The Wise Daughters of Zelophehad and the Evolving Role of Jewish Women

The Wise Daughters of Zelophehad and the Evolving Role of Jewish Women

            Those of you who watch the news from Israel- when it doesn’t involve Palestinians, Hamas and so forth- may have heard of an incident in the town of Beth Shemesh, located just at the beginning of the foothills of Jerusalem. It was a typical Israeli town, mostly devoted to agriculture, but as the price of housing has increased in Jerusalem, it has become a refuge for those seeking affordable housing. That, however, has included a large influx of the Charedim, the ultra- Orthodox.

            One of the results has been intrusion of the highly restrictive and segregated male-female lifestyle of the Haredi. We already have, in the Charedi world, women at the back of the bus, or even “separate but equal buses.” The straw that broke the camel’s back for the non-Charedi residents, even for the main-stream Orthodox, was a sign:” Women must go to the other side of the street!”         

            I am hard pressed to find, in Jewish sources, any precedent for such a draconian edict. It is not a symptom of Orthodoxy, but a symptom of the threat this insular population feels from the changes occurring in the status of women, even in their circles. Even in these ultra- Orthodox, hide –bound circles, women are the ones bringing home the kosher-bacon and being exposed to the outside world. It is a reactionary offense as defense.            

            The Charedi community has also used its political clout to take over what was originally an official Israeli Rabbinate, for example, that was Zionist and outward looking. Thus, the Israeli Rabbinate recently pushed the great innovative Rabbi Riskin from his position because he had the nerve to offer classes for women in higher Rabbinic studies. As I said, it’s offense as a form of defense.

            Moses, apparently, did not have the problems they have. In our Torah portion, it is the women, the daughters of Zelophehad, who force Moses to accept their reasoned opinion on inheritance. Even the Torah notes that they did not stay in the back of the bus:”And they stood before Moses and   before Eleazar the priest and before the princes and the entire congregation.”  Right up front, in the assembly, in a traditionally male-only location. ( vs 2)

  The Talmud takes the text of our Torah portion even further:

            “It was taught: The daughters of Zelophehad were wise women, they were scholars, and they were            virtuous.

            They were wise, since they spoke at an opportune moment . . . just as Moses was            teaching the laws of inheritance for a man who had died before having fathered children.

            They were scholars, for they said: 'If he had a son we would not have spoken'. . . 'Even if a son of his had a daughter, we would not have spoken'

            They were virtuous, since they were married to such men only as were worthy of them.  (from Baba Batra 119a)

            Moses had no problem with these women asserting themselves.

            It is clear, with all the changes in the world, that there is no way that woman can be relegated to the back of the bus. This change has been across the board of the Jewish world, including the main-stream Orthodox community as well.

            In my last year at the Jewish Theological Seminary, I studied Talmud under the leading light of the movement, Professor Saul Lieberman. In that class were two women. Now, we are going back 40 years ago, I date myself. One was Judith Hauptman, who was working on her doctorate in Rabbinic studies and had a great mastery of Jewish law, but who could never, as far as her Talmud professor, the official Rabbi of the Seminary, Saul Lieberman could determine, be ordained as a Rabbi, for all her knowledge. She since when on to become a Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics and only many years later was ordained as Rabbi .

            The other woman student came to class for only a few sessions, and as far as we knew, was merely sitting in out of curiosity. Later on, I was informed that, unknown to the professor, she was at the time studying privately with Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, a maverick Orthodox Rabbi, who had plans to make her the first Orthodox woman Rabbi. As far as I know, it fell through, perhaps because, in the end, Rabbi Greenberg felt at the time that there was too great an opposition in his circles to such an act.

            That was also the time that the idea of counting women for a minyan began to make headway.

            One day in 1973, the New York Times placed on its front page the news that the Rabbinical Assembly law committee voted by a majority ruling to permit women to be counted at a minyan. Imagine, it made front page news! Of course, it took a long time after that for it be widely accepted; the  chapel service here began counting women for the minyan only a few years ago.

             In that same year, the Reform movement Hebrew Union College ordained its first woman Rabbi, and since then the new Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia began to ordain women as well.  It took the Conservative movement yet another 10 years to get around to it. It was not an easy path and led to serious fracturing of the movement.  

