Shabbat Tshuvah and Lady Macbeth

Shabbat  Tshuvah  and Lady Macbeth   

One afternoon, having nothing better to do, I dialed a phone number. It was from an ad in the local paper, which had only the message on it “Shalom” and “ Call this number”. So I did. I could guess in advance what it was for, but, out of curiosity, I dialed anyway.

On the other end, an answering machine came on. The taped voice was that of an elderly, Yiddish accented man presenting what seemed to be a very Jewish explanation of the nature of sacrifices and the Torah, using some traditional Jewish commentaries. One could have assumed that this was a worthy project, a “ Dial a word of Torah”, sponsored by some yeshiva. Of course at the very and came the punch line: since there were no longer any sacrifices to act as a mechanism of forgiveness, that meant there was no means of obtaining of atonement from God – – unless – – this was the clincher – – one accepted Yeshua the Moshiah as the ultimate sacrifice.

I knew when I dialed that that would be the purpose of the number, but his taped “ evangelical drashah” speaks to an ancient question: how is atonement achieved? How can we feel ourselves forgiven by a God of justice for crimes which we, in our guilt, see as horrible indictments against us.

It doesn’t require any demonic force to pursue us in our guilt. We are quite capable in our own imaginings to create our own hell of self-punishment.

I mentioned Lady Macbeth. You know the plot from Shakespeare.  Lady Macbeth has been the accomplice to her husband’s murder of the King and cannot forget her actions. Night after night she gets up from her sleep to try ineffectually to remove the stains of blood which only she can see.

“Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red. “

A great line if ever there was one, followed by this well-known one-liner:

“Out, damned spot! Out, I say”.

Lady Macbeth’s suffering was well deserved. However, Shakespeare has given us one of the great examples of the crippled neurotic, a classic themes of the literature of psychiatry :We have the unforgiving pursuit by some real or often imagined sin which cripples the neurotic in a myriad of fashions.

One central purpose of this season from Rosh Hashanah  to Yom Kippur is to enable us to find relief from the hounds of hell, whether we picture them as a theological reality or a mental aberration. How is atonement achieved?

There’s a classic debate in rabbinic lore in which different verses of the Bible answer just that the same question. It is the debate between the various strands of biblical thought: the schools of wisdom, prophecy, poetry, and priesthood.( Pesikta d Rav Kahana 24:7)

Asks wisdom, what will become of the sinner? She answers, “ Evil pursues the sinner.” In such a perspective, this is a world of cause and effect, a world of unbending determinism. Evil reaps evil and there is no escape. Lady  Macbeth as well as Lord Macbeth himself  reap the consequences of the murderous plot. That is their Karma.

Ask the prophets, ”What will become of the sinner?” They answer,” The soul that sins, it shall die.” For the prophets, the sense of justice, of righteous indignation is paramount and overwhelming. Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus: let justice be done even though the world be destroyed. The crimes and sins of the people cannot be wiped off the slate. Thus when we read on Yom Kippur the story of Jonah, we encounter such a prophet. The people of Nineveh have sinned? Then let them be destroyed, no matter what. I have sinned: throw me into the ocean!

Ask Psalms, what will become of the sinner? He answers,” Let the sinners cease out of the earth.” It is the rhetorical flourish of the poet. He echoes the criminology of the writer of Proverbs, of wisdom, and theological imperative of the prophet.” Let sinners cease out of the earth and the wicked shall be no more.” With one fell swoop, the entire kit and caboodle are undone

Ask the Torah, ask the school of priests, what will become of the sinner? She answers,”Bring the guilt offering and achieve atonement thereby.” This is the school of the ritualist, the theologian and the formal religionists. Since guilt is there, and either the mind or God is unforgiving and unbending, then we must engage in a ritual act. Man is after all “Homo symbolicus” the human being of symbols. That which distinguishes us from animals is our ability create and think in terms of symbols. All actions and objects exist in the realm of symbolism. That which is been carried out in a phenomenal world can only be undone in the world of metaphor and imagery. Hence the dance of the witch doctor or the sacrifice of the ancient temple, or the need to posit, as evangelists who wish to convert us claim,  some universal, overwhelming sacrifice to end all sacrifices, of the son of God. It is also the answer, once again, of the neurotic, who seeks, through the use symbolic action, relief from the torments of conscience.

Is this the end of the conversation? The Midrash covered all the branches of the Bible but did anyone ask God what he thought? The Midrash continues to ask God. What is God’s answer for us? Not Wisdom, not Psalms, not Prophets, not even the Torah. Rather, we ask, “What does God want? What will become of the sinner?

