Parshat Ki Tetze
by Rabbi Avi Billet
Devarim Chapter 22:13-21 contains two related circumstances that are both very disturbing from a contemporary vantage point.
The first concerns a man who marries a woman and then claims she was not a virgin – spreading slander about her, and the lifestyle she has lived until her marriage. When his claims are disproven, he is fined and then required to maintain her as his wife for the rest of his life.
Leaving aside whether his claim, in and of itself, is disturbing – meaning, is she only good for him as a wife if she is a virgin? – the idea that if he’s proven to be wrong that he gets a seeming slap on the wrist (a fine!) seems to be a sham! Even if he must care for her for the rest of his life, she almost has no choice but to stay (even though she may decide to leave!), because he has destroyed her reputation through his slander.
The second element which is disturbing is that if his claim is proven to be true, she is taken out to the doorway of her father’s house to be stoned to death. We can argue all we want as to whether this passage is meant to be understood literally, whether it actually ever happened, etc. But the passage is there, and its language speaks for itself.
It should go without saying that nowadays we don’t do this, and I’d argue we have no interest in doing this. In fact, when certain cultures in other parts of the world uphold this kind of practice, we find it abhorrent, backwards, and not the kind of thing we ever want to see in our community. No matter how disapproving we are of pre-marital relations.
The Midrash claims the guilty young woman is charged and punished this way, because she destroys the reputation of all young women. Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura argued that she is killed at her parents’ doorstep, because she destroyed her father’s reputation. To my understanding, this perspective contradicts a different Torah rule, also in our parsha (24:16) that children are not punished for the sin of the parents, and that parents are not punished for the sins of the children. Does killing the daughter restore any reputation? Or does it punish the parents again?
As disturbing as the thought of putting the young maiden to death is, I haven’t seen any commentaries who argue – as they do for the wayward son (21:18-21) – that this never happened and we are meant to learn a lesson. It could, of course, be true that it never happened and that no young woman was every put to death for this violation of Torah rules. If that is true, how come no commentary raises it as a possibility (if you know of one, please contact me!)?
And so we’re left to try to make sense of it all.
I can’t answer for the facts on the ground. I certainly hope it never happened. Or that even if the girl was not a virgin at the time of marriage – for whatever reason – it was discussed before hand so there is no misunderstanding or opening to make any claim of impropriety. And even if the girl was wrong, the idea that someone would come to the court with this kind of claim – which could lead to her execution – rather than going a more civilized route of divorcing her, is something I find hard to stomach.
But one thing is clear to me. The idea that a false accusation can be made, either without evidence, or when the actual evidence stands to the contrary of what is being claimed, is so disturbing that a more serious punishment would seem to be in order.
False accusations are made all the time. In politics, things are taken out of context to paint a politician as an evil or stupid person. In relationships, innocent people are sometimes accused of rape. In schools, students have been found to make accusations of impropriety against teachers in order to get them fired. Of course I am not talking about cases where the accused is guilty of a crime – in those cases, the guilty should be prosecuted and punished. But it’s the FALSE accusation that should have no place in society, where the accused, who is innocent of wrongdoing, suffers financially and through destroyed reputation, simply because a finger was pointed.
The Torah places a life-long fiduciary responsibility on the accuser. Perhaps such a hefty fine should stand as a deterrent against false claims.
But even more so, society and communities must make clear that false accusations aimed at destroying a good name are in some cases more heinous than what is being accused, and that when the victim of slander is exonerated, he or she must be accepted in society with open arms, with reputation restored. We would only want that for ourselves if we are falsely accused. Doesn’t anyone falsely accused deserve the clean slate that is their true life lived? Of course they do.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Friday, August 25, 2017
Being Tamim With God
Parshat Shoftim
by Rabbi Avi Billet
Two things have dominated the news in recent weeks. Charlottesville, VA and the Solar Eclipse that crossed the United States, with the Umbra spanning 16 states.
To me, the two news stories each serve a different reminder to us. Charlottesville showed us that there are despicable people, even in the United States, who are guided by a hateful ideology. And with the exception of war, which is a different category of violence focused on eradicating evil, violence in an otherwise peaceful commonwealth is not the way US citizens are meant to resolve their differences.
The eclipse, to me, shows that God put together a universe with wisdom and allowed for things to happen and align, even in the vastness and infinity of outer space, that serve as a steady reminder that He is there.