            As I said, the main-stream Orthdoox community is not immune to was is going on. It is the path that is being taken, even today, in some Orthodox circles, with  the ordination of women as “Maharat,” a Hebrew acronym for Manhiga Hilkhatit Rukhanit Toranit, or “Leader of Jewish Law, Spirituality, and Torah”( in the Hebrew feminine). They are also granted an ordination of

“ Toreh- Toreh”, the feminine form for the formal ordination of “ Yoreh -Yoreh”, the authority to made halakhic decisions. B’nai David Judea in Los Angeles has been among the first Orthodox congregations to bring on a candidate for “ Maharat” ordination  to serve as intern to the senior rabbi.

            This dramatic shift in the position of women in modern Jewish life, not just in Rabbinics, but in all aspects of life, across the board, is part of the reason that elements in the Charedi community literally want to return women to the back of the bus.

            Yet there is historic precedent for this as well.

            In truth, there have always been women who have functioned as authorities of Jewish law, and who had the right, by virtue of their great knowledge and understanding, to tell the judges and Rabbis of their day what the law is to be. The prophetess Huldah instructed the king and priest about the authenticity of a Torah document that had been found, neglected, in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The classic example of the early Rabbinic period was  Beruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir, the outstanding Rabbi of his day, who formulated laws for him and his colleagues. In every generation there were women who stood above the cloud of ignorance in which the average Jewish woman was kept and gained recognition from the male world for their erudition.

            Even in more recent times, among the Chasidim, there have

been women who have served as leaders of Chasidic communities-- Sarah the daughter of R. Joshua Heschel Teomim, Malkele of Trisk  and the best known, Hannah Rachel . Der Ludomirer Moyd, the Maiden of Ludomir, over a century and a half ago , wore tallit and tefilin, recited kaddish after her father and preached to her followers.

            Yes, there are specific laws that place a limit on a woman’s position.

            Yet the grounds for these laws were based on social norms of the day, social norms that ceased to exist already for a century and more. Exceptions were made, way back when, even while these norms stood. Tempus mutandis, times change, and Halakhah has always recognized the need to deal with the times.

            Clearly, today, we are dealing, not just with issues of women as Rabbis, but with issues of gender and marital relations as well

            The Conservative movement is just that:conservative with a small “c”. Conservative does not mean to stop the clock. It means to conserve the best and most valuable and to move slowly in order to do so. It does not mean to stop the clock.

            Change is not an exception to Judaism; the main tradition we have is that of changing. That is why one of the great classics of the movement is titled Tradition and Change. Note the word” and”, not “or”. Two opposites—but the brilliance of Jewish thought has always been to hold on to two opposites, recognize that fact, and reconcile the opposites.

            I go back to our wise women, the daughters of Zelophehad. This is a comment from the Sifra, one of the foundation works of Jewish law 1900 years ago. It examines our account of daughters of Zelophehad, a man who had no male heirs. The daughters realized that they would lose their share and came to Moses for a solution, which he received directly from God. The daughters comment, "The compassion of man extends to men more than to women; not so is the compassion of God; His compassion extends equally to men and women, as it is written, "The Lord is good to all, and his mercies are over all his works.”

( Ps 145).

For this Fourth of July

For this Fourth of July

We held a Star-Spangled Bannered Shabbat at Hollywood Temple Beth El, with a Shabbat Kiddush featuring that great American stand-by, the hot dog.

Our discussion revolved around the theme of American exceptionalism. 

Certainly, at the beginning of our history, we were seen as such by not only ourselves but by foreign observers. This was a nation different, not only because it was a democracy (there had been others before which had for the most part failed) but because it differed greatly from the commonly accepted concept of a  nation, an entity created by one king or emperor forcing other ethnic groups by conquest into his domain, or an entity composed of people of some common language, religion, blood and long standing history on a land.  

This would be a nation created out of a common set of laws, by the people, for the people, of the people.

For us, as Jews, this was an exceptional nation, as never before seen in history. President Washington himself defined it:  For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens. . . May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

It would take many years, tears  and bloodshed to enlarge this vision to  erase the shame of slavery and to include the descendants of the  African slaves as well as the  native American Indians. Germans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Latin Americans, all seen in their day as aliens who would never be absorbed, became part and parcel of the fabric of this nation. It is a work in progress.

