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TZAV-ZACHOR 5771: AWKWARD ALTERNATIVES

1

“An intense stare is frequently used by wolves to communicate with each other, and wolves also tend to engage strangers – wolf and human – in stares. I think that what transpires in those moments of staring is an exchange of information between predator and prey.” (Barry Lopez, “Of Wolves and Men”)

“There’s no question that what has been achieved by Yisrael is specifically achieved because of the threat of in the deepest sense…What it is that is incorporated into the nature of Yisrael – and the ability to see maybe for the first time in history the clarity of what it means to be Yisrael, as opposed to be non-Yisrael – is itself an outgrowth of greater and greater pressure of selecting what it means to be Yisrael…Those who survive being the prey in that little game end up with a completely different level of appreciation of what Yisrael consists of. For the first time in history, it can be appreciated what the zeh l’umat zeh means – it’s a predator-prey relationship…”

THESIS (courtesy of Yelli Lobel): We recognized zechira as a simple mechanism of remembrance (which would be the link of to Zachor), and moved to a description of the human condition as experiencing existence as a Tzav. On the simple level, that Tzav provides an enthusiasm, giving the fullness of human activity a particular goal, so that it can respond to tzivui (which Amalek lacks). More profoundly, Tzav means understanding the mutuality of the predator/prey relationship, in which the development of Yisrael is profoundly intertwined with that of Amalek (ze l’umat ze).

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,gedolah צעקה We also examined the development of Yisrael as being the victims of a gave birth to צעקה which comes to the forefront, for the first time, on Purim. That an Amalek that insists on the ultimate meaninglessness of the human condition. They view it as being pure text, while everything else exists in the explanations and added values that we place in our own minds. Here, that view is brought to a new level, in understanding the nature of din as being pure awkwardness. With such a humor of awkwardness, all things are reduced to having no real place and no viable alternatives. It leads one to laugh only in the bitterness and exhaustive strain of having to witness the excruciating situations that reveal the awkwardness of the human condition. Finally, we found the ability to tolerate what appears to be the farce of the human condition in Yisrael itself, turning it into the nehapachu which is ultimately meaningful, and powerfully humorous—the ultimate expression of 2 Yitzchak and his comments about creation.

In the end, the mizbeach itself is open to alternative Tzavs (in which Tzav can be loshon avodah zarah, or hokar raglecha, where the very relationship with G-d becomes keri), which are addressed not only by the yakar of the Megillah, but by “lo davar rek hu”. Therefore, Tzav becomes the one fundamental differentiation between living life as an expression of the glory of all that it can be (so that in burning the animal, and its potentiality for tumah, we are left with a vision of what the human condition might become), and living life only within the confines of your own head, believing that your brain is the reduction of all of existence (what Einstein called “a sort of optical delusion”).

CLASSICAL SOURCES

TANACH

I 15

2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts: I remember that which Amalek did to Israel , how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Egypt . 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.' 4 And summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah . 5 And Saul came to the city of Amalek , and lay in wait in the valley. 6 And Saul said unto the Kenites: 'Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel , when they came up out of Egypt .' So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul smote the Amalekites, from Havilah as thou goest to Shur, that is in front of Egypt . 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, even the young of the second birth, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but every thing that was of no account and feeble, that they destroyed utterly.

II SAMUEL 13

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1 And it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her. 2 And Amnon was so distressed that he fell sick because of his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and it seemed hard to Amnon to do any thing unto her. 3 But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David's brother; and Jonadab was a very subtle man. 4 And he said unto him: 'Why, O son of the king, art thou thus becoming leaner from day to day? wilt thou not tell me?' And Amnon said unto him: 'I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister.' 5 And Jonadab said unto him: 'Lay thee down on thy bed, and feign thyself sick; and when thy father cometh to see thee, say unto him: Let my sister Tamar come, I pray thee, and give me bread to eat, and dress the food in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it at her hand.' 6 So 3 Amnon lay down, and feigned himself sick; and when the king was come to see him, Amnon said unto the king: 'Let my sister Tamar come, I pray thee, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat at her hand.' 7 Then David sent home to Tamar, saying: 'Go now to thy brother Amnon's house, and dress him food.' 8 So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house; and he was lying down. And she took dough, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes. 9 And she took the pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. And Amnon said: 'Have out all men from me.' And they went out every man from him. 10 And Amnon said unto Tamar: 'Bring the food into the chamber, that I may eat of thy hand.' And Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother. 11 And when she had brought them near unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her: 'Come lie with me, my sister.' 12 And she answered him: 'Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel ; do not thou this wanton deed. 13 And I, whither shall I carry my shame? and as for thee, thou wilt be as one of the base men in Israel . Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.' 14 Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her. 15 Then Amnon hated her with exceeding great hatred; for the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her: 'Arise, be gone.'

