Rabbi Raanan Sermons

The Eternal spoke to Moses: Speak to Aaron and his sons:
Thus shall you bless the people of Israel. Say to them:
"The Eternal bless you and protect you! 
The Eternal deal kindly and graciously with you! 
The Eternal bestow divine favor upon you and grant you Shalom!"
Thus they shall link My name with the people of Israel, and I will bless them.     (Numbers 6:22-27).

The Torah portion this week includes the Priestly Blessing. The Priests are commanded to bless the people, serving as the conduits for the Eternal's blessings. The third line of the blessing states: "May the Eternal bestow divine favor upon you and grant you Shalom." Shalom, usually translated as peace, has the connotation of wholeness. The blessing is recited in the singular (לך - lekha, not לכם - lakhem), meaning that it is aimed at each particular person, not at the people at large. The blessing is for each individual to feel a sense of completeness within him/herself, to feel secure and unafraid. The blessing is to understand that the value of our lives is dependent on ourselves, not on the opinions of others. When the Eternal shines His countenance upon an individual, that person comes to understand that life is ultimately defined by the relationship of one’s self with the Eternal. The Eternal's light eliminates the shadows and doubts.

Directly before the blessing of the Priests is the narrative about the Nazirite (the Jewish monk). Some of the greatest of Jewish prophets including Samuel and Samson were Nazirites. Many scholars believe that they were the school of prophets. They were experts in "התבודדות - hitbodedut," being alone with oneself. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan translated “hitbodedut” as meditation. A person needs time to think deeply and alone, to separate inner reality from outer illusions, to receive the Eternal's light and move out of the shadows. “Hitbodedut” helps a person develop the inner wisdom and inner poise that lead to internal Shalom. “Hitbodedut” is a means of seeking the self and, at the same time, transcending the self.

Albert Einstein wrote: “The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness….”

May the Eternal shine His countenance upon you and give you Shalom.

This Friday is Jerusalem Day, the 28th of Iyar. This day marks the reunification of East Jerusalem with West Jerusalem under the State of Israel; the first time the whole city came under Jewish rule since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE during the Jewish–Roman wars. This took place following the Six-Day War of 1967, when the Israel Defense Forces were able to unify the city. This was a historic event that returned the ancient holy sites of the Old City to Israeli sovereignty.

Why is Jerusalem so holy to the Jewish people? It has been the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since King David proclaimed it his capital in the 10th century BCE. Jerusalem appears in the Hebrew Bible 669 times. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was the site of Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple. It is considered the holiest site in Judaism and the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Today the only remnant of our holy places is the Western Wall which we were not able to access from 1948-1967 while Israel was occupied by the Jordanians. 

For Christians, Jerusalem is central. Jerusalem is revered by Christians for its Hebrew Testament history as well as for its significance in the life of Jesus. According to the Christian Testament, Jesus was brought to Jerusalem soon after his birth and later in his life cleansed the Second Temple. The Cenacle, is held to be the site of Jesus' Last Supper and is located on Mount Zion in the same building that houses the Tomb of King David. It was on the roof of this location that I coordinated the Praying Together in Jerusalem program from 2015-2018.  

Jerusalem is also the third-holiest city in Islam. Islamic tradition holds that for approximately a year, before it was permanently switched to the Kaaba in Mecca, the direction of prayer for Muslims (qibla) was Jerusalem. One of the primary reasons for its holiness in Islam is due to Muhammad's Night Journey (c. 620 CE). Muslims believe that Muhammad was miraculously transported one night from the Great Mosque of Mecca to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, whereupon he ascended to Heaven to meet previous prophets of Islam.

What if Jerusalem can be a bridge for all three religions to come together? What if instead of Jerusalem Day separating the adherents of all three religions it became a day that brought us together. May future Jerusalem Days be ones that foster Shalom for all. 

"All Israel has a share in the World to Come" (From the introductory prayer to be read before studying Ethics of the Fathers, traditionally read between Passover and Shavuot). 

Rav Abraham Isaac Kook said the following in his commentary on the prayer book:

All Israel, the entire nation, is one unit, one soul, from beginning to end - from the highest peak of the most eminent soul in the first generation unto the depths of the lowliest soul in the last generation. They all share in one Unity. They all draw from the Root of the future beatitude which awaits the entire world, and they all have a share in the world to come, towards which their inner desires and longings are directed.

In this holy, celestial unity, there is no distinction between the collective and the individual. The general light illuminates all of the parts, each of which merits to partake of the fortune of the collective.

The stature and welfare of the individual depend upon the quality of his or her tie to the collective by virtue of the Torah, the mitzvot, good character traits, faith, inner emotional attachment, and, above all, the inherent, inner supernal quality whose force increases through action and deep, pure thought. The more cohesive the bond joining the entire collective to the soul of each person, the more the light of the world to come shines in his spirit and soul, improving and elevating the soul (Olat Re'iyah II, p. 157).

We live at a time when it is challenging to see how it is possible for a Collective to encompass parts that are diametrically opposed, politically, spiritually or religiously. The principle of the Unity of Opposites is related to the notion of non-duality in a deep sense. It defines a situation in which the existence or identity of a thing (or situation) depends on the co-existence of at least two conditions which are opposite to each other, yet dependent on each other and presupposing each other, within a field of tension.

The field of tension is a vital part of life. As the Stoics say, if you want to be strong, you'll have to overcome challenges. If you want to find out how strong you are, adversity is the best test. It is the adversity and tension of the relationship within the community that refines and polishes it like a diamond. The process of refinement, the tension is our collective. The fact that in Israel our people are struggling to coexist with themselves opens up opportunities for us to discover how we can live with the holy other in our midst. 

In our Torah portion this week it says, ואהבת לרעך כמוך - And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. -Leviticus 19:19

Last year for this Torah portion, we studied this idea and it bears repeating: The command “ואהבת” - “and you shall love” really means to care for and protect, to be loyal. It is all about how we show love, not with feelings but with action. To reinforce this idea, we need to move onto the next word of this commandment: “רעך” - your neighbor? Who is this neighbor? There are some who understand it as someone who is ‘like you,’ who acts like you, lives like you and thinks like you. This person is “your neighbor” specifically because s/he is like you.

There are other Sages who invite us to understand our neighbor in the most universal sense possible. This person is the other par excellence, the one who is perhaps at the opposite end of your beliefs but is still made in the same Image of the Divine that we all share from Adam, the first human being.

This week was Israeli Independence Day and with independence comes sovereignty. And sovereignty mandates that the Jewish state take responsibility over the other in our midst no matter what race or religion they come from. 

And now we come to why I call this commandment the ‘empathetic imperative’. Why wasn’t the commandment merely “love your neighbor,” why add, “as yourself”? Because to love the other, to take care of them, to value them, one has to love themselves, one has to value what they are, we have to see ourselves as someone worthy of being loved. It is our self love that allows us to love others especially if they are not ‘like us’.

Hillel puts it best in Ethics of the Fathers 1:14- “If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am only for my own self, what am I? And if not now, when?”

"Fire came forth from before the Eternal and consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar. And all the people saw, and shouted, and fell on their faces." (Leviticus 9:22)

When the priests (Cohens) first completed the preparation of the sacrifices on the altar, there was no fire. Suddenly, a fire appears out of seemingly nowhere and consumes all of the sacrifice. It surprised the people so much that they shouted and fell on their faces.

There was no flint, or match or anything else that could have caused the fire. The mystical fire came forth from the unknown! 

And then there is a different kind of fire:

"Now Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered before Adonai alien fire, which had not been enjoined upon them" (Leviticus 10:1).

The results of this experiment were disastrous. Instead of the mystical fire coming forth from the unknown and burning up the sacrifices, it consumed the sons of Aaron. We can understand the difference between the types of fire as two states of awareness. One is eternal and connected to the Divine in origin and the other is human, relative and driven by service to the human ego.

Human fire is limited by the power of our brain. No matter how brilliant the mind, we are all limited by our life's accumulated experience and learning. With this limited and narrow human consciousness we perceive that we know something about our reality. 

Divine awareness is something different. Just as it descended on the altar, every once in a while we receive a momentary spark of Divine consciousness that Maimonides considers to be a moment of prophecy. We experience it as knowledge that comes from "elsewhere." These are the moments of grace that are impressed upon our memory as formative spiritual experiences and are remembered as turning points in our lives.

The Tabernacle is seen as a parable for the universe, so the Divine fire becomes a metaphor for the light of Creation, which appeared at the beginning of the story of Creation: "And the Creator said, 'Let there be light' and there was light. And the Creator saw the light, and it was good" (Genesis 1:3-4). Our Sages explain that this light was not the light of the sun, which was created in the fourth era (mistakenly translated as 'day'). When the light of the stars appeared in the universe, the Divine light disappeared. 

Our Torah portion teaches us that the Divine light didn't really disappear; it was concealed. This special light was concealed for the righteous who will live in the days to come. Concealed is just another form of encoded within reality. Those who know how to distinguish between fire created by humans and Divine fire will merit to have the Divine fire animate their very souls.

Like Nadav and Avihu, we find ourselves responsible for starting the fire that is supposed to burn away the darkness in our lives. They did not see that the Divine fire has been burning since Creation, and that is is concealed deep within reality... deep within each and every one of us.

Our Torah portion falls on Holocaust Memorial Day this year, the day that commemorates the terrible fire that destroyed a third of our people. Linguistically, it is wise for us to remember that the word 'Holocaust' comes from the Greek word meaning 'all-consuming fire.' This was no holy fire that burned our people. This was an alien fire that desecrated the Divine fire that maintains all of Creation. 

"Fortunate is the flame which burned, hidden in hearts." -Hannah Senesh 1944 - said shortly before she crossed the border from Yugoslavia into Hungary where she was caught.

Shabbat Shalom

The Shabbat before Passover is called Shabbat HaGadol, “The Great Shabbat.” The first Shabbat HaGadol took place in Egypt five days before the Israelite Exodus. 

The Tur (an important Halakhic code composed in Spain by R. Yaakov ben Asher 1270–1340) states: 

"The lamb was the Egyptian deity. Many Jews, after 210 years of immersion within Egyptian civilization, had also adopted this animal as their god. When the Eternal commanded that a lamb be set aside and tied to the bed for four days in anticipation of sacrifice, the Israelites abandoned their idolatrous practice and courageously fulfilled this commandment in the eyes of the Egyptian people, thereby demonstrating their complete trust and faith in the Eternal. Nothing could have been more abominable to the Egyptians, for their god was to be slaughtered. Nevertheless, miraculously the Egyptians were unable to utter a word or lift a hand. They watched helplessly as their god was being prepared for slaughter. This miracle was a great miracle (nes gadol) and gives this Shabbat its name."

The response to idolatry in the times of the Bible was quite fundamentalist. Our prophets raged against other deities. A famous narrative in the first book of Kings tells of how Elijah stood up to Baal and brought down fire against his opponents. Over time, something changes and this can be seen in the Haftarah we read this Shabbat from the Book of Malachi.

Little is known about Malachi. Some Sages think he was none other than Mordechai from the story of Purim, and others claim that he was Ezra the Scribe, who was his contemporary. Either way, the Book of Malachi is the last book of prophecy, just as prophecy in Israel came to an end in the 4th century BCE, and just before the Sages took over the Jewish scene.

Here are the final verses of Malachi’s prophecy:

“I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, grand day of the Eternal. 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.” (Malachi 3:23-24).

So Elijah changes from a prophet of fire to a reconciler between the generations, one that we are in desperate need of in our time. Of all of the prophets of Israel, it is Elijah who is charged with bringing tidings of peace, reconciliation, and redemption. The same Elijah who we meet as a zealous prophet declares, “I am moved by zeal for the Eternal, the Lord of Hosts…” (I Kings 19:10). The same Elijah who took no pity and had no compassion for his people, who preferred the zealous truth over compromise, who demanded unrelenting justice, total loyalty of the people, and abhorred the middle path.  This is the prophet who is to return to us in order to make peace! Not peace in the world or between nations; not a truce between warring armies, but peace within the family, between generations. 

Elijah, the prophet who left us in a great storm of fire, is destined to return to us at the end of every Shabbat, at the Havdalah ceremony, in order to bless us for the new week; he will join us at the Seder table for an invisible but dramatic moment and bring with him the tidings of freedom, and he will be present at brit milah ceremonies in order to bestow blessings and grace on the newborn baby boys.

How did it happen that such an extreme character becomes a messenger of peace?

Elijah’s mission in this world was a complete failure. He demanded that King Achav and the people return to the way of the Eternal, but all he accomplished was to bring zealotry and fire. 

Just as the miracle of the Parting of the Sea of Reeds did not change anything in the consciousness of Israel, so, too, all Elijah’s fiery miracles were unable to bring about real change in their consciousness. In the end, a chariot of fire carried Elijah the Prophet away, far from civilization, to the open skies. 

We don’t know what happened up in the Heavens, but Eliyahu underwent a tremendous transformation: from the prophet of judgment and rage, to a messenger of softness, compassion, hope, protection, and blessing. 

Did someone explain to him, “Elijah, this is not the way. People don’t change when they are scolded, and they certainly don’t change for the better! Zealotry has never brought good to the world. Fire consumes and is not conducive to life."

Zealotry is a form of slavery, slavery to one narrow and total truth, to a rigid, unbending position (remember צר, ‘narrowmindedness’ as the root of the word for Egypt in Hebrew, מצרים). Elijah the Prophet, during his life in this world, was shackled by his own zealotry, judgment, and fire. Even when he failed in his mission, and even after the Eternal told him clearly at Mount Sinai “The Eternal is not in the fire,” Elijah was unable to release himself from that zealotry. 

According to the Aggadah, Eliyahu brought his enslavement to zealotry with him from a previous life in which he “appeared” in the world as Pinchas the Cohen, Aharon’s zealous grandson. It seems that it is not at all an easy thing to release oneself from zealotry. Zealotry provides a sense of security. There is no need to think things through, no need to open one’s heart and listen to others. 

Zealotry is also energizing. It sweeps the crowds off their feet. It provides excitement, while the gray middle path seems so boring. It reduces the complexity of life to simple slogans and magic formulas.

There is no question that zealotry is the easier path! But it has always brought about disaster for our people and has always ended badly. Life is infinite, rich, complex, and not at all given to narrow formulas.

Here we are, the Nation of Israel, on the eve of Passover 5783, searching once again for a new balance between opinions. We may feel lost at understanding what the solution is at this moment in time. What can possibly bring peace to this complicated and conflicted family of ours and put out the tremendous fire that has been ignited in Israel and around the world?

Zealotry is the easier path because it doesn’t require one to dare to think too much, to listen to others, to open one's heart, in the end, it can only bring about fire and destruction. Love has the power to bring about deep change. Softness is much stronger than rigidity and listening to others changes us.

Human thought - as logical as it may appear - will never be the truth. It will always be one option among many. On this Shabbat Hagadol, a few days before we sit down to the Seder table, surrounded by people who are varied and different, we can make a conscious decision, followed by a commitment to ourselves, to love, to soften and to listen.

And to keep that door open within ourselves for Elijah the Prophet to enter.

May we all have a Shabbat Gadol, and a Shabbat of Shalom!

