Who hardened whose heart? And how do we soften our own?

Rabbi Philip Weintraub
Congregation Agudas Israel

1/17/2015

Exodus Chapter 7 (NJPS via jtsa.edu)

1 The Lord replied to Moses, "See, I place you in the role of God to Pharaoh, with your brother Aaron as your prophet. 2 You shall repeat all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh to let the Israelites depart from his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt. 4 When Pharaoh does not heed you, I will lay My hand upon Egypt and deliver My ranks, My people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with extraordinary chastisements. 5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand over Egypt and bring out the Israelites from their midst." 6 This Moses and Aaron did; as the Lord commanded them, so they did. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they made their demand on Pharaoh.

This week we read of blood, of frogs, of insects, but to me the most fascinating part of the parsha is not the miracles, but the inner struggle.

וַאֲנִי אַקְשֶׁה, אֶת-לֵב פַּרְעֹה And I will harden Pharaoh's heart      ,

What is the psychological challenge of Pharaoh?  Did Gd harden Pharaoh’s heart or did Gd reinforce the decision that Pharaoh had already made?  Several times in the book of Exodus, it says that Moses or Gd hardened Pharaoh’s heart, yet in the book of Samuel, we read:

וְלָמָּה תְכַבְּדוּ אֶת-לְבַבְכֶם, כַּאֲשֶׁר כִּבְּדוּ מִצְרַיִם וּפַרְעֹה אֶת-לִבָּם:  הֲלוֹא כַּאֲשֶׁר הִתְעַלֵּל בָּהֶם, וַיְשַׁלְּחוּם וַיֵּלֵכוּ.

6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when He had wrought among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

Which is it?  Can it be both?  Can Gd have simply reinforced the decision of Pharaoh?  On a light-hearted note, I think of the kid’s song, “Little bunny foo foo”, who the fairy gave three chances to improve himself, yet he continued to make the same poor decisions!  Perhaps Gd worked in the same way, giving Pharaoh TEN opportunities to change his ways, yet each time, he did let our people go!

Pharaoh’s sin was not simply refusing GD or Moses.  His sin was in thinking that his hold on power was permanent.  His sin was in imaginging that there was no other way but the choices he had already made.  He could not imagine changing his mind.  The end of the Purim story has always surprised me.  The King does not rescind his order to kill the Jews.  Instead he orders the Jews be armed, that they may protect themselves from the evil onslaught.  His failure to rescind his order causes the needless suffering of many of his people.  And this sin remains today.

Many of us are unwilling to admit we are wrong.  We are unwilling to accept that we can change.  We have hardened our hearts with the wrong idea that the way it is today is the way it will be tomorrow.

As this week celebrates the achievements of Martin Luther King, Jr, I think about the ways that people in this country had hardened hearts.  For those of us who grew up in the South, we were sometimes taught that the Civil War was the end of racism, yet it does not take much to show that it did not end there. Nor did it end with MLK and the passage of the Civil Rights Act or Voting Rights Act.  Rather racism changed form and went underground.  While it is not socially acceptable to openly speak racist thoughts, Avenue Q taught us that “we’re all a little bit racist”, that many people harbor prejudice.  Recently books have come out talking about the “new Jim Crow”, how our justice and prison systems unfairly target those of color.  The “drug war” criminalizes “black” and “white” drugs in different ways, so that if I were to smoke something I shouldn’t (which I wouldn’t since I’m allergic to everything!), I would likely not be arrested or my charges would be dropped, yet if someone of color made the same choice, he or she might find him/herself locked in the prison system.  

Our country has hardened its heart against those that look different.  Yet the demographics of our country are changing.  It is less white than it has ever been.  And somewhere along the way, we Jews became white!  On a side note, as our brothers and sisters in France have discovered, that is not a universal statement!  There is closeted (and not so closeted) anti-semitism even here!  

One lesson of the plagues is that if we get uncomfortable enough, even the most hardened hearts can change.  Even Pharaoh, when the stakes were high enough let our people go.  What does it take for change in this country?  What would it look like to have a just society?

We do not understand the dangers that police navigate every single day.  Every day is another opportunity to protect and serve, but is another opportunity to be placed in a dangerous situation that is not always survivable.  When I can walk to and from synagogue to my home, I am appreciative of those who protect this community and make that walk safe.  Unfortunately, the laws that are enforced are not always just.  We must continue to work with our legislators, with our Congress, to ensure that ALL have opportunity in this country, that laws that unfairly target some are written out of the law books.  That is one way we soften our hearts.

