like an additional Omer period. Just as we count the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, meditating on the kabbalistic realms as they relate to freedom and revelation, we now count these seven weeks between Tisha B’Av and Rosh HaShanah, meditating on the kabbalistic realms as they relate to destruction and rebuilding, consequence and repentance.

 This week’s Haftarah teaches us that redemption is always possible, when our foundations are goodness. We all make mistakes and have to live with the consequences, which sometimes are really rough. It is difficult to live a life with truly no regrets. But with goodness at our foundations, we are able to see the error of our ways and amend them. This season, may we complete the full meaning of teshuvah – to repent and to return, to live in love even where there is strife, and to acknowledge that it takes so much more to sustain our lives than mere bodily nutrition. 

Reb Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, the founder of Jewish Renewal, taught: There are four fundamental layers of understanding the Torah. There are four or more layers of understanding our life. Try to be vulnerable, to open up instead of closing down. Let loving-kindness from the soul’s foundation wash our inner temple. Today there are 36 days left until erev Rosh HaShannah, which is 5 weeks and 1 day, Chesed Sheb’ Yesod, kindness in foundations. Please let us be vessel for the Divine light and help to align us with Holiness. May this period of Sefirat HaBinyan and the New Year be for good, for peace and for blessing for all of Israel, for all inhabitants of the earth and let us say Amen.(Day kavanah by Menuhah Peters/prayer by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Gabbi Seth Fishman).

Parashat Korah

            Shabbat Shalom and welcome to my favorite Torah portion. Parashat Korah is juicy and full of interesting points of view to consider. There’s betrayal and coup d’état and the earth swallowing people whole! But I don’t want to talk about any of that tonight. I want to focus on one-line Korah utters when he is threatening insurrection against Moses. He says, “The entire congregation of Israel is holy, and HaShem is in their midst.”

The Midrash Tanhuma comments on that line, “Not only you heard at Sinai, ‘I am the Lord, your God’ - the entire congregation heard it. All of them heard [the] words [of the commandments] at Sinai from the mouth of the Almighty.” When we say that all the people of Israel heard the word of God at Sinai, even though that part of the Torah tells us the people were terrified at witnessing God and sent Moses up to finish the conversation on their behalf, is that as Jews we believe in the complete equality of all our people. When we say at Passover time that this “whole congregation of Israel” includes all Jews, past, present, and future, those who believe themselves to be descended from the 12 tribes and those who know they joined the congregation along the way, we’re reinforcing Korah’s judgement that no one should elevate themselves above anyone else. The entire congregation is holy, and HaShem is in our midst most when we recognize one another’s holiness.

Tonight, we at Ner Shalom welcomed in a new member of our holy congregation and God’s presence was a little nearer, felt a little fuller in our midst as our community grew. When we are open and welcoming, when we embrace one another fully, we let in the presence of God as well and increase the holiness among us. May you find the holiness in each person you greet, for the entire community is holy, and HaShem is with everyone.

Parashat Shelach and Intergenerational Trauma

Shabbat Shalom! Here are some fun old Yiddishisms for you I learned from The Five Books of Miriam:

The cat likes fish, but doesn’t want to get her paws wet.

The way you look at someone, so that person appears to you.

The smoothest way is full of stones.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Shelach-Lecha, we learn of 12 Spies that Moses sends into the Promised Land to scope out how conquerable the land is, or if it is indeed what God has promised. They come back with a cluster of grapes so large they have to carry it on a pole between two men and tell the Israelite horde that indeed the land is plentiful, but the people who dwell in it are large enough to match these giant grapes. Those living in the land are described as giants, and it is hinted at that the Israelite spies possibly even see these giants as descended from angels. They have no faith in their abilities to conquer the land from these people. Rashi says that when the spies say, “We cannot attack that people for it is stronger than we”, they are even including God’s might in that “we”. It is not simply a lack of faith in God’s support for them that leads them to question their abilities, but that even God is not strong enough to overcome these semigod giants.

I think Rashi’s view, and the Bubbe-isms, are the common way to view this story. These are a faithless, lazy, incessantly whining people. More than once they suggest things were actually better in Egypt. They demand meat fall from heaven for them, even after all their basic needs are being taken care of. When thing get hard, they want to just give up.