“ Let him do Teshuvah , carry out the act of return, of change, and all will be forgiven.”

What does God seek? Not cruelty, not harsh justice, not inexorable law, nor any magic approach. Ultimately, God speaks as the teacher to his pupils – – to the sinner, he says – – you can grow, you can mature, you can change your actions. It is within your grasp, within your ability to attain atonement – – not through animal sacrifices, not through any mediators in heaven, but through your own readiness to grow and change. The road to Teshuvah, to return to the path of good, is continually open, never blocked, never closed off, to any of us at any time Our path to reconciliation with God, with ourselves, without conscience, and with our fellow human beings, is forever open to us to the actions we choose to do.

May we always indeed take the path of the right choice.  Amen.

When the Messiah Fails to Come on Time

When the Messiah Fails to Come on Time

We are a people of contradictions and extremes. How so?

Two weeks ago, we had Tisha B’ Ab with its remembrance of past tragedies and its heavy burden of sadness that it placed in the collective Jewish consciousness. Last week we had Tu B’ Av, the 15th of Av. It is the Jewish version of the TV show, The Bachelor! It is said that there were no happier days, for one this day, as well as on Yom Kippur, the maidens of Jerusalem would go out to the vineyards and dance in hopes of being selected by some eligible bachelor.

Our long history of tragedies has made us forget the happiness that should have been the lot of the Jewish people.           

We read a series of three Haftaroth before Tisha B Av, whose theme was that of warning of disaster. Now, we have a series of seven Haftaroth whose theme is that of consolation..

After the destruction, there is the promise of rebirth. It is that promise of rebirth that has kept us going as Jews despite the pall of tragedy that hung over us. It is the message of hope, as it was worded in Hatikvah:”Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim”, the Hope of restoration to our land in independence and dignity, the hope of two thousand years.

            We have had a basic Jewish understanding that all will be right in its own good time, that the days of the Messiah would essentially be a better, more righteous and more just version of the ancient kingdom of David.

            But what happens when you just can’t wait any longer, when the burden of exile becomes unbearable? What happens when the nations of the world deal overly harsh with us? I want to give you some examples from our past and see how it sheds light on the way people behave, not just Jews, but Christians and Moslems as well, because, in truth, not just us Jews await.

            When Bar Cochba failed as  Messiah, there was a push by Rabbinic scholars to downplay any attempts at speeding on the end of days. Nevertheless, the hope and longing for a solution to the exile and pain of Jewish existence could push us over a cliff-literally.

            In the fifth century, there appeared someone who called himself Moses and captivated the hearts of the Jews of the Island of Crete. They gave up all their possessions and gathered at a cliff overlooking the ocean. He assured them that he was, like Moses, able to split the sea so they could march on to the Land of Israel. They had but to start walking—off the cliff and into the ocean, never to be seen again. Jewish  lemmings!  

            Another would be Messiah appeared around the time of the Crusades, when the Moslem world itself was in turmoil. One David Alroi took the opportunity to start an armed rebellion of Jews against the ruling Sultan. The Sultan quickly put down the rebellion and executed the would be redeemer.

            Yet another would be Messiah was a renowned and respected Kabbalist, Abraham Aboulafia.at the end of the 13^th century.

            An inner voice told him that it was time to convert the Pope Nicholas III to Judaism, so he made his way to Rome. The Pope threatened to burn him at the stake but Aboulafia, unafraid of threats of execution, made his way to Pope only to discover that the Pope had died of a stroke the night before he arrived.

            The most disturbing event took place as a result of the fall out of the Spanish expulsion and then the massacre of Polish Jewry by the Cossacks under Chmielnicki.

            Once again, a new Messiah arose, and this one carried the entire Jewish world, east, West, North, South, along with him,  Sabbatai Zwi, of Smyrna. He carried out bizarre acts, marrying a Sefer Torah and then marrying a woman who was well known as a prostitute. He issued a new blessing, “Matir issurim”-“ Who has permitted that which is forbidden” and engaged in “Mitzvah habaah be averah”, committing a sin for the sake of mitzvah.

            These acts, he assured his followers, were symbolic of the mystical war that he was waging against the dark Satanic forces. Today, we would escribe his behavior as bi-polar or manic-depressive. He and his followers saw it as a mystical battle of light against darkness. He had an ardent promoter and theologian on his side, Nathan of Gaza, who provided the Kabbalistic and theological justifications for Sabbatai Zwi’s bizarre behavior.

