Parashat Be'ha'a'lot'kha
Torah: Numbers 8:1-12:16
Haftarah: Zechariah 2:14 - 4:7
Sivan 18, 5785 - June 13-14, 2025
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This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for the hostages.
This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for the wounded and injured.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; May those who love you know tranquility.
Psalms 122:6
שַׁאֲלוּ, שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם; יִשְׁלָיוּ, אֹהֲבָיִךְ
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Lunch and Learn meets Mondays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. We're continuing to read and discuss the Midrashic collection Ein Ya'akov. Recently, we have also been learning some Gemara that was omitted from Ein Ya'akov.
On June 16, we'll be at BT Yevamot 46b -
'... אָמַר רַבָּה: עוֹבָדָא הֲוָה בֵּי רַבִּי חִיָּיא בַּר רַבִּי' - "Rabba said: There was an incident in the house of Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Rabbi..."
Ein Ya'akov (Glick edition) is available for on-line reading or as a downloadable PDF at:
https://hebrewbooks.org/9630
A pointed Hebrew text version with different pagination is available at Sefaria:
https://www.sefaria.org/Ein_Yaakov?tab=contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out our wonderful community, and get lots of info about our various programs and becoming a Member at: https://bnaihayim.org/ ----------------------------------------------------------------Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source. ------------------------------------------------------
SOME ARE GUILTY, BUT ALL ARE RESPONSIBLE
The
following is an extensive and lightly edited extract from a sermon I delivered
on the second day of Rosh Hashanah 5784 (September 2023). I think it is every
bit relevant to the events unfolding around us in Los Angeles and throughout
the United States this very week.
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I had occasion recently to read a speech by
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel from 1963. The title is “Religion and Race”,
delivered at a conference of the same name in Chicago. It was there that he met
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the first time. The speech contains
this famous saying of Heschel: “Some are guilty, but all are responsible.” I
read that aphorism, which I have heard innumerable times over the years, in its
original context for the first time.
Heschel’s statement conjured up for me, in a
new light, something else. He reminded me of teachings from Tractate Shabbat
54(b)-55(a), which I will tell in story form, including my commentary.
A group of rabbis were sitting and discussing
Torah, teaching each other and learning from each other, as rabbis do, and they
said: Anyone who had the capability to effectively protest the misconduct of the members of his
household and did not protest, he himself is apprehended for the
misconduct of the members of his household and punished. If he is in
a position to protest the conduct of the people of his town, and he
fails to do so, he is apprehended for the misconduct of the
people of his town. If he is in a position to protest the misconduct
of the whole world, and he fails to do
so, he is apprehended for the misconduct of the whole
world.
Rav Pappa said: And the members of
the household of the Resh Galuta, the Exilarch who was the leader of the Jews
in Babylonia, were apprehended and punished for the misconduct
of the whole world. Because their authority extends across the entire
Jewish world, it is in their hands to ensure that nobody commit a
transgression. Rabbi Ḥanina then said: What is the meaning
of this verse: “The Lord will enter into judgment with the Elders of His
people and its princes, saying: It is you who have eaten up the vineyard; the
robbery of the poor is in your houses” (Isaiah 3:14)?
The Gemara continues: The question
arises: If the princes sinned by committing robbery, what did
the Elders, i.e., the Sages of that generation, do that was considered
a sin? Rather, say: God will enter into judgment with the Elders
because they did not protest the sinful conduct of the princes…..”
Think
about this for a moment. According to these rabbis, anyone who fails to protest
sin, evildoing, immoral conduct, the mistreatment of others, etc., is to be
punished for that misconduct AS IF IT WERE THEIR OWN – because they did not
protest. That sounds a lot like the Yom Kippur liturgy, doesn’t it, where we communally
confess to sins we didn’t individually commit. And it sounds a lot like
Heschel.
The
Gemara continues: “….With regard to the issue of reprimand, it was related
that Rabbi Zeira said to Rabbi Simon: ‘Let my Master
reprimand the members of the house of the Exilarch,’ as Rabbi
Simon had some influence over them. Rabbi Simon said to him: ‘They will
not accept reprimand from me.’ Rabbi Zeira said to him:
‘Let my master reprimand them even if they do not accept it….’”
