The Evolution of Food - Reflections on Parashat Shemini 5776

(Leviticus 9:1 - 11:47)

I cook for a living, and perhaps because of that, I think a lot about food. I suppose that makes me a "foodie." 

So, as this week's Torah portion deals with many of the rules of keeping kosher, that is, of eating in a kosher way, it could be that I've given the subject more than a passing thought.

Down through the ages, the Sages of Israel have used different approaches for understanding the significance of keeping kosher, but the broad consensus of rabbinic opinion is that keeping kosher confers spiritual benefits only, and does not contribute to our physical well-being.

In other words, kosher eating is not necessarily synonymous with healthy eating. 

I would like to challenge that assertion. But before I do, we need to discuss one or two salient details of Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection.

OK, I know you're thinking: aside from possibly eating a Galapagos finch (and fuggedabowdit they're not kosher) what could Natural Selection possibly have to do with keeping kosher?

Let's first make sure we're clear on Natural Selection. Here's a brief mythical example: imagine an idyllic South Pacific island, with a native tribe whom we'll call the Cute Residents of the Idyllic South Pacific Island, or CRISPIs for short. 

In the beginning of our story, all the members of the CRISPI tribe share similar genetics, and are of comparable height, skin color, eye color, etc. However, over the span of many generations, hundreds or even thousands of years, certain genetic variations begin to creep in. Maybe outsiders from far-flung atolls have paddled over, taken up residence, and started families with CRISPI maidens. Maybe the genetic variations are due to naturally occurring genetic mutations (CRISPIs spend a lot of time idylling in the sun).

Whatever the reason, over time, the CRISPI tribe starts looking more diverse than it used to. Some CRISPIs are now significantly taller and leaner than others, some have different color hair or eyes. (How that changing genetic information is physically expressed is called phenotype.)

And so everything plods along idyllically - until disaster strikes. A cargo container drifts ashore, and when opened, turns out to contain a den of (by now) very hungry zoo lions. 

In the face of this sudden environmental stress, different phenotypes now confer distinct survival advantages or disadvantages over others. For example, maybe faster, leaner CRISPIs have a higher likelihood of outrunning the lions and shimmying up a tree to safety than the slower, fatter CRISPIs. They're also more likely to be able to safely scoot down, grab some food and shimmy back up to safety. Since more of them are likely to survive in this difficult new environment, they are more likely to have more offspring, who in turn are fast and lean, and better suited to making it in the new reality. And before too many generations have elapsed, the slower, fatter CRISPIs will likely die out for the converse reason.

To summarize: before the cargo container opened, the genetic diversity among the population didn't mean very much; lean or chunky, tall or short, everyone strummed ukeleles and danced on the beach all day. But when the circumstances suddenly changed, that phenotypic diversity became the difference between life and death. Nature essentially selected out the fast, skinny CRISPIs to survive, and condemned slow, fat CRISPIs to extinction.

That is the concept of Natural Selection in a nutshell (did you notice how I snuck in another food reference right there?)

Now we can get back to the business of food and kosher.

America has become a nation of fat CRISPIs. A century ago, tuberculosis, typhoid and dysentery were the leading killers in America. Today, the top killers are diseases of affluence: heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer.

According to the National Institutes of Health:

• More than two-thirds (68.8%) of adults are considered to be overweight or obese.
• More than one-third (35.7%) of adults are considered to be obese.
• More than 1 in 20 (6.3%) have extreme obesity.
• Almost 3 in 4 men (74%) are considered to be overweight or obese.
• The overall prevalence of obesity is similar for both men and women (about 36%).
• About 8% of women are considered to have extreme obesity.
• About one-third of children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 are considered to be overweight or obese.
• More than 1 in 6 children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 are considered to be obese.  

Being fat is the new normal; there is no longer any shame in it.

I am also told by medical professionals that the overall cancer rate 75 years ago was about 1 in 15; today it is approaching 1 in 2.

What has changed in that time?

It's the food. THE FOOD. Our food has changed.

In the past, people sat down to meals prepared from raw ingredients; fresh meats from the butcher, fresh produce from the green grocer, fresh bread from the neighborhood bakery. Milk was delivered fresh every day from the local dairy. Another mythical person, the stay-at-home-mom, cooked these meals from scratch.

Somewhere along the line, that changed. Mommies went to work, and no one had time to cook. Supermarkets gradually drove the butchers and bakers out of business. Fast food franchises proliferated. Food ceased being food, and became a 'product,' and food production became an industry.

Once food becomes a product, like an iPhone or a Chevrolet, product consistency becomes a core business value. Food preservation and color retention and spoilage reduction factors become paramount. Today, supermarket shelves are chock full of 'product': preserved, pasteurized, homogenized, hydrolyzed, stabilized, texturized, re-formed, artificially colored and flavored, all designed to protect and service the food supply chain, which takes weeks to get the food "product" from factory floor to supermarket floor. And the FDA smiles benevolently on this cacophony of plastic food because studies (paid for by the food manufacturers) prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the preservatives don't kill laboratory mice (at least not right away, anyway).

