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Parsha Naso – Repairing Ourselves

May 28, 2015 by Russell McAlmond

child rain

There are certain concepts which are important to recognize in Judaism.  One is that we have free will – we decide – we are not forced to do things.  Two, that we are accountable for the choices we make because we have free will to make them.  In this week’s parsha of Naso we are told to accept personal responsibility for our actions, not to avoid them, and to make restitution for the harms or crimes we commit.  In other words, it is not society’s fault that we chose to take these actions – it is our fault – and we are personally responsible for them.

According to Maimonides, one of the codifiers of Jewish law, one of the thirteen principles of Judaism is that there is reward and punishment for human behavior.  We are responsible and accountable for what we do.  Too often, in contemporary society, we try to shift blame to parents, socio-economic level and other outside sources that supposedly cause our bad behavior.  There is no doubt that life may be more difficult for some than for others.  Nonetheless, no one is forced to commit crimes or hurt others.  These are individual choices and we are responsible individually for them, not society.

We learn from our mistakes unless we don’t take responsibility for them.  By denying that our mistakes are made by our free will, we will never grow to become better human beings.  “Tikkum olam” is the goal of “repairing the world”, not perfecting it.  We will never be perfect – but we can learn from our mistakes by admitting to them, making restitution and striving to repair ourselves.

 

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: accountability, miamonides, Parsha Naso, rambam, responsibility, tikkun olam

Parsha Behar-Bechukotai – Freedom and Slavery

May 20, 2015 by Russell McAlmond

slavery

Another good example of why Judaism needs to continue to evolve is this week’s parsha.  Slavery is not condemned, but limited, particularly for Jewish slaves.  As modern Jews we know that slavery should never be allowed, but this is more of a modern moral concept than an ancient one.  No one should be allowed to own another individual, Jewish or not, but are there ways that modern people can become slaves in our 21st Century?

Freedom and slavery in our modern day may have different meanings.  For example, if the government took more and more or your earnings in taxation to the point that very little was left for you, aren’t you a slave for the government?  Another example may be if you accumulate large debts and have to work to pay them off – are you free?  You may have seen the bumper sticker that says, “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.”  Freedom is not all about how much money you have to spend, but it will impact the kind of activities you may desire to do, and aren’t able to, because you lack the necessary funds.

Freedom of speech, thought and religion is also necessary for a free human being.  It is our minds that define us, not our bodies.  Being pressured to think a certain way or being forced to follow a religion is not freedom. In reality, all Jews are Jews of choice because one cannot be forced to be Jewish if they don’t want to identify as such.  This is true of any other religion or ideology.

True freedom is about making the right choices so that you are not a ‘slave’ to another entity or your own debt.  Living within your means, saving for the future and making wise financial decisions will help you have more freedom in life.  Lifelong education and study will also help you be more free since gaining wisdom and enlightenment frees the mind.  Recognizing your own uniqueness and never allowing anyone to label you or put you in a box is a sign of personal freedom.

Live to be free, not a slave, by making good choices.  Your life will be happier and more successful by doing so.

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: choices, D'var Torah, Freedom, Parsha Behar, slavery

Parsha Emor – Eye for Eye Justice

May 5, 2015 by Russell McAlmond

Scales_of_justice_ezr

In this week’s parsha of Emor in Leviticus 24:19-20 we read that, “A man who inflicts injury upon his fellow man just as he did, so shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.”  Most Jewish sages rejected the literal translation of this idea of justice and instead recommended monetary damages for the harm done to his fellow man.  In other words, it is not the Jewish position that we take an “eye for eye” approach even though the language suggests that we do.  If we damage someone’s eye, we pay to repair it and for the lost wages caused by it – we do not lose our eye.  Losing our eye would not help the individual we harmed.

Jewish justice is about how to weigh the crimes or hurt involved and compensate it accordingly.  We do not consider all crimes or evil acts to have the same weight or equivalence.  Immoral acts are not equivalent to other immoral acts only because they are immoral.  They must be weighted by the harm being done by such immoral acts, just as the loss of an eye must be weighted with the amount of monetary loss.  Some evil acts are much worse than others.

