Parashat Naso

Next Wednesday and Thursday, during the Mussaf service for Chag Shavuot, we will hear the kohanim recite the formula, found in our parasha, for bestowing blessing on the Jewish people.
“Y’varechicha Hashem, v’yishmarecha.

Ya’air Hashem panav elecha, v’yichunekka.

Yisa Hashem panav elecha, v’y’saim l’cha shalom”

“May the Lord bless you and watch over you.

May the Lord cause His countenance to shine to you and favor you.

May the Lord raise His countenance toward you and grant you peace.”
(Num. 6:24-26)

One of the most satisfying rituals in my life is my weekly opportunity to bless my children on Friday nights, before making Kiddush. It is a wonderful, private, albeit brief moment to connect with them, and focus my entire being towards each of them, and  give of myself to them, spiritually.  When I recite the traditional formula given to the kohanim in our parasha,the same blessing Jewish parents have been bestowing on their children for generations, I am connected to a spiritual force able to sustain a people and civilization for thousands of years.

When my children starting spreading their wings and spending shabbatot away from home I gave them their b’racha (blessing) on the phone. During this past year, with my daughter in school in Jerusalem, I made sure to connect with her erev shabbat to give her my blessing. In fact, because of the time difference, I started to feel the special just -before-shabbat energy emanating from the Holy Land in the morning, and Fridays began to feel more and more special.

I remember Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach saying that we all have the power to bless each other, and we should, at every opportunity.

Unfortunately, the only time most people extend a blessing is after hearing someone sneeze, and most of the time do not actually have the intent of bestowing a genuine blessing, of giving of themselves to another. More on this in a moment…

As we approach our festival of Shavuot, our celebration of the giving of the Torah to our people, it is fitting to examine the events preceding that historic moment of revelation.

The scene: The Israelites are camped in the Sinai desert, opposite the mountain, shortly after being liberated from Egyptian bondage.

Moshe went up to [the Presence of] G-d, and Ad-noy called to him from the mountain, saying, “This is what you shall say to the House of Yaakov, and tell to the Bnei Yisrael. You saw what I did to Egypt; and [how] I carried you on wings of eagles, and brought you to Me.  And now if you listen diligently to My voice, and preserve My covenant; you shall be My special treasure among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine. You will be to Me a kingdom of kohanim, and a holy nation.”
These are the words that you shall speak to the Bnei Yisrael.” (Ex. 19:3-6)

A kingdom of kohanim, of priests.  A priest is a special emissary of the Divine, capable of extending G-d’s blessing to whomever they come in contact with.

Rashi quickly points out that this verse is not meant to be taken literally, and offers a proof text that refers to Kind David’s descendants as kohanim.(Only the descendants of  Moses’ brother Aaron are technically called “kohanim”, the special family line that is the spiritual conduit for the the offerings in the Temple, and all matters of holiness.)

Yet, we were all created for just that purpose.
G-d’s covenant with Abraham stipulated that we would be a blessing, and the entire world would be blessed through us. “Through your children, will be blessed all the nations of the world, because you heeded My voice” (Gen. 22:18)

Then, at Sinai,  as we as a nation were preparing to receive the Torah, we were reminded of our innate ability to reflect the G-dliness in each of us, and bless others.

Now, as we symbolically reenact the receiving of the Torah next week, let’s not forget our inherited abilities.

Don’t let this coming Chag Shavuot pass, with only the memory of taste of cheesecake to show for it.
Rejoice, bask in the light of our inheritance, and realize that we have the power to spread this light to others.

That is surely nothing to sneeze at…

Blessing all us to have a Shabbat Shalom, and a Chag Shavuot filled with meaning, and joy.

Rabbi Greg

Here’s a piece I contributed to the current issue of  Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility

The Sinai experience was the transcendental moment in Jewish religious history. According to the tradition, over 2 million people had a mass prophetic experience that cemented their faith in a supernatural deity, and in the phenomenon of revelation and prophecy.

In Sefer Sh’mot, the Book of Exodus, the Torah says, “All the people saw the sounds, the flames, the sound of the shofar, and the mountain emitting smoke…..” (Ex. 20:15). An extra sensory exchange, where the physical properties of sight  and sound came together.

Rabbi Akiva, quoted in the Mechilta, said, “They saw what is heard, and heard what is seen.”

Although the sights must have been overwhelming, it was the sounds themselves that defined the experience. Sound is the ikkar, the essential component of any prophetic experience, and predates any other physical and spiritual manifestation of the divine.

