Social Foundations of Education and Media

This week’s Torah portion relates several interesting stories -

the appearance of 3 angels to announce that Sarah would have a child in her old age,

 Abraham’s almost comical bargaining with the Divine to save Sodom if there were at least 10 good people in the city,

Lot’s hospitality to 3 guests in his home – to the point of offering his daughters, instead of allowing the townspeople do what they would to his guests,

the destruction of Sodom

Lot and his daughter’s refuge in a cave, the daughters’ plans to continue their family’s existence, their descendants becoming neighboring peoples of Israel – Moab and Ammon,

Abraham’s calling Sarah his sister in Abimelech’s camp to assure his own safety,

Abimelech’s dream and compensation for taking Sarah,

the birth of Isaac – laughter – for he was born to an old Sarah,

Sarah’s demand that Hagar and Ishmael be exiled from the camp, 

 the divine promise that Ishmael would also be the father of a great nation,

 Hagar’s despair that her child and she would die in the desert,

their rescue by an angel who showed Hagar a well,

Abraham’s treaty in Beer-Sheba, negotiating water rights,

the Divine test of Abraham’s loyalty – the potential sacrifice of Isaac.

Each of these stories would be good topic for a discussion.  In the next paragraph, I will explore another idea – the emphasis on seeing in this week’s portion.

 A source for determining the readings of a week may be found at http://www.hebcal.com/sedrot/.  The reading for פרשת וירא for the first third of the triennenial cycle is Parashat Vayera Genesis 18:1-33, according to http://www.hebcal.com/sedrot/vayera.html.  The Haftarah for Ashkenazim is II Kings 4:1 – 4:37 – about Elisha and his reviving of the son of a Shunammite woman.

The entire portion, Genesis 18:1 – 22:20 is filled with references to seeing.  Using http://bible.ort.org/books/torahd5.asp?action=displaypage&book=1&chapter=18&verse=1&portion=4, I found over 20 references to seeing, related to the Hebrew root – Yod-Resh-Hay, or to the Hebrew for eyes.  There were also references to a related word – fear/afraid – from the same root, for seeing may lead to fearing.

There are other phrases in the Torah that focus on seeing, or hearing, or remembering.  I would suggest that there is no other place that has as concentrated emphases on one way to gain information in the world as in this portion.  The portion starts with the Divine appearing to Abraham in the form of 3 strangers, with whom Abraham shares a festive meal, demonstrating the hospitality that was one of his greatest virtues.   

Seeing is also dangerous;  Lot’s wife looked back at the destruction of Sodom and became a pillar of salt.  Hagar placed her son at a distance so that she would not see him die, then her eyes were opened and she saw the path for survival. 

Abraham’s test – the Akedah – the binding of Isaac, also refers to sight.  Abraham tells Isaac when asked that the Divine will see to the lamb.  Abraham sees Mount Moriah – the Divine will see – from a distance.  Abraham saw a ram caught in the thicket.

The emphases on seeing, all of the references, suggest that one does need to see to believe.  Seeing may lead to fear but it may also lead to solutions to problems.  Avoiding seeing, like Hagar did, may be overturned when one opens one’s eyes to the options and resources in life, when one sees new ways to accommodate the difficulties of life.  Belief may allow one to use sight for the benefit of oneself and others. 

The mount that was the site of the near-sacrifice of Isaac is now, by tradition, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the site where the followers of the three religions of the children of Abraham wrestle to share its holiness.  It is known as Mount Moriah, “the Divine will see”.  With belief, one will also see the best in life and see on the horizon the coming of better days.  May we see it in our own days.

Akeidah - binding of Isaac

Al-Qaeda (also al-Qaida or al-Qa’ida or al-Qa’idah) (Arabic: القاعدة‎ al-qāʕida, translation: The Base)

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaida#The_Name_Al-Qaeda

The name of the organization comes from the Arabic noun qā’idah, which means “foundation, basis” and can also refer to a military “base”. The initial al- is the Arabic definite article “the”, hence “the base”.

Osama bin Laden explained the origin of the term in a videotaped interview with al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni in October 2001:

The binding of Isaac, Akeidah, and the term that became used often after 9/11, al-Qaeda, sound very similar to these ears. The bounds of a son being sacrificed in war may form a network of sons fighting for a cause worldwide. The stones that served as an altar may also found a base. Mount Moriah, the place of the altar according to legend, is also the site of the contested Temple Mount, where Akeidah and al-Qaeda might meet again to sacrifice others for their causes.

Let us hope that in a safe world both the non-rational sacrifice of sons and the need for armed struggle to shake loose injustice will both become stories and legends and not evident in our daily lives.

It is new year in our community.  This year, we all say how early it has come.  The new moon of the fall season arrived before the autumnal equinox, on a Wednesday evening before mid-September.  Since the dates on the lunar calendar of 5768 and the solar calendar of 2007 are unique, each year we have a reaction to their timing.  The new year has broken pleasant, warm days and cool nights, but not the rains that we need.

Debbie and I have been honored during the past years to read/chant the story of Hannah and the birth of Samuel as the haftorah (I Samuel 1:1-2:10), the reading after the Torah. 

This was a year when I chanted the story.  Elkana of Ephraim had two wives, one of which, Hannah, did not have any children.  Hannah went to Shilo, the northern kingdom’s Temple site, and prayed silently at its entrance.  Eli, the priest, observed her distress and accused her of drunkenness.  After explaining her despair, Eli wished that her petition for a child be granted.  In due time, Hannah had a child whom she had pledged to have the priests raise, lending him to the Lord.  That child was Samuel, who would be the prophet that would establish Saul and David as kings of Israel.  Debbie read what is known as the song of Hannah, a poem that expresses a theme of the season, that the Lord determines the future directions of people, that “the barren woman has borne seven children, while the mother of many is forlorn.”  With faith, and patience, “and not by one’s own strength”, does one succeed in this life.

