Yitro - A Journey to our Sinai Experience

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This is the Dvar Torah that I gave this Friday night. I think of it as our journey toward Sinai - through the calendar, through our holidays, through the years. I ended the Dvar with instructions for a "Sinai Experience" that would we would share during out Torah reading. (We read Torah on Friday nights.) At the end is the sheet that I used for our Torah reading.  

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We are on a journey – the journey of the spring holidays – Tu Bishvat, Purim, Passover and finally Shavuot.

We begin with a story from the Babylonian Talmud (Ta'anit 23a) about Honi the Circle Maker who learned the importance of planting and planning for the future. It’s a Tu Bishvat story, you may have heard it but bear with me.

Rabbi Yohanan said: "This righteous man [Honi] was troubled throughout the whole of his life concerning the meaning of the verse, 'A Song of Ascents: When the Lord brought back those that returned to Zion, we were like dreamers' (Psalms 126:1). [Honi asked] Is it possible for seventy years to be like a dream? How could anyone sleep for seventy years?"

One day Honi was journeying on the road and he saw a man planting a carob tree. He asked, "How long does it take [for this tree] to bear fruit?" The man replied: "Seventy years." Honi then further asked him: "Are you certain that you will live another seventy years?" The man replied: "I found [already grown] carob trees in the world; as my forefathers planted those for me so I too plant these for my children."

Honi sat down to have a meal and sleep overcame him. As he slept a rocky formation enclosed upon him which hid him from sight and he slept for seventy years. When he awoke he saw a man gathering the fruit of the carob tree and Honi asked him, "Are you the man who planted the tree?" The man replied: "I am his grand-son." Thereupon Honi exclaimed: "It is clear that I have slept for seventy years." He then caught sight of his ass which had given birth to several generations of mules, and he returned home. There he inquired, "Is the son of Honi the Circle-Drawer still alive?" The people answered him, "His son is no more, but his grandson is still living." Thereupon he said to them: "I am Honi the Circle-Drawer," but no one would believe him.

Two take-aways from this story –

1) is that if you give something you will not be alive to see, you are still giving. No matter what.

2) The story ends with a vision of the future – albeit one filled with carob treesJ. Our people has always dreamed of a day when hatred and war will be forgotten; a day when no one will go hungry and no one will suffer homelessness; a day when we will all care for one another and live together in peace. Our sages called it the Messianic Age. (Chabad)

Tu Bishvat with its vision of people taking care of each other and most especially, taking care of the earth, planting trees, providing for the future.

Purim arrives in exactly one month. This is a story that takes place in the Diaspora, outside of the Land of Israel, in the Persian Empire. Here our people might be able to look to the future but they also have to expend a lot of energy to take care of the here and now, in a land that is not their own. One take away from Purim is the question of “What is our role, as Jews, in the place that we live?”

Exactly one month after Purim we celebrate Passover  - a story that begins with a people enslaved and ends with a free people, receiving the Torah, developing a relationship with God.  The practice of Passover began in the land of Israel with sacrifices offered at the Temple in Jerusalem. It continues with the Rabbis in Exile in Babylonia realizing that with the loss of the Temple and our exile, they need to do something in order to keep us connected to Eretz Israel and our religious way of life. So they developed a ritual that would go on to keep us connected to Holy Land, 

to Torah and to our people and history regardless of where we live.  The Passover Seder in some ways is the answer to the question that is raised through Purim,  “how do we live at Jews no matter where we are?”

But let’s take a step back and a step forward – first answering who are these people called the Jews? The Jews are the ones who accepted the Torah at Sinai. They experienced something that no one before or after ever would – standing in the presence of God, hearing God’s voice, and experiencing what was probably the most amazing pyrotechnic show in all of history.

The rabbi’s say that all Jewish souls – those born Jewish, those who ultimately convert – were at Sinai. The Torah was not given to just those who were standing at Sinai, at the base of that mountain, but to all Jews who would ever live. So We Were There. Though we might not remember it!

This is one reason that Shavuot, our final spring/summer holiday is called Zman Matan Torateinu – the time of the GIVING of the Torah. Present tense  - or present continuous – something like that. Not the Time the Torah was given or received in the past. But now, always, every year we receive the torah – because we were there as souls, and now each year we reaffirm our receipt of and commitment to the Torah anew.