Both of these reminders are embodied in one of the more fascinating verses to grace our Torah portion this week. “Tamim Tihyeh im Hashem Elokekha.” Be complete with the Lord your God.
There is a debate as to whether this statement is a mitzvah. Nachmanides felt it is while Maimonides felt it is not. Regardless, it seems to be an important instruction as to how we are to go about our lives.
Let’s look at three examples of how to do this.
Targum Yonatan describes being “Tamim” as being complete in one’s fear of God. Perhaps adding King Solomon’s “know Him in all your ways” (Mishlei 3:6) would further support this approach. R Yosef B’khor Shor describes being Tamim as being simple, of simple needs. Have the attitude of the verse in Divrei hayamim I 19:13 – "God does what is good in His eyes," which is a good formula for not complaining about the ways of God.
The Sifrei takes a novel approach on the verse saying “When you are Tam (innocent) your portion is with Hashem your God.” Being “with God” is the reward for being Tamim.
The first person in the Torah who is described as being Tamim is Noach. Perhaps he embodies the lessons learned from the news this week, in his demonstration of how Temimut – being “perfect” or “complete” or “innocent” is the way to embody and appreciate those reminders. He understood that “what God gives you you take.” He did not ask for the evil to be spared. He accepted what God was doing as God’s will. Avraham, the next person to be called Tamim, also did not defend evil. He asked God to spare the cities from being destroyed, but said nothing about God not eliminating the evil people.
Noach dealt with difficult people. He knew what was coming. He was aware of his assignment – though perhaps he did not originally know exactly which people would be coming on the Ark with him. But he knew there were evil people, and that their approaches to life and living were not satisfactory to God.
And Noach contemplated the cosmos and he saw God. For him, the sign was the rainbow – not an eclipse – but even the rainbow teaches another important lesson about humanity.
It shows how different colors can exist in harmony and create a sight which is beautiful to behold. Anyone who believes in a God Who is a Father to all must understand that the challenges humans face in creating goodness can easily be reconciled if we embrace the rainbow of humanity as God’s children.
Evil is the antithesis of this. Violence is the embodiment of evil acted out in real time.
Just as stealthily and as beautifully as the moon aligned between the earth and the sun to create the eclipse, we have the opportunity to put ourselves in a position to promote goodness and decency and Godliness through being positive and caring of others.
Through being Tamim, we will merit to be with God. Isn’t that something worth striving for?
by Rabbi Avi Billet
Two things have dominated the news in recent weeks. Charlottesville, VA and the Solar Eclipse that crossed the United States, with the Umbra spanning 16 states.
To me, the two news stories each serve a different reminder to us. Charlottesville showed us that there are despicable people, even in the United States, who are guided by a hateful ideology. And with the exception of war, which is a different category of violence focused on eradicating evil, violence in an otherwise peaceful commonwealth is not the way US citizens are meant to resolve their differences.
The eclipse, to me, shows that God put together a universe with wisdom and allowed for things to happen and align, even in the vastness and infinity of outer space, that serve as a steady reminder that He is there.
Both of these reminders are embodied in one of the more fascinating verses to grace our Torah portion this week. “Tamim Tihyeh im Hashem Elokekha.” Be complete with the Lord your God.
There is a debate as to whether this statement is a mitzvah. Nachmanides felt it is while Maimonides felt it is not. Regardless, it seems to be an important instruction as to how we are to go about our lives.
Let’s look at three examples of how to do this.
Targum Yonatan describes being “Tamim” as being complete in one’s fear of God. Perhaps adding King Solomon’s “know Him in all your ways” (Mishlei 3:6) would further support this approach. R Yosef B’khor Shor describes being Tamim as being simple, of simple needs. Have the attitude of the verse in Divrei hayamim I 19:13 – "God does what is good in His eyes," which is a good formula for not complaining about the ways of God.
The Sifrei takes a novel approach on the verse saying “When you are Tam (innocent) your portion is with Hashem your God.” Being “with God” is the reward for being Tamim.
The first person in the Torah who is described as being Tamim is Noach. Perhaps he embodies the lessons learned from the news this week, in his demonstration of how Temimut – being “perfect” or “complete” or “innocent” is the way to embody and appreciate those reminders. He understood that “what God gives you you take.” He did not ask for the evil to be spared. He accepted what God was doing as God’s will. Avraham, the next person to be called Tamim, also did not defend evil. He asked God to spare the cities from being destroyed, but said nothing about God not eliminating the evil people.