And let's not even discuss the billions of advertising dollars spent to convince consumers that buying all this product is normal and cool and desirable, and oh! how you're missing out if you don't have Crunchberries for breakfast or a Coke with lunch.

Today, America is a country of soda guzzling, Big Mac chomping, Hot Pocketing, bacon loving, Hamburger Helpin', perambulatory heart attacks on a stick. The days of eating a home cooked meal that didn't derive from a box are in the rear view mirror.

Is it any wonder that we're obese, that we're cancer-ridden, that we have artificial knees and hips? That one in seven Americans are gluten sensitive, who can no longer tolerate the adulteration of wheat, which benefits the mega-bread factories? That food allergies that we never knew in our childhoods are exploding in frequency? 

We are committing suicide by plastic spork.

So it may well be that, up until recent times, keeping kosher only offered spiritual benefits. Maybe in the past, before this sea change in food, it was true that people who kept kosher were no more or less physically healthy than non-Jews who did not keep kosher. 

But the food environment has suddenly changed, and the difference between keeping kosher and not, differences that once didn't mean much in terms of physical health, may now mean the difference between life and death.

What does the Hebrew word "kosher" mean, anyway? It means 'fit', as in fit to eat. The food we eat should be fit for human consumption. And at its core, keeping kosher is all about paying attention, and being sensitive to, what we consume as food.

Kashrut itself has evolved. Veal and foie gras, once technically kosher, are now considered by many poskim (decisors of Jewish Law) to be not kosher, because we have become sensitized to the pain inflicted on the animal prior to slaughter.

And the mean time from factory to store is significantly shorter with kosher meat.

And because we Jews are careful to scrub our fresh produce for any evidence of bugs, we are also doing a pretty bang-up job of washing pesticides off our produce.

And of course, eating at McDonald's and Burger King and Taco Bell is (thank Gcd!) out of the question.

In the same way that our particular rules about frequent hand washing saved the Jews from the Black Death (so much so, that our non-Jewish neighbors accused us of causing it) our higher standard of what is fit to eat may well be inadvertently saving us from supermarket poison.

To be sure, it is possible, as the Ramban will remind us in a few weeks, to be a menuval b'reshut HaTorah, to fulfill the technical requirements of keeping kosher and still be a glutton, overweight and sickly. But I contend that the kiyyum, the fulfillment of the higher intent and spirit of kashrut, goes way beyond the slavish search for the kosher symbol on a package.

To really keep kosher is to think hard about the food we eat. As we approach the Passover season, I am amazed at how people lose their minds - and drain their wallets - buying exorbitantly priced Kosher for Passover cake and doughnut mixes and exotic candies and potato chips and ketchup and sodas and cookies and tortes - as if they won't survive for a week without them.

Here's a clever idea: this Passover, go native. Stick to lean kosher meats and fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a little matzah. Cook from scratch. Make a soup. Use fresh herbs. For that one week, avoid factory food and see how you do. 

We are the Or LaGoyim, A Light Unto the Nations; walking, talking examples of the myriad blessings of a Torah-centric life. That living example extends to every aspect of our lives, including the food on our tables and our physical health that derives from it.

Reflect on and really examine the food you eat. Really think about kosher. And you will find that keeping kosher confers both spiritual and physical benefits that only the Author of Life Himself could have foreseen when He gave us the great gift of Torah some 3,328 years ago.

Shabbat Shalom.

(To read an earlier blog post on this Torah Portion, click HERE.)

Confronting Evil - Reflections on Parashat Zachor 5776

In the weeks before Passover, Jews the world over read four special Torah portions. (These readings are in addition to the regular weekly Torah reading cycle, in which we read the entire Five Books of Moses cover-to-cover over the course of the year.)

Yesterday, we read the second of the four, Parashat Zachor. The text is as follows:

Remember (Zachor) what the Amalekites did on your way out of Egypt; that they happened upon you on the way and attacked the stragglers and all the weak ones in the rear when you were the most tired and exhausted, and they did not fear Gcd. Thus it shall be that when the Lcrd your Gcd establishes and makes you secure from your enemies around, in the Land that He will give you as an inheritance to possess it, erase (timcheh) the memory of Amalek from under the heavens - never forget (lo tishkach). (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)

Amalek is archetypal evil. Amalek tells the world that there is no Gcd, no order in the universe, and therefore, no notion of good and bad. Amalek encourages war and chaos and destruction, because in that milieu he thrives - free to oppress the weak, to rape, pillage and plunder. Amalek is Haman. Amalek is Hitler. Amalek is Stalin. Amalek is every godless, Jew-hating despot who has trampled through the garden of human history.

Amalek viciously opposes both aspects of the Jewish national destiny - to be a Kingdom of Priests, i.e., to minister to Gcd on behalf of all the peoples of the earth, and to be a Holy Nation, distinct and set apart from the rest, focusing on our own spiritual development and maintaining our special relationship with Gcd.

