Caroline Taymor Netivot Shalom 5781 Shabbat shalom. I’d like to dedicate this drash in honor of my partner, Justin, who made it possible with being primary parent way more than his fair share on a week of very little childcare. This week’s parsha, Re’eh, is a part of the section of the book of Dvarim in which Moses reiterates the laws for the Israelites, and discusses how to apply them once they enter the land. He talks about how to deal with false prophets, kashrut, the sabbatical year (which is coming up next year), and passover. Hidden in amongst the laws are some verses that speak to our relationship to G!d.
Tonight is Rosh Chodesh Elul, and many have a practice of working on teshuva, repentance and turning to G!d, throughout the month.
With the help of some 20th and 21st century commentators on our parsha, I’d like to suggest an approach to Elul this year that might feel radical in Berkeley. Our tradition, and this parsha, speak of loving G!d, ahavat HaShem, and also fearing/awe/revere-ing G!d, yirat hashem or yirat shemayim. I invite you to view ahavat hashem and yirat shemayim, not as something you do or don’t have, but as a skill, and to cultivate those skills this elul.
If I had to guess, I’d guess that most of us in this room are a bit uncomfortable with some part of the first three verses of this week’s parsha. In Berkeley, sometimes it seems like talking about, and believing in G!d at all is a bit taboo, and certainly most people I talk to seem to believe in a loving kind G!d. But a vengeful, jealous one who sends curses?
Our parsha starts:
רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה׃
See, this day I set before you blessing and curse:
אֶֽת־הַבְּרָכָ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּשְׁמְע֗וּ אֶל־מִצְוֺת֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י מְצַוֶּ֥ה אֶתְכֶ֖ם הַיּֽוֹם׃
blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I enjoin upon you this day;
I would guess that there are some folks in the room who are just uncomfortable with the notion of G!d. Others of us are not so sure about commandedness. Did G!d really give the commandments to Moshe? Literally? Does your theology allow for a G!d who takes action in the world?
But maybe you’re fine with that. Just for me, my theology holds it in tension between my rational mind and my soul.
But if that didn’t make you uncomfortable, I’m guessing the curse part did.
וְהַקְּלָלָ֗ה אִם־לֹ֤א תִשְׁמְעוּ֙ אֶל־מִצְוֺת֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם וְסַרְתֶּ֣ם מִן־הַדֶּ֔רֶךְ אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י מְצַוֶּ֥ה אֶתְכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם לָלֶ֗כֶת אַחֲרֵ֛י אֱלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יְדַעְתֶּֽם׃ {ס}
and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not experienced.
Is G!d petty? Is G!d really a jealous G!d who sends curses? Can G!d act in the world actively, can G!d even curse?
These are big theological questions, and I promise you, I’m not going to answer any of them today.
For just one moment, and just one month, what if you set your doubts to the side? I’m not saying that they aren’t true! I’m just suggesting that’s beside the point. Until this week, I rather thought that faith, and love and fear of G!d were something you had or not, but the Aish Kodesh changed my mind. The Aish Kodesh, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, was a Hasidic rebbe of the Piaseczno suburb of Warsaw, and later in Warsaw itself. He was publishing several manuscripts when the Nazis arrived. His manuscripts were stored in milk cans and buried, along with his sermons from the Warsaw Ghetto in 5700-5702. He was murdered by Nazis in 1943. His writings were found in the 1950s and published post-humously .
In his lesser known work, Hachshoras HaAvreichim (Preparation of Young Men) which is published in translation as Jewish Spiritual Growth, the Aish Kodesh discusses the challenges of waning or absent faith, or faith approached with the intellect, which does not move our spirits towards G!d.
The Aish Kodesh writes on our parsah, that while we are obligated to serve HaShem: “It is not sufficient for us ...to serv[e] with a sealed mind and a dulled heart. Rather, we wish and yearn to be like children: ‘You are the children of Hashem your G!d”.(Deuteronomy 14:1) Then when we serve G!d with our Torah learning , prayer and other mitzvot, we will feel we are close to Him. Just as a child is overjoyed to see his father after an absence of years and after having yearned for him so painfully, we too yearn and long for G!d.” (Jewish Spiritual Growth: The Step By Step Guide from a Hasidic Master by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, translated by Yaacov David Shulman, pg 15-16)
He doesn’t say that is how we should serve HaShem. He says this is how we yearn to serve HaShem.
Rabbi Shapira says most of us, most of the time, at most yearn to yearn for G!d. We don’t live in a state of actually yearning for G!d. His book takes as it’s thesis that we can learn to move from our our intellect yearning to yearn for HaShem, just a tiny bit towards our souls yearning for HaShem, and suggests a practice for doing so.
What if faith is a choice and a skill, not something we have?
Rabbi Daniel Nevins, former dean of the JTS Rabbinical School also looks to our parsha to suggest that faith is a skill we can practice. (How to Practice Faith, by Rabbi Daniel Nevins, August 22, 2014, https://www.jtsa.edu/how-to-practice-faith)
I think the next verse offers a suggestion of what it might mean to serve G!d with all your heart and all your soul. Rabbi Nevins translates it “ Walk after the Lord your G!d Revere G!d Guard G!d’s commandments Listen for G!d’s voice Serve G!d Cling to G!d” (Nevins) Rabbi Nevin offers an alternative to the traditional interpretations of these verses, which link each one to a specific action. He suggests they are stages of religious development. The first stage is to decide to walk after G!d, to decide “to act differently”. Second is to cultivate a reverence for G!d. The word Rabbi Nevin’s translates as “reverence” is וְאֹת֣וֹ תִירָ֑אוּ which is usually translated as awe/fear. Third is to observe the commandments with intention (and the reverence we’ve been cultivating). Only then can we begin to hear G!d’s voice seeping through our daily routines and practice of mitzvot. Finally, the elusiveand possibly impossible to sustain Clinging to G!d, and releasing some of our grasp on this world. Rabbi Nevins suggests that this may elude us until death, when the soul returns to it’s source.
What does this have to do with Elul and teshuva? I’ve always found an Elul teshuva practice difficult. Sure, there’s a few things I remember of transgressions against fellow humans, and I try to apologize for them. But did I really mess up against G!d? I don’t know. I mean, I did my best. Sure, there’s a lot of mitzvot I didn’t do, but… does G!d really care? I have doubts.
Rabbi Shaul Wagschal, author of the delightful The Practical Guide to Teshuva1, suggests a course of tefillah (prayer), torah study, and mussar practice for the month of elul. The goal of the practice isto increase our yirah of HaShem, in order that we might have more intention in our prayer, torah study, and feel the importance of mitzvot more deeply. Rabbi Wagschal, too, suggests that faith, love of G!d, and yirah of G!d, are skills we can cultivate.
This year, I’m setting my doubts aside. What if I treat them as beside the point? What if I work to increase my skills of loving and fearing G!d even if my intellect has doubts? I invite you to join me. Regardless of what your intellect thinks about G!d, this Elul, can you cultivate a practice that, as Rabbi Shapira says, supports “purposefully moving our nefesh even slightly, even if our choice just makes the ends of its feathers tremble”? (Jewish Spiritual Growth, pg 19) Shabbat Shalom
- (which I found at Afikomen. I could find almost nothing about Rabbi Wagschal, z’’l, but I believe he was a charedi rabbi and the author of a number of practical halacha books.)