Random Musing Before Shabbat–Shoftim 5774–Signifying Nothing

מַה נָּאווּ עַל הֶהָרִים רַגְלֵי מְבַשֵּׂר מַשְׁמִיעַ שָׁלוֹם מְבַשֵּׂר טוֹב מַשְׁמִיעַ יְשׁוּעָה אֹמֵר לְצִיּוֹן מָלַךְ אֱלֹהָיִךְ

How welcome upon the mountains are the footsteps of the herald, announcing happiness, heralding good fortune, announcing victory,telling Zion, "Your God is King!"

The herald is surely welcome. We all want to hear this news. Sadly, the herald has not arrived for many. For some, the herald may have arrived, the reality remains unchanged.

They are waiting for either the herald or the reality of the herald’s pronouncements in Ferguson, MO; in Syria, in the Ukraine, in Iraq, in the Central African Republic, in Liberia, in southern Sudan, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Nigeria. But wait, there’s more….

I’m hard-pressed to think of any corner of the world where there isn’t some kind of conflict, or problem, plague, famine, natural or human-made disaster.

These words, which are meant to give hope, seem to be failing me. They only seem to remind me how far away we are from this prophetic vision

“How can that be?” I can hear those who know me well asking. I am most often the Pollyanna, the cockeyed optimist, the Mary Sunshine (of both the Rick Besoyan parody musical, and the character in the musical Chicago.) Perhaps it is an after-effect of the recent Israeli-Hamas conflict.

I grew up in the era when the nuclear doomsday clock seemed to mater more to people. Sadly, from its best days in the early 90s, when the clock was actual set back to 17 minutes before midnight, as of January 2014 it was back at 5 minutes before midnight. I have always believed that we human beings would rise above our baser natures. As I grow older, it becomes harder and harder to maintain that belief in the face of reality.

The Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza have worked out yet another cease-fire. I should see this as a hopeful sign, but I’m not sure. This one seems like all the others after which a serious resolution of the issues was never reached. As they say “if nothing changes, nothing changes.” I don’t want to get into a discussion of the entire Israeli-Palestinian situation, and nothing I have written here is meant to suggest a particular belief or position on my part, just my frustration.

The Bard from Stratford-On-Avon put it his way:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

I need to find a way out of this funk. Oh, there have been some splendiferous moments this past week in my new position at the Solomon Schechter Day School in West Hartford, CT and in other activities in my new community. There is joy to be found. Yet this haftarah, which should be uplifting, is just not doing it for me this year.

I lift my eyes to the mountains, from whence will come my help?  Sorry, I haven’t noticed G”d doing any heavy lifting lately. It’s up to us.

Oh, G”d, help me to once again find that spirit that enabled Mr. Shakespeare to also write:

For Thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Shabbat Shalom,

Adrian
©2014 by Adrian A. Durlester

Other Musings on this parasha:

Shoftim 5773-Hassagat G'vul Revisited Yet Again
Shoftim 5772 - Quis Custodiet Ipso Custodes
Shoftim 5771 -  Hassagat G'vul Revisited
Shoftim 5767 (Redux and Updated 5760/61) From Defective to Greatest
Shof'tim 5766-Hassagut G'vul
Shoftim 5765/5759-Whose Justice?
Shoftim 5763--Pursuit

Random Musing Before Shabbat–Re’eh 5764–Our Own Gifts

I had planned to offer a new musing this week from my new home, but life interfered and after a week preparing for the start of a new school year at my new school, G”d decided to test me with with car troubles. Well, let’s be honest. It might not have been G”d. My car is is `97 and on the moving trip from IL to CT turned over the 200,000 mile mark. In any case, I’m just getting home now and thus offer this retread from  5761 (2001.)

Random Musings Before Shabbat-Re'eh 5761

Our Own Gifts

At the end of Re'eh, we read: "They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed, 17 but each with his own gift, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has bestowed upon you." (JPS)

The context of these words is the commandment that three times a year, on Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, all the (males) shall appear before G”d at the designated place (i.e. the holy Temple in Jerusalem.) It is not simply enough that they appear-they must also bring a gift. Yet, even in that agrarian society, and even though the Torah in other places is rather specific about gifts and sacrifices to be presented, in this place it says "each with his own gift, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has bestowed upon you."

