exodus

Parsha Vaera: The Blessing of Plagues

January 16, 2015 By Amanda Martin

As I write this, I am plagued by an injury sustained while strength-training. Ostensibly, the damage to the muscle and tissue is a result of heavy deadlifting. Truly, however, this injury arose from single-minded stubborness and a willingness to sacrifice the body in service of the ego. I routinely skip rest days, ignore pain, and restrict my intake of nutrients. This injury was inevitable and I’m fortunate it wasn’t much worse.

In this week’s parsha, Egypt is plagued. Moses, with the help of his brother Aaron, is on a divine mission to free his people from slavery. Pharaoh is unmoved by the repeated entreaties to free the Israelites. Our Torah tells us that it is God who has hardened Pharaoh’s heart, in order to prove divine power irrefutably. We may also understand the economic benefit of slave labor to the Egyptian state. After a few generations, it may indeed be very difficult to relinquish such capital.

So, plagues are delivered to demonstrate the supremity of the Israelites’ God. Water turns to blood, frogs overrun the countryside, lice rises from dust, and swarms of insects bedevil people and animals alike. An unspecified pestilence causes livestock to sicken and die, boils erupt on flesh, and hail inflicts vast damage. Despite the horror that is surely wrecked on the Egyptian people and land, Pharaoh remains resolute. Although he often concedes to Moses’ demands, he always changes his mind at the last moment. “But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he became stubborn and reverted to his guilty ways, as did his courtiers. So Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had foretold through Moses” (Exodus 9:34-35).

In our Torah, such plagues are direct messages intended to disrupt habitual patterns of behavior and foster new perspectives. Pharaoh’s comfortable reality encompasses an Egyptian pantheon of gods and the entrenched idea of Israelites as Egyptian slaves. Recognizing the Israelites’ God as all powerful, and embracing the concept of the Hebrews as an independent people, is a radical departure from all Pharaoh has known and believed. Only extreme events can bring about such a change.

Although I have been aware that my own routines were not necessarily supportive of optimal health, I’ve never experienced an immediate need to re-evaluate my priorities. With this injury, I have endured unremitting pain and been sidelined from virtually all physical activity. I have been forced, much like Pharaoh, into new ways of thinking. Unlike Pharaoh, my ego has indeed surrendered to my body.

Our world today is plagued by so much. Poverty, hunger, obesity, violence of all kinds, racism, pollution, disease… The list is much longer than we can easily comprehend. This parshah reminds us that such plagues are calls to action. What must we change in order to effectively address them? What thinking must be shifted? What behavior must be transformed? In our individual lives, in our communities and globally, we all are gifted plagues so that we might grow into paths of wellness and righteousness. Change your thinking, change your world.

Parsha Vayakhel

February 17, 2014 By punktorah

Parsha Vayakhel is one of those parshot that is easy to just gloss over. It seems, at first glance like one of the “listing” parshot. You know the ones, lists of begats or lists of things that just seem endless. I’m sure a true Torah sage can find great depth in them, but to me they are like certain passages in Jane Austen novels that you can read a few lines and then just skip on. There presence in no way diminishes the overall experience, but seem best glossed over.

But Vayakhel, is actually a parshat that my experience in Kohenet has helped me to find great depth in, but we’ll get to that part in a second. In studying Vayakhel to prepare to write this drash, I found something new. It may have been obvious to others but it was a new treasure for me. The passage starts out with a reminder of the prohibition against working on the Sabbath. The first time through this time, I glossed over that, but about half way through the passage I thought, ” hold on a minute!”

The majority of this passage is about the tribe’s excitement in the building of the tabernacle. Who wouldn’t be excited? Just think about how great it is just to build a community Sukkah. Now imagine you’ve just escaped slavery and persecution — oh and the G!d(dess) who rescued you has said to help build the sanctuary! AWESOME!