ZOHAR 1:247B

Further, “ze’ev yitraf,” a ravening wolf – for the altar was in his portion, and the altar is a wolf. For if you say that Benjamin is a wolf, not so! Rather, the altar in his portion was a wolf, consuming flesh every day; and Benjamin would feed it since it was in his portion. It was as if he were sustaining and feeding this wolf!

MEFORSHIM

RASHI

Bereishis 22:2 bring him up: He did not say to him, “Slaughter him,” because the Holy One, blessed be He, did not wish him to slaughter him but to bring him

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up to the mountain, to prepare him for a burnt offering, and as soon as he brought him up [to the mountain], He said to him, “Take him down.” - [from Gen. Rabbah 56:8]

RABBEINU BACHYA (INTRODUCTION TO PARSHA TZAV)

“Visit your neighbor’s house sparingly, otherwise he will become fed up with you and hate you.” (Mishlei 25:17). In this verse, Solomon taught us both ethics and manners. On the one hand, a person should endeavor to acquire friends and strive to socialize with them. On occasion he should take his leave before he becomes a burden of intrusion to his friends. It appears that both here as well as 4 elsewhere Solomon counsels us to exercise one’s discretion, to walk the middle path between seclusion and imposing one’s presence on one’s friends all the time…

A Midrashic approach (based on Rashi, Chagigah 7). On the one hand Solomon wrote, “Visit your neighbor’s house sparingly;” on the other hand David wrote in Tehillim 66:13, “I enter Your house with burnt-offerings.” The apparent contradiction is resolved by applying the “house” mentioned in Mishlei to the occasions when one has to offer sin-offerings or guilt-offerings. One should strive to minimize the need for such visits to the Temple. On the other hand, the verse in Tehillim refers to the occasion when one approaches God bearing burnt- offerings and peace-offerings, i.e., voluntary gifts, not offerings to obtain atonement and forgiveness. The message of this Midrash is that both Solomon and David refer to the Holy Temple as “the house of your friend.” …A person should be careful not to sin so that he does not have to abuse his friendship with the Lord by entering His house too frequently in order to offer sin-offerings. It is best not to have to offers such offerings altogether.

We fin that the prophet Samuel (I 16:22) expresses similar sentiments when he says: “it is better to listen to God’s commandments than to offer meat-offerings to the Lord.” The reference was to the animals captured from the Amalekites, which the people and Saul offered to God as sacrifices, consuming their meat. When Solomon counseled not to be a frequent visitor in one’s friend’s house he referred to the House of God Who should remain one’s “friend.” When Solomon wrote in Mishlei 21:27 that the meat-offerings of the wicked are an abomination, he meant that at the time when a wicked person brings an offering to God, God automatically thinks of his sins turning the entire procedure into an abomination. However, when the offerings are not connected to sin but are brought by righteous people and this is reflected in the kind of animal being offered, David tells us that such offerings are welcome, i.e., “let me enter Your house with burnt-offerings.” One of the temptations we must resist is taking advantage of having a “friend” in the house of God to whom we bring zevach, as if it were something “He” needs, until “He gets fed up” with these frequent unwelcome intrusions by us. When David speaks about bringing burnt-offerings to the Temple, he means offerings which are to atone for sins not actually committed but contemplated. Such sinful thoughts occur mostly at night, and they are difficult for a person to be saved from as there are no social restrictions to man thinking sinful thoughts. He is not found out and his image with his peers is not affected by what he merely thinks about.

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This is one of the reasons that the time for bringing such an offering is the night when the sin is still fresh and can be forgiven immediately.