That's pretty trusting-allowing us each to individually assess how G”d has blessed us, and present a gift commensurate with that amount. By what scale are we to judge? If this year's crop was 50% better than last year's crop, do we up our "gift" by 50%? But what if this year that crop did worse, but another crop did better? Do we adjust our gift accordingly? In a year of blight when no crops were successful, what gift do we bring? Is our mere presence, having survived the blight, enough to thank G”d for that very survival? Does the silversmith bring silver, the baker bread, the hunter some of his prey? Does an apparently infertile couple that miraculously has a child bring the child as a gift? (Let's not get in to the question of the akedah just now, OK?) Does G”d want money? Praise? Sacrifices? Is that what this is all about? Is this how we are to measure the gifts bestowed upon us?

Even today, without the holy Temple, how do we offer these gifts, and which gifts do we offer? Shall a singer offer song, a poet a poem, a good cook a delicious dish? Would it be appropriate for someone not blessed with a good voice to offer a gift of song, or someone not a good cook to offer a gift of food? The obvious answer would be yes, for ultimately only we ourselves know what things in our lives appear to be blessings bestowed upon us. And the concepts of good voice and good food are somewhat subjective.

Many of us offer our gifts to G”d through our gifts and services to our community. If G”d has blessed you with a beautiful voice, then why not make a gift of song to G”d? All over the world people do that every day-cantors, soloists, choir members, songleaders. If G”d has blessed you with the skills of a teacher, then teaching in religious school can be your gift. Are you a computer nerd? Offer your gift to G”d through service to your congregation's web presence.

But directly returning a gift of the blessing G”d has bestowed is not the only way. The text doesn't say "give back as a gift to G”d some of exactly that which G”d has blessed you with." No, it says "according the blessing that G”d has bestowed upon you." What if the blessing G”d gave you was sparing your life in a dangerous situation? Would you repay with your life? And how could you spare G”d's life? (well, actually, there is some possibility here, since the Reform HHD Machzor for Yom Kippur quotes a former chief rabbi of England having added an extension to "if you are my witnesses, then I am G”d,” with the words “and if you are not my witnesses then I am not G”d" So, in a way, by being faithful to the covenant, you might be insuring G”d's survival. Hmmm.) And we can complicate this situation. What if the blessing is that your life was spared, but in the process hundreds of others died, or perhaps even close relatives were killed? If our gift is to be "according to the blessing bestowed..."

What about the someone who, in subjective opinion, is not blessed with a good voice, but feels blessed to be able to sing? Then surely their gift of song would be welcomed by G”d.

I think there are many ways we can offer gifts to G”d in return for the blessings bestowed upon us. And they need not be quid pro quo. Every time we observe a mitzvah, that is a gift to G”d. Every time we offer G”d praise and thanks, those are gifts.

But here's the catch. As a species, we seem predisposed to not really see many of the blessings, the good things, in our lives. As a result, we're probably rather stingy with the gifts we give to G”d in return. So my challenge to you this Shabbat is to really consider the words "each with his own gift, according to the blessing that the Lord your G”d has bestowed upon you." Dwell on the blessings in your life. I'll bet you'll discover many you hadn't given much though to. And the second part of the challenge-to find an appropriate way to offer a gift to G”d according to those blessings. A remember to not appear before G”d "empty-handed,", i.e., without those gifts, however tangible or intangible they may be.

Shabbat Shalom,

Adrian
©2001 by Adrian A. Durlester

Other Musings on this Parasha:

Re'eh 5773 - Here's a Tip
Re'eh 5772 - Think Marx, Act Rashi? Think Rashi, Act Marx?
Re'eh 5771 - Revisiting B'lo L'sav'a
Re'eh 5770 Meating Urges
Re'eh 5766-Lo Toseif V'lo Tigra
Re'eh 5765--Revised 5759-Open Your Hand
Re'eh 5760/5763--B'lo l'sav'a
Re'eh 5759--Open Your Hand
Re'eh 5757/5758--How To Tell Prophet From Profit

The Continuing Death of Civility: What Has Happened to America’s Courteous OTR Truckers?

