Shmini 5774

Parashat Shmini

Over the years I have discovered that of all the mitzvot (commandments) and minhagim (customs) those associated with the laws of kashrut probably pose the greatest challenge to meaningful Jewish observance.  So many Jews were taught in their youth that the basis of our dietary laws were to be found in Biblical notions of hygiene and cleanliness and others were taught that they had to keep kosher to placate traditional parents and grandparents that the idea that there could be a spiritually satisfying message behind the prohibitions against eating certain kinds of creatures or mixing meat with dairy seemed ludicrous.

But as Conservative Jews we are known for promoting Jewish practice that while progressive is rooted in traditional but meaningful constructs.  I found the research of the late Professor Jacob Milgrom of Berkley (who once served as an assistant rabbi at Anshe Emet) helpful in this matter.  Professor Milgrom noticed that the only creatures which this week’s parasha allows us to eat are those creatures whose survival was not at the expense of other living creatures.  In other words the Biblical zoologist may have believed we are what we eat and assumed a connection exists between our character and what we consume.

Keeping in mind that the Biblical ideal was that human beings would be vegans but that this ideal was compromised after the flood story that resulted from humanity’s inability to restrain its blood lust, the dietary laws imply that if we eat predatory animals and consume blood we could further stoke the fires of that blood lust.  If we give up our vegan diet but limit our animal consumption to herbivores and domesticated creatures then perhaps we can keep our extreme behavior in check and achieve a greater respect for the sanctity of al living things.

It is a fascinating effort on the part of the Torah to concretize the value of life in our every day lives.

As Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson writes, “For most animals, and for many people, eating is simply a response to a biological need, or at best an aesthetic pleasure….Kashrut offers an opportunity to harness the act of eating to contribute to who we are and what are our values.  Kashrut summons us to elevate eating from an animal response to an encounter with holiness, transforming our kitchens and our dining room tables into sacred altars, our meals into reminders of our deepest values as Jews.”

It is true that by keeping kosher we also contribute to the bonding of the community and strengthening of Jewish identity and can cultivate a greater respect for the needs of all living creatures, but for me these are but the valuable by-products of a system built around the central notion that the gift of life is the most sacred and central of all our values.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Matt Futterman
Senior Educator

Devarim 5773

Devarim 5773

This week’s parasha, Devarim, is read every year on the Shabbat before the fast of Tisha B’Av and is known as Shabbat Hazon (the Sabbath of the Vision) – a name taken from the vision of Isaiah which constitutes the Haftarah.  Inasmuch as this is portion is about history it is appropriate for this saddest period of the Jewish year.. But history is not a series of random events; history has a purpose. The prayer book teaches, “because of our sins were we thrown off our land.” The reading of this portion becomes a time of soul searching over past sins and future redemption.

Unlike the personal and individual sins which we contemplate on the only other full day fast of the Hebrew calendar, Yom Kippur, on Trisha B’Av, we contemplate the sins of our people as we learn in the parasha:

 “Then you retreated and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice and He did not hearken to you” (Deuteronomy 1:45)

Tradition teaches that both the first and the second Temple in Jerusalem were destroyed on the ninth of Av. It was a day of destruction the like of which the Jewish people had never known. And that is why on Monday evening many will gather at Anshe Emet Synagogue in order to usher in the fast of Tisha B’Av – the ninth day of the month of Av. (I will not be able to join you as I will still be in Israel and will observe the fast with my family overlooking the ancient walls of Old Jerusalem.)

Because we live in an age of individualized spirituality I fear that the message of Tisha B’Av eludes so many of us. Identifying with the Jewish people and with the tragedies which we have faced and survived as a people are not as compelling for all Jews as they once might have been.  But as someone with whom the notion of Jewish peoplehood still resonates most strongly I am very touched by the following words written by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School at the American Jewish University in Lost Angeles:

“To observe Tishah b'Av in Jerusalem is to allow the past to engulf the present, to induce a willful amnesia in the conviction that the resultant memory will be more true, more incisive, and more real. To mourn the destruction of ancient Jerusalem is to deny the present its despotic hold on contemporary souls, to affirm that there is much to learn from the past -  about human living, about coping with despair and suffering, about redeeming the human  heart…

“Suffering alone cannot provide purpose to Jewish identity, but one cannot come to terms with  what that identity has meant without grappling with the ancient and resurgent presence of  anti-Semitism. On Tishah B'Av, we mourn that so many people have hated so much. We cry over the consequent suffering of innocents beyond counting.

“But this fast is not simply to record the endlessness of Jew hatred and Jew beatings. This day also marks the end of Jewish sovereignty, of the kind of security and self-confidence that can only emerge when a people controls its own destiny, lives on its own land, determines its future for itself….

“On Tishah B'Av, then, we mourn our lost independence and our weakened self-confidence.  We mourn our dependence on the whims and kindnesses of strangers.”

Many have questioned whether or not the creation of a modern Jewish state means we should cease observing the fasting and mourning rituals of Tisha B’Av.  But Rabbi Artson reminds us that there is also a spiritual side to this day.  He reminds us that in the absence of a rebuilt Temple we need to restore wholeness to our people if not our entire planet by striving to be a holy people.

As the sages teach us, “You are not required to complete the task, yet neither are you free to desist from it."

And in the words of Rabbi Artson, “It is up to us to begin.”

I wish you both Shabbat Shalom and an easy fast from the land of Israel,

Rabbi Matt Futterman

Senior Educator