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Monday, May 18, 2015

Week 7 - May 18 -24, 2015 - Chapter 6

Joel - Week 7 - Chapter 6

Mishnah 6:9 Rabbi Yose ben Kisma said, “Once I was travelling and a man met me and greeted me. When I returned his greeting, he said to me, ‘Rabbi, where do you come from?’ I replied, ‘From a great city of sages and scholars.’ He then said, ‘Rabbi, would you be willing to live with us in our place? [If you would] I would give you a million golden dinars along with precious stones and pearls!’ I said to him, ‘Were you to give me all the silver and gold and precious stones and pearls in the world, I would live only in a place of Torah!’”

So there’s the story of this mishnah, and then there’s what it means to me.

You need to understand Rabbi Yose ben Kisma’s biography. He lives at the time of the lead up to what became known as the Bar Kochba revolt. At a time of great internal upheaval in Judea, this was a rebellion by Jews of Judea, led by Simon bar Kochba, against Rome in the years 132-136.

There were Jews who looked upon Simon bar Kochba as the Messiah, and for a time it seemed he might be one. For a time, this revolt was almost miraculously successful; the rebels were able to establish an independent State of Israel for two years in parts of Judea until 6 Roman legions came along and crushed the rebellion.

But not all Jews were in favor of this rebellion. Rabbi Yose ben Kisma was a student of history; he knew that it was a rebellion much like this one in 60 years earlier that eventually resulted in the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome, and so he counselled against this revolt. Because he took this stand, he remained undisturbed during the massive Roman persecutions that followed after the rebellion itself was brutally put down.

In Rabbi Yose ben Kisma’s story is a cautionary tale. As we pick the battles we will fight in the world, we need to pick them carefully. I’m honestly not sure which side I’d have been on-- ben Kisma, or bar Kochba. I know that I would have wanted the Jews to be free to live in a place of Torah, as ben Kisma teaches in this Mishnah. And I also know that it was likely futile at that time to rebel against Rome. So in a time of great challenge, do you preserve the sages and compromise on freedom? Or do you risk your life for the value of freedom and risk your very life?

It’s not an easy question to answer. I don’t envy the choices that Jews in Judea had to make at that time, nor the choices that Jews in so many generations since have had to make.

What I do know is this: being Jewish means living in community with other Jews. It means being in a congregation like ours that gives us the chance to study together. I am firmly share the opinion of Rabbi Yose ben Kisma: for all the silver and gold and precious stones and pearls, I would never want to live in a place without Jewish community.

This experience of writing has reminded me of how blessed I am, how blessed we are, in this way. Thanks to Beth for making this possible, and thanks to you for studying along with us!

Week 6 - May 11 - 17, 2015 - Chapter 5

Joel - Week 6 - Chapter 5 (goes up May 11)

Mishnah 5:6 Ten things were created on the eve of the first Shabbat at twilight. They are: the mouth of the earth (that opened up to swallow Korach and his band when they rebelled against Moses and God, Numbers 16:32) ; the mouth of the well (that accompanied the Israelites thru the wilderness to supply water), Num. 21:16-18); the mouth of the donkey (that spoke to Bilaam, Num 22:28-30); the rainbow (from the Noah story, Gen. 9:12-17); the manna (that fed the Israelites in the wilderness, Ex. 16:15); the staff of Moses (Ex. 4:17); the shamir (a now extinct worm that which is said to have carved the parts of the priestly garments and the stones of Solomon’s Temple (Ex. 28:9ff and Jer. 17:1); the writing ; the writing instrument; and the tablets (as in the letters of the 10 commandments, the instrument used to do that writing, and the tablets on which the words were written). Some say: the destructive spirits (that God also created along with Adam and Eve); the grave of Moses; and the ram of our patriarch Adam (that appeared for Abraham to sacrifice instead of Isaac). Some even say the first tongs which are made by tongs (an effort to answer a question that must have occurred to anyone using tongs-- if one needs tongs to hold materials over a fire to make tongs, who made the first ones?) .

This Mishnah just blows my mind, I have to say. I couldn’t believe it when I first studied it, and I really had a hard time understanding it, to be honest.

What I have come to understand is that this Mishnah is one of the ways the rabbis of our tradition have come to deal with miracles and their discomfort with them. To the rabbinic mind, miracles are problematic. If they come along sometimes, why don’t they come along at other times? If God can miraculously save us at some times, why doesn’t God always swoop in?

The rabbinic answer in this Mishnah: there are no such thing as miracles. The things in the Bible that seem like miracles were actually there all along from the days of creation, and they simply waited to make their previously scheduled appearance at just the right moment.

