Shalom:
As I am on my mini-sabbatical, I am forwarding to you this vort from my friend and colleague at TBH/CBM, Rabbi Jason Van Leeuwen.
I am also including, following Reb Jason's vort, a brief piece from Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald and our friends at NJOP.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Temple B'nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier
Blogging at: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/
"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"
"Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”
BT Yevamot 88a
Parashat Pinchas: Can Wrong Be Right?
Two days after the Continental Congress signed a patently illegal declaration, Jews around the world opened their Torah scrolls and encountered another type of revolutionary. After Pinchas, son of Elazar, son of Aaron the Kohen, speared an Israelite and a Moabite in the Tent of Meeting, magically staving off a deadly plague, God rewards him with "My covenant of friendship." In God's words, Pinchas "has turned back my fury" against the Israelites for their idolatrous debauchery.
Why are we presented with such a troubling concept, what Kirkegaard called the "teleological suspension of the ethical?" The Palestinian Talmud also reacted with ambivalence: "he acted without approval of the Sages." So both Jefferson and Pinchas indelibly moved without approval of the governing authorities, and both are rewarded in the end.
But shall we judge them identically? Were their actions equally ethical? Pinchas killed, which led to lives saved, while Jefferson, et al., gave life to a revolutionary way of governing but escalated a conflict that put his own and many other Americans' lives at risk. Jefferson used the pen, while Pinchas used the proverbial sword. It's hard to tell which is mightier, and it's hard to know what God wants us to do with this information today. Doesn't the Torah also teach, "justice (just ends), justice (just means) shall you pursue?" Doesnt it also require cross-examination prior to establishing a crime has been committed? Have we found ourselves in a situation where we were confronted with such a choice? Is incivility ever rewarded? Is revolution ever an option?
Apparently yes - but seldom. Pinchas was a one shot deal. He was kicked upstairs to a strictly regimented life of sacrificing and healing. No more spears for you, young man. Jefferson, too, was kicked upstairs to the presidency 25 years later, after carefully crafting changes to the Constitution within its prescribed framework. The revolutionaries assumed vast power and never again acted above the law.
Last weekend, I was asked if I'd like to get arrested in front of the ICE building on Alameda St. I was unavailable that day, but I'm seriously considering it. I've gotten arrested before in acts of civil disobedience, but I haven't made a habit of it. When, if ever, is it appropriate to break the law?
Thoreau was thrown in jail for refusing in protest to pay his Mexican War tax. Dr. King was a guest of many municipal corrections authorities. Gandhi turned back the British empire without picking up a spear. None of these acts is revolutionary nor violent. They are designed to redeem the rule of law so that just ends can be achieved by just means. Civil disobedience is not uncivil, it is supremely ethical.
But we must take care not to misunderstand the message of Pinchas or Jefferson. Their acts should be seen as historical anomalies to he employed only in times of epic crisis, like a deadly plague, or oppressive government, or Hitler. However the plague of political polarization plays out, we are not living in such times. The tools of protest are readily available to us. We have been petitioning our government, worked through the courts, and sometimes resorted to civil disobedience, all just means, and we have the power as sovereign citizens to shape our government so justice can be fairly and humanely meted out for "the citizen and the stranger" alike.
Most importantly, nowhere are we told - in this week's parasha or underneath this week's fireworks - to do nothing. Part of celebrating America and Judaism's greatness is that we seek to redeem this world through increased fairness. All of us stood at Sinai, and all of us are created equal. As Jewish Americans, we have the right and sacred responsibility to participate in the public square and deliberate on the right and the good. 2nd wave feminism bequeathed to us "the personal is political." The converse is true as well. We are not fully Americans, or Jews, or fully human, unless we seek and pursue Justice and peace, for ourselves, our fellow citizen, and the stranger alike.
May God remove all oppression from this earth, and give us "pit'hon peh," open our mouths so we can speak God's truth.
Shabbat Shalom
Reb Jason van Leeuwen
Two days after the Continental Congress signed a patently illegal declaration, Jews around the world opened their Torah scrolls and encountered another type of revolutionary. After Pinchas, son of Elazar, son of Aaron the Kohen, speared an Israelite and a Moabite in the Tent of Meeting, magically staving off a deadly plague, God rewards him with "My covenant of friendship." In God's words, Pinchas "has turned back my fury" against the Israelites for their idolatrous debauchery.
Why are we presented with such a troubling concept, what Kirkegaard called the "teleological suspension of the ethical?" The Palestinian Talmud also reacted with ambivalence: "he acted without approval of the Sages." So both Jefferson and Pinchas indelibly moved without approval of the governing authorities, and both are rewarded in the end.
But shall we judge them identically? Were their actions equally ethical? Pinchas killed, which led to lives saved, while Jefferson, et al., gave life to a revolutionary way of governing but escalated a conflict that put his own and many other Americans' lives at risk. Jefferson used the pen, while Pinchas used the proverbial sword. It's hard to tell which is mightier, and it's hard to know what God wants us to do with this information today. Doesn't the Torah also teach, "justice (just ends), justice (just means) shall you pursue?" Doesnt it also require cross-examination prior to establishing a crime has been committed? Have we found ourselves in a situation where we were confronted with such a choice? Is incivility ever rewarded? Is revolution ever an option?
