Bookmark and Share
Join Our Email List
Email:
For Email Newsletters you can trust

Rabbi Arthur Segal’s love of people, humanity, and Judaism has him sharing with others “The Wisdom of the Ages” that has been passed on to him. His writings for modern Jews offer Spiritual, Ethical, and eco-Judaic lessons in plain English and with relevance to contemporary lifestyles. He is the author of countless articles, editorials, letters, and blog posts, and he has recently published two books:

The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew

and

A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud

You can learn more about these books at:

www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.org
ALL ENTRIES ARE (C) AND PUBLISHED BY RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL, INC, AND NOT BY ANY INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEE OF SAID CORPORATION. THIS APPLIES TO 3 OTHER BLOGS (CHUMASH, ECO, SPIRITUALITY) AND WEB SITES PUBLISHED BY SAID CORPORATION.
Religion Blogs - Blog Rankings

Monday, July 14, 2008

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:DO HIS WILL, AS IF IT WAS YOUR WILL

 RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:DO HIS WILL, AS IF IT WAS YOUR WILL
 
 
Rabbi Arthur Segal: Jewish Spiritual Renewal: Shabbat 7/19/08 Hebrew College, MA, USA
 
Shalom Talmudim and Chaverim:
 
Last week we discussed the pitfalls that occur in a life in which there is a lack of spirituality and a lack of living with an personal experience with God, where we have a sincere belief, trust and faith in Him.
 
Today let us explore the flip side: living a life with God.
 
Last week we took a glimpse into our lives without spirituality. We saw ourselves at various points in our lives at odds with our fellows. We saw ourselves being dependent on our finite selves and on the finite selves of others. We saw how this invariably lead to failure, frustration, anger, resentment and grudges. We saw that no matter how much we tried, we could not control others, nor the universe around us, and the more we tried to manipulate others, the more we became at odds with them. We saw how this life, without a spiritual connection, was an empty life, of selfishness, of self-centeredness, of self-seeking, of continual people -pleasing (which was really doing things to cause eventual pleasure for ourselves in return), and left us with friends, who were doing to us, what we were doing to them, using each other.
 
After 15 years of marriage, it's got to the stage where Victor and Rivkah have no choice but to book an appointment to see Levy, the well known marriage guidance counselor. When they arrive, Levy asks them to explain their problem. Rivkah immediately launches into a seemingly never-ending tirade, going on and on about Victor's selfishness, his lying, his bullying, his controlling, his spending money on worthless goods, his never saying anything nice about her, their arguments, his lack of love for her.
 
But Levy has heard enough, already. He gets up, goes over to Rivkah, pulls her from her chair, embraces her and kisses her passionately on the lips. That stops her in her tracks. Levy then rips off her clothes and makes love to her on his desk. When it's over, Rivkah sits back down in her chair with a dazed, but very satisfied look on her face.

Levy turns to Victor and says, "You see? That's what your wife needs, and she needs it at least three times a week. Do you think you can do that?"

Victor thinks for a moment, then selfishly replies, "Well, I can certainly get her here on Monday and Thursday, doctor, but on Friday I play golf."
 
We decided that our lives need more, that our lives need spirituality. We decided that as Jews, our lives needed a connection with God. Psalm 94:9 asks: ''Would He who implants the ear not hear? Would He who forms the eye not see? '' This is of course  meant as an answer to someone denying that God could help him in life.
 
What does the word Jew mean? It is derived from the name Yahudah, the fourth  son of Leah, the first of the 4 wives of Jacob, also known as Israel. She called him Yahudah {Judah} because she wanted to ''gratefully praise God (Genesis 29:35).  As Jews we are to be ever grateful and praising. But to Whom? The answer is in the letters of the name itself: Yud Hey Vuv Dalet Hey. Delete the Dalet and we have the four letters of God's Ineffable Name, YHVH. If we remember the Dalet which is the Hebrew letter pictogram for a door,  we have the doorway to God by being grateful and praising Him. In Hebrew Jews are called Yehudim.
 
So being a Jew means that we need to develop an attitude of gratitude toward God. This of course means that we must accept that God exists which is in the Ten Utterances (also known as the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 5:6). Please do not fall back on an agnostic or atheist Rabbi telling you it is all right to be Jewish and not to believe. This is just zeitgeist, playing to what he thinks his congregation  wishes to hear. And many do wish to hear this. And they will be stuck in Godless and in spiritual illness all of their lives. "In the way in which a person wants to go, God will lead him there" (Talmud Bavli Tractate Makkot 10B).
 
