Tuesday, March 16, 2010

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL: SHEMINI: sacred and profane

 
 
 
JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:SHABBATON 3/27;4/3,10+17:A PATH OF TRANSFORMATION

The Jewish Spiritual Renewal Class is sponsored by www.Shamash.org  a service of Hebrew College and Yeshiva

Shalom dear Chaverim, Talmidim v' Rabbanim:

Again, I have been blessed to be out of the USA for Passover, leading Seders, teaching, book tours, and conducting Shabbaton. The below d'vrai Torah will cover 4 Shabbats: Tzav, Kol ha Moed Pesach, Shemini and Tzaria-Metzora. Please do not read this all at once. It is a month's worth of study. Take your time. Enjoy it. Using an awful pun, ''soak'' yourselves into the words of Torah (l'asok b'divrei Torah).

If this long month long email overwhelms you, at least read the d'vrai Torah on Parasha Tzaria, or maybe the one on Passover.

We also delve into the 2nd Third of the Chapter on Teshuvah in
(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal - Rabbi Arthur Segal in today's class.

For those new to the class, and it grows each week, thank God, you can access last week's class at  Click here: Rabbi Arthur Segal: RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL : JEWISH RENEWAL : VAYIKRA :SATAN:EVIL INCLINATION;TESHUVAH or http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com/2010/03/rabbi-arthur-segal-jewish-renewal_10.html  . From there, links will take you back class by class to our first one, which was circa Simchat Torah in Autumn of 2009. WELCOME!! BARUCH HA BA!!

As we have learned, those people who we used to have grudges against, are really,[ except for the few psycho or sociopaths , we have unfortunately met in our lives, ] are folks we have played a role in our disagreements. Hence we owe them an amends for our actions, without mentioning theirs.
 
Zohar Chadash states ( Lech Lecha  62a): "A Heavenly call goes forth each day: 'Meritorious are those who toil in Torah, who draw others close to Torah, and who overlook the hurt caused them.' "
 
Also, Zohar Chadash states (Lech Lecha 25a): "Rav Avahu said: 'Take note of the great reward that awaits one who inspires another Jew to repent. From where is this derived? From the words, "And Malkitzedek, King of Shaleim, brought out bread and wine" ' (Beresheit 14:18). R' Chiya Rabbah taught: 'When the soul of a righteous person who inspired others to repent departs this world, the angel Michael, who brings the souls of the righteous before their Creator, goes forth to greet him, as it is written: And Malkitzedek — this refers to Michael, head of the keepers of the Gates of Tzedek (Righteousness); King of Shaleim — this refers to the Jerusalem of Heaven; brought out bread and wine — he goes forth to welcome the righteous man, saying: Peace unto you!' "
 
Rambam writes (Hilchos Teshuvah 7:6): Great is teshuvah for it brings one close to the Divine Presence, as it is written, "Return, Israel, unto Ha shem, your GOd" (Hoshea 14:2)... Yesterday, this man was contemptible, distant from God — but today, he is loved and desired, close and beloved... Yesterday, he was separated from Ha shem, God of Israel — but today, he cleaves to the Divine Presence, as it is written, "You who cling to Ha shem, your God — you are all alive today" (Devarim 4:4).
 
When a person returns to Ha shem through teshuvah, God responds by drawing him close as if he had never sinned. To the words "Hashem, Hashem," which are the first of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, our Sages expound, "I am He [the God of mercy] before a person sins, and I am He after a person sins and repents" (Talmud  Bavli Tractate Rosh Ha Shanah 17b). This means that God's ways are very different from the ways of man. When a man sins against his friend and later seeks to correct his mistake and begs forgiveness, even if the friendship will be restored it is doubtful that it will be as it once was. However, God  is not this way. Through teshuvah, a person can restore the original closeness with God that he once enjoyed.

In the Book of Jeremiah God declares: "If you repent, O Israel — the word of God — you will return to Me" (Jer. 4:1), meaning "You will return to your original honor and greatness" (Rashi ).

Let us always keep in mind the Chazal's teaching in Talmud Bavli Tractate  Shabbat 88b:  "Those who suffer insult but do not insult in response, who hear their disgrace but do not reply, who perform God's will out of love and are happy in suffering, regarding them the verse states 'But they who love Him (God) shall be as the sun going forth in its might' " (Jud: 5:31). As the commentators explain, this means that those who bear insult in silence will not be diminished because of this, while their antagonists will be humbled in the end.

And learn to laugh and enjoy life. Remember God wants us to be free. Let us not put ourselves into our self made Mitzraim, getting hurt by other's actions, or worse, treating anyone without kindness. "A clown may be first in the kingdom of heaven, if he has helped lessen the sadness of human life." ( Rabbi Baroka).

The Talmud tells of a sage who was walking in the marketplace with the Prophet Elijah. He asked the prophet who, among all the throng, had a place in the World to Come. At first Elijah could find no one. Then two people entered the marketplace. The prophet identified them as persons worthy of the World to Come. The sage wondered what important, exalted activity they were engaged in. He approached them and asked. "We're jesters," they replied. "We go to cheer up those who are depressed." [Talmud Bavli Tractate Ta'anit 22a]

Bring joy and shalom into everyone that you encounter. Make amends to those you have harmed in the past. You will feel a weight lifted off your shoulders.

 Chapter Seven: Selicah and Teshuvah - Making Amends (second third of Chapter)

 
Saying You're Sorry And Making Whole Anyone You Have Harmed With Your Defects; and How To Do This With Someone Who Is Dead, Unable To Be Found, Or Refuses To Speak With You
 
 

You must take care not to harm someone while making teshuvah. For example, if you had an adulterous relationship that remains unknown to both parties' spouses, do not make teshuvah by revealing the affair, as at least two people will be hurt. The only acceptable teshuvah in this case is to stop the affair if it is still going on, and never have another.
 
One day as I came home early from work and I saw a guy jogging naked down the street.
I shouted to him, "Hey buddy, why are you jogging naked down the street?"
He said, "Because you came home early."
 
If you experience fear about doing teshuvah, go back and review your chesbon ha nefesh and read what you wrote in the last column about fears. Having trust in an infinite God, and not in your finite self, will help you defeat these fears. Remember, "There is no one so righteous in the world who does only good, but has never sinned." (Proverbs 7:20).

There are, however, plenty of people who have committed grave sins and never once done teshuvah or said a single word of selicah. These people have what we call righteous indignation. They believe that their hate towards others is justified. They are so far removed from the basic concepts of Judaism and God that they are oblivious to the harm they are causing themselves. Justifiable resentments do not exist in Judaism. So chances are the person to whom you are going to make amends has committed the same sins against someone else. By making your amends you are teaching that person a spiritual lesson.

If making a teshuvah visit only serves to show someone how God is now working in your life and the value of forgiveness, Judaism says that in itself is wondrous. No one is beyond repentance.
Our rabbis taught, "A person should always push away the sinner with the left (generally weaker) hand, but hold him close with the right (generally stronger) hand. Not like Yehoshua ben Perachiah who pushed away his student with both hands." (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 47a).

