Scrollers Preview - Parashat Vayera 2013

This week, the Torah adds new dimensions to our patriarch, Avraham. Up until now he has shown himself as a man of faith, ready to go where God asks him to go. He has given us a hint of his ability to question and challenge God as well. When God promises that he will be the father of a huge nation, Avraham laughs and wonders aloud how this will even be possible, given that he has not children and that Sarah, his wife, is barren.

This week, we see that Avraham is not only a  man of faith, but one of compassion and outrage as well. God shares with Avraham that God is about to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Avraham speaks up, outraged that God would destroy an entire city even if there might be some righteous people living there. God seems to be testing Avraham here, to see if justice is important to him. In fact, two of our key words for this parasha are “Justice” and “right.”

This week we also encounter the troubling passage of the “Akedah,” the near-sacrifice of Isaac by his father Avraham. The word “love” appears for the first time in the Torah, as God asks Avraham to take his son, his only one, whom he loves, and sacrifice him. Whereas last week, God tells Avraham to walk away from his past and leave his father’s house, this week God asks Avraham to erase his future by wiping out his own son. The three-fold poetry this week of “take your son, your only one, whom you love” closely parallels last week’s poetry, “Go forth from your land, from your kindred, from your father’s house.”

The opening and closing passages of the parasha ask us to wrestle with some big words and some big questions: justice and love. And in between those passages, we have the story of Lot, one in which justice and love are twisted. Avraham – the ever-ready man of faith, and the man who cries out against in justice – is held up in contrast to his nephew Lot, who offers his daughters up to be raped, and who lingers and procrastinates rather than fleeing the city that God is about to destroy.

What does it really mean to bring a child into the world and to love that child? What does it mean to be one who does what is just and right? Avraham will give us his answers to those questions this week. Come and study!

Scrollers Preview - Lech L'cha 2013

This week we move from the universal stories of Creation and Noah to the particularistic story of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs. God calls Avraham, the first father or patriarch to leave his ancestral house and go the land that God will show him. In what will become familiar to us as Avraham’s M.O. – Avraham is unflinching in his response – he goes ahead and goes.

But Avraham is not always so sure of himself or God. Through this parasha and in the ones to follow, we see how he questions and doubts. We catch him, for example, wondering aloud, and even laughing out loud at how God will possibly be able to deliver on the promise to him to be the father of a great nation, when he and his wife are in their nineties, and Sarah is barren.

As we read together, I want us to think about who this man is, whom God singles out to bear the covenantal blessing. Let’s think about what it means to be a patriarch, in our tradition.

You may remember that as we neared the end of Deuteronomy, I was looking to you for suggestions for new approaches to our study. Thanks to some great responses, I’ve decided that this week, and throughout the year, we’ll be looking at Everett Fox’s translation, alongside our Etz Hayyim commentaries, to give us a new perspective on the text. Fox’s translation brings out the rhythm and sounds of the Hebrew language, and his translation tends to be more literal than literary.

Here is an example of Fox’s work, from the opening of our parasha, Genesis 12:1-2:

“YHWH said to Avram:

Go-you-forth

from your land,

from your kindred,

from your father’s house,

to the land that I will let you see.

I will make a great nation of you

and will give-you-blessing

and will make your name great.

Be a blessing!

I also will be pulling out a couple key Hebrew words or roots that appear in the text to give us some focus and to add to your vocabulary. This week’s roots are:

Ra-ah (to see)

Zera (seed)

Eretz (land)

Looking forward to studying with you tomorrow!

Scroller Preview - Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot

We will meet in the Sukkah for Scrollers tomorrow. Please wear weather-appropriate clothing!

For the Shabbat of the intermediate days (Chol HaMoed) of Sukkot, we have a special Torah portion, a selection from Parashat Ki Tissa in the Book of Exodus (33:12-34:26). In this section we read of Moses’ dialogue with God on Mount Sinai after the Israelites have betrayed God and the covenant through worshipping the Golden Calf. God forgives the people (after many are killed by a plague and by Levites with swords, but God doesn’t want to lead the people forward any longer.

Moses ultimately persuades God to stick with the People, but Moses needs some reassurance of God’s Presence. God agrees to reveal Godself to Moses in a more intimate way than ever before. God then places Moses in the cleft of the rock and passing by, proclaims the name YHVH and God’s attributes of mercy. You are probably familiar with God’s proclamation, as we chant part of it at the Ark before taking out the Torah on Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and all 3 Pilgrimage festivals (Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot: “Adonai, Adonai, el rachum v’chanun, erech apayim v’rav chesed v’emet, etc.” “Adonai, Adonai, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, etc.”

This language appears here in Exodus, for the first time, but it returns with variations in other parts of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible). We find it in the book of Numbers, in Jonah, and Psalms. Each time the language is slightly different, and each time, the context frames how we understand the message of these attributes of God. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the various places where these words appear, and we’ll explore how our tradition understands God’s attributes of mercy.

Scrollers Preview: Parshiot Nitzavim/Vayelech 5773

This week's double portion begins with a communal affirmation of God's covenant with Israel, a type of chatima (seal) on the proceeding laws and commandments binding Israel and God. It goes out of its way to affirm the covenant's bond no matter the status of the individual (including wives, children, strangers, wood choppers and water drawers), no matter their current inclination (including secret idolaters), and no matter their generation (those standing here and those not).

Unlike a ketubah, this covenant creates no structure for dissolving the bond. Rather, what follows the chatima is a series of structures for repairing and maintaining the relationship.