It was only after the incident of the golden calf when the community struggled with divisiveness, disillusionment and a sense of failure that Moses called the whole community to assemble. Why couldn't this have happen beforehand? What was it about the incident of the golden calf that prepared the Nation of Israel to embark forward on their spiritual and practical mission of becoming a nation? What is it about brokenness that forges a community to become stronger than it was before?

Just as our ancestors in the Wilderness longed for a G!d of stability and safety, so do we. This longing is completely understandable. The Israelites have just been uprooted from their homes in Egypt, thrown into the Wilderness, and are living in temporary huts. One moment they have water, and the next they don’t. One moment food is guaranteed, and the next moment they are dependent on the mercy of the heavens. They have no idea what tomorrow will bring, where they are going, or when they will arrive.

We have a deep fear of change that is built into our psyche. Anything resembling change triggers our deepest fears and we must instantly decide whether or not we want to be part of it or push it forever out of our lives. And yet, the longing for a G!d of stability is very problematic. Stability is not part of what the Eternal is promising us.

On the contrary. The Deity of Israel does not like permanency. He continuously takes those whom He creates out of their comfort zones, sending them on long journeys. He uproots them, displaces them, moves them, and relocates them. He banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden; He sentences Cain to be an eternal nomad; He floods Noah’s firm ground with water; He sends Abraham away from his country, the land of his father, without telling him where he is sending him to; and finally, Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, is sent to Egypt. All of this happens in Genesis alone… Then, four hundred years later, in the Book of Exodus, this same G!d takes the Nation of Israel out of the fertile Land of Goshen, and sentences them to forty years of wandering in the Wilderness.  

The G!d of the Torah appears to be more like a restless nomad than an anchor of stability in a changing, capricious world. Sometimes it seems as if G!d actually scorns human longing for stability. He simply refuses to be anchored, and when we try to bind Him in some way, He uproots the pillar to which He has been “tied”, bringing about destruction to those who thought they could bind Him to their anxieties.

God commanded us to build a temporary, mobile dwelling. He never instructed us to build a permanent Temple. Even the Temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem was not built at the Eternal's request, but at King David’s. Therefore, anyone looking to the Eternal for an anchor of stability and permanency is bound to be disappointed!

The Eternal identifies Itself in the following way: "…I will be what I will be…Tell the Nation of Israel that “Eheye” [I will be] sent me to you. (Exodus 3:14) The word “Eheye” implies constant change and evolution. 

In times of instability we can reach out for the anchor of faith. The same faith that keeps hope alive, that has kept us a nation for two thousand years in exile. Giving requires faith - faith that if I give, not only will I not lack that which I have given; I will actually have more! I bless the congregants of JCM that they will give with the full faith that much more flourishing is yet to come. 

On Parshat HaHodesh - The Month Portion: Special Reading for this Shabbat

On years such as the current year when the New Moon (new Hebrew month of Nisan) falls on Shabbat, the special section known as Parshat HaHodesh - the Month Portion, is read on Shabbat. This special section is read in anticipation of the festival of Passover, which begins on the 15th of Nisan. 

The special section is Exodus 12:1-20 and tells of the first commandment received by Israel, while still in Egyptian bondage, to mark the new moon and to prepare a lamb for the Passover offering. The famed commentator Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki 1040 – 1105) begins his commentary of the Bible by reminding us of this: "The Torah which is the law book of Israel 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." 

We learn the following: "Thirty days before Passover, questions about the laws of the festival are asked and expounded" (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 429:1). The Talmud teaches: "A woman having Passover Seder with her husband need not recline, but if she is an important woman then she must recline" (Babylonian Talmud Pesachim 108a). A thousand years later the Rama says: "All of our women are called important" and therefore they are also obligated to recline and relax during the Passover Seder. 

I would like to suggest that we men do our part to manifest 'peace in the home' by helping to prepare and serve the Passover meal so that the important women in our lives can recline and take in the spirit of freedom we are all supposed to enjoy.

In the mean time, Shabbat Shalom.  

The relationship between written and oral Torah has been a central theme of my Thursday classes here at JCM. The Oral Torah (דרש) brings life to the Torah and this in turn is how Jews understand the Bible. One of our beloved legends about Purim is called the Second Targum. It is an Aramaic translation ("targum") that elaborates on the Book of Esther and embellishes the Biblical account with new material that does not seem directly related to the Esther story. 

It is here that the Rabbinic belief explains how Haman descends from Amalek. The source call him "Haman the son of Hamedatha, descended from Agag the son of Amaleq." His lineage is presented as follows as follows: "Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, son of Khada, son of Kuza, son of Alipilot, son of Dios, son of Diosos, son of Peros, son of Ma'dan, son of Bala'qan, son of Antimiros, son of Hadrus, son of Shegar, son of Negar, son of Parmashta, son of Vaizatha, son of Agag, son of Sumqar, son of Amalek, son of a concubine of Eliphaz the son of Esau". There must be several generations omitted between Agag, who was executed by Samuel the prophet in the time of King Saul, and Amalek, who lived several hundred years earlier. Furthermore, according to the first Book of Chronicles 5:41-43, "King Hezekiah of Judah
... destroyed the last surviving Amalekites." 

In Biblical times, those who were not Israelite had the identification of their tribal affiliation. After Hellenism came into the world, the bifurcation of the world in Jewish law became more complicated especially when Judaism itself was clearly influenced by Persian and Hellenistic religious ideas. The Greek and Roman world was known for their syncretic cultural and faith systems which was one of the impetus for Judaism to clarify where it stood in opposition. 
“Rabbinic legal writings are preoccupied not simply with defining categories and sorting their contents, but with navigating the brackish waters among them - the anomalous areas where boundaries either overlap or leave gaps. Such human discourse shares in the divine work of separation, or havdalah, by which the world was created. What is more important, it facilitates the necessary yet anxious commerce across the permeability of such categorical boundaries: between… the Land of Israel and the Diaspora, people of Israel and the nations.”
A specific tractate in Mishah, called Foreign Worship (מסכת עבודה זרה) brought together centuries of reflections on how to keep the Jewish people separate from outside influences. The many laws which appear there are traditionally divided into two classes: provisions for guarding against any appearance of favoring idolatry, directly or indirectly, and for preventing the danger of coming into contact with it; and provisions for guarding against the immoral practices prevailing among idolaters. 
Before continuing, there needs to be a clear demarcation between the Canaanites of the Biblical times and the Gentiles in the earliest of Rabbinic times. The Mishnah in Yadaiim 4:4 relates the following:
On that very day, Yehuda, an Ammonite convert, came and stood before them in the Beit Midrash, and said to them, "What is my status with regard to whether I can enter via marriage into the congregation of Israel?" Rabban Gamliel said to him, "You are prohibited." Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, "You are permitted." Rabban Gamliel said to him, "The verse says, (Deuteronomy 23:4) 'An Ammonite and a Moabite may not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation,' and so forth." Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, "And are the Ammonites or Moabites still dwelling in their own place? Sancheriv, king of Assyria, already arose and blended all the nations, as the verse says, (Isaiah 10:13) 'I have removed the borders of nations, and I have plundered their treasures, and like a great warrior laid low the inhabitants.'" Rabban Gamliel said to him, "The verse [also] states, (Jeremiah 49:6) 'And afterwards I shall return the captives of the children of Ammon,' and they are already returned." Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, "The verse [also] states, (Amos 9:14) 'And I shall return the captives of my nation Israel,' [and Judah], and they are not yet returned." They [the Sages, subsequently] permitted him [the Ammonite convert] to enter into the congregation.

Here an Ammonite convert asked whether or not he could enter into the congregation via marriage. The aristocracy represented by Rabban Gamliel prohibited him based upon a Biblical understanding of Deut. 23:4 prohibited Ammonites and Moabites from entering into the congregation. Rabbi Yehoshua allows him by explaining that the Ammonite and the Moabites are no longer in Moab since Sennacherib, king of Assyria, blended all of the nations. Rabban Gamliel’s subsequent arguments are disregarded and the Sages rule that an Ammonite convert can enter into the congregation since such tribal affiliations are no longer legally binding upon Jewish law. The line has clearly been drawn between the Canaanite Gentiles which the Torah calls upon to dispossess of their land and the Gentiles of the Rabbinic times.  

Amalek was one of the Canaanite tribes. Claiming that Haman was from Amalek goes against the Rabbinic teaching in the Mishnah referenced above. And practically what does this mean for us as Jews? I am reminded of when Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Kingsbury Smith of the International News Service was chosen by lot to represent the American press at the executions. He reported Nazi criminal Julius Streicher's final moments and last words as follows:

Immediately before he was hung, Streicher suddenly faced the witnesses, glared at them and yelled: “Purim Fest 1946." Streicher noticed the parallels of the hanging of ten Nazis and the hanging of Haman’s ten sons. The ideology of Nazism and the tribe of Amalek may be the same theoretically, but Germans are no more related to Amalek than was Haman.

Two Rabbis who I admire, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch said that the command was to destroy "the remembrance of Amalek" rather than actual Amalekites and the Chofetz Chaim said that the Eternal would perform the elimination of Amalek, and Jews are commanded only to remember what Amalek did to them.

Let us be careful when associating anyone with Amalek or the Canaanite nations. Doing so opens up for a fundamentalist Zealot ideology that Rabbinic Judaism has always spoken out against. This year we will make noise when the name of Haman is mentioned in the Megillah. Not because he is a descendant from Amalek, but because he, himself, made the choice to destroy the Jewish people.

Happy Purim

Those interested in reading the whole article can click here: The Status of the Gentile in Early Rabbinic Texts with Specific Focus on the Ger Toshav

Thank you to Joe Narrowe for his contribution to this week's Torah portion.

Our Torah portion this week is Terumah ("gift" or "offering") and it tells of the Eternas instructions to make the Tabernacle and its furnishings. I have always found it beautiful to note that the entire Tabernacle was built from free will offerings from all the Nation of Israel. They were not forced to give, but gave from their hearts so that the Tabernacle could be built. The Jewish Congregation of Maui's (JCM) membership model, Giving from the Heart is built along this same principle. And why? Why should someone give to keep JCM going? Well, let's look back over the years and see what JCM has stood for.

JCM was founded in the late 1970s by Jews from diverse backgrounds, practices, knowledge and geographical areas of the world. Meeting monthly at parks, community centers, and homes, they gathered to share Shabbat, religious holidays and festivals together. Being an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, away from mainland Jewish influences, JCM persevered and formed its own Jewish identity becoming a beacon to locals and tourists looking for a Jewish experience. Today we have our own building, rabbi, and weekly Talmud Torah.

JCM is a non affiliated congregation which allows us to attract Jews from all branches of judaism—from those who are religious (not orthodox); to those with little or no knowledge of their Jewish heritage, religion, or culture; to those on the fringes of “accepted” Judaism. We provide assistance to everyone whether local or tourist. JCM accepts everyone equally.

JCM is currently the only resource for pluralistic Jewish education on Maui. We are at the forefront of providing Jewish education and services to intermarried families, same sex couples, and LGBTQ adults and children in our area. Our educational content must provide the means for building a foundation in Jewish knowledge and identity. Our congregational school has a diverse population. The majority of our students have little knowledge of Jewishness, i.e., holidays, heritage, music, dance, and culture. They need to learn Hebrew values and customs. By promoting Jewish identity and cultural familiarity, they learn about their rich history and traditions. The goals of our educational program is to inspire children to develop a rich Jewish life through a love of pluralistic learning and developing friendships in a diverse community. 

This is the key to what we are trying to do: instill a sense of Jewishness in people, especially children, who have no understanding of what this or means, and hopefully have it extend into the family lifestyle. 

On a creative level, we will be growing a Biblical garden that will instill hands-on educational programming for the students, teaching them Biblical knowledge with experiential learning. We also intend to empower teens who have completed the program to do leadership programming in a Madrichim (Guide) Program so that they can assist the teachers while becoming leaders in their own right. Lastly, we also intend to have a twinning component with Israeli youth where we will link our children with Israeli children to form bonds to share experiences and life styles.

The audience for this program is Jewish and Jewish affiliated children from the ages of 5 to 18. We also hope to add, in the future, a component for the parents to encourage Jewish rituals in the home. We will do extensive advertising via Google search words (SEO) so that those who move to Maui can easily find us. Examples of search words will be: “Jewish Education”, “Jewish experiential learning”, “Jewish learning”, etc.

Through differentiated educational programming, we will work with each child based on their ability and Jewish level of education. Through our creative and differentiated educational model we will fill the needs of different families, parents and their children, to learn about Judaism in an experiential way. By offering inspiring programs throughout the year taught by our regular educators, and by taking active roles in celebrating Jewish holidays, the students will build a toolbox for understanding Jewish concepts, and experiencing the holidays with their fellow students and their families.

JCM has had many different educational programs especially as it went through the COVID epidemic. We are now attempting to return to a working model that existed before these challenging times and have met with partial success. We will be adapting the program to meet the needs of a generation that is increasingly tied to technology and instantaneous communication. Our program will seek to virtually partner with Israeli youth to encourage this phenomenon, having a positive impact on the lives of our students. Depending on enrollment, we are planning on having three classes: Aleph (youngest kids), Bet (ages 8-10), the B-Mitzvah Class (ages 11-13).

So, please give. Keep Jewish life on Maui pluralistic and accepting.

Please give by clicking here.

Shabbat Shalom

"I, the Eternal, am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage." Exodus 20:1 - The First of the Ten Commandments

"The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought into being all existence. All the beings of the heavens, the earth, and what is between them come into existence only from the truth of His Being." Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 1

"Maimonides did not say: believe that there is a Primary Being... [but rather] that the commandment is to know this with the knowledge of the mind, and this is, as Maimonides said in A Guide for the Perplexed 2:33, 'these two commandments... a person can achieve with their mind' and it isn't necessary to receive them from Moses by way of faith..." Rabbi Meir Leibush Wisser (1809–1879) also known as the Malbim.

I am reminded of a saying that is in most Israeli synagogues: "Know before whom you stand." Rabbi Shefa Gold comments on this idea as follows: 

"These words are inscribed on many synagogue walls and are meant to remind the congregants of the seriousness of prayer. In the past I’ve dismissed this phrase as being too stern, too much like 'Big Brother' watching and judging. Yet now, when I chant this phrase, an entirely new meaning emerges. The verb ידע yada to “know” also means to “be intimate with” (To know someone in the Biblical sense).  As I chant, I am called into intimacy with The Great Mystery who stands before me. That Mystery is disguised as this world, as my life. As I stand before that Mystery I am called into my power, in order to fully engage. The veil between me and the world-as-God drops away, and I can experience the intimate knowing that I am not a separate observer, but rather an integral part of The Mystery of existence."

Rabbi Abraham I. Kook was known for his teaching that, "the desire to plant trees arises from the desire to benefit the ensuing generations, a desire represented by the carob tree." This alludes to the following story recorded in the Talmud:

"One day Choni HaMe'agel was walking along the road. He saw a person planting a carob tree and asked him in how many years it would bear fruit. He replied, 'In seventy years.' He asked, 'Do you think you will live another seventy years?' The person answered, 'I found this world with carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted them for me, I am planting them for my descendants'" (Taanit 23a).

