TorahParsha

Why separating sacred from secular is dangerous

for Parshat B'Haalotcha

i

On the anniversary of leaving Egypt,

God says:

Perform the Passover service

of families eating lamb.

*

But some men are impure

and cannot perform the service.

They say that they, too,

want to offer God’s sacrifice.

So God gives them 

a second Passover.

 

ii

God sends the people from Mount Sinai,

toward the Land.

On the journey

the people repeatedly turn from God.

They want meat, not Manna.

Though God is with them,

they fear the strength of the people of the Land

that produces incredibly healthy fruit.

 

iii

Notice it is the men, not God

who introduce the word sacrifice

to describe the Passover meal.

They understand sacrifice

but not the joint feast

of God and man.

*

Notice that the people understand meat

but not Manna;

that they connect

strong crops with strong people,

but they do not see God

giving strength to both.

 

iv

Here is the failure:

they know God’s world

and their own world

but do not see

that both are arenas

for Godliness.

They do not see

that when God sends them

from His mountain

and into their lives,

it is all one journey.

 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

 

 

God’s loners

for Parshat Naso 

 

i

Before Moses finishes

building God’s Tent,

God’s home

among the people,

God tells him:

let the ones who are sick

with the sickness of impurity

leave the camp.

(When they are pure again

they will return

and bring sacrifices

in God’s Tent.)

*

And God tells Moses

how a jealous husband

can come with his wife

to the Tent 

and face her.

*

And God tells Moses

how a person

may become a nazir,

a holy monastic—

not a priest

not a prophet,

but one set apart;

and how the nazir comes to God’s Tent

when his time as a nazir ends.

*

Then Moses completes the Tent.

 

ii

Why

before Moses finishes building

does God mention these lonely ones

—the sick and alone,

—the jealous, alone from their spouses,

—the seeker, alone with God—

why mention these lonely ones

who come to the Tent?

*

Perhaps because you might think:

this Tent,

this nation’s home for God,

has no place in it

for people who do not fit in the nation.

So before the Tent is finished,

God says:

even these outsiders

have a place in My Home,

even they

have a home with Me.

 

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

___

To readers receiving this via e-mail: Though I have sent this before Shabbat began, the e-mail service unfortunately sends on a delay. I hope you enjoy after Shabbat is over.

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What we owe the dead and the living

for Parshat Bamidbar

i

Aaron,

of the tribe of Levi,

is the high priest.

His sons are also priests.

They help alongside of him.

*

Aaron’s two oldest sons die

bringing a strange offering

in God’s Tent.

They leave no sons.

 

ii

God says:

let the other men of the tribe of Levi

serve alongside Aaron’s family.

*

Perhaps these other Levites

fill the place

of Aaron’s lost children.

 

iii

That is the story

of the tribe of Levi

who serve in God’s Tent

who encamp near God’s Tent

with all the other tribes

encamped surrounding them.

*

Which is to say:

that is the story

of the people

at the people’s heart.

 

iv

So at the heart of this people

at the heart of this religion

is our ability

is our obligation

to see the ones who are lost

to see the ones who have lost—

and to fill their void.

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

How we improve upon God

for Parshat B'Har - B'Chukotai

 

i

God says:

every seven years

will be God’s Sabbath year:

let the Land lie fallow,

let whatever grows be left

for everyone to eat.

*

Then God says:

count forty nine years—

seven cycles

of seven years,

a perfection of sevens.

And one year past that perfection

on the fiftieth year

you must sanctify the year,

you must proclaim freedom in the Land:

lands go back

to their ancestral families,

slaves go back

to their families as well.

 

ii

God says:

when My year has come,

recognize that it has come.

Step back from My Land.

Renounce ownership.

And when we renounce ownership

we all access the same land,

the same food;

equality is the wonderful by- product.

*

Then God says:

Go beyond merely recognizing My years.

Make the years yours.

Count the years yourselves.

Sanctify the fiftieth year,

the culminating year,

yourselves.

And go beyond letting equality come:

declare freedom outright.

 

iii

God shows us

to take the human

within His Law

and to draw it out

and so to make God’s Law

a human Law.

That is the culmination of His Law.

That brings His Law

even beyond perfection.

