Friday, October 28, 2011

Parashat Noach

Parashat Noach
Cheshvan 1, 5772 ~ October 29, 2011
by Joel Ackerman

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury:

What I am about to tell you will run contrary to some thoughts of some of our most respected rabbis, those whom we often call our sages; those to whom we look for wisdom and advice. And, like you, I have the greatest respect for them. Nevertheless, it is necessary for me to take these contrary positions. I really have no other choice. For, you see, my client, Noah the son of Lemech, has been unjustly maligned by our sages – and not once, but several times.

We attorneys are typically taught that we should never repeat the charges against a client. To do so tends to highlight the charges in the minds of jurors. But here it is necessary to do so that I might give them a decent burial. So let me quickly lay the two main ones out for you.

1. The Torah states “Noah was a righteous man, perfect (or whole-hearted) in his generations; Noah walked with God”. This seems to be high praise. Yet there are those who take it to be faint praise. Yes, Noah was a righteous man in his generation, they say, but his generation was completely sinful. Had he lived in a different generation, that of Abraham, for example, he would not have been considered so righteous. And Rashi states: “Noah walked with God. And about Abraham the torah says ‘Walk before me.’ Noah needed support but Abraham would strengthen himself and walk in his own righteousness.” Nehama Leibowitz sums up these opinions and agrees with the conclusion of Rabbi Mordekhai Yaffe that Noah’s righteousness was “mediocre”.

2. Almost immediately on leaving the ark, Noah planted a grapevine and got drunk.

Ladies and gentlemen, our rabbis seek to compare Noah with Abraham in many ways, but I must point out that not only is this improper in general, but that the proper comparisons have not been made.

On the first point, please remember the testimony of that highly esteemed rabbi, Ramban:

“Rabbi, is it proper for the commentators to consider whether Noah would have been as righteous had he lived in Abraham’s generation?”

“No, not really. The plain meaning of the verse is simply that – that he was righteous in his corrupt generation. That is all! He was righteous! That is why the Torah states that he found favor in the eyes of G-d. This verse does not call for speculation as to how righteous he might have been in other generations or in comparison to anyone.”

Not only that; a comparison of the two men shows quite clearly that:

A. They lived at different times. Noah lived in a generation that otherwise was wholly sinful; in Abraham’s time some were more sinful, some not very sinful.

B. Noah is criticized in the Midrash for not arguing with G-d, as Abraham did about Sodom, not seeking to save others - only to save himself and his family. But could Abraham have saved that generation? Not likely. In his years in Haran, in a normal, not especially sinful society, Abraham saved a few people but most remained unchanged in their behavior. He probably could not have done even as well had he lived in Noah’s time. And besides, the Torah gives no basis for concluding that Noah did not argue with G-d. It is quite possible that in the supposed 120 years he spent building the Ark he did argue.

C. G-d gave them different tasks and different instructions. Noah’s task was to survive, to serve as an example. He was not a charismatic figure, as was Abraham; he probably lacked the ability to spread the word of G-d as well as Abraham. On the other hand, Abraham probably could not have built the Ark – he was too impatient to spend the length of time needed for that.

G-d told Abraham “Lech lecha” – leave! Leave your land, your relatives, the people and places that are familiar to you, and go to a land that I will show you. He took Abraham away from the bad influences of his society.

G-d told Noah “Stay put”. Stay in the midst of this sinful society and try to convince them that I plan to destroy the world if they do not change their ways. I am not taking you out of there. You are to spend 120 years slowly building that Ark, absorbing all the scorn, the ridicule, the evil that you will receive from this society, in order to try to accomplish what I ask of you.

No, Noah was no Abraham, but Abraham also was no Noah. He could not have done what Noah was asked to do.

And about the getting drunk. The authors of Midrash like especially to beat up on Noah about this. They concoct ways that the grapevine could have been planted, grown, ripened, and made into wine in just one day – that Noah would have gotten drunk almost immediately after leaving the Ark.

No, ladies and gentlemen, I don’t buy that, and neither should you. You live very close to the top winemaking areas of our country; you all know better. It took the normal time for all this to happen – perhaps five or six months for the grapevine to grow and the grapes to ripen, and at least a few weeks to make even the simplest wine from those grapes.

Here was Noah. He had to face the extreme sorrow that everyone else in the world had been killed – all of his siblings, their children and grandchildren, all of his relatives, neighbors, friends – and everyone else, whether he knew them or not. And he had been unable to convince any of them to change their ways.

On top of that, he had just spent the greater part of a year locked up in a boat full of animals. It was a bedlam; animals screaming, animals that had to be cared for, had to be fed every day, and their wastes had to be cleaned up. And only eight people to do all that, day in and day out.

Who wouldn’t want to get drunk after all that!

