TorahParsha

Thought for Parshat Devarim

for Rav Yehudah Amital, in memoriam

 

Why there is good in a fractured community

 

i

Moses says:  you are a people filled with strife.

Moses says, make a system of judges:

judges over thousands; over hundreds; over fifties; over tens

to judge…between a man and his brother.

*
The people create this system of judges.

And the people travel forward.

 

ii

All the people approach Moses.

They say: Let us send men to spy out the Land.

And Moses sends spies.

And the spies bring back word.

And the people panic.

And the people reject the Land.

They murmured in their tents.

*
So God does not bring that whole generation into the Land.

 

iii

When the people divide up into thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens—to judge between a man and his brother—the people move forward.

When all the people ask for spies—a whole nation together—then the people run back to their individual tents.

*
The nation is a confluence of many lives.

We can unify those lives utterly.

Or we can become many different lives, together.

Only in this second choice do we find the way forward.

 

___________

Shabbat shalom, Abe

___________

(Note also Moses’ reaction in Deut. 1:23)

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Please continue to pray for Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah, and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther.

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Rav Amital has passed away

Friends,

It is with tremendous sadness that I write that Rav Amital, about whom I had sent the request for prayers in my last note, has passed away. He was 86. He was an enormously accomplished scholar and leader, and a tremendously kind person whose life embodied his philosophy of Torah infused with menschlechkeit--fundamental humanity. I felt very close to him (as did many of us) when I studied in his Yeshiva about 10 years ago.

In his honor, I urge everyone you to read his book Jewish Values in a Changing World--one of my favorite books and a book that really explains how one can live a life that is both human and pious.

Baruch Dayan Emet,

Abe

P.S. For more on Rav Amital, see his biography here.

For Parshat Korach

Why a fractured community is tragic

 

i

Korach took a company of men into revolt.

Korach and these men say: Moses should not rule.

They say: Aaron should not be the high priest. That role is unnecessary.

All the people are holy.

*

There have been uprisings before.

There has been the sin of the Spies, and the Golden Calf.

But Korach took a company of men.

Here is the first group to splinter off.

 

ii

Moses says to this group: If HaShem will create a new creation, and the earth opens its mouth and will swallow you—then you shall know that God has sent me.

And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed… every man of that group.

*

Creating Man, God fashioned… Man of dust from the earth.

He blew the spirit of life into Man’s nostrils.

Now He creates a mouth for the earth to swallow every man.

*
Korach splinters the community.

This inverts Creation.

 

iii

Perhaps this is the meaning.

God’s role in the world is creating Man.

Our role is creating a cohesive people.

That is the partnership of Creation.

If we reject our role, it is no less terrible than if God—Heaven forbid!—would reject His.

 

 

 

_______

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

 

___________

I do not remember where I heard / read the observation about Korach’s group being the first splinter group.

If you enjoyed this thought, please share it with a friend. www.TorahParsha.com

Please continue to pray for Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah, and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther

 

 

The Holy Man Lets Meetings Happen

i
This is the Law of the elevation-offering: The priests are to take the ashes away, after the elevation-offering has been burnt up from the fire that the priests set, continually, on the altar in the House of God.

*
The Law does not mention, here, that it is the priests who conduct the service of the elevation-offering.

This Law only mentions how the priests make the altar fit: cleaning it and making its fire permanent.

*
This Law introduces those Laws of sacrifice addressed specifically to the priests.

ii
The priest is a holy man.

Here, then, is what this Law says about the holy man:

The holy man is simply the one who brings constancy and who offers cleanliness to the meeting-spot between the people and God.

The holy man is a facilitator for the closeness between God and the people.

The holy man is not crucial in his own right.

The closeness between the people and God is what is crucial.

~~~~~~~~~

The Living Within the Fixed

i
The people offer materials with which to build the dwelling-place of God.

God appoints a head craftsman to fashion these gifts into a home.

The craftsmen come to begin their work.

*
But the people continue to offer materials. They bring their gifts each morning.

The craftsmen say: The people bring…more than enough material for the work.

So it is proclaimed throughout the camp that no more gifts should come.

The gifts stop. The work begins.

*
(The Hebrew phrase proclaimed throughout the camp means: they passed a voice through the camp.)

ii
Here is a community of the steadfast. It brings gifts each morning.

But in the face of such steadfastness, newness is an affront.

That is a trouble for the craftsmen, who look to build something new: a new house to God.

iii
They passed a voice through the camp.

Now words pass through the people.

The mass of the community becomes vibrant and liquid with speech.

Not a solid block, but a block that is rich and living: like good soil.

*
This new fluidity grows, easily, into a new form--into a new house for God.

Now the act of building can begin.

~~~~~