It is necessary to push away, gently rebuke, the sinner to some extent to let him know that he has gone off the path. In Judaism we try not to use the words sinner or sin. You must never reject a person entirely. That violates the entire spirit of Judaism's approach to defects of character and its acceptance of repentance. When we push someone with our weaker left hand, and pull someone with our strong right hand, we are actually turning one around 180 degrees. In a sense we are helping one do physical teshuvah as a model of one hopefully doing spiritual teshuvah.

The Midrash describes a fateful series of events that led to Rabbi Yehoshua student's separation from his Jewish origins. First, some background:

There was bloody civil war between the Hasmonean brothers (descendants of the Maccabees) for the roles of priests and kings of Judea that lasted from 135 B.C.E. to 36 B.C.E. when the Romans took over Judea and installed their puppet King Herod. There were bloody battles between the Hebraic Priests and the Talmudic Rabbis during this time, with different Hasmonean kings taking various sides. When the tide was against the rabbis, some, such as Yehoshua ben Perachiah and his students, fled to Alexandria, Egypt. Queen Salome assumed power in 79 B.C.E. and was in agreement with Talmudic Judaism. It was safe for Yehoshua ben Perachiah and his students to return to Judea.

On the way home, Yehoshua ben Perachiah and his students were lodged at an inn run by a woman who showed the Rabbi great honor. Afterwards, he remarked, "Wasn't that a nice innkeeper!" One of his young students responded by saying, "But master, her eyes are crooked!"

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Perachiah admonished him, "Wicked person! Is this what you find important?" and had the student banned for the class.

Each day, the student would come before his teacher to ask for forgiveness, but his repentance was not accepted.

On the day that Rabbi Yehoshua finally decided to accept the student's repentance, the student came for what he had decided would be his last attempt at forgiveness. As the student approached, his master was about to pray the Shema and lifted his hand to cover his eyes as one does when praying the Shema. The student, unaware that the rabbi was about to pray, interpreted that gesture as yet another rejection, gave up, and went astray.

Later, Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, "Please return."
The student responded, "Have you not taught us the principle that for someone who leads others astray there is no possibility of Teshuvah?" (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sotah 47a).

This young student became a valued supporter of the Sadducees and anti- Talmudic Judaism. Salome died in 67 B.C.E. Her younger son, Aristobulus II (a Sadducee Hebraism supporter), waged war on his older brother, Hycranus II, who was king and a Pharisee Talmudic Judaism supporter. Aristobulus won. The Romans were allied with the weaker Hyrcranus II, and sent Pompey to defeat Aristobulus II and restored Hycranus II. This was in 63 B.C.E. and the Romans had to invade Jerusalem and damage the Temple to defeat Aristobulus's followers. The sages see this as the beginning of the end of Israel's sovereignty and its eventual diaspora in 135 C.E.

The Talmud attributes treating people without forgiveness and love to some of the Jewish people's suffering years later. Some of the people we hurt can evolve to be anti-Jewish, with political power. The Talmud lays the blame for this failure on some of the Jewish people's greatest sages.  We learned in an earlier chapter that the Talmud Bavli, in Tractate Beracoth 5a, teaches that we generally cause our own problems as individuals and as a people.
No one forced you to buy this book or to embark upon Jewish Spiritual Renewal. You saw that your old way of life was not working and arrived at the decision on your own. You are not doing this because you have to, but because you want to out of your love of God. Resh Lakish said, "Great is Teshuvah, for sins done on purpose are converted to accidental sins." But didn't Resh Lakish say, "Great is Teshuvah for sins done on purpose are converted to good deeds?" The resolution is that the first statement is true when the Teshuvah is done out of fear of Heavenly punishment; the second is true when the Teshuvah is done for the love of God (Talmud Bavli Tractate Yoma 86b).

In a month. God willing, we will complete the last third of this chapter.

As discussed above, there are 5 d'vrai Torah below, for 4 Shabbats, the last Shabbat having a double portion.
Many blessings,


Rabbi Arthur Segal
WWW.JEWISHSPIRITUALRENEWAL.ORG  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

Parasha Tzav: Leviticus 6:01-8:36
Rabbi Arthur Segal
WWW.JEWISHSPIRITUALRENEWAL.ORG  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"Mare's Sweat"

Did you love watching Zero Mostel, of blessed memory, perform as much as I did? He was such a wonderful presence on the stage and screen. I remember him well as Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He and another character, aptly named Hero, were chasing after horses trying to extract mare's sweat to be used in a potion. How silly and so pagan, the audience thought, to use a large mammal's glandular secretions for an elixir.

I wonder, if Cecil B. DeMille were to make a sequel to the Ten Commandments, would he have Zero play Aaron chasing after red heifers when he came to this part of the Bible? Let me explain.

While this Torah portion is Tzav from the book of Leviticus, this Shabbat is one of the special Sabbaths that comes before Passover  and it is called Shabbat ha Gadol. I will address Shabbat ha Gadol in a D'var below, but I'd like to touch on another special pre-Passover Shabbat call Parah.
 
We read a special portion from the Torah (a maftir) from Numbers 19:01 to 22. It is about our priests finding a perfect unblemished red cow, burning the whole animal including its dung, and adding in a bit of red thread and some spices.

A pure man gathered the ash and mixed it with water. He then became unclean. But anyone else who became unclean by touching a corpse could become clean by sprinkling the dead cow's ashes on themselves. This type of law is called a chuk, a decree. There was no rational rhyme or reason for it.
Regarding this law, King Solomon said, "I said I would be wise, but it (the explanation) is far from me." (Proverbs 7:23). Modern Israelis, when asked about a nonsensical governmental law, will say, "Parah Adamah" (it's a red cow). In Job (14:04), it is asked, "Who can draw a pure thing out of an impure one? Is it not the One God?" Perhaps Zero Mostel could.

This Torah parasha derives it name from the word "command," as God is giving us more sacrificial ritual laws. For those of us who have ever dissected a frog in high school or have gone on to study larger animals, a quick read of this section will bring back some memories of your favorite (or not so favorite) organs.

 The rabbis, long after the Temple was destroyed and the sacrifices were stopped. have tried to parse some mussar (spiritual and ethical growth teachings) from this portion. I invite you to look at Leviticus 6:18. "This is the law of the sin offering. At the PLACE (capitals are mine) where you slaughter the elevation offering, you shall slaughter the sin offering." Talmud Bavli Tractate Yevamot 8:3 explains that this was enacted to save those who sinned from embarrassment.

Folks who sinned and those who were bringing offerings to raise their spiritual level were all in the same area. No one could be pointed out as a sinner. We learn from this that if God could make certain that sinners were not publicly shamed, surely it is important for each of us not to humiliate or cause public discomfort to another.

 Rabbi Elazar taught: "One who humiliates his fellow in public, though he may know Torah and do good deeds, has no share in the world to come." (Pirkei Avot 3:15). Talmud Bavli Tractate Bava Metziah 58b says shaming someone publicly drains the blood from his face and is tantamount to murder.

