PINCHAS 5784

The Man Who Never Died

I want you all now to take a deep breath and hold it for a moment. Once more … We need to catch our breath. These past few weeks have been exhausting. There was the momentous presidential debate and the tumult that followed; the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and the tumult that followed that: Joe Biden stepping down as a candidate for president; and the ascension of Kamala Harris as the democratic nominee. Are you drained? I know I am! So take a deep breath—for today I’m not going to comment on any of it!

Instead, I’d like to share with you a powerful spiritual message from our Torah portion and Haftorah. It’s a message I 1^st heard from Rabbi Sydney Greenberg, a Rabbi’s Rabbi, one of the outstanding Jewish preachers of the 20^th century.  

Today’s Torah portion is one of only 6 Torah portions named after a person—Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron. The parsha opens as Pinchas is offered a brit shalom (a special covenant of peace)—something we see nowhere else in the Bible, for being zealous for Gd and bravely putting a stop to an outbreak of rebellion and idolatry. This brit shalom allowed him to be a Kohen—reserved for the sons of Aaron—even though he was only a grandson. Some commentators suggest that part of this brit was that he would live a very long time—hundreds of years—and Pinchas was in fact Elijah the prophet we read about in the usual Haftorah for today. Others suggest Elijah—who never died—was a reincarnation of Pinchas. Either way, both were exceptionally zealous for Gd.

The Book of Kings I (2:11) tells us Elijah never died and ascended to heaven alive in a chariot of fire. That this should happen to Elijah is truly ironic—because at one point in his life he wanted so desperately to die. Elijah had run away from the wrath of the idolatrous Queen Jezebel who had vowed to kill him.

         On Mt. Carmel, Elijah embarrassed her and her false priests of the pagan god Baal, with a grand challenge. 2 altars were built. The priests of Baal brought a sacrifice on their altar, prayed to Baal to take their offering—but nothing happened. While a fire descended from heaven and consumed the offering of Elijah.

Wn the people saw this, the Bible tells us (I Kings 18:39): “They fell on their faces saying, ‘Hashem hu haElokim (Hashem, He is THE Gd)!’” With this, Elijah had succeeded in bringing the people back to Hashem—but it was short lived. Meanwhile embarrassed Jezebel was filled with rage—determined to take revenge upon Elijah.

In the usual Haftorah we find Elijah running for his life to the wilderness of B’er Sheva disappointed—convinced of the failure of his mission to bring back the Jewish people to Gd. Elijah—hiding under a bush—was in a dark mood. He felt defeated, abandoned, and cornered. We can sympathize with his soul-wrenching plea to Gd (19:4): “Enough! Hashem, Kach nafshi, take away my soul, take my life.” Elijah had had it. Life had crushed him. He felt he couldn’t go on thinking, “Now Gd, just one last favor please for Your prophet, Kach nafshi (Take my soul, my life)!

Let me ask you: Have you ever felt that way? Yes, this same Elijah who never died, begged for death! And somehow he came back from the abyss of despair to live a life that was never to taste the sting of death.      

It seems to me that there’s a powerful message here for all of us when we find ourselves overwhelmed by sorrow, overwhelmed by heartbreak or disappointment. When we are tempted to utter: “I can’t go on!” Elijah’s life responds: “O yes, you can!” When we pray out of the depths: “Gd, take away my life,” Elijah’s triumph over surrender commands us: “Take your life and use !”

Rabbi Greenberg tells the story of a man in Herkimer, New York who received a letter in after WWII from a woman whom he had met briefly 9 years earlier on an eastbound train from California. He was returning from the Pacific where he had flown 60 missions in his B-25 bomber. She had just received a war department telegram informing her that “her husband had been killed in action.”

When they met on that train, he never suspected that he had interrupted her attempt to commit suicide by jumping off the speeding train. Her letter made all that quite clear:

         February 1, 1945, that night I was on the train speeding on a journey that seemed endless. You were on the train, too, speeding to the wife you hadn’t seen since the war began. I doubt if you remember me now. The girl in the black dress, sad and lonely, sitting across the aisle.