Here are some thoughts from famous poets on the nature of America as well as an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Poems for 4th of July

A foreigner looks at us: Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) one of the greatest creative minds of German civilization:

(Amerika du hast es besser)

America, you are better off
Than our ancient continent.
You have no tumbledown castles
And no basalt deposits.
Your inner lives are not disturbed by
Useless memories and vain strife.
Use your time with confidence!
And if your children write poetry,
May a kindly fate guard them from writing
Stories of knights, robbers and ghosts.

A  century later and Europe would be torn apart in two world wars inspired by ancient myths of knights, robbers and ghosts.

A Nation’ Strength    Ralph Waldo Emerson

What makes a nation’s pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.
Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly...
They build a nation’s pillars deep  

 And lift them to the sky.

Are we still a nation of brave innovators who dare?

I Hear America Singing     Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass 1867

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work;
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck;
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands;
The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown;
The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing—
Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day—
At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs.

Only a few years after the terrible and bloody Civil War tore this nation apart, Walt Whitman could dream of a nation varied and at singing each his or her own song. Can we still give voice to that hope and expectation?

Emma Lazarus   The New Colossus  1883

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

America was then a vast, empty land hungry for the energy of immigrants. Can we still absorb the masses? In what way?

Martin Luther King Jr. I Have a Dream  1963

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." . . .

I have a dream today! . . .

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

No need to say more than, “Amen.”

Children Born in Freedom- Raising the Next Generation : Lessons from Spies and the Red Light District of Jericho

Children Born in Freedom- Raising the Next Generation

Lessons from Spies and the Red Light District of Jericho

Shelach  6 13 15

      You know that Rabbis get all sorts of interesting announcements from all sources, some human, some claiming to be super-human.    One such message, from a phone call to me, went as follows: “ I have an important message to deliver. The Moshiach, Messiah, is coming to town. He is coming this Tuesday, and Chabad knows that he will appear at the Park on Gardner Street. Would we please send our children to go and greet him. “

       Nu-why not?

      That was the attitude some twenty or more years ago, when the last Rebbe of Chabad Chasidism, z”l, passed away. He was a man of such profound impact that many of his followers, till today, still of him in the present tense, as if he were still alive.

      You know that there are two indications in Jewish tradition that the Moshiach is here--either it is so good that surely he is here, or it is so bad, that only the Moshiach can help us. We had that sense of so-good/so-bad then, and today, we have that sense even more, but leaning more to the so-bad rather than the so-good side, ever since 9/11, the Great Recession, ISIS and a long laundry list.

      There are those who argue that surely, it is so good. After all, there is an Israel and the Moshiach will surely come before Abbas and the Palestinians get their act together, the Arab world is in splinters, the Saudis cooperate with Israel--if that's not moshiach tzeiten, Messianic times, then I don't know what is.

      On the other hand, there are those who will tell you that the Moshiach must be here, for the opposite reason.

      Not only is the world in a state of disarray- no need to read the laundry list of world crises, but there is another factor.

      Many would claim that we meet the classic description of the onset of the Messianic era according to the Talmud...:

      Hutzpah-insolence-will increase, ...nearim zekynim yalbinu-youth will make their elders pale from shame ... ben manavel av--the son shall disgrace his father, the daughter rise up against her mother... the members of one's own household shall be one's own enemies--pney hador kepney hakelev-- the face of the generation is as the face of a dog.

( Talmud Sota 9.15)

      Surely, they will tell us, the new generation is coming up so badly, it is a dog-faced generation, and we need a moshiach. We look at the content of social media, rap music, the un-ending plague of drug abuse, violent rioting in the streets.

      So everything is either so good, or so bad, it is like the stock market. You can go long or go short. Either way, the Moshiach better be here.

      However, the Moshiach did not come to Gardner Park then, and we are still waiting today, two decades later.

      We need a new generation to pick up the ball and fix things before the Moshiach comes. The Greatest Generation, of WWII veterans and  Holocaust survivors, is moving on. Baby Boomers, perhaps the not-so-great generation, such as former Presidents Clinton and Bush, are graying. Generation X and Millennials and whatever- label-is-applied young children today will have to pick up the ball.

      The last month has seen the commemorations of the end of World War II in Europe 70 years ago. 70 years is a Biblical lifetime.

      It was a poignant reminder that in order to preserve the world, not just for our democracy, but for human civilization itself, many, countless many gave their lives.

      Now one lifetime later, we face a world in which perhaps, perhaps we will not need such extreme sacrifice. For next lifetime, the battle may not be one of tanks and missiles but  it will be a battle of the heart of civilization, of human decency.

