We Did Not Spill the Blood

Parshat Shoftim 

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

The Torah presents a kind of unsolved murder. A person is found murdered outside a city. The elders of the city come out and they measure whether the corpse is closer to their city or a nearby city, and whichever city is closest is deemed responsible for the death has its elders bring a calf to a riverbed (there’s a debate whether it is dry or has a river come through it or near it), where they kill the calf, wash their hands over the calf, and make the following declaration. 7And they shall announce and say,

7And they shall announce and say, "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see [this crime]." 8"Atone for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and lay not [the guilt of] innocent blood among your people Israel." And [so] the blood shall be atoned for them.		זוְעָנ֖וּ וְאָֽמְר֑וּ יָדֵ֗ינוּ לֹ֤א שָֽׁפְכוּ֙ (כתיב שפכה֙) אֶת־הַדָּ֣ם הַזֶּ֔ה וְעֵינֵ֖ינוּ לֹ֥א רָאֽוּ: חכַּפֵּר֩ לְעַמְּךָ֙ יִשְׂרָאֵ֤ל אֲשֶׁר־פָּדִ֨יתָ֙ יְהֹוָ֔ה וְאַל־תִּתֵּן֙ דָּ֣ם נָקִ֔י בְּקֶ֖רֶב עַמְּךָ֣ יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל

Remembering the Levi in Your Celebrations

Parshat Re'eh

by Rabbi Avi Billet

In chapter 12 we are introduced to the idea of celebrating with God in the holy place He will choose – which we identify as Jerusalem – through bringing sacrifices and offerings to Him. The first time we are told of this, the celebration is to include “you and your households” (12:7). 

Every other time after that, the instruction gets far more specific as to who is to rejoice, you (plural - which could mean the parents of a household, or all of the adults in the nation), as well your sons, daughters, male servants and female servants… and THE LEVI (12:12). Chizkuni notes that the Levi isn’t mentioned in 12:7 because that instruction precedes the people being informed that they will cross the Jordan, settle the land, and thus celebrate in that holy place. It is only once the settling takes place that it will be discovered that the Levi does not have a portion in the land, and therefore his joy and the need to include him in your celebration becomes incumbent upon you only after you will have settled the land.

A Favorite Pasuk: Brook From Har Sinai

Parshat Eikev

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Note: The title does not say “my” favorite Pasuk, because I don’t have one. There are many pesukim that make it to the “top” list. The title says “a” favorite because there are different ways to define favorite. It is a favorite because it has information that I believe not a lot of people pay attention to, and therefore miss a couple of important components of the wilderness narrative that is not spelled out clearly in the book of Shemos.

And so, to the verse: Devarim Chapter 9, verse 21.

21And I took your sin the calf, which you had made, and I burned it with fire, and I crushed it, grinding it well, until it was fine dust, and I cast its dust into the brook that descends from the mountain.

כאוְאֶת־חַטַּאתְכֶ֞ם אֲשֶׁר־עֲשִׂיתֶ֣ם אֶת־הָעֵ֗גֶל לָקַ֘חְתִּי֘ וָֽאֶשְׂרֹ֣ף אֹת֣וֹ | בָּאֵשׁ֒ וָֽאֶכֹּ֨ת אֹת֤וֹ טָחוֹן֙ הֵיטֵ֔ב עַ֥ד אֲשֶׁר־דַּ֖ק לְעָפָ֑ר וָֽאַשְׁלִךְ֙ אֶת־עֲפָר֔וֹ אֶל־הַנַּ֖חַל הַיֹּרֵ֥ד מִן־הָהָֽר:

This comes in the context of Moshe’s retelling the tale of the Golden Calf, and how he took the initiative to destroy it, while making the perpetrators essentially drink the dust of their provocation.

Enjoy, Enjoy

 I wrote this many years ago, and since I was on vacation the week of Va'eschanan and didn't have the time to write something new, I present this from waaaaay back.

Parshat Va'etchanan

by Rabbi Avi Billet

The Talmud (Taanit 30b) quotes the mishnah when it says there were no holidays (literally "good days") on the Jewish calendar as great as the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur. The Talmud delves into the greatness of the 15th of Av (which falls this year on Shabbat), famously describing how single girls would dance in the fields and single men would meet them in the greatest singles events of all times. 

 It's a strange turnaround from Tisha B'Av, the saddest day on the calendar, which we observed 6 days ago. How could we have such a drastic change? 

 We can look to the haftarah – Nachamu Ami – "be comforted, My people" because things will change. Things will get better. 

 But perhaps we can find even greater inspiration from the parsha itself.

Appointment of Judges… by Moshe with No Input from Yisro?

Parshat Devarim 

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Devarim Chapter 1 begins Moshe’s first of a few final speeches that he gives over in the last month of his life. In this chapter, after we are given a glimpse of where the Bnei Yisrael are, and certain coordinates that either help us pinpoint their location or remind us of certain stops on the way, Moshe tells over two narratives from the beginning of the sojourn in the wilderness – first of the time he appointed a system of judges, and second a retelling of the tale of the spies. 

 Let us explore the first of these two retellings. 

Preparing for and Fasting - Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av

Halakhic literature discusses the requirement to fast on the two 25-hour fasts, and how just about everyone is obligated to participate, even pregnant and nursing women (who are given dispensation on the minor fast days), and how seriously the Jewish community should view these fast days and their personal observance of them. 

That being said, exceptions are made for those who cannot fast due to medical reasons.

There is a simple rule: If fasting will wind you up in the hospital, you are WRONG if you insist on fasting.

The Road To Freedom Includes Lifting Others Up

Parshat Masei

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

 In one of his essays on the parsha, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks questions the need for the list of the Masa’ot, the stops of the journey of the Bnei Yisrael through the wilderness. Noting that the journey from Egypt to Israel shouldn’t have taken more than a few weeks, and in fact we will see in next week’s parsha that the place from which they crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land was אחד עשר יום מחורב,  eleven days away from Sinai, Rabbi Sacks compares this journey to what Nelson Mandela called the Long Walk to Freedom. 

 Then he writes “The real journey to freedom, however, is not a physical one. It is a mental, moral, and spiritual one. It is long, arduous, and demanding, and there are challenges and failures along the way…. God was with the people. Yet they lacked the faith in themselves or in God to take the challenges in their stride.” 

Going through the narrative of the Exodus, when the Torah says they didn’t go through the land of the Pelishtim in order to avoid war, he notes that they nonetheless saw war anyway, as well as other travails. Egypt gave chase to the splitting of the sea, there was no food or water, Amalek attacked. 

 We learn early on in the book of Yehoshua that the nations in Canaan were frightened of Israel regarding their size and therefore perceived military might, and the Israelites knew God was on their side and that they could not lose. “Yet fear overwhelmed their capacity for rational thought.”