         If you hadn’t come into the vestibule when you did, sat down and spoke with me, I’d have opened the door and jumped out. Did I thank you for that and for all the kind things you did for me?

         2 years later I married again. I have a fine husband, 2 wonderful children and a lovely home. To think that I am so happy now and owe it all to a stranger on the train who helped me through my darkest hours ...

         Thanks for saving my life. I’m truly grateful.

Our anonymous widow was on the verge of a desperate irrevocable act because her world had been shattered and she had seen no possibility of ever finding happiness or even meaning in life again. But after the grim, dark hours had passed, the dawn of revived hope broke, and with it came the courage to hold on and tough it out until new opportunities presented themselves.

This is the reward for those who don’t surrender, who hold on tenaciously, and respond with heroic Torah (Deut. 24:19) challenge: Uvacharta bachayim (Choose life)!

In Hebrew the word shachor means “black.” With the slightest change of vowels, those same letters spell shachar, which means “dawn.” Shachor and shachar, the blackness of night and the light of the dawn are 2 sides of the same coin.

My friends, Gd sends each of our souls unique individual challenges during our lives so our souls in the process may have the opportunity for a tikkun (a correction) and learn the lessons they were put in this world to learn. And as we face these challenges the shachor (the blackness, the darkness) turns into shachar (the light of dawn).

So, whenever you feel like you can’t go on and want to beg Gd to take you, may Elijah and the widow in our story inspire you to never give in to despair. Instead, take a deep breath, then take your life and use it! Amen! 

BALAK 5784

Gd Has America’s Back

America is in shock over the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last Shabbos. Make no mistake about it, the fault lies with the shooter Thomas Crooks. However, all the anti-Trump vitriol every day, calling him a Hitler, a threat to democracy and our way of life must have some effect. Trump is not an angel. There is plenty of negativity surrounding him. But, realistically, how can you say Trump will destroy democracy as his detractors claim when we’ve seen him as president for 4 years and democracy was not destroyed!

You have to give it to Trump for bravely standing up with blood on his face after he was shot and defiantly shouting, “Fight, fight, fight.” Fight what? For me it was fight the hate, fight the hate, fight the hate! There’s too much hate in our world today and this assassination attempt is but one manifestation of it. I’m not trying to be pro-Trump here. But it was inspiring to me when he later said, “It was Gd alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.” And that’s what I want to speak about today.

Fight the hate! Jews have always stood up to fight hate. But for Jews personally, it’s fighting antisemitism. As we all know, Antisemitism is in an alarming ascendence today. Why do some people hate Jews? It’s irrational; it doesn’t make sense. Jews have only benefited their communities wherever they found themselves. If the Palestinians truly want to improve the conditions of their lives, they have only to make a real peace and so much good will come their way from Israel and Israelis.

Yes, anti-Semitism makes no sense, but, unfortunately, it does exist. This week’s parsha is named after one of the great anti-Semites—Balak. Who was Balak? The Torah tells us: uValak ben tzipor melech l’Moav ba-eyt hahi, “And Balak the son of Tzipor was king of Moav at that time.” Why doesn’t it just say that he was melech Moav, the “king of Moav?”

The Zohar (III 196b-197a) fills us in on an important detail. It says that Balak was the grandson of Yitro—Moses’ father-in-law. Yitro, you will remember, brought Moses’ family to him to Mt. Sinai after the exodus. Yitro was so taken with the heightened spirituality of the Jewish people that he decided to join them. He converted and returned to his family to convert them as well. They later joined the Jewish people in the desert and they were given the city of Jericho when the Jews came into the Promised Land. The Talmud tells us the descendants of Yitro were great scholars and members of the Sanhedrin—the Jewish Super Supreme Court.

The only one who did not convert to Judaism was his grandson, Balak. Perhaps he was jealous of Moses who lived with them for many years. Perhaps Yitro had given Moses important leadership positions that he coveted. But for whatever reason, Balak hated Moses and his people. And soon he discovered that hating Jews can make one very popular in this world.

Sichon, the king of the Emorites who had conquered the people of Moav attacked the people of Israel and was killed. Israel freed the people of Moav from the cruel king Sichon. They then chose Balak—who wasn’t even a Moabite—to be their leader. Why? because of his great hatred of the Jews. That’s why the Torah says he was “king of Moav at that time.” It’s so ironic. The Jews freed Moav and they in turn look for a leader who hates Jews. It makes no sense. Hate rarely does! 

