Eikev: Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25

In this week's Parasha, Eikev, Moses continues with his recap of the events of the last forty years and then makes it extremely clear that God will facilitate the destruction of the people inhabiting the Promised Land not because the Jews are so good, but because the others are so evil!

 A good chunk of time is spent reminding the Israelites that they are "a stiff-necked people."  Moses lists every single time they gave him "push back" and lets them know that God wants them to "cut away" this hardness from their hearts and "be a stiff-necked people no more."  From this comes the oft confusing phrase, to "circumcise your heart" as the translation we usually hear is from the Latin, a literal translation that means "to cut around."

You'll also find  this familiar section of the V'ahavta -

     ¹⁸ Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a -symbol on your forehead, ¹⁹ and teach them to your children — reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; ²⁰ and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates — ²¹ to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to assign to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth.

Again, we are presented with a "Ripped from Today's Headlines" section about possessing the Land.  If we read it, then perhaps we can begin to understand why in Israel today, the Ultra-Orthodox feel that they contribute to Israel's existence by praying and observing the Mitzvot. 

Finally, we are reminded that Israel as a home for the Jews goes back before 1948.

²² If, then, you faithfully keep all this Instruction that I command you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all His ways, and holding fast to Him, ²³ the Lord will dislodge before you all these nations: you will dispossess nations greater and more numerous than you. ²⁴ Every spot on which your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River — the Euphrates — to the Western Sea. ²⁵ No man shall stand up to you: the Lord your God will put the dread and the fear of you over the whole land in which you set foot, as He promised you.

 Let me leave you with some lyrics from the score of the film classic Exodus.  "This land is mine, God gave this land to me, 
This brave and ancient land to me."  

Let these words be a mantra that we repeat over and over again as we read and listen to the news.  Between cease-fires and negotiations let's not forget how long our attachment to this specific piece of real estate has been.  

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Rose

This Week's Torah Portion: Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22

This week we begin the fifth and final book of the Torah, D'varim or, in English, Deuteronomy. This week's portion reads like bullet points for the events that we have been reading regarding which specific territory we are to fight for, which ones we are NOT to fight for, who will be permitted to enter the Promised Land and who will not. It is concise, which makes it a narrative easy to memorize and pass on to the next generation.

This portion even discusses GAZA! Our troubles are as recent as today and as distant as thousands of years ago.

The Promised Land was fought hard for... and continues to be.

Shabbat Shalom,  Rabbi Rose

This Week's Torah Portion: Numbers 33:1 - 36:13

Again, because it falls during the summer, we rarely hear about or study this portion.  Within the portion is a total accounting of each leg of the journey from Egypt, with the location of each and every pit-stop along the way.  It is, for this next generation, an accounting of their parents' historic 40 year journey.

Take the time to read the next section which gives, in excruciatingly minute detail the boundaries of God's "promised land" ... This part of the Torah is a legal document, and gives the exact lines of demarcation of the new country  where the Jews are to live.

After being given their new map, God goes on to explain how they need to conquer the land. Given the current state of affairs in Israel, it is extremely unsettling to read the ancient dictate:

 ⁵¹ Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ⁵² you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land; you shall destroy all their figured objects; you shall destroy all their molten images, and you shall demolish all their cult places. ⁵³And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have assigned the land to you to possess.

....But if you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land, those whom you allow to remain shall be stings in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you live; ⁵⁶ 

As the French say, "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

Please remember the State of Israel in your thoughts and prayers.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Rose

This week's Torah portion: Mattot Numbers 30:2 - 32:421

"(the meat of the portion starts with chapter 31)

"And now... for the bloody truth about acquiring the Promised Land. 

