Kunena Site Syndication http://yioceanside.org/ Sun, 20 May 2012 19:03:38 +0000 Kunena 1.6 http://yioceanside.org/components/com_kunena/template/default/images/icons/rss.png http://yioceanside.org/ en-gb http://yioceanside.org/Heshy-Berenholz-Weekly-Chumash-Class/55-Musings-on-Parshot-Acharay-Mos-Kedoshim.html#55 http://yioceanside.org/Heshy-Berenholz-Weekly-Chumash-Class/55-Musings-on-Parshot-Acharay-Mos-Kedoshim.html#55 Following are some of the ideas, insights and interpretations that emerge from our weekly Chumash learning group at the Young Israel of Oceanside, Long Island. We cite sources when possible. Some of our interpretations derive from ideas we may have seen elsewhere, possibly without attribution. Or we may simply have forgotten the source. For this we apologize. We invite your comments, observations and participation.

Overview

Prohibition of entering the Holy of Holies…annual ceremony of purification in the Sanctuary…Yom Kippur Temple service…animal offerings prohibited outside the Temple…not eating blood…covering the blood when slaughtering permissible beast or fowl…forbidden marriages and sexual relations…prohibition of child sacrifice to the deity Molech…Ten Commandments in the opening psukim of Kedoshim…listing of laws that facilitate achieving Kidusha (holiness; separateness) including ritual laws; consideration for the poor; dealing with fellowmen; prohibition of hatred and revenge; “love thy neighbor”; honesty; prohibition of Canaanite customs…punishments for Molech worship; for unlawful marriages; and for necromancy (communicating with spirits of dead to predict the future; witchcraft)


The “new”Sefer Vayikrah

Rabbi Menachem Leibtag notes that the first seventeen chapters of the Sefer may be viewed as a distinct unit devoted to the Mishkan. But chapter eighteen introduces us to how the Jewish people should conduct their lives—a topic that fills the second half of Vayikrah. The phrases Ani Hashem (I am God) and Ani Hashem Elokeichem (I am the Lord your God) appear 53 times in the second half, after having appeared only once in the first half.

Perhaps, opines Rabbi Leibtag, the message here is that God’s presence is not limited to just the Mishkan. Rather, the relationship we experience in the Mishkan is meant to be carried with us and to influence our behavior in the “real world” outside the Mishkan. The numerous commandments reminding us that He is inexorably bound up in our everyday life helps us sustain the emotion of closeness to Him that was felt in the Mishkan.


On being Kadosh (holy)

“Dabayr el call adas b’nai yisrael vamarta aleyhem kedoshim teheyou…” (“Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them ‘you shall be holy’ for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”)

Holiness means separation or setting aside whether in behavior, or in place (Holy Temple) or in time (Shabbat; Holy days). A prostitute is called a kedaysha because she separates herself for pagan worship and sets herself aside for her distinctive “profession”.

Being holy does not mean withdrawing and separating completely from the surrounding Society. On the contrary, the Parsha is filled with practical prohibitions, regulations and laws -- both humanitarian and ritualistic-- that affect all aspects of our life and which, if observed, make us unique. Avoidance of certain types of behavior—and the self-control it demands—defines our persona and prevents us from becoming naval b’rshus hatorah (offensive when observing the Torah laws).

Martin Buber understands kedusha as separating but not withdrawing. God Who transcends and therefore is separate from the world has not withdrawn from it. We are commanded to imitate Him (Imitatio Dei) and “radiate a positive influence on them (the world of the nations) through every aspect of our Jewish living.” It is our unique life style of self-control and ethical behavior in all aspects of living that defines us and separates us and makes us different (i.e., holy).


On Shabbos and parents

The first example cited for becoming kadosh is ”Ish emo v’aviv teraoo v’es shabsosiy tishmoru ani hashem elokaychem” which I think is best translated as “you shall each be in awe of (rather than fear) his mother and father and keep My sabbaths: I the Lord am your God.” The word teraoo may also be related to the word meaning “to see”. The Torah is directing us to use our “inner eye” (our understanding) to perceive, understand and venerate parents.

Why the juxtaposition with shabbos ? Rashi thinks this to teach us that in the event a parent whom one is obligated to respect and listen to tells you to violate the Sabbath, you must disregard that request. Jack Sherman’s view is that one cannot achieve a meaningful observance of shabbos unless one has first resolved any emotional conflicts with one’s parents. Yehudah Valladares thinks the message is that both commandments are equally important. Others suggest that the Torah is emphasizing the three way partnership in one’s life of father, mother and God (embodied in the idea of shabbos).


“V’ahavta le’rayacha camocha”

According to Rabbi Akiva, this is the fundamental principle of the Torah, to “love thy neighbor (fellow human being) as thyself”.

