We All Have to Deal with Difficult Texts

Parshat Naso 2016
 We All Have to Deal with Difficult Texts

Our Torah reading deals with a strange ordeal by water and sacred script of a woman accused of infidelity.
A man is struck with a fit of jealousy against his wife, and instead of beating her, as was  acceptable (and still is in some societies), he must bring her to the priest, who takes dust and water from the altar, writes a terrible curse on parchment, and dissolves the ink into the water. If she is guilty, her belly and thigh expand and collapse. If she is innocent, she is rewarded with fertility. ( Numbers 5)
It is an odd trial by ordeal from our perspective, until we realize that it comes, first and foremost, to stop a husband who is in a fit of jealous rage and who could become violent and dangerous.  It is a great step ahead of the standard procedure of the day:
 If a finger has been pointed at a married woman with regard to another man and she is not caught lying with the other man she shall leap into the river for her husband." (  Code of Hammurapi (Pritchard, Texts, 171, law 132). This procedure, of proving innocence by throwing oneself in to drown as proof of innocence was still in vogue in Salem, Massachusetts, during the witchcraft trials.
Yet while the Temple still stood, the ceremony was already annulled.
The Talmud ( Sotah) states clearly: When adulterers multiplied, the ceremony of the bitter waters ceased and it was Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai who discontinued it, as it is said, “I will not punish their daughters for fornicating, nor their daughters-in-law for committing adultery, for they themselves [turn aside with whores and sacrifice with prostitutes]” (Hosea 4:14). He could not blame the women when the men were worse!
When the people stop believing in their own religious standards, when everyone is hopping around, these laws lose their effectiveness and become nullified. It is a reflection of reality—when a law becomes impossible to uphold, we void it in order to enable the community of worshippers continue, even when many are sinners.
We might call this the Jewish version of “jury nullification” ,the right of the jury to question the validity or application of a law in a specific case . God is the Judge of the world, but we are the jury, and in the course of our history, our jury, the Rabbis, often reflecting the practice of the people, found ways to nullify laws that no longer worked.
The laws of the rebellious son fated for execution or the city condemned to destruction for betrayal of the faith are posted in Deuteronomy, but are nullified by the Rabbis. ”Lo hiya vlo nivra”;never was and never existed. Our sages taught that this threat was never intended to be carried out--it was written only in order to scare us straight.
What of the harsh Biblical laws to uproot the Canaanites without any mercy?  Those laws were voided by the Rabbis, as the Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors erased the ancestral heritage of all these ancient nations.
These changes were not done on impulse nor to satisfy popular whims.
There are essential principals that operate in Jewish law. For example, “ Pikuach nefesh”- the saving of a life overrides almost all of the Torah. There is the idea that not only “ Life saving”  but even” Kavod habriyot”, the dignity of the individual human being, may override a prohibition. The Rabbis uprooted and reversed a statement in Psalms, to say- When it is necessary for the sake of God, violate the Torah. Principals like these enabled our Sages to deal with the social, psychological, and economic necessities in every age.

Why do I bring this up?
All religions have texts with verses or edicts that can be difficult or painful. What had been essential in antiquity, to protect the ideal, becomes anathema in a later day. I say this as prologue to my thoughts on what has happened in Orlando , with the massacre of innocent people in the name of Islam.
We know now that these people, in the eyes of the murderer, were guilty of the sin of homosexuality. It is a sin, punishable by death, in Islamic jurisprudence, and this is in effect in a dozen countries, such as Iran, where executions of convicted homosexuals are carried out on a regular basis. In 40 other countries, it is a criminal offense, punishable by fines, whipping, or jail.  It is not a law placed on the books by extremists, unless you are ready to label most Moslems as extremists. The leading Islamic jurists have repeatedly stated that homosexuality is a major crime, not just a sin. Islamic teachers today reflect what were principals in the foundation text, the Quran, and were reinforced in the Hadith.
To be fair, in different times and ages, this law was ignored or overlooked and as we approach modernity, the Ottoman Empire, standard bearer of Islam, decriminalized it almost two centuries ago! In much of the Moslem world, as in the Christian West, the rule of “Don’t ask;don’t tell” applied. However, as has happened with much of the Islamic world, there is a return to roots, and with it, a return to standards and laws of a prior age.
Now, it is true that Christianity has statements in its texts denouncing homosexuality. It is not in the words of Jesus, who forgave the gravest of sins, but in the words of the Apostles. However, these statements lack legal threats and punishments; those come from the rules and regulations of Church and State in the centuries that followed. As we enter the modern era, in Europe, the major countries began decriminalizing homosexuality. To a great extent, the various denominations of Christianity have come around to increasing tolerance or open acceptance. In the West, it is a result of religion following public sentiment, not leading.
The one tragic exception, we must note, was Nazi Germany, which re-criminalized homosexuals as well as Jews, to a deadly effect.
What about us? After all, we have laws in the Torah that threaten the death penalty for male with male acts( although not female-with-female !) However, we know that jury nullification sets in. All laws that involved capital punishment were in effect nullified because we placed impossible restrictions so that for almost 2000 years no Jewish court could impose such a penalty. 
Frankly, with Jews, as with Christians, religion follows public sentiment. The non- Orthodox denominations have been opening the doors in the past decades, and even the Orthodox community is coming to grips with it as a fact, one that gets, if not “kashrut”, then at least sympathy and understanding. If you read discussions in Rabbinic circles, a lot of “ nullification “ is going on. We re-read the text of the Torah to understand the ban as relating to pagan prostitution in the Sanctuary. Other re-readings distinguish between different kinds of relationships and acts, or differences between inclinations and actions, or the status of someone acting “ baal korcho”, under mental compulsion. All relate to attempts to include, rather than exclude, a part of our community. 
Several years ago, one of our frequent visitors at services was a teacher from YULA, the large main Orthodox high school of Los Angeles. He was dying from AIDS, and at his funeral, every Rabbi of the school attended, even though they well knew his proclivities. That would not have happened a generation before. 
In the Islamic world, we must recognize, that at present, the secularizing tendencies that have swept over Judaism and Christianity have ceased in the Islamic world. If anything, we know that there for the past century, there has been a resurgence of tradition against modernity and a resurgence of faith against the onslaught of Western liberal  thought. It is manifested in the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt , in the rise of Wahabism, fueled by oil-money, in Saudi Arabia, in the rise of Shiite militancy in Iran , in the reversal of Turkey’s historic secularism since the rise to power of Erdogan, and so forth. 
It is reinforced by a renewed sense of “ Islamism”, that is, a major triumphalist political ideology, replacing fascism and communism, rooted in Islam. This is something that our President, unlike the Prime Minister of France, refuses to speak about publicly, for fear that, if we say the name, we may cause it. He does, however, acknowledge this semi-privately, in an interview in a major magazine. (It did not go unnoticed and the Saudi’s fumed at him.)
The massacre in Orlando is one consequence of this retrenchment of a fundamentalist Islam. It is the result of the impact of preachers in the mosque and in social media. Words have consequences. The shooter, who seems to have had serious problems of sexual orientation, in a society in which this orientation was the pathway to hell, became a perfect target for recruitment.
We are very sensitive to the fears of the Moslem community in this country and of course, we bristle at the thought of labelling an entire minority. We are Jews-- we have been there, we know that.
However, we also know, that to guarantee our own safety, we have had to accommodate ourselves to this country.
The burden falls on the religious and civic leaders of the American Islamic community, a community than is far more diverse than is ours. We know that, in the wake of the killings, some leaders have been speaking out about compassion and understanding to the LGBT community. There have been the beginnings of dealing with contemporary issues regarding sexuality in general and the status of women. There is the beginning of a Moslem “ Reform” movement. But it is still the beginning. 
It is not the job of American society to accommodate all teachings of Islam, nor of any other religion.  It is up to the Islamic religious leaders in the mosques and on the airways to affect attitudes and opinions. It is time for “Jury nullification” on their end. That is the path that every religious group in America has gone. All of us have found ways for the teachings of the faith in a society composed of a multitude of believers and non-believers.For just one example, the Mormon Church abandoned polygamy and abandoned its teachings on race. We Jews have dealt with this for 2500 years, since the fall of the first Temple, when the prophet Jeremiah instructed us to pray for the peace of the city in which we live, even that of our conquerors, and the Talmud instructed us, Dina d’amlkhutah dina, the law of the realm is our law, no matter whose realm it is.
The American Moslem community has a potential to be a tremendous influence on the global community of the faithful. Islamic tolerance is a much touted claim, not completely backed by history; it is now time to make it a doctrine. That burden is now upon the very people who could have most influenced the Orlando murderer-- the preachers and teachers.
God expects us, Jew, Moslem, Christian, to recognize that “ midat harachamim” , the quality of mercy, outweighs “ Middat hadin”, the quality of the judgement. We need to be able to “nullify” in order to preserve the sacred. We need to preach that, and we need to act on that. 