Therefore, Amalek seeks to destroy the Jew, the conscience of the world. And it is against Amalek that the Jewish People must take a stand. That is the meaning and import of these verses.

But if we torque down on the verbiage used here, there seems to be an inherent contradiction. 

The opening and closing phrases of these verses are Zachor…Lo Tishkach - 'remember' and 'don't forget.' In opposition to that idea, we have the commandment to erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. 

Do you see the problem? If we successfully blot out Amalek from under the heavens, if we erase them and their memory from the history books (like Will and Ariel Durant tried to do to the Jews in their history of Western Civilization); if we really do that job properly, like reformatting a hard drive, there can be no trace of Amalek, and therefore nothing to remember. 

So which one is it: do we continually remind ourselves of their evil deeds, or do we reformat the hard drive of human history from any trace of Amalek?

And while we're asking hard questions, let’s pile on another: Immediately after the war with Amalek, Gcd tells Moses: 

Write this remembrance in a book, and speak it in the ears of Joshua: That I (Gcd) will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. (Exodus 17:14)

So who is supposed to be doing the blotting out - we here on earth, or Gcd on high?

To answer these questions, let’s come back to our first text, Parashat Zachor: First, how do we understand the seeming redundancy of Zachor-Lo Tishkach/Remember-Don't Forget?

There are several approaches to this problem.

The Sifri suggests that zachor suggest a verbal declaration, while lo tishkach is a commandment to keep this reality alive in the heart at all times.

The Malbim says that zachor is positive commandment while lo tishkach is a negative commandment, two sides of the same coin. 

The Ibn Ezra points out that lo tishkach is linked to, and intended to strengthen the zachor, meaning: even if you are not yet established and secure in the Land of Israel, not yet able to be pro-active against evil, always keep your passion against evil burning brightly.

Based upon this Ibn Ezra, one possible answer to our question is that the verses describe a sequence of events: the remembrance/not forgetting aspect of the mitzvah apply only before Amalek is eliminated. Once Amalek is successfully blotted out, the commandment to remember Amalek falls away.

Here is another possible approach.

Let’s look at the Hebrew word to erase, limchot. What is curious is that there is an even stronger Hebrew verb, limchok, to utterly blot out. It would seem that limchok denotes complete erasure, the language of wiping the hard drive. But the Torah doesn't use the language of mochek, it uses the language of mocheh. So what does mocheh mean?

Mocheh means erasing, as in scribblings on a piece of paper. And as any school child can tell you, no matter how hard you erase, some faint impression of what was written remains. 

Mocheh also means diluting or dissolving. Further, we see the word mocheh in the Talmud denoting protesting or annulling. 

For example, on Baba Batra 38b, a landowner can be mocheh, protest, against the illegal occupation of his property in the presence of two witnesses. And on Ketubot 11a, minors who are converted by their parents have the ability to be mocheh (annul or to protest) their conversion.

This understanding, taken together with the verses in Shemot/Exodus cited earlier, suggests the following:

Amalek rears it's ugly head in every generation. Therefore, in every generation the Jews have a moral obligation, a mitzvah, a charge - limchot - to dilute their influence, to protest their murderous actions, to annul their power with any means at our disposal.

But that job won't be finished in a single generation. Therefore, we have the parallel charge of zachor - to remember the evil that is Amalek; to remember that this war against Amalek will span many generations. 

As Rabbi Tarfon says in Avot 2:16: It is not your responsibility to singlehandedly complete the work [of perfecting the world]; but your inability to complete the task does not free you from the responsibility of contributing to it.

Perhaps this is why, even in the first encounter with Amalek, the Torah records that Joshua and his warriors were only able to weaken Amalek, but not vanquish them completely. [Exodus 17:13] Amalek survived to fight another day.

How do we dilute the influence of Amalek in the world? Any high school chemistry student can tell you that to dilute any strong concentration, you add more solvent. And the way that Rav Kook taught us to fight evil was not necessarily to confront it head on (although sometimes that, too, is necessary), but rather to flood the world with good: do more mitzvot, both in quantity and quality; study more Torah; reach out to our wayward brethren. By flooding the world with good, we dilute the power of evil.

Over the long span of time, through advances and retreats, every successive generation annuls, weakens, dilutes the influence of Amalek bit by bit, until the time of Mashiach. Then, the Glory of Gcd will be manifest in the world, and all doubts will be resolved. In that post-historical world, Gcd Himself will utterly obliterate evil from under the heavens.

May we all merit to witness that happy day.

Happy Purim.

Off the Hook - Reflections on Parashat Pekudei 5776

(Exodus 38:21-40:38)

Pssst. Don't tell anyone you heard it from me, but I heard that Moshe is a thief. 