The Torah reading (Genesis 21) that precedes this story is of the birth of Isaac, the conflict between Sarah and Hagar over the place of their sons in the future of Abraham’s descendants, the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, the promise of Ishmael’s future as a father of a great nation, and a peace treaty between Abraham and local kings over water rights and wells.  This is a story first told over 3,000 years ago, but pertinent for today for the Arab people and Islam sees Ishmael as the true inheritor of the Divine’s promise to Abraham.  Israel today is in need of the diplomatic skills of Abraham to resolve the conflicts of water and territory with its neighbors.  And women still fight over the place of their children and of themselves in a community.

This year, I focused on the notion of weaning found in both of the Torah and haftorah stories.  Over second evening dinner at the Rabbi’s home, we discussed that the Hebrew word for weaning has the consonants G-M-L, which are also the consonants for GaMeL – camel.  It was fun to play with these words and to try to make the connections, but we are no longer desert people who know camels and weaning well.  Both Abraham and Elkanar and Hannah had great celebrations when their sons were weaned.  It is too bad that we have lost this custom.  Perhaps it is because sons are no longer ever psychologically weaned from their mothers in this culture now. 

The three members of our family remaining in our home this season developed a new year’s card and e-newsletter that we sent to our family and friends via email, with a few copies going to relatives who do not use computers.  Our e-newsletter included a photo of our camel-riding last December in the northern Negev near Dimona, a blurry picture of the Temple Mount, a photo of Debbie and me in a cistern on Masada, and family photos from other happy events throughout the year.  We look forward to another year of health, happiness, peace, and learning – which is our wish to all we know and all with whom we share this lovely planet during these always interesting times.  L’shanah tovah.

A useful calendar to determine Hebrew readings is found at http://www.hebcal.com/converter/ .

This morning in our congregation there was an auf-ruf – a calling up of an engaged couple before their wedding to receive a blessing for their pending wedding.  It was auspicious this week for the haftorah read from Isaiah VXI, 10-LXIII, 9, compares the relationship of the Divine with the people Israel as a bride-groom and a bride.  It is a fitting reading for the seventh haftorah of consolation and is read the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah. 

The Torah reading is part of the closing narrative of Moses’ life, preceding the song of Moses, the blessing of the tribes, and his death at 120, read in the next weeks, the last readings of the yearly cycle.   Of particular note for our congregation is Deuteronomy, XXX, 19, which includes “choose life, so that you may live, you and your seed.”  These words appear in large, stylistic bronze letters on the congregation’s ark.  I am thinking of using this wisdom within my speech to my daughter at her bat mitzvah ceremony.  This phrase follows Deuteronomy, XXX, 11-14, “for this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for ou, neither is it far off.  It is not in heaven, that you should say: ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say:  ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?’  But the sord is very near you, in your mother, and in your heart, that you may do it.”

 I joked with Rav Jeremy that these Shabbat readings should be read for every auf-ruf or perhaps all engagements should be on this Shabbat.  Right after the 9th of Av, a day of national mourning, on the 14 of Av, the full moon in mid-summer, legends tell us that the young women would run in the fields and in the cities in their fineries to attract men.  Perhaps 7 weeks later, these new couples would announce their engagements while listening to these readings.  Perhaps they would marry during the readings of Chayei Sarah, about 7 more weeks from now, which relates the early love story between Rebecca and Isaac and the late love story between Batsheva and David.  Chayei Sarah was the reading the day before Debbie and I were wed.  We met at the end of July, were engaged in September, and wed in November – following the schedule that I am suggesting would be a good pattern for others, for these traditions and readings would be supportive.

The reading that includes “choose life, so that you may live, you and your seed” is found as an alternative to the second paragraph of the Sh’ma in the prayer books that are used by Reconstructionist synagogues.  It is a simple message, choose the life-affirming over negative actions.  The Hebrew of the phrase is intriguing.  The Hebrew word translated as choose – beharta – may be a command for “you choose”, with you as a singular, male noun.  Behar is also related in Hebrew to the concept of desire, a behor is a desired male.  Behar is followed with the preposition in – choose in, desire in.   The word for life Haiim is used as toast of good wishes – l’haiim – to life.  Haiim is a plural noun, hai is a life.  Chayei Sarah is the life of Sarah. The Hebrew that I have translated as “so that” is also translated as “for the sake of” or “to the path of”.  “You and your seed” are in the singular form.  The word for seed may also be understood as plantings or descendants.  The simple message is that you should desire life so that you and your children will live. 

It was a warm, late summer day.   We prepare for the new year by sending names in for the synagogue’s memorial book and by writing our annual new year letter to our family and friends.  Some of these letters will be copied on paper in color and sent to some of our relatives, others will receive an email version.  We add that we hope that we have not offend or hurt anyone during the past year and ask for forgiveness.  We continue to believe in life and pray for the health, happiness, peace, and fulfillment of all.  Happy new year – may you be inscribed in the book of life, affirming the wonders and miracles of each day, week, month, and year.

This Shabbat occurred on Labor Day weekend and there was a bar mitzvah celebration in the community.  The bar mitzvah spoke of his uncertainty about the Divine but the importance of doing right with other people. 

The portion of this week was Ki Tavo – when you come into the land - details the connections between the people and the Divine.   The section read in our community was Deuteronomy 27:11-28:3, dealing with a mystical scene with half of the tribes standing on one mountain, the older 6 tribes standing on a facing mountain, with the Levites shouting curses on those who did not follow the commandments of the Divine, blessings for those who do observe, then another series of terrible curses on those who hearken to the voice of the Divine.  The closing curse concludes a threat that the Divine would bring the people back to Egypt in ships.  The slave market would be so over-saturated that the people would not even be able to be sold as slaves.

The haftorah for this sixth Shabbat of Consolation is from Isaiah LX.  It presents an optimistic, mystical, messianic image of a future in which the Divine will be an everlasting light and the days of mourning wll be ended.  Written at the time of rebuilding of the second Temple after the Babylonian exile, it is a rallying song for those returnees from the empire’s capital, near Baghdad now, to recreate a society that had been overturned one hundred years before. 