The ironic thing is when I talk to these rabbis who have unspiritual congregants who think they can behave any way they wish and follow their own will, the rabbis complain loudly about them. But what do they expect? The congregants have become like spoiled children without discipline. It they do not respect God, why would anyone in his right mind, expect them to respect each other, or a rabbi.
 
Benjamin woke up one Saturday morning in a bad mood. When he came down to breakfast, he put on his yarmulka and sat across the table from his visiting sister, Sarah.

"I'm not going to shul today!" he said to Sarah emphatically.

"Yes you are." Sarah replied calmly.

"No I'm not . . . I don't think I really want to ever go again!" Benjamin said with obvious irritation. "The people down there don't like me, they ignore me sometimes . . . they don't appreciate me at all . . . and I won't go back."

"Yes, you will go today, and you will continue", said Sarah with confidence. And, I'll give you two reasons. Number one, you're 45 years old ... and Number two, you're the Rabbi!"
 
But what is God's will for us as Modern Jews? Do we need to go and buy 4 complete sets of Lenox: one for every day diary foods, one for every day meat foods, and then one for meat foods for the week of Passover, and one for dairy as well for that week. Not necessarily.
 
But God's will is summed up nicely by the Mishna, in the Talmud, in a section called Ethics of the Father, Pirkei Avot:1:12: "Rabbi Hillel said: Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving your fellow creatures and bringing them close to the Torah." And of course Micah the Prophet says it well also: "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you, But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
 
These ideas of Hillel in 100 B.C.E. or Micah in 700 B.C.E. are not exceedingly original. The Torah in Deut. 10:12,13 reads: "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good."
 
Note that we are asked to do God's will for our ''own good."  In believing in a Creator, reason would also ask us to believe in one Who set for us some basic rules to live life. If not, that Creator would be cruel. And the Judaic God is not cruel. He is a loving , forgiving Parent, Who wants the best for us.
 
 ''Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever." Psalm 136:1'' Hodu l'Adonai ki tov, ki l'olam chasdo!''  There is a seemingly cute but exceedingly wise statement in the Talmud Bavli Tractate Eruvin 100b  "If the Torah had not been given, we would have learned tzni'ut (modesty) from a cat."
 
In the same Ethics {2:4},  Rabban Gamaliel the son of Rabbi Judah the Prince used to say:'' Do His will, as if it was your will, that He may do your will, as if it was His will. Make your will of no effect,  before His will, that He may make the will of others, of no effect before your will''.
 
In other words, since God designed us with freedom of choice, with a yetzer ha ra and a yetzer ha tov (an evil and a good inclination) we can take our will and align it with God's.
 
What example can I give you for this? Well let us say your will is to be the head of your corporation and to earn a large income. You can achieve this with honesty and by helping others as you rise to the top. You do not have to achieve this goal with infighting, gossiping , and stepping on those as you rise above them. In this way, by making your will secondary to God's will of doing justice, loving kindness, being humble, and being peaceful, those who are not of God's will, but still doing their will, will have no effect on you.
 
Listening to one's yetzer ha tov and ignoring one's yetzer ha ra requires continual monitoring and "feeding one's head" with Godly  statements. The rabbis tell of one of their elders describing his inner struggle. He said "Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights with the good dog all the time." When he was asked which dog wins , he reflected for a moment and replied, "The one I feed the most."
 
We will not be saints. Proverbs 24:16 tells us a righteous man falls seven times a day. But Jewish spirituality is a path and we try our best each day.
 
Rabbi Landau has always been secretly sad that he's never been able to eat pork. So one day, he flies to a remote tropical Island and books into a hotel. "No one will find me here," he said to himself. On the first evening, he goes to the best restaurant and orders the 'roast pork special'. While he's waiting, he hears someone call his name. Rabbi Landau looks up and sees one of his congregants walking towards his table. What unbelievably bad luck – the same time to visit the same restaurant on the same island!

Just at that moment, the waiter puts on his table a whole roasted pig with an apple in its mouth and says, "Your special, sir." Rabbi Landau looks up sheepishly at his congregant and says, "Would you believe it - you order an apple in this restaurant and look how they serve it!"
 