So today is not Shavuot- that’s true. But liturgically we sort of receive the Torah 3 times. The first is here in the Exodus, Parshat Yitro, where the first telling of the story of revelation falls on our yearly cycle of torah readings. Second on Shavuot when we ritually receive the Torah. Lastly in the book of Deutoronomy, Parshat Eikev – this year on August 1^st -the final telling of the story of revelation falls on our yearly cycle of torah readings.

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So together let us have the Sinai Experience.

Here’s how it will work:

We will imagine we are standing at the base of Mount Sinai – weary from running away from slavery in Egypt, a bit (or very) anxious about whatever is going to happen. We are told by Moses to prepare ourselves for three days – bathing, washing our clothes, not engaging in intimate relations – and not eating meat.

After 3 days we gather at the base of mount sinai and see and hear an incredible pyrotechnic display. Thunder, lightening, God’s voice. We are afraid – the Sages say that when the people heard God’s voice they fell over in fear and begged Moses to intervene for them. God should tell Moses the Commandments and Moses would relay to us. That way at least we could stay conscious and actually experience what was going on.

We have taken our Torah our of the ark. 

Handouts are being passed out with today’s Torah reading. There will only be one Aliya today and we will all have it. I will chant at first from the Torah, you will have the translation in front of you as I chant.

When I finish we will all rise and read out together a slightly abridged version of the 10 Commandments

You are welcome to read in Hebrew or English – Read loudly, with power. Let us feel the cacophony of the voices, the people, all around us. 

I will then conclude the reading from the Torah.

Allow yourselves to feel the moment, to experience it, to Stand at Sinai.

(**If you would like a copy of the script that I used, please leave a comment or email me at rabbaharlene@gmail.com.   For some reason the format is not transferring to my blog at present.) 

Purim and Assimilation Shiur Sources

~ Text in previous blog post - Sorry it looks so funny, couldn't figure out how to format it properly:) ~

Purim and Assimilation Sources
By Rabbi Joel Levy
 

Source 1
בבלי מסכת מגילה דף ז/ב
אמר רבא
מיחייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא
עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן
לברוך מרדכי
רבה ורבי זירא עבדו סעודת
פורים בהדי הדדי איבסום קם
רבה שחטיה לרבי זירא
למחר בעי רחמי ואחייה
לשנה אמר ליה ניתי מר ונעביד
סעודת פורים בהדי הדדי
אמר ליה לא בכל שעתא ושעתא
מתרחיש ניסא
 

Bavli - Megillah 7b
Rava said:
It is a person’s duty to intoxicate themselves on Purim until they cannot tell the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai” Rabbah and Rabbi Zera joined together in a Purim feast. They became drunk and Rabbah arose and cut Rabbi Zera's throat. On the next day he prayed on his behalf and revived him. Next year he said, Will your honor come and we will have the Purim feast together. He replied: A miracle does not take place on every occasion!

1. How drunk do you think you would need to be not to be able to tell thedifference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai”?
2. The text involves a statement of a Halacha (law) followed by a piece ofAggadah (narrative/story). Why do you think the story is brought here? Shouldour reading of the story change the scope or power of the legal ruling? (This is an interesting example of the interdependence of law and narrative!)
 

Source 2
אסתר פרק ט
(א) וּבִשְׁנֵים עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ הוּא חֹדֶשׁ
אֲדָר בִּשְׁלוֹשָׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם בּוֹ אֲשֶׁר
וְדָתוֹ לְהֵעָשֹוֹת 􀃍 הִגִּיעַ דְּבַר הַמֶּלֶ
בַּיּוֹם אֲשֶׁר שִׂבְּרוּ אֹיְבֵי הַיְּהוּדִים
הוּא אֲשֶׁר 􀃍 לִשְׁלוֹט בָּהֶם וְנַהֲפוֹ
יִשְׁלְטוּ הַיְּ הוּדִים הֵמָּה
בְּשׂנְאֵיהֶם:
 

Esther Chapter 9
1. And in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s command and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, instead it was over-turned such that the Jews had power over those who hated them.
 

