Va’etchannan 5770

The Set Table Va’etchannan 5770

Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11
Isaiah 40:1–26
John 20:1–18

What can we learn from the centrality of the verb shin-mem-ayin in this week’s parasha?

This week’s parasha is a source for many liturgical texts within the Jewish tradition such as Ve’ahavta (Deuteronomy 6:5–9), Ki HaShem Hu HaEloqim (Deuteronomy 4:39) from the Alenu, and Vezot HaTorah (Deuteronomy 4:44) from the Torah service, with the most obvious being the great, prayerful/theological/liturgical declaration, Shema Yisra’el, HaShem Eloqenu, HaShem Echad “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Just as the Shema is central to the liturgical tradition of the Jewish people, the root form of this word, shin-mem-ayin, is particularly relevant and recurrent in the text of this week’s parasha.

Shin-mem-ayin (the verb from which we get the word Shema) can be translated as: “to hear” and “to listen” and in some contexts “to heed” and “to obey.” This verb appears in seven verses in Parashat Va’etchannan:

But the LORD was wrathful with me on your account and would not listen (shama) to me. (Deuteronomy 3:6; NJPS)

And now, O Israel, give heed (shema) to the laws and rules . . . (Deuteronomy 4:1; NJPS)

Observe them faithfully, for that will be proof of your wisdom and discernment to other peoples, who on hearing (yishme‘un) of all these laws will say, “Surely that great nation is a wise and discerning people.” (Deuteronomy 4:6; NJPS)

Hear (shema), O Israel, the laws and rules I proclaim to you this day! (Deuteronomy 5:1; NJPS)

The Lord heard (vayyishma) the plea you made to me. (Deuteronomy 5:25; NJPS)

Obey (veshamata), O Israel, willingly and faithfully that it may go well with you . . . (Deuteronomy 6:3; NJPS)

Hear (shema), O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. (Deuteronomy 6:4; NJPS)

Each use of shin-mem-ayin is an illustration of an act of relating; whether between Moses and God, Israel and the nations, Israel and Torah, or Israel and God. The act of engaging in relationship known as shin-mem-ayin (a verb, something you do, an action) is one with a variety of consequences. The opportunity for Moses to enter the land of Israel was thwarted by God’s refusal to listen to his request. Israel’s listening, obeying, giving heed, to the words of God and Moses have direct bearing on their survival in the land and relationship with other nations. God heard them so they must now hear him. Listening is not passive for our people. It is the faith that we have heard, our willingness to hear others and each other, and our hearing of God that make us who we are when we are at our very best. Only in our shin-mem-ayin are we faithful to keep that for which we were commanded to care. As Moses’ sobering example in the beginning of the parasha shows us (Deuteronomy 3:23-28), only through God’s shin-mem-ayin are we able to receive God’s favor.

In this second parasha in the book of Devarim (“words”), we learn that words hold very little without their being heard, listened to, heeded, and obeyed. Our destiny(ies),  our relationships, and our words are all deeply bound in the act of shin-mem-ayin. May we merit to hear and to be heard.

Why do we read this parasha every year after Tisha B’Av?

Thought we were finished with all of the pleading already? This week, we spent a hungry evening on the floor reading Lamentations, remembering the horrific tragedies that have beset our people on Tisha B’Av: the destruction of the First & Second Temples, our explusion from England and Spain, the beginning of World War I, the Chelmniecki pogrom in Ukraine, the beginning of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto, a terrorist bombing at a JCC in Argentina . . . Indeed, I thought we were finished with all of the pleading. No, the time has come again to read Moses’ famous last words, beginning with “and I pleaded.” In this portion, Moses warns of the consequences of failing to hold up our end of the bargain – observing God’s commandments. If we fail to hear and to obey, we will be driven out from the Land of Israel and become scattered among the nations. Why did our sages choose the Shabbat following Tisha B’Av for the reading of this portion?

According to tradition, it was the corruption of our people that led to the destruction of the Second Temple (see b. Yoma).  “Baseless hatred” is the buzzword that’s meant to describe our undoing, and seemingly characterized Jewish national life during the Second Temple period. But what is baseless hatred? It seems awfully vague and wholly unrelated to the minutiae of Jewish life – laws regulating our food, clothing, work, study, marriage, child rearing (even bathing habits!). What does baseless hatred have to do with God’s commandments?

