Ki Tavo – How To Be A Light Unto the Nations Everyday Of Your Life

Dvar Torah by Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh, August 28, 2010

There are many famous chain emails that we send as Jews, and one that I have often read is the list of Jewish Nobel Prize candidates.  In fact, Jewish Nobel Prize winners account for 22% of all winners, and Jews represent 36% of all U.S. recipients.  Keep in mind that Jews make up only .25% of the world population and 1 – 2% of the U.S. population.  We are quite proud of these people that have made a difference in the world and changed humanity for the better.  They have given our world many blessings.

But rarely do I receive the other types of emails.  The emails of Jews who have done bad things and have left the world worse off than when they came into it.  I am sure that you can name a few of these people who have made our lives more difficult especially in the last couple of years.

Our actions have the potential to bring both blessings and curses to our world and to our reputation as Jews, but something we often do not think about is how we affect God through our actions.

Our parashah, Ki Tavo, deals with the reality of living amongst others.  Bnai Israel is about to enter a new land where they will not be alone.  Their actions had a great impact in the wilderness, but amongst non-Jews, they will have an even greater impact.  And so our Torah gives us a list of blessings and curses.  The Torah states the great blessings that we will receive if we follow God’s commandments.  Deuteronomy 28 states:

“Now if you obey the Lord your God, to observe faithfully all His commandments which I enjoin upon you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.  All these blessings shall come upon you and take effect, if you will but heed the word of the Lord your God.”

The Torah goes on to proudly list all the blessings that we will get, and the Torah ends with the connection that others will make between us and God.

⁹The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the Lord‘s name is proclaimed over you, and they shall stand in fear of you.

When we do a great thing that is praiseworthy, that makes us look good, we also sanctify God, a Kiddush Hashem. Kiddush Hashem is a term that we use for a Jew who give his or her life up for being a Jew, but the essence of this word is the sanctification of God through positive action which brings honor to God’s name.

But there is another side.

The parashah goes on to list a torrent of curses that are so extreme that Jewish law states that the Torah reader must read these lines in a hushed voice.  They are hard words to hear out loud.

There is a term for this that our Rabbis developed called Chillul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name. This term comes from the words in Leviticus 22:32

לב וְלֹא תְחַלְּלוּ, אֶת-שֵׁם קָדְשִׁי, וְנִקְדַּשְׁתִּי, בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: אֲנִי יי, מְקַדִּשְׁכֶם.

32You shall not profane My holy name, that I may be sanctified in the midst of the Israelite people—I the Lord who sanctify you,

The Tosefta, a Rabbinic work that dates around the time of the Mishnah, defines this term: “Robbery from a non-Jew is more serious than robbery from a Jew because of the desecration of God’s Name (Hillul Hashem).” (Tosefta Bava Kamma 10:15)

The Talmud gives another example of Hillul Hashem when a shopkeeper who gives a lot of credit out to his customers and then collects it all at once. (Kiddushin 40a).

Dr. Meir Tamiri, a seminal figure in Jewish business ethics, writes that Economic misbehavior is one of the most common examples of Hillul Hashem. Spread by modern means of communication and the mass media to an extent unknown before in human history. Thus the desecratory effect of such immoral actions is multiplied. Jews involved in fraudulent bankruptcy, white collar crime, tax evasion, economic exploitation in whatever form, or Social Security fraud automatically contribute to the defamation of His Holy Name.

This was written in his book, Al Chet: Sins of the Marketplace, published in 1962 (if he only knew what would happen in the future).

It is interesting that the overwhelming majority of our confessions on Yom Kippur are in the plural: Al Chet SheCHATANU lefanecha, for the sins that WE have sinned before You…

When we sin in public, not only do we sin before God, but we sin before the entire world, and this has an effect on God.

The parashah began with great blessings, but ended with these awful curses. After we read these curses toward the end of our parashah, it is hard to feel good.

For the last couple of years, when we have heard about one Jewish businessman after another cheating and lying in public, just like after we hear a torrent of curses, it is hard to feel good.

As we reflect back upon the sins we have caused, sometimes we forget about the blessings.

And so our Haftarah reminds us about our special relationship with God.

Our Haftarah, Isaiah 60, is a message of hope and consolation for Israel. It speaks about a future time where zion will be restored and the author uses the imagery of light to show Israel’s success. There is a midrash about a line from our Haftarah, “No longer shall you need the sun For light by day, nor the shining of the moon for radiance (by night); for the Lord shall be your light ever lasting.” The Midrash talked about the idea of God giving light to the rest of the world through the Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem where God dwelled on Earth. The Rabbis talked about the windows of the Beit HaMikdash being different than windows of a regular house because instead of being designed to let light in, the windows of the Holy Temple were designed to let the light out to the rest of the world. This light was akin to the sun on Earth that gave warmth and hope to everyone. One would think that this light was extinguished when the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, but it wasn’t. After the Temple was destroyed, we brought the holiness of the Temple into our synagogues and our homes, we created a number of “mikdashei me’at,” small temples. The light was never extinguished, rather, it is in all of us.