I have fond memories of driving the highways in the 70s during the height of the CB radio craze. I enjoyed many a conversation with fellow travelers and especially OTR truckers. Most truckers struck me as the nicest people on earth. Oh sure, we were often on different sides of the political spectrum, and they probably didn’t care for my pony tail, but they were always helpful and courteous. Even well before I learned to drive, I had many memories of family road trips in which some friendly trucker helped us out with a flat tire or other issue.

For as long as I can remember, and up until the last 5 years or so, OTR truckers were among the most courteous drivers on the road. If you were courteous to them they would always be equally courteous to you (and most of the time they were equally courteous to the many rude and discourteous car drivers.)

Something has changed. Obviously, the economic pressures of the last few years have squeezed the OTR trucker really hard, as have the new safety regulations imposed on the industry. Courtesy and civility seem to have gone by the wayside as truckers struggle to shave precious pennies and seconds. I am not unsympathetic to their economic struggles, but I fail to understand why this requires them to be, almost universally, discourteous, uncivil drivers. My recent trip driving from Chicago to Hartford was difficult enough due to the rainy weather and the numerous construction zones, however it was significantly worsened by numerous and regular negative interactions with truckers. Tailgating, cutting me off, pulling into passing lanes to pass slower moving trucks on uphill grades where they really didn’t have the power to go much faster than the vehicle they were passing – the list goes on and on. I observed many trucks being discourteous and uncivil to other trucks and cars. The whole drive I strived to remain courteous and respectful to every other driver on the road, including the very same truckers who were discourteous and uncivil to me. My patience was truly tried, and my courtesy was rarely rewarded, sad to say.

The description of how most of the truckers I encountered treated both the other cars and trucks on the road is simple – they acted like bullies. They were uncivil. Yes, civility in this country is going by the wayside, in general. I had always seen OTR truckers as among the last bastion of civility. No longer.

I have the greatest respect for the hard-working OTR trucker. I know that times and circumstances have conspired to make your lives very difficult. I am truly sorry that, in the process, your usually professional courtesy has been sacrificed to the meat grinder. Does this means that you must drive like a bully and use your vehicle to bully other vehicles on the road?  If the price of civility is too much, then something is seriously wrong with our society.

I hope that times get better for you – for all of us, I, for one, will strive to remain courteous and civil to all other drivers. I hope you can all find the strength and courage to do the same.

Adrian A. Durlester
August 16, 2014
©2014 by Adrian A. Durlester

Technorati Tags: civility,courtesy,truckers,drivers

Random Musing Before Shabbat–Eikev 5774 (Redux 5773) -The Hills Are Alive

I’ve been in my new apartment for two days. The Cox installer just left and yay, now I have internet again. The gas finally got turned on too, so I have hot water. Well, I did – for about 5 minutes, until the hot water heater went haywire with what appears to be a broken overflow valve spilling water all over the place. So who knows if I’ll get to take that long-awaited pre-Shabbat hot shower tonight after all. No time at all for a new musing, but that one I wrote just last years seems so apropos – since I just started my new job as music teacher  for the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford. (Actually the job title is “Musician-In-Residence” which sometimes confuses people as it is a title oft-used for a temporary resident artists. This is a full-time position-with responsibilities over and above music-but the title is actually a philosophical statement about the role of the school music teacher interacting with and influencing every aspect of school life.)

Anyway, as you peruse last year’s musing, you’ll see why it is still so apropos.

-Adrian

Eikev 5773 - The Hills Are Alive

If you know me even a little bit, you know that music is at the core of who I am and all that I do. It is not my only passion – Judaism, Jewish Education, Technology. and Jewish Music are among the other passions of my life, and there are others – reading, crossword puzzles, and so many more. There is still no denying that,although music is only one of my passions, it is a central one, and influences all that I do, and even influences how I engage in my other passions.

I demonstrated my musicality early, and by age 5 I was already a student at the pre-College division of the prestigious Juilliard School. This means I have been playing, creating, and studying music for 53 years. Yet I did not set out, initially, to be a career musician.  Somehow, however, music continues to out itself in and through me.