With these readings, we climb into a bright future if we make the right choices, choose life-affirming plans and are positive about tomorrow.   On Labor Day weekend, we celebrate the last days of summer and plan for the future school year, prepare for the coming fall and winter, and hope for right choices and positive days ahead.

This week’s portion paralleled events in our lives as we went forth to deliver our son to his first year of college.  We were at Sharei Tzdek, my wife’s parents’ synagogue in Amherst, New York for the Torah reading.  That congregation reads the entire Torah portion, with detailed commentary by their rabbi, before each reading.  Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19 was the portion of the week.

Our family have discussed the concluding section of this reading, about blotting out the name of Amalek from the families of the world.  We thought it gave a strange message of remembering to forget Amalek, a tribe that attacked the weak and old at the end of the travelling tribes as they were escaping from Egypt and in the desert.  Descendants of Amalek were said to be among the evil of the world – from Haman in the Purim story to Hitler in the last century. 

I have read that some find that this section – Deuteronomy XXV, 17 – 19 – describes the first recording of ethnic cleansing in history.  Since Amalek no longer existing as a nation, one might say that there are elements of these brutal, brutish people in all nations, even within oneself.  Yet, Amalek continues to be remembered and evil continues to exist.  The prior sections of the reading dealing with relationships between people – being fair in business, rules on fighting if conflicts do flare, taking care of the widow and children, kindness to animals – may provide the only strong response to human evil.  Building a just world may bring light to the darkness of base evil and not caring about each other.

The haftorah for this fifth reading of consolation was from Isaiah LIV, 1-10, one of the shortest readings in the year.   The reading compares the Divine’s relationship to Israel as a beloved barren wife.  The Divine is universal and will not destroy the world again as with a flood. 

Our two oldest sons returned to UCONN, one middle son decided to go to the University at Buffalo so that we would not even just drop in to visit him.  He thought that we was leaving our community forever, except for short visits.  He plans to be a world-travellers but was not sure of what he would study.  His grand-parents live in the same town, so we will see him often.  When he went forth, we started a new life.  When he left us, we returned to an emptier home and a new phase of our lives.  Let it be a life free of evil and filled with compassion for others and ourselves.

This reading on judges and human statues and arrangements, Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9, focuses on “justice, justice you shall follow that they may live and inherit the land.”  The Torah reading deals with setting up the courts, societal leadership roles, the laws of warfare, cities of refuge, assigning guilt in unsolved murder cases, people building a just community.  

The haftorah, the fourth of the haftorot of consolation, Isaiah LI, 12-LII, 12, is one of optimism, although it starts with the reminder that the son of man is made of grass.  The Divine will comfort the people, redeem Jerusalem, and protect the nation.

This Shabbat I joined the community in a bike tour of 20 miles, known as the Steeple Chase.  Bikers go from church to church for snacks along the way, including one stop called the Holy Cow Shelter in a field along a country road.  It is a fund-raiser for the Perceptions Program – a treatment house in the community – and WAIM – the Windham Area Interfaith Ministry – a program that collects and distributes clothes and organizes a fuel bank in the winter.  The community is the hand of the Divine within these and other programs. 

My role as a tourist in a difficult world does not do justice directly.  We find ways to help others and ourselves for the problems are too complicated to be effective without the societal structures outlines in this portion.  People of good will do add good to the world. 

Re’eh – Deuteronomy XI, 26-XVI, 17, we will read XV, 1 – XVI, 17, haftorah – Isaiah LIV, II – LV, 5

We will be on vacation in central Maine, north of Bangor, and not in our community this weekend.  The short Torah reading describes the spring holiday that we know of as Passover, the holiday seven weeks later for the first harvest and the remembrance of the giving of the Torah at Sinai that we know as Shavuot, and the fall harvest festival, Succot, and these holidays’ practices.  Key to the practices is that the whole community would celebrate, with one’s family, one’s neighbors, all who serve, the poor, the widow, within the gates of the community.  One would give to the celebration and the practices as one is able, according to the blessing of the Divine that was given to the individual.

 The prophetic reading is also short and focuses on the security from the people’s enemies by their trust in the Divine.  “All of your children will be taught of the Divine and great will be peace for your children” (Isaiah LIV, 13).

This week for me was one of blessings – the blessings of completing one’s summer programs and classes – and the curses of losing the stability of the routine and the added problem when one’s tools are not reliable.  My office workstation went to the technology hospital for what seemed to be a virus and now seems to be a major malfunction, taking with it many of the tools that I rely upon.  With the problems came learning to find alternatives to deal with the daily email, writing, online course teaching, and webpage development.  The curse of unstable technology is strengthening one’s reliance on creative problem-solving.

 I had an opportunity to celebrate our community when invited to speak on the phone about Willimantic and my impressions of its diversity, schools, and future.  I spoke of first seeing Willimantic when visiting with Debbie  to hear several regional/national bands at Recreation Park one Sunday afternoon in August 1985.  Coincidence, or the Divine’s sense of humor, there will be another day in the park with music and fireworks next weekend;  this time, Debbie and I will be going as members of a community with a lot of friends and a lot of blessings.  We celebrate our community and its holidays and events, its diversity, our neighbors.  There is a peace that comes for seeing the blessings of what we have and striving to turn curses into ways of learning more.

Torah reading Ekev, Deuternonomy VII, 12 – XI, 25, we read 10:12-11:25, and the haftorah, Isaiah, XLIX, 14-LI, 3

Last Shabbat, we had Bible and Bagel study before our services.  In our community, we gather for this study brunch on the first Shabbat morning of the month.  Rav Jeremy led us with a discussion of whether the Divine might be humble.  This discussion echoed in the Torah reading.  The Divine was seen as being patient with a wayward people, promising the rains in the right season, good harvests, strong children, a fulfilled life for those who follow the ordinances in the Torah.  The haftorah, the prophetic reading, spoke of the Divine not forgetting the suffering people, would a mother forsaken her child.  For those who trust in the Divine,there would be joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of song. 