Why does Leviticus end with pledges?

Parshat Bechukotai  June 4 2016

Why does Leviticus end with pledges?

Sometimes it is hard to understand why the Torah is organized the way it is.

This book, which we end this week, starts with rules and regulations for the priest and the sacrificial worship; it moves on to issues of personal purity and permitted foods and personal and national ethical and spiritual standards. It ends with a vision of the future, of what blessing will come from the nation’s commitment to the Torah and what curses will befall the nation if it fails to keep these obligations.

We know, however, that a reading never ends on a note of failure, but on a note of hope, that no matter how far down the people of Israel may fall:

“…45 'But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.' 46These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the LORD established between Himself and the sons of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.”

That is a great last line. It wraps up the book very well. Close curtain; end of the concert. And then, we have an encore to the concert as it were, or an appendix.

The text  picks up with a completely different concept:

1The Lord said to Moses, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate a person to the Lord by giving the equivalent value, 3 set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel ; 4for a female, set her value at thirty shekels.

It goes on with a variety of items –animals or fields- that people may have offered as the basis of their pledge. Towards the end, there is one very serious reminder:” Kol Cherem asher yecharam”—whatever among the human may have been dedicated—

 can not be redeemed. That is a “ cherem”, unlike the “pledge”. That is a condemnation by the court for an actual crime that has been committed, a crime of capital punishment—“ Lo yipadeh”—that may never be bought off. There is no blood money that can wash off murder, as had been done in other societies at the time and is still on the law books in many countries till today.( .e., Iran, Saudi Arabia)( Lev 17:31)

The portion then wraps up with the almost the same words as the penultimate chapter.

“ These are the commandments…”

First, we may complain- why is the value of a woman less than that of a man. Please don’t take offense—the value of a senior citizen drops to small a fraction of either—and this is in a civilization that respects age.  Rather, consider that , in an agricultural society, you value labor by the bushels an individual can produce—a woman who is burdened with child-rearing can’t produce as much, and a retiree is not going to do a whole lot of plowing.

              What is this vow?

It was common for people to offer themselves as devoted to the gods or to the sanctuaries. This was found throughout all antiquity. There is the famous story of Jepthah, who dedicates the first thing that goes out to greet him- who happens to be his own daughter. It is a piece of Greek tragedy,much like the play Iphegenia at Aulis by Sophocles.It also matches the wild west atmosphere of the period of the Judges. There was, in contrast, although in this same epoch, Hannah who dedicates her son, Samuel, to the Sanctuary, and he grows up to become the leader of all the tribes.

            It is clear that the Sanctuary could not actually use all that were offered. Since the Kohen and the Levi had the job of serving the sacrifice at the Sanctuary, there was no need of extra hands. Since they also received their regular share of the tithe and other offerings, there was a limit as to what could actually be accepted. It was quite simple to institute a system of financial compensation for all of these offerings.

            This idea of pledging a contribution is so very, very old in Jewish thought. You are probably most familiar with “Shnoder,” a play on words, of “Schnorer” and the pledge one made to earn an Aliyah, The Misheberach that continues, “ she-nadar”, “who has pledged.” Now, you don’t have to be afraid of an aliyah here- we don’t charge. However, before there was such a thing as annual membership dues, this was the Jewish equivalent of passing the plate in church. We don’t use cash on Shabbat, so we use pledges.

I can’t, at this point , hold back from an old joke. Did you hear of the thief  who broke into the shul and ran away with the safe on Yom Kippur. He was so excited, he cracked the combination, opened it and found a $million—in pledges!

We must now ask, why would the Torah end the book of Leviticus with a statement that these words, of pledges, are now the summation of the laws of Moses, just as the previous chapter made the same claim to the entire book. It seems incongruous.

I can only draw one conclusion—that the entire Torah stands on our ability to keep our word. The pledge is a word that we must keep.

            Our words are so powerful. “The tongue has the power of death and life, and those who love it will eat its fruit.( Proverbs 18:21)”. The Hebrew is very physical in its language: Mavet ve Chayim—death and life- beyad- are in the hand-Lashon—of the tongue. Hand and tongue are used to express the power of language to cause death and give life. As one commentator explained: Those who love it, that is the use of language, will eat the fruits—sweet  fruits if the tongue speaks well, and bitter fruits if the tongue speaks evil.( Ralbag)

At the end of every Amidah, three times a day, we conclude Elohal Neztor leshoni me’ra--My God, keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile, and to those who slander me, let me give no heed.” Three times a day, our sages warned us to be careful with our words, and to be ready to ignore the words of others when they are painful.

This is especially true when we make commitments to ourselves as well as to others.

