Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on Behar-Bechukotai Kiddush Is
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Parshat Behar-Bechukotai May 20, 2017 24 Iyar, 5777 TORAH ARTSCROLL 696 Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on Behar-Bechukotai HERTZ 531 I have argued earlier that indebted to you, you must Judaism is more than an support him; he must live with At key moments in the HAFTORAH ethnicity. It is a call to you like a foreign resident. Do Torah, God himself defines ARTSCROLL 1179 holiness. In one sense, not take interest or profit from his relationship with the HERTZ 551 however, there is an him, but fear your God and let Israelites in terms of family. important ethnic your brother live with you. He tells Moses to say to Bar Mitzvah dimension to Judaism. It (25:35-36) If your brother Pharaoh in his name: “My of is best captured in the becomes impoverished and is child, my firstborn, Ethan Zuckerman 1980s joke about an sold to you, do not work him Israel” (Ex. 4:22). When Rosh Chodesh Sivan advertising campaign in like a slave. (25:39) Moses wants to explain to New York. Throughout “Your brother” in these verses the Israelites why they have Molad: Thurs. May 25 the city there were giant is not meant literally. At times a duty to be holy he says, 8:32:12 pm posters with the slogan, it means “your relative”, but “You are children of the Rosh Chodesh: Friday May 26 “You have a friend in the mostly it means “your fellow Lord your God” (Deut. Chase Manhattan Bank.” Jew”. This is a distinctive way 14:1). If God is our parent, Times Underneath one, an of thinking about society and then we are all brothers and Israeli had scribbled the our obligations to others. Jews sisters. We are related by Mincha 7:00 pm words, “But in Bank are not just citizens of the bonds that go to the very Candle Lighting 7:51 pm Leumi you have same nation or adherents of heart of who we are. The Hashkama 8:00 am mishpochah.” Jews are, the same faith. We are prophets continued the and are conscious of members of the same metaphor. There is a lovely Youth Minyan 8:30 am being, a single extended extended family. We are – passage in Hosea in which Parsha Shiur 8:30 am family. biologically or electively – the prophet describes God children of Abraham and as a parent teaching a Main 9:00 am This is particularly Sarah. For the most part, we young child how to take its Beit Midrash 9:15 am evident in this week’s share the same history. On the first faltering steps: “When parsha. Repeatedly we Israel was a child, I loved Gemara Shiur 6:45 pm festivals we relive the same read of social legislation memories. We were forged in him, and out of Egypt I Mincha 7:45 pm couched in the language the same crucible of suffering. called my son… It was I who Shabbos Ends 9:00 pm of family: When you buy We are more than friends. We taught Ephraim to walk, or sell to your neighbor, are mishpochah, family. The taking them by the arms… R’ Reisman Video 10:30 pm let no one wrong his concept of family is absolutely To them I was like one who Sun. May 21 7:30/8:30 am brother. (Lev. 25:14) If fundamental to Judaism. lifts a little child to the your brother becomes Consider the book of Genesis, cheek, and I bent down to Mon. & Thurs. 6:35/7:45 am Tues. 6:45/7:45 am impoverished and sells the Torah’s starting-point. It is feed them.” (Hosea 11:1- Wed. Yom 6:30/7:45 am some of his property, his not primarily about theology, 4). Yerushalayim near redeemer is to come doctrine, dogma. It is not a Fri. R. Chodesh 6:30/7:45 am to you and redeem what polemic against idolatry. It is The same image is his brother sold. (25:25) about families: husbands and continued in rabbinic Mincha 8:00 pm If your brother is wives, parents and children, Judaism. In one of the most Latest Times for impoverished and brothers and sisters. famous phrases of prayer, Shema/Shemoneh Esrei May 20 9:12/10:25 am Kiddush is sponsored by May 27 9:10/10:24 am Heidi & Glenn Zuckerman Next Shabbat Bamidbar in honor of the Bar Mitzvah Candle Lighting 7:57 pm of their son Ethan Mincha 7:00 pm 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 (516) 487-6100 Shabbat Announcements Behar-Bechukotai 5777 Rabbi Akiva used the words Avinu Malkenu, “Our Father, I would do so to save two brothers or eight cousins.” The our King”. That is a precise and deliberate expression. God point he was making was that we share 50 percent of our is indeed our sovereign, our lawgiver and our judge, but genes with