Thursday, April 17, 2025

Basar v'Cholov v'Pesach

The laws of kashrut for Pesach are very strict. It intrigues me that, both yesterday and today, the Torah reading ended with the admonition (the verses from Exodus being identical and coming after similar instructions about the festivals) against boiling a kid in its mother's milk, which appears once more in a verse in Deuteronomy where the first half is different but the second half the identical admonition. Rabbinic Judaism sees these three mentions as prohibiting not only cooking but also eating and deriving benefit from any mixture of meat and dairy (Karaite Jews interpret the prohibition more narrowly). The rabbis even extend the prohibition against eating (not the other two) to mixing poultry and dairy.

The laws of which animals are treyf are fairly easy - don't eat pork, shrimp, lobster, etc. The laws of kosher slaughter and kashering the meat through salting are complex, but if you're not doing it yourself, you just look for a hechsher on the package or in the store. But the complex laws of mixtures of meat and dairy are such that, to get basic smicha, rabbinic ordination, I spent most of the year, in two classes a week, learning specifically about these laws, which also gets into separate sets of dishes, etc. But this complexity very much falls on the household keeping kosher, not just rabbis, etc., in a way the laws of kosher slaughter and, these days, salting to kasher meat do not.

 I’ve already written about my views of basar v’cholov, meat and dairy, a link to which I will post in the comments. But I think that, because of the complexity of these laws and the way that complexity is similar to the complexities of the laws of chametz (leaven) for Pesach (and kitniyot if you were chosen to be Ashkenazi and zocheh to follow those minhagim – perhaps not the way most look at it, lol!), that there is a connection. I don’t yet have it figured out – but at the very least, I think that when we think about the laws of basar v’cholov, we should remember Pesach and the redemption from the narrow places of Egypt/Mitzrayim and see ourselves as if we ourselves were there.

One of first sections of the storytelling in the Haggadah for the Passover Seder is the story of five rabbis who stayed up all night at the Seder talking about the Exodus, until their disciples came to tell them it was time to recite the morning Shema, three paragraphs from the Torah that are recited twice a day as one of the two most essential parts of the liturgy. The second half of the third paragraph of the Shema also recounts the redemption from Egypt. Indeed, one is obligated to recall the Exodus every day. I think that, similarly, this story comes to teach us that while Pesach is the time we think about our redemption in a special way – but we must think about it every day. We observe certain dietary restrictions during Pesach, but the prohibition against mixing meat and dairy is meant to remind us of the prohibition against chametz and all it teaches.

 

 


Friday, April 11, 2025

Shabbos HaGadol 5785

Forty-four years ago this Shabbos, Shabbos HaGadol, I attended my first synagogue service at Beth Sholom Congregation, the Orthodox synagogue in Chattanooga, TN, which was the beginning of my Jewish journey, a journey that entered an exciting new phase forty-two years later when I finally converted to Judaism. Interestingly, my Orthodox conversion certificate is on the letterhead of another Congregation Beth Sholom, in Potomac, MD. The journey included many stops along the way, including majoring in Judaic studies with a minor in Hebrew in college, taking 11 of 27 courses in divinity school in Jewish studies, attending many Pesach seders along the way, and livestreaming and then attending live synagogue services and even teaching classes at one of the synagogues before finally deciding to convert. I once bought chametz from a panicked coworker before Pesach during my six and a half years working at Hadassah – and now I sell my chametz – I suspect I am one of only a few people to have been on both sides of that transaction. And as the rabbis were gathering for my Orthodox conversion, I was reminiscing about my first Pesach seder and three of the four rabbis informed me, far more cheerfully than was perhaps necessary, that they had not yet been born when that seder took place! 

I attended seven seders at the home of a friend when I was in divinity school and in the years after who had a daughter, only kindergarten age at my first seder at her table. I had the task each year of making sure the wine disappeared from Elijah’s cup, to convince her that Elijah had come. That task became more and more difficult each year as she grew! And I am thinking about Elijah as I read the haftarah for Shabbos HaGadol. The penultimate verse of the haftarah (and of the book of Malachi, the book of the twelve, and of the books of the prophets), repeated at the end, so that it ends on a good note, mentions him: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.” 