We don’t really know why some people hate the Jews, but we have seen throughout history that Jew-haters become very popular. Hitler had many enemies, but most of them rallied around him anyway. Why? because of his hatred of Jews. Today, the more than 200 million Arabs can’t agree on anything except hatred for the Jewish nation.

Our Torah portion begins: Vayar Balak, “And Balak saw.” What did he see? Eyt kol asher asa Yisrael la-Emori, “all that Israel had done to the Emorites.” He saw that the Jewish people destroyed them. But he refused to see that the Jews were only defending themselves. It’s much like our world today that accuses Israel of creating poor conditions for the people of Gaza with no mention that Israel was viciously attacked by them, and no mention that Hamas hides in populated areas so when Israel defends itself these conditions result.     

Well, a whole story then plays out with Balak realizing that he can’t defeat the Jews militarily, so he decides to try to defeat them spiritually by hiring the heathen prophet Bilaam to curse them. It’s an elaborate story, the end of which, is that Bilaam’s attempts at cursing the Jews were turned into blessings.

The Chatam Sofer (Yoreh De’ah 356) points out the amazing thing is that the Jews were eyewitnesses to every event in the Torah—except what happened with Bilaam and Balak! The story of Balak and Bilaam with the building of altars and sacrifices and attempted curses that turn into blessings takes place on cliffs that oversee the Jewish camp. But the Jews below those cliffs had no idea that Gd was shielding them from harm, turning the curses into blessings. It’s a great example of how Gd has our backs!

Were you or someone you know ever involved in a terrible accident and somehow, miraculously, just walked away, suffering little or no injury? That’s Gd having your back. Did you ever make a wrong turn, or for no reason take a different path and couldn’t figure out why? That could be Gd protecting you from some misfortune that was awaiting you had you continued on your original pa.

Gd watches over us and protects us in hundreds of different ways every day—in ways we’ll never know. It’s the ultimate demonstration of His love for us, for it’s impossible to thank Him sufficiently because we’ll never know all He does for us.

My friends, Republican or Democrat, I don’t know how you can look at the assassination attempt of Trump and not see the hand of Gd. At the Republican National Convention this week the Republicans said it’s because Gd wants Trump to be president. You can understand why they say that. For me, more important is that with the fragile state of our government now, I’m not so sure how our country would have withstood Trump’s assassination and the chaos that would inevitably follow.

So, last Shabbos we were able to see with our own eyes—hopefully seeing the videos after Shabbos—that Gd had our country’s back! Boy, we sure dodged a bullet. Amen!

KORACH 5784

Mrs. Korach, Mrs. On, and Mrs. Biden

It is a problem that has been with us since the dawn of creation, but recent events have shown us it’s still here. What’s the problem? Women! Are they the source of all evil? If you look into the Bible, it sure can look that way! Right in the beginning in the creation story we’re told (Gen. 3:5-6): “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, a delight to the eyes—a tree desirable to make one wise—she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”

         Then, when Gd confronted Adam. He took it like a man and said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me [some fruit] from the tree, and I ate it.” It all started with Eve! But it continued in the Bible with Lot’s wife and daughters and Hagar and Batsheva and Delilah and Tamar. It’s the woman as the seductress, the femme fatale. 

One would have thought that in our age of Women’s Liberation and gender equality, that blaming it all on women would be a thing of the past. But recently in 2 highly publicized incidents we find high and mighty men blaming their problems on their wives. 1^st there was Senator Robert Menendez. Menendez and his wife stand accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from 3 New Jersey businessmen. The bribes include a ½ million dollars in cash, home furnishings, a Mercedes convertible and gold bars worth more than $100,000. Menendez’s lawyer told the court that his wife, “kept him in the dark,” on all financial matters. He had no idea what his wife was doing.

So, are we supposed to believe that Menendez lived in a home where suddenly, expensive new furnishings showed up, that there are gold bars lying around, cash stuffed in envelopes and one day a Mercedes convertible showed up at his door and he had no idea?? That it was all his wife’s fault? Is he blind?

