Maya Tobias

Maya Tobias*
Parshat Pinchas
July 19, 2008
16 Tammuz 5768

This is a story about walls and fences. They protect us and they divide us. They represent a connection with the past and a hope for a new future.

Every winter and summer, dozens of twenty-somethings who have never been to Israel pull up on Birthright buses to get their first look at that awe-inspiring wall that they have heard so much about, the Kotel. They wait patiently to put a note in the cracks and to touch the stones that have become smooth from years of wear by other Jews like them who have also come to place a note and touch the wall. I spent the last year living and working in Tel Aviv, but on the weekends I often found myself traveling to Jerusalem where I always ended up taking a walk to the Kotel. For me this wall is not so much about God as it is about history and tradition.

But this is not the wall that I want to talk about. Most of you have probably been to this wall and already know what it looks and feels like. I want to talk about the things in Israel that aren’t mentioned or shown on the Birthright trip, the other walls and fences.

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Adam Khamis paid just three hundred dollars to save his own life. A group of Bedouins from Egypt put Adam, along with five other refugees from Darfur, Sudan, into an open car and covered them with blankets. The Bedouins drove them across the Sinai desert during the night and dropped them off at the border with Israel. For these six men, getting to the other side of the fence in front of them represented their only chance of survival and freedom. Their villages in Darfur had long ago been burned and looted by the Janjaweed militia, and constant persecution and discrimination in Egypt had made life there unbearable as well.

Just as they began to climb over the fence, the Egyptian Border Patrol pulled up in a truck and opened fire. None of the refugees were injured, but three were captured by the Egyptian Police. Adam was one of the lucky three who made it over the fence. His clothes were torn and he had serious wounds from the barbed wire, but he made it to Israel alive. And just like that, the span of a few minutes determined these men’s lives forever. Three of them made it to the Israeli side of the fence, where they would find a chance to regain their livelihood, and three of them had to stay on the Egyptian side, where they would likely be sent to jail or deported back to Sudan. Adam and the two other refugees were picked up by Israeli soldiers not long after and were given food, water, and comfort. Adam now lives in Tel Aviv where he has a job and an apartment and a community of fellow refugees.

Adam is part of a recent phenomenon of African refugees who have been streaming into Israel over the past few years, seeking asylum and safety in the only stable democracy in the region. Over 6,000 refugees from Sudan, Eritrea, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, and the Congo have been climbing over that barbed wire fence into Israel since 2004. Unfortunately, not all refugees receive the same food and drink welcome that Adam received. Instead, because Sudan is viewed as an enemy country of Israel, many are taken to jail, where they are treated as infiltrators from an enemy country and held for up to a year or more without even an explanation as to why they are being incarcerated.

The refugees themselves have few complaints about their treatment by the Israeli government. Compared to their treatment in Egypt and Sudan, Israel has been a blessing to them. Some of the refugees even grow to appreciate Israel as they sit in jail, because they are actually fed and given water, compared to Egypt and Sudan where prisoners are literally left to starve. But just because Israel’s neighbors have set extremely low standards, does not mean that we have to set low standards for ourselves.

The care for these refugees has fallen almost entirely to a few small non profit organizations. Many of the refugees are living in squalor, packed into cramped accommodations in shelters in South Tel Aviv. The Physicians for Human Rights, the only health clinic assisting the growing number of refugees, recently shut down in protest of lack of government funding and aid. They have yet to reopen.

Through my Anouchi scholarship, I had the opportunity to get to know many of the Darfur refugees. I taught them English every Monday night at a school in South Tel Aviv. I interviewed them for a research paper and got to find out more about their impressions of Israel. I visited the shelters to see for myself the small rooms lined with mattresses, filled with men who have witnessed horrors that I cannot and hopefully will never be able to comprehend.

Israel is a very small country. It has its own problems and cannot be expected to take in every refugee from every conflict plaguing Africa. But that does not mean that it can shirk on its responsibilities to take care of the refugees that are already in Israel. That does not make it ok to treat refugees like criminals by putting them in jail. We should not forget our Jewish values, and we should not forget our past. Thousands of lives could have been saved if more countries had opened their doors to Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. We too know what it is like to suffer.

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During my last month in Israel, I had the opportunity to see a very different and even more controversial refugee population. This time I was the one who crossed the fence, or wall, depending on whom you ask and where you look. I went to Bethlehem in the West Bank to visit a friend who was living and volunteering at a village slash Palestinian refugee camp there. I don’t want to argue for or against the separation wall, because frankly I feel very conflicted about it. It has had enormous success at reducing the incidence of terrorist attacks but has also torn through Palestinian villages and separated people from their land.

What I took away from my visit to Bethlehem was the mental and psychological damage that this wall must cause. It is made of solid concrete and towers an imposing 25 feet in the air. Try to picture what it would be like to have a wall like this going through your back yard. It cuts off sunlight and your view of the surrounding countryside of rolling hills and olive trees. You become a prisoner in your own house and village. I even felt like a prisoner while I was there, even though I knew I would be allowed to leave. Many of the people there do not have that comfort.

It becomes easy to hate your enemies or block out the suffering of others when you don’t see it, when you don’t come face to face with the oppressed or the oppressors and find out what they have to say. Because of this wall, the only view that the Palestinians get of Israelis is of soldiers in tanks who conduct nightly raids, and the only view that the Israelis get of Palestinians is of men with bombs attached to their chest. This only serves to breed and perpetuate hatred against a faceless enemy. It deprives both the Palestinians and the Israelis of an understanding of the personal and human side of each other.

Do I think that if this wall didn’t exist, Palestinians and Israeli’s would all be friends? Of course not. Walls are one example of how we divide ourselves, but we also divide ourselves by choice. North and Central Tel Aviv are populated by Jews, South Tel Aviv is populated by Sudanese refugees and other immigrants, and Yafo is populated by Arabs. The Americans in Tel Aviv are friends with other Americans and Orthodox Jews are friends with Orthodox Jews. Even if the separation wall didn’t exist, the Palestinians and Jews would still separate themselves by choice.

I too, of course, am guilty of setting up these personal walls and barriers so that my life can be a little bit more comfortable. Nearly my whole life I have been friends with people who are similar to me. I grew up in an all white neighborhood and had little contact with the African Americans at my high school because we had separate classes and lived in separate parts of town. While living in Israel, I tried to spend as little time as possible thinking about the Palestinian conflict because it’s just so much easier to ignore it than to spend all my time being upset about it. These personal barriers allow us to carry on with our daily lives while ignoring the unpleasant things that may be going on very close by, like the near humanitarian crisis of the refugees from Africa or the daily struggle for food of Palestinians in Gaza.

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On my way home from Israel I stopped for a few days in Germany, where I saw yet another wall. The wall that separated East Berlin from West Berlin for 28 years no longer stands as a symbol of division but as a symbol of hope. Today it is nearly impossible to distinguish East Berlin from West Berlin. There is just Berlin. The entire city is thriving in spite of, or more likely because of, its history of repression and division, and it has grown to become a cultural capital of the world. Berlin is an example of what can happen when we tear down walls.

I believe that Israel can figure out how to focus on National Security without losing sight of compassion and humanity. Instead of jailing the African refugees, Israel should embrace them, not only because they are eager to work jobs that most Israelis don’t want, but simply because they are people who have suffered a lot and should not have to suffer any longer. Israel should recognize that some of their national security strategies such as cutting off water, electricity and food sources to the Palestinians may serve short term goals, but in the long term only perpetuate the hatred that hinders peacemaking efforts. Israel will never look like Berlin in that you can’t even tell where the wall used to be, but if both sides could manage to let go of the mental barriers that cause us to lose sight of humanity, maybe one day the physical wall between Israel and the West Bank will no longer be necessary.

*Maya Tobias was the recipient of a study grant funded by our member Avraham Anouchi through the Pittsburgh chapter of the ZOA. This presentation represents a report on the project she undertook in Israel.

A CHRONICLE

1923-1947

It may be read in its entirety by following this link:   #mce_temp_url#

Good morning, Shabbat Shalom.  I am very pleased to be speaking to you this special weekend, celebrating the 66th anniversary of YPS.  It has been a delight to research my subject, namely, the history of the synagogue and of the events and personalities  in the year of our founding, 1946.
I want to thank Susan Melnick of the Rauh Jewish Archives, housed at the Heinz History Center, for providing me with our archives, which were donated by David Fax.  She also guided me to the CMU Library’s PGH Jewish Newspaper Project, where I saw films of the  American Jewish Outlook, edited by Asher Isaacs, one of our founding members and father of Ruth Ann Eisner.    Special thanks are owed to Ruth Ann Eisner, Miriam Feinberg, Sarah Kohane, Hilda Diamond, and Jerry Rosenberg for speaking with me about the early years of the synagogue.  Please forgive any mistakes I have made.  There was no written documentation about many of the congregation’s early activities.  The newspapers can be found at pjn.library.cmu.edu.

What was happening in 1946, the year YPS began?

WWII had ended just five months previously.

Harry Truman was president, and both houses of Congress had Republican majorities.

The Nuremberg war crime trials returned death sentences for 12 Nazis, including Foreign

Minister Ribbentrop and Hermann Goering, Commander in Chief of the Luftwafe.

The U.N. General Assembly convened for the first time, and UNICEF was established.