It was music, oddly, that eventually led me to the other career paths I have pursued. I attended a specialized math and science oriented high school, Bronx Science. I was of course, active in the choir, and served as its accompanist. I even performed with the school orchestra. This eventually garnered me an invitation to be in the mini-pit-band of the school musical. Now we shift locales for a bit. At the same time I started high school, I also started as a student as the Manhattan School of Music’s Preparatory Division.  (When Juilliard moved down the Lincoln Center, Manhattan School of Music –MSM - took over the old Juilliard building. In their move to Lincoln Center, Juilliard contracted a bit, and many students and teachers opted instead to stay in the old building and becoming part of MSM’s program. There was some politics favoritism involved, but we’ll choose to overlook that ugliness for now.)

MSM’s Preparatory Division (and in my humble opinion, all of MSM’s programs) was broader in scope the Juilliard’s, and geared more to vocational learning as opposed to a conservatory approach. Each year, they staged an opera involving every student in some way. (An almost impossible task deftly managed by director Cynthia Auerbach, z”l, who died much too young.) I’ll never be exactly sure why, but instead of choosing to be a chorus member (there was no use for me as a pianist) I opted instead to be on the stage crew. Simultaneously, while working in the ban for the musical at Bronx Science, I developed a similar interest and joined their stage crew.

By this time, you must be wondering what all this has to do with the weekly parasha. Don’t worry, I’ll get there. Eventually.

Both at Bronx Science and at MSM I became actively engaged working on the technical and stage management side of production. At MSM, I even got hired to work on many college productions. I found some side work. I did the lighting for a small showcase show that eventually become the Tony-Award-winning Broadway musical “Bubbling Brown Sugar.”

So when the time came to choose a career path and a college, technical theater was my choice. Throughout college, music continued to be part of what I did. I accompanied students and choirs, filled in for rehearsal pianists for shows, provided entertainment at cast parties, and more. Summers at college I worked at theme parks, though more often I was doing music for live shows rather than tech. (One summer I even started out  stage managing and eventually wound up as the pianist in the pit.)

When college ended, I hadn’t yet lined up a job (the first of many bad career decisions) and eventually accepted an offer to join a Dixieland band whose members I had befriended at one of the theme parks. After a few truly fun-filled years with this band playing in New Orleans and Florida, the party was over and it was time to find work again. The bass player in the band turned me on to an opportunity to be the technical person for a school system performing arts facility, and thus began that phase of my career. For the next 18 years I supervised and managed performing arts spaces, while all the time on the side doing music – accompanying students and ensembles, playing in pit orchestras, even conducting some musicals. Music was somewhat secondary, but it was there, in addition to the stage managing, producing, directing, lighting and set design, technical direction, etc. There were even some shows for which I was crazy enough to be both the set/lighting designer and the musical director.

Also on the side, I had started working as a synagogue musician and religious school teacher. Then I became the director of the religious school. My passion for Judaism soon began to overtake my other interests, and I decided to work full-time as a Jewish professional. I went back to school (supporting myself by doing synagogue music and teaching.) I became a synagogue school administrator by trade, but continued, as always, doing music, both as part of my work as a principal, and independently for other synagogues and organizations.

Now my work has shifted. I have been “between jobs” as they say, in terms of being a religious school administrator for some time now. So I have been working as a songleader, music specialist, day school music teacher, synagogue musician and bar/bat mitzvah tutor. Lately, I’ve added doing Jewish early childhood music to the mix. Once again, music has come to the fore.

I don’t know what’s next. It may be that music will, in the end, be the work that sees me into the last decades of my career. I do know, that whatever I am doing, music will still be playing an important role.

[An observation from 5774 – 2014 – that was last year. Now, I do know what is next. I am the new music teacher for the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford in Connecticut. Once again, the music has come to the fore.

What was it that caused me to reflect upon all this? It was reading through the haftarah for parashat Eikev, the second haftarah of consolation read between Tish B’Av and Rosh Hashanah, from Isaiah, 49:14-15:3. In particular, it’s the very end.