However, it is important to remember that these are a people who have lived in slavery, and are descended from several generations of enslaved people. Where was God’s might during those 200 years under Egyptian hardship? Despite the miracles these people have seen with their own eyes, they are still carrying on their souls the 200 years of oppression and tragedy. When the people who are born in freedom merit to enter the Promised Land, we still see some of the vestiges of this faithlessness that God tried to stamp out by causing the generation of slaves to die in the wilderness. This week’s Haftarah comes from the Book of Joshua, and we see Joshua also sends spies into Jericho to scope out the best way to conquer the walled city. Later in the book, as the Israelites make their way from city to city conquering land and asserting their dominance, they are instructed to never take any booty from the cities they conquer. The plan is simply to establish that the land belongs to them and that the Israelites will be able to settle where God tells them to, so there is no need to cause excess harm to the people living in the land. According to the plan, God will aid their fight and ensure their prosperity. Yet, in one narrative in the Book of Joshua, someone steals some money from one of the cities, and again the whole community suffers the wrath of God. Time has passed, and they are ostensibly past the fear and faithlessness of their fathers born in slavery, but it’s clear that some Israelites still have trouble believing that they will always have the years of plenty God has promised.

The study of intergenerational trauma has stemmed from the study of Holocaust survivors and their families, so these behavior patterns might be familiar to us as Jews. The study has expanded and this sort of trauma is known now to occur in many types of communities, such as the Siberian Yupik peoples of Alaska, who were the focus of this week’s episode of Code Switch. The good news is, we don’t have to be stuck in these patterns. Despite their fear and faithlessness, God never gives up on the Israelites in the stories we read this week, and our people eventually prevail. Even as history has marched forward and other tragedies have befallen modern Jews, we continue to survive and thrive. Though I know many still carry the scars of their parents and grandparents, this field of study has opened up more awareness of how to break these cycles, learn about our histories in healthier ways, and focus on resilience and rebuilding. The idea that someone can inherit trauma may sound depressing, but this field of study can help turn us into an entire people of Calebs and Joshuas, a people with faith and hope, courage and strength, and a more acute sense of real dangers versus perceived ones. May you find your own faith, hope, courage, strength, and wisdom to help lead the Jewish people forward. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.

Parashat Beha'alotcha and Community

Shabbat shalom! A while back I wrote a drash about what a great leader Moses because he delegated. Yet in this week's Torah portion, Parashat Beha'alotcha, he expresses feeling overwhelmed again. The Israelites won't stop whining about how hard life in the desert is and blaming Moses for their difficulties.

In response, God gives the gift of prophecy to the 70 elders of the Israelites, those with whom Moses shares some duties. It is meant to be temporary but two men continue to speak in tongues after the Spirit of the Lord leaves from the others. Joshua is concerned, possibly jealous and threatened for Moses and for his future succession to Moses's legacy. But when he tries to interfere, Moses tells him to take a seat. "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets!" Moses exclaims.

Moses has his moments where he gets arrogant and territorial of his role (as we shall see in just two weeks when we read Korach), but here we see the same humble, tired Moses who never wanted this job in the first place and needed his brother's moral support to get this project off the ground. Because change does not happen from one leader alone. It takes a village, as they say. We all do better when we lift each other up and support one another to each become prophets in our own rights.

There have been several opportunities in the last month for interfaith work. Since our panel on Abrahamic views of environmentalism here a little over a month ago, there was a mother's day event at the Masroor Mosque, which is also hosting a community iftar dinner next Saturday. Last night I attended a lovely iftar at Dar alnoor and reconnected with the pastor from the Manassas Presbyterian church, the elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and many other community leaders from around Prince William County. Yesterday afternoon I also met with someone who is in charge of the interfaith and adult ed at St. Margaret's. We all come from different backgrounds and may have different views on some things. But we all believe that our community is stronger together. We all know that each of us has a prophetic vision and voice that is important and worth listening to from different perspectives. I know I'm looking forward to more opportunities to spend time with and learn from our friends from other faiths as well as from the secular leaders in the community. I hope you will join us at these events such as next week's iftar and next year’s adult ed programs. And in the meantime, may you each find your own prophetic voice to share with others as well. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.