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

Vayikra 5773

What’s the Deal with Sacrifices?

I’m guessing that if I asked people in our community what they thought of korbanot, sacrifices, that most people would respond by saying either something like, “Sacrifices are ancient and do not relate to our times,” or more emphatically, “Sacrifices are a primitive form of worshiping God.”

In a class on tefillah (prayer) for the past few months, a group of us studied how the rabbis borrowed the Biblical model of sacrifices to provide the structure for the timing of our tefillot, our prayer services. (Bavli Berachot 26b) We compared the similarities and differences of prayer and sacrifices. Both have the main goal of connecting with God. Yet there are major differences – prayer can take place anywhere. Prayer requires thought and reflection. Prayer comes from the heart. Prayer has the potential to be universal, in that anyone can pray to God.

Sacrifices, on the other hand, require people to go to a central institution, to be a part of community. Sacrifices require us to give something from ourselves. While sacrifices do cost money, there are varying levels of sacrifices, so that any person who wants can offer a sacrifice. In this sense, sacrifices offer two things that prayer does not – one, that we give something of ourselves, and two, sacrifices do not require fluency in Hebrew or liturgy. Sacrifices are universal, accessible to anyone.

One of the most important rituals today that recalls sacrifice and also has a universal call to give is the Pesach seder. Interestingly, the korban pesach, the Passover offering, was the only sacrifice that was allowed and encouraged to be performed outside of the Temple precincts. Rabbi Yehiel Poupko teaches that the seder instructs us to begin by looking out for the needs of our family. The Pesach ritual starts small, but then zooms out and treat everyone in the world as if they are family. While we do not offer a korban Pesach anymore, it remains the paradigm for envisioning a ritual when we first focus on our nuclear families, and then broaden our scope by viewing every person as a part of our global family.

As we all cram and plan for Pesach, we at Anshe Emet are partnering with Or Tzedek, Moishe House, and Bright Star Church, to celebrate a Hunger Seder. On Sunday, March 17th, we are going to Bright Star to relive parts of the Seder and talk about major issues of hunger today. This ritual will not feel arcane and primitive. Rather, we hope you will join us as we take the model of the korban Pesach, relive it today in a seder that is open and accessible to everyone, and look out for our global family, exploring the particular issue of hunger. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi David Russo