But suppose you don’t like yourself? Also, how can the Torah dictate/command that we feel something, when we have no control over emotions of love and hate!

Nechama Leibowitz cites a number of approaches to deal with these difficulties.

• Rashbam thinks that the law is applicable only to men who are good but not to those who are wicked.

• Ramban opines that the text is not to be taken literally since it is impossible for a person to love another as he loves himself. Instead, the meaning is to wish for our neighbors the same wellbeing in all things that we wish for ourselves. His approach is supported by the text wording of “V’ahavta LE’rayacha” (have love/ for thy neighbor) and not “ES rayacha” (love thy neighbor). The Torah wants us to free ourselves from jealousy and to be happy for another’s good fortune

• Hillel, at the beginning of the Christian era, provides a negative formulation of this Golden Rule: “What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow person”. He focuses on behavior. No matter what you feel, do not do anything to anyone that you would not like having done to you. Respect every person’s feelings and interests.

• Biur’s translation is insightful: “Love thy neighbor (fellow human) who is as thyself.” You can be motivated to treat another in a positive way when you realize that he is just like you. He has conflicts, emotions, worries, and may be in need of assistance just like you. Be understanding and empathic to his situation. I think the trup supports this view in that “love thy neighbor” is a free-standing phrase that is followed by “he is just like you”. The unwritten but understood link between the two is the word “because”.


On the meaning of kallel

“Lo s’kallel chayraysh” (“you shall not curse the deaf…”).

“Ki ish ish asher y’kallel es aviv v’es emo mos yumas…” (“If any man curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death”).

The Hebrew root word kallel also means “light”. Thus translated, the first pasuk is warning us not to treat a physically-challenged person lightly or with contempt or take him for granted. Do not insult him or take advantage of him, even if you can do it with impunity. Don’t think he will not be sensitive because he doesn’t hear. Such behavior hurts your persona and sullies your reputation. Even the non-handicapped person who refuses to listen or accept your opinion (“deaf” to what you say) should not be brushed off and treated badly.

Regarding parents, I think the Torah is warning us to not treat them lightly and to not think of them as ignorant. (Mark Twain’s comment comes to mind: “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years.”)
If we do, we invariably face the “death” of some part of our emotional development which will, in turn, hurt our relationships with Man and with God.


Rabbi H. L. Berenholz]]> Heshy Berenholz - Weekly Chumash Class Fri, 04 May 2012 01:14:24 +0000 http://yioceanside.org/Heshy-Berenholz-Weekly-Chumash-Class/54-Musings-on-Parshot-Tazria-Metzora.html#54 http://yioceanside.org/Heshy-Berenholz-Weekly-Chumash-Class/54-Musings-on-Parshot-Tazria-Metzora.html#54 Following are some of the ideas, insights and interpretations that emerge from our weekly Chumash learning group at the Young Israel of Oceanside, Long Island. We cite sources when possible. Some of our interpretations derive from ideas we may have seen elsewhere, possibly without attribution. Or we may simply have forgotten the source. For this we apologize. We invite your comments, observations and participation.

Overview

Ritual purification after childbirth …symptoms, types, diagnosis and laws of tzara’as of the body and garments…ritual purification of the metzora …offerings…tzara’as of houses… physical secretions …seminal emissions… normal and abnormal menstruation


On Tumah

We think Tumah can best be understood in psychological terms. Yehudah Valladares thinks of Tumah as a state of mind that causes one to question/doubt one’s long held beliefs. Witnessing or coming into contact with death prompts one to wonder about life, about death, about God and about the Hereafter.

Tumah may also be thought of as a state of cognitive loss; a radiating negative energy; a "death" or "dispirited" state during which one is so deeply depressed, apathetic, and/or guilt-ridden (on some level) that he/she no longer has the capacity to enter into any relationship--not with God and not with other human beings.

Contact with death precipitates a state of Tumah. A corpse is considered the "ultimate father of all Tumah," because contact with death triggers a primordial uneasiness, a fear (of one's own mortality?) and a negativism that can absorb all of the person’s emotional energy.(Even medical students report a sense of uneasiness after the first encounter with a cadaver.) Death of a family member can evoke negative emotions including sadness, resentment, anger, feelings of unfairness, and guilt. The person who encounters death is self-absorbed, sad, and depressed. These feelings interfere with one's ability to connect with others.

The Torah's insight into the profound (oft-times unconscious) forces that dominate a human being's emotions and behavior is further evident in the reality that the negativity associated with death becomes diluted the further one is removed from the source. Thus, a person who touches a corpse (called a "Rishon L'tumah") experiences the most intense emotional negativity (i.e., Tumah). As that person comes into contact (e.g., shakes hands) with others, the emotion of the "death association" by the latter is a step removed and diluted. And so on down the line as each Tameh person comes into contact with another person or object, the transmission (emotional response to the original source of Tumah) weakens.

