(Deuteronomy 31:1 - 31:30) Jewish Education. From the earliest age, our daughters came to expect one question at our weekly Shabbat dinner table, and woe unto the unfortunate lass who did not have a ready answer. The question was always the same: "What are you reading?" Any answer was acceptable, so long as it wasn't 'nothing'. Over time, the kids were so excited about sharing their latest book that they began reading them aloud to the table. So it was that a simple pedagogical question developed into a charming element of our Shabbat feast that continues to this day. After we take turns sharing with the table the good things that have transpired in the course of the previous week, after the words of Torah, after the singing and the eating (and the ritual walking of Guinness the dog), we settle down to hear a chapter or two in the latest saga. I have now been plugged in to The Sisters Grimm (ALL nine volumes), The 39 Clues (15+ volumes), The Mysterious Benedict Society (three), The Heroes' Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (three), Dear Dumb Diary (dozens), and many, many more. The giggles and smiles that fill our house from these stories have become an integral part of our Oneg Shabbat, the transcendental joy of the Shabbat experience. This week's parashah is all about Jewish Education. Hashem commands Moses to assemble the Jewish People once every seven years to hear the Reading of the entire Torah. No one was exempt: every man, woman and child was required to attend. This mitzvah is called Hak-Hel, the Gathering. But Moses quickly grasped that once every seven years wasn't nearly enough. Such was our love for Gcd's Torah that Moses ordained that we read the Torah, not once every seven years, but once every seven days. That is why about 1/50 of the Torah is read every Shabbat, completing the entire Five Books of Moses, from Bereishit/Genesis through Devarim/Deuteronomy, once every year. But even that wasn't enough. Such was our love for Gcd's Torah that Ezra decreed that even three days shouldn't pass without reading the Torah. So every Monday and Thursday, on the ancient market days when Jews would gather, we read a few verses from the weekly Torah portion as well. But even that wasn't enough. Such was our love for Gcd's Torah that anytime Jews assemble, a word of Torah, a nugget of Truth, a clever insight, is shared.
Rabbi Chananiah ben Teradion said: when even two people gather and a word of Torah is shared between them, the Divine Spirit rests upon them. (Avot 3:3)
Jews are perpetual learners, permanent students, and Jewish Education is at the heart of the secret of Jewish Survival. Show me a Jew who sets aside time to study Torah every day, and I'll show you a Jew whose children, whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be identifiable Jews decades from now. Tragically, some forms of Jewish Education left a bad taste in the mouths of many people. Cheders and Talmud Torahs tried to give a sprinkling of Judaism to public school students, but multiple studies over several decades have shown that the Talmud Torah model of Jewish Education is worthless. In fact, Talmud Torah accomplished the opposite: this negative experience left many (otherwise) highly educated people with the impression that Torah study and Judaism were not worthy of their time and attention. There's a great clip from Woody Allen's movie Radio Days that captures the geist of supplementary Jewish Education:
Yet studying the Torah, is, as we say in our daily prayers, our very lives and length of our days. If we have abandoned our commitment to the daily study of Torah, is it any wonder that Judaism in America is rapidly dying? As I have written elsewhere, I believe we are entering a period of great economic, political and social instability. The Talmud tells us the secret of surviving this turmoil:
The students of Rabbi Elazar asked him: What should a person do to save themselves from the birth pangs of the Messianic Age? He responded: be engaged in the study of Torah and do great acts of kindness to your fellowman. (Sanhedrin 98B)
In order to survive the coming maelstrom, we must do outrageous and unrequited acts of goodness for each other, and we must study Torah. Like two medicines, the effect is only achieved by taking both; one without the other won't work. Commit to sticking your nose in a book of the Torah for ten minutes every day. It doesn't matter what you study, find or discover an area of interest: the choices are endless and almost the entire 3,500 year-old treasury of Jewish thought and literature is available in English. If the ossified Jewish Establishment was genuinely interested in Jewish survival, it would re-prioritize allocations to ensure a free, quality Hebrew Day School education to every single Jewish child in North America. The goal should be: not a single Jewish kid in public school. But since your feckless Federation leadership won't do it, earmark your Federation dollars exclusively for that goal. Or better yet, completely bypass the Federation and their scandalously high overhead, and donate directly to the Scholarship Fund of the Hebrew Day School of your choice. Let's start a revolution, you and me, right here and now between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Whatever you lose sleep over - injustice, hunger, sovereign debt, Iranian Nukes, ISIS, crumbling social morays, galloping inflation, police brutality - if you want to change the world, begin by changing yourself, begin by committing to a regime of daily Torah study. Rabbi Elazar had it going on. Get Jewishly educated, particularly (especially) if you think you know all there is to know Jewish-wise. Because as the saying goes, the more you know, the more you know you don't know. He speaks the truth, my faithful Indian companion. Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah!
