Posts Tagged 'Redemption'

Woven into the Fabric: Tzav and the Jewish Calendar

Published March 22, 2019 3.02 Tzav Leave a Comment
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I look back on almost 10 years of writing this blog and I realize that have basically ignored Tzav, this week’s Torah portion, every year. It is probably because it gets lost in the Purim shuffle. One thing that caught my eye this year reading Tzav was the a description of the priestly garments. There we read:

And the Lord spoke unto Moshe, saying: ‘Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bullock of the sin-offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread; and you should assemble all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting.’ ( Leviticus 8:1-3)

On this Rashi comments that it was seven days before the erection of the Mishkan which itself happened on the first of Nissan. That would put it at the 23rd of Adar in the period between Purim and Passover. What is the significance of this happening during this period of time?

It seems that we wear costumes on Purim to imitate Esther. She got her position of power by masking her identity. Ultimately she revealed her hidden identity and saved herself and her people. A month after Purim is Passover. It is interesting to note the Midrash as to why we were worthy of being redeemed from Egypt. There we read:

Another interpretation: “And there they became a nation” – this teaches that the Israelites were distinct there, in that their clothing, food, and language was different from the Egyptians’. They were identified and known as a separate nation, apart from the Egyptians. (Minor Pesikta, Devarim (Ki Tavo) 41a )

Where in the Megilah Esther saved her people by hiding and then revealed her identity, in Egypt we were redeemed specifically because we kept our public identity including our clothes. Our redemption starts with Esther’s revelation of unmasked self, goes to redemption of our ancestors who were advertising their identity with their clothing in Egypt, and then 50 days later on Shavuot we commemorate God as it were taking off God’s mask and reveal God’s self to us at Sinai.

Amidst this cycle we have the priests getting dressed. Like Esther they get their position of power by masking their personal identity. In many ways their garments made them who they were to the people. Like the Israelites in Egypt the priests in their garments were an iconic representation of Jewish identity. It is also through the cult of the Temple that the people would experience the unmasked presence of God as we did on Shavuot.

It turns out the Tzav is not lost behind Purim, it is just woven into the fabric of this longer cycle involving clothing, redemption ,and revelation.

 

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Redeemable Building

Published February 3, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Why did we merit redemption from Egypt? It would seem that it was foretold to Abraham that they would be redeemed.  But there are still a number of Midrashim  that explore how the  Israelites own merits redemption. Many of the reasons seem to be around their retaining particular mitzvot and symbols of Jewish identity.  Rav Huna said in the name of Bar-Kappara (Midrash Vayikra Rabba 32:5) that we did not change our names or our language, we did not speak lashon ha-ra, and everyone observed the laws of arayot (forbidden relationships). And yet another midrash (Midrash Lekach Tov on Parshat Va’eira) explores if we were redeemed because we retains  distinctive clothing. Most of these cases seems to have to do with with their words/names. How do words create the precondition to redemption?

I think this is interesting when we juxtapose it with the story of the generation of the Tower of Babel. They wanted to make a great name for themselves and they all spoke one language. For some reason similar behaviors were met with very different outcomes. For this generation after Noah, they were met with destruction of their life work, confounding of their common language, and dispersal throughout the world. For the Israelites it also spoke to the end of their labor of building, but Egypt still has those landmarks. We still have our names, language, and we still have one homeland.

We move from Exodus from Egypt in this week’s Torah portion to next week’s Torah portion when we will be standing as Sinai as “one nation with one heart”. In this week’s Torah portion as we are leaving Pharaoh is in hot pursuit. We read, ” Egypt was journeying after them” (Exodus 14:10) On this Rashi comments that this verb ‘was journeying’ is in singular because they were with “one heart as one man”.   The comparison is robust. Common purpose and unity seems redeemable and not uniformity. We are never really building buildings, we are always trying to build communities. We build community with the words we use. It is in these communities that names have meaning. Community is where many of us will find enduring meaning and maybe even our own redemption.

– I am sorry that a draft of this got posted by accident.

Dependable Memory

Published December 29, 2011 1.09 VaYeshev , 1.1 Miketz , 1.11 VaYigash Leave a Comment
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In the Mishnah Tamid ( 7:4) we learn that the Messianic Era will be a time which is  sheKulu Shabbat- completely Shabbat. What does that mean? First we need to understand some basic ideas about Shabbat and the Messiah. So, Shabbat with all of the rules and regulations actually boils down to just two commandments, LeShmor V LeZchor- to guard and to remember. Most of what we know  is all of the things we cannot do on Shabbat. That would fall under the commandment “to guard” Shabbat. We remember the Shabbat most clearly with the Kiddush. The Shulchan Aruch (OH272) brings down an interesting idea. If we do not have enough money for Challah and wine we should actually make Kiddush over Challah.  But we will come back to this.

