Bemidbar,

Numbers 1:1−4:20

By Mel Scult for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Kaplan on Creation: An Explanation of Jewish Mission

The account in Genesis is perplexing to the modern person. We inevitably get bogged down with the first chapter of the Bible because it seems to conflict with our knowledge that comes from the scientific study of the natural world. Mordecai Kaplan being the modern man par-excellence accepted the scientific view of the universe but realized, of course, that the Torah has a different perspective in telling us about the origin of things. In this selection he focuses on the connection between the creation of the world and God's attention to Israel. Though Kaplan did not believe in the concept of the chosen people, he did see a special task and destiny for the Jewish people.

While only a few may be chosen, every person and every group may have a special destiny depending on their ability and their character and their history. Kaplan explains here that insofar as the rabbis are concerned, God created the world that it might be perfect and turned to the Jewish people as the special agents in that perfecting process.

In Kaplan's Own Words [ From his notes]

"To the average person, the opening chapter of the Bible is an obstruction to an appreciation of the Bible as a whole. Finding that the account of creation is at variance with the scientific view of the origin of the world, he concludes that it can hold out to him very little of spiritual value. The various interpretations whereby apologists attempt to reconcile the Biblical account of creation with science are far fetched. To explain seven days as denoting seven aeons, ... does not add to an actual understanding of what the story of creation is intended to convey.

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B'chukotai

Leviticus 26:3-27:34

By Rabbi Howard Cohen for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

What is 'Herem" (Proscribed)?

During our Shabbat morning Torah discussions we have often struggled over the meaning of certain words. Four, in particular, that have attracted our attention are "tamei" (ritually unclean), "tahor" (ritually clean), "kadosh"(holy) and "herem" (proscribed). A verse from this week's Torah portion provides an enigmatic clue to the true meaning of these key concepts.

The second half of Leviticus 27:28 states that "...every proscribed thing is totally consecrated (alternatively, is considered to be super holy) to the Lord". Since something that is "tamei" (ritually unclean) must be set aside, that is put into a kind of temporary "herem", for varying lengths of time and must not come into contact with things or people who are deemed "tahor" (ritually clean) or "kadosh" (holy) it is hard to understand why the Torah describes something proscribed as also super holy ("kodesh-kodeshim"). Moreover, both "herem" and "kodosh" have essentially the same meaning: something set aside for specific purposes associated with the temple, property (so to speak) of God. How is it that something which is "herem"- proscribed can also be "kodesh-kodeshim - holiest of holies?

Rabbi David Kraemer offers a brilliant insight into understanding this problem. Both "herem" and "kadosh" mean set aside for God. The difference, Kraemer argues, is that things which are proscribed are completely cut off from human access while things which are 'kodesh' have limited access. In other words, "herem" is like "kodosh" only more so, hence the reason why Leviticus 27:28 conflates "herem" with "kodosh-kodeshim".

Why then do we conceptualize "herem" as a kind of super state of "tamei" (ritual uncleanliness), and both in a negative sense? The solution to understanding this in part explains why this verse is set within the context of a larger discussion about property rights. When something is either "tamei" or in "herem" it is in effect unavailable to us. According to Mishnah (Nedarim 4.3) the difference between a 'tahor' [ritually clean] animal and one that is "tamei", according to Rabbi Eliezer, is that the the soul of the "tahor" animal belongs to heaven, i.e., God and the body belongs to its owner, (either the living animal or its actual owner). A "tamei" animal, on the other hand, belongs body and soul to God. In other words, something which is seen as wholly in the possession of God is then off limits to humanity.

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Behar

Leviticus 25:1-26:2

By Rabbi Richard Hirsh for Jewish Reconstructionist Communities

Land

Parashat Behar is primarily concerned with rules and regulations pertaining to the land of Israel. We read the description of the laws governing the sabbatical ("Shmitta") years in which the land was to lie fallow one out of every seven years. We learn of the idea of the Jubilee year, which occurred every fifty years, when property that had passed out of a family by reason of economic necessity reverted to the original owners.

The Torah also teaches that each Jubilee year was an opportunity for anyone who had been forced to self himself into servitude to redeem himself, even if his master was a resident alien, i.e., not a member of the Israelite community.

Leviticus concludes with a graphic vision of the desolation of the land of Israel and the dispersal of the Israelite people if, after entering the land, they fail to fulfill the Covenant obligations of the Torah. Exile and oppression, couched as a warning, are described in terrifying terms.

