The Constitution and Parshat Emor

Rabbi Philip Weintraub

Congregation Agudas Israel

Parshat Emor

April 27, 2013

This week’s parsha, Emor, includes many commands from Gd to Moses to the people Israel.  While they are on diverse topics, life and death unite them.  Death opens and closes our parsha, yet festivals and celebrations are in between..

Our parsha opens:

1 The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin, 2 except for the relatives that are closest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; 3 also for a virgin sister, close to him because she has not married, for her he may defile himself. 4 But he shall not defile himself as a kinsman by marriage, and so profane himself.

5 They shall not shave smooth any part of their heads, or cut the side-growth of their beards, or make gashes in their flesh. 6 They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the Lord's offerings by fire, the food of their God, and so must be holy.

It closes:

17 If anyone kills any human being, he shall be put to death. 18 One who kills a beast shall make restitution for it: life for life. 19 If anyone maims his fellow, as he has done so shall it be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The injury he inflicted on another shall be inflicted on him. 21 One who kills a beast shall make restitution for it; but one who kills a human being shall be put to death. 22 You shall have one standard for stranger and citizen alike: for I the Lord am your God.

23 Moses spoke thus to the Israelites. And they took the blasphemer outside the camp and pelted him with stones. The Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

http://www.jtsa.edu/PreBuilt/ParashahArchives/jpstext/emor.shtml

In between we have the festive calendar, the command to be joyous and celebrate the festivals.  We are commanded not to work on the festivals, not to afflict ourselves, but so that we may have time to enjoy, to celebrate.  If we are always connected to work, whether physically or mentally, we cannot truly celebrate.  If we are always waiting for one more call at a birthday party or one more email at a romantic dinner, we are not truly experiencing the moment.  To me, that is perhaps the greatest reason for the command not to work on the Sabbath and Festivals.  The command is not to keep one from enjoying a freshly prepared, hot meal, but to keep anyone from being a slave in the kitchen or anywhere else.

Speaking of commands, I want to return to the commands around death.  The opening of our parsha teaches us the laws of mourning, of the people who are so important to us, that we must stop everything we do, and focus on their loss.  While the loss of any individual is difficult, the loss of a parent, a sibling, a child or a spouse is even more so.  (Although not mentioned in this text explicitly, spouses are included in this category)

When we lose anyone in these categories, which unfortunately, is inevitable, we are commanded to stop our normal routines.  We literally put our lives on pause.  Ideally, the community rallies around us.  They help us with our basic needs, so that we do not have to worry about them.  Our homes are prepared, a special meal is prepared for after the funeral (as well as meals for the duration of shiva).  Rather than leaving our homes and going to shul for minyan, the minyan comes to us.  Together, in community, with at least nine others, we say our daily prayers and praise Gd.  Even in the midst of tragedy, we remember that we were created for a reason, and even with the loss of the ones we love, our own purpose remains.

In recent months, we have seen the loss of too many old friends.  When my grandmother passed away, I was overwhelmed with the support from this community.  Every single night in Atlanta, food arrived from different places and different members of the shul.  It was so appreciated, so appreciated.  I pray that we can one day do that for ALL members.  So thank you, but I challenge us to be even more proactive for those in need.  Now a small tochecha, a small criticism, to those in mourning.  Shiva is important.  I know for some it is difficult to sit a full week, to have guests every night or every day, but we lose something when we sit only one or two days of shiva.  Yes, it is overwhelming.  Yes, for some, it can be irritating to have so many people over when they just want some time alone.  If you need alone time, it’s perfectly acceptable to kick people out, but first you must allow them in.  In Victorian England, mourning clothing had strict customs for extended periods of time.  I’m not suggesting that we need to wear black for three years, but our holy customs can bring us some solace!

In this parsha, we do discover that the Cohen Gadol, the high priest’s duties were solely to Gd and the community.  That individual was exempted from normal mourning, his duties were so important to the very survival of the community. Very few of us have jobs like that.  Even if we are surgeons or accountants before tax time, we need at least a little time to process the loss of those dear to us.

Our parsha ends with the law that is sometimes called lex talionis, an eye for an eye.  The sad thing in the modern world is that many who see the Bible as archaic or the “Old Testament” as brutal or harsh focus on these laws.  By reading too literally, they miss the point of the laws entirely.  What these laws are teaching is that we are all equal in the eyes of Gd. Rich or poor, prominent or not, we all have value.  As such, even if the least of us are harmed by the greatest of us, they deserve fair and just treatment and compensation.  In the rabbinic tradition, in the Jewish tradition, these laws were rarely, if ever, seen to be literal.  Rather, our tradition teaches us that financial compensation was the norm, not physical compensation.  Judaism teaches that vengeance and justice do not go together, but that true justice comes about through due process and the legal system.