A woman who menstruates, a women who has given birth, and people who experience abnormal sexual emissions (zav, zava) are deemed to be in a state of Tumah because blood and fluids associated with the procreative process represent on some level of the human mind the (potential) death of a human life. Bad and sad feelings result (e.g., postpartum depression) and fill the person with negativity...i.e., Tumah.

Primitive man feared that blood flow from any part of the human anatomy meant illness and/or death. Women especially were considered dangerous and impure, unable to participate in religious ritual. The blood flows of child bearing contained seed and demanded that the woman be separated. Giving birth to a female--who also would eventually experience the “impurity” from the feared blood flows--necessitated a separation period twice that required for a male.

Over the years it has been noted (and, in our generation, said in the name of Rav Solovetchik a"h) that to understand the deeper meaning of a word, look for where that word first appears in the Torah. The first time we encounter the root-word Tumah is in Breishis 34:5 after Shechem's seduction and rape of Yaakov's daughter, Deena. Here the Torah focuses on Yaakov's reaction:
“Yaakov learned that his daughter Deena had been Teemay (defiled)” and “Yaakov remained silent until they (his sons) came home”.
Tumah is the condition that is characterized by a seething rage, deep mental anguish, and a state of speechlessness all part of a galaxy of negative emotions that precipitate questioning of long held beliefs and prevent inter-personal relationships. Yaakov's internal turmoil presumably mirrored that of his daughter.

On Tzara’as

Tumah exists when a person is in the disease state known as tzara’as, a dermatological disorder characterized by symptoms of coloring, depth, extent. Often, the condition is inaccurately identified as leprosy, based on the Greek translation of the word (scaly).

The condition is not a medical/hygienic one but a religious one, thought to be brought upon a person for having maligned other people (Metzorah =Motze Shem Rah).Only the Cohen had the authority to declare one Tameh. The laws do not apply to non-Jews. A bridegroom upon whom spots have appeared is able to complete his seven days of wedding celebration before seeking out the Cohen’s examination.

Deep in the recesses of our soul we are aware that in speaking/behaving badly towards another our behavior is inappropriate and harmful. Our conscience struggles with his behavior and experiences guilt on some level.Struggling with "one's own demons" causes a person to be Tameh because preoccupation with one's own emotions interferes with the ability to relate to others. Perhaps tsara’as is the psychosomatic manifestation of guilt.

The treatment of tsara’as is also revealing. One is isolated (moves outside the city) and prohibited from socializing with others, presumably to allow for a period of introspection regarding the ramification of one's behavior (a "time out" in current parlance). Other details of this isolation are remarkably similar to the Shiva regulations, when a person struggles with the emotional aftermath of death. The psychological reverberations of death, loshon harah, tsara’as and guilt seem inextricably linked.

According to the Lubavitch Rav, tzara’as is to be viewed as an educational lesson designed to help a person correct his ways and experience a spiritual rebirth. The disease is only skin deep, conveying that it is not a deep-rooted problem. The proximity of these laws to those of childbirth links to the idea of birth and rebirth. The Metzorah will learn not to speak loshon hara anymore (since he will be isolated with no one to speak with) as he silently reflects on his past behavior. He abused his God-given gift of speech by using it to malign others. Now he is given the opportunity to change.


Rabbi H. L. Berenholz]]> Heshy Berenholz - Weekly Chumash Class Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:22:10 +0000 http://yioceanside.org/Heshy-Berenholz-Weekly-Chumash-Class/53-Musings-on-Parshat-Shemini.html#53 http://yioceanside.org/Heshy-Berenholz-Weekly-Chumash-Class/53-Musings-on-Parshat-Shemini.html#53
Following are some of the ideas, insights and interpretations that emerge from our weekly Chumash learning group at the Young Israel of Oceanside, Long Island. We cite sources when possible. Some of our interpretations derive from ideas we may have seen elsewhere, possibly without attribution. Or we may simply have forgotten the source. For this we apologize. We invite your comments, observations and participation.


Overview

• The eighth day of Inauguration of the Mishkan
• Deaths of Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu
• Cohanim not to mourn
• Cohanim warned against becoming intoxicated
• Disposal of the Initiatory offerings
• Dietary laws: forbidden animals… forbidden fish…listing of forbidden birds… permitted and forbidden insects
• Ritual impurity from contact with prohibited animals, objects, foods, permitted animals, reptiles and insects




On setting limits

Robert Alter notes that separation is a major theme in Sefer Vayikra. The concept of setting apart (havdil root) is repeatedly manifest in the broad range of ritual, dietary and sexual laws. By accepting these rules, we the Jewish people set ourselves apart from other peoples to become holy like G-d. The Torah repeatedly reminds us of the need to keep our distance from the sacred Mishkan; no unauthorized person may encroach (lo sikrav, do not come close).