What does this mean to modern Jews?  We should not allow arguments against the state of Israel, or of the Jewish people, to be manipulated in such a way that if Israel ever makes a mistake, it is as bad as its enemies.  It is not.  Israel is one of the most moral countries in the world when compared to other countries – by a significant margin.  As modern Jews, we should learn from this parsha that Israel should not be judged by unweighted moral equivalency,  but by the weight of its actions.

Based on her cumulative actions, Israel has been a moral and inspiring success story for the Middle East that other countries would be wise to learn from.  Am Israel Chai!

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: Jewish, Judaism, moral equivalence, morality, Parsha Emor

Parsha Acharei-Kedoshim – Love the Convert

April 28, 2015 by Russell McAlmond

man

In this week’s parsha we learn of the Torah’s high regard for “strangers” or “ger.”  Most often, these terms are referred to as meaning a Jewish convert who is living with the Israelite tribe.  The particular verse is Leviticus 19:34, “The strangers who reside with you as your citizens;  you shall love each one as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  So what is the status of a Jewish convert and how should we, as modern Jews, interpret this instruction?

As we all know, Judaism is not a proselytizing religion – at least not now.  There was a time when Judaism actively sought converts, but that changed with outside persecution.  Nonetheless, the Torah holds very high esteem for sincere converts and commands that they be treated as equals.  Equality is a very important concept in the Torah and it applied to all “strangers.”  Knowing the importance of self interest in all human beings a command to love someone as “yourself” cannot be more equal.

Jews are commanded to love G-d, but G-d loves the convert.  This implies a different status for the convert than that of born Jews – at least in G-d’s eyes.  The argument may be made that converts have better status as Jews than those who are born Jewish since it is the convert who is loved by G-d.  Let’s not go there, but consider that modern Jewish converts are just as equal to be called Jews as any other Jew no matter how defined.

Love the convert, but once they become a Jew, they are to be considered 100% the equal of any other Jew.

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: acharei, kedoshim

Parsha Tazria-Metzora – Leprosy and Being Unclean

April 19, 2015 by Russell McAlmond

From reading this week’s parshas we learn about the disease of leprosy and being unclean.  The ancient disease of leprosy is always somewhat scary – even for today’s Jews.  The idea of getting this disease and the physical disfiguring that it can cause is something that all of us would rather stay away from.  We don’t hear much about leprosy today, but is there a modern lesson from these parshas regarding separation and being considered unclean?

Leprosy (or Hansen’s Disease) is still around today with approximately 200,000 chronic cases and 230,000 new cases each year.  Even the US has about 200 new cases per year.  The good news is that those numbers are significantly less than the 1980’s where there were about 5.2 million annual chronic cases – mostly in India.  Medical science has made great strides in curing and reducing the number of leprosy cases.  Over 16 million cases of leprosy have been cured over the last twenty years due to advances in research.

For modern Jews, we know that the Torah was written when there was very little knowledge of medical science.  Separating those with leprosy outside the community (which is not done today) in Biblical times may have seemed like the right thing to do, but it was not correct.  In modern times we don’t separate Jews from the community for leprosy, but we do for other forms of being “unclean.”  We separate Jews who fall in love with non-Jews as being unclean.  We separate Jews whose birth parent doesn’t come from the correct gender from other Jews.  We separate Jews who have chosen to be Jews from ‘born’ Jews.  We have many different versions of what it is to be “unclean” in our community – all of which have no more validity than any other arbitrary separation.

The modern Jew embraces all of those who identify as Jewish with equal respect.  We welcome all non-Jews to our family through marriage and give them the same respect as well.  We do not inspect your lineage or ancestors to make sure you are really ‘Jewish’ based on some ancient bloodline.  Whether paternal, maternal, by choice or simply marrying a Jew, we will not separate anyone from our community of Jews.  If you love Israel, love the Jewish people, and consider yourself part of our community – we will never separate you from us.

We welcome you into our inclusive tribe.

 

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, leprosy, online conversion, Parsha, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, Tazria - Metzora, unclean

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