A cute illustrated video on this story can be found here or by clicking on the image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRfV7XrGfBo&ab_channel=BimBam

"And Moses spoke so to the children of Israel; but they listened not to Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage."  (Exodus 4:9)

When the going gets tough it is sometimes difficult to listen to our leaders. We seek to blame someone for the difficulties that we are experiencing and it is easiest to point a finger at our leaders. After all, if they were better leaders, then we would not be in this situation in the first place. It is important to remember that vision does not manifest overnight. That is the main message of what we experienced in last week's Torah portion: that yes, life can seem absolutely hopeless and we are still called to believe that change is possible.

Moses' message is one of freedom, ending slavery and leaving for a legendary promised land. No matter how great his message may have been, it has to reach the intended audience successfully. If it does not, it becomes a soundbite that goes in one ear and out the other. There is so much noise and promise, especially in our modern era. "Buy this and your life will be better." Many great ideas have fizzled out of our collective consciousness because they were not able to convince a critical mass of people.

When our souls are full of anguish and cruel bondage, we are unable to be receptive. Slavery strains and exhausts us beyond measure. No words can resonate, no matter how great they may be as everything seems impossible. Our people's spirit was so anguished that they were psychologically unprepared to listen to Moses’ pipe dream.

Dr. Nahum Sarna translates this phenomenon of shortness of spirit to mean “that the Israelites’ spirits were crushed.” Sarna writes that, “ruach is the spiritual and psychic energy that motivates action. Its absence or attenuation signifies atrophy of the will” (JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus, page 32). The Israelites could not absorb Moses’s message because the physical and mental toll of slavery plunged them into a state of depression and hopelessness. 

Personally these days I resonate deeply with the interpretation of Rabbi Levi ben Gershon, also known as the Ralbag who lived from 1288-1344 in Provence. He applies this idea to Moses! Moses did not get his message across because he did not prepare properly, he did not relate meaningfully to the people. He was a loner, a prophet, a spiritual personality who did not grasp how best to win over his audience. He was not eloquent enough, not engaging enough. In his own words, he was unable to formulate his words clearly enough.

What we need to learn is the vital conditions for a great message to be successful: the messenger must be effective, the audience must be receptive and external obstacles must be overcome. Moses had to relate effectively with the people; the Israelites had to be open to the message in spite of their slavery; and Pharaoh’s opposition had to be overcome. These are the themes that pervade the Torah’s narratives of the Exodus. It took Moses much patience to hone his own effectiveness in reaching the hearts of his people. And it took the Israelites a full generation to internalize freedom and ready themselves to enter the Promised Land.

The lack of spirit in our times may be referring to a diminished spiritual sense. Vibrant spiritual life needs a vibrant spirit. It needs us to be open to challenges. It needs us to hear the message, to overcome obstacles, and to structure a sophisticated spiritual framework for our lives. We can not settle for the status quo without envisioning a grander framework for their lives. We need to dream bigger.

This is the time that we need to rise above the spiritual malaise that has taken hold. If our people could have been liberated from the Land of Narrow-mindedness (the accurate Hebrew translation of Egypt / Mitzrayim), so can we. After all, in every generation we need to see ourselves as though we were liberated from Narrow-mindedness. 

Shabbat Shalom.

"And Jacob lived in the Land of Narrow-mindedness (which is the literal translation of 'Egypt' into Hebrew)." -Genesis 47:28

Our Torah portion this weeks opens with Jacob on his deathbed. He is an old man who has lived a full life and is surrounded by his loved ones during the last moments of his life. Before he dies, he blesses each one of them.

Our people are named after Jacob's other name, Israel: "Those who struggle with the Eternal and with human beings and persevere." There is also a Land of Israel. And our forefather whom we are named after has to spend the last part of his life in a foreign land. How is it that the grandson of Abraham, to whom the Holy Land was promised, ends his life in exile? Could it be that this fact means that the journey of our foremothers and forefathers ended in a huge failure? 

After such struggle, Jacob can finally live his life in Egypt, the most powerful kingdom of the day, run by none other than his own son, Joseph. Everywhere else that Jacob was, he suffered horribly. Finally, in the Land of Narrow-mindedness, Jacob could rest his weary head.

The Zohar gives a mystical way for us to understand what has happened:

"He was rewarded to be able to bless his sons only in Egypt... (he could not have done it in the Holy Land) as it is written, 'And Jacob saw that one can break (bread) in Egypt (Genesis 42:1).' Indeed, prophecy is given only to the heartbroken, as it is written, (Jacob said to his sons) 'Go down there and break bread for us there, so that we may live and not die."

According to the Zohar, the entire point of the descent of the Nation of Israel into Egypt was to break. Not to break bread - that was just a metaphor according to the Zohar - but to break their hearts.

Heartbreak has to purposes: To live ("So that we may live and not die"), and to connect to prophecy, through which we will he will be able to bless his children before he dies (as we said, prophecy is only given to the heartbroken).

If we look back on Joseph's life, he had a tragic childhood, the cruelty of his brothers canceling him, the tremendous pain that they caused Jacob, and the great rift that broke up the family, all had a purpose, which was... heartbreak. And the purpose of heartbreak is to show us how to live AND how to bless.

Why is it necessary to experience heartbreak in order to live?

The Midrash (Leviticus Rabbah 7b) records our Sages saying, "If a simple person uses a broken vessel, it is shameful, but for the Holy One, this is not the case. Rather, He created only broken vessels, because 'The Eternal is close to the heartbroken' (Psalms 34:19); and, 'He heals the heartbroken' (Psalms 147:3)."

In our lives we try to use the most perfect vessels, because to us, a broken vessel, a torn shirt, and the wrinkles on our face are considered a source of shame. We feel broken as we observe the process of our aging, deteriorating health, and performance.

And for the Eternal, all the vessels She created (you and me) are, by design, broken and cracked. For the Creator, a broken vessel is perfect. Why? Because that which is not broken and cracked is not truly alive. Where nothing is broken, there is no life. Where there is no crisis and brokenness, nothing can be born and there is no blessing. 

The family of Israel came to Egypt to live. To live, to grow and to evolve, one's heart must be broken repeatedly. Only there, in the brokenness of the Land of Narrow-mindedness, in the midst of slavery could the womb grow us from a family into a Nation. Through struggle we are born, and blessed.

The Kotzker Rebbe once said, "There is nothing so whole as a broken heart," which should remind us of the words of Leonard Cohen, "Ring the bless that can still ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in."

There is no development, no new creation and no life if there are no cracks in our aging hearts, in our seemingly perfectly structured lives and in the fixed narrative of our heart. Only through the cracks can light and the blessing of regeneration get through.

From the brokenness, something new is waiting to be born. Birth is painful and what comes after is a whole new life, a whole new reality.

And now a blessing to all of the broken-hearted: May we embrace our broken-hearts and the broken hearts of others so that we may be blessed with a renewed life.   

Shabbat Shalom

Join us this Festivus (which is also the last day of Hanukkah) on Sunday, December 25 at JCM - 5pm for Chinese food and a movie. nt.

Why do the Jewish people seemingly struggle endlessly? To answer this question, we need to turn to what we call ourselves in prayer and what we call our modern nation-state: Israel. The meaning of the word Israel comes from this week's Torah portion (Genesis 32:29) when a mysterious figure is wrestling and then renaming Jacob:

“And [the mysterious figure said] you will no longer say that your name is Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with people and you have prevailed.”

   Were the story of the Jewish people summarized into one verse, this very well could be it. The blessing received by being renamed Israel, or the God Wrestler, is that although Jacob’s descendants would struggle, they would prevail in the end. Although struggle and antagonism are seemingly inevitable, the blessing of the Israelites emerges through creative and inventive approaches in responding to their challenges, followed by acting in such a way as to preserve their culture and religion. Throughout the ages mighty empires have tried to destroy Judaism as a religion and the Jews as a people. Against the Roman Empire, the Jews were able to transform their religion from one of sacrifice, that was tied to a specific location (the Temple Mount), to a religion centered on prayer and a synagogue which could be constructed anywhere Jews happened to live. When faced with centuries of exile, the Jews responded with a comprehensive halachic way of looking at the world which kept them separated from the nations among whom they lived. And upon the destruction of European Jewish civilization after World War 2, the Jewish people rallied to come together in the Holy Land and build a State to secure the remnant which remained. Now that we have a Jewish State, there is a responsibility which falls upon our nation to helping resolve the identity based conflict we have been in with the Palestinian people for the past century and especially since the War of Independence/Nakba in 1948.

Theoretical and Methodological Background
   Breaking conflict resolution into stages is a logical methodology for researching those processes that are helpful for reducing conflict and those that instead contribute to its perpetuation. The Realistic-Conflict Theory was named by American social scientist Donald T. Campbell.  It was demonstrated in an experiment run by a group of researchers led by Muzafer Sherif (1906-1988) and published in a 1961 study called Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment.   The study was carried out over a period of three weeks in a summer camp located at Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma.  The study was focused on intergroup behavior between 22 eleven and twelve year old boys who had never met but had similar backgrounds.  The researchers posed as camp personnel.  There were three stages to the experiment.  The first stage was called “in-group formation” and split the boys into two equal groups arbitrarily.  One group was called the Rattlers and the other was the Eagles.  At the beginning, the groups were pleasant towards one another.  During the next stage, called the “friction phase”, the researchers introduced deliberate competition between the two groups.  In the contest, scarcity was created via resources that the children wanted.  The researchers observed that as the competition progressed there emerged prejudice and hatred toward one another.  Sherif and his colleagues came to the conclusion that competition over scarce resources preceded the hatred for the “other”.  
    In an attempt to reduce the prejudice, the researches attempted to preach to the children about the importance of brotherly love and the dangers of intolerance and violence.  This did not work and the hatred continued.  It was only when the researchers created superordinate goals that they were able to reduce the hatred.  Superordinate goals is part of the the third and final stage called the “integration stage”.  During this stage, tensions between the groups were reduced through teamwork-driven tasks that required intergroup cooperation.  The focus was changed from competing over the coveted resource and instead there was focus placed on the need to cooperate between the two groups in order to achieve it.  The researchers created situations that would bring the two groups together so that they could join forces in order to secure a goal of importance to them both.  “The telling point is that after only six successive days the atmosphere had changed completely.  Animosity decreased, expressions of prejudice disappeared, intolerant behavior vanished and cross-group friendships developed.”
This summer I learned about another identity based conflict resolution technique called ARIA from its founder Professor Jay Rothman at Bar Ilan University.  Instead of believing that conflicts are resource based, ARIA suggests that they are based in identity.   The ARIA framework is named for the four phases that Rothman suggests many identity based conflicts go through: Antagonism, Resonance, Invention and Action.  ARIA describes a dialogue and reconciliation process which can “foster harmony and resonance from adversaries’ full and honest expression of the deeply felt human motivations that lie beneath their conflict.”  To understand the historically based antagonism between both sides it is important to analyze the sources of each party’s animosity.  I will explore how both sides of the conflict need a safe space to express their animosity so that reframing can occur and the conflict then be reframed in more productive terms.  The next phase is resonance whose definition is the reinforcement or prolongation of sound by reflection from a surface or by the synchronous vibration of a vibrating object.  This can be best be described by how a guitar is naturally tuned.  When a string is properly tuned, and then struck, the string next to it will vibrate.  If each side in a conflict is represented by a string, this becomes a superb metaphor for how a relationship needs to emerge between two sides so as to move away from antagonism.  Each side needs to be able to hear and resonate with the “other”.  In the ARIA framework which also uses musical metaphors, there is a process which moves the parties from antagonism to cooperation.  In this phase, the sides move away from the “Us vs. Them” of the antagonism stage to a “We” attitude.  
    After resonance, the identity based conflict is ready for inventive solutions.  In this phase, the two sides will work together based on common interests to generate solutions that will meet their needs.  This is similar to the third stage of the Robber’s Cave Experiment described above.  Rothman explains that opposed demands may be based on different, but ultimately compatible interests.  Only via conversation, after developing relationship, can these inventive ideas be discovered.  In other words, differentiating the parties’ underlying interests can lead to cooperative solutions.  The implementation of the solution is the final action phase.  Each part of this phase needs to be carefully planned by both sides so that it does not revert back into the antagonism stage.  This is done by specifying the project’s goals and intended outcomes while making explicit the motivations of both sides for why they plan to undertake the mutually agreed upon action.  Ideally, an action plan in an identity based conflict will lead to more formal political negotiations so as to expand the process to the masses.       

Project which Reinforced ARIA
  After learning about the ARIA method, I was privileged to be able to join the Palestine-Israel Emerging Leaders Program which is operated by the Outward Bound Peacebuilders and Search for Common Ground - Jerusalem.  The program began in the mountains of western Croatia with seven Palestinian and seven Israeli educators who did not know one another.  We all arrived with our opposing narratives which emerged from the identity based conflict in the Holy Land and ended the program wanting to cooperate together to help each other rise above our intractable quagmire.  It was fascinating to observe how the group dynamics, when guided by the challenge of nature, allowed for us to transform conflict into cooperation.  
   The mission statement of the Outward Bound Peacebuilders is to, “challenge and inspire emerging leaders in divided societies to work together to build peace.”  Using the ARIA model, I am going to theorize how the goals of the Outward Bound program address identity based conflict.  First there are participants chosen from divided societies who have displayed leadership traits.  They are then challenged and inspired to work together so that they can build peace.  This long term methodology is not instinctual in an age where immediate gratification is sought out mindlessly by the masses.  We live in an age of memes where soundbites are communicated which in turn form the opinions of each respective side.  Among other factors, nationalism fuels this phenomenon as it creates a paradigm of “us vs. them”.  Either one is part of the nation or isn’t.  This is made much more complicated in the State of Israel which declares itself a state for the Jewish people to rebuild its national home.  Its national origin story is founded in the belief that the Jewish people are a nation which deserves a nation-state like all other nations.  Another deeper level is that the Jewish people believe themselves to be the descendants of the ancient Israelites and Judeans who lived in the land from the end of the second millennium B.C.E. continuously until today.  The central question to be asked is how Gentiles living in Israel are to relate to a state whose raison d'être excludes them.  
Historical Sources of Antagonism
   The historical sources of antagonism weighed heavily on the participants in the program, so it is important to give some context to what each side believes.  For over a century, the Palestinian and Jewish national movements have been adversaries in claiming the Holy Land for their cause.  The failure of the Two State Solution over the past twenty years to divide material land based resources is one of the factors which show that the conflict is identity based at its core instead of being resource based.  The impulse to return to the Land of Israel has been part of the Jewish people’s collective consciousness for the past two thousand years.  The idea is firmly built into the Jewish religion where Jews will pray up to three times a day to be reinstated in their land.  Few times in history was this idea actualized and translated into practical political action until Theodor Herzl, a Viennese journalist, took a stand in 1896 after seeing the deterioration of universal emancipation promised by the French Revolution a century prior.  At the time, the Holy Land was a derelict sub-province of the Ottoman Empire called Palestine.  It must have seemed clear to the 36 year old reporter that all that was needed was a clear modernized vision for the national aspirations of the Jewish people for them to be able to return to their ancestral lands.  
   The Palestinian population believed in their local leadership when they were promised national independence from the Ottoman Empire by the British Empire.  Their feelings of betrayal intensified to the point where the British felt that they had no option but to restrict Jewish immigration via a series of white papers issued from 1922 and 1939.  The Nazis arose during this time and by 1945 had destroyed one third of the Jewish people and a majority of its intelligentsia.  International sympathy for Zionism grew after the Shoah and by 1947, the United Nations declared that the Holy Land was to be partitioned between the Jews and the Arabs.  Although the Jews accepted this arrangement, the Arabs were incited by their local leadership and the surrounding Arab nations to continue fighting against the Jews.  These efforts were amplified by the high status given to Nazis in the newly independent Arab states who were fleeing the Allies that were pursuing them for their war crimes.  
  The War of Independence, as it is known to the Israelis, or the Nakba (Catastrophe), as it is known to the Palestinians, resulted in the State of Israel gaining much more territory than originally mandated by the United Nations and the creation of 700,000 to 800,000 Palestinian refugees who fled the Holy Land willingly and unwillingly.  The same number of Jews had to flee Arab countries throughout the Middle East and found safe haven primarily in the new State of Israel.  For close to 70 years the conflict has raged with high death tolls on both sides.  Endless wars combined with the occupation of the Palestinian populace since 1967, whose leadership are determined to destroy the Jewish State, has led to the intractable conflict we are faced with today.  Generations of Palestinians and Israelis have known nothing else aside from being in the status of occupied or occupier whose effects on the soul are detrimental to both.  Many psychologists even speak of national post-traumatic stress disorder being experienced by both sides as a result.  Both cry for a way out and feel stuck in the current status quo.       The guiding question is how we can work with the conflict so that it produces exploration, perspective taking, imagination and new discovery.
   The conflicting narratives of both sides polarize and blame the “other” for problems being faced daily in the occupation.  Israel attempts to patronize and claim that the occupation of the Palestinian people is benevolent while the Palestinians suffer a reality that distorts the minds of youth to commit violence.  Breaking such antagonism requires a new way of relating to the “other” in our midst.  During most of the State of Israel’s history, the government’s relationship with non-Jews has been characterized by reacting to behavior as it emerges in daily life.  Such a reactive model has kept society divided and stagnant.  Most non-Jews do not feel part of the state being built around them.  Instead of reacting, the ARIA model suggests that both communities be reflexive.  

