Devarim 5774

This week, we bring you reflections on the current situation in Israel from our dear friend Rabbi Chaya Rowen Baker of Jerusalem’s Ramot Zion congregation. At the end, we have included some practical things each of us can do to support Israel and Israelis in these challenging times.

To all our dear friends and supporters overseas,

At the beginning of the fighting there were several sirens in Jerusalem. Thankfully our preschool classroom is itself a bomb shelter and therefore the kids could stay protected and relatively unalarmed. Last night Hamas shot another rocket at Jerusalem, which luckily was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. Our families and friends elsewhere in the country - all the way from the Gaza border to Tel Aviv and beyond - are less fortunate: they must run to find shelter several times a day and hear the rockets exploding overhead either intercepted by Iron Dome or sometimes - regrettably - on the ground, on homes, schools, businesses and vehicles. People leave home as little as possible because you never know when you will be under attack. Even during a ceasefire... You can imagine what that does to the economy and to the general morale. Not to mention the elderly, the sick and the disabled, who cannot easily run to shelter and who are often alone and helpless... It’s scary and sad and we are praying for it all to be over.

We at Ramot Zion have been supporting our members and our brothers and sisters in the south, checking in on the community elderly, offering home hospitality to families from the south, sending foodstuff and supplies to families who spend more time in bomb shelters than out of them, and home-cooked meals to our soldiers. We are in the midst of organizing – in collaboration with the municipality – a farmers’ market for merchants from the south to sell their merchandise in Jerusalem (of course in a facility with a bomb shelter) since they have had virtually no business for over three weeks.

Some thirty soldiers from Ramot Zion were drafted on the emergency draft to active reserve duty: Sons, daughters and siblings of congregants (including my own sister...), husbands and fathers. We are all very tense and worried for our loved ones. However we realize that this is necessary for the survival of Israel; that if it weren’t for our soldiers there would be scores of terrorists roaming Israel, having sneaked in through the many tunnels they have dug right into our border towns and kibbutzim, murdering or kidnapping the residents of those places and others, and there would probably be hundreds more rockets shot at our cities. So we pray for the safety of our soldiers and keep busy offering help and support to their families: periodical phone calls, cards, home-cooked meals, and help with the kids.

It is all so terrible, since on top of all this difficulty the human tragedy in Gaza is overwhelming. Our hearts ache for the Gazan civilians who are suffering such terrible casualties. We wish the international community would exert pressure not only on Israel but also on Hamas for using them as human shields, forcing them to stay in their homes that house terrorist activity when they would rather evacuate, and executing those who dare to protest.

It is so distressing to see the way this war is portrayed in the world, the anti-Jewish (not anti-Israeli) demonstrations across the world, the lies and false footage dispensed by Hamas, and the double standard and one-sidedness of the media.

On the social front we are dealing with groups within us lashing out at one another. This war, coupled with the intensity of new social media, is bringing to light a great deal of animosity among Israelis of different political convictions and we at Ramot Zion see the amelioration of that animosity as one of our main missions at this time. Our Tisha B’av commemoration will be a joint study session with Orthodox synagogues in French Hill – the first ever and the result of delicate, intensive efforts – in the spirit of finding common ground and nurturing fraternity.

I would like to end with a prayer for peace – among Jews, peace in our entire region, and peace among the nations. I hope you will dedicate time in your services for prayer for the safety of our soldiers and civilians and for an end to this violence and peace for all.

With warm regards,
Rabbi Chaya Rowen Baker

Many of us ask what we can do, here in Chicago, to support our brothers and sisters in Israel. At this week’s Israeli Solidarity Rally, JUF’s president Steven B. Nasatir made several practical suggestions, including:

1. Educate yourself and others about the facts of what is happening in Israel. Good resources include Ha’aretz (www.haaretz.com), The Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com), and the Times of Israel (www.timesofisrael.com).
2. Reach out via email or phone to anyone we know in Israel to demonstrate our support. 
3. Purchase products made in Israel to support Israel’s economy and counteract the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
4. Contribute to the JUF Israel Emergency Fund, which directly funds emergency medical services, bomb shelters and other public safety measures, and support for families affected by the rockets and the mobilization of army reserves: https://donate.juf.org/IsraelEmergency.