"For the Land is Mine [says God]; you are but strangers resident with Me" (Leviticus 25:23). With this brief but powerful verse, the Torah strives to dispel the perhaps inevitable tendency for the ancient Israelites -- and modern Jews -- to assume that ultimate authority over the land of Israel belongs to people, rather than to God.

There is an important connection between the idea that the land is ultimately God's, and the idea that every fifty years, at least, servants are given the opportunity to be set free. Both rules testify to the unique vision of God and of humanity that the Torah seeks to establish.

Despite the emotional exuberance of the song "Exodus" -- "This land is mine, God gave this land to me" -- Jewish tradition was concerned to communicate that this inheritance was contingent, not necessary; that it was potentially eternal, but also potentially transient.

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Emor

Leviticus 21:1−24:23

By The Velveteen Rabbi; originally posted at Radical Torah

The bodies we are

The Lord spoke further to Moses: Speak to Aaron and say: No man of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God.

No one who has a defect, Torah tells us in parashat Emor, may offer the korbanot, the offerings which draw us near to our Source. No one who is blind, or lame, or has a limb too short or too long; no one with a broken limb, neither a hunchback nor a dwarf, no one with a growth occluding his eye, no one with a scar. No one who has suffered from scurvy or had his testes crushed. Such a one may eat the the bread set-apart to God, the holy and the most-holy -- but he may not draw near to God.

These verses make up a kind of list-poem, an incantation of physical maladies, bookended with the refrain reminding us that anyone who has a defect of any kind must not play a role in making offerings to God. This is forbidden, and would profane the holiest place.

It's tempting to read these verses allegorically. No one who is blinded to the difficult realities of suffering, one might say -- no one who is unwilling to walk a mile in the shoes of another -- no one who twists her being into imbalance may be permitted to make offerings to God. No one who understands himself to be irredeemably broken. No one hunched by anxiety and fear, no one shrunken of spirit, no one whose vision is impeded by the unwillingness to see. None of these people may act as priests on our behalf, because they do not allow themselves to be whole.

That's certainly one way to read this passage. It's one I even like. But it doesn't feel like enough.

I think of the generations who have read and cherished this text, and I imagine how many of them were halt or lame, how many had spines twisted or lungs sickly, and I wonder what reading this passage meant for them, how it damaged their sense of who they might be. I remember the cruelty of eleven-year-old girls, confronted with a classmate who had a foreshortened limb, and how their barbs sting even now, so many years after their insults were lofted in the chalky classroom air.

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Kedoshim

Leviticus 19:1-20:27

By Rabbi Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan for Reconstructionist Jewish Communities

Wholiness

Parashat Kedoshim begins with Leviticus 19:1 and is referred to as the "holiness code." It begins with the verse "God spoke to Moses, saying: speak to the entire community of the Children of Israel, and say to them: you are to be holy, for I am holy. I am YHWH your God!"

The portion then continues with commandments to be in awe of your parents, keep Shabbat, and stay away from idolatry. Then the people are told when they offer a "shalom" offering it must be eaten within the next day. If it remains until the third day, it is to be consumed in fire or you will become profaned and be cut off from the community.

The portion also contains the commandment to leave the corners of the fields for the poor, the stranger, the widowed and the orphan and a series of injunctions against unethical "anti-social" behavior (i.e., stealing, lying).

This particular sections ends with the commandment not to hate your fellow human being in your heart, but to rebuke those who do wrong so you do not bear sin because of them. Verse 18 concludes this section with what is figuratively (and literally - just about) the center of the Torah: "Love thy fellow human being as you love yourself; I am God!"

The following is my own reinterpretation of these verses that I would like to share with you.

"Wholiness" - by Rabbi Steven Pik-Nathan
God spoke
To all
then now forever

Be Holy
Be Whole
Be at One
With me
As I am
With you

Be filled with awe
At creation
At all of your creators
HumanDivine partnership
Together we create each other
Each day
Life anew

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Shabbat Chol haMoed Pesach

Exodus 33:12-34:26 – and Deuteronomy 10:9-12

Haftarah for Chol haMoed Pesach Ezekiel 37:1 – 14

Rabbi Dick Lampert, Emeritus Rabbi, North Shore Temple Emanuel, Chatswood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Based on the Haftarah for this Shabbat

 

The Haftarah, the prescribed prophetic reading  for the Shabbat  between the first and last days of Pesach (Shabbat Chol HaMo’ed Pesach), is  one of the most moving prophecies in the Jewish lectionary. Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones is certainly a message which speaks to us today in the 21^st Century although it is now about 2,500 years since it was uttered by the prophet.