Winston Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain speech in Missouri, saying an iron curtain had descended on the continent of Europe.

The Philippines became independent of the United States after 48 years.

Syria became independent of France.

Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.

The bikini was introduced in Paris.

There were 12 hours of network TV shows per week  on 2 networks, NBC and Dumont.

American hero Joe Louis, heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949, defended his title for the 26th time, winning against Pittsburgher Billy Conn.

The most popular books were Hiroshima, Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care, and All the King’s Men, a novel about a Huey Long-like character.

The most popular movies were the Best Years of our Lives, Notorious, and Great Expectations.

The most popular songs were Tenderly, Come Rain or Come Shine, and Zippadee Doodah.

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major leagues, joining the Dodgers.

Average wages were $2,500, the average new house cost $5,600, and a car, $1,120.  A gallon of gas sold for 15 cents, a loaf of bread for 10 cents, and men’s ties for $1.50.

In PGH, David Lawrence was first sworn in as mayor, serving from 1946 to 1959.
Fritz Reiner conducted the PGH Symphony from 1938 to 1948.

The population of the city was 675,000, ranking PGH 10th in the nation, and the Jewish population was 55,000.

Renaissance I began to clean the air and revitalize the city.
227,000 CIO steel workers in the PGH area out of 800,000 CIO workers  nationwide walked out in the nation’s largest single strike.

And one year later, 1947, the Allegheny Conference in its first transportation report said Pgh’s transportation system was outmoded and recommended  the construction of an Oakland to downtown subway.

All these events were taking place when a group of 30 or so Jewish Pittsburghers, largely members of Hapoel Hamizrachi Zionist youth movement and  some from Poale Zedeck,  began to meet in the basement of the Hebrew Institute, in a large mansion on the site of today’s Maxon Towers.  Asher Isaacs, Saul Feinberg, Max Engelberg, Abe and Donald Butler, Meyer Fogel, Carl Margolis, Lou Weiner and Jack Goldman, among others, formed the minyan.  Ruth Ann Eisner and Joe Trattner were teenagers.  The oldest Feinberg son, Libo, was 6, a regular attendee,  and was the first junior speaker on Simchas Torah.  The purpose of the synagogue was to give young men an opportunity to learn to conduct services and to give short speeches. They also wanted a frillfree service that was over early, according to Ruth Ann, as her father’s custom, like that of many others, was not to eat before services.     Articles in the American Jewish Outlook, the predecessor of the Jewish Chronicle, described other synagogues as “commercial,” auctioning off honors in order to pay their mortgages and hence excluding many who could not pay.    Asher Isaacs, the editor, was proud that that was not our focus.  In fact, there were no dues.   The group was careful not to take away membership from other congregations and encouraged membership in fulltime congregations.  YPS  helped young people to participate who otherwise would not and who would gain confidence in their synagogue skills.  Ruth Ann feels this confidence carried over into other, secular areas of their lives.  There were no weekday services, and there has never been a cemetery or rabbi, the only paid functionary in the earliest years  being Cantor Harry Perlmutter, who is dearly remembered and served until 1976.
A few years later there was a second wave of members, many from Westinghouse, the University of PGH, and CMU, and a constitution was written in 1955.  The purpose of the congregation was to promote traditional Judaism in all facets of living; to encourage young men and women to participate actively in all phases of the synagogue service; to stimulate participation in other forms of Jewish communal life; to strengthen  bonds with  Israel and with Jewish people everywhere, and to exemplify Judaism by emphasizing the principles of righteousness and brotherhood in society at large.  Membership in other synagogues was no longer promoted but certainly not prohibited.  We moved to the new Hebrew Institute  in 1956.
Marshall and I came to YPS as graduate students in 1968, thanks to seder invitations arranged through Pitt Hillel with Marion and Hershel Markovitz and Bob and Ruth Ann Eisner.  Each had three  children at home at the time, including  Amy Eisner in a high chair.  Marshall came from a congegant led Talmud Torah in New Orleans, and we had returned only 3 years earlier from our remarkable Junior Year Abroad at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  The congregation was so large and so purpose driven that prospective members had to show their intentions to participate by attending  many Shabbatot before  receiving a letter inviting them to join. We were particularly attracted by the people and by all the wonderful singing.   Besides the Markovitzes and Eisners, the people whom we came to know were Charlotte and Frank Sadofsky, whose son Dovie had the first YPS bar mitzvah we attended, Roz and Harvey  Rosenblatt, who invited us to their Alan’s bar mitzvah soon after our arrival, Stan and Bernice Snyder, the  Feinbergs, Rosenbergs, Shapiros,   Engelbergs, Klionskys, , Solomons, Hilda and Saul Diamond, Ernie and Sally Light, the Heislers,  Epsteins, Schreibers, Sterns, Suldans, Vogels,  Rapoports, Blooms, Faxes, Mark Pomerantz and Sylvia Mendelsohn, Trattners,  Ida Mintz,  Reva Swartz, Pauline and Hymie Milch,  Harriet and Phil Mallin, Sidney and Carol Deutsch,  Flora Isaacs, Bennie and Annie Tisherman, Menasce Levi and Joe Dickman.  Many became close friends.   Not much later Ellen and Frank Toker, Lisa and Irv Oppenheim, and George and Sylvia Plutchok joined.  Marion and Hershel Markovitz taught us the joy of having a sukkah….they hosted guests for three meals AND tea each day, and were immensely hospitable to the entire synagogue and many in the community at large  ….and Charlotte and Frank Sadofsky taught us how to make the synagogue and our festive meals both beautiful and memorable and have been equally generous.  David Fax was esteemed as the resident rabbinic interpreter, researching various halachic questions that surfaced over the years, and the membership took his findings as definitive.  He shared his love of gematria with the congregation and organized our calendar, even well after he and his talented wife Eleanor Fax, who designed our gift bookplates,  relocated to the Boston area .
Most had young children whom we enjoyed, many of them as members of the Ushers Committee, which put on a yearly skit at Simchat Torah.  We had an active Nursery Shul , led by Evelyn Bloom, Nina Schor, and Corinne Cahn among others.  Each Shabbat afternoon there was a class in Chumash, Rashi, and commentaries between Mincha and Ma’ariv, led by a rotation of members. For a number of years there were regular teachers:  Joseph Bayer,  Rev. Simon Kantaroff, and Rabbi Charles Weiss.  We have had  fine cantors: Harry Perlmutter, Sidney Deutsch, Ira Clair, and Moshe Taube.  There was a monthly study group, Shavuot luncheons, Purim parties, a sukkah,  and a yearly picnic.  Members have generously  sponsored kiddushim and graciously served as officers and on the board.  We have had a rich variety of speakers and fine educational programs.
Most of the early members’ children left PGH for college and did not return but often tell us they looked for congregations like ours.  New members continued to join and take leadership roles, including Presidents   Jordan Dern, Zarky Rudavsky, Alex Orbach,   Bob Schor, and Marian Solomon and Torah reader and gabbai Allen Spiegel,  with us 37 years, and many-hatted Rebecca Spiegel.  We are grateful to their spouses, Cindy, Laurel, Linda, Nina and John for all the support they gave as first ladies and gentleman.  There have been so many wonderful people who have enriched our lives and the life of the synagogue that I cannot name them all.  The synagogue could not have survived without all of its dedicated volunteers, its officers, board, and congregants.
In 1996, the year of our 50th anniversary,   the synagogue needed to move when the Yeshiva Girls’ School took over the Hebrew Institute building, and we were fortunate to have the opportunity at that time to share Bnai Zion’s building with the possibility of a merger.     We had a gala weekend celebration, including a musical parade across the street to deliver the Torahs, with chocolates waiting for us on the porch to sweeten the day.   The merger has proved a win/win situation for the two congregations.  For about a year following a fire in 2000, when Marshall was president,  we had to move across Denniston  to the ZOA House.  The synagogue was redesigned by Lou Krupnick, supported by Marshall Hershberg, Frank Toker, Walter Vogel, Gid’on Lion,  a very dedicated committee and a major capital campaign.  A much needed first floor bathroom was added.  Brian McElwain, as a major Eagle Scout project, made two replacement stained glass windows, and he and his troop landscaped the front of the property.  Eva Vogel did a lot of planting.  Within a year or two, Jerry Rosenberg was instrumental in our securing a grant for our ramp.
The archives include minutes of our board meetings and  interesting correspondence between Walter Vogel and Kurt Waldheim, Henry Kissinger, and the Lebanese ambassador to the U.N. regarding the terrorism at Kiryat Shemona in 1974.  There are  letters between Frank Toker and Rabbi Freehof, Aharon Kessler, and the Rabbinical Council of America on the subject of including women speakers at services in 1977.  We all know that women were granted the privilege of speaking after Frank and Marshall did that research.   Thank you to Ellen Toker,  Rebecca Spiegel , Nira Lion,  Patty Anouchi, Liz Stern,, Marian Salomon , Solange Lebovitz, Nina and Devera Schor, Ronna Harris, Eva Vogel, Miriam Vogel Fenster, Laurel Rudavsky, Charlotte Sadofsky, Marilyn Marcovitz, Sibyl Treblow, Shulamit Bastacky, Jean Hartz, Sherry Sable, Thelma Miller, Maya Tobias, and Reva Swartz  and so many others for their fine talks.  Again, my apologies for any and all omissions. There is publicity for the educational  programs and the picnics and annual dinners, complete with menus and prices and speakers.  I was pleased to see the announcement of my brother Bob Goldman’s speaking at the Webster Hall in 1975 about the State of World Jewry.   Social activities included an annual Sukkot square dance in the 1960s and a Lag B’Omer dance.  Regulations were included for  Hebrew Institute students having their Bnai Mitzvah at YPS if they did not belong to another congregation.   Art Solomon was one of those Bnai Mitzvah.  For many years we have  provided scholarships for experiences in  Israel and Jewish study, as we did recently for Derek Kwait, who is studying at Pardes.  We also contributed to relief funds for Soviet Jewry, among other causes.  We have always been leaders in the amount of Israel Bonds purchased in the community, including one YPS bought for $100,000 in 1973 at the time of the Yom Kippur War.
It is now 2012, 5772.  We are delighted to see so many gathered to celebrate this anniversary.
I speak for Marshall as well as myself when I say how grateful we both are for the opportunities to celebrate Shabbat and the holidays at YPS and  how enriched we have been to be in this community, with the friendships and educational and social activities we have had through the years.  While we love everything about PGH and its amenities, YPS has been our anchor.
Eleanor Goldman Hershberg