You would might get so excited that you think, “this isn’t work!” That reiteration that we aren’t to work on the Sabbath was a reminder to the Israelites that even building the Mishkan counted as work. For me it was a moment to rethink some choices I’ve been making about things I do and do not do on the Sabbath. I look at halakah as a reference point, not law, so halakah offers me a perspective what I should and should’t do, but then it’s up to me to do soul searching and set my direction. This passage made me rethink things I had classified as “avodah,” or work of my heart, which I didn’t consider as “work.” If the Israelites were supposed to cease work on the Mishkan on the Sabbath, then maybe I needed to refocus on the Sabbath being a liminal-space day of just being. Especially in this day and age when so many of us feel that we don’t have enough hours in day to begin with, the Sabbath and the cessation from work is even more precious.

But how do I do this? I guess the answer is, “just stop.” But is the kind of thing tzitzit and tefillin were supposed to help us with: And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.” Pretty much every Jew knows the words to the “v’ahavta,” which is really a part of the Shema prayer. It was the first Hebrew prayer I remember learning to chant in Hebrew School. Fewer may be familiar with the “vayomer” section that includes this phrase: “And they shall be tzitzit for you, and when you look at them you will remember all of the Lord’s commandments and do them and not follow after your heart and after your eyes which lead you astray.” We tie these words around our hands and make signs between our eyes to keep us from just following our hearts or eyes. They help us from making bad choices in moments of spiritual weakness.

I have a brass cuff bracelet I wear every day inspired by this idea. The choice of material was inspired by another section of Vayakhel, one that we studied in the Kohenet program. Exodus 38:8 is one of those lines that you’d think there would be a TON of commentary about, but there doesn’t seem to be. We studied it in Kohenet because part of what we do in the training is dive into the overlooked and buried parts of the women’s stories. The Tzovah, the priestess path of Shekhinah of Kohenet spiritual framework appears in Exodus 38:8. Generally, Tzovot, plural for Tzovah, has been translated as “working women” or “serving women.” Much of the traditional commentary that does exists seems to want to explain these women’s appearance away.

38:8. Mirrors of the serving women that did service at the door of the tent of meeting (JPS, 1917)

Modern translations and commentaries seem to acknowledge that these women, who gave their brass or copper mirrors to the cause of the Mishkan, probably had some ritual function. In an incredibly thought-provoking book by Christian theologian Wilda Gafney, it is proposed that they were a core of women whose job it was to guard the entry to the Mishkan. She also posits that the mirrors they sacrificed for the Mishkah were their signaling tools. Wow, did that put this offering in a whole new perspective. It even made me alter a line of a prayer in the Kohenet prayerbook, which is a regular part of my morning prayers to say, “I call to mind the Tzovah, at the threshold’s door — guarding the holy of holies forevermore.

More important to me though, than this line of a prayer, is my bracelet. My brass cuff, which I bought for $5 at a festival, is a daily reminder of who I am, a Kohenet. Regardless of the situation I am in, when I see the cuff I think of the Tzovah and remember that one of my jobs in this world is to guard the thresholds of the sacred, and welcome people as the come, and help them as they exit. Now, because of Vayakhel, I am exploring having special one made for Shabbat. So no matter else is going on in my life, I will have special reminder that the Sabbath is for ceasing. It is a liminal time, where we are to just “be.” What an incredible gift and challenge all at once.

Written by Kohenet Ketzirah. Ketzirah is a frequent service leader at OneShul and can be found on PeelAPom

Parting the “Red Sea” with Heston, Spielberg and a High School Homecoming Game: Parsha Beshalach (Torah Video Mashup)

January 6, 2014 By punktorah

Just like it says: three ways to part the Red Sea aka Sea of Reeds. What’s your favorite miracle?

Parsha Bo: This is the Meaning of Life (Ex. 10:1 – 13:16)

December 29, 2013 By Jeremiah

Ahhh Parsha Bo, finally the plagues burdening the Egyptians come to an end and Hashem gives us Jews the holiday Passover. No matter how hard I might try I will never know where to begin to make sense of the final plague which subsequently leaves the first born male in every Egyptian household without life, and yet Bo is an integral portion in trying to understand Hashem and just how we are created in His image.