Believe it or not, Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest prophet and leader in the history of the Jewish People, is accused of petty theft in this week's Torah portion. Can you even believe it?  Here’s what happened:

According to the medieval commentary Daat Zkainim miBaalei HaTosafot, the bean-counters discovered that, somewhere between what was donated for the construction of the Mishkan/Tabernacle and what was fabricated, there was some silver missing. The whispering campaign had begun. Maybe Moshe had pocketed a few shekels? Skimmed a few dollars off the top?

Moshe refers to the Mishkan as the Mishkan HaEdut, the Mishkan of Testimony, because the mishkan itself would testify to his innocence. He demands a recount of all the vessels in the Mishkan, and sure enough, 15 extra vavin/hooks were cast, which accounted for the discrepancy.

The Daat Zkainim goes on to say two fascinating things: First, the verse from last week that says V’Hamlachah Hayta Dayam, "...and the materials [donated] were sufficient for the work at hand." In gematria/numerology, the initials of those three words come to the number 15. Second, that having been exonerated from this terrible accusation, Moshe voiced 15 expressions of praise to Gcd, corresponding to the 15 extra hooks.  Thus the number 15 became associated with praise to Gcd. That is why, down to this day, we have 15 morning blessings, and we begin and end the section of the morning prayers dedicated to praising Gcd with 15 expressions of praise: 15 in the Baruch She’amar prayer, and 15 expressions of praise in the Yishtabach prayer. Neat. 

But let’s come back here for a minute. Imagine: lashon hara, baseless accusations against Moshe, threatened to mar the construction of the greatest spiritual shrine and engineering feat of ancient times. Forget the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Sphinx or the other wonders of the ancient world. The Mishkan eclipsed them all.

The building of Gcd’s sanctuary was thrown into tumult because of groundless accusations against an innocent person. Somehow, the malshinim, the whisperers, imagined that Moshe could be holy-looking on the outside, but corrupt on the inside…maybe just as corrupt as they were on the inside.  In psychology, this is called projection: that is, to deflect attention from yourself, you imagine your own faults in others. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story on this subject called Young Goodman Brown. Check it out sometime.

What is the antidote to lashon hara, slander? I think it can be found in the name of our Torah portion: Pekudei.

Following the commentaries, most translations render pekudei as “counting,” in Hebrew cheshbon, so that the opening phrases of our Torah portion read, "These is the accounting of the Mishkan, the Mishkan HaEdut, as was counted at the command of Moses..." Straightforward enough. 

But I think that that translation is inadequate. Why? Back in Chapter 21 of Genesis, the Torah says, V’Hashem pakad as Sarah c’asher amar…/And Gcd PKD-ed Sarah as He said he would..." Did Gcd count her there? Trust me, that lady was one of a kind, so that can't be. In this context, the Hebrew word root PKD seems to mean remember.

And what about later in Genesis 50:24, where Joseph says in his dying words to his brothers, Pakod ifkod etchem vha’aleita etchem…/And Gcd will certainly PKD you and bring you up out of this land [Egypt]..." - again same word root – but over here the sense of the word is that that Gcd will ultimately redeem the Jewish People from Egypt. But if PKD means to redeem, then isn’t the second half of the verse, "...and bring you up out of this land [Egypt]..." redundant?

Now of course it’s possible for one word to have multiple, disparate meanings. Count. Remember. Redeem. But I’d like to suggest a unified understanding of the word PKD that ties them all together.

Here’s the idea: the word root PKD means “that which Gcd focuses his attention upon.” So in our Torah portion, the first phrase, Ayleh HaPekudim/"These are the PKDs” refers to the fact that the A-lmighty was focused upon the materials used in the building of the Mishkan HaEdut in order to exonerate His faithful servant Moses against laughable accusations of wrongdoing.

By the birth of Isaac, Gcd focuses his attention upon Sarah in order that Avraham and Sarah could conceive the miracle baby Isaac in their dotage.

By Joseph, PKD means that Gcd will focus his attention on the Jewish People and their plight in Egypt, AND THEREFORE v'ha’aleta etchem, He will lift you up and return you to Eretz Yisrael.

Does that make sense?

Last week was Shabbat Shekalim, the first of the four special Torah readings in the run-up to Passover.  Guess what? the wording of PKD is also used in reference to the Machtzit HaShekel, the annual half shekel contribution donated by everyone over the age of twenty. (Exodus 30:12) Why? Because the half shekel was so much more than a census or a tax. As each individual passes by the pushka/coin box and drops in his half shekel contribution, he is, for that brief moment, the focus of Gcd's attention. Kivakorat Roeh Edro: This imagery is common on Rosh HaShanah, the Shepherd inspecting his flock one by one as each sheep passes through the narrow gate.

So if Gcd is focusing on us…then we had better get our squash together so that we might withstand His scrutiny.

How? The Talmud in Yoma 72b (which, by the by, is discussing the symbolism of the holy vessels of the Mishkan) quotes Rava as follows: a person should be like the Ark of the Covenant, covered inside and outside with gold, tocho k'baro. In other words, your inner being and private actions should be consistent with your outer self. If a person’s tocho is aino k'baro – that is, one’s public persona is religious, respectable, but their private thoughts and behavior are corrupt and reprehensible, such a person can never be a true servant of Gcd. Those are Rava’s words, not mine.