These words help me to understand why it is that music is what keeps coming to the front in my life. They help me to feel good about that. I am living in the best of all possible worlds, for music is of the highest calling, especially music in service to G”d and Judaism. Just how high has place does music have in the hierarchy of things. Consider where Isaiah’s words place it:

כִּֽי־נִחַם יְהֹוָה צִיּוֹן נִחַם כָּל־חָרְבֹתֶיהָ וַיָּשֶׂם מִדְבָּרָהּ כְּעֵדֶן וְעַרְבָתָהּ כְּגַן־יְהֹוָה שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה יִמָּצֵא בָהּ תּוֹדָה וְקוֹל זִמְרָֽה

Truly the Lord has comforted Zion,
Comforted all her ruins;
He has made her wilderness like Eden,
Her desert like the Garden of the Lord.
Gladness and joy shall abide there,
Thanksgiving and the sound of music.
(Isaiah 51:3)

Yes, the hills are alive with the sound of music. The hills of fair Jerusalem. There one shall find thanksgiving and music, as one will find in the Garden of Ad”nai. Music is my connection to this holiest of places, and to G”d. May it always be so.

Shabbat Shalom,

Adrian
©2014, portions ©2013 by Adrian A. Durlester

P.S. – After seeing what I did to “The Sound of Music” maybe you’ll wait to see what I do to “Peter Pan.”  (Thanks, NBC, for providing the fodder for this little pun.) Interestingly, both of those musicals were a profound influence in my childhood, and I’ve even referenced both of them in my musings over the years.

Other musings on this parasha:

Eikev 5772 - Is El Al Really Doing the Right Thing?
Eikev 5771-Lining Up Alphabetically By Height
Ekev 5770 - For the Good Planet
Ekev 5769-Not Like Egypt
Ekev 5766 - Kod'khei Eish-Kindlers of Fire
Eikev 5765-Are We Forgotten?
Ekev 5764-KaYom HaZeh
Ekev 5760 (from 5759)-Not Holier Than Thou

Technorati Tags: torah commentary,eikev,ekev,music

Random Musing Before Shabbat–Va’etkhanan 5774–Sometimes a Cigar… (revised 5764)

Given the pressures of my impending move (the movers come on Monday) I thought about just once again sharing my (regularly updated and revised) musing from 5758, The Promise (which I have shared at least a half dozen times over the years.) It’s still worth a read, but this week I wanted to re-explore another of my personal favorites from 10 years ago.

---

Hafakh ba, v'hafakh ba, Rabbi Ben Bag Bag taught. Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it, and through it you will perceive clearly, grow old and gray in it and do not depart from it, for there is no better pursuit for you than it. (Avot 5:25)

It is, indeed, a practice I engage in, encountering the text over and over, seeking each time to gain a better understanding of its meaning. However, there are different ways of going about this, and not all of them are as productive as others. Sometimes, it might even be an impediment.

In writing this musing,  I had trouble just getting past the first word of our parasha, Va'etkhanan.

וָֽאֶתְחַנַּן

This open word is an odd verb form. It's an reflexive form of the verb root khet, nun, nun-sofit,

חנן

to show favor or be gracious, in the imperfect masculine singular, with the initial vav reversing the tense. (There will be a short test on all this later.)

In any case, it's a tricky idea to translate. "I favored myself." "I was gracious to myself." There are many possible ways to interpret this one word. I found myself pondering on this for hours on end. I consulted all my reference books, lexicons, grammar references, assorted commentaries, et al in an attempt to understand the concept that was trying to be conveyed with the use of the verb in this particular form. I spent so much time on it, that I didn't get to study the parasha much beyond that first word.

While there can be great reward from the effort of focusing narrowing on a single letter, or word, or pasuk (verse,) have we any chance of perceiving the whole of Torah if we spend so much time on one small part?

Of course, maybe that's the whole point. If we revere Torah as G”d's teaching, then surely we must come to understand that, unlike G”d, perhaps we can never know Torah in its entirety. It may be beyond human capability.

This idea, of course, seems to conflict with what the torah itself teaches later in the book of D'varim, "lo bashamayim hi," the Torah is not in heaven. The rabbis teach us that this means that, with the giving of the Torah to Israel, G”d is through issuing commandments. We'll speak more about this when we reach Nitzavim again this year. (If you’ve been reading my musings for any length of time, you already know my take on the usurpation of individual interpretative authority by the rabbis, by extending the idea of the Torah not being in heaven by tacking on the idea that they, the rabbis, are now the [only] authoritative interpreters.)