1. Look for the words that appear both before and after the overturning. What is itthat was over-turned according to this verse?
2. In Hebrew a revolution is a מהפכה – a “mahpeichah” – would you describe what happened in the Purim story as a ?מהפכה
3. How do you feel about this over-turning? Does it make you feel happy?                                                               

Source 3
אסתר פרק ט
(כ) וַיִּכְתֹּב מָרְדֳּכַי אֶת הַדְּבָרִים
הָאֵלֶּה וַיִּשְׁלַח סְפָרִים אֶל כָּל
􀃍 הַיְּהוּדִים אֲשֶׁר בְּכָל מְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶ
אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ הַקְּרוֹבִים וְהָרְחוֹקִים:
(כא) לְקַיֵּם עֲלֵיהֶם לִהְיוֹת עֹשִׂים אֵת
יוֹם אַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר לְחֹדֶשׁ אֲדָר וְאֵת
יוֹם חֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר בּוֹ בְּכָל שָׁנָה וְשָׁנָה:
(כב) כַּיָּמִים אֲ שֶׁר נָחוּ בָהֶם
הַיְּהוּדִים מֵאוֹיְבֵיהֶם וְהַחֹדֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר
לָהֶם מִיָּגוֹן לְשִׂמְחָה וּמֵאֵבֶל 􀃍 נֶהְפַּ
לְיוֹם טוֹב לַעֲשֹוֹת אוֹתָם יְמֵי מִשְׁתֶּה
וְשִׂמְחָה וּמִשְׁלוֹחַ מָנוֹת אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ
וּמַתָּנוֹת לָאֶבְ יוֹנִים:
(כג) וְקִבֵּל הַיְּהוּדִים אֵת אֲשֶׁר הֵחֵלּוּ
לַעֲשֹוֹת וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר כָּתַב מָרְדֳּכַי
אֲלֵיהֶם:
 

Esther Chapter 9
20. And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21. To establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, 22. Like the days when the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was overturned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.  23. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them;                              

1. What else was over-turned apart from the political climate?
2. What sort of joy might you feel if you experienced this kind of radical reversal of fortune?
 

Source 4
בבלי ערכין דף י/ב
פורים דאיכא ניסא לימא
אמר רבי יצחק לפי שאין
אומרים שירה על נס
שבחוצה לארץ
מתקיף לה רב נחמן בר
יצחק והרי יציאת מצרים
דנס שבחוצה לארץ הוא
ואמרינן הלל
כדתניא עד שלא נכנסו
ישראל לארץ הוכשרו כל
הארצות לומר שירה
משנכנסו לארץ לא
הוכשרו כל ארצות לומר
שירה
רב נחמן אמר קרייתה זו
היא הלילא
רבא אמר בשלמא התם
הללו עבדי ה' ולא עבדי
פרעה הכא הללו עבדי ה'
ולא עבדי אחשורוש אכתי
עבדי אחשורוש אנן
 

Bavli - Arachin 10b
Then let it (Hallel) be said on Purim, on which, too, a miracle occurred! Said Rabbi Isaac: [It is not said] because no song [Hallel] is said for a miracle that occurred outside the [Holy] Land. To this Rav Nachman Bar Isaac objected: But there is the Exodus from Egypt, which constitutes a miracle that happened outside the Land, and yet we say Hallel! There it is due to the following braita: Before Israel entered the [Holy] Land, all the lands were considered fit for song to be said [if a miracle had occurred in their boundaries]; once Israel had entered the Land, no other countries were considered fit for song to be said. Rav Nachman said: The reading [of the Megillah] that is its [Purim's] Hallel. Rava said: It works well there (At Pesach): “Praise you servants of the Lord” (Ps. 113:1) but not servants of Pharaoh; but here “servants of the Lord”, not servants of Ahasuerus. Surely they are still servants of Ahasuerus!                                                                                                                           
 

1. Try to identify the different answers to the question why we do not say Hallel on Purim.
2. Which is the most convincing to you?
3. Which of the three have something to say about contemporary Jewish existence in the Diaspora?
 