But Noah had to wait at least six months before he could get drunk. And on top of that, planting a grapevine was not the first thing he did – the first thing was to offer a sacrifice to G-d. So, he had his priorities straight.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure that you agree that Noah has been unjustly maligned. He was a person for whom the world should be re-established – a fine example of humanity, a righteous man in a corrupt generation, who did not go along with the crowd, who did not succumb to peer pressure. A man with all of the good basic character that a person should have – and yes, perhaps a few shortcomings, just like all of us. But they could be overcome. He was, after all, very human.

I rest my case.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Parashat Bereshit

Parashat Bereshit

Tishrei 24, 5772 ~ October 24, 2011
by Neska


The following teaching on Bereshit is gratefully dedicated to Hashem for the Joy of Anya Leah Newman's 9th birthday.

Out Of Order. We read this sign and go oh! That's not working. But why it is not working is the more important fact. Something in the mechanism is out of its' working order. Steps one, two, three, five, six, and seven are all intact, but step four is missing; therefore the mechanism is not working because its' parts are out of their order.

We begin Bereshit … I am hoping this time that the Snake does not come near Chava. I am hoping that even if the Snake comes close to Chava she will not listen. I am hoping that if Chava goes ahead and eats the Fruit she will instantly regret it and not approach Adam. I am hoping the Kayin decides to bring the best of his fruit. I am hoping that Kayin does not accidentally strike out at his brother. But no. All is happening as it happens since Hashem Created. All appears to be in the order that we are familiar with.

However, there is something Out Of Order. Adam and Chava are permitted to eat of any of the fruit of the trees in the Garden – in fact, eating the fruit provides spiritual enlightment. There is, however, one tree that is “poisonous – spiritually damaging”, if eaten out of order – The Tree of Knowledge. Had they eaten of the Tree of Life first, they would have had the spiritual growth necessary to digest the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. (Chasam Sofer Commentary on Bereshit). We humans rush things....we want things NOW! We go out of order. And, in fact, in the Chasam Sofer's commentary, many of the quotations said by Hashem are spoken out of order by Adam to Chava, by the Snake to Chava, by Chava to Adam.

There is an Order in Our Existence placed for us by The Creator. It seems we have for a long time tried to take too many short cuts.


DRASHA 2

Since the month of Elul I have been seeking to find my relationship with Hashem. This has been a difficult, joyous, frustrating, tear invoking journey because I ultimately wind up feeling that I don't even know how to scratch the surface of beginning this relationship. Or that no matter what I do, I am only on the surface of this relationship. And, no matter how hard I try, I cannot believe that it matters not to Hashem what I do. I cannot believe that Hashem does not Sense each and every thing on this earth – animate and inanimate. If I am to have a relationship there has to be an Entity On The Other “End” that is responding.

AND THEN I READ CHAPTER 6 LINE 6: “…AND HASHEM HAD HEARTFELT SADNESS...” and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I have never seen that line before or if I did, I certainly just glanced over it. But here was, for me, my answer.

I read the notes in Artscroll on this wording, along with several other comments and then I began re-reading Chassidic Masters by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, zt'L. Had I not had a cough I would have been jumping for joy.

Rabbi Kaplan has just given us the life history of the Baal Shem Tov and now we are in the part of his Ethical Will (page 26). “When I worship, my intent is not to fulfill my own needs, but to give pleasure to Him...” (page 27) “Do not pray for your needs … but when you want to pray, do so for the heaviness of the Head. For whatever you lack, the Divine Presence also lacks. This is because man is a “portion of G-d from on high”. Whatever any part lacks also exists in the Whole and the Whole feels the lack of the part. You should therefore pray for the needs of the Whole.” And this is part of Rabbi Kaplan's history of the Baal Shem, page 17.
“Man is a spark of the Divine, and any lack in man is also a lack in the Divine. One should therefore not pray merely for his own needs, but for those of the Divine Presence. If one truly believes in G-d, then there is nothing else”. Omein.

DRASHA 3

This teaching is from Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat's book The Creation According to the Midrash Rabbah

I wish to quote from the last page of his book.

Page 462: Concluding Seed Thought

The story of creation should not end with a period but with an exclamation point.

That is actually what has happened. The final words of the creation story are “which G-d has created [for man] to do.” It need not have ended that way. It could have ended “which G-d has created.” But by adding the phrase la'asot, “[in order] to”, the entire emphasis has now changed. We are now told that G-d created an incomplete world.

The key word here is la'asot. It does not say that man should complete the work, for who are we to claim that we are able to complete G-d's work. Nor does it say that man should perfect G-d's work. It says only that G-d created this world for man “to do”. But what does that mean?