When we are living a life of God's will, and are sure of such which we will learn in a subsequent  chapter, other people's opinions of us, whether good or bad, are none of our business. God's opinion of ourselves, and our inner most rigorously truthful feeling about ourselves, are the only things that matter. If our fellows are pleased with us, that is icing on the cake.
 
As we become in conscious contact with God and become spiritually awakened, we will attract friends who want what we spiritually have  Further we will be able to recognize those who are like the way we were, living a life as defined in last week's class, without God, and avoid those that vex our spirit.
 
''You shall seek your God, and you shall find Him" (Deut 4:29) and the seeking is in the finding.  The nutrients for the soul are the mitzvoth and middoth (character traits) which are essential for the well-being of a person. Absence of these nutrients results in a "spirituality deficiency syndrome," which is manifested by a pervasive discontent, unhappiness and grudges, as we discussed in last week.  When you meet these folks, they are easily recognized. Our sages teach: ''A person with destructive ego is much like a goat that wears a bell around its neck to announce its whereabouts.''
 
Living a life with God lets us know about humility and our limits as humans and the limits of our friends. We no longer place demands on our friends, which will eventually cause them to fail, and further cause us to develop a resentment towards them, and ruin a friendship. We will truly understand that  as Rabbi Akavya ben Mahalalel said: "Reflect upon three things and you will not come to sin. Know from where you came and where you are going and before whom you are destined to give account and reckoning. From where have you come?--from a putrid drop. Where are you going?--to the place of dust, worm, and maggot. Before whom are you destined to give account and reckoning?--before the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be he." (Ibid 3:1)
 
Learning humility also helps us turn from being an ingrate to a true Yehudah, one with gratitude. This in turn lets us finally understand where all of our blessings came from in the first place. For even our birth is a miraculous event; as the Talmud in Tractate Niddah 31a says, "Three partners produce a person: the mother, the father, and God who gives the child the soul." Even as a physical process, birth is manifestly miraculous. We understand that everything we have stems from God. We know that He has been with us, and is with us, even when we denied Him.
 
A scientist came to God and said "We have accomplished extraordinary feats- end of life, beginning of life, cloning. God, we don't need You anymore. We can do just about anything You can do- we can create man."

God said, "Is that so? How do you do such a thing?"

The scientist says, " We take some dirt, get some enzymes, put it in test tubes, and create man."

So scientist begins to bend down and take dirt from ground and God says "No, no, no. You take your OWN dirt."

 
Psalm 118:8,9 tells us : ''It is better to take refuge in the Lord  than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.''  Psalm 145:14-20 teaches us : "The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.  The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who love him;  he hears their cry and saves them.  The Lord watches over all who love him."
 
A spiritual life lets us depend on an infinite God and not on our finite selves or the finite selves of others.
 
This then leads to helping us deflate ego, which Edges God Out of our lives. Our ego will only cause us to toe step on the egos of others. Knowing that we are beloved by God, and that His mercy, love and grace endures forever for us allows us to never be lonely and begin to love ourselves. Low self esteem vanishes and the games we described in last week's class leave us. We become Human Beings and not Human Doings. We move from Homo Sapien to Homo Spiritus.
 
We begin to learn humility. We not only believe in God, but we learn to have trust and have faith in God. More than this, we learn to experience God in everyone of our daily tasks until we are one with Him with every breath.
 
Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pshischa in nineteenth-century Europe always carried two slips of paper. One he placed in his right pocket, the other in his left. One piece had a quote from Tractate Sanhedrin 38A . "The entire world was created just for me." On the other slip of paper was a quote of Abraham in Genesis 18:27. "I am but dust and ashes." A humble man knows when to act and when to be silent. A humble man knows when to lead and when to follow. A truly humble person says upon awakening "Modeh Ani...Thank you God for returning my soul for yet another day."
 
Rabbi Schwartz and Rabbi Cohen met one day and within minutes were discussing how quickly morals in the western world were declining.
"Well, I certainly didn't sleep with my wife before I got married." said Rabbi Schwartz, "Did you?"
"I can't be sure," said Rabbi Cohen, "what was her maiden name?"
 