Noach dealt with difficult people. He knew what was coming. He was aware of his assignment – though perhaps he did not originally know exactly which people would be coming on the Ark with him. But he knew there were evil people, and that their approaches to life and living were not satisfactory to God.
And Noach contemplated the cosmos and he saw God. For him, the sign was the rainbow – not an eclipse – but even the rainbow teaches another important lesson about humanity.
It shows how different colors can exist in harmony and create a sight which is beautiful to behold. Anyone who believes in a God Who is a Father to all must understand that the challenges humans face in creating goodness can easily be reconciled if we embrace the rainbow of humanity as God’s children.
Evil is the antithesis of this. Violence is the embodiment of evil acted out in real time.
Just as stealthily and as beautifully as the moon aligned between the earth and the sun to create the eclipse, we have the opportunity to put ourselves in a position to promote goodness and decency and Godliness through being positive and caring of others.
Through being Tamim, we will merit to be with God. Isn’t that something worth striving for?
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Genocide in the Torah - Disturbing and Wholly Hypothetical
Parshat Re'eh
by Rabbi Avi Billet
I am sure I am not alone in my disgust when seeing an article or video about an event on the other side of the world, when a person (more often a woman) is put to death through stoning, or some other form of torture, for merely being accused of an act of infidelity, or pre-marital union. After all, stoning? And for this act that, while traditionally immoral, is certainly not viewed as a capital offense in most societies!
We might view those who espouse and act upon these views as intolerant, backwards, 4th century-types who have no real place in a modern and open society.
And then we read verses in Devarim chapter 13, and our finger pointing must end, because our look in the mirror tells us everything we don’t want to know about what our people were commanded when entering the land.
How could this be? How could we not cringe at finding these instructions in our Holy Torah? Killing all inhabitants? Burning everything to the ground? Seeing no value whatsoever in preserving any landmarks, any history, any remnant of a group which lived an existence for many years in this town? And what about the innocent people – just because perhaps some people are deserving of death, does this condemn every single man, woman and child?
Rabbenu Bachaye notes that the phrase “you must investigate and probe, making careful inquiry” precludes just about every possibility of this ever coming to reality. Any inquiry is so exact in its questioning, the chances of a slipup or inconsistency among witnesses is so likely that the death sentence on the city is basically impossible to achieve.
However, he does not delegitimize the Torah’s perspective. He does declare the “evil people” described here to be in the same category of Korach, who rebelled against God and His holy word, who tried to destroy the nation’s autonomy from within. And of course, when there is a divinely inspired High Priest and a prophet around, the precise desire of God can be determined and the people can be condemned or expulcated.
Nonetheless it remains troubling to think that a certain type of vigilantism by the people can be enacted simply over what to us might seem to be a few loud rabble-rousers who, while certainly causing harm to others’ beliefs, don’t deserve to have their entire cities wiped out and their belongings burned!
While it’s not an easy idea to stomach, the principle behind total annihilation is actually meant to distinguish between turning this act into one which is the will of God versus one of cruelty. When everything is destroyed, and no one and nothing is spared, the law-enacters are not destroying out of a sense of cruelty. They don’t want to torture or hurt, they just want to end it. Compare this to the evil people in history who tortured their victims, let the “useful” live for a time being to enslave them, and who delighted in their self-proclaimed important work. All of this is the embodiment of cruelty – when you pick and choose your victims and say some can live while some will die. And you steal all their belongings, showing that it was about the money and wealth. The idea of total destruction, swift, quick, without keeping anything, is a moral indication that this was not about property or about converting people or about anything other than preservation of our lives under God’s dictation. The near impossibility of carrying this out cannot be overemphasized! But we must understand the comparison to Korach – all of whose followers met a swift and immediate fate, leaving the people to see that some ideas are just not compatible with the community of God.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch recalls the Tosefta that this case is theoretical, never happened and never will happen, as he explains the degree of the betrayal of all that is sacred to the greater national community. “All the places of residence in the Land belong to the nation; the nation dwells… in every place of residence… the character and the task of the whole nation must come to expression in each one of these places of residence. Only by remaining true to the character and task of the whole nation does every small place have the right to exist in the midst of the great whole.”