Yet we are not taught that you WILL understand, we are taught that we CAN understand. The implication is that we therefore must make the effort to try and understand.

So we're left with the struggle between methodologies. I hesitate to simplify them in terms like "quantity" versus "quality" as I'd like to think that all study of Torah is a matter of quality, and not of quantity. Yet there is a lot of Torah to learn.

While there is certainly reward in the effort I have put in to understanding this one word, I also realized that, in this particular case, maybe there was little need to re-invent the wheel. After all, the scholars who assembled the JPS and other translations basically seem to agree on a simple and plain meaning (though as we know, often the Torah hides layers and layers of meaning underneath the surface ones.) One primary reference source matter-of-factly states that some times this verb form, known as hitpael, can simply indicate "an active meaning." (BHRG)

Nevertheless, somehow, the scholars push and tug at the form and render it, most often, as "I pleaded." (Just to give it some content, this is Moses yet AGAIN pleading with G”d to let him enter the promised land, and G”d cutting him off with a quick "enough already." Need I comment further? And yes, there is double-entendre here.)

So, the question I am asking myself is (and how appropriate that all this is centered around a verb in reflexive form,) should I simply say that this cigar is just a cigar, so that I might press on and glean yet even more from this parasha-which, as I have often complained, is almost too rich. I think perhaps they could have divided things up a bit differently, and not put so much "good stuff" in parashat Va'etchanan," which includes the sh'ma, and the restatement of the Aseret HaDibrot, the ten things, words, commandments, (choose your translation.) Is it OK, even if I don't really believe this cigar is just a cigar, to just accept that it is for the moment so that I might press on? Or has the exercise of focusing on trying to decipher meaning from this one word been worthy enough that I should stick with it, and consider in the future using the same technique, even at the risk of ignoring other worthy words of text in the same parasha?

In the past few months, something inside me has been rebelling against our constant tendency to dig deeper and deeper into the Torah and her layers. While I do not doubt that there is insight to be gained from exploring the pardes, the garden that is Torah– the p’shat, remez, drash, and sod (plain meaning, allegorical, comparative, and secret – though these are simplistic translations lacking the many nuances of interpretation) – I am truly wondering if, in our scientific age, we are rebelling a bit too much against the plain side, preferring to find our meaning in the allegories, comparative midrashim, and mystic understandings. I am beginning to think of starting a movement encouraging greater encounter with and emphasis upon the p’shat. The “Sometimes a cigar…” school of modern Torah interpretation. Wonder how many fans I could attract to the cause? I wouldn’t be advocating for abandoning the remez, drash,or sod – simply that we allow ourselves to give the p’shat its due rather than the short shrift I think that we, in rebelling against our scientific age. I’m as guilty as the next. I’m a believing, practicing, religious Jew, but I’m also a scholar and a fan of science and the scientific method. I went to the same high school as Neil Degrasse Tyson (he was a few years behind me) and share his penchant for the scientific approach, though I am not the agnostic he is. I do share his basic belief that “The issue there is not religion versus non-religion, or religion versus science,” Tyson said. “The issue is ideas that are different versus dogma.” I also agree with him that “enlightened religious people” don’t try to “use the Bible as a textbook…” So, while I’m not using the bible as a textbook in the sense about which Neil is speaking,  I am expressing a preference for biblical analysis that is perhaps less exegetical (or, as is often the case, eisegetical) and more basic. It can be legitimately argued that the Torah is not meant to be explored only by its plain meaning – and I do not disagree with this – I just feel that we’ve given plain meaning short shrift of late.

Just to be sure we’ve looked at more than one side of this topic, I do want to point out that it is often in the remez or drash components of biblical interpretation that we find interpretations that allow us to reconcile the biblical text with scientific truth. Recognizing that the accounts of creation in Genesis are allegory can go a long way in helping us to see that our ancestors’ views of the universe may not have been as far off the mark as it seems. The comparative and connective aspects of exploring the drash can be equally useful to those seeking to reconcile their faith and reason-though often as not, drash introduce all sorts of further fabrications and speculations with little or no underlying basis – despite the claims of the creators of the drashot.

