Ketoret

 

Parshat Ki Tisa describes the ketoret, the incense offering. The Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 3:45) sees the role of ketoret as logical/ practical: “Since many animals were slaughtered in the sacred place each day, their flesh butchered and burned and their intestines cleaned, its smell would doubtless have been like the smell of a slaughterhouse. Therefore G d commanded that the ketoret be burned twice a day, each morning and afternoon, to lend a pleasing fragrance to [the Holy Temple] and to the garments of those who served in it.”

    One of the key ingredients in ketoret is khelbona, known for its terrible odor. This element is similar to that used in the production of all perfume: The basic method involves using something with an extremely pungent odor. This strong but unpleasant accelerant is then masked with a sweet smell which covers and transforms it into incense. While the sweet smell is the actual perfume, it alone would be powerless and unnoticed without the unpleasant odor to which it is attached.

    “Said R. Hana b. Bizna in the name of R. Hisda the pious: A fast in which none of the sinners of Israel participate is no fast; for behold the odor of galbanum is unpleasant and yet it was included among the spices for the incense. Abaye says: We learn this from the text: And hath founded his vault upon the earth.” (Keritot 6b)

    This is the secret and the power of the ketoret: A foul smell - something evil, putrid - is covered and transformed by good. This is the essential dynamic of teshuva (repentance) itself, the concept of spiritual growth and transformation which the ketoret helps bring about.

    The lesson of ketoret extends beyond teshuva. Life consists of both good, happy, fragrant moments along with difficult, sad moments that just plain stink. The ketoret teaches us that everyone will experience both. Instead of trying to avoid the “stink” we should do our best to put it into perspective and count our blessings. Moreover the difficulty itself can be elevated into an opportunity for growth. Nobody wants to experience hard times, and yet many people acknowledge that those hard times were crucial in shaping the person that they became.

    The Talmud says that if any of the ingredients in ketoret were to be omitted (on purpose) then the punishment is death. This teaches us that we must not overlook any situation that we experience. Similarly from the perspective of Klal Yisrael, we must recognize the value of every Jew. Every individual is valuable. We each contribute something unique to the totality. In Tanach, we find that one way to stop a Divine plague is by offering incense. During a plague, everyone is in the same boat. Our uniqueness will not save us from the plague. During a plague we are all the same in that we are all similarly vulnerable. Offering incense is a way to combat a plague, since ketoret teaches the importance of the individual.

    The Torah says that the incense offering would create a “pleasant aroma for Hashem.” When we realize that all of our experiences are opportunities for growth we too can create a pleasant aroma for Hashem - and for ourselves. When we appreciate that every Jew matters we can create a pleasant aroma for Hashem - and for ourselves.

 

 

Urim V’Tumim: Not Just a Crystal Ball

Friday March 13, 2020 is the exact date that the pandemic began for me. That morning there was a bris at shul. I was honored with reciting the blessings before the baby naming. After the baby was named I was called upon to drink from the cup. I was so nervous to drink from the cup that I spilled wine on my tie. Friday afternoon, a few hours before Shabbat, we made the decision to close shul. Our shul campus did not open again (for outdoor minyanim) until Monday June 1, 2020. Will the end date of this pandemic be as clear as its start date was? When will the pandemic end? When will the pandemic shift to endemic status? Some suggest we are already there. Others, including the World Health Organization, say that we are still in the pandemic stage. And it is too soon to know when this stage will end. I have not been following the case counts, positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths as closely as I did in 2020. My mind has shifted focus to think about the tremendous toll that this pandemic has taken on all of us, to different degrees and in different ways. Our world and our lives have been changed in fundamental ways, ways in which we do not yet fully comprehend. Even when the pandemic is over, the CoVID dust will take years (or longer) to settle in a way that we can talk about a “post CovID” normalcy with any degree of certainty.

Sometimes I wish I had a crystal ball that could give me the answer to questions like “When will CoVID be over?” In Parshat Tetzaveh we are introduced to the special vestments of the Kohen Gadol. One of those articles of clothing was the Choshen, the breastplate. The Torah notes an element contained within the Choshen was the Urim V’Tumim (28:30): “You shall place the Urim and the Tumim into the Choshen of Judgment so that they will be over Aaron's heart when he comes before the Lord, and Aaron will carry the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord at all times.” The Talmud (Yoma 73) describes how the Urim V’Tumim functioned like a God-given crystal ball: “The Sages taught: How does one consult the Urim V’Tumim? The one asking stands with his face toward the one who is asked, i.e. the High Priest or the priest anointed for war. And the one who is asked, the High Priest, turns his face toward the Divine Presence.” When a question was asked, and the Kohen Gadol was worthy of receiving prophecy, then the answer to the question would reveal itself on the breastplate through a deciphering of letters that were engraved there. Rambam explains that the Urim V’Tumim refers to the letters standing out in a way that allowed the Kohen Gadol to decipher the letters (with Divine assistance) in a way that would answer the question. Rashi agrees with Ramban on the procedure, but he explains that the Urim V’Tumim refers to a piece of parchment that contained a name of God that was slipped into the breastplate. It was this parchment that demonstrated that the answer was coming from Hashem. According to both opinions, the answers came about through Divine assistance in tandem with human worthiness and intellect. Hashem would “light up” the letters on the Choshen, but the Kohen Gadol then needed to be enlightened enough to decipher the jumble to devise a coherent answer. The Kohen Gadol needed to be worthy and he needed Divine Assistance. I don’t know precisely when we will be able to declare CoVID over. But I do know that as we navigate from now until then, we will need to utilize our intellect, our optimism and our dependence on Hashem to reach that point and to build what comes afterwards.