Early presidents between 1946 and 1954

Asher Isaacs

Saul Fineberg

There may have been others

1955 Hershel Markovitz

1957 David Fax

1959 Albert Bloom

1961 Norton Rapoport

1963 Shep Bartnoff

1965 Jerry Rosenberg

1967 Robert Eisner

1969 Menasce Levi

1971 Sidney Deutsch

1973 Walter Vogel

1975 Abe Kohane

1977 Joe Trattner

1979 Sydney Heisler

1981 David Milch

1983 Jordan Dern

1985 David Fax

1986 Walter Vogel

1987 Bernard Klionsky

1989 Abraham Kohane

1991 Walter Vogel

1992 David Fax

1993 Alex Orbach

1994 Kurt Schreiber

1996 Zarky Rudavsky

1998 Marshall Hershberg

2000 Robert Schor

2002 Frank Toker

2003 Bernard Klionsky

2004 Sydney Heisler

2005 Zarky Rudavsky

2006 Marian Salamon

2010 Frank Toker

2011 Marshall Hershberg

Elizabeth Stern

Shabbat shalom!  Today’s Torah reading, Vayyera, is a sweeping one that encompasses Abraham’s bargaining with God about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the story of Lot and his family, the encounter with King Abimelech, the visitation of the angels to Abraham’s tent to tell him that his wife will give birth to a son, the birth of Isaac, the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael, and the binding of Isaac.  In its honesty it shows us the wrinkles in our patriarchs’ characters – for example, Abraham’s cowardice in telling Abimelech that Sarah is his sister – as well as their outstanding qualities.

Unable to deal with all of these topics, I am going to concentrate on just two, one) Abraham’s argument with God, and two) God’s care for all his creations as illustrated in today’s reading by His rescue of Hagar and Ishmael and His promise to make Ishmael a great nation and His demand that His people provide equal care to all as carried out by both Abraham and Lot in their treatment of their visitors.  

Before I go there I want to tell you that Ted and I recently attended several excellent lectures by Daniel Leger at Congregation Dor Hadash on Jewish ethics.  Much of his material was taken from two volumes of A Code of Jewish Ethics (a third volume is in the making) by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, upon which I am going to draw heavily.

Abraham’s Bargaining with God

God is willing to listen to man, what an amazing idea!  “Wilt thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  ….That be far from Thee….Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly? (Gen.  XVIII: 25) Abraham questions God, and God hears Abraham’s argument and shows his justice by agreeing to save Sodom and Gomorrah if only ten good citizens can be found. We see not only the exquisite character of Abraham but also the willingness of God to pardon.  So too at a later date during the sojourn in the desert when Moses takes up the case of the Hebrews after they have created the golden calf God relents as well.  Last but not least Jonah argues with God about the fate of the citizens of Nineveh, and God deigns to explain himself.

So, if man can dare to argue with God, how much more so can – and should –man argue with secular rulers when he deems that they are doing wrong.  No wonder that Jews have been in the forefront of so many social upheavals such as the Russian revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Save Darfur Coalition among others.  Love and care for one’s country does not mean that one cannot criticize it.   On the contrary, one must do so.

Abraham’s and Lot’s Treatment of strangers

When the men (who turn out to be angels) come to Abraham’s and Lot’s tent and house respectively, they are treated with utmost deference and care.  Lot even offers up two of his virgin daughters to the rowdies who come to harm Lot’s guests rather than open his door and allow his guests to be harmed.  In other words in keeping with God’s care for all his children, good treatment of strangers is an integral part of human decency.

God loves all humankind and his care extends to all his creations, not just to the Jews.  As Rabbi Telushkin points out, all humans are descended from Adam and Eve, and because they are created in God’s image, all human life has special value.  We have seen in today’s reading how God protects Hagar and Ishmael.  So too when Jonah complains about the death of a plant that shaded him, God responds “You cared about the plant …which appeared overnight. …and should I not care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than  a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left? (X: 11)

Thus as the Biblical commands stipulate, God demands that same care for the “Other” on the part of the Jews as well.  Of the many Biblical commands regarding the treatment of non-Jews I have chosen just two: “You shall not wrong a stranger [the Hebrew word ger, that is, the non-Jew] or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus XXII: 2, 20), and “The stranger who resides with you shall be as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself.” (Leviticus XiX: 34). The reminder of the Hebrews’ servitude in Egypt requires that we learn from our own suffering not to inflict it on others. Unfortunately as Telushkin points out, too often we do just the opposite, seemingly forgetting from where we have come.  Interestingly whereas in English the word “strangers” is related to “strange,” and thereby implies that they are not one of us (which makes it easier to look upon them as less than human or enemies), the word “ger,” on the other hand, derives from a root meaning to dwell among and thus brings them closer to us if not indeed citizens. (Telushkin, A Code of Jewish Ethics, Vol. II, pp. 267-8).

I would like to give you one more quotation, this one from Isaiah that again shows God’s love for all his creations.  Prophesizing a more peaceful future world he says “…In that day Israel shall be a third partner with Egypt and Assyria as a blessing on earth: for the Lord of Hosts will bless them, saying “Blessed be my people Egypt, my handiwork Assyria, and my very own Israel. (XIX; 23-25)’”

That day can’t come soon enough!

When I decided to speak today, I wondered how I could connect this Sidrah to our Kiddush celebration.  It occurred to me that although Ted is not quite as old as Abraham was when the angels brought him the news that Sarah would bear a son, he, and I as well, are certainly up there.  And lastly, the Parshah says “Sarah laughed,” I dare say first with incredulity but then again with joy.  While I confess to you that I am not pregnant, I too am laughing with joy, first of all because we have reached our sixtieth anniversary but also because after a year of illness I have been restored to health.  I am delighted to invite you all to share our happy occasion.   Shabbat shalom!

SHABBAT SHUVA - 5770

Marshall Hershberg

Ha-azinu ha-shamayim v’adabera; v’tishma ha-aretz imrei phi

“Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.”

This sublime oratory of Moshe Rabbeinu really grabs our attention, just as it is meant to.  We will mention more about the message of Ha-azinu, the sedrah for this year’s Shabbat Shuva in a bit, but this sedrah and its two predecessors, Nitzavim and Vayelech, are really a group.  Moshe knows he is about to leave his cherished people, and he wants to end his service by reminding them of why they are a people - G-d’s people - and what they can, and must do, to keep that unique status.  In Nitzavim, as they all stand united - atem nitzavim ha-yom kul’chem - he reintroduces the covenant that G-d has established with them - for Israel to be a people unto him, and for Him to be their G-d.  And it’s not really just with them.  It preceded them, for G-d struck it with their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it has eternal promise if they are worthy of that promise.

“Neither with you only do I proclaim this covenant and this oath; but with him that stands here with us this day before the L-rd, our G-d, and also with him that is not here with us this day.”

Just as all the Children of Israel were together at Sinai, so are they - and we - all together as we are reminded of the Covenant.  But it may seem virtually impossible to live up to our part of the bargain.  The Torah is full of rules and burdens, and throughout, especially in these two sedrahs and their predecessor, Ki Tavo, we are told of terrors to befall us if we transgress.  But that is not the message we are to take from all this.  Nitzavim mentions, and as we recite many times on Yom Kippur:  Ha-nistarot la-shem elokenu, v’ha-niglot lanu u’l'vanenu -

“The secret things belong to the L-rd, our G-d, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Law.”

We undoubtedly will suffer tragedy and heartbreak - and we all have - we will be scattered among the peoples of the earth - and we have been - but if we hearken to G-d’s voice and spirit in the Covenant - v’shamarta b’kolo - as Moshe has laid out - then G-d will return us from our captivity and dispersion, and He will do us good, and we will multiply and prosper.

And hearkeining to that voice and spirit is certainly achievable.  This commandment is not beyond our capability:

Lo nifleith ha-shem mim’cha,, v’lo rachokah hi

“It is not too hard for you; it is not far off.”

It’s not in the heavens nor across the sea.