In the opening paragraph of the Torah, in the very second verse, we learn, “ The earth was unformed and void, and the breath of  G-d shook over the waters”. This event is memorialized in Psalm 29, “ The voice (sound) of G-d is upon the waters..” (Psalms 29:3). The breath of God, the sonic footprint of holiness, preceded all creation, making waves in the process.  The creator then formed the world with divine speech, the ten utterances of creation still reverberating millennia later.

But there was nothing or no one to hear.

The pinnacle of creation, human life, was initially on a super prophetic level. G-d speaks to the first humans, but there is no mention of them listening, as the primordial couple enjoy an internal relationship with G-d. There is no need for sensory stimulation. After their mishap in the Garden, they tumble from their exalted original state to a solely external relationship with G-d, and they must rely on nevuah, or prophecy, a sensory based experiential existence.

“Va’yishm’u et kol Ad-nai Elokim mit’halaikh bagan…And they heard the sound of G-d in the Garden..” (Gen. 3:8).

In Hebrew the word kol refers to either a sound, or a voice, something meant to be heard. Speech is heard, not seen. It is not by chance that Hebrew uses the words, “ Shomaya ani, I hear”, when it wishes to say, “ I understand”. The Talmud, when wanting to drive home a point, says, Sh’ma Minah, hear from this, Ta Sh’ma, come and hear!

Sh’ma Yisrael, Comprehend, Oh Israel!

Abraham was tested for the tenth time as he brought Isaac up on the altar, and afterwards, after finding a ram to replace his son,  prophesied that his descendants would use the sound of the shofar to reunite with their creator. “Abraham called the name of that place, ‘Ad-nai will see’ as it is said, on that day, on G-d’s mountain, He will be seen.” (Gen 22:14)  There needed to be a sensory evolution from sight to sound, and that was the ultimate purpose of Sinai.

The sound of the shofar, the voice of G-d, was seen, but only for an instant. Afterwards G-d tells the people, “ Do not make anything (visual) with me..” (Ex. 20:20). To protect from being led astray by images the relationship would be based on sound. Sound, from the first divine breath, to the shofar, to the teachings, to be transmitted bal peh, orally.

The visual world would be our downfall, as the evidenced by the report of the spies (Num. 14:23), leading to the Israelites condemned to dying in the desert, the promised land left to their children.

Post Sinaitic prophesy would be predicated on sound, emitted by musicians channeling the original breath of G-d. Says the prophet Elisha,“But now bring me a musician. Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him [Elisha].” (II Kings 3:15). Music accompanied the revelation to Samuel, David, Asaf, and other prophets, the sonic conduit between heaven and earth. As the prophet Elijah experienced in I Kings 19, G-d was no longer in the wind, the earthquake, the fire…. only in the kol d’mama daka, the still, small voice inside us all.

Rav Kook writes, in Orot Hakodesh, “ Waves from the higher inner realm act on our souls ceaselessly. The stirrings of our inner spiritual sensibilities are the result of the sounds released by the violin of our souls, as it listens to the echo of the sound emanating from the divine realm.”

Alas, we now live in exile, and prophetic sounds come now through the voices of children, the lips and fingers of gifted musicians, the rhythm of sublime poets, the sound of words.

Ta Sh’ma- come and listen!

Greg Wall is a saxophonist and composer who has been making sounds with Hasidic New Wave, Later Prophets, The Ayn Sof Arkestra and Bigger Band and many others. He is the rabbi of the Sixth Street Community Synagogue, in New York City’s East Village.

Parashat Shemot

First- an introduction:
This week we start our annual reading of sefer Shemot, the book of Exodus. The initial prophecy of the temporary servitude of Abraham’s descendents is being realized. Although Jacob and his sons were welcomed to Egypt by Joseph, honored by Pharaoh, and given a comfortable lifestyle, the tide quickly turns. Egypt is suddenly a hostile environment, and the spiritual infrastructure of the suddenly enslaved people Israel begins to collapse. A death edict is issued to kill the male Hebrew babies by casting them into the Nile. It is the same Nile river that would provide the opportunity for baby Moses (Moshe) to be found and adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, and the next leader of the Israelites grows up in palatial surroundings and away from his forlorn people. He has a dramatic experience that changes his life, and flees to Midian, starts a family, and has his first prophetic experience, the infamous story of the burning bush.