Resonance
   How can leaders of Palestinian and Israeli society resonate with one another so that they can invent ways to transform a protracted social conflict into a vehicle for jointly building a common future for the good of both peoples?  The Outward Bound Peacebuilding Palestinian-Israeli Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) seeks to answer this question by contributing to a sustained shift in the way Israeli and Palestinian leaders, in a wide variety of sectors including political, private, and civil society, relate to each other, their own communities, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Political scientists believe that there are three tracks in diplomacy which span the totality of societies in conflict.  The first track is made up of the policy makers and political actors.  The second is made up of professionals such as lawyers, advisors, peacemakers and clergy.  The final track is the masses.  For conflict resolution to be successful all three tracks need to be engaged systematically.  Typically, dialogue projects select civil society opinion leaders which informally represent the parties (second track process) especially when official (first track) leaders have become entrenched in their positions and resistant to negotiation.  The ELP program does this as well by creating a shared experiential learning and leadership development initiative for recognized leaders from both sides of the conflict.  This summer, our group of Israeli and Palestinian educators went to the Velebit Mountains in western Croatia and spent ten intense days together in a wilderness expedition.  Although each of the participants came from the region that was immersed in conflict, the point of this initial expedition was to connect personally with one another.  When we spoke of the conflict, it was done in an unorganized format whereas the regular activities were devoted to developing our leadership styles, group formation and learning about nature.  The experience built a foundation for trust which allowed for us to communicate our reality much more effectively.  Resonance was developed by virtue of the harmony that emerged via the ‘relationship building’ with the “other” which became a clear goal of the program post facto.  This was done by helping the participants to become reflexively self-aware which is an “empowering process and a philosophy for both teaching and learning about peace and conflict.”  We developed deep self-awareness about our thinking process by collectively writing in a journal that was passed around the group.  The participants and the instructors together engaged in experiential learning activities which developed community by decentralizing the authority figure.  What transpired was a highly participatory and empowering educational process in which participants gained a better understanding of their own conflict situation.  The design and the training process are formulated by the participants, rather than dictated beforehand by the instructor.  

Inventing and Taking Action
   Near the end of the expedition, half a day was dedicated to inventing.  We brainstormed ways to creatively integrate options for addressing central and underlying aspects of the conflict.  I focused on the need for an Outdoor Leadership School in the Galilee which would bring together Jewish and Arab teens and young adults to develop leadership skills within the context of a comprehensive conflict resolution curriculum.  The school would be immersed in the thinking of critical pedagogues like Paulo Freire whose magnum opus, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), advocates for teaching and learning to be collaborative activities of discovery and liberation so that the next generation can exit from the current status quo paradigm where both sides feel trapped in an intractable conflict.  Empowering the next generation is about creating a culture of purpose “guided by passion and principle, to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take constructive action.”  These values are relevant for conflict resolution education since it, “aims to empower students to exercise their own self-determination and respect and support the self-determination of others, crucial elements for any democracy.”  In other words, a program which reinforces empathy is essential for conflict resolution education which would be a central part of the curriculum for the outdoor leadership school.  

   “Learning to see yourself seeing and understand how to filter information through your own cognitive, experiential, and cultural lenses is a powerful tool in life, learning, and conflict analysis and intervention.  Consciousness of one’s consciousness is both challenging and liberating.  Deep insight about self and context provides a basis for empathy with others, in which one’s own self-awareness can become a tool for deep insight into another’s life and situation.”  Conflict resolution education focuses on the process rather than outcome.  Being in nature teaches that life is much more about the journey than the destination.  The mediation process is the same and is primarily about ensuring that participants’ voices and concerns are recognized and their personhood is relationally empowered in the process of dialogue.  Another participant, a Palestinian from Nablus, spoke of the need for a joint Israeli-Palestinian initiative to bring alternative energy to outlying Palestinian villages.  All of the participants immediately began reflecting with our Palestinian colleague how we could help him with the project.  

Conclusion
   All four stages of ARIA can be seen in the process that developed in the program.  The group began with members of an identity based conflict in a state of antagonism.  Resonance was developed via the relationships each of the members developed by virtue of the reflexive process of being together in nature.  Deep dialogue occurred out of the experience taking place which then allowed for discussions dedicated to the needs of each of our sides.  The group then spent time in creative seclusion to inspire each other towards inventive solutions in the hope that they would result in action.  A challenge with this program has been to keep the momentum going so that the proposed action does not revert back to antagonism in the face of the challenges experienced when we return to our respective environments.  Rothman recognizes that the action phase may lead cyclically back to antagonism.  Encouraging this momentum to turn into action was built into the structure of the program where three months after the first experience, our cohort joined the rest of the participants from all six years of the program in Slovakia at a workshop called Connecting the Hub.  Sadly, violence erupted throughout the Holy Land and most of the Palestinians from the West Bank declined to attend.  The political reality threatened to reignite the antagonism we had tried so hard to move beyond.  What stood out among our group and the previous groups was a sense that the individual relationships we developed could transcend the reality we were faced with.  “Early indications demonstrate that the model can create positive and sustained intergroup relations and provide incentives for working together for change.” Participants attribute their recent personal and professional growth to the program.  Personal conversations with a founder of the program revealed that there is hope among the leadership that the relationships among the alumni would bear fruit many years down the road when some of us attain positions of influence or become members of the first diplomatic track mentioned above.  He reinforced how there was a need to expand the reach of the program which led many of the participants to advocate the organization basing itself in the Holy Land and engaging the Alumni throughout the year.  I proposed to the whole group a continuation program which would take representatives from each of the cohorts and train them to be conflict resolution experts as well as Outward Bound wilderness instructors.  These instructors would then lead groups along William Ury’s Abraham Path while performing conflict resolution activities to help both sides transcend antagonism. This would be a natural outlet for those seeking to create action instead of letting stagnation take hold.    
   Perhaps the blessing of persisting can be seen from the fact that the deepest learning takes place out of adversity.  The Outward Bound Peacebuilding Palestine-Israel Emerging Leaders Program would not take place were it not for the conflict transpiring in the Holy Land.  Jay Rothman explains that when conflict is reflexively engaged it can be transformed into the best engine for learning.  When this is done in a group, the cohesion which forms between the members allows for deep empathy and bridge building.  By virtue of being in nature, participants find themselves thinking critically and exploring the core assumptions they take for granted when living in a world that pushes for us to understand each other in an adversarial framework.  Creativity thus emerges out of conflict and the argument can be made that both are interdependent.  All of creation comes about via friction.  Just as gravity is an invisible force that guides the other three fundamental forces to form the different celestial bodies, so too can conflict resolution techniques form empathetic relationships to reflexively empower both sides to emerge together out of the chaos of conflict.  But like the rest of creation, this is a long term process which must be cultivated and taught generation after generation.  

Ethics of the Fathers 2:16
[Rabbi Tarfon would also say:] It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself from it.

There is a legend (Midrash Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer) among our people that tells that when Abraham returned from Mount Moriah, after he nearly sacrificed Isaac, and was stopped by an angel, Satan became furious as he had wanted Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.

So, Satan found Sarah, Abraham’s wife, Isaac’s mother, and asked her, “Did you hear what happened?”

“No,” she replied.

Satan lied: “Abraham took Isaac and sacrificed him, offering him on the altar as a sacrifice.”

Sarah wailed and moaned. She died. 

Let us attempt to empathize with Sarah. She was completely alone, with no one except Satan, who was manipulating her emotions and lying to her, pushing her beyond the point where she could handle being alive. With no one to comfort her, with no sense of how she could move on without the child she longed a century for, with a husband she would never be able to bear to be around, she felt there was nothing to live for. And so, she died before learning that her son was still alive.

How dangerous are rumors, especially false ones. We must commit to never spreading rumors that can damage the very fabric that holds us together by tearing us apart. 

In a small town in Eastern Europe there was a simple Jew who had a problem: he talked too much about other people. He could not help himself. Whenever he heard a story about somebody he knew, and sometimes about somebody he did not know, he just had to tell it to his friends. Since he was in business, he heard quite a lot of rumors and stories. He loved the attention he got, and was delighted when they laughed because of the way he told the stories which he sometimes embellished with little details he invented to make them funnier and juicier. Other than that, he was really a goodhearted man.

One day he found out something really weird (but true) about another Jew in town. Of course he felt compelled to share what he knew, who told it to their friends, who told it to people they knew, who told it to their wives, who spoke with their friends and their neighbors. It went around town, till the unhappy person who was the main character in the story heard it. He went to the rabbi of the town, and complained that he was ruined! Nobody would like to deal with him after this. His good name and his reputation were gone with the wind.

The rabbi decided to summon the man who loved to tell stories. When the nice man with the nasty problem heard from the rabbi how devastated his colleague was, he felt truly sorry. He honestly had not considered it such a big deal to tell this story, because it was true; the rabbi could check it out if he wanted. The rabbi sighed.

“True, not true, that really makes no difference! You just cannot tell stories about people. This is all lashon hara, slander, and it’s like murder — you kill a person’s reputation.” He said a lot more, and the man who started the rumor now felt really bad and sorry. “What can I do to make it undone?” he sobbed. “I will do anything you say!”

The rabbi looked at him. “Do you have any feather pillows in your house?” “Rabbi, I am not poor; I have a whole bunch of them. But what do you want me to do, sell them?”

“No, just bring me one.”

The man was mystified, but he returned a bit later to the rabbi’s study with a nice fluffy pillow under his arm. The rabbi opened the window and handed him a knife. “Cut it open!”

“But Rabbi, here in your study? It will make a mess!”

“Do as I say!”

And the man cut the pillow. A cloud of feathers came out. They landed on the chairs and on the bookcase, on the clock, on the cat which jumped after them. They floated over the table and into the teacups, on the rabbi and on the man with the knife, and a lot of them flew out of the window in a big swirling, whirling trail.

The rabbi waited ten minutes. Then he ordered the man: “Now bring me back all the feathers, and stuff them back in your pillow. All of them, mind you. Not one may be missing!”

The man stared at the rabbi in disbelief. “That is impossible, Rabbi. The ones here is the room I might get, most of them, but the ones that flew out of the window are gone. Rabbi, I can’t do that, you know it!”

“Yes,” said the rabbi and nodded gravely, “that is how it is: once a rumor, a gossipy story, a ‘secret,’ leaves your mouth, you do not know where it ends up. It flies on the wings of the wind, and you can never get it back!”

He ordered the man to deeply apologize to the person about whom he had spread the rumor; that is difficult and painful, but it was the least he could do. He ordered him to apologize to the people to whom he had told the story, making them accomplices in the nasty rumor game, and he ordered him to diligently study the laws concerning lashon hara (evil tongue) every day for a year, and then come back to him.

That is what the man did. And not only did he study about lashon hara, he talked about the importance of guarding your tongue to all his friends and colleagues. And in the end he became a nice man who overcame a nasty problem.

Shabbat Shalom

The Jewish people are the descendants of an Iraqi refugree, Abram (who later became Abraham). Abram was 48 years old when the people were dispersed from the Tower of Babylon. He was sent to a Land already populated by the Canaanite nations (Genesis 12:6). He was promised that he would become a great nation and would be blessed. 

We are faced with many questions. How is it that someone can resettle to a new place claiming that it was the Creator of Heaven and Earth sent him and lay claim to a land already inhabited by others? This is of political importance for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel today who also lay claim to a Land that was already inhabited. The Jewish people also made up a minority of the inhabitants of the Land as they have never left the Holy Land throughout its history. 

Let's discuss the challenge of how Rashi opens his commentary of the Torah so as to present how Judaism traditionally answers this question:

Rabbi Isaac (Rashi) said: The Torah which is the Law book of Israel 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. What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation? Because of the thought expressed in the text (Psalms 111:6) “He declared to His people the strength of His works (i.e. He gave an account of the work of Creation), in order that He might give them the heritage of the nations.” For should the peoples of the world say to Israel, “You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan”, Israel may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When He willed He gave it to them, and when He willed He took it from them and gave it to us” (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187).

Laying a theological claim to the Land is challenging. A Jewish nation requires a Jewish majority. The partition of the Holy Land in 1948 created a political reality where the Jews were a majority in a portion of the Land and in the West Bank and Gaza, ruled by Jordan and Egypt respectively until 1967, there was an Arab majority. When the Six Day War of 1967 took place, the Israeli government understood that it could not enfranchise the Arabs of those lands as that would lead to a demographic reality of there being more Arab citizens of the State of Israel than Jewish citizens. It would no longer be a Jewish majority.

It would take 25 years to launch a political process where the Palestinian people would be enfranchised in the West Bank and Gaza. And that did not happen. It failed and the Palestinian people are still struggling with inequality. Blaming one side or the other will not get us anywhere. 

And now we return to Abraham. Abraham is traditionally the forefather of all monotheists in the Holy Land. His first born son, Ishmael is the forefather of the Muslims and his second son, Isaac became the forefather of Rome (Esau) and the Jews (Jacob/Israel). 