The greatest commandment, according to Yeshua, is the love of God and the love of others (cf. Leviticus 19:6). Hillel offered a similar assessment. When asked to summarize the whole of Torah while standing on one foot, he said, “what is hateful to you do not do to another. All the rest is commentary.” The commentary of Yeshua and Hillel seem to draw a correlation between one’s love for God and one’s ability to love others. If love of God and love of others are intrinsically linked to each other, then “baseless hatred” of other people would imply a failure to love God, as well.

Indeed, the phrase “baseless hatred,” or sinat chinam, is literally “the hate of their chen.” A person’s chen is the quality that makes her unique. The part of her that is betselem elohim, in the image of God. To commit sinat chinam is to deny a person’s right to exist and to believe that person has nothing valuable to contribute to the world. Sinat chinam, then, is the condition and the action of ultimate arrogance.

If I assume that you have nothing of value to contribute to this world, then my thoughts and deeds make the statement that God doesn’t know what he is doing in creating and sustaining you. When I perceive a person made in God’s image as worthless and treat her accordingly, I violate the greatest commandment to love God. In violating this commandment, I may as well have nullified the whole of Torah.

Perhaps it is fitting that, only days after fasting in memory of the destruction of the Temple, we are reminded of Moses’ words warning us about the very behaviors that bring about these sorrows. We violate the whole of Torah if we do not love each other and act accordingly. And if we violate the whole of Torah, we lose our entitlement to life in the Land. The challenge of Jewish life is to find the chen within each person, no matter how distasteful they seem. In acknowledging the dignity of people who seem to have no valuable purpose in this life, we honor the ultimate wisdom of God and God’s confounding yet generous act of creation. To love others is to love God. This is the whole of Torah.

Chayyei Yeshua: John 20:1–18 – Responding to the Empty Tomb

John 20 gives the account of Miriam of Magdala, the mysterious “other disciple,” and Shimon Kefa as they encounter Yeshua’s empty tomb. Miriam is first to the kever (tomb), arriving in the darkness of the morning.  She is horrified to find the stone at the mouth of kever to have been moved. Who has stolen the body of Yeshua?  Where have they taken him? Never does she consider an alternative explanation. In desperation, Mary runs to report the situation. The “other disciple,” after hearing of the empty grave, runs to see for himself. Being first to arrive, the text says that he stooped down and looked in, and “saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in” (John 20:5). Shimon Kefa, also wanting to investigate the claim, runs behind the “other disciple” (not having the stamina to keep up). Shimon Kefa then boldly enters into the tomb to find the linen burial cloths empty, folded and undisturbed. It says of them that they “saw and believed” (John 20:8). Miriam, not considering a divinely orchestrated explanation for the empty tomb, “stood outside of the tomb weeping.” The account continues with Miriam’s conversation with two angels asking her, “Why are you weeping?” Yeshua then appears, and although mistaken for the gardener, he repeats the same question, while also asking “Whom are you seeking . . . Miriam?” Miriam’s eyes are suddenly opened and the mystery of the empty tomb is revealed by the resurrected and living Messiah himself.

How would you react to the empty tomb? Would you be one, like the “other disciple,” who is first to arrive, eager and passionate, but hesitates to enter into the empty tomb completely because of fear of the implications? Or perhaps, like Shimon Kefa, would you impetuously burst in, not considering the ramifications of what your eyes might see? Or lastly, would you stand outside the tomb like Miriam of Magdala, having difficulty seeing beyond the temporal?

Each of these three responses to the Living Messiah is within us. There are words of the Prophets that speak clearly and undeniably, and we can face Yeshua’s reality boldly and with confidence. Then there are aspects of Yeshua’s nature or teachings that are more complicated or mysterious, that we face with some hesitance and caution. Finally, there might be aspects of Yeshua’s relationship with the Father, his deity, and his purpose that we have difficulty seeing or considering beyond the natural. All of these responses are expected from disciples who are seeking the reality of our Messiah Yeshua.

Let us together strengthen our faith as we embrace and seek our Messiah, knowing that he is also seeking us.  Let us cling to Yeshua more deeply despite uncertainties that we face in our embrace of the resurrected Messiah.  Let us be strong and of good courage that the Afikomen has been found, and that he sits at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf.

Next Week: Eqev

Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25
Isaiah 49:14–51:3
John 20:19–29