Mark Twain was one of the great writers of American literature, and surely one of the funniest. He was also a famously obscene conversationalist. Helen Keller reports being shocked by how many vulgarities Twain used in everyday speech. Twain’s wife devised a strategy to cure her husband of this tendency: one day, she surprised him by letting loose a stream of curses herself to show him how it sounded. “Honey,” said Twain, “You have the words, but you ain’t got the music.” In Jewish tradition, there are words one is not supposed to say. In this week’s Torah portion, we…
Rabbi Wolpe - ADL Impressions
May
Aharei-Mot-Kedoshim – How to Handle Grief
This week’s Torah portion begins: “After the death of Aaron’s sons.” But Aaron’s sons died back in Leviticus 10. Now we are in Leviticus 16. After a long detour through laws of skin disease and impurity, the narrative resumes with a jolt—reopening Aaron’s wound—just as Moses is instructed to teach Aaron the ritual of Yom Kippur. Why revisit Aaron’s grief before introducing the Temple ritual? First, Aaron understands that even after heartbreak, life continues. This truth, bitter as it is, underlies the seudat havra’ah, the mourner’s first meal after burial. The mourner often doesn’t wish to eat, but the meal…
Tazria-Metsorah – Purity and Dignity
If you want to understand Tazria-Metsorah on a deep level, do what I did last week — walk the grounds of Auschwitz with March of the Living. There you will see barracks where life was not only extinguished, but systematically degraded. Life in the camps was not only designed to murder Jews; it was designed to make them murderable. It is not always easy, even for people steeped in a hateful ideology, to kill other human beings. It takes a terrible alchemy: a process of stripping them — of clothes, of all hair on their bodies, of their own names…
April
Sh’mini – In the Silence
Two of the most resonant words in all of the Torah are recorded after the death of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Evihu. The Torah says, “Vayidom Aharon” — and Aaron was silent. Many years ago, I wrote a book called In Speech and in Silence: The Jewish Quest for God. Part of the book explored how expressive and important silence could be in the Jewish tradition. It was my mother who taught me this lesson: in her early fifties, she had a stroke that rendered her aphasic, unable to speak. Yet, her silences spoke as eloquently as anyone I have…
End of Pesach – The Magic of a Gift
The special reading for this Shabbat (Deut. 15:9-16:17) concludes by telling us that one should not appear before God during the holiday with empty hands, “but each with his own gift.” Not appearing empty handed is symbolic of a greater truth – there is no person who does not have a gift to give. One of the explanations for Jewish wedding ceremonies including a ring is that one cannot be married to another without giving a gift. Love itself is a gift, and the ring is the physical instantiation of one’s love. On Purim, we are mandated to give gifts,…
Passover – Dissatisfaction and Redemption
When did the redemption from Egypt begin in the Torah? According to the Rabbis, it began when the Israelites themselves became angry and impatient with their slavery. The worst consequence of slavery, taught the Belzer Rebbe, was that they got used to it. Once the Israelites began to feel their own pain and appreciate their own worth, they cried out for redemption. That is one reason why on Passover we read the Song of Songs, which is a love story. Passover itself is a kind of love story, both between Israel and God and among the Israelites themselves. Recognition of…
Vayikra – Forgiveness
A Hasidic parable tells of a king who quarreled with his son. In a fit of rage, the king exiled his son from the kingdom. Years passed. The son wandered alone in the world. In time, the king’s heart softened, so he sent his ministers to find his son and ask him to return. When they located the young man, he said that he could not return; he had been too hurt, and his heart still harbored bitterness. The ministers brought the sad news back to the king. He told them to return to his son with the message: “Return…
March
Pekudey – Fire, Fragility, and Holiness
In Pekudey, we read about the construction of the tabernacle. The tabernacle is a portable sanctuary, a place for God to be manifested to the people. It is a harbinger of the Temple, but it does something the Temple cannot do — it moves with the people. Judaism throughout its history has constructed buildings that were temporary. Not only the Sukkah, which is designed to be temporary, but the sanctuaries and synagogues that served a community for as long as that community was permitted to stay — or even to exist. We did not have the desire or the stability…
Vayakhel – Still Not Consumed
We might be tempted to skip some of the descriptions of the Temple and its appurtenances; they are not as gripping as the stories the Torah tells. But if we pause and look a little deeper, there are metaphorical and mystical levels that can yield wonders. The Menorah in the Temple is described with each branch bearing cups shaped like almond blossoms. Indeed, the Menorah has a kaneh (stem), kanim (branches), and perachim (flowers). In other words, the Menorah is an almond tree on which we kindle a flame. The Hebrew name of the almond, shaked, is connected to the…
Purim – The Unsung Hero
The Purim story is one of heroes and villians. We all recognize the names of Mordecai and Esther, Haman and Ahasuerus. But I would like to propose a new hero of the story, one who bears a lesson for our times. His name was Hatach. If you do not remember him, that is understandable. In chapter 4, Hatach – the eunuch assigned to Esther in the King’s harem – carries secret messages back and forth between Esther and Mordecai. It is Hatach who, at Esther’s bidding, informs Mordecai of Haman’s scheme. And it is Hatach who reports to Esther perhaps…
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