The rabbis like the idea of natural order, and, with this mishnah, they try to explain some of the most mysterious things in the Torah that appear to violate that natural order.

I personally like this text; I’m not sure I buy what the rabbis are selling here, but I like it because it gives such a deep insight into the thinking process and theology of the rabbis. On the other hand, I am okay with mystery. I don’t need a logical explanation for everything in the Bible, or everything in the world, for that matter.

What do you make of this text? Does it help you accept these events, or does it simply strike you as mental gymnastics?

Beth - Week 6 - Chapter 5

Mishna 5:11 There are four kinds of dispositions: [One is] easy to anger and easy to calm. That one’s gain is nullified by the loss. [One is] hard to anger and hard to calm. That one’s loss is nullified by the gain. [One is] hard to anger and easy to calm. That ones is a saint. [The last is] easy to anger and hard to calm, that one is a sinner.

According to Rashi, “Whatever benefit results from being easy to pacify is lost by being easy to provoke. Likewise, whatever benefit is gained by being hard to anger is olost by being hard to assuage” (Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary On Jewish Ethics Edited and Translated by Leonard Kravitz and Kerry M. Olitzky). Bartinoro states that being easy to anger is not good because “one’s activities will be harmed by one’s irascible personality.

Rami Shapiro contends that as one who lacks greed has a “wise mind”; one who is slow to anger has a “wise heart”. He states that, “Anger arises from fear and fear is rooted in the delusion that your separateness from others and God. The wise know that they are not the target, for there is no self or other with whom to contest.”

I just read a story about the people of Le Chambon, France, who hid thousands of Jews during the German occupation of France, at great risk to themselves. The young pastor, Andre Trocme and his assistant were arrested by the Germans. When asked if they were hiding Jews, he responded, “We do not know what a Jew is. We know only Men.” “Pastor Trocme’s wife Magda said, “The issue was: Do you think we are all brothers or not? Do you think it is unjust to turn in the Jews or not? Then let us try to help!”” The townspeople had to trust one another not to turn each other in. If only one had turned to the Nazis it would have meant death for the entire town. This is a people who embody Rami Shapiro’s idea of our connection to each other and to God.

When I was younger I was prone to being both quick to anger and quick to calm. I would let out bursts of anger and quickly calm when ever I was frustrated by something or someone. I would rage either openly or silently and as soon as I was finished I would calm down and then just pretend it all never happened. Essentially, I would swallow my anger and continue with status quo. As I have grown older I have come to realize that this state of being was not serving me well. I also realized that I have no control over the people and situations around me. I only have control over how I react / respond to them. Does this mean I never get angry anymore? Of course not, But now, when I sense feelings of anger or resentment coming up, instead of letting it out and then quickly calming and essentially swallowing it back up I go through a process. I ask myself what is it that is making me angry. Then I ask myself if it is within my control. Next I ponder the ways I can react that would most benefit me and those around me. This is not always an easy process and I do not always get it right, but it is something I really work hard to do.

At work, if someone does or says something that makes me feel angry I go through my process. Most of the time, I come to the realization that whatever they said or did was not a personal assault on me but rather a reflection of where they are coming from, whatever pain they are in. If I feel the person needs to be told that they were inappropriate, I try to approach them gently (not assault them in anger) and let them know how I felt. Sometimes I let it go because I realize that this is their nature and I am not going to change them. For example, there is one person with whom I work who when under pressure becomes a impatient and whiny. She can be very demanding and not very nice about it. I have come to realize that this is her nature, it is not a personal assault on me, but rather a statement of her personality and I needn’t take it personally. Only on one occasion when she was extremely rude did I need to let her know that she was not appropriate. Most of the time I am able to realize that anger gets me nowhere. I take action when I need to do so and respond in appropriate ways to the situation I am more likely to get what I want.

Anger in and of itself is neither bad nor good. It is what I choose to do with that anger. Do I rage and then let it go with nothing changed? Do I swallow it and try to forget it? Do I let it fester and make myself miserable? Or do I work to understand what is causing it and what I can do to alleviate it? Sometimes my anger spurs me to take action in positive ways. That is the best kind of anger. When I see something unjust, do I get angry but ignore what I can do? Or do I work to help alleviate the unjust cause.

From where I stand, our sages really hit the nail on the head in the anger department. It is a difficult standard to live up to, but one worth working towards.

All the main translations I use will, be taken from this text.