There is a practice among very observant Jews to temper any promise with the words   “ Bli neder”- I promise, but this is not a full pledge. In other words, I admit that I may not be able to fulfill this- caveat emptor-you are forewarned. In Israel today, in court, a witness is not charged with swearing to tell the truth.

There is an ancient practice, still carried out in some Jewish circles, of standing in the presence of a rabbinic court on the morning before Rosh Hashanah to be absolved of words uttered rashly. We make promises and pledges and vows that we can not possibly live up to, and this forces us to take it seriously. Of course, best known to all of us is the Kol Nidre declaration on Yom Kippur which reminds us of the words we have uttered foolishly. in excitement or in depression, in the heat of passion or in anger which bind us to obligations which cannot be kept. We seek to free ourselves of the words which should never have left our lips in the first place.

There  is  a  phrase  in  Psalms,  about  God  who  forms  the mountains,  creates the wind,  and declare unto man what  is his speech. What is the reason for this progression? The Rabbis ask. Mountains are granite basalt, immovable, the wind is softer, fluid, and speech is an intangible--shouldn't one describe God by going

from the softer to the harder, from weaker to stronger? But, indeed, that is what we have.  Hard as mountains may be, the wind nevertheless wears them down over the ages. Words, however, are more powerful, for the wrong word can easily whip up a storm. A word harshly uttered can be   a hurricane. The word, unheeded, can cause a typhoon.

            With this thought in mind, we now can make sense of the final editing of this book of Vayikra. Whatever God, through Moses, may have said about purity, or permitted foods, or ethical conduct, or building a just society—all that is empty verbiage—until we put our money where our mouth is. We make a pledge—pay up. We make a statement- be true to it. We pledged ourselves at the base of Mount Sinai- we have to put ourselves behind it.

When we open our mouths, may our words always be words of truth, words of sweetness, words that give life. Amen.

            

We Are Heirs to Rabbi Akiba’s Legacy ( Lag B’ Omer 2016)

We Are Heirs to Rabbi Akiba’s Legacy ( Lag B’ Omer 2016)

            This past Thursday, we had a small Jewish holiday, Lag B-Omer, the 33^rd day of the Omer. In Israel, it is marked, by Hasidic and Kabbalistic groups, as the day to visit the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the father of Kabbalah, by tradition; it is the day of “ op-sheren” (hair cuts for 3 year old boys), bonfires at night, and  Jewish scholars joining the NRA for a day and playing with bow and arrow.

            The origin of the festival and its customs is smoked and clouded, but tradition has associated it with this account of Rabbi Akiba:

            “It was said that R. Akiba had twelve thousand pairs of disciples, . . .and all of them died at the same time because they did not treat each other with respect. . . . All of them died between Passover and Pentecost [that is the period we know of as the ‘Omer’].” (Yebamoth 62b).

            It is a very obscure statement. What disrespect? What was the sudden death? Rabbinic usage was often clouded in hints and allusions, as many teachings had to evade the secret police of different eras, long ago, as in modern times. We know that he had a tremendous following, we know that some disaster occurred, and that in the end, he was left with only a few great students. We know that this occurred during the persecution of Judaism by the Roman Emperor Hadrian and then the great,but doomed, rebellion of Bar Kochba.

            Only in the Middle Ages do we find an association of a mourning period during the Omer and this Talmudic statement ( Meiri) and of Lag B’Omer, as a break from mourning, attributed to an end of the plague for one day.

     We could say that we made a mountain out of a molehill: no haircuts, no weddings, no agreement between Sefardi and Ashkenazi on when these practices begins or ends.  It is part of the burden, “ the lachrymose vale of tears”, per the scholar Salo Baron, that has beclouded the beauty of Judaism because of the centuries of Crusades, expulsions, and pogroms. Our beautiful, bright tradition has been warped by our tragedies.

            What could Lag B’ Omer have meant? Some suggest that it is a reminder of the war against Rome under Bar Kochba and the 33^rd day perhaps marks a day of victory before the final disastrous defeat at Betar in 135 CE. Hence, the tradition of bonfires and scholars taking off to play with bow and arrows. Rabbi Akiba seems to have been a supporter of Bar Kochba, even pronouncing him as the “Kochba”, the Star, that would be a sign of the Messiah, son of King David. Later scholars, teaching in the time of more favorable Roman regimes, obscured some of the account of the rebellion. Traces would be hidden in the account of the sages at Bnei Brak discussing the Exodus until the time of the morning Shma (in the Haggadah of Pesach) and in the monthly Blessing of the Moon, in which we declare,” King David is Alive and Well” and that our enemies will never destroy us.

            All this arcane discussion of an obscure date is now an excuse to introduce this exceptional teacher , the equivalent of Moses, Rabbi Akiba.

            First, he begins his life as a humble shepherd, who wants nothing to do with the Perushim, the academics, the ones who live in an academic bubble,until he finds love!

      So, here is the story:

The daughter, Rachel, of Kalba Sabua,[the richest man in Judea at the time, and a true benefactor, of whom, it was said, a poor man went in hungry as a dog, Kalba, and came out well fed, Sabua], betrothed herself to R. Akiba. When her father heard thereof, he vowed that she was not to benefit from aught of his property. Then she went and married him in winter. They slept on straw, and he had to pick out the straw from his hair. 'If only I could afford it,' said he to her, 'I would present you with a Golden Jerusalem [the origin of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, a massive gold belt]. She counselled him, 'Go, and become a scholar.' So he left her, and spent twelve years [studying]  . . .At the end of this period, he was returning home, when from the back of the house he heard a wicked man jeering at his wife, 'Your father did well to you. Firstly, because he is your inferior; and secondly, he has abandoned you to living widowhood all these years.' She replied, 'Yet were he to hear my desires, he would be absent another twelve years. Seeing that she has thus given me permission,' he said, 'I will go back.' So he went back, and was absent for another twelve years, . . .he returned with twenty-four thousand disciples. . .. So she went to see him, but the disciples wished to repulse her. 'Make way for her,' he told them, 'for my [learning] and yours are hers.' (Nedarim 50a)

     Is this the true account? Perhaps but a lovely tale of romance, Rabbinic style, but it probably reflects the image that Rabbi Akiba presented to his followers, a man of very humble origins, who at first wished to bite every scholar he saw, yet a tender and caring man, dedicated and brilliant, who owed it all to – his wife.

    What was his greatness?

    We talk of Judaism as a tradition of respecting debate. That is only  partly true. We are a tradition of respecting absolutely irreconcilable view points. Thus, we have the dichotomy of Priest and Prophet in the Bible. Our greatest works on Jewish law were done by the master rationalist and Arisotelian, the Rambam, Maimonidies, on the one hand, and  Rabbi Joseph Karo, a major Kabbalist and colleague of the Ari, who talked with an angel that perched on his shoulder and told him all his answers.