May we soon see a secure peace for Israel and all its neighboring people.

Sh'lach 5773

In this week’s parsha, Sh'lach Lecha, we read the story of the 12 spies. After the devastating report of 10 of the spies, Calev ben Yefuneh stands up in front of the entire people (Numbers 13:30):

“And Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”

Calev creates a dream, a goal for the Israelite nation; one that the other spies believe is simply unattainable. The other spies have no hope, no desire to enter the Land that they had thought about for so long; they have no dream for the future of their people.

We see another example of problematic visioning later in the parshah. After the people see that those who spoke badly about attempting to enter the Land of  Canaan die, some of them seek to remedy the mistake. They wake up early in the morning, and tell Moshe that they want to enter the Land, that they want to fight the current inhabitants of the Land. But Moshe says to them, No, now is not the time. They do not listen to him, and they go and fight, and they get killed. These people have a concrete action in mind; but they do not have a clear vision for the future of the Israelites.

The great Jewish thinker Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writes in a similar vein about prayer:

“Prayer is no substitute for action. It is, rather, like a beam thrown from a flashlight before us into the darkness. It is in this light that we who grope, stumble, and climb discover where we stand, what surrounds us, and the course which we should choose.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, pg. 342)

Heschel advises us, as the parsha does, to combine dreams and actions, to determine a vision, and then follow it through with action. What are your dreams? For this summer? For the next school/fiscal year? What do you want to accomplish?

I wish all of us a summer full of big dreams, hopes, and goals, and the ability to follow it up with appropriate action.

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi David Russo

Achrei Mot-Kedoshim 5773

Achrei Mot-Kedoshim

Two weeks ago, in the course of reading “Parashat Shemini”, we were informed of the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, two of the sons of Aaron the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) and brother of Moses.  No explicit reason is given for their unlikely and unexpected deaths though traditional commentaries largely support the notion that they must have done something so awful that their family is commanded not to mourn their deaths.

Another puzzle regarding this episode is why, after the Torah details these events is there a break in the story picking up only this week with the opening words of the first of the two parshiyot which we read this Shabbat:  “Achrei Mot” (to be followed by “Kedoshim”).

Returning to “Parashat Shemini” we see that Aaron’s initial response to the news of his personal tragedy is retreat into silence “Va-yidom Aharon/ and Aaron was silent” [Leviticus 10:3].  But then he and the other priests are charged with distinguishing between the sacred and the profane and teaching all the laws which God has imparted to Moses [10:9-11].

Only when we reach the 16^th chapter of this book of the Torah does the narrative pick up in the aftermath of the deaths of the young priests.  How the family of Aaron managed to internalize all the laws taught in the interim and not mourn their losses is beyond me.  I do not have an answer.

But I have noticed a parallel in our own contemporary Jewish world for during these past two weeks Jews around the world have joined the citizens of Israel and her supporters everywhere in marking two occasions added to the modern Hebrew calendar during the last several decades.  First we commemorated Yom Ha-Shoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) on the 27^th of Nisan, and 6 days later Yom Ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror).

On these days nearly the entire population of the Jewish state comes to a halt as sirens wail reminding everyone of the great losses incurred first during the Holocaust and then in building and preserving the State of Israel.  And while some may try to understand the violence that has taken so many from us, like the family of Nadav and Avihu we have no good answers.

But notice where “Parashat Achrei Mot” takes us after picking up the narrative.  It continues with instructions for Aaron who must carry on, brings details of the original Yom Kippur rituals which force us to confront our mortality and then introduces us to the section known as the “Holiness Code” in chapter 17.

And this too parallels our modern Jewish experience.  For after Israel’s memorial day the country zooms right into celebration of Israeli Independence Day on the 5^th of Iyyar as a reminder that despite the heavy prices paid we do go on and we do not give up.  The mission of the Jewish people and therefore of the Jewish state is to bring holiness into the world.  We do that every time we study Torah and engage in fulfilling God’s mitzvot.  That is why we can never give in to hatred and violence – for we have yet to complete our mission: to be God’s holy people and live by God’s teachings.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Matt Futterman

Senior Educator