The Torah also shows sensitivity to the feelings of the poor. It permits each person to bring what he could afford. A closer read will see that the Torah refers to one bringing an expensive bull as a person, but the Torah's author calls one bringing a bread offering a soul. It is not the value of our gifts that is important, but rather our intention that is crucial.

A poor man may not know from when or where his next bread is coming. And so it is with our prayer (see the previous d'var). What is important about our prayers is not the showy length of the service, or if we can rock and chant faster than our pew's neighbor, or if we can speed-read in Hebrew. Rather it is our intention, our kavanah, that must be pure and from our soul.

Another section of the parasha deals with thanksgiving offerings (Lev 7:1-15). This ritual is still done today in an abbreviated fashion on some bimahs at the time of the Torah reading. It is now called "Birkat ha Gomel." Traditionally one makes this bracha if one has survived childbirth, recovered from illness, arrived safely from a journey, or escaped unharmed from an accident. Actually, there is one more. If you escaped from prison where you were to be executed, this prayer was said as well. (Obviously, this prayer for this reason is rarely heard in Texas.)

When we read this portion and think of the body parts and organs of the animals on the altar and elsewhere, perhaps for a moment instead of reeling in disgust, let us think for a second of all the body parts that we have that are working well that we take for granted.

 In our morning prayers, we traditionally thank God for our consciousness, our mobility, and our eyesight, as well as our freedom. When we think, just for a second, of the bulls' kishkas (intestines) spilling onto the floor of the Temple, we can see how the prayer that traditionally we say after leaving the restroom might be something that we can occasionally gratefully recite. "Blessed are you, the Lord our God, King of the Universe, who fashioned man with wisdom and created within him many openings and cavities. It is obvious and known before your Throne of Glory that if but one of them were to be ruptured, or but one of them were to be blocked, it would be impossible to survive and stand before You. In the merit of my appreciation for Your wondrous works, may you grant me good health and long life." It is easy for one to scoff at this prayer. But ask one who has survived colon cancer, an intestinal blockage, or even a kidney stone just how meaningful this prayer is.

Some years ago there was a public debate in the newspapers when a beloved rabbi was misquoted as saying that the Orthodox are praying daily for the return of Temple sacrifices. It is the traditional belief that when the Messiah comes and the world will be perfect, there will no longer be a need for offerings of atonement because people will no longer sin. However the thanksgiving offerings will always be needed (Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim 50a). These thanksgiving offerings will be 40 loaves of bread of the four types outlined in Leviticus 7:1-15.

In the special Haftarah from the Book of Ezekiel 36:16-38, the prophet speaks of the ingathering of the exiles and our purification. Ezekiel says something interesting: "I shall give you a new heart and a new spirit...I shall remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." (36:26). This, the sages teach, is all in preparation of Messianic times. Why do I, as a modern Jew, have a Moshiac theme in this d'var along with numerous mentions of body parts and organs?

A dear friend once asked me about the traditional position on organ donation. I wrote to her that her important question touched on traditional halachic Jewish law principles as well as many Midrashic and folkloric interpretations. The idea of organ donation is not really a new question for the Talmudic sages. Remember that traditionally it is believed that the Talmud and the laws derived from and codified from it, were orally given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Liberal Jews think of the Talmud and the laws that derive from it as scholarly works of learned men who were doing their best to keep us together during the enormous national disaster of the Babylonian and Roman forced diasporas and the nationalization of Christianity as the state religion by Emperor Constantine.

 Liberal Jews do not consider themselves bound by these ritual laws. Jews may, however, choose to do certain rituals after careful study of the historical significance and do so with kavenah. Talmudically we have an obligation to preserve human life. This is derived from many verses in the Torah. This is called Pikuah Nefesh. The most pious are commanded to break Shabbat to save a life and must break keeping kosher to do the same.

There is another pertinent Talmudic principle. This is the law against the desecration of a dead body (Nivul Hamet). Every part of the body must be buried, even if parts are lost from the body before death. In theory, if a traditional Jew gets his hand cut off (God forbid), it must be buried with him. If there is a motor vehicle accident involving a Jew, his blood and skin must be scraped from the street and buried.

The traditional rabbis have posited that if there is an immediate specific known need of an organ, one can permit a donation of organs from a deceased loved one. It is not kosher to put organs in a frozen bank waiting for someone to need them. It is also forbidden to donate a traditional Jew's body to science for medical students to dissect and learn.

A doctor cannot harvest an organ if one is still alive. Of course, you say, it is not that simple. Traditionally, there is no such thing as being brain dead. If the heart is pumping, you are alive. Let us hypothesize that one is brain dead and in a vegetative state. The doctor persuades a family member to "pull the plug" and donate the fresh organs. Halachically, this would not be allowed and would even be considered murder.
On a different note, one could donate a kidney if a doctor guaranteed one was not putting their life at risk. One can only give up life for three reasons: If an aggressor demands that you commit murder, a sexual misdeed, or idolatry. For other than these three reasons, you must protect your own life first, as the Talmud says that no one's blood is redder (better) than anyone else's.

And, of course, cremation is not allowed.

What you will not find in the Halachic laws is the reason that we are traditionally concerned about our body and its parts postmortem. Why can one give an organ if it is going to be used immediately, but not if it will be in a freezer to be used next week? Saving lives is important and a cornerstone in Judaism, but why would we prefer that a body rot in dirt than be used for medical research? What is the real reason?

Traditionally, from Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter 11, we believe in corporal resurrection. When the Messiah comes, we will get our same bodies back and be transported to Jerusalem. If we are buried in Galut (exile), we roll through special tunnels underground to Israel. An amputated limb must be buried with its original body so that God can reattach it. Somehow, if we are dismembered on a dissection table, or if our organs go to someone else, God cannot figure out where the pieces are to give them back to us.
By reading Chapter 11 of Talmud Sanhedrin you will see that the whole Messianic concept is not a clear TaNaK (Holy Scriptures) idea. Our rabbis are grappling with the conception of a human king-savior to come and save us from the Romans (who they postulated are descended from Esau!).

They are also dealing with the Christian theologians in 500 C.E. using our Bible as their own source book for Jesus. Few rabbis agree with one another as they debate the issue.

Rabbi Hillel certainly does not believe in these theories. But as usual, a vote was taken. The traditional point of view may be thought of as the word of God from Mt. Sinai, but to the rabbis 1,500 years ago, it was a theological guess. This guess is keeping many deserving sick people from getting organs, corneas, and skin grafts. A chance for continued life on this earth is not being granted to some people, while others are superstitiously holding on to folkloric thoughts.

The Conservative Jew, depending on who you ask, will tell you organ donation is fine, to save a life or help a life, whether you do it immediately or later with a frozen part. Talmudically, a partially blinded person is freed from many mitzvoth, especially the regelem (pilgrimage) holidays, as being half blind was considered a danger to life. The Conservative rabbis posited then that corneal donations, even if frozen in a bank, should be allowed. And if these were allowed, then of course, liver, heart, kidney, and other similar organ donations should be allowed as well.