Next, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito claims he had “no involvement whatsoever” when his wife hung an American flag upside down in their driveway. Is he also blind?

And the big question today is what about Mrs. Biden? Jill Biden is perhaps the ultimate case of a wife advising and leading her husband. As doubts about Joe Biden’s candidacy began to foment after the debate, Jill was unequivocal, “When he gets knocked down, Joe gets back up, and that’s what we’re doing today.”

The Wall St. Journal asked the other day: Jill Biden has always been ready to do what she thinks is the loving thing for her husband. Before now, that has typically been to fight ... Now the monumental question before Jill Biden is, what is the loving thing to do when the president’s evident decline is unfolding in front of America and he’s up against the toughest opponent he has ever faced—time? Is Jill leading him astray in advising him not to bow out and to run for reelection? I’ll let you be the judge.

Does Judaism have anything to say on all this? It sure does! The opening of our Torah portion tells of one of the most tragic incidents in our people’s history—the bitter rebellion of Korach against Moses that led to many deaths. Our Sages (Bam. Rabbah 18:8, Rashi) attempted to understand what motivated Korach in his rebellion. As they put it: Pikeyach v’ashir hayah, mai ra-u lishtut zeh (Korach was a smart and wealthy man; what did he see that led him to such foolishness)? The Rabbis also tell us that Korach was one of the wealthiest men in the world. He was from a prominent Levi family. He had it all. What led him to such a tragic mistake?

Our Sages give all kinds of explanations, but the Midrash (Bam. 18:4) proposes a rather fascinating one based on the opening words of the Torah portion: Vayikach Korach (and Korach took). The Midrash asks, Mai lakach (What did he take)? Lakach Talito V’holech Litol Eitzah Mey-ishto (He took his garment and went to take advice from his wife)! Korach was smart, he was rich, according to the Talmud he was a scholar. He never would have made such a mistake if not for listening to his wife. It was she that spurred him on to this rebellion.  

The Talmud (San. 110a) goes on to add that the verse in the Book of Proverbs (14:1) that states, “A foolish woman destroys her house with her own hands,” refers to women like Korach’s wife. And the Talmud shows us that this is not a distinctly Jewish problem: “It wasn’t just Korach’s wife, but also Haman’s wife—she also spurred her husband on.” Listening to these women was a big mistake, causing the downfall of their men. These wives were certainly deserving of blame! 

But this is not the whole story. Our parsha provides another model. In the rebellion that Korach led against Moses the Torah (Num. 16:1) tells us who the leaders were: “Now Korach the son of Izhar … and Datan and Aviram the sons of Eliav, and On the son of Pelet … took men.” The leaders were Korach, Datan, Aviram and On. And yet, later on (Num. 16:24), in listing those who would be punished for leading the rebellion, our Sages note that On, the son of Pelet, who was one of the original ring leaders, is now absent. What happened to him? 

The Midrash (Bam. Rabbah 18)) fills in the blanks when they tell us that On’s wife asked him: “Why are you getting involved in this rebellion? Moses is now the leader … if the rebellion is successful, Korach will be the leader. Either way, you won’t be the leader and will have nothing to gain!”

         He replied: “What can I do now? I swore allegiance to Korach and his people.” 

         And she said, “Let me take care of it.” She gave him some wine and put him to sleep. Then she sat at the entrance to her home and untied her hair. When the men came to get On for the rebellion, they went away because the custom was that one was not supposed to look at the uncovered hair of a married woman.

This incident is one of the sources for the tradition that Jewish married women should cover their hair. But this incident, according to the Talmud, is also the basis for the beginning of our verse in Proverbs where it also says: “The wise among women, each builds her house.” So, what’s the story? Do women build or destroy, bring their husbands up or down? Is Jill Biden a follower of Mrs. Korach or Mrs. On? Again, you decide.

There’s the story of the woman who comes to the lawyer, and says she wants a divorce. He asks, “Do you have grounds?”

         She says, “About ½ an acre.”

         He says, “No, that’s not what I mean. I’ll ask another question, do you have a grudge?”

