A New Year Begins at the Beginning

With this week's d'var Torah, I start my 13th year of sending our such messages. It's been a very rewarding experience, not only for the study itself but also in learning from the wonderful comments I receive in return. While the focus was originally on how the weekly parasha could be interpreted to impact congregational management, I've expanded over time to talk about other issues, from relationships in families to our relationship with Israel and, on occasion, to political matters and current events as seen from what I can glean from the text. Thanks again for your comments and support. Shabbat Shalom to all.




Bereshit
Genesis 1:1 - 6:8

Précis: The first Book of the Torah, Bereshit (Genesis, literally “in the beginning” or “When God began to create”) begins with the familiar story of creation: the world is created in six days, with God resting on the Seventh. The story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden is included in this weekly reading, as is the story of Cain and Abel. We begin again the annual reading of the Five Books of Moses immediately upon its conclusion. Why? With each passing year, our understanding changes as we experience more of what life has to offer. Yochanan Ben Bag Bag said, "Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don't turn from it, for you have no better standard of conduct." (Avot 5:25)


Genesis 3:11-12 - “And the Lord said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree that I commanded you should not eat of?’ And the man said: ‘The woman you have given me to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.’”

Adam, when confronted by God about his failure to follow the single prohibition that God had commanded him to observe, first attempts to place the blame on Eve, and then on God Himself. It’s human nature that when one errs, one may defend one’s actions, or blame another. Adam refuses to acknowledge his responsibility. It was because something God did. When Eve is confronted, she responds that the snake made her do it. Were they banished from the Garden (and consigned to a mortal existence) because they violated God’s prohibition, or because they refused to accept responsibility for their own actions? There is a midrash that it was only after Cain killed Abel that Adam learned of the possibility of repentance (t’shuvah), and bitterly complains that had he only known of the possibility of atonement, he could have done so and remained in the Garden.


The bottom line for Executive Directors (and everyone else, perhaps) may be as follows: admit your own mistakes and take responsibility for them. An attempt to blame another, be it a staff member or a volunteer or a family member, will inevitably result in the loss of your credibility. We all make mistakes; it's what makes us human. Striving for perfection cannot obscure the fact the errors happen. Our mandate is to take ownership of our mistakes and accept responsibility for them clearly and unequivocally, and then move on!

Doom and Gloom, or Redemption

For Shabbat Chol Moed Sukkot:

As has happened so often during the long history of the Jewish People, this year as we celebrate Sukkot, the Jewish People face a threat  which some have characterized as “existential” (particularly with regard to Iran’s nuclear threat to Israel). Our tradition has its own apocalyptic motifs within it which are part of our readings this Shabbat. 

During Sukkot,  it is customary to read the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes). Among its themes are the need to accept the realities of life, recognizing that life's struggles are nothing but a form of “havel” (vanity or emptiness). Many read the book, attributed to Solomon, as downbeat and despairing. The haftarah for Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot contains explicit horrors, but ends with a promise of redemption. In it we read Ezekiel’s description of a future battle against Gog in the land of Magog which will take place just prior to God’s ultimate victory and the inauguration of the Messianic era. His vision suggests a world entirely engulfed in war, with earthquakes, storms, hail, and fiery brimstone. He states that it will take Israel seven months to bury the dead invaders! 

Why did the Sages select this reading for the Shabbat during Sukkot?  Ordinarily, it is not too difficult to see a connection between the Torah reading (here about the Sukkot sacrifices) and the haftarah. But here, the tone of the two are strikingly different, at least on the surface. Sukkot is a time of joy, while the haftarah is grim and downcast. Why do we have this discussion of Gog and Magog, who in rabbinic thought become ultimate symbols of destruction?

It has been suggested that we read this haftarah because it is a tale that will be well-received by the oppressed. Through two millennia, the Jewish People were often oppressed, and Gog and Magog became symbols of the oppressors who could not be named without fear of retribution. The eventual prophesied triumph was a promise of Redemption to a people who experienced only pain and subjugation, and the promise came at a time when their continued existence was as flimsy as a Sukkah.

When we link Sukkot to Ezekiel’s vision, we are expressing our hope that the “doom and gloom” we read in Kohelet is to be replaced by an ultimate triumph, of a time when war is no longer learned, and when spears are turned into pruning hooks.

It is also a reminder that the struggles we face day to day in our relations with others, or in our relations with the community and fellow Jews, should not blind us to the potential of good we can perform. Despite Ezekiel’s predictions of destruction, we need to keep in mind that Sukkot is “z’man simchatenu” – a time of our joy.