The promise Hirsch draws out from this entire theoretical episode is this: “the severity of your treatment of the people of this wayward city will not alter the kindness that is fundamental to your character. After you have carried out national justice, God will restore to you the kindness that is innate in you, allowing you to act mercifully, so that you will be worthy of His mercy.”
I am grateful that this story never happened and never will. However, it does give us insight into the difference between a divine justice (the removal of “evil” intent on destroying our community, which can only happen under the guidance of a real prophet) and the definition of cruelty, which includes evil intent, theft, desire to torture and/or enslave, and the removal of humanity from victims.
Troubling, yes. Theoretical, completely. Informative of what is truly evil – couldn’t be more clear.
by Rabbi Avi Billet
I am sure I am not alone in my disgust when seeing an article or video about an event on the other side of the world, when a person (more often a woman) is put to death through stoning, or some other form of torture, for merely being accused of an act of infidelity, or pre-marital union. After all, stoning? And for this act that, while traditionally immoral, is certainly not viewed as a capital offense in most societies!
We might view those who espouse and act upon these views as intolerant, backwards, 4th century-types who have no real place in a modern and open society.
And then we read verses in Devarim chapter 13, and our finger pointing must end, because our look in the mirror tells us everything we don’t want to know about what our people were commanded when entering the land.
“[This is what you must do] if, with regard to one of your cities that God your Lord is giving you as a place to live, you hear a report, stating that irresponsible men among you have been successful in leading the city's inhabitants astray by saying, 'Let us worship another god and have a novel spiritual experience.' You must investigate and probe, making careful inquiry. If it is established to be true, and such a revolting thing has occurred in your midst, then you must kill all the inhabitants of the city by the sword. Destroy it and everything in it as taboo, and [kill] all its animals by the sword. Gather all [the city's] goods to its central square, and burn the city along with all its goods, [almost] like a sacrifice to God your Lord. [The city] shall then remain an eternal ruin, never again to be rebuilt. Let nothing that has been declared taboo there remain in your hands. God will then have mercy on you, and reverse any display of anger that might have existed. In His mercy, He will make you flourish, just as He promised your fathers. You will have obeyed God your Lord, keeping all the commandments that I prescribe to you today, and doing what is morally right in the eyes of God your Lord.” (Devarim 13:13-19)
How could this be? How could we not cringe at finding these instructions in our Holy Torah? Killing all inhabitants? Burning everything to the ground? Seeing no value whatsoever in preserving any landmarks, any history, any remnant of a group which lived an existence for many years in this town? And what about the innocent people – just because perhaps some people are deserving of death, does this condemn every single man, woman and child?
Rabbenu Bachaye notes that the phrase “you must investigate and probe, making careful inquiry” precludes just about every possibility of this ever coming to reality. Any inquiry is so exact in its questioning, the chances of a slipup or inconsistency among witnesses is so likely that the death sentence on the city is basically impossible to achieve.
However, he does not delegitimize the Torah’s perspective. He does declare the “evil people” described here to be in the same category of Korach, who rebelled against God and His holy word, who tried to destroy the nation’s autonomy from within. And of course, when there is a divinely inspired High Priest and a prophet around, the precise desire of God can be determined and the people can be condemned or expulcated.
Nonetheless it remains troubling to think that a certain type of vigilantism by the people can be enacted simply over what to us might seem to be a few loud rabble-rousers who, while certainly causing harm to others’ beliefs, don’t deserve to have their entire cities wiped out and their belongings burned!
While it’s not an easy idea to stomach, the principle behind total annihilation is actually meant to distinguish between turning this act into one which is the will of God versus one of cruelty. When everything is destroyed, and no one and nothing is spared, the law-enacters are not destroying out of a sense of cruelty. They don’t want to torture or hurt, they just want to end it. Compare this to the evil people in history who tortured their victims, let the “useful” live for a time being to enslave them, and who delighted in their self-proclaimed important work. All of this is the embodiment of cruelty – when you pick and choose your victims and say some can live while some will die. And you steal all their belongings, showing that it was about the money and wealth. The idea of total destruction, swift, quick, without keeping anything, is a moral indication that this was not about property or about converting people or about anything other than preservation of our lives under God’s dictation. The near impossibility of carrying this out cannot be overemphasized! But we must understand the comparison to Korach – all of whose followers met a swift and immediate fate, leaving the people to see that some ideas are just not compatible with the community of God.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch recalls the Tosefta that this case is theoretical, never happened and never will happen, as he explains the degree of the betrayal of all that is sacred to the greater national community. “All the places of residence in the Land belong to the nation; the nation dwells… in every place of residence… the character and the task of the whole nation must come to expression in each one of these places of residence. Only by remaining true to the character and task of the whole nation does every small place have the right to exist in the midst of the great whole.”