     We do not talk about a religion that respects different opinions- It respects different planets.

     Thus R Akiba, in so many tales, is frequently associated with Rabbi Ishmael. It is like the late Judge Scalia and Judge Ginsberg, speakers for original intent versus a living constitution. Both were right but existed on two different planets, and both were great friends outside of court.

From Rabbi Ishmael we get” Dibra Torah bilshon bnei adam”. The Torah is written in the language of human beings; it is accessible by pure logic. The job of the teacher is to use logic, and the text, to determine what should be done. In the morning, before we say the first Kaddish, it is customary to recite 13 rules of analysis of text attributed to him.

      Then, there is Rabbi Akiba who is  doresh achin v atin. He interprets the “even”( Akh) and the marker of a definite object of a sentence,(Et) and even the crowns that decorate selected letters of the Torah (Tag).

     The Sofrim and  earlier scholars sought to find justification for existing practice in the text, we might say “ Retro-fitting.” He went much further and freed the Halakhah from the literal, while tying it to past oral tradition and also to the power of the community of scholars to lead in new directions. From Rabbi Akiba on, there can be no such concept in Judaism as “orthodox”, a Greek word meaning “Only one correct teaching.” Halakha becomes a living creative development and stays that way, until the invention of the printing press and other developments of modernity “freeze” the living Halakha.( The terms “ Orthodox”, “Conservative”, and “ Reform” are all borrowings from Christian Europe of the 19^th century).

    Till the 2^nd century the Rabbis debated the meanings of words literally. After Rabbi Akiba, the Rabbis invented meaning.

     His impact was so profound that later generations would see him as another Moses. So we have this account in the Talmud:

         Rabbi Yehudah said, "Rav said, 
      "When Moshe ascended to the heavens, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He, sitting and attaching crowns to the letters. He said before Him, "Master of the Universe! Who is staying your hand?"

     He said to him, "There is one man man who will exist after many generations, and Akiva the son of Yosef is his name, who will in the future expound on every crown and crown piles and piles of laws."

     He said before Him,"Master of the Universe! Show him to me."

     He said to him, "Turn backwards."

     He went and sat at the end of eight rows [of students in Rabbi Akiva's Beit Midrash], and he did not know what they were talking [about]. He got upset.

     As soon as he got to one [other] thing, his students said to him,"Our teacher, from where do you learn this?"

     He said to them,

"It is a law [that was taught] to Moshe at Sinai."

     He calmed down.

     He returned and came before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and said before Him,

"Master of the Universe! You have a man like this, and You are giving the Torah through me?"

      He said to Him,"Be silent. This is what I have decided."

      He said before Him, "Master of the Universe! You have shown me his Torah; show me his reward." He said to him,"Turn backwards." He turned backwards, and saw that they were tearing his skin with iron combs.

    He said before Him, "Master of the Universe! Such Torah, and such reward!"

    He said to him,"Be silent. This is what I have decided."( Menahot 29 b)

          This is a very unusual text. The Torah must be revealed through Moses, even though Akiba is the greater, and Akiba must die a horrible death, even though he is virtuous. I leave it to your imagination to ponder what God’s planning is, or why.

      He was a tremendous religious humanist. “ Great is God’s love of humanity, for he created humanity in the Divine image. Even greater love is shown in the fact that He has revealed this love, for it is written ,” He created Adam in the Divine image!”( Gen. 9 and Mishnah  Avoth 3:14) and “ The great principal of the Torah is,” Love your neighbor as yourself!”.( Bereshit Rabbah 24:7 on Lev.19).

      As great as his regard for humanity is his love of the people of Israel." Great is God's love of Israel, since are call the the children of the  Eternal One. Even greater love is shown in the fact that He has revealed it to them, as it says, " You are the children of the Lord, your God.( Mishnah Avot, loc cit and Deuteronomy 14).

      We will soon see how far Rabbi Akiba, in turn,showed his love of God.

          He was not just a jurist; he was a visionary in the school of the early mystics.

“Our Rabbis taught: Four men entered the ‘Garden’, namely, Ben ‘Azzai and Ben Zoma, Aher, and R. Akiba. Ben ‘Azzai cast a look and died. Ben Zoma looked and became demented. Aher mutilated the shoots( became a heretic). R. Akiba departed unhurt.”( Hagigah14 b)
The " Garden" is a veiled reference to out of body experience to the upper heavens, a vision allowed to only a few select individuals. This is an act fraught with danger, and only rabbi Akiba was able to enter this experience and come out unscathed.

     Finally, as the story I told above mentions, he dies at the hand of the Roman tyrants. Hadrian, the Emperor, sees in the teachings of Judaism a threat to the Empire. He is one of the “Good Emperors” and needs to unify the Empire under one Hellenistic philosophy and cult, as the villainous Antiochus had tried centuries earlier. The Jews, of course, and the lone holdouts of the Empire. He bans circumcision and is determined to re-establish the ruined Jerusalem as a Roman city. Hence, the rebellion follows that is so ferocious that the Emperor in his report to the Senate removes the words ” I and my army are well.”

       It is in this atmosphere that we can understand the last act of Rabbi Akiba:

       Our Rabbis taught: Once the wicked Government issued a decree forbidding the Jews to study and practice the Torah. Pappus b. Judah came and found R. Akiba publicly bringing gatherings together and occupying himself with the Torah. He said to him: Akiba, are you not afraid of the Government? He replied: I will explain to you with a parable. A fox was once walking alongside of a river, and he saw fishes going in swarms from one place to another. He said to them: From what are you fleeing? They replied: From the nets cast for us by men. He said to them: Would you like to come up on to the dry land so that you and I can live together in the way that my ancestors lived with your ancestors? They replied: Art thou the one that they call the cleverest of animals? Thou art not clever but foolish. If we are afraid in the element in which we live, how much more in the element in which we would die! So it is with us. If such is our condition when we sit and study the Torah, of which it is written, For that is thy life and the length of thy days, if we go and neglect it how much worse off we shall be . . .

        When R. Akiba was taken out for execution, it was the hour for the recital of the Shema', and while they combed his flesh with iron combs, he was accepting upon himself the kingship of heaven. His disciples said to him: Our teacher, even to this point? He said to them: All my days I have been troubled by this verse, 'with all thy soul', [which I interpret,] 'even if He takes thy soul'. I said: When shall I have the opportunity of fulfilling this? Now that I have the opportunity shall I not fulfill it? He prolonged the word ehad (One) until he expired while saying it. A bat kol, a divine voice, went forth and proclaimed: Happy art thou, Akiba, that thy soul has departed with the word ehad! . . .A bat kol went forth and proclaimed: Happy art thou, R. Akiba, that thou art destined for the life of the world to come. (Berakhot 61b)

      We Jews today, can celebrate Lag B’Omer and all the holidays, great and small, because we are the spiritual heirs of such great teachers as Rabbi Akiba, scholars and wise men and women, dedicated and loving to our partners and community, people of vision and the dedication to be true to our Torah and to the love of God, a tiny people who overcame all obstacles. It is up to us to continue as Rabbi Akiba's heirs..

