The Story of Noah is read in Jewish Houses of Worship on Saturday October 24,2020

When Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden they forgot their user’s manual. They vaguely remembered that The Almighty had told them to “be fruitful and multiply”. As to their relationship and responsibility to the earth, on the one hand they were directed to dominate the land and all that was therein, and on the other hand they were told to work and take care of their environment. They clearly needed more guidance. It appears that they mostly decided to dominate and just ten generations later, the inhabited world was a mess, וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס “The earth became corrupt before God: the earth was filled with hamas.” read more

In the midst of a dreadful pandemic that is sweeping our nation and the world, we are preparing for our High Holy Days, and the first of them Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Hebrew New Year. It is, according to Jewish tradition, the Day of Judgment for the entire humanity created in God’s image. As we approach Rosh Hashanah in this time of crisis and uncertainty we seek words of comfort and wisdom in the Torah and in the words of our sages.

Among the many blessings in Deuteronomy 28 we read, “God will make you the head, not the tail,” and I note that it is customary in some communities at the meal on the night of Rosh Hashanah to recite this blessing, ending it with the words, “may it be so.” read more

Let me add a few thoughts on Ayala’s wonderful d’var Torah on parshat Tzav. The priests were the first Jewish professionals; the first responders to the sinfulness of the Israelites. Their position was hereditary, but they needed to be trained in their specific tasks; they needed to don specific garments to be used only while performing their assigned roles.

What is a professional? Persons who have special education for a specific role they perform for the rest of society. They need to be licensed in some fashion, and they are generally respected for their abilities. Many professionals have dangerous jobs. That was certainly true for Israelite priests. They were the intermediaries between humanity and God. In this week’s parsha, in Sh’mini we have the story of Nadab and Abihu—the priests who offered God “strange fire” and were in turn incinerated by God. The interpretations of the sad fate of Nadab and Abihu are many. But perhaps what is most important is that the priests who wrote Leviticus thought this story was so important that they interrupted their recitation of laws to highlight the lesson that professionals always need, whatever the situation, whatever their crisis, to remember both their strengths and limitations. read more

A physician recently described the new ritual of protection that health professionals have been taking on in this pandemic crisis. He told us how he is doing his best to protect his family when he returns home. He takes off his clothes he showers at the entrance then puts on clean clothes. We are used to physicians wearing special outfits that distinguish them as a profession as well as protecting them and their patients; we are familiar with unmistakable surgeons’ complete attire. The coronavirus has turned out to be more formidable than surgical protective garments. We are shocked by the new needs of protection of our health workers when they come home and their unmet needs at work. read more

On this coming Shabbat we will read in the book of Leviticus “You shall be holy.” We will recite a long list of deeds that would make us holy, of loving our fellow human beings, of caring for the poor and the stranger, a rich list of Mitzvot, forever timely. There are other Mitzvot, perhaps not as often quoted, yet in our time deserve attention.

Two of them I would like to highlight as right there on the list, both are so timely. To grasp their significance I turn to the admonition to fear God that appears only five times in the whole Torah. All five are in the book of Leviticus, and two appear in this Parasha, so fittingly named, K’doshim, Holy. Significantly, all the cases of the admonition to fear God are about transgressing relations we have with one other, bein adam l’havero. They are rooted in what the sages have defined as Mitzvot, obligations of the heart, in which there is no way to ascertain when the person has engaged in the transgression and there is no court to render a judgment. Thus, obligations of the heart are not in the legal realm, but rather they involve an ethical Mitzvah left to the person’s own conscience. read more

You would think that to attack a minority community for political purposes would take time, preparation, and an extensive culture change. When we make claims to expand human rights, for example, we often get a response that we need time. Cultures, the argument goes, change slowly. To give women equal rights has taken a really long time. During that time the police arrested women, the legal system imprisoned them, politicians mocked them. To end slavery we had a civil war. And we needed even more time for “culture change” to end segregation. The common narrative has been that to make change, time is needed so that people would get used to new ideas. Indeed, American women are still waiting for 38 states to ratify the ERA. read more

What does a father do when he realizes that he has favored one of his children and created sibling rivalry and hatred among them? When it comes to favoring a child, most parents would claim that they treat all their children equally. Yet children may feel and experience the relationship differently. Some may feel special, while others feel less appreciated and not loved enough. Parents may be unaware of their own actions when they single a child by showering favors, or praises that make other sibling feel envious, slighted and resentful. read more

DACA’s young people grew up in this country. They went to school with our children; they embraced American values, they became our kin, friends, students, and colleagues. This administration is brazenly threatening them with expulsion and exile. There are no words to describe the dread they feel that they might become fugitives, stripped of their American identity, home and life, as they have known it.

Those, like Jeff Sessions, who so callously would exile 800.000 amazingly courageous young people, suffer from amnesia. They refuse to remember their own histories, their ancestors who came to this country for a better life. Fleeing religious persecutions, despotic kings, poverty, famine, and hardships. They came with the same hopes and aspiration of DACA’s parents when they entered. No difference. Those who plot expulsion, use amnesia/blindness to ignore the fact that their immigrant ancestors and DACA parents shaped, and continue to shape American democracy. All immigrants have entered this country with similar aims. read more