Commentary

40th Anniversary Yahrtzeit of Louis Warshaw
Eleazar ben Moishe, father of Bonnie Schapira
Shabbat service 6 Cheshvan 5770
by Bonnie Schapira

My father was born in Brooklyn in 1906, the second youngest of nine siblings. He was a star athlete in high school and at the age of 19, became a professional boxer against the wishes of his family. He won 51 out of 61 fights but had to quit because his nose was repeatedly broken and he sustained dangerous head injuries.
He eventually owned his own taxi. My Dad was a deeply committed Jew and wore tefillin while praying every day. We belonged to an orthodox synagogue which my Mom refused to attend...(continue)

Rosh Hashonah 5770 day1, Torah Introduction
by Andrea Kissel

As I read through today’s torah portion, I began to think about why we read this particular portion on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. The themes that kept standing out were those of "prayers" and "promises."

Prayers and Promises…how wonderful life would be if it were that easy! Say a prayer to G-d, receive a promise in return. A child wishes over birthday candles, blows away an eyelash, throws a coin in a fountain – it’s a pattern we have become accustomed to. But when we pray, do we feel sorry deep down for what we have done wrong? Do we believe from within our heart that we will truly try to change? The torah portion we will read today tells us that yes, we can repent for our past sins. There is always hope. The key is self-reflection and sincerity—making a plan to become better, to change yourself, and thus the world around you.

In previous torah readings, Sarah prays to G-d for a child...(continue)

Rosh Hashonah 5770 day 1, Haftorah Introduction
By Alec Ofsevit

Good morning. I would like to highlight three particular points from todays Haftorah. First, when we pray, it must come from our heart. Second, since Rosh Hashanah is the time of judgment, we should know how to best deliver our desires and troubles to Hshem. Third, our prayers for life and health are truly meaningful when we realize that these are simply the means by which we tap into the holiness and oneness of Hshem.

Chana is the focus of today's haftorah. Chana is the childless wife of Elkanah even though she is still his favored wife. At the start of the haftorah, they are traveling to Shiloh for a pilgrimage holiday. Chana goes up to the temple and begins praying in a way that nobody had prayed before...(continue)

Rosh Hashona 5770 day 2, Torah Introduction
By Tobias Balick-Schreiber

Today’s readings are seemingly as different as they could possibly be. One, the binding of Isaac, talks about how Abraham was told by God to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. The other one, three books later, discusses what must be sacrificed during Yom Kippur. In the Akedah, Abraham is told by God to take his son to the land of Moriah, and offer him as a burnt sacrifice. Abraham unflinchingly obeys and takes his son there, and just before the sacrifice is about to occur, God comes to Abraham and tells him not to sacrifice his son, for God sees that Abraham is a God-fearing man. After the event, just as God told Abraham that if he left his home and went where God told him to go, God would make him a great nation, again God tells him Abraham that he will make his generations as numerous as the stars. I have a big problem with what God was making Abraham do. If God is omnipotent, wouldn’t he already know that Abraham worshipped and feared him? Other commentators agree with me on this point. For instance, Maimonides said that God knew Abraham would pass the test, but Abraham’s show of faith would be a sign to others....(continue)

Rosh Hashonah 5770 day 2, Introduction to the Haftorah
by Sam Gold

On this, the second day of Rosh Hashanah, we read from the book of Jeremiah—a book not unfamiliar to the lamentations and sufferings of the Jewish people. In this chapter, the Jews have been scattered from their homeland, living as tribes and divided between northern and southern boundaries rather than as a single nation. The northern kingdom, also known as Ephraim, had become especially sinful after having shied away from god and setting up worship places for false idols. Yet, if nothing else, this chapter is about god’s sincere devotion and love for Ephraim and god’s promise to lead them home to Israel—the promise that despite the mourning and the grief these people endured, redemption will inevitably come. The prophet Jeremiah writes here with an intimacy not found in other haftorahs. He writes of god’s "eternal love," and the parent-child relationship established between god and Ephraim....(continue)

Rosh Hashonah 5770 day 2, D’rash
by Lee Lew

There have been many stories in the news lately of parents who have done terrible things to their own children. The wrong way driver on the Taconic comes to mind as well as numerous incomprehensible stories that are headlined on the evening news or even the story told by Boris yesterday.

I have always been troubled by the story of the binding of Isaac. When I thought about the story this year, I wondered, what must Isaac have thought? From his perspective, he goes out for a three-day hike with his father. The text doesn’t record any conversation between them until they reach the top of the mountain. Isaac ends his journey with his father, tied to the altar looking up at his father holding a knife. His life is spared when an angel calls out to Abraham. How did Isaac recover from the trauma of knowing that his father had almost sacrificed him? How did he travel home with him? How did this event shape him? An event like this must have caused scars that never fully healed.