“But the thing is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”

All these admonitions come in Nitzavim, and there’s more in Vayelech.  If they’re in prose in these two sidroth, they are in rich poetry in Ha-azinu.  It is a reiteration of the tragedies that will occur if Israel fails to hearken, but also, at the end, of the promise of redemption if we do hearken.

Moshe knows he is about to leave his people - G-d’s people - forever, and he knows how tough they’ve been during his long life with them.  So, he is not surprised that they will mess up when he’s gone.  But, faithful servant to G-d and to the people until the very end, he calls them together, so he can, in the words of another song, “call out danger, call out warning.”  Well. . . if we want to heed the warning and avoid the danger, if it is within our power, if it is nearby and not across the sea, and lo davar reik - not a vain or empty thing for us to do, how do we do it?

These 10 days are given us to try.  There is a lovely tale from the Talmud (Avoth d’Rabbi Natan), quoted by Chaim Schauss in his Guide to the Jewish Holy Days:

Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, together with his pupil, Rabbi Joshua, once stood gazing at the ruins of the Temple.  And Rabbi Joshua said, “Woe to us that the place where the Jews were forgiven for their sins is destroyed.”  To which Rabbi Yochanan replied:  “My son, regret it not.  We have another medium, just as good, for the forgiveness of sin.  It is:  Do good to mankind.  For it is written: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”

Our calendar and our customs explicitly give us these 10 days to recognize our human frailty and shortcomings.  And in these 10 days, we can try diligently to exercise that other part of our human nature - the ability to make good choices.  We can strive to choose the blessing and not the curse, to choose the Life of seeking and staying on G-d’s path and not the spiritual Death that confronts those who have turned away from it.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, of blessed memory, points out that Teruah and Teshuvah; Slicha; Kapparah and Teharah; Emunah and Simcha - trembling and repentance; forgiveness; atonement and purity; trust and joy - form what he calls “the cord of seven colors which the New Year herald brings a Tishrei to every Jewish home, to every Jewish breast, purifying and consecrating, strengthening and inspiring.”

Of the various blasts of the shofar, it is the Teruah - Allen and Guthrie certainly let us hear it! - the one which, when sounded in ancient Israel, was a signal for striking tents and preparing to fight.  It is the Teruah blasts that R. Hirsch calls the basic note of Tishrei.  It is the one to which we must urgently respond - nitzavim - standing upright and alert.

“The trumpet call of the Teruah,” R. Hirsch says, “must dispel the dream, the illusion and deception with which the senses lull us in their arms. . . it must awaken and summon us to the G-d who awaits us.  And the days of Teshuvah teach us to find again the way that leads us back into the arms of our Father and conducts us to Yom Ha-kippurim.”

If we respond appropriately to the Teruah call by undertaking meaningful Teshuvah and Kapparah - return and atonement; if we forgive the transgressions of others, Selichah, even as we ask forgiveness for our own transgressions; if we strive hereafter for Teharah - purity and integrity in our actions; then we might have the trust and faith - Emunah - that we will ultimately experience the joy - the Simchah - of the upcoming Feast of Succoth, z’man simchateinu.

We are given, R. Hirsch says, “a new and virgin soil on which we are able, on the Festival of Succoth, to erect calmly and confidently, cheerfully and joyfully, the tabernacle of our lives.”

This, then, is my sense of the Asseret Y’mei Teshuvah.  You will certainly note that our most explicitly penitential prayers - ashamnu, bagadnu, gazalnu. . ., & al cheit she’chatanu l’fanecha - are all stated in plural form.  We are thus given individually and collectively the admonition to reexamine our deeds in the light of truth.

I would like to offer this final suggestion as we do so:  we should not neglect the good deeds we have also managed to accomplish during the year.

R. Yochanan said, “Do good to mankind.”  We should therefore look at the whole record, as dispassionately as possible, during these Yamim Nora’im:

Shuva Yisrael ad ha-shem elokecha, ki kashalta ba’avonecha.

“Return, O Israel, unto the L-rd thy G-d; for thou hast stumbled in thine iniquity.”

Where there have been errors of omission and of commission, we must acknowledge these sincerely and commit, with a clear head and repentant heart, to repair the damage done, and learn from the experience not to repeat those errors.  But - where there have also been tzedek & g’milut chasadim, if we are lucky enough to truly find some, then we should be pleased to recognize them and build upon them.

If we each succeed to at least some degree in the opportunity to accomplish our own Teshuvah, and to help our brethren in accomplishing theirs, then we may feel some confidence and hope during N’ilah when we beseech G-d, reciting in His own words, as voiced by the Prophet Ezekiel:

Ki lo echpotz ha-meith, n’um Ha-shem elokecha, v’hashivu v’chiyu.

“Have I, says the L-rd, any desire for the death of the wicked?  If he turns from his evil ways, he shall live.”

And the Prohpet Joel, in today’s haftarah, also inspires us:

Vi’yidatem ki b’kerev Yisrael ani - v’ani ha-shem elokeichem, v’ein od; v’lo yeivoshu ami l’olam.

“And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the L-rd your G-d, and there is none else; and My people shall never be ashamed.”

May we all be sealed in the Book of Life for a year of good health, good sustenance, happiness, and peace.

Shabbat Shalom - gimru chatimoth tovoth.

Derek Kwait

Tazria-Metzora

4/25/09

Shabbat shalom. This may seem like a rather arbitrary Shabbat for me to give a speech about my Birthright trip to Israel way back in December. But, although it was not planned this way, I don’t think it could have worked out to be on a better week. This, after all, is the Shabbat between our greatest modern sorrow and our greatest modern joy, between Yom HaShoah and Yom HaAtzma’ut, Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel’s Independence Day, as well as, of course, a Shabbat of the Omer, the counting of the weeks between Passover and Shavuot. I don’t mean to sound melodramatic, but I think that the interplay this presents between the old story of our people’s movement out from oppression and bondage into freedom and independence and our new one, fits in perfectly with ideas presented to us on our trip.

In a speech we had the privilege to hear just after the conclusion of our first Shabbat in Israel, in Jerusalem no less, former president of Hillel International, Avraham Infeld captivated the room by relating these quintessential Jewish themes to our Birthright experience. He did so by telling a group of college-aged, mostly unaffiliated and somewhat apathetic Jews that Jews do not have history and Judaism is not a religion.

Judaism is not a religion-it is a family. And as such, Jews do not have history-we have memory. History is something that happened to some people a long time ago, but memory is constantly being re-experienced, relived. From the moment we got off the plane and first set foot on Jewish soil to the moment we got back on the plane ten days later, there could really be no doubt that for Jews, there really is nothing but family and memory.

Family. Familiar love alone can explain how a group of 40 incredibly diverse college students from all across the country who at first thought themselves to be strangers became a solid family after less than two days together. Besides a healthy mix of students from Pitt, CMU, Point Park, a graduate student from Duquesne, and a twenty-year-old convert from Chatham, my bus, Bus 794, also consisted of students from Georgetown, the University of Southern California, and the entire Jewish population of The Citadel-which is to say, all five guys. Also along for the trip were a Citadel cadet’s sister from the University of Minnesota and a Georgetown girl’s brother, a physics major at Cornell. Add to this our two twenty-something group leaders, or madrikhim: Yoni, a soon-to-be olah from Pittsburgh, and Alex, a professional stand-up comedian from LA by way of Toronto, plus we had Sagi, our IDF vet security guard with a proclivity for wearing obscene t-shirts, and Adele, our South African-born tour guide, whose concern for her son deployed to Gaza was eclipsed only by her love for all things Israel.

And Memory alone can explain how this group of young Jews, the overwhelming majority of whom had never put any thought at all into anything Jewish since their B’nai Mitzvot, if they even had one, could hold hands and dance the hora for joy on a hill overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem as the Friday night sun was just beginning to set on only our second night together. Memory alone, never history, could explain how, walking through that same Old City less than twenty-four hours later on a gorgeous Shabbat morning to pray at the Kotel for the first time ever, felt natural for me as though I had been doing it every week of my life. And Memory alone can explain the 2000 years worth of pent-up awe, joy, fear, humility, shame, and every emotion I’ve ever felt, plus some I never even knew existed before, that came to me in far greater quantities and with far greater intensity than I have ever felt anything, that exploded from somewhere deep within my soul and out into my trembling body, as I pushed my way past a sea of peyes to at last approach the Wall. And when I finally got to it, and actually touched and kissed the glassily-smooth stones than did all those emotions fly out of me and into the cracks, next to the letters, before just as suddenly leaving me, so that I felt felt nothing now but numbness and inadequacy. Oh, and joy beyond words. Memory.

Memory alone explains how, the next day when I laid my tefillin at the Wall for the first time, and I saw the big, hardened soldiers from The Citadel laying them too, trembling and fighting back tears as they did so, just as I had the day before, and was still doing now. Before this trip, they might not have known what tefillin were. Now they were wearing them at the Wall and visibly moved by the experience. Jewish Memory alone can explain this unique phenomenon of the Jewish soul because Japanese and obese American tourists also at the Kotel that day were nowhere close to doing the same.

