Scrollers Preview - Parashat Tazria

This week we continue with the Levitical theme begun last week of ritual pollution and purification. Last week’s parasha ended with laws regarding what we are allowed to eat. This week we have laws regarding the discharge of blood from a woman’s body after childbirth as well as laws regarding a disease called “tzara-at” which could affect a person’s skin, as well as cloth, leather and the walls of houses.

Everett Fox puts these laws in a larger frame as he introduces this section of Leviticus:

. . . Leviticus is largely about how to keep God’s earthly realm, and hence his relationship with the people of Israel, viable and “pure” (cf. Greenstein 1985a). Once the book of Exodus ends, with the erection of the Tabernacle – a symbolic reflection of the cosmos in which God “takes up dwelling” among the Israelites – we are left with a structure that must be carefully guarded and its ritual purity maintained. To this end, Leviticus now turns to the issue of pollutants, largely of the body, that arise from what we might call territorial problems: the border of what goes into the body, expressed through animals permitted and forbidden for food; the border between life and death, as expressed through sexual functions and discharges; and the border of outer surfaces, as expressed through skin disease (tzaraat), mildew on clothing, and mold on houses.

As we discussed last week, the Torah assumes that all humans cycle through period of tum’ah (impurity) and taharah (purity). The teachings in their original context in the Torah do not associate purity with dirtiness or immorality. Isolation due to menstruation, childbirth or skin disease is generally not meant to be seen as a punishment. Rather, this is the prescribed ritual process one must go through in order to return to a state of purity.

Rabbinic commentary, however, does see tzaraat as punishment – specifically for slander and gossip. And the rabbis find support in the Torah where there is at least one instance of a person being stricken with tzaraat as punishment, in the case of Miriam speaking ill of Moses’ wife. In my opinion, the rabbis are looking for a way to make this section of the Torah relevant to their lives, especially after the destruction of the 2^nd Temple, when the rituals are no longer in force.

As we study this text together, we can look at it on more than one level. First, it is interesting and important to understand these laws in their ancient context - to get into the minds of our ancestors and understand what purity and impurity meant to them about their relationship with God and their ability to have God’s Presence dwell among them. But we should also try to find meaning for ourselves in this text, as the rabbis did before us.

While it may be anathema to us to imagine that disease is a punishment from God, we can still ask what this text teaches about the connection between body and spirit. For instance, we can ask how the idea of isolating the one with tzaraat may make sense to us when we are sick, or when we are in a state of having just come into contact with that potent boundary between life and death: after childbirth,  or after we or a loved one has had a close brush with mortality. Does the isolation have a spiritual function in addition to containing a contagion? We might ask how our religious lives, or our religious leaders, have a role to play when we or our loved ones are ill or are facing death. It just so happens that tomorrow afternoon, we will have a healing service in our sanctuary at 4pm. What does your body have to do with synagogue? What kind of healing do we find there?

Scrollers Preview - Parashat Shemini 2014

A theme that runs through this week’s Parasha is that of order, hierarchy, what or who is in and what or who is out when it comes to the sacred. Who can bring what kind of sacrifice to God, and what happens if you bring an unwanted offering. As a holy people, what kinds of animals may we eat, and which are off limits?

This week, the sacrificial worship system is initiated by the priests, and everything seems to be working pretty well. God’s Presence (kvod YHVH) actually appears before the people, and fire comes from God to consume the offerings on the altar. But immediately after this, Aaron’s two sons Nadav and Avihu bring “outside” fire (aish zarah) and are consumed by God’s fire in the process. The chapter ends with Moses questioning whether Aaron’s remaining sons have made another offering according to the correct order/rules. We see the danger of entering into the holy here, and how that contact is intensely regulated and ordered. We also learn that priests’ job is to maintain that order and separation and that anything they might do to dim their abilities to make distinctions (getting drunk, for instance) is prohibited.

The final chapter of the parasha deals with the various categories of animals and insects that the Israelites may or may not eat. This section is almost poetic, with its refrains: “it is detestable to you!” and “it is impure (tamei) for you.” The last verse of the parasha states that we must follow this instruction (torah) so that there may be separation (l’havdil) between the impure and the pure. It is also pretty clear that these rules around eating are meant to separate us from other peoples who are not holy.