Maybe there can be perspective gained from sharing a small piece of our past....(continue)

Yom Kippur 5770, Introduction to the Torah reading
by Sara Gold

Leviticus, 16:1-34

Today’s Torah reading from the book of Leviticus is one that is especially easy to dismiss. It doesn’t have the powerful drama of the Akedah; it lacks the poetry of Jeremiah or Isaiah; and it is certainly missing the wonder of Jonah surviving in the belly of a whale. This reading is, instead, a rather dry recounting of the sacrificial rites and priestly responsibilities necessary to observe this day of atonement. Having given this introduction himself, my dad knew when he asked me to speak how difficult it is to make this reading compelling. He challenged me to find meaning in these instructions for completing dead rituals, and I took that to heart as I began my study.

At first read, when I realized that the material I had to work with was a lot of talk about bulls and goats, I knew I needed some help. My desire to try to make this reading meaningful for all of us sparked my curiosity. What use have we for reading about rituals no one has performed in centuries? To answer this question, I consulted our own Rabbi Halina Rubenstein, who, though she marked certain chapters of books for me, reminded me in her wisdom that the act of searching is often more important than finding that which you seek....(continue)

Yom Kippur 5770, Introduction to the Haftorah
by Mark Weinstein

The most impressive aspect of scripture is God’s gift of love and creation. Love and creation is God’s life-force: Be Fruitful and multiply God tells us. This gift is our eternal
sustenance. And as the process of creation exemplifies, God has blessed all human beings with the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual abilities to give and receive love. To suppress our own wants and desires. Yet it also produces our greatest rewards. So while it is important during this Yom Kippur that we are committed to acts of omissions – refrainment and sacrifice – we must remember that God has a higher calling for us. That
is to proactively engage in acts that are life-giving: love and creation.

In this Haftorah section, Chapters 57 & 58 Isaiah, we discuss the concepts of repentance and fasting. But this is against the backdrop of God’s true expectation that we must do
more....(continue)

Yom Kippur 5770, d'rosh
by Faye Kimerling

Shanah Tovah.

On March 28, 1958, I had my Bat Mitzvah at Temple Beth El in Birmingham, Alabama. On April 28, 1958, exactly one month later, 54 sticks of dynamite were discovered at Temple Beth El in a window well, unexploded. Except for rain, which extinguished the fuse, it is thought that the bomb would have blown up and done much damage.

I was 12 years old and Jewish and having a Bat Mitzvah. My large extended family played a big role in my connection to Judaism. We celebrated holidays with aunts and uncles and cousins, with lots of matza balls and chicken soup. It was fun and I enjoyed it.

After the dynamite was found, my family and I never stopped going to services on Saturday mornings. I didn’t stop going to Hebrew School three afternoons a week, or Sunday school every Sunday morning.

But I did stop, and realize, that being Jewish in Birmingham in 1958 wasn’t just about the security of family and the milestone of a Bat Mitzvah. It was about almost getting blown up.

I had learned about the destruction of Temples, but in 586 BCE or 70 AD, by the Babylonians and the Romans; not in 1958 by a small violent group of states righters. This was April, and the well-known Temple bombing in Atlanta didn’t happen until that fall. We Jews in the South were a vulnerable minority, and, whether we spoke our conscience or remained silent, we would still be attacked, said Rabbi Jacob Rothschild of The Temple in Atlanta....(continue)

TETZAVEH - THOU SHALT COMMAND
By Vicki Greif

February 19, 2005

In reading today's parsha, something caught my attention : The Priestly garments.

I was really struck by this and I'd like to share it with you.

We learn that sacral vestments to be worn by Aaron and his sons doing priestly service to God should include blue, purple and crimson yarns and fine linen - (Exodus 28:3-5). This was mentioned at least 4 times in Tetzaveh, lest we forget.

The High priest is to wear a long robe woven entirely of woolen thread (JPS Commentary on Exodus 28:31, Nahum Sarna,ed),

( Exodus 28:40): they also wear tunics, sashes and turbans for dignity and adornment. (Exodus 28:39): The tunic is the fringed tunic of fine linen, and the head dress, also of fine linen.

They are wearing linen and wool!

Last week's parsha, T'rumah, details the curtains of the Tabernacle. The fabrics covering the section of the tabernacle that contains the Holy of Holies also contain blue, purple and crimson yarns and fine linen (Exodus 26:1-6) . Rashi's commentary on this is: ...there are 4 kinds of material in each thread, one of linen and three of wool (and each thread was 6 fold).....these 4 kinds of material are twisted together (making 24 strands) forming the fabric.