Apparently yes - but seldom. Pinchas was a one shot deal. He was kicked upstairs to a strictly regimented life of sacrificing and healing. No more spears for you, young man. Jefferson, too, was kicked upstairs to the presidency 25 years later, after carefully crafting changes to the Constitution within its prescribed framework. The revolutionaries assumed vast power and never again acted above the law.
Last weekend, I was asked if I'd like to get arrested in front of the ICE building on Alameda St. I was unavailable that day, but I'm seriously considering it. I've gotten arrested before in acts of civil disobedience, but I haven't made a habit of it. When, if ever, is it appropriate to break the law?
Thoreau was thrown in jail for refusing in protest to pay his Mexican War tax. Dr. King was a guest of many municipal corrections authorities. Gandhi turned back the British empire without picking up a spear. None of these acts is revolutionary nor violent. They are designed to redeem the rule of law so that just ends can be achieved by just means. Civil disobedience is not uncivil, it is supremely ethical.
But we must take care not to misunderstand the message of Pinchas or Jefferson. Their acts should be seen as historical anomalies to he employed only in times of epic crisis, like a deadly plague, or oppressive government, or Hitler. However the plague of political polarization plays out, we are not living in such times. The tools of protest are readily available to us. We have been petitioning our government, worked through the courts, and sometimes resorted to civil disobedience, all just means, and we have the power as sovereign citizens to shape our government so justice can be fairly and humanely meted out for "the citizen and the stranger" alike.
Most importantly, nowhere are we told - in this week's parasha or underneath this week's fireworks - to do nothing. Part of celebrating America and Judaism's greatness is that we seek to redeem this world through increased fairness. All of us stood at Sinai, and all of us are created equal. As Jewish Americans, we have the right and sacred responsibility to participate in the public square and deliberate on the right and the good. 2nd wave feminism bequeathed to us "the personal is political." The converse is true as well. We are not fully Americans, or Jews, or fully human, unless we seek and pursue Justice and peace, for ourselves, our fellow citizen, and the stranger alike.
May God remove all oppression from this earth, and give us "pit'hon peh," open our mouths so we can speak God's truth.
Shabbat Shalom
Reb Jason van Leeuwen
From our friends at National Jewish Outreach Program and Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald
The Antidote Of Baseless Hatred
The calendrical period between the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz and the Fast of Tisha B’av is known as Bein Hame’tzarim (in the midst of distress) and is referred to colloquially as the “Three Weeks.” While the latter describes the time frame between these two fasts, the former, finds its source from the verse in Scripture (Lamentations 1:3), “all her [Israel’s] pursuers overtook her in the midst of her distress.” The Three Weeks represents the saddest period in the Jewish calendar.
The Talmud teaches that while the First Temple was destroyed because of the cardinal sins of murder, idolatry and sexual immorality, the successful razing of the Second Temple by the Romans is attributed to Sinat Chunam, which literally means “free hatred,” but connotes hatred for no apparent reason or, at least, no legitimate reason.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook famously stated that the antidote to baseless hatred is baseless love, Ahavat Chinam (Orot Hakodesh, section 3, page 324). In modern parlance, which perhaps owes a proper citation to Rabbi Kook, the concept of “random acts of kindness” may find its source from this idea.
During the period of the Three Weeks, Jewish Treats will endeavor to share some brief and inspiring thoughts related to the topic of Ahavat Chinam, or Ahavat Yisrael, the love we should exhibit for our fellow Jews.
The primary Scriptural source associated with Ahavat Chinam and Ahavat Yisrael is the famous “Golden Rule: “You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18). Rabbi Hillel famously taught, “that which is hateful to you, do not do to others” (Talmud Shabbat 31a). Referring to this Biblical verse, Rabbi Akiva proclaimed: “This is a major principle of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:4).
Copyright © 2018 NJOP. All rights reserved.
The Talmud teaches that while the First Temple was destroyed because of the cardinal sins of murder, idolatry and sexual immorality, the successful razing of the Second Temple by the Romans is attributed to Sinat Chunam, which literally means “free hatred,” but connotes hatred for no apparent reason or, at least, no legitimate reason.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook famously stated that the antidote to baseless hatred is baseless love, Ahavat Chinam (Orot Hakodesh, section 3, page 324). In modern parlance, which perhaps owes a proper citation to Rabbi Kook, the concept of “random acts of kindness” may find its source from this idea.
During the period of the Three Weeks, Jewish Treats will endeavor to share some brief and inspiring thoughts related to the topic of Ahavat Chinam, or Ahavat Yisrael, the love we should exhibit for our fellow Jews.
The primary Scriptural source associated with Ahavat Chinam and Ahavat Yisrael is the famous “Golden Rule: “You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18). Rabbi Hillel famously taught, “that which is hateful to you, do not do to others” (Talmud Shabbat 31a). Referring to this Biblical verse, Rabbi Akiva proclaimed: “This is a major principle of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:4).
Copyright © 2018 NJOP. All rights reserved.