(The concept of the drash component tends to be popularized simply as “stories to fill in the holes and missing information in the text” but this is a very incomplete understanding, lacking a lot of the nuance. Not surprisingly, there is debate in even the frumest of communities these days as to the validity of literalist interpretations of the aggada. Remember, too, that midrash is both concerned with halakha and aggada)

As to the sod, I’ll also be honest enough to admit that, for me, the sod, the mystic, is often a stumbling block. I can believe that human creators and redactors of the text did attempt to work in some word play, mathematical play, even deliberate gematria encoding in the text, but I struggle to go further and deeper and believe that the existence of these “codes” are evidence of hidden Divine meanings. On the other hand, I am a person who is, at times, willing to suspend disbelief – as are we all, though most often when it comes to forms of entertainment (and, lately, what pretends to be news and journalism. Too many of us are willing to take at face value supposed statements of facts that are nothing of the kind, and we often fail to do the due diligence of researching the facts. How many of us have unwittingly passed along a hoax?) At the same time, however, while I believe there may be things as yet beyond our understanding (and there may always be things beyond our understanding, despite what some advocates of the scientific method claim) I will still generally err on the side of rejecting that for which the scientific method provides no evidence. However (and you knew that was coming) in general, science and religion can co-exist, so long as neither is used outside of its own realm. The mystic can, to me, sometimes be an attempt to force science and religion together, and thus I worry about it and perhaps even fear it a bit.

In these very musings, I have speculated that science and religion may all eventually connect – that perhaps G”d and Universal Field Theorem are One and the same thing. So I am not without my mystic leanings. I admit that I sometimes wear my faith and science hats concurrently. Sigh. I need to just revel in my inconsistency.

So, do I continue to spend more time on just this one opening word of the parasha? The point may not be worth further discussion, since I've already written this musing. But Shabbat awaits, and more Torah study will happen. I'm not a gambling man, but, if I were, I'm not sure what odds I might give on whether I'll read on or stay stuck on this first word. If you're interested in the outcome, just ask me after Shabbat, and I'll let you know.

So how do we know when a cigar is just a cigar, and when it is something else? Freud never figured it out. (Then again, we're speaking of someone who has a real odd theory about who Moses really was.)

So, is this musing a cigar, or isn't it?

Shabbat Shalom,

Adrian

©2014 (portions ©2004) by Adrian A. Durlester

Other musings on this parasha:

Va'etkhanan 5773-The Promise (Redux & Revised 5759ff)
Va'etkhanan 5772 - Redux & Revised 5758 - The Promise
Va'etkhanan/Shabbat Nakhamu 5771 - Comfort
Va'etkhanan 5769-This Man's Art, That Man's Scope
Va'etchanan 5764--Sometimes A Cigar...
Va'etchanan 5758-63-66-67-The promise

 

Random Musing Before Shabbat– D’varim/Hazon 5774-Redux 5766-Refractory Recalcitrant Recidivists

I’m in the midst of preparations for my relocation back to the east coast in just over another week, so forgive me if I offer a retread musing for this Shabbat.

D'varim/Shabbat Hazon 5771/5766
Refractory Recalcitrant Recidivists

So, before the mournful Tisha B'Av, we get Shabbat Hazon, the Sabbath of Prophecy (vision? foresight?) named after the first words in the haftarah reading from Y'shayahu (Isaiah) chapter one. Talk about a downer.
Isaiah reports G"d's  words, spoken like a true parent "I reared children and brought them up--and they have rebelled against Me!" The children of Israel are labeled "goi khotei"-sinful nation, an "am keved avon"-a people heavy with iniquity. (I love the use of the kaf, bet, dalet root, more often seen in a positive light as honor or glory--"kavod"--yet here it reverts to the root's base meaning - heavy - we are heavy with (laden) with sin. Perhaps our sin is that we have taken what should be our honor, and have viewed it instead as a heavy burden which we can shuck off.)