            The entire Jewish world, so desperate for an end to its troubles, within a few short years doubled down and bet on him that he was indeed the Messiah. Even the Christian world as far as England was abuzz with speculation.

            Then, in 1666, he went into the Ottoman Sultan. The Sultan gave him three choices- be shot with a volley of arrows or be burned at the stake—if he would survive it certainly would be proof that he was the Messiah-- or become a Moslem.

            Sabbatai Zwi chose to become a Moslem.

            That should have been the end of it but Jews kept on believing in him, believing that this was but the outward symbol of a hidden act of destroying the dark forces. Most remained devout Jews, just waiting for the forces of darkness to explode. Others copied their Messiah by becoming outwardly Moslems, but remaining as secret Jews, Donmeh, repeating what many of their ancestors had done as Marranos. 

            There remained here and there, into the last century, pockets of followers of Sabbatai Zwi in Turkey. Many of them became prominent in Turkish society and were active in the Young Turks movement that lead to the end of the reign of the Sultan and the rise of Kamal Ataturk, the founder of Modern Turkey—who himself had attended a school run by Donmeh members. Islamists in Turkey still blame the fall of the Sultan on us Jews as a result.

            It did not end there however. A century later, Jacob Frank claimed to be his reincarnation, engaged in a bizarre sex cult, and took his community as a whole, to be baptized in Lwow. His daughter, Eva, was declared the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, and for a while, they were favorites at the court of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Their followers continued on down to the beginning to the Holocaust. Many descendants of Sabbatean believers became prominent in French revolution and modern Jewish movements as well. One such descendent, Luis Dembitz Brandeis, became a Supreme Court Justice here.

            This is truly a litany of Jewish oddities and failings.

            The basic Jewish response to all of these false Messiahs was to ban or restrict kabbalah. It was to shut down speculation and present ourselves as paragons of logic. We could have either the rigorous Talmudic logic of the Lithuanian Jews, or the logic of enlightened Jews of the modern Reform, Conservative and Orthodox schools. Chasidism was in some ways an approach to water down mystical speculation for the poorer Jews of Poland and Ukraine.          For some Jews,  the fervor  of Messianism was transferred to the political realm, as early as the French revolution. For many Jews, the hopes of Communism drew them as did the earlier Messiahs. The Zionist revolution as well, for sure drew upon the inspiration of a reborn people promised by the Prophets

            However, for the majority of Jews, an inner dynamism and creative realm was shut out because of the fear of this wave of irrationality. Something of Judaism was lost in the process.

Now, what we as Jews experienced has been experienced in its variations in the Christian and Moslem world as well.

Christianity had essentially internalized the messianic era into personal salvation, yet the desire for redemption of the world in history never truly disappeared among them either. The Christians were always hoping for a Second Coming.

I recall back in the 70’s when evangelical Christians were expecting the end of days with great expectation. I was Rabbi in Virginia and Pat Robertson, the great televangelist, had his headquarters in our area. My members told me that some of their neighbors had come over to them and told them, out of friendship and love, that they could have the keys to their cars and houses after the “Rapture”. At the rapture, which would mark the end of days, which was just around the corner, the souls of the righteous would be plucked out of their earthly existence and taken straight to heaven. We Jews could have free use of the cars and house in the short time that would follow before the world would be overthrown. This belief gave rise to a successful series of books and movies, so we could say that it was a very benign and harmless form of end of world expectations.

            It is only in this light, of expectations of an imminent end of the world as we know it, that we can understand why there is so much turmoil in the Middle East. Islam too shares with Judaism the Messianic expectation. It even uses that word, Masiḥ, when Jesus would return, together with the Mahdi, the Redeemer, who would overthrow the Dajjal, the Anti-Christ, before the Day of Judgement.(In current preaching, Dajjal now mean the great Satan and the Little Satan, America and Israel.) Notice how Islam uses themes that are both Jewish and Christian.        Do we wish to understand the long term vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran-- it is a harbinger, a forerunner, in the Shiite version, of the final battle. Hence, the great worry about such a regime getting its hands on a nuclear weapon. We are worried that they really believe what they teach. Hence, the great skepticism about the value of the nuclear arms agreement with Iran.

             If we wish to know what is the driving force and inspiration of the Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, what is the inspiration that draws the disaffected from Europe and even America, it is because this too is a part of the battle of the end of days. The cruelty and brutality is part and parcel of the coming end of days. It is taking an element of Islamic belief and pushing it to its farthest bounds.