TALMUD BAVLI

AVODAH ZARAH 5A Said Resh Lakish: Come let us render gratitude to our forebears [who sinned at the Golden Calf], for had they not sinned, we should not have come to the world, as it is said: I said ye are gods and all of you sons of the Most High; now that you have 5 spoilt your deeds, ye shall indeed die like mortals etc

SANHEDRIN 99B Timna was a royal princess...Desiring to become a proselyte, she went to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they did not accept her. So she went and became a concubine to Eliphaz the son of Esav, saying, 'I had rather be a servant to this people than a mistress of another nation.' From her Amalek was descended who afflicted Israel . Why so? - Because they should not have repulsed her.

RAMBAM

MOREH NEVUCHIM III:32

It is, namely, impossible to go suddenly from one extreme to the other: it is therefore according to the nature of man impossible for him suddenly to discontinue everything to which he has been accustomed. Now God sent Moses to make [the Israelites] a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod. xix. 6) by means of the knowledge of God.

…But the custom which was in those days general among all men, and the general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up, consisted in sacrificing animals in those temples which contained certain images, to bow down to those images, and to burn incense before them; religious and ascetic persons were in those days the persons that were devoted to the service in the temples erected to the stars, as has been explained by us. It was in accordance with the wisdom and plan of God, as displayed in the whole Creation, that He did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service; for to obey such a commandment it would have been contrary to the nature of man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used; it would in those days have made the same impression as a prophet would make at present if he called us to the service of God and told us in His name, that we should not pray to Him, not fast, not seek His help in time of trouble; that we should serve Him in thought, and not by any action. For this reason God allowed these kinds of service to continue; He transferred to His service that which had formerly served as a worship of created beings, and of things imaginary and unreal, and commanded us to serve Him in the same manner; viz., to build unto Him a temple… By this Divine plan it was effected that the traces of idolatry were blotted out, and the truly great principle of our

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faith, the Existence and Unity of God, was firmly established; this result was thus obtained without deterring or confusing the minds of the people by the abolition of the service to which they were accustomed and which alone was familiar to them. I know that you will at first thought reject this idea and find it strange; you will put the following question to me in your heart: How can we suppose that Divine commandments, prohibitions, and important acts, which are fully explained, and for which certain seasons are fixed, should not have been commanded for their own sake, but only for the sake of some other thing: as if they were only the means which He employed for His primary object? What prevented Him from making His primary object a direct commandment to us, and to give us the capacity of obeying it? Those precepts which in your opinion are only the means and not the object would then have been unnecessary. Hear my answer, which win 6 cure your heart of this disease and will show you the truth of that which I have pointed out to you. There occurs in the Law a passage which contains exactly the same idea; it is the following: "God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt; but God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea," etc. (Exod. xiii. 17). Here God led the people about, away from the direct road which He originally intended, because He feared they might meet on that way with hardships too great for their ordinary strength; He took them by another road in order to obtain thereby His original object. In the same manner God refrained from prescribing what the people by their natural disposition would be incapable of obeying, and gave the above-mentioned commandments as a means of securing His chief object, viz., to spread a knowledge of Him [among the people], and to cause them to reject idolatry. It is contrary to man's nature that he should suddenly abandon all the different kinds of Divine service and the different customs in which he has been brought up, and which have been so general, that they were considered as a matter of course; it would be just as if a person trained to work as a slave with mortar and bricks, or similar things, should interrupt his work, clean his hands, and at once fight with real giants. It was the result of God's wisdom that the Israelites were led about in the wilderness till they acquired courage. For it is a well-known fact that traveling in the wilderness, and privation of bodily enjoyments, such as bathing, produce courage, whilst the reverse is the source of faint-heartedness: besides, another generation rose during the wanderings that had not been accustomed to degradation and slavery. All the traveling in the wilderness was regulated by Divine commands through Moses; comp. "At the commandment of the Lord they rested, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord and the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses" (Num. ix. 23). In the same way the portion of the Law under discussion is the result of divine wisdom, according to which people are allowed to continue the kind of worship to which they have been accustomed, in order that they might acquire the true faith, which is the chief object [of God's commandments]. You ask, What could have prevented God from commanding us directly, that which is the chief object, and from giving us the capacity of obeying it? This would lead to a second question, What prevented God from leading the Israelites through the way of the land of the Philistines, and endowing them with strength for fighting? The leading about by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night would then not have been necessary. A third question would then be asked in reference to the good promised as reward for the keeping of the commandments, and the evil