As informed modern Jews we have to do what our conscience permits. Certainly, if you believe in Olam ha Ba, with its entrance requirements of mitzvoth, what better good deed is there than to save a life? The Talmud says that he who saves one life has saved the world. And the converse is true as well. By not donating an organ, and causing a life to be lost, one is Talmudically "killing the world."

If we believe in a kind compassionate God, full of chesed, then it is not consistent for God to punish us by keeping us from Olam ha Ba because we gave a cornea to Pedro, a kidney to Achmed, a liver to Kenesha, a heart to Kanwal, our spleen to Moshe-Pupik. After all, if Ezekiel says God will give us a new heart anyway, and God is all powerful, who is to say God cannot give us whatever parts we may be missing? But as Zero might say while studying Torah: "Parah Adamah. Have a chalice of mare's sweat and a Gut Shabbos!"
 

Passover

Rabbi Arthur Segal
WWW.JEWISHSPIRITUALRENEWAL.ORG  
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

Selected Readings:
Exodus 33:12-34:26 And
Numbers 28:19-25
Shabbat Chol Ha Moed Pesach

"Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dried Bones"

"God...set me down in the valley, which was full of bones...they were very abundant... they were very dry...Oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord: I  will bring spirit into you and you shall live. I shall put sinews...and flesh...and skin over you. I open your graves and raise you from your graves...and I shall bring you to the Land of Israel."

This quotation is from Ezekiel 37:1-14. It was established as Shabbat Chol Ha Moed Pesach's reading from the Prophets due to its parallel to Passover, our redemption from Egypt and the promise of being brought to the Promised Land. The Talmud Bavli, in Tractate Sanhedrin 92B, says that this was a dream about a parable. The later Midrashim say it was a miracle that actually did occur. Since miracles are what our traditional teachings say Pesach is about, there is this additional theme as well in this Haftarah.
Because this Shabbat falls on the intermediate days (chol ha moed) of the seven days of Passover, the Torah portion that would normally follow the previous week's parasha is not read until the following weekend. We read two sections from the Torah that relate to this holiday as well as the Haftarah described above.
Rashi sites an overlooked verse in the Chumash that he says states that 200,000 members of the tribe of Ephraim left Egypt early under the leadership of a false savior. They were killed by the Philistines as they took a direct route along the sea to Israel. Rashi says that these bones are from the tribe of Ephraim and when resurrected will complete the Passover redemption.

Since Ezekiel wrote this during the exile in Babylon and after the First Temple's destruction, a rational interpretation is that it is a tale to inspire national hope to our dispersed and depressed people.
"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, shall be a Pesach-offering to God." (Num. 28:16). This refers to the roasted lamb that we are to cook over a fire, not to boil in water and not to keep any leftovers. "The fifteenth day of this month is a festival; for a seven day period matzoth shall be eaten." (Num. 28:17). This of course refers to a second holiday called the Festival of Matzah or the Spring holiday (Ex. 34:18).

Pesach as a spring festival is very old, and Hebrews observed a spring holiday long before our deliverance from Egypt according to Rabbi Hayyim Schauss.

When Moses asked Pharaoh to let the Hebrews leave Egypt, he first asked permission for them to go and celebrate the spring holiday and sacrifice (Ex. 3:18, Ex. 10:09). When some of us were nomadic shepherds and our flocks' lambs and kids were born, we observed a feast at the time of the spring month's full moon, around the 14th or 15th of the month. Every member of the family took part. We sacrificed a lamb or kid before nightfall. It was forbidden to break any bones or leave any part uneaten. The chief of the tribe daubed the tent posts with blood of the slain animal as an antidote to illness and plagues. Some Bedouin tribes do this custom today. Anthropologists posit that holidays start as nature festivals, and as cultures' mature people give a deeper meaning to the festival.

The meaning of the name Pesach remains obscure. Exodus 12:13 says it means to spare, while Exodus 12:23 says it means to skip, to pass over. Perhaps it alludes to the skipping spring lamb that is the zodiac sign of the Jewish month of Nissan. The zodiac signs certainly predate the holiday of Passover.

When others of the Hebrew tribes lived by tilling the soil, they developed another spring holiday called the "the festival of unleavened bread." The grain harvest began in the spring with the cutting of the barley and ended with the reaping of the wheat. This season lasted about seven weeks.

Before the start of the barley festival the Hebrews would get rid of their sour dough, which was fermented dough used instead of yeast to leaven bread. They got rid of any product connected with last year's crop. This was done as a talisman of their faith that they would be granted a good crop in the coming season. In the Midrash the rabbis teach that while Lot was living in Sodom, he served the angels matzah because they visited him during the unleavened bread feast.

Pesach and the Feast of Matzot were originally two separate and distinct holidays as indicated by the verses quoted earlier. Both were celebrated in early spring. Pesach is the older holiday. It was from our desert shepherding customs. The holiday of the unleavened bread is the newer of the two, developed after we had settled in Israel and began to farm.

Originally the spring holidays were a deliverance from nature. They later became associated with our deliverance as a nation. Finally the two merged with spiritual connotations for the symbols that presently adorn our seder plate.

Further development in the Passover holiday came when we were ruled harshly by the Romans and our second Temple fell. Pesach became an allegorical holiday for a future redemption from Rome just as Ezekiel's book was a parable with hopes to release us from Babylon. We discarded our nomadic customs and inserted the Greco-Roman rites of reclining sofas and of drinking many cups of wine. We also began to eat our meal leisurely and not in the hurried manner commanded in the Torah.

We reformed the injunction to eat the Pesach lamb with "loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and...eat in  haste." (Ex. 12:11). Our Karaite cousins, who do not accept any Talmudic laws, still eat their meal in this fashion. Their matzah is made only with barley flour. We even took the Greek custom of the afikomen and incorporated it into our seder.

We tend to teach our children that afikomen means dessert in the Greek language. You will not however see it on any menus in Athens's Plaka. The famous sixteenth-century grammarian, Elijah Levita, discovered that the Greek practice of drunken, sometimes orgiastic, revelry that followed their academic symposia was called an epikomon. What we might not have learned in our university symposia is that in Greek, the word means an entertainment characterized by drinking, music and intellectual discussion. Syn means "together" and pinein means "to drink" in Greek. Since we could not eat chometz desserts, we ended our meal with a piece of matzah that took on the name of afikomen.

Around 500 C.E., when the Talmud was written down, after being oral for at least 1,000 years, long after the Greek Empire had fallen to the Romans, the question of the origin of the afikomen was still debated in Talmud Bavli Tractate Pesachim, daf 119b.

"You shall not break a bone" of the Pascal lamb (Ex. 12:46). Rabbi Chinuch says this alludes to kings and queens not breaking bones to suck out the marrow of every hidden piece of meat, as they had plenty to eat. But as we learned, the idea of us relaxing and reclining like royalty is a Talmudic one, not a Torah one. We are given a glimpse into why this rule is given, especially when we are commanded to eat the whole lamb before sunrise of the next day without keeping leftovers. Stuck in the middle of the Passover lamb rules is the prohibition against cooking this lamb in its mother's milk (Ex. 34:26). Clearly, this is part of the Passover rules. It refers to the Pascal kid and not other meats cooked at other times. If we combine the idea of an ancient spring holiday during which we thank God for his continued blessings of a successful harvest and a good flock, with the idea of a national redemption with His promise to continue to protect us, we can  arrive at a possible answer.