We soften our hearts through suffering, through empathy, through seeing the challenges in our lives and those in our neighbors.  We soften our hearts through respect of those who protect us.  We soften our hearts through demanding equal rights for all.  Did you know that the Equal Rights Amendment has been brought to every  single Congress since 1982 and yet still has not become a constitutional amendment?!

Many times I have heard that if we could all unload our burdens, our challenges and place them on this bimah, given the opportunity to trade them, we would all take back our own challenges.  Our challenges are familiar, yet hopefully we use them to soften our hearts and not harden them.  I pray that we use our challenges to look around the room, to look around the world and find it in our hearts to simply be kind.  I pray that we find it in our hearts to be kind AND to do something.  Let us continue to work for a just world.  It does not happen overnight, but if we imagine the world as immutable, we make the same mistake that Pharaoh did.  We all have the capability to improve this world.  What are we doing?  Shabbat Shalom.

And the bush was not consumed. . .

Rabbi Philip Weintraub

Congregation Agudas Israel

January 10, 2015

Parshat Shemot

I think of the names that open this week’s parsha, this week’s book of the Torah, Shemot (in English Exodus), 1 “Jacob, each coming with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 The total number of persons that were of Jacob's issue came to seventy, Joseph being already in Egypt. “ Yet I also think of the names of those who were/are? hostages yesterday in Paris-- Shmuel Yitzchok Ben Sara, Zerya Bas Susan, Andra Bas Jusian and Mordechai Ben Maya. A six-month-old baby is in the store.  I think about the life of traditional Jews, of which I count myself.  Once the Shabbat candles are lit, there is no going to the store for a forgotten item.  If we need something Friday afternoon, there is a mad dash to the store, with an eye on the watch or the phone to ensure we get back in time.  With no kosher supermarket in Newburgh, my mad dash is to Pricechopper, which while owned by Jews and sells kosher food, is a giant supermarket.  The customers on a Friday afternoon could be absolutely anyone!  In Paris, at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, that is likely not the case.  The customers are far more likely to be Jewish.  Earlier this week they came for the cartoonists (of which one of them was Jewish) and now they again came for the Jews.

Our parasha opens with the mention of those names and how quickly their achievements are forgotten by those in power.  Joseph’s ingenuity saved the Egyptian people and cemented Pharaoh’s hold on power, yet a generation or two later and this is no longer part of the Egyptian story.  Sometimes even the greatest achievement is not eternally remembered!  While this may sound tragic, it is only the beginning.  Pharaoh and his advisors turn the Israelites into slaves and eventually work towards genocidal plans.  By the time we get to our reading, two chapters later, Moses, saved by Pharaoh’s daughter (irony much?), is a shepherd outside the land. What we read today is inscribed on the building where I studied for so many years,

ב  וַיֵּרָא מַלְאַךְ יְ-ה אֵלָיו, בְּלַבַּת-אֵשׁ--מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה; וַיַּרְא, וְהִנֵּה הַסְּנֶה בֹּעֵר בָּאֵשׁ, וְהַסְּנֶה, אֵינֶנּוּ אֻכָּל.

2 And the angel of the L-ORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

That phrase has been an inspiration to many.  It has been a light in dark times, a beacon of hope. As I heard that the hostages in Paris were freed, that some of those innocent shoppers were safe, I thought of this verse.

וְהַסְּנֶה, אֵינֶנּוּ אֻכָּל

What does it mean to burn yet not be consumed?  WE burn with the fire of outrage at those who think violence is the solution to all their problems.  We burn with the fire of hope that one day we will truly see peace.  We burn with the light of Torah, that leads us to holier, more meaningful lives. We may even burn with passion towards those we love or even for issues we care about--yet we must be careful not to be consumed and negate our selves.

For those who use terror, they are bushes who HAVE been consumed.  They have sacrificed self in their quest for a world where all look like themselves.  In response, many in history have been consumed with revenge.

So how do we live with fire, live with passion, live with energy, yet prevent ourselves from being totally consumed by these energies?

Even as we saw those who saw themselves as faithful commit acts of horrendous violence, in many cases, faith can keep us from making poor or evil choices.  Faith reminds us of the humanity of one another.  Our Torah teaches that ALL were created in the Divine image.