Dr. Meir Tamari goes on to give the other side of his argument after he talks about those Jews who have sinned. He writes, “Conversely when Jewish-owned corporations and individual businessmen conduct themselves scrupulously and in accordance with God’s Law, they bring honor and sanctification both to the Jewish People and to He Who spoke and the world was.”

How we act in the world, especially in regards to how we conduct ourselves in business in our everyday lives, has tremendous implications for us and for God.

God cares how we look to the rest of the world which is why we must do tesuvah, repentance, for the sins of our fellow Jews. It is up to us to show the light that we have in us to the rest of the world. Each one of you can do this in your personal life.

You can act as a model for your fellow Jew in how you live and act in a world amongst non-Jews. You can light the spark within yourself and spread it to your fellow Jew, and then we must come together as a community to show the rest of the world the beautiful light that we have in us.
Israel is often called an “or lagoyim” “light unto the nations,” but often times people look at this as being too self centered, that we think we are too important. I respectfully disagree. We are an important people, if we do the right things. We are a special people who were chosen to bring God’s light to the world, but it is up to each generation to ensure that we stay special.

War and Peace

Rabbi David Baum, Parashat Shoftim,

Congregation Shaarei Kodesh, August 14, 2010 (5770)

Our country is in the midst of two wars, Operation Enduring Freedom, arguably the longest running war in our nation’s history, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since 2001, Israel has been through two wars, the second Intifada and the second Lebanon War.

The term ‘war’ is thrown around quite often. Football players have been quoted as equating their sport to war (the game is won in the trenches), and every time there is something we want to eradicate, we declare war on it such as the war on poverty from the 1960′s, the war on drugs from the 1980′s, or the war on terror in the 2000′s.

There are many definitions of war:

• the waging of armed conflict against an enemy;
• an active struggle between competing entities; “a price war”; “a war of wits”; “diplomatic warfare”
• a concerted campaign to end something that is injurious; “the war on poverty”; “the war against crime”

We all know war when we see it, but do we ask ourselves, how should we act during war? Our parashah gives us a Jewish response for why and how we fight.

Our parashah tells us about how soldiers practice during war.

Chapter 20 gives us some of the rules of biblical warfare:

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more numerous than yourselves, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you and brought you out of Egypt. And when you are close to battle, the priest (Cohen) shall come forward and speak to the people, saying to them, “Shema Israel, Hear Israel, as you draw near today to do battle against your enemies, do not let your hearts melt, fear not, and do not tremble, nor be terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” (Deuteronomy 20:1-4).

Essentially, this is a speech to give the troops hope and motivation to win be victorious in battle. We are all familiar with pre-battle speeches in movies. Here is one from the movie Braveheart:

WALLACE
Yes. Fight and you may die. Run and you will live, at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that, for one chance to come back here as young men, and tell our enemies that they make take our lives, but they will never take our freedom?

Deuteronomy: This is an interesting pep talk. For one, the Torah highlights that they are fighting a people who are greater than them and have more resources. Second, who would you like to hear from, a general who is going into battle with you, or a priest who knows nothing of war?

The truth is, the Torah is being realistic and is acknowledging human nature. It is natural for people to be scared when they famous tough odds – they have real fear and you have to acknowledge this. In fact, the rest of the procedure involves the commander asking the troops questions, one of them being:

8“Is there anyone afraid and disheartened? Let him go back to his home, lest the courage of his comrades flag like his.”

The goal is to have the soldier overcome their natural fears of death. In Braveheart, William Wallace uses the idea of freedom and personal impact, “when YOU are dying in your beds, alone.” The Torah gives us an alternative.

In the speech, the Torah seems to be giving a history lesson to the troops about a moment when they were in a similar circumstance: the Exodus from Egypt when Pharaoh’s horses and chariots were approaching them. But what the Torah is really doing is getting them to think of themselves as a people, not as a person. They are fighting together, they are united with God as their center, and they are not only fighting for themselves, but for the Jewish future and the Jewish past. If they fail, then the generation of the Exodus also fail.

It is not YOU, it is WE, and it’s not just now, but past, present, and future.

One of the rules I learned as a community organizer was that true power came from organized people. But how do you get organized? You get organized by being in relationship with each other and having a shared destiny.

