Ki Tisa 5775

Shabbat, The Home, and Thankfulness

This week’s parsha, Ki Tissa, contains one of the more famous statements about Shabbat, the Kiddush that we recite during the daytime. It begins (Exodus 31:16):

The children of Israel shall observe Shabbat, performing Shabbat throughout the generations...

Rabbi Reuven Katz, in his 17th century book “Yalkut Reuveni”, quotes a passage from the mystical Zohar text, emphasizing that the word “ledorotam” is written in the shortest form possible, without the Hebrew letter “vav”. So, it could actually be read “lediratam”, meaning in their dwelling places. Rabbi Katz is emphasizing that Shabbat is not only something that is to be observed forever - but a day that centers around the home.

We are so lucky to have a community that prizes having Shabbat in the home. This Friday night (March 6th), dozens of families will celebrate Shabbat together during our “Taste of Shabbat.” They will get to live out this rabbinic notion that the calming, peaceful, song-filled, delicious Shabbat experience is enjoyable when we are invited in to each other’s homes.

At Anshe Emet, we celebrate the homey nature of Jewish life constantly. We convert our synagogue space to feel like our homes once a month, when we gather for Shabbat is Awesome. People play board games, sports, activities, and spend time together, making the synagogue feel like an extension of our homes.

And so this shabbat, and every shabbat, I wish that you and your family will experience Shabbat ledorotam, for many generations, and lediratam, in all of the places in which we reside.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Russo

Ki Tisa 5774

Light of my Life

In the summer of 1992, the Summer Olympic Games were celebrated in Barcelona, Spain, for the first year without boycotts since 1972. In an exciting opening ceremony, Paralympics’ archer Antonio Rebollo lit the Olympic flame cauldron by shooting a flaming arrow into it. This ceremony was moving both in who lit the flame and considering that this ceremony, which we observed last week, has its origins in ancient Greece, where they also had a flame ignited throughout the ancient Olympiad. Yet the idea of a radiating light isn't exclusively Green; it exists in many ancient and modern societies, and is incredibly prevalent in the Torah.

At the conclusion of this week’s parasha, Ki Tisa, we read a peculiar narrative. Moses descends from Sinai - this time not throwing a fastball aimed at the Golden Calf – and as he brings down the unbroken, solid tablets, his face is קָרַן עוֹר, it is radiating light! The Torah continues to describe how Moses would meet with God, that God would imbue Moses with this קָרַן עוֹר, this radiating quality, and then Moses would communicate God’s will to the Israelites, transmitting both the literal words of God’s message along with the shining radiance of God’s presence.

And after Moses completed transmitting God’s word, when Moses finished acting as an intermediary, what would he do? We could imagine Moses walking around the camp on a sleepless night, when all of a sudden he wakes up the entire neighborhood from his shining face! No, the Torah relates that when Moses finished communicating God’s will, he placed a veil on his face. So it seems like Moses had some type of schedule: he began by meeting with God, then relayed God’s message and God’s light to the Israelites, and then he placed a veil over his face until his next meeting with God.

A nineteenth century Polish rabbi, the Netziv, comments: והיה שמחה לנפש, וטוב לעינים לראות את פניו  - it was joyful to the soul, and good for one’s eyes, to see Moses’ radiating face^[1]. The Netziv mentions the joy, the warmth, the uplifting nature of Moses’ radiance.

The most prolific example of our amazement with shining light is our ritual use of candles. We learn in the Shulchan Aruch, a sixteenth century code of Jewish law, that the reason that we light Shabbat candles is in order to have shalom bayit, or peace in the home. Shabbat candles are meant to brighten our dining rooms, to brighten our homes, to brighten our lives. In this very tangible way, we accept God’s commandment of Shabbat, shape God’s word in the practice of lighting candles, and then we witness the radiant light of the candles, as if they are the lights of Moses’ face that reflect back on us, and inspire us to enter Shabbat in a peaceful manner.

It is my hope and prayer that as we do anything from the mundane like watching the Olympics, or the sacred like observing Shabbat, that we will be able to shine brightly, to ourselves and others, spreading joy and goodness.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi David Russo

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[1]    העמק דבר, שמות ל"ד:ל"ה דיבור המתחיל "כי קרן עור פני משה"

Ki Tisa 5773

Ki Tisa 

Moses is known by many names. He is a leader. He is a lawgiver. He is the intercessor for the Jewish people with G-d. But one title that we rarely offer to Moishe is ADAM hamitpalal, “a man of prayer.”

Moses prays more often than any other figure in the Torah. Pharaoh asks him to pray to remove the plagues. Moses prays to G-d in order for the sea to split. In this week’s portion we see the power of Moses’ prayer.

The Jewish people have sinned through the golden calf. They’ve built an idol at the very foot of Mt. Sinai. At the very time when G-d has descended and G-d is filling out the contract of marriage, if you will, to complete the covenant with the Jewish people. G-d is offering the torah and the people have turned to idol worship.

Moishe comes down from the mountain. He stops the apostasy, but when he goes back up the mountain, he learns that G-d desires to destroy the Jewish people and make a new nation from him.

Here again, we see Moishe as Adam hamitpalel: the man of prayer. He offers an exquisite prayer to G-d where he argues with G-d for the sake of the Jewish people. He argues that G-d will be breaking G-d’s own covenant with Abraham. He argues that G-d will be seen by the nations of the world as a G-d who doesn’t keep G-d’s promises.

But in the end, Moishe asks to see the kavode of G-d. G-d has forgiven the Jewish people through the prayer of Moses, but Moses wants the most intimate of prayers and there when he is mikrat ha’tsur: in the crag of the rock, Moishe sees the kavode of G-d and see’s the holiness of the Lord.

What can we learn from this? In an age when prayer has become much more of a communal experience with communal singing, with dancing, with drumming - all of which speak to a new avenue for Jewish prayer and new desires; all valuable in and of themselves.

We need to remind ourselves that true prayer can also be the prayer that we have in moments of solitude.  In the quiet places, when we can look into the deepest regions of our heart and find the intimacy with G-d.

Perhaps that’s why this entire story is told in a portion that begins with the mitzvah of the half shekel, the amount of money that every Israelite was to give to the building of the tabernacle, a place where G-d and Israel would meet. Our rabbis ask why a half shekel and not a whole shekel? And there answer is that one cannot be complete unless they are joined with another person. We’re only whole when we’re in a relationship, so to with G-d.

While we can have remarkably powerful spiritual experiences within a community; we also would do well to each of us learn from the ultimate Adam Himitpalal: man of prayer, Moishe, who taught us the value of praying in the crag of the rock; to become one with G-d and to see the  kavode, the great glory of the holy one.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Michael Siegel