 

 

__

Shabbat shalom,

Abe       

www.TorahParsha.com

Why innovation can be pious

for Parshat Emor

 

i

God creates Light

and separates it from Darkness

and creates nights and days

for Darkness and for Light.

And there was evening

and there was morning

one day.

 

ii

God says:

let the people take olive oil

pressed for lamp- lighting

and light the Menorah in the Temple;

let the Menorah be lit

from evening to morning

before HaShem

continually.

 

iii

God makes Light

and takes this Light

and creates the Time

which frames our world.

*

We make lighting oil

and take this oil

and mark the time

of God.

 

iv

So:

God makes a world for us

filled with things.

We take these things

and make a world for God.

 

____

Based partially on a thought of Martin Buber

_____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

How choice is dangerous

for Parshat Acharei Mot / Kedoshim 

 

i

Two of Aaron’s sons

rush up to God

against God’s instructions

and they die.

*

After this, God says:

on Yom Kippur

Aaron

or Aaron’s descendant

must bring two goats—

one to offer to God,

another to send away.

Which goat is which

is decided by casting lots.

*

And Israel’s sins are forgiven

in this ceremony.

ii

We sin when we think

that all of life is our choice:

that we may follow our hearts

over what God has said.

*

Drawing lots is the opposite—

we let God decide

which goat is God’s

and which will leave us,

how we must come to Him

and how we must not,

which sons we keep

and which sons we cannot keep.

 

iii

Such a hard lesson,

this opposite of sin,

this acknowledgement

that God rules the world

and God rules us.

It is no surprise

that the hard task of accepting it

brings forgiveness.

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com 

 

What we learn from the ones outside

for Tazriah - Metzorah

 

When a man is impure with skin-sickness

he waits outside of the camp

until he is better.

Then the priest comes to him

and sees that he is well

and the priest offers sacrifice.

 

Not in God’s Tent

in the heart of the camp,

where most sacrifices are brought.

 

No:

this sacrifice is outside of the camp,

by a field.

 

So the man who has been sent away

who has lived outside of the camp

who has lived outside purity

shows the priest

that there are many places to find God.

 

 

 

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

___

Correction from last week: I wrote that Moses is angered that Aaron does not eat of the inaugural sacrifice. This may not be the case: Moses does not initially address Aaron over the matter, instead scolding Aaron’s remaining sons. However, Aaron’s response suggests a feeling of personal duty; perhaps his sons’ obligation is an extension of his own.

___

www.TorahParsha.com

Are we meant to follow rules?

for Parshat Shemini

 

i

When Aaron and his sons

are initiated as priests,

Moses says:

conduct the initiation rites

precisely as God has commanded.

*

But tragedy strikes.

In the midst of the rites,

two of Aaron’s sons die.

*

Suddenly God tells Aaron

how he and his remaining sons

must teach the people what is holy

and what is secular,

what is impure

and what is pure,

and what the Laws are.

*

Then Aaron does not eat from a sacrifice

though God has commanded that he must eat from it.

Moses is angry.

But Aaron says:

Such things have happened to me today,

would God want me to eat from the sacrifice?

And Moses agrees.

 

ii

Moses thinks:

God wants people

to simply follow rules.

But God has told Aaron:

you must teach the people what is holy

and what is not,

what is pure

and what is not:

the people must learn to see the world

as God sees the world—

and through this to come to God’s Law.

*

This is the truth that Aaron teaches Moses.

And Moses agrees.

 

 

____

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

A short booklet for Passover

As I've done in the past before Passover, I'm sharing thoughts from the Exodus that I've written over the years in a short booklet, available here.

I’d also be honored if, over the course of the holiday, you’d share one of the thoughts from the booklet with a friend.

 

Chag Kasher v'Sameach,

Abe

How we give to God

for Parshat Tzav

 

God’s Tent is complete and His Presence comes down into it.

*

Moses readies the priests to serve God there.

He dresses them in uniforms.

He sanctifies them with oil.

*

Before this,

Moses takes oil

and annoints the Tent.

Not a sanctification

to bring God there—

for God is already there.

Rather:

just as Moses makes the priests ready

to come to God’s home,

Moses readies God’s home

to receive the priests.

*

We ready ourselves for God.

We ready God for us.

 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

___

Although note that Moses annoints the Tent but sanctifies the priests, so perhaps something more is more happening here.

___

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