The promise Hirsch draws out from this entire theoretical episode is this: “the severity of your treatment of the people of this wayward city will not alter the kindness that is fundamental to your character. After you have carried out national justice, God will restore to you the kindness that is innate in you, allowing you to act mercifully, so that you will be worthy of His mercy.”
I am grateful that this story never happened and never will. However, it does give us insight into the difference between a divine justice (the removal of “evil” intent on destroying our community, which can only happen under the guidance of a real prophet) and the definition of cruelty, which includes evil intent, theft, desire to torture and/or enslave, and the removal of humanity from victims.
Troubling, yes. Theoretical, completely. Informative of what is truly evil – couldn’t be more clear.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Doing Right For God Yields Just Rewards
Parshat Eikev
by Rabbi Avi Billet
Good Torah trivia question: How do we know there was a river flowing down Mt Sinai? Because it says so in the Torah, Devarim 9:21
In the context of describing the events surrounding the Golden Calf, Moshe makes a brief reference to the water supply that existed at the mountain, in the context of talking about a number of episodes during which the people angered God and caused Him to want to destroy them.
On Tisha B’Av, I led a group conversation about what mourning for the Temple means to us today. One of the participants noted in passing that a god who is a “punishing god” is very unappealing nowadays. And while there is certainly an element of emotional truth to this, it is also true that many people who otherwise have very little to do with observant Judaism still find themselves in the synagogue on Yom Kippur. Not because Yom Kippur is a day of punishment – on the contrary. Yom Kippur is a day of Atonement, the day in which our sins are forgiven, so we need not be punished.
Of course, anyone who has ever studied in a yeshiva knows that the concept of punishment is very central to a Torah worldview. Think about the concepts of karet (excision from God and from the nation), being “chayav malkos” (deserving of lashes), being “chayav chatas” (needing to bring a sin offering), being “chayav misah” (deserving of death) whether in the hands of the court or in the hands of God.
While these punishment are not carried out by man in our times, and while we ought to do our best to not play God and suggest why bad things happen to decent people, I wonder how much God’s wrath flares up today.
And why wouldn’t it? After all, how many times in these parshas does Moshe tell the people things like, “You angered God,” and “you’ve rebelled against God since the day I first met you?” Have things changed so drastically since that time?
Maybe we’re not turning to other gods in the numbers we once were, but the influence of the world around us is quite palatable. With all the good we tout ourselves for doing, we are a far cry from the beautiful society described in the Torah.
We look out for the poor, but we are selective. We are careful about what goes into our mouths, but not what comes out of our mouths. We claim to be modest in how we live, but look at the ads for multi-thousand dollar sheitels and all the construction to mammoth size mansions going on in our neighborhoods – just to bring two examples. One of the more profound insights I’ve seen on this idea is written in the Kli Yakar Devarim 2:3 – when he talks about how Eisav perceives us. It is worth looking up.
If our God is One Who punishes, we have to ask ourselves why? Meaning, can’t He be forgiving, and just be all about love?
Our view is that He IS forgiving. But forgiveness comes after a process we call Teshuvah (recognition of sin and repenting from it – literally “returning” to God). And why is Teshuvah necessary?
While I can’t speak for God, I’ll give a little human example, to at least try to understand.
A parent loves his or her child. Unconditionally. But what happens when that child continues to destroy everything the parent holds near and dear? The reputation that took a lifetime to build. Destroyed. The lifestyle the family has built and modeled. Destroyed. Spoken ill of other children of these parents. Decided these parents are no longer my parents, but that others are my parents. A lifelong relationship is now devastated and decimated.
What is the parent to do? Perhaps the parent doesn’t want to see his/her child die. That would be too painful. Perhaps the parent is willing, however, to bide the time, ready, with open arms, for the day the child is ready to return.
Is it the job of the parent to conform to the new life-choices of the child? Isn’t the parent’s attachment to the past and to tradition and mesorah something more valuable than a new-fangled perhaps (though certainly not always) anger-driven approach to life and God?