Judaism is monotheistic period. This means everything, or lack thereof, emanates from one source, Hashem. Whether it is righteousness, wickedness, or something in between the root, the seed, the source is the same and never wavering. We as human beings are created in Hashem’s image and this does not mean He looks like us externally but that we encapsulate pure dualism just like Him. Every act, belief, and feeling we have is only present because its opposite is not acted upon. Sure we exist but we emanate good and evil based on our will just like our creator.

Passover is the perfect lesson to explain the compulsions of good versus evil we all have seeded inside of us. In fact this week’s portion is the blossomed fruit matured from the seed sprouting out of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Hebrews marking their door posts is a conscious choice to do good when faced with doing evil. This choice to mark themselves apart saves their sons and leads directly towards breaking the yoke of bondage. The Egyptians refusal to do the right thing results in the evil inclination running rampant in their hearts and minds leading to death, sorrow, anger, and the lust for vengeance. Such a heavy portion.

Bo is the perfect moral lesson to carry as a reminder while navigating all of life’s temptations. Sometimes we are the ancient Hebrew yearning to cast off the burden of evil inclinations and sometimes we are the ancient Egyptian willfully afflicting those around us. Bo is more than just the first Passover it is the morality of where we as human beings created in the divine image of Hashem exist. Actions have consequences and only you the individual can choose which path to take.

Jeremiah@punktorah.org Twitter: @CirclePitBimah

Parsha Va‘eira: Career Suicidal Gestures (Exodus 6:2 – 9:35)

December 25, 2013 By Jeremiah

And I appeared or by its proper Hebrew name Va-eira is probably best known to everyone as the Torah portion where Pharaoh’s heart softens and then hardens while Hashem afflicts the Egyptian populace with plague after plague after plague. Moses and Aaron continue their presence in Pharaoh’s court demanding the end of slavery for the Hebrews, and Hashem in a very indirect way appears and then disappears with the hardening and softening of Pharaoh’s heart. Makes for a great moral lesson tackling ones intent and the motivation for actions emanating from the heart, but Pharaoh is not the only example for this so is Moses.

Va’eira begins with Moses doubting his ability and really not wanting a leadership position, and from what the Torah tells us the Hebrews agreed with Moses. This personality trait of Moses I can relate to in a complete and whole way, because like Moses I have made the same suicidal gestures with my career. On multiple occasions and to different levels of leadership I have made it clear that taking the step into management is not my goal and in so many words something I never plan on pursuing. This is not career suicide but it can be read as a suicidal gesture, in reality the incredibly small increase in pay is just not worth the stress of having to be available around the clock while “parenting” grown adults most of whom are many years older than me, and worse of all terminating the income of someone with children. I like to think this is Moses’s outlook as well besides it is not like there are no other candidates for the position, there is Aaron who becomes the head of the Hebrews 40 years after liberation and we learn later on of other Hebrews who really want the job as well.

Moses is smart enough, educated enough, and a believer enough to know the Hebrews will be set free. . . eventually. He knows it will be a long hard road to lead, move, and settle a new land with a people who have a collective body disfigured with deep scars from generations of slavery. Moses’s life is different than those he is charged to lead he understands more and leads for the greater good not the lesser few. Growing up in the west in a pursuit of wealth driven society it is nice to see that Moses’s lesson on humbleness over power is what makes him the most influential leader to Jews and one of the most influential leaders to all other people.

What does Moses’s reluctance say about Jews today? Are we as human beings scattered across a globe living comfortably under different types of government at odds with the type of character and leadership Hashem would like? Or are we so far removed from the Exodus that model is no longer relevant?

Comment below or send me a message jeremiah@punktorah.org Twitter: circlepitbimah

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