Family. Also special about that Sunday was that it was the day we got our soldiers. Every Birthright bus gets some Israeli soldiers on leave, who go on the trip with the Americans for a few days. Our group got five women and two men, all our own age. We were unique because no other bus had so many American soldiers on it, and it was so great to see how they interacted and competed with one another. To say we got along great would be understatement. By the end of the week, I think each of the five women had at received at least one not-not serious marriage proposal from each of the five Citadel guys, and a few from civilian guys as well, my one friend in particular, but that’s another story… For those of us who aren’t soldiers, let alone Israeli soldiers, talking to them was a profound experience. Here were people, kids, our age, who looked just like us, and liked the same things we liked, except that while our biggest fear is finishing a paper by Tuesday, theirs is defending the Jewish State from annihilation. Israeli patriotism, for better or for worse, was nothing like American patriotism. In America, college students rarely think about being Americans. In Israel, even the most secular of Jews, as our soldiers all were, tear up if someone says something even so slight as “This is a beautiful country you have.” It didn’t take me long to realize every stereotype I had ever seen and believed about Jews being unathletic or meek was totally inaccurate.

Memory. Every Shabbat since coming back, when we sing Hatikvah at YPS, I always think back to the three times we heard Hatikvah in Israel. The first was in Israel’s Independence Hall in Tel Aviv on the first day of our trip. When David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israeli independence in what was then Tel Aviv’s art gallery 61 years ago this week, someone in the crowd of hundreds started singing the Zionist anthem Hatikvah. He was soon joined by almost everyone there. Sitting listening to a recording of that in the room where it all happened, was moving, to say the least.

The second time we heard it we were singing it. It was Sunday, the same Sunday we laid tefillin at the Wall, and we were visiting Mt. Hertzl, Israel’s national cemetery. Visiting Mt. Herzl with Israeli soldiers and the mother of a soldier and seeing all those Jewish heroes’ beautiful graves, almost all covered in stones, would have been powerful enough for me on its own, but that couldn’t prepare me for what was to come. Alone at the top of his eponymous mountain sits the tomb of Theodore Herzl. We arrived up there just as the sun was perfectly positioned between the two Israeli flags on either side of his tomb. After Adele gave a short speech, reminding us how Herzl never lived to see his dream come true, but, as per his request, his body was relocated to Eretz Yisrael once it was back in Jewish hands, she had the Israeli soldiers come in front of the tomb to lead us in Hatikvah. Uniforms on, and Jerusalem sun and Israeli flags directly behind them, they put their arms over each other’s shoulders and sang. I joined.

The third time came the next day, at Yad Vashem. After going through the museum and witnessing all the horrors, the last thing you see in the permanent exhibition is a video clip of little children of survivors, hands over each other’s shoulders, singing Hatikvah in Israel as the flag waves behind them. That’s when I cried. Especially this week, that is an image we should have in mind when we rise for Hatikvah in a few minutes. I know it’s always on mine.

Memory. A few days later, we rode to a Bedouin village in the Negev. I had never seen a desert before, and it was both beautiful and shocking, to have a desert only a few minutes outside beautiful cities where so many trees were planted. After watching a presentation of Bedouin culture, riding camels, being served probably the best meal we ate our entire trip, there was time for reflection. That night, a few other people and I journeyed off into the desert as far as were willing to hazard from the only source of light, the camp. It was a windy day and you could see the stars, but through a haze. Stretching out as far as the eye could see in every direction was nothing but sand and darkness. The wind was so strong that you could hear it whistling around you everywhere, and it blew so much sand that inside the tent in the camp, it sounded like a heavy rainstorm all night. Besides the wind, the only other sound outside were dogs barking somewhere in the distance. The Negev is such a spiritually charged place that even many atheists describe feeling something transcendent while standing out there. For my part, standing in that vast, cold emptiness, with the only light being a distant one, one I knew I had to go back to eventually and the only sounds being wind and dogs, looking up at the same stars David wrote Psalms praising God for, and where so much of my history, my memories had taken place, it felt like standing inside my own soul, and I won’t try to describe what that feels like because I can’t.

Family. Later that week, we visited Karmiel, Pittsburgh’s Israeli sister city. Specifically, we stopped at the Karmiel Children’s Village. This is a place where Jewish children from abusive families go to be adopted by a family who has chosen to live in the Village. These families consist a working father, a mother who is usually a housewife, their own two or three children, plus the ten or eleven children that they adopt. Besides houses, the village consists of a few complexes for arts and crafts, sports, and computers, and Karmiel’s only zoo. The only reason they can afford all this is Pittsburgh. The Jewish community here has raised tens of thousands of dollars to support this village for our Israeli brethren. Personally, I have had the privilege of meeting a local thirteen-year-old man who gave his Bar-Mitzvah money to buy refurbished computers for the Village, and a fourteen-year-old woman who used her Bat- Mitzvah money to start the Dream Network, which so far has raised thousands of dollars from local Jews and Jewish groups to answer the wishes of children in the village. To put this into perspective, with my Bar-Mitzvah money, I bought a PlayStation2. But maybe as teshuva, my bus brought over suitcases stuffed to bursting with clothing, shoes, Crocs, and toys, all once again generously donated by our own community. From there, we went to Pitchon-Lev, A Caring Heart, or the Israeli equivalent of the Salvation Army, to help them sort clothes, pack vegetables, move boxes, or do what ever else we could do for them. Because that’s what family does.

Family. From there, we went to Tzfat where among many other things, I saw the actual Sefer Torah used by Joseph Karo, then to the Golan the next day for a wine tasting before riding up Mt. Bental on the Israeli-Syrian boarder for the view. Up on Mt. Bental, Adele led us through a review of Israeli history and had us memorize all Israel’s wars and their years. The next day, on Shabbat, the Gaza war broke out. Thankfully, we were safe in Tiberias, but when they broke the news to us, we, and the at least 300 other students we were having Shabbat dinner with, fell completely silent. The soldiers had left us after Karmiel, but both of our guy soldiers were paratroopers and we knew for sure that at least one of them, the one who looked eerily like my cousin Jason before he dyed his hair, was being deployed. Adele’s son was sent in too. So this is what is was like to be Israeli, I thought. Most of us stayed glued to the TV all that night and much of the next day. This was the Shabbat of Hanukkah and Rosh Chodesh, yet, in Israel, even that trifecta of holiness wasn’t enough to bring peace. Thank God, all our friends survived.

Memory. That Shabbat was Bus 794’s last full day together as a family. In the afternoon, there were B’nai Mitzvah and Hebrew naming ceremonies for those who did not have one before. All the speeches were moving, but one in particular stands out in my mind. For his Bar-Mitzvah speech, a cadet from The Citadel named Abraham, talked about all this trip had meant to him, and what he would take from it. He said when he got back he wanted to expand scope of the Jewish club, find some tefillin so guys could have the experience of laying them, and maybe even try to start an exchange program with with the IDF.

Later that day, after Havdallah, we all had the opportunity to share our experiences, and I will never forget some people said. Many talked of how they now wanted to be involved in Jewish activities and Israel advocacy, and many more wanted to come back for longer and volunteer. A soldier from The Citadel, a place wrought with anti-Semitism, said he was wearing his chai necklace outside his shirt from now on, regardless of the consequences; another said he knew he was fighting for two homelands. Our convert loved Israel and Israelis so much that she broke out in tears that night and could talk of nothing but making aliyah for weeks after the trip. A man who was a good friend of mine from even before the trip decided to brake up with his girlfriend of many years almost as soon as he got back. He said he now realized he could never be with a non-Jew.

So between the Israelis and Americans, the people who were only dimly aware that they were Jewish, and the people who knew but didn’t know what it meant; the super-talented computer scientists, actors, and musicians from CMU, and the Israeli soldiers; the TV execs daughters from LA, and the grizzled soldiers from The Citadel,   and the rest like me somewhere in between, Birthright Bus 794 could best be described as an interesting mix. In other words, as a family. And a family needs a home. I, and just about everyone else on my bus discovered first-hand that for a Jew a strange place in Israel feels more like home in a way one cannot adequately describe, than does your own living room anywhere else (by the way, this explains why in today’s Parsha, it says only homes in the Land of Israel can become infected with tza’arat-because only in Israel can a Jew have a true home). But when we went home to Israel, we didn’t go just to remember what we had forgotten; we went to learn why each of us needs to be involved in making new memories that will stir indescribable feelings in future generations of Jews. And this is what we need to do until the day comes when our whole family remembers how badly it needs to come home for good. Shabbat Shalom.

Parshat Vayechi

14 Tevet 5769

Jan. 10, 2009

ALAN GINTZLER

What is it about the number 12? The sublime number. A dozen, a troy pound, 12 pence in a shilling, 12 months to a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, twelve pairs of ribs in the human body, 12 cranial nerves. Twelve is the kissing number of Euclidian space, the perfect divisor of 24 hours, 60 minutes and 60 seconds, there are 12 Jacobi elliptic functions, 12 angry men, 12 tones in the chromatic scale, 12 function keys on a computer keyboard, 12 sons of Jacob, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 parshas in the book of genesis of which vayechi, today’s parsha, is the last.

If we take 12 to signify parts of the whole, then the first parsha, bareishit, is part one, the beginning in which we experience creation and divine purpose, the source of Torah and the Jewish people. The twelfth and last parsha of Genesis is vayechi, meaning “he lived,” representing the fullness of life itself; vayechi frames the death of Jacob with the word “life,” the destiny and continuity of Israel, Israel the man and Israel the nation. Between bareishit and vayechi are ten parshas, a chol hamoed representing the full spread of life.