Elsewhere, (Brachot 28a) we learn that Rabban Gamliel refused entrance to his Academy to any student whose tocho was not k'baro.

The great malady of our times is that most of us lack the inner eye - we tend make snap judgments of our fellow solely on the basis of chitzoniut, externalities, and are blind to a person's pnimiut, their true nature. 

And so it is that scoundrels can dress like pious Jews and commit all kinds of monstrous sexual and financial crimes, whisper all manner of character assassination, project their own twisted sins upon others, and get away with it, all because they look religious. 

The behavior of these individuals is a Chillul Hashem, a repudiation of the very Gcd they purport to represent. 

But I take comfort in the fact that the truth always wins out in the end. "Rabbi Yochanan ben Broka said, 'Anyone who commits a chillul Hashem in private will come to have their crimes exposed in public." (Avot 4:5)

Tocho k'baro means being authentic. If we are truly focused on improving our own character traits, our own Torah learning, our own mitzvah performance, our own connectedness to Gcd, then we won't have time for lashon hara: not to speak it, or listen to it from others. And if it is spoken about you, you will be impervious, because, like Moses of old, you can be assured of Gcd’s help when the whisperers come gunning for you.

V'dai l'maivin.

Shabbat Shalom.

To read an earlier blog on this Torah portion, click HERE.

Who Do You Like for President? - Reflections on Parashat Ki Tissa 5776

(Exodus 30:11-34:35)

As a rabbi, I am careful to keep my political views to myself. I recognize that good people can differ on matters of public policy, and in any case, I subscribe to Daniel Patrick Moynihan's observation that culture, not politics, is far more important in determining the long-term success of a society. 

In spite of the foregoing, I ask: does the Torah have anything to say about the current US presidential race? 

I think it might. Come, let's learn a little Torah together.

First, let's set the stage:

Three weeks ago, in Parashat Mishpatim, we read how the Jews reached the highest of the high, communing with Gcd A-lmighty at Mount SInai, hearing the Ten Commandments from the mouth of Gcd, and declaring with one voice and one heart, "Na'aseh v'Nishmah, we will perform and listen to these commandments."

This week, we read how the Jews fell to the lowest of the low. Just a few weeks later, the Jews were worshiping and prancing around the golden calf like drunken Druids around a maypole.

[Um, sidebar: one of them thar Ten Commandments is a pretty clear prohibition against worshiping idols.]

So we blew it big time.

Moses, meanwhile, is oblivious to all this. He's up at the summit of Mount Sinai, enveloped as it was in fire and fog, faithfully transcribing the Torah from Gcd. The dictation suddenly stops, and Gcd says to Moses:

Go. Descend, because the people that you brought up from Egypt have ruined [our relationship]; they have quickly veered from the path that I commanded them, and fashioned for themselves a calf-idol, and are worshiping it and offering sacrifices to it, saying 'These are your gcds, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.' (32:7,8)

Rashi, the greatest of biblical exegetes, reads the verse as follows: 

Gcd says to Moses, 'descend from your position of greatness, for I only made you great because of them.' At the very moment that the Jews began worshiping the idol, Moses was cast out before the Heavenly Court.

Rashi speaks across the centuries to tell us something fundamental about the nature of leadership: that leaders are, at best, a reflection of the people they lead.

I have read that most Americans find the current field of presidential candidates lackluster on both sides of the aisle. To be sure, there is no shortage of screaming and divisive rhetoric; boatloads of bombast, mudslinging, jingoism and sloganeering. And no doubt there is an obscene amount of money changing hands. But is there any great demonstration of leadership? of vision? of virtue?

Similarly in Israel: the consensus is that Netanyahu and Yaalon are not great leaders, but they're about the best we can hope for.

Maybe we're looking through the wrong end of the telescope: instead of expecting more of our leaders, we should be expecting more of ourselves, of our society, of our culture. Maybe we have no right to expect better of our leaders until we demand better of ourselves.

Perhaps if we hold ourselves to a higher standard of morality and ethics, we will have more ethical politicians. Perhaps if we hold ourselves to a higher standard of personal integrity, we will have more honest politicians. And perhaps if we hold ourselves to a higher standard of civility, we will have more civil political discourse.

The Torah is saying that virtuous cultures generate virtuous leaders, not the other way around. And for Moynihan's intellectual heirs, that is, any serious student of contemporary culture, that is a very sobering thought in this political season.

Shabbat Shalom.

Body Language - Reflections on Parashat Tetzaveh 5776

(Exodus 27:20 - 30:10)

For whatever reason, the A-lmighty has given me the ability for make friends easily. My wife and kids joke about it, saying that Abba (Father) can make friends with dryer lint, and they smirk every time a total stranger strikes up a conversation with me in the grocery store or on the street. 