      It is difficult to go from slavery to freedom; it is very easy to slip from freedom back to slavery.

      We look at our Torah reading today, Shelach, a tale of espionage and of demoralization form within. Moses sends the famous 12 spies, who bring back report of the dangers that the Promised land has in store for them.  The children of Israel, so recently freed from Egyptian bondage, are afraid of the cost that their new home will require. Their instinct is to go backwards, to retreat. It is not for another 38 years, that a new generation arises, born in liberty and under the teachings of the Torah, that the nation is ready for its challenge.

      Joshua had a generation born in slavery replaced by a generation born in freedom.

      In our time, however, we have a generation coming up now, born in freedom that is afraid that its future is dim, is afraid that the prospects are nil. The overall economy is reportedly strong, yet graduates see their positons squeezed down and the non-graduates are squeezed out. This is the first generation that fears going down in living standards instead of up. What is going wrong?

      We have had rioting in the streets, inflamed by those who know how to spark anger in the hearts of those who feel left out and left behind. Political figures rush to offer pablum or put bandaids rather than deal with real issues.

      Here is a generation of youth in trouble.

      40 years ago, a young social scientist, later the influential Senator, Patrick Moynihan ,looked squarely at the problem afflicting impoverished youth then. He saw that the abandonment of the family by the father directly paralleled the rise in crime and violence, just at a time when opportunities were opening up for the first time in American history.

      The social system which was to protect children created an atmosphere which destroyed children. Television and movies have glorified the single-mothers who has high education and advanced skills, but the problem does not lie there. The problem lies with the single mother, who are uneducated, unskilled, and just a youngster herself, left to fend on her own. These are the core of the poor in this country.  It not a phenomenon of the lower-income black community—it is a phenomenon of  lower-income  of all ethnic groups, including white population. 

      I know of this first hand as my daughter works with the county and her job is to track down and throw the books at the many, many fathers who has given up on their families and left them to the mercies of the state.

      This is a human problem, for black, brown, and white.

      We are now faced with children who have been abandoned, if not physically, then morally and spiritually, by their parents and by their society.

      We reap what we sow. The tragedy is that our policies, of left or of right, have eradicated the family and the one element that creates for a healthy society.  How do we pick up the pieces again.?  How do we rebuild this support that once was?

      Frederick Close suggested this:        

      “Families are not islands. To be effective, families must be supported by schools, as well as churches and synagogues, communities, business, the media, government.  Otherwise, the children are at risk the moment they leave the front door. “

      The Haftarah for today is very telling of our modern plight. We have the heroine, Rachab hazonah,Rachab the prostitute,  engaged in the occupation of least repute. She sells herself; she is left without pride or dignity.

      She lives, our text tells us, on the city walls, the most vulnerable part of the city, the first part to be attacked in event of war. It is the outskirts of the society--the outer perimeter. Jericho, the symbol of urban civilization, the oldest existing city on the face of the earth, could not properly care for its citizens. The grandeur of civilization for some of its citizens was built upon the degradation of others in its society.

      Is it any wonder that Rahab betrays her city? She has been forced to sell herself to the first bidder, constantly. She has been forced to live on the margins of her society. What does she owe her people, what does she owe her country -- nothing.

      Is it any wonder that she helps those who would undo that world?

      So, we look at this generation, we look at the future of this country. It is true; there are many young people who are outstanding. They have been fortunate to be born into homes of warmth and love and concern.    There are also many outstanding young people who have been born into poor backgrounds, born into poverty, who nevertheless rise up to become a blessing to society.

      But what of the other man's children? What of the other youngsters, the ones in trouble, the one making our daily life difficult. They too are our youth. What of them?

       A man once complained to the Baal Shem Tov that his son had abandoned his religion completely.

      What shall I do? he cried to the great teacher?

      “Do you love him.?" He asked.

       Of course I do.

      “Then," answered the Baal Shem Tov, "Love him even more."

      That is our challenge. It is not to give youngsters a pass for misbehavior, because that is even more destructive. When the blame for society’s shortcomings are placed on the police, the greatest victims are the very poor people whose interests we pretend to protect. People suffer in the streets even more so when policing is absent. However, it falls on all elements of society, not just a government bureaucrat from above, but clubs, churches, civic groups, and entrepreneurs to seek ways to rebuild communities, to rebuild families. That is the only way we can turn the generation of the wilderness into a generation that may enter the Promised Land.