What Comes First: The Investment or the Love?

The current jobs market in the United States is in a state of massive flux. The CoVID pandemic has upended many industries and challenged many long held assumptions about the economy in general and jobs in particular. There is significant turnover among employees. This week JTA reported that there are 80 synagogues affiliated with the Conservative Movement seeking new Rabbis, while there are a maximum of 60 eligible Rabbis from the Conservative Movement that are seeking new positions. Just as it is important to fill a job opening it is equally important to fill an open positon with the right person. As Jim Collins writes in his bestselling book Good To Great, companies and organizations need to get the right people (ie employees) on the bus, and also find the right seat (ie role) for those who are on the bus. In order to accomplish this, some companies have adopted an interesting strategy: pay employees to quit. For instance, the software company Trainual offers some employees up to $5,000 to leave after the first few weeks. Trainual CEO Chris Ronzio said about this policy, “It’s important to know really quickly if we’ve found the right people… When you’re interviewing, you really only get a glimpse of the business you’re going to work for and the role.” He concludes that “If someone knows a week or two in that this is not their long-term place or position, it gets more expensive to replace them as they take on more work and responsibility. By offering new hires $5,000, we give them the opportunity to opt out after two weeks if they have any sense of doubt.”

A few years ago, the Atlantic ran a story about Amazon’s “pay to quit” policy. (Interesting to note that Amazon just discontinued this policy a few months ago). In that article it noted that the stated goal of such an offer is to weed out those who don’t want to work there. Amazon doesn’t want unhappy workers. As expensive and time consuming it is to find a new employee, in the long term it is a better investment to cut one’s losses early on, and even to pay some money up front to end a working relationship that is doomed to fail. However, the article also noted that this offer can have an even greater impact for those who choose to stay. Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres suggests that all of the employees who considered taking the offer but decided to stay, have essentially invested $5,000 into their career at Amazon. So not only does the offer weed out unhappy employees, it creates employees who really want their career at Amazon to have long-term success.

One of the more famous questions on Parashas Terumah is why the pasuk says ויקחו לי תרומה (“take for Me a donation”) and not “ויתנו לי תרומה “give to Me a donation” R. Eliyahu Schlesinger suggests that HaShem wanted Bnei Yisrael to be invested in the Torah. He wanted them to serve HaShem out of love, not because He forced them to accept the Torah, but because they were personally interested and invested in this idea. Their giving of money was not a gift; it was an investment and therefore, the word ויקחו is most appropriate. We invest in those things that we love. But we also develop a love for those things in which we invest. Sometimes the love comes first. But sometimes the investment comes first and the love follows.

The Broad Lessons of Mishpatim

Parshat Mishpatim contains many laws related to interpersonal responsibilities, such as business ethics and damages. These topics are more fully explored and explained in the Nezikin section of the Talmud. According to his son, Rav Moshe Feinstein believed that young children should constantly learn the Gemarahs (and Mishnayot) from Seder Nezikin during their youth. Rav Reuven asked his father why they should learn these particular Talmudic sections.  Rav Moshe answered that if they learn in different ways that one may not steal, then hopefully when they leave the Yeshiva they will not steal.  However, if monetary laws are not constantly reviewed, then it will be very difficult for them to be honest as adults.

Most of us do not own oxen that do damage. But these laws from Parshat Mishpatim teach us the premium that the Torah puts on personal responsibility, a lesson that is relevant for all of us.

While all of the laws in Mishpatim are relevant, there is an especially rich tradition of finding additional applications and lessons from the law of Bor Bireshut HaRabim, a pit created in a public domain (21:33-34):

“When a man opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, the one responsible for the pit must make restitution; he shall pay the price to the owner, but shall keep the animal carcass.”