Using the pie analogy from last week's class, we believe that the world has unlimited  pie as God is the infinite Pie-man. If I have a piece and you do not, I can share my piece with you, because I know that God gives me always what I need. Conversely, if I do not have a piece of pie, and you do, I do not feel jealous nor do I covet. I find I am not angry and lo and behold, I do not gossip about you to diminish you. I am actually happy for your successes. Further I can share my successes with you. If I am on the bimah [pulpit] of  a synagogue, I can invite another up to speak, even if he is ten times better than I am. I know that God may have given him a gift of speaking, but God has given me my gifts as well.
 
We no longer have to envy or vie for power. We no longer have to look at our fellows as obstacles. ''Envy, lust and pursuit of acclaim remove a person from the world'' (Ethics of the Fathers 4:28). ''A vain person seeks to compensate for his feelings of lack, by thinking himself superior to people whom he can consider to be beneath him'' (Rabbeinu Yonah al HaTorah, p. 156).
 
Living in Jewish Spiritual Renewal allows us to accept things in God's world. Acceptance doesn't mean being a door mat and lying down and folks step over and on us. But it means that we do not have to react to every event that happens in our lives. We can choose to laugh and say "Your will, not mine, God." It means if we are getting lousy service at a restaurant we do not have to make a federal case out of it. No establishment wants to bring your meal an hour late. I have learned by doing God's will and being peaceful that 4 out of 5 times,  the owner be Godful as well, and discount, if not give us our meal complimentary. In the past, when I would play God and chastise, nothing would come of it, but a still delayed meal and me with an irritable bowel.
 
Acceptance means learning to go with the flow and staying in Shalom even when things around us seem to be helter -skelter.  We can stay calm, trust in God, and do what needs to be done, without the emotional drama. Acceptance means that we understand that God is Adon Olam, Master of the Universe. We sing "Adon Olam" at every service, even at the most liberal of Temples. But will we begin to accept it? "V'hu Eli, v'chai go'ali, v'tzur chevli b'et tzarah. V'hu nisi umanos li, m'nat kosi b'yom ekra. And He is my God, my living God. to Him I flee in time of grief, and He is my miracle and my refuge, who answers the day I shall call. "
 
Living  a spiritual life lets us be at peace with our fellows, and to love them and over look their defects. We can do this for a number of reasons. First, we know that we have our own defects. Second, we know that every person was made in God's image. The Talmud teaches that unlike a coin press which makes each coin the same, God makes each one of us different, as He is infinite, (Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 4:5). Thirdly, the best way to please a parent, is to be kind to his children. Fourth, the Talmud teaches us that anyone who says they love God, Who they cannot see, but does not love a human, who is made in the image of God, who they can see, is a liar and a hypocrite. Lastly, we are commanded to love our fellow.
 
As mentioned above, the commandments were not given to us for God's sake, but for our sake. Loving our fellows is a much better to live for us, than hating and holding grudges.
 
Two Jewish cannibals are stewing a pot of food over a fire.
"Oy veh," says the first cannibal, "I really do hate my mother-in-law."
The second cannibal replies, "Nu? So leave her and just drink the chicken soup and lockshen noodles."
 
We need to overlook defects in others for three main reasons. When we find we cannot, the Talmud, as well as psychiatrists, will tell us we are doing projection, finding our own defects in the person we are criticizing, (Talmud Bavli Tractate Kidushin 70a). Secondly, when we criticize it is only showing our own low self esteem  as though we would really permanently feel better by picking on another. Most importantly, the Mishna tells us that a wise man can learn from everyone.(P. Avot 4:1) Does this mean that everyone is a rabbi, a teacher, a professor? No. But it means that if someone hasn't learned what we are teaching in this book, he is your teacher, with his defects, for what you should not do, and hence still deserves your love.
 
Living a life with God and being in a spiritual mind-set allows us to let go and let God take over. We know that the only thing we have control over are our thoughts and actions, which we call our will. Everything else is out of our control. Any time we think we can control or manipulate another, we are delusional.
 
During a visit to the community psychiatric hospital, Morris, a journalist from the Jewish Chronicle, asks the Director how the hospital decides whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

"Well," replies the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and we ask him or her to empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," says Morris. "A non-delusional person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup."

"Actually," says the Director, "A non-delusional person would just pull the plug. So tell me Morris, do you want a room with an East view or a West view?"
 