We can see how we are taught to respect the life forces of marrow's blood and mother's milk as symbols of the spiritual, physical and national life that God graciously bestows upon us daily. By giving up eating the blood in the marrow of broken bones we remember that we are eating from a once-living animal that we have sacrificed to sustain us.

By refraining from boiling a kid in its mother's milk we remember that life is precious and fragile. God granted us life. We are obliged to remember that we are our brother's keeper. That is part of the covenant. God brought us out of captivity and "sustained us through our festive seasons." Our job as good people is to help bring others who are held captive, who are having their spiritual marrow sucked from their bones, and who are having no mother's sustenance, into redemption as well.

While every piece of food on the Passover seder plate has meaning, the Rabbinic sages wanted to understand about matzah. We should learn to be like matzah, humble and not puffed up with chometz (leavening, ego). As modern spiritual Jews searching our homes for crumbs of chometz, we need to instead be doing an accounting of our lives to rid ourselves, with God's aid, of ego, and the selfishness, self-centeredness, resentments, and fears that it carries with it.

The time-honored tradition of helping those in need on Pesach is called Ma-ot Chittim. Those of us who are lucky enough to celebrate  the Passover can surely find time and resources to help lift up those with dried bones, to breathe spirit back into their lives, to feed their weak flesh and to put clothes over their naked skins.

Parasha Shemini:
 
 Leviticus 9:01 To 11:47

Rabbi Arthur Segal
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"I see the bad moon arising! I see trouble on the way!"

This Torah portion deals with the rules of the priestly service and then the commandments concerning kashrut, the kosher dietary laws. I will not dwell on either of these two groups of laws in detail but will refer to them metaphorically, with one exception. This slight deviation comes on the heals of Purim, with its mitzvah to drink wine until one cannot distinguish between Haman and Mordechai, is that Aaron and his sons cannot be drunk while doing the Temple service (Lev. 10:09).

This Shabbat is not on of the five special Sabbaths that come before Passover.But as I promised above, let me touch on one of these special Shabbats.  It is called Ha Chodesh, the Shabbat of The Month. With Pesach coming, we were to be holy and pure to partake in the Pascal lamb offerings. If we could not get pure in time, we actually had another chance, a month later, with Pesach Sheni (2nd). Pesach Sheni is a month after Passover; so don't put away your good china in case some of your presently impure relatives, who become pure, drop by next month.

The Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Nissan is the time designated for this special Sabbath. The rationale, if we remember from the d'var on Parasha Bo (Ex. 12:02), is that we were given the mitzvoth of setting up our lunar calendar and putting time into our own control. This was our first commandment as a newly freed people. This commandment was given even before the mitzvah of celebrating and remembering our liberation from Egypt in what we now call a Seder. The first twenty verses of chapter 12 of Exodus are this week's Maftir (extra Torah reading).

During the weeks between Purim and Pesach we are traditionally to become pure, to make ourselves worthy of the redemption that our ancestors received. In biblical times, this was done with sacrificial offerings and with sprinklings from the ashes of a red heifer (please refer to the previous d'var).

Talmudically, since the rules of kashrut are included in detail in this parasha, the juxtaposition has been posited to mean that kashrut is the way a Jew in the Diaspora can show he is holy, pure, and pious and be as priestly as the Cohanim were during their Temple service. (NB: a close reading of the TaNaK shows that our priests historically were not so pious.)

I have written in the past how the rabbis saw the waxing and waning of the moon to be symbolic of the Jewish people. By declaring a new month, we have the responsibility to make holy the cycles of life and time. All of our lives are like the cycles of the moon. All of us will have periods of greatness, and all of us will have moments of depression. None of us will escape sorrow. The apex of waning is death. Hopefully all of us will experience success and joy in our lives. In the metaphorical cycle of the lunar month we will encounter, as Rabbi Simmons wrote, "the entire spectrum of human character and behavior."

In finding ways to make ourselves holy, without clinging to rituals we cannot do or rituals we do not wish to do, we need to focus on every seemingly mundane opportunity to make the ordinary sanctified. We need to incorporate the lessons we learn when our moon is full or small, to grow to a new level through each of life's cycles. But is this enough? Since we all will go through bumps, highs and lows in our lives, do we not all have an obligation to give of ourselves when we are "riding high in April" to someone "shot down in May." (My apologies to Frank Sinatra, of blessed memory).

We must all find ways to increase our own holiness and to feel truly worthy of the Pesach redemption, which we in the free world experience every day. I invite you to consider doing a bit of litpayach tikvah, to nourish hope, to those of our friends, neighbors and congregants that are not doing as well presently as we are. It does not take much effort to bring a little simcha (happiness) and oneg (joy) into someone's life when they are down. A call, a card, or a visit can all bring some healing by the ministry of presence. When we study the rules of kashrut in this parasha we learn what we must dietarily do without. By following these rules, were we meant to learn to deal better in the austere times of withoutness?

Perhaps our modern kosher rules could be of giving some of ourselves, some of our time, to others who would benefit greatly from it. This could be an example of liberal Jews doing without.

With Pesach coming, fill your tables with those who have less, not just financially, but spiritually. This is indeed one of the ultimate good deeds. "Ha lachma anya," our Hagaddah says. "Let those who are hungry come and eat." We are all hungry spiritually, some more than others. Let us this Nissan vow to redeem ourselves and our neighbors, friends and congregants, from the pangs in our and their spiritual bellies. All of our holidays call out to us for Jewish Spiritual Renewal.

When we swear off chametz (leavened bread) at Passover, what detrimental spiritual baggage like jealousy, cliquishness, animosity, loshan ha ra, or pettiness can we also rid from our spiritual homes? What spiritual traif (nonkosher) thoughts and behaviors can we not bring into our souls' kitchens to boil over and fester in our bodies?

We are taught that God said that He is holy therefore we too should be holy (Lev. 11:45). This means we should try to behave in the Divine Image.

When we do acts of loving kindness (gemilut chasidim), actually love kindness (ahavath chesed), we are raising our level of holiness, our spirituality, as well as our own emotional health.

All of humanity must learn finally, as the parasha teaches, "to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and between the contaminated and the pure." (Lev. 10:10).

If we as liberal Jews choose to not keep the laws of kashrut, then what laws of personal behavior will we declare to be profane, contaminated and forbidden to us?

If the laws of kashrut were chukat, laws with no rational explanation (see the previous d'var), then my explanation is that it was to teach us that we can give up some gastronomic delicacies on a permanent basis and still survive and be happy. If we could give up spare ribs and still fill our bellies with brisket, then we could make the subconscious intellectual jump to give up thoughts of an adulterous lover and be satisfied with our own spouse. After all, don't we call our spouse our kadishet, our holy one, one who is set aside and sanctified? It also teaches us that we can give up some of ourselves to help others by being extra kind. We will still retain our wholeness, and actually feel fuller, when we give. Giving of ourselves is the ultimate win-win situation!