His first dialogue with the creator shows a reluctant hero, who questions the divine directive from the start. After G-d tells him exactly what to say, Moshe responds that the Israelites will not listen; they will not believe him at all!

And now for our story:
G-d asks Moshe, “What is that in your hand?”, a question similar to the question G-d asks Adam in the Garden of Eden after eating the forbidden fruit, “Ayeka, Where are you?”.
Certainly the Creator Of The World knows the answers to these questions.

Moshe answers, “Mateh”, a staff or rod, a stick. Note that he doesn’t answer my stick, as it only recently came into his possession.
When the stick is lowered to the ground it becomes a “nachash” (remember the snake from the Garden of Eden?), and when it is grasped and raised it turns back into a stick. This, G-d tells Moshe, will make the Israelites believe him.

Obviously something deeper is going on here….

The Mishna, in Pirkei Avot chapter 5 mishna 8 tells us ten things that were created on the sixth day of creation, prior to the first Shabbat. One of them was “Ha-Mateh”. Our rabbis teach us that this staff, the source of so many miraculous signs, that would turn the Nile into blood, split the Red Sea, and cause water to flow from a rock, predates our history. It is part of the natural order of G-d’s creation, and a physical manifestation of the Divine.

The word “Mateh” comes from the root “Nateh”, which means to stretch out. It also means to bend. Our reality can be bent by how we act on our experience of G-d.

The nachash is the evil energy in the word, and it is found on the ground, when people’s expectations are lowered. Moshe’s first reaction was to run away from evil. When he engaged, when he grabbed it by the tail, it turned into a mateh once again, a sign that people, in concert with the Almighty, can transform evil and elevate it.

G-d, with his infinite faith in humanity, knew that when Moshe showed this to the Israelites, they would know he was the genuine leader they had been praying for.

Because seeing is believing….

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Greg

Parashat Vayigash

“And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear

I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon ”

R. Waters/Pink Floyd

When I was a young boy in elementary school in the late 60’s I lived for a while right outside of Washington, DC. The father of one of my childhood friends was a scientist for NASA, and supplied us with a lot of colorful memorabilia about the space program.

I was soon obsessed with the Apollo program, knowing the names and backgrounds of all the astronauts, and with much of the jargon and space-speak that accompanied these activities. We would follow each mission from start to finish, as the entire proceedings were usually broadcast on television. We saw each blast off, traced the trajectory of the rocket ship, and delighted in the broadcast of communications between heaven and earth.

One thing that sticks out is the occasional LOS (Loss of Signal) when the Apollo capsule would pass behind the dark side of the moon, temporarily losing radio contact with Mission Control in Houston, and the 45 minutes the astronauts were incommunicado seemed like an eternity, or maybe like…..210 years?

In Parashat Vayigash, after the joy of learning that his son Joseph (Yosef) is alive, well, and ruling an entire country, Jacob (Yaakov) has a revival of spirit, and sets out to go down (leaving the holy land is always going ‘down’) to Egypt. He makes an offering to “The G-d of his father”, referring to Isaac (Yitzchak)who was not allowed to leave the holy land during his lifetime. Yaakov is treated to his last prophetic experience, and this time the dream seems to be taking place during the day, as it is called a “Night Vision”.

Yaakov is frightened because he knows that this will be the exile that was revealed to his grandfather Avraham after the Brit Bein ha Bitarim, the “Covenant of the Pieces” (Gen. 15:7-16), and that he and his children would be subject to LOS- an exile without regular contact with Mission Control-the G-d of Israel.

Yaakov had already proved his mettle by living without “radio contact” for the 22 years he was separated from Yosef, and after passing that test he was to be reunited with his favored son, and given one more opportunity to reestablish the signal “….and the spirit of their father Yaakov was revived” (Gen. 45:27).

This pending exile would serve to condition Yaakov’s descendants, by having them experience a life predicated on faith- in the teachings of their foremothers and fathers, in a G-d just outside signal range, and most importantly, in the establishment of a national identity based on these beliefs.

Yaakov earned the name Israel during his struggle against secularism upon returning from his personal exile, after planting the seeds of his extended family. That entire family, now collectively known as Israel, would be together at the end of his life, as they enter the crucible of Egypt, with only the torch of divine destiny to illuminate their dark days in Egypt.

“All that is now

All that’s to come

And everything under the sun is in tune

But the sun is eclipsed by the moon”.

R. Waters/Pink Floyd

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Greg