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HEBREW TABERNACLE CONGREGATION May 16, 2009 D’var Torah
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Vera Ruth Kahn was born and raised in Washington Heights and
currently is a 7th grader at Delta Middle School. She has been singing with the
Young People’s Chorus of New York for five years. Her choral experience has
taken her to British Columbia and Carnegie Hall where she sang in I Never Saw Another
Butterfly, a choral work based on
poems from children in the Terezin concentration camp. With her group she has
sung behind Neil Young and in Xenakis’ Orestia, a modern opera. She participates in track and basketball. Vera
also likes fashion and to make stuffed animals for her friends. In the
synagogue, she has volunteered at Tot Shabbat and at other events. Her Hebrew
education began with her brother, Nathan, who taught her the aleph-bet. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Shabbat Shalom! When this weeks
parsha, B’har, begins, God is talking to the Jews. God says that every 7
years, the land deserves a break; a Sabbath of sorts. In that seventh year,
you are not allowed to harvest. You must eat directly from the plants. Every
50 years, God says to have a Jubilee, which is basically the same as the
Sabbatical, but bigger. You have the Jubilee the year after the 7th
Sabbatical, so it's like a two-year party! In the Jubilee year, everyone is
supposed to return to their holding, or God-given land. When dealing with
property in the Jubilee year, one should be truthful and add a discount for
however many years there are until the next jubilee or since the last one. In
case people would worry about what to do for food when they couldn’t harvest,
God says that in the sixth year there will be enough food to last until the
ninth year when the eighth year’s harvest would come in. Because all land is
God’s, all land must be redeemable. The buyer should have the option of refund or the salesperson should be able to
buy it back. This is so no person permanently owns a piece of land. If a
kinsman (a Jew) is in debt and has to sell a part of his holding, then it
should be redeemed in the Jubilee year. God says if one of your kinsmen is in
debt that he should live by your side as a family member. If the debtor
becomes your slave, treat him well and release him in the Jubilee year. But
for non-Jewish slaves, you own them and your children will own their
descendants. If a non-Jew becomes rich in your community, and a Jew becomes
their slave, then you should help redeem him. And finally, God reminds the
Jews not to have any idols and to keep God’s Sabbaths. The next parsha is
Bchukotai, because this week is a double portion. Most of the parsha is
rhetoric. God says, if you follow my rules, then good things will happen to
you. If you don’t, bad things will happen to you. God says if you follow all
of my rules, you will have good crops, you will have peace, in the event of
war you will win and you will have a lot of descendants. And lastly, God says
that God will always be there for the Jewish people. However, the list of bad
things that will happen is much longer. That list includes sickness, enemies
killing you and eating your food, faintheartedness and unyielding crops. God
says God would destroy the Jews' cities and temples. God also says God would
disperse the Jews throughout the land. However, if the children of the
disobedient Jews are “heartsick over the iniquities of their fathers” and
they confess to God, God will return them to their land. And lastly God says
God will never completely devastate the Jewish people because of the
covenant. Almost all of
B'chukotai is one big reason to follow the commandments, or mitzvot. God says
God will reward you if you complete them and punish you if you don't. And
also, throughout the parsha it says things such as “if you fear your God” in
place of “if you follow my commandments”. One question that
many people ask about mitzvot is why to observe them. Should you observe them
because it’s the right thing to do? Should you observe them because there
might be compensation for your good deed? Rabbi Shmuel Boteach is quoted in
the book, Essential Judaism, “When it comes to the perfection of the world, our
motivation is wholly unimportant.” Meaning, you could donate to a charity
simply because it was tax-deductible and it would still be a good deed. He
also stated “In Jewish thought, man’s first obligation is to make the world a
better place. This is why all people must do good deeds even if it is for
selfish purposes.” Scholars who also believe this say the emphasis is on the
doing of the mitzvot, and less the intention. David Wolpe, a
Conservative rabbi, feels that unless the mitzvot are the words directly from
the Torah, then why follow them? If it is not in the original Hebrew, then it
is somewhat or entirely made by humans. He asks, “In other words, if God did
not say it, why do it?” So for any commandment to be legitimately followed,
it has to be legitimately interpreted in Hebrew. Another reason one
might observe the commandments is so that God won’t punish them. God says if
you don’t follow the commandments about your land then God will make your
land unable to grow things and make some kind of acid rain fall on it. On the
flip side, if you observe all of the mitzvot, God will reward you. In that
train of thought, there is a direct cause and effect in choosing to follow
the commandments. But all punishments
aren't necessarily from God. For instance, An eye for an eye, focuses on that
theme. Even if God doesn't punish you for your sins, people around you can.