By acting selfishly, jealously, unkindly, with pettiness and lashon ha ra, we "become contaminated through them" (Lev. 11:43). The quote refers to eating traif. But if we continue with the homiletic interpretation, any modern psychologist or psychiatrist will agree that these non-Jewish behaviors and thoughts that we may do toward someone else will only cause our own destruction. The word contaminated is written without its aleph in the Torah scroll. Rashi says that the word could mean dulled. When we act poorly toward others either with commission or omission, we dull our spirit.

The road to holiness and spirituality does not begin with lofty ideas and detailed study. Few who left the ashrams and wats in the sixties or who did psychedelic trips came out more spiritual. We gain our spirituality by starting with doing simple, lowly things like controlling our behaviors, appetites and morality. We are commanded to love our neighbor. It's hard enough to love someone we are supposed to love all the time (like our spouses, parents, siblings), but when we say to ourselves: "that guy just rubs me the wrong way," that is the one person we must force ourselves to truly love. We only love this person with God's aid.

With this Shabbat ha Chodesh, let us resolve to become more holy. When we say the words in prayer of "Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh" (repeating the word "holy" three times) and stand on our tiptoes reaching toward heaven, I invite you to grab some of that Divine Presence. After the service, go into the world walking humbly, doing justice and good deeds, with the Sheckinah always by your side.
 

Parasha Tazria:
 
 Leviticus 12:01-13:59

Rabbi Arthur Segal
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"Spiritual Dermatitis"

"Who is the person who Desires Life (Chofetz Chaim)? He who guards his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit." (Psalm 34).

In this parasha we read of various dermatological conditions that were called tsaraat in Hebrew. This word was mistranslated into Greek and eventually into our English vernacular as leprosy. The chapters not only deal with skin eruptions but of discolorations that appeared on clothing and the walls of homes. These scaly lesions rendered one impure. Only our priests were able to diagnose and treat the maladies. A person afflicted with tsaraat was called a metzora.

Any dermatologist today who has read this portion can tell you that the conditions described were not what we know as leprosy (Hansen's disease). Certainly, skin conditions do not spread to our clothes and the walls of our homes to discolor them.

To make sense out of this parasha, the Talmud and the Midrash state that something else is going on here. Whether we wish to believe, as our ancient sages supposedly did, that they had the answer to this puzzle, or whether we just wish to learn some good life lessons from their explanation, the traditional teachings deserve a retelling. The lessons from them are as fresh today as when they were written.

The Midrash (Vayikra Rabba 16:02) states that the word metzora comes from "motzi shem ra" (making a bad name), that is, a slanderer. One who speaks "loshan ha ra," evil talk, will be afflicted with tsaraat. Judaism teaches that gossip is not a victimless crime. It blemishes the person speaking and the one spoken about. It also harms the listener! We define gossips as relating bad things about another even if it is true. Not only are we commanded not to do it; we are commanded to not listen. The Midrash teaches that God gave us ear lobes to fold over our ears when someone speaks lashon ha ra.

Loshan ha ra literally means an evil tongue. It is defamatory but true speech about someone. Motzi shem ra is defaming through lying. Rechilus, which is tale bearing, is the third level. It is from the word regal (foot) as one who does this is like a peddler of gossip. We cannot say to person A, that person B said something bad about them.

Bad speech destroys marriages, friendships, businesses, congregations, and even lives. The Talmud says our Second Temple was destroyed and we are in exile because of it (Talmud Bavli Tractates Yoma 9B and Gitin 57B). There are fourteen positive mitzvoth and seventeen negative mitzvoth that one violates when speaking or listening to gossip.

For example, do not be a talebearer (Lev. 19:16), do not give a false report (Ex. 23:01), judge your fellow with righteousness (Lev. 19:15), and so forth. We also wandered in the desert for forty extra years because we believed the false reports of the spies, who spoke lashon ha ra against the land of Israel!

Rabbi Israel Kagan wrote a wonderful text on Shmirat Ha Loshan called Guarding the Tongue. His rules on loshan ha ra, in which he begins with the quote from King David's Psalm 34 at the top of this page, earned Rabbi Kagan the name, Chofetz Chaim. The foundation named in his honor helps promote proper speech and love among people. Their web site can be accessed at www.chofetzchaim.com. They will send you a free e-newsletter with daily lessons. Within one year, you could learn how to eliminate this destructive habit.
 

There are six basic rules on how to guard your tongue. Rabbi Z. Pliskin's text called Guard Your Tongue is excellent for an overview of this topic, as is Rabbi Telushkin's Words that Hurt, Words that Heal.
1.      We cannot say bad things about someone even if it is true and even if the news is in the media.
2.      We cannot make any comment that can cause someone anguish, pain, financial loss, etc., even if it is not derogatory.
3.      Any method we use to do 1 and 2 above, other than with our tongues, is forbidden, such as writing, e-mailing, hand gestures, facial gestures, etc.
4.      We cannot say mean things, even in kidding.
5.      We cannot even badmouth ourselves.
6.      We have an exception. We are obligated to warn a potential bride or groom, or someone going into a business deal, if we know information firsthand that will save them from harm or cheating.

The Rabbis took loshan ha ra very seriously. The Midrash (Devarim Rabbah 5:10) says, "Whoever speaks loshan ha ra causes the Shechinah (God's presence) to depart from this world." In Talmud Arachin 15b, it is written that God says that He and the gossiper cannot dwell together in the same world.

 King Solomon said, "Six things are hated by God and the seventh is despised by Him: haughty eyes, a tongue of falsehood, hands which shed innocent bloods...and one who incites quarrels among brothers." (Prov. 6:16-19). King Solomon also wrote in the same book (Prov. 21:23), "One who guards his mouth and tongue, guards his soul from tribulations."

In Chofetz Chaim's second lesson he writes that it is forbidden to relate that someone has been remiss in matters of Jewish observance, even if it is a rabbinic law, a Torah command, or just custom.

 It is forbidden to mention an incident in which a law was broken, even in a society where that halakah (Jewish law) is ignored commonly. It is loshan ha ra for us to say Mr. Cohen eats pork or Mrs. Levine spent money on Shabbat. It is also loshan ha ra for one to bad mouth an entire community, such as saying that members of Congregation B'nai Korach are not real Jews because they are Reform.

The next time you see someone engage in gossip, watch as they look around to make sure that no one is looking at them. They are very concerned that the subject of their defamation cannot hear them. In Talmud Arachin 15b, Rabbi Yochanan said that whoever speaks loshan ha ra is as though he has denied the existence of God! He quotes Psalm 12:05: "With our tongues we shall prevail, our lips are with us, who is master over us?" A metzora has no concern that God is watching him.