In his commentary on pages 554-555, Everett Fox suggests the meaning we are to glean from this narrative of Nadav and Avihu as well as from these regulations of what we eat:

There is a complex system of ‘graded holiness’ (Jenson) informing Israelite life, with two basic messages: (1) God is to be approached in stages, and (2) the world is set up in a tight, ordered structure which reflects the distinctions between God and humans, Israel and the other peoples.. . . Human activity is to reflect the inherent orderliness of creation, a kind of imitation of God (namely, as he kept things clear at the beginning, you should do the same with what enters your body.

Does this spiritual system of hierarchy and order still speak to us today? What is the role of separation and distinction in our lives? Do we sense danger in overstepping boundaries and bringing something from the outside, in?

Purim is coming - at Scrollers, we'll study the Book of Esther!

On Shabbat morning, we will only be hours away from the Eve of Purim. To get us into the festive mood, we will be studying the Megilah of Esther rather than the Torah portion of the week. I know what you're thinking....the Rabbi is just looking for an excuse to avoid another week on Leviticus...and....you're RIGHT!! Instead, let's read a story of a woman who refuses to dance for her drunken husband, a comic king, a dastardly villain, and a couple of Diaspora superJews!

Please note: We will be making photocopies of the text for everyone. However, I don't want to waste too much paper, so folks will have to share. If you happen to have your own copy of an English translation of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible), please bring it with you.

And, don't forget to plan to attend our Adult Purim celebration and shpiel on Saturday night. Hard and soft drinks and savory hamentaschen start at 7pm, the shpiel (featuring many of our Scroller friends) begins at 8:15pm.

Scrollers Preview - Parashat Vayakhel 2014

In his introduction to this week’s parasha, Everett Fox writes, “As if nothing had gone awry, the narrative now returns to describe how the Dwelling was built.” Last week, the covenantal relationship between God and Israel is on the brink of destruction when the Israelites turn away from God to worship the golden calf. And this week, the narrative just picks up where it left off. Now that Moses has all of the instructions for the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle,) he assembles the entire community and sends them off to bring back donations of all of the materials to being the building project. The people enthusiastically bring gifts of gold, yarn, cloth and wood. They are so enthusiastic, in fact, that they bring too much, and Moses has to tell them to stop.

An academic approach would probably lead us to posit that the golden calf narrative comes from a source different from the source of the Tabernacle-building narrative. The editor then decided to place the golden calf story in the middle of the Tabernacle-building narrative. This answer may satisfy our logical minds.

However, the editor must have had a reason for juxtaposing these two narratives. The juxtaposition raises fundamental questions about the relationship between the material and spiritual. What makes a golden calf a problem, when the construction of an elaborate Tabernacle, using expensive materials, is a mitzvah? Why is it okay to have a dwelling place as the “icon” that points us towards God? Is there something about this that is particularly Jewish as opposed to having a sculpture point us towards God?

A Chasidic teaching, which we will look at together, suggests that God is very particular about this balance between the material and spiritual. Both are important for humans to be able to serve the Divine. However, the material aspect can’t exceed the spiritual aspect even by a hair’s breadth.  Otherwise, the spiritual is in danger of being obscured by the material. This is why, when the Israelites bring gifts for the building of the Mishkan, it is problematic when they become so enthusiastic that they bring too much. The tendency, in the material realm, is to think that bigger is better. But here, God insists on limiting the size and ostentation of the Tabernacle in order to have the right-sized container for the Shechina down here on earth.

Scrollers Prevew - Parsashat Ki Tissa 2014

“You know that breaking up. . . is. . . hard to do! Now I know, I know that it’s tru-ue.” (I had to throw this in to prove that the generation gap at Scrollers isn’t THAT wide. Neil Sedaka 1962? Okay, I admit, I did google that fact.) But truly, ever since reading the parasha for this week, I haven’t been able to get this  song out of my head.

Our tradition often understands the meeting between God and the people Israel at Mount Sinai as a wedding, and the story of the ongoing relationship as a love story. But this is not some Disney love story. Ours is more like a soap opera. We have huge ups and huge downs in this relationship. In terms of where we are now in the Book of Exodus, the people and God have just sealed their covenant. Moses has been up on the mountain receiving detailed instructions for how we will construct the Tabernacle – God’s home on earth where God’s Presence will dwell among the Israelites. We have spent several chapters answering the question “Is God indeed among us?” with a resounding, “YES!” God is about to officially move in!