Food Glorious Food for Parshat Shmini

Food Glorious Food   Parshat Shmini
I used to find a solid two section special supplement on food, filled with recipes, excursions into cuisine habits, and tons of food coupons and advertisements. I even once had a written correspondence with a staff writer on the origins of the word "pizza" and the Hebrew Pita. I. as a Talmudist, insisted that pita was from the Aramaic word for bread, he, a major in Near eastern languages, insisted that it was an entirely new word, derived from the Greek pita, from which comes the Italian pizza. We well may both be wrong, as it could be from an Italian dialect of Lombardy, a region of people of German ancestry. Go figure!
If I had to weigh out importance of news items, the world report supplement covered only one thin supplement, religion got a scant two page supplement ( now vanished completely), science--barely a one-page glance, but the food section outweighed them all-- two fat supplements. Now, we know what really counts.
Food, glorious food! That is the chorus from the musical Oliver, and the whole world revolves around it.
Someone once pointed out, that in the book publishing business the only guaranteed best-sellers are cook-books. I would presume that diet books are also best sellers, providing a true balance--one is to tell us how to put it on, the other, how to put it off.
For some people, food is just an obstacle, as NF Simpson once said"-I eat merely to put food out of my mind."
  On the other hand, the Russian novelist, Alexander Solzhenitsyn described the significance of food for the prisoner of a slave state:
"To understand the nature of happiness we must first have to know what it means to eat one's fill... it's not a matter of how much you eat, but of the way you eat. It's the same with happiness--it doesn't matter the number of blessings we scratch from life, but only our attitude towards them."
The concentration camp survivors among us understand this very well.

We know very well that food, for Jews, is a major issue, as is every facet of life. For Jews, too, its not a matter of how much we eat, but of how we eat. There are all kinds of diets--weight watchers, nutrisystem, all fats, all carbohydrates,--there is also a Jewish diet--and I don't mean chicken soup and kreplach.
In today's Torah portion, we have the basic rules of kashrut, of what a Jew may or may not eat-cloven hooved and four-part stomach, or fins and scales, or certain restricted foul. From that day on, when these rules were first promulgated, till today, we have created mounds and mounds of detailed regulations on Kashrut.
Sometimes, we can go overboard. I have gone shopping to find five different kashrut labels on one shelf of meat--RCC, Kehilla Glatt, Rabbi this, Rabbi that. Each community is not sure of the other one's credentials.
There have been various movements in Judaism which have said we should not pay attention to what we eat--the early Reform movement thought that rules of Kashrut were an embarrassment, which served only to keep Jews out of the right circles, or early Christianity, which felt it an outmoded obstacle to belief.
The great sage of Yavneh, who saved Judaism from disappearance during the great war against Rome, himself countered just such accusations. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was asked, about the details of the rules of slaughtering, Shehitah, and replied, "What does God care if the knife is one kind or another, if the blade is held one way or another? These rules were not made for God, they were made to purify and elevate the human being."
All the regulations that we have come to teach us how to live life to the fullest and to the noblest: we live with restraints on our animal instincts, with compassion for living creatures, with a sense of justice towards our fellow human being, and also, with a sense of common destiny with our Jewish people, a joy in life itself, and an sense of sanctity. All these we benefit from a Jewish diet, kashrut.
First, there is sense that I am master of my will and of my body, and that my stomach will not dictate to me what I am about to do. The most annoying thing is to have something or someone nagging constantly, " Feed me, feed me,"  and it is very satisfying, from time to time, to tell our appetites, from time to time, to leave us alone. We will dictate the what and the when. An ancient Jewish phrase tells us, in this fashion,”The wise man says, I eat, in order to live. The fool says, I live in order to eat. (Orhot Tzadikim)”. That is our first lesson in Jewish dieting.                     Then, there is the element of compassion. For the first time in centuries, public attention is being riveted to the rights of animals--the way that animals are being tested for cosmetics, or force-fed and kept incapacitated for high quality meats. The preliminaries to our modern sensibilities are to be found in these same rules of kashrut, as well as other regulations on behalf of animals.
All of these practices, which involve pain to animals, were covered by the Jewish concept of Ever min ha chai--the prohibition of torturing an animal to death, tearing it apart piece by piece, as a wolf or lion might do. This basic decency to animals was seen as so fundamental  that our sages felt that this was a law which all human beings had to observe.
Animals, as far as Jewish law is concerned, have legal rights, wild animals have the rights to a fair trial, and working animals have rights to kind treatment. This is all subsumed under the principal of Tsaar baalei hayim--the pain that living creatures feel.
A very creative and original Jewish thinker, Arthur Waskow, created a project he called “Eco-Kosher”, Kashrut that is part of a greater picture of mutual harmony and cooperation with the rest of our planet, living and inert. Thus, he finds in our teachings, in addition to compassion for living creatures, the ideas of Bal tashit-the prohibition against purposeless waste , and the ideas of Shmittah and Yovel, of actually allowing the land itself a rest from human meddling.
Then there is the simple issue of justice, social justice. There is the question of the living conditions of the workers who make our food possible. Hence, there are movements to add an additional certification for Kosher, a Tav Yosher, A mark of integrity, to indicate that the workers in the food establishment are being treated fairly.
We always used to speak of finishing the food on the plate because of all the millions starving in China. Do you remember your mothers telling you that and you thinking,”If I finish my food, how will that help the people in China?”
Today, it is not the people in old China who are starving. We know that even in this prosperous country, there are people who go to bed hungry.
Our Jewish diet is designed to make us aware and concerned with other people's hunger. Thus, on Pesah, we don't eat bread, but eat matzah, and we recall--Ha lachma anya--this is the bread of affliction, this is the best one can hope for under oppression or poverty. And on Yom Kippur, our diet is even better--nothing at all, as we read the instructions for the diet, from the Prophet Isaiah, “Share your bread with the hungry.”
The Jewish diet is also a key to identity. You live and love with whom you share your bread, and a sure proof of this is the common word, in English, for a friend, companion. Companion literally means “with bread”, our friend is the one we share our bread with.
A Jewish meal is a meal shared, over a common theme of discourse, within the context of the Jewish family or with friends within a community.
I once attended a class on Jewish law in a working class neighborhood in Israel, attended by Jews of Yemenite origin. The teacher was a lawyer and a Rabbi, and the participants studied Maimonides Code of Jewish law combined with some moralizing and some mysticism. What was the secret, however? The Rabbi would chant one line, they would repeat it, he would interpret it and then, they would stop to drink a sip of arak liquor, say Lechaim, and nibble at some goodies, again for a Brachah. Study,food and liquor( not too much),and worship, all wrapped up in one. That makes for a common bond that does not easily shatter.
    The Jewish diet is also a lesson in joy, for a Jew cannot be in a state of despair, but, as our sages taught, we will be held liable for every legitimate pleasure which we could have enjoyed, but which we denied ourselves.
The father  of the Talmud taught his student:
“Clever one, eat and drink, eat and drink, for the world we will leave is like a wedding feast. His colleague, Rav, agreed, and told his student, Hamnuna--My son, if you have, enjoy it, for there is no pleasure below, and death does not tarry .And if you wish to leave it all to your descendants, is there anyone in the nether world who will tell you thanks.”
This attitude of our sages enabled us to eat our meals with a calm heart, a relaxed stomach, and a love of the life that God gave us, no matter what oppressions our people went through.
Finally, a Jewish diet is not intended to keep the body healthy, although there are health benefits in it, but instead, it is to keep the mind and spirit healthy.
This was the advice that Columbus may have gotten from the Treasurer who paid for his voyage to America, the Rabbi and philosopher Don Isaac Abravanel:
Don't think that the Torah made its list of dietary regulations for health. If that's all it was about, it would be just another medical report. After all, all the other nations of the world eat pig, lizard, rat, and the like, and they are all fine and healthy. The teachings of God did not come to heal the body, but it does worry about the health of the soul and to cure its sickness. That is the reason behind the rules of kashrut."
Our Jewish diet then, is a diet of the mind and heart, a reminder, constant reminder, that every meal is a sacred occasion, that every time we open the refrigerator and decide if we want Milchig or Fleishig, we are forced to ask ourselves, “What does it mean to be a Jew? What is expected of me in life? What is the goal of my life?” All noble intentions rise and fall, not in the lecture hall, nor in the lofty pulpit, after all, but at home, at the kitchen table.
I want to conclude with one observance--for all of us today. Next Shabbat is the first day, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the month in which Passover falls. We have a special Brachah for this season, a Brachah which is said only once each year, which makes our springtime special and beautiful.
As we leave here today, we should look at the first tree in full flower, and declare:
“.Baruch atah...Blessed be he . . . who causes nothing to be lacking in his universe, and created therein beautiful creations and beautiful trees, wherefrom people may derive pleasure."
May we derive true pleasure from all we see, smell, taste, hear and feel. Amen