In Hammurabi’s code, an eye for an eye was used quite literally. If you built
me a house and the house collapsed on my daughter and she died, then your
daughter would be put to death. But in Judaism, eye for an eye is more like
“I’ll give you money for an eye.” The Rabbis took this system from their
interpretation of the Torah. For most crimes, the perpetrator can pay the
victim and that would be it. However, there are
some restrictions on how far an eye for an eye can go. The Torah says
“Fathers shall not be put to death for the sins of sons, nor sons for the
sins of fathers,” and it focuses on offspring. Essential Judaism says, “In an
ideal world, children do not suffer because of the sins or misdeeds of their
parents.” That is also the view in the Torah. At least, courts couldn’t
persecute children because of their parents’ crimes. However, before the
Torah was written, children were considered their parents’ property and
therefore they could be taken away and possibly killed and it wouldn’t
technically be murder. But because everyone is created b’tselem elohim, in
the image of God, everyone has individual value- human rights, if you will.
God is a compassionate and forgiving God, so God would only punish the
children for their parents’ sins if the children continued their parents’
sins. With all the
responsibility of the commandments and the possible punishments, we might get
a little worried about living up to all of this. But God promises that God
will always forgive the Jews. In the book, Finding God, it says “We are
assured that the temporary backsliding of Israel will not cause a permanent
breaking of the bond that was established in the past.” But God also wants
people to be good and obedient.
In the Jubilee, you are supposed to set all of your Jewish slaves
free. In both the Jubilee and the Sabbatical years, you are supposed to help
your kinsmen, Jews, out of their debts. This
starts with the Golden rule- treat others the way you wish to be treated. And
that began with the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you were
enslaved because of a debt, then you would probably want your fellow Jews to
help you out. Another
reason to help other Jews if they are in dire straits is one repeated many
times throughout the Torah. “…for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
This just means that you should learn from the past and help others who are
in tough situations. This doesn’t just apply to Jews though. Even though you
have a special connection with other Jews, that doesn’t mean you can’t help
gentiles, too. In my parsha it doesn't specifically say help Jews out of
straits, but help your kinsmen. I think that it just referring to anyone
possibly related to you, and everyone who is a fellow human. Often the Torah
says we need to help are the stranger, the orphan and the widow, for they are
vulnerable for many reasons. Also, we were once vulnerable, too, when we were
slaves in Egypt. Pidyon
Shvuyim, redeeming captives, is stressed as very important in Jewish
tradition. It is a better mitzvah to pay to free a Jew than to use that money
to donate to a synagogue. In the Middle Ages, this was often taken advantage
of. Non-Jews would capture Jews and hold them for a large ransom, and often
the Jewish community would pay it. Modern day examples of this include the
freedom of Jews in the Soviet Union and in Ethiopia. Pidyon Shvuyim is viewed
as one of the most important commandments in Judaism. The
Babylonian Talmud states “All Jews are responsible one for another.” Why?
It’s not as if I know or even am related by blood to every Jew on this earth.
That is the kind of thinking that is associated with the wicked child on
Passover. When you call yourself a Jew, you are linking yourself with
millions around the world and joining that global community. There are a few
reasons for this. One is that everyone wants to be a part of something.
Another is so others can look out for you, but only if you do the same for
them. For that reason, Jews have to help other Jews out of slavery and debt.
We, as Jews, are responsible for the physical well-being of all other Jews on
this planet. Not
only are we responsible for others’ health, but also for others’ actions. The
Babylonian Talmud also states “Whoever can stop… the people of his city from
sinning but does not… is held responsible for the sins of the people of his
city.” Most groups are judged as whatever their majority is. If the majority
of Jews are sinners, then most likely all Jews would be viewed as sinners.