         She says, “No, we have a carport.”

         The frustrated lawyer then asks, “Does he beat you up?”

         She says, “No, I get up in the morning before he does.”

By this time, the lawyer is really upset and asks, “Will you please tell me why you want a divorce?” 

         She says, “Because he doesn’t understand me!”

We know who the problem in this marriage is. But the Talmud makes it very clear that 2 of our greatest sages—Rabbi Akiva, and Rabbi Meir—owed their success to the influence of their wives—Rachel and Bruriah.

So again, we ask: Do women build or destroy? Bring their husbands up or down? And the answer is: it depends! It depends on who is the husband and who is the wife! We are all capable of great advice and damaging mistakes. But before you blame it on your wife or on your husband, look in the mirror and ask yourself: “Are you really so innocent?”

The Torah (Gen. 1:27) tells us in the creation story: zachar un’keyva bara otam, (male and female He [Gd] created us) vayikra et shmo Adam (and then He called them Human beings). This teaches that we are both equally supposed to serve Gd, and that therefore, we ought to listen to each other and learn from each other and respect each other and NOT blame each other.

Jewish tradition teaches: Zachai, Shechina shrui b’tocham (If a husband and wife are worthy, the Divine presence of Gd will dwell among them.” Let us so live that we are worthy. Amen!

SHELACH 5784

LA, The Jewish Charlottesville

If you were making a movie and wanted to depict an unmistakably Jewish male, how would you dress him? No, not with a tallis, that would be too obvious. Besides Jews don’t usually wear a tallis when not praying. How about with a kipa? That wouldn’t do because it can easily be confused with a taqiyah or kufi—the Muslim skull cap. The obvious choice would come from today’s Torah portion in the mitzvah of tzitzit. You would dress him with his tzitzit hanging out and everyone would know he’s a Jew.

Tzitzit is a meaningful symbol for Jews because its purpose is, says our Torah portion (Num. 15:39): “that you may see it and remember all the commandments of Gd and do them.” We’ve all seen very religious Jews walking with their tzitzit hanging out. It’s not my custom and so I wear my tzitzit tucked in—as most of our male congregants who wear tzitzit do.

A few weeks ago, I spoke about when I had sometimes put on a baseball cap instead of my kipa when out in certain public settings, and how I’ve now decided to keep it on wherever I go in spite of the possibilities of lurking antisemites. While I’m still committed to wearing my kipa, the incidence of antisemitism continues unabated. The most glaring example this week was in Los Angeles.    

Before I get to that, let me mention that last week, a man approached the entrance of a West LA synagogue, spread a Muslim prayer rug on the concrete, and began to pray. What do you think happened? No one was hurt. No one was heckled. It was not the 1^st time he laid a Muslim prayer rug at the synagogue entrance to pray.

Tabby Refael in the Jewish Journal asks: Let’s imagine that a black-hatted Orthodox Jew had stood at the entrance of a mosque in Paris in today’s climate of open rage and violence against Jews and began wrapping Tefillin. I admit the question is a nonstarter … Before anyone could have laid a hand on him, his own mother would have killed him! The title of Refael’s article is: “Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Jew?” She answers, “No one outside of Israel, no one fears Jews.”

A European filmmaker was once asked why he made films that portrayed Jews quite negatively and not Christians or Muslims. Off-the-record he said it’s because no one is really afraid of Jews—but he was certainly afraid of others.

After the Holocaust, the dominant image of Jews were the uniformed skeletal, helpless concentration camp survivors. With the birth of the State of Israel another Jewish image began to emerge—that of the strong, spirited, and most importantly, armed Jew of the Israel Defense Forces. He, too, was in uniform, but those concentration camps’ uniform stripes had now been replaced by the uniform of some of the best soldiers in the world!

Tabby Rephael is right. Outside of Israel, no one is afraid of Jews. That suspicion was confirmed last Sunday when all hell broke loose in the Pico-Robertson Jewish neighborhood in L.A. Cheryl and I had dinner on that street a couple of times while visiting our son Jonathan in April. An out-of-control, antisemitic mob was allowed by police to take over the streets outside of the Adas Torah synagogue—threatening with baseball bats and assaulting Jews.