That Yizkor Not be in Vain

            That Yizkor Not be in Vain 

 Shavuot Yizkor 2015

            There are many things which we take for granted in the Jewish tradition yet for which we can find no clear origins in the Bible or the Talmud. They are, rather, based on the power of custom: Minhag. Minhag, custom, is so powerful, that we say minhag kedin hu, the custom is as powerful as a law.

            Jews are an amazingly conservative people. It is not only loyalty to our law but also loyalty to our minhagim that has bound us together so well over the course of these many centuries. In fact, we often get to the point, where we say in Yiddish  a minhig brecht a din , Custom can violate a Jewish law.

            Even as great a figure as Rabbi Josef Karo, of Spanish ancestry, could not get the Jews of Eastern Europe to accept his Shulkhan Aruch until it was amended by Rabbi Moshe Isserles to incorporate the unique customs which had arisen in Germany and Poland. Shulkhan Arukh means “The Table is Set” but it was missing, said the Ashkenazic Jews, the table cloth, Mapah,which Rabbi Isserles provided. The Shulkhan Arukh became the universally accepted  Code of Jewish Law only when it had with it the code of European custom.

            Thus, a Yarmulka is a minhag, a custom, not a law, and one may observe both Biblical and Talmudic law and go about without a head covering. Nevertheless, minhag kedin, Jews have struggled to be allowed some kind of head-covering at the workplace, even in the military, as if it were an inviolable element of Jewish law.

            Much of the rules of Kashruth on Pesah are matters of minhag, not law. Thus, I have been asked by many if  real pasta is KP, while everyone knows that rice is not. Yet, the Halakhah, the law, is that real pasta, certainly, is not kosher for Passover, because it is, like bread, the result of the mixing of flour and water, which is the heart of the process of Hametz, and pasta is not baked, but allowed to sit until either boiled, or dried. Today, for Pesah, you can get fake pasta, made from all sorts of ersatz elements but no wheat flour, and certainly no good Italian restaurant would dare serve that kind of pasta!

            On the other hand, rice, as well as peas and beans, are Hametz, which everyone knows, but only for Ashkenazim, as a custom, whereas, by law, halachah, Sefardic Jews eat rice and legumes and they are correctly kosher for passover.

            It’s the power of custom. Minhag.

            Then there is Yizkor.

            Three times a year, in Ashkenazic tradition, at the three festive holidays, and on Yom Kippur, we Jews come in larger numbers than usual to recall those whom we love, at Yizkor.

            What is this Yizkor which draws us in in such large numbers, so that on Yom Kippur, we are packed in probable violation of all safety regulations?

            The name comes from the first sentence of the prayer of remembrance for our dead, "Yizkor elohim"--May God remember..." It is properly called " Hazkarat neshamot", Memorial for the Souls. 

            Where is it from?

            We only know that in the time of the Maccabees and in later Rabbinic times, it was a custom to bring offerings or prayers on behalf of the dead, to atone for the sins of the deceased.

            Later on, it became the practice to pray on behalf of the dead on Shabbat. They would pray for the dead sinners, that after Shabbat's rest they not be returned to hell but be forgiven once and for all of their sins.( Midrash Tanhuma).

            By the early middle ages, it had become accepted that such prayers were offered on festivals and on Yom Kippur and this was actually opposed by the great Rabbinic leaders of the day. It is what you do in life, not what someone else does for you when it’s too late, that counts before God, they insisted. They insisted and lost, as they lost on many other issues where custom overrode the law. Rabbis didn’t rule with force of police, after all; they could only persuade.

            It is an ironic example of a minhag brecht a din, custom overrides a law. By law, one may not mourn or display signs of mourning on Shabbat and the festivals, and by practice, one does not recite the El Maleh prayer in memory of the deceased on a Shabbat or festival, not even at a funeral during the mid-weeks of the Festivals for the act of mourning detracts from the joy of the festival. Yet look! Minhag brecht a din, the custom violates the law and we recite the prayer just when we are not allowed to recite it. The need to remember and ease the burden of memory is greater than the law itself.

            Yizkor ultimately became embedded in the Jewish psyche, however, by the reality of Jewish existence.

            During the Crusades, and again, in the seventeenth century, the Jews of Europe were the victims of the most horrible of massacres, and every Jew was a survivor, afflicted with the pain of memory of a loved lost one brutally murdered.