There are immense problems that lie before us. What seems like constant wars in the Middle East, the continued survival of Israel, terror, environmental disasters, poverty, hunger, homelessness, disease, and more and more.

As we watch the news alone, we must think to ourselves, what can I do against these chariots and horses?

First, we have to look in the mirror and tell ourselves that alone, there is nothing you can do, and trying to tackle these large issues alone is not only impossible, but foolish. In the end, you will ultimately lose faith and retreat.

But there is an alternative.

In the first line of our parashah, we read: “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof”…Justice Justice shall you pursue Tirdof (תרדוף) (is the verb form of the root רדף, while the noun form, רודף means a pursuer or someone who chases after someone or something) that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

AJ Heschel states, “It implies more than merely respecting or following justice-we must actively pursue it”.

Tzedek, as we read in our Etz Chaim Humash, is both formal justice to govern society and distributive justice, “ensuring that everyone gets at least the minimum of what is necessary to live.”

In the end, the goal of war is peace, as the prophet Isaih wrote which we will recite together during the prayer for the country, “They shall beat their swords into plough-shares, Their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaih 2:4)

But how do we get their? Through being Rodfei Shalom:

The rodef shalom first appears in Hillel’s famous statement in Pirkei Avot: “Be among the disciples of Aaron - a lover of peace (ohev shalom) and a pursuer of peace (rodef shalom); a lover of all people, bringing them closer to the Torah.” A few centuries later, the Avot d’Rabbi Natan elaborates on Hillel’s words:

“How to be a rodef shalom? The phrase teaches us that a person should be a pursuer of peace among people, between each and every one. If a person sits in his/her place and is silent, how can s/he pursue peace among people, between each and every one? Rather, one should go out from one’s own place and go searching in the world and pursue peace among people.”

In other words, we can do this by being in relationship with each other and asking each other basic questions that we are scared to ask each other: What keeps you up at night? In other words, what are the things in your life that are holding you back and oppressing you? And when you work with that person for justice, they will work for you for justice for what oppresses you.

Each person has their own seemingly insurmountable chariots and horses that pursue them, but we won’t know what they are until we ask each other. Once we know, then we can pursue justice together. If we fail, we not only let ourselves down, but the past and the future. But if we succeed by pursuing Tzedek, Justice, than we bring our people one step closer to the end of war, to Shalom.

But we cannot be complacent, we have to chase after it to end war.

We pursue Tzedek in order that you we may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving us. We all share space on this land together, the sooner we start acting like it by pursuing justice, the sooner we will see Shalom in our time.

Living In Mitzvah Is A Blessing

Delivered by Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh

Parashat Re’eh, 2010/5770

The Jewish day begins at evening and ends at evening. Yesterday actually began on Thursday night. Our nighttime liturgy, the Maariv service, is reflective of how humanity viewed the nighttime before street lights brightened our paths. Nighttime without lights is a fearful time, it brought our predators, both animal and human, and it reminds us of our mortality. The Talmud tells us that sleep is one-sixteith of death as a way to acknowledge the fear that we all have: one day, we will go to sleep, and never wake up. Every night, we prayer that we will wake up. During the Hashkivenu prayer, we ask God to let us lie down in peace, and awaken us again in the morning. Every evening prayer has a parallel to the morning prayer except for this one. During our Shacharit service, we thank God for restoring our souls; nighttime is when we fear we will lose them.

On Thursday night, we were all struck with the reality of the fragility of life as we honored the memory of Myra Goldberg, Zichranah L’vrachah (may her name be remembered in blessing). We began this service with Mincha, we spoke about Myra’s legacy and life, and ended with Maariv. Maariv brings out the fears that we have where we openly admit the curses that we have in this world, and yet, this service offers us a comfort from the darkness.

On Friday morning, I woke up and experienced perhaps the polar opposite of what I felt the night before. Instead of saying goodbye, I said hello to a new addition to our Shaarei Kodesh family, the son of Daniel and Mela Kandler, Max, Avimelech ben Daniel v’Esther who was welcomed into our brit, our covenant, on the same Jewish day, the 26^th day of the month of Av.

These are two extremes, what seems to be a curse, the darkness and uncertainty in our world, and what seems to be a blessing, the morning and life.

I could not help but think about the first line of our parashah:

כו) רְאֵה אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה:

כז) אֶת הַבְּרָכָה אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׁמְעוּ אֶל מִצְוֹת יְקֹוָק אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם הַיּוֹם:

כח) וְהַקְּלָלָה אִם לֹא תִשְׁמְעוּ אֶל מִצְוֹת יְקֹוָק אֱלֹהֵיכֶם וְסַרְתֶּם מִן הַדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם הַיּוֹם לָלֶכֶת אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדַעְתֶּם: ס

“See (behold), this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day, and follow other gods, whom you have not experienced.