Life begins but is quickly buffeted by storm. In the second parsha, Noach, God provides tranquility afloat in a sea of chaos; soon after introducing divine purpose, the lesson is calm amidst the storm, keep your cool, plan ahead and god will float your boat.

“Lech lecha,” God tells Abraham in the third parsha, “you go, go on, giddyap, vamoose” leave your home, your spiritual space, and go to the earthly place, there to make it holy. To assist you on your journey, a vision to enlighten your soul; this vision comes in the fourth parsha, vayeira, where God reveals himself to Abraham.

And if vision and revelation aren’t enough to sustain you for your holy purpose, parsha five, chayei sarah, the life of Sarah, embodies the integration of divine vision and soul in our matriarch. Sarah knew her business and had the spiritual resources to carry it out. So by extension, do we all.

The generations unfold in the sixth parsha, toldot; the progeny of Abraham through Isaac to Jacob, find footing in the world to transform the physical to the divine, sanctifying living through deed. And in vayeitzi, the seventh parsha, the vision is extended into the wider, hostile, materialistic world beyond the tents of Torah; Jacob toils twenty years for Laban, but it’s here that he rises to the peak of his personal growth and founds the nation of Israel.

In vayishlach, parsha eight, Jacob sends angel-emissaries to his brother Esav to create a receptive environment, reaching out further into the world, extending his influence and the impact of his spiritual message, paving the way for transformation of society.

In vayeishev, the ninth parsha of Genesis, Jacob settles down in peace in the land of his father’s dwelling,” but his work isn’t done; though he has brought to the land a state of holiness, this spiritual state is still impermanent; the transformation and elevation of the world is yet unfinished.

In the tenth parsha, mikeitz, the end result of Joseph’s exile in the constricted, wild and wooly world of Egypt is his elevation to political office and power, and Joseph elevates political power to a spiritual state, governed by divine dreams and visions.

Judah approaches Joseph in vayigash, the eleventh parsha, and there’s a reconciliation of Jacob’s brood, a greater perfection of Israel’s divine mission through the tribes descended of the12 imperfect sons.

When Jacob dies in today’s parsha, vayechi, the last and 12th parsha of Genesis, his death is only figurative; his soul extends through his progeny, the 12 tribes, and through his name, Israel, immutable father of a nation with a spiritual destiny to lift up creation.

Taken together, the 12 parshas of Genesis track the purposeful life of the soul on earth, born floundering, but with a vision, floating, surviving, integrating God’s purpose, extending higher meaning in the world, transforming the physical to spiritual reality, and ultimately uniting the world with God.

Today a daughter honors a mother and the mother’s soul extends through her progeny; motherhood the immutable; the forever love. Heather’s mother, Basha Hinde bat Zelda, lived and endured the physical until ascending for a transcendent laugh with Chayei Sarah.

And the daughter who was cherished has returned every favor with love and devotion.

Today, we’ll make a brucha and a motzi in kavod of Beatrice Harr and ask that she continue to intercede for us on high, especially for her progeny, her offspring and legacy afloat in this world, until moshiach iz gekumen.

Amen

Marian Salamon

KOL NIDRE, 5769
MARIAN SALAMON

Yom Kippur has a strong hold on us primarily because of the concept of teshuvah, of return, of clearing the slate, of creating a clean record.  it brings the good news that renewal is possible, it promotes optimism,  and it counteracts guilt  by releasing us from  our bad choices and actions.  At the end of the day we feel assured  that correct intentions for the future  atone for the past. Thus each Jew can begin again every YOM KIPPUR, by resolving to improve one’s behavior, by doing another act of chesed in the coming year, by giving more tzedaka, by repairing interpersonal relations that have soured, by being more involved in YPS, by coming to Friday  and Saturday night minyanim, by making many types of amends.

I believe, however, that it is a mistake to imagine that all things can be made new again. Can we really imagine that all of our mistakes are revocable?

The world operates according to laws. the true meaning of the second paragraph of the Shema : v’natatee m’tar artz’chem b’eeto, yoreh oomalkosh…G-d promises us that if we obey his commandments he will grant the rain for our land at the right season. This indicates that certain acts have consequences and those consequences can be enduring.   But, according to Ecclesiastes,  the crooked sometimes cannot be made straight.

Environmental issues are not only the most enduring, but also the most global of consequences, and Sins against the earth, against the environment, are sins against G-d, the Creator, and these sins threaten irreparable damage to Hashem’s creation.

From Midrash Rabbah on Ecclesiastes 7:13, we learn that G-d while taking Adam around the Garden of Eden for an orientation tour, as it were, tells him,  “See how beautiful all My creations are”, “All has been created for your sake. So reflect on this, and take care not to foul or destroy my world. For if you do, there will be none to repair it after you. And what is worse, you will bring death even to righteous people in the future.”

Human beings are able to improve upon or destroy creation; and our ultimate responsibility is to our landlord,  Hashem, to care for his property.  We are but tenants and our security deposits won’t be returned if we do not abide by the laws of tenancy.

What world ever needed this admonition more than ours, ours in which the human powers to create and permanently to destroy have reached unprecedented heights?  Isn’t our society one in which concern is focused on present comforts not future generations?

The story is told of a woman who committed a crime and went to prison. She bore a child there. The child who grew up in prison one day petitioned the king to be released since he had not committed any crime.  The king responded that he was there not because of his own crime but because of his mother’s.  The sins of earlier generations can doom those that come after.

All day on Yom Kippur, we recite, over and over, the list of divine attributes which we first discovered in  Exodus 34: kayl rachoom v’chanoon, erech apayim v’rav chesed v’emet,    notzayr chesed l’alafim,  nosay avone vapesha vchataa v’nakay.  [G-d ...gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abundant in kindness and truth ]. Verse 7 in shemot continues with lo y’nakeh pokayd avone avot el banim v’al b’nay el shelayshim v’al reebayeem. [The iniquity of parents is recalled upon children and grandchildren to the 3rd and 4th generations.]

The doctrine of intergenerational retribution at the end of that verse does not appear in our Mahzor.   On Yom Kippur We prefer to consider repentance as creating a clean slate rather than to consider the  reality of consequences and intergenerational justice. But we cannot avoid it.

A pointed fable elucidates this concept:
There once was a hungry lion who was eyeing a fox with desire.  The fox said to him: “What do you want with a scrawny little fox like me? Standing yonder is a well-rounded gentleman, who will make a much more satisfying dinner for you.”  The lion replied: “Don’t you know that animals are forbidden to kill and eat human beings?  I could be severely punished for that!”    Said the fox: “Not to worry–the punishment will not overtake you, but rather your children; as you know, ‘the fathers eat sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge’.” The lion was seduced by this argument and ran towards the man to tear and eat him. As he was running, however, he was caught by a trap and found himself at the bottom of a deep pit. The fox gleefully ran over and looked into the pit. The lion cried from the bottom: “Liar! You said that only my children would be punished for my Sin!” The fox then said: “Fool! This punishment is not for what you just did, but rather for that which your father did. He once ate a human being himself.” The lion cried out:   “But that’s not fair! Why should I have to suffer from my father’s sins?” The fox answered with a laugh: “You yourself were just prepared to sin even though you knew that your children would suffer for it.  How, then, do you dare to complain about what’s fair!”

The more we show ourselves to be insensitive to the environment, which is the inheritance we leave to our children and grandchildren and generations to come, the less right we have to protest the unforgiving nature of reality.

We are a society much more readily distressed by an affront to the nation’s flag than by an offense against its rivers. We know what the record is: Unrenewable resources are wasted and depleted; forests that support whole life systems are destroyed or removed in order to make possible everything from housing developments to country club golf courses to the raising of beef.   Species which …for all we know… were long ago painstakingly and lovingly spared by G-d  from the Great Flood have finally been made to disappear; waterways and air have been fouled; and critical elements of the atmosphere have been destroyed.

The second paragraph of the Shema has a new meaning to us:  “if you obey the rules of tenancy in this world, then you will have life giving rain; if you do not obey those rules, then the rain will turn acidic and no longer give life.” It is easy to condemn the large corporations that cut down forests and create oil spills. It is much harder to face the fact–the incontrovertible fact– that so much of this unrectifiable damage to G-d’s world goes on because all of us have to one extent or another, bought into a lifestyle that leads to exploitation.  we need to heed the warning not to foul  G-d’s creation.

We should believe in the power of repentance and find the courage to change precisely in the hope that it is never too late. But we must also understand that one of
G-d’s greatest gifts to us is the very law like quality of the world,  it makes us into true moral agents, able to anticipate consequences, and to make free and responsible choices.

Yom Kippur is a day on which every moment is high noon. We wear the Tallit at night, as if it were day. Each tefillah contains the Kedushah of Musaf–the Kedushah of mid-day. This is the day in which we stand in judgment, and we cannot avoid the irrevocable consequences of what we do with G-d’s most basic gift.

And if we cannot see the justice in caring for nature and the environment for ourselves, let us at least do it for our children and grandchildren and future generations who may otherwise be born into a world not worth living in.  May the mitzvot, of the fathers and mothers be visited upon the children as we do our share in saving our earth.

TODAH RABBA and GMAR CHATIMA TOVA.