            This rush to hasten the end of days still gnaws at us Jews. To that extent, the Jewish terrorists who burned the Palestinian baby also sprayed” Long Live the Messiah , the King.” If there is any consolation for us, it is that such a manifestation of end-of-days mania among us Jews is rare and is hunted and shut  down.

            Here is a question for us—this image, of a final redemption, is one that gives us all hope, yet, it can drive to such disastrous consequences, cross the board. Can we find , in our heritage, a teaching that gives this new meaning that will still bring us hope, without the destruction.

            Is there a Messianic vision that can speak to us spiritually, that can give us hope and expectation without derailing us as it has so often in the past?

            There is.

            We as Jews have always recognized that something is amiss in the political and social world. It is expressed in the concept of “ Galut”, Exile. Wrapped up with it is the concept of “Shekhinah be galuta”; God’s presence is in exile with us. The concept was intended to remind us that even while we may suffer as a people God is with us to protect us.

            In the thread of Kabbalistic thought, that suppressed underground of Jewish thinking, that concept took on an added meaning, that even God is in exile, that something has inherently gone wrong in the perfect universe from the moment that Adam sinned. This line of thought led to the idea that, in order to create the universe, God had to withdraw from it,”Tzimztum” and that very act of creation had resulted, like the big bang of physicists, in a shattering of the vessels that channel divine power, “shvirat hakelim”. There was a mixing of the “ Nitzatzot hakodesh”,sparks of the divine together with dark forces of matter, the shell, “klipot”. In short, the universe itself is in physical and spiritual disarray.

            What then is the purpose of the human being? The human being is created for the purpose of “ tzorech gavohah”, a higher necessity, that of elevating the lost sparks of divinity in the universe. The first Adam failed in this task and it has been given over to the Jewish people to continue. The tool of the Jew is the fulfilling of the mitzvoth.

            You must recognize that there resides in this a powerful message:

            God needs us to complete the redemption of the world, the “ geulah”, in a process of   “tikun”, repair.

            It is no longer God destroying us and exiling us, but we ourselves when we fall back and allow the forces of darkness to take over our lives.

            The human being is no longer just another creature, nor even just a servant of God. The human being, especially in this Jewish variation, is now the agent of redemption.

            Think of this as a way of inspiring ourselves every day.

            If I carry out a mitzvah, it’s not just a nice Jewish custom. It is my way of redeeming the world as well as myself

            If I care for my neighbor as myself, I am not just being nice or being self-interested, but I am carrying out an act of redemption.

            If I strengthen my involvement with my fellow Jews, I can be strengthening our “Salvation Army”.

            If we are involved in making physical life on earth better, through science and technology, as well as through fair and just government, we are involved in redeeming the world.

            Even our collective explorations of the physics of the sub-atomic world and the explorations of space and the universe, perhaps these too will be part of the redemption of the world.

            In this, our lives get renewed vigor and meaning, drawing upon the richness of Jewish thought and spirit. We would have no need for violence or mania to achieve this, no false messiahs and messianic pretenders. Instead, step by step, in our daily deeds, we each and every one of us brings about the unity of God’s name and the redemption, the Geulah, of all.

The Messiah is Born on Tisha B”Av

The Messiah is Born on Tisha B”Av

            Today is the Ninth of Av, Tisha B”Av, but since it is Shabbat, we postpone the observance of this date to this evening and tomorrow, so as not to mar the sanctity of Shabbat with our fasting. Note that we never postpone Yom Kippur, which is also a fast day, to Sunday. Yom Kippur maybe a day without food, but it is far from a day of tragedy; it is instead, a day of joyful expectation leading to “At-one-ment.”.

            One day, too, Tisha B Av will be a joyful day as well. It was already stated by the prophet Zechariah: This is what the Lord Almighty says: "The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. "( 8:19). The fast of the fourth month, counting from Pesach forward, is the 17th of Tammuz, when the walls of the Temple were breached. The fast of the fifth month is Tisha B Av, when the Temple itself fell. The fast of the seventh month, the day after Rosh Hashanah, mourns the murder of Gedaliah, the High Commissioner appointed by the Babylonian overlords, which marked the beginning of the disastrous rebellion that led to the destruction. The fast of the tenth day, The Tenth of Tevet, marks the start of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem.