Source 5
בבלי סנהדרין דף עד/ב
והא אסתר פרהסיא הואי
אמר אביי אסתר קרקע עולם
היתה
רבא אמר הנאת עצמן שאני
...
ואזדא רבא לטעמיה
דאמר רבא עובד כוכבים דאמר
ליה להאי ישראל קטול
אספסתא בשבתא ושדי לחיותא
ואי לא קטילנא לך ליקטיל ולא
לקטליה שדי לנהרא ליקטליה
ולא ליקטול
מאי טעמא
לעבורי מילתא קא בעי
 

Bavli - Sanhedrin 74b
But did not Esther transgress publicly? Abaye answered; Esther was merely natural soil. Rava said: When they [the persecutors] demand it for their personal pleasure it is different… This [answer] concurs with Rava's view
expressed elsewhere. For Rava said: If a Gentile said to a Jew, “Cut grass on the Sabbath for the cattle, and if not I will slay you” he must cut it rather than be killed (But if he said) “Cut it and throw it into the river” he should rather be slain than cut it. Why so? Because his intention is merely to force him to violate his religion. The text begins by suggesting that perhaps Esther should have died rather than submitting to Mordechai’s plan for her to marry the king: she was being forced by a non-Jew to transgress an element of Jewish Law publicly and in such cases we generally rule that a person should prefer martyrdom. The text offers two distinct explanations for Esther’s non-martyrdom in the name of Abaye and Rava. They are hard to make sense of so maybe Rashi’s explanations of their positions will help:

 Abaye – “Esther was merely natural soil” – Rashi – “She did not do anything – 

He (Ahasuerus) did things to her!”

 Rava – “When they [the persecutors] demand it for their personal pleasure it is different…” – Rashi – “If the Non-Jew does not intend to turn aside the Jew from his fear of God but rather he only seeks his own benefit then the case is different…”
 

Can you translate these two categories into terms that make sense for you?

Purim and Assimilation: A Purim Teaching

I wanted to share an interesting and thought provoking Purim lesson written by my teacher Rabbi Joel Levy of the Conservative Yeshiva. This is the most recent in the CY's e-shiur series.  Rabbi Joel always provides a unique spin on familiar topics.  Enjoy! Chag Sameach.

                                                                  Purim and Assimilation
                                                                      By Rabbi Joel Levy

Alone among all the Jewish festivals, Purim is a holiday with a traditional injunction to become intoxicated. Our first text is from the Babylonian Talmud and is the primary source for that obligation (Source 1). This shiur will be an attempt to look at some different ways of understanding this obligation.

The first way is straightforward: drinking is simply a means by which to celebrate. Megillat Esther is the story of a huge inversion. The Jews of Shushan move from being on the verge of annihilation to actually wiping out their enemies. A verse found towards the end of the Megillah describes this huge change (Source 2).

Later in the same chapter we learn about the emotional correlates of this upheaval. The Megillah again uses the verb root hey-pay-chaf, this time to talk about the emotional shifts that accompanied the political one (Source 3). This text tells us that Purim is expressly a time of joy. Purim is a time of rejoicing and festivity because we were saved from genocide. The Jews felt then, and we are supposed to feel now, the inversion from powerlessness to power (source 2) and from sorrow to joy (source 3). Maybe the unique instruction to become intoxicated at Purim is a pure expression of joy! The psalmist tells us that “wine gladdens the heart of man.” (Psalms 104:15) so maybe the alcohol is there as a means to loosen us up and get us in the “right” mood!

I am generally suspicious when people tell me that it is good idea for me to get drunk. None of my own experiences of real drunkenness, either my own or my experiences of those around me, could be described as involving unalloyed joy. In an uptight country like England where I grew up alcohol is widely used to disinhibit the pathologically inhibited. We know the real damage caused by alcohol abuse in society. And beyond the psalmist’s association between alcohol and joy our tradition acknowledges other darker sides to alcohol. It can also be used to bring comfort to the afflicted: “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto the bitter in soul.” (Proverbs 31:6). The Zohar suggests that it eventually brings on sadness. “The truth is that wine rejoices at first and saddens afterwards…” (Zohar Section III, 39a). According to the Tanach, the first person to consume alcohol was Noah in Bereshit Chapter 9. In that episode Noah does not seem to be drinking as an expression of joy – he seems to be trying to blot out his recent experience of seeing the entire world destroyed! The incident ends badly with an obscure allusion to sexual disgrace.

Returning to the issue at hand, is it possible that the prescribed use of alcohol at Purim is more nuanced? Is it possible that the story of Purim contains such painful motifs that we need to blur the boundaries of our reality, to seek some form of oblivion, to escape from or avoid a reality that seems unpleasant or impossible to deal with? Remember that Source 1 seemed to call for a quite extreme form of intoxication - until we cannot tell the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai”. What issues might we be trying to avoid at Purim when we are commanded to seek escape?