This very famous beginning to the parashah reveals a great deal about who we are as a people and how we live.

It seems to be quite simple: if you do these things that God commands you, than you will be blessed, if you do not do them, you will be cursed.

This is a troubling concept and ultimately we ask ourselves, if this is true, then why do bad things happen to good people?

The truth is, the concept of blessing and curse is not so cut and dry.

The Malbim, a great 19^th century Jewish commentator commented on the following verse, “a blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord”: implying then that the very obedience to the Divine commandments constitute a blessing. Do not imagine that there is any reward on earth outside of the good deed itself. It is not like the case of the master who rewards his servant for loyalty and punishes him for disobedience, where the servant’s due is dependent on the master’s whim and is not inherent in the action itself. The parallel is to the doctor who assures his patient that he will be well, as long as he adheres to the regimen he prescribes, but if he does not, then he will die. The consequences are here inherent in the deed itself.

One of the points that the Malbim makes here is that the reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah – it is its own reward. To take it a step further, the blessing you receive is continuing to enjoy the gifts of the world that are already given to you.

Mitzvah translated means commandment. When we think of commandment, we think of two parties, the metzaveh, the commander, and the metzuveh, the commanded. We commonly think of God as being the commander, and the Jewish people are the commanded.

Before we do a holy act, we say a blessing acknowledging that this act is not something we feel like doing, rather it is commanded of us.

The parashah begins with a commandment, ראה literally a command to see, but it is given in the singular, but the sentence goes on to say, See this day I set לִפְנֵיכֶם before you all, which is in plural.

If some Jews do the mitzvoth and others do not, who gets punished? Who gets rewarded?

As we fully understand ‘mitzvah’ we realize that there is a bit of both the individual and the community in it. Each individual must choose whether they want to be a true partner in our brit, our covenant, BUT when they choose to be commanded or choose to be free of obligation, their choice affects those around them, whether they are in their neighborhood or across the world.

We have the choice not to be a part of this life, not to do these things called mitzvoth that make us Jews. When we do them, our lives turn into blessings.

But what about the curses that we heard about in the same breath as we heard of the blessing?

The way I live life is through the concept of mizvoth and obligation, without being commanded to do these things, without having an obligation to others outside of myself, without being part of a community to follow them with and to support me on my journey would be a curse.

As hard as it seems, it is not natural to comfort people when they are mourning, it is not natural to celebrate with others when they have a simcha.

Nichum aveilim (comforting mourners) and celebration during a simcha is not something that comes natural if they are not your close family, but as Jews, we do them because we are commanded to do these things.

Death and life have the potential to be curses or blessings. If life is without God, without support, without meaning, without a community, it can be a curse, but if they are with support, if there is a common goal with a community with God at its center, than it is a blessing.

The night can be a time of terror and curse if we are alone, or it can be a time of warmth and blessing if we gather together to support each other in prayer and deed.

The question that we must ask ourselves is not, why do bad things happen to good people? Rather, we must ask ourselves, when bad things happen to our people, how will we act? When good things happen to our people, how will we act?

Our act, is a choice that each one of us makes, and our choice to live in mitzvah, to live in obligation, affects our whole people.

Words of Torah דברי תורה
How To Treat A Ger (Stranger)

Parashat Ekev, 5770/2010

Delivered by Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh

This week, Rabbis all over this country will undoubtedly be talking about the famous marriage between Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky. Chelsea is from a mixed Christian background and Marc Mezvinsky grew up in a Conservative Jewish community. Entertainment television programs have talked about the wedding for weeks from location, to caterers, to the type of dress that Chelsea will wear. I am sure that Rabbis all over the country are sermonizing right now on the issue of intermarriage.

But as I watch television, I see other messages that are unrelated to this wedding. For the past couple of months, politicians on all sides have begun to position themselves on various issues, and one of these issues is illegal immigration and the undocumented workers that live in our country. Frankly, I am quite troubled by the rhetoric being tossed around. Candidates are vying for who will be the toughest on these people, and some are touting the fact that they will bring Arizona’s controversial immigration law to our state of Florida.

This week, I want to focus on just one mitzvah that is found in our parashah:

Deuteronomy 10:19

יח) עֹשֶׂה מִשְׁפַּט יָתוֹם וְאַלְמָנָה וְאֹהֵב גֵּר לָתֶת לוֹ לֶחֶם וְשִׂמְלָה:

יט) וַאֲהַבְתֶּם אֶת הַגֵּר כִּי גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם:

You shall love the Ger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

What is a Ger?