So let me tell you about a man of my acquaintance whom we'll call "Joe." 

Joe is a big bear of a man with a long ponytail, the type who greets everybody with a broad toothy smile. He's funny, naturally friendly, and his booming, bellowing laugh is contagious. He is passionate about music and loves to sing. He's a good father and husband. He cooks for his kids, takes them to church, tries to teach them the rights and wrongs of life. In short, Joe is a simple, sweet, good-hearted man.

To look at him today, you wouldn't know that Joe had a very difficult childhood, plagued with many life-threatening illnesses which kept him in hospital for long periods of time. Later, in high school, his father became disabled and they lost their house. He and his family lived in a car for nine months until they found a homeless campground in the woods. Yet somehow, despite ongoing medical issues, he has managed to transcend all this adversity, to keep smiling and to build the life he has for himself today.

What is the connection between Joe and this week's Torah portion?

Put a pin in that question for just a minute.

We read this week of the priestly vestments to be worn by the High Priest of Israel: The linen breeches, the floor-length tunic, the robe, the apron, the belt, the breastplate, the turban and the headband. 

The Torah goes to great length to describe the design of these garments and the beautiful and precious materials used in their manufacture: gold, silver, scarlet wool, rare purple- and blue-dyed cloth, diamonds, rubies, sapphires.

The high priest in his resplendent uniform represents the ideal man: the person who has worked through his issues (with great effort and difficulty) to overcome the baser human instincts; the person who has emerged from the crucible of personal growth and development, clear of mind, healthy in body and pure of spirit, eager and dedicated in the service of Gcd. Indeed, we are taught that every garment he wore was deeply symbolic, and helped atone for some particular human character fault.

Take for example, the tzitz, the golden headband. On it was engraved the words "Kodesh L'ashem", Holy unto Gcd. We are taught that the headband atoned for any temple offering brought in a state of ritual impurity, either purposely or inadvertently; and more broadly, it corrected for the character flaw of azut metzach, of impudence and rebelliousness that could lead to the bringing of such a flawed sacrifice.

The high priest, then, was the great peacemaker, uniting Gcd above with His frequently wayward people below. 

So what does all this have to do with Joe? As I mentioned above, to look at him you would never guess at the difficult life Joe has led.

And to look at him, you would never guess that Joe is Jewish, born of a Jewish mother. 

He shared this information with me quite by accident one day. Of course he knows nothing of the tenets of Judaism, having not received a single hour of religious instruction in his life. But he knows he is a Jew nonetheless.

And then yesterday, I guess Joe felt he had gotten to know me well enough to share something deeply important to him. He pulled me aside, rolled up his sleeve, and showed me one of his tattoos. On his arm, in flawless Hebrew, was boldly engraved "Kodesh L'ashem."



What he didn't know was that he showed me his tattoo the very week that those words are read publicly in the annual Torah reading cycle in every synagogue on the planet. 

I asked if he knew what the words meant, and he said that he'd looked them up. Joe neither reads nor writes Hebrew, yet, of all the myriad tattoos one could commission, he chose to have engraved on his body, in Hebrew, "Holy unto the Lcrd." It spoke to him, but couldn't explain why.

Here's why: his Jewish soul, deprived as it has been of any traditional, healthy conduit of Jewish spirituality, found expression in this tattoo.

There are many many "Joe"s in the world; people who may not even consciously realize that they seek a path back home, who yearn for a connection with the higher spirituality that the High Priest of Israel represents, who have a deep-seated calling to be Kodesh L'ashem.

The messianic age approaches. We the cognoscenti, those who have been blessed with a Torah education, those instructed in the proper ways of devotion to Gcd, must (like the High Priest) overlook the inadvertent transgressions of our people, and pave the spiritual path back home with Torah Shel Ahavah - the Torah of Love and Kindness and Compassion. 

Shabbat Shalom.

Debate Teams - Reflections on Parashat BeShalach 5776

(Exodus 13:17-17:16)

Dennis Miller, the famed SNL comedian, once said about the Jews: "Left to themselves in a world of peace, the worst Jews would ever do to people is debate them to death."

But for the Jews that we encounter in this week's parashah, the world was anything but peaceful, nor was that angry world going to leave them in peace. Only seven days after the tenth and most horrible plague, the death of the Egyptian firstborn and the ensuing Exodus from Egypt, crisis returns with a fury:

"....And the Children of Israel looked up and Behold! Egypt was bearing down on them..."

Gcd had commanded Moses to shepherd the Children of Israel onto a peninsula jutting out into the Reed Sea; on the face of it, not the most clever of military strategies. Pharaoh quickly capitalized on this military blunder. The mighty Egyptian army, composed of thousands of foot soldiers, archers and lancers, plus hundreds of armored chariots pulled by massive war horses; indeed, the mightiest and most feared fighting force of its time, now choked off the neck of the peninsula. Check, and it certainly looked like checkmate.