For 1300 years, the Muslims had control of the Holy Land. They took over the Land from the Byzantines and were greeted as the Messianic deliverers by the Jews at the time. Why is that the case? The location of the Holy Temple had been turned into a garbage dump by the Byzantine Empire so as to purposefully denigrate Judaism as a religion. In 638 CE, Byzantine Jerusalem was conquered by the Arab armies of Umar ibn al-Khattab, second Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate. Umar was advised by Ka'b al-Ahbar, a Jewish rabbi who converted to Islam, that the site is identical with the site of the former Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. Umar was so distressed by what he heard that he personally cleaned the area, picking up the trash and even scrubbing the stones clean. 

The political reality that emerged when the Ottomon Empire was defeated was one where both Palestinian and Zionist nationalist claims were being simultaneously supported by the British Empire. This has created a war for legitimacy over the past 105 years that has still not been resolved. The State of Israel has voted to bring to power a right wing government. If Israel wants stability, it must be vitally important for us to remember that once we were refugees. Once we were refugees from the Tower of Babylon and many years later we were refugees from the Egyptian Empire. 

The Torah (Exodus 22:20) tells us: "And you shall not mistreat a stranger, nor shall you oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." The Palestinians are not Canaanites (see Mishnah Yadaiim 4:4) they are also descendants of Abraham and must be treated with equality. Israel must work towards equality between all the inhabitants of the Holy Land as difficult as it may be. I am hopeful that over time we will be able to figure out this seemingly impossible conundrum. 

This week I would like to begin with a book recommendation: Genesis and the Big Bang by MIT Prof. Gerald Schroeder who worked seven years on the staff of the MIT physics department and was a member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

From a young age I was committed to finding a way to bridge between science and religion. I remember always thinking that there was no need for one to contradict the other and if they did we were misunderstanding both. When I first came to Israel, I had the privilege of learning from Prof. Schroeder and his vast works on the topic. 

Schroeder attempts to reconcile a six-day creation as described in Genesis with the scientific evidence that the world is billions of years old using the idea that the perceived flow of time for a given event in an expanding universe varies with the observer's perspective of that event.

I encourage you all to explore this growing genre of literature so that we can learn how to reconcile those categories in our life that we perceive as being irreconcilable. 

Shabbat Shalom

"You shall live in Sukkot (booths) seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in Sukkot, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt—I, your Force, the Eternal One."

-Leviticus 23:42-43

Why are we to live in Sukkot (booths) during this time? The Talmud (Sukkah 12b) come up with the interesting idea that this verse, "in order that future generations may know that I placed the Israelite people in booths when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt" doesn't relate to actual Succot, but to something else entirely? The Sages suggest that perhaps the Succot were actually "clouds of glory"! The Eternal placed the people of Israel under the wings of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence). 

During this holiday of Sukkoth, may we cultivate the consciousness needed to sit under the clouds of glory in the Sukkahs that we traditionally build.

Hag Sameach, Happy Holiday!   

In the last couple weeks I have been debating with myself what the essential experience is supposed to be for our community during the High Holidays. There are those among us who are very attached to tradition and draw spirituality from it, and there are others, for whom tradition and spirituality are two different things. What is clear to me is the feeling of despair. Talk talk talk, and nothing changes. I want to argue that as long as the candle is lit, it is possible to fix it. And our candle is always lit here at JCM… always. [Point to Ner Tamid]

This fundamental lesson was taught to us by Rabbi Israel Salanter, the founder of the Musar movement. It was when Rabbi Israel was walking late at night, and saw that a cobbler was still busy with his work. The late hour made Rabbi Israel conclude that it would have been appropriate to close the shop and go to sleep. Upon entering the store, he saw that there was not much left of the candle. Enough already, another day is over.

He asked the cobbler about it, since the candle is almost done and it's late... shouldn't it be better to fold up and go home?

The cobbler answered him, in the same sentence that will remain etched forever, which is both innocent, deep and meaningful at the same time: "Rabbi, as long as the candle is lit, it can be repaired."

Rabbi Israel took the idea as a life lesson. And the teaching is very practical. Because despair often overcomes a person so much they imagine that their hope is already lost and their dreams are dashed. They feel that their life is so distorted and everything is so broken that it can no longer be fixed.

Oh, what a heavy feeling this is - despair! It symbolizes the end of the road, the entrance to negativity without a way out, without any possibility of access to the good. It's the feeling that there isn't even a faint point in making an effort to fix the situation, because the existing meager possibility of creating light won't change anything, so why make an effort and invest the energy?

As long as the candle is lit, says Rabbi Israel, there is no room for despair! There is still a chance to fix it. Can it always be fixed? Aren't there hopeless situations? Isn't that pessimist right who claims that there are situations in which the damage caused is irreversible?

Indeed. But Rabbi Israel's innovation is that one must distinguish between physical matters and spiritual matters. The pessimist is sometimes right, but not when it comes to matters of the soul, because the human soul always strives for correction, and the correction is to take the next step in a better way - beyond that, the Eternal does not require of us. Because it is completely in everyone's ability.

The "candle" that is lit is the soul of a person, and the "correction" is to do another good deed. Proverbs 2:27 says that, “The soul of a human is the lamp of the Eternal, revealing all his innermost parts.”

Do not despair of yourself, do not even for a moment think that what is required of you is beyond your practical and real ability (a thought that is unfortunately so common). Because the "correction" required of you may not be as difficult as you think. You may not be aware of your own deep spiritual powers, and keep in mind - there is only a little time left, so you must fix what is in front of you - and it is: the next good thing that you can take on.

The ability to repair is ​​at hand. Not the whole situation as a whole needs to be corrected, but only the next act that can be done correctly.

In Ethics of the Fathers 2:16, Rabbi Tarfon said: “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.”

Not only can we always fix, but it is our duty to fix what we can. Because the Eternal only requires from people the correction that they are able to make.

And what are the full implications of such thinking in the philosophy of discourse? It is the interaction with the other that builds the person as a spiritual personality. It is not the individual person who is the fundamental fact of human existence, but the person who is in relationship with others. The main thing is therefore not the physical existence but the formation of the individual consciousness while in contact and dialogue with someone else.

How far should we take this idea? I would like to suggest that if there are not among us those who do the deep work of self-correction to atone for past sins, we are unable to have an authentic Yom Kippur. This idea comes from the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Keritot 6b -

Rav Ḥana bar Bizna says that Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida says: Any fast that does not include the participation of some of the sinners of the Jewish people is not a fast, as the smell of galbanum is foul and yet the verse lists it with the ingredients of the incense. Abaye says that this is derived from here: “It is He Who builds His upper chambers in the heavens and has established His bundle on the earth” (Amos 9:6), i.e., when the people are united as a bundle, including their sinners, they are established upon the earth.

Just as galbanum, despite its bad smell, was necessary to give the other components of the incense just the right fragrance and just as you need a little salt in every cake, a community cannot improve if it does not also contain those who have fallen and must pick themselves up again through repentance.

When a heavy punishment is imposed on Israel because of some evil deed, this evil must be taken and elevated. The idea of ​​neutralizing evil by returning it to its source in holiness is implied in incense. For this reason, the fast must include the "sinners of Israel". That's why before praying Kol Nidre we say:
                                               אנו מתירים להתפלל עם העבריינים
                                         We allow praying with the criminals.

As we emerge from the COVID epidemic, it is incumbent upon us to see how we can take something positive from the overall experience. 

The prophet Amos (9:6) says:

Who built His chambers in heaven
And has founded His bundle on the earth,
Who summons the waters of the sea
And pours pours it out on the face of the earth—
His name is the Eternal

Babylonian Talmud Menachot 27a
And so too, when the Jewish people fast and pray for acceptance of their repentance, this is not accomplished until they are all bound together in a single bundle, as it is stated: “It is He that builds His upper chambers in the Heaven, and has established His bundle upon the earth” (Amos 9:6), which is interpreted as stating that only when the Jewish people are bound together are they established upon the earth. This baraita contradicts Rav Ḥanan bar Rava’s statement, since it teaches that the four species of the lulav must be taken together in order for one to fulfill his obligation of taking the lulav.

In order for us to feel the presence of the Eternal in the world, we must be united. The unity of the people is a stage in their moral development that allows us to feel the Eternal’s presence.

We live in a reality calling for us to unite. Without mutual guarantee and concessions by the individual for the sake of the community, we will not be able to overcome the current paradigm. How can unity and inclusion be expressed in a practical way, in the Tikkun (repair) of each person? How can we keep on fixing even when we feel all our energy is spent?

Maybe next year we'll invite someone to a gathering of friends that we wouldn't normally think to include. We will turn to someone who did not meet our expectations and help them feel worthy in our world. Inclusion in the community is a change in our perception of how things should be.

When we are willing to have a discussion for heaven's sake, we can reach a place that not only accepts others but also that gives them the feeling that they are an integral part of the community.

May it be a year of health and inclusion. 

גמר חתימה טובה
May you be signed and sealed in the book of life.

Happy New Year from the Jewish Congregation of Maui. In thinking about what to speak about for Rosh HaShannah, I thought about our name: the Jewish Congregation of Maui. What does it mean to be a Congregation? My research on the subject led me to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s essay Fate and Destiny, which delineates two aspects of Jewish peoplehood: the camp and the congregation. 

Soloveitchik explains that “the camp is created as a result of the desire for self-defense and is nurtured by a sense of fear; the congregation is created as a result of the longing for the realization of an exalted ethical idea and is nurtured by the sentiment of love. Fate reigns in unbounded fashion in the camp; destiny reigns in the congregation….”

JCM’s building, also known as Beit Shalom, is our camp. It is a physical manifestation of our desire to congregate as a community. We are building a new kitchen and outside patio, upgrading our security and helping to advance ecological goals such as solar panels so that we can provide an example to the wider community. In ancient times, the camp’s primary concern was with our physical survival. We joined together to fight against our common enemies. We mobilized our resources to defend ourselves from attack. The camp was our means of maintaining our existence in a hostile world.

And then there is the congregation. The congregation is concerned with our spiritual survival. Although we need the camp to protect us from danger; we also need to know the purpose and meaning of our community. What are our overall goals as a community? Survival in and of itself is not enough; we survive in order to fulfill our role as a congregation. Rabbi Soloveitchik notes: “The congregation is a group of individuals possessing a common past, a common future, common goals and desires, a common aspiration for a world which is wholly good and beautiful and a common unique and unified destiny.”

Israelite history is full of stories of our wanderings, how we were slaves in Egypt; we overcame many obstacles and much suffering. We were endangered; we were afraid; we were victims of a negative fate. But then the Torah in Deuteronomy continues by expressing gratitude to the Almighty for bringing us to the land of milk and honey. It puts life in context of the Divine promises to Israel, and the many blessings enjoyed by the people of Israel. The Torah then makes it clear that we are a congregation with a destiny, not merely a camp forced to defend itself. 

“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances; you shall therefore observe and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have affirmed the Lord this day to be your God and that you would walk in His ways, and keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His ordinances, and hearken unto His voice.” (Deut. 26: 17-18)

Throughout our history, the people of Israel have had to view itself and act as a camp. This continues in our own time. Synagogues around the world and the State of Israel itself are constantly under physical and political attack. Our survival is threatened regularly.

First and foremost, we need to strengthen ourselves as a camp, as strong and determined people dedicated to defending ourselves. Not one of us is safe unless we ensure the safety and security of all. Thanks to the hard work of our executive director, Ellyn Mortimer, we received a federal security grant dedicated to increasing and upgrading the security of our building and our property. 

Yet, throughout our history, the people of Israel have understood its nature as a holy congregation. We have stood tall and strong in promoting the great vision of the Torah; the messianic idea that teaches peace for all human beings; the dedication to the Eternal and kindness to our fellow human beings. We have known “why” we survive; we have been a people with a revolutionary and powerful devotion to righteousness, compassion, and respect for all human beings.

Just as we need to devote tremendous energy and strength to maintaining our camp, so we need to devote tremendous energy and strength to maintaining ourselves as a congregation. Our physical survival is a primary responsibility; our spiritual flowering is equally important.

Some Jews are Jewish mainly in response to anti-Semitism or anti-Israel attacks. They are “camp” Jews. Some Jews are Jewish only (or mainly) in their fulfillment of the rituals of our religious tradition. They are “congregation” Jews. In fact, though, we each need to play our role in both domains. We need to fortify our camp and activate our congregation.

Our building is a reminder of our need to be a camp, and all of you here are a reminder of our need to be a congregation, a spiritually vibrant, compassionate and idealistic Torah community. Although my position as Rabbi is covered by JCM as an institution, my primary obligation is to be here for the congregation. What does this entail? First I must seek to plant seeds, like the papaya seeds I planted outside this Tu Bishvat. These seeds are characterized by Torah and modern values that will guide us forward. Second, is facilitating our community through a process where we discover how to continuously invest in each other’s growth?

Like the rest of nature, we are all growing. We must remember that people are not bad. Making such a declaration is שינת חינם or ‘baseless hatred.’ Once you get so used to a broken way of doing things, it is hard to remember how to be any other way. In other words we should be asking ourselves when does our memory not serve us and cause us to repeat destructive patterns?

Our days are characterized by anger at the perceived “other.” Some have the right to be angry, others… just get off on it; they draw energy from the chaotic abyss of anger, the destroyer of worlds. In such a shadow, can we build a congregation that is a utopia for everyone? To have different people working side by side in “perfect” harmony?

We can advance when we become better people. Once we learn to work together, to really live with each other and develop a genuine investment in each other’s growth, that is when we attain harmony. Step one is learning not to sweat the small stuff, and focus on the big goals so that we can make a leap of commonality. And this is the commonality that is at the core of a thriving congregation. A congregation that invests in the life of its members spiritually as the members invest financially, and with their time as volunteers.

These volunteers, such as Dorothy, Stephanie, Josh, Hanah, Simon, Sheri, Marge and so many more, have planted a vibrant non-profit known as the Jewish Congregation of Maui. The word congregation is meaningful to this community and should be preserved, in all the power contained within its meaning.

Shannah Tova

“You must be wholehearted with the Eternal One.”
-Deuteronomy 18:13

I have a profound love of the root of the word for peace in Hebrew, שלום - Shalom. The root, ש-ל-מ - shalem means complete, safe and at peace. It also means to be complete or sound and to make restitution. Understanding this root, which is shared with the word for peace in Arabic, explains the cultural differences between the Semitic idea of peace and that of the western world. Whereas peace in the western world has the connotation of compromising, in Hebrew and Arabic it requires for both peoples to be in relationship and together attempt to understand what wholeness can mean to one another.

Sometimes our understanding of wholeness contradicts one another and creates a paradox where one side is perceived as having attained their goal while the other side is lacking. What does it mean to lack something? I would like to suggest that lack is a fact of life and is a very basic state of our human existence. 

And yet, our Torah portion calls for us to be whole with the Eternal One (Deuteronomy 18:13). It is important to note that the Hebrew word for ‘whole’ here is different from the one mentioned above: תמים - tamim. The other meaning of this word in Hebrew is: “innocence or naivete.” Our Sages teach us that being tamim is the highest level one can attain. We are therefore invited to be whole with the Eternal One. 

What does this mean? The great commentator Rashi explains that we are to walk before the Eternal whole-heartedly, put our hope in Him and do not attempt to investigate the future, but whatever it may be that comes upon you accept it whole-heartedly, and then you shall be with Him and become His portion. 