According to Rashi, a Ger in this context is a convert to Judaism. Rashi asks the question, what does it mean to love the Ger? His answer is that we have to give them bread and garment. In other words, we should not let them be hungry or naked.

What is interesting to me is why Rashi translates Ger as convert. Rashi came to this interpretation from a midrash which related this line to converts and the benefits that they can or cannot receive.

But this line of the Torah actually speaks about something which the midrash does not pick up on. In order to fully see the context of Ger, we have to read the full sentence:

ח) עֹשֶׂה מִשְׁפַּט יָתוֹם וְאַלְמָנָה וְאֹהֵב גֵּר לָתֶת לוֹ לֶחֶם וְשִׂמְלָה:

“but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the Ger, for you were Gerim in the land of Egypt.”

This formula of orphan, widow, and Ger, is found many times in the TaNaK, kind of like a series. What is the commonality between these three types of people?

The JPS commentary states the following, “Those who have no man to protect and provide for them. They are frequently mentioned as examples of the impoverished and the powerless, subject to exploitation, and the Torah makes special provisions for their protection. That God is their protector is mentioned in Exodus 22:21 and elsewhere. This is another aspect of God’s royalty, for protecting the fatherless, the widow, and the poor was a proverbial responsibility of the ancient kings.”

The JPS goes on to explain what a Ger is: The “stranger” (ger) is a resident alien, the non-Israelite residing among the Israelites…When the Israelites settled in the promised land, the land was divided among the tribes and passed on by inheritance. Resident aliens did not normally own land and depended on others for their livelihood. Because of their dependency, gerim were often poor and exposed to exploitation, and the Torah regularly includes them along with widows, orphans, and the poor in appeals and laws designed to protect vulnerable groups.”

Is anyone surprised to see this? This formula is not only found in our Torah, but also in our tefillah. Turn to page 97 of your siddurim.

(ט) יְקֹוָק שֹׁמֵר אֶת גֵּרִים יָתוֹם וְאַלְמָנָה יְעוֹדֵד וְדֶרֶךְ רְשָׁעִים יְעַוֵּת:

(י) יִמְלֹךְ יְקֹוָק לְעוֹלָם אֱלֹקיִךְ צִיּוֹן לְדֹר וָדֹר הַלְלוּ יָק:

Adonai protects the stranger and supports the orphan and widow but frustrates the designs of the wicked, Adonai shall reign through all generations, Your God, Zion, shall reign forever, Halleluyah!

This Psalm says that God does these things, but as we know, our Rabbis expected us to take on this obligation to do God’s work.

These texts give us a clear message: guard the powerless from exploitation.

With a show of hands, how many people had relatives in this country before 1900? Before 1910? 1920? 1940? 1950?

My parents are immigrants to this country. They came to this land after their families were murdered during the Shoah. My grandfather used to tell my father that America had golden streets, this as late as the 1950′s. This country welcomed my family in, but life was not easy for them once they came. They were sometimes taken advantage of, but they over came the adversity put before them and succeeded in this great country.

Many of our ancestors came to this country as poor farmers who did not know a word of English. This led to numerous scams against newly-arrived immigrants at Ellis Island. In fact, the famous Triangle Waist Company Fire in 1911 in New York City which led to the death of 146 people were mostly immigrant Jewish women who were being exploited.

We are a people of perpetual immigrants, roaming from one land to another. Even though we are doing well now in this country, we cannot forget that we too were strangers in a strange land, we too were taken advantage of.

As we watch these commercials today, what is interesting in all this rhetoric is the fear mongering. We are told that these “illegal aliens” a term that I would prefer us not to use, are exploiting us, using their power against us, when in fact, the opposite is probably more true. Undocumented workers are actually the ones being exploited, they are the ones without a vote, without power.

A “Ger” is a stranger, someone is who is powerless, so how do we “love” them? We often look at love as a feeling, but as I have stated numerous times, Jewish love is a verb. We love through action, and as the midrash states, love is giving bread to eat and clothes to wear.

But there is something else:

LEVITICUS 19:33-34 states:
Translation Original
When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God. וְכִי יָגוּר אִתְּךָ גֵּר בְּאַרְצְכֶם לֹא תוֹנוּ אֹתוֹ: כְּאֶזְרָח מִכֶּם יקוק לָכֶם הַגֵּר הַגָּר אִתְּכֶם וְאָהַבְתָּ לוֹ כָּמוֹךָ כִּי גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אֲנִי ה‘ אֱלֹקיכֶם:
The Torah is telling us that love also means seeing yourself in the other because you too shared the same experience.