How many of you watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart?  I recently started watching again and was deeply moved by three segments that they showed recently.  Two were discussing gun control and using the example of Australia.  In previous years, Australia had numerous episodes of gun violence like we saw in Sandy Hook not long ago.   To be precise, 13 gun massacres from 1978-1996. Since passing comprehensive gun reform in 1996, there have been exactly ZERO gun massacres in Australia. “Studies found a marked drop in gun-related homicides, down 59 percent, and a dramatic 65 percent drop in the rate of gun-related suicides, in the 10 years after the weapons crackdown.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/03/us-usa-guns-australia-idUSBRE9320C720130403

Speaking with former Australian Prime Minister Howard, as well as several conservative law makers who lost their seats, but were happy to make the political sacrifice for the greater good.  This was shown in a major difference in perspective to American legislators who see success as re-election, rather than serving their citizens!  

The third segment was about due process and our Constitution.  Quoting FoxNews Anchors, they showed clips suggesting the removal/restriction/or ignoring aspects of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Amendments.  Regarding not just terrorists but also the rest of us citizens, Fox anchors had no problem establishing or limiting religion, allowing unreasonable searches and seizures, allowing double jeopardy, taking away due process, the right to counsel, and trial by jury, allowing cruel and unusual punishment and taking away rights that are not specificall enumerated in the Constitution. I would love to say they were consistent in supporting states rights (the 10th Amendment) but in disregarding the ninth, the tenth goes along with it.  Guess which amendment they did support though?  The Second Amendment!  They said “it’s black and white, how can you limit it”--after systematically eradicating the rest of the Bill of Rights!  Jon Stewart closed the segment with  "Yes, it turns out there’s only one amendment in our Constitution’s pantheon that is exempt from statistical analysis or emotional freak-out-itude, and it is the Second.  God help us if the muslims ever decide to form a well-regulated militia.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/jon-stewart-fox-news-shre_n_3153921.html

Concluding from our parsha, whatever your take on gun control, even for terrorists, due process and constitutional protections apply to all--even if we don’t like them!

Yom Hashoah

On Sunday April 7 at 2PM, the Newburgh Jewish Community Center (along with my synagogue, Congregation Agudas Israel) joined with Mt. St. Mary College for a Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Commemoration.  An annual program of the Newburgh JCC, this year’s program was organized by Debbie Sanford, that organization’s Executive Director.

I (Rabbi Philip Weintraub) was proud to participate in this program, offering memorial prayers and psalms, as well as inviting participants to light 6 memorial candles, representing the 6,000,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis and their associates during the Holocaust or Shoah.  Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was created by an act of the Knesset(Parliament) in Israel to be a world-wide memorial to those murdered by the Nazis, but also as a reminder of the Jews who had the opportunity to fight back, who rebelled against the vicious Nazis, for example in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Debbie Sanford brought a powerful speaker, Rudy Rosenberg, to educate us about the horrors of the Holocaust.  Rudy Rosenberg was born in Belgium.  He and his family went into hiding in 1942 and remained there for the rest of the war.  The author of And Somehow We Survive, he shared the difficulties of a life in hiding.  While he hid with his mother, he was separated from his sister and father for much of WWII.  Over the course of an hour, he shared details of his wartime experiences.  This included numerous close calls and the difficult decisions his parents made to survive.

Rudy is part of the Hidden Child Foundation (http://archive.adl.org/hidden/default.asp) which seeks to share the experiences of those who survived the Holocaust in hiding, many of whom lived separately from their families during the war, and remain as the sole survivors from their families.

For more information about Yom Hashoah, see the websites of the US Holocaust Museum in DC: http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/

In NYC, we have the Museum of Jewish Heritage: http://www.mjhnyc.org

In Rockland there is the Holocaust Museum and Studies Center: http://www.holocauststudies.org/

The Newburgh Jewish Community Center hosts numerous educational and social programs: www.newburghjcc.org/

My congregation is Congregation Agudas Israel www.congregationagudasisrael.org

And I can be found on facebook https://www.facebook.com/RabbiPhil or Twitter @tweetedtalmud

Marriage Equality, Kashrut and Truth

Rabbi Philip WeintraubApril 6, 2013Parshat Shemini

My homiletics teacher at JTS told me I should never ask more questions than I intend to answer, that when you do so, people think about their answers rather than yours.  Great advice, but sometimes it needs to be ignored!  So I ask you:How do we read the Torah?  Do we read it literally?  Do we read it allegorically?  What is Truth with a capital T?So before I continue (and lose you), what are your thoughts on any of those questions?


You might ask what inspired me1) Letter saying marriage is defined by GD (and that we shouldn’t support gay marriage)2) Parshat Shmini discussing death of Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu3) Parshat Shmini discussing rules of kashrut


On Friday I read a letter in Thursday’s paper telling us why, since Gd said marriage should be between a man and a woman, the state or federal government should agree.  Ignoring the Constitutional issues, such as the first amendment’s establishment clause, as much as I support Gd and Torah, I think that I read it just a little bit differently than the letter’s author.  On that note, before I continue,I want to share with you a letter I wrote to the editor of the Times Herald Record.  I think it is important for people to know that people of faith believe that gay marriage should be legal.  Even if you religiously believe that it is unacceptable for your church or synagogue to perform gay marriages, it should be legal for those that are not members of your church or synagogue.