Purification is another major theme. Profane pollutants that need to be avoided include bodily discharges; various skin conditions; mildew and other blights in buildings, utensils and fabrics.

Cohanim have to avoid Tumah in order to enter and officiate in the Mishkan. We all are to avoid contact with anything that puts us into this state of Tumah (ritual impurity).

In this week’s Parsha we learn of the need to avoid eating certain foods and the procedures for cleansing ourselves should we come into contact with a dead human or animal.


On Foods

Foods that are permitted to be eaten are called Kasher, (or Kosher) although technically the meaning of the Hebrew word is “fit” or “proper” and the word appears only once in the Torah (Megillat Esther) in a non-food context.

Trefah or Treif in current usage describes a food that is not permitted to be eaten (the opposite of Kasher).But the technical definition of the word is an animal that is torn apart and is prohibited because it suffers this injury, disease or defect.

The Torah uses the words Tame (impure) and Tahor (pure)—not Kasher and Treif-- to describe the permissibility of foods. A creature that is Tame is not abominable but is considered repulsive only because of a Divine command that forbids its being eaten.


Reasons for the dietary laws

Nechama Leibowitz and Rabbi Günter Plaut, among others, have surveyed the range of opinions.

Ravi David Tzvi Hoffman thinks that the ancient distinctions between clean and unclean beasts may be traced to heathen cults’ belief that the universe is ruled by two rival deities, one pure and holy, and the other unclean and abominated. These unclean beasts (embodying the unclean deity) are to be hunted down and destroyed and the clean ones are to be protected. The former were regarded as destructive forces bringing with them sickness and evil (Professor Yechezkel Kaufmann).

The Torah view stands in sharp contrast to these pagan beliefs in that it denies the existence of an independent god-like Evil force. There is nothing inherently unclean or evil or destructive in living creatures. Uncleanliness is not an independent power in the war between the forces of good and evil that threatens G-d. Creatures are prohibited as foods only because the Torah has informed us “unclean they are to you.”

Rambam thinks that the foods prohibited by the Torah are unhealthy. For example, swine flesh is prohibited because of that animal’s loathsome, dirty life style. Note: Archeological findings show that pork was a common food eaten by the Philistines. It was later in the Hellenistic period that the pig became the “prohibited animal par excellence” (Robert Alter).

Sefer Hachinuch shares this approach-- even as he acknowledges that the Torah does not provide us with any explanation-- but stresses that the physical disability that results will have a detrimental effect on one’s intelligence, education and character building.

Abravanel and his mentor Rav Yitzchak Arama take issue with the medical approach for a number of reasons. Firstly, if it is about health, why did the Torah not include other harmful and poisonous creatures and herbs? Moreover, empirical observations are that those who eat pork and other prohibited species do not seem to suffer any more illness than the rest of the population.

Ramban and Abravanel observe that the Torah is not meant to be a medical textbook. They conclude that these laws must be motivated by the desire to maintain the purity of one’s soul. Forbidden birds are carnivorous. These birds of prey’s bloodthirsty attacking behavior could be absorbed by the person who eats it. By contrast, the cloven foot, cud-chewing permitted animals do not prey on other creatures.

Some maintain that the rationale is to help us achieve self-discipline and abstinence and to build character in our efforts to fulfill G-d’s will. The Sages note that a person should not say “I cannot stand pork!” but rather “I would like to eat it , but what can I do since my Heavenly father has prohibited it”. Philo of Alexandria thinks that the Torah wants to discourage excessive self indulgence and therefore banned pork, supposedly the most tasty of meats.



“You are what you eat”

Cloven- footed and cud-chewing animals tend to be domesticated, familiar, herbivorous non-attacking ruminants. We want to absorb gentleness and kindness. The word ruminate means to study, rethink, ”chew on” an idea. We want to eat those animals (ruminants) that can enhance this behavior in us. Philo of Alexandria further notes that the split hoof aspect points to our need to carefully study things that appear to be the same but really are completely different from and independent of one another (i.e., split).

Dr. Alvin Schiff focuses on the eating and careful digestion aspects that nourish the brain to enable us to think. The split hoof reminds us to watch where we go in life. Jeff Benkoe thinks that the split hoof reminds us of the choices we have in life.

Fish that have fins and scales are permitted. Ramban notes that fish without these tend to be bottom-feeders, scavengers, and attackers that swim in the dark, murky waters below. The Torah wants us to not ingest this aggressive behavior and psychological darkness.

Prohibited birds tend to be attacking and aggressive, characteristics we want to avoid ingesting and absorbing.



Rabbi H. L. Berenholz]]> Heshy Berenholz - Weekly Chumash Class Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:40:19 +0000