We bring heaven down to earth- can we bring ourselves up to Heaven?

Shabbat Teztaveh—We bring heaven down to earth- can we bring ourselves up to Heaven?
(Inspired by Space shuttle Challenger 1986)Feb 20 2016 (20 years, one month later)

Those of you were here last week recalled that I opened our session on the introduction to the Shacharit with the discovery that Einstein was right. It only took science 100 years to prove it, which, from the point of view of history , is really very soon.
I used that as a hook to bring in Einstein’s view of God, which was not very traditionally Jewish, but certainly Jewish in an extended sense of the abstract God of Maimonides. His best line was probably,” God does not play dice with the universe.” He had to retract it, because the God of physics does play dice, but that is a different discussion. He did sense though: The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. In that sense, he said, he was “ deeply religious.”
In any event, the discovery of waves of gravitation reinforce an ancient sensibility, that the universe is one magnificent song of praise of God,  reflected in the Psalms and in the opening of our Shacharit service, with El Adon. 
El Adon, with its imagery of stars, sun and moon, and forces and power, mercy and lovingkindness, reflects an ancient drive to see the wonders of God in heaven, the Merkabah, the Divine Chariot.
Now, our Torah reading, Tetsaveh, and the rest of the Book of Exodus, is dedicated to just the opposite theme: This is a reverse of the premise of the entire rest of the book of Exodus, which is dedicated to bringing the heavens down to earth, in the form of the Mishkan, ( The entity of presence, sh-kh-n)the Tabernacle. This would seem to make sense to us: let’s have a flavor of God down here on earth, with us mere mortals, V’shachanti betocham, I will live in their midst, or, even more stirringly, as we say in the reading for Yom Kippur ”,that dwells in the midst of their impurities ( Lev 16:16)”.Hence, our term, Shekhinah, for the Presence of God everywhere.
But what about going the other way, about us going up! Moses goes up Sinai; Elijah goes up in a chariot of fire. Do we go up to the Heavens in any way?
We know that we have been flirting with this for over half a century. I still recall sitting in my school seat while the PA system broadcast the report of the first flight, by Allen Shepard, a few minutes of up and down, but a flight nevertheless, and then, not long afterwards, the first footsteps on the moon. It has also been 20 years, plus a month, to the great disaster of the Space shuttle Challenger, which exploded in mid-flight and some 13 years since the disaster of the space shuttle Columbus.( In both cases, seriously bad decisions led to the disasters, preventable decisions, that date back, if we follow the Midrash, to the one great flaw of the Tower of Babel.)
. As in the Greek legend of Icarus, who dared to fly above the bounds of the earth, such events serve to raise the question: may we move beyond the bounds of our planet ? Are we not, rather, to be tied to this earth on which we were created?
The Greeks, in their myth, said " No". To aspire too high was to court disaster, the punishment for any attempt to reach beyond the physical limitations of mere mortals, the sin of hubris.
What does the Torah say? What have Jewish scholars and visionaries to offer us, visionaries who lived thousands of years before the Wright brothers left the solid ground beneath them?
We didn’t have physical space flights, but we did have visions of trips to the heavens. We Jews, you know, do a lot of imagining. So we have our own history of space flight, but a flight conducted from within the heart and mind, not from the launch pad.
Our ancient sages were drawn, in their way, to penetrate the mysteries of the universe. Their way was meditative, yet in their belief, it was as powerful as or more powerful than the Saturn booster rockets.
They were also aware of the dangers. Together with Rabbi Akiba, it was said that three other Sages ascended to heaven. Here is one such version (Talmud Masechet Hagiga 14b)
           Our Rabbis taught: Four men entered the ‘Garden’, namely, Ben ‘Azzai and Ben Zoma, Aher, and R. Akiba. R. Akiba said to them: When ye arrive at the stones of pure marble, say not, “Water, water!” For it is said: He that speaks falsehood shall not be established before mine eyes. Ben ‘Azzai cast a look and died. Of him Scripture says: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Ben Zoma looked and became demented. Of him Scripture says: Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. Acher mutilated the shoots. R. Akiba departed unhurt.
 ת"ר ארבעה נכנסו בפרדס ואלו הן בן עזאי ובן זומא אחר ורבי עקיבא אמר להם ר"ע כשאתם מגיעין אצל אבני שיש טהור אל תאמרו מים מים משום שנאמר (תהילים קא) דובר שקרים לא יכון לנגד עיני בן עזאי הציץ ומת עליו הכתוב אומר (תהילים קטז) יקר בעיני ה' המותה לחסידיו בן זומא הציץ ונפגע ועליו הכתוב אומר (משלי כה) דבש מצאת אכול דייך פן תשבענו והקאתו אחר קיצץ בנטיעות רבי עקיבא יצא בשלום 
What one earth does this mean?
Had we lived in the second and third century , we would have known these descriptions of the voyage to the seven heavens. These were so well known that a similar space travel is mentioned also by Paul a century earlier to his audience.
So first, what is this Garden? The Hebrew word, originally Persian, is Pardes, which has entered the English language as “Paradise”. In other words, this is a trip up to the Heavens done through meditation. It is intended as a warning to amateurs to leave this up only to the greatest of the greatest, as those who are merely great become damaged goods.
They are warned not to say” water water” when they see shining marble plates. The understanding is that the vision is overwhelming and the visionary fails at that moment to realize the truth. Hence, Ben Azai, the first one,” hetzit vamet”; he peeked in and dropped dead.
Ben Zoma peeked and “ nifga”, was struck insane. 
“ Acher”, the “Other One”, refers to Elisha Ben Abuya, the great teacher of his day.
” Kitzetz banetiyot”, he cut down that which was planted. If Paradise comes from the word for a garden, then this metaphor is well placed—he uprooted the garden. He abandoned Judaism, abandoned the Torah, visited a prostitute and violated the Shabbat in her presence, at which she gave him the nickname,” Acher”-the one who is different, very different from the Sage that he had been.