Today, I could have talked about a high profile intermarriage that is happening this weekend, but the issue of the resident alien, the Ger, is something that is also happening this weekend, and also happened last weekend, and will be there next weekend. It is happening all around us, something we hear about in the midst of the noise of news programs. You may even see Gerim on the streets, in your midst. Their fingerprints are on the food that you eat. You are told constantly to be scared of them, to punish them, and to hate them.

But the messages to look at them as human beings and to love them are also within our Torah, within our Rabbinic literature, within our prayers, everyday.

The message I am bringing to you is not another sound bite from from Liberals or Conservatives, rather it is the word of God as presented from our Torah, pointing out to you what has been in front of you the whole time. I come to you asking you to look at others as human beings.

וַאֲהַבְתֶּם אֶת הַגֵּר כִּי גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם

You shall love the Ger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Illegal immigration is a real problem that must be dealt with, but let’s deal with it in a Jewish way.

Ve’tchanan 2010/5770 – Ten Rules For Society

Delivered by Rabbi David Baum at Shaarei Kodesh

I recently saw a movie called the Invention of Lying. In this alternate reality, you have a world where everyone is completely honest and no one lies, until one man gains the ability to lie. He uses this gift to become rich and famous. But there was a moment where he was at his mother’s death bed that changed everything. She was scared of having no afterlife and he told her a story of what would happen to her after she dies: everyone would receive a mansion, you would have all the food you could eat, etc. The doctors here this and they believe it too because there is no such thing as a lie.

The rest of the movie involves this man, who speaks to the man in the clouds, explaining religion to a world without religion. The way that the writers of the movie play this out is very interesting. This man went into his apartment, and wrote out 10 rules to govern society.

What ten rules would you write?

This is what the man in the movie said to the crowd:

“Everything you need to know are written on these pizza boxes:

• Number 1: There is a man in the sky who controls everything
• Number 2: When you die, you don’t disappear into an eternity of nothingness. Instead, you go to a really great place.
• Number 3: In that place, everyone will get a mansion.
• Number 4: When you die, all the people you love will be there.
• Number 5: When you die, there will be free ice cream for everyone, all day and all night, whatever flavors you can think of.
• Number 6: If you do bad things, you won’t get to go to this great place when you die (You get three chances).
• Number 9: The man in the sky who controls everything decides if you go to the good place or the bad place. He also decides who lives and who dies.
• Number 10: Even if the man in the sky does bad things to you, he makes up for it with an eternity of good stuff after you die.”

But this wasn’t the end, he goes on to explain and amend them because they didn’t necessarily work for everyone. There is a funny part of the scene when everyone starts asking hims questions and then the screen goes blank and says, 2 hours later. And still, he is answering the same questions.

In many ways, we take the 10 commandments for granted. It is not easy to state 10 of the most important commandments that will rule society.

The Assert HaDibrot (the ten utterances), according to the mishnah, were originally included in the daily Temple service. Outside the Temple, the people also wanted to include it in the daily service, but they were forbidden to do so in order to refute the contention of heretical sects (minim) that only the Ten Commandments were divinely given (Ber. 12a).

The midrash writes that all the 613 commandments were written on the tablets in the space between the Ten Commandments (Song R. 5:14, no. 2).

As a result, the Decalogue does not form part of the statutory daily liturgy. The only emphasis given to it is that the congregation rises when it is read as part of the regular weekly portions (twice a year in the portions Yitro and Va-Etḥannan) and on the festival of Shavuot.

We can see in our own lives here in America how seriously Christians take the Ten Commandments. There was even a court battle recently about whether to have the 10 commandments at a court house. So the Ten Commandments are important, but there are also many other commandments that are important.

There are many questions as to why we have the retelling of this account. First off, why would Moshe have to repeat the actual ten commandments? Why not just remind them about the revelation at Sinai? Also, as you can see, there are some major differences between the first telling and the second telling. Remember, the Torah describes the words as being “graven” (harut) on the tablets. It’s really hard to change words that are graven on a tablet. But more so, these words must have been graven on the people’s mouths. These are the 10 most important laws given, so they must have been known.

Let’s look at them next to each other.

So why change them?

The Maharal, a famous commentator, writes that the difference in the two versions are not about content, but about where they came from. He tells us that the first four books of the Torah are written from the perspective of the giver, but this book, Deuteronomy, is written from the perspective of the receiver, Moshe being the principal receiver.

If we look at the two versions, we can see that the changes in the second telling help make the commandments more meaningful for those who are to follow it.

Let’s look at the Shabbat commandment (5^th)

Exodus – “for in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.”

Deuteronomy – Remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Creation is a hard idea to truly grasp (does anyone remember birth?), but the personal experience of being freed from slavery deeply penetrates your core.

The 10 commandments in the Invention of Lying have a theme: if you do good things, you will have an eternity of good stuff after you die, in other words, it’s about the afterlife.