We are "zera m'rei'im"--seeds from evilness (JPS poetically uses "brood of evildoers") and "banim mash'khitim" --children who have become spoilers (and, though we can't impute a more modern meaning, I daresay that perhaps we had become not just spoilers, but "spoiled children" ourselves. Maybe we still are.)

"Why," asks G"d, "do you seek to be beaten further, adding to your apostasy?"
Why, indeed? What is it about human beings that make us prone to being refractory, recalcitrant, and recidivist? Could you think of a worse innate trait? Stubbornness combined with obstinacy, resistance, and a tendency to fall back on old bad habits?

Can we truly blame the high incidence of recidivism among those sent to prison for crimes solely upon the weaknesses and problems with the penal system?  And why is it that some are able to overcome their demons and others not? Why are some alcoholics and addicts successful in keeping their recovery going, and others on a constant cycle of falling off the wagon?
So many in our prison system appear to find G"d in some fashion. Yet when these are warrior gods of Norse mythology, or a pure white Aryan Jesus. And Isaiah tells us that G"d isn't interested in our sacrifices or our prayers when what is in our hearts is evil. When we lift up our hands, G"d will turn G"d's eyes away from us, though we increase our prayer, G"d will not listen, for our hands with bloods are full. (1:15)

So just how defiant and off-task must we be before G"d will no longer listen to our prayers? Can any of us truly say that our hands are not somehow tainted with the blood of others? When evil happens in our world, are we not responsible as a community to do something about it?  If we follow the Sodom and Gomorrah example, if at least 10 of us are trying to do something about it, is that enough for G"d to continue to listen to us, hear our prayers, show us favor and mercy and kindness? Is there another "tipping point?" If so, why the different standard, you might ask.  That, my friends, is the price for being a people covenanted with G"d. Yes, we will be held to a higher standard.

"That's not fair! I didn't ask to be born into this covenant" I hear some cry. Opt out then. But don't come crying to G"d the next time you've run out of other options.

G"d not listening to us. It's not a very comforting thought. It seems harsh-it's not the loving, all-forgiving G"d we all want. Yet did we always get what we wanted from our parents?

Nevertheless, how many of us were, in the eyes of our parents, sometimes refractory, recalcitrant, and recidivist? So probably sometimes our parents had to turn a deaf ear to our please in do what they felt they needed to do in order to get to to do family t'shuva. They continued to love us (at least most of them, for even parents are imperfect.) And so does G"d.

Our criminal justice system, to some extent, tries (though often fails) to heed Isaiah's reminder from G"d that "sins like crimson, they can be turned into snow-white; be they red as dyed wool, they can become like fleece.
All negative messages from our parents (or from G"d) are not likely to be successful at getting us to return to the path of righteous living. And just as our parents knew to temper their "tough love" with a little kindness, so, too, does G"d. We see it throughout our sacred scriptures, and we see it here at 
the end of this haftarah.

"Zion shall be saved in the judgment, her repentant ones, in the retribution." (JPS, 1:27)

Yet we cannot depend solely on G"d's ultimate mercy. Our Jewish understanding is that this is a two way street. That is why, perhaps, Isaiah has G"d saying:

"L'khu-na, v'nivvakh'khah."

It's somewhat odd morphology makes it difficult to translate, but scholars believe the meaning to be something like "Come, please, let us reason together" or, as the JPS committee decided to translate it "Come, let us reach an understanding."

Refractory recalcitrant recidivists that we are, let's go reach an understanding with G"d.

Shabbat Shalom,

Adrian
©2014, 2011, and 2006 by Adrian A. Durlester

For another take on this haftarah for Shabbat Hazon, see D'varim 5762-L'chu v'niva'ch'chah and the Twelve Steps

Other musings on this parasha:

D'varim 5773 - The Pea in Og's Bed
D'varim 5772 - Revised 5762 - L'chu v'niva'ch'chah and the Twelve Steps
D'varim 5769-Torah of Confusion
D'varim 5764--Eleven Days
D'varim 5763--Remembering to Forget or Forgetting to Remember?
D'varim 5762-L'chu v'niva'ch'chah and the Twelve Steps
D'varim 5759-Owning Up
D'varim 5760-1-Kumu v'Ivru