Respectfully submitted,

Beth F. Levine

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Week 5 May 4 - 10, 2015 - Chapter 4

Joel - Week 5 - Chapter 4 (goes up May 4)

Chapter 4, Mishnah 1

“Ben Zoma said, who is wise? The one who learns from everyone…. Who is mighty? The one who controls one’s urges… Who is rich? One who is happy with what one has…. Who is honored? One who honors others.”

I love that this text was written by a non-rabbi. Shimon Ben Zoma lived in the second century. He was an outstanding scholar who studied with Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chanayah. He was recognized by the Talmud as “a disciple of the sages,” but was never ordained as a rabbi. He hung out with some amazing and legendary teachers, including Shimon ben Azzai and Rabbi Akiva, so he kept some incredible company. And this teaching is yet another reminder that you definitely don’t have to be a rabbi to have deep truths to teach.

Perhaps you know some people who know alot, and feel the need to let you know both how much they know and how little you do. Rashi comments on this part of the mishnah by saying that one who is fit to be a scholar is one who isn’t too conceited to learn even from those who may be less learned.

I know that I learn from my students every time I teach, and I take great pride in that. There’s always more to learn, and leave it to a non-rabbi like ben Zoma to lead off his teaching by saying to future scholars of Judaism: “don’t be so self-centered about what you know to miss the opportunity to learn from people who you think know less than you, or people who don’t have the degrees or titles you do.” The best managers, teachers, and leaders I’ve every had the privilege to learn from were humble about what they knew.

The second teaching may be the hardest to understand, and it is certainly the hardest to do, in my opinion. The rabbis say that we have two basic impulses: yetzer harah and yetzer hatov-- literally, the evil impulse and the good impulse.

Those translations are not that helpful-- they’re misleading. We all have both of these impulses, and it’s not exactly evil and good that they represent. Yetzer hara is not a demonic force that pushes a person to do evil, but rather a drive toward pleasure or property or security, which if left unlimited, can lead to evil. When properly controlled by the yetzer hatov, the yetzer hara leads to many socially desirable results, including marriage, business, and community.

For the rabbis, adults are distinguished from children by the yetzer hatov, which controls and channels the drives that exist unchecked in the child. Thus children may seek pleasure and acquisition, but they are not able to create a sanctified relationship or exercise the responsibility to engage in business.

This is healthy tension, the rabbi argue; it’s not about destroying the yetzer harah, but about mastering it; channelling it, marshalling its power to actually make and create and drive forward in constructive ways.

In a way, I think Judaism’s meta-message is to live in moderation. Learn from everyone, master your impulses, be happy with what you have, honor others and you will be honored. Again, if Pirke Avot’s goal is to give us pithy aphorisms to live by, this is a pretty good one, don’t you think?

Just because it’s easy for ben Zoma to say, though, doesn’t mean it’s easy to do.

Beth - Week 5 - Chapter 4

Mishnah 4:15 Rabbi Yanni said, “[The reason] why the guilty prosper or the innocent suffer is not within our grasp.” Rabbi Matya ben Charash said, “Be the first to greet everyone; be a tail to the lions rather than a head to the foxes.”

According to Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary On Jewish Ethics, Rashi believed that in this world, we are dependent upon one another for reward and punishment. Since we are imperfect beings this system is flawed. However, once we are in the next life, our evil and good will be rewarded or punished by God.

I like what Rami Shapiro (Ethics of the Sages : Pirke Avot Annotated & Explained) wrote about this Mishna. He wrote, “Do not settle for easy answers or abandon the questions themselves. Asking keeps you aware of injustice and this may lead you to improve the world even as the answers themselves continue to elude you.”

I must admit, I never read the book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Harold Kushner. But I believe that the fact that we have free will speaks to the reasons why there is injustice in the world. As long as we are free to choose between what we think is good for us and what we think is good for others, it will be a struggle for many people, much of the time.

I know it has been a struggle for me most of my life. I must admit that when I was younger I didn’t ponder such questions. I didn’t concern myself with much that happened outside my realm of existence. I think / hope that is normal for many young people. I didn’t concern myself with people suffering in other communities, or with how the things I do or don’t do hurt the environment. I didn’t concern myself with the struggles of others who weren’t directly related to me.

As I’ve grown older, and matured, I have come to understand certain truths. The suffering of others not immediately in my community has an effect upon the world. It may not affect my daily living, in the moment, but it impacts the way the world works. If we turn a blind eye to the suffering of others, we ultimately will all suffer in the end. Likewise, if we ignore the impact of our actions on the environment, it will cause world-wide damage.