Elijah is a complex character. He was thought by some rabbis to be the same person as Pinchas, both known as zealots for the one true G!d, Hashem. Pinchas famously (and quite disturbingly) thrusts a spear through a couple who were sinning. Elijah is known for challenging 450 prophets of the false idol Baal to a contest of sacrificing and seeing which deity sent down fire from heaven. They fail, Elijah succeeds, and he kills the false prophets (also quite disturbingly). 

Yet there is another incident that shows a very different side of this prophet of Hashem. He comes to the widow of Zaraphath and asks for something to eat. She sorrowfully explains that she only has enough flour and oil for a final meal with her son, having gathered sticks for the fire. Elijah promises her that the flour and oil will not fail until the drought ends and for three years, she has enough to feed herself, her son, and Elijah. During that time, her son falls ill and dies, and Elijah miraculously resurrects him. So there is both the zealous side to Elijah, ready to combat idolatry whenever it rears its ugly head – but also the compassionate side, ready to feed and give life to the needy.

Pesach is similar. The halachah is very strict. In the times of the Temple, one had to be in a state of ritual purity to partake of the Pesach sacrifice. During Pesach, when preparing food, a trace of chametz treyfs up the dish. Even if it is only 1,000th of a mixture, the entire dish ceases to be kosher. This is in contrast to milk and meat – if there are 60 of one against the one of the other that inadvertently falls into the mixture, it is nullified – if a drop of milk mistakenly falls into meat cholent and the amount of cholent is at least 60 times the milk, the milk is nullified and the cholent remains kosher. There is a frenzy of cleaning before Pesach that leads to the sale or renunciation of any remaining chametz.

But then the Seder comes, and we say “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” There is even the mitzvah of Maot Chittin, tzedakah given to the needy so they will have the resources to celebrate Pesach. The Pesach seder is the most widely observed Jewish ritual. There is a welcoming, inclusive aspect to it that literally brings people to the table like no other ritual.

And that, I think, is one of the messages of Pesach – and of Shabbos HaGadol. Religious observance needs two sides to it – chesed, lovingkindness, the inclusive welcome of all who are hungry to the Seder table – and gevurah, strength, boundaries – the zealousness to rid ourselves of spiritual chametz and idolatry in service of the one G!d. Elijah teaches us to bring both – and the verse in Malachi teaches us that only in bringing both can we truly prepare for the geulah, redemption, the day of Hashem. May it come speedily and in our days.

Thursday, April 3, 2025

Torah-True Babka and the Mitzvah to Blot Out the Memory of Amalek

One of the most important teachings in this week's parsha, Ki Tisa, is found in Shemot 30:23: וְאַתָּ֣ה קַח־לְךָ֮ בְּשָׂמִ֣ים רֹאשׁ֒ מׇר־דְּרוֹר֙ חֲמֵ֣שׁ מֵא֔וֹת וְקִנְּמׇן־בֶּ֥שֶׂם מַחֲצִית֖וֹ חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים וּמָאתָ֑יִם וּקְנֵה־בֹ֖שֶׂם חֲמִשִּׁ֥ים וּמָאתָֽיִם׃. This comes to teach us that cinnamon babka is Torah-true babka. Chocolate, halva, vanilla, caramel, lotus - these flavors do not appear in the Torah.

Furthermore, קִנְּמׇן has the same gematria as עֲמָלֵ֑ק - which comes to teach us that consuming delicious cinnamon babka so that there is not a single crumb left gives us the strength to similarly blot out the memory of Amalek. So don't forget to blot out the memory of Amalek by eating cinnamon babka!