In the first place, to do means to do exactly what G-d has been doing, namely, to create. But G-d is able to create ex nihilo. From nothing, while we can only create from something. It so happens that modern man has exceled in this kind of creating. The breakthroughs in science, the information revolution, the internet....this kind of creativity is only possible by gifted individuals, but all of us benefit and have a great opportunity to do many things that otherwise would have been impossible for us, had these developments not taken place.

But “to do” means much more than that. It means to make the most of our lives. G-d created this world so that man should make the most of his life…

Someone once said that a human being needs three things: something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for. All of these elements are referred to in the last line of the creation story.

La'asot, to do, is the challenge to make the most of our lives. The seventh day, Sabbath, is the festival of love....as for something to hope for, the verse says “and G-d rested from His work.” What is His work? It is to create hope for the world, to give it purpose and significance.

The prayerbook says about G-d, that in His goodness, G-d “reviews every day the work of creation.” The creation story never ends. It is ongoing, continuous for man “to do” until the end of time.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot

Chol HaMoed Sukkot
Tishrei 17, 5772 ~ October 15, 2011
by Shoshannah Chana Somerville

Among my dearest memories is the one that relates to a very small Succah, that was probably not intended for “dwelling,” as only about 5-8 people could just stand inside of it. It was one that was in the courtyard of Temple Emanu-El in SF. One Sunday each year, I would see it, go into the building so that everyone would think that I was going to my Sunday school class, but then, I would dodge out another door and make a beeline for the succah. For a few years, there were pomegranates and some other fruit that hung from the schach; but then in other years, there were only palm branches or those from a Eucalyptus tree. It did not matter because being inside of that structure was so wondrous to me – like a secret palace. I absolutely loved it!

From Psalm 125, line 2:

As the mountains surround Yerushalayim, so HaShem encircles and embraces His people. (My translation.)

The Succah, which has been likened to a Mikvah, has this same all-encompassing feeling for me. (Well, you do not have to emerge as rapidly from a Succah as from a Mikvah, since you can dwell for 8 days instead of for a few minutes.) We dwell in the Succah and there is an awesome sense of well-being, partly because we are dwelling within the Mitzvah, something that is tremendously powerful. It may also be because there is such a magnitude of difference between Rosh HaShannah/Yom HaKippur and Succot.

According to the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson in Likutei Sichot, G-d's presence – or rather, His “Divine Service” - is hidden during the first two holidays when we pray with intensity for Rachmones. But during the holiday of Succot, G-d's presence is revealed; and His Rachmones is with us. Without getting into the depth and mystical meaning of this statement, it is more easily said that the Shechinah makes Her presence felt through the schach of each and every succah. As we sit there, we are amazed by this aspect of existence.

There is a sense of well-being and a joy in the kindness and love that we experience. We are at one!

With Shechinah present in the succah, we cannot just sit and merely observe this awesome presence. We are also commanded to reach out and attach ourselves to HaShem in another way; and so we shake the lulav to make Him happy with us. How does this work?

Consider that the 4 species represent the unity of the Jewish people. The lulav (palm branch)

is the tallest and its sweet fruit indicates Jews whose level of Torah study is so high, but they do not perform good deeds. The fragrant hadass (myrtle branch) represents Jewish people who possesses a high level of Mitzvot and good deeds, but who do not delve into Torah. The arava (willow) symbolizes Jews who do not engage in either Torah or Mitzvot. The fragrant and tasty etrog stands for those of us who delve into Torah and Mitzvot at the highest level. The three branches are bound to each other and shaken, and the etrog is held and moved. Together, their being shaken in 4 directions and up and down, shows the bond between His people. This oneness makes G-d happy.

The Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), which is usually read on Shabbat Chol HaMoed Succot, is an exploration into every direction of physical existence plus a probe into the heart and practices of being a Jewish person. All is found to be flimsily in vain except “fear[ing] G-d and keep[ing] His commandments...”

The appropriateness of reading Kohelet is easily related to Succot. One way is by thinking of the flimsiness and fragility of the succah structure. Yet, as we are enveloped in the awesome Mitzvah of dwelling in the succah, the everlasting existence of HaShem is so close and evident that the strength of our trust in Him is sturdy; and we are well on our way into a year of total sweetness.

As an aside, I want to tell you about being at BJC during the 1989 earthquake. When the quake happened, my 4th and 5th grade class dove under the 4 tables that were together. I thought I was Mother Goose with her wings extended to protect my huddled and frightened students; and their fear increased with the crashing of the dining room ceiling above us. Later, we learned of the collapse of the freeway connection from the bridge to Highway 880 and we saw many power lines that were down. However, upon inspection of the succah, which was in the children's playground, we were astonished to see that it had withstood any damage. It was not a “temporary” structure, after all.

Moadim L'Simcha to everyone in this terrific community.