During the past weeks, I have been reading Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan’s Judaism as Civilization.  Initially written over 60 years ago, Rabbie Kaplan laid out a plan to allow Jewish Americans or American Jews to live in two civilizations – the ever-evolving civilization of religion, tradition, history, folkways, contemporary expresssions, pride in the accomplishments of other members of the tribe and the secular nation defined by boundaries in space and communities.  Rabbi Kaplan called for a strengthening of Judaism in the home, the community center, the synagogue – the gathering place.  He also suggested that Jews, a strange shortened form of those from the tribe of Judah – just a historic surviving subset of a larger people – who be active, local members of their secular communities.  Compromises – like allowing one to break bread with one’s neighbors, to join in the secular holidays of a nation – Thanksgiving,  Memorial Day, July 4th – should be encouraged as long at they don’t stretch beyond one’s comfort zone. 

Trust was needed when our close ancestors, 200 years ago, were allowed to participate in the larger national community and trust was needed when some of our community formed our own nation or returned to enclosed communities.  The compromise to accept the best of the two civilizations and to mold one’s own world requires one’s trust that the Divine will continue to support and care for the short-lived beings that are here to serve each other, to learn, and to strive to make a better world without harming others. 

Parashat Va-etchanan
Deuteronomy 3:23 – 7:11, we read 5:1 – 7:11
July 28, 2007 / 13 Av 5767

This Shabbat in mid-summer began the readings of the haftorot of consolation after our remembrance on the 9^th of Av. In our congregation, we discussed the section of the Torah reading that many know – the Shema and the following paragraph which begins with loving the divine with all one’s heart, one’s soul, and one’s might (6:4-6:10). Rav Jeremy noted the repetitions of “bet” or “in” in this paragraph – perhaps we are to reflect about the inwardness of this biblical reading that stresses both one’s own love and one’s need to be extroverted about speaking of the divine to one’s children, in the street, within one’s gates, in the time when one rises and when one lies down at night.

Rav Jeremy and I commented on the nature of chosen-ness in the readings when I went up for an aliyah. I mentioned that the 7^th aliyah discussed that the divine chose the people Israel and that this would not be a beloved passage for Reconstructionists. Rav Jeremy responded that Reconstructionists recognize that this notion of being chosen by the divine is part of the past civilization of the people but may need to change in these days. He also thought that the previous section on intolerance to the other nations’ ways of worship would be more problematic.

This Shabbat is known as Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort. The haftorah starts with 40:1 “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God” and relates the primacy of the divine in comparison to the vanity and temporary state of people – 40:7 “The grass withers, the flower fades beneath God’s breath; surely the people are like grass”. 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades; but God’s word will stand forever.”

My college room-mate and his wife came to visit us on Saturday afternoon. They might describe themselves as secular Jews, not synagogue-goers. We discussed the variety of expression of ethnic feelings among Jews in the United States. I introduced Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan’s writings on Judaism as a civilization – based on the religion but included other forms of spiritual and communal experiences. Does not a social worker fulfill the need for repairing the world expressed in the prophetic readings? Does not someone who participates in Passover sederim and in high holiday services not also expressing their support for the ongoing culture that is Judaism? How much of Jewish allegiance is in reaction to others who identify Jews as being different from the general US population?

I differ with Rabbi Kaplan’s notions of chosen-ness, which seems to be that believing that Jews have a special relationship with the divine denies the path of spirituality for others and places us as separate from our neighbors. I believe that Judaism is a choosing tradition, we choose to accept the culture and try to find a way to both live in a contemporary life and in a life that is eternal, balancing the present with the comforts of the past and the promise of tomorrow. The divine will last forever and our time in short, yet there are many ways to expression of connectiveness with each other and some greater than we might ever imagine.

This Shabbat, we read the start of the fifth book of Moses, known as Deuteronomy, with chapters in Devarim, Words, I-III, 22 and the first reading from Isaiah I, 1-27 as the haftorah.  It was Shabbat Hazon (vision), the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, the 9^th day of the lunar month, a fast day that we say coincides with the destructions of the first and second temple and several other tragedies to the Jewish nation.  The Torah portion accounts the words of Moses as he prepares the new generation of the children of Israel for their entry into the promised land.  The haftorah includes Isaiah’s vision of the rebellion of the people against the Divine and the forgiveness and restoration promised if they return. 

The promise of a brighter future out of the wilderness and away from the confusion of idol-worshiping if the people return is the theme of these readings.  Moses tells the people that the Divine had spoken to them all in Horeb, a mountain associated with Mount Sinai, as the mountain of the Divine.  Moses had seen the burning bush and spoke with the Divine for the first time there, when he was a shepherd tending the flocks of Jethro in Midian, seeking a lost lamb.  The Divine said that they should turn from Horeb and go to the hill-country as they prepare to enter the land.  The use of turn foretells a theme of the high holidays, of returning through reflection to a more life-enhancing state. 

In the triennial cycle, we focused on the last third of the Torah reading.   Unlike the attitude of the spies 40 years before, Moses reminds the people that the Divine will fight for them and had already conquered two nations.  Moses commands Joshua to not have fear.  These kingdoms – of Og and of Sihon – found to the west of the Jordan River in the steepe land and Golan Heights – were once a land of giants. These cities of giants were given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh by the Divine.  The men of these tribes were reminded of their promise that they would serve in the conquest of the rest of the promised land before they return to build their own lands.

In contrast of this optimism to not fear, the readings from Isaiah describe the desolation of the land when the people rebel against the Divine.   To return to the Divine, the people must “cease to do evil, learn to do well, Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow (Isaiah I, 16-17)… you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and they that return of her with righteousness” (I, 26-27). 

