Sunday, July 22, 2007

A thought on Parshas Vaeschanan

"...v'ahavta es HaShem...""...and you shall love HaShem..." (6:5)

Many have pondered the pragmatics of being able to feel love for HaShem. Many wonder about the complexity of being commanded to love. It is a difficult human emotion and not one that people can do or feel upon demand. The Torah nonetheless stresses that we are all bound to feel love for Him.

Rabbeinu Bachya offers a perspective: Perhaps this mitzva is not so puzzling. After all, who else are you going to love? He is the only "Force" in the world and He is our only G-d. This alone demands that we develop love for Him. This demands that we follow His ways and put His commandments into use with love.

Now one can argue that this reality would prompt us to fear Him and to follow His ways out of fear. Rabbeinu Bachya observes that serving with fear is an incomplete devotion. What the Torah asks of us is that we think deeply into His ways and teachings so that we develop an appreciative grasp of His greatness. That is the path to loving. Appreciating Him and grasping some sense of what HaShem does and is (within the limits of our mortal scope of understanding) puts us on the path toward feeling the love which the Torah expects of us.

A similar perspective might help us with regard to loving those who matter to us. At times, we lose sight of our feelings. Love is far from our consciousness. Those in our lives who need us are left in the cold. It becomes our task to re-ignite the sparks of loving. If one has lost that loving feeling, one path to discovery would be to focus on all that they do and who they are. This is the road toward appreciation which can lead to loving once again.

This is sent earlier than usual since I leave shortly for Israel. May HaShem watch over His people with love and may we feel that love around us and within us. Good Shabbos. D Fox

Thursday, July 19, 2007

A thought on Parshas Devarim

"...pnu lachem tzafona...b'gvul acheichem...""...turn to the north...past the boundary of your brother..." (2:3-4)

In our march through the desert we were forewarned of our impending encounter with our "brother" Esav. We needed to turn north, mindful of his territorial border.

Rabbeinu Bachya expounds upon the words of a midrash which notes the word "tzafon" (north) and the word "gvul" (boundary). Tzafon also means "something hidden" as we know from the Pesach seder where the hidden matza is referred to as Tzafun. What is the hidden meaning of this allusion to "the hidden"? The midrash offers that the Torah hints here to our hidden treasure, the Beis HaMikdash where HaShem's Sacred Presence was sensed, although hidden from three dimensional reality. HaShem says to us here "prepare for My Hidden Presence to be removed when your brother Esav destroys My hidden treasure" as it says in Yechezkel 7:22 "...v'chillilu es tzefuni..."- they will defile the place were I am hidden. This is the message which Rabbeinu Bachya sees in our verse's words "pnu tzafona" - they will cast out the Hidden.

As for Esav's boundary, noted in our second verse, this hints at the words of Ovadia 1:7 "...ad ha'gvul shilchucha..." where the navi foretells the days to come when the nations of the world will first seem to support the Kingdom of Esav, accompanying it to "the boundary", only to desert him as the verse continues "...hishiucha yachlu lecha..." - then they will forsake you.

Rabbeinu Bachya explains that Esav will vanquish our Temple and the Divine Presence will be hidden further. However, there will come a time when the world will no longer support Esav. Even his might has a limit, a boundary. When that boundary has been reached, the world will no longer honor Esav. Yesh gvul.

I want to add that, in my mind, there is another hidden reference here. One verse earlier, Ovadia says, "...eich nechpsu Esav, nivu matzfunav..." - how has Esav been plundered, his hidden places revealed. Note that the word tzafon appears here also. What is the connection?The Roman conquest and all that we regard as Malchus Edom today not only vanquished our hidden place, but they "replaced it" with a shrine of their own, the center of their religion which has vied for the title "Chosen", claims a "new covenant" and in whose vaults are rumored to lie many of our own hidden treasures looted from the Mikdash.

Until quite recently in world history, this religion has been ascendant in the "civilized" world and did outreach throughout the globe. In our own day, its purported splendor has begun to wither, its treasured representatives to tarnish, its professed standards to decay and now its numbers pale as the shadow of Yishmael looms larger. Esav may have reached its limits. Much of the world has seen it nears its boundaries, and as Ovadia foretells, many are deserting Esav at its borders. Yesh gvul.

And having defiled our hidden places and upstaged them with its own, all that was hidden by Esav, as Ovadia promises, is now being revealed.

We approach Tisha B'Av with heavy heart yet we await the time which Ovadia heralds in his final words, as we declare each day in Aleinu: "v'alu moshi'im b'har Tzion lishpot es har Esav v'haisa l'HaShem ha'mlucha."