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foretold as a punishment for sins. It is the following question: As it is the chief object and purpose of God that we should believe in the Law, and act according to that which is written therein, why has He not given us the capacity of continually believing in it, and following its guidance, instead of holding out to us reward for obedience, and punishment for disobedience, or of actually giving all the predicted reward and punishment? For [the promises and the threats] are but the means of leading to this chief object. What prevented Him from giving us, as part of our nature, the will to do that which He desires us to do, and to abandon the kind of worship which He rejects? There is one general answer to these three questions, and to all questions of the same character: it is this: Although in every one of the signs [related in Scripture] the natural property of some individual being is changed, the nature of man is never changed by God by way of miracle. It is in 7 accordance with this important principle that God said, "O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me," etc. (Deut. v. 26). It is also for this reason that He distinctly stated the commandments and the prohibitions, the reward and the punishment. This principle as regards miracles has been frequently explained by us in our works: I do not say this because I believe that it is difficult for God to change the nature of every individual person; on the contrary, it is possible, and it is in His power, according to the principles taught in Scripture; but it has never been His will to do it, and it never will be. If it were part of His will to change [at His desire] the nature of any person, the mission of prophets and the giving of the Law would have been altogether superfluous.

HILCHOT MEGILLAH

2:18. All the books of the prophets and the holy writings shall be abnegated in the days of Messiah, apart from the Scroll of Esther. For it shall persist like the five books of the and the laws of the Oral Torah, which shall never be abnegated. And even though the remembrance of the troubles shall be negated, as is said, “for the early troubles shall be forgotten and they shall be hidden from our eyes” [Isa 65:16], the days of Purim shall not be abolished, as is said, “And these days of Purim shall not pass away from among the Jews, and their memory shall not pass from their seed” {Est 9:28}.

CONTEMPORARY SOURCES

EINSTEIN – OPTICAL DELUSION

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us “universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

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ANNIE DILLARD – PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK

There is not a people in the world who behaves as badly as praying mantises. But wait, you say, there is no right and wrong in nature; right and wrong is a human concept. Precisely: we are moral creatures, then, in an amoral world. The universe that suckles us is a monster that does not care if we live or die—does not care if it itself grinds to a halt. It is fixed and blind, a robot programmed to kill. We are free and seeing; we can only try to outwit it at every turn to save our skins. This view requires that a monstrous world running on chance and death, careening blindly from nowhere to nowhere, somehow produced wonderful us. I came from the world, I crawled out of a sea of amino acids, and now I must whirl 8 around and shake my fist at that sea and cry Shame! If I value anything at all, then I must blindfold my eyes when I near the Swiss Alps. We must as a culture disassemble our telescopes and settle down to backslapping. We little blobs of soft tissues crawling around on this one planet's skin are right, and the whole universe is wrong. (p. 177)

IN MEMORIAM – LORD ALFRED TENNYSON

Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law– Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed–

RILKE – “YOU, YOU ONLY, EXIST”

You, you only, exist. We pass away, till at last, our passing is so immense that you arise: beautiful moment, in all your suddenness, arising in love, or enchanted in the contraction of work.

To you I belong, however time may wear me away. From you to you I go commanded. In between the garland is hanging in chance; but if you take it up and up and up: look: all becomes festival!

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AMERICAN GOTHIC

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AWKWARDNESS (Adam Kostsko)

…my analysis has pushed me beyond the complex relationship between awkwardness and more or less stable systems of social norms, toward a place where awkwardness can be openly embraced for its own sake. The direction awkwardness has in fact taken us, then, is beyond the common sense notion of awkwardness as a disturbance in the social fabric and toward something like utopia

LARRY DAVID – CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

The popularity of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2000) has resulted in the term "Larry David moment", meaning inadvertently causing a socially awkward situation, entering the American pop culture lexicon.

The “Stop and Chat” (an example of a socially awkward situation):

Curb Your Enthusiasm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f2LJXz-l2k

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http://www.awkwardrules.net/tag/larry-david/

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