THE SHAVUOT PROJECT First Edition TORAH ESSAYS LOVINGLY RESEARCHED AND WRITTEN BY MEMBERS OF B'NAI DAVID-JUDEA June 2019 Welcome to BDJ’s first-ever Shavuot Divrei Torah Project! In this pamphlet, you will find original, well-researched, and passionate articles written by our own BDJers. all of the people saw“ וְ כָל הָﬠָם רֹאִ ים אֶ ת הַ קּוֹ�ת ,The Torah tells us that when God spoke at Har Sinai the sounds” (Shemot 20:15). In the Midrash, Rebbe Yochanan points out that "sounds" is plural. The voice of God would go out and“ ,הָיָה הַקּוֹל יוֹצֵא וְנֶחְלַק לְשִׁבְﬠִים קוֹלוֹת לְשִׁבְﬠִים לָשׁוֹן :He explains divide into seventy voices for the seventy languages…” (Shemot Rabbah 5:9). One of the beautiful gifts God gave us through Matan Torah is the capacity to hear the Torah’s many voices and teachings-- voices that we all possess. There are so many voices to be heard, and our job is to cultivate them in ourselves and in others and to learn from them. The volunteers who wrote the articles in this pamphlet accessed their own voices as teachers of Torah -- emissaries of God’s wisdom and teachers of the many diverse voices that emanate from One Source. While each of these articles provides us with delicious tastes of Torah to savor over Shavuot, we are thrilled with how different each individual piece is. The topics range from cheesecake, to Jewish destiny, to the nature of the soul, to Hallel -- and all of them reverberate with rich, unique, and holy voices. This is but the beginning of a tapestry of Torah we hope to weave each year from the voices of our BDJ community. It’s not too early to start! If you would like to join our Shavuot Project next year, please let Rabbanit Alissa know at [email protected]. This project came to life entirely because of our volunteer writers and editors. We would like to express deep gratitude to our editors: Julie Fax, Louis Keene, Shira Berman, Debi Pomerantz, Mike Mendelson, Batsheva Kasdan, and Cindy Abrookin. We would especially like to thank Cindy Abrookin for organizing this project from beginning to end -- it would not have happened without her! Our editors brought their hearts, skills, and loving eyes to the Torah that our passionate and insightful writers shared. Thank you for giving of your time so generously-- both to our shul and to our BDJ family. And a huge thank you to Adele Lhrar and Adynna Swarz for creating such a beautiful and accessible layout! Without further ado, please enjoy the fruits of our writers’ and editors’ labors. You can relax at shul or at home over Tikkun Leil and chag reading the articles or learn them in chevruta or chaburah, launching into the sources offered and engaging in dialogue with the Torah shared. This project has been a year-long labor of love in actively revealing Torah from and for the BDJ community to cherish and learn together! May we merit to be learners and teachers of Torah all the days of our lives, Rav Yosef and Rabbanit Alissa Table of Contents 1. The Profound Theological Significance of Cheesecake Page 1 Nick and Eytan Merkin 2. Yaakov’s Covenant and Jewish Destiny Page 5 Akiva Newborn 3. The Limits of Physician Influence Page 10 Rebecca Linfield and Leon Moskatel 4. Taking Care of Your Body: A Mitzvah From the Torah Page 13 Susan Fink 5. Megillat Boaz Page 16 Daniella Plutchok 6. Chronicling Creation Page 19 Cindy Abrookin 7. Hallel and Aliyah L’Regel Page 22 Alex Fax 8. Catalysts for Change: Female Trailblazers Transforming Judaism Page 26 Arielle Gereboff 9. Tazria and the Gift of Awe Page 36 Joelle Keene 10. Jewish Law: A Divine Collaboration Page 40 Gary Linder 11. The Soul By Any Other Name Is Still the Soul Page 44 Ronnie Abrams 12. How Can We Speak When We Are Truly Humbled? “You,” “Our,” and God in the Beginning of the Amidah Page 47 Mark Rothman 13. Havdalah and Chibur: Separation and Connection Page 51 Tobi Inlender Minhag Yisrael Torah Hi: The Profound Theological Significance of Cheesecake By Nick and Eytan Merkin The custom of eating dairy before meat on and milk [the Torah] lies under your tongue" Shavuot is widespread and dates back at least [4]. There are even mystical reasons given for to the 13th century [1]. For many, it is a eating dairy on Shavuot – the numerical value welcome change from typical Shabbat or of the Hebrew word for milk, chalav, is 40, Yom Tov fare, which is usually dominated by which commemorates the 40 days that Moshe pareve desserts and needless waiting until spent on Mount Sinai [5]. Dozens of after the main course to indulge in cake and explanations have been offered [6]. cookies. For others, it is a puzzling deviation before the traditional meal and