It is comforting that there is a chance to return, to change one’s way.  The emphasis on justice and righteousness in Isaiah contrasts with the troubling conquest of the land.  Some say that the conquest of the promised land is a metaphor for the conquest of unhealthy habits and ways of living.  The travels, the changes, in this last book of Moses retells the growth of a nation as it begins to reach its goal and the end of the journey.  We all do travel, grow, change in these short lives we live.  It is good that we have the opportunity to return, to amend our routes, without fear of the future.  As we continue on our journeys, there is always room to change and to return to the right road, the just way.           

This Shabbat, we studied the last chapters in the book of Numbers (particularly XXXIII, 50 to XXXVI, 13) and a haftorah from Jeremiah (II, 4-28, III, 4, IV, 1-2), in a double portion of Mattot and Massey – (tribes and stages of travel).  The Torah reading focused on preparations for establishing a nation by organizing territories, cities for the Levites, the local priests who would live in 48 set-aside cities in the land, the development of cities of refuge for those who had accidentally killed another, and inheritance within tribes for women.  The haftorah is a rant against idolatry and a promise that if the Israel returns to the Lord, “in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then shall the nations bless themselves by the Lord, and in the Lord shall they glory.”

The Torah portions this week included several intriguing topics, including the war against the Midianites, who were kindred peoples to the children of Israel, said to be descendants of Abraham and his concubine-wife Keturah.  Moses had lived with a clan of the Midianites led by Reuel-Yithro and married Yithro’s daughter Tsipporah.  Midian, which is said to mean either judgment or strife, lived east of the Jordan River from the Golan to theArabian peninsula.  They had joined with the Moabites to attack the children of Israel, some say for hate without reason, probably to avoid the changes that would come from the influx of this large population into their environment.  There was a discussion of what people may be allowed to survive after the war; it seems that only virgin females would survive.  The portion also discussed what would happen if a man who owned land died without a male heir but with daughters.  It was decided a daughter might inherit land but would have to marry a man from her tribe and who was her uncle’s son.  This would allow for the holding of land within the tribe.   

Our section begins with a discussion of the distribution of land according to the size of the tribes.  Moses would remind the people that there would be ethnic cleansing for “those who remain of them be as thorns in your eyes and as pricks in your sides and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye dwell.”  The portion continues with a listing of the boundaries of the land – which does not include the Negev of current Israel, but does include the land between the Jordan and the sea.  Two tribes – Reuben and Gad – and half of the tribe of Manasseh would live east of the Jordan.  The Lord then lists the tribal leaders, princes, who would lead the people into the land, including Caleb and Joshua, who were the loyal spies who had urged entering the land earlier, 39 years before.

Instructions on establishing cities for the Levites throughout the territories were discussed, with the city surrounded by pasture lands of at least 1000 cubits on all sides.  Six of these 48 cities would be cities of refuge for those who were involved in the intentional or accidental murder of others, 3 west of the Jordan and 3 to the east.  If the accused had intentionally murdered another with iron, stone, or wood, or hitting out of hatred, an appointed blood-redeemer would kill him/her.  If the death was accidental, the accused would be sent to a city of refuge to live there until the current high priest had died. If the murder was not resolved, then the blood of the murdered would pollute the land.

The portion closed with a discussion of the inheritance of land by daughters.  To maintain the tribal lands, the daughters must marry into their uncles’ families.  The names of the daughters of Zelophehad are listed, a rare time when women are noted by name in the Torah.  The book of Numbers closes with this description of an attempt to provide some justice for women.

We also noted that today was la jour de la Bastille and Emmanuel, a French graduate student, explained to us that when the Bastille was liberated in 1789, there was only 10 prisoners remaining.  This act represented the end of absolute power for the monarchy. 

The establishment of cities reminded me of my understanding of the settlement of cities in the
United States, around a city center, church, and eventually school, surrounded by pasture lands.  Counties in the Midwest, as well as states, were laid out in squares with their centers within travel distance for most of the settlers.  Thes US centers also did not take into account the original inhabitants.  Murders in our society are also either killed by state-sanctioned blood redeemers or sent to prisons, not quite city of refuge, and not only until the religious leader or a regime changes, necessarily.  The emphasis on maintaining tribal lands suggests that more emphasis was placed on the tribes and their families, and not the decentralized federal government initially.

The reading from Jeremiah is filled with pastoral images of a people who have adopted the customs of their neighbors – accepting local gods, following the ways of strangers, every city with its own god.  The Lord calls for change, a return to the divine, to truth, justice, and righteousness, for we would be a model for other nations. 

Following our request for the Lord blessing for the upcoming new month of Av, a congregation leader and sociology professor from UCONN discussed the role of gender from these readings.  She suggested that if we change that reading to represent youth instead of just virgin women, there is a clear emphasis on family and the maintenance of societal order. 

We closed the service with some time for meditations.  I tried to get the congregation to sing Adon Olam to La Marseillaise but no one else wanted to. 

It was a very busy week, filled with growth among the future teachers in our summer institute, online courses, evaluating applicants for a campus search, orientation and advisement.  Unfortunately, we went to the funeral of a friend’s son, who had died at 30 very suddenly.  His motto was “30 is the new 20.”  The reverend reminded us that it may not be the quantity but the quality of one’s life, the service one does.  He quoted Job, “the Lord gives and the Lord takes, blessed by the name of the Lord.”  The service, at the Liberty Christian Center International in the North End of Hartford was filled with the music of an organ, and electric piano, and drums, and a choir, and singers, and remembrances.  It was a week to remember the importance of family, of solidarity within the tribe and the nation, and of hope and faith in the Lord.

This Shabbat, the first during the mourning period in memory of the breach of the walls of Jerusalem and the destruction of the first and second Temple, in 586 BCE and 70 CE, we read as haftorah the beginning chapter of the book of Jeremiah (I-II, 3) after the Torah portion known as Pinhas (Numbers XXV, 10 – XXX, 1). 