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Menuchat HaNefesh – The Soul’s Rest

Menuchat HaNefesh – The Soul’s Rest

By Tomer Yitzchok ben Avraham Avinu v’Sarah Imeinu

 

Apply g’vurah to circumstances

The rhythm of the bony donkey riding away from circumstances

            calms you

            lulls you

The chamor is my chayah

Be’er Lachai Roi flows to Elim’s 12 springs to water the 70 tamarim

Thursday, February 20, 2025

The State of My Soul on the Day of the Release of the Bodies of the Murdered Hostages - February 20, 2024

One of my most fundamental theological beliefs - one that has remained unchanged despite the many changes in religious affiliations throughout my life - is that human beings are created b'tzelem and bid'mut Elokim - in the image (Genesis 1:26 - 27) and likeness (Genesis 1:26, 5:1) of G!d.

In the first chapter of Tomer Devorah, my favorite Jewish text outside the fundamental Jewish text of the Tanach, the fundamental rabbinic texts of Mishnah, & Gemara, and the liturgy, the Ramak indicates that the image (tzelem) is the body and the likeness (d'mut) refers to the actions.
It is very difficult today to remain steadfast in this belief while witnessing the gratuitous viciousness and cruelty of the Hamas terrorists in handing over the bodies of those they so brutally and senselessly murdered. Tomer Devorah explores the Thirteen Supernal Attributes of Mercy from Micah 7:18 - 20 that G!d possesses and which we are to emulate. Today, I must leave it to G!d to exercise that mercy and forgiveness. Perhaps tomorrow, I can try to exercise them - but not today.

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Isaac Finding Joy in His Yetzer HaTov

Someone wishing to convert to Judaism asked Rabbi Hillel to summarize Judaism on one foot and he responded, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. The rest is commentary. Now go and learn!” When Rabbi Menachem Mendel Leffin of Satnov wrote Cheshbon HaNefesh, the Accounting of the Soul, he used “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor” as the remez, the one-sentence summary, for the middah (soul-trait) Tzedek, or Right Action.

A perfect example of how NOT to fulfill this middah appears in this week’s parsha, Toldot. Isaac and Rebecca move to Gerar and Isaac is afraid that people will kill him on account of his wife Rebecca, because she is beautiful, and so he lies and says she is his sister. This is a perfect example of how our yetzer hara, our tendency to selfishness, is activated. First, Isaac is afraid and acts out of his fear. This is very often the case when our yetzer hara is activated – we are afraid of something. Sometimes, this fear is justified – and this is why G!d created us with a yetzer hara in the first place. However, much more often for most of us, it is not, and our fearful action is the wrong action.

Second, his yetzer hara distorts his relationships to others. He lies about Rebecca, claiming she is his sister rather than his wife. He has a distorted – and, as it turns out, inaccurate – view of the inhabitants of Gerar and its king, Avimelech. His concern with his own well-being to the exclusion of others causes him to not be able to see the others for who they really are.

Avimelech then looks out the window and is upset to see Isaac engaging in an activity with Rebecca that spouses engage in but siblings do not. The 1917 JPS translation says “Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife” while the Kehot (Chabad) translation has “gladdening” – this being a discussion of Tzedek and not Tznius, I’ll leave it at that. But the Hebrew is very interesting – Yitzchok metzachek et Rivkah ishto. Yitzchok and metzachek are from the same root, meaning to laugh or play. This pun speaks to the fact that Isaac in this moment is bringing his full self in his yetzer hatov in his love of Rebecca – who here is called his wife, seeing and acknowledging who she really is. It could be translated as “Isaac was Isaacing with Rebeccas his wife.”

The grammar teaches us even more. Yitzchok is in the imperfect tense – in modern Hebrew, the future – “he will laugh/sport/gladden” – that is, he is potentially who he is meant to be but not yet actualized. Metzachek is the participle – in modern Hebrew the present – and so in this moment, acting out of his yetzer hatov, his concern for and participation in the well-being of the other, in this case his wife Rebecca, the potential becomes the actual and he is in this moment actually who he is meant to be, not merely potentially. Furthermore, metzachek is the Pi’el participle, which has the added meaning of being emphatic – thus, the phrase could be translated as “Isaac was REALLY Isaacing with Rebecca his wife” – so he is very vibrantly and emphatically in that moment who he is meant to be – who he is at his core. Also, as my friend Rabbi Geoff Basik pointed out to me, living in his yetzer hatov and being vibrantly himself brings great joy to both himself and Rebecca.