            In our day, then, the individual loss of a loved one has been compounded by the loss to all the people of Israel of the great mass of the Jews of Europe who were murdered in the Holocaust, and by the smaller, but very significant number of Jewish heroes who were killed in the defense of the State of Israel.

            Yizkor has taken on the function of a communal dedication to our slain that as we may say in the words of LIncoln, " That these dead shall not have died in vain".

            Yizkor is more than just praying on behalf of the dead, more than what our ancestors felt was an act of filial piety; it becomes the event whereby we reconnect with those who trod upon the world before us or with us, those who gave us life and love, those who taught us, those who made our lives possible.

            We ask ourselves the question: if we gather in their memory as Jews, what is it that they stood for? Surely, if anything, they stood for their role in the great chain of Jewish tradition and teaching, and we in their memory must take our part in keeping that great chain intact.

            For Yizkor to have any significance it is not enough to mumble words that we do not understand. Our lives must be consistent with the teachings of Judaism which directed the generations before us: A life of doing what God expects of us, as the Jewish people have interpreted it in mitzvot and understanding and studying God's teachings, as the Jewish people have interpreted it in the form of Torah.

            Central to all this, is the institution which has kept the heart and soul of the Jewish people together over tens of thousands of miles and over the course of three and a half millennia--the ancient Temple, and its successor, for 2000 years, the synagogue, the bet knesset.

            I want you to keep in mind what a synagogue is for, especially this one, in the midst of West Hollywood, within the heart of America's fantasyland, where dreams and vision are put to celluloid and cds. This synagogue has gone through so many traumas, as we all know, and has nearly folded but with the efforts of some good volunteers it is still up and running.

            Obviously, a synagogue is for praying, which is admittedly no longer a strong Jewish profession.

            We must have a synagogue for studying in, and I try to bring that sense of study into our services

            A synagogue is also the cite for rofeh lishvurey lev--the healer of the broken hearted.

            There were many times that I had to open the chapel because someone needed to go to pray and meditate, undisturbed.

People come to the synagogue for an ear to hear.

I have had to counsel a rock and roll musician who lost his girl-friend to an early death.

Then there was a Samoan native, son of a Christian missionary, who had a dream that he needed to know who are the children of Israel. He sat out front, barefoot and in US military uniform, waiting for the Rabbi, because only the Rabbi could help him. Where else but here?

            A young man was struck down in the prime of life in a road accident. To whom could the family talk, who would alley their pain at the funeral and afterwards if not the Rabbi ?

            I bring up all these remembrances of Hollywood Temple Beth El, but not to say Kaddish for it and not Yizkor. This is a challenge to all of us here.            Again, we think of Yizkor. If we wish to memorialize our dead, it is up to us to protect that which our loved ones sought to build and maintain, synagogues and centers of Judaism and the Jewish people, past and present, here and abroad.       

            I mentioned Lincoln's Gettysburg address, as an appropriate theme for the meaning of Yizkor. He concluded his address, by taking a famous quote about the Bible, "of the people, by the people, for the people", and applying it to the United States. I wish to turn his words around, now, again to apply it to our message of today:

            “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here, to the unfinished work which they who have fought here thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion- that we highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."

            We highly resolve that those of the builders of this congregation from the original Laemmles, Warners and Meyers *, down to the newest immigrant finding his place in the New World, shall not have struggled in vain. Amen.

***

*Some background- among the founders of Hollywood Temple Beth El in 1922 were the founders of Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, and MGM. 

From the Sacred Society to a Greater Society

From the Sacred Society to a Greater Society

            Thoughts on Kedoshim

           

            The Dead Sea Scrolls are now on display at the California Science Center. We owe so very much to the members of the society at Qumran, where these scrolls were found. It was their dedication to writing the words of the prophets as well as the words of later teachers that has given us an invaluable window on the world of Judaism in antiquity.

            These people, identified with the Essenes and other groups of the period, were exemplars of piety- frumkeit, to use the Yiddish expression. So frum, that they refused to get married, bathed daily to remain pure, devoted themselves to poverty and acts of charity. They refused to send sacrifices to the Temple in Jerusalem, because it was, in their eyes, impure.They disassociated themselves from their fellow Jews, whom they saw as “ The Children of Darkness” or the “ Children of the Worthless One.”