Olam HaBah is important, but that is not what these laws are about. They are about our relationship with God here on Earth.

In our parashah, before we hear about revelation, we are given a pasuk that our Gabbais say before our Torah service:

ד) וְאַתֶּם הַדְּבֵקִים בַּיקֹוָק אֱלֹהֵיכֶם חַיִּים כֻּלְּכֶם הַיּוֹם:

“You, who remained attached to the Lord your God, are all alive today.” (Deut. 4:4)

What does it mean ‘to be attached to God’? As the Talmud (Sotah 14a) asks, is it possible to cleave to the Shechinah, God’s Divine Presence, which the Torah (Deut. 4:24) describes as a “consuming fire“?

The Sages answered:

“Rather, this means you should cleave to God’s attributes. Just as God clothed the naked [Adam and Eve], so too you should cloth the naked. Just as God visited the sick [Abraham after his circumcision], so too you should visit the sick. Just as God consoled the mourners [Isaac after Abraham's death], so too you should console the mourners. Just as God buried the dead [Moses], so too you should bury the dead.”

Rav Kook wrote about this line:

This idea – that we can only attach ourselves to God by imitating His attributes – is a fundamental concept in Judaism. Any other understanding of cleaving to God implies some degree of anthropomorphism or idolatry.

The very existence of ideals, holy aspirations, and ethics in the world and in the human soul mandates the existence of a Divine Source. From where else could they come? Our awareness of the Source of these ideals elevates them, revealing new wellsprings of light and pure life.

I know we think that the 10 commandments are a given, but can you imagine a world without these base rules? This world existed before our Torah was given to us.

The midrash tells us that we should look at the tablets of the Ten Commandments as a wedding ring, symbolizing the marriage of God and the Jewish people. After 40 years, we see that a lot has changed between the relationship between Moses, God and the Jewish people.

This tells us that our relationship is constantly changing, but our obligations to each other stay the same. These mitzvoth, as Moshe taught us, are to touch the very core of who we are.

We cling to God in every generation, and when we cling to God by doing these Jewish things called mitzvoth, not just 10 of them, but many more; and when we do them, we elevate ourselves and the world around us, we add meaning and purpose to our lives, and in this way we TRULY LIVE.

ד) וְאַתֶּם הַדְּבֵקִים בַּיקֹוָק אֱלֹהֵיכֶם חַיִּים כֻּלְּכֶם הַיּוֹם:

“You, who remained attached to the Lord your God, are all alive today.” (Deut. 4:4)

Parashat Balak – 2010/5770 by Rabbi David Baum

This week, we saw the sentencing of a religious Jew to jail. In the last couple of years, we have gotten used to hearing Jewish names being given long jail sentences, but this time was a little different. This was not the first time that we have seen a religious Jew going to jail, but every time you see a Jew with a kippah, beard, and tzitit being sentenced, you wince a little bit.

Sholom Rubashkin, former manager of what was once the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, was sentenced to 27 years in jail for various crimes including bank fraud, money laundering, knowingly employing many undocumented workers, breaking labor laws, etc . In fact, I want to go on record as saying that although I think he is guilty and should receive jail time, 27 years is excessive.

But now, after first saying that he was not in the wrong, Sholom has publicly stated that he was wrong, but it gets you wondering how something like this could happen. This same week, there was an article written about a formerly powerful Orthodox Jew, Jack Abramoff, working at a Pizza place after he was released for serving prison time for fraud, corruption, and conspiracy.

Looks can be deceiving. When we look at a person who looks like a religious Jew, we think that they would not be fall into the same problems that a non-religious Jew would fall into. But it isn’t the outside that matters, rather, it is the inside. Inside, no matter how these people dress, they have the same inner motivations and make choices everyday that can either make them good or wicked.

Our parashah deals with a very interesting character by the name of Balaam. Balaam was a non-Jewish prophet who famously blessed Israel when he was ordered to curse them.

Pirkei Avot does something very interesting. It compares our prophet, Balaam, a non-Jewish prophet, to Avraham, the first Jew but also the father to other non-Jewish nations. During Balaam’s third prophesy, he utters a powerful declaration about Israel, one that is directed to the other nations of the ancient Near East: “Blessed are they who bless you, accursed they who curse you!” (Num. 24:9). This verse looks very familiar to what God said to Avraham in Bereshit: “I will bless those who bless you and curse him that curses you; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you” (Gen. 12:3).

So we have these two figures, two prophets, who use similar language. How are they the same, and how are they different?