Bernard Klionsky

THE CENTRAL STORY OF THE TRADITIONAL TORAH READING FOR THE 2ND DAY OF ROSH HASHANAH IS THAT OF THE AKEDA, THE BINDING, OF ISAAC.  THIS TELLS OF THE TEST OF ABRAHAM’S WILLINGNESS TO FOLLOW GOD’S DIRECTIVE–EVEN TO THE POINT OF SACRIFICING HIS SON ISAAC—

THIS STORY CAN BE INTERPRETED IN MANY WAYS AND AT THIS TIME, I MEAN TO PUT THE STORY INTO AN HISTORICAL AND BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE AND TO INTRODUCE NEW HYPOTHESES AND MY OWN NEW INTERPRETATIONS. I BEGAN THIS LINE OF THINKING WHEN I GAVE THE CLASS ON CHUMASH, RASHI AND COMMENTARY FOR PARSHA BERESHIT SEVERAL YEARS AGO.

BEGINNINGS ARE IMPORTANT TO THE CONCLUSION OF ANY ENTERPRISE. THOSE WHO BEGIN WITHOUT A CLEAR PLAN OF WHERE THEY ARE HEADED MAY FLOUNDER. WHILE IN ISRAEL ON SABBATICAL, I LEARNED THE LESSON OF BEGINNING A PROJECT WITH A CLEAR VISION OF THE GOALS.  I HAD NOT FULLY UNDERSTOOD THEODORE HERZL’S ADMONITION IN HIS BOOK ALTNEULAND “IM TIRZU EIN ZO AGADAH”. BASICALLY IF YOU DREAM A DREAM IT WILL NOT BE A LEGEND.  YOU CAN MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE. WHILE WORKING ON THE PROPOSED CURRICULUM FOR THE NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL IN BEER SHEVA WE FIRST FORMULATED THE DREAM OF AN IDEAL MEDICAL SCHOOL WITH ALL THE RESOURCES IN PEOPLE AND FACILITIES THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED.  WE QUICKLY DISCOVERED THAT WE COULD NOT POSSIBLY ACHIEVE THE IDEAL. BUT WE NEVER LOST SIGHT OF THE ULTIMATE GOAL AND MADE TEMPORARY ACCOMMODATIONS TO THE EXISTING REALITY.

THE WHOLE STATE OF ISRAEL EXISTS ONLY BECAUSE IT HAS LIVED BY HIS RULE.  IF THE STATE AND ITS MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS HAD WAITED FOR A FEASIBILITY STUDY, FOR A COST ESTIMATE, AND FOR STOCKPILING OF THE NECESSARY RESOURCES, NOTHING WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. THEY BEGAN WITH A CLEAR IMAGE OF THE DREAM AND IMPROVISED AS NEEDED, BUT NEVER FALTERED.

I SEE AN IMPORTANT EXAMPLE OF THIS PROCESS OF DEFINITION OF A GOAL IN BERESHIT. HASHEM DEFINES THE ROLE OF MAN, AS DISTINGUISHED FROM OTHER LIVING CREATURES AND DEFINES THE ROLE OF HUMANKIND. KNOWING AS WE DO, THE FULL STORY OF THE CHUMASH, IT IS CLEAR THAT EVE’S DECISION TO EAT FROM THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN WAS NO SURPRISE TO HASHEM. HE MUST HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR ONE OF HIS CREATURES TO HAVE CURIOSITY AND THE DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE. UNLIKE CHRISTIANITY WHICH REGARDS EVE’S EATING OF THE APPLE AS “THE FALL”, WE DO NOT REGARD HER ACTION AS A SIN AND I EXPECT THAT HASHEM APPROVED AND THAT SHE WAS THE FIRST TO PASS HIS TEST.

UNFORTUNATELY ALL OF MANKIND DIDN’T PERFORM AS WELL. CAIN KILLED ABEL. THE EVIL GENERATIONS THAT FOLLOWED, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF NOACH AND HIS FAMILY, WERE DESTROYED IN THE FLOOD. THE FOLLOWING GENERATIONS BUILT THE TOWER OF BABEL AND FAILED TO WIN HASHEM’S APPROVAL.

ABRAHAM RECOGNIZED HASHEM AND BECAME THE HEIR APPARENT FOR THE CIVILIZATION THAT HASHEM HAD IN MIND. ABRAHAM LEFT HIS NATIVE LAND AT THE DIRECTION OF HASHEM.  HASHEM MADE A COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM THAT HE WOULD BECOME A GREAT NATION AND THAT HE WOULD INHERIT THE LAND OF CANAAN.

THE REST OF THE CHUMASH AND CENTURIES OF JEWISH AND WORLDLY SCHOLARSHIP WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE WITH A SPECIES OF MAN THAT DID NOT KNOW RIGHT FROM WRONG AND THAT WAS NOT WILLING TO MAKE SACRIFICES FOR THE SAKE OF KNOWLEDGE AND TRUTH.

IT SEEMS THAT HASHEM’S LONG RANGE PLAN WAS TO DEVELOP A WORKING COVENANT, A PARTNERSHIP WITH A HUMANITY THAT ACCEPTED THE MORAL AND ETHICAL CODES OF CONDUCT THAT ARE PRESENTED IN THE FOLLOWING SEDRAS OF THE CHUMASH. FROM THE BEGINNING, HASHEMS’S GOALS ARE MEANT TO BE ACHIEVED THROUGH THE ACTIONS OF MANKIND.  THIS REQUIRES A THINKING AND ANALYTIC PEOPLE WHO ACCEPT THE LEADERSHIP OF HASHEM AND WHO USE THEIR FREE WILL AND INTELLIGENCE TO ADVANCE THE MUTUAL AND SHARED OBJECTIVE.

THE STORY OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN IS THE FIRST EXAMPLE OF A HUMAN PASSING GOD’S TEST. THE STORY OF THE AKEDA IS THE CRITICAL TEST TO CONFIRM ABRAHAM AND ISAAC AS SUITABLE LEADERS; TO BE PARTNERS WITH HASHEM IN THE BUILDING A HOLY NATION.

ACCORDING TO THE LATE RABBI PELI, THE STORY OF THE AKEDA IS “THE OUTSTANDING MILESTONE OF JEWISH THOUGHT, LITURGY AND CREATIVE IMAGINATION FROM THE DAY IT WAS WRITTEN TO OUR OWN DAY”.

ON ITS FACE IT IS AN ACCOUNT OF COMPLETE UNCONDITIONAL FAITH AND TRUST AND OBEDIENCE OF ABRAHAM TO THE COMMAND AND WILL OF HASHEM.

ACCORDING TO THE TEXT “AND IT CAME TO PASS AFTER THESE THINGS THAT GOD PUT ABRAHAM TO THE TEST AND CALLED TO HIM: “ABRAHAM!”  HE ANSWERED: “HERE I AM”  THEN HE SAID: TAKE YOUR SON, YOUR ONLY SON, ISAAC, WHOM YOU LOVE; GO TO THE LAND OF MORIAH AND OFFER HIM THERE AS A BURNT OFFERING ON ONE OF THE MOUNTAINS THAT I WILL TELL YOU”

ABRAHAM COMPLETES HIS TRAVEL TO THE APPOINTED PLACE AND SEEMS TO BE ABOUT TO EXECUTE THE DREAD COMMAND WHEN AN ANGEL OF THE LORD ORDERS HIM TO STOP AND PROVIDES A RAM AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE HUMAN SACRIFICE.

I WAS PLEASED TO DISCOVER THAT I WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAD SOME EMOTIONAL DISQUIET BECAUSE OF THIS STORY WHICH, AS RABBI PELI PUT IT “WAS NOT ALWAYS RECEIVED WITH PIETISTIC EQUANIMITY.”

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES FOR CONCERN?  FOREMOST OF COURSE IS OUR CURRENT ABHORENCE AT EVEN CONSIDERING THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN SACRIFICE.  MAJOR RABBINICAL CONCERN WAS WITH THE NATURE OF, THE REASONS FOR, AND THE RESPONSE TO THE TEST THAT GOD POSED TO ABRAHAM.

LET US CONSIDER WHAT WERE THE CRITERIA FOR THE PASSING OF THE TEST? JUST A FEW MOMENTS OF THOUGHT SHOULD MAKE IT CLEAR THAT HASHEM DID NOT WANT OR EXPECT THE DEATH OF ISAAC AND THE END OF THE LINEAGE OF ABRAHAM WITH WHOM HE HAD MADE A COVENANT.  BOTH HASHEM AND ABRAHAM WERE AWARE OF THE NOACHIC LAWS, APPLICABLE TO ALL PEOPLES, FORBIDDING MURDER. WE KNOW, FROM THE TEXT, THAT AT THE LAST SUSPENSEFUL MOMENT AN ANGEL CALLED TO ABRAHAM FROM THE HEAVENS SAYING “DO NOT LAY YOUR HAND UPON THE BOY, AND DO NOTHING TO HIM; FOR I NOW KNOW THAT YOU REVERE GOD, SEEING THAT YOU HAVE NOT REFUSED ME YOUR SON, YOUR ONLY SON.”