During our pre-service Bible and Bagel section, we discussed three types of leadership – a prophet like Jeremiah, a priest like Pinhas, and a leader like Joshua.  Pinhas, who reacted violently to intercultural commingling in the previous chapter, was awarded in this portion by a divine gift that he and his descendants will form a hereditary priesthood.  Joshua, through the laying of hands on his head by Phinhas’ father, the high priest Eleazar, after the priest had used his oracle, Urim, was charged to be the leader after Moses’ death.  Jeremiah, a member of a clan of priest who did not live in Jerusalem and who may have been dissenters from the other priests, was appointed by the divine as prophet even before he was born.  We discussed problems when these types of leadership were not in balance with each other.  During the drive home, we stretched the image and proposed that the prophet is the congress, usually a member of the people who questions the status quo, that the leader was the executive branch – organizing the bureaucracy and administration, and that the priests were like the judicial system, using codes of law to maintain order in society.   

The portion also included a second census of the tribes before they were to enter the land with a count of 601, 730 Israelites and 23,000 in the tribe of Levi – who did not have an inheritance of land.  Inheritance by daughters was also discussed in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, who survived their father and would be granted the inheritance to allow the land to remain in the tribe.  Moses was shown the land that he would not be allowed to enter and prepared by arranging for the appointment of Joshua as his successor.  The portion also listed the offerings for the holiday cycle.   We discussed that on the harvest festival of Succot that there were many more offerings than on the other holidays. 

The prophetic reading featured a discussion between the divine and Jeremiah, who  expressed his reluctance to assume the role, a common discussion between the divine and the selected prophetic.  Moses and Jeremiah both argued against the appointment.  Jeremiah claimed he was still a boy.  Since the chapter opens with a chronology tied to kings of Judah, commentators have proposed that his age was 24 at the time of the appointment, generating a discussion on whether 24 year olds were still boys.  This prophet would be sent by the divine “to root out and pull down, and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”  Not just a societal critic, Jeremiah was to provide leadership through his prophecies.  This chapter prepares the people for the attacks by the kingdoms of the north who would set up their thrones before the gates of Jerusalem and start sieges that would destroy the city.  The prophecy also features the use of symbols – an almond-tree, which is the first tree to blossom in mid-winter, and a seething pot, representing the turmoil of the attacking armies.  The divine promises that the Lord would be with the people and had taken steps to fortify the city.  The metaphor of Israel and/or Jerusalem being like a bride to the divine and that to those who attack Israel, evil will come, is described in the first 3 lines from the second chapter read.

A commentator from Israel, Teddy Weinberger, who is featured in The Jewish Leader, a weekly paper serving the Jewish community of Eastern Connecticut and Western Rhode Island, wrote that these weeks before Tisha b’Av, the 9^th day of Av, the day that the Temples were destroy, “serve as a sober countdown to the one day of the year when it is extremely difficult to reconcile ethnic-based observance with the actual practices of the Jewish people.”  The priestly leaders today, those who wish for the rebuilding of the Temple, do not generally represent the majority view of Jews in Israel or in the world. Perhaps the priestly leaders do not have the voice they have had in the past, but neither do the world’s prophets and governmental leaders.  We seem to be in a world without easy answers and strong leaders.  Let us hope that the divine and the collective wisdom of people will find the most appropriate leadership that will lead us to a more peaceful and understanding world.

The stories for this second summer week are on prophecy, zealotry, and hope.  In Numbers XXII, 2 – XXV, 9, we read of the king of Moab, Balak, who hires a prophet from the River, Bilaam, to curse the children of Israel so that they do not conquer his lands.  Bilaam hesitated to accept the position and reminded Balak and this people that he could not say anything the Lord would not allow him to say.  There is a comic piece, a good summer’s evening story and play, about the prophet’s female donkey halting on the road, in fear of an angel that only she sees.  Bilaam beats her and she responds in words, demanding why he is beating his faithful servant.  When the angel allows Bilaam to see him, he reminds the prophet that he will speak for the Lord.

Upon Bilaam’s request, Balak builds altars on the hill-tops overlooking the tribes arranged in their order in the steepes below.  Although Balak wants curses, Bilaam praises the children of Israel first as “a people that shall dwell alone” and then as “a lion that lifts himself up and does not lie down again until he eats his prey.”  Bilaam contributes a praise that is used to welcome congregants to services – “how goodly are your tents, O Jacob, Thy dwellings, O Israel” in a third poem.  A fourth prophecy deals with the geopolitics of the region – that Israel shall conquer Edom, Amalek, the Kenites – related peoples to the Israelites, descendants of other children of the patriarchs.  He also includes the foretelling of the conquest of the region by Assyria and by the sea peoples of Cyprus.  At this point, Balak fires Bilaam and sends him home.

There are lovely words of praise, of turning the history of the past into a story of future prophecy.  The tribes were preparing to displace related peoples and these prophecies were useful to justify the need for land by these children of slaves.  The prophet can only speak the words of the Lord, even if he dooms his employer.  I see them as comforting stories for a warm summer evening.

But added to the reading of the week is a cautionary tale against intermarriage, relations with foreign women.  Balak could not get his prophet to curse the people but his women could attract the men of Israel into their tents and to their religion.  The Lord demanded that Moses impale the leaders of the tribes in the face of the sun for this straying from the camp.  But when one of the men takes a Midianitish woman into the camp and to his tent, Pinchas, the son of Eleazar, the current high priest, and the grandson of Aaron, took a spear and stabbed the couple with one thrust through their bellies.  Moses, who had married a woman from Midian, may have been conflicted by this act of zealotry.  Pinchas is featured in the stories for next week and is seen as a hero.    Zealotry is praised and the people hearing the story on a summer evening might have learned a cautionary tale about straying too far from their villages.  

The prophetic reading in the haftorah ends with some hope, a passage from Micah – VI, 8 - that is used as the motto for our religious community in Willimantic – “it has been told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord expects of you, only to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your Lord.”  The middle way between prophecy, divine determinism, and zealotry, human action felt to be divinely determined, is the struggle of trying to be just, merciful, and divine as humanly possible in dealing with others.