            You might think that they would gain the respect of the great scholars for their outstanding idealism. However, the Rabbis denounced anyone who refused intentionally to have marital relations and the great Hillel warned, probably with such Jews in mind,” Do not withdraw from the community, do not trust in yourself until the day of your death, do not judge your fellow until you have put yourself in his place.( Avoth 2:5) It was a direct challenge to those who considered themselves holier than the rest.

            The deserts around Judea in the years that followed were filled with Christian monasteries carved into the cliffs hundreds of feet up the side of inaccessible mountains. The Christian monks, in many ways, followed in the path of these Jewish monks.

            Yet Jewish monasteries disappeared and Qumran was left aruins, unknown till a shepherd stumbled across it in 1946.

            What did we Jews do then, in the centuries before and after and during that gave us our sense of the sacred, without running off into the desert. We definitely did not take the advice of Hamlet to Ophelia,” Get Thee to a Nunnery”.        No Ashram, no Zen meditation in splendid isolation.

            No, we created families, we created communities, and we worked in town and country.

            Our path to sanctity is laid out in this week’s Torah portion, Kedoshim, ( Lev 19 ). Kedoshim Tihyu  ,“You shall be Holy because I , the Lord your God, am Holy.” It then goes on with a chain of social laws, laws of fairness, laws of justice, as well as laws of religious obligation.

            Holiness was to be found in the realities of society, with all its grit and dirt.

            We Jews are very sensitive as a result to social issues and we sometimes identify Judaism with social justice, often to the exclusion of other values.

            I confess that like other young Jews of my generation, I flirted with socialism. At one time, that was the route that all Jews took.      

            When I was in Israel, I had worked for Israel's Labor Federation, the Histadrut, which was closely aligned with the Labor party. I ran a program for adult Jewish studies  under their auspices  At one time, every institution in Israel was Labor based, socialist in orientation, if not to some extent also Marxist.

            How times have changed. Do you realize that I was among the last of the " Red Rabbis"? The last May Day parade in Israel, organized by the Labor Federation, was in 1988, and I marched under the red banner, the international socialist banner, “Worker’s of the World Unite” banner of the Israeli Histadrut!

            I also organized a Passover Seder at Bet Berl, the college of the Labor movement, and the Israeli newspapers wrote of the Secretary-General of the labor Federation, that he was at our Seder, among the  adumim, among the Reds at Bet Berl.

             Then the Soviet Union fell, and the color red has fallen  with it. ( I could never stand the current usage of red for Republican and blue for Democrat, a convention caused by cartographers, since it distorts the historic connection of the  colors, red for socialists, white for royalist, black for anarchist and so forth. But what do map drawers and news analysts know of history!)

            Since then, the Red banner has been changed to red and blue, and now, all blue and the May Day parades have faded into history. Labor Party is no longer labor. There is little economic difference in Israel between the two parties .

            Tempus mutandis-the times change everywhere.

            It is true that the strategies and theories that underlie these ideals of social justice- these controlled societies and central planned economies proved to be great social disasters or the world scene and even here, in the US, the image of a Great Society has not come to be, despite vast sums of money pumped n.

            Nevertheless, the themes of the books of the Torah still disturb us. We can’t run off to the desert. We have neither Dead Sea sects nor grand revolutionary dreams. How then do we keep alive the sense of Kedoshim in society that of necessity, in order to be a free society, must also be a market society, a society that inevitably results in inequalities? How do we keep such a society form devouring itself?

            Do we, as Jews, do we still have a social plank today?

            When I worked for the Histadrut, I tried to create a statement for a foundation of social justice on the basis of Jewish tradition, not on the basis of Marx, nor Lenin, but, to quote one of our old members Max Cukier, a declaration he heard from David ben Gurion,"  Jewish socialism is not from Marx-- it is from Isaiah."

             What I sought was a Jewish and Judaic basis for a true society, not a Republican, not a Democratic, not capitalist, not socialist-but a posture rooted in Jewish social ethos.

            Where do we begin? What is our Jewish social platform?

            We can begin it with this week’s Torah portion. Our founding principal is in this very portion:.Ve ahavta lereekha kamocha-- you shall love your neighbor as yourself. As I pointed out last week, it extends to the stranger who seeks to live among us as well and adopts our laws and society. (Lev 19).Our sage, Rabbi Akiba, adopted this verse as the great principal of the Torah.