"People in Torah Study groups are often amazed, conflicted, caught unaware, and pretty much blown away by Mattot in the Book of Numbers. Because this parasha is read in the summer, when we weren't in Hebrew School, it isn't often taught in Hebrew School. So, we, as adults, are shocked to find out how bloody the conquest of "The Promised Land" actually was.  In Mattot we learn the details of this amazing military campaign. God lets Moses know that after Moses "avenges the Israelite people on the Midianites; then you shall be gathered to your kin. "There is a "call up" of 12,000 soldiers from the tribes.Thousands upon thousands of Midianites are slaughtered... including women and children. Curiously, when the fighting is over, it is discovered that not a single Israelite was killed.  

"There is also some interesting psychological manipulation done when two of the tribes, who keep cattle and find good grazing ground on the near side of the Jordan, announce that they prefer to NOT cross the Jordan.  God pretty much says... you can't just "not go" and leave your brothers to hang!  So, cattle, wives and children are left behind in fortified encampments while the men cross over and fight alongside the other tribes to conquer the land.

"Certainly there is enough drama here for an HBO series."

Shabbat Shalom, 
Rabbi Rose

The Purest Democracy

Eloquently Voiced by a Rabbi’s Sermon on Iwo Jima

Memorial Day Weekend in DC was a holiday filled with flags, wreaths, speeches, and concerts. This past Sunday and Monday, veterans came wearing caps, T-shirts and parts of uniforms from “their wars.” At the Nurse’s Memorial, a special sisterhood collected. Women in their 60’s wearing floppy hats covered with pins and badges greeted each other with warm and knowing hugs. The line to file by names on the Vietnam Memorial snaked slowly. At the Korean memorial hulking figures slogged through a bitter Korean winter and walls of faces stared back from the granite, faces as young as the day they served. Vets of the “Greatest Generation” visited the WWII Memorial: its two 43-foot tall pavilions proclaimed American victory on the Atlantic and Pacific fronts—on land, at sea, and in the air. And all the while, reverberating through DC was the sound of Rolling Thunder’s 6,000 motorcyclists; here to remember the M.I.A.s and POW’s, and this year, to protest care in VA hospitals.

Across the bridge lies Arlington National Cemetery and adjacent to it stands the Marine Corps Memorial, aka the Iwo Jima Memorial, with its iconic image of Marines raising the American flag. Inscribed at its base is Admiral Nimitz’s tribute to the men who fought there:   "Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue."

Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific Theater, and a young rabbi from New York, Lieutenant Roland Bertram Gittelsohn, was the only Jewish Navy chaplain to land there with the Fifth Division. Charged with ministering to Jewish (approximately 1,500) and Gentile (approximately 70,000) troops, he leapt from foxhole to foxhole in the heat of battle, earning three ribbons for bravery. After five torturous weeks, and 26,000 Marine casualties, the fighting ended.

There was to be a non-denominational ceremony to dedicate the Marine Cemetery. Division Chaplain Warren Cuthriell, a Protestant minister, asked Rabbi Gittelsohn to deliver the memorial sermon. Chaplin Cuthriell wanted all the fallen Marines, black and white, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish honored in a single ceremony.  That was not to be. The majority of Christian chaplains objected to having a rabbi preach over predominantly Christian graves and threatened to boycott the ceremony.  The Catholic Chaplains could not participate with non-Catholics, be they Jewish or Christian. 

Not wanting the service boycotted, and not wanting to tarnish Chaplain Cuthriell’s reputation, Rabbi Gittelsohn declined the invitation. So, instead of one unifying ceremony, there were three. Even in death, there was division.

Rabbi Gittelsohn gave the address that he had written for the non-denominational service to a gathering of Jewish servicemen.  Two Protestant ministers attended.  They were so moved by Rabbi Gittelsohn’s words, that they asked for the onionskin copy of the original speech that they reproduced in the thousands and gave to the troops.  Many of these Marines, in turn, mailed the sermon home, where it was picked up by the wire services and subsequently read and heard around the world.  It has been said that this poignant speech is second only to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, as a eulogy to the fallen. 

I have chosen several of the most moving passages to share with you and hope that you will find time to read the complete address at some later date.  Here are the words of 35-year-old Rabbi Ronald Bertram Gittelsohn, spoken at Iwo Jima.