These are our versions of the Space shuttle disasters, our Icarus falling from the sky.
But. of Rabbi Akiba, the Sage who is their guide to Pardes, it is said ,”he went up in peace and returned in peace ( variant text).”
So what is it that Rabbi Akiba envisioned? Ancient manuscripts attribute the first version of Alenu as a song of praise that he uttered when he was up on high. And what was it that he saw?
“ He ( God) invited Man to his established place:
To ascend on high, to descend below
To drive on wheels of the Divine Chariot
To explore the world, to walk on dry ground
To contemplate the splendor. . .
To behold what is below
To know the meaning of the living, and to see the vision of the dead
To walk in rivers of fire and to know the lightning.( Lieberman in Gershom Scholem,  Merkabah Mysiticsm p 77,  Hekhalot text)
If this is not a description of a flight into Space- a flight of fantasy, a flight of imagination, whatever you may call it, then how else to describe this. In contemporary parlance, “ an out of body experience.”
These texts never were part of our standard canon. They were kept out of our Talmudim and our Midrashim, for sure ( except for very esoteric quotes in Talmud Hagigah). The story of the four who entered Paradise was a warning to all: Three out of four of the greatest failed! But it is still testimony to the human need to know that which is beyond comprehension. The quest for a spiritual; vision never vanished. Medieval mystics entered prophetic trances; the Baal Shem Tov beheld such heavenly visions. The late Rabbi Zalman Schachter tripped on acid with Timothy Leary ( not something I recommend to anyone).
In the second and third century, it was a trip into a spiritual space. In our times, it is a trip into physical space, whether by rocket flight, or by gigantic electronic installations trying to fathom what is above, what is below, ”To walk in Rivers of Fire and to Know the lightning."
This our very understandable drive :to penetrate the mysteries of the universe, be it beyond the bounds of the planet earth or to delve down into the miniscule world of neutron, proton, pion, anti-matter and the like.
However, should we not, as people of religion, ponder what happened to the mythical Icarus who dared to fly to high in the sky?
That is not a Jewish question. It is a pagan question. 
When the ancient Greeks told the tale of the origin of fire, they saw the gods as haters of humanity. Only one Divine being, Prometheus, had pity on humanity and gave the first man the secret of fire. For this sin, Prometheus was bound and tortured, for all eternity.
God never prohibited the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge; He prohibited eating of the fruit of knowledge of Good and Evil. He prohibited the desire for evil, for moral evil, that the tree represents. 
Quite the opposite: In Jewish belief, God is the inspiration for human inquiry and knowledge, Chonen HaDaat..
So the Jewish story of fire is the exact reverse.
It was, our sages said, a gift from God, an act of compassion for the human being, to conquer the darkness and conquer fear. 
When a Jew prays to God, he does not ask for the ability to believe. Nowhere are we asked to believe blindly. We give praise to God, instead, every day, for gift of wisdom, and God is described as the one who hanenu meitcha  deah, binah v haskel- give us of your knowledge, understanding an discernment.
Knowledge is never forbidden. It is only the purpose for that knowledge that is questioned.
So, while our Torah portion deals with bringing a bit of heaven down to earth, we also keep in mind, that we ourselves want to be able to bring something of ourselves up into the Heavens, whether in our mediations and imaginings, or through our science and exploration. 

Mishpatim - Putting Law into Action

Mishpatim - Putting Law into Action
Last week, I spoke of what are the key principals of the Torah and boiled it all down to Hillel’s famous rule of Judaism on one foot-- Don’t do to your fellow what you don’t want done to yourself. Then, I exploded it all by adding Hillel’s codicil: the rest is commentary-- Go and study.

Too often, we think of Judaism as defined by our denominations:  with a beard-- without a beard, with a kippah-- without a kippah, more Hebrew--less Hebrew, and so on.  But that is not the core.
It is also not a set of platitudes, which is what we often mistake for Judaism.
Look at the Talmud and see that the largest section is devoted to “ Nezikin”- damages. Civil and criminal courts and procedures, definitions of finances and ownership, property rights, and so on. The Mishneh Torah as well as the Shulkhan Arukh  consist to a large part of everyday laws dealing with individual and group rights and obligations. Up until the modern era, we Jews had our own governments and court systems, which the ruling king, duke or Caliph would allow us. It is only with modernity, and the idea of the citizenship of the Jew as a member of another nation, that our legal system dwindled.
I had the privilege, when I lived in Israel in the 1980’s, to help edit and English language translation for the Deputy Attorney of Israel, Prof. Nahum Rakover. His special function was to find precedent in Jewish law for issues facing a modern Jewish society, especially for a concept of “ Mishpat Ivri”, Hebrew Jurisprudence, a secular concept, rather than “Halakhah”.
Why would it be a dilemma? In 1948, Israel was established as a country, and immediately, the issue arose—what law books do you use? The Yishuv had been a British protectorate, so there were British laws on the books, but before that, it had been a Turkish province, so those laws were still on the book. For example, till today, property to title is registered in the “ Tabu”, a Turkish word for land registry. Land is measured in “Dunam”, another Turkish term for a thousand acres, based on a Turkish measure of how much land a man could plow in one day. Certainly the Knesset is structured on the British parliament including acrimonious debates). The Knesset therefore decided that, as new situation would arise that called for new laws, the attorney general’s office would look for precedent in Jewish jurisprudence.