Now let's talk about Jewish laws. They include Hukkim.* These are rationally inexplicable rules - we follow them, not because they make sense - but because they are opportunities to do God's will. It's only for the love of God that we follow them - a higher mitzvah.

One of them is the prohibition of Sha'atnez expressed in parashat Ki Tetzei: "Do not wear Sha'atnez -wool and linen together" Another term for this prohibition is Kil'ayim as expressed in parashat Kedoshim.

Hirsch says: Wearing clothing is one of the things that separates humans from animals. Sha-atnez teaches us to be holy in the way we dress.

Sha-atnez is a mixture, a garment made of linen and wool, a blending of vegetable and animal product.

Prohibitions on mixing categories is something the Torah forbids. It is a way of tampering with the divinely ordained order of creation.

Maimonides explained that the wearing of mixed garments was forbidden since heathen priests wore such garments (Guide to the Perplexed 3:37).

So we have a commandment which forbids Jews from wearing a mixture of wool and linen, and yet as we read in the Torah, the priests' garments and the fabrics in the tabernacle are made of wool and linen intricately intertwined as vividly described by Rashi.

So how do we explain that?

I read a commentary on Ki Tetzei in Etz Hayim which explains that this prohibition applies only to the laity. The priests, in their ministry, do wear garments of such mixtures and a priest who does not wear his garments is liable to the penalty of death, according to a commentary by Nehama Leibowitz. (Nehama Leibowitz on Exodus p.527). She also stated that Ramban compares the high priests' vestments to those worn, in those days, by royalty and quotes parallels from Joseph's coat of many colors. The function of these garments was to enhance the dignity and prestige of the wearer and his sacred office in the eyes of the people..

Josephus suggests that the reason for the prohibition was to keep the laity from wearing the official garb of the priests. (Etz Hayim p. 1118)

So now we know: It is permitted for priests to wear garments of mixed texture prescribed by the Torah when performing priestly service in the sanctuary (Yoma 69a). Other examples of the permitted mixing of linen and wool:

It is permitted to use sha'atnez shrouds for a corpse (Nid 61b).

Because of a general principle that positive precept overrides a negative precept, it is permitted to attach a blue woolen zizit to a linen garment (Men. 40a).

In addition to these explanations, let me share with you another compelling reason proposed by

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) who was the first Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel.

Rav Kook on Sha-atnez- A Glimpse into the Future

According to Rav Kook, it is not that these mitzvoth have no reason, or no reason that we can comprehend. Rather, they relate to a future reality different from our own. At that future time, the purpose of these decrees will become clear.

In other words, this type of mitzvah serves to morally prepare us for the future.

An important aspect of this future is the Cabalistic idea that with the elevation of the entire universe, the animals will also change. Animals will achieve a state similar to the current level of people. This belief plays a central role in Rav Kook's writings in many areas: vegetarianism, Termple offerings, and understanding decrees such as sha'atnez, and not eating milk and meat together.

Now going back to linen/wool, Rav Kook continues:

The use of linen from the flax plant does not raise any ethical dilemmas. But the use of wool necessitates a mild censure from the standpoint of absolute morality:

"Man, in his boundless egocentricity, approaches the poor cow and sheep. From one he seizes its milk, and from the other its fleece......There would be no impropriety in taking the wool were the sheep burdened by its load; but we remove the wool when its natural owner needs it! Intellectually, we recognize that this is theft, oppression of the weak at the hands of the strong."

(Otzarot HaRiia)

The moral offense applies primarily with regard to the sheep's future status.

In order to distinguish between these two fibers, and prepare us for the sensitivity towards animal welfare that we will need in future times, the Torah decreed that linen and wool should not be worn together. Utilization of the flax plant and manipulation of sheep are not-in absolute terms-morally equivalent.

(But) This applies when the wool is used for private consumption. But if the wool is designated for divine service - as in the High Priest's clothes- then the principle of "bechol me'odecha," serving God with all our might, all our possessions, takes force. Here, it is appropriate that from their own free will, the animals will contribute their part for the sake of the universe's spiritual elevation.

From this, I learn that certain commandments such as Hukkim which might not have a rational basis to us in our present life may yet have a significance at a higher level or in a more perfect world for which we all strive.

And one more thing, when we go home today and greet our pets - our fish, dogs, cats, rabbits, iguanas,.... remember that they, too, may play a part in Tikkun Olam.

Shabbat Shalom!!!!

* Other examples of Hukkim:

In K'Doshim, Leviticus 19:19: You shall not let your cattle mate with a different kind, (in Deut. 22:10, Ki Tetzei: You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together).

You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, You shall not put on cloth from a mixture of two kinds of material ( in Deut. 22:11: "Do not wear Sha'atnez - wool and linen together").



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Commentary ...And All the Rest is Commentary

Commentary
...And All the Rest is Commentary