more of a tasty We suggest that the abundance of competing diversion than an integral part of the day. reasons in rabbinic sources over the centuries for eating dairy before meat on Shavuot But what if eating dairy on Shavuot were reflects a certain puzzlement over why the more than that? What if it were an audacious custom is so widespread, yet seemingly theological expression of the uniqueness of ungrounded in formal halacha or hashkafa. humankind and its relevance in rabbinic Far from finding satisfaction in the philosophy? What if dairy before meat on explanations given by rabbinic giants whose Shavuot is as matza is to the seder, and a slice opinions we would treat as dispositive in of cheesecake expresses our place in the other matters, we seem uncertain and cosmos? unconvinced by them. Might there be more to cheesecake after services than gematria? The Dairy Conundrum A Challenge in Heaven There are so many reasons attributed to the custom of eating dairy on Shavuot that the There are few more dramatic scenes in question has spawned its own genre of Jewish rabbinic literature than that of the midrashic literature. We find discussion of this custom telling of Moshe’s ascension to heaven to in sources ranging from ancient codifiers of receive the Torah. We might have envisioned Jewish law to the modern rabbinic denizens a warm welcome offered to Moshe after what of the internet. There are practical must have been a long and arduous journey explanations given – at the time of matan to Paradise. Or that the angels Moshe would Torah, the Jewish people were restricted to encounter there would offer words of eating dairy because they were not encouragement or praise to Israel’s sufficiently expert in how to prepare meat in Ambassador to the Celestial Realm. The accordance with halacha [2]. There are Talmud recounts, however, exactly the symbolic reasons offered – eating dairy and opposite: then meat reminds us of the shtei halechem, And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: the two breads brought on Shavuot in Temple When Moshe ascended on High to times [3]. There are homiletic explanations receive the Torah, the angels said … that invoke biblical passages – "like honey Master of the Universe, what is one 1 born of a woman doing here among the commandment to honor them us? Hashem said to them: He came to relevant to you…? receive the Torah. The angels said before Him: The Torah is a hidden Immediately [the angels] conceded treasure that was concealed by you that Hashem’s decision to give the 974 generations before the creation of Torah to the people was correct….” the world and you seek to give it to [8] flesh and blood…! [7] Incredibly, Moshe’s arguments appear to Rather than with a welcome, Moshe is met succeed. The angels apparently succumb to with resentment and skepticism. In the the force of Moshe’s logic and admit to the angels’ conception, human beings are wisdom of Hashem’s decision [9]. unworthy to receive something as precious as the Torah. The angels are incredulous that Angelic Sin Hashem would be willing to give something to mere mortals that has been safely hidden Midrash Tehilim echoes some of the logic of in the heights of heaven for so long. this Talmudic passage, but takes the justification of humankind’s receipt of the What’s perhaps even more shocking, after a Torah in an even more daring direction: little prodding from Hashem, Moshe audaciously defends his incursion into And since Moshe went up Mount Heaven, arguing that the Torah is effectively Sinai and did not return, the Children useless for heavenly beings, though of Israel made the golden calf and the indispensable for Israel: tablets were broken. The angels rejoiced at this and said – “Surely Hashem said to Moshe: Provide them now the Torah will be returned to us.” with an answer as to why the Torah When Moshe went up to receive the should be given to the people…. second set of the tablets, the angels objected and said – “Why are You Moshe said before Him: Master of the still giving the Children of Israel the Universe, the Torah that You are Torah? Just yesterday they violated giving me, what is written in it? God it!” God replied to them – “Didn’t you said to him “I am the Lord your God angels also sin when you visited Who brought you out of Egypt from Abraham by eating dairy and meat at the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:2). the same meal? Even a young child of Moshe said to the angels: Did you Israel would tell his mother that descend to Egypt? Were you enslaved eating this is prohibited.” The angels to Pharaoh? Why should the Torah be could not think of an answer.