            In other words, the Jewish exiles, sitting in Babylonia had already established this series of memorials. When, two generations later, they were allowed back to Israel, this practice of fasting had been deeply ingrained. The prophet Zechariah, looking at this return, looks forward to a time when these fast days would be transformed into days of rejoicing, because the Sacred Temple and the Kingdom of Judah would once again be established. History would come to an end.

            However, we know that Zechariah was premature. The Temple was rebuilt, bigger and better and new kings were established on the throne of Israel, but it seems that the mourning, in one sense or another, continued. Things were not yet perfect.

            And then—the Temple was destroyed again, on Tisha B’ Av, 600 years after it was reestablished. Again, on Tisha B’Av, the great Bar Kochba rebellion was put down at Betar and the remains of Jerusalem were plowed under. We would have to learn to live without a Temple, without a society under our own leadership, and eventually, without our land. For some 1900 years, we would live at the tolerance of other peoples and rulers, and often, we would not live. Tisha B’ Av became a day of even greater mourning as other events were associated with that date in history- the expulsion of the  Jews from medieval France and England, and then the expulsion of the largest and most prosperous Jewish community of its day, the Jewish community of Spain, in 1492. Even in modern times, it became associated with the date of the official start of the Final Solution, when  Himmler received Nazi Party authorization to begin and with the date of the start of the deportations from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka and death.

            We can see, then, why Zechariah’s prophecy would be so very important for us. We would have been lost as a people in permanent depression had it not been for the words of Zechariah and the prophets that preceded and followed him.

            What kept us going, even before the Temple was destroyed the first time, was a concept that we call in Hebrew “ Yemot Hamashiach”, the Days of the Messiah, or Messianic expectation.  Messiah itself comes from the Hebrew word “ mashiach” for anointed with oil, a ceremony in which one was designated for high office, as a priest or king. Even a pagan king, Cyrus of Persia, would be called God’s Messiah by the Prophet Isaiah for opening the gates of the land of Israel to the exiles from Babylonia. It soon became a term to designate the rightful heir to the throne of King David.

This concept appears in the sense of destruction and restoration in the text of the Torah itself, long before there is a Temple to destroy, long before there is a king or Davidic lineage.

            At a time when both Kingdoms, Israel and Judah, were powerful and prosperous, the Prophet Amos preached of a “ Day of the Lord”, when the wicked would be judged and overthrown. When the Northern kingdom fell, the Prophet Isaiah already envisioned an heir to the throne of King David who would usher in a period of great peace, when” the lion shall dwell with the lamb”. In short, to paraphrase a rabbinic comment, God creates a cure before he brings the illness. A later Jewish legend would say that the Messiah was born on Tisha B Av itself. From the depth of destruction would come the redemption. (Yerushalmi Berakhot 2:4)

            In the intervening years, before the destruction of the Second Temple, every generation saw itself as the last, as being on the verge of the end of days, as being participants on the war of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness, as we find in the writings of the dead Sea sects and the Apocrypha (books from the close of the Biblical, period that were never included in the Jewish canon).    

            Jesus may have been a member or leader of such a movement and  may have seen himself as a precursor to the Messiah or have been seen by his followers as the Messiah. He promulgated his famous ethical statements towards one’s enemies, “Turn the other cheek” ,” Give your cloak.” (These statements themselves are adapted quotes from earlier Biblical verses). Many Christian scholars see these not as ethical directives for all ages but as a conditional statement of faith because the end is nigh. Why fight and why hold on to possessions when it would all be swept away overnight and the wicked would get their comeuppance and the righteous would be rewarded.

            It was this great anticipation of a dramatic end of all that is that gave rise to the disastrous rebellions against Rome; from this moment on the concept of a Messianic kingdom was dramatically changed.

            For the early community of followers of Jesus, as the dead Jesus failed to return to overthrow Rome, a new explanation was needed. Thus  Paul would find end of days not in the future, but in the present, a salvation of the individual souil, not the nation. This was the great radical departure of the new religion of Christianity, a split from all notions of redemption in history that were essential to Judaism. The fall of the Temple a few decades later was the catalyst that forced the separation of Christianity from Judaism and sealed this version of the new religion. Christianity never shook its Jewish roots completely and would, in time, come right back to the Jewish concept of the Messianic era, but as an afterthought. The idea of a future redeemer would find its place in Islam as well in the figure of a Mahdi  who would defeat evil at the end of days..