Now back to the idea of the Messiah. We often say that one should ignore the idea of the Messiah ben David, but we ignore the idea of the Messiah ben Yosef. Living most of history as a dispossessed people we overlook the physical redemption of the Messiah descended from Yosef in favor of the metaphysical/ spiritual redemption that is supposed to come from a descendent of David. This idea of a physical redeemer in Yosef is very clearly discussed in the past few Torah portions. It all comes to a head in Vayigash, this week’s Torah portion, when the hidden redeemer reveals his true identity to save his brothers.

Regardless of our station in life, on Shabbat we are transformed into kings presiding over our weekly feast. To anyone who keeps Shabbat in our lives, it is hard to imagine a world without Shabbat.  But if we tried to imagine a world without the comfort of family and community we do not need to look further then when Yosef himself was in prison. There he was in the pit without Shabbat, but he was with the head baker and the head butler of the Pharaoh. He interprets their dreams and asks to be remembered. Then we read:

And the butler did not remember Yosef and he forgot him. ( Genesis 41:23)

Yosef asks to be remembered and he is forgotten.  Many commentators suggest that this doubling of language suggests that the butler forgot him in the short-term and the long-term. It is easy to imagine why the butler might forget Yosef. Many of us assume that needing the help of others makes us weaker in some way. So in the short and long-term it was easier for the butler to think he was chosen or special then remembering that he was dependent on Yosef for anything.

What is the significance of this story of Yosef in the prison in the context of our Mishna in Tamid? Yosef was in the pit without Shabbat. Pharoah is the king and he is clearly not. There, Yosef was with the head of Challah and the Head of Kiddush. The head of Challah was going to be killed and the head of Kiddush was asked to remember the redeemer and forgets him. Every Shabbat we try to fix this by remembering Yosef when we make Kiddush. And if we do not have money for both we remember the Challah over the Kiddush.

In the Talmud,  Rav Yochanan said in the name of the Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochi:

If Israel were to keep two Shabbatot according to the laws, they would be redeemed immediately ( Shabbat 118b)

Surely if we remember what the butler forgot we could redeem the world. (Maybe for both the Messiah of Yosef and David) We all get help from people all the time. But, we let our egos get the best of us. If we took the time to reveal their good deeds it would help reveal the capacity of these hidden humble heroes to redeem the world. And, we would also reveal our own vulnerability. This itself might be the core of the Messianic Era. This will not be a time of independence or dependence, but radical interdependence.  Shabbat itself could be a taste of this. Take a moment this Shabbat to share how you were helped this week. This memory might itself bring us closer to that era.

– L’Kavod Ben Sales ( who taught me to love Shabbat in new ways) and his wife Rachel

A Gooder Dream

Published December 24, 2010 2.01 Shemot Leave a Comment
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In the Torah reading a couple of weeks ago we learned of the two dream of Joseph’s youth. One was a dream of the sheaves of wheat bowing to one. The other was of the stars and the moon bowing to one star. It was clearly experienced by all as the run away ego of spoiled child. How could they the elder brothers bow to this pisher?

Dreams continue to play a central role in Joseph’s life. By interpreting the dreams of the butcher and wine steward correctly he eventually gets the opportunity to interpret Pharaoh’s two dreams. Interpreting these correctly leads to saving the known world from 7 years of famine. It was at this time that Joseph reunites with his brothers who have come to Egypt looking for food. They clearly have no idea that the stand in front of their brother Joseph. It seems that we are forced to sit through a long drama of Joseph wanting to live out his two dreams and have them all bow to him.

In Shmot, this week’s Torah portion, we are introduced to Moses. When is born and before he is named we learn “Ki Tov hu- because he was good” (Exodus 2:2) On this Rashi comments that the goodness referred to when he was born the entire house becoming filled with light. Rashi was referencing  Sotah12a which assumes that Moses Hebrew name was something like Tuv or Tuvia. There the Talmud plays with the reference of Moses being tov– good – with the idea expressed in creation “And God saw the light that was tov- good” (Genesis 1:4).  Moses potential was depicted as  unlimited so he was depicted as a primordial supernova, our rising star.

It seems that Moses and Joseph are very similar. Both saved their people from physical peril.  Joseph from the famine and Moses from slavery. But unlike Joseph, Moses went on to give the people the Torah at Sinai and bring them to ( if not into) the Land of Israel. It is clear that Joseph and his brothers did act out the dream of the wheat, they came to him to get food and be saved from the famine. But is it not possible that Joseph misinterpreted his second dream? This second dream might have been referring to all of the tribes bowing to Moses, the light of both a physical and metaphysical redemption.

The New Testament depicts Jesus saying “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Matthew 4:4) It seems that  Rabbi Eliezer the son of Azariah is in conversation with this idea when he said, “If there is no flour, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour” (Avot 3:21).  Neither just the physical or just the spiritual redemption are sufficient, both are critical and necessary. While Joseph provided the flour ( dream of the wheat), Moses provided the flour( matzoh) and the Torah ( revelation). And in this sense Moses was truly tov- good. Or maybe we are all just still struggling to live out the dream of living with the physical and spiritual redemption in the Land. That is a wonderful dream. As my four-year-old son Yishama says, “Wouldn’t that be gooder?”

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