Investigating the future implies that we seek to fill in that part of us we perceive as lacking. What can we do to fill the perceived gap in our life so that we have what we need to be whole? 

The Kabbalah sees lack or deficiency as the key to the existence of the world. It creates a sense of deprivation, which, in turn, creates will - the will to fill what is lacking - which is the essence of creativity, and therefore the essence of existence. Without deficiency there is no sense of lack. Without lack, there is no will. Without will there is no creation, and without creation there is no existence.

And, yet, why is it that we feel miserable when we perceive to be lacking something? The memory of what we do not have is the reason for fear and anxiety. Once these primal feelings are activated within us, it becomes fertile ground for breeding greed and violence. And this is why we need the laws and boundaries contained within the Torah.

It is our attitude towards what we perceive as lacking in our life that defines us. We all have the ability to undergo a transformation towards wholeness. Everyone can have a sense of deficiency while realizing that in truth there is no lack. 

The verse, “you must be whole with the Eternal,” is an invitation to ponder the ultimate paradox: Know that you are totally whole, and as part of this wholeness, you also have a sense of deficiency. This is what will create life and drive your will to succeed. 

The sense of deficiency is not the opposite of wholeness, because wholeness contains everything, including the perception of deficiency! Otherwise, how could it truly be whole? 

The Torah of Shalem (Wholeness) calls for us to accept this seemingly impossible paradox where, on the one hand, nothing is missing because everything is actually whole, and on the other, there is definitely deficiency - because without it there would be no existence.

May we be blessed with reconciling the opposites in our lives, wholeness and deficiency, peace and struggle, life and death. 

Shabbat Shalom.

The word Ekev that opens our Torah portion this week means "following." In other words, if you do this, the result will be one way and if you do the opposite, the result will also unfold accordingly. During our Torah study last night, the participants found this to be an old theological model that no longer resonates especially after the Shoah (Holocaust). After all, some of the most observant Jews, 80% of Jewish leadership, perished at the hands of the Nazis and their allies.

Our Torah portion attempts to condition us to accept this old theological model: if we keep the Eternal's commandments our lives will be wonderful in every way and if not we will be punished. It was the Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) who cast doubt upon this conditioning and helped ignite the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah). 

At the beginning of my return to the Jewish religion in my early 20s, I was scrupulous in my observance of the commandments. I fulfilled the classical response of our people when they said that, "they will do and then they will understand" (Ex. 24:7). Now I look back and I think to myself how dogmatic such a way of thinking is. We believe in a religion that questions, such as when Abraham questioned the justice of destroying all the people of Sodom. 

Our Sages suggest that to reconcile this issue we need to focus on what the word Halachah (Jewish Law) means. It comes from the root that means to steer in the direction of. This direction should be towards internal movement or change. The purpose of this change is to dissolve the powerful grasp of the human ego and lead us into an inner place of humility, one that allows for dialogue with the Eternal. When we create an internal process of growth, we tend to only understand the benefits afterwards, when calm prevails in the stormy sea of anxiety.

As the prophet Micha 6:8 reminds us, "He has told you, human, what is good, and what the Eternal requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your Creator." 

May our humble walking and acts of justice bless us with calm waters.

Shabbat Shalom

We read in Exodus 4:10 that at the beginning of the journey for Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt that he said that he was “not a man of words.” By the time of Deuteronomy, he is the master of words. The book of Deuteronomy is his final message to the people that include eloquent words of guidance. Moses as a leader grew by leaps and bounds in the forty years alongside the other Israelites. The shift in his consciousness was necessary to prepare the Israelites to finally enter the promised land.

Moses recounts the famous story of the twelve scouts that resulted in the need to wait a generation before entering the land. The version he chooses to relate is entirely different from the one we read in the book of Numbers, at the time it occurred. 

Moses says, “Have no dread or fear of them. None other than the Eternal, who goes before you, will fight for you, just as the Eternal did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, and in the wilderness, where you saw how the Eternal carried you, as a person carries his child, all the way that you traveled until you came to this place. Yet for all that, you have no faith in the Eternal, who goes before you on your journeys—to scout the place where you are to encamp—in fire by night and in cloud by day, in order to guide you on the route you are to follow” (Deut. 1:28-33).

I am reminded of the parable of the footprints in the sand:

One night, a man fell into a deep sleep and had a detailed dream; he dreamt that he was walking along the beautiful beach in the company of the Eternal. While he was walking along the sea shore, the scenes of different incidents and situations from his life flashed one by one across the dark sky. He kept moving and watching the different stages of his life, the good times as well as bad ones. After the last scene of life flashed before him, he looked back and noticed the footprints in the sand. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One belonged to his own and the other one to the Lord. All of sudden he noticed that at many times along the path of his life; especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints. This really disturbed him, so he asked the Eternal about it. He said, “Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed you the most, you were not there for me.”

The Eternal waited in silence and then in a small silent voice whispered, “My precious child, I love you and never left you. When you were fine and healthy, I used to walk beside you. So the extra pair of footprints was visible. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you during your challenging times. Whenever you were in difficulties and problems, it was then that I was protecting you the most.”
Coming back to Deuteronomy, you may have thought that it was only you who traveled on the difficult journey of life. Actually, it was the Eternal who carried you like a parent carries their child. You thought you chose the path on which your feet trod? Well, no. The Eternal goes before you and guides you on your path, day and night.

The demand of faith is one that is deeply difficult. It is as uncomfortable to us as the demand to love (V'ahavta prayer after the Shema) or the demand to collectively mourn as we will be doing on Saturday night for the 9th of Av. Most of us struggle with the demands on our emotions. We feel that it is there that we should have ultimate free choice. 

William James, a pioneer of American philosophy and psychology at the turn of the 20th century, gave a series of lectures entitled, "The Will to Believe". James, who was more scientist than philosopher at the beginning of his career as a professor at Harvard, searched for a response to the despair he felt in light of the uncompromising laws of nature. He even considered committing suicide, because what was the point? What is the point of making an effort, when the unrelenting laws of nature are so oblivious to us? And then, at the beginning of his thirties, William James experienced an intellectual transformation which changed his understanding. He understood that in any case our reality is based on belief, and that proof - if there is any - comes later. In other words, we choose to believe in life anew each day, in our body’s ability to bear us, in our ability to walk. Only after we take a step, do we discover that we were right. And it is at that moment of taking a step do we recognize the footprints of our Creator alongside us. 

Tomorrow night we will mark the eve of Tisha b’Av, the 26 hour fast where we collectively mourn the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem, the exile from Spain and so much more. It was a time when we felt that we were walking alone as a people and yet, if we concentrate on each of the incidents that transpired, we can see that the Creator was going with us into Exile. 

Let’s take for example the destruction of the Second Temple. For hundreds of years prior, the prophets were speaking out against the phenomenon of sacrificing animals as a way of being forgiven for personal and communal sins. A new system had to come into place. That new system is prayer which replaces the sacrifices. And yet, what does the Talmud teach us for why the Second Temple was destroyed and we as a people experienced an exile that lasted for thousands of years? Because of “baseless hatred.” I would like to venture that Tisha B’Av is the time for us to take first steps in repairing relationships. 

If we take a step in the direction of believing that we are capable of creating a healing, tolerant and conscientious society, and if we work together on that belief, the chance that such a society will be created is very high.

Moses believed that he was not a man of words. Forty years later, he delivered speeches that most likely surprised him as well. Who would have believed it was possible? This year, on the eve of Tisha B’av, I choose to believe that we will overcome our difficulties, that light will prevail over darkness, that tolerance will prevail over extremism, that love will prevail over hatred. 

Shabbat Shalom, and for those who are fasting, may it be a meaningful fast.

The Tisha b’Av fast will begin at 7:01pm on Saturday and finishes at 7:24pm on Sunday. Please join us at JCM for an evening of reflection and reconciliation at 7:30pm on Saturday, August 6.

On Thursday, June 30, the Hebrew month of Tammuz began and Rosh Hodesh prayers took place at the egalitarian prayer section at the Kotel, known as Ezrat Israel. A large group of extremist Orthodox youth arrived there with whistles and used them to disturb the prayer service at the plaza. A few of the demonstrators tore the siddurim published by the Conservative movement, and one teen was photographed blowing his nose on a torn page of a siddur.

My colleague and close friend, Rabbi Arie Hasit, a Conservative rabbi, was leading a Bar Mitzvah service for an American boy at the plaza. He wrote the following post on Facebook: “It is difficult for me to find the words to describe my experience this morning at Ezrat Israel. I hoped that the charming, shy, but determined young boy wouldn’t be exposed to hatred. Instead, he received shouts from dozens of children and teenagers with whistles calling him a Christian. There were chants saying that he was a Nazi. An American boy who wanted to celebrate reaching the age of observance. A boy who chose to get his aliyah to the Torah in Israel. In the presence of his parents, grandparents and extended family. The boy was amazing. It happened beautifully, and he did not make a single mistake, despite the disturbances.” Rabbi Hasit added that the Bar Mitzvah boy is broken, believing that some people hate him and are willing to hurt him because his Judaism is different from their Judaism.

In our Torah portion, Parshat Pinchas, we learn of the reward given to the priest Pinchas for his zealotry. The story goes that after the failed attempt by the wizard Bilam and the king Balak to curse Israel, they developed a new tactic and sent the beautiful Moabite women to seduce the powerful men among the Israelites. The women then invited them to sacrifice to their gods which the elites gladly agreed to do. And once again the Lord was angered and told Moses to execute the leaders who were participating in the idolatry. Moses told the people to do this and just at that moment one of the Israelite princes brought a Midianite princess before the people to continue performing the rituals.

It was at that moment that the zeal of Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron the Priest, saw this, took a spear and killed the prince and the princess. The Torah portion this week begins with the Lord rewarding Pinchas with the Covenant of Peace (Numbers 25:12) for his actions! When Pinchas killed Zimri and Kosbi it unleashed a great controversy among the people. They asked, “Were his actions correct? Were they murderous?” According to the Jerusalem Talmud, the Sages were prepared to excommunicate Pinhas until the Holy Spirit came upon him and gave him the Covenant of Peace and Priesthood. 

The Rabbis of the Jerusalem Talmud understand Pinchas’ act as singular, and acceptable only with the testimony of the Lord. No matter what the provocation, zealousness such as Pinchas’ requires immediate excommunication; an individual prone to such action cannot be abided in the community. The Eternal’s intervention on his behalf is understood as both promoting Pinchas as a uniquely righteous individual and as denying permission for others to follow in his footsteps in an era when the Lord no longer directly speaks through us.

Unfortunately, what transpires far too often at the Western Wall and its environs are scenes of extremist Orthodox Jews using their fervor to build walls rather than bridges. They claim to be “zealous for the Lord,” like the Maccabees during Hanukkah who also took inspiration from Pinchas’ act. How are we to deal with the extremism in our text and it being glorified as holy zealotry? Is it reasonable for us to criticize other religions for problematic quotes in their holy texts while not paying attention to our own? 

I would like to suggest that a metric for judging the zeal of those who act “in the Lord’s name”  is how their actions affect the Jewish community in its entirety? That is, how do their actions preserve, or destroy the very fabric of, the Jewish community? Whereas the potential exists for arguments to be made on both sides of the issue, there are constructive arguments that can be made “for the sake of Heaven.” Destructive arguments, on the other hand, are characterized by the misplaced logic of Korach and all others who joined his camp to oppose Moses for whatever reason they may have had at the time. Differentiating between the two requires wisdom and patience on behalf of dedicated mediators who can calm tensions and encourage dialogue for the sake of heaven.

I pray for the day when Rabbis who are also experts in conflict transformation, can create dialogue between both groups at the holiest site of Judaism and show by example how we should transform “baseless hatred,” which caused the destruction of the Second Temple, into “baseless love.”

On Tisha B’Av this year, Saturday evening August 6 at 7:30pm, we will come together at JCM to learn about how damaging baseless hatred can be and what we can do to turn things around when it happens. How can we have zeal for baseless love even when there are reasons to be angry and upset at the other amongst us? 

Rabbi Yaakov Rabinowitz once taught that we should cultivate, “a feeling of love for all Jews, whatever their background, whatever their status. There will be those whom we will applaud, those whom we will oppose, those who will give us pain, even make us cry. But we will try never to forget that we are one and that the inner door should never be closed. And we will keep an outer door, to the outside world, open as well. To be sure, it will have a screen. Not everything is needed or wanted. But it is, after all, the Lord’s world and we live in it, not despite it.”

I would like to thank my teachers for their words and reflections that are part of this week's Torah portion.

Sometimes the Torah portion matches the Haftarah perfectly. Usually, the haftorah is assigned to a parasha because of a connection of content and this time, the connection is perfect.

In our Torah portion, Parashat Korach, a group of 250 men led by Korach, Dotan, and Aviram, question the leadership abilities of Moses and Aaron. Korach, who, according to the Midrash, was a very wealthy man, was not satisfied with what he had in life. He wanted it all and sold his vision to the people telling them that they are all inherently holy. 

"Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, took for himself, along with Dathan and Aviram sons of Eliav, and On son of Pelet—descendants of Reuven - to rise up against Moses, together with two hundred and fifty Israelites, chiefs of the community, chosen in the assembly, men of repute. They combined together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Eternal is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Eternal’s congregation?”

“You have gone too far, sons of Levi!” Moses said, “Hear me, sons of Levi. Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has set you apart from the community of Israel and given you direct access, to perform the duties of God’s Tabernacle and to minister to the community and serve them? Now that [God] has advanced you and all your fellow Levites with you, do you seek the priesthood too?" (Numbers 16:1-10)

Let’s look closely at the statements being said here. Korah is arguing that Moses has separated himself too much from the people and that he has raised himself above the congregation. It seems that Moses does not hear the needs of Korah. He responds from the hip and says, “You are a son of Levi with privileges, be happy with that.” This was not Korah’s message. His message was that Moses had separated and elevated himself from the people. 

The problem was even deeper. Korah’s camp included all those who had any complaint against Moses. For example, Dotan and Aviram, who were not Levites, took their argument even further. When Moses called them to him, they refused to come. They answered him in the same manner - “Is it not enough that you brought us from a land flowing with milk and honey (Egypt) to have us die in the wilderness, that you would also lord it over us?... We will not come!” (Numbers 16:13-14).

Moses is shocked. He didn’t want to be the leader of the people any more. He asks them, have I done something wrong? “I have not taken the donkey of any one of them, nor have I wronged any one of them” (Numbers 16:15).

What would have happened if Moses had really listened and understood the needs of Korah and the people? Could they have had a dialogue to prevent the violent end of the story when the ground opens up and swallows Korach and his people? 

The haftorah relates the story of Samuel the prophet, who is deeply insulted when the people turn to him and demand that he anoint a king to rule over them. He sees this as a personal attack. The people have had enough of his leadership, and particularly the leadership of his sons. A moment before he crowns Saul as king, Samuel turns to the People and asks them: "Here I am! Testify against me, in the presence of the Eternal and in the presence of His anointed one: Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded or whom have I robbed? From whom have I taken a bribe…” (I Samuel 12:3).

Moses and Samuel are both shocked by the dissatisfaction of the people, and particularly by their lack of appreciation. They don’t understand where they went wrong and what the people want from them. 

According to the Book of Chronicles, Samuel was a descendent of Korach!