I know that in Judaism, action is upheld over belief. So what I believe only matters if I take action. It is not enough to just believe that racism is a still a problem in our society / world . I need to point it out when I see it among my friends and co-workers. It is not enough to know that the climate change is human caused. I need to find ways to decrease my contributions to this imbalance. It is not enough to believe that all people who love each other should have the right to marry and reap all the same benefits, no matter their gender. I need to speak up and vote for those who will afford all people equal rights. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

I am only one person and I must admit I do not always know what to do. But I do the little bits I can. I know I can always do more. I know that if everyone did a little bit to help, the world would be much better off.

Texts used to help write this blog:

All the main translations I use will, be taken from this text.

Respectfully submitted,

Beth F. Levine

Week 4 - April 27 - May 3, 2015 - Chapter 3

Joel - Week 4 - Chapter 3

Mishnah 3:15 [Rabbi Akiva would say] All is foreseen, yet [free] choice is given.

What a paradox this is! If God has foreseen everything, do we really have free will to make our own decisions? Is everything pre-destined or not? Do Jews believe in predestination? And if there is no free will, then why do we need to repent on Yom Kippur, after all, we’re not responsible for our actions!

The rabbis suggest that since God is perfect, such a paradox can work effectively in this world; that God can know the big picture, but since we don’t, we live as if we are are making choices, because we don’t know that big picture.

Rabbi David Nelson said it this way. Imagine that the universe is like a huge tapestry. Have you ever looked at the back of a beautiful tapestry? All you can see is knots-- it looks like a mess. Sometimes, if you examine the back of the tapestry carefully, there are places where you get a hint of the pattern on the front.

So it is with us, Rabbi Nelson argues. Our lives can feel random, messy, without order. And, on other days, everything seems to make sense-- it’s as if we can comprehend that there is a divine plan-- and that we might even be able to glimpse it! And then, just as suddenly, we’re in the dark again, and nothing seems to make sense.

I admit, I struggle with these ideas.

I believe that that God gave us both free choice and a Torah that tells us what God expects us to do. I believe that we are free to make good and bad choices, and that God wants us (but doesn’t force us) to choose life and blessing rather than death and curse. I don’t believe in a God who has already worked everything out; I don’t believe in a God who determines which evil people get the thrive and which good people suffer, or vice versa.

At the same time, I want to believe that there is a grand plan on a macro level. I believe that the universe didn’t just fall together, like my favorite singer songwriter David Wilcox says, “like a big mistake.” I believe there’s a divine order, but that we are free to make decisions that alternately help bring us and our world closer to that divine order or take us further from it.

So perhaps I agree with Rabbi Akiva in the end. How about you?

Beth - Week 4 - Chapter 3

Mishnah 3.9 Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa often said, “One whose fear of sin precedes one’s wisdom, one’s wisdom will last. One whose wisdom precedes one’s fear of sin, one’s wisdom will not last.” He [also] would say, “One whose deeds exceed one’s wisdom, one’s wisdom will last. One whose wisdom exceeds one’s deeds, one’s wisdom will not last.”

Rabbi Rami Shapiro alternately translates this same Mishnah as:

Mishnah, 3.11 - 3.12“If your concern for others exceeds your desire for wisdom, your wisdom will endure. If your desire for wisdom exceeds your concern for others, your wisdom will not endure. If your kindness exceeds your wisdom, your wisdom will endure. If your wisdom exceeds your kindness, your wisdom will not endure.

According to Kravitz & Olitszky, “Wisdom is based on a response to the relationship of the individual with God,” (pg. 42). The Talmud uses a metaphor to help us understand this position: A person who is a Torah scholar but does not “revere God is like the gatekeeper who has been given the keys to the inner door but not the outer ones.” How can that person enter?” (B Talmud, Shabbat 31a-b) (Olitzky and Kravitz p. 42).

Rabbi Shapiro states that according to this Mishnah, “justice and compassion together must both exceed the desire for wisdom.”

From this Mishnah (whichever translation you use) we can see that wisdom without concern and kindness (or fear of sin and [good] deeds) is not held in high regard. A learned person who does nothing good with his or her knowledge, that scholarship will not last.

Again, as a lifelong learner, I have had to learn to balance my thirst for knowledge with my deeds and actions in the world. Do I use my knowledge for good or evil? Do I do the right thing in the midst of those doing the wrong thing? Do I embrace compassion and engage others with graciousness? This is something I struggle with all the time. Not that I am an evil person, but that I make sure my actions are true and just, not self-aggrandizing, or selfish, or limited to my needs alone.

The lessons I have learned over the years is that intellectual superiority and the pursuit of worldly goods is not in and of itself a bad thing, but must be tempered with compassion, understanding, empathy and patience.

