The Israelites, in their
journeys, carried with them
the Ten Utterances of God at
Mount Sinai,
which were cast in two
tablets of stone.
All of the other rules of the
community, it seemed,
were engraved in stone as
well.
While many of the Israelites
held fast to the divine commandments,
there had been rebellions
based in lack of faith
or a misplaced sense of
personal importance,
that already caused some of
their people
to meet an untimely and
unfortunate demise.
There was the lack of trust
in a positive report about
the land of Canaan
that called for only a new
generation to eventually cross the Jordan River.
At the beginning of this
week’s parashah,
Pinchas, son of Eleazar the
priest, and grandson of Aaron,
had received a covenant of
peace with the Eternal
after executing an Israelite
man and a Midianite woman
who had worshipped a foreign
god.
Commitment to the covenant
seemed to be based in passion,
even zealotry, in this and
other cases.
Still, the people likely
heard the echoes
of Moses’ past pleadings to
God
to be patient with this
people that could not always see
the miracle of their survival
the redemption that was
theirs
and the future that would
enable them
to create a sacred
community.
A calm descended over the
people
as Moses and Eleazar
fulfilled a command
to take a census of this new
generation of Israelites
counting the Israelite men
who could take part in battle
and enumerating the clans
that would create the Israelite nation
on the land of their
ancestors.
It was a time still touched
with the stress of life in the wilderness.
At such a moment, it must
have taken great courage
for the daughters of
Zelophehad - Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah -
to come forward.
They asked Moses that they be able to receive
their father’s inheritance
within the clan of their
tribe since they had no brothers.
This challenge to the
existing law, which dictated
that only sons could inherit
their father’s possessions,
did not intend to put
Zelophehad’s daughters
above all other Israelites or outside the people.
It was a request to allow
their family to be
an equal part of the community.
It was a suggestion based on
fairness
that could appropriately
preserve
Zelophehad’s legacy for his
children.
Moses brought their case
before God without hesitation,
perhaps sensing that this was
a time
to show compassion and
flexibility.
The divine command in
response offered a resounding affirmation:
“The plea of Zelophehad’s
daughters is just: you should give them a hereditary holding among their
father’s kinsmen; transfer their father’s share to them.”
The word for just in this
verse is “Kein” –
the word for “so it is” or
even “Yes.”
This biblical tale
establishes the possibility
to say “kein” with a sense of
compassion and equality
When the answer that would
take no deliberation
might be “Lo”- No.
In recent months,
we have seen legislators and
judges
in our own country
Offer answers to critical
issues –
sometimes Yes, sometimes No,
sometimes based on a balanced
perspective,
sometimes grounded in a firm
and narrow political party line,
and sometimes with no sense
that compromise
could even be attempted, much less achieved.
In the State of Israel, as we
know,
There are times when it might
be better
To say KEIN than LO
To engender a spirit of equality
and fairness.
Women, who are not actually
prohibited
from wearing a tallit by
halachah, Jewish law,
are detained for questioning
when they do wear a tallit
during prayer
by the Western Wall.
Women are forced to sit at
the back of the bus
even when rules are posted
That prohibit a driver or a
passenger from making such a demand.
In Israel, the legal system
has declared that
Reform, Conservative and
Reconstructionist Rabbis
serving communities there
should receive salaries from
the government for their work
and also be allowed to serve
on local religious councils.
The response from Israel’s
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar
was to ask his colleagues to
pray
in order to stop liberal
rabbis,
whom he called “destroyers and saboteurs
who are trying to uproot the
foundation of Judaism.”
Knesset member Moshe Gafni
called non-Orthodox rabbis
“clowns that see Judaism as a
joke.”
How far that is from the
truth!
We know that we, in our
congregation, try to be committed
to being Yisrael, strugglers
with God and with our heritage.
Members of Temple Beth-El met
on Wednesday night this week
To develop a list of values
central to our congregation
and our tradition
which we ultimately share
with the greater New Mexico
community.
We listed a variety of core
principles:
fairness, education,
questioning, tzedakah, equality, wisdom, humility,
a tribal sense that we are
in this together, survival, and interdependence.
The basic premise of our
discussion was that
no one of us and no community
is an island.
We know from experience
that there are times when
devotion and commitment
must be guided by
fairness and compassion
in order for a community to
survive.
We do need a measure of
passion
for who we are and what we
do.
But we also need the wisdom
to say “Yes” – “Kein”
to anyone who desires
to enhance and contribute to
the betterment of the
community
while sustaining the core of
faith and tradition
that we have preserved for so
many generations.
When we encounter the spirit
of the daughters of
Zelophehad
within our community and our
nation,
may we realize that there is
a time
to say KEIN, yes,
and that our affirmation will
offer all of us
strength and hope.
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