And this week it all threatens to fall apart. While Moses is up on the mountain, the people become impatient, and the impatience quickly turns to desperation. They are lost – they feel that without Moses among them, they have no connection to God. And so they ask Aaron to make them a god. Aaron molds a golden calf, and the Israelites worship it. God sends Moses back down to check things out.

Moses and God are not happy. The covenant is in great danger. Divorce is imminent. Moses smashes the tablets – the wedding contract.  He then strips the Israelites of their finery - their wedding apparel perhaps? God wants to kill all the people and start over with Moses.

BUT – as Neil Sedaka wisely teaches us – “breaking up is hard to do!” Moses goes back up the mountain to try and gain forgiveness. God relents the idea of killing the people but announces that God’s Presence will no longer be among the people, leading them to the Promised Land. Moses can’t accept this and finally persuades God to stick with the people. By the end of the parasha, not only has God relented the punishment, but God has also given Moses a more intimate experience of who God is. Moses is placed in the cleft of the rock as God passes by and proclaims the 13 attributes of mercy and compassion. God has shown Godself to Moses more directly than God has before or ever will again to any prophet in our tradition.

And so we ask this week – what is it about almost reaching the breaking point that brings us even closer together? How is it that after a fight, the lovers are even more in love than before?

Scrollers Preview - Parashat T'rumah 2014

One third of the Book of Exodus is dedicated to the instructions for and the actual construction of the Tabernacle, or as the Torah calls it, the “mishkan,” or “dwelling place.” In his introduction to this section of the book, Everett Fox lays out the many reasons for Exodus’ emphasis on this highly detailed account of the building of the dwelling place for God. One reason he gives is that a great theme of this book is the question, posed by the Israelites in 17:7 – “Is YHWH in our midst or not?” And here, the answer is clearly, “YES!”

So, yes, God is in our midst. And this parasha describes the environment we are to create in order for God to dwell with us. We will contemplate the qualities of the Mishkan and wonder together about what the design says about how we understand our relationship with the Divine. We will wonder together about why God’s presence and voice moves from the boundary-breaking thunderous mountain of Sinai to a little gold box, the ark, contained in a tent within a tent. We will wonder at the beauty and expense of the materials, the symmetry and pleasing-ness of the dimensions, and ask why such a humble abode – a tent? Moreover, we will take note that this bridge between heaven and earth is not firmly planted in one location. It moves with the Israelites from camp to camp.

We will ask - what in this highly detailed third of the Book of Exodus –the book that recounts how we became US – speaks to us? And we will also look at the Chasidic master Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman’s answer to that question as well.

Looking forward to wondering along with all of you tomorrow!

Scrollers Preview - Parashat Mishpatim 2014

Last week’s meeting between the Israelites and God was full of ambiguity. The text was chaotic, likely a weaving together of more than one account, and by the end of our discussion, we still weren’t sure of what exactly the people had witnessed. The most concrete aspect of the revelation was the ten utterances, or the Ten Commandments, themselves. These basic laws establish God’s expectations of the people if they are to uphold the covenant.

In this week’s parasha, we get even more concrete. Ostensibly, Moses is still up on Mount Sinai, and God proceeds to tell Moses, “Now these are the mishpatim, the regulations, that you are to set before them.” And what we have are a series of very specific laws regulating everything from how we are to treat our Hebrew indentured servants to injury, accidental and intentional killing of another person, to how we are to treat the poor, to public safety and property, to the rituals of the pilgrimage festivals.

The parasha comes to its end, first with some very Deuteronomic sounding language about what will happen if we do follow the laws and what will happen if we don’t. Then there is a covenant cutting or sealing ceremony in which Moses writes down and then reads the terms of the covenant to the people and then sprinkles blood on them. And the parasha ends with Moses, Aaron, Nadav and Avihu and seventy elders going up the mountain where they see God and have a meal.

This parasha is not as scary or chaotic as last week’s. It makes more sense to our rational minds. However, it is not devoid of feeling or even of spirituality. Here we have the spirituality of the every day – the ways in which we will keep the relationship with God front and center in our mundane activities. The regulations are not just dry lists of what to do and what not to do. The rhetoric taps into our historical experience as slaves and strangers and landless, poor marginal people to provide a deep motivation for following these rules. We are not to mistreat the stranger, because we know the heart of the stranger, having been strangers in the Land of Egypt.

As we study together, I want us to think about these two different types of spirituality – the transcendent, other-worldly Sinai moments and these grounded, this-worldly, mundane moments. Which way of connecting to God works for you?