 “THIS IS PERHAPS THE GRIMMEST, and surely the holiest task we have faced since D-Day. Here before us lie the bodies of comrades and friends. Men who until yesterday or last week laughed with us, joked with us, trained with us. Men who were on the same ships with us, and went over the sides with us, as we prepared to hit the beaches of this island. Men who fought with us and feared with us. Somewhere in this plot of ground there may lie the individual who could have discovered the cure for cancer. Under one of these Christian crosses, or beneath a Jewish Star of David, there may rest now an individual who was destined to be a great prophet to find the way, perhaps, for all to live in plenty, with poverty and hardship for none. Now they lie here silently in this sacred soil, and we gather to consecrate this earth in their memory.

Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors’ generations ago helped in her founding. And other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and Whites, rich men and poor, together. Here are Protestants, Catholics, and Jews together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color. Here there are no quotas of how many from each group are admitted or allowed. Among these men there is no discrimination. No prejudices. No hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy.

Whosoever of us lifts his hand in hate against a brother, or who thinks himself superior to those who happen to be in the minority, makes of this ceremony and the bloody sacrifice it commemorates, an empty, hollow mockery. To this then, as our solemn sacred duty, do we the living now dedicate ourselves: To the right of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of White men and Negroes alike, to enjoy the democracy for which all of them have here paid the price...

We here solemnly swear this shall not be in vain. Out of this and from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn this, will come, we promise, the birth of a new freedom for the sons of men everywhere.”

I wish these words were carved on a monument in Washington or be found at every memorial that honors military service.  I wish it could be posted at the gates of every U.S. military cemetery. Rabbi Gittelsohn’s words should be part of every civics class, and memorized by generations along with Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Patrick Henry’s “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” speech, and perhaps, be part of the swearing in of each new American Citizen.

Sometimes, we just need to be reminded of what the sacrifice was for.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Rose

Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Unification Day

 Forty-Seven Years Ago A Great Miracle Happened There

Once you reach a certain age, and trust me, that age will come, you develop a heightened awareness of how things have changed in your lifetime. The time isn’t so far in front of you when you will catch yourself saying, “when I was a kid” or “back in the day.” Should you try to share the information, you may be met with an eager audience, or a blank stare.

Three things of note have changed in my lifetime.  In 1972 I passed over the Berlin Wall from West Berlin to Communist East Berlin. It was an “Oz-like” experience in reverse. In the original film, Kansas is filmed in black and white and Oz in Technicolor. But in this case, I entered the checkpoint from Technicolor, modern, rebuilt West Berlin and exited into Soviet era black and white and gray.  And now, The Berlin Wall is gone.  Germany is unified.  There is no Communism. And the era has passed to a footnote in history.

In 1967 Hong Kong belonged to Great Britain. Today, it belongs to China.  In 1967 I visited Hong Kong, but as a US citizen, I couldn’t visit China.  The US didn’t have diplomatic or trade relations with China.  Today, Americans travel freely in China and the Communism of Chairman Mao is ancient history. All I could do back then was peer into Communist China from the Territory of Kowloon.

As a Jew, however, there is one significant event that stands out above all others.  That would be the Reunification of Jerusalem during the Six Day War in June of 1967.  On the second day of the war, Israeli forces gained control of the Western Wall of the Temple and the Temple Mount once again.  It had been in Jordanian hands since 1948, and Jews had been unable to pray there. The single most recognizable image of the day is the iconic photograph of six Israeli paratroopers looking up, standing next to the massive stones of the Kotel.

In 1968, I had the opportunity to travel to Jerusalem. The Western Wall, the Kotel, had not yet been turned into a tourist plaza. Although the Old City didn’t look exactly “biblical” it certainly resembled a drawing from the Ottoman Period.  Destruction and neglect were everywhere, yet there was quiet excitement in the air as we passed over the rubble of the wall that had separated East and West Jerusalem.