And that is the contrast between the yetzer hara and the yetzer hatov – fear vs. joy – distortion vs. truth – constriction vs. expansiveness.

Of course, this story appears two other time in the book of Genesis. In parshat Lech Lecha, Abraham has the same fear for his life and tells the same lie about Sarah his wife – and Pharaoh takes Sarah but is unable to do anything due to a plague. Again, in parshat Vayera, Abraham tells the same lie about Sarah – this time to Avimelech, who is warned in a dream that they are actually spouses. (Avimelech means “my father the king” and is a title rather than a name, and the Avimelech Isaac encounters is almost certainly the son of the one his father encounters.)

This teaches us that often, our fearfulness and distortion of the truth come for our upbringing – our parents, our extended family and community, our country. I say this not to blame these people who passed along their fears and distortions – but to point out how difficult it is for us to even notice and see them. However, this difficulty does not absolve us of the responsibility to see them and heal from them. In healing them, we can cease from doing that which is hateful to us to our neighbor.

May we, in the merit of Isaac becoming himself in laughter, in sport, in gladdening, overcome our fears, our distortions, our lies – our selfish yetzer hara – and embrace the joy of serving others and living in joy through our yetzer hatov.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

My Thoughts About the Akedah – 5785

As many people know, I have been obsessed with the Akedah for decades. I even chose Yitzchok as half of my Hebrew name as a direct result. My thinking about it has evolved, and I am sharing  my current reading of the Akedah. I emphasize that a proper understanding of Torah allows for a variety of readings, even contradictory readings – as the sages say, there are 70 faces of Torah – and if, in matters of halachah, opinions of both Hillel and Shammai are preserved because “these and these are the words of the living G!d” even as the rulings of Beit Hillel are usually followed, then how much more must this be true for Aggadah, about which the Or HaChaim HaKodesh has said that we are free to come up with new interpretations even when they contradict those of Chazal!

It is not difficult to understand why the Akedah speaks so powerfully to me – my parents were married for twenty years without being able to have a child. One child died at birth and there were at least a couple of miscarriages. My mother didn’t even recognize the signs of pregnancy when she became pregnant with me! My father was nearly 50 and my mother 41 when I was born, a much less common occurrence in the 1960s than today. Deeply religious, my father a Southern Baptist minister, my parents offered me to G!d before I was born and held a dedication service for me, almost unheard of in Southern Baptist churches at that point (it smacked too much of infant baptism), although it has become more common in the intervening years. My father had very serious unaddressed mental health issues that unfortunately were exacerbated by his religious views. He was fired by four churches when I was between five and twelve years old and his beliefs in faith healing, miracles, and the prosperity gospel as well as in his own special calling led to abusive and negligent parenting. In many ways, it felt like I, or at least my childhood, was metaphorically sacrificed to my father’s understanding of what G!d asked from him.

Given that background, for many years, I followed the approach of many who hold that Avraham failed the test – that G!d wanted him to do the ethical thing and reject G!d’s demand – after all, he had argued with G!d about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah – why could he not argue with G!d about his own son? And I still see this as a very valid reading of the Akedah. It was very important to me that G!d be exonerated from wrongdoing and Avraham be condemned for his action or lack thereof. I noted that neither G!d nor Yitzchok ever spoke to Avraham again – surely this was a divine consequence of Avraham’s action. I also failed to find convincing the rabbis’ view that Yitzchok was thirty-seven years old – it made sense to me that he was perhaps around thirteen years old.

