-->
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.
-----------
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 1st -the final telling of the
story of revelation falls on our yearly cycle of torah readings.
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.)
No comments:
Post a Comment