T'shuva: Commentators note that after the description of destruction and exile at the end of chapter 29, though the people begin the repentance starting in chapter 30, God appears to take an extra step toward the people in repairing the relationship. God will "circumcise (open) your heart" whereas the earlier injunction in chapter Deut. 10:16 is for the people to open their own hearts.

Leadership: Vayelech begins with Moses publicly stepping down and giving over leadership to Joshua, ensuring that a new generation of leaders will maintain the covenant. The Etz Hayim commentary notes several times Moses' care in affirming God's true leadership even as Joshua take on the mantle.

Torah: The text lays out a ritual structure for hearing Torah read aloud in the Sabbatical year in front of the entire community as well as a structure for placing Torah at the heart of the mysterious rituals around the Ark by placing a copy of the scroll inside it. Finally, bits of Torah will live in every Israelite through their memorizing the following parasha, Ha-azinu, Moses' long poem.

Scrollers Preview - Parashat Ki Tavo 2013

If you’ve ever heard the end to Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony, you have experienced something similar to the end of Deuteronomy. Beethoven just doesn’t seem to want it to end, and he can’t seem to choose just one ending. It goes on and on and on!

This week’s Torah portion begins the ending of the Torah, which will take another several weeks to actually complete. We have the last law of the Moab covenant, instructing the Israelites about a ritual of bringing their first fruits to the priest, once they are in the Land. And then the ending begins! We are told to erect pillars on a mountain and build an altar, and then the tribes divide up between two mountains to pronounce a series of blessings and curses. The blessings will come about if we stick to the covenant, and the curses will come about if we stray from God’s path.

This ritual of pronouncing blessings and curses serves as a seal on the covenantal promises the people and God make with each other. But this “sealing” is just one ending among many yet to come. We still have many pronouncements and warnings, poetry and blessings awaiting us. It seems that this parasha as well as the ones in the weeks ahead are here to command our attention and to sustain that attention. Moses even has to tell us to be quiet this week. “Silence! Hear O Israel!,” Moses says in 27:9,  “Today you have become the people of the Lord your God: Heed the Lord your God. . . .”

So my question for us then is – what does it take for us to pay attention? Does an ancient text have the power to leave a lasting enough impression that we can sustain our loyalty and devotion to its words? Do all of these endings, with their warnings of curses and promises of blessings do the trick?

Scrollers Preview - Parashat Ki Tetzei 2103

Holy Scrollers Preview

Parashat Ki Tetzei: Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19

August 16, 2013

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg

This week’s parasha mostly consists of issues between people, whether between neighbors,  within a family, between the underprivileged and other members of society,  or even between people and animals.

A theme running through many of these laws is that of dignity. Even if we need to take the only garment a person has as a pledge for a loan, we need to return it to that person every night so that her or she may sleep in it. We are not allowed to take someone’s upper millstone in pawn, because that is akin to taking their life (their means of grinding grain for bread or olives for oil.)  We must leave the overlooked sheafs and grapes in our fields for the poor and the stranger. These and many other laws in the parasha emphasize people’s humanity and aim for a sense of equality and fair treatment within society.

In addition to these laws, issues pertaining to women are very prominent in this Torah portion. Here, it becomes more challenging to see the theme of dignity and humanity in the laws. We read that if a woman is found not to be a virgin when she marries, she is stoned to death on her father’s doorstep; that a virgin who is raped is then forced to marry her rapist; that a wife who ceases to please her husband can be given a bill of divorce; and that a woman who is widowed before she has children must marry her husband’s brother.

Most of these laws seek to ensure that women get married and stay married. In the context of a traditional society, adult unmarried women are unprotected and do not have independent means to sustain themselves. And so these laws are meant to protect women. But it is challenging to know how to approach these laws as a modern person and a feminist.

The parashah ends with the reminder to blot out the name and memory of Amalek, the nation that attacked the Israelites just as they were departing Egypt. We are to blot out their memory because they attacked the weak, and the stragglers. Here again we return to the theme of how we are to treat the weak in our midst.

As we study together, we’ll explore this concept of dignity. I want to hear your thoughts on whether these particular examples of dignity and fair treatment still apply today, what barriers do we encounter in ourselves and in our society when we try to create a world that reflects this value of dignity?

Scrollers Preview - Shoftim 2013

This week’s parasha, continues Moses’ second discourse, comprised of the laws given at Moab. Our parasha can be divided into two sections.

First, we have laws pertaining to civil and religious authorities such as judges, prophets, kings, and priests. This includes laws regarding those who are outside the communal structure that God commands us to create – apostates, sorcerers, and people who consult with ghosts. In this section, according to the Etz Hayyim commentary, “The Torah establishes limits to the powers of judges, priests and prophets. By making these limitations known to the public, the Torah lays the ground for public supervision and criticism of human authorities, thus preventing them from gaining absolute domination and prestige.”

The second section of our parasha deals with judicial and military matters such as the cities of refuge for the manslayer, what to do with an unsolved murder, and laws about warfare.

Parts of this Torah portion express values that are surprisingly progressive. Our civil and religious authorities are accountable to the law and to the people. Bribery and other types of corruption of public officials are prohibited. The Torah steps in to stop the traditional cycle of revenge killings in the case of manslaughter. The Torah here seems to be dealing with communal issues that we are still struggling with today – how to deal with an unsolved killing, how to keep our public officials honest, how to know when we can trust a religious authority.

My overarching question this week is whether we see these values as being a natural outgrowth of the worldview and theology of the book of Deuteronomy. How might monotheism and centralization of worship be consistent with these types of rules limiting the power of human authorities? Why are these laws and limitations important to the God of Deuteronomy?