The power we wield when we speak is far beyond what we can perceive. We think we are only exchanging words when in fact we can move worlds. Loshan ha ra is so powerfully poisonous that it is taught that God takes the good deeds accumulated by the gossiper and gives them to the subject of the gossip, as well as taking the sins of the subject and giving them to the gossiper. The Talmud teaches that Loshan ha ra is like a triple murder, with the gossiper, the listener, and the subject as the victims. Ben Sira wrote in the Apocrypha Ecclesiasticus 19:10: "Have you heard something? Let it die with you. Be strong. It will not burst you!"

Just as the negative consequences of speech can be so enormous, the positive effects of good speech are even more vast. The Vilna Gaon say that proper speech is the single largest factor in determining one's share in Olam Ha Ba (the world to come). Whether you believe in an eternal afterlife or not, or even in our Creator, remember that few folks who gossip about person A when he is not present, will not hesitate to gossip about you when you are not present.

 Few folks who pick on someone or arbitrarily dislike someone will remain loyal to you. These people are enemy centered. They are not happy unless they are fighting with or in some way opposing someone. The metzora (our modern bad mouther) had to warn others that he was "unclean," and had to live outside of the community (Lev. 13: 45-46). These folks can poison our congregations, sisterhoods, and men's clubs, and can keep civil, decent people, who do not wish to keep their ear lobes pulled up, from participation in these groups. If we wish our congregations to pursue life (chofetz chaim), to grow and be strong, we need to void these unrepentant self-made metzorim from our boardrooms and sanctuaries.

Choose your companions wisely and avoid bitter, nasty, mean-spirited, mean-speaking people so that you can pursue life, chofetz chaim, and not diminish your spirit. Let us do the best we all can to shmirat ha loshan, to guard our mouths and think kinder thoughts about each other. We are all God's children and therefore all brothers and sisters on His earth.

Parasha Metzora:
 
Leviticus 14:01-15:33:
Rabbi Arthur Segal
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 "When a man loves a woman, she can bring him such misery."

My apologies to you, dear reader, if the content of this d'var Torah causes you any unpleasantness. This Torah portion was not read in early Reform services. Instead, a portion from one of the Prophets substituted. Some may consider its topic to be X-rated. I can assure you that it is all from our Torah and our Talmud. If you are uncomfortable with it, please set it aside for another time.
 
 These chapters however were studied vigorously not only by our sages but also by the Church fathers. The impact these chapters have had on Western society's view of sex, women's roles, women's rights and bodily fluids has been astounding.

Genesis says that God created men and women in His image. We were commanded to multiply, the first of the Torah's 613 Mitzvoth. We were created, as you know from your biology classes, with our females having the ova (eggs) that would, when fertilized by the male seed (sperm) grow into a child in the woman's uterine wall. If the egg does not embed in the wall, it is sloughed off monthly in what is called menses. It is a wonderful system made, as we are traditionally taught, in God's image by God. God would not make us full of dirty and contaminated fluids, would He?

"A man from whom there is a discharge of semen shall immerse his entire flesh in the water and remain contaminated until evening." (Lev. 15:16)
"Any bedding upon which the person with the discharge will recline shall be contaminated, and any vessel upon which he will sit shall become contaminate." (Lev. 15:04)

"Anyone who touches the flesh of this man...remains contaminated." (Lev. 15:07)

"If the contaminated person spits on someone, that person becomes contaminated (Lev. 15:08), as does any riding equipment on which he sits." (Lev. 15:09)

"A woman having had sex is contaminated until the evening (Lev. 15:18)

"When a woman has a discharge, her discharge being menstrual blood, she shall be in a state of separation for seven days and anyone touching her shall remain contaminated until the evening." (Lev. 15:19)

"Her bedding and clothes become contaminated and anyone having sex with her is contaminated for seven days." (Lev. 15:20-24)

The Talmud teaches that semen (zav-emission) is contaminated. It causes contamination to the emitter and anyone who touches it or him. The Talmud called a man who has had a seminal emission a baal keri. If one has a second and then a third emission, his level of contamination, and what he needs to do to purify himself increases. If one sits on a blanket that a baal keri had sat upon, he becomes contaminated. If he sits upon ten blankets, with the bottom most one being the only one that the baal keri sat on, he still becomes contaminated (Rashi). The Talmud extracts its laws of family purity, taharat ha mishpocha, from verses 15:19-28. The basis for the laws of a menstruant (niddah) and the period of time each month a man is forbidden to his wife (niddut) are found in these verses according to the sages. The rabbis posited that since husband and wife are sanctified to one another, these laws of family purity are the basis for the religious survival of the family unit.

Talmud Niddah 66A states that since it is difficult for a woman to know exactly when she has stopped menstruating, whether her discharge is menstrual blood, clotted blood, or another type of discharge (zavah), she needs to bring a "bedeka" cloth to her rabbi for him to look at it and make the determination if she is allowed to again cohabit with her husband. Since it is difficult to determine if the stains on this cloth are fresh blood, dried blood, or a zavah secretion, the Talmud says the women of Israel took it upon themselves to assume they are in a state of zavah contamination when they have any discharge. This then adds an additional period of time a woman's normal monthly flow when sex with her husband is prohibited. This practice is still done today in traditional communities.

"Mundus Vult Decipi" means the world wants to be deceived. Our people did not invent family purity laws, nor did we take them to their furthermost degree. Other cultures that preceded us in the Middle East had similar prohibitions, and the Koran, which was written a short time after our Talmud, has multiple pages describing every imaginable color pattern of a woman's discharge.

If there is any area where Judaism goes to an absolute extreme, it is in the separation of the sexes, according to Rabbi David Rosenfeld. Traditionally, boys and girls were sent to separate schools on the pretext of sexual separation. However the effect was to keep girls unschooled and untaught in Torah and Talmudic laws that controlled their lives and keep them well versed in childcare, cooking, and other household duties. In a traditional synagogue men and women are separated with a mechitza partition. Mixed social gathering and dating were almost nonexistent. Match making with arranged shidduchs (engagements) was the norm.

The Talmud says a man and woman who are not married to each other cannot be alone in a place where it is unlikely for someone to intrude. How old can this woman be in order not to be alone with a man? Three years old is the answer. Why three? Because a three-year-old is capable of having sex. Someone younger than three can have sex, but her hymen will regrow, the rabbis teach, so she is still technically a virgin, and her father can still marry her off as unspoiled.

The Mishna states in Chagiga 1:08, that many of our precepts are as "mountains hanging on hairs." This means that mountains of technical details and laws are based on passing scriptural references. I can understand how society then needed to function with women subservient to men. I can understand also the use of slaves in this historical context. But I cannot condone nor can I tolerate seeing Jewish women – or any women – being dragged along, unwillingly, by their Talmudic hair. Granted, our Talmud is said to protect women with a ketubah (marriage contract), but if one reads the tractate in the Talmud called Ketuvot, one will find that the vast majority of the text is to protect the man's investment in his wife (or wives).