A couple of years ago, a friend confided in me on Shabbat Vayera that she had concluded, when hearing the Akedah read on Rosh Hashanah, that G!d was the villain of the story. And thanks to that and reading feminist critiques focusing on Sarah’s grief that led to her death after Yitzchok failed to return, I began to read the Akedah with Avraham banished from the position of protagonist, replace by Yitzchok (and I believe readings with G!d, Sarah, the ram, and others as protagonist are also very valuable). I also read Rabbi Ben Greenfield’s essay “Hesed, Gevurah, and Emet: Do These Attributes Actually Describe our Forefathers?” (https://thelehrhaus.com/tanakh/hesed-gevurah-and-emet-do-these-attributes-actually-describe-our-forefathers/), in which he argues that these attributes are given respectively to Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov because they lacked them and needed them, which helped me to see that Yitzchok, as an adult survivor of trauma (such as his half-brother Yishmael being sent away), could quite easily have been thirty-seven years old. Rabbi Goldie Guy, in a wonderful class on Rebbe Nachman’s teachings, introduced me to his idea that “Ayeh?” “Where?” – referring to a question about where G!d is while in the place furthest from G!d – becomes the place of G!d’s greatest closeness – when applied to Yitzchok’s question “Ayeh ha-seh l’olah?” “Where is the lamb for the burnt-offering?” is transformed into the proclamation “[The question] ‘Where?’ is the lamb/means for the ascent!”

With all of this in mind, this is how I read the Akedah today – not as a story of G!d testing Avraham, but rather of Yitzchok finding the courage and the gevurah – the strength – to leave an abusive situation and find a life of meaning.

While it is obvious that Avraham is going to sacrifice Yitzchok, Yitzchok nonetheless chooses to deny it and remain oblivious and accompany his father, the young men, and the donkey (chamor) to the mountain. Once they leave the two young men and the donkey behind, he begins to get a glimpse of what is going on and notes the fire and the wood when asking his father where the lamb is. Notably, he leaves out mention of the knife, which is the instrument which would be used to kill him – he has begun to awaken, but still cannot fully fathom the horror of his father’s intention to murder him. He ends up being bound and placed on the altar and his father has taken in hand the knife to kill him when the angel intervenes.

After the angel (not G!d, the angel) talks to his father, the text notes that Avraham returns to the young men. As rabbinic commentators note, Yitzchok is not mentioned, and they speculate that he did not return with Avraham, perhaps going to Gan Eden to heal from being actually wounded or even killed, perhaps going to yeshiva to learn Torah, or perhaps going to rejoin his brother Yishmael. What very few note is that the donkey is also not mentioned.

I believe Yitzchok ran back to the young men and took the donkey and rode it into the rest of his life, a life free of his abusive and murderous father. I read chamor (donkey) as chumrah – stringency – the same three-letter root (Hebrew linguists might quibble and insist they are, in fact, different roots that share the same three letters – but I choose to read this in a midrashic and Chasidic way) – the stringency that is a demonstration of the gevurah that he is able to access to make this bold journey. G!d says “Lech lecha” – “go forth” – or “go to yourself” – to Avraham at the beginning of this story – as he did in his first words to Avraham – but perhaps THIS lech lecha was meant for Yitzchok, not Avraham – to find the gevurah to go and find himself.

But the story does not end with his escaping the abuse. Later one, we read that Yitzchok was meditating in the field toward evening (the institution of the afternoon prayer of Mincha, according to the rabbis) and he looks up and sees camels coming – which bore his soon-to-be wife Rivkah. Again, I read camels – g’malim – not only as g’malim but as g’milut chasadim – acts of lovingkindness. He is able to transcend his trauma and embrace acts of lovingkindness and live a life of meaning and purpose. After his father dies, we read that G!d blessed him – the Chizkuni and others say that Avraham failed to bless him and therefore G!d blessed him with the blessing Avraham was meant to give him – and he settles near Beer-Lachai-Roi, the well Hagar is shown when she is expelled while pregnant by Avraham at the insistence of Sarah.

This is a redemptive reading for me. Yes, Avraham inflicted horrible abuse on Yitzchok given his understanding of what G!d wanted. Yes, it is an extremely problematic story. But, for me, the Akedah now represents Yitzchok’s finding the strength to make his exodus from this horrific situation for a life of meaning and purpose, a life blessed by G!d.

So may all of us merit such a redemption. Amen.

 

 

Basar v'Cholov v'Pesach

The laws of kashrut for Pesach are very strict. It intrigues me that, both yesterday and today, the Torah reading ended with the admonition ...