I travel shortly to Jerusalem iy"H for the bris mila of my son Akiva's son...on Tisha B'Av.
Good Shabbos. D Fox

Thursday, July 12, 2007

A thought on Parshios Matos- Masei

"...va'yeishev bah ad meis HaKohen HaGadol..."
"...and he shall remain there until the High Priest dies..." (35:25)

There are many aphorisms and sayings which Chazal have given over to us. Some of the most popularly cited ones are nowhere to be found in Chazal! Over the years, I have made note of this and occasionally will point out that some of our most treasured adages cannot be traced to any Tanna or Amora in the Talmudim or the Midrashim.

The Torah tells us that when a person runs to exile in the Cities of Refuge, he must stay put until the ranking Kohen Gadol dies. Until then, he needs protection from a goel ha'dam, any relative who may seek to avenge the killing of his kin by the one in protective custody there.

There are some classic interpretations as to the significance of the High Priest's passing as a "green light" to emerge from that custody. Rabbeinu Bachya, though, offers an alternate explanation.

We can relate to the feelings of the goel ha'dam who is in pain and rage following the careless act of the accidental killer. A preventable trauma has taken a life and the aggrieved kin seethe and suffer without respite, without comfort. When the cherished Kohen Gadol passes away, the entire nation is awestruck. There is collective mourning, societal sadness, and the Jewish world recoils from their sudden loss.
It may happen at that time, reasons Rabbeinu Bachya, that the goel ha'dam pauses, his anger and obsessing lifting, shifting to internalize the broader impact of the public tragedy. At that moment, accommodating the new reality as the nation deals with its loss, may help that relative alter perspective. He may actually find some comfort, ironically, as he joins the entire Jewish people in the experience of suffering.

This thought is articulated further by the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim (3:40): "this is a natural human dynamic. Anyone who has cause to suffer, when trouble occurs to someone beyond himself, whether a similar problem or a greater one, he will experience some comfort over his own distress."

I think that with this interpretation, we can now find support for one of those familiar "non-Chazals." People often say "tzaras rabbim chatzi nechama" - the distress of the group serves as "half" a consolation. As insightful an idea as this is, it does not surface anywhere in the Torah Sh'b'al Peh. However, both the Rambam and Rabbeinu Bachya introduce the concept (and the actual word) nechama in their explanation of how the death of the Kohen Gadol helps console and comfort the agitation of the goel ha'dam. I think that this indeed illustrates that insightful bit of folk wisdom which we know as tzaras rabbim chatzi nechama.

May we know of no distress or sorrow at a personal or public level. Good Shabbos. D Fox

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

A Thought On Parshas Pinchas


"...Pinchas..." "...Pinchas..." (25:11)

I was always amused by the name Pinchas as a child. Firstly, I knew only a few boys who had that name. Secondly, it did not seem to flow as easily as so many Hebrew names which have at most three consonants and a few vowels. It seemed easier to say Avraham, Yitzchak, Hillel and so on. I was puzzled about this name with four consonants. Many people pronounced it "Pinkas" or spelled it "Phineas" which did not make it easier on me. I never knew what the name meant, either. I sort of assumed that it was Egyptian or something, like "Tzofnas Pane'ach", the title Pharaoh gave Yosef in Egypt.

Rabbeinu Bachya writes that the unique role that this figure played in our national history is that he was able to draw on his aggression in order to generate an act of kindness. By rushing to intervene during a national catastrophe of Chillul HaShem proportions, he was able to rid from our midst a threat and an abomination in order to protect our people. With his act, he modeled for his tribe and for all of us the elevated function of a Kohen. It is their role to take aggressive energy in the pursuit of collective peace. They do this through the avoda of korbanos, by accompanying the army of HaShem to the edge of battle with words of musar and structure, and they do this in the pursuit of peace within marriage, as we know from our lore about Aharon HaKohen.

The name Pinchas contains that formula: its letters are the two syllables Pnei Chas - turn toward compassion. Pinchas is a Hebrew name indeed and it flows very smoothly now. When a boy is named Pinchas, he is blessed with the hopeful image that he will pursue acts of kindness and caring, and will use his energy and might in modeling that which is right.

Now, linguists tell us that Pinchas derives from the Egyptian panhs'j which means "Nubian" and that it was a name used in Egypt for residents of Nubia. We can posit similar ideas when looking at the names Moshe, Bitya, and others yet we also see within the letters and their meanings allusions to values and concepts distinctively Jewish. Let us do the same for Pinchas. Let us live by his image and model and work hard on energetic caring for each other and for our nation.

Good Shabbos. D Fox