 
We have already decided to align our will with God's as we have seen what our lives were like when we tried to control our own will. Living to control another person's will is even a greater living hell. It may seem to work for a while, but the payback and blowback will not be worth it. God will give us the shalom to leave things that are in His realm to Him. He will give us the koach, the strength, to grow spiritually. And as Proverbs [1:7] says, the love of God, will give us His wisdom to know what is in our realm and what is best left to Him.
 
Ending this chapter brings us to the ''parable of the cup'' with which we are all familiar . Is it half empty or half full? By living spiritually, I can assure you that you will come to believe your cup is overflowing every day with God's beneficence. You will truly see that He, as your Parent, will never let you down, even on your worst days. You will see how when fellow humans,  cause you ''terror by night"  or fly "arrows by day" at you, "you will not be afraid ." (Ps. 91:5). We will learn to actually love them so much, you will be able to pray for them, and meet any action of hatred or detraction with love.
 
By living a spiritual life, in which we are relieved from the burdens of self and ego, and try to align our will with God's will, we will find that we are living a life full of God's help, power, love, shalom, and that His simple way of living, makes us happy, joyous and free.
 
Did you hear about the famous mohel (ritual circumciser) Rabbi Bloom who had so much ego he ran his own PR Company? He saved his own clippings.
 
For your assignment this week:  think of ways that you can align your will with God's withOUT becoming a zealot, like our main character, in the below d'var Torah on this Shabbat's parasha was.
 
Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA, USA
via Shamash Org, on-line class service
 
 
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: CHUMASH CANDESCENCE :
PARASHA PINCHAS: NUMBERS 25:10-30:01  



CHUMASH CANDESCENCE
PARASHA PINCHAS
NUMBERS 25:10-30:01
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL

"Pinchas Interruptus"

SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT:

 

A zealot murders a sinning Jew in the middle of an orgy. God rewards the
zealot with the high priesthood. The Talmudic rabbis struggle to try to
understand this incongruity. At times their conclusions appear to be like
reruns of Star Trek with Trills and souls hopping from one body to
another. The Spiritual and Renewal Judaism believes that all Jews are welcome
regardless of what spoke on the Judaic wheel they find themselves-- as
all spokes are equidistant to God's love. To learn more about this week's
Parasha, please read on.

This week's Parasha continues with the story that was started at the end
of last Shabbat's portion. To review, we learned how the King of Moab,
Balak, hired the sorcerer Balaam, a hit-man for hire, to curse the Jews.
Balaam failed in his mission. In the last few verses of
Parasha Balak (Num. 25:1-9) we read how Balaam, not to be outgunned by
God, convinces Balak to take one last stab at the Jews. They send their
daughters into the Israelite camp. An orgy begins, which includes
worshipping the idol Ba'al Pe'or. The Midrash teaches that this rite
involves defecation in front of this idol and cleaning one's self with
this idol's nose.

God brings a plague onto the Jews. Pinchas, a grandson of the recently
deceased high priest Aaron, follows the Jew Zimri and the Midianitess
Cozbi, into Zimri's tent. (These two "sinners" are not named until
Parasha Pinchas.) The name Cozbi means "voluptuous." Pinchas spears them
in their "stomachs," which the Talmud explains are their genitals, while
they were "belly to belly." The plague stops.

This week's parasha continues the tale. Pinchas is rewarded for his
zealotry by God promising him the high priesthood for himself and
his sons. The Jews are commanded to smite the Midianites.
A new census is taken of the tribes and of the Levites. Moses rules on an
inheritance involving fatherless sisters who have no brothers. Moses
officially picks Joshua to be his successor. More priestly sacrifices are
enumerated including those for Shabbat and our major holidays.

The rabbis of the Talmud had trouble trying to be apologists for
Pinchas's actions. The law in Tractate Sanhedrin is clear. Before someone
is put to death for a crime he is given a trial. There must be two
witnesses. These two witnesses must swear that not only did they see the
crime, but also that they both warned the defendant that what he was
about to do was illegal and punishable by death. They even had to state
which of the four legal means of execution would apply to this particular
crime. If these specific legalities were not done, the judges had to
acquit the defendant.