We can all see examples of those whose quest for mitzvot leaves them abandoning some of their love for others, but are Torah teaches also of the important of mitzvot ben adam l’havero, between one person and another.  The first question asked in heaven is “Were we honest in business?”--do we treat people fairly, honestly, appropriately? In this way, we see that passion for business is great, but the passion must be applied carefully, that we know when our efforts are legal and when they are not.

I need not give examples from personal relationships, but we can all think of personal experiences or ones whom we love who had passionate relationships that completely flamed out.  They lost their sense of self and were left brokenhearted.  Fire is great, but it must be carefully tended to burn for the long term.

The same is true in our daily lives.  We have to ensure that the work we do is sustainable, that we make ourselves sustainable.  If our focus is so singular, so particular, we may lose ourselves.  Passion, fire, is key, but it cannot be the only metric by which we live our lives.  If so, we may find ourselves burned out, lost, overwhelmed.

A life of passion can be a powerful one, yet we must guard ourselves from putting out the fire or pouring lighter fluid on it!

After shul today we will discuss matters of life and death, issues that oertain to us all. At this moment, I want to ask us all to say “Baruch Atah Adoshem Elokeinu Melech Haolam, Matir Asurim” Praise are you, Holy One, ruler of space and time who frees the captive.  May those who survived their captivity fight PTSD, discover reserves of strength and live full lives.  May those who did not survive see their souls rise to heaven, may their memory be a blessing.  Shabbat Shalom.

Behalotecha 2014

Rabbi Philip Weintraub

Congregation Agudas Israel

June 7, 2014

Ploni’s Bar Mitzvah/Parshat Behalotecha

Today is a beautiful day.  Thankfully the weather seems to agree, but today is not beautiful because of the sunshine.  Today is beautiful because of the people in this room, because of the words that have been said, the words that will be said and the Torah that we read.

Whether you were in this room or any synagogue anywhere in the world, someone would be reading from the Torah.  They would not be reading from any random spot, but rather starding their reading from chapter 8 of the book of Bamidbar, the book of Numbers.  Can you imagine, that at the same time as Ploni was reading from this Torah, Jewish men and women, girls and boys were taking a yad, a pointer, and reading the same words, with the same melodies all around the world.  When Ploni picked up that pointer today, he took hold of his and our Jewish tradition.  He bound himself to a chain stretching back to Moses, stretching back to Abraham, stretching back to Adam and Havvah, to Adam and Eve.

In our reading this morning, I started with one the classic lines of the Torah.  Gd spoke to Moses saying.  It continues with the description of the Menorah in the Temple.

א  וַיְדַבֵּר יְ-ה-וָ-ה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר.	1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:
ב  דַּבֵּר, אֶל-אַהֲרֹן, וְאָמַרְתָּ, אֵלָיו:  בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ, אֶת-הַנֵּרֹת, אֶל-מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה, יָאִירוּ שִׁבְעַת הַנֵּרוֹת.	2 'Speak unto Aaron, and say unto him: When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the candlestick.'
ג  וַיַּעַשׂ כֵּן, אַהֲרֹן--אֶל-מוּל פְּנֵי הַמְּנוֹרָה, הֶעֱלָה נֵרֹתֶיהָ:  כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְ-ה-וָ-ה, אֶת-מֹשֶׁה.	3 And Aaron did so: he lighted the lamps thereof so as to give light in front of the candlestick, as the LORD commanded Moses.
ד  וְזֶה מַעֲשֵׂה הַמְּנֹרָה מִקְשָׁה זָהָב, עַד-יְרֵכָהּ עַד-פִּרְחָהּ מִקְשָׁה הִוא:  כַּמַּרְאֶה, אֲשֶׁר הֶרְאָה יְ-ה-וָ-ה אֶת-מֹשֶׁה--כֵּן עָשָׂה, אֶת-הַמְּנֹרָה.  {פ}	4 And this was the work of the candlestick, beaten work of gold; unto the base thereof, and unto the flowers thereof, it was beaten work; according unto the pattern which the LORD had shown Moses, so he made the candlestick. {P}

Now, if I were you, I might here Menorah and think Chanukkah, but in fact, the Menorah originally was simply a light in the Temple.  It was the eternal flame--like the light hanging above me.  Continually re-filled, it shared the light of the Holy One, of Gd, with every person who walked through the doors of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.  Having not been able to worship in the Temple for almost 2000 years, every synagogue has an eternal light, a lamp constantly lit to remind us of that holy place and of our mission as Jews.