Sometimes I get caught up in the heat of the moment. I want to prove I am right about something at the expense of someone else’s feelings. At times like this I must try to pull myself back and remember it is not always necessary for me to “win” the intellectual argument. I can listen to the other person’s side and try to understand his or her perspective. That doesn’t mean I never fight for what I believe. I just try to make sure I am fighting the right fight for the right reasons. And I have learned that it is not my job (nor within my ability) to control the actions or beliefs of others. Again, it comes down to setting the good / right example by my actions. Only when I do this am I using my wisdom correctly and engaging with others in a compassionate and just manner.

Respectfully submitted,

Beth F. Levine

Monday, April 20, 2015

Week 3 - April 20 - 26, 2015 - Chapter 2

Joel - Week 3: Chapter 2 - Goes up April 20

Mishnah 2:15-16

Rabbi Tarfon used to say, “The day is short; there is much work [to be done]; the workers are lazy, the wages are great, and the Master of the House is pressing.” He would [also] say, “It is not your duty to complete the work, yet you are not free to avoid it.”

Jeff Klepper and Danny Friedlander wrote a beautiful melody for these texts-- Lo Alecha is the name of the song. Having learned my first Pirke Avot as I did from songs at camp, this is one of the earliest texts I learned.

The text applies in so many ways in our lives. On a personal level, we often feel that our days are too short, and that the work we have to do (whatever that is) is great. Sometimes we feel lazy even when the wages we stand to earn are great, and who among us doesn’t feel we have masters to be accountable to? This kind of understanding can play out in our Jewish lives; we are so busy in other aspects of our day to day that there’s often little or nothing left of our time or energy for the life of the spirit, for the study of Torah, for the sacred work of acts of loving-kindness.

On a societal level, too, we have so much work to do. The amount of world-repair there is to do can feel overwhelming, never-ending. And despite the rewards that come from making the world more whole, we can feel similarly overwhelmed by the obligations we have as Jews to do that repair work; that sense of overwhelm can incline us to laziness-- since we can feel overwhelmed personally and/or societally, we might tend to just give in or give up. Maimonides picks up this theme when we takes the shortness of the day to indicate how few are the years of our lives, especially in light of how much knowledge there is for us to gain.

Rashi brings a different spiritual interpretation to the first part of this teaching: he suggests that the shortness of the day refers to this life-- that we have so few days while we live, but that the wages for serving God in this life will be paid in the world to come.

Even further than Rashi’s idea, the teachers of Jewish tradition look at the wages referred to here and suggest that the study of Torah yields a wage of joy and happiness, and that the extension of this idea is that studying Torah can earn us a place in the world to come.

The Master of the House is, in the rabbinic mind, God, of course. Do you feel commanded by God? Do you feel pressed by the Divine to act in the world in a certain way? In what ways could living as if you did believe that affect the choices you make in your life and the way you order your priorities?

There is a kind of release at the end; Rabbi Tarfon reminds us that we don’t have to finish the grand work we are called to do. It is from this text, though, that I first saw in Judaism an ethic which says, “Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” We have to begin, to take a first step, in our Jewish lives. Feel like you know nothing of the stories of the Torah? Start from the beginning of the Torah. Feel like you can’t read Hebrew? Take a class from you synagogue. Feel like you know a lot? Enroll in the Melton mini-school and I guarantee you’ll learn more. Can’t come to services every week but are feeling spiritually hungry? Come to BHSS one Friday night or Saturday morning a month. Can’t come to shul but feel like you want to honor Shabbat and make it holy? Light Shabbat candles before or after the Friday night baseball or soccer game. Have a vision of a justice project you want to work on? Bring together some friends and get started.

Rabbi Tarfon anticipated Nike’s ad campaign by a couple of thousand years.

In short, Rabbi Tarfon says: Just do it.

Beth - Week 3: Chapter 2

Mishnah 2.2 Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi, said, “It is good to join the study of Torah to some kind of work for the effort required by both robs sin of its power. Torah study without work will end up being useless and will cause sin. Let all who work with the congregation do so for the sake of Heaven; the merit of their ancestors will sustain them and as a result, their righteousness will remain forever.” As for you (God Says), “I will credit you with a great reward, as if you had accomplished it all.”

Some of our great sages were not only scholars, but also had a profession, other than the study of Torah. Probably the most famous of those sages who had a profession other than scholarship is, Maimonides. He was not only a great Jewish Scholar and philosopher, but also a physician and an astronomer. Like Maimonides, Nachmanides was also a physician and a scholar. Being a Torah scholar and having a profession are not and should not be (according to this passage) mutually exclusive.