How did they explain Pinchas's actions as well as his reward? The rabbis
of the Talmud in Tractate Sanhedrin 82A say that Pinchas remembered
learning of a law that Moses heard from God which Moses had not yet
taught the people. This law was, "He who has sexual relations with a
heathen may be attacked by zealous people." This is why Pinchas skewered
Zimri and Cozbi in their genitals while they were having sex. This is why
he left them dead in this position. This would be proof that he had a
God-given right to kill both of them. The Talmud teaches that the Hebrew
word for "spear" is "romach." This word numerically is equal to 248,
which is the number of positive mitzvot in the Torah.

The Talmudic rabbis rule that this law is still in effect but that a
zealot must catch the two in the act of sexual intercourse and cannot
punish the offenders when the act is over. This is called the law of
Pinchas Interruptus. Now many of you are saying to yourselves that you
have never heard of this law. You have not--as I made up the name. This
is because the Talmudic rabbis decreed that if anyone asks about this law
"we should not instruct him" about it or to follow it. This is why they
teach that the Torah never mentions this law. It is part of the oral law,
or Mishna, which they believe also was given to Moses when he was on
Sinai. Unfortunately, either Zimri was not in chedar (Hebrew school) when
this oral law was taught or he chose to ignore it.

The rabbis wanted to know why Moses didn't kill Zimri. They posit that
maybe he forgot about the law that he taught Pinchas. Other rabbis argue
that Moses knew that Zimri did idol worship to Ba'al Pe'or and that he
would come to trial for this and be executed "civilly." Regardless, the
Midrash rabbis realize that Moses erred in allowing Pinchas to kill Zimri
zealously without trial. They wrote, "because Moshe did not kill Zimri,
Moshe's burial place is not known." This is how God punished Moses for
letting a zealot commit murder while on his watch.

The rabbis knew that they had to develop some "wiggle room" on this law.
Keeping it hidden would not work. Therefore, they ruled that a zealot had
the commandment to kill two fornicators caught in the act but that these
lovers could defend themselves and kill the zealot. This would not be
considered murder but rather self-defense. The lovers would be pardoned.
This is because no judgment of a Beth Din (Jewish court) had been decreed
upon them.

 

But then another rabbi asks, "Who is there that God would
pardon, and yet we should kill him?" The rabbis come to an impasse as the
Torah does state a punishment for sex with a heathen. It is "Karet."
Karet is excision. It is carried out only by God. It means that one day
God will cut the sinner's life short. But the rabbis say this punishment
is for someone who has completed the sex act and did not get caught while
doing it.

The rabbis then posit that forbidden sexual unions must be the gravest of
sins. They state that sexual union involves the whole essence of man
(women are not mentioned). They say this because a child may be born with
great powers. So therefore a Jewish man could transmit his Jewish powers
to a child of a non-Jewish woman, and hence create a non-Jewish powerful
person. The rabbis go on to say that "three partners produce a man: his
mother, his father, and God who give him a soul."

 

So if one has sex for pleasure in an illicit
union, one is forcing God to watch. God is a jealous God, the rabbis
remind themselves. The Torah says in Numbers 25:11 that Pinchas avenged
God's jealousy with his zealotry. If Balaam in last week's parasha is the
ultimate in evil, Pinchas is the ultimate party-pooper. There are no
times today when kana'ut, zealous religious jealousy, is acceptable in a
pluralistic society.

The Hebrew word for desire with an intense longing for physical pleasure
regardless of its spiritual value is "tiva." Balaam sent the Moabite
women to entice our men. Somehow there was a switch in the Torah, and
they are now called Midianite women. Balaam was a Midianite. But so was
Ziporrah, Moses's wife. The Midrash states that Zimri publicly defied
Moses by having sex with Cozbi, saying to Moses that it was not fair that
Moses could have sex with a Midianite when the rest of the Israelite men
could not. The Talmud in Tractate Sanhedrin 82A says that Zimri was
really Shlumiel ben Tzurishadia the prince of Shimon who offered his
tribe's sacrifices to the Tabernacle (Num.7:36).

Tractate Bava Kama states that the Moabite daughters were forced by Balak
to have sex with the Israelite men, but that the Midianite daughters of
Balaam did so willingly. This is why God ordered that just the Midianites
to be slain and that the Moabite women be spared. Of course we must
recall that Ruth--the maternal founder of the David kingship lineage--was
a Moabitess. If Moses ordered that all of the Moabites be killed, how
would King David and his scion, the Messiah, be born?