The story is told how the Alter of Slabodka once saw a young man pick up a printed sheet from the road, look at it and then throw it back down. When the Alter asked about it the young man explained that as he was walking he saw something with Hebrew letters.  He thought that the sheet might contain sheimos, Torah words, and require genizah, respectful disposal. Upon further inspection, he realized that the page contained mundane matters so he threw it back down. The Alter of Slabodka was angry at this response. He said to the young man, “Just as the Torah finds liable the person who causes his friend to fall, so too is a person liable if he causes his fellow to bend down unnecessarily. Once you picked up the paper you should have discarded it so that no one else would be bothered in the future with the same situation.” The Alter's lesson is important for all of us: if you see trash on the floor, pick it up and dispose of it as an expression of your respect for your fellow human being who will have to pick it up if you don't.  

A homiletic interpretation of “Bor Bireshut Harabim” was offered by Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, whose yartzeit was the 25th of Shevat: “Your face is a reshut harabim (public area), so you always have to smile; otherwise, it’s a bor bireshut harabim (a pit in a public domain).”   Let us utilize the laws and lessons of Parshat Mishpatim to sensitize us to the lengths that our responsibilities towards our fellow Jews are meant to extend.

 

Essential Jewish Unity

     In Parshat Yitro, the Torah describes the scene at Mt. Sinai (19:2): וַיִּֽחַן־שָׁ֥ם יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל נֶ֥גֶד הָהָֽר “and Israel encamped there opposite the mountain”. The Hebrew word “encamped” is written in the singular even though it refers to a multitude of people. This leads Rashi to comment: כאיש אחד בלב אחד “as one man with one heart”.

      Rashi makes a similar comment in last week’s Parsha. After Bnai Yisrael leave Egypt the Torah states (14:10) וְהִנֵּ֥ה מִצְרַ֣יִם | נֹסֵ֣עַ אַֽחֲרֵיהֶ֗ם “the Egyptians were advancing after them”. Here the Hebrew word for “advancing” is written in the singular even though it refers to a large contingent of Egyptians.

      This leads Rashi to comment: בלב אחד כאיש אחד “with one heart as one man.” While it seems that Rashi is expressing the same sentiment in both places, Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner notes that the phrasing is different in each comment. When referring to the Jews, Rashi says that they acted “as one man with one heart”, but when referring to the Egyptians, Rashi says that they acted “with one heart, as one man.” Rav Hutner explains that the wording is precise, and the difference is making a point about the difference between these two nations. The Jewish People are one entity, one organism. Unity is an essential quality and characteristic of our nation. This sense of unity is supposed to exist and define us even when Jews have different opinions, different priorities, or act differently. The Jewish nation is always “as one man”. The entire nation is sometimes compared to a single organism. What was remarkable at Mt. Sinai was that in addition to that essential quality of unity, the Jewish People were also unified in their desire to receive the Torah. The Jews were not always “of one heart” during their time in the wilderness. Rashi comments that at Mt. Sinai the Jews were “as one man with one heart” because it was more common for the Jews to disagree and quarrel: אבל שאר כל החניות בתרעומת ובמחלוקת, “but all the other encampments were [divided] with complaints and with strife” (Mechilta).

      In contrast to this essential Jewish unity, the Egyptians were generally not unified in any endeavors. Ego, agendas and greed led Egyptians to normally act alone and in a selfish manner. In Parshat Beshalach the Torah lets the reader know that at the Yam Suf the Egyptians put aside their differences for a common goal. Due to their hatred of Bnai Yisrael, they were able to momentarily put aside their differences in order to act on a shared goal. There is no essential unity that holds the Egyptians together; it’s rather a pragmatic, short-lived unity. This is why Rashi states the Egyptian unity as “with one heart, as one man”.

      Last Motzei Shabbat I got home after our Veshinantam Parent/Child Learning to hear the news of the hostage situation at the synagogue in Texas. We are grateful that the situation was resolved in a way that all of the hostages were unharmed physically. After the situation was resolved, there were some reports making their way around the internet and social media that made accusations about the political views (both foreign and domestic) of the Rabbi who was taken hostage (and who has been credited with helping to resolve the situation). The notion that differences lessen our sense of empathy, caring and concern for others is only true about the Egyptians, not about us Jews. Am Yisrael possesses a basic sense of unity that transcends all other differences. In today’s highly politicized and polarized world, it would serve us well to internalize and reinforce Rashi’s lesson that when it comes to us Jews כאיש אחד בלב אחד is our value and the mantra by which we should live.

Segulahs

        Did you say Parshat Hamon this past Tuesday? According to many sources on the internet (well, from where do you get YOUR information?) reciting the section that describes the manna from Parshat Beshalach on the Tuesday before Parshat Beshalach is read in shul is a good omen for parnasa, for a successful and plentiful livelihood.  Upon closer examination, the more often-quoted version of this practice is to recite Parshat Hamon daily. For example, Rabbeinu Bachya (Shemot 16:16) writes: “it is a tradition in the hand of the sages that whoever recites the parsha of the Mon each day is assured that he will not lose out in this world of his livelihood.” The Tur (in OC Siman 1:5) cites this tradition in the name of the Yerushalmi in Brachot. The Mishna Berurah (1:13) also cites this source. The problem is that we have no such practice quoted in any extant version or manuscript of the Yerushalmi. One possibility is that the version of the Yerushalmi that the Tur had is lost.

