Reflections on recent events and Ki Tissa

This past week has been a challenging one for our community.  We had two funerals, remembered two members who participated in so many different ways over their lifetimes.  For all of us, this has been a time of grief--and even the weather seemed to demonstrate our loss.

Today the sun is out again (albeit briefly).  The warmth of its rays reminds us of the power of our community, the support of Avinu Shabashamayim, our loving parent in heaven.  Yet it takes time to find our rhythm after loss.  We are always changed by loss.  This goes for both the family and friends--but for rabbis, too.

In the medical profession, a certain distance has long been required.  Although how much distance is regularly debated among such professionals.  How much is needed to protect oneself and how much to remain compassionate and empathetic?  If you are around death regularly, it does become more routine.  Yet, as a member of the clergy, becoming too accustomed cannot and should not create too much distance.  To officiate at a funeral, we must have love for the deceased, no matter how much or little we knew them.  Cultivating this love means we, too, have heartbreak.  It also means that we, too, grieve.

I thank you all for your kind words this week, for recognizing and appreciating that my sadness was not only normal but required.  Looking forward to many more simchas with you all!

Looking at this week’s parsha, I want to highlight a few verses.  After the golden calf incident; after the first tablets are destroyed; Moses is invited back onto the mountain and creates a new set.  Rather than being entirely created by Gd, these are a partnership.  Moses carves and Gd writes.  In this way Moses became a partner to Gd in the teaching and sharing of Torah.  This is true for all of us today.  If we see death and life as entirely in Gd’s sphere, it can seem too distant.  Yet if we realize that some of it is in Gd’s hands and some in ours, we realize the true partnership that is our lives.  We can realize that grief and loss are a part of life.  They are not apart from life.  Grief and loss help us to find the holiness, the immediacy, the joy.  We cannot have our truest celebrations, our most joyful times, if we do not have some more challenging ones.  

Below I share a short excerpt from our Torah reading.  Within it we see Moses receiving the second set of tablets, but also reminding Gd (and Gd reminding us) of Gd’s great compassion.  By emulating Gd’s compassion to us, by showing compassion for one another, we truly walk in Gd’s footsteps and live more meaningful and powerful lives.  We all can and have made great difference in people’s lives.  Thanks for showing and sharing your love with me!

Exodus Chapter 34 שְׁמוֹת

(From: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0234.htm )

א  וַיֹּאמֶרHashem אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, פְּסָל-לְךָ שְׁנֵי-לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים כָּרִאשֹׁנִים; וְכָתַבְתִּי, עַל-הַלֻּחֹת, אֶת-הַדְּבָרִים, אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ עַל-הַלֻּחֹת הָרִאשֹׁנִים אֲשֶׁר שִׁבַּרְתָּ.	1 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first; and I will write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables, which thou didst break.
ב  וֶהְיֵה נָכוֹן, לַבֹּקֶר; וְעָלִיתָ בַבֹּקֶר אֶל-הַר סִינַי, וְנִצַּבְתָּ לִי שָׁם עַל-רֹאשׁ הָהָר.	2 And be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to Me on the top of the mount.
ג  וְאִישׁ לֹא-יַעֲלֶה עִמָּךְ, וְגַם-אִישׁ אַל-יֵרָא בְּכָל-הָהָר; גַּם-הַצֹּאן וְהַבָּקָר אַל-יִרְעוּ, אֶל-מוּל הָהָר הַהוּא.	3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.'
ד  וַיִּפְסֹל שְׁנֵי-לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים כָּרִאשֹׁנִים, וַיַּשְׁכֵּם מֹשֶׁה בַבֹּקֶר וַיַּעַל אֶל-הַר סִינַי, כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּהHashem, אֹתוֹ; וַיִּקַּח בְּיָדוֹ, שְׁנֵי לֻחֹת אֲבָנִים.	4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tables of stone.
ה  וַיֵּרֶדHashem בֶּעָנָן, וַיִּתְיַצֵּב עִמּוֹ שָׁם; וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם,Hashem.	5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
ו  וַיַּעֲבֹרHashem עַל-פָּנָיו, וַיִּקְרָא,HashemHashem, אֵל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן--אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם, וְרַב-חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת.	6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed: 'The LORD, the LORD, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;
ז  נֹצֵר חֶסֶד לָאֲלָפִים, נֹשֵׂא עָו‍ֹן וָפֶשַׁע וְחַטָּאָה; וְנַקֵּה, לֹא יְנַקֶּה--פֹּקֵד עֲו‍ֹן אָבוֹת עַל-בָּנִים וְעַל-בְּנֵי בָנִים, עַל-שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל-רִבֵּעִים.	7 keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.'