            His colleague, Ben Azzai, insisted on another principal, which does not contradict, but really supplements this, from the book of Genesis,” Man and woman are created in the image of God.”

            In both cases, we premise our social concern on the sanctity and holiness of the individual human being. This is very different from the premise of Karl Marx, very different, premise in which class and production are the only bases of human value.

            We do have a special sense of responsibility for our fellow Jews, but that does not exclude the rest of humanity. The Haftarah which we read today  reminds us, in the words of the prophet, Amos," Are you not like the Ethiopians unto me"-- God is God of all nations, the mover of history for all peoples.

            From the Jewish perspective, we carry a tremendous responsibility for the life and well-being of each person.  Our Torah portion commands us," Do not stand by idly over your brother's blood."

            Do you recall history's first recorded homicide? It was the case of God vs Cain, Cain who killed Abel, Cain who shirked responsibility, Cain, who asked “Am I my brother’s keeper."

            The foundation for Jewish judicial procedure is found in the Mishna, in the tractate Sanhedrin, the court system. It is there, in the oath administered to witnesses, that we are told,

" Whosoever destroys one life,  it is as if he destroyed an entire world-- but whosoever saves one life, it is as if he saved an entire world." (This is a position stated in the Quran)

            That same Mishna reminds us that each of us is of such great value, that we must say

" For my sake the world was created." For my sake and there I am therefore responsible for this world. I can't shirk off my responsibility on someone else.

            That same Mishna takes as its premise the uniqueness of each one of us . The world, for practical purposes, may well be broken up into class, into sexes, into races, into nations--but none of us is forced to choose right or wrong because of our birth. Instead, our sages were amazed at the uniqueness and variation of the human species, and so that Mishna declares: Thus, all mortals are created in the image of the first man, all share that same common human origin, yet no two faces and no two minds are alike. Therefore, must each one say," For my sake the world was created."

            Since we are each in the divine image, each one of us unique, we are in principal free from human bondage, servants only to God.

            This freedom, for the Jew, is summed up in individual responsibility for one's actions.

            We Jews have a theory of government, as well. The Torah is the first document in history to limit the power of the Kings, and the Talmud provides the basis for a legislative body in the form of the Sanhedrin, and the grounds for majority rule are present in Jewish jurisprudence. The concept of rule of society by law is deeply imbedded in every page of Jewish history. " Zedek Zedek tirdof, You shall pursue justice, that you may inherit the land which the Lord has given you."

            It is a law which must be applied equally, as the Torah dictates, without regard to wealth, without regard to  country of origin," One law shall you have, for the citizen and for the stranger who lives in your midst."

            Finally, throughout the Torah and Rabbinic rulings, with all the exhortations to personal responsibility which I mentioned, with all that, Jewish teachings also recognize that human beings, by nature, look out for themselves alone. Exhortations to be charitable and pious platitudes do not solve the problems of society.     

            We know that we can’t create an absolutely equal society. Every attempt to do so has been drenched with blood and has bound people in immense political, social and physical chains, far worse than the chains of capitalism.  Nevertheless, we are aware that when we give tzedakah, our sages tell us, we do not expect to get a thanks—because, they remind us, we are protecting our own interests—we could always be next. When we create a fair society, we are not just being nice--we are facing the truth that our sages knew, that each one of us has the responsibility to keep our neighbors from hitting that bottom because we could also be on the bottom.

            The challenge to the leaders of our government is to address such issues, both from the Republican and from the Democratic sides of the aisle, and it is our position, as Jews, to help both parties keep their eyes on the ball.

            Thus words for all, from Moses, from the book of Deuteronomy :

            You shall not subvert the rights of the stranger or the fatherless; you shall not take a widow's garment in pawn. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there...the forgotten sheaf in the field, the fruit of the olive tree...the grapes of your vineyard...it shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow- Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt."

             May we always remember what we, as individuals and as Jews , owe our fellow human beings, that, in Moses words, The Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings and we can be “ Kedoshim”, Holy as a people. Amen.

A Mother's Day Poem From The Holocaust

A Mother's Day Poem From The Holocaust

My mother, Irene Weinberg, kept a copy of a poem in Polish, Dzien Matki, Mother's Day, by Zofia Nawrocka,  which describes the anguish of a woman who learns of her mother's capture by the Nazi's during the Holocaust. My mother translated it into English.