Mentioned in the book of Isaiah, Jews are commanded to be ,לְאוֹר גּוֹיִם, a light unto the nations.  It is not an easy task, so we have many commandments and traditions to help us follow in Gd’s metaphorical footsteps.  Whether in how we eat, or how we talk to others, how we are to treat all with respect, how we are to be honest in our business dealings, we have commandments for everything.  Now if only all Jews would follow them!

Elsewhere in our Torah, in Exodus 25:11, we have a description of the Ark that was in the Temple.  Just like the Menorah it was pure gold, inside and out.

יא  וְצִפִּיתָ אֹתוֹ זָהָב טָהוֹר, מִבַּיִת וּמִחוּץ תְּצַפֶּנּוּ; וְעָשִׂיתָ עָלָיו זֵר זָהָב, סָבִיב.

11 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.

In the Talmud, a collections of Jewish wisdom and law, Rava says: Any Torah scholar whose inside is not like his outside (who is not as righteous as he or she appears to be) is not a true Torah scholar.  

What does this mean?  It tells us that to truly be an ideal person, we have to work to make sure that our insides match our outsides and vice versa.  To me, adolescence is beginning this project of making our outsides and insides match.  Going through middle school, high school and even college, we may try on different personalities, cliques, clubs.  Hopefully by the time we are adults, we know who we are and where we are going.  In this way, the Torah can be light for us.  Knowing what our values are, knowing where we stand, can smooth the challenges of adolescence, the challenges of life.  If we know that we are living a life of honor, of character, of a commanded life, we gain the confidence and the wisdom of thousands of years of learning and tradition.

Ploni, stand up.  Today we celebrate your Bar Mitzvah, but what we are really celebrating is that you ARE a Bar Mitzvah, a son of the commandments.  We celebrate you taking hold of your traditions, making them your own.  In your haftorah this morning, you read:

ו  וַיַּעַן וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי, לֵאמֹר, זֶה דְּבַר-יְ-ה-וָ-ה, אֶל-זְרֻבָּבֶל לֵאמֹר:  לֹא בְחַיִל, וְלֹא בְכֹחַ--כִּי אִם-בְּרוּחִי, אָמַר יְ-ה-וָ-ה צְבָאוֹת.

6 Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying: 'This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying: Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

For the last few months you have worked very hard.  We have studied together on good days and more challenging ones.  I have seen you grow right before my eyes.  In our time together I have seen you triumph in the Science Fair and moments of struggle.  Yet through it all, we kept working.  We kept going and going and going until today, when every word was correct, when every syllable and note was just right. I said to your mom yesterday, that there is a miracle that happens at (almost) every Bar Mitzvah, somehow, it all comes together--not by might, not by power, but with the help of Gd (and Jewish mothers everywhere).

You spoke of your work at the Soup Kitchen and your holy work of Bikkur Holim, of visiting those who are not at the peak of health.  In both those cases, and many others, you demonstrate the good heart that you have.  You show that you are living your Jewish values, looking out for those that need a little more help.

As we look to the future, I know those values will remain with you.  I hope that we will continue to find time to study together, to look at Jewish texts together and to help you live a Jewish life.  In Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of our Ancestors, in the fifth chapter, is one of my favorite lines of our tradition--partly because the guy has one of the best names in our tradition!

כב בֶּן בַּג בַּג אוֹמֵר, הֲפָךְ בָּהּ וַהֲפָךְ בָּהּ, דְּכֹלָּא בָהּ. ובָהּ תֶּחֱזֵי, וְסִיב וּבְלֵה בַהּ, וּמִנַּהּ לָא תְזוּעַ, שֶׁאֵין לְךָ מִדָּה טוֹבָה הֵימֶנָּה:

The son of Bag Bag (ben Bag Bag said); Delve and delve into it, for all is in it; see with it; grow old and worn in it; do not budge from it, for there is nothing better.

That text is immediately followed by:

כג בֶּן הֵא הֵא אוֹמֵר, לְפוּם צַעֲרָא אַגְרָא:

Ben Hei Hei said, “The reward is commensurate with the effort.”

You have put in a lot of work.  The lunch your mom arranged seems like a pretty great reward--but in truth, the reward is that you will continue to live a Jewish life.  Today is not the end of your Jewish education or life, it is the beginning.  You have the tools, the direction, the opportunities.  Now the choices are yours.  To help you on the right path, you are all invited back for Shabbat Hanukkah.  On December 20, Ploni will be standing with me again, as he chants the Haftorah he so beautifully read this morning!  I am so proud of you today, Ploni, and I am sure that every person in this room is, too!  Mazal tov!