The Children of Israel faced an immediate and existential crisis. How did we react to the blockade? True to form, we held a debate.

According to the Midrash there was a four way dispute: one group felt it was better to commit a Masada-style group suicide by drowning in the sea than to ever be taken back to Egypt in shackles; the second group argued that life as slaves was preferable to death as freemen and advocated surrender; the third group wanted to fight the Egyptians head-on; and the fourth group felt that prayer was the only option.

All four groups were yelling at Moses, each out-shouting the next one, each trying to convince him of the logic of their position. Finally Moses says:  "Do not be afraid. Stand your ground and see the salvation that the Lcrd will do for you on this very day; for that which you see the Egyptians today, you will never set eyes upon them again. Gcd Himself will fight your battle for you and you will remain silent."

The Midrash interprets these verses as a rebuke to all four camps: Stand your ground [meaning: don't jump in the sea and drown yourselves]...for that which you see the Egyptians today, you will never set eyes upon them again [meaning: no going back to Egypt under any circumstances.] Gcd Himself will fight your battle for you [meaning: you will not have to fight them] and you will remain silent [meaning: now is the time for action, not prayer.]

But...there was a fifth group, very small in number, perhaps just one person. (There is a dispute in the Talmud about who it was exactly, either Benjaminites or Nachshon the son of Aminadav from the Tribe of Judah.) They had the moral clarity to realize that Gcd had not led them this far only to abandon them at the eleventh hour. Pushed aside by the debaters who hogged center stage, these intrepid few bypassed the debate altogether and simply did what had to be done. 

There was no going back, to the right, or to the left, so they just moved forward, into the sea, trusting that Gcd would open the path at the moment that He chose as appropriate.

And the sea parted before them.

Today as well, diaspora Judaism faces an existential crisis. If establishment communal leaders acknowledge the problem at all, it is by engaging in vociferous yet inconclusive debate. I hear the echoes from the banks of the Sea of Reeds. 

Some tell me that the communal hari-kari to which we are witness is inevitable, and that the most we can hope for is to keep dancing until the music stops. Others say that embracing intermarriage and assimilation is the way solve the problem of intermarriage and assimilation. Yet others want to fight, and others argue the best course of action is to retreat and pray.

When, as a community rabbi, I propose solutions to the pressing problems of our community, I am lectured by well-meaning Jewish leaders about what is achievable, what is fundable, what will get through the communal debate process. 

That process is designed first and foremost to never offend the donor class; second, to mitigate liability; and third, to protect the bureaucratic mandarins and their petty fiefdoms who control the purse-strings and pick the winners and losers in Jewish communal life. 

All this results in stasis, in leadership by lowest common denominator, which usually shakes out to mean 'do nothing' or 'keep doing what we did before.'

Dennis Miller was yucking it up, but we are literally debating ourselves to death. 

Crisis requires true Jewish leadership, not technocrats; men and women who have the moral clarity of a Nachshon to step forward and take bold action when the situation demands. 

Torah-based leaders are not content to allow their fellow Jews to assimilate into oblivion. The commandment "Do not stand on the blood of thy neighbor" rings in their ears, and it motivates them to act. True leaders also understand that their initiatives will never be funded by the ossified Jewish establishment, because the establishment is part of the problem, not part of the solution. So they bypass it and move forward anyway.

Be the Nachshon in your family, in your community. Be that person. Ignore the naysayers, because they will always find fifty reasons not to do a good thing. Act. Take the first step, and Gcd will smooth the path before you.

Goethe expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote: "...the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no (human) could have dreamed would come his way."

As surely as the sea parted for the Children of Israel at the Sea of Reeds, the sea will part for the modern day Nachshons as well, and untold lives will be saved by their selflessness and heroism.

Shabbat Shalom.

The Salvation Cycle - Reflections on Parashat Shemot 5776

(Exodus 1:1-6:1)

What would you say is the defining event of the Book of Shemot/Exodus? The Ten Plagues? The Parting of the Red Sea? The Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai? The building of the Tabernacle/Mishkan?

The Sforno (16th Century, Italy) says "None of the Above." He has a radically different perspective on this Book, which he sees as a cautionary tale on the future of the Jewish People. From his introduction to the Book of Shemot:

And it is related in Gcd's Second Book, that the Seed of Israel then began to violate the covenant of their forefathers in Egypt, as the prophet Ezekiel attests when he says, "...and they rebelled against me, and no longer desired to listen to Me, no one throwing away the abominations of his eyes, no one abandoning the Egyptian idolatries...[and I/Gcd resolved]...to pour out My wrath upon them, and to vent My anger on them in the Land of Egypt to work them with rigor." Until a small portion of them did teshuvah and prayed, and a messenger [Moses] came before them and saved them. 