(To view earlier blog posts on this parasha, click HERE and HERE.) The story is told about a very special horse named Wildfire (my apologies in advance to Michael Martin Murphey). Wildfire had won the Triple Crown, and almost every other race in which he had ever competed. Wildfire was in the prime of his career, and the talk of the sports world; the kind of horse with a storied history that only comes around once a century. Understandably, Wildfire was worth untold millions of dollars. But Wildfire loved to run and needed lots of space. So Wildfire's owner built a huge enclosure just for him, a broad, treeless field, 39 miles around the perimeter. And every day, that rancher would spend hours inspecting that perimeter, never taking his careful eye off that fence. He would be out there at first light, rain or shine, snow or blistering sun, scrutinizing fence posts, cross bars, wires, barbs, fasteners - he would stop and repair even the smallest breach right there on the spot with an expertise born of long experience. After all, even one small break and Wildfire, the culmination of his life's work, his multi-million dollar investment, could be gone forever. The neighbor boy, a clever ten year old, had been watching this strange fence ritual for many months with growing curiosity. On day, that bright young feller and the rancher happened past each other on the path. The boy said, "Mister, you must sure love that fence." The rancher thought about that for a second and burst out laughing. This week's parasha describes in vivid detail the Ten Commandments, or more accurately rendered from the Hebrew, the Ten Utterances. For these were the Ten Categories of Torah Law, spoken by Gcd Himself to the Jewish People, as they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai in the presence of Almighty Gcd. Number Four is about Shabbat, the Sabbath Day:
Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it distinct/separate/holy. For six days you should work and engage in all manner of creative endeavor; but the Seventh Day is Sabbath to the Lcrd Your Gcd: do not do any creative work - you, or your son or daughter, your manservant or maidservant, your animals or even the resident alien who dwells in your gates. For in six days did Gcd create the heavens, the earth, the seas and all that dwell therein; and He Himself rested on the Seventh Day; therefore, Gcd blessed the Seventh Day and made it holy. (Shemot/Exodus 20:8 - 11)
Shabbat is a big deal in Judaism. Shabbat is our frame of reference in all things: either we are savoring the lingering essence of the Shabbat that just was, or we are anticipating the Shabbat that approaches. It is our guiding light; the brightest star in the Jewish constellation. But the specifics of how to do Shabbat right, with all the attendant "do's" and "don'ts" in Gcd's Book, can be quite detailed, and take up a significant hunk in Jewish Lawbooks. And understandably, many people not schooled in Shabbat observance from an early age are intimidated and overwhelmed by its minutiae. Like the little boy, people tend to focus on the fence and lose sight of what it protects. So what is inside the fence exactly? What is this horse called Shabbat? Is it merely a day off from the J-O-B? A day of leisure? recreation? Although I have never seen it framed in quite this way, in my view Shabbat has five key components: 1. Communion with Gcd: Six days a week, we assemble for daily prayers for a few minutes before and after work. However, we are mere mortals, and the reality is that many of us are often only half awake, rushed, harried, distracted. As we mumble the proscribed prayers, we worry about catching the 7:37 or traffic or the big meeting or the shopping list or the car repair. Comes the Shabbat! and all the "have-tos" are put on ice. We can focus on our prayers without the distractions of the work week. Indeed, we add extra psalms to our Shabbat devotions because we have the luxury of time to revel in the poetry and timelessness of the liturgy. 2. Torah Study: Six days a week, we struggle to spend sufficient time drinking from the vivifying waters of Torah. Comes the Shabbat! and we have the luxury to spend extra time learning Torah in depth, studying with our kids, sharing our insights with our families, and in turn, turning them on to the beauty of Torah study. 3. Family: Six days a week, the brushfires of our lives deny us the time with those most precious to us. Comes the Shabbat! and we gather about the sparkling table dressed in our finest clothes, enjoy long, lovely meals together, singing songs, telling stories - but mostly, enjoying each other's company; saying, in effect, that there's no place in the world I'd rather be than spending time with you.
4. Physical rest: Shabbat is indeed a day of rest. Six days a week we burn the candle at both ends, but comes the Shabbat! and we can sleep in a little, or grab a little afternoon kip as one of the delicious joys of the day. 5. Introspection: Shabbat provides a regular opportunity to reflect on the week that was, on the week that lies before us, and the general path of our lives. Shabbat encourages us to take stock, to make sure that are lives are headed in a meaningful direction, and provides the context for the course corrections we may need in coming week. These five elements of Shabbat can't be achieved at the movies or on the golf course or playing video games. And I suggest that true Shabbat observance is not in the punctilious performance of the minutiae; the particulars must of course be observed, but with a constant eye on what they are intended to protect. There's no way around it: without careful maintenance of the fence, the horse - that ethereal, delicate, precious Spirit of Shabbat - is sure to escape. There is also little doubt that the devotion of the Jewish People to Shabbat observance has been one of the defining factors in our miraculous, 4,000 year old survival story. Jews can no more survive without Shabbat than a fish without water. And Shabbat observers will tell you that the sublime, restorative spiritual high of Shabbat cannot be shared or described, it can only be experienced. Yet today, as in many generations past, well-meaning but misguided thinkers have attempted to construct a fence-less Shabbat, more suitable, they argue, to modernity. Predictably, all they have accomplished is the destruction of the greatest Jewish diaspora since the Golden Age of Spain. For the vast majority of American Jews, Shabbat is but a dim memory. The only way to be a part of the Jewish future is to 'Remember the Shabbat and keep it holy.' So if you're not a regular Shabbat observer, what to do? where to start? First of all, take a deep breath, don't be overwhelmed, don't be intimidated by supposed "experts", those who are three pages ahead of you in some method book. Begin by making the commitment to keep Shabbat, and start integrating Shabbat into your life gradually, in doable doses. It takes a little time, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard; any ten year old with twenty years of experience can do it. Here are a few suggestions: - Go to Shabbat.com and register to be hosted for a Shabbat meal; - Call your local rabbi and arrange for an invite or ask for a reading list; - Drop in to shul on a Shabbat morning; - Start lighting Shabbat candles on Friday before sunset; - Contact me directly and I will help get you started on the path to Shabbat observance. Shabbat Shalom - may you truly experience the transcendent peace and tranquility of the Holy Sabbath Day. Yehoshua