         I must admit that I have some ambivalence when it comes to these once-a-year segulahs where the connection between action and impact is difficult to understand. For instance, there is a custom that folding one’s tallis right after Shabbat on Saturday night is a segulah for Shalom Bayit, domestic harmony. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner quotes a story (attributed to either the Satmar Rebbe or Rav Chaim Shmulevitz) that one Saturday night, the Rebbe saw that one of his students was the last one in the Beit Midrash and was folding his talis with great precision. The Rebbe asked him what he was doing. The student said that he saw in various books that care in folding one's tallis is a Segulah for Shalom Bayit. The Rebbe responded: “A better Segulah is to go home and help your wife wash the dishes.”

         Are there any segulahs for ensuring that our children follow a Torah path? Rav Chaim Kanievski related that someone once came to the Brisker Rav and asked for a blessing that his son should be a Torah scholar and G-d-fearing. The Brisker Rav said: he will be a Torah scholar based on how much you (the father) learn with him, and he will be G-d-fearing based on how many tears his mother sheds while davening for him.

        Rav Aviner also tells the story that before they had children, Rav Hershel Schachter and his wife went to Israel, and they visited the Steipler Gaon, Rav Yaakov Kanievsky. Rav Schachter asked the Steipler for a blessing for children, and Rav Kanievsky blessed him. Rav Schachter then asked for a blessing of success in his Torah studies.  The Steipler said: “All the blessings in the world will not help. Rather sit and learn and you will succeed.”

        I would suggest that when it comes to segulahs associated with saying particular verses, the words are not powerful as some sort of incantation or magic spell. Rather, by saying certain verses or paragraphs every day (or multiple times per day, like in Ashrei and Aleinu), we are meant to internalize the messages and lessons contained therein. It is through developing these perspectives on life that we benefit from the recitation of Parshat Hamon, for example.  What is unique about the manna, more so than the other miracles we experienced? Rav Saadia Gaon in the introduction to his Emunot v’Deiot explains that the Mon was a miracle that was of a daily occurrence. The other miracles were less frequent and more transient. Perhaps the lesson we are supposed to internalize from the manna is that we are the beneficiaries of God’s interventions (ie miracles) on a constant basis. With that attitude in mind, we are well on our way to developing a mindset that will find a measure of success in all circumstances.

Listening Brings Redemption

The Parshiyot of Vaeira and Bo focus on the plagues and the preparations for the Israelites’ redemption. These two parshiyot are bookended by a focus on one particular theme:  listening. At the beginning of Vaeira, Hashem tells Moshe (6:5): “And also, I heard the cries of the children of Israel…” The process of redemption began when God heard the cries, and it doesn’t matter whether those cries were prayer or cries of pain. As a result of God’s hearing those cries He sets into motion the ten plagues (7 in Vaeira and 3 in Bo). The plague of the firstborn is the straw that breaks Egypt’s back. Before they can leave, the Jews must merit their redemption by fulfilling mitzvot commanded by Hashem. Those mitzvoth entail aspects of the Pesach holiday. Some of the commands were unique to the Pesach celebrated in Egypt. Other mitzvoth apply to all future Pesach holidays as well. Parshat Bo ends with another mitzvah that reminds us of the Exodus: redemption of the first born donkey. In that context the Torah states (13:14):

“And it will come to pass if your son asks you in the future, saying, “What is this?” you shall say to him, “With a mighty hand did the Lord take us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” This teaches us that the Exodus from Egypt will be an important aspect of Jewish identity – not just in that generation but in the future as well. In order for a parent to answer the child’s question, the parent must be listening to the child. We see that listening bookends the story of redemption: the process begins with God listening to His people and the postscript of the story is when parents listen to their children. It seems to me that the Torah is teaching us that redemption can only come about through listening. This was true in Egypt and this remains true today. When we listen to another person we validate their existence and acknowledge their story. When we listen we show we care. When we listen we demonstrate humility by acknowledging the presence and importance of other people.  Our shul’s Rabbinic and Education team is comprised of men and women who are talented orators. Each of them can speak well, present an interesting shiur and deliver an inspiring Dvar Torah. Just as important is the fact that we are all eager and skilled listeners. We understand the value of listening and the fact that relationships are built and strengthened through listening. I encourage you to give us the opportunity to listen to you and to hear your story. We are available to meet with you and to speak with you. But most importantly we are available to listen to you. And listening is an integral factor in redemptions, both large and small.