Monday, January 26, 2015

Shabbat Shira; B'Shalach

Exodus 13:17−17:16

by James Greene for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Joyful, Soulful, Prayer


I should preface this dvar-Torah by admitting that I love to sing. Although I was an instrumental musician earlier in my life and even attended a Conservatory of Music as a saxophone player for my undergraduate studies, singing has always been in my soul. To sing in joy is perhaps one of the greatest pleasures a person can have in their life and is truly one of the ways we can serve God (ivdu et adonay besimhah).

We need song and music and melody to help us celebrate the good in life, and also to help us mourn our losses and take stock of where we are on our own personal journeys. When I sing I often feel myself opening up my soul to divine blessing and receiving the goodness that is inherent in the world and in the music.

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Monday, January 19, 2015

Bo

Exodus 10:1−13:16

Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Humility vs. Humiliation


This week's Torah portion, Bo, includes the final three plagues brought against Pharaoh and Egypt as well as the first Passover seder meal (observed by the Israelites as the horror of the tenth plague coursed through Egypt). The parashah ends with the Israelites starting their journey out of Egypt after having lived there for 430 years.

The story is familiar. And yet, as with all narratives of the Torah, if one pays attention to the text with one's heart and soul one can find a myriad of truths within it. Just as no two people are exactly alike, neither are two truths.

The truth that I became mindful of while reading the parashah was sparked by Exodus 12:31-32. After the horror of the tenth plague has been visited upon Egypt Moses and Aaron are summoned to Pharaoh's house where Pharaoh says to them, "Up, depart from among my people, you and the Israelites with you! Go, worship the Lord as you said! Take also your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone! And may you bring a blessing upon me also!"

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Monday, January 12, 2015

Va'era

Exodus 6:2 - 9:35

Rabbi Howard Cohen for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Two Prophets on Self-Deification


This week's Torah reading focuses on the first eight plagues God delivers unto the Egyptians because of Pharaoh's refusal to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. Pharaoh's arrogant defiance of the word of God in Parshat Vayera is also the same theme of the haftarah. Moreover, in both selections prophets of God challenge the most egregious form of idolatry: self-deification. While addressing what appear to be events set in history, they are actually addressing a real and constant danger that exists hand in hand with free will.

Though the imagery is borrowed from this week's parsha, the haftarah, nevertheless, refers, to a different Pharaoh. The one against whom Ezekiel is prophesying is the ruler of Egypt in the year 587 BCE., one year before Jerusalem is destroyed by the Babylonians. What makes Ezekiel's prophecy interesting is the fact that it proves to be wrong! He predicts that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, will "despoil it and plunder it" [Egypt]. However, as it were, Egypt did not fall to Babylon. Eventually, however, that nation does come to be dominated by the Greeks and later the Romans.

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Monday, January 5, 2015

Shemot

Exodus 1:1−6:1

Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

To Know


This Shabbat we begin the book of Shemot with Parashat Shemot. In the beginning of the parasha we read: "A new king arose over mitzrayim (Egypt) who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, 'Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.' (Exodus 1:8-10) " And so the stage is set for the beginning of the Israelite enslavement in mitzrayim.

In reading this verse one has to question how any new king could not have known Joseph. After all, even if generations had passed (and the chronology here is "fuzzy") since Joseph's death, how could he not have known of the man who was second only to Pharaoh?

To understand how this is possible one has to realize that the Hebrew word yad'a, which we translate as "know," means much more than the result of some intellectual or mental activity. Rather, to quote Nachum Sarna in the JPS Torah Commentary, "it is more experiential and is embedded in the emotions, so that it may encompass such qualities as contact, intimacy, concern, relatedness, and mutuality. Conversely, not to know is synonymous with dissociation, indifference, alienation and estrangement; it culminates in callous disregard for another's humanity." The fact that the new king did not literally know Joseph would not be surprising if, as we assume, Joseph had died many years prior to the beginning of this story. However, the new king still should have known Joseph through his knowledge and understanding of Joseph's people, the Israelites, and their history in the land of Egypt. Given the king's unfounded fear of them it seems clear that he had no idea of who the Israelites were. Of course, it is impossible to have an intimate knowledge of an entire people. Yet he certainly should have known their history in the land and understood what role they played within the demographics of Egyptian society. Beyond that, as a king, he should have tried to know all of his people in the deeper sense of the word (at least as much as any monarch can). We know today that when a leader is "in touch" with her or his people the leader is perceived as being much more effective (even if the perception of the people is not always accurate). In the case of Egypt's new king he did not even make a pretense of trying to know the people of Joseph. He knew nothing of who they were and only feared of how they might endanger his position as king. And so he enacted a system of slavery and oppression that he believed would render the Israelites harmless and obedient.

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