Mishnah Avot 5:21
[יז] כל מי שיש בידו שלשה דברים הללו מתלמידיו של אברהם אבינו ושלשה דברים אחרים מתלמידיו של בלעם הרשע עין טובה ורוח נמוכה ונפש שפלה מתלמידיו של אברהם אבינו עין רעה ורוח גבוה ונפש רחבה מתלמידיו של בלעם הרשע מה בין תלמידיו של אברהם אבינו לתלמידיו של בלעם הרשע תלמידיו של אברהם אבינו אוכלין בעולם הזה ונוחלין בעולם הבא שנאמר (משלי ח’) להנחיל אוהבי יש ואוצרותיהם אמלא אבל תלמידיו של בלעם הרשע יורשין גיהנם ויורדין לבאר שחת שנאמר (תהלים נ”ה) ואתה אלהים תורידם לבאר שחת אנשי דמים ומרמה לא יחצו ימיהם ואני אבטח בך:

Whoever has the following three traits is among the students of our forefather Avraham; and whoever has three different traits, he is the student of the wicked Bilaam. Those who have a good eye (or a generous spirit), a humble spirit, and an undemanding soul are the disciples of our forefather Avraham.
Those who have an evil eye, an arrogant spirit, and a greedy soul are the disciples of the wicked Balaam.
How are the students of our forefather Avraham different from the students of the wicked Balaam? The students of our forefather Avraham enjoy (the fruits of their good deeds) in this world and inherit the World to Come, as it is said, “To cause those who love Me to inherit an everlasting possession (the World to Come) and I will fill their storehouses (in this world) [Proverbs 8:21]. But the students of the wicked Balaam inherit Genhinnom (Jewish hell) and descend into the well of destruction, as it is said: And You, O God, shall lower them into the well of destruction, men of bloodshed and deceit shall not live out half their days; but as for me, I will trust in You (Psalms 55:24).

Let’s break it down, what do Abraham’s qualities mean?
1.A good eye – Rashi – one who does not suffer from jealousy and to whom a friend’s honor is as dear as his own. Rambam and Rav – a good eye, is the knack of being satisfied with one’s own lot in life and being happy over the success of others.
2.A humble soul (Ruach) – Rashi, Rav – exceptional humility and modesty of spirit.
3.A modest appetite (Nefesh) –
Meiri – one who can exercise restraint and self-control over forbidden physical desires or even over excessive luxuries enjoys spiritually healthy soul without desire for lust.
All three seem to be connected.

What about Balaam’s qualities?
עין רעה ורוח גבוה ונפש רחבה
Evil eye – Rambam – one who is CURSED with an insatiable appetite for wealth tends to be jealous and begrudges others any success.
An arrogant (or high) spirit – Arrogance in this case refers to an incident in our parashah where it seems that Balaam would disobey God if he was given more prestige (Numbers 24:2).
A greedy soul – Midrash Shmuel states that this implies a “wide” soul meaning that they feel a misleading emptiness in their lives which they fill with lustful things that can never satisfy them.

The theme here that most of the commentators choose is how to overcome greed and jealousy. These things arguably lead to many of the ills of our world. Greed can be seen in crimes of business, crimes where people are robbed of their hard earned money, but also in shoddy building materials, whether they are houses made out of Chinese drywall or oil drills that are poorly built or that lack safety measures that cost more money.

As we look at these religious Jews or religious Christians who have done good things in their lives, but clearly also very bad things, we have to ask ourselves: were they born like this? Is someone born greedy or good, or do they have a choice?

The Sefat Emet, a famous Hasidic master, looks at this mishnah as having Avraham and Balaam inside of all of us. He states:
“The war goes on every day. It also takes place within the individual Jew, and we have to arouse Abraham’s quality of grace every day. The wicked and the will to do evil also strengthen themselves each day, arousing the forces of judgement.”

The fight between good and evil, between contentment, trust in God, and goodness, and between jealousy, lust, and greed, happens every day. Each one of us is capable of being Avraham, and each one of us is capable of being Balaam. This battle does not happen on the outside. We don’t have a physical description of either Avraham of Balaam, but we know what was inside of them. This battle is internal, and it is waged in each one of us everyday.

The stakes are enormous, and as we see, because it involves the fate of our existence as human beings on earth.

Even after hearing about all of the bad things in the world, there are actually more good things. The Sefet Emet writes that goodness is more plentiful. When the righteous succeed in finding grace in this world, all that the wicked do is not able to take that grace from them.

It may seem harder to be good, but it is better for us all. This is what God wants from us. He wants us to strive to be Avraham in our souls. He wants us to receive the fruits of our good deeds on here and after in Olam Habah, not to inherit Gehenim, a well of destruction.

Let us strive to receive the blessings of God through goodness – caring for others, a good eye, humility, and satisfaction with out lots in life.