Although Yom Yerushalayim, which will be observed in Israel this Wednesday, May 28th, is not a religious holiday, it is certainly a day of religious and political significance to Jews all over the world.  Jews have faced east to Jerusalem in prayer since time immemorial. We have yearned for a return to Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is woven into our texts, our prayers, and repeatedly spoken of by our prophets and sages. “Next Year in Jerusalem” has always been the ending of our Passover Seder.

Throughout my thirty-year teaching career, I tell the story of Jerusalem as often as possible, to each class of students.  My story always begins the same way. “When I was a little girl, I couldn’t visit Jerusalem or pray at the Western Wall.”  I’m always met with an incredulous stare, as if I was talking about outer space.  “But WHY?” Children always asked, “but why?” because they could not imagine the State of Israel without Jerusalem.  In their minds, it had always been there and always would be.  They have only known a world with Jerusalem as a holy, Jewish and accessible place.

We must safeguard Jerusalem, so that future generations will have access to her. We want to ensure that our children and our children’s children will never have to say, “When I was a kid, we used to be able to pray in Jerusalem, but no more.”

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rose

Finally a New High-Tech Solution to Help Israeli Fire Officials Predict Fires, As Hundreds of Thousands Celebrate Lag b’Omer with Bonfires

 “Based on traffic reports, congestion, weather and wind conditions, the level of moisture in the ground in each part of the country, and incidents that are phoned in, we know how many firefighters we will need to deploy in Meron or in central Tel Aviv, and whether they need to be deployed right at the site or can be held back in case of emergency. When you have a lot of people and a lot of bonfires, you know something bad is likely to happen, but with Matash, we can determine more closely where that bad thing might take place, and be ready for it.” Times of Israel

Bonfires.  We’re not talking “fire pits” in the backyard.  We are talking about flames leaping around an impressive stack of wood, lighting up the night.  In the town of Meron, hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox families will camp near the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mt. Meron and light bonfires.  In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and cities and towns throughout Israel, children will scavenge wood from construction sites and set their bonfires ablaze.  Soldiers throughout the state will build them with wood, pride and camaraderie.

Fire as a symbol goes back to the earliest roots of our religion.  God spoke to Moses from within a burning bush.  We were instructed to keep a fire burning at all times on the altar of the Tabernacle in the desert. The lamp in the Holy of Holies was to be lit at all times, a tradition we carry on even today with a Ner Tamid above our Ark.  The Israelites were led through the Wilderness by a pillar of fire.  And fire is a symbol of passion, hence the phrase “Aish HaTorah” “Flame of the Torah.”  Jews have died a martyr’s death wrapped in Torah scrolls and burned at the stake.  Whole communities have been locked in synagogues and set ablaze. At Yad Veshem’s Hall of Remembrance The Eternal Flame, burning from a base fashioned like a broken bronze goblet continuously illuminates the smooth stones on which are engraved the names of concentration camps.

What drives so many Jews to celebrate this minor holiday regardless of their religious or secular affiliations? Perhaps the flame meets a need for a symbol to which Jews in every generation can attach their own significance, but which brings with it a feeling of unity.

Now, more than ever, as Jews we need to find a common ground, a common torch in which to place that flame. In both the State of Israel and the U.S. our Jewish brethren have become diverse, fragmented, antagonistic, even hostile. Having defeated our external foes, we fight amongst ourselves, even as our own survival is at stake.  In Israel, the Jewish State, Jew is pitted against Jew in a struggle for both religious and political power.  In America, Jews no longer even make a show of unity. The cohesion of the immigrant experience that bound us together has been lost, as well as the ability to put aside differences to bring about and sustain the newborn State of Israel.  Today, when polled on our Jewish Affiliation, too often we check the box that says, “none.”

If we are to survive as a people, a nation, a religion, an ethnicity, or however we chose to define ourselves, we must find a way to rekindle and sustain the flame at the core of Jewish peoplehood. As we observe Lag B’Omer, each Jew should take the time to look within the flames and rekindle within their own heart, the spark that will ignite, once again, unity among the Jewish People.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Rose