The Sforno sees all the events we mentioned above in this context. Divine salvation from the ruinous famine led to relief for the clan of Jacob and relocation to Goshen; the Israelites became numerous and comfortable in Egypt, and once the generation of the twelve sons died, the old ways were quickly forgotten; punishment came in the form of enslavement to the Egyptians, until a core group did teshuvah and triggered Divine mercy and salvation, aka the Exodus from Egypt.

We can call it the Salvation Cycle:

Divine Salvation Leads to

Relief Leads to

Affluence/Complacency Leads to

Backsliding Leads to

Punishment/Enslavement/Exile Leads to

Teshuvah Leads to

Divine Salvation.

This is the grand leitmotif of all of Jewish History. Ma'aseh Avot Siman L'Banim: The events in the lives of our ancestors create precedents which we see played out in our own lives.

Fast forward to America, 2015: Hundreds of thousands of Jewish families left Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1920, thus being spared the fate of European Jewry in the flames of the crematoria. After relocating to America, the Jews became numerous and comfortable in their new land, and once the generation of religious Bubbies and Zaydes died out, the old Jewish ways were quickly forgotten. 

In this, the final spin of the Salvation Cycle, punishment now comes in the form of suicide-by-happy-pills. Judaism in America is dying out, but not because of murder or enslavement by Roman Legionnaires or Czars or Hitlers or any other external oppressor. This go 'round we are more like opium addicts, buzzed out and in a really good place, too high to realize that the opium is really poison: shutting down our organs, destroying our minds, and deadening our spirits. 

But those who are wise enough to learn the lessons of Jewish history recognize the pattern. It is said that a problem identified is a problem half solved, and we certainly know how to solve this one - we've done it over and over again for well on 4,000 years.

Indeed, there is hope for American Jewry:  Teshuvah - a return to what the Sforno calls the Brit Avot, the Covenant of Our Ancestors: Deepening our connection to Gcd through Torah study and performing mitzvot. Keeping the Shabbat. Keeping Kosher. Keeping the Laws of Family Purity. Educating our children in Torah.

But how to get there from here?

I am indebted to my friend and colleague, Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, for bringing to my attention an recent newspaper article by Dr. Steven Cohen entitled, Lessons Learned from Orthodoxy's Dramatic Growth (New York Jewish Week, November 29, 2015). In it, he examines the root causes for the imperviousness of the Orthodox to what I have described above as the "Happy Pills":

The “secret” of Orthodox retention and expansion can be summarized by a five-letter acronym: PRICE. That is, they exhibit extraordinary Passion about Jewish norms and purpose. They perform numerous religious Rituals. They maintain high rates of Informal association (more spouses, friends, and neighbors who are Jewish). They engaged in Community — be it in synagogues, organizations, charities, or political-like activity. And they undertake Educational activities, be it learning groups for themselves or sending their children to day school, overnight camps or to Israel for a very influential gap year.

Similarly, non-Orthodox Jews who follow the same path exhibit extraordinary success in raising their children as committed and active Jews. [emphasis mine]

The Salvation Cycle doesn't care if you call yourself Reform, Conservative or Orthodox. Teshuvah applies to everybody, because despite these divisive labels, despite what the High Priests of Pluralism would have you believe, there is but One Gcd, One Torah, and One Jewish People.

As far back as 1933 Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook wrote:

The Jewish people have become divided into two camps, through the categorization of Jews as Charedi (religious) and Chofshi (secular). These are new terms, which were not used in the past. Of course, not everyone is identical, especially in spiritual matters; but there was never a specific term to describe each faction. In this respect, we can certainly say that previous generations were superior to ours.

By emphasizing this categorization, we obstruct the path toward improvement and growth in both camps. Those who feel that they belong to the religious camp look down upon the secular camp. If they think about teshuvah and improvement, they immediately cast their eyes in the direction of the secularists, devoid of Torah and mitzvot. They are confident that full repentance is required by the irreligious, not by them.

The secular Jews, on the other hand, are convinced that any notion of penitence is a religious concept, completely irrelevant to their lives.

It would be better if we would all concentrate on examining our own defects, and judge others generously. It could very well be that others have treasure-troves of merits, hidden from sight. We should recognize that there exists in each camp a latent force leading toward goodness. Each camp has much to improve upon, and could learn much from the positive traits of the other camp.

Let us be known to each other by one name — Klal Yisrael. 

I call upon every single congregational rabbi of every "denomination"; I call upon every local Jewish Federation, in this community and in every American community, to take a principled stand for Teshuvah.

To survive we must shake off our spiritual torpor, we must push harder, reach for a new goal. It's OK to sweat a little; to raise the bar in performing mitzvot, to stretch and struggle to reach the next milestone in Torah study. 

It is a matter of simple self-preservation that we must return to the standards of normative halachah in a way that is compatible with modernity, and in a way that preserves intellectual integrity and joie de vivre. It can be done and it must be done.

Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone and pay the "PRICE" necessary to ensure the perpetuation of Judaism as an organic and living faith system in your family? Or do we just continue passing around the opium bowl?

Shabbat Shalom.

[For an earlier blog post on this Parasha, click HERE.]