Thus, we should all look out for each other and try to stop other Jews from
doing bad things. If
you don’t look out for your kinsmen or try to free them, then you are
separating yourself from your community. By separating yourself from your
community you are saying, ‘these people do not matter to me and what they do
does not concern me.’ If a fellow Jew is in straits and you ignore them, they
could get in danger and you are also ignoring your responsibilities as a Jew. A major part of the
Jubilee and Sabbatical years is the land itself. Letting nature take things
back and just giving the land a break. Firstly, not farming is basically a
vacation for the earth. It doesn’t need to give up its nutrients for plants
and it doesn’t need to get worked everyday. Also, not harvesting lets the
plants overgrow and relax in a way. In Leviticus, it specifically says to let
animals eat from your land. This can feed animals who can’t get food for
whatever reason. Encyclopaedia Judaica says “they (animals) are a part of the
nature which man must cease to dominate on the Sabbath.” Our Sabbath is once
very seven days, and the world's is once every seven years The Encyclopaedia
Judaica says the Sabbatical doesn’t have anything to do with agriculture or
crop rotation. But how can that be so? The only way the Sabbatical year would
work would be if everyone had a different cycle. If that is true, then every
year 1/7 of the land would have a break. In that year, animals could
fertilize the land. The soil could get a chance to rejuvenate itself. Every
year, it could be an agricultural holiday for a different plot of land. Not farming the land
is a command from God. For most people, that’s reason enough to follow it.
But it’s also practical. A farmer would get a break. The land would be
allowed to rest and rebuild its nutrients. After a year of rest, the soil
probably would produce and even greater harvest. Not only does the Sabbatical
benefit one spiritually, it also could benefit one economically, and the
world ecologically. When the Torah was
written, farming was a big part of every day life. It was a source of food
and income. It was very important to take care of your land. If you
overworked your land, you and your family might not have food. On the flip
side, if you gave your land a rest, your land would probably have a better
yield. Also, I think the emphasis was less on nature when the Torah was
written because they didn't have global warming and such. Today, nature and
the environment are just as important, if not more. Humans have created the
global problem of climate change. And that means we have the responsibility
to stop it. Even though global warming is directly related to the Sabbatical
and Jubilee years, they all deal with respecting nature. If we respect
nature, then we are doing a mitzvah and also helping ourselves by helping the
world. Also, another big issue is hunger and food prices. If we had some sort
of crop rotation system there would be more and better food and that would
make prices go down. Also,
in biblical times, people were more dependent on each other, and Jews were
more dependent on other Jews. It was harder to leave your family than it is
now. One could be enslaved or jailed for debts. Most Jews around you would be
people you know and are possibly related to. You would probably even want to
help those in need anyway. .22% of the world is Jewish. Even though .22 of
6.5 billion is a lot, it's still a tiny percentage of the world. In New York
City, which has the second largest concentration of Jews in the world, it
might not seem like that. But for Jews in countries like Uganda, there are
small Jewish populations that are often neglected. It is our responsibility
to give those people Siddurs, Torahs, and other necessary objects for Jewish
worship. There are around 13 million Jews in this world and every single one has
responsibility for the others. When I picked the date for my Bat
Mitzvah, it wasn't because it was near my birthday or because I liked the
parsha. When I read the parsha, I thought, “Oh lord, it's a list of rules.
This is going to be boring.” I was talking with one of my teachers from
school about it and he went on and on about how interesting it was,
especially emphasizing the power that God has, and now I see he was right. When I started
writing this speech, I had no idea how these three themes of mitzvot, nature
and respect for humanity, would connect, and now I think, how don't these
themes connect? Following the mitzvot is a main part of Judaism. Everything
in Judaism comes from that. We are commanded to complete them, no matter what
the circumstances or motivation. In my interpretation,
it is a mitzvah to respect nature. God says to give the land a rest, and that’s
a fairly good reason to. Also, if you don’t, God says that God will make your
land like copper and the sky like steel. But you also benefit if you complete
this mitzvah; you can get better and more food the next year. And now, if we
don’t respect nature, climate change will get much worse. Taking care of your
kinsmen can be seen in nature. Animals take care of their pack or herd, and
humans should take care of other humans. Adam and Eve were the only humans
and they looked out for each other. We are commanded to take care of our
kinsmen, which doesn't seem that profound. But when you take care of your
fellow human, you are completing a mitzvah for more than one reason and with
more than one benefit. And yes, taking care of your kinsmen can also mean having
your annoying relatives over for Shabbat dinner!It doesn’t matter if you
recycle a can because it’s the law, because of the 5 cents you can get or
because it’s the right thing to do. It doesn’t matter if you lend your
sibling money because they’ll hit you if you don’t, because they would let
you use their stuff or because you love them.
No matter why you give, it is still a mitzvah. The scale of life has
been tipped thatmuch more to the good side, and you and people around you
feel that much better. While I am very proud
of myself today, I couldn’t have gotten here without the help of many people.
I would like to thank the rabbi for helping me with my speech. I want to
thank Nina Nesher for helping me learn my torah and haftarah portion. I want
to thank my family for, well, everything. Thank you all and
Shabbat Shalom
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