Rabbi Philip Weintraub
Congregation Agudas Israel
5/2/2015
If you were to list the most important Jewish practices, what comes to mind? For me, Ahad Ha’am taught powerfully, more than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews. Others might speak about kashrut, how keeping Jews from eating with others encouraged them to socialize among Jews, encouraging Jewish continuity. Midrash teaches us that our business practices--having honest weights and measures are central to Jewish identity--as we read this week Leviticus 19:35 “You shall not falsify measures of length, weight, or capacity. 36 You shall have an honest balance, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin.” http://www.jtsa.edu/PreBuilt/ParashahArchives/jpstext/kedoshim.shtml
This week I heard a different answer. On Tuesday, I had the privilege of listening to Shuli Passow’s senior sermon at JTS. In a few weeks she will be ordained and will be afforded more opportunities to share her Torah with the Jewish world. Thinking about our imperfect world, she looked at Parshat Kedoshim, the second half of our reading today. While the Holiness code, as it is sometimes called, is frequently lambasted as being outdated or stuck up on sexual hang-ups, she taught us that it is unified by a drive towards justice and communal progress.
Citing Abraham Joshua Heschel, she taught, “The self is not the hub but the spoke of the revolving wheel.” Man's Quest For God : Studies In Prayer And Symbolism (1954), p. 7. In contrast to the culture of American individualism, Judaism is a communal culture, which sometimes requires us to sublimate our own individualistic desires for the greater good, to act altruistically.
Shuli shared the surprising practice that Maimonides saw as essential to Judaism, a commandment that does not apply outside of biblical Israel. Leket and Peah! These commands, which you likely have never even heard of come from Leviticus 19:9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God.” http://www.jtsa.edu/PreBuilt/ParashahArchives/jpstext/kedoshim.shtml
Maimonides Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Issurei Biah talks about the rules intimate relations, includes a chapter (number 14) devoted to the laws of conversion to Judaism. For the Rambam, conversion is relatively straightforward. He first asks:
Halacha 1
What is the procedure when accepting a righteous convert? When one of the gentiles comes to convert, we inspect his background. If an ulterior motive for conversion is not found we ask him: "Why did you choose to convert? Don't you know that in the present era, the Jews are afflicted, crushed, subjugated, strained, and suffering comes upon them?" If he answers: "I know. Would it be that I be able to be part of them," we accept him immediately. (http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/960662/jewish/Issurei-Biah-Chapter-Fourteen.htm )
First we establish the connection to Jewish peoplehood.
Next we teach her some of the laws. Not all of them, just a few. Again, we are checking to see if they REALLY want to be part of the Jewish people.
Halacha 2
We inform him of the fundamentals of the faith, i.e., the unity of God and the prohibition against the worship of false deities. We elaborate on this matter. We inform him about some of the easy mitzvot and some of the more severe ones. We do not elaborate on this matter. We inform him of the transgression of [not leaving] leket, shichachah, pe'ah, and the second tithe. And we inform him of the punishment given for [violating] the mitzvot.
What is implied? We tell him: "Before you came to our faith, if you partook of fat, you were not liable for your soul to be cut off. If you desecrated the Sabbath, you were not liable to be stoned to death. Now, after you convert, if you partake of fat, you are liable for your soul to be cut off. If you desecrate the Sabbath, you are liable to be stoned to death."
We do not teach him all the particulars lest this cause him concern and turn him away from a good path to a bad path. For at the outset, we draw a person forth with soft and appealing words, as [Hoshea 11:4] states: "With cords of man, I drew them forth," and then continues: "with bonds of love."
Most important for today--We inform him of the transgression of [not leaving] leket, shichachah, pe'ah, and the second tithe.
Why would these mitzvot be the first ones we would teach? It comes back to the Heschel quote, as opposed to keeping ALL of our earnings, all of our produce, as Jews, we are required to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. We are obliged to go against our instinct of self-preservation, of family-preservation to leave some of our earnings and give them away. By ensuring that the people who convert to Judaism respect Jewish values, we also demonstrate what we think the most important Jewish values are! For Maimonides, caring for others is the central Jewish value. Like the story of Hillel and the convert, Maimonides sees Jewish values as encouraging us to improve this world and those within it. While these specific commands are no longer applicable, the concepts behind them are.
Looking at those texts and Maimonides’ source in Yevamot, Shuli demonstrated that Parshat Kedoshim is not just a random collection of laws, but a philosophy of Judaism, a theology of love, of kindness, of support for one another.
Looking beyond the examples she made, we can look at the last verse we read this morning. “19:14 You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God: I am the Lord.” There again we see that we are commanded to protect those who cannot protect themselves, not to take advantage of them.
Leviticus 19:16 teaches us לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל-דַּם רֵעֶךָ Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor or in some translations, do not profit from the blood of your neighbor. Jews United for Justice wrote this week that “As Jews, we have a religious obligation to treat the oppression of another group as an oppression we must also help fight. And we must balance our responsibility to support our neighbors with a reluctance to form judgments and opinions about the circumstances that are unique for other communities. We must also be careful not to compound another group’s adversity by making comparisons to our own. Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore are symptoms of America’s deep problems with racism and racial inequality in America. Shortly after Pesach, the time of our own people’s liberation, we must see this moment as a call to action against the oppression that our neighbors are currently protesting. We have a role to play in supporting their protest and actively working alongside them to make changes. Blood has been shed; we are obligated not to stand idly by.”
As we look around the world today, what kind of Judaism do we want to live. To live authentically as Jews, Shabbat and kashrut must be important parts of our lives. Yet, they cannot be the only defining factors. We must look out for our neighbors, here in Newburgh and throughout the country. There is a lot of work to be done, we cannot abdicate our responsibilities!
Other referenced source:
(Once there was a gentile who came before Shammai, and said to him: "Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot. Shammai pushed him aside with the measuring stick he was holding. The same fellow came before Hillel, and Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it." - Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/hillel.html
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