How can this be? After all, Korach was swallowed up by the earth together with his entire family. How can there be anyone left, and how can a great man like Samuel the Prophet descend from Korach?

It appears that power-hungry people never entirely disappear. Furthermore, every few generations this hunger for power and control dismantles the mechanisms of government, the delicate distribution of authority, the division between roles and centers of authority in society - all in order to gain more power. Systems of government are built with internal checks and balances, delicately constructed, but easily destroyed when there is greed for power in the vicinity. 

Korach fails at dismantling the existing structure of power. But his descendent, Samuel the Prophet, succeeds! Samuel is actually the one who implements Korach’s vision, and the one who does exactly as Korach wanted to do: He dismantles all the governing structures that Moses created. He inherits the priesthood from Eli the High Priest and then cancels it all together. He himself offers sacrifices, although he is not a Cohen (Priest). He cancels the judicial system created by Moses at the advice of his father-in-law, and judges the people himself. And the most extreme measure Samuel takes is to try to bequeath the leadership to his sons, even though they had no leadership or prophetic abilities. We do not hear about Moses’ sons, for example. There is no reason for the leadership to transfer to them. 

The big difference between Korach and Samuel is that Korach’s belief in equality was cynical. It did not stem from a true belief in equality “for the sake of heaven” or just for its own sake, but rather for the purpose of power and for the benefits of governance. Samuel, on the other hand, believed that his intentions were good. He dismantled the mechanisms which had become corrupt.

Equality is very important, but true equality does not mean everyone has the same abilities. Not everyone can be a judge. Not everyone can lead an army into battle. Not everyone is suitable to lead a nation. And when the motive is only power and not suitability, everyone ends up losing.

This is why the people turn to Samuel and demand that he instate a king over them. They are actually demanding that he forego his centralized authority and rebuild an organized system of government in which there is military and political leadership, spiritual/prophetic leadership, and judicial leadership. 

Remember, it was Moses who sowed the seeds of kingship in Israel. He is the one who gives the People the laws of kingship. In these laws, Moses describes exactly what the king’s authority is, and mostly what it isn’t. Moses makes sure that the future king is answerable to the laws of morality and judgment. 

It is easy to destroy the delicate structure of government. It is much more difficult to rebuild it. To Samuel’s credit, having dismantled the mechanisms of government and giving himself complete authority, at the end of his life he lays the foundations of rebuilding those mechanisms, albeit against his will. He will be the one who establishes the kingship in the spirit of Moses’ laws, and he prepares the infrastructure for the building of the Temple.

So what are the lessons to be learned from the linking of the Torah portion of Korach to the Haftorah of Samuel the Prophet? 

First of all, the value of equality requires further investigation. Every person is unique and one-of-a-kind. Every person is created in the Creator’s image. Therefore, in essence, we are indeed all equal. But the fact is that we all have different abilities and not everyone can fulfill every role.

There is nothing more poisonous for the soul than our tendency to compare ourselves to others, and we do so all the time - in the name of equality.  A lot is written, for example, about how Facebook is a leading cause of depression, because it shows the external glory of other people’s lives, and we mistakenly compare our inner chaotic messy lives to the external glory of others, leaving us feeling inferior and inadequate.

We must set boundaries for ourselves! The value of equality can exist only if it is accompanied by humility and a realistic recognition of our value. 

The desire for power usually stems from a sense of inferiority, and it is dangerous. Power that is “for the sake of heaven” is a power that has the ability to create and heal worlds. Any other kind destroys those worlds that have been so carefully constructed.

Shabbat Shalom

Once upon a time we as a people had a form of certainty in our relationship with the Eternal One. According to our Torah portion, there was no human general or political leader who told us when to move forward. It was the Creator who indicated Its desire through the movement of a pillar of cloud: 

"And whenever the cloud lifted from the Tent, the Israelites would set out accordingly; and at the spot where the cloud settled, there the Israelites would make camp. At a command of the Eternal the Israelites broke camp, and at a command of the Eternal they made camp: they remained encamped as long as the cloud stayed over the Tabernacle.  When the cloud lingered over the Tabernacle many days, the Israelites observed the Eternal’s mandate and did not journey on. At such times as the cloud rested over the Tabernacle for only a few days, they remained encamped at a command of the Eternal, and broke camp at a command of the Eternal. And at such times as the cloud stayed from evening until morning, they broke camp as soon as the cloud lifted in the morning. Day or night, whenever the cloud lifted, they would break camp.  Whether it was two days or a month or a year—however long the cloud lingered over the Tabernacle—the Israelites remained encamped and did not set out; only when it lifted did they break camp.  On a sign from the Eternal they made camp and on a sign from God they broke camp; they observed the Eternal’s mandate at the Eternal’s bidding through Moses" (Numbers 9:17-23).

Our portion picks up after a year of encampment at the foot of Mount Sinai after receiving the Torah. This was the formative year when a group of freed slaves organized themselves and created the infrastructures that would accompany the Nation of Israel until its entry into the Holy Land and even up until the modern day. A moment before they embark on their journey, two historic events take place: the seven-branched menorah is lit for the first time, and Passover is celebrated for the first time. And then the cloud rises.

This was a sign to dismantle the encampment and the Tabernacle, pack all the belongings, and begin to move. "In the second year, on the twentieth day of the second month, the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle of the Pact and the Israelites set out on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai…" (Numbers 10:11-12).

One of the principles in Torah study is that the Torah is not just a guide for one moment in time on the journey in the Wilderness. It is intended to be an ultimate guidebook for the Nation of Israel. The Torah is intended to be our version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

Our Sages throughout history have understood the Israelites’ journey in the Wilderness as an archetype for all journeys.  Every person experiences an Exodus in her or his life: parting of the Sea, the receipt of the Torah, the story of the Golden Calf, the endless complaints, the sin of the spies which brought about forty additional years of wandering and even Moses’ final view of the Promised Land from Mount Nevo a moment before his death. 

Therefore, the Divine pillar which determines when we move and to where, and when we rest and where - is a hidden guidance system which, if we get to know it, may bring about dramatic change in our lives. In Psalms 99:7, King David wrote, "He speaks to them in a pillar of cloud". The pillar of cloud did not disappear. It is present today, just as it was then. What did change was our ability to see. 

Our world is a reflection of our sight: “Tell me what you see, and I will tell you about you."  The modern world has veiled our ability to truly see. Today we are able to see things and objects, even more so with the use of telescopes and microscopes, but we are completely blind to the spiritual infrastructure in which they exist, and especially to the gaps between them. Our physical sight and intellectual sight works well and yet as these two developed, our spiritual sight atrophied.

How are we to define spiritual infrastructure? Presumably each person will see it differently, and yet, at the deepest level, this infrastructure is the infinite wisdom that activates the world. The pillar of cloud comes from that wisdom. More precisely, the pillar itself is the wisdom and intelligence that activates existence. The pillar of cloud "lives us,” directs us, makes us grow and guides us. It also takes us up the mountain from which everything can be seen, and from which the cloud returns us to the place from which It gave us life.

There is no reality without the pillar of cloud; no life and no journey. The Eternal spoke to them in a pillar of cloud and continues to speak to us and it is time we listened. Therefore, the invitation this week is to notice the pillar that is always there, although we don’t see it. Pay attention to how it feels, what it wants, and what it asks of us. For those who have never thought in this direction and are sure that it is possible to see only animate things and objects, this may be a little hard to do at first, and maybe even a bit strange. It is worth it as the power contained within is life-changing.

There are no mistakes on the journey. The Israelites did not know that they would wander in the wilderness for forty years. It is not the fault of the spies or of the people. The pillar of cloud is the deep wisdom that motivates the process. This all encompassing wisdom knew that the people were not yet ready, and that it was not yet the right time for them to reach their destination. When we learn how to listen to the pillar of cloud, we discover that there is nothing to regret.

Shabbat Shalom

On Purim this year, I wrote a sermon called, “Welcoming the Convert,” where I explained that Amalek directly resulted from our forefathers and foremothers denying Timna the ability to convert. In her desperation she became the concubine of Esau’s son and Amalek was born. I concluded with a suggestion that the true way to counter Amalek and confront assimilation is to ensure that all who wish to convert have a path to do so. Forging a path to Judaism is a deeply individual process and it is a blessing to be here on Maui to assist those who choose to climb Mount Sinai together with our people. 

During Shavuot, it is traditional to read the book of Ruth where a Jewish family leaves the land of Israel, intermarries with a tribe who were the traditional enemies of the Israelites and the Jewish sons and the father die. In such an ancient society it is natural that Naomi, the mother, would have seen her departure from the Holy Land and her people as the sin which resulted in this misfortune. She turns to her daughters-in-law and tells them to return to their houses. Initially they refused and after much convincing, Orpah left and Ruth decided to stay. Many remember that Ruth was the great-grandmother of King David; less of us know that according to Rabbinic tradition (Sotah 42b), Orpah was the mother of Goliath the Giant, David’s archenemy. This is not to say that every time someone is turned away from the Jewish people that they will produce our enemies, but it is fascinating to note the similarity between Timna and Orpah. 

And what lessons can we learn to encourage inclusion of the potential convert? There is a tradition to turn away a potential convert three times from the story of Naomi telling her daughters-in-law three times to “turn back” (see Ruth Rabbah). Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani states: "She says, 'turn back' three times, which corresponds to the three times one pushes off a convert" (Ruth Rabbah 2:16). This position was never codified into Jewish law. In fact, the authoritative Jewish legal texts go in the opposite direction, demanding that anyone who expresses a sincere interest in Judaism be immediately welcomed. The preeminent code of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, states: "When a person comes to convert, we tell them: 'Do you know that Israel faces oppression and other challenges.?' If they reply: 'I know, and yet I would be honored [ani yodea v'ayni k'dai]' then we befriend them, immediately accept them, and begin to teach them" (Shulchan Aruch 268:2 - sixteenth century standard of Jewish Law).

Those who seek to convert, if they answer with sincerity ought to be met with a loving embrace and a hearty welcome to the family. According to Jewish law, one does not need to turn a person away three times, or even once. All that is required is one straightforward question of intent, ensuring that a person understands what it means to throw in their lot with the Jewish People. 

On Shavuot, we read the Book of Ruth and pay respect to the spiritual courage it took her – and all her children after her – to take a leap into the unknown and discover a new path. But it is not enough to pay lip service to that courage. I have heard story after story from those on the path to conversion who are met with suspicion or outright rejection. Our community needs to take a hard look at itself and ask why "everyone knows" that we turn away converts three times, but too few people know that the actual law is to do the opposite.

As we are met with concern about assimilation we as Rabbis are called upon to transform our concern into an opportunity for a wider and more inclusive Jewish future. Rabbi Shmuel's minority position of turning away potential converts three times was rejected by the Sages millennia ago. It is certainly time for us to fully commit to do the same. 

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Shavuot.

JCM’s Response to the Tragedy in Uvalde, Texas; An Invitation to a Grief Circle at JCM on Wednesday, June 8 at 4:30pm for all who are grieving spouses, parents, children, friends, etc.

“Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor [and their children].” Leviticus 19:16

It is with great sorrow that we respond to the tragic killing of nineteen schoolchildren and their teachers in Uvalde, Texas. We must be committed to the value that children are of greater value than indiscriminate rights to weapons. How have we built a society where driving a car is more difficult than purchasing a weapon?

Jewish values certainly mandate that we go beyond prayers for the lives lost. We must ensure that political action results in the prevention of this ever happening again, although sadly we fear that it will. America remembers all too well the killing of its children in Parkland, Sandy Hook and the hundreds of other locations where mass shootings have taken place.

We must organize and demand that United States politicians, currently obsessed with reelection campaigns, put aside partisanship in order to literally save lives. They must firmly and immediately enact meaningful gun reform legislation and mental health reform. 

We offer our deepest condolences and support to all those impacted by this horrible attack and reiterate our vehement condemnation of gun violence. Limiting the availability of weapons is a moral imperative in our time. If we do not do this we are standing idly by the blood of our neighbor and their children.

JCM would like to offer a grief circle on Wednesday, June 8 at 4:30pm led by Rabbi Raanan Mallek and Mitch Berman for all who are grieving spouses, parents, children, friends, etc. The community is invited to come together, grieve and provide comfort to one another during these times when we ask where justice is. 

This week’s Torah portion includes the commandment of counting the Omer:

“And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the Shabbat—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the Eternal” (Leviticus 23:15-16).

In a day and age when we no longer bring agricultural offerings to a Temple in Jerusalem, how can the Omer be significant and meaningful in our lives? Our Sages explain that the Omer is a road to transformation through time, the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot. Kabbalah teaches us that the Omer is a time when we should focus on ridding ourselves of negative influences. It is during these seven weeks that we are called to break open the klipot (negative shells) from within us which will release the Light that has been trapped by our choices in life. Although the extraction is sometimes painful, the benefit of releasing the trapped sparks of Light are more than worth it for our souls.

Each of the seven weeks is associated with one of the seven lower Sefirot (Kabbalistic Jewish Chakras): Chesed (loving-kindness), Gevurah (might), Tipheret (beauty), Netzach (victory), Hod (acknowledgment), Yesod (foundation), Malchut (kingdom). This week we are to focus on Netzach translated as Victory or Endurance.

Netzach represents Eternity and is representative of the right brain where the creative process takes place. Netzach is therefore the artist, the poet, the musician and the dreamer. Netzach radiates the desire to share and becomes the channel of that energy as it approaches the physical world we live in.

The Kabbalistic Sages teach that each day of each week is also associated with one of these same seven sefirot, creating forty-nine permutations, i.e. 49 days between Passover and Shavuot. This Shabbat is when we should focus on leadership (Malchut) in endurance (Netzach). 

Robert F. Kennedy once said, “each time a person stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, s/he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance… Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.” 

May we be worthy of leadership that can endure the challenges of our times. 

Shabbat Shalom.
 

"The Eternal spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they drew too close to the presence of the Eternal" (Leviticus 16:2).

Our Torah portion this week is called Aharei Mot in Hebrew which means, "after the death." And yet, the sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu died six chapters earlier in Leviticus 10. After their death, instead of comforting his brother, Moses says, 'This is what the Eternal meant by saying: Through those near to Me I become holy, and gain glory before all the people.' And Aaron was silent." (Leviticus 10:3). Most difficult of all is how Aaron and his sons are told not to mourn the loss of their sons and brothers.  

As a student of theology, I am confronted by the Shoah (Holocaust)* and the denial of our greatest thinkers to ever attempt to justify or explain why such a tragedy happened to our people. Where were we as the Jewish people after the death of one third of our people, 80% of our scholars and an untold cultural history lost for all time? I can not help but remember stories of how for thirty years after the founding of the State of Israel, Israelis tended to distance themselves from remembering those who were killed and instead sought to focus on the future of the "New Israeli". Survivors of the Shoah* found living in Israel challenging since many of their brethren were "silent" like Aaron.

At the end Passover we recite Yizkor (Hebrew for "remembrance") prayers which just so happens to ready us for Shoah (Holocaust) Remembrance Day. Although traditionally Yizkor is recited by those that have lost either one or both of their parents, most modern prayer books include a remembrance prayer for the victims of the Holocaust. In this prayer, they are rightly remembered as martyrs. Our tradition holds that martyrs are closest to the divine thro

"The inner liberty is gradually manifesting itself in the small steps of our renewal, 
in limited amounts according to the measure of the redemption which is being revealed to us.” Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook

Many are of the opinion that the Exodus from Egypt was an immediate success and that the Israelites were saved at the blink of an eye. Such, however, was not the case. Leaving Egypt was a long process that took place over many years.