God has reasons for wanting us to follow Him, but the parent parable can at least help us understand why He might get upset. Imagine denying God’s existence, imagine rejecting Him when He made you and gave you a world to enjoy, imagine saying His rules are unimportant.
Moshe’s reminders to the people are a way of saying, “Look. God will always be there waiting for you to return. He’ll never destroy you completely. But sometimes a cooling off period will be necessary, because things have gotten out of control on your end.” All the promises of good times on account of proper observance of the Torah are actually incredible promises – were to merit those on account of our behavior, our lives would be truly incredible.
This is not to suggest a reason for why our people have suffered at the hands of horrific enemies over the course of millennia. God could have also had other ways of keeping our numbers down (see Devarim 7:7).
But it is to suggest that we have a job to see God’s hand in our lives, and not to disrespect it, or heaven forfend, reject it. I mean, think about this. Our people arrived at a mountain in a dry, uninhabitable desert, where they would be for close to a year. They had no perceivable source of water.
And there God made a river run from the top of the mountain. Does that not show how much God cares? We must see the gifts He gives us all the time. If we don’t, we will have missed out on what makes life meaningful – seeing God at every turn.
by Rabbi Avi Billet
Good Torah trivia question: How do we know there was a river flowing down Mt Sinai? Because it says so in the Torah, Devarim 9:21
In the context of describing the events surrounding the Golden Calf, Moshe makes a brief reference to the water supply that existed at the mountain, in the context of talking about a number of episodes during which the people angered God and caused Him to want to destroy them.
On Tisha B’Av, I led a group conversation about what mourning for the Temple means to us today. One of the participants noted in passing that a god who is a “punishing god” is very unappealing nowadays. And while there is certainly an element of emotional truth to this, it is also true that many people who otherwise have very little to do with observant Judaism still find themselves in the synagogue on Yom Kippur. Not because Yom Kippur is a day of punishment – on the contrary. Yom Kippur is a day of Atonement, the day in which our sins are forgiven, so we need not be punished.
Of course, anyone who has ever studied in a yeshiva knows that the concept of punishment is very central to a Torah worldview. Think about the concepts of karet (excision from God and from the nation), being “chayav malkos” (deserving of lashes), being “chayav chatas” (needing to bring a sin offering), being “chayav misah” (deserving of death) whether in the hands of the court or in the hands of God.
While these punishment are not carried out by man in our times, and while we ought to do our best to not play God and suggest why bad things happen to decent people, I wonder how much God’s wrath flares up today.
And why wouldn’t it? After all, how many times in these parshas does Moshe tell the people things like, “You angered God,” and “you’ve rebelled against God since the day I first met you?” Have things changed so drastically since that time?
Maybe we’re not turning to other gods in the numbers we once were, but the influence of the world around us is quite palatable. With all the good we tout ourselves for doing, we are a far cry from the beautiful society described in the Torah.
We look out for the poor, but we are selective. We are careful about what goes into our mouths, but not what comes out of our mouths. We claim to be modest in how we live, but look at the ads for multi-thousand dollar sheitels and all the construction to mammoth size mansions going on in our neighborhoods – just to bring two examples. One of the more profound insights I’ve seen on this idea is written in the Kli Yakar Devarim 2:3 – when he talks about how Eisav perceives us. It is worth looking up.
If our God is One Who punishes, we have to ask ourselves why? Meaning, can’t He be forgiving, and just be all about love?
Our view is that He IS forgiving. But forgiveness comes after a process we call Teshuvah (recognition of sin and repenting from it – literally “returning” to God). And why is Teshuvah necessary?
While I can’t speak for God, I’ll give a little human example, to at least try to understand.
A parent loves his or her child. Unconditionally. But what happens when that child continues to destroy everything the parent holds near and dear? The reputation that took a lifetime to build. Destroyed. The lifestyle the family has built and modeled. Destroyed. Spoken ill of other children of these parents. Decided these parents are no longer my parents, but that others are my parents. A lifelong relationship is now devastated and decimated.
What is the parent to do? Perhaps the parent doesn’t want to see his/her child die. That would be too painful. Perhaps the parent is willing, however, to bide the time, ready, with open arms, for the day the child is ready to return.
Is it the job of the parent to conform to the new life-choices of the child? Isn’t the parent’s attachment to the past and to tradition and mesorah something more valuable than a new-fangled perhaps (though certainly not always) anger-driven approach to life and God?