For those of us who lived through the hell of the 20^th Century, and for those who have only lived through that horror vicariously, it is indeed a remarkable prophetic vision.

In this vision, the prophet was taken to a valley strewn with dead bones, ‘very dry‘.

“And the word of God came to him and said, ‘Son of mortal, can these bones live?’ And I (Ezekiel) said, ‘O God, only you know!’” And God says to Ezekiel, “Son of mortal, prophesy to these bones”. And Ezekiel does so, and in response to his prophecy, the bones come together, bone to matching bone, and sinews and skin cover the bones – and God says, “Prophecy to the wind/breath – and the breath entered the reconstituted bodies and they arose and stood on their feet – an exceeding great multitude.”

And God says, “These bones are the whole House of Israel – they have said ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost – we are cut off!’  Say to them “Behold, my people, I will open your graves and will bring you to the land of Israel.” 

These words, uttered some 2,500 years ago, have, before our very eyes, come to reality. I, as a child, can never forget being taken to a cinema in Durban, South Africa, and watched a newsreel of human skeletons walking towards me on the screen – the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. I  ran out screaming. I was fortunate – this was my only experience of the horrors of the Sho’ah – but it has left this lasting impression on me for over 65 years.

Who believed in May 1945 that the graves of the European Jewish community (that is, those that had graves – so many didn’t) could be re-opened and that there could be a resurrection? Or that the ashes of those cremated brothers and sisters of ours, could be gathered from the very air that hung over Europe and reconstituted into living, vital people?

And then, just three years later, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles – Ezekiel’s vision become a reality. The House of Israel, for whom hope had dried up and was lost,  was according to God’s promise, brought back to the Land of  Israel.

That miracle has repeated itself so often in the long and tortuous history of the Jewish people that it has almost become a commonplace And yet each time the dried-up bones have come back to life and the people of Israel lives again. In the words of the Partizanenlied, “Mir zainen doh!” “We are still here!” Af al pi chen – in spite of everything – Here we are!!!

As we face the future – a future filled with the threat of Hamas, Hisb’allah and Ahmedinajad, just to mention a few of the threats we will face in 2010 and onwards - let us remember the moral of the story of the Haftarah for this Shabbat on this Festival our Freedom - AM YISRAEL CHAI - OD AVINU CHAI  - The people of Israel lives – our heavenly Parent yet lives – and the bones and the hopes of our people will spring back to life, as they always have!

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Samei’ach!

Shabbat HaGadol - Acharei Mot

Leviticus 16:1-18:30


By Rabbi Howard Cohen for Reconstructionist Jewish Communities

The Shabbat before Pesach is known as Shabbat HaGadol: The Great Shabbat. The special nature of the day is highlighted with a haftarah selected from the prophet Malachai. The words of this anonymous prophet (the name Malachai simply means "my messenger") who lived around the middle of the 5th century BCE are remarkably contemporary sounding. A closer look at what he has to say can be simultaneously comforting and frightening.

Speaking on behalf of God, Malchai says: "From the days of your ancestors you have strayed from My statutes, and have not observed them; return to Me, and I will return to you". Are we not familiar with this timeless lament? Interestingly, according to rabbinic tradition after Malachai, prophecy was taken away from Israel. God, it would seem, finally tired of complaining to the Jewish people that they were straying and left it to the rabbis to be the ones to point it out.

It is two other verses (14, 15), however, that leap across 25 centuries and are jolting in their timelessness: "It's useless to serve God! What gain is there in observing God's service...? We account the arrogant happy; the evildoers are the ones who live on; they even try God and get away with it". Has nothing changed? It seems that lack of faith and resistance to pious living according to the teachings of the Torah were as much the norm in the days of Malachai as they are today. Suffice it to say that that between the 5th century B.C.E. and now it has never been significantly different either.

So what keeps Judaism going after all these years? According to verse 16, there have always been "those who revered the Eternal". More importantly, the verse continues, the core of faithful believers "talked to each other". With this in mind, let me point out that a crucial part of any Pesach seder is to talk with one another about what the struggle for freedom means. Right after reciting the Four Questions we read:

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