The actions of Pinchas lead to him and his children being granted the
priesthood. The rabbis are concerned with this Torah statement as well.
Why? God is contradicting Himself. God said that Aaron's descendants (who
had not yet been born) would carry the Kohan name. Pinchas was already
born. Pinchas was a Levite. He was "only" Aaron's grandson on his
mother's side. Pinchas was originally left out of the Kohanem and spent
39 years as a Levite. He did however study Torah directly from Moses, the
Midrash states. Pinchas was not one of the Levites that rebelled with
Korach. The Talmud says he was content being a Levite. His maternal great
uncle was Nachshon ben Aminadav. The Midrash states that Nachshon was the
first to jump into the Sea of Reeds when Moses gave the command. The
rabbis posit that this situation also was an example of an unwritten law
that Moses already knew.

 

 The rabbis of the Zohar remind us about the sons
of Aaron, who would be in line for the priesthood. They were killed by God for
offering "strange fire." These two sons were named Nadav and Avihu. These
souls jumped into Pinchas body so that he could be a Kohan legally
without God having to change His immutable law. This also allows God to
break His own law by allowing a man who has killed to become a high
priest. Pinchas is no longer Pinchas but really two other men. So this
new law is not a new law but actually a continuation of the old law, the
sages say. We will read of a third example of this later on in this
parasha.

The rabbi known as the Ba'al ha Turim writes that Pinchas also received
another reward. He received Elijah's soul. Traditionally we are taught
that Elijah was not born of flesh and blood parents. The idea of God
being a parent is not a foreign idea to Judaism. His soul came down from
heaven and lived in Pinchas's body. It was Elijah's soul that made
Pinchas into a zealot. Eventually Elijah's soul years later found its way
into Elijah's body. But Elijah never died. His soul went to back to
heaven in a fiery chariot. We invite Elijah, who made Pinchas into a
zealot, into our homes on Passover and also when we perform a Brit Milah
(circumcision). During these occasions we remember Eliyahu HaNavi (Elijah
the Prophet) as the loving helper of Israel. We forget that he too was a
fiery zealot who confronted the evil monarchs of his generation.

There are some striking similarities between the story of the Golden Calf
in Exodus and the worship of Ba'al Pe'or in Numbers. In Ex. 32:06 and
Num. 25:02 the Jews brought offerings to the idol, and they ate. Moses
both times let each man kill his "brother" (fellow tribe member) who
sinned. Both times Moses tried to appease God by calling for some
punishment. Moses was successful in this in Exodus but it was Pinchas who
took action in Numbers and appeased God. This theme of Moses no longer
being a capable leader, which was addressed in Parasha Chukat when he
struck the rock, is continued here. It culminates with Moses naming
Joshua as the new leader in this portion.

A close reading will reveal that Joshua will be a different kind of
leader. He will not be allowed to rely on his own intuition in making
decisions. He will have to be dependent on the priests and their divine
"dice", called the Urim and Thummim, for leadership. This parasha
established firmly a specific grandson of Aaron as the high priest and
sets up the priesthood for a major role in leadership. It also tells of
more offerings to be made, which sets up the priesthood to be wealthy.
This is all done under the backdrop of the story of instant death
without trial by a priestly zealot in the case of one who "misbehaves."

The third new law that Moses teaches has to do with inheritance. The
daughters of Tzelofchad have no brothers and their father is dead.
Regarding the way the Torah law was given originally, their inheritance
would go to their male cousins or uncles. Moses reveals a new law, which
was part of the oral law that he learned from God. This law now becomes
part of the written Torah law. A Midrash states that Moses might have
been a bit overconfident when he told the Israelites to bring all
questions of law to him.

Now, where have we heard this sex and zealot story recently? When the
AIDS pandemic hit did we not hear preachers say that this was a "gay
plague" to punish homosexuals for their "immoral sex acts?" Did our own
government not rush to do HIV research because politically they were
pressured by zealots who stated that this was a Divine punishment? I
guess the zealot preachers felt that if these gay men were in the bath
houses and not at "chedar" it was their tough luck.