What does Adas Torah have to do with the war in Gaza? What does Adas Torah have to do with the Palestinians? Their whole reason for being is to just observe, learn and teach Torah. They are as peaceful a congregation as it gets. Think about that: To express their Jew-hatred, these antisemitic demonstrators chose a place that represents the ultimate expression of Judaism.

I’ve compiled some media accounts of the incident. Here it is: The protesters were blocking the synagogue’s main entrance, forcing Jews to enter through a secret alley door. The police officers stationed outside the synagogue did little to interfere with the terrorist supporters, but blocked Jews from entering their own synagogue. [Yes, they are terrorists, because they terrorize a peaceful neighborhood]. After an hour the protests turned violent—and the police seemed to do little to intervene. “Billions of us will come and kill you,” a heavily accented Middle Eastern man shouted.

         Brawling in the street outside the synagogue left one Jew bloodied, a Jewish woman assaulted and tackled to the ground, and other Jews pepper-sprayed. After officers pushed the crowd away from the synagogue, some moved to target 2 smaller synagogues attended by Persian Jewish refugees from Islamic Terror in Iran. Some walked into a more residential Jewish neighborhood where more fighting broke out. Others marched outside neighboring Jewish businesses with some trying to enter the Beverly Hills Bagel Company—a kosher restaurant where Cheryl and I had lunch!

Can you imagine this on your street in your neighborhood? What would you do? From my perspective, the answer is not be found in the response of London’s Jewish community to the 300,000 pro-Hamas protesters that filled that city’s streets this year: London’s Jews largely stayed home, locked their doors hoping the storm would pass. We must not allow such terror to succeed so that we cower behind our locked doors. We must not allow this to happen—not to Jews, not to African Americans, Hispanics, Asian, Indian—not to anyone!

In Thursday night’s debate, Charlottesville was part of the conversation. Well, pretty much every week now there is a Charlottesville of sorts across the country with pro-Hamas supporters in our universities, outside synagogues and Jewish businesses, trying to hold up traffic, and sometimes getting involved in physical assault. Already one Jew was killed in Los Angeles—smashed over the head with a bullhorn—for the great crime of being pro-Israel.

It’s absurd to call these Jew-haters “pro-Palestinian.” The Jews on Pico Boulevard; the comedian Jerry Seinfeld who gets interrupted and heckled by these pro-Hamas demonstrators; the visitors to the Nova exhibit in NY memorializing victims of the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 had demonstrators outside lighting fires and calling for more Israeli deaths; the Jewish college students who are intimidated on their own campuses, and countless other Jews, have nothing to do with either Israeli policies or with Palestinians. They’re targeted because of who they are—Jews!

Rephael suggests that this was much more than a protest. Just as they did at Columbia University and UCLA—cities home to America’s 2 largest Jewish communities—they were testing the waters. Could they enter one of L.A.’s most visible and populated Jewish neighborhoods and terrorize Jews? The answer was a horrifying “Yes!”

How many of these Hamas demonstrators around the country have been charged and tried for the real crimes they have committed? Virtually NONE! If it were blacks attacked outside a Church, if it were Moslems attacked outside a Mosque, do you think the police would just tell them to move on?

For the sake of imagination, would hundreds of angry Jews be able to gather outside of a large mosque in Dearborn Michigan, block the entrance, scream genocidal chants against Muslims, and return home in perfect peace and safety? Could they do it to an African American church? It would trigger massive outrage and calls to bring the haters to justice. The same must happen to the invaders of LA’s Pico-Robertson Jewish neighborhood, and to all who cross the line of justice.

Last Sunday’s attack was on another, more dangerous level. I’m not sure we’ll be able to shake the feeling of heightened vulnerability in our Jewish neighborhoods. That’s why we now have armed security at almost all shuls. Now, large scale protests by virulent antisemites are no longer just “over there” in Israel and Europe. They haven’t yet come here to Atlanta, let’s hope never do.

As I indicated a few weeks ago, I’ll continue to leave my kipa on, but I’ll also continue to tuck my tzitzit in. After all, America is not the Middle East and Pico-Robertson is not Jerusalem. Or is it? Amen!