My letter read:I read in the THR Friday  (oops-Thursday’s paper-I read it Friday) from a minister saying that only G-d defines marriage.  While that may be the case in his church, as is his first amendment right, NY state defines marriage within this state.  He is free to perform any marriage legal in the state and is under no pressure to perform gay marriages in his church.

On TV and in the paper, we often equate religion and anti-gay or even homophobic sentiments.  As a Conservative Rabbi, I remember that one of the first parts of creation was G-d noting that it was "not good for man to be alone."  I cannot imagine a loving G-d, who would create people with no acceptable marriage possibility.  That is why I support marriage equality.

If fundamentalists of any stripe are going to spend a lot of time parsing Leviticus, they should join me in keeping kosher: abandoning pork, shellfish and mixed meat/dairy meals.  If they aren't willing to live by the laws of the Bible, perhaps they shouldn't impose them on others.  That, too, is the principle of the First Amendment.

Additionally, our parsha speaks about the story of Nadav and Avihu, who offered “strange fire” before Gd.  The commentators fall over themselves trying to explain how this must be a just punishment from a just GD against evil people.  They say Nadav and Avihu made all sorts of different mistakes, that they disobeyed Gd.  Modern commentators speak of them being under the influence, perhaps that “strange fire” was them imbibing in illicit substances or drinking too much.  Others take another task, that they were so righteous and so so desired to be one with Gd, that they purposely sacrificed themselves!  However we read the story, it is a different one, that challenges our ideas about Gd and ourselves!

Finally our parsha concludes with animals we can and cannot eat.  It literally discusses the sacred and profane, implying that “we are what we eat.”  There is a great holiness to keeping kosher.  If we are aware of all that we put before our lips, if we say blessings over what we eat, we create a connection to Gd’s holy creation.

I found it particularly appropriate that the letter writer wrote this week, as we read about Kashrut.  I find it fascinating how so many people take the Bible so literally, yet are very selective in how they follow it.  Many people are quick to judge others for their sexual morality, yet have no interest in the numerous other prohibitions surrounding those.  

Returning to my original questions:How do we read the Torah?  I read the Torah with a loving eye.  I see it as the source of my life, the source for all life, the place where all secrets are hidden and the place where Gd shows Gd’s love to us and the world.  (While that may sound a little Christian, in my recent studies of the Christian Bible I discovered that 97% (my guess) of what Jesus says is either elsewhere in the Jewish Bible or in rabbinic literature.  It is Saul/Paul who drastically changed Jesus’ message.)Do we read it literally?  Yes, sometimes.Do we read it allegorically?  Yes, sometimes.In the Middle Ages, Saadia Gaon argued that a biblical passage should not be interpreted literally if that made a passage mean something contrary to the senses or reason (or, as we would say, science; Emunot ve-Deot, chapter 7). Maimonides applied this principle to theories about creation. He held that if the eternity of the universe (what we would call the Steady State theory) could be proven by logic (science) then the biblical passages speaking about creation at a point in time could and should be interpreted figuratively in a way that is compatible with the eternity of the universe.It is only because the eternity of the universe has not been proven that he interpreted the verses about creation at a point in time literally (Guide, II, 25), but he still insisted that the creation story as a whole was written metaphorically (Book I, Introduction). (http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Issues/Science/Creationism_and_Evolution/Bible_as_Allegory.shtml)

What is Truth with a capital T?  Truth is love.  Truth is the spirit behind the words.  Truth is what lives deep inside of us, in the light that is our soul, in the Gdliness that is demonstrated by Bereshit’s note that we are all created in the image of the Divine.  Truth with a capital T is not found simply by reading the words on the page.  It is in the words, under the words, struggling with the words.  It is reading 4 translations and 8 commentaries.  It is parsing with a chevruta, studying with a friend.  Truth is Divine.Shabbat Shalom.

Marriage Equality

My letter to the Times Herald Record today. Let's see if it gets published!

I read in the THR Friday from a minister saying that only G-d defines marriage. While that may be the case in his church, as is his first amendment right, NY state defines marriage within this state. He is free to perform any marriage legal in the state and is under no pressure to perform gay marriages in his church.

On TV and in the paper, we often equate religion and anti-gay or even homophobic sentiments. As a Conservative Rabbi, I remember that one of the first parts of creation was G-d noting that it was "not good for man to be alone." I cannot imagine a loving G-d, who would create people with no acceptable marriage possibility. That is why I support marriage equality.

If fundamentalists of any stripe are going to spend a lot of time parsing Leviticus, they should join me in keeping kosher: abandoning pork, shellfish and mixed meat/dairy meals. If they aren't willing to live by the laws of the Bible, perhaps they shouldn't impose them on others. That, too, is the principle of the First Amendment.