The Talmud written by rabbis who were Pharisees had a different agenda
than the obvious pro-priest authors of this Shabbat's portion. They do
not want to see zealots abound especially for political reasons. The Jews
were an occupied people and saw the destruction the Romans heaped upon
them after Bar Kochba's failed rebellion. Tractate Kiddushin 70B states
"if you see a Kohan who is arrogant, be assured that his lineage is
genuine." Hoshea 4:04 writes "your nation is argumentative like a Kohan."
Tractate Bava Batra 160B teaches that "Kohanem are bad-tempered." The
Maharal says that they think that the "fire of holiness" is in them and
their blood "boils." The Talmud records how Kohanem would kill each other
in the Temple courtyard while arguing over who would perform the Temple
services. Certain services yielded better cuts of sacrificed meats.

Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan wrote in his Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a
Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life that "a religion is as much a
progressive unlearning of false ideas concerning God as it is the
learning of the true ideas concerning God." Hadith of Tiridhi said that
"one true scholar of religion is more annoying to Satan than a thousand
of the faithful who perform only their ceremonial duties."

 

Zealotry did not stop with Pinchas. Until recently Jewish communities could perform
the act of excommunication on those with whom they disagreed. Rabbis in
Israel zealously call immigrants "disease carriers" and "abominations."
They compare liberal Jews to "Amalek and Satan." They pray that our
"memory be wiped out." They pray to God that the head of the liberal
Meretz party be "uprooted from the seed of Israel. Just as revenge was
wrought on Haman, so will it be wrought on him."

 

Recently Rabbi Yosef of Shas protested the Israeli Supreme Court's

decision of finding Shas political leader Deri guilty of bribe-taking. He

called the justices"goyem" who were "led astray by Satan." Unfortunately,

 it appears that both Aryeh Dari and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef forgot about the Torah law
forbidding the taking and giving of bribes. Perhaps they missed this
lesson at their "chedar."

Our rabbis wrote in Pirket Avot (3:21) that if there is no Torah there
is no proper behavior. But they also said that if there is no proper
behavior there is no Torah. Our synagogues and our Jewish communities do
not need zealots acting like Pinchas spearing us with their tongues,
calling us names, and criticizing our actions. This type of behavior only
serves to push one away from Judaism.

 

 Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman in the
summer 2000 edition of Reform Judaism writes that "the needs of the
Jewish community have fundamentally changed" in the past 100 years. At
the turn of the last century our synagogues were like a "general store in
a tiny farming community." By the 1950s our temples were organized as
enterprises. "Dues were exchanged for programs and services." Jews joined
but it occupied only a small corner of the congregants' lives.

Our synagogues in the twenty-first century need to be transformed into
spiritual centers. The last 20 year have shown how society is fragmented
and fragile. People feel alienated from each other. Our temples need to
be places where all are welcome and are welcomed.


Our temples really need to be a place of sanctuary where inner peace and
tranquillity can be found.

 

 This God-centered place needs to teach
people actively how to connect spiritually to God and to each other.
Rabbi Hoffman continues: "A transformed synagogue reveals the profound
mystery of the universe of which we are in integral part, connected to
each other, to the cosmos, to eternity and to God."

The Reform movement has opened its doors to all who seek to enter in
peace and in search of God. Modern temples do not rebuke those who have married out
of the faith. Nor do we call their children anything but Jews. We accept
people on whatever spoke of the Judaic dharma wheel they wish to place
themselves--as every spoke is equidistant to God's love. We will not
allow zealots or chastisers into our midst who speak of knowing what God
wants but act as if they have no clue.

I was positively stuck by Newsweek magazine's July 17, 2000,
edition. After 60 years writer Tom Ross decided to take back his last
name (legally) of Rosenberg. He had attended a Reform temple for years
where he was not harassed for his "mixed marriage" or for his home's
celebration of both Christmas and Hanukkah. For 60 years he denied his
family's heritage and now he is learning to embrace it. His Reform rabbi
even helped him pick out his Hebrew name. Mr. Rosenberg said the
following to his children. "Every time I step into a temple, I'm reminded
that Judaism has survived for 4,000 years. It survived because it is a
positive religion. My parents, (your grandparents), changed their name
out of fear. I'm changing it back out of pride. I chose the name Tikvah
because it means hope." The Hope of Israel, Ha Mickve Israel, rests with
a loving, open compassionate way of being and not with hateful,
exclusive, malevolent bigotry disguised as religious zealotry.

Shabbat Shalom,
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL








Get the scoop on last night's hottest shows and the live music scene in your area - Check out TourTracker.com!