God has reasons for wanting us to follow Him, but the parent parable can at least help us understand why He might get upset. Imagine denying God’s existence, imagine rejecting Him when He made you and gave you a world to enjoy, imagine saying His rules are unimportant.
Moshe’s reminders to the people are a way of saying, “Look. God will always be there waiting for you to return. He’ll never destroy you completely. But sometimes a cooling off period will be necessary, because things have gotten out of control on your end.” All the promises of good times on account of proper observance of the Torah are actually incredible promises – were to merit those on account of our behavior, our lives would be truly incredible.
This is not to suggest a reason for why our people have suffered at the hands of horrific enemies over the course of millennia. God could have also had other ways of keeping our numbers down (see Devarim 7:7).
But it is to suggest that we have a job to see God’s hand in our lives, and not to disrespect it, or heaven forfend, reject it. I mean, think about this. Our people arrived at a mountain in a dry, uninhabitable desert, where they would be for close to a year. They had no perceivable source of water.
And there God made a river run from the top of the mountain. Does that not show how much God cares? We must see the gifts He gives us all the time. If we don’t, we will have missed out on what makes life meaningful – seeing God at every turn.
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
The Blessing of Being Spread Across the Globe
Parshat Va'etchanan
by Rabbi Avi Billet
In the middle of Devarim Chapter 4, Moshe describes what will happen some time in the future when the people will abandon God in pursuit of some kind of idol. “God will spread you among the nations, and you’ll remain small in numbers among the peoples where you will have been directed. Then you will serve gods, things which are man-made. Wood and stones which do not see, do not hear, do not eat, and can not smell. And from there you will seek out God, and you will find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart and soul.” (4:27-29)
Interestingly, when all these things happen, or as the next verse says, when “they find you,” the time will come when “you will return to Hashem your God and you will listen to His voice.” (4:30)
Also interestingly, when the turnaround will come, Moshe does not say “you will return to the land.” He says, “You will return to God.” And so I wonder, is verse 27 a curse or a blessing – “You will remain small in numbers among the peoples where you will have been directed” – meaning, is it a curse that you’ll be ousted from the land and that you’ll be small in numbers, or is it a blessing that your long-term survival is assured?
A literal reading of this might take a very dark leap off the page and suggest that the persecution Jews have experienced over the millennia is a fulfillment of this. If we were promised we would remain small in numbers and yet significant, how else do we remain small in numbers but through the hands of oppressors?
An opposing view would certainly shout down such a horrible sentiment. How dare we suggest we understand reasons for persecution? Are we really to believe that all efforts at stemming the tide of Jewish growth, anywhere in the world, is still a fallout from the original idolatrous practices that caused our ancestors to be removed from the Holy Land? Perhaps we can blame evil people for the evil they commit?
Rather, I would suggest, that the appeal of being part of the Jewish people, sharing in our triumphs, and also in our miseries, is something only a select few will join in, were they not born into our people. Just to compare in history, the two major religions credited with spreading themselves by the sword were able to grow and spread across many lands through threats and violence. Even if that ancient form of proselytizing is not as common today, there is no question that their “success” worldwide goes back to the original efforts of globalization through violence, which continue today through missionary work in different forms.
The Jewish people never really engaged in this practice. So our growth has been by and large more of the organic nature – stemmed in many generations by oppression and genocide – aside from the losses we’ve experienced in more recent times on account of assimilation and ignorance-of-Judaism of many Jews who identify culturally as Jews, but certainly not religiously or nationally.
So, again, is the idea of being spread among the nations, only to return to God (and not the land) a blessing or a curse?
Alshikh actually says “In that you will not be completely destroyed, the exile is good for you.” Why? R Yosef B’chor Shor suggests that if Jews are going to worship idols, they are better off doing it outside of the land of Israel. (Not that it’s a good practice!)
In his Panim Yafot, Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz gives us a different perspective on how we are to view the exile of the Jewish people, and why the first step is to return to God, rather than the land. Based on a passage in Yoma 22b, he says the Jewish people are a countable number when they do not fulfill the will of God. But when they fulfill the will of God, they are not countable, because each individual’s value and worth becomes multiplied in a manner that is priceless.