The work I helped with was a textbook for Israeli attorneys, who had no clue or training in Jewish law, as to how Jewish law developed and could be applied to real life situations. The textbook example Prof . Rakover used was taken directly from this week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim., Ex 22. The category of law is usually termed “bailment” or the law of bailees, or, for simpler English, caretakers.
What happens when you entrust your neighbor with your property to be taken care of, as a favor, not for pay and it is damaged or stolen? For example, “ Can I park my Ferrari in your driveway while I am on vacation?”
"If a man gives his neighbor money or goods to keep for him and it is stolen from the man's house . . ."If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house shall appear before the judges, to determine whether he laid his hands on his neighbor's property.  "For every breach of trust. . . he whom the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.”
This is termed a “ Shomer Hinam”, “a free guard”. In other words, even if you do your friend a favor, not for pay, you still have a liability if you misused or misappropriated the property. However, you have a limit to your obligation to protect and guard. After all, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
What if the guard is paid for the service, a “Shomer Sakhir”? For example, you have placed your pure-breed prize winning Yorkie in a “Dog Hotel”.
"If a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep for him, and it dies or is hurt or is driven away while no one is looking, an oath before the LORD shall be made by the two of them that he has not laid hands on his neighbor's property; and its owner shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution.  "
But if it is actually stolen from him, he shall make restitution to its owner.… "If it is all torn to pieces, let him bring it as evidence; he shall not make restitution for what has been torn to pieces.”
The example of animals is used precisely, because there is an effort involved in looking after them and it would be expected that the guard is paid for it. For that reason, as a guard, he is responsible to protect it from thieves, but he is not liable for unpreventable events, such as the animal dropping dead or tripping and falling on its own. If it has been torn by a predator, he needs to bring proof, in other words, whatever is left of the carcass, and he is free of liability.
What about the neighbor who comes to borrow the proverbial cup of sugar, “I will return it tomorrow, with the sugar”, the “ Shoel”.
"If a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies while its owner is not with it, he shall make full restitution.  "If its owner is with it, he shall not make restitution; if it is hired, it came for its hire.
In other words, if you borrow something from neighbor, you have full liability for whatever happens to it, and you suffer the loss, just as if it were your own property. You have to return the cup of sugar, with the sugar ( or at least, refill the cup).
The only limitation in this situation is that as long as the owner is there at the same time, the owner still has responsibility, since it is under his watch at that time.
But, the last line deals with renter, who pays for the use,” it came for its hire”. You go to Avis or Hertz and rent a sports car.  In other words, the cost of the rent includes in it coverage for damages, or we could call it, the price of doing business, or risk.
When  I was a young student, just starting out, my first introduction to the Talmud was just on this set of laws. Chapter 3 of Baba Metzia, “Hamafkid Etzel Chavero”- One who deposits a property with his friend
MISHNAH. IF A MAN ENTRUSTS AN ANIMAL OR UTENSILS TO HIS NEIGHBOUR, AND THEY ARE STOLEN OR LOST, AND HE [THE BAILEE] PAYS [FOR THEM], DECLINING TO SWEAR (SINCE IT WAS RULED THAT A GRATUITOUS BAILEE MAY SWEAR AND BE QUIT). . .
It then goes on to determine what happens when later on the thief is caught- to whom does the thief now pay, and how much? The rest of the Talmud text goes on and on to determine where and what is applicable and what not.
To make a long story short, this  is one of the classic examples in which the Knesset  adopted laws on deposits of property, rentals,  storage for pay and so forth designed for a modern society.
Look at some of the cases we have in this portion.
There is a unusual incident, presumably unlikely, of two men fighting when a pregnant woman is caught in the melee: Ch 21:22
"If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide.  "But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,  eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,…
What is the Hebrew for “gives birth prematurely”? What does “no injury” mean? What does “further injury” mean? How does it relate to “ eye for eye”.
If we go to the first translation of the Bible, the Greek, the Septuagint, we read:” she gives birth prematurely, but the baby comes out alive, the one who strikes her must pay some monetary compensation for the pain. But if the baby dies, then it is life for life.” This common English translation above has picked up the meaning form the Greek. In other words, in the Greek translation, causing a miscarriage, an abortion, is “ life for life”, abortion is murder. Hence, this is one of the Catholic Church’s foundations for opposition to abortion, in any and all cases.
But the Hebrew text, as we have it, and as the Rabbis read it, is the opposite. If the baby is “ miscarried”, but the woman is unharmed, then the attacker pays damages for injury to the woman. But if there is “ason”, a disaster, in other words, the woman dies, then it is life for life. Killing of a fetus is in itself not murder, but damage, whereas killing the mother clearly is murder.
Long and short, from this one sentence, and its link to “eye for an eye”, we get the fine distinction between historic Jewish practice and Catholic practice. Jews were notorious in the ancient world for refusing to abandon or kill infants that were born with defects; every baby born was precious, to the extent that the ancient Romans thought we were barbarians, endangering society by preserving individuals incapable of defending the state. Nevertheless, we always recognized the critical distinction between the potential, before birth, and actual, after birth. A mother’s life, not only her physical life, but her emotional life and mental stability could be legitimate grounds for an abortion.
( Rabbinic interpretations of emotional stress were very broad).
Finally, is Jewish law something abstract, something that impacted and was restricted to only us Jews? Is it only vague platitudes that generally infused European civilization through Christianity and into the Moslem world through the Judaic roots of Islam?
If any of you have ever taken out a mortgage to buy a house, you can think again.
American law is a direct heir to English law. Where do we fit in?
When William the Conqueror invaded England, he brought his advisors with him, his Jews. The exchequer had a special Jewish exchequer. The principles of later English economy were founded by these Jewish advisors.
“ Several elements of historical Jewish legal practice have been integrated into the English legal system. Notable among these is the written credit agreement—shetar, or starr, as it appears in English documents. The basis of the shetar, or "Jewish Gage," was a lien on all property (including realty) that has been traced as a source of the modern mortgage. Under Jewish law, the shetar , permitted a creditor to proceed against all the goods and land of the defaulting debtor. Both "movable and immovable" property were subject to distraint. ( Georgetown law Journal, The Shtar in English Law.”)
In England, the seat of the Royal Court for many years was a building called the “ Star Chamber”. It is suggested that the word star was not given for its stars on the ceiling, but for its having at one time been the house in which financial documents were stored. The English of the time of the Norman rulers used the word “ Starr” for the documents, from the Hebrew “ Shtar”, contract.
Don’t get mad at the bank for making you pay your mortgage. Without a sound system of mortgages, the economy grinds to a halt and we go back to subsistence hunting and foraging. Just think of 2008 ( Big Short) when the mortgage system worldwide had a hiccup!
Next time you pay your mortgage statement, just think of it as one example in which Torah laws still impacts our world today.