Maybe a friend, maybe a stranger, or maybe both?

TORAH PARSHIOT ACHAREI MOT (Leviticus 16:1-18:30)  AND EMOR  (Leviticus 21:1-24:23)

Maybe a friend, maybe a stranger, maybe both?

         We are in the middle of a section of the Torah known as the Holiness Code (Lev. 17-26), so-called because the word holy in its many forms is repeated with great frequency.  These chapters delineate in often excruciating detail codes of behavior, for the Israelite, for the priests, and for the community as a whole. The behavior encompasses not only how we physically act but also our speech and thought patterns.

         There are two verses, however, that I would like to highlight. The first is from last week’s parsha Leviticus 19:18b. V’ahavta et re’acha kamocha, ani Adonai.   ...but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am Adonai.

         The second is from this week’s parsha, Emor Lev 24:22: Mishpat echad yihiyeh lachem, ka-ger ka-ezrach yihiyeh. Ki, Ani Adonai Elohehem

You shall have one law for the stranger or native alike. I am the Lord your G-d.

         Together they provide a framework to guide our days, our behaviors and even our thoughts. Who is this “re’acha” mentioned in Lev 19:18? According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, Re’ah (the root resh-ayin) is defined as friend, companion, or fellow. The friend can be either an intimate friend or another person with whom one stands in reciprocal relations. Many meanings for a simple two-letter word! But it is exactly these contradictory meanings that give our verse so much depth. Loving  your re’ah as yourself is a very easy directive to understand if we hold that re’ah means someone who is close to us. But what if we interpret re’ah differently? Are we to love someone who, in the grand scheme of things, really doesn’t mean anything to us in a deep emotional way?

         That’s where the verse in Emor comes in. There is only one law for the stranger and native alike, there is no differentiation. The principle of fair and equal treatment of the stranger (ger) is mentioned over 36 times in the Torah, more than keeping Shabbat! Today’s news as well as ancient history provide ample examples of the chaos and disorder that occurs when one group of people is discriminated against in any given society.

         So who is our re’ah and who is our ger? If we are to love our re’ah as ourselves and, at the same time, treat the stranger and citizen alike – how do we define our terms?, How do we know who is our friend and who is to be considered a stranger?     Some define stranger as the other, but for many, the word stranger means someone who looks or acts differently than ourselves.

         The beautiful thing about our ability to interpret Torah anew in each and every generation is that the Torah stays alive with any individual who reads it. We refresh and renew the Torah each time we grapple with its words and apply them to our daily lives.

         Today, I choose to interpret the word Re’ah as both intimate and casual friend, as both a fellow-citizen with whom one has a cordial relationship and as the stranger who lives among us.  Why? The answer is in the end to both verses – Ani Adonai, I am Adonai. I am your God. 

         Then our first verse, and the verse from Emor admonishing us to have one law for stranger and native alike, both end by reminding us that we are doing this because Adonai is our God. To me this reminds us that we are all  –  friend, native, stranger – created in God’s image and therefore all are alike. It doesn’t matter what color we are, where we are from or if we speak with an accent. We are all created equally and viewed equally by God. Therefore, how we treat each other matters. How we judge each other matters. How we conduct the business of living in community matters a great deal. We are all God’s children and must act accordingly.

Torah Talk: 

1. The full verse in Lev. 19 reads: “Do not judge and do not hold onto a grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love [your] “re’acha” as yourself.” How do you interpret the first part of this verse in relation to the second?

2. Can you think of examples in your daily life to which this verse as well as the one from Emor “You shall have one law for the stranger or native alike. I am the Lord your G-d,” apply to your daily life?

A similar version of this post was originally published in The Washington Jewish Week, May 7, 2015. 

Shabbat Zachor and a Visit to Ger, Poland

      What an amazing journey my son is on! As we are blessed to receive daily updates (except for Shabbat) from the CESJDS trip chaperones, I'd like to share with you an excerpt from Day 3. 

From Warsaw we headed to Ger (Gora Kolawaria in Polish), the former seat of the Gerer Hassidim. We were met at the remains of the Jewish cemetery by Felix Karpmann, an 86 year old survivor who is now the last Jew in Ger, a community that once numbered over 3,000 Jews (today Ger has 24,000 inhabitants; only Felix is Jewish). Felix was 17 when he was shipped to Treblinka along with his parents and two brothers. He and one brother were chosen to work, and they hid in the piles of clothes transported with the victims on the cattle cars. Twelve days later, they slit the throats of an SS officer and made their escape. He spent time in the Warsaw ghetto, joined the Jewish resistance, and he and his brother were among the Nazis’ most wanted in Gora Kolwaria for their anti-Nazi actions. Felix survived the Shoah hiding in a classmate’s barn under a stack of hay. He is now married to this classmate, and his mother-in-law is a recipient of the Righteous Gentile award from Yad Vashem.  Felix now cares for the cemetery and Beit Midrash, our next stop, which was the center of learning for the Gerer Hasidim, the 2nd or 3rd largest sect of Hasidim today (they are now centered in Jerusalem and Brooklyn).   For Felix, Judaism is about the children, the “Shayne Yiddishe Kinderlach,” a phrase that we repeated back to him with smiles on our faces. He watched as others begged God for assistance, for anything, and heard only silence. Today, he no longer believes, for how could a God abandon his people. And yet here he is, single-handedly preserving the Jewish sites and soul of Ger for those who visit each year and for those who died living a Jewish life. And yet he also urged us to remain Jewish, to remember that it is important to be proud. He survived because he “was strong as an ox,” and we should honor the lives of his families and the survivors and other victims by remembering these stories. Our visit with Felix was certainly the highlight of our day.

The Gerer Beit Midrash was once one of the most elite yeshivot in all of Poland, where students were known to climb the poles to get a glimpse of the Rebbe as he gave a shiur (lesson). We learned of the Sfat Emet, grandson of the great Rebbe of Ger. We heard a Dvar Torah about Pirkei Avot 1:6: “Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Perachya says, ‘Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend, and judge each person favorably.’” According to our peer, this is how the Gerer Hasidim lived. For them, the Rebbe was their teacher, a deeply spiritual friend and leader, and their lives revolved around their communities. It is our task, we were urged, to follow these same teachings as we seek to ensure a strong Jewish future. “Without teachers, there would be no Jewish education. Without friends, there would be no community.”

We took these words to heart as the A Capella choir led us in Hebrew song. The favorite, “Nachamu,” was the encore piece, and students were beaming as we sang along to the words “Comfort my people,” bringing traditional and modern Jewish words back to Ger. We sang and danced with and around Felix, singing songs of his childhood as well as modern Hebrew songs, and stealing pictures with Felix at every opportunity. We danced and jumped and brought joy and life, celebrating the Europe that was and each other. What a powerful site!



        This Shabbat is Shabbat Zachor - a Shabbat of Remembering.  Remembering what the nation of Amalek did to us as we left Egypt and blotting out their name.   It is also the Shabbat before Purim where we meet Haman, a descendant (alleged) of Amalek, and remember the desperate end he held in store for all the Jews. 
       It is a Shabbat for remembering the past and helping it shape a better future. I am thankful that both of my children have had the opportunity to meet this wonderful man, Felix, and learn about his life, his philosophy and his will to survive. Thank you, Felix, for being a teacher to our children.  

        Ideally we should be blotting out all impulses to behave in such a hostile, negative and deadly way toward others. What we need to remember is that while there is evil in the world, there is also good in the world. Let us make it our job to find the good where ever it may be and enhance it.

       Shabbat Shalom u'Vracha