Source 4 might point us in a different direction. This passage begins by asking why we don’t sing Hallel on Purim and offers a variety of possibilities. Hallel is normally sung on festivals and its absence on Purim is certainly noteworthy. Various answers are proposed. Rabbi Isaac says that we don’t say Hallel when recalling a miracle that occurred outside the Holy Land. Rav Nachman suggests that the reading of the Megillah constitutes Purim's Hallel so we don‘t need to say the real Hallel too. Rava, however, has a darker reading. He says that it would actually be inappropriate to sing the Hallel on Purim. Hallel contains the words: “Praise you servants of the Lord” (Psalm 113:1) and this does not ring true with our experience at Purim when even at the end of Megillat Esther the Jews are still the servants of Ahasuerus! Rava is telling us that despite all the singing, dancing and general merriment described at the end of Megillat Esther something is still fundamentally wrong with the world that is being described.

What is it that is wrong with that world? On Purim we enter a world where the Jewish community is almost destroyed. Jewish existence is presented as a fragile thing, liable to be swept away by forces beyond its control. A change in government, the rise of a Jew-hater into a position of power, these are enough to threaten the physical existence of Jewry. In the end, the Jews are saved and everyone breathes a sigh of relief, but the fundamental fragility of the Jewish community remains the same. In this tale of Diaspora existence the Jewish people are dependent on highly intelligent but Jewishly invisible coreligionists who have managed, partly by virtue of their assimilation, to work their way into positions of influence over the establishment. Thank goodness for that assimilation for it was only due to the political influence achieved by Mordechai and Esther that Jewry was saved when Haman and his henchmen came to power.

As part of Mordechai’s attempt to gain political influence he encourages his beautiful young niece (or maybe cousin) to have sex with the king and ultimately marry this non- Jewish monarch of dubious moral standing. In an extremely painful discussion in theTalmud (Bavli - Sanhedrin 74b) the rabbis agonize over how Esther could have transgressed basic elements of Jewish sexual morality in public rather than choosing to
die a martyr’s death (Source 5).

Abaye concludes that Esther was “merely natural soil” implying that she was an absolutely passive sexual victim. Rava asserts that the laws requiring martyrdom are different when the Jew is being told to transgress merely for the personal pleasure of the non-Jew rather than as part of a systematic religious persecution. Despite the rabbinic justification of Esther's actions, in the Megillah itself it is clear that the ends justify the means. Mordechai tells Esther that she must use her potent sexuality in order to gain sway over the king and to wield that influence on behalf of the Jewish community. I have heard many a shiur attempting to portray Esther as a potent female image but in the Megillah she looks like a manipulated and manipulating young woman whose only real power resides in her sexuality and her ability to seduce. She certainly does not provide an image of female power that I would be happy to teach to my daughters.

The underlying message for Diaspora Jewry that is contained in the Megillah is that their continuing survival depends on their ability to inveigle themselves into positions close to the sources of true power. That proximity can only be attained by highly assimilated Jews like Mordechai and Esther and it will only lead to influence, not to true power. Such influence can rise and fall in the blink of an eye. Thus it takes constant manipulation and vigilance to ensure its continuity. Mordechai and Esther need to use all the tools at their disposal to stay in favor of the state even if that involves sexual manipulation and the maintenance in power of unpleasant regimes.

Little wonder then that our sources command we drink to excess at this time of year. Excessive drinking blots out the indignity and fear inherent in such a precarious and conditional existence. Is it better to drink than to acknowledge soberly that our heroes and heroines are spies and seductresses, and that however hard we try, our lives will always be left hanging by a thread? Little wonder that our inebriation should be so complete that we cannot tell the difference between ‘cursed be Haman’ and ‘blessed be Mordechai’ when our vulnerability is brought home to us so chillingly.

This takes us back to sources 2 and 3 and our emotional responses to a world of overturning. I suggested at first that we feel joy at Purim simply because the Jews were saved; but surely their experience would have been relief and joy tinged with a strong sense of having been made painfully aware of the world of overturning itself, the world of venahafoch hu, a world where all is turned upside down, a world of real or potential chaos. We may drink joyfully because we are safe for a brief moment, but it is an awareness of the chaotic, capricious, dangerous nature of the world that underpins a really determined quest for inebriation.
L’chaim!

(The sources will be in the next post)

This edition of the Conservative Yeshiva’s E-Shiur is made possible by a generous grant from Temple Zion Israelite Center, Miami, Florida.