The phrase “robs sin of its power” literally means “makes sin forgotten” as stated in Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary on Jewish Ethics (pg. 20). According to Rashi, a person engaged in business and the study of Torah will have “no desire to steal the money of others. Rashi praises the work ethic and supports the pursuit of an occupation to help sustain the world,” (pg. 20).

Bartinoro felt that it is important for individuals to “work with the congregation to move others to give charity …,” (Kravitz & Olitsky; pg. 20). Rabbi Rami Shapiro (Ethics of the Sages : Pirke Avot Annotated & Explained), states that working for the community’s benefit puts the strength of the community behind you, enhancing your work effort and thus expanding the results. While the results will be shared by all you will still get the credit.

To me, this Mishnah embodies two very important concepts. First is the idea of balancing scholarship (Torah study) with work As I’ve stated before, I consider myself a lifelong learner. I balance my desire to learn and educate myself with my professional life in order to maximize my contributions to society. Both things (study / learning and work) enable me to make different types of contributions to society.

Financially, my work enables me to take care of myself, pay my taxes (which contribute to the society at large), take part in and help the economy grow, and when I can give, give charity to those in need. My work (an administrative assistant in a law firm) also enables me to be of service to others. My job is to help make the jobs of others run more smoothly. It also puts me in contact with people who are often in a very vulnerable place in their lives. I am able to be compassionate and keep in mind that they may need some extra special care and consideration.

My scholarly pursuits enable me to be well rounded and knowledgeable. Thus helping me form opinions and make decisions. Torah study, specifically, enables me to understand the history of my people. It also informs my opinion formation and decision making. By knowing and understanding Jewish law and history I can make decisions about how to live and act in today’s world. For example, I did not grow up in a very religiously observant family, meaning we did not follow many / most of the halachically proscribed rules. We did not keep kosher, refrain from every day or worldly pursuits on the Sabbath, etc. As an adult I experimented with both being kosher and observing Shabbat in a closer accordance with halacha than I had done as I was growing up. I was fully kosher at home and “Kosher style” outside the home. I was never rude to a host who either didn’t know or understand the rules of kashrut but when out of the house I tried to always observe the rule of not mixing meat and dairy. I also refused to do any work on the Sabbath, went to synagogue every Friday and on Saturday mornings went to Torah study and the Sabbath morning service. I was in the choir, on committees, etc. in order to support my temple life. After doing this for about 10 years, I then met my partner, who is not kosher and had no desire to be. I have struggled for a long time with not being kosher. But I am coming to understand that for me the whole idea of kashrut is more about ethics than about anything else. So I am working toward becoming a more ethical eater / consumer. I am finding ways to incorporate more foods that are raised in an ethical manner and to buy products that are made by companies that are more ethical. At the same time I need to balance my financial needs and limitations while pursuing more ethical consumerism. This is not always easy. For me it is a journey of small steps and occasional steps backward.

As for Shabbat worship, it does not need to be an all or nothing thing. I live in a modern world that sometimes requires me to pay attention to other things. I do the best I can to go to as many services as I can and be involved in Torah study. I do not do any work on Shabbat that is for my “profession” and I try not to do arduous chores that take me out of the restfulness of Shabbat. I try to find time to relax and breath in all the goodness of life instead of rushing around trying to accomplish things. This is my Shabbat today.

The second important message of this Mishnah is the idea of working to serve the community / congregation. Another Mishnah from this Pirke Avot comes to mind: Rabbi Tarfon said “You are not required to complete the work, but neither are you allowed to abstain from it,” (Gates of Prayer pg. 20). So, I am not required to fix the world by myself, but I am not allowed to sit idly by and watch others (or no one) do it. I feel that this part of the Mishnah refers to the importance of those things I do to help strengthen not only our congregation but the community at large. Attending services on a regular basis, participating in Torah study, writing this blog all help our BHSS community become just a little bit stronger. I know I will eventually join a committee and work on other projects as needed that will help our congregation. As for working to strengthen the greater community in which we live, I try hard to set a good, ethical example for those around me. I contribute financially to charities when able to do so. Throughout my adult life I have contributed time and effort to committees and endeavors that help those in need or help the society at large. I always feel I can do more and work to find ways to do that. While I don’t feel the need for any special recognition for doing things, it is nice to feel that somewhere, in some way my efforts are recognized. I am still grappling with whether that recognition comes from some cosmic force of Karma or from a supreme being that “recognizes’ my efforts in some way. But that is a topic for another blog!

Texts used to help write this blog:

All the main translations I use will, be taken from this text.