Dafs (folios) 6A and B discuss whether having sex with a virgin on Shabbat is allowed. Rabbi Simi says that one may not stuff a piece of cloth to seal a barrel. But Rabbi Shmuel says on Shabbat one may enter a narrow opening even though he may make pebbles fall. Rav Ami says it is wrong to lance a boil on Shabbat because pus in a boil is stored outside the flesh, but that virginal blood is stored inside the flesh. The pages go on like this discussing how one gives back a bride who is not a virgin, and how one can decide his wife's virginity. There is very little concern for the welfare of the bride, especially when she must be forced to testify that she was a virgin and to show proof of this with a bloodied rag. Remember also, in any traditional ketubah, it is the husband who can release his wife from marriage and pay her off. If a husband does not give his wife a Get (Jewish divorce), he is free to remarry as he may have many wives. The abandoned wife cannot remarry as she is still legally married. The liberal Jewish movement has made monumental inroads into this problem by making part of the marriage ketubah a promise of the husband to grant his wife a Get, in case of a civil divorce.

There are Talmudic reasons for a ketubah to be voided so a divorced woman is given nothing. This is not just for adultery. A woman's ketubah rights are voided if she serves him food that has not been tithed, has sex with him when menstruating, does not separate the challah, breaks a promise, goes to the market with her head uncovered, speaks to another man, or spins (sits with her legs spread) in public. Whose purity are we protecting with these taharat ha mishpocha? Whose family are we protecting? Or do these laws just protect the man's investment in his wife under the guise of family purity?

Judaism has never subscribed to the notion of men living together to gain spirituality through celibacy like monks and priests. But the church fathers got their interpretation of women as distractions to spirituality from our teachings. The Talmud when written was sex-segregated and patriarchal. Yes, we can quote passages about how God told Abraham to listen to Sarah as examples of how women have respect in traditional Judaism. But what did Sarah tell Abraham to do? She told him to kick Hagar and Ishmael out of the camp. A different reading might say that the entire Arab-Jewish conflict was based on a barren woman's jealousy. The rabbis of the Talmud, as I will give you examples, were easily aroused by women.

The only time they spent with women was as small children with their mothers, or in bed for a few moments with their wives. Because of their beliefs it was necessary for them to live their lives, not with women, but parallel to them. Some acted like monks during the day but had marital relations at night.

While there are Talmudic passages in which men recognized their own weak sexual nature and made many laws to keep women separate from men, some say that the Torah shows women as "anomalous, dangerous, dirty, and polluting" writes Jacob Neusner. Some write that the sages ascribe moral laxity to women incapable of sexual restraint. Leonie Archer claims that the rabbis consider women to be the sexual aggressors.

In Talmud Kiddushin, Mishna Chapter 4, Law 12 disallows a man from being alone with two women, as the rabbis posit sex could occur with one while the other watched, or with both. The same Mishna allows a woman to be alone with two men, as men are so Torah conscious they would protect each other from her advances. The Talmud teaches that if your business is with women; do not be alone with them. A man should not teach his son a trade that will let him be among women. (Can a traditional Jew be a gynecologist?) A woman can be alone with two men, but not if one is a child, because "she is not embarrassed to engage in sexual relations in the presence of a minor."

Rabbi Judah said that bachelors may not pasture small cattle – sheep and goats – because they would commit acts of bestiality, but the Talmud allows this because "Jewish men are not suspected of this." Did the rabbis miss the passages in the Torah about how if a man has sex with an animal both he and the animal are killed?

The Talmudic law says that one man cannot accompany two women and one of their dead children to the cemetery for burial for fear that they will seduce him. The Talmud also teaches that men should not hear a woman's voice, as they will find it seductive. This of course lends another validation for a mechitza during worship. Should the women in our society be subjected to humiliation because men cannot control themselves? Are the wearing of wigs, frum clothes, and hiding behind a mechitza needed because men will not take a metaphorical cold shower?

According to Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, past Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City where modern Orthodox rabbis are trained, Judaism "avows the goodness of the human body. It is no less a mirror of God's grandeur than the soul. Judaism does not dichotomize human nature into body and soul, polar opposites locked in never-ending conflict. The flesh is not the devil's domain or the seat of our passions, to be expiated by the spirit."

Professor Jacob Milgrom in the new Anchor Bible commentary on Leviticus explains that to the desert Israelites, "blood was the arch symbol of life. Its oozing from the body was not the world view of the sign of demons, but was certainly a sign of death." If the intention of the author of the Torah laws was to have us appreciate life in all people, segregating women for a third of each month may have protected men from "a walking death," but certainly painted women as carriers of death. As we can see from any reading of history, scapegoating some group as bearers of evil, poisoners of wells, carriers of plagues, destroyers of economies, bloodsuckers of a nation's life force, can lead to pogroms, massacres, and shoahs.
Women are traditionally kept off the bimah as they could sexually snare men with their looks and voices and because they may be contaminated if they are in menses or recently gave birth. The Talmud says that women are released from commandments that are time bound (praying three times a day at specific times, for example) as raising children controls their time, and that mitzvoth comes first.

 But the Talmud does not say a woman cannot do these mitzvoth if she takes the obligation upon herself. The Torah teaches that men are just as contaminated as menstruating women if they had an ejaculation of semen. Since the Talmud also teaches that it is a mitzvah to have marital relations on Shabbat evening, who is checking to make sure the men on the bimah at Saturday morning's services – who are touching the Holy scroll of our Torah – have purified themselves with a mickvah dip on the way to shul?

What would be the logical reason for not allowing women who have reached menopause, or who have raised their children, from appearing on the bimah? The rules of keeping women relegated to a position behind the mechitza barrier, not only in synagogues, but outside as well, do not hold up to logical inspection.

The Torah passages outlined in the d'var from this parasha that have been brought into Western civilization's canon, civil, and common law have served to keep 50 percent of the human race enslaved spiritually, financially and emotionally. For example, it was only relatively recently that women were given the right to vote in the United States.

There are those who believe that God wants women to submit willfully to their husbands. Our teachings say that women's menstrual blood, men's sperm, and the sex act cause contamination and need a dip in the mickvah, as well as a sacrifice to reclaim purity. Some rabbis, by teaching that the oral law was given by God on Mt. Sinai, have caused generations of suffering. These beliefs have caused an accepted misogynistic culture that still exists and is approved of in many quarters. If the pope can apologize to us for 2,000 years of mistreatment based on the Church's teachings, is it not high time for those who say their semicha (ordination) comes from traditional oral transmission to make amends for 2,500 years of women's suffering?

This parasha's Sabbath is Shabbat Gadol, the "Big One" before the Passover holiday. Thank God that the liberal movement set aside halakah like these laws early in our existence. Thank God that we understood that these taboos were from a primitive new nation inculcated with beliefs from the Pharaohs who enslaved them and the tribes that lived around them. When we talk about liberation from bondage at our Pesach seders, let us try to think of other customs, laws, notions, and ideas, that we still cling to that may keep others and ourselves still enslaved.

Shabbat shalom!

Rabbi Arthur Segal
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Posted by Rabbi Arthur Segal at 5:08 PM