WHAT THEN DID HASHEM EXPECT?  NECHAMA LEIBOWITZ STATES “THE TRIAL IS NOT MEANT TO PROVE ANYTHING TO THE ALMIGHTY- WHO IS ALL KNOWING”.  RATHER “THE PURPOSE OF THE TRIAL IS TO IMPROVE THE CHARACTER OF THE SUBJECT (ABRAHAM AND ISAAAC) AND TRAIN HIM IN DOING POSITIVE GOOD AND IN REALIZING TO THE FULL HIS OWN SPIRITUAL POTENTIALITY”.

WHAT RESPONSE MIGHT WE HAVE EXPECTED FROM ABRAHAM? RABBI PELI STATES “THE TEST WAS TO SEE WHETHER ABRAHAM UNDERSTOOD THE TRUE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMANS AND GOD.  WAS NOT ABRAHAM THE ONE WHO NEGOTIATED WITH GOD IN THE MATTER OF THE POTENTIAL SALVATION OF SODOM AND GEMORRAH?   ACCORDING TO THIS REASONING, ABRAHAM FAILED THE TEST.  HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED NOT ONLY TO SAY HINENI, BUT TO CHALLENGE THE ORDER, TO VOICE HIS OPPOSITION AND TO QUESTION ITS JUSTIFICATION.  HE HAD NOT YET LEARNED WHAT WE KNOW, NAMELY “THAT WE DO NOT HAVE TO SACRIFICE OUR HUMANITY TO SERVE GOD.”

I HAVE WONDERED WHETHER ABRAHAM, THE SUCCESSFUL AND RESOURCEFUL MILITARY COMMANDER, MIGHT HAVE BROUGHT HIS OWN RAM FOR A SACRIFICE. COULD IT BE THAT THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THE WHOLE EPISODE WAS TO IMPRESS UPON ISAAC THE DEPTH OF HIS FATHER’S COMMITMENT TO HASHEM AND THAT SUCH COMMITMENT WAS TO BE EXPECTED OF HIM AS THE SUCCESSOR TO THE COVENANT.  ISAAC ALSO LEARNED THAT HE COULD COUNT ON THE MERCY OF HASHEM.

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TROUBLED BY THIS STORY AND HAVE EXPLAINED IT TO MYSELF AS AN EXAMPLE OF GOD’S AND THE TORAH’S EDUCATIONAL STRATEGY.  AN OMNIPOTENT GOD HAD THE POWER TO REVEAL–FROM THE VERY ONSET OF HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS PEOPLE– A COMPLETED DOCUMENT AND A FULLY DEVELOPED SET OF RULES AND ORDERS FOR THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE MORAL AND ETHICAL STANDARDS.  SUCH A PERFECT BLUEPRINT WOULD NEED NO FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OR MODIFICATION.  IT WOULD REQUIRE ONLY PERFECT ADHERENCE TO ITS PRESCRIPTION. THIS OF COURSE WAS THE PROBLEM—-TO FIND AND DEVELOP THE NATION THAT WOULD HAVE THE WILL, THE INTELLIGENCE AND THE COMMITMENT TO SUBSCRIBE TO AND EXECUTE THE PLAN, THAT IS, TO BECOME PARTNERS IN THE COVENANT WITH HASHEM.

RABBI RISKIN RFEMINDS US THAT A CONTRACT CAN BE BROKEN,BUT THAT A COVENANT IS IRREVOCABLE. REMEMBER THAT THE COVENANT WAS ORIGINALLY BETWEEN HASHEM AND ABRAHAM. IN PARSHA NITZAVIM, WHICH WE JUST READ ON SATURDAY THE COVENANT WAS EXTENDED TO ALL OF US.  RABBI RISKIN EXPLAINS WHY THIS THIRD ITERATION OF THE COVENANT, IN THE FINAL ORATION OF MOSES, WAS NECESSARY. IT INTRODUCES A DEMOCRATIC ELEMENT.  EVERY ISRAELITE IS INCLUDED, THE COVENANT IS NOW EXTENDED TO EVERY ISRAELITE IN WORDS THAT ARE APPROPRIATE FOR TODAY.

“YOU ARE STANDING THIS DAY ALL OF YOU BEFORE THE LORD YOUR GOD; YOUR TRIBES, YOUR ELDERS, AND YOUR OFFICERS, EVEN ALL THE MEN OF ISRAEL. YOUR LITTLE ONES, YOUR WIVES, THAT THOU SHOULDEST ENTER INTO THE COVENANT OF THE LORD THY GOD- AND INTO HIS OATH WHICH THE LORD THY GOD MAKETH WITH THEE THIS DAY.”

THIS INCLUDES ALL, THE RICH AND THE POOR, THE GREAT AND THE HUMBLE.  THIS CONCEPT OF THE COVENANT IS EXTENDED TO INCLUDE ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS.  IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO LIVE ACCORDING TO THIS COVENANT AND TO PASS THE TRADITIONS AND OBLIGATIONS AND BENEFITS TO OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN. THIS COVENANT BINDS US NOT ONLY TO HASHEM, BUT ALSO TO EACH OTHER.

WE ARE NOW RESPONSIBLE FOR EACH OTHER.  THIS IS REFLECTED IN THE RECITAL OF OUR SINS.  EACH INDIVIDUAL SAYS “ASHAMNU, BOGADNU.” WE SINNED.

THIS SPECIAL COVENANTAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND HIS PEOPLE ALWAYS SUGGESTS ITSELF TO ME AS THAT OF PARENT AND CHILD AND AS THAT OF TEACHER AND STUDENT.  OUR HOLY BOOKS HAVE CHRONICLED THE PROGRESSION TO EVER HIGHER STANDARDS.  HASHEM HAS CHOSEN TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO HIS PEOPLE AND TO TEACH THEM AT A RATE AT WHICH THEY ARE CAPABLE OF LEARNING AND DISCOVERING.  A PARENT CANNOT DIVULGE TO AN INFANT IN A SECOND ALL THE KNOWLEDGE, ALL THE WISDOM AND ALL OF THE ETHICAL AND MORAL RULES THAT CONSTITUTE THE WAY OF LIFE THAT WE HOPE THE CHILD WILL ULTIMATELY FOLLOW.  RATHER THE CHILD MUST BE TAUGHT, AND ALLOWED TO LEARN, AT THE RATE AT WHICH IT IS CAPABLE.  THE PARENT PROVIDES THE GUIDANCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE LOVE IN A RELATIONSHIP THAT ENCOURAGES THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHILD, THAT STIMULATES THE CRITICAL, THE ANALYTIC AND QUESTIONING FACILITIES OF THE CHILD.  PARENTAL GUIDANCE SETS GOALS AND LIMITS AND SERVES AS AN EXAMPLE.

OUR RELIGIOUS LITERATURE PROVIDES DOCUMENTATION OF THE PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ETHICAL AND MORAL STANDARDS OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.  WE BEGIN WITH A SIMPLE SHEPHERD WHO HAS THE PROFOUND CONCEPTION AND REVELATION OF ONE LIVING GOD TO REPLACE THE PANTHEON OF IDOLS.  THE TORAH AND OUR SUBSEQUENT PROPHETIC AND RABBINICAL COMMENTARIES AND TEACHINGS REPRESENT A CONTINUUM. THERE HAS BEEN A PROGRESSIVE AND STILL CONTINUING EFFORT TO LEAD US TO A MORE PERFECT MORAL SOCIETY AND TO PERMIT US TO ADAPT TO THE CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES OF CHANGING TIMES AND OF OUR OWN MATURITY AS INDIVIDUALS AND AS A PEOPLE. THAT, IT SEEMS TO ME, IS THE OBJECTIVE THAT HASHEM HAS PURSUED FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF BERESHIT.

THE IMAGERY OF GOD AS FATHER TO HIS FAVORITE SON EPHRAIM IS CONTINUED IN THE HAFTORAH WHICH WE READ FROM JEREMIAH. EVEN WHEN A CHILD MUST BE PUNISHED, THE PARENT REMAINS LOVING AND CONCERNED. JEREMIAH PROMISES THE SURVIVAL OF A REMNANT OF THE PEOPLE IN JUDAH AND FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD.  GRIEF WILL BE CHANGED TO GLADNESS AND THE BLESSINGS PROMISED TO ABRAHAM IN THIS SEDRA WILL BE HONORED.

THE TORAH IS OUR GUIDE, OUR CONSTITUTION.  THE GENERATIONS OF PROPHETIC VISION AND RABBINIC DISCUSSION AND COMMENTARY; AND OUR OWN CONTINUING EFFORTS ARE PART OF A PROCESS OF WHICH THE STORY OF THE AKEDA WAS AN EARLY EXAMPLE.  IN MY READING THIS WAS THE LESSON OF GOD TO ABRAHAM - THAT THE THEN COMMONLY PRACTICED RITE OF HUMAN SACRIFICE WAS PROHIBITED FROM THAT TIME AND FOR EVERMORE.

AS ISAAC WAS BOUND, SO TOO WE ARE BOUND TO THIS ONGOING COVENANT.  A COVENANT IS A PARTNERSHIP AND WE ARE PARTNERS IN AND RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE ITS GOALS. WE HAVE A PERFECT AND PATIENT TEACHER. MAY WE BE WORTHY STUDENTS AND CONTINUE TO LEARN AND TO ASSUME OUR SHARE OF THE TASK.

L’SHANA TOVAH TIKA TEVU