Respectfully submitted,

Beth F. Levine

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Week 2 - April 13 - April 19, 2015 - Chapter 1

Joel Week 2: Chapter 1

Mishnah 1: At Sinai Moses received the Torah and handed it over to Joshua who handed it over to the elders who handed it over to the prophets who in turn handed it over to the men of the Great Assembly. The latter said three things: be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah.

Yikes! I could spend six weeks unpacking just this text, and never exhaust it!

Where to begin? Well, Sinai is a good place. After all, it is there, in the shadow of the mountain, only 7 weeks removed from miraculously departing 400 years of slavery, only days from crossing the Reed Sea, it is there that we truly become a covenanted people. Before that, Abraham and Sarah and their descendants had been individually promised a special relationship with God. At Sinai, we stood as a nation-- as if under the wedding canopy, betrothing ourselves to the Holy One of blessing.

And if Moses is the original receiver of Torah, and we know that Moses won’t live forever, then text has to come down to us somehow. And if we can show that that chain of transmission is unbroken, then our authority to interpret the text can be rooted deep into the Jewish soil—deep into the Jewish soul. And if we lose that chain, we will be fractured, indeed. This text is why, when I stand in front of our bnei mitzvah and hand them the Torah, I say, and really mean, “Today we are pleased to form a new link on the chain of our sacred tradition.” It is a chain that goes all the way back to the days of Mount Sinai.

So let’s look more closely at that chain to begin. Joshua you probably know; he is the one to whom Moses passes the mantle of leadership when Moses dies just before the Israelites enter the promised land.

According to many major commentators (Rashi, Maimonades, Bartinoro, and Heller), “the elders” to which this text refers are the leaders of the people during Joshua’s time and beyond.

The prophets, you’ve probably also heard of—you know—Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the rest. “The Men of the Great Assembly” may have been the predecessors of the rabbis themselves, although we’re not quite sure exactly to whom this refers.

But what’s key about mentioning the prophets and the others who will inherit this text is the implication that it wasn’t just the Written Torah, the actual words in the scroll, which were received by Moses and passed down. The audacious assertion of the author of this Mishnah is that the Oral Law, all the interpretations of the laws, were given to Moses, too.

This is a critical turn on which the rabbis hang their authoritative hat. Because what the rabbis appear to be doing time and time again is expanding and, dare I say, even contradicting the Written Law with their Oral traditions. But if we say that it’s all been there from the beginning—the Written Law and all of it’s Oral explanations, then what the rabbis are doing is not so much what could be deemed heretically reinterpreting the law, but simply uncovering what was there all along.

It is here where, in a sense, Orthodox and non-Orthodox Judaism part ways in a critical sense. Orthodox Jews believe, as this Mishnah suggests, that the Oral law—the interpretations of the rabbis—are not new at all—they have been there since Mount Sinai and are therefore as sacred, as eternal, as the Written Torah itself. Non-Orthodox Jews generally consider the Oral law to be important in understanding how Jews in each generation understood the Torah itself. But classically, non-Orthodox Jews don’t put those interpretations on equal par with the words in the scroll the way Orthodox Jews do.

Stay with me. If we Reform Jews, for example, believe that the explanations of the rabbis are a response to the modernity of their times, then we should study them for insights into their times and insights into the ways they might bring meaning to us. Having studied the interpretations of those who have come before us, we can then feel free to embrace their understandings as true today just as they were then. And, at times, we can feel free to disagree and argue and debate their understanding. We can feel encouraged to say, “The rabbis 2000 years ago were interpreting the Written Torah in their context. We can interpret them for our context.”

We are still inheritors of that unbroken chain. It’s a big responsibility, and it can’t be left to one or two people to do it.

And what does the first maxim of Pirke Avot call us to do?

First, they want us to deliberate on words of Torah in order to make judgments about how to live as Jews in the modern world. Sounds like what the rabbis themselves were up to.

Second, they who were living in exile knew that we needed more and more and more students of Torah. The priestly class who inherited authority by dint of birth when the Temple stood was no more in power. Now, we needed great teachers and engaged students who would pass it on.

And lastly, the used the metaphor of fence to describe the work they were doing to ensure that people would uphold the core laws of the Torah itself. For example, the Torah says, “don’t cook a calf in its mother’s milk.” A fence around that law meant that the rabbis exhorted us never to mix any meat with any milk, regardless of its provenance. These fences are the way that Jewish law grew and expanded and, I really believe reformed in every generation. Reform Judaism, in this way, didn’t begin in Germany in the early 1800s. It began with these rabbis, and probably earlier.

Honor the origins of our text, the rabbis say here. You have a sacred responsibility to keep the chain. And you have to continue to make it work as the world grows more complex and as new threats arise to our core values.