            Jews, in turn, were devastated; the longing for a Messiah had given rise to horror of war and internal division. The Sages now gave this future vision a critical revision. The Messiah would come, in and of his own time, as God would determine, still within the framework of the nation and world history, but in God’s own good time. At best, it could be achieved only by personal and communal perfection, not by war. Thus, a tale arose, that the Messiah could be found sitting at the gates of Rome, symbol of the children of Darkness. He would be disguised as a sickly beggar who is constantly bandaging his wounds.

“R. Joshua b. Levi met Elijah, , , ‘When will the Messiah come?’ — ‘Go and ask him himself,’ was his reply. ‘Where is he sitting?’  ‘At the entrance.’ And by what sign may I recognize him?’  ‘He is sitting among the poor lepers: all of them untie the ir bandages all at once, and retire them all at once, whereas he unwraps and rebandages each separately, thinking,’ should I be wanted, I must not be delayed.’  

 So he went to him and greeted him, saying, ‘peace upon you, Master and Teacher.’ ‘Peace upon you, O son of Levi,’ he replied. ‘When will you come Master?’ asked he, ‘Today’, was his answer.

On his returning to Elijah,.he complained: ‘He spoke falsely to me, stating that he would come to-day, but he has not!’ Elijah answered him, ‘This is what he said to you, the first word. ‘Today’ (of a quotation from Psalms 95:7),’ Today, if you will listen to his voice.’( Sanhedrin 98a).

In other words, the coming of a Davidic savior would be depend on the merits of the Jewish people. It could not be forced by violent armed rebellion.

Of course, the odds of all Jews being so pious are slim, so other sages suggested the Messiah will come when all is Jews have fallen so low in morality and behavior that he will have no choice but to step in.

Finally, the accepted position was” Ayn Dohakin et Haketz.” Don’t try to force the end of days.” It is all in God’s hands.

            Thus the Rabbis claimed that God made  three oaths with the people of Israel and the nations: One, that Israel shall not go up as in a military siege to reconquer the land of Israel; the second,  Israel would not rebel against the nations of the world; and the third that the idolaters would not oppress Israel too much’.  To this was added the comment that the prophets would not reveal the secret of the end of days and  the people would not force the end.” ( Talmud Ketuboth 110-111

            Thus the speculation and the drive to obtain an end of oppression by force were pushed off into the future and left to the hands of God. In classical Rabbinic thinking, the idea of the Messiah would not be a cataclysmic end of days, but an era of social and political peace for the Jewish people.  Thus, the Rambam gave what may be the classical formulation of the Messianic concept:

Do not presume that in the Messianic age any facet of the world's nature will change or there will be innovations in the work of creation. Rather, the world will continue according to its pattern. . . .

Our Sages taught: "There will be no difference between the current age and the Messianic era except the emancipation from our subjugation to the gentile kingdoms."

The Sages and the prophets did not yearn for the Messianic era in order to have dominion over the entire world, to rule over the gentiles, to be exalted by the nations, or to eat, drink, and celebrate. Rather, they desired to be free to involve themselves in Torah and wisdom without any pressures or disturbances, so that they would merit the world to come . . .

In that era, there will be neither famine or war, envy or competition for good will flow in abundance and all the delights will be freely available as dust. The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know God.

Therefore, the Jews will be great sages and know the hidden matters, grasping the knowledge of their Creator according to the full extent of human potential, 'The world will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the ocean bed.( Isaiah 11:9)" ( Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Melachim, Chapter 12)

            Note his insistence on awaiting and not pushing for an end of all; we may consider this the basic Jewish understanding of the ages before and after. We will know that the Messiah has come-after the fact, the Rambam assured his readers ( Ch. 11). That kind of viewpoint enabled Jews to establish communities and prosper in Babylonia and North Africa and the Rhineland and Spain. More or less, we would accommodate ourselves to the gentiles, they would not overly oppress us, and we would be fine until the Messiah would come. With this outlook, it would be easy for us to resist the blandishments of the Christian missionaries, as it would be easy to refute their claim that the Messiah had come in the form of Jesus. It would be easy for us to resist the subjugation under Islam and the extortion protection money we had to pay , the jizzya, because we could assure ourselves that these religions, as burdensome as their believers were upon us, were still a stepping stone for the nations of the world to attain the knowledge of God It would all be straightened out at the end

Thus, as Maimonides could declare, among his 13 principles of faith:

“Ani Maamin: I believe with perfect faith, in the coming of the Messiah. And even though he delay, nevertheless, I wait for him.”

Now, I will leave for another Shabbat, the quandary of what happens to our belief in the Messiah when the nations of the world have violated their oath not to oppress us too harshly. 

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.