Rabbi
Zeira challenges his teacher, his rabbi, with a big “So what? You need to
confront them even if they won’t listen to you!” The Gemara then goes a step
further, in defense of Rabbi Zeira’s position.
After God’s angel separates the non-righteous
Resh Galuta family from the righteous rabbis of the city by special markings, for
the purpose of rendering justice, this next thing happened: “…The attribute of
Justice (yes, Justice and Mercy and Truth and Love have voices in rabbinic
literature) – the attribute of Justice said before HaKadosh Barukh Hu, the Holy
One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, how are these different from those?
God said to that attribute: These rabbis are full-fledged
righteous people, they’re tzaddikim, and those members of the Resh
Galuta’s house are full-fledged wicked people, they’re rasha’im. Justice
replies: Ribono shel olam, Master of the Universe, it was
in the hands of the righteous to protest the conduct
of the wicked, and they did not protest. God said to Justice: ‘It is
revealed and known before Me that even had they protested
the conduct of the wicked, the wicked would not have
accepted the reprimand from them. They would have continued in
their wicked ways.’ Justice replies: ‘Ribono shel olam, though it was
revealed before You that their reprimand would have been
ineffective, was it revealed to them? (I.e., just because YOU knew that
their protests would have been ignored, did THEY know?) God then retracted
the promise to protect the righteous and decided that those who failed to
protest would also be punished.”
According to our rabbis, God changes God’s
mind, and punishes those whose crime is not speaking out against injustice.
This is what Heschel’s teaching reminded me of – it’s a kind of equivalence –
if few are guilty but all are responsible, it’s because those who failed to
protest against injustice are thereby responsible for the perpetuation of
injustice.
Are we really responsible for injustice even
if we are not guilty? I would add: Are we foolish enough to deny the existence
of injustice in America, or in Israel, or in any other place? Do we really
believe that there is no pattern of brutality and deprivation of rights of
people of color in this country? Or of “the strangers among us”? Just because
we ourselves might not be racists, does that mean that there is no systemic
racism in this country? Do we refrain from protesting because we think it will
do no good? Like the good Rabbi Simon?
A protest against injustice is not only for
benefit of the current victims, but for the benefit, perhaps I should say the
protection of the protesters as well. At the end of the story about the rabbis
who failed to protest injustice, the Gemara offers a proof text as follows: Rav
Yehuda was sitting before Shmuel when a woman came and cried before Shmuel about an injustice that had been
committed against her, and Shmuel paid no attention to her. Rav
Yehuda said to Shmuel: Doesn’t the Master hold in
accordance with the verse: “Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor,
he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13)?
Rav Yehuda asks his teacher: Don’t you
believe what you preach?
We have a week or so until Yom Kippur to
think about this and to figure out what we will do in the year ahead to protest
the injustices of our society – to resist – even if we think we will be ignored
– even if we think we might suffer as a result.
If we are serious about connecting to the
High Holy Day liturgy and theology, then we must understand that our failure to
speak out can bring on, in some way or shape or form, a punishment.
Yesterday, our synagogue president, Dr. Lee,
reminded us of Martin Niemoller’s “First they came for the Socialists…etc.….
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Do we see a
pattern here? If we do not speak out, there will be none to speak out for us
when our time comes. If we ignore the cries of others, there will be no one who
cares to hear our cries of pain and anguish.
As some of you may know, I’m a big Star Trek
fan. One of the primary nemeses in the series and movies is the Borg, who seek
to destroy, through their warped idea of assimilation into their machine
species, every other species and culture. Their catchphrase is: “Resistance is
futile.” My hero, Captain Picard, despite the destruction of many ships in the
fleet, despite the likelihood of defeat, fights back and responds: “Resistance
is not futile!”
He’s
right. Resistance is not futile. Resistance is mandatory.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Richard A. Flom, Rabbi Emeritus
Temple B'nai Hayim
שתיקה כהודאה דמיא
Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.
BT Yevamot 88(a)
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