A heady way to begin.

Beth Week 2: Chapter 1

Mishnah 1:2 Shimon the Righteous was one of the last of the Great Assembly. His motto was: “The world stands on three things - the Torah, the [temple] service, and acts of loving Kindness.”

Mishnah 1:18 Rabbi Shimon the son of Gamliel, said, “The world stands on three things: on truth, on judgment, and on peace; as it is stated (in scripture): “Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.” (Zech. 8.16)

Okay, hum or sing along with me:

Al shlosha devarim, al shlosha devarim, al shlosha, shlosha devarim ha olam ha olam …

So which is it: … omed al hatorah …. or … kayam al ha emet …?

In Ethics of our Sages, Rabbi Rami Shapiro translates 1:2 as, “... The world rests on three things: on wisdom, on surrender, on compassion.” He further states that the literal translation of those three things is “Torah, worship and loving-kindness. True Torah is wisdom: knowing that One God manifests as one world, one humanity, and one moral code - justice and compassion for all. True worship is surrender to God’s will, that is, reality as it manifests in and as you at this and every moment. … True loving-kindness is compassion to toward the self and other.” Rabbi Shapiro asserts that when you “awaken to wisdom and know reality” your “narrow mind” will be transformed to a “spacious mind” and you will “experience the non-duality that is God. Thus enabling you to feel great compassion for yourself and others “in the infinite expanse of God.”

Rashi and Maimonides differed in their interpretations of “the world Stands.” Rashi believed that the world would not have come into being without these three things. Maimonides believed that, proper human existence could not be maintained,” without these three things. (Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary On Jewish Ethics Edited and Translated by Leonard Kravitz and Kerry M. Olitzky)

According to Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary On Jewish Ethics Edited and Translated by Leonard Kravitz and Kery M. Olitzky, a person’s behavior is a result of one’s commitment to God. When a person performs acts of loving-kindness it brings that person closer to God.

Rabbi Shapiro asserts that, “A world without justice is a world run by fear. Fear gives rise to anger, anger to violence and violence to even greater fear and injustice. A world without truth is a world driven by lies. Lies give rise to confusion, confusion to conflict, conflict to hatred and hatred to even more lies. A world without peace is a world driven by division. Division gives rise to scarcity, scarcity to hoarding and hoarding to genocide.”

So, again, what exactly does the “world stand” upon. I have heard it stated (sorry I cannot remember where) that the Torah, worship and acts of kindness (Mishna 1:2) are purposes for which God created the world. While, justice peace and truth (Mishna 2:18) are the things that keep the world from collapsing.

I posit here that these six things are fundamentally connected. Torah, worship, loving-kindness, truth, judgment and peace all depend upon one another to some extent. Torah sets forth the rules and examples (positive and negative), i.e. the moral compass. Without this moral compass we would be devoid of all the other things (loving-kindness, truth, judgment & peace). I know that some would say Torah is not necessary to have a moral compass, but I feel that it helps lay the groundwork toward the development of the moral compass.

Worship, defined here as the surrender to what is (some may call it God’s will), is necessary in order to bring about change. Because only when you acknowledge and accept things the way they are can you begin to change them. If you live in a fantasy world, not accepting of reality, you never face the world as it is and thus can not change it.

Loving-kindness is perhaps one manifestation of truth, judgment and peace. In a world without truth, justice (judgment), and peace it would be difficult to find much compassion / loving-kindness. Surrendering to the reality that is creates the environment where truth, justice and peace can be created.

If we look at our world today, it is rife with examples of what happens when we live with fear, lies and division, a result of not surrendering to what is. One example would be the fight for gay marriage in the USA. What creates this fight? Fear, lies and division. People fear what they do not understand (whether by ignorance or the decision to remain closed-minded in the face of overwhelming evidence). They create lies to support their fears and beliefs. Compassion and loving-kindness are forgotten. Division is created and hatred, violence, etc. ensue.

Another example would be the Israeli / Palestinian problems. I know this is an oversimplification, however I see the problem as one that illustrates fear, lies and division. People fear what they don’t understand (or don’t want to understand), the other. Everyone creates their own truth - which by definition is thus a lie. People lose their compassion (loving-kindness) for each other. Once again, division is created and hatred, violence, etc. ensue.

No matter what societal ill we look it, from racism, gender inequality, poverty, war, even the fight over global climate change, can each be reduced down to a lack of several of all of these things: Torah, worship, loving-kindness, truth, judgment / justice, and peace.

Texts used to help write this blog:

All the main translations I use will, be taken from this text.

Respectfully Submitted

Beth F. Levine