In answer to the question of the blessing v curse, however, Malbim explains that the Jewish people being spread across the globe is a blessing of not having the destiny of our people’s eggs all in one basket, such that even if there are decrees, and exile, and destruction heaved upon us in one land, there is salvation and a place of refuge someplace else.
While we are certainly blessed to live in a time when the State of Israel can be that refuge for Jews around the world, we dare not be complacent in thinking we have arrived. As we observed Tisha B’Av once again this year, we know very well that while we may be significant in the world, we will remain few in number. And even though we will remain, as promised by God, it is only the complete return to God – which must happen outside of the Land of Israel (and is a tremendous challenge as evidenced by the facts on the ground) – that will help us merit the complete return to the land from which we were exiled so long ago.
We have a lot of work to do.
by Rabbi Avi Billet
In the middle of Devarim Chapter 4, Moshe describes what will happen some time in the future when the people will abandon God in pursuit of some kind of idol. “God will spread you among the nations, and you’ll remain small in numbers among the peoples where you will have been directed. Then you will serve gods, things which are man-made. Wood and stones which do not see, do not hear, do not eat, and can not smell. And from there you will seek out God, and you will find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart and soul.” (4:27-29)
Interestingly, when all these things happen, or as the next verse says, when “they find you,” the time will come when “you will return to Hashem your God and you will listen to His voice.” (4:30)
Also interestingly, when the turnaround will come, Moshe does not say “you will return to the land.” He says, “You will return to God.” And so I wonder, is verse 27 a curse or a blessing – “You will remain small in numbers among the peoples where you will have been directed” – meaning, is it a curse that you’ll be ousted from the land and that you’ll be small in numbers, or is it a blessing that your long-term survival is assured?
A literal reading of this might take a very dark leap off the page and suggest that the persecution Jews have experienced over the millennia is a fulfillment of this. If we were promised we would remain small in numbers and yet significant, how else do we remain small in numbers but through the hands of oppressors?
An opposing view would certainly shout down such a horrible sentiment. How dare we suggest we understand reasons for persecution? Are we really to believe that all efforts at stemming the tide of Jewish growth, anywhere in the world, is still a fallout from the original idolatrous practices that caused our ancestors to be removed from the Holy Land? Perhaps we can blame evil people for the evil they commit?
Rather, I would suggest, that the appeal of being part of the Jewish people, sharing in our triumphs, and also in our miseries, is something only a select few will join in, were they not born into our people. Just to compare in history, the two major religions credited with spreading themselves by the sword were able to grow and spread across many lands through threats and violence. Even if that ancient form of proselytizing is not as common today, there is no question that their “success” worldwide goes back to the original efforts of globalization through violence, which continue today through missionary work in different forms.
The Jewish people never really engaged in this practice. So our growth has been by and large more of the organic nature – stemmed in many generations by oppression and genocide – aside from the losses we’ve experienced in more recent times on account of assimilation and ignorance-of-Judaism of many Jews who identify culturally as Jews, but certainly not religiously or nationally.
So, again, is the idea of being spread among the nations, only to return to God (and not the land) a blessing or a curse?
Alshikh actually says “In that you will not be completely destroyed, the exile is good for you.” Why? R Yosef B’chor Shor suggests that if Jews are going to worship idols, they are better off doing it outside of the land of Israel. (Not that it’s a good practice!)
In his Panim Yafot, Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz gives us a different perspective on how we are to view the exile of the Jewish people, and why the first step is to return to God, rather than the land. Based on a passage in Yoma 22b, he says the Jewish people are a countable number when they do not fulfill the will of God. But when they fulfill the will of God, they are not countable, because each individual’s value and worth becomes multiplied in a manner that is priceless.
In answer to the question of the blessing v curse, however, Malbim explains that the Jewish people being spread across the globe is a blessing of not having the destiny of our people’s eggs all in one basket, such that even if there are decrees, and exile, and destruction heaved upon us in one land, there is salvation and a place of refuge someplace else.
While we are certainly blessed to live in a time when the State of Israel can be that refuge for Jews around the world, we dare not be complacent in thinking we have arrived. As we observed Tisha B’Av once again this year, we know very well that while we may be significant in the world, we will remain few in number. And even though we will remain, as promised by God, it is only the complete return to God – which must happen outside of the Land of Israel (and is a tremendous challenge as evidenced by the facts on the ground) – that will help us merit the complete return to the land from which we were exiled so long ago.
We have a lot of work to do.
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