This first weekend of Summer 2007, we read several tantalizing stories on the voyage from Egypt to the promised land in a portion known at Hukkat – statue (Number XIX-XXII, 1).  The third that we will read in our synagogue in Willimantic starts with the death of Aaron, the high priest and brother of Moses.  Earlier in the portion, Miriam, the prophetess and their sister, died and there was no more water for the tribes to drink.  The Lord commanded Moses and Aaron to speak to a rock to quench the thirst of the rebels.  Instead Moses hit the rock in anger and without praising the Lord.  His punishment, and Aaron’s, would be that they would not be allowed to enter the promised land.  Soon after, Aaron “was gathered unto his people.”  Moses and Aaron’s son, Eleazar, took Aaron up mount Hor, stripped him of his garments and had Eleazar dress as the high priest, and “Aaron died on the top of the mount.”

This week approved magic, mystical symbols and connections are discussed; among them – the passing of the high priest garments, the connection of the death of Miriam to the lack of water at Kadesh, the portion’s earlier discussion of the red heifer and its distillation into ashes as powder that would take away impurities, and Moses’ creation of a brass serpent to ward off illness from snake bites.  If the mystical is not done as required, if one does not follow the procedures, then the results may be dangerous.  Symbolism may be more important than results.

The portion we will read relates the initial conquests of place on the east side of the Jordan River, on the high plateau and steppes of the Moab region east of the Dead Sea.  The people of Edom, the Redlands, would not allow the Israelites to travel across their borders.  Pushed away, “Israel vowed a vow” to the Lord to “utterly destroy” the cities of other Canaanites if they were not able to pass through their regions.  The portion includes songs of place and conquest from a “book of the Wars of the Lord.”  The conquest of land by these former slaves is disturbing from the comforts of someone who lives away from war.  We yet live in a world where military might is not used for problem-solving.  Were the deaths worth the price of the conquest of place?  Might symbolism, songs, and poetry had be used to change the relationships between the peoples?

The extra reading, the haftorah, introduces Jephthah the Gileadite, one of the “judges” or tribal leaders, between the early days of conquest of Canaan and the rise of kings in Israel.   Jephthah was shun by his family for he was the son of another woman, not the son of the lawful wife.  He joined with other outcasts in the land of Tov (Good).  When the Ammonites made war on Israel, his brothers came to recruit him as their leader against the enemy.  He agreed as long as he would be their head after the successful battle.  In his negotiations with the Ammonites before the battle, Jephthah send a history lesson on the capture of land by the Israelites described in the Torah portion and asked why Ammon wanted to recover land in which Israel had dwelt for over 300 years.  This reminds one of the land claims that still go on by warring borders, not only in the MidEast.  Might there be another way to solve disputes that rest on history? 

The reading ends with Jephthah vowing to the Lord that if they are victorious in battle, he would offer up as a burnt-offering whatsoever comes forth from the doors of his house to meet him when he returns.  We learn that they are victorious but the reading ends without the rest of the story; that the first thing from Jephthah’s door was his daughter.  This sacrifice of his daughter is puzzling for us; we wonder why he made such a vow, whether it parallels stories in Homer about pleasing the gods with human sacrifices.  It seems out of place.  Yet, it might be here to remind that war does require the sacrifice of the young and to raise the question about whether it is worth the losses.

Rav Jeremy will also be leading a discussion of the poetry of Dan Pagis this morning.  Professor Pagis of Hebrew University was a Holocaust survivor who came to Palestine in 1946, after an early adolescence in the camps.  We will be reading his Bestiary poems, poems of animals, balloons, and bipeds and their struggles with age and life. 

The week for me was one of planning – advising probationary students on the courses they might take in the fall, planning for our summer institute for future teachers, for the Fulbright exchange with a professor at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.  We decided on the date when our daughter will become a bat mitzvah – on next year’s summer solstices.  I learned again that there is magic in life, but it does follow rules that we might not understand.  I continue to marvel at the orderly passage of time – that the young grow, the old, if fortunate, fade slowly away within the love of their families.  I wondered whether place – land or position in a family – are things worth the shedding of blood.  And I studied that even from the depths of despair, flowers, poems, and songs may arise.

This week, we read about the struggle for privilege (Numbers XVI-XVIII).  Korah, of the tribe of Levi, already the ruling class of priests and Tabernacle servants, and two from the tribe of Reuben, the oldest son and by rights who be the among the ruling class, formed a discussion group.  They then demanded of Moses and Aaron why they made themselves the princes of the community, when the whole congregation was to be considered holy.  In response, Moses created a contest that would be decided by the Lord – Korah and his followers would bring their censers, their fire-pans, and the Lord would decide who would be the leaders. Moses reminded Korah that he already had a place of privilege in the community.  Moses asked the sons of Reuben why they are not satisfied, he had never taken even one ass from them. 

At the showdown, Korah and those that still stood with him, and their families and possessions were swallowed up by the ground and their fire-pans were melted and later used to cover the altar.  The people ran in fear from the scene, but on the next day, demanded to know why Moses and Aaron had killed the people of the Lord.  The Lord sent a plague that was stopped when Aaron intervened using fire pans.  Still the remaining people needed another sign.  The Lord asked that each tribe place a rod at the tent of meeting.  The rod of the chosen man, tribe, would bud.  Aaron’s rod, representing the house of Levi, was the only rod to bud, bloomed blossoms, and bore ripe almonds.

 The reading continues with the Lord telling Aaron about the privileges and duties of his family as priests.  They were to be landless, that their portion in life would come from being the Lord’s special group and from the offerings brought by others.  

Since yesterday was a new moon, we read a special reading from Isaiah (LXVI) that closes  

“And it shall come to pass, That from one new moon to another, And from one sabbath to another, Shall all flesh come to worship before Me, Saith the Lord.”

The reading discusses the benefits and privileges of being believers and the destruction that comes with those who rebel against the Lord.  Verses 7-9 includes a statement on nation-building, asking if “a land is born in one day? Is a nation brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion travailled, She brought forth her children.”