our siblings, and an eighth with our cousins. before He is any of these things He is our parent and we Taking a risk to save them is a way of ensuring that our are His children. That is why we believe divine compassion genes are passed on to the next generation. This principle, will always override strict justice. This concept of Jews as known as “kin selection”, is the most basic form of human an extended family is powerfully expressed in Maimonides’ altruism. It is where the moral sense is born. That is a key Laws of Charity: The entire Jewish people and all those who insight, not only of biology but also of political theory. attach themselves to them are like brothers, as Edmund Burke famously said that “To be attached to the [Deuteronomy 14:1] states: “You are children of the Lord subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in your God.” And if a brother will not show mercy to a society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public brother, who will show mercy to them? To whom do the affections. It is the first link in the series by which we poor of Israel lift up their eyes? To the gentiles who hate proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind.” them and pursue them? Their eyes are turned to their Likewise Alexis de Tocqueville said, “As long as family brethren alone. This sense of kinship, fraternity and the feeling was kept alive, the opponent of oppression was family bond, is at the heart of the idea of Kol Yisrael arevin never alone.” Strong families are essential to free societies. zeh bazeh, “All Jews are responsible for one another.” Or as Where families are strong, a sense of altruism exists that Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai put it, “When one Jew is injured, all can be extended outward, from family to friends to Jews feel the pain.” neighbors to community and from there to the nation as a whole. Why is Judaism built on this model of the family? Partly to tell us that God did not choose an elite of the righteous or a It was the sense of family that kept Jews linked in a web of sect of the likeminded. He chose a family – Abraham and mutual obligation despite the fact that they were scattered Sarah’s descendants — extended through time. The family across the world. Does it still exist? Sometimes the is the most powerful vehicle of continuity, and the kinds of divisions in the Jewish world go so deep, and the insults changes Jews were expected to make to the world could not hurled by one group against another are so brutal that one be achieved in a single generation. Hence the importance of could almost be persuaded that it does not. the family as a place of education (“You shall teach these things repeatedly to your children...”) and of handing the In the 1950s Martin Buber expressed the belief that the story on, especially on Pesach through the Seder service. Jewish people in the traditional sense no longer existed. Knesset Yisrael, the covenantal people as a single entity Another reason is that family feeling is the most primal and before God, was no more. The divisions between Jews, powerful moral bond. The scientist J. B. S. Haldane religious and secular, orthodox and non-orthodox, Zionist famously said, when asked whether he would jump into a and non-Zionist, had, he thought, fragmented the people river and risk his life to save his drowning brother, “No, but beyond hope of repair. Yet that conclusion is premature for precisely the reason that makes family so elemental a Great Neck Yoetzet Halacha Lisa Septimus bond. Argue with your friend and tomorrow he may no Welcomes your questions about mikvah, longer be your friend, but argue with your brother and observance of taharat mishpacha (halacha relating tomorrow he is still your brother. to married life) and women’s health, as it connects to Jewish law. Reach out to her at: Phone: 516.415.1111 The book of Genesis is full of sibling rivalries but they do Email: [email protected]. not all end the same way. The story of Cain and Abel ends All conversations and emails are kept confidential. with Abel dead. The story of Isaac and Ishmael ends with their standing together at Abraham’s grave. The story of Great Neck Synagogue Esau and Jacob reaches a climax when, after a long 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck , NY 11023 separation, they meet, embrace and go their separate ways. The story of Joseph and his brothers begins with 516-487-6100 animosity but ends with forgiveness and reconciliation.