First, Moses had to be convinced to assume leadership. The next stage was interacting with Pharaoh and begging him to free the Jewish People. Upon Pharaoh’s refusal, the Lord’s miracles began to afflict Egypt, and the country was crippled by a long series of plagues. Finally, after the final plague, the Israelites marched out of Egypt. It was not an instant salvation, but a process.

Psychologically, Moses must have struggled deeply when the first audience with Pharaoh was a failure. He was heart-broken and despaired before the Lord, “Why have You sent me?! Since I have come to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has harmed the People, You have not saved Your People” (Exodus 5:22-23). 

The Eternal proceeds to teach Moses that his despair was misplaced. Moses had to step back and realize that he was in the midst of a far larger picture, standing within a longer, historic process. The forefathers and foremothers stood at the beginning of the process. Imagine how Abraham felt when he was told, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years” (Genesis 15:13).

It was not only our ancestors who waited, but also the Almighty. The great commentator Rashi explains that the Holy Name YHWH was not known to those who came before Moses because this Name means that the Eternal is faithful to verify His words as He made promises to them, but did not fulfill them while they were alive (see Rashi on Exodus 6:3). 

When Exodus 12:42 relates that the Passover night is “a night of anticipation for the Lord, to take them out of the land of Egypt; this night is the Lord's, guarding all the children of Israel throughout their generations,” Rashi explains that the Holy One was also waiting and anticipating, in order to fulfill His promise to take them out of the land of Egypt.

The Exodus was one part of the spiritual evolution of the Jewish people. Moses began to lead the people in the middle of an unfolding process. Even the manifesting of the Eternal to all of Egypt was not the culmination, but the beginning of the events which would lead to the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. “Don’t worry,” the Lord was telling Moses, “this will be a gradual, incremental mission; success will come with time.”

The message is that success is a process that we are a part of and may very well not see the culmination if even there is one. Perhaps it is the journey of Torah unfolding that is the purpose of life we seek. 

The Torah never finishes, it is alive with the ever present promise of redemption. The Land of Israel may be in the process of being established, and yet we know from the news how volatile the current situation is. Just as the Exodus unfolded over so many years, so too the Messianic era. 

The prophet Isaiah clearly explains that the redemption of the future is one where we shall not go out in haste (Isaiah 52:12). Its gradual nature is one by design so that all of humanity can experience the full nature of redemption alongside us. And this takes time. Maimonides explains that Christianity and Islam came about to pave the way for the Messianic Age and to prepare the entire world to worship the Eternal together (cf. Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Kings and their Wars 11:7).

Our ancestors had to travel for a whole generation in the Wilderness to change the mentality of the nation from one of a slave mentality to that of a nation building mentality. They could not enter into the Holy Land thinking as they did in Egypt, because when they encountered the first sign of struggle, they would seek security in the strong handed tyranny of Egypt. 

We are taught that life is a process and that achievements are gradual. We can only improve ourselves gradually. As Rabbi Dessler teaches, “Our humble, everyday choices to do the right thing is the only way we can battle and climb up the ladder of self-perfection to become better people.” 

Jewish prayer is designed to be daily and repetitive precisely for this reason. It helps us to slowly inculcate values within ourselves and gradually draw us closer to our Creator. The message of the Lord to Moses is, “Lead my People out of Egypt but know that this won't be an overnight success, you are part of a long process that started centuries ago. Put one foot in front of another and see that you will climb Mount Sinai to receive the Torah that will carry My people through the ages from now until the redemption of all humankind: “For then I will turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the Name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent” (Zephaniah 3:9).

Happy Passover

 On years such as the current year when the New Moon (new Hebrew month of Nisan) falls on Shabbat, the special section known as Parshat HaHodesh - the Month Portion, is read on Shabbat. This special section is read in anticipation of the festival of Passover, which begins on the 15th of Nisan. 

 The special section is Exodus 12:1-20 and tells of the first commandment received by Israel, while still in Egyptian bondage, to mark the new moon and to prepare a lamb for the Passover offering. The famed commentator Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki 1040 – 1105) begins his commentary of the Bible by reminding us of this: "The Torah which is the law book of Israel 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." 

 We learn the following: "Thirty days before Passover, questions about the laws of the festival are asked and expounded" (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 429:1). The Talmud teaches: "A woman having Passover Seder with her husband need not recline, but if she is an important woman then she must recline" (Babylonian Talmud Pesachim 108a). A thousand years later the Rama says: "All of our women are called important" and therefore they are also obligated to recline and relax during the Passover Seder. 

 I would like to suggest that we men do our part to manifest 'peace in the home' by helping to prepare and serve the Passover meal so that the important women in our lives can recline and take in the spirit of freedom we are all supposed to enjoy.

In the mean time, Shabbat Shalom.  

Lotan’s sister was Timna (Genesis 36:22)

 Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook once explained that this is the very origin of Purim. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 99b) states that Timna wanted to join the household of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but was rebuffed. She became the concubine of Esau’s son Elifax, thinking: “It is better to be a maidservant of this nation than the governess of another nation:

Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz; she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.          (Genesis 36:12)

 As punishment for the sin of rejecting Timna she gave birth to Amalek, who grieved Israel. Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite was a descendant of the Amalekite king whose life was spared by Mordechai’s ancestor, King Saul, in direct contravention of the prophet Samuel’s instructions.

 One of the greatest enemies of the Jewish people was born as the result of Timna’s inability to convert many generations before. Amalek (and Haman) was a descendant of Abraham. This fact is overlooked by so many and yet it calls out to us from the depths of our intellect which seeks the root causes of ethical challenges in the Torah and in our lives. How can the same Torah which recognizes the image of the Creator in every human being (Genesis 1:26) call for the genocide of the nation of Amalek (Exodus 17:14-16 and Deuteronomy 25:17-19)?

 Reconciling such a dichotomy calls upon us to think differently. The Unity of Opposites is the central category of dialectics related to the notion of non-duality in a deep sense. It defines a situation in which the existence or identity of a thing (or situation) depends on the co-existence of at least two conditions which are opposite to each other, yet dependent on each other and presupposing each other, within a field of tension. (1)

 I would like to suggest that the textual challenge of Amalek calls for us to remember the Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael or the thirteen rules compiled by Rabbi Ishmael b. Elisha for the elucidation of the Torah and for making halakhic deductions from it. The last of the rules states that when two Biblical passages contradict each other the contradiction in question must be solved by reference to a third passage.

 When Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine (1921-1935) explains that Genesis 36:22, “Lotan’s sister was Timna” he is bringing awareness to the idea that stringency in conversion almost led to the destruction of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire.

 The Talmud in Sanhedrin 88a explains that the Eternal overturned Mount Sinai above the Israelites and said to them: “If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, this will be your burial.” The Rabbis questioned whether or not such a Torah would be obligatory to follow. (2) The Jewish people can claim that they were coerced into accepting the Torah, and it is therefore not binding. Another Rabbi (Rava) then said: “Even so, they again accepted it willingly in the time of Ahasuerus (Purim), as it is written: ‘The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them’ (Esther 9:27)”, and he taught: “The Jews ordained what they had already taken upon themselves through coercion at Sinai.”

 Purim resulted in a great change among the Jewish people. Whereas before Purim they were under a paradigm of coercion, now they would be in partnership with Torah, having chosen to remain among the Jewish people instead of assimilating into the masses of the Persian Empire.

 Jewish demographer Gary Tobin z"l in his 1999 book, Opening the Gates: How Proactive Conversion Can Revitalize the Jewish Community, says: "No number of day schools or summer camps is going to turn back the clock on religious freedom and competition....It is time for Jews to join every other group in America and quit obsessing about who is being lost and start acting on who might come in".

 Perhaps the true way to counter Amalek and confront assimilation is to ensure that all who wish to convert have a path to do so. Forging a path to Judaism is a deeply individual process and it is a blessing to be here on Maui to assist those who choose to climb Mount Sinai together with our people.

Happy Purim!

(1) - V.T. JMcGill and W.T. Parry. "The Unity of Opposites: A Dialectical Principle (PDF)", Science & Society, vol. 12 no. 4 (Fall 1948), pp.418-444.

(2) - https://steinsaltz.org/daf/shabbat88/

ב"ה

Manifesting Encounter and Presence
Torah Portion of Pikudei
Rabbi Raanan Mallek
ר"ח אדר ב' תשפ"ב March 4, 2022

Exodus 40:33-34; 38
When Moses had finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of the Eternal filled the Tabernacle. For over the Tabernacle a cloud of the Eternal rested by day, and fire would appear in the cloud by night, in the view of all the House of Israel throughout their journeys.

During the Torah portion of Terumah the Eternal said, “There I will gather with you, and I will speak with you” (Exodus 25:22). The Tent of the Meeting (Mishkan) is not just a place where the Israelities come to worship and honor the Eternal, it is a place of the Eternal’s presence. This is not a metaphor; it is an actual physical manifestation. Thus our forefathers and foremothers in Sinai could visit and dwell with the energy of the Creator’s presence in a very physical way because it was actualized on the physical plane. 

It is challenging for us to comprehend such a physical manifestation. Many of us live in a modern scientific paradigm which rejects the premise that spirituality can transcend the divide into the physical world [Notable exceptions are: Professor Michio Kaku's The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything (2021), Professor Gerald Schroeder's Genesis and the Big Bang: The Discovery Of Harmony Between Modern Science And The Bible (1991) and especially John Horgan’s book, Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality (2004)]. And yet the end of Exodus is clear, all of the House of Israel would see the Presence of the Eternal throughout their journeys. 

The tabernacle was to function as a portable Sinai, a means by which a continued channel of communication with the Eternal could be maintained. As the people move away from Sinai, the Mountain of Revelation, they need a visible, tangible symbol of the Eternal’s abiding presence in their midst, in other words the Shechinah.

A portable place of holy ritual accompanying the Israelites and engaging the nation in something other than material affairs or the personal needs of its members, it demanded a Legion of Cohanim (Priests) to disassemble and pack it up for transport for 39 of the 40 years of wandering. It was the place through which consciousness could be altered. The sanctuary enabled ritual devotion, purification, and unification.

Jewish legend says that when Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the Shechinah withdrew from the earth. Over the centuries, through the various patriarchs and matriarchs, this aspect of the Creator, referred to in feminine terms, was successively brought back to the material world from each of the seven dimensions (or firmaments), above which the Infinite encompasses all. 

It is said that it was Moses who brought the Shechinah into full embodiment on the physical plane, making the Tent of Meeting the archetypal model for uniting our lives with the Shechinah. Today we are charged with redeeming the light of the Eternal within and without, knowing that divinity is everywhere. Our challenge is to recognize this constant Presence in our lives without it becoming so ordinary that we take it for granted. It will be worthwhile to discuss as a community how JCM can grow as a place more conducive for encountering and being present with the Divine. Please email me with your ideas and interest to be part of this conversation: rabbi@mauijews.org 

Shabbat Shalom and Happy New Month of Adar II.

Exodus 35:1-2
Moses called the whole community of the children of Israel to assemble...

The Israelite community was struggling with a sense of failure after the incident of the Golden Calf which introduced divisiveness and disillusionment. I would hope that the community of nations is also feeling a sense of failure as they watch Russia invade Ukraine. How can it be that in the 21st century humanity is still resorting to state sponsored violence after the horrors that the 20th century left behind?

After the incident of the Golden Calf, the community sought to restore a sense of unity and shared purpose which had existed before this incident. Jewish tradition teaches that although the majority of the Jewish people worshiped the Golden Calf, the instigators of this incident were not the Jews themselves, but the “mixed multitude” which accompanied them out of Egypt. The stigma of those who convert to Judaism for the wrong reasons are attached to this mixed multitude. 

The human tendency to blame the Other is one deeply ingrained. Social scientists sometimes claim that this was a useful evolutionary trait as separating out those who do not adhere to the majority creates the sought out sense of cohesiveness and shared purpose. And yet, we as the Jewish people, know all too well the dangers of being used as a scapegoat for the woes of other nations; whether they be the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans or Germans. 

The Talmud in Yoma 9b tells the story of why the first and second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. The First Temple was destroyed because of idol worship, forbidden relations and bloodshed. However, considering that the people during the Second Temple period were engaged in Torah study, observance of commandments, and acts of kindness, while refraining from the sins of the First Temple, why was the Second Temple destroyed? It was destroyed due to the fact that there was baseless hatred, which is equivalent to the three severe transgressions. 

Generalizing and blaming the other for our problems is a direct extension of baseless hatred. To counter this we need baseless love, or loving even when you may not have a reason to do so. If we want to see the manifestation of Isaiah’s prophetic words that one day all peoples will “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks so that nation shall not lift the sword against nation and neither shall they learn war any more,” we have much work to do. Instead of children being taught the ways of war, they must be taught the ways of the garden. Different people coming together to tend the land is a tool within our grasp to build unity and shared purpose. Join us here at JCM to help tend our new garden. And on Sundays during Kulanu, the kids will lend a hand.

Imagine that instead of violently battling one another, nations would plant gardens together and work out their differences while growing a shared outcome. The environment would be conducive to constructively figuring out their conflicts and we will be able to overcome irrational fears as dialogue flourishes.  

May we see a peaceful consciousness overcome the fears from our past. 

Shabbat Shalom.

Exodus 28:15, 29

You shall make a Hoshen of Judgment, the work of a master weaver. You shall make it like the work of the ephod; of gold, blue, purple, and crimson wool, and twisted fine linen shall you make it. Thus shall Aaron carry the names of the sons of Israel in the Hoshen of Judgment over his heart when he enters the Holy, as a remembrance before the Lord at all times.

In the midst of all the rituals that have to be done for the Tabernacle, it is particularly interesting to pay attention to the miraculous shining stones that the High Priest used to wear to divine the will of the Eternal.

Why did the High Priest wear such a vestment? Rashi (1040-1105CE) says that Aaron, the first High Priest, had a good heart. When Moses returned to Egypt after the Eternal chose him to be the leader of the nation, Aaron was not jealous of Moses and was happy for his brother - in his heart. The Eternal therefore wanted to reward Aaron and gave him the vestment to wear.

Each one of the precious stones had the name of one of the tribes carved into it. The stones and their corresponding tribes are as follows: Carbuncle - Levi, Prase - Simeon, Ruby - Reuben, Pearl - Zebulun, Sapphire - Issachar, Emerald - Judah, Crystal - Gad, Turquoise - Naphtali, Leshem - Dan, Jasper - Benjamin, Onyx - Joseph and Chrysolite - Asher.

Another Jewish commentator, Sforno (1475-1550CE) explains that by having each one of the tribes on the heart of the High Priest, the High Priest would remember to pray for the whole of the nation of Israel.

Ethics of the Fathers 1:12 quotes Hillel who says, “Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah.” We need to learn from Aaron to love others and to love peace. We must strive with all our being so that peace can manifest between peoples. May we merit as a community to see such peace manifest around us.