Korah and the rebels, b’nai mari, the children of rebellion, were frustrated by not having the privileges of leadership.  Mari may be a word connected to bitterness, frustration.  By chance of birth, by effort, by just luck, people get into situation when they are seen to be privileged, having more than others, by others.  One may enjoy the lot that she/he has received or strive for more.  Often, this struggle for more comes with the demand to those seen to be more privileged to share more. 

We have privileged lives here in Willimantic.  We are generally not affected by random acts of violence or theft.  We have more than enough to eat and a home that shelters us in the cold of winter and the heat of summer.  My family presented me with a hammock for my birthday and father’s day so that I might rest more in our garden. 

I am very much aware of our privileges in life, gotten from effort but mostly from luck.  Do we share enough with others?  What more can we do to share our bounty?  How might we help others who want more of a share of a peaceful, plentiful life?  How might we learn to be content with all that we have and not strive for more, if it would bring pain to others? 

The new moon of summer is arriving.  The days continue to lengthen and the earth continues to gather the warmth of the sun and the occasional rains of passing storms.  On my 55th birthday, I am thankful for all that I have and mindful that others should also have lives of contentment and not struggle.  That is my task – to learn to share and to point the way to others so that they might also be contented with all that they have.

Today is the 42nd anniversary of when I became a man – a bar mitzvah – son of the commandment.  Forty-two years ago or so, given the variances of a lunar and solar calendar – this week’s Torah reading – Shelach Lecha  (Numbers chapters XIII – XV)- “send to you” men who might spy out the land of Canaan – was read on the 24 of Sivan 5725, the 24th day of June 1965, St. John the Baptiste day for the Quebecois.  The Bible reading (Joshua II, 1-24) describes two spies hiding on the roof-top in Jericho, saved by an “inn-keeper” named Rahav from the king’s men so that they might return to tell Joshua of their intel on the land.

Bar mitzvah boys in 1965 in Oceanside, NY did the Torah blessings and read the Bible reading (Haftorah).  The day of my bar mitzvah celebration, there were two other boys with me.  I did the Torah blessing and chanted the second half of the Haftorah (Joshua II, 13-24) and then led the singing of Adom Olam to the tune of Fernando’s Hideaway from the Broadway show, the Pajama Game.  Before walking home for a family gathering, we joined in the synagogue kiddush. 

My mother had died a bit more than two years before and we were a depressed family.  My father organized a family gathering at our home and we enjoyed our backyard and being with family.  This family gathering style of simple celebration was in contrast to the social hall receptions, with dancing to the Alley Cat, early Beatles music, and too much food, that was more common then and now.  The family at home style we have used with our sons and probably will be much of the style for our celebration of Fay’s becoming a bat mitzvah next year.  We might have an evening celebration at the synagogue.  Fay has asked for desserts and some dancing and singing, but no DJ and games.  Fay is a very sensible girl underneath her facade of being a “tween” – a teen-ager in training.

The story goes that a prince from each of the 12 tribes was sent by Joshua to go spy out the land of Canaan to “see the land, what it is, and the nation that lives on her, the strong the sick the few if bad”.  The spies returned with a cluster of grapes that which is often illustrated being so large that it is carried by two men on a pole between them and used as a symbol of the Carmel winery, the winery started by the Rothschilds in Israel over 100 years ago, http://www.carmelwines.co.il/ . 

Ten of the 12 spies were so fearful of the size and number of the people they saw in their tour that they recommended that it would be better to return to Egypt than try to enter the land.  The other two – Caleb of the tribe of Judah and Joshua of the tribe of Ephraim – thought that they would be able to enter the land and possess it.  The majority convinced the people to be fearful and the Lord wanted to destroy all of the people for their lack of trust.  Moses convinced the Lord that the message of the people dying in the wilderness would not be a sign of the Lord’s strength.  They compromised – this generation would die in the wilderness but their children and Caleb and Joshua would enter the promised land. 

 The haftorah (the additional reading from the Bible) tells the story of two unnamed spies who go back to the land about 40 years later.  They enter Jericho and are hunted by the city’s king.  They hide on the roof-top of an inn-keeper, Rahav, who misleads the soldiers that they had gone in the other direction.  Rahav tells them that she had heard of the miracles of the travels of the Israelites in the desert and wanted them to “let live my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters and all that is to them and deliver our souls from death” when the Israelites enter the land.  They arranged a true sign - a line of scarlet thread in her window – that would warn the invaders that she and her family should be saved.

The boys and I joke about whether Rahav was an inn-keeper or a madam of a house on the wall of the city.  Rahav comes from a Hebrew word that means broad.  There is a legend that because of her belief in the Lord that she eventually marries Joshua.

Ten of the twelve spies convinced the people to not move forward. Two unnamed spies report that the time is right for action, after being helped by a woman of uncertain reputation, but of a great cleverness and foresight.  Perhaps this is a lesson that one should have faith in the future, that all will turn out as planned.  Perhaps one should accept “Don’t Panic” as a motto for moving into the world.  And perhaps one must wait a generation for the path that leads a family forward.

Lately, I am finding that often things are unfolding as they should, and often in comical and pleasing ways.  This last week, I heard from my Fulbright partner in Thailand that I might visit next December.  I also heard that two state grants are promised – allowing us to continue with our summer institute for future teachers and to create an online network for future teachers.  We studied how to develop a “dvar torah” in a small group meeting at the synagogue led by Rav Jeremy.  At a fund-raising auction for the Windham Region Coordinating Council, Debbie and I obtained a week at a residential arts camp in Western Connecticut for Fay and I got a seminar in “speed reading people” for 20 of my friends.  We are going to an aufruf, a declaration of an impending marriage, for the elder son of community friends and this intended at the mother’s home synagogue in Harrison, NY this morning and will spend time with Debbie’s family in the area.  All seems to be going according to someone’s plan.  Forty-two years later I am beginning to feel like a man. 

http://bible.ort.org